Packing for this trip was, let’s just say, a challenge. We have no idea if we even brought the right things, so we are just going to go with the flow and hope that baby love is a bit flexible! We caught a taxi and splurged by taking it all of the way to the airport. We usually take a train, but since we don’t have any experience checking in with Kenya Airways we didn’t want to take a chance on their express airport service.
Between the three of us we’ve logged some airport miles, so we do not find airports intimidating at all. What does tick me off though is tours! Ugh! There was a big, and by big I mean stacks of passports, tour group checking in at the same time we were...and they were to be on our plane. Little did we know that they were going to sit all around us! We flew in 37HJK to Bangkok and let a bunch of folks off. We had to stay on the plane because it was heading directly to Nairobi. They said it would be a short 45-minute pause in our trip. Ha! It took almost two hours before they had the plane loaded back up with passengers and the like. Then we took the long taxi out to the runway only to be told that the monsoon was grounding our plane for an hour. Two hours later, keeping in mind that many planes took off while we sat there, we were given the clear and took off for Kenya. That was a long flight. We flew all night and although it was only a 10-hour flight, it seemed longer. M was the only young kiddo. The only other kid on the flight was about eight and her parents allowed her to run wild on that plane. M just looked at us like why can’t I do that?!? Not on your life, kiddo!
We made it to Kenya about 90 minutes late but with no problems. It is not the big airport that I expected for such a large city. After we had our tickets checked and went through security, they sent us outside and pointed to the right plane. Um, to which one are you referring? There were five planes outside. So glad it wasn’t raining. There was no contingency plan for bad weather that we could see.
Our plane took us to Burundi for a short 45-minute pause (which it actually was), and then we flew onto Kigali. It was pouring, but they had a bus! Woohoo! Our luggage didn’t fare so well in the weather, but nothing was hurt except the luggage. No problem with that! We it out of customs/immigration in record time to stand there alone. There wasn’t anyone holding a sign with our name or waiting for us outside security. Uh-oh. The only thing out there besides the money exchange places was a Bourbon coffee! Coffee for mama and water for dad. Fifteen minutes later we broke out Charlie’s phone and tried to call our guide. She was there ten minutes later.
