Moving Day - Istanbul to Bangkok (In Transit)

It’s our last morning in Istanbul — and therefore our last morning in Europe for this trip! 😉

A relaxed breakfast and a final bag pack before saying goodbye to Abuzer just before 11 a.m. Unfortunately, Nur was away looking after her aunt. We had a relatively short walk up the steep street to the Hippodrome, then across past the Blue Mosque to the shuttle bus pickup location.

It took about an hour and a quarter by bus to reach the airport — the same one we arrived at from Izmir. There’s also a large airport on the Asian side of the city. After a security check and a slightly slow check-in for our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, we went through passport control and another security screening.

We found a place to sit and eat our lunch, having picked up a few last-minute items from our local café/bakery — a börek and a couple of simits. We didn’t have to wait too long before it was time to board. For a moment, I thought we were in premium economy with all the legroom the seats had! I’ll take that extra space to stretch out any day, even without the other premium perks.

A nice Thai red curry for dinner and a Mission: Impossible movie helped pass the first three hours of the scheduled 8½-hour flight. It was great to be able to enjoy a Chang beer — one of our favourites from our time in Thailand back in February.

I didn’t think I’d get to sleep without taking a sleeping pill, but I must have nodded off eventually — maybe the red wine with dinner and the Chang helped. 😂 I woke up a few times, and the final time was when Sarah nudged me that breakfast was being served. It wasn’t too long after that before we were landing in Bangkok.

More security scanning followed as we transited to our next flight. The signs said the walk to the gate would take 19 minutes! Our gate was at the far reaches of the terminal. Then it was just over an hour’s wait for our next Thai Airways flight — this time to Hanoi, Vietnam. 🇻🇳