WEATHER: Overcast in the Seychelles, 26C in Nairobi and a cool 14C in Addis Ababa
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Not having to get up at the crack of dawn for a flight
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Getting in at night time to a destination
BUYS OF THE DAY: My can of Pepsi in Seychelles to try and rid of my rupees
WORD OF THE DAY: Goodbye to Paradise – even if it rained each day
My last 10 days of sun (most of the time) and beaches has come to an end and I have to say I am ready to join a group of people again and to socialize. I knew it would be nice to have some time to myself, but too much time and your brain starts to work overtime and sometimes I am not sure that it is that productive in the end. The good thing is that with my blog and photos all loaded and up to date, to some this may seem trivial, but if I don’t keep up with both it snowballs and I feel bad that I am behind in my duties. But enough of that. Today I leave paradise.
As it has been for the last 10 days, it rained this morning with glimpses of sun poking through the low clouds. I won’t be complaining about the rain heading to my new destination as I am sure they would love to see some of that rain in their country, Ethiopia as they are in the throes of a drought. The good thing with my pickup at 11am, was I was able to pack my bag this morning, rather than the night before and to also get a good breakfast in, as I am on the move all day. So after paying my measly bill again of 40AUD for 3 days of food. I’m killing this budget thing! The transfer to the airport was only 25 minutes so I was checking in nearly 3 hours before the flight, but after loading up the free trolley, I am glad I had the extra time as the queue was already 13 deep and they all had 3-5 boxes plus bags each! This is going to take a while. It was funny to watch as the people put all the boxes and bags on the scales some of them were 55kg to 65kg of baggage. Permitted allowance 30kg! So this also took longer as they were told how much the excess would be as they shuffled boxes around with each other to try and get their limits down. So an hour later, it was my turn and I plopped my 22.3kg bag on the scales, where my bag was checked all the way through to Addis Ababa but I could only get a boarding pass to Nairobi, where I would need to see a transfer desk for my next one to Ethiopia. Didn’t sound too hard, as long as my bag went all the way through, I had 90 minutes to transfer, and so this shouldn’t have been a problem. Before heading into the departures I exchanged my left over rupees (148USD worth) and was also able to get my Seychelles stamp in my Globetrotters book at the same time. I did have a backup plan of a lick lick stamp if I didn’t manage to get an ink stamp.
Seychelles airport is pretty basic. There was just the one customs agent and 2 people on the security scanner but based on the duty free shops closing as we were lining up to board, I think we were the only flight for the day. What a life. What do these people do if they aren’t working at the airport all day I wonder? No free Wi-Fi, so I headed to the very basic bar, bought a Pepsi and sat against the window as I saw our Kenya Airlines flight arrive and watched it get prepared for the turn around with me on it back to Nairobi. I did have to buy another pair of headphones with the last pair I bought in Swakopmund giving up the chase in one ear. It is quite frustrating trying to listen to music in just one ear! I have been buying cheaper ones, not really sure why. Mostly just by the lack of choice I have had in Africa the 2 times I have had to replace them. But this time, well it was lack of choice again, they were the only pair, but I have lashed out on a new Sony pair that have set me back 115AUD. I figured it is a good investment as there is not a day that I don’t use them, so I will get my monies worth firstly and secondly I hope that quality will prevail and they will last longer than its predecessors. Most expensive thing I have bought since my fancy optional excursions in Swakopmund in Namibia.
Looking around at the lineup at the gate, there is 70% men and 30% women for the passenger ratio. The females that were travelling were mostly tourists travelling with their partners. It was a short walk to the plane and they embarked us by the front and rear doors. I actually like this, as I think it speeds the boarding and splits the problems into 2 ends rather than one problem blocking the whole boarding process. The flight wasn’t full and I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me. The plane was a 737-800, which is a 3x3 configuration and the seats on the Kenyan Airlines flight were quite roomy, with high arm rests and plenty of room in the seatbelt department. Another stat to note was all the cabin crew in economy was male, unusual. There was one female crew member, but she must have been in business, as we only heard her voice making the announcements.
As we came into land, I was looking out the window and thought some-one was waving to us, looking closer there were 4 giraffes at a watering hole, so maybe they were waving to us, an ongoing joke Manu and I have, so I waved right on back, as I wouldn’t want to insult their welcome. So after a 2 hour and 49 minute flight and with a meal and a movie (Arthur) we landed ten minutes late into Nairobi at 3.50pm. I was still thinking this is okay, still plenty of time for my connection. Well we stopped just off the runway and this is where we sat for 30 minutes waiting for a gate to open up for us. Okay starting to get a little panicky now as I still had to get my boarding pass. In the end I would say they gave up and we parked near a gate and were disembarked onto the tarmac and then climbed some stairs to a gate and got into the terminal that way. So now it is 4.30pm. I asked at a transfer counter at gate 12 to where I would locate Ethiopian Airlines and was told to head straight to gate 8 and they could do it all there. So I did this, waited in line as people for my flight were heading through security into the departure lounge, to which I was told that I had to go to the next transfer counter at gate 6. Well the line up here was 20 people deep, but as the queue moved, some of them were groups, so I made the counter at 4.40pm, keeping in mind my flight is at 5.30pm and I was told I had to go downstairs to get my boarding pass which entailed a transfer visa and time I didn’t have. So explained I didn’t need to check in, my bag has been tagged, I just need a boarding pass, she reconfirmed my departure time, and with a nod of the head, she disappeared with my passport and baggage tag to go and do it for me. Meanwhile the clock is ticking, but she was only gone 15 minutes, with a boarding pass in hand which was also a window seat! Thank-you so much as I hightailed it back to my gate to be processed and securitized! Phewww what a close call and a dreadful system but I got through, a little flustered but in one piece all the same.
We boarded the Ethiopian Airlines plane via the tarmac again with front and back opened for boarding. With me sitting in row 16, I was sure a would enter via the front doors, but the checker said no no your via the back doors. Hmmmm okay – knowing full well I would be fighting to get past people to get to my seat. Well I was right, I am not sure it if it is Ethiopians, but there were 4 people sitting in wrong seats around rows 25, and they couldn’t see a problem with this as those people went to sit in them, so I managed to slide past these people to row 17 to have some-one sitting in my seat AND our row was one row in front of the exit row, so out overhead locker was full with the damn lifeboats. Where the hell am I supposed to put my bag? At this time people in rows past 16 were coming on through the front stairs, where I wasn’t allowed to use 10 minutes earlier, so now I was like a fish swimming up the wrong way of a stream, especially after the Hostees found me somewhere to put my bag in row 13! It was the worst way I have seen a plane loaded since my travel in the Sates a few years ago, now Americans do not know how to board a plane without fuss. So I finally got my bag stored, my seat freed and I sat down to listen to 5 other people have people sitting in their seats. Read you boarding passes people – it isn’t that hard is it? For crying out loud!
So even with all the kerfuffle out flight left on time for the 1 hour and 25 minute journey to Addis Ababa. The sun set quite quickly so we travelled most of the way in the dark. This was my first night flight for a long time. I was sitting next to a Muslim lady in her Berka and she had this brown stuff on her nails that looked like it hadn’t quite set, it looked like henna, but on her nails. So I helped her to open her biscuits and her cutlery packets as she was struggling with her nails. After dinner, she then pulled out what looked like a Koran and read that for the whole flight.
We arrived into Addis Ababa early and we had buses ready to take us to the terminal. As I was one of the last on the bus, I was first off, gotta love how that works, and so I was first to get to customs and immigration. It was a bit confusing, there were people lined up on one side of the stairs I came down, the ‘visa’ office looked like it was pass a check point and then the immigration lines that had hardly anyone in them. This is the thing being first off you don’t have anyone to follow, so I took a punt and went to make a break straight for the visa office. I got pulled up and was asked for my yellow fever. CRAP with a capital C. I got my yellow fever vaccination 4 years ago and had lost the certificate, so when I got all my jabs for my trip back in January I got another certificate. I knew I needed it for some African countries and I will also need it for South America. Well in my haste to post a bunch of stuff I wasn’t using on my trip, I accidently posted home my yellow fever certificate. I didn’t realize I had done this till 2 days prior to me leaving London for Africa after reading my checklist. So I emailed my travel doctor and they emailed me a new certificate, so technically I don’t have the actual certificate, it is like a photocopy version. So I slipped through the system when they checked them in Zanzibar, they accepted my photocopy when going through the Mozambique border, they normally check them at the South African border, but they didn’t when we went through and I was hoping and praying they would accept it this time. So I told a little white lie and told him I lost the original and I only had a photocopy, as it wasn’t in a yellow book, he said no not good enough! CRAP, so I told him again it was stolen and showed him where it had yellow fever and the date on the copy and he said ahhhh and waved me through. Thank you travel god!
So I proceeded through to a small office that was lined with tables on one side of the room that had visa people in blue uniforms all ready to process your visa for you. It was 20USD and the process only took around 10 minutes and then you were on your way to immigration. I am really glad I got a new passport, even though my old one hadn’t expired and I also paid extra to get 60 pages rather than the standard 30 pages. Since departing late March there have been 23 pages used so far and 10 of those are full page visa stickers. There were only 2 people in front of me, so I was processed through there quite quick and straight to the baggage carousel.
The bags hadn’t come out yet and they had a money changer right near the baggage, so I went over and exchanged some money while I waited. So the local currency here is called Birr (said burr) and there are 17 of them to the dollar. So no god at my 17 times tables so I’m going to round to the 20. That seems easy enough. Out came the bags and mine was one of the first off so with a free trolley, I wheeled out and looked for my name on a board. Well there were a lot of male faces staring back at me and no sign. Crap. I pulled out my IPod and checked who was looking after my transfer and there was no name and phone number on the voucher, but it did say 8pm and it was only 7.50pm. There was an airport assistant that came over to me to see if she could help. She said I could catch an airport taxi it would cost me 15USD, but I was happy to wait 30 minutes to see if my dud showed up. Well I only had to wait 10 minutes and I saw the sign from behind and tapped my guy on the shoulder. Thank you again travel god for looking after me.
The drive to the center of town only took 15 minutes and in the dark there were a lot of neon signs all flashing their wares. The signs were in English and also in Ethiopian and it was busy. A lot of couples holding hands, lots of men and café’s all open. It was pretty cool to see it at night time, but I had no sense of direction at all. We arrived to the Ras Hotel and it was on a busy street and has 2 bars, an internet café also attached to the property. The check in dude was an ass and was so rude and there was no offer on someone to take my bag and I am sure he gave me a room like 3km away just to spite me, the bugger. So the hotel is old. That’s okay. I’m on the 2nd floor, which is also called the Nelson Mandela floor and my room is 222. There is limited hot water and there were 2 cockroaches in the shower when I went to jump in. But hey TIA, ahhhh I have missed saying that and this is welcome back.
So I have 2 nights here before tour and then we head off into the great unknown of Ethiopia.
Welcome to Addis Ababa – pretty cool name right! Addis Ababa…….Addis Ababa…….
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