The Adventure Begins

(First flight – Greece Athens)

Start of RTW

What the f*ck am I doing

As I check into the airport waiting patiently for the airplane to board, my mind was not glee on how excited I was to visit all the new places and experience superb adventures and bagging stories under my empty belt, it was however panicking.

I have never ever done this before let alone do it alone. It was moments of dreadful bliss while my mind dream away of the greatness and horror and greatness and horror …
Horror won that short battle ! *glup* 

 “What the f*uck am I doing” …. On the flight … no turning back now

Welcome to Bangkok, announced the pilot and there I was the first transit of the journey on the way to Athens Greece. I have only ever been to Bangkok once, which was a long time back and that was before they built the all new big airport so I had to learn, read and figure out how to get to my transit. It was easy enough and before I knew it I was back in the plane flying for Athens this time.

Touchdown - Athens

Customs was surprisingly easy to cross with no questions asked. I always have this fear when crossing boarders throughout my journey for i was alone and was always worried if they suspected i might jump ship and never returned to my home country, illegally overstaying and working and picking their fruits. The thought never crossed my mind ... (^^)

Baggage was another thing that i was semi-paranoid about since almost everything i now own was basically in my bag. I had one Backpack 40L which could expend to 50L and one side sling bag. The moment i saw my bag came out of the trolley belt it was a relieve for me or i thought. For some reason i decided to check my bag to make sure everything was in place and nothing was missing. ( I don't usually do this, it was just the first big travel paranoid setting in) First thing i felt was the bag was a little light or not as stuff as i thought i had packed it.

My baggage was pilfered .....

I immediately went through all the stuff i had and checked what was missing :

1. Spare Glasses
2. Shades
3. GBP 100 Cash ( My Hidden Emergency Stash )
4. Multi-Travel Adapter
5. One broken Zipper ( Cut Through by the looks of it a bolt cutter ) 

I guess partially i was my fault .... hiding money in there must have been like sweet calling for people scanning bags at the back of the runway. Worst thing was i couldn't blame anyone since i had to transit in Bangkok and it was two different airline Lufthansa to Bangkok and Thai airline to Athens it means almost anyone from KL to Athens could have done it from different companies.

I then realized what was considered important items in a long travel such as this. I could had care less about the money although it did hurt a little but the most painful of all was the Glasses. My spare glasses was gone i now only had the pair i wore and if anything happen to it during the trip i would be ..... it was not a good feeling at that point.

The Duplicate Shades

The shades were special too as they were custom made. I did not make those for this trip personally for they were made for work. Prescription glasses inner-lining fitted insides from the shades, used for construction works for one purpose only. Safety Eye-ware ! GONE !

Well i had to make a another when i got back from the trip. Work requirement. So here's s picture on the right to show how cool they were ....

Letter From Airline For Damaged Luggage

The reporting process was horrible ... remember this was at a time of beginning of the euro debt crisis so you could see peoples unwillingness to work in a manner or maybe it was just reception for baggage lost and damage report. I had to force them to write the GBP100 into the loss report.

"Money is not Claimable, only items but they pay by weight"

I knew it was a lost cause trying to get any compensation from the airline plus it was the start of my journey and wasn't due back until six months or later. But still a nice report means i could try to claim the travel insurance i bought at home and there was no harm in writing it down.

So much for a smooth journey. It was already starting out as bad as it could go. I still had to find my hostel and " its all Greek to me " .... ( sorry just had to get that pun in somehow )

Bus ... fare ... numbers ... place to stop ... i somehow manage to reach my hostel in one piece .... phew wasn't that hard, didn't get lost and barely asked for directions. I was amazed on how detailed the directions to the hostel was given from the internet. Well at lease i was settled for now all checked in.

The beginning of an adventure .... i could'nt  help but smile as i sat down on my bunk thinking of what to do with dinner.



Post Note :

I did manage to claim back money from my personal insurance but since i didn't buy a very high grade one, they could only pay so much. Still it was more then what i paid for the insurance so it was still a good bargain

Airline email correspondent told me that i was not eligible for anything as the items loss was less than 1kg. Apparently if you loss 1kg it was like USD 10 or some sort which was worthless.

Lesson Learn :
Carry every thing you cant live without on you. Or more accurately anything that can't be replace so easily.
Thou the more i travel everything else seemed less important. I never checked in my Journal it was the only thing i considered priceless.