Monday, July 02, 2007

Greetings from Kenya!

Well, we arrived in one piece, thought I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bit of an adventure. Our arrival in Cairo was a bit confusing, at one point they insisted on taking our passports and tickets and sent us into a big holding room. That was very upsetting. Then somebody explained that we had all obtained visas prior to arrival. Then they sent us back to were we started still without a clue as to where we should go. Because our layover was almost 12hrs we had been given hotel and dinner vouchers. We didn't realize that we would have to leave the airport to do this we thought we were still considered "in transit", It's a good thing I got a multiple entry visa!

Once at the hotel we were assigned rooms. The room I got had somebody in it already! oops! Anyway we fixed that and I got my own room. I got a shower and had lunch with my parents in the hotel restaurant. Despite the fact that I was obviously with my parents the waiter wasted no time in flirting with me. However I think he was running on less sleep than we were so it came off pretty clumsy and silly. No need to worry Austin, there's no competition here. Anyway, not wanting encounter any more trouble we arrived back at the airport with plenty of time to relax and wait for our flight to Nairobi. We arrived early this morning about 5am. We went about pulling our bags off belt.
However, about 15 people didn't get their bags in the end. No surprise I didn't get either of my bags, par for the course for me. :P I am use to this however so I do have a few changes of cloths with me in my carry on baggage. The bags didn't make the connection in New York to Cairo. They will hopefully arrive tomorrow though.

My observations so far ( a little clouded by lack of sleep and irregular meal times) is that there is a sharp divide between classes here, there are some obviously well off people driving new cars and others who walk along or across busy roads or cram into tiny buses. All the housing compounds are surrounded by brick walls and barbed wire. Thankfully we have some time today to adjust and figure out what we will be doing and where we'll be doing it. The schedule here seems to work "from day to day".

I'll say one thing for our hosts, they are amazing! With very little notice they had a warm meal ready for 100 guests when we arrived from the airport, we didn't arrive until after 9am because we had to report our late luggage and that took longer than one might think.

Anyway I'm going to sign off for now. Just wanted to assure you all that we're safe and in one piece. The people are charming and friendly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're out of my sight for less than 48 hours and already you're picking up?

Charming and friendly?

I have no chance to survive make my time. Stolichnaya, why are you my only friend?

Anonymous said...

Have fun and stay safe Emma!

Now where's the pics? :D

Anonymous said...

It does sound challenging. One bonus you get it access to your bank account. For some reason no banks in South Korea could access my bank account here in Canada. Credit was fine but I had trouble my first night too.

A young woman once quoted that "Travel is the best educator" and I found it true. :)

God bless!
Allan

Anonymous said...

You know... if you're used to losing your luggage on flights, this may be a sign that travelling is not what you're meant to do!! :)

Hope you're having fun!

Brian

Anonymous said...

I must say - you seem to have some rather interesting experiences when you travel. I hope the rest of your journey goes well. Get in some to as much sight-seeing as you can. Enjoy yourself and hopefully you'll create some great memories to last a lifetime.

MiraFabulous said...

Sounds like an adventure!
And hey it's these wacky detials that make an expereince unforgettable!

ENJOY!!

ghanima said...

Glad to hear that you arrived safely, Em! Do you think you'll be able to update fairly regularly?

Don't beat yourself up about missing Hawkestone -- it was too cold for anybody but Matt (in his shorty-wetsuit) and the Laur (who's nuts) to go in. Your company was missed, 'though.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you made it there safe and sound.

I'm gonn ahave to try an check this blog more often now that you are (hopefully) going to be updating it regularly.