15 August 2013
Early flight to Cairo today. Or that was the plan. Arrive Aqaba airport after a 10min journey into the desert. Much smaller than Tromso airport. It’s the full security shakedown. Watches off, boots off, belts off, computers out. Stupidly though, the liquids, the bottles of water and whisky are OK to take on the flight no problem.
Present passports for check in. There’s a problem with obtaining boarding passes. Clerk says, “There’s a stop on yours.” Great. Now what?! He needs to see the credit card I used to pay for the tickets. Hand him my business credit card and he goes to a back office. It’s not the right one. I remember that my business credit card was replaced a few months ago after I’d bought these tickets due to fraudulent activity being detected on it. Given that I’d been using it for all sorts of payments in all sorts of countries you’d have thought the fraudulent activity would be somewhere in Africa. But no. It was John Lewis.
Fortunately, I’ve brought the expired credit card with me just in case of such circumstances. Clerk takes passport and two credit cards to the back office. We’re going nowhere. Returns. It’s not the right one. Hand my personal credit card over. And back he goes. At this point I see a child walk around the check in desks and also go to the back office behind the conveyors. Well if he can do it, so can I. Enter and met with a pall of cigarette smoke and a few airport workers puffing away. Clerk with credit card is talking on the phone. Seeing me he shakes his head in that “This isn’t the credit card either.” Hand over my business debit card. Hooray. That’s the one. We’re good to go. He explains the process is to protect me against fraud.
Flight routing is Aqaba-Amman-Cairo but we don’t want to do the Cairo leg and to just stop in Amman. Bags have to be checked in as aircraft is too small. Ensure the bags won’t end up in Cairo whilst we hop off in Amman. Sit next to a American Chinese man who is the grown up version of Data off The Goonies.
Unscheduled return to the hotel in Amman. Reception advise the nightly rate is X including all government taxes. Great. That’s quite a good deal. Sign on the dotted line. He then realises his mistake. It’s X plus all government taxes. The toss is argued and the manager is called over. Manager says the difference will have to come out of his pocket. “Fine” I retort. Early mornings, dodgy guts and lack of sleep make me one grumpy ogre. Agree with manager a “discount”.
Spend the afternoon checking flights and options. Realise why I’ve not heard from the travel agent in Khartoum. It’s under water. Seems like Sudan has suffered severe flooding. Reports of 200,000 displaced people, aid flights bringing supplies and parts of Khartoum flooded. With more flooding forecast. Travel agent is usually prompt at replying to emails but having not heard from him for over a week assume he’s been washed away. The fly in the ointment being that he was to arrange an entry visa. Bit of a sticky situation. Have no entry visa. Don’t even have permission to fly as there are no visas on arrival. Hmmm. See how bad the floods are on Al-Jazeera. Now is not the time to go Sudan. Decide to put the kibosh on Sudan. FCO also advise there’s a high risk of kidnap, “The FCO believes terrorists are planning to kidnap westerners in Sudan, probably in Khartoum.” Yeah, well – can do without that interrupting my gin & tonic.
WAMC & I discuss the options. There are further killings in Cairo today and a “day of rage” is planned by the Muslim Brotherhood for tomorrow after Friday Prayers. Prime concern is if we can actually reach Luxor to meet up with the Nile cruise. Original intention was to take the day train from Cairo to Luxor on Sunday (notwithstanding existing government restrictions on foreigners using the day train). If we were prevented from boarding the day train then contingency was the overnight train (which apparently has security on board for foreigners). However, we learn the entire Egyptian rail network has been shut down. Flying it is.
Speak on the telephone with an Egyptair representative. They advise that Luxor and Aswan airports are closed. Only Cairo, Sharm and Alexandria are operating. Well that solves that problem then – we can’t even get to Luxor. But…..check on the internet and find live departures/arrivals for Luxor which suggests it’s operating as usual. Conflicting information.
Further discussions. What we don’t need is for us to actually make Luxor, jump on the Nile cruise and find ourselves in Aswan with the airport shut, the rail network closed and no means of getting out of Egypt. As WAMC jokes, “It might be a longer Nile cruise than we anticipated.” Quite. We’re also not insured. Both agree to cancel the Nile cruise – the risks aren’t worth it. Common sense prevails.
With that in mind there’s no point staying in Amman any longer. WAMC is to fly home to Jo’burg. I now have two weeks to kill. Look at map and wonder where I could go for two weeks before resuming trip in Addis Ababa that 1) is of interest, 2) is somewhere I’ve not been before, and, 3) doesn’t require a visa. Struggle to find somewhere suitable. Then a brainwave. What every great Cape to Cape trip must have. A pit-stop in Nottingham. Shall fly home. It’s only 5hrs away.
It’s now 1645hrs. Thursday afternoon. The equivalent of our Friday afternoon. When everyone is closing for the weekend. We have flights to re-arrange. Pronto. Speak with the Egyptair rep in Amman by telephone to re-arrange WAMC’s flight to Jo’burg. He doesn’t speak English. Have to wait until they find someone in the office that speaks English and are to ring back in 5mins. It is possible to fly out tomorrow. Amman-Cairo-Jo’burg but with 10hr layover in Cairo airport as it’s an overnight flight to Jo’burg.
It’s about 1715hrs when the flights are booked over the telephone. All WAMC has to do now is pay by credit card to confirm the booking. Easy peasy. Er no. They physically need the credit card to process payment and passport. Oh for flip’s sake. Really? Why didn’t you say that earlier? They shut at 1730hrs. Told it’s “only” 10mins by taxi. You know where this is going don’t you? Rush hour traffic. The evening when everyone is going home for the Arab weekend. We have the slowest taxi driver.
He’s been instructed by hotel where to take us. We’ve been told the Egyptair office is really easy to find as it’s opposite Zara and everyone will know it. Yep. Taxi pulls up at a semi-pedestrianised street and tells us that’s the street. It’s a long street. Not wanting to walk all the way down looking for needles in haystacks he’s made to drive down. He’s asking natives where the Egyptair office is. There’s a lot of shrugging of shoulders. Crawl down the street. More shrugging. At the far end we spot Zara (it’s a clothes shop). More “Do you know where the Egyptair office is?” in Arabic. More shrugging. It’s not going well.
Finally, the Egyptair sign is spotted. It’s a travel agency. Phew. WAMC confirms his flight details and obtains ticket. As it’s a travel agency it makes sense for me to organise my flight here rather than doing it online when I return to the hotel. There are no flights available tomorrow. BA & Royal Jordanian fully booked. Not wanting to fly via Cairo or depart Amman at 0300hrs to Rome/Paris/Amsterdam/Frankfurt. BA have seats available on the 0900hrs flight on Saturday. A much more civilised hour.
Glad to jump in bed after a busy day. Friend texts to say “Don’t like the radio silence. Are you OK?”…….where do I start……