Howdy to Saudi

I met Thomas on the airline cruiser coach to Heathrow, already saddened that the driver had loaded my rucksack into the hold in a way that had probably crushed my pastel de natas. We watched the bus altitude meter read 6ft the whole journey, as we sailed up and down the Chiltern hills, presumably measured from the road rather than sea level.

At Terminal 4, we breezed past security, then the animal relief area, and onto our Saudia flight to Jeddah. Aboard the Boeing 777, the cabin crew inexplicably handed us a boiling wet wipe, followed by a handsome banquet of fruit platters, and access to arcade games (Angry Birds and Zoonicorns).

At King Abdulaziz airport, we said Howdy to Saudi and treated ourselves to a MeccaDonalds on Middle Eastern soil. We were going to need all the fuel we could get, especially landing into Delhi on zero sleep ...Read more