A journey that would change everything
The day I had been waiting for, for 3 years, had finally come. Despite time drawing nearer to this beginning of my journey, I had thought nothing of it and carried on with my daily life. I’d packed my travelling gear over the past couple of days, and I was ready for this great adventure to begin. It all seemed rather normal, I didn’t feel nervous or apprehensive. I had my breakfast, made sure I had everything packed and with me, then loaded it in to the car. My parents drove me to the coach station on this frosty morning in September, where I’d meet Mat (my work mate and travelling buddy-to-be) and travel to London where I’d get the plane to the mysterious lands of China, specifically Chongqing.
We pulled up at the coach station, we all got out of the car and I retrieved my backpack, leaning it against the car. I turned to my parents to say goodbye for 7 months (which still didn’t feel real). My Mum started tearing up, so I gave her a big hug to try to calm her down a bit, but instead I started crying too, which I didn’t anticipate! After a minute or so, we calmed ourselves down and I hugged my Dad (no tears this time), said my final goodbye and walked off with my backpack (and new home) to the coach. I got in line where the coach would be arriving, and not too long afterwards, Mat arrived with all his gear, His gear was pretty identical to mine because when we were deciding what we’d need, we went for the same gear.
It wasn’t long before the coach arrived, we scanned our boarding passes, stowed our huge backpacks and took our detachable backpacks on to the bus with us. The journey was around a 3-hour coach drive from Nottingham to London, so we kept ourselves busy with some idle chit-chat and unsurprisingly Mat fell asleep (he does a lot of that). We’d made this trip a couple of months ago in July when we applied for our Chinese visas, we had to visit the embassy in London to hand our applications in, have a short interview, and then pick them up a week later.
Arriving in London
We arrived at the bus station in the afternoon where we disembarked the bus and headed for Victoria Train Station. When we got off the bus, we realised our backpacks were a bit uncomfortable, so we spent a while adjusting straps in the middle of the busy bus terminal. This was important as we’d be carrying them for the next 7 months, and didn’t want to come back with a broken or disfigured back! We arrived at Victoria Train Station, but we had a fair amount of time left before we had to take the tube to Heathrow. In the meantime, we decided to have some food at a Wetherspoon’s within the station. I also treated myself to a drink of tap water, wouldn’t want to spend any money on an expensive drink eh?
Eventually the evening came, and we decided it was time to move, and take the train to Heathrow Airport. We embarked on the final journey we’d have in the UK until next year and stood in near silence for over an hour, the excitement and apprehension building up. After the hour or so journey, we arrived at Heathrow. The remaining passengers all had large suitcases too, and together we all descended upon the Terminal. Mat and I went straight to our check-in counter for Tianjin Airlines (that’s who our flight was with). After checking that we had everything we needed, we got our tickets and were headed for the departure lounge. I did accidentally leave my power bank in my large bag, but the check-in clerk had already taken my bag, so I kept my mouth shut.
Tip!
Do be careful of leaving prohibited items in your hold luggage, these do go through x-ray scanners. I had a couple of incidents when flying internally in China, and also flying from China to Vietnam, which had repercussions. They only searched through my luggage the first time. However, the second time I found out that they had broken the lock off of my backpack and confiscated an item within (I had no idea it was on the prohibited items list!).
All aboard!
We waited with building excitement in the departure lounge for a couple of hours. Our flight was at around 10pm, so it would allow us to get a decent night sleep and hopefully help to soften the jet lag. Our flight was eventually called and we boarded our Tianjin Airline plane which would take us further than we’ve ever ventured before. We found our seats, sat down, and prepared for our longest flight yet. I did notice we were the only white folks on the plane that I could see, I guess everyone else was returning home, and we were just leaving ours!
The aeroplane’s engines roared with a vigour that matched ours, and with that, we were away on our 10-hour flight directly to Chongqing, China! We settled in with the complementary blankets and earphones that we were gifted (most likely used many times before us) and tried to get some sleep!
