Yeah, so I survived Africa. As far as I can tell I didn't end up getting malaria after all. To be honest though I never did take my very last dose of Doxycycline. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me. Anyway, the trip to Rwanda was amazing. Rwanda is beautiful. The people there are beautiful. Everything about the trip far exceeded my expectations.
British Airlines on the other hand, not so beautiful. I would love to tell the story, but it is a long story and I can't find a suitable way to make the long story short, so I'll just throw out some phrases that come to mind when I think about the actual travel portion of our trip to Africa: cancelled flight, Gatwick, $35 shuttle, Heathrow, cancelled flight, six hour line, line jumpers,
heated words with airport employees, $35 shuttle, Gatwick, last minute London hotel reservation, $10 hotel shuttle, illegal double occupancy room, stolen triple occupancy room, wasted Brussels junior suite, four hours of sleep, $10 hotel shuttle, 1.5 hour check-in, late departure, near missed connection. And that was just on the way to Africa. The trip on the way back can be summed up in a single phrase. Six missing suitcases. All six of our bags got lost on the return trip. We kind of already knew that was going to happen when we left the check-in desk in Kigali, but because of the language barrier there was nothing we could do about it. We did eventually get all six suitcases back (it took about a week) and there was only one broken souvenier. That's pretty good.
However, I will say this to all of you planning a trip in the near future. I found British Airways employees to be rude and very unhelpful. Avoid London airports at all costs (unless that is your destination, obviously) although the Gatwick hotel shuttle driver was SUPER AMAZING! Do not accept travel in which you have to switch from Gatwick to Heathrow or vice versa. Too many things could go wrong. On a good day the trip is over an hour. The day we were there the trip was FOUR hours (we only had 2 hours between scheduled arrival and departure times). Nobody was available or willing to tell us what was going on. The shuttle is expensive (not free, as we were led to believe). Anyway, I think you get the point. Africa is cool though.
British Airlines on the other hand, not so beautiful. I would love to tell the story, but it is a long story and I can't find a suitable way to make the long story short, so I'll just throw out some phrases that come to mind when I think about the actual travel portion of our trip to Africa: cancelled flight, Gatwick, $35 shuttle, Heathrow, cancelled flight, six hour line, line jumpers,
heated words with airport employees, $35 shuttle, Gatwick, last minute London hotel reservation, $10 hotel shuttle, illegal double occupancy room, stolen triple occupancy room, wasted Brussels junior suite, four hours of sleep, $10 hotel shuttle, 1.5 hour check-in, late departure, near missed connection. And that was just on the way to Africa. The trip on the way back can be summed up in a single phrase. Six missing suitcases. All six of our bags got lost on the return trip. We kind of already knew that was going to happen when we left the check-in desk in Kigali, but because of the language barrier there was nothing we could do about it. We did eventually get all six suitcases back (it took about a week) and there was only one broken souvenier. That's pretty good.However, I will say this to all of you planning a trip in the near future. I found British Airways employees to be rude and very unhelpful. Avoid London airports at all costs (unless that is your destination, obviously) although the Gatwick hotel shuttle driver was SUPER AMAZING! Do not accept travel in which you have to switch from Gatwick to Heathrow or vice versa. Too many things could go wrong. On a good day the trip is over an hour. The day we were there the trip was FOUR hours (we only had 2 hours between scheduled arrival and departure times). Nobody was available or willing to tell us what was going on. The shuttle is expensive (not free, as we were led to believe). Anyway, I think you get the point. Africa is cool though.
2 comments:
Hey Chris...I have really enjoyed your entries...sounds like such an awesome trip, I can not even imagine..can't wait to see some pictures...the family albums had to be moved from yahoo, I know, can you let me know how to get to them now? Love you bunches! Tiffany Anne
hey man haven't heard from you in a while...glad you're doing ok.
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