We started from KL for our long awaited African Safari on 16th July. 2014. We had to take the flight to Nairobi, Kenya from Mumbai. My friend Viji met us at the Mumbai Airport with her family. We stayed in Mumbai for a day as our flight was on 18th July early morning 3 a.m.
Mumbai International Airport is very good like many other International Airports.
We were not aware of the drama which was awaiting us and we happily checked in once the counter opened. I was not aware that Nairobi was such a popular destination from India. I had imagined a small flight with lots of tourist crowd. But it was full of people working there , business people and not many tourists.
We all went to the Vestibule leading to the Aircraft and were about to board the flight and lo and behold we were asked not to board and were sent back from inside the Vestibule . Initially we were told there was some technical snag and later we came to know it was Engine problem. There were more than 200 passengers. The flight was full. The chaos started and there were few airline staff not able to tell us anything.
Our tour was to start the same day in Kenya but we were still standing in Mumbai Airport wondering if we would be accommodated in the next day's flight as all the day's flights had left Mumbai by the time we knew the Aircraft would not take off.
They bought us breakfast and after lot of haggling, at around lunch time hotel accommodation was provided for us and we were sent in batches to a hotel which was not very near the airport. It ws a good 4/5 star hotel. We had lunch and slept off as we had not slept the whole of previous night.
The wait started. Like exam results, list was coming to the hotel reception and the people in the list were to be taken by Bus to the Airport after dinner. Earlier we managed to call the contacts from Tour operators to inform the guide waiting at Nairobi , that we were not travelling that day. Our Guide was a local guide from Kenya and so we had nobody to help us around in Mumbai.
By the time they dropped us to the airport it was night/morning 12.30 after waiting inside the Bus for more than half an hour. The half an hour wait in Bus was due to some passenger whose name was in the list but was happily sleeping in the room. We had to keep asking them what is happening, and finally , they found out the said person's room number and woke him up!! ( so typical a situation where no body knows what is happening and many, standing around but not a single one responsible for the situation )
Luckily we had seats in this flight and boarding pass was waiting for us and the checked in luggage shifted to this aircraft. New luggage tags were given to us. We heaved a sigh of relief. But the ordeal continued till 5 a.m as people were getting into the flight till then .(the flight was to start at 3 a.m.) They were trying to accommodate as many passengers from the previous flight as possible and like I said earlier , this sector being busy this day's flight was also almost full.
We reached at around 8.30 a.m. local time in Nairobi after about 6 plus hours of flying.
At last the Safari started with lots of drama and 24 hours plus delay.
Mumbai International Airport is very good like many other International Airports.
We were not aware of the drama which was awaiting us and we happily checked in once the counter opened. I was not aware that Nairobi was such a popular destination from India. I had imagined a small flight with lots of tourist crowd. But it was full of people working there , business people and not many tourists.
We all went to the Vestibule leading to the Aircraft and were about to board the flight and lo and behold we were asked not to board and were sent back from inside the Vestibule . Initially we were told there was some technical snag and later we came to know it was Engine problem. There were more than 200 passengers. The flight was full. The chaos started and there were few airline staff not able to tell us anything.
Our tour was to start the same day in Kenya but we were still standing in Mumbai Airport wondering if we would be accommodated in the next day's flight as all the day's flights had left Mumbai by the time we knew the Aircraft would not take off.
They bought us breakfast and after lot of haggling, at around lunch time hotel accommodation was provided for us and we were sent in batches to a hotel which was not very near the airport. It ws a good 4/5 star hotel. We had lunch and slept off as we had not slept the whole of previous night.
The wait started. Like exam results, list was coming to the hotel reception and the people in the list were to be taken by Bus to the Airport after dinner. Earlier we managed to call the contacts from Tour operators to inform the guide waiting at Nairobi , that we were not travelling that day. Our Guide was a local guide from Kenya and so we had nobody to help us around in Mumbai.
By the time they dropped us to the airport it was night/morning 12.30 after waiting inside the Bus for more than half an hour. The half an hour wait in Bus was due to some passenger whose name was in the list but was happily sleeping in the room. We had to keep asking them what is happening, and finally , they found out the said person's room number and woke him up!! ( so typical a situation where no body knows what is happening and many, standing around but not a single one responsible for the situation )
Luckily we had seats in this flight and boarding pass was waiting for us and the checked in luggage shifted to this aircraft. New luggage tags were given to us. We heaved a sigh of relief. But the ordeal continued till 5 a.m as people were getting into the flight till then .(the flight was to start at 3 a.m.) They were trying to accommodate as many passengers from the previous flight as possible and like I said earlier , this sector being busy this day's flight was also almost full.
We reached at around 8.30 a.m. local time in Nairobi after about 6 plus hours of flying.
At last the Safari started with lots of drama and 24 hours plus delay.
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