Day 1 – UK to Ho Chi Minh City

The first day of our adventure began bright and early at Heathrow, where we met our fellow cyclists inside Terminal 4. Several of us had met up on the briefing day back in November so it was great to see familiar faces again, but we were all easy to spot anyhow thanks to cycling helmets hanging from back packs!

Sadly the group has shrunk a bit as a few people have succumbed to accidents and injuries over recent weeks. We’re still eleven strong though, and given the attrition rate we’ve all achieved something already just by making it to the start!

Having checked in we made our way through security where, true to form, my hand luggage needed closer inspection after being X-rayed and flagged as “busy”. It seems the combination of electrical items together with pedals and a bicycle seat does look pretty suspicious.

After a hearty breakfast of porridge with bananas, strawberries, and honey we headed off to the gate to board our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

2 Responses to Day 1 – UK to Ho Chi Minh City

  1. Mike 05/02/2015 at 17:02 #

    How times have changed.

    Years ago, I went through check in with 10m of RG214 coax cable, a VHF antenna which was about 2m long and had 3 ground spikes and a satellite based tracking unit that was the size of a shoe box and had a 2mm thick steel case around it. They never batted an eyelid or called me back (I put it through an oversided luggage xray machine).

    Next time, write SWAG down the side of your bag and put a balaclava on. They will leave you alone and pick on the nerd behind you.

  2. Anne 16/02/2015 at 18:44 #

    One time, I went through security and completely forgotten I had my flute in my carry on bag. Cylindrical tubes are highly suspicious going through the X-rays too. I simply assembled it and played a little bit!

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