We left the Asha Boutique Hotel it seems like ages ago. We said good-bye to a wonderful man and his daugher from Hartfordshire outside of London. We had some wonderful conversations with them both while we were there. Would enjoy seeing them agin some day. All of the staff made an effort to say good-bye and wish us well on our journey home. Paula and J left about an hour or so before we did. Our driver came early so we accommodated him -- little did we know what was in store for us when we left the hotel early. Dan, our driver, was a hoot! He made sure I got some good shots of the bikers with the umbrellas. We crossed the "dreaded" ferry with no problem at all and we were at the airport at around 4pm for a flight leaving at 8:45pm. We went directly to the lounge. Wasn't much but the coffee was free and there were AC. I ventured out and found Paula and J waiting for their flight at the gate -- they have taken another route home. Both or our flights were delayed. We eventually left Mombasa at 9:30.
Then the trouble began. There was something wrong with the Kenya Airways plane. We were to depart at 11:45 and didn't even board until 12:30 and then take-off was at 2:15. This was not boding well for our connecting flight to Boston. To top it all off there was an announcement that the water was contaminated and there would be not hot drinks, ie, coffee or tea. Well that didn't help one bit when we finaly landed in New York.
By the time we landed, went through customs and collected our bags for inspection, we were told that it was too late to catch our connecting flight. Honestly, I really think if we had ran for it, we might have made it -- but energy by this time was low and the airport was huge. So we stood on line for over an hour to rebook another flight to Boston. No "Sky Priority" agent available. You can image the line of people needing to rebook. Finally made it up to the Delta counter and was told no flights were open today try to talk with the Kenya rep if you need to stay the night. So we went to the Kenya rep. After much haggle there we were able to get a flight out in the morning at 6am and a room in a hotel - God knows where. By this time, I am a total mess. JFK is huge and the two of us are wandering around not knowing where we are. Since I was not handed any directions or name of the hotel, we start winging it. We take the AirTrain out to what seemed like forever. I wasn't happy with that so we decided to airtrain back to the TWA hotel that is right in the terminal and try to get reimbursed later. Well this place was a total rip off!! Plus you don't even't get a coffee maker in your room.
Back to plan A but I forgot the name of the hotel the gal got us the voucher for. So we decided to go back to Delta which meant one more turn on the AirTrain and find out what hotel we're ssupposed to be in and try to check the luggage -- we've been schlepping all our luggage around this whole time. After much back and forth, we get the hotel name. We go to the Delta counter and try to check the bags -- no can do. So the very nice woman says "Oh, you were on the Kenya flight". Yes. She then books us on the 5pm flight to Logan keeping our business class. What??? Why didn't someone do that hours ago -- it was almost 2pm and by the way, we still didn't have a cup of coffee. PHEW!! We checked our bags and headed straight to the lounge, where I am now drinking mass quantities of wine........
It's good to think of us sleeping in our own bed tonight. It has been a long, long trip.
Next time.... Home, Sweet, Home -- I hope!
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