African Encounters

With a childlike excitement that is only experienced on Christmas eves and nights preceding birthday parties, I concluded last night's written diary entry with an enthused "Tomorrow - Zanzibarrrrr", followed by a plethora of exclamation marks hot on its' heels.

But with irony being such a bitch and all, little did I know at the time that less than 24 hours later I would be forced to start my day with those very same words.

TOMORROW - Zanzibar!?

If my tone of voice could be expressed on this blog, you would note that in today's exclamation however, the childlike enthusiasm has been replaced with an angry frustration. A frustration which, as I am forced to recollect the whole debacle as I write this, is quickly maturing into - let's be blunt - a serious version of good old-fashioned pissed-offed-ness!
You see, as opposed to looking over Tanzania from a plane above the clouds, I'm lying in a room at the Airport Game Lodge watching The Tyra Banks Show. A room with a very questionable looking animal-print bedspread, a shower that opens directly into the room and framed puzzles of African wildlife on the wall.
Classy.

So, why? Why you ask?
Believe me, I ask God this very same question every time I take my eyes off the TV screen and scan the room in persistant disbelief.

I'll tell you why. Because the Starlight Tours Travel Agency somehow failed to inform some of their passengers of the change in departure dates from Monday morning to Tuesday morning. Whilst most employees within the tourism industry might find it imperative to receive confirmation that such changes had been noted by all would-be passengers, Janet from Starlight thought that a single email would suffice. As a consequence, our 7am Monday morning arrival at OR Tambo was met with confusion and two tense hours of scurrying around international departures looking for the check-in counter of the African Encounters charter flight meant to take us to Tanzania. But as our 9am departure time neared with no indication of any flights to Zanzibar it became clear that something was seriously amiss. Even more difficult than finding the African Encounters charter company though, was finding an airport staff member with half a brain cell who could shed light on our situation. One particular gem of an ACSA employee looked at me with an annoyed expression on his face as he pointed out that it shows "quite clearly on the e-ticket" we are meant to check in at the Swiss Air counter. I in turn - equally annoyed - pointed out that a) it was unlikely that we would be flying from South Africa to Zanzibar with Swiss Air and b) more importantly, what Mr. ACSA thought read Swiss Air actually said Swiegers which is my fellow passenger's surname.

We were about to accept we got suckered into a scam holiday deal when I finally managed to get hold of a Starlight representative on the phone. Not that this did anything to subdue the hellish steam, fire and brimstone of anger that had slowly been pushing it's way to the volcanic surface of my mind since 7am. Because - at the mention of our dilemma - Miss Starlight and her lack of early morning delight informed me that she was oh so "very sorry to hear that" but this was not her department.

Pppphhhhhwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppp!!!!!!

If this blog was available in an audio format, that would be the high-pitched noise you'd hear as I blew the top of my pressure cooker brain. Not a pretty sight either so it's a good thing there's no movie footage available.

The conclusion to this longwinded tale of misery is that by 10am we were finally informed of the arrangements we should have been informed of two weeks prior and Janet - instead of apologizing profusely as one would expect - blamed the disappearance of her alleged emails on Eskom's power failures! One word Janet, one word: T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E. Telkom's still up and running deary! Crap customer service and robbing us blind with it's monopolistic hold on the telecommunications industry, but up and running nonetheless.

Alas, until we finally depart tomorrow morning at 7.30am, we are stuck at the dodgy Airport Game Lodge - where (as they themselves proudly profess) the wild is mild and the game is tame. I'll say. I'm off to go feed their two impalas and the ostrich right now. Apparently It doesn't take much to constitute a game lodge here in Joburg.

African Encounter? At the airport most definitely, but I think the verdict is still out here at the lodge.

PS. After some exploration, I also discovered some let's-party-like-it's-1984 green leather couches in the rec room. Rad~! (Don't judge me. I had 8 hours to kill.)

A few more of the riveting photos can be viewed here. To be honest, the photos actually make the place look half decent. Don't be fooled.
This definitely ain't what I signed up for...

NB: All photos © Anita A. Please do not use or distribute them for any purposes, commercial or otherwise, without my permission.