Yesterday proved to be fairly relaxing. Today made up for it. We attempted to do laundry last night, but foreign dryers are basically worthless. Everything was still damp as we packed it back into our suitcases. My sleep was very interrupted until finally drifting off again just in time for the alarm to go off.
Our flight departed at 9:55 (or was scheduled to in any event). We thought we gave ourselves adequate time even by Heathrow standards, but Heathrow always finds a way to annoy. Despite some traffic, the car drop off worked out ok. I only needed to return it with 80% charge or above to be considered “full,” and I had dropped it off with a respectable 89%. Transit to the terminal was fine, and we even got seats issued upon check-in which we did at a kiosk. The line for security was inefficient and poorly executed. Both of our boarding passes were flagged and we were sent to a separate line to have our visas verified. From the end of the line to the other side of the security checkpoint took almost an hour. Not great.
Then we had to take about six escalators and a train to get to our gates. British Airways was making last call announcements to Nairobi at gate B34 as we approached, despite us arriving there almost an hour before departure. Our seats were together in the back of an A350. It was a bit tight for an eight hour flight. Keeping in mind we were boarded extremely early, we sat for quite some time. And then sat some more. Then the pilots informed us of a maintenance delay and didn’t have any updates for over an hour. Then we sat for an air traffic control delay. Then we sloooooowly made our way to the runway where we departed two hours late, having already been on the plane for three hours before the wheels were off the ground. Both of us were in rather sour moods.
We had a meal, did some head bobbing, watched a movie and eventually touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. One of the reasons we were sour was that we anticipated a very slow process to get out of the airport and to the hotel when we have another early morning tomorrow. The customs hall in Nairobi did not disappoint. It was not particularly fast, though we have seen worse.
We arrived at the Kwetu Nairobi Curio Collection by Hilton. It was a thirty minute Uber ride and we arrived around 1140pm. We were greeted with a room upgrade to suite and a nice display of treats and South African wine for us to enjoy at some later point, but right now we desperately need some sleep.
passports & pepto bismol 