A 12 hour flight. A jam-packed plane. And I soon realise that my African, Indian-looking friend (Azar) is more English than a Yorkshire pudding. He guides me down his story of living in London for the last 40 years as an Investment Banker and has a wife and 2 boys to which I apparently had to take note that the youngest (19) was regularly distracted from his studies thanks to the attention of flocking girls over his good looks! (tough life!) He was returning from Singapore on a business trip...

As for my Malaysian friend (Azjee) whose English was a little hard to understand, (or maybe it was just how disorientated I was with it being 2am Australian-time at this point) I soon figured out that he works with rice (not just any rice, but the bestest of rice of course) with a huge company and has a lot of rich friends including his mate in the Maldives who apparently has celebrity reservations for his Island down on a 6 year waiting list! He tells me that his wife and young daughter are sitting further back in the plane and that he is simply following them for a casual (as you do) holiday in London! Azar and Azjee somehow also get on the topic of the missing Malaysian flight to which Azjee informs us that his friend's son was onboard. This is not something anyone wants to hear :(

I plan to finish my book, eat, watch a few movies, write in my journal, continue the flow of random conversation between my new plane pals and then finally take a few melatonin (natural) sleeping pills to get me to London quicker. But, within probably just 20 minutes of being up in the air I start to feel completely incapable of anything except grabbing my pillow and blanket, tucking myself in and strapping an eye mask around my face. A small doze I presumed...

Probably 9 hours later I finally wake up as breakfast is announced and am greeted by Azar's dry but comforting humour as he says 'well sh*t, you can sleep now, can't ya!' (I can?) I didn't realise how long I was out for until I saw on the screen that we were just 2 hours from Heathrow haha! Feeling completely refreshed but slightly annoyed that I had not made the most of my free movie service or finish this darn book, I head down the aisle to find my English mate Tim and have another chat before descending...

Coming into Heathrow and these new Airbus things have a birds-eye view camera attached to the top of the plane that now show live footage of your take-off and landing. Not really too sure how comfortable I felt with seeing this reality but it was definitely surreal as we saw the heavens and slowly descended through the clouds into a panoramic view of London! Technology eh! Feeling completely overwhelmed again after no time to mentally prepare myself and suddenly there I am touching ground with my old mate London!

Heathrow Airport and making my way to collect my luggage. The size of the plane and all it's passengers assures me that I will be waiting a while to retrieve my bag but funnily enough, I take one look and there it is, one of the first out! I wait for Tim before heading to customs to declare some 'chicken salt' to which the customs man stares at me funny and says 'ya what!?'. Apparently no need to claim such a thing (a rather unusual but yummy request from my friends cousin who I will be staying with in a couple of days - another one of those friends I am yet to meet!) and so I go to buy myself an English SIM card and say adios to Tim (got his email though, thumbs up to that)...

Fluttering around trying to get everything organised before getting on the underground and I suddenly notice my kiwi friend Shard standing in a shop. We greet each other and head to Costa coffee (best place ever) to chat and wait for her boyfriend who we figured was probably at a different terminal! I wait until the boyfriend arrives, which I will add was one of the most emotional and romantic encounters I have ever witnessed and soppy me starts tearing up. (crying over strangers, a first!) We link up on Facebook, wish each other good luck and I head for the tube.

My first destination is Knightsbridge where I will be meeting some friends (I haven't met them yet either!) at the National Baha'i Centre of London. A place where I know I will be safe, be welcomed in with love and can rest my arms for a while as my friends who I'd be staying with (hadn't met them yet either..I'm making a good run of this hey!) wouldn't be home until later that evening...I board the train, taking deep breaths as I try and prepare myself ready to take on the world but I soon notice a young couple, my age, get on the same carriage with these cute matching fluorescent-green backpacks more than half as empty compared to my big dark green tortoise backpack still cutting off the circulation in my arms...Have I mentioned you should pack light?

I move to a different area of the carriage finding myself standing next to the guy from this matching bags couple with his girlfriend seated near to us. I don't actually recall what brought me to speak to him, but I do, and I imagine it was something along the lines of, 'are you two backpacking as well?'...

Solo Traveler's Tip No.2: Speak To Strangers! That is, the friendly-looking ones who maybe don't look like they have haven't eaten for 3 weeks and have bigger pupils than the black buttons on your grandma's wooly cardigan...