Relief

After a rough nights sleep, I was up early to try and sort out my flights. I had to do whatever I could to get to the capital today, or I was expecting to be very out of pocket. So I called my parents. Explained the situation and gave them all the information that I could. They called Flight Centre on my behalf and began to complete the processes involved with getting me to Antananarivo. After some time, they acknowledge that the fault lay on their end, and my old travel agent, who has since quit, used her email address and didn't include the store email. As such, the information didn't make it to any of the staff to pass on to me. The frustrating part is that many companies and flight agencies will refuse to communicate directly with you if booked through an agent. Even had I emailed asking for information, they are only allowed to communicate through the agent, even though its my ticket. As such, it was impossible for me to have known about the flight change, and Flight Centre never would have known either. Either way, they were very helpful in organising a new flight. Eventually, they put me onto the flight to Rèunion, then to Antananarivo. I was much more willing to complete the one hour layover when it's their money and not mine. This also made me quite sure that had I missed it, they would have to send me to Toliara anyway.

It was still stressful as the flight left at midday and we were rushing all morning to try and organise payment for the resort, get myself a sim card, organise a taxi, receive confirmation from Flight Centre, and pack all my bags. It was a massive relief when I got to the airport on time, though I was still very stressed about missing my connecting flight. To make things worse, we were about 30 minutes late to depart, and as such, I enquired to the air hostesses as soon as I could. They informed me that my connecting flight was using the same plane, and so it would be impossible to miss. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and was able to enjoy my flight as best I could. This was the end of a stressful saga. Eventually, we landed, I reboarded, and we arrived at Antananarivo with my shuttle waiting for me to take me to the hotel. I missed the introduction meeting but was just relieved to make it to the tour. Another nice surprise was that, because i was the only solo travelling male, I would have a room to myself at each of the locations, at no extra cost. Unfortunately, the guide somewhat broke my spirits by informing me of a 2:30 am wake up for a 5 am flight. After the days I had had, I was not keen on another early morning, but I couldn't avoid it. As such, I barely bothered to unpack my back and got to bed early to ensure I didn't feel to shit tomorrow.Read more