Departing Asia

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Geo: 13.7308, 100.521

We grudgingly crawled out of bed around 9.30am, awaking in Asia for the last time on our trip.
Down to Mozu level of the Lebua it was for our final buffet breakfast. From here, the daunting and saddening task of packing our things together, ready for departure. It took a while, but before too long our bags were just about packed, bulging with contaminated clothing, souvenirs and every Lebua keepsake possible, that wasnt affixed to the room walls.
The time, 11.20, check out at 12, surely enough time to use the Business Centre for the internet, to select seats for our flight before returning to the room for a wine, and checking out? Right? Wrong, according to Lebua. They'd taken the liberty of de-activating our swipe cards prematurely, so we couldnt return to our rooms. After explaining this as a necessity to their unhelpful and unaccommodating staff, we made our way back up to floor 58, around the food cart (that was still sitting outside the room from last night's dinner).
I was actually relieved to just check out of Lebua and get away from their irritating staff. With a few hours to kill, we walked around the streets, stopped in for a cocktail, treated ourselves to a second 'Dr Fish' Session, and a quick Thai Massage. I am addicted to Dr Fish... nothing like the feel of skin being eaten off your feet!
We hailed a taxi, and that was just about it. The End. We arrived @ Bangkok airport, engaged in some last minute duty free and boarded our plane set for Melbourne via Sydney.
It seemed Bangkok was as reluctant to let us go, as we were to leave. With take-off imminent, an immense storm swept the runway. High winds, torrential rain, lightning. They decided that dear Natalie was shaking so immensely that we would postpone take-off for safety precautions. After an initial hour, we returned to the terminal for re-fueling and to wait it out. The delay took about 3 hours in total, making it one long trip home to Melbourne.

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Photos

Qantas Jet 747
The plane that would take us home