The points of reference in the blackened out room were few and far between with the exception of the sensory assault imposed by a fast moving ceiling fan.
I was not at all used to the sights and sounds of this crude type of ventilation and it had, at regular intervals during the night, caused my slumber to be interrupted and disturbed. There was, naturally, the option to just switch it off but this was Thailand, a tropical climate and our Northern European intolerance to heat and moisture made its incessant operation absolutely necessary.
Although a rarity in UK housing apart from in a conservatory or retro 1970's bedroom my main appreciation of a ceiling fan was from the movies where it figured highly in depicting a sweaty and rather menacing atmosphere in a thriller, murder story or horror themed action.
I should have slept more soundly on that first night on Ko Samui given that we had been travelling non stop since 11am the previous day. That was the take off time for the flight to Singapore from Manchester.
I was determined to use the opportunity to catch up on the box sets, film releases and general media that had eluded me because of work and other commitments. There are no distractions from binge watching whilst faced with a sophisticated multi-platform entertainment and viewing system which is right there just centimetres away from your face in the seat back of the next row.
In the ensuing eleven airborne hours with only a few breaks to unwrap various pre-prepared meals and snacks I got through all of episodes of Chernobyl, the animated Missing Link, a back catalogue of Black Adders, one short burst of Games of Thrones as a bit of a spoiler as I have missed so much since Series 1, some pop videos, excerpts of soundtracks and Greatest Albums of a few of my performing favourites, an awful movie called Brightburn which I had to watch to the very end to come to that opinion, a few comedy shows and periodic checking on the flight plan to find out where we actually were on the globe.
It had been a wavy lined course eastwards across Northern England and the North Sea followed by landfall with Denmark, Poland, the Baltic States, a large part of Russia to just above the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tibet, India and then a swath of the Bay of Bengal to skirt the Western coastline of Thailand, Malaysia and then into a smoke filled environment from the burnt forests of Indonesia which shrouded the skies above Singapore.
What then threw me completely was the crossing of various time zones.
In real time we should have landed in Singapore at around 10pm but with the sudden jump of plus seven hours we were actually arriving at around breakfast time. That made the absence of a snooze easier and with the excitement of the holiday I did not feel at all fatigued.
The contrast in the second and ongoing flight across to Thailand was stark compared to the luxury that we had just been cosseted in.
Although a partner company to Singapore Airlines the evocatively named Silk Air operator was cheap and cheerful. We boarded an older and much smaller jet with nothing by way of in flight entertainment. That was not at all important as we were getting closer to our destination and in anticipation of the meet up with my wife's Australian family members.
The approach to the Tropical island was a bit bumpy in the midday heat haze but below us was a clear blue ocean. Then we caught sight of the pearl that is Ko Samui with its golden sandy beaches, lush vegetation covered hills and contour hugging villages overlooked by imposing gold burnished Buddhist Temples.
It had been a long journey but it would take the mesmerising rotation of the ceiling mounted fan to bring me to the realisation that yes, we were pretty exhausted by the journey so far.
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