One is the loneliest number

There is something missing from this photo:

That photo is of my bag, at our hotel, in Kilimanjaro.  When he boarded the plane in Brisbane he had a friend, Simon's bag... but where is Simon's bag now?

One night in Bangkok (doo doo dooo dooo do do)

Everything was going so smoothly.  We had both arrived at the airport in plenty of time, I had arranged (read: been offered) exit row seats for Simon and I, all final phone calls were made to parents, siblings, relatives and friends, and the Brisbane International Airport played 'Radio Gaga' by Queen just as the plane boarded to ensure an annoying song was stuck in everyone's mind for the 9 hour flight to Bangkok.

Our luggage has been checked through to Nairobi, so when landing in Bangkok we are not required to collect it, only to go and check in for the next flight.  We then spend four extremely boring hours in the airport.  My last experience with Bangkok airport was that it was fantastic.  Turns out, it is good in small doses. Despite its size, it's actually just the same 4 shops repeating themselves over and over, seemingly for eternity.  And when you think you've walked to the end of it, there is an escalator to another level of the same thing... all the while time has been standing still.

The only interesting thing to happen to us in Bangkok was Simon's pineapple juice, which came in a pineapple.

Turns out Simon's bag found Bangkok airport equally as boring.  As the check in staff placed a 'Kenya Airways' sticker on our shirts (god knows why), we were blissfully unaware his bag had decided to jump in the first tuk tuk it saw and head out to Khao San Road to spend one crazy night in Bangkok, and didn't quite make it back to the airport for the flight.

Nairobi

So our bags had been checked through to Nairobi, and we are told by a helpful flight attendant to simply present ourselves to the transfer desk, and that the staff there would collect our bags and retag them to Kilimanjaro.  So we spoke to the transfer staff lady, who typed a lot of things on her computer and then looked confused.  Then she called her colleague who also looked confused and they pressed many more buttons.  Finally they asked us to stand to the side for a few minutes while they sorted it out.

They then appeared to proceed to just keep serving customers.  Then one of them drifted off, then the other did.  Simon and I remained, standing, for upwards of an hour. I swear I saw them peering around the corner a few times to see if we had given up so they could go back to work.

Finally the lady came back.  We were not expecting great things by this point.  She greets us with "I have good news and bad news, the good news is that this bag was located, and has been checked through to Kilimanjaro, the bad news is that the other bag has disappeared."

She tells us that it is all Thai airways fault, and that we should go and find a phone and call them.  We find a small shop with a phone where Simon tries the Thai airways customer service line... it is in Thai, not helpful.  Then we randomly google some numbers, and call them, turns out we have called the Thai service desk in Korea, but they speak some English and are eventually helpful enough to give us the phone number for the Bangkok Thai Airways number that will speak English.  Another call is made, and after a lot of talking, they decide that it is all Kenya Airways fault, and we need to report it lost to them.

So, $80 of international phone calls later (it was $4/minute...) we head back to the transfer desk.  Transfer desk lady goes away for a while again, comes back, and says what we need to do is just get on our next flight to Kilimanjaro, and then make the lost bag complaint there to the Precision Air (our next airline) lost baggage desk.  Apparently it is now Precision Air's fault that the bag won't get to Kilimanjaro, even though they don't know it yet.  I guess from her point of view, whether we find the bag or not, at least once we're 1000km in another country she won't have to deal with the problem anymore.

So after a brief flight to Kilimanjaro which included me spilling my Sprite on Simon just to really top off his day, we discover the bag remains lost, as expected.

Simon starts to explain to the girl at the Kilimanjaro lost baggage claim, she takes one look at the ticket and says 'You need to make this complaint to Kenya Airways in Nairobi'.  Eventually she fills out a form and gives Simon a number.  No one can still tell us where the bag was last seen or scanned through, potentially its still back in Brisbane, or passed out in a gutter, or basically anywhere in the world except Kilimanjaro.

We proceed to the hotel.

The accommodation is quite nice here:

First scary African bug in the shower:

We speak to the tour company leader and he agrees to help us out by doing the calls to the airline, and also gives us hope by saying they have all the gear for Simon to hire if nothing turns up.

Then at dinner this evening, after being given our tour briefing, the guide phones the airline one more time. Amazingly they claim they have actually located the bag, and it will be making its journey to Kilimanjaro at 11pm tonight!  For a relatively cheap $60 fee, a courier will bring it to us early in the morning.

All is well with the world again.

The challenge awaits

So, out there beyond the tranquil gardens of our hotel, he waits, lurking in the clouds, for us to dare tread the path to his icy su.... wait a minute, that picture of "Kilimanjaro" is in fact a picture of a pale sky and a cloud, and a good sign I probably need glasses...

Panning ever so slightly to the right, let's try again:

Out there beyond the tranquil gardens of our hotel, he waits, lurking in the clouds, for us to dare to tread the path to his icy summit.

2 men, 1 mountain, 7 days... but to conquer Kilimanjaro, they must first conquer the mountain in their mind... (oooh)