Made it

Somewhat exhausted we stumbled into Heathrow at 8am local time this morning.

The flight and its associated debacle is a tale in itself, however I shall start with the good points and abbreviate the rest.

First, the good:

• The food on Vietnam airlines was actually quite good, and as per the stock-standard plan for keeping calm at 30,000 feet, there was a lot of it.
• I managed to enjoy a David Boon-type quantity of Carlsberg on the two major legs.
• We got upgraded to 'deluxe economy' for the Hanoi to Paris leg which meant more room and a personal screen.
• What brings me to sunny point number 4: I got to watch Ghost Rider which was really quite cool.

However:

• Thanks to what we can kindly call gross incompetence by ground staff of Vietnam Airlines, we have no luggage whatsoever, making a mockery of our clever attempts at cross packing to avoid a no clothes disaster (I did have a change of clothes in my carry on but due to a misunderstanding, Bec does not). I should add to this point that 'checking luggage through to final destination' means absolutely nothing - in Ho Chi Minh City we carried our luggage 30 metres through customs, for reasons completely unknown. We saw our luggage get loaded at this point so it apparently disappeared after Hanoi. Thewhole 'system' employed by Vietnam Airlines is utterly shambolic. I quickly lost count of confused looks and answers of grunts and 'yes' when the question was clearly not understood. Not happy.
• The other real downer was how bloody long the flight was - 5 legs altogether (Adelaide-Sydney-Ho Chi Minh - Hanoi - Paris - London) - the pain has possibly not been worth the saving or free stop over...

All that said, we arrived in one piece and were very kindly picked up by Bec's sister Amy who not only got us to our hostel via a lengthy tube ride (during which a strange woman not only stared at Bec and Amy but also laughed at appropriate times) but also gave us a series of guides to get us about.

She also took us to this huge and ludicrously cheap place on Oxford to buy clothes. I got jocks, socks, a pair of jeans and a t for 13 quid. That lifted my spirits somewhat, as did finding Magners cider in the first bottleshop I wandered into (that's a treat for a little later). We had quite a walk doing that shopping and have since returned to our hostel (a very nice Indian YMCA hostel). We have intended to rest however our long awaited showers were spoiled by the emergency toiletries kit given to us by the lost baggage people did not have shampoo and conditioner - which of course had Bec on the critical list. Cue not one but two trips to the nearby Boots (another misunderstanding, don't ask).

We'll probably catch up with Amy again tomorrow. This afternoon we're going to sit, relax and sip drinks somewhere near - probably at either the local pub, which is appropriately called The George, or another a bit further away which does its own mash brewing.