The journey home

We'd booked the shuttle bus from Ubud directly to the airport, and since out flight was leaving at 21:35 we had a lovely easy last day in Indonesia. The shuttle bus arrived spot-on time, and there was no traffic to the airport, but once through check-in and security we found our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. Amazingly, this was one of the longest delays we've had on the entire trip, and given our next flight wasn't until late afternoon the next day, we didn't have anything to worry about.

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur late at night meant no public transport, not even an express bus service (the last one had left 30 minutes earlier). Again we were lucky to meet another couple in the same situation, and so we all shared a taxi into the city centre. We got dropped off at the door of Wheelers hostel, which I'd rung from the airport to ensure they were still open. So we went straight to bed and got up late the next morning, hoping to grab a nice lunch in the Old China Shop restaurant (and after grabbing a couple of gorgeous cakes from the bakery around the corner from Wheelers).

So after another fantastic lunch, I felt just a tiny bit rushed having to get a metro to the main city terminal to connect with the airport bus, but in fact it literally only took a few minutes before we were seated in the comfy airport bus and on our way directly to the airport.

Check-in was smooth as ever, and our flight left for Stansted, London spot-on time again. The flight was 13 hours, and although we didn't bother paying for the entertainment system (on which you could watch movies and stuff), I managed to get a good bit of sleep.

After a strange delay getting our baggage in London, we strolled about Stansted and once we found the Ryanair check-in desks we just plonked our bags down on the floor and went to sleep, along with the couple of hundred other passengers doing exactly the same thing (this was at about 23:00, and our final flight to Dublin was at 06:30).

So after a great sleep (the airport was really quiet, and everyone seemed to be considerate of everyone else sleeping), we were the first ones in the queue for the bag-drop. Again security and customs was all easy-peasy, and our flight to Dublin left on time.

So after 25.5 months on the road we finally arrived back in Dublin at 07:30, picked up our bags straight away and headed out to Sarah's awaiting parents in arrivals. After a quick teary reunion, I was dropped back to me Ma in Malahide, where the smell of a freshly cooked Irish fry greeted me as I walked in the door.