113 days. That's how long I survived in Khartoum before finding a deep need to leave. Among expats here, the general rule of thumb is that you need to take at least a weekend trip out of the country every 90 days. At the 108 day mark, the Government of Sudan declared that the Eid al-Adha holiday would last from Sunday to Thursday, creating a 9-day weekend. That was the only signal I needed to book a last-minute trip to Cape Town. For being so last-minute the trip was reasonably well-planned. I had one connection for two hours, I found a relatively cheap hotel, I was able to schedule my "must-dos" across my few days.... However, Khartoum made a valiant effort to thwart this vacation.
I arrived at the airport around 2:30 AM for a 4:30 flight. At 4:00, we boarded the bus to the plane and the bus inched forward before stopping. For 30 minutes. The airport staff then ordered us off the bus and back into the terminal while "mechanical issues" were being fixed. Not to worry, they assured us, it's not that hard and we'll all make our connections in Addis Ababa. 4:30 turned to 5:00 turned to 5:30, and we're instructed to leave the gate area and to go back to the holding room. 6:00 rolled around and they told us that we can have free food and drinks from the airport's very sad-looking cafe. As time went on, I started becoming friends with an American teacher and her Colombian husband who only recently arrived in Khartoum. We reached 7:00 and it became obvious that no one was going to make his or her connection. Impatience among the passengers became more visible and audible as the airport staff sent us to Ethiopian Airlines staff for assistance, but they retreated into a closed office. By 8:00, we were told that a manager from Ethiopian Airlines' Khartoum office was on his way in.
The manager arrived at 8:30 and told us that there is a part they need from Addis Ababa, but once they have it, it will only take 15 minutes to put it in and then we'll be on our way. The next flight from Ethiopia was scheduled to arrive at 11:30, so overall, not long after that. Given the delay, the airline (the airport?) opted to send us to a hotel to relax, get breakfast, etc. The story seemed plausible until the "go to the hotel" part because it seemed like a big expense and a lengthy endeavor for something that would be fixed quickly. Mayhem ensued as people started yelling in Arabic, and this is when we met a young girl from Sudan also on our flight. As she spoke fluent Arabic and English, she was very helpful in figuring out what was going on. At 9:00, we were ushered out near the immigration counters.
If you think this story is starting to fall in-line, you're very wrong. See, Sudanese immigration officials didn't want to let us back into the country, meaning we were officially stuck. As explained to us, a deal was struck whereby we'd be allowed to leave the airport, and judging from the extra stamps in my passport, it looks like they effectively cancelled our exit stamps. Oddly, when we eventually did leave later in the day, the afternoon immigration officials appeared puzzled by what the morning ones did. You'd think someone would've told them....
As 10:00 approached, everyone on the flight had a cancelled exit stamp and we were sent back to the check-in area to wait for a bus to take us to the hotel. And we waited and waited, as the bus could only hold so many people and was making trips back and forth to the hotel. I got on the last bus, but I think we might have almost missed it because we were instructed to wait inside, and at some point, it was just me and my 3 new friends inside. With luck on our side (for once), we arrived at the hotel just after 10:45. Realizing that Ethiopian Airlines kept us in the dark so much, we asked the hotel manager if he was told how long we'd stay. Hearts sank when he said he was informed that we might be there overnight. He quickly amended that to "worst case scenario," but the damage was done. Seeing our faces, he suggested we go have breakfast at their buffet, which was about to close but which the hotel was nice enough to keep open--and restock--for us. After several hours in the airport, the open air and flaky croissants were heavenly.
At 12:30, I asked the front desk if they had any more information. The woman said she didn't but she would call all the rooms if there was any good news. Knowing that the adrenaline that powered me since 2:00 wouldn't last, I decided to take a nap. It was a rather restless nap, however, because I became paranoid that I would miss the phone call or the knock on the door and then I'd be stranded in Khartoum (never mind that I could, you know, go home if this dragged on endlessly). I woke up violently at 2:00 (PM this time) and called the front desk. Ta-da! The bus was downstairs and ready to take us back to the airport. I quickly repacked my things and went back to the airport for try number 2.
Things went relatively smoothly at this point, all things considered. We re-boarded the bus at 4:00 PM and took off just over 12 hours delayed. Thankfully Ethiopian Airlines has two flights per day to South Africa (one Cape Town to Johannesburg, the other the reverse), so I was able to catch the second one the long-way around after another long delay in Addis Ababa. But given the circumstances, I'm surprised I arrived at my destination only 18 hours late. It did mean my planned 12-hour journey took 30 hours, but given that I slept VERY well on my flight, I was well-rested and ready to start my day in Cape Town when I arrived at 7:15 AM.
Following my leaving Khartoum misadventure, I'm of mixed mind on the "leave every 90 days" mantra. On the one hand, it's experiences like these that make me go crazy and yearn for Western "normalcy." However, while people said the magnitude of this delay was abnormal, the general experience was quite common, and I don't know if I'd have the energy to go through it again. I have another trip in two weeks, so I hope it goes more smoothly!
UPDATE: This was written (but not posted) before I returned, and my bad luck continued on my journey home. On the flight out of Cape Town, we were delayed 90 minutes because the plane didn't have enough power to start the engine. On the positive side, I still made my connection back to Khartoum and arrived about 20 minutes early, in fact.
The delay would've have been nicer if we were treated with some entertainment like this! Why don't these things ever happen when I'm around???
I arrived at the airport around 2:30 AM for a 4:30 flight. At 4:00, we boarded the bus to the plane and the bus inched forward before stopping. For 30 minutes. The airport staff then ordered us off the bus and back into the terminal while "mechanical issues" were being fixed. Not to worry, they assured us, it's not that hard and we'll all make our connections in Addis Ababa. 4:30 turned to 5:00 turned to 5:30, and we're instructed to leave the gate area and to go back to the holding room. 6:00 rolled around and they told us that we can have free food and drinks from the airport's very sad-looking cafe. As time went on, I started becoming friends with an American teacher and her Colombian husband who only recently arrived in Khartoum. We reached 7:00 and it became obvious that no one was going to make his or her connection. Impatience among the passengers became more visible and audible as the airport staff sent us to Ethiopian Airlines staff for assistance, but they retreated into a closed office. By 8:00, we were told that a manager from Ethiopian Airlines' Khartoum office was on his way in.
The manager arrived at 8:30 and told us that there is a part they need from Addis Ababa, but once they have it, it will only take 15 minutes to put it in and then we'll be on our way. The next flight from Ethiopia was scheduled to arrive at 11:30, so overall, not long after that. Given the delay, the airline (the airport?) opted to send us to a hotel to relax, get breakfast, etc. The story seemed plausible until the "go to the hotel" part because it seemed like a big expense and a lengthy endeavor for something that would be fixed quickly. Mayhem ensued as people started yelling in Arabic, and this is when we met a young girl from Sudan also on our flight. As she spoke fluent Arabic and English, she was very helpful in figuring out what was going on. At 9:00, we were ushered out near the immigration counters.
If you think this story is starting to fall in-line, you're very wrong. See, Sudanese immigration officials didn't want to let us back into the country, meaning we were officially stuck. As explained to us, a deal was struck whereby we'd be allowed to leave the airport, and judging from the extra stamps in my passport, it looks like they effectively cancelled our exit stamps. Oddly, when we eventually did leave later in the day, the afternoon immigration officials appeared puzzled by what the morning ones did. You'd think someone would've told them....
As 10:00 approached, everyone on the flight had a cancelled exit stamp and we were sent back to the check-in area to wait for a bus to take us to the hotel. And we waited and waited, as the bus could only hold so many people and was making trips back and forth to the hotel. I got on the last bus, but I think we might have almost missed it because we were instructed to wait inside, and at some point, it was just me and my 3 new friends inside. With luck on our side (for once), we arrived at the hotel just after 10:45. Realizing that Ethiopian Airlines kept us in the dark so much, we asked the hotel manager if he was told how long we'd stay. Hearts sank when he said he was informed that we might be there overnight. He quickly amended that to "worst case scenario," but the damage was done. Seeing our faces, he suggested we go have breakfast at their buffet, which was about to close but which the hotel was nice enough to keep open--and restock--for us. After several hours in the airport, the open air and flaky croissants were heavenly.
At 12:30, I asked the front desk if they had any more information. The woman said she didn't but she would call all the rooms if there was any good news. Knowing that the adrenaline that powered me since 2:00 wouldn't last, I decided to take a nap. It was a rather restless nap, however, because I became paranoid that I would miss the phone call or the knock on the door and then I'd be stranded in Khartoum (never mind that I could, you know, go home if this dragged on endlessly). I woke up violently at 2:00 (PM this time) and called the front desk. Ta-da! The bus was downstairs and ready to take us back to the airport. I quickly repacked my things and went back to the airport for try number 2.
Things went relatively smoothly at this point, all things considered. We re-boarded the bus at 4:00 PM and took off just over 12 hours delayed. Thankfully Ethiopian Airlines has two flights per day to South Africa (one Cape Town to Johannesburg, the other the reverse), so I was able to catch the second one the long-way around after another long delay in Addis Ababa. But given the circumstances, I'm surprised I arrived at my destination only 18 hours late. It did mean my planned 12-hour journey took 30 hours, but given that I slept VERY well on my flight, I was well-rested and ready to start my day in Cape Town when I arrived at 7:15 AM.
Following my leaving Khartoum misadventure, I'm of mixed mind on the "leave every 90 days" mantra. On the one hand, it's experiences like these that make me go crazy and yearn for Western "normalcy." However, while people said the magnitude of this delay was abnormal, the general experience was quite common, and I don't know if I'd have the energy to go through it again. I have another trip in two weeks, so I hope it goes more smoothly!
UPDATE: This was written (but not posted) before I returned, and my bad luck continued on my journey home. On the flight out of Cape Town, we were delayed 90 minutes because the plane didn't have enough power to start the engine. On the positive side, I still made my connection back to Khartoum and arrived about 20 minutes early, in fact.
The delay would've have been nicer if we were treated with some entertainment like this! Why don't these things ever happen when I'm around???
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