post em here guys.
this wasn't much of a disaster but it was quite stressful...
my fiance and i were heading to Kenya last year. she had gotten there a week before to catch up with her family and i was to arrive a week later. i arrive in Sydney at about 12pm and i'm starving so i go through international terminal to head for a feed. as i'm walking through the terminal i notice a Thai Airways flight cancelled - i didn't think anything of it because my flight was about 4 hours away. so i go have my feed, do a bit of shopping etc. get to the check in lounge and i see a few people huddled around waiting. then i notice in flashing lights "ALL THAI AIRWAYS FLIGHTS CANCELLED", so i was thinking Sh!t. i gave my fiance a call (4.30am kenyan time) to say, not to worry babe, but my flights had been cancelled and we were waiting for someone to speak with us soon. as you can imagine she is stressing quite a bit. i reckon we were waiting around for about half an hour before someone came over and said that the reason why it was cancelled was the plane didn't even come to Australia. i then ring my travel agent to ask what she can do for me, she had know idea the flights were cancelled. she rings back in about 10 mins and said that i would have to wait until 24 hours for the next flight. i said to her that was no where near good enough and to do something better. as i'm hanging the phone up with her, the Thai Airways people call my name out and say they have booked me on the British Airways flight to Bangkok leaving 10 mins before the other scheduled flight. i board the plane and was hoping we can make some time up in the air. i get in my seat and look out the window and see some very ugly black clouds rolling in. thats right, we were stuck on the ground for 1 hour and 30 mins. when we finally get in the air i was now praying we could make some time up, but nope, all we got was head winds all the way.
i arrive in bangkok, i look at my watch and it says 11.00pm. my flight to Kenya was scheduled at 11.50pm, so i am making a dash through this unknown airport. i get to the check in counter and can you imagine about 500-600 people standing in front of a check in desk in no sort of order, no lines nothing. i just had to push my way to the front check in and run for my flight. i got to the other plane with about 5 mins to spare. as soon as i could i ordered a double scotch, i was on my way to Kenya.
so i arrive in kenya (see the sunrise from previous thread). i'm going through customs and i realise that i need to have some money with me to buy a visitors visa. i had planned to get some cash out in bangkok. so i am trying every atm on the side i was on. they were all not working. i get up to the customs guys and say "i know this doesnt look good, but i have no cash on me". after about 3 minutes of talking with this guy he says look, give me your passport, go through get some money of your girlfriend to pay the visa and come back. so i did that, met my new father in law, raced back to pay for my visa, i was officially in Kenya!
i go to get my luggage (about an hour after i landed) it was nowhere to be seen. i went over to the luggage checkpoint, they scanned my ticket and informed me that my luggage was in Johannesburg. at that point i didn't really care i said to myself it'll arrive!