Panic
A flight delay of half an hour wouldn't normally have phased us but this time we were starting to worry as we had a connecting flight to catch. It wouldn't have been so bad but although both airlines were called Vietjet, one was Thai Vietjet and the other Vietnamese Vietjet, so they are like separate companies. This meant we could not check in for both flights. Fear started to grow. We were worried that we were going to miss our connection!
We asked the airline staff if they could help. They were very kind and reallocated our seats to the row at the front of the first plane. This way we would be first off. They also sent our photos of passport pages to the manager in Bangkok warning them we would be late.
Bangkok airport is huge. We had to get from domestic arrivals to the international departures check in desk, get checked in and then go through security and passport control. This is virtually impossible now...
We landed and ran through the terminal at full speed. We climbed 2 floors and the check-in desk was waiting for us. We got our boarding cards as quickly as possible and they closed the desk. They said you must go quickly now!
We ran to have our bags checked at security, no queue (unheard of), and ran to passport control which was empty (unheard of) ... We then ran to our gate which was miles away! We were exhausted by the time we arrived and the gate was closed still OPEN!!!
How we made it on this impossible journey, we will never be sure. Luck was on our side. If we hadn't made it we would have had to purchase a new flight on the same day or our Vietnamese visa would no longer be valid and that would have been a disaster.
Our plane touched down in Hanoi where we took money from the ATM, helped 2 Dutch girls do the same and grabbed a local bus for 25p to our accommodation. We ate, went for a walk in the sky garden and checked out the view from our 18th floor home.
