General Holiday Enquiries, Hints and Tips

General Holiday Enquiries? Got General Hints & Tips? Post Them Here.
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Oh God Fiona, it's a good job you have a sense of humour. :roll: Being stuck out on the rig was always my grandson's worry. He always used to book his trips abroad for the middle part of his 4 week break to allow for this but has finished up arriving back from Aberdeen one night and flying out to Japan the following day.
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I was stranded in Bangkok for a few days in 2008 when protestors blockaded the airport resulting in all flights being cancelled in and out for ten days.
I've always liked Bangkok and was quite happy to shop and sightsee for a short while but had already been in Bangkok for a few days before and after doing a pretty intensive 2 week tour of Laos so I was really ready to fly home. I was on my own in the city and had to pay for a hotel and meals and it was almost impossible to find out any news of what was happening and how long it might last. I had flown out with Thai Airways but luckily after a few days Lufthansa contacted me to say that they were sending a 747 to Phuket and I had to be at a certain park in Bangkok early the next morning where coaches had been laid on to take passengers on a 12 hour drive through Thailand to Phuket. The plane finally took off 24 hours later and I arrived home around 40 hours after leaving the hotel.
The final element was that I had flown out from Munich to Bangkok, OH had dropped me off at the airport and I had left my coat in the car as I knew I wouldn't need it. I just had a lightweight fleece with me. We flew back though to Frankfurt and the temp.was -12c with snow on the ground and I had to travel on the train through Germany wearing lightweight clothes and sandals. Got a few funny looks.
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Aslemma
I wasn't happy at the time when I finally realised that we weren't going to catch our flight. And - if you are going to be without luggage, Goa is a good destination. Just pretend you are an old hippie :rofl
Judith
I remember that. It is a bit different as it was worrying time to be in Bangkok. I think your one beats mine hands down!
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You old Fiona? I absolutely refuse to believe it. :)
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Now I am not sure if you are really serious Aslemma :rofl
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Absolutely serious Fiona. I thought the whole ethos of HT was that people should always give their honest opinions. :D
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Worst experience we had was when we went to Cyprus from Cardiff with Aspro Holidays in 1993(?) when our kids were ~ 10. On the last day we were all ready for pick up around 3pm -no coach!
After about 3 hours of frantic phonecalls we were told that the plane was "delayed". Finally got picked up and taken to the airport, more delays -apparently there was a problem with Aspro's own planes (they had two of their own) -the "problem" was that Aspro's owners had sold the Company (think to Airtours) and the planes had been impounded on the ground in the UK for unpaid airport fees!!!!!!
Then finally, at about midnight, we were told to board a Monarch flight, got on board to be told that we were going to Gatwick not Cardiff -more uproar!! Info.then was that there would be coaches waiting for us at Gatwick to take us back to Cardiff.
Got out of Gatwick arrivals at ~ 6am -very ,very tired (and hungover -too many brandy sours whilst waiting!) -no coaches!! Turned out that they had been put in car parks to wait for us but since Aspro had been sold , no one would pay the car parking fees!! :que

Finally got back to Cardiff at about 1pm - both our kids had been sick on the bus - we were also travelling with a surgeon who was supposed to have had a full list of orthopaedic operations lined up for the morning -he was beside himself and the poor girl from Aspro (who had probably been made redundant the same day!) handing out explanatory leaflets, got it both barrels!!
Never did got any compensation from the owners of Aspro - actually met one of the brothers who owned the business afterwards and he was totally unapologetic!! :cry
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