Up in the air – without George Clooney’s panache

When I got off a long international flight this morning, I realised that only Hollywood and George Clooney can make long distance air travel look easy. By the end of the journey my hair was scuffled, clothes crumpled, eyes puffy and red from lack of sleep, and head throbbing with pain. I struggled to the immigration counter at Yangon International Airport with my laptop bag on my shoulder, stroller by my side, immigration card and passport in one hand, and two bags with duty free shopping in the other!

I guess it is unfair to compare myself to George Clooney. Fabulous looks apart, the character he plays in his latest movie is one among those who fly around the world in luxury, unlike us, - the cattle class travelers. I perfectly understand the principle behind the need for NGO workers like me to travel economy i.e. ensure more of the money raised for the poor reaches the poor. But who said good principles has got anything to do with comfortable travel?

I left home just before eight last morning – since Robin was around we walked to the tube station together. Yes, two suitcases, a laptop bag, a change of trains at King's Cross station and rush hour crowd – what a start to the day! I didn't get a seat on the train for the first hour of my journey – and continued to stand even after reaching Heathrow as the security check in took 40 minutes.

I hadn't flown Thai Airways before and couldn't believe the flight I walked into – it was an old jumbo jet with stairs that went up to the cockpit on the first floor, and large common TV screens at the front of each section of the economy class! I couldn't believe that I was going to spend 10.5 hours on the flight without a personal TV screen! To make things worse, the bloke that sat beside me was ordering vodka and orange juice every 20 minutes. Only when I changed flights at Bangkok did I realise that the aircraft that brought us from London was probably a replacement aircraft because the one that I boarded at Bangkok was a much nicer, newer aircraft with a personal entertainment system.

I had left my house in London at eight yesterday morning and into my hotel room in Yangon at nine thirty this morning. Though I am tired and jet lagged I am also very excited about discovering Myanmar - a mysterious and exotic country that I have, in my head, images of, based only on a few scenes from the news channels, and George Orwell's enchanting descriptions of the colonial era in the novel , "Burmese Days."