Hello dear readers! How are things!? Last time out on the blog I wrote about some last minute travel plans and looking forward to an imminent trip to Malaysia – via Doha, Qatar!
I’d read and heard stories of Qatar Airway’s stopover programme from a few different travel folk and it was enough to tempt me in to taking my Malaysia trip via Doha, rather than flying to Kuala Lumpur directly.
I don’t want to make light of the situation but it’s somewhat funny reading my words back because I said in that last post that “I may well come home and say otherwise but the pros (of the stopover programme) appear to outweigh the cons”.
and so off I went. My dad dropped me off at Heathrow’s terminal four at 5am on Saturday 28th Feb and my trip began!
I don’t know if I’ve ever flown out of terminal four before, terminal five is predominantly the terminal that I fly out of with regular TransAtlantic travel over the years but terminal four was quiet! Admittedly, that’s probably because it was 5am but it was surprising how quickly I dropped off my bag and flew through security with no-queue before finding somewhere (Wetherspoons) to grab breakfast.
A short while later I was heading for my gate and getting ready to depart. Doha-bound on my first ever Qatar Airways flight. Qatar Airways are considered and I think even proudly boast themselves to be the “World’s best airline” and I can see why that claim might well ring true. I was unfortunately hampered with a middle-seat for our six hour flight but it was pretty comfortable all-things considered and my first impressions of Qatar Airways were promising.
Flight-entertainment included a scattering of movies and TV shows, English and otherwise. I spent the early part of my flight looking at a dedicated bit of Qatari content on the entertainment screen which explained a few things such as local attractions, culture, foods and other things to look out for and experience in Qatar – useful for someone that has never visited before. It was helping whet the appetite for a country I’d never visited.
Alas, I still haven’t.
I’ve had cancelled flights, I’ve had delayed flights but this was a travel first for me – a returning flight. Around an hour, maybe an hour and a half in to the flight, our entertainment was interrupted for news from the captain. Airspace in the region had been closed, consequently we’d immediately be flying back to Heathrow.
They didn’t expand on what that meant but any knowledge of politics or the conflict in the region quickly filled in the gap. I hadn’t made use of it up to now but Qatar Airways provide free Wi-Fi for all passengers and free Wi-Fi that actually works properly. I connected instantly and a quick look at the latest news made it clear why we were turning back.
I’m a pretty chilled and laid-back person at the best of times but I think this was a time where that was particularly on display. Travel disruption can be frustrating and have major consequences for people but on this occasion I found it really easy to just shrug it off.
There’s a little part of me that believes my mood was helped by the fact I had actually flown somewhere. I like visiting new places, I like experiencing new cultures and everything but I also genuinely quite like the travel part. I like the experience of flying itself. I like switching off from the world for a few hours and whilst this might have only been a round-trip, I’d still technically flown today. I’d had myself a little flight to nowhere.
Would I have been as calm about it all had I spent the entire morning waiting around at Heathrow? I don’t know but I’d like to think so.
Anyway, to my left was a passenger trying to get to Sri Lanka who’d already had one returned flight the previous day and had to stay in London overnight only to find himself returning to London for a second time. He was a combination of tired and frustrated. To my right was one of many passengers seemingly part of a Formula One team heading for Australia – fortunately traveling a week before the Formula One in Australia so they still had time to figure out a contingency plan.
In the row behind me was a guy heading to India for a wedding. Sat beside him a guy on his way to Vietnam to reunite with his girlfriend – doing the whole long-distance thing myself, it’s easy to empathise.
and then to those more directly affected than whatever plans. What of other passengers returning to home in Qatar or the Middle East? What of passengers concerned about their family and friends in the region? What of the airline staff in a similar situation? What of nobody on this flight affected but just thinking of people in general affected by more needless war?
A cancelled holiday seemed really insignificant, I couldn’t bring myself to care of any inconvenience to myself. I was heading back to England, it didn’t really matter.
but what now? I pondered trying to re-route to Malaysia a different way, was it worth it now? Even if I could fly directly, would I still be hampered traveling there? If you can’t fly over the Middle East, how else do you get to Asia? Do you fly over Ukraine / Russia instead?
I don’t feel like War is ever the answer but at least in older times you’d probably have two opposing leaders warring on the battleground themselves actually bearing some risk of war. The winner victorious; the loser either dead, captured or in hiding. Now you don’t even have to be in the vicinity to go to war.
“Text me updates and I’ll have a look once I’ve reached the 19th hole..”
Anyway, getting side-tracked but I enjoyed the flight back and by the time I’d landed in London I’d decided that not only was Qatar obviously out of the question but Malaysia probably was too.
The Qatar Airways (QA) ground staff were bombarded with questions. Questions they unsurprisingly didn’t have answers to at that moment in time. Unprecedented times in an era of endless unprecedented times. I’d already made my mind up that I wouldn’t be flying but I guess QA had to go through certain procedures before being able to release baggage and other such things.
I think initially the flight had just been pushed back but was eventually cancelled and baggage was released for all customers which you could collect after going back through passport control.
I have to say, that part was a little weird for me. We had technically left the country but I did envisage a scenario where the automated machine didn’t work and I’d have to go see a confused border patrol agent.
“Where have you flown to London from?”
“London..”
“No, you don’t understand. What airport did you depart from..? ”
“No, YOU don’t understand. I flew out of London this morning and landed back in London..”
I’d spent the time waiting around pondering a few different “Plan B” options. I was already at the airport, there was temptation to just fly somewhere else but there’s last minute travel and then there’s LAST MINUTE travel. A couple of options jumped out at me but nothing I felt content committing to so I headed home after passing through customs and collecting my bag.
I got home and did a bit more last minute travel planning. More than anything, I was chasing the sunshine. I had a week off, I should go somewhere and enjoy it. I was avoiding going East for obvious reasons and the argument against the likes of the America’s hadn’t changed so I was mostly looking at destinations in North Africa and Europe.
I don’t think looking at the very last minute helped my cause but I just couldn’t find the right trip. The cost would be too hard to justify paying, the flight times would be awkward or I’d finally find something suitable and then the weather forecast looked dreadful. I came very close to booking a few days in Tangier until I looked at a forecast of a week of rain – in Morocco, really!?
Tangier, Marrakech, Egypt, Tunisia, Malta, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Portugal, Sicily.. there might have only been minor inconveniences but I just couldn’t find what I was looking for. I gave up on a night’s planning and figured I’d sleep on it and have another look on Sunday morning.
Then something in my brain told me to have a look closer to home and suddenly everything aligned. I pessimistically looked at train fares to Brighton and was pleasantly surprised to find really cheap (by UK standards) prices to go down to Brighton for a few days. I took a look at the weather forecast and after months of non-stop rain, the weather Gods were blessing England with a week of sunshine. The clincher was that I’ve also never been to Brighton.
I booked myself a hotel for three nights, the trains magically ran on time, the weather was glorious. Everything went smoothly.
Was it what I had planned for the week? Of course not but travel doesn’t always go to plan and I still made the best of the hand I’d been dealt. I’ll write about the Brighton trip in more detail another time but it was a lovely few days and had temporarily appeased my need for adventure.
As for the trip I’d actually planned, I’m going to compliment Qatar Airways who’ve already refunded me in full. I’ve become so used to some airlines being shit when things going wrong that it’s surprisingly unexpected when other airlines hold themselves to a higher standard.
Qatar trotted out the “due to high volumes..” line and yet still got my refund to me within eight days. Infact I think the money was back in my account before my trip had theoretically even ended.
Malaysia will sadly have to wait for another day. My small consolation is that the closer the trip got, the more regret I had that I wasn’t visiting for longer. I think next time I book an adventure there I’m going to have to visit for longer, see more of the region and probably tie it in with a trip to neighbouring Singapore too.
As for Qatar and the Middle East in general, my first hope is that this conflict ends sooner rather than later. One of the things that really struck a chord with me before this trip was that I’d be visiting during Ramadan and it just adds to my sadness that all of this is happening during this month of all months. I’m not religious at all but I hope there’s some normality and peace to come very quickly.
Conflict aside, I’m hopeful of visiting Doha another time. Qatar as a destination wasn’t really on my radar but the more research I did, the more interesting I found it to be. It’ll have to be somewhere I visit in the future.
And I suppose I’ll end this blog-post on a bit of a life-lesson to not take it for granted. Go do the things you want to do, visit the places you want to see, spend time with the people that matter because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw your way.
I made the best of this particular scenario but you just don’t know what’s going to happen. Will I really visit Doha another time? Will I ever visit Moscow and St Petersburg? I certainly thought so at a younger age but in present times it feels unlikely. What other bucketlist worthy places will potentially be affected by conflict or climate change?
There’s a fine line. I know for myself and most of you reading that we already live relatively privileged lives when comparing to people in other parts of the world but it’s hard and probably human nature to just want more. This trip didn’t happen and I’m fine with that given the circumstances but it has just added to the desire to see as much of the world as I can whilst I can.
I don’t want to end the post too morbidly but I’m terrified of death and consequently it’s the biggest motivator to just enjoy life whilst I still have that luxury. It pains and saddens me that conflicts and other world issues are often out of our control and impact so heavily on our lives but it motivates me more.
Realistically I know I won’t visit all of the places I want to but it’s nice to dream.
And on that note, I’ll wrap this blogpost up. Until next time!
Jason
Jason likes to travel 