A few people close to me have spent sometime traveling lately and experiencing some travel difficulties. Traveling troubles are never fun especially when it involves airport delays, cancelled flights and frustration.
It got me thinking about what my worst airport experiences were and Ive had some pretty difficult ones. Anyone who has flown in Africa, especially to small towns can probably identify with this.
On one particular trip the whole airport experience was a disaster from beginning to end. Upon arriving at our destination we found out we would not be able to fly out of that particular town because the airplane no longer had insurance coverage. This meant that we had to drive a few hours to the next town. Fortunately it hadn't rained for a few weeks so the roads were passable. We arrived in this little town and found a hotel. The next morning we sent someone early to the airport to buy tickets on that days flight. We were able to get tickets and go through the exasperating process of getting checked in, through security and customs. As we were waiting for the plane an airline official came and quickly announced that the flight was cancelled and then left. Everyone was a little confused. Did we hear that correctly? The flight is cancelled? Now what? Well it turns out the plane was rented out to someone else. This kind of makes you wonder, "When did they know this?" did they sell tickets on a plane that they knew wasn't coming? Since these things tend to happen on a regular basis we knew there was nothing to be done about it and we were able to get tickets on a flight the next day. Again we went through the same frustrating process of getting through the check in and this time on the plane. We arrived in the capitol city just as it started raining and then pouring. They let us sit on the plane for almost an hour hoping the rain would stop. When it didn't stop they finally unloaded us and we went into the airport to wait for our luggage. Well they didn't want the luggage to get wet so we waited for almost another hour and again the rain wasn't stopping so they went ahead and brought it in. Finally, we thought, we are almost home, we can go home! As we were exiting the airport we realized that there were some changes outside the airport. The taxis were no longer anywhere to be seen. There was a new airport being built and causing some issues with construction. Instead of the taxis being near the front of the airport they were way out back. Because of all the rain and lack of proper drainage the parking lot was completely flooded and I'm not talking about little puddles I'm saying knee deep water. We have no choice but to walk through this carrying our suitcases trying to keep our clothes out of the water so were not entirely soaked. And lets just say this water isn't crystal clear and was rather disgusting. Finally we made it to where the taxis were only to discover they wouldn't take us anywhere! What! We have money, we will even pay you more than normal but no, they don't want to get there taxi's wet. Fortunately we were able to get a hold of a friend to come and pick us up but they were greatly delayed because the president of the country was also on his way to the airport. When the president is on the road the roads all close and traffic is awful!! In the end, our friends finally arrived and we made it home. That was one of the nicest showers I ever had!
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