Flights | Jason Around the World

Addis to Dubai on the Ethiopian 777, Overnight in Dubai

Airports, Business Class, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Ethiopia, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, United Arab Emirates No Responses »

Oct 152015

Hotel shuttle to the airport got me there right when I wanted to, and already had my boarding pass from the previous evening so was able to head straight to immigration. Almost no line, and in probably 10 minutes I was inside the departures area…and not a second too soon. I believe in being completely honest about travel, and something about Ethiopia and I didn’t get along.

I got to the lounge I usually go to, and she told me “yes, but there is a better lounge you can access” which nobody had ever told me before. I’ve always been Star Alliance Gold, and always in business or first out of Addis, so how this was news to me I don’t know…but it was. The problem was, she insisted I go use the nicer lounge, and I was rapidly losing the battle against…something I’d eaten the day before. I don’t know if it was the hotel pizza, or the plane lunch, or the bar snacks at the hotel, but by the time I found the nicer lounge it was not a second too soon.

Disaster averted, it was time to check out this lounge. Did some re-arranging of flights for later in the trip on the internet which had quite good speed, and enjoyed a diet coke or two. The most notable features that made this lounge better than my usual one were that it wasn’t a dark dungeon and was actually well lit, had a group of people sitting on traditional chairs burning incense, drinking coffee, and eating what looking like popcorn in some sort of quasi-traditional setup, and had plenty of power outlets. It also definitely improved my impression of Addis airport immensely!

Soon, it was time to board. Out of the lounge, through security, to the gate, and no plane anywhere to be found. Agent told me boarding was at least 30 minutes off, so why don’t I go back to the lounge. Out of security, to the lounge, a little bit of blogging and another Diet Coke, and finally back through security and to a bus to board. There was a special bus for business class…all three of us. Yes, the plane seats 28 in business, and only three seats were taken.

Ethiopian flight 602
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD) to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB)
Depart 10:55, Arrive 15:30, Flight Time: 3:35
Boeing 777-300, Registration ET-APY, Manufactured 2014, Seat 2L

First impressions of business class on the Ethiopian 777, my first time on their long-haul business product. Middle seats in business, who does that anymore, ugh, it’s almost as bad as United:

Similar to my Turkish flight a week before, they had the footsie seats which went completely flat, but where you were very likely to end up playing footsie with your seatmate as you sleep:

Settled in with bubbles in what basically felt like a private plane…couldn’t even see the other two in business:

Amenity kit which, while not super fancy, makes a great case for storing the small stuff I tend to keep in my carryon. Just big enough, but not huge. It’s now beat out amenity kits from ANA, Lufthansa, Swiss, and South African which I used to use. I feel it’s that well-designed!

Today’s menu:

More airplane-shaped crackers with bubbles as as pre-lunch snack:

The salmon starter wasn’t bad, and the salad was decent as well:

The Cape Malay Chicken Curry, however, was absolutely delicious despite being a bit scary looking:

But once again delicious cheese…glorious cheese…and they refused a second serving. Grrr!

Arrival at Dubai involved a pretty long walk to immigration through several escalators, and the line was about 10 minutes as well, but stamped into the country with no issue at all. That is, until I passed the immigration desk and a woman in an abaya started pointing at me and screaming HARAM! HARAM! HARAM! It took a minute to figure out what was going on, but I think she’d seen the rather large tattoo on my arm (and I’m sure wearing shorts wasn’t thrilling her either) and had decided to make sure everyone knew just how awful I was. Thanks! Fortunately nobody else seemed to care.

Stopped at the ABM for some cash, and into a taxi for the ride to the Sheraton Dubai Mall – my first time at this property. I think every time I’ve visited Dubai I’ve ended up at a different hotel. Since this was a relatively short overnight I wanted somewhere convenient. I had some shopping to do for the rest of the trip (mainly something warmer for Mongolia) so being attached to the mall seemed a logical choice. Upgrade to a nice suite:

The room was quite large with a bedroom, large bathroom, huge walk-in closet, and a sitting room with a couch, tv, desk, etc. Much more space than I needed, but extremely comfortable. Headed down to the attached mall for the shopping, and could have been anywhere in America. They even have Shake Shack now…Michelle Obama would be so proud!

Stopped at Starbucks for a quick caffeine and snack. No clue how I was hungry, but I was, so…

I still had a couple of hours to kill, so stopped by Ski Dubai to embarrass myself. The only place in the world you can go skiing inside a shopping mall. This was my third visit, and I keep hoping to snap a picture of a woman in an abaya going down the slopes, but they remain elusive. Perhaps on the next trip!

Also, probably the only Hollister in the world with two twenty foot high television ocean displays outside the store:

Back to the hotel for a short bit before dinner, and the executive lounge had an amazing spread. Alcohol is available at hotels in Dubai, but it’s also extremely expensive. Not only were drinks in the lounge free, but they were poured very generously. I think I had two glasses of wine, and probably finished off 2/3 of a bottle. Plus, they had tons of tasty bar snacks and desserts:

Shortly after drinks I was picked up at the hotel by my friend Daniel, a long-time reader of my blog who lived in Dubai. We had met just under a year ago in Bali of all places and did some touring, and then met up again a few days later in East Timor. Now I was on his home turf, and it was time to catch dinner and catch up. Daniel and Rianda picked me up, and we drove a short ways to another mall (because that’s what you do in Dubai) to find some dinner. Car parked, and we set off to find somewhere to eat. Walked past the water show, and it was pretty much people taking pictures and not really looking at the show:

We managed to grab a delicious dinner at a Lebanese place in the mall, which was blessed with fantastic air conditioning. Lots of great grilled meats and catching up, and regrets that we weren’t going on to Turkmenistan together. Daniel and I had originally planned to do the Turkmenistan part of this trip together, but when they denied me the visa he decided to go on alone and enjoy while I made other plans. After a couple of hours it was back to the hotel to get some sleep because they had to work in the morning and I had an early flight. One of the treats of traveling so much has been meeting people who live all over the world, and feeling like you always know at least someone in all major cities!

Up early the next morning, and off to Oman!

N’Djamena to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, overnight in Addis

Airports, Business Class, Chad, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Ethiopia, Flights, hotels No Responses »

Oct 122015

After sleeping in a slight bit, we woke up to this lovely alert from the US Embassy:

Soooo, great. Here it was, September 11th, and the Embassy was banning its staff from visiting public open-air markets (aka where we were walking around the day before) and all other public events. Aka, we think there’s a reasonable chance of some bad stuff going down in N’Djamena today, and want you to stay in secure locations. Hmmm, I’m pretty sure that traveling to the airport and getting on a plane is not what they had in mind, and we just had to hope that Ethiopian Airlines wouldn’t take this as an excuse to cancel our flight.

Headed to the airport a slight bit early, you know, just in case the booming airport had transformed since our arrivals and had some sort of luxury VIP lounge that we hadn’t seen on the way in. We took the Kempinski’s complimentary shuttle to the airport (which actually showed up this time) and I’ll admit I was a bit nervous and scanning the sides of the road for the entire drive. No problem at all, and we pulled up in front of the airport.

Baggage check to walk into the makeshift terminal, where the same security officials we’d seen on arrival were waiting. Bags up on a table, they rummaged through them a bit, x-rayed them, and let us into the “terminal” to check in. I say “terminal” because it was more like a makeshift room made of corrugated aluminum and plywood where it was impossible to figure out where the lines went. We eventually found the first one, where they checked your name off a list of people on the flight, and let you proceed across the small room to the actual check-in counter.

Check-in was no problem, then it was to the passport counter, to get officially stamped out of the country. After that, it was over to the security line (which was easy to find, because you know, metal detectors and x-ray machine for the bags). Here they checked that you were checked-in (boarding pass), stamped out of the country (passport stamp) and then they let you through security. Keep in mind that all four of these stations were in one small room that was at most 25 by 25 feet square. You can see how all the lines get mixed and it was hard to know who was going where. There was surprisingly little pushing and shoving, however, and the whole thing was quite reasonable.

After security, through a small covered walkway to the lounge. The “lounge” was filled with maybe 80-100 chairs inside another small makeshift building no more than 15×15 feet square. It felt like one of those portable trailers that schools use to add space in an emergency. There was definitely no VIP lounge here. Oh, and definitely no air conditioning either. I mean, who needs AC when it’s 100 degrees out, you’re in a corrugated aluminum room with 100 people, right?

When walking to the trailer (let’s not continue to pretend it was anything more) we saw our plane parked. But wait, what was this! When we booked, Ethiopian was promising us a 787 flight, which was actually really exciting. Unfortunately, two weeks before the trip they downsized this to a 757, which was a major letdown. But now, parked in front of us was a 777…woo hoo! Unfortunately, after 30 minutes of waiting, a 757 landed as well. Wait, what, why are there two Ethiopian planes at an airport that sees a total of maybe three flights a day? Turns out the 777 was a Hajj charter headed to Mecca…we were to have the pleasure of the 757, which fortunately boarded right on time.

Ethiopian flight 938
N’Djamena, Chad (NDJ) to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD)
Depart 14:15, Arrive 20:00, Flight Time: 3:45
Boeing 757-200, Registration ET-AMK, Manufactured 2001, Seat 3L

My disappointment at getting the 757 after all was quickly relieved by some mildly warm bubbles:

I’m not a big fan of bulkheads, but the check-in agent basically refused to change my seat, which ended up not being much of a problem because only three of the 16 seats in business were occupied. For a 757, it had pretty decent legroom at least, and there was plenty of space to spread out and relax. See, don’t I look relaxed?

New airport under construction. The little tan building barely peeking up behind the bus is the waiting shack and the dark hole in front of the bus is the covered walkway into the check-in area. The rest of the “airport” appears to be just a construction zone.

Printed menus for the short flight, a nice classy touch:

View of N’Djamena just after takeoff, with the airport in the middle:

The best part of Ethiopian is that instead of some sort of nuts, the welcome drink is served with little airplane crackers:

The rest of the starter was, well, less than exciting, and tasted about as good as it looked:

The main was equally as bad, and tasted just about as good as it looked:

Fortunately there was delicious cheese (served with pretty abysmal Ethiopian red wine) to save the day:

Flight passed quickly, and soon we were arriving in Addis. There was a special bus waiting for business class, which meant we arrived at the transit counter first. Ian was headed home via Saudi Arabia and Cario (naturally) which meant finding away over to the regional flights terminal. I had an overnight in Addis, which supposedly Ethiopian would take care of my visa and hotel. I ignored the hotel part fearing they would stick me in something grim, but they insisted I take the voucher. Ugh, fine, but the voucher was needed to get the free overnight visa, so no biggie.

Said goodbye to Ian, and was off to customs and outside to meet the hotel driver. I should have looked at the hotel voucher they gave me, because they put me in the Hilton! I wouldn’t have paid $200+ for the Hilton (chain hotels in Addis are outrageously expensive) but for free it would have been fantastic. I had considered the Sheraton which is a really nice hotel, but they wanted more than $300 for the night, so I’d booked the top recommended hotel on TripAdvisor. I rarely stay in small local hotels, but this one turned out to be a fantastic choice.

Unfortunately, the driver was nowhere to be found and I had no way of contacting him. For some strange reason, Ethiopia doesn’t allow foreign phones to roam, so I had no way to email or call and find out where he was. Fortunately, an airport employee called them for me, and they claimed they were just running late because it was New Years Eve on the Ethiopian calendar. After about 40 minutes the driver finally showed up and apologized…and the airport employee asked me for money to pay for the call. Since it was only overnight, I didn’t have any local currency, so I offered him a few US dollars, since that seems to be good anywhere. He got angry and wouldn’t take it, and kept demanding local currency. The driver suggested we just walk away, so we did…

I was staying at the Addissinia Hotel, a small hotel maybe a 15 minute drive from the airport. They looked to have a few dozen rooms, and it was reasonably comfortable. As an apology for the wait on the driver, they had upgraded me to the “Presidential Suite” on the top floor. The living room:

Nice comfy bedroom, although no air conditioning. It was cool enough, though, and had a fan:

After the relatively tiny meal on the plane I was pretty starving. Unfortunately, it was after 9pm, so going out would mean it would be at least midnight before I got to bed. Lots of places were also holding special New Years events, so were full. So, decided to explore the hotel restaurant, which made a delicious Addissiniya pizza:

Complete with Ethiopian beer and bar snacks. I loved the bottle of “Cold Gold:”

Slept great, and had a nice view of Addis from my hotel room in the morning:

Hotel was prefect for a short comfortable stay, and since I had a relatively early flight the next morning was great to be close to the airport as well and be ready to continue the onward adventure to Dubai!

Lome to N’Djamena, Chad on ASKY, two nights at the Kempinski Hotel

Airports, Chad, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, Togo 1 Response »

Oct 022015

After having visited the Marché des Feticheurs in the morning, we stopped back at the hotel for a quick lunch before heading to the airport to fly to Chad. I asked for some Ketchup, and apparently they’d also gotten the letter about Jeff Smisek’s resignation that morning, because they offered up this brand of ketchup! 😉

Driver dropped us at the airport, and it was a great end to a short Togo and Benin trip. We got really lucky with the driver the hotel had sent to pick us up on the first day, as he was able to take us everywhere we wanted to go as well. We definitely paid a bit more than we would have for shared taxis, but were much more comfortable and able to go where we wanted when we wanted…plus he had working air conditioning!

The checkin line at the airport was extremely long, and we’d only arrived about 90 minutes before the flight. By the time we got to the front of the checkin line, it was under 60 minutes to go, but we were assured it would be absolutely no problem. Off to passport control, which also had an incredibly long sign, and this warning poster while we waited:

Immigration was a bit of a zoo, but for once it was the Africans who looked confused. What forms do I need? Where do I go? Which line is for me? We just walked with a purpose past people who were reluctant to say anything, and managed to make it through immigration in maybe 15 minutes, and at this point we were 30 minutes until departure…and security was a mob scene, literally.

There were two machines, and a large mob of people pushing and shoving to get to them. Absolutely no sense of order whatsoever. Ten years or so ago when I first started traveling to Africa and China, I might have tried to politely queue, and likely have gotten completely screwed. But, experience is a good teacher, and being 6’4 is even better, so out came the elbows, and I joined the throngs of pushing and shoving towards the machine. A few choice blunt and snarky phases to people, all part of the game, and managed to get through in maybe 10 minutes. Which is when we found out they were nowhere ready to board.

Lomé departures is one big room, well not even that big, and ASKY usually have three or four 737s leaving all at the same time. No announcements are made either, and you have to wander around asking when yours will leave. We found we had another 20 or 30 minutes to wait, so walked over to the corner refreshments shop and spent our last francs on a couple beers while waiting.

Then, it was time to take the bus about 10 seconds away from the terminal and board our flight.

ASKY flight 38
Lomé, Togo (LFW) to Douala, Cameroon (DLA)
Depart 14:50, Arrive 15:35, Flight Time: 1:45
Boeing 737-700, Registration ET-ANH, Manufactured 2007, Seat 23J

This flight was pretty full, about 90% I’d say, but fortunately the seat between us stayed open. We’d asked about getting an exit row at checkin, but she claimed they were all full, and for once they actually were. The sandwich was a typical scary looking sandwich with some sort of mystery deli meat and mayonnaise, no thanks! I should have taken it just for the picture, but decided to pass. Flight was uneventful, and when we reached Douala probably 70% of the passengers got off.

ASKY flight 38
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to N’Djamena, Chad (NDJ)
Depart 18:15, Arrive 20:05, Flight Time: 1:50
Boeing 737-700, Registration ET-ANH, Manufactured 2007, Seat 23J

After about 45 minutes on the ground in driving rain, more passengers boarded, and when the door closed we were about 75% full again to N’Djamena. Fortunately, the seat between us stayed open again. A full hot meal was served on this flight, including a mystery chicken that was mostly dark meat, fat, and a bit of gravy. Nibbled on the meal a little, but made a french meal of it with baguette and red wine…and some carrots.

Upon arrival in N’Djamena I was interested to see how things went. Chad has a reputation for a huge level of corruption at the airport, and our friend Daniel had been “fined” $50 when he got his camera out when getting off the plane to snap a picture. Our adventure, however, was completely uneventful, and after showing yellow fever card, visa, and writing down details of where we were staying we were through with no problems. Baggage even came quickly…but not quickly enough. The arrivals hall was filled with moths, other buzzing and biting insects, all of whom were very excited to get a taste of us while we waited for our bags.

Then, outside, where the driver from our hotel was nowhere to be found. After about 15 minutes of searching, we finally gave up on him, and searched for a taxi, which were nowhere to be found either. After we asked about, we were told there were people who would drive us to the hotel…on the other side of the carpark. Finally found them, and a guy in an incredibly beat up car offered to take us for 10,000 CFA, or about $17. Definitely a ripoff, but we were stranded there with no option, so took him up on it. After he used a screwdriver to pop open the door on his car, he used it again to open the trunk for our bags, and away we went.

Arrived at the Kempinski after about 15 minutes driving, and the minute we walked into the lobby I could tell things were about to get better. They offered a welcome glass of champagne as we checked in – a first anywhere in the world! I was liking this hotel already, and the forgotten hotel shuttle was already long forgotten.

As in CAR, they were very confused that we wanted a room with two beds. But unlike CAR, they said it was simply a problem with a booking system and they quickly had it fixed. The room was ok, and the air conditioning almost worked, getting the room down to maybe 23C or so. Tolerable, and like the airport arrivals hall, the room came with a complimentary giant bug as a welcome gift:

We grabbed a small “real” dinner in the lobby bar/cafe before calling it a night. Despite the room being slightly warm I slept really well after all the travel of the past few days, and woke up to a great view of the National Parliament outside our hotel room window:

View of the hotel from the front. Note the green area out front. The driveway was a loop, but it was blocked off with concrete jersey barriers and you had to walk the last 20 meters or so to the front door. Presumably in case someone decided to drive a car bomb up to the hotel:

I’ll write more about our day in the next post, but after a long day of wandering around the city we retired back to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. Well, giant beers with complimentary popcorn to be followed by dinner. …and WiFi that was actually pretty fast and functional:

After dinner, we made the mistake of ordering dessert. I’m pretty sure nobody else ordered dessert there, because “dessert” apparently was three pieces of whatever you ordered because they were trying to get rid of it. The “apple pie:”

Overall, the Kempsinki was a perfectly fine hotel. There were little things like the AC that could have been better, but considering the location that’s easy to overlook. It was cool enough, especially in the lobby, and everything else worked well. Rooms and common areas looking reasonably well taken care of, the staff were super helpful and friendly, and they had a good restaurant. The breakfast was also really good, with eggs made to order, lots of fruit, breads, pastries, etc…and actually decent coffee. Was definitely an excellent choice for a place to stay!

Bangui to Lome, Togo on ASKY, two nights at the Residence Oceane in Lomé

Airports, Central African Republic, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Flights, hotels, Togo 1 Response »

Sep 262015

Hotel shuttle was right on time, and in no time at all we were at the booming Bangui M’Poko International Airport, where Jordan decided to do his best imitation of one of the big five since we were in Africa, but fortunately nobody mistook his flowing mane for a lion….

Check-in was pretty easy, and there appeared to be several paramilitary types on our flight checking large gun and ammunition cases. Central African Republic is known to have lots of “private military” activity, supporting both the government and the rebels, so I guess they have t0 fly in and out somehow. Ian and I managed to secure the exit row, which was extra nice because it only had two seats while all of the other rows had three seats. Score! Immigration and security were pretty easy as well, and the agents were reasonably friendly, chatty, and efficient. One lady kept trying to sell us “VIP lounge access” for like $20, but we decided to resist. Spent our remaining Central African CFA francs on some waters in the departures lounge, and soon it was time to go.

ASKY flight 35
Bangui, Central African Republic (BGF) to Douala, Cameroon (DLA)
Depart 7:55, Arrive 9:45, Flight Time: 1:50
Boeing 737-700, Registration ET-ANG, Manufactured 2007, Seat 15J

Flight to Douala looked to be quite full with most seats taken, and a small snack was served. Since we’d left the hotel too early for breakfast, was at least nice to get some bread and cheese to hold over until lunch:

Arrival into Douala right on time, where almost everyone on the flight got off. Since this is one of very few flights into CAR, and Douala is a much larger airport than Lomé it made sense people would be getting off. We said goodbye to Jordan who was headed straight home (just a long weekend for him) and waited for the other passengers to board for the continuation of the flight.

ASKY flight 35
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Lomé, Togo (LFW)
Depart 10:25, Arrive 11:10, Flight Time: 1:45
Boeing 737-700, Registration ET-ANG, Manufactured 2007, Seat 15J

Flight was maybe 75% full on this segment, mainly with connecting passengers. Lomé is a quasi hub for ASKY, so many of the passengers were headed from Douala to other points in Africa. Choice of sandwiches on this flight, cheese or tuna. The cheese was actually reasonable, and for a rare change I decided to risk the airplane sandwich…with a glass of semi-reasonable red wine to wash it down:

This was the third trip I’ve flown ASKY, and overall they’re a pretty classy operation. Planes are leased from Ethiopian, which I believe has a large ownership stake in the airline as well. Flights have been completely on-time in my experience, staff reasonably friendly, and the planes inspire at least reasonable confidence in their maintenance. Definitely the jewel of west African aviation for now!

Arrived into Lomé on time, and immigration was a big of a challenge. You would think they almost never saw tourists, and even more rarely had ones that wanted visa on arrival despite all the prices and instructions being clearly posted. I asked the agent if the visas were single entry, as we would be making a daytrip to Benin the next day. “Oh no no no, they can be, but you need to go get them endorsed at this office somewhere downtown and then they are good unlimited.” She seemed pretty unclear, and after finally getting the visas she let us go.

The driver from our hotel was waiting in the parking lot, and we were soon on our way to La Résidence Océane – a small boutique which got great reviews on tripadvisor. The rooms inside faced a charming little courtyard:

Stairs up to our rooms:

Overall, the hotel was quite nice. Clean, quiet, very reasonably priced, good WiFi, ice old air conditioning. They upgraded us to two-level “suites” as well, which was a nice bonus. We grabbed lunch at the hotel in their brasserie, which made a good variety of French staples and could have been anywhere in rural France. The staff were super nice and helpful, and although there were never more than 10 people eating, they always had everything on the menu and were quite quick

The hotel also had a small bar/lounge area which was pretty popular with locals and expats during the evening…staffed by the same people who worked in the restaurant, and occasionally at the check-in desk. Sometimes you win with smaller hotels, and sometimes you lose, but this was a definite win! The only area that could have been improved a little was the included breakfast, which was pretty much limited to croissants, crepes, some nutella, and laughing cow cheese…and plentiful coffee…so what more do you really need?

We kept Jordan on the trip in spirits at least, finding a bottle of Château Jourdan at the local grocery store. Off relatively early to bed because it would be a super long day of driving to Benin the next day. We had negotiated with the driver who picked us up at the airport, and he said he had all the necessary permits to drive into Benin, so it would save a lot of time over hiring taxis on both sides of the border.

Douala to Bangui, CAR on TAAG, Ledger Plaza Bangui Hotel

Airports, Business Class, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Flights, hotels No Responses »

Sep 182015

Headed to the airport, and check-in was surprisingly easy. We volunteered to check our bags rather than deal with what was sure to be a mess, and headed off to try and find security/immigration/lounge/gates. That wasn’t easy, because it was down a makeshift corridor that wasn’t marked. We did finally find it, no trouble at all with immigration, and soon were off to the luxury lounge. On the way, we passed this sign warning us about Ebola:

At least the lounge had AC, and the usual amusing variety of expats, and strange local beers, which predictably were awesome. I mean awful… 😉

About 45 minutes before the flight we left the lounge and headed to the gate. There we found Jordan who had apparently survived the Ibis Douala. However, we were chastised by the gate agents for leaving the lounge, and they told us they would come get us when it was time to board. So, back to the lounge we went. About 15 minutes later they finally summoned us, and it was time to board.

TAAG Angola flight 527
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Bangui, Central African Republic (BGF)
Depart 14:20, Arrive 16:00, Flight Time: 1:40
Boeing 737-700, Registration D2-TBD, Manufactured 2006, Seat 1C

Interestingly, this was the same plane that Jordan and I had taken about 18 months prior from Sao Tome to Cape Verde. I guess TAAG doesn’t have many 737s so it’s not that interesting, but was still mildly amusing to me. The crew was their usual TAAG indifferent, but at least this time they didn’t eat our meals before they could serve them to us.

Shrimps on a plane…no way. I pecked at the rest (and of course at all the cheese and wine), and had to beg for a wine refill. They apparently ran out after my refill, however, because they went into hiding and refused to give Ian one.

Landing was right on time, bus gate minus the bus, and we were directed to the medical quarantine tent:

Taking temperatures:

While waiting for medical check, we got an up close view of “In God We Trust Airlines”

Immigration was easy, no questions at all, and our bags came out in maybe 10-15 minutes. So far, CAR was seeming very anticlimactic, which was a good thing. Just like getting the visa in DC, it seemed like as long as they got the money they were of the attitude of “whatever you do you do, it’s not our problem.” I like this approach! It’s not like CAR gets many clueless random tourists I’d expect!

As promised, our hotel the Ledger Plaza Bangui was waiting for us, and we were off in a nice chilly air-conditioned van to the hotel. This is where the drama was really to begin. The moment we entered the hotel, the skies opened up, and it was a majorly fierce thunder and lightning storm outside. The hotel lost power several times while we were checking in.

Jordan seemed to have a relatively easy time of it, but despite my printed confirmation, they couldn’t get their minds around the idea of one room, two people, two beds. I get it…people who come to CAR and stay in the nicest hotel are all NGO workers and all want their own room. Well, that’s not us, and that’s not what we reserved, so we want what we reserved. First, they claimed no rooms available with two beds…which was apparently true at least for the first night.

Then, they claimed there was a 50% surcharge for two people in a room. I showed them my printed confirmation, but they could care less, they weren’t going to budge. After nearly an hour negotiating (100% in French because their English was non-existent), we decided on two rooms for the first night and the second night they would give us a room with two beds, but at a 50% surcharge. Ugh. At least they did us the “favour” of giving my corporate rate to Ian as well. What a mess. There was also a price list at the desk, which indicted only about a 15,000 CFA surcharge for a “double” room. But that’s on the “normal” rate. On the corporate rate (which was, in fairness, quite a bit less) they demanded 50%…which was well over 15,000 CFA…and was closer to 40 or 50,000!

So, we went up to the rooms to unpack, and oh, apparently the AC and the internet aren’t working today. The internet has been out for days/weeks, and the AC doesn’t run when the generator is on…which seems to be most of the time. My room the first night eventually cooled to 23C which was acceptable for sleeping, but I don’t think Jordan’s room got below 27 or Ian’s room got below 29. Ugh. Felt bad for them, but at least they had fans?

We met downstairs for some beers and dinner to try and forget the heat and annoyance (TIA afterall) and eventually crashed so we could try and tour the next day. I say try, because despite asking several times, they were unable to locate the hotel driver to know for sure if he would do it. But, “don’t worry, he sleeps in the hotel.” Uh, great, so where is he?

Went to bed semi early, looked out my window in the morning, and saw the convoy of aid workers getting ready to leave the hotel for work:

Breakfast in the hotel was actually quite good, with eggs cooked to order, a great spread of pastries and breads, etc. It was actually really impressive considering where we were. All in all, the hotel definitely did a great job with food.

Going to skip around here a bit, and ignore our day in CAR for now. When we moved rooms the second day to our shared two bed room, at least we had a great view of what looked to be a quite nice pool:

Dinner both days was in the hotel cafe, which actually had a good mix of French bistro food along with some various international stuff like pasta/etc. I had a croque madame both days which was really quite tasty:

So, overall, taking into account you’re in a developing country just emerging from a brutal and nasty war, the hotel really does quite good. Is it worth the price? Absolutely not given the lack of AC and internet, but the rooms were clean, the food was good, and the complex was quite safe. Overall, it’s the place to stay in Bangui, but don’t get your hopes up for luxury. There will be serious inconveniences, annoyances, and probably boredom if you travel alone, but hey, it’s all part of the adventure! Next up…what we actually did in CAR!

Ottawa to Delhi on United…via Chicago and Newark, overnight Delhi

Airports, Business Class, Canada, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Flights, hotels, India No Responses »

Sep 142015

Woke up nice and early, and grabbed some Starbucks with the friend I stayed with before heading to the airport to start the long route to India. I’d checked in the day before when I arrived at YOW, and the agent questioned “why are you going Ottawa-Chicago-Newark instead of direct to Newark?” While I appreciated her effort to put me on the nonstop, it would have shorted me qualifying miles, and I would have been in coach as opposed to two flights in “first.” Plus, my friend was working that day, so no real reason to hang around the city.

Grabbed some Tim Hortons at the airport (mmm Timbits) and soon we boarded right on time.

United Express operated by Skywest flight 6384
Ottawa, Ontario (YOW) to Chicago, O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 10:24, Arrive 11:29, Flight Time: 2:05
Embraer ERJ-175, Registration N117SY, Manufactured 2014, Seat 2A

Pretty typical United Express flight, except that United Express now serves the delicious caramel macchiato biscotti that I love. Mmmmm! Breakfast of champions? Well, combined with Tim Hortons and Starbucks it is!

Landing in Chicago was right on time, and I had planned to make the most of my 3+ hour layover. My friend Matt picked me up at the airport, and immediately carted me away for what he billed as an authentic Chicago experience right near the airport. We went to Paradise Pup for hotdogs, where I did a pretty good job of clogging my arteries before a long flight. At least it was super tasty!

Since we still had time, he carted me to Shoeless Joe’s bar just down the street because they had the 10% Not Your Father’s Rootbeer on tap. Unfortunately it was a little flat, but still delicious. Was awesome catching up during the layover, and I was really feeling like I was making the most of every minute on this trip so far. This also explains why it’s taken me so long to get this trip report started! Mmmm, high alcohol root beer….

Catching up…

Back to O’Hare approximately 75 minutes before the flight, through TSA precheck in under five minutes, and headed straight to the gate, where there was an “emotional support animal” loudly barking at anyone who got near it. Great!

Flight was delayed about 30 minutes due to an “unspecified maintenance issue, but we assure you it’s nothing to cause concern” and that’s when we spotted HIM. The “changes you’ll like in Chief.” Herr Smisek. At least there is some justice in the world, because he ended up (according to a source on the flight) in a middle seat in regular economy. #WhosJeffedNow 😉

United Airlines flight 1165
Chicago, O’Hare (ORD) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR)
Depart 15:00, Arrive 18:20, Flight Time: 2:20
Boeing 757-200, Registration N14107, Manufactured 1994, Seat 1E

Decided to get the trip rolling by having a glass of wine…and of course more biscotti! But no, this was the afternoon snack basket, so I had to “suffer” through the brownie brittle, which was also pretty darn good:

The funniest part of this flight was the couple seated behind me, who asked the flight attendant “I don’t know why when we are in first class you let the military thugs and someone called ‘Global Services’ board first?” Flight attendant tried to explain Global Services as “those people who fly the most number of flights with us” but was clearly wrong. I decided to help her out and tell her in general it’s people who spend $50,000 or more on United tickets in a given year, although the exact criteria are unknown. The couple’s response? “Oh, I guess stupid people should board before people who pay for first class.” *smacks head*

Layover in Newark was uneventful, grabbed a shower, water, caught up on email, and just generally relaxed before heading for the chaos that is boarding for any flight to India:

Had switched from 8E (middle) to 8B since united.com showed that even after nonrevs there should be 6 empty seats. Confirmed with gate agent, and he was happy to leave 8A open for me. Score!

United Airlines flight 82
Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Delhi, India (DEL)
Depart 21:55, Arrive 21:30, Flight Time: 14:05
Boeing 777-22, Registration N37018, Manufactured 2002, Seat 8A

As soon as the door closed, I moved over to 8A, and a minute later someone came and plopped down in 8B. “Sorry, I didn’t like my other seat.” I might have been a bit of a jerk, but told him “the gate agent had blocked this seat” and he pushed back with “well, my other seat is no good.” Knowing he was a nonrev, I paged over the flight attendant, who was happy to ask him to move elsewhere. Maybe I was a bit of a princess, but as someone who flew nonrev for 15+ years I was always taught not to inconvenience paying customers. Anyways, I had two seats, and the flight was off to a great start.

What will Jeff feed us today? Here’s the answers:

Pre-departure bubbles…notice I’m still in 8B for the moment!

The half-nuts with a glass of the (now extinct) Château le Jeff. May it RIP:

Pretzel roll, mit plate:

As skimpy as a single chicken skewer looks for an international appetizer, at least it was relatively tasty. I don’t think any other airline would dare serve a single cold chicken kebab as a starter, however!

Super un-exciting salad. At least it had two sundried tomatoes and two olives?

The “rack of lamb” which was way overcooked. I don’t think I even finished half of it.

The cheese was ever poorer quality than average, but that didn’t stop me from asking for a second serving. Unfortunately “it’s all gone.” Mmm hmmm, of course it is.

Today “hot fudge and cherries” was met with three cherries, which seems to pretty much be average for most of my United flights 😉

At this point, I crashed for just short of 7 hours, waking up just in time to watch a few episodes of Scandal before breakfast was trotted out. Since I was awake I agreed to try it out, and unfortunately it was a pretty big miss. The fruit had zero flavour, the eggs scared me after one bite, but at least the cheesy potatoes were tasty 😉 I can’t for the life of me figure out why they serve breakfast at 8p local, but it is what it is!

Landed about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, immigration took nearly 45 minutes due to almost no agents on duty, but had no trouble with my ten year visa in an expired passport. When I was finally through, my driver from the ITC Maurya was waiting to whisk me off to what would hopefully be bed.

Unfortunately, the ITC Maurya seemed to have the same problem as Indian immigration tonight, and despite five people working on my reservation together it took them nearly 20 minutes to check me in for some unknown reason. I’m a huge fan of ITC hotels in India, and I’m going to chalk this one up to just having some junior people on duty this night. Once I did get to my room it was a nice upgraded junior suite with great AC, a half bottle of wine waiting for me, and an apology note for my recent experiences at the ITC Chennai during dry days. The bottle of wine was compliments and apologies for the inconvenience. It had been nearly two months since I returned from Chennai, and was impressed with the communication!

Only managed four hours of sleep, but considering I’d only been awake for three hours since the seven on the plane I considered that pretty darn good. Now, at the farthest point of the trip, it was time to start the REAL adventure! (Don’t ask why I went via Ottawa and Delhi…you already know it has to do with a great fare 😉

DC to Ottawa on United and Air Canada, evening in Ottawa

Airports, Canada, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Flights No Responses »

Sep 132015

Ok, so this is a pretty anti-climactic start to this trip, but I finally have reasonable internet and am able to get this thing rolling. Hopefully many more parts to follow now that I’ve cleared Africa and am in the Middle East. Headed into work for a few hours in the morning to tie up a few loose ends, and then caught the silver line metro out to Dulles. No problems at all for once, TSA PreCheck worked wonders, and soon I was at the Red Carpet Club in the D Gates. This was my first time experiencing Jeff’s new catering, and…

Hommous and cheese. The hommous is a definite upgrade, but the cheese is a definite downgrade. I seriously miss my pepperjack Tillamook cheese. Boo! Only had about 15 minutes to grab a quick lunch, because it was time to board! I still hadn’t cleared the waitlist with two seats left (I same day changed about 20 hours before the flight) so I asked the agent when she cleared if she could put me in the second row…and she did it right there. Not sure what she was waiting for, but…

United Express operated by Mesa Airlines flight 5095
Washington, DC, Dulles (IAD) to Toronto, Ontario (YYZ)
Depart 12:30, Arrive 13:58, Flight Time: 1:28
Canadair CRJ-700, Registration N504MJ, Manufactured 2002, Seat 2C

Perhaps the most underwhelming flight in the history of aviation. First/business went out full, I had a glass of wine with my biscotti, watched a little tv on my iPad, and then it was time to land. The overhead bins on the CRJ-700 were just large enough for my rolling bag, so life was good and I was off to immigration. NEXUS lines were no problem at all, through very quickly, got a new boarding pass from the Air Canada agent in the checkin area, and was off to security and the lounge.

No line at all in security for the NEXUS lane, was through very quickly, and up to the lounge. The lounge agent said the agent in customs was wrong, and yes, it’s possible to stand by now on ALL fares in the “triangle” of Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto. She kindly put me on the waitlist for an hour earlier, and I was hoping it wouldn’t be too much of a wait. But, while I did, it was time for a make-your-own ceasar…extra spicy!

Yes, that’s right, more hommous. Clearly Star Alliance has stocked up on it in bulk, and every single airline is feeding it in the lounge. Still hadn’t cleared the waitlist, so 40 minutes before my new flight headed down to the gate where I saw this beauty in the old Trans-Canada Airlines colours:

Asked the agent if I’d cleared, and he was rude and said “I’ll call you when I call you” so I waited…then everyone was boarded. So I asked again: “well, you’re not on my list!” Ugh. Few seats left, however, and he managed to clear me to an economy plus middle, so life was good enough. I was an hour earlier than planned, and sandwiched in between two pilots, so can’t complain overly much…let’s see, however, if my miles ever post!

Air Canada flight 458
Toronto, Ontario (YYZ) to Ottawa, Ontario (YOW)
Depart 16:10, Arrive 17:12, Flight Time: 1:02
Airbus A319-100, Registration C-FZUH, Manufactured 1997, Seat 14B

Again, totally uneventful flight. Glass (not can) of Diet Coke and some pretzels, and before I knew it we were landing in Ottawa. Was nice to spend the evening with a group of old friends catching up, starting with beer flights at Jack Astors:

Moved on to a group dinner at Mill Street Brewpub and more flights, followed by the Northern Lights show at Parliament. Managed to get a couple of great shots near the end of the Northern Lights show:

By this point I was absolutely exhausted from a half day of work, travel and a long evening of catching up with old friends. Managed to crash on a friend’s couch absolutely passed out for nearly eight hours, ready to face the big day ahead! (Yes, you read that right, instead of a nice hotel I slept on a couch! That should tell you just how good of friends these are…and just how comfy the couch was!)

Chennai, India to Washington, Dulles on Lufthansa

Airports, Business Class, Chennai 2015, Flights, India 1 Response »

Jul 282015

The flight from Chennai to Frankfurt leaves very late at night / early in the morning, so after a full day of worked headed back to the hotel to pack, have some dinner, and generally take it easy. The one thing I definitely didn’t want to do is fall asleep. Generally, I have really good luck sleeping on westbound redeyes, and I hoped this would continue. Since they leave late at night you’re tired enough to fall asleep, and then assuming the flight is long enough, when you wake up even though it might be 5-7am local time, it’s afternoon for your body clock, so you’re well-rested. I hoped to get lucky again!

Before heading to the airport around 11pm, I did one last check of the seatmaps online and discovered two cool things. There were still about six to eight seats open on my first flight, so I decided to switch to the fifth row in hopes of keeping an empty seat next to me. More importantly, on the second flight, they had substituted an aircraft with the old configuration…meaning the old first class seats upstairs were available as business class! It let me select one, and I hoped it would hold!

Check-in was remarkably easy, and the lines for immigration and security were reasonably short as well. Security wasn’t quite sure how to deal with my arm being in a sling, so decided to do the typical Indian thing and make it as much of an absolute bureaucratic nightmare as it could be. Go through metal detector, get metal detected again by hand. Have the sling swabbed for explosives. Write the details of my passport in three separate ledgers along with the time and details, etc etc, but finally I was free to try and find the lounge.

The lounge tonight was the Travel Club Lounge, which is also a Priority Pass lounge. I wondered why Lufthansa didn’t use the Air India lounge since they’re both Star Alliance, but one peek inside it looked pretty grim. The Travel Club Lounge was absolutely packed to the point it was hard to find a seat (and impossible to find an outlet) but it was cool enough. The Malaysia Airlines flight began boarding soon after I arrived, so that helped the lounge empty out just enough to be reasonable.

There was a buffet that everyone seemed to be avoiding, but the bar was quite popular. Most everyone was drinking scotch on the rocks, and going back for serving upon serving, but the strangest thing was the lounge had absolutely no wine at all – sparkling or non. I settled for a few last bottles of Kingfisher, before heading to the gate. Fifteen minutes before scheduled boarding it was already approaching chaos in the gate area, so I decided to use the sling to my advantage and fight for priority boarding. Unfortunately, I had more than a little competition tonight:

After being told by one agent that I was “not disabled enough” another agent very kindly escorted me to the front of the boarding zone, and let me board first. Points to her! …well, not exactly first, but somewhere in the middle of the 50+ wheelchair scrum:

The agent who had checked me in greeted me at the door to the plane, and with a big smile said “you look like you need to be comfortable, I managed to reserve the seat next to you” – wow, this was going to be a good flight…I hoped!

Lufthansa flight 759
Chennai, India (MAA) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 01:50, Arrive 8:30, Flight Time: 10:10
Airbus A340-300, Registration D-AIGY, Manufactured 2000, Seat 5D

Flight attendants were great, and hurried right over when they saw the shoulder, and were more than happy to help lift my bags into the overhead for me…and bring me a glass of wine!

Two seats to myself, it promised to be a good flight…

With a very late night departure I was curious what the menu would be, and as I suspected it was a snack followed by breakfast before arrival…it didn’t look too appetizing once again, and I suspected Lufthansa has contracted catering out to either IAMS or Purina lately…

…but hey, I had two seats, and the wine and cashews arrived moments after takeoff. This crew was clearly going to let us get as much sleep as possible:

The Fancy Feast chicken and Linguini tasted about as good as it looked, and I ate the chicken and peppers and that was all. Oh, and the dessert of course…and the poor pretzel roll which didn’t even get its own plate:

…at least the sleep-aid was in plentiful refill:

Fell asleep shortly after dinner, and managed to sleep almost eight straight hours. I will continue to love westbound redeyes, it was fantastic!

…which is more than I can say for the breakfast. The fruit was dry and sad, and I could only manage a couple of bites of the egg. At least the muesli was pretty tasty.

So overall, the seat was below average, but I’ll give it above average because I had two. The crew was great and helpful, and very friendly, and the food was some of the worst I’ve ever had on Lufthansa. But, at the end of the day, on a flight like this I want somewhere comfortable to sleep and don’t expect a flying restaurant, so give me cool, quiet, and comfortable with adequate space and wine, and I’m pretty darn happy. Overall, it was a good flight.

Landed, through immigration, and off to Starbucks for my usual triple iced espresso. But, then back through immigration, to the lounge for a shower, and some breakfast. Hey, it’s afternoon somewhere!

Wasn’t a long layover, but fortunately the gate was only two down from the lounge, so managed to linger a bit longer. The boarding area was just as chaotic as the flight from India, mainly because all of the Africa and India flights connect to this one…and I think half of Africa and India was on this plane. Again, I used the sling to push my way to the front, and was soon on board. It took me several years of travel in the developing world to get used to doing it, but I’m finally comfortable doing as everyone else does and pushing to make sure that I don’t get trampled and taken advantage of.

Lufthansa flight 758
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Washington DC, Dulles (IAD)
Depart 10:45, Arrive 13:25, Flight Time: 8:40
Boeing 747-400, Registration D-ABVM, Manufactured 1998, Seat 83H

Got upstairs, and SCORE! It was the old configuration, and I’d scored a first class seat. Even better, only four people were smart enough to move upstairs, so the cabin was only half full!

…business class service, but hey, with one flight attendant for four people it was a pretty sweet deal!

I wasn’t going to complain at all!

…even the menu looked almost promising!

More bubbles after takeoff, and the now-familiar cashews in a bag:

The duck starter was actually pretty tasty, despite the tiny portion:

But oh dear, the tenderloin of beef and braised beef cheek. Catering by Purina strikes again, and I ended up sending it back mostly uneaten. I think this is the last time I give Lufthansa a chance to cook beef in business class. It just doesn’t work.

The cheese and dessert more than made up for it, however, and I might have had two servings of cheese 😉

…and after a few glasses of wine crawled out of the seat, and onto the adjoining bed, and crashed for several very comfortable hours.

The pre-arrival chicken stew and salad was kinda odd, but it came with pretzel and riesling, so wasn’t all bad. I have to say, on previous trips I’ve been very happy with Lufthansa catering, but this trip was one hot mess after another. To the point I’ll probably eat before flying Lufthansa business next time, and just enjoy some cheese and dessert along with a bit of wine.

Landed just slightly behind schedule at Washington Dulles, and the trip was over. No checked baggage, so into an Uber and home barely 30 minutes after landing thanks to Global Entry. Despite the disappointing food the amount of space I had on both flights was amazing, and it was a great flight experience thanks to the crews!

Washington DC to Chennai, India on Lufthansa

Airports, Business Class, Chennai 2015, Flights 2 Responses »

Jul 222015

This will be largely a photo report, as Lufthansa has been pretty extensively reviewed around the internet. Main things I want to share on this trip report is the challenges of traveling shortly after surgery, while confined in a shoulder/arm sling, and perhaps impart a bit of advice about Lufthansa’s service to India as well as Starwood hotels in Chennai. Unlike my normal reports, there won’t be a lot of destination information here, as it was a work trip and that occupied the vast majority of my time. That said, hope there’s some helpful tips in her!

Got to Dulles about 2.5 hours before my flight after a short Uber ride with a driver who actually happened to be from Chennai. What are the odds! He informed me his sister still lived there, and she was single, and “perhaps I would like a tour guide since you seem a successful man.” Uhhhh, yeeeahhhhh….about that 😉

Check-in was quick, no TSA Pre-Check since I was on Lufthansa, but I have to say TSA was pretty good about the sling. Fortunately, I got directed to a line that was a regular metal detector, so no need to “opt-out” on the nude-o-scope since raising my arm above my head is an impossibility. I was given two choices: wear the sling through the metal detector and have it swabbed for explosives, or take it off and send it through the metal detector. Since removing it was pretty time consuming and challenging at this stage (about three weeks post surgery) I opted to leave it on and get swabbed. No drama, and soon I was in the Lufthansa Senator Lounge.

The lounge was the most packed I’ve ever seen it. At this hour, flights from SAS, Lufthansa, Austrian, COPA, Air China, as well as Avianca were using it. It was standing room only, but fortunately I looked disabled enough that someone cleared a seat for me at the counter. Also, it was the first time I’ve seen the bar area in this lounge staffed. Usually you have to flag someone down and ask them to go get a drink for you. (Un)fortunately, that meant refills on the bubbly were quite easy:

After a short stay in the lounge it was time to board our plane through the jetway which was directly connected to the lounge.

Lufthansa flight 419
Washington DC, Dulles (IAD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 18:05, Arrive 8:00, Flight Time: 7:55
Boeing 747-8i, Registration D-ABYF, Manufactured 2012, Seat 8D

This flight was completely full in business class, and I chose 8D for a couple reasons. Mainly, we only booked a week before the flight, so seat choices were pretty limited. My main concern was to get in the middle section, since the plane has a 2-2-2 configuration in business class, and I hate having to step over someone or get stepped over. Plus, with the sling, I didn’t want anyone bumping it, so I wanted a D seat so it would be on the inside. Overall, it was a great choice. The cabin view from my seat:

Pre-flight bubbles:

Tonight’s menu:

When I asked for red wine, the flight attendant insisted I try both offerings. I think that’s a first in business class. I went with the Italian red, which was pretty decent, while snacking on sad packaged cashews (which were at least whole) and watching some bad movie I’ve already forgotten:

The charcuterie appetizer, it was actually surprisingly tasty!

The seared beef filet main, which was absolutely awful. The meat was shoe leather, and I think I ate one bite, the carrots and asparagus, and sent the rest back in exchange for more wine.

Cheese AND ice cream for dessert along with vintage Lufthansa chocolates. I can forgive the beef for this.

Then, I absolutely passed out, for nearly six hours, waking up just 15 minutes off the ground. I actually took the sling off to sleep, and it was the first time since surgery I’d done that. The crew was great, lifting my rather heavy rollerboard into the overhead for me, getting me extra pillows to put under my elbow to rest the shoulder in a good position, and of course providing plenty of liquid painkillers to aid with the flight.

As a side note, I was also given Lovenox injections to take before the flight. They’re a pretty hard-core blood thinner, and the idea was just in case there were any post-surgical clots hanging around we wanted to thin the blood since it would be very long flights. Unfortunately, this also makes bruising super easy, and I ended up post flight with some pretty epic bruises on my legs. I must have been a bit restless with them in flight!

We arrived in the B gates in Frankfurt a little early, and I decided to enter Germany so I could do my usual between flight routine. Quad iced espresso at Starbucks, walk around a bit in the terminal, and then make the long flight over to the C Terminal for our departing flight. Very few Lufthansa flights leave from C, and I can never determine the logic. It seems to be Johannesburg, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and India, along with a random few others. Maybe it’s longhaul eastbound flights, but I don’t know the logic behind it. Anyone want to chime in?

The lounge had nice showers, however, which despite the 15 minute or so wait felt amazing:

More water to fight off the post-flight dehydration, another double iced espresso, and my morning lounge usual – a brown roll with tomato, cucumber, salami, and cheese. I couldn’t resist trying their new offering this time of some sort of curried pineapple spread…which was just as awful as you’d expect.

Our flight was right next to the lounge, and boarded right on time.

Lufthansa flight 758
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Chennai, India (MAA)
Depart 10:50, Arrive 23:50, Flight Time: 9:30
Airbus A340-300, Registration D-AIGV, Manufactured 2000, Seat 3D

Despite having the “new” business class seats installed which went completely flat, this plane felt really ratty. Plus, as this pre-departure bubbles picture shows the centre armrest is tiny, and my seatmate was a bit of a footsy player:

The menu looked to be one of the least appetizing I’ve ever seen on Lufthansa, and generally I love Indian food!

The same Italian red wine was offered with lunch, and the same sad bagged cashews. I know it’s not a big deal that they’re in a bag, but it takes absolutely zero cost or effort to offer them in a bowl. I’m just curious why Lufthansa which generally tries to be rather classy just doesn’t even make this little effort.

The murgh salad / spicy poulard salad appetizer. It looked like cat vomit, and didn’t taste a whole lot better. I left it mostly untouched.

The lamb main course, aka flag of India entree. It was ok, but again, meals that are pretty much 100% shades of brown just aren’t very appetizing to me. It just didn’t have much flavour or spice to it, and for Indian food was seriously underwhelming as a business class main.

Even the cheese was pretty sad, but the dessert was a bit better.

I spent the next several hours doing work and watching a little bit of tv, and soon we were about 90 minutes out and it was time for the “dinner” course. I decided to do something I never do, and enjoy it with a bit of German white wine. The riesling was pretty nice actually. I decided to go with the potato gratin main, and it was ok, but again, for business class it was a SERIOUSLY underwhelming meal.

Now, a few more thoughts on this flight. The crew was good, the seats were well below what I expect in business class, being seriously narrow and feeing really packed in. I know this part is beyond Lufthansa’s control, but of the 30 seats in business class 12 were occupied with children aged approximately 8-15, traveling with their families. As kids do, they get antsy, and they were running up and down the aisles during the flight, talking loudly, and in generally not making it a very “business” class experience. I don’t usually work in flight, but this time I needed to, and it was the one time fellow passengers made it very difficult. I tried asking the crew to intervene, but was told “this is just how flights to India are, you need to adapt.”

Oh, and one of the kids decided to sleep on the floor in the aisle, and I accidentally stepped on it and got yelled at by the parent, hahahah…it wasn’t exactly the best of flights! But hey, there are a LOT worse ways to make a 20 hour trip than this! Despite all the little complaints here, it was still an excellent experience.

VI. Evening in Pyongyang, and Pyongyang to DC

Airports, Attractions, Business Class, China, Flights, North Korea, North Korea 2005 4 Responses »

Jul 122015

As I mentioned in the last post, after a long day of touring around Pyongyang we were taken to the Number 1 Duck Restaurant, which was promised to be a big treat. Contemplating dinner…and North Korean beer:

Final evening chat with the variety of interesting characters on the trip:

After dinner, it was back to the glamourous Koryo Hotel to crash. It was honestly reasonably comfortable, completely clean, even though the mattresses seriously felt like they were filled with straw:

The uninspired hallways…if you would knock on the walls there were clearly lots of hollow spots in them…we decided there must be secret compartments and one-way mirrors…

Final breakfast at the Koryo Hotel. What the food made up for in quality and quantity, they certainly tried their hardest with presentation…and bowtied waiters:

Koryo Hotel lobby…note all the marble. Like old Soviet hotels, it was everywhere. I can’t remember if the pink flowers are Kimilsungia or Kimjongilia:

Goodbye Koryo Hotel…waiting for the bus to the airport:

Busy city streets of downtown Pyongyang at 7am:

One last shot of the two towers of the Koryo Hotel:

Shot with our “tour guide” by the bus before heading to the airport:

Unauthorized secret photography on the way to the airport. Lots more people “risking” pictures at this point because, hey, what would they do, deport us?

Goodbye from the Eternal Leader:

Very busy day at Pyongyang International, with four flights arriving, including the two charters to take the visiting South Koreans home;

Waiting area, including a V.I.P. Lounge…unfortunately, they don’t accept Priority Pass…yes I asked…

Waiting hall…all flights wait in the same room:

Inspirational reading on the walls while you wait for your flight. I wonder if Kim Il Sung would approve of the Kindle:

Sympathy might not be the word they wanted:

Our plane being prepared on the tarmac:

Walking down the stairs to the bus to take us to our plane:

So long Pyongyang!

Boarding…was fun to get a different plane than the first flight!

Air Koryo flight 221
Pyongyang, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (FNJ) to Beijing, China (PEK)
Depart 9:30, Arrive 10:00, Flight Time: 90 minutes
Tupolev TU-154B, Registration P-561, Manufactured 1983, Seat 26D

The Air Koryo crew continued to photobomb my pics!

No doors on the overhead bins this time, just put your bags up and pray!

On the takeoff roll. You can see all the bags in the overhead, and the flight attendant standing in the aisle and bracing herself by holding onto two seats!

The Air Koryo burger, and some kind of juice I think. The burger was actually surprisingly edible, but I have absolutely no idea what it contained!

Final shot of our plane from the gate in Beijing:

We had a few hours to wait for our connecting flight to Newark, and got some Starbucks in the airport and then just hung out in the lounge. Back then you needed a visa to even transit China, so might as well leave the sterile area of the airport and get some Starbucks while waiting!

Continental Airlines flight 88
Beijing, China (PEK) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR)
Depart 15:45, Arrive 17:25 Flight Time: 13:45
Boeing 777-200, Registration: ???, Manufactured ????, Seat 9A

Was absolutely and completely exhausted by this flight, and ended up sleeping a lot of it. So tired I didn’t even think to take any pics of the meal or anything unfortunately.

Continental Airlines flight 1153
Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Washington, DC, National (DCA)
Depart 19:00, Arrive 20:15 Flight Time: 1:15
Boeing 737-500, Registration: ???, Manufactured ????, Seat 5E

Speaking of exhaustion, this is when it hit. Flew economy on the domestic segments because buying first on those would have been hundreds extra, and it wasn’t worth it for such short flights when you could get the bulkhead. Remember the days when Continental flew 737s 10 times a day from DC to Newark?

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and a fantastic opportunity to be part of the first group of Americans to be allowed into North Korea. We got to see a slightly less-polished propaganda machine that wasn’t quite certain what to do with us. I look forward to going back for a much longer trip so I am not so severely jetlagged for most of it, and we can see more sights. Especially would love to take the aviation tour!

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