Despite Brunos hospitality I was slightly suspiscous of his insistance to come to the airport with me. We arranged to meet at 7, and by 6 (not 4 Jack) I had already snuck out of the hotel. I didn’t want any new surprise immigration taxes sprung on me. I decided to head straight for the airport and hope that I could buy and fly out today. My trusty guidebook told me there were ticket offices at the airport, luckily finding a taxi was no problem. I had this foolish notion that the airport would be a civilised place, this was quickly dashed the minute we arrived. The usual mob of people were outside police, porters, thieves, padlock sellers etc. They all charged down the taxi fighting over who I should give the bag too and who I should pay the bribes too. It took about three small bribes just to get into the airport terminal, once inside its pretty much the same only the thieves, porters, police etc all have some form of fake identification. I had three ‘protocol officers’ who were ‘helping’ me, It turned out there was no Kenya airways office at the airport, and there was also no Kenya flight today.
If I wanted to go to Kenya I would have to go into town, buy a ticket and then find another place to stay for the night, and then do this all over again tomorrow! I found out there was a flight to South Africa later in the morning, and it may be possible to buy a ticket at the gate. I thought thats it, South Africa it is, and decided to wait for the plane. My army of followers slowly drifted off while I sat waiting. A local guy waiting for a plane asked what was going on, I explained it all to him, and he seemed very concerned about the treatment I had got by the authorities in his country. He told me he worked for an NGO up country somewhere, he had a driver who could come and pick me up, take me to buy a ticket and then drop me off at a guesthouse for other NGO workers. I thought thats too good to be true, but this guy seemed like a very honest chap so I went with it. He knew a protocol agent who snuck me out the side exit, everyone caught on when they saw us leave and ran after us demanding tips, bribes, aggressive padlock selling etc. I was bundled into the car, doors locked and off we went.
The driver was really cool and took me to the spotlessly clean guest house where I dropped my bag off and chatted with the other friendly people staying there. After some breakfast and some good relaxation time it was off to the city centre and the Kenya airways office. Buying a ticket for the next day proved to be fairly easy, we drove around the city on a few other business errands, which gave me a good opportunity to see the sites of the city. On returning to the guest house I relaxed for the afternoon and had a few drinks with some of the guys staying there, and then early to bed ready for the next morning - a big smile on my face with the Kenya Airways flight ticket.
The same driver took me to the airport in the morning for a small petrol donation, I spoke to the chap who I met at the airport on somebodies mobile and offered him my biggest thanks! I was slightly more prepared for the airport this time and chose one protocol agent to take me through the formalities, we negotiated an okay deal on his payment and then I was through to the departure lounge. One of the departure lounge employees offered me a seat in the Business Class Lounge, for a small bribe. I excepted and sat the wait out in luxury, the plane left bang on time with me grinning all the way.
