We allowed plenty of time to get from the South to the North Terminal of Gatwick on the morning of our departure. The North terminal was emptier than I have ever known it, except for when we flew to Athens immediately after the COVID flight restrictions were lifted. We whizzed through security and were soon relaxing with pastries and coffee. Air China was very efficient, giving us boarding passes for both our flights and assuring us that our luggage would follow us all the way through to Bangkok. Our route was over Russia, which is now not possible for many airlines.

When we arrived in Beijing we filed through to the transit passenger zone. It is possible to get a limited visa ( I think it is for up to 72 hours) to explore Beijing in between flights. However the Chinese are very strict about any violations and I had read several horror stories online about tourists being held and questioned for hours due to unintentional mistakes they had made.

I have mixed feelings about visiting China on this trip. We entered the west of China via Pakistan and the Karakoram highway when we did our big trip 25 years ago. A lot of the places that we visited then, particularly in Xinjiang are now off limits. I would love to see some of the big eastern cities like Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and of course go to Hong Kong. On the other hand, the Chinese surveillance state is quite paranoia inducing. As we filed through to repeat the security checks that had been carried out in Gatwick, I noticed that banks of security cameras were following our every move. Our conversations were being recorded via not so hidden microphones. I suppose there is an argument that all states now carry out similar surveillance on their citizens and China is just more obvious about it. But I am not so sure. What I saw in Beijing Capital airport did seem quite extreme and I had a sense of being watched by big brother the whole time I was there.

The airport was enormous, but also (possibly because it is so big) seemed strangely empty, although it did get busier as the day went on (we arrived at 5:30am Chinese time). After wandering around for a while and getting a bit lost, we finally got our bearings. There were official government shops selling souvenirs and duty free, as well as a Costa, a Starbucks and a Grey Goose ‘pub’, where hamburgers can be obtained. We had eaten quite well on our flight, so we just bought coffee and munched on cereal bars. I wasn’t sure if my Visa card would work, but it did. We finally decided to settle down on some benches at the gate that we would be leaving from. Unlike the seats in Gatwick they didn’t have arms on every chair, so it was possible to lie down quite comfortably. Our little corner of the airport had a number of travellers all in the same situation as us, bedding down. Tim dropped off for quite a long time, but I only managed some very limited shut eye before resorting to listening to some downloaded radio programmes.

The next leg of the journey was only four hours and it went quickly. There was time for a meal (the food was reasonable – I would say China Airways has the edge on Air India when it comes to food – but Air India are more generous with the alcohol). Before we knew it we were emerging into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport. Once again everything went surprisingly smoothly. We immediately picked up our luggage without a hitch, changed some money and headed for the exit where we knew that we could get a bus to Khao San Road, the backpacker/ cheap hotel area for 60 baht each (about £1.50). We were in our hotel by 9pm. Although we were tired we decided to go out and have a wander round straight away, thinking that if we stayed up as long as possible we would sleep well and trick our bodies into getting over our jet lag…we were soon to find that there had been lots of changes to Khao San Road since our last visit….