With the rough, comes the smooth.

“Rhino have you got any [travel nightmares] like that?” @crest_cast

“Nothing as dire as that. I’ve always been pretty lucky with surf trips……”

We consider ourselves really lucky not to have had any major travel disasters, but there have certainly been some bumps in the road. Like everyone else. Surely, most people have missed a flight at some point?

“Actually, we missed a flight to our wedding”

Perth to Kalbarri, November, 2010. 

After a dreamy flight out to Singapore and a smooth onward trip to Perth, we were on Cloud Nine and our younger selves were wide-eyed with excitement. We’d booked in to Sullivans Hotel, Perth for one night. Just enough to see part of the city before heading up to Kalbarri the next day, for our wedding . What we didn’t know at the time, was that a series of mishaps was ahead of us…

We’d booked a seat on a shuttle bus to transport us, ALL our baggage, boards, buggy and baby, to the hotel. This was our first error. It was a 15km trip, and it took two whole hours…we were the last passengers to get off. Two hours on a jam-packed, noisy, bumpy, stop-start shuttle bus, with a five month old baby in Perth, in the middle of summer. 

The hotel, once we got there, was a really sweet place, with very helpful staff and a lovely breakfast. We got straight out into Perth to make the most of our short time there. That evening, we booked a taxi to take us to the airport the following morning. We were not getting back on the shuttle bus. And this is how it happened…

After a leisurely breakfast, we brought the luggage to reception and sat waiting for the taxi. Fifteen minutes later, the taxi arrives. 

“We can’t take the baby. We don’t have a capsule. No worries, I’ll send another one.” 

Twenty minutes later, a second taxi arrives

“We can take the baby. But I’m not taking the boards. I’ll send another one.” 

Twenty minutes later, no taxi in sight, what should wash up on the hotel drive? A shuttle bus. 

“Yeah, we can take you, the boards and the baby. This is the last pick up, we’re heading straight there. Get in!”

We were cutting it fine, but should have just made it in time. Then the driver received a call to collect passengers from a broken down bus, en route to the airport. It took a good twenty minutes to reroute and load all the luggage and passengers onto our bus. We were watching the flight status through a very poor connection on our phones.

The check-in window was closing in on us and our fate was out of our hands.

As soon as the shuttle pulled up at Perth airport, I jumped out and Usain Bolted over to the check-in desk, leaving Rhino alone with our UPS truck full of stuff and baby Koko.  Two helpful, smiley Skywest staff, regrettably told me that we’d missed it, by two minutes. The next flight, the following day, was also full. 

“It’s the flight to our wedding.”

My heart sank. I burst into tears. They asked us to take a seat whilst the ladies at check-in tried to help us by finding another flight.

 About twenty minutes later, the Skywest lady came over with an open face and a wide smile, her hands gestured good news.

“I’ve got you on tomorrow’s flight.”

We had never been more grateful. 

A few calls to Kalbarri later and we’d made new arrangements, then we had to find somewhere to stay. In the early days of smartphones and before there was Wifi everywhere, we were frantically searching for accommodation on the airport computers, ironically on lastminute.com, in between feeding and entertaining a five month-old. 

It was high-season, the Ashes were being held in the WACA, Perth was packed and the closest place we could find was in Fremantle…. 30km and over an hour’s drive in the busy traffic. And we had no choice. 

We lugged all the stuff into a taxi, paid the £100 fare for the drive out to Fremantle, where, it turned out, we had a bonus day in the Tradewinds Hotel and a hairy encounter with the baby and a nest of Redbacks.

The following day, we checked in on time with the same smiley Skywest staff who had helped us out, flew up to Kalbarri, got married, and ended up with a great story to tell.

All’s well that ends well.

Red Bluff, Kalbarri.

BIG RED, December 2010.

In 2010, the UK saw some of its heaviest snowfall in years. Schools closed early for Christmas and airports ground to a halt. At the time, we were in steamy Singapore, after a month of travelling and were completely disconnected to the weather back home. We checked in for our Qantas A380 flight to Heathrow (as avgeeks, we’d been super excited about this flight as the A380 was relatively new at the time) and we said goodbye to the baggage and boards as they headed off on the excess baggage belt.

Please take care of Big Red.

At the gate, ready to board, we thought we’d escaped the worst of the snowy shutdowns, only to be told there was a one hour delay to the flight. An hour later, the flight was postponed until further notice. It was midnight, we got the baby to sleep in her buggy and settled in for the long night in the airport.

If you’re ever going to be stuck in an airport with an indefinite delay, you want it to be in Changi. Changi Airport is an amazingly well equipped and beautifully carpeted airport. It even has snooze zones with recliners (these have come a long way since 2010). Singaporean efficiency meant we were handed food and drink parcels immediately, and at 6am, when it became clear there would be no flight to Heathrow that day, they bussed over 800 passengers, and their luggage out to hotels for breakfast and a room for the day.

We were stickered up with big red circles to identify us (Baby Koko wore hers on her bottom) and sent to the Sheraton Towers. After breakfast, we went to our room, closed the blackout curtains and hoped that the baby, who had slept all night in her buggy, would be enticed by the darkness for a few more hours of shuteye. She was.

That evening, we had the call to say the flight was on. Qantas bussed all 800+ passengers back to the airport, re-checked in every passenger and every piece of luggage and got us all on the 747. An impressively well co-ordinated mission, even if the aircraft swap meant that we missed out on flying the A380.

Then there was just the small step of a twelve hour flight to Heathrow, with a wide awake baby after the extended sleep, and a plane full of cranky, overtired, irritable passengers. The poor Qantas cabin crew who drew the short straw certainly worked their socks off on that shift.

After landing on icy UK soil, we disembarked, headed to baggage claim and then to oversize, as is standard practice when you always fly with boards.

No boards.

No Big Red.

Big Red had accompanied Rhino on surf trips to the Mentawai Islands, Canaries, Australia, Morocco, Scotland and a full European Tour. It was more than just a board, it was a Beach Beat shaped by Pete ‘Chops’ Lascelles. Whilst boards come and go, this was one to take pride of place in the house after its retirement. It must have gotten lost with the delay in Singapore. And we had no idea if we would ever see it again.

Three months later, sitting at home one evening, there was an unexpected knock on the door. A taxi had driven from Heathrow, with some lost luggage. There was Big Red – completely undamaged, retuned to its rightful owner, and on his birthday too!

“and last year a bomb went off”

Bangkok, 2019

Our room on the 25th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, near Pratunam Market had incredible dual aspect panoramic window views of the Bangkok skyline. We checked in at 7am, slept off the jet-lag for a few hours then headed out to Pratunam Market for some street food and an explore before an evening of Mojitos and popcorn at the hotel’s Sky Bar. The city was buzzing, the girls were happy. Things were good. This was the calm before the storm.

That first night, we were sleeping in our room on the 25th floor and there was suddenly a bright flash that lit up the night sky. Thinking it was lightening, Rhino looked out of the window and was confused to see a clear, starry sky. Looking over to the other window, he saw, in the place of the Bangkok skyline, nothing but billowing smoke speedily rising from the street below. We watched as the annex to our hotel was engulfed by flames, as were several other smaller properties in the area. We felt helpless and could only watch out of the window as the smoke flooded the sky and cut off the view. When it started to seep in through the air con, we called reception and were told there were no plans for evacuation and to stay put.  

At the time we didn’t know that the following day would see several other small bombs and fires around the Pratunam area and other parts of the city. All in protest against the government.

We carried on the next day as normal. A boat trip along the river, a tuk tuk driver who took us to the wrong place, some great food, and then we saw on the news that there had been co-ordinated explosions around the city. There were, fortunately, no fatalities, but the city was even more chaotic than usual, there were police everywhere and we were uneasy with facing a second night on the 25th floor.

We were done. 

The following day we had an early morning flight out of Don Muang, which was a good hour’s drive from the city centre, and would have meant a super early wake up. We threw our things into cases, left the Baiyoke at 4pm and thanks to booking.com, we found a charming little B&B, near the airport, which we booked for £25. It was called ‘B-Your Home’. And it was.

It turned out to be the highlight of our Bangkok trip. The girls loved the pool and the staff were warm and welcoming. We felt a huge sense of relief to be out of the city and the stresses of the day faded away as we ate the host’s Thai Curry and sipped on an ice cold Chang Beer. The girls still now rate it as their favourite ever hotel, and ask if we can go back to Bangkok, just to go B-Your Home. Had there been no bombs, we would never have discovered it. 

Every cloud of smoke has a silver lining.

“oh and we had 4 or 5 Earthquakes in Bali the year before too.“

Bali, August 2018

On August 5th 2018, Lombok was stuck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, following its 6.4 foreshock on July 29th. This was later followed by another magnitude 6.9 earthquake on August 19th. 563 people tragically lost their lives, more than 1,000 were injured and 417,000 people were displaced. It was the largest and strongest earthquake in Lombok in recorded history.

We were in Bali at the time. Life was pretty much as usual on the Island of the Gods, but we’d decided to have an evacuation plan, just in case – get outside, or if on the beach, climb up to the top of the cliff. Aftershocks were likely and there was still a tsunami risk. For those who live on the Ring of Fire, this is part of everyday life.

On August 19th, at 22:56, we were sitting on the cabana with a Bintang, with the evening breeze cooling us down. The wooden cabana started swaying and made us wonder if we’d had too many Bintangs. Then, the water in the pool shifted in squares and waves started spilling over the side. This is the moment we realised it was a quake. As we jumped up to get the girls from their beds, it all came to a sudden halt.

On August 23rd, at 06:48, we were woken by the violent shaking of the villa. The single panes of glass were rattling in their ornate wooden frames as if they were going to smash. Moments before the shaking started, a boom, boom, boom roared from below. It’s the only time we have experienced a sound not coming from around or above us, but from beneath us. Deep down from within the Earth.  Rhino grabbed Koko and I pulled Kitty from her sleep to run outside. By which point, the silence had returned. This was magnitude 5.4, but much closer to us on the Bukit, and it felt as much too.

The days that followed brought several smaller shakes, by which point we’d become accustomed to the rhythm and knew not to panic. We’d humbly learned how to respond to the Earth’s mighty roar and how to respect and marvel at its power. 

“and the year before we had a fire on the aeroplane.”

Java Sea, 2017

We’d first seen the Emirates Business Class cabin on a Casey Neistat YouTube video. A series of chance events meant we were super lucky to be able to get flights on this plane to Bali, in 2017. It was epic. 

On the return flight from Denpasar to Dubai, shortly after take off, we noticed a burning smell in the cabin. Rhino had taken Koko to the toilet, in the front of the cabin by the cockpit. Chatting to the flight attendant, he turned around to see a man bounding down the aisle towards them. He stopped just short of them and stuttered, struggling to get the words out.

“There’s a fire”. 

Almost immediately, smoke filled the cabin. We were in a hollow cylindrical tube from which there was no escape. At 40,000 feet, somewhere over the Java Sea. 

The cabin crew rushed about trying to maintain some calm and run checks to determine the cause of the fire. All electrical equipment was switched off, but the wine continued to flow. This was the only thing to steady our nerves. The girls were mostly oblivious to the cacophony with their headphones plugged in to ‘Boss Baby’, but we got them off to sleep anyway. I remember thinking that they’d need to make an emergency landing, and looking on the flight map I could see we were not too far from Changi.

But as the 777 flew over Singapore, the captain announced:

“We have located an electrical fault in the cabin. We have determined there is no other danger and will proceed as planned. All electrical equipment will need to be switched off for the duration of the flight. We thank you for your patience.”

Rhino immediately started writing in his journal. The New Yorker I’d been chatting to across the aisle told me. “We’ll get miles. I spoke to my husband and he says we’ll get bonus miles.” 

The only miles I wanted at that moment were the ones to get us back on the ground. 

A flight attendant, who had also broken her toe on board, told us in was within her top three worst ever flights. But we did make it to Dubai safely. We did get compensatory bonus miles. Enough to be able to fly Business again the next year.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

With all the bumps in the road, we still don’t feel we’ve had any nightmare trips. We’ve never looked back and wished we hadn’t gone, or even that they hadn’t happened. These mishaps are what make it all an experience in the first place. And with the rough, comes the smooth. The gift of life experience and all the wisdom that comes with it. It’s all just part of the journey.