At the moment, I am sitting in a hotel in Nairobi because they overbooked our flight from Nairobi to Mumbai, and we got bumped. It really stinks because we got up at 3:00 AM yesterday to leave Cape Town for Johannesburg, then Johannesburg to Nairobi. We only had 1 hr. 20 mins. between that flight and our Nairobi-Mumbai flight. Because of a series of events due to misinformation from Kenya Airways, we couldn't get on our flight. Now, we won't be able to do anything in Mumbai (we already paid for some tours, the hotel, and a taxi, that are nonrefundable), we'll arrive at 2:10 AM tomorrow morning, and we'll have to catch another flight to Fort Cochin at 10:35 AM. Hopefully, our bags will arrive with us in Mumbai, or we could have real problems! With the way everything has been handled by Kenya Airways so far, I'm honestly quite nervous that they won't be on our flight! Let's hope for the best.
…I’m now somewhere over the ocean between Nairobi and Mumbai. It’s Saturday night about 9:00 PM Kenyan time. Today’s attempt at boarding our plane went much smoother. I was more than a little worried last night when our flight left at 5:35 PM, and we didn’t get to our hotel until 10:00 PM (after a 2 ½ hour drive in a bus arranged by the airlines from the airport to the hotel). Today, the bus picked us up at 2:00 and we arrived at the airport by 3:00. Going that far from the airport to a hotel made no sense to any of the five of us that got bumped, but then neither did most of the things that happened yesterday.
I wanted to go back to the rest of our trip in So. Africa. We ended up not going to the Heads in Knysna because it was raining and it would have been difficult to see much. We took a different route back to Cape Town the next day and were told it would take us about 6 hours. It took us over 7 hours, and then we accidently ended up back at the Waterfront – well past the turnoff to our bed and breakfast, so we decided to have dinner there before going home. By the time we got back to Howard’s End Manor Bed and Breakfast and I got all packed and ready to leave by 4:15 AM, I only got 2 hrs. of sleep. So needless to say, I was very tired by the time we got to our hotel in Nairobi last night.
Yesterday, when we returned to Kenya and discovered we weren’t flying to Mumbai, I was told I could get my phone out of my suitcase. However, as time went on, it became apparent that that wasn’t going to happen. I almost started to cry again because I REALLY wanted to call all my friends one more time and say goodbye all over again. I MISS THE KENYANS SO MUCH!!! So. Africa was nice and much easier to live in, but it wasn’t Kenya. I think Kenya has gotten in my blood forever. I actually felt like I had “come home” yesterday at the airport.
Well, that’s it for my Kenyan experience. My Indian experience begins in only a few more hours. I’ll keep you informed as soon as I can find the time and internet service to write again.
Kwaheri (“Goodbye” in Swahili) for now,
Kadi
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