Immediately after, I found a comfy seat, where I could lie down. From the early morning start, I thought I could get some rest before the 7 hour flight, where I would be really un comfortable in an aeroplane seat. Being tall has some disadvantages...Anyway, to my horror, the seat was broken, the middle part of the wood had been snapped. This turned out to be really difficult to get cosy on it, but I persevered, and managed to get about 10 minutes sleep.
So after my attempts to sleep, John called a meeting just before we were due to board. The queue for boarding was gigantic, so we just waited in our seats. When we finally joined the queue, the plane was due to leave in about 10 minutes...which only meant one thing - that the plane was delayed. So after waiting patiently in the queue, I was the first person through. I slowly walked on, expecting someone to join me in about 20 seconds, no one did. So I carry on slowly, and still no one, and carry on, until I got to the entrance to the plane where I am by myself. I thought, well they all have tickets, I will just meet them on the plane. So I walk on the plane, and wait to be seated. I turn around and can see Coxie and Sean in the crowd of people waiting to be seated. I knew we had different seats to everyone, but I thought only John was away from the group.
I get to my seat to find out I had the window seat. Great I thought, but then I realised I would be in the same seat for nearly 7 hours! I sit down, with a pillow on my seat, blanket and headphones, to minimise the disruption to the people in the same row, I just toss all of my gear to the side and sit down quickly. I sort myself out and move all the gear to where I want it, then I look for my pillow. I look on the floor, not there, I look to the sides, not there. I was on the plane for 5 minutes and I managed to lose something, where there was only one exit! Damn, this journey was going to be tough...
Sean and Coxie then arrive to my seats, with some news. John and Lawsy have been upgraded to business class. My heart deflated. I would be stuck in this seat and they would be waited on with a 3 course meal and a chair where they could lie down and get some proper rest. I then think, ah well, at least it’s two people from our group, I’m pleased it was them, just extremely jealous.
The plane then took off after being an hour late! I asked one of the flight attendants for a pillow, they had none left, oh dear. The lady two seats to my left, offered me her pillow, I felt awful taking it, but I did after she insisted. When it finally took off, I stuck my headphones in the seat to see what entertainment was on offer, I thought it was poor, and the guy to my left headphones, weren’t working. I had my iPod, so since the woman gave me her pillow, I gave him my headphones.
I try and sleep for a little, but then the food came, I wondered what culinary delights were going to be on offer. Fish or vegetarian, great. Being fussy with food, I went for the fish. I have no idea what the fish was, but I scrapped the sauce off and ate the fish and the bread. I gave my side portion and desert away to the father and daughter next to me. After the meal, me and the guy got talking. His name is Erik Schmidt who is a scout leader from Denmark, who has been coming to Kenya for the past 10 years, building schools . Whilst he was talking, he accidently spilt a FULL glass of wine over my leg, the floor which then covered my blanket and pillow. Fantastic.
After the plates were collected, I try and sleep. I had very little. I then get woken up to have breakfast. That got collected and then we were about an hour away from Nairobi. This is when the nerves and excitement started kicking in. I was itching to get off the plane (not only to stretch my legs) and experience Kenya.
We get off the plane, and arrive at the visa bay, before we can enter the luggage collection. That was a quite a long wait, but after I got through, I started getting really excited. The other lads went ahead of me and collected the majority of the bags apart from my two. I see my case and grabbed it off the conveyor belt, and then waited patiently for the sports bag. I waited, I waited more, I waited even more before looking on different conveyor belts. No bag.
James was due to arrive about this time, so we waited for him, before doing anything the missing bag, in case it came on his conveyor belt. He came down, and waited for his bag. The first bag that came, was the sports bag with all the gear to give away in it. No sign of his bag either. Disaster.
After waiting for about an hour for my missing bag, me and John started waiting at the missing luggage desk. After starting to fill out the form to report it missing, Coxie came over with my missing bag!!!
Now, we had to find James’ missing bag. We waited ages, checked every conveyor belt, checked every nook and cranny of the airport. No bag. Disaster. Unfortunately the bag never turned up, and he had to fill in the form, and then we had to leave the airport. The only clothes James had, was one pair of jeans, one t-shirt, and pair of underwear. Poor lad.
We meet our welcoming party of Joe – the driver, and Mumbi – John’s daughter. We arrive at his car, and realised we wouldn’t all fit in with all the bags, as much as Joe tried to shuffle the seats around, there was no chance of us fitting in his car, so we had to get a taxi.
I was impressed with what I saw of Kenya, I thought it was going to be a very poor country, but they had decent roads and decent buildings. The only bad thing so far, was the transport. No one gives way on the roads, no one looks at the traffic lights, it’s just a free for all! I felt very lucky to arrive safely at the hotel.
We arrive in our rooms, and the first thing I done was showered after being on the road (or sky) for over 24 hours.
John allowed us some time to rest, so me James and Lawsy all had a snooze before we went to Mary’s (John’s wife’s sister) house where we would get our first Kenyan meal of the trip. This is where we met Maureen, her daughter Angel, her sister Emily, Vicky – John’s wife, Mary and her family. The house was very nice and the food was fantastic. After the food, we had a git long meeting with John, (not as long as this blog...) and then relaxed in the main room with the tele on. Myself, Coxie, James and Sean all fell asleep whilst watching the tele, but were woken up to the smell of mandazis being cooked. The best way to describe this snack is they are a doughnut without it being round, without any toppings or any filling, but they tasted fantastic.
Afterwards Mumbi took me and Lawsy for a quick walk around the area, to give us a little taster of the area. After a long day of travelling and eating, we headed back to our hotel. We dropped our gear off in our rooms and headed to the bar, to reflect on the day as a group, to have a drink, play chess and cards and discuss the plans for the next day. First two days completed, I am so excited for the first ‘proper’ day of being in Kenya tomorrow.
Dan
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