Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Woken up at 3am by the sound of a torrential downpour! Beautiful, if you ask me. I even crack the window a bit to be able to hear better, then drift in and out of sleep until just before breakfast closes at 10.
I wander down to the fabulous buffet. Part of me wants to take full advantage on our last day, but after our amazing curries late last night, I'm not really all that hungry, and opt simply for some yogurt and cereal.
Our flight isn't till this evening at 8pm, with a 5'oclock airport pickup, so the plan is for a car to pick us up around 11 to finally give us a tour of the city we've been promised. Then, we should have plenty of time to come back, and take advantage of a late check-out to clean up and pack before the 5 o'clock departure. Cool. "Tranquil" as they say in our home town in France.
Jeff has beat me to the breakfast table ("Madame is still sleeping?" asks the waiter), and he heads back upstairs to take care of a few things as I linger over my coffee. I'm expecting him to join me again for one more coffee, since today promises a fairly leisurely pace...
He does eventually come back, but surprisingly is hopping mad. Apparently, he's just received a call telling us that the promised late checkout and the car have both been cancelled and that we have to be out of our rooms in 30 minutes, and are on our own until 5pm.
Now, I understand that rules are rules, and that U.S. government budgets are tight these days. And frankly, with this rain that's been falling steadily since this morning, I couldn't care less about a tour of the city. (Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see it! But, these are not the best conditions - and probably more trouble than it's worth.)
But let's just say that instantly transforming a 6 hour window into a 30 MINUTE one in which we're meant to be packed, dressed and ready to travel is just NOT feasible. Jeff is fuming, and I'm not too happy myself, so we give our contact at the embassy a call. It takes a few tries to get through, but eventually we reach the right person, who manages to negotiate the late check out with the hotel for us after all (phew!). Cause, frankly, since we knew/thought we had all day, I am FAR from being packed, and was purposely putting off my shower till the last minute (What can I say, I like to fly as clean as possible - especially for such a long flight.)
So, problem solved. Still, we can't help thinking that it could have been avoided in the first place.
In any case, we've still got at least 5 hours to kill here, at the hotel... in the rain. But thankfully we still have access to our rooms.
Tanzania has been an interesting adventure. The country is quite green and beautiful, and the people both proud (in a good way) and friendly.
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