When I heard that my friend was going to be spending a year volunteering at an orphanage in the town of Jinja, Uganda, I was very excited. I spent a few days in the town a few years ago and loved it just as I did the rest of Uganda. So when it was suggested that I flew out to visit as I would be allowed to stay at the orphanage for free I jumped at the idea.
I needed to get a break away from things so after a few days of searching I managed to find some flights for a very cheap £370 with Gulf Air via Bahrain – even my direct sale flights to Nairobi a few years ago cost more than this so I couldn’t believe my luck. The only downside is the flight arrives into Uganda at 230am but for the price I couldn’t say no. Plus it would fit a trip to my favourite country in the middle of a very busy few months of travelling – less than 2 weeks after getting back home from my Central America trip and a month before visiting Amsterdam to see my favourite band.
Luckily I’m the sort of person that when I travel I check everything twice. After arriving back from Central America I logged onto Expedia to print everything off and then since there was a Gulf Air confirmation code listed I decided to log onto the Gulf Air website to see if I was able to reserve my seat. However upon loading up the Gulf Air site the legs of my trip between Manama and Entebbe were missing – I called Gulf Air and found out that they had cancelled the route due to lack of sales and that I would need to go through Expedia to get a refund. Unfortunately they were unable to help as I called at the weekend and the department I needed to talk to were only open Monday – Friday so it was a tense couple of days waiting to get my refund. I passed the time by looking for new flights but couldn’t find anything for less than £500 although this was via a very interesting route. The route offered would take me to Ethiopia and Rwanda before arriving in Uganda – on the way back I would connect through Ethiopia and Rome and this sounded like a load of fun but I decided to wait for my refund before booking anything.
I’m glad I waited as I managed to find flights for £100 less in a last minute sale with Brussels Airlines that would have be transit in Belgium and Rwanda which I booked without hesitation. I’m all packed, am leaving in a few days, and am really excited!