We met friends and family at Bridge Street Brewery for some farewell drinks and spent the night at the Road Lodge at the airport.

It was probably less than 200m from our hotel room to the SA Airways domestic departures check-in. Not the best hotel but a great location.

The bike boxes were accepted and loaded without any problems despite both weighing in at around 27Kg (IIRC SAA's limit on bicycles is 23Kg).

Bike boxes appeared (still in one piece :-)) without much delay at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg - thank you SA Airways and The Airports Company for some great service.

Check in at OR Tambo was relatively hassle free - somehow the system reflected the bike boxes booked through from PE to Bangkok but a supervisor quickly remedied that mistake.

Arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport at Bangkok via a short stop at Doha. The bikes were booked all the way through in Johannesburg and arrived safely at the oversized luggage counter about half an hours wait. Another wait for the shuttle bus to Plai Garden Hotel close to the airport where I re-assembled the bikes.

One problem we have is that the rear tyre on Leigh's bike won't get a permanent seal on the bead. We are using Maxxis UST tubless tyres but I have a couple of spare tubes as well. So tomorrow morning the plan is that I fit a tube and then we can cycle into a bike shop near Lumpini Park and have the UST tyre correctly fitted.

A quick comment on Thai visas, particularly in the manner they effect citizens of countries that are entitled to the 30 day visa exemption. Our travel agent was worried that, because our arrival and departure tickets were 4 months apart, the airline may not board us or the Thai immigration authorities may refuse us entry because we may appear to be exceeding 30 days. What actually happened was that neither batted an eyelid and we boarded without hassles and breezed through immigration in a few minutes.