[Previous entry: "August 15 - Zanzibar (Ras Nungwi)"] [Next entry: "Trip Recap"]

One last bit of drama before leaving...I guess that's the way it goes right? ;)

We left Ras Nungwi this morning at 4:30am in order to catch a plane from Zanzibar to Nairobi. We've learned our lesson about getting to the airport early, so we made sure not to be late. After standing in line for an hour, we were finally checked in at the TINY airport. We breathed a sigh of relief and went to Passport Control.

When we got there we discovered that we were required to pay $25 departure tax each. Now, this was the end of our trip, so we were pretty low on cash -- we'd counted it last night, and we knew we had "around" $50, but we weren't sure, since it was half dollars, half schillings. We went to the Forex Bureau to exchange the schillings (they only accepted dollars for the tax...and no credit cards either!). When we exchanged the money, we had a total of $46. We were $4 short!!!

We went back to the tax guy to plead our case (there are no ATM's anywhere near the airport -- the town was 20-30 minutes away, and there was no way we'd make our plane if we went back). He told us that there was nothing he could do, that we should ask our "friends" to help us. We said, "We have no friends." He said, "Yes, you do. Friends there [motioning into the crowd]. Friends there [motioning in a different direction]. Friends everywhere."

We immediately took his advise and found the most "American" looking person we could find. We politely explaned our situation to the woman (who turned out to be British) and asked if she could spare $4. She said she couldn't, but a man in her group, pulled out his wallet and gave us $5. This was SOOOO embarrassing! We gave him his $1 change, paid our tax, and boarded our plane, so thankful that it had worked out. We really should try out for Amazing Race....we've had so much practice!!!

Moral of the story....always make sure you keep cash reserves! Next time we'll know. :)