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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!

Hotels in Chennai, India

Chennai 2015, hotels, India, Restaurants No Responses »

Jul 242015

I was in Chennai a total of 12 nights, and because I was getting a bit behind on requalifying for Starwood Platinum status this year, I figured I’d use the opportunity (especially weekends) to do a bit of hotel hopping. I usually end up with a few throwaway stays at local DC properties every year to requalify, and at around $75 each it adds up. So, I figured I’d deal with a bit of inconvenience in Chennai in order to save myself that cash.

There are five SPG properties in Chennai, and the closest to my client was the Aloft. Now, I read that it’s perfectly nice, clean, etc, but it would only save me about 20 minutes on the drive and I’d really prefer a full service option. I knew the ITC Grand Chola was the nicest of the options, and it was a tossup between the Le Meridien and the Westin. I probably should have tried all three, but ended up doing just the ITC and the Westin. The stay pattern was 1 night Westin, 4 nights ITC, 1 night Westin, 1 night ITC, 1 night Westin, 4 nights ITC. I did it this way because the first night was a weekend, so changing mid-day was easy. Then, I gave myself four days to settle in, before a few mid-week and weekend changes and finally the last several at the ITC so I could do any needed laundry/etc.

Three of the changes were on weekends, so were very easy to do, but three were on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. My pattern was to get up early, grab a quick breakfast, change hotels (they’re a 10 minute drive apart), check in if possible, then head to the client. Big credit to both hotels, all three mornings they let me check in approximately 7/7:15am for the day. They were absolutely fantastic on this front.

I’ll compare the two properties on six metrics: room, transportation, lounge, restaurants/food, service, platinum benefits, and finally value for price.

Room: all three times I stayed at the Westin I was given a room on the executive floor. They were standard sized rooms, and as far as I could tell the amenities weren’t upgraded. The air conditioning worked well, the rooms were all very clean, and they had everything that was needed and expected. Additionally, they always stopped by a few times a day offering more bottles of water, as well as turn-down service.

At the ITC Grand Chola, my first two stays I was upgraded to a Towers room. The room was huge, probably about 550 square feet total. It had a huge washroom, with separate shower and toilet cubicles. There was also a standalone tub, as well as drawers and changing area. The AC actually got frigid, and perhaps the coolest part was that everything from lights to AC to TV was controlled by an in-room iPad. On my third stay, I asked about a suite upgrade. They said it would likely be possible, but I would have to pay the rather significant difference in the luxury tax. Luxury tax is assessed on the rack rate of the room, and because of this they usually don’t do suite upgrades. After reminding them that my corporate rate had luxury tax waived they agreed and upgraded me to a rather huge suite. I’ll let the pics do the talking, but I’d estimate it was 800-900 square feet minimum. It made for a very comfortable four nights!

Clear edge in room goes to the ITC Grand Chola.

View from the executive floor at the Westin:

Suite at the ITC Grand Chola:

Transportation: I only used transportation from the ITC Grand Chola twice, and that was the hotel car to the Westin and later to the airport. It was slightly overpriced, but plenty comfortable. The nice thing about the Westin was that my corporate rate had free airport transfers included. The pick up at the airport on my arrival was perfect, and they had cold towels and water waiting in the car which was much appreciated in the Chennai humidity. For my later stays, they arranged to pick me up at the ITC Grand Chola instead, and at the end of the stay transfer me to the ITC Grand Chola. Quite nice of them considering the rate specifies airport transfers and not just “transfers”. Other than that, I had a driver to my client, and used Uber for personal transit which also worked equally well from both hotels.

Clear edge on transportation to the Westin.

Lounge: So, my complaint on the lounges isn’t the fault of the hotels. Tamil Nadu state where Chennai is located was in the middle of local elections, and thus declared a number of “dry days” where alcohol couldn’t be served. At one point, it was three days in a row. To the credit of the lounges, they still offered snacks and non-alcoholic drinks.

The Westin had a proper lounge on the executive floor that was open from 1830-2130 every day, and the drinks flowed freely. Very freely. Many of the residents were in the hotel for weeks at a time, and had bonded, and it was expat drinking hour every night in the lounge. Mixed drinks, wine, beer, you name it, and plentiful snacks to the point you could easily make a meal out of them….and if you stayed until 2130 you probably would!

The lounge at the ITC was located in the lobby of the hotel, and available to all Towers and ITC One guests. Not sure what ITC One is, but being in the towers I got to use it. They had four hot snacks and a few cold snacks which rotated (seemed to be the same menu every monday, same every tuesday, etc), as well as plenty of free-flowing drinks and super friendly staff. The happy hour was shorter – only 1800-2000, but they got really generous the last 15 minutes and I ended up with 2-3 drinks sitting around several times.

I would have to declare the lounges a tie – both had plentiful snacks and drinks as well as super friendly staff.

Restaurants/Food: At the Westin I had breakfast every day, as well as room service dinner one night. The breakfast was plentiful, with lots of breads and danishes, some fruit and other options, as well as eggs, pancakes, etc cooked to order. There was also proper American bacon, which they would cook well done and crispy upon request. There were also several warm Indian options as well. The coffee was also good, with espresso drinks also on offer. I had a sandwich from room service one night which was good and reasonably-priced, and delivered quickly and warm. One nice thing to note, the Westin is also a short walk to the Phoenix Marketcity Mall, which has several good food options including Nandos, California Pizza Kitchen, Hard Rock Cafe, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts should you get sick of hotel fare.

The breakfast at the ITC Grand Chola was simply amazing. Eggs made to order, tons of breads, pastries, etc, and an amazing assortment of fresh fruit every day. There was also a full Indian options hot bar, etc. By my second day they had my coffee preferences down, and I didn’t even have to ask and a double espresso would show up within two minutes of sitting down. There were also six to seven restaurants, but most evenings I was too tired to bother. Plus, they were a bit high priced, although delicious. I had dinner one night at their north Indian restaurant Peshwari, and it was a set menu for one and absolutely delicious. Pics below. I also ate in their cafe several times, which had really good sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch. It was also slightly overpriced, but made an easier light meal than the sitdown restaurants.

Slight edge goes to the ITC for a slightly better breakfast, and tons of great restaurant options.

Westin Breakfast:

Breakfast/buffet restaurant from above at the ITC:

Dinner at Peshwari at the ITC Grand Chola:

Amazing fruit for breakfast at the ITC Grand Chola:

Service/Common Areas: Can’t say enough here about both properties, because service was uniformly fantastic. Staff would remember you after one interaction, and upon returning after hotel hopping I was warming welcome back. I was doing PT for the shoulder surgery throughout the stay, and requested an umbrella from the concierge to help with exercises. Both hotels remembered, and brought me one on my second stay without asking. People genuinely seemed to love their jobs and care that you enjoyed your stay.

Both hotels win here in a big way.

Lobby in the Grand Chola:

Group of eye surgeons having a conference at the hotel taking a group pic, lol:

Poolside at the ITC Grand Chola:

Platinum benefits: At the Westin, got an upgrade to the executive floor, lounge access, happy hour, and a coupon for a free drink (beer or wine) via either room service or in the restaurants and bars. I chose a glass of wine sent to my room both stays, and the third there was no love because it was a “dry day.” At the ITC, I was upgraded to a Towers Room twice, and the third time to a huge suite. This included lounge access.

Slightly edge in this category to the ITC, only because I was consistently upgraded to a larger room.

Welcome flowers and sweets in the suite at the ITC Grand Chola:

Value for Price: Both hotels were the exact same price with my corporate rate. Since I rated the ITC Grand Chola higher in most categories, I’d consider it an excellent value for price. For the Westin, I’d still call it a very good value for price.

Hope these are helpful!

V. War Museum, Movie Studio, Pyongyang Metro, USS Pueblo, Childrens’ Palace

Attractions, North Korea, North Korea 2005, Restaurants No Responses »

Jul 112015

Heading back to Pyongyang from Kaesong and the DMZ, we stopped at the Arch of Reunification for photos. It was built in 2001, and has two women (one representing North Korea, one South Korea) unifying in the middle of the aptly named Reunification Highway:

Our next stop was the Juche Tower. Juche is the name given to the ideology promoted by Kim Il-Sung of self-reliance. It’s considered by many North Koreans to be Kim Il-Sung’s great contribution to international philosophy…so of course it needs its own tower to commemorate it! It contains 25,550 blocks, one for each day of Kim Il-Sung’s life. Did I mention yet that the North Koreans kind of hit you over the head with symbolism? Standing 560 feet tall, the Juche Tower is also (coincidentally? NOT!) just a couple of feet taller than the Washington Monument, which it was supposedly modeled on. You can also see the Workers’ Party Monument near the base:

We were allowed to go up the tower to the observation deck, just below the flame. Hazy view of Pyongyang:

Juche Tower and the Workers’ Party Monument:

The Juche Tower and Workers Party Monument – three figures, one with a hammer (representing a worker), one with a writing brush (representing the working class intellectual), and one with a sickle (representing the peasant/farmer):

The next morning began to the Monument to Party founding. Again, the hammer, sickle, and writing brush:

Nearby propaganda to the Great Leader:

Next up was Mansudae, featuring a 20 meter high statue of Kim Il Sung. Notice the flowers at the base. You are not required, but it is expected, that you buy flowers from a nearby vendor and place them at the base and bow deeply in respect. Also worth nothing, all photos of the statue must contain the entire statue. No cutting off the head or body…and yes, your guides will check. Guess they haven’t heard about photoshop later on! It’s important to note that after Kim Jong-Il died in 2011, a statue of him was placed next to his father, but back when I visited in 2005 only Kim Il-Sung was hanging out:

Nearby is the Socialist Revolution Monument. It’s over 60 feet high, and the figures are nearly 15 feet each:

Next stop was the Korean War Museum. Our guides actually seemed a bit nervous about this, because it was the first time they would be taking Americans through the museum. They quickly warmed up, however, and took great delight in telling us all the ways they had defeated America. The museum’s tour guide pointing something out to us:

Describing all the great victories of North Korea:

Yak-18 aircraft from the war, with a new and improved museum-worthy paintjob:

Painting of the great General Kim Il Sung directing the war:

Outside the window of the museum was able to get this shot of the Ryugyong Hotel. We were strictly told no pictures were allowed of it, probably because it was started and never completed…supposedly because they found major architectural mistakes that made it unsafe to inhabit. Rumour is it could collapse at any time…other rumours say they just ran out of money. In 2008 construction actually started up again, and in 2011 they finally finished the exterior, but it still isn’t open. In 2012 the international Kempinski chain announced the hotel would finally open, but it never did…

At the entrance to the North Korean Film Studios…notice the movie camera next to the Great Leader:

Supposedly it was a great honour that I got to pose with this famous actor making a film about China:

Next up was a ride on the Pyongyang Metro. Surprisingly, we weren’t too restricted with photos, but we were only allowed to ride from one station to the next station a stop away. A map of the system:

Entering the station and headed down the escalator:

Entering the platform area, where the train was conveniently waiting for us, but no passengers really were, except for a few which had been creatively staged:

Mural in the station:

Station attendant, to escort us onto our train:

Our group (the only people in the station) standing around taking photos, while our train conveniently waited for us:

Inside the train car, with the Dear Leader and Great Leader watching over us:

Our exit station, one stop away, which actually had many more North Koreans in it…guess they hadn’t had time to completely stage this one or something:

Exit from the metro station:

Next stop was the USS Pueblo, a US Navy ship captured by North Korea in 1968, which they now proudly show off to tourists. A member of the North Korean navy was our guide:

Entering the ship:

Communications room:

Bullet hole in the ship:

On the way to the birthplace of Kim Il Sung we stopped, and I made a point to be inspired by local propaganda:

Next up was the birthplace of Kim Il Sung, significantly upgraded and now a museum. There were actually many “real” North Koreans visiting, as well as school groups. None dared get anywhere near us, however:

Final stop of the afternoon was the Pyongyang Childrens’ Palace. Every city more or less has a childrens’ palace, but the one in Pyongyang is the showcase for the nation:

Children in a dance class, watched over by their leaders:

Surprisingly impressive aquatic centre:

Accordion class?

Drawing/painting class:

Embroidery class:

Traditional Korean instruments. Based on the uniforms, this was clearly a performance for the tourists:

Lastly, we were taken to a karate class:

Unfortunately, this was all the pics I got because the rest were lost on the deleted memory card. We were taken to a childrens’ orchestra performance that seemed to go on forever, and finally to a last night celebration dinner at a duck restaurant. I remember our guides being super excited about this, because it was known to be one of the best restaurants in North Korea. Unfortunately, I found it barely edible because the duck was almost all skin and fat, and almost no meat. I can understand this being a big deal in a society where meat of any sort was rare, but by this point in the trip we were largely living on beer and bread. It raised the question of if this was the “best” North Korea had to offer to the first American tourists, you had to wonder just how hard the average citizen had it.

After dinner, we were taken to the Yanggakdo Hotel, which is bigger than our hotel and sits on an island in the middle of a river…so they can put the drawbridge up at night and strand you on the island. Quite surprising this wasn’t chosen for the Americans. It had a casino, nail salon, and supposedly bowling alley, but we weren’t allowed to use any of them. Instead, we were allowed to sit in the cafe in the lobby and drink imported Heinekens. Hah!

Eventually off to bed, just in time to fly out the next morning. It had been a whirlwind trip, but still amazed how much we were allowed to see!

II. Beijing to Pyongyang on Air Koryo, arrival in Pyongyang

Airports, Attractions, China, Flights, hotels, North Korea, North Korea 2005, Restaurants No Responses »

Jul 052015

After walking around the city for a bit, caught an early morning cab to Beijing airport, where the monitors advertised it was true. Our 11:30 flight really existed, and it seemed we were really going to North Korea!

Found our group from Koryo Tours clustered around the Air Koryo check-in area, and did quick introductions all around. There were about 25-30 of us, all Americans, since this was a first-time 72 hour tour just for Americans. Check it was reasonably quick, boarding passes in hand, and we set off to explore duty free. But first, we stopped at left luggage to drop off a backpack containing our laptops and cell phones. We were told these wouldn’t be allowed in North Korea, and that we would have to check them at the Pyongyang Airport upon arrival. Rather than subject them to inevitable scrutiny during our visit by North Korean security services, we decided to just check the at Beijing Airport for a few days.

We’d been told it was customary to buy gifts for our tour guides to stay on their good side, and we were told the best gifts to buy were cigarettes, ladies moisturizer, and hand cream. Picked up one of each, included the first and only time I’ve ever bought a carton of cigarettes, and duty free gave us one of those “you may be a winner” scratch off tickets…and figures just when I don’t need to win anything I do…a Ferrari suitcase, lol.

Cheap plastic, probably worth five dollars, but there was absolutely no way they were going to let me leave without taking it. So, instead, I decided to just haul it with, filled with my duty free stash. A few days later, it would be abandoned in the Pyongyang hotel room.

Got to the gate, where for some reason it had the wrong time for the flight. Note the 07:50 departure time, but the clock reading 11:28. It wasn’t delayed, it was just…a time warp…like everything in North Korea would soon be:

After a short bus ride, there she was, the aircraft that would take us to North Korea. I was a little shy about taking pictures, but there was no need. Nobody seemed to care:

Boarded through stairs, and the adventure was set to begin!

Air Koryo flight 222
Beijing, China (PEK) to Pyongyang, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (FNJ)
Depart 11:30, Arrive 14:00, Flight Time: 90 minutes
Ilyushin IL-62M, Registration P-881, Manufactured 1986, Seat 19B

One of the many flight attendants, checking boarding passes and directing people to their seats. One strange part was the 4-5 bulkheads in the plane, dividing it into many identical mini-cabins:

Waiting to find my seat with fellow American tourists…and photobombed by a very stunned looking flight attendant. Yes, I had 19B. Until this year was probably the last time I’d sat in a middle seat for nearly 10 years:

Not sure what’s in all those containers, but a rather huge galley area. Clearly reducing weight was no priority when building this plane:

You sit here:

Getting suspicious looks for taking so many pics during boarding:

In-flight, a pic of the main cabin from the washrooms in the back:

Here comes lunch! Despite being only about 75 minutes in the air, a full lunch was served:

Quite huge and impressive portions of foodstuffs of dubious origins. The pain was a sweet and sour chicken with pineapple in it, which was pretty good. I don’t remember if the drink was white wine or sparkling wine, but either way quite impressive how much they served. I didn’t want to risk serious intestinal distress in North Korea, so just nibbled at the cake and wine:

All in all the flight was pretty uneventful, and the Ilyushin-62M was a fascinating experience. Pretty sure I’d been on one previously with Aeroflot in the late 1980s, but don’t have any records from that trip to prove it. The service by Air Koryo was polite and efficient, and considering they were dealing with Americans for probably the first time ever they were all still quite refined and not at all nervous looking.

Immigration was a pretty quick affair, and no passport stamps were offered. Our visa was several sheets of paper with everyones’ pictures and passport details on them, and it was pretty much one large group visa. Several people tried to get passport stamps, but there was no way to do it.

After arrival, milling around outside the airport waiting for our bus…and I still have the Ferrari bag:

Poster outside the airport advertising the Arirang Mass Games, the event we had all been invited to witness:

On the way to the hotel in our tour bus, we met our guides Mr Lee and Miss Yang. There was another “guide” who constantly sat in the back of the bus and never spoke to us, and we were told he didn’t speak English. He was, however, quite fond of getting upset and yelling at us frantically in Korean whenever he caught people taking pictures of things we weren’t permitted to photograph. Lee seemed to be quite a nice guy, and was fond of cracking really poor jokes, often related to building nuclear bombs and “America going to go BOOM hah hah” whenever anyone asked him a vaguely military-related question.

First stop on the way to the hotel was the Arch of Triumph, built to honour the Korean resistance to Japanese occupation from 1925-1945. One thing that was hammered into us over and over is no matter how much the North Koreans distrust America (and are going to invade and conquer it) they distrust and dislike Japan a hundred times more. The Arch looks suspiciously like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and is much larger…supposedly the biggest arch in the world:

Finally, we headed to our hotel, the Koryo Hotel. We had been told to expect the Yanggakdo Hotel, because it’s located on an island and at night they can close the bridge off to prevent you from getting off the island. However, we ended up at the Koryo Hotel instead. Rumour was because the rooms were better…connected…and was better able to monitor suspicious foreign guests. From the outside, it was a rather impressive structure:

We were given a bit of time to freshen up, before being taken out to dinner. It was described as hotpot, and we were given a plate of raw meet, noodles, and vegetables to cook in the hotpot. This came with several large bottles of North Korea beer, which was actually mildly decent. Never once did I get anything resembling food poisoning on this trip, so the hygiene standards must have been reasonably good:

After dinner, we were herded back into the bus, jetlagged all to hell since we’d just flown into Beijing the night before, and hurried off to the Arirang Mass Games. We were explained that for tourists there were three types of seats. Standard seats, which if I remember right were like 70 or 80 Euro, better seats right next to the field which were like 250 Euro, and VIP seats which were like 500. Since our guide couldn’t explain what make the VIP seats better, we all went with standard seats. If 500 would have gotten me a photo-op with Kim Jong Il I would have paid it in a heartbeat, but alas. Then, it was time for the main event!

I. Washington DC to Beijing on Continental Airlines, 1 night in Beijing

Airports, Business Class, China, Flights, hotels, North Korea 2005, Restaurants No Responses »

Jun 252015

As I mentioned in my previous post, booking two days before the trip I didn’t have a lot of choice on getting to Beijing. I was finding economy fares that were super high, and looked like a middle seat was the best we would do, or we could do business for about twice the price. It remains the single most expensive round-trip ticket I’ve ever purchased for personal use, but like I said I felt like this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Plus, being in North Korea for less than 72 hours I wanted to be as rested as possible to try and maximize the experience.

Unfortunately, I don’t really remember the details on the flight in great detail, but thanks to my notes I can at least reproduce some of it. Plus, this will be a bit of nostalgia for the good old days before Jeff’s cost-cutting.

Continental Airlines flight 1104
Washington, DC, National (DCA) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR)
Depart ??:??, Arrive ??:?? Flight Time: Approximately 1 hour
Boeing 737-500, Registration: ???, Manufactured ????, Seat 2F

Unfortunately, don’t remember much about this flight. It was a morning flight, so can pretty much guarantee I enjoyed a diet coke and not much else. I remember when Continental used to run 737s from DCA to EWR…and they were always packed. What happened?!

Enjoyed the Presidents Club in Newark, and soon it was time to board our flight to Beijing. I remember at the time thinking Continental BusinessFirst was a really big deal, and remember it being something like a six or seven course experience. Those days, well, they’re long gone!

Continental Airlines flight 89
Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Beijing, China (PEK)
Depart ??:??, Arrive ??:?? Flight Time: ??
Boeing 777-200, Registration: ???, Manufactured ????, Seat 10A

I remember this flight being about 80% full in business, but the back mini cabin (I think there used to be five rows in the front cabin, and rows 8-10 were in a separate mini cabin) was less than half full. We had plenty of room to stretch out in our old-school barcaloungers.

For some reason, I didn’t take a pic of the soup, appetizer, salad, or any of the starters, but these were the days service in BusinessFirst was better than anything Jeff gives us in “First” on United these days.

Apparently, I had some chicken and veg for a main, and this reminds me how Continental used to plate the veg and starch from the trolly. Potatoes? Rice? They had multiple options, and you can fully customize the meal. Not sure what’s in the small bowl at the top, but I remember the Château le Gordon being much better than recent vintage Château le Jeff!

Good to know I didn’t miss the ice cream sundae, though I’m not too sure why there’s Kahlua in the pic since I can’t remember ever going through a Kahlua phase. I’m glad to see four cherries though, I’d be disappointed if there weren’t multiples!

Then I slept. I remember it being a pretty good amount, probably 4-6 hours. Cabin shot here with me enjoying the view out the window. You can see just how empty the back two rows of business were:

Landed, immigration was a piece of cake, and even getting a taxi to our hotel, the Grand Hyatt Beijing, was a piece of cake. We checked in mid-afternoon, and decided to use the little time we had to do a bit of exploring since we hadn’t been to Beijing before and would only have one evening before the flight to North Korea.

Looking jetlagged in front of the Forbidden Palace:

Changing of the guard ceremony:

Forbidden Palace all lit up at dusk:

For dinner, we walked to the Quanjude duck restaurant. Don’t know how we found it, but they had a counter that indicated they’d served more than 15 million ducks since they opened:

Our duck, being hygienically carved up table-side…it was absolutely delicious with all the sides, and the waiter showed us how to plate it up and eat it all together.

Promptly crashed for at least eight hours, and was up way too early. Found Starbucks (do you doubt my abilities to find them, even back them?) and wandered the city just a little longer. Found a countdown to the Beijing Olympics, which were still three years away at that point:

The Grand Hyatt:

Then, it was time to taxi to the airport and meet up with our group from Koryo Tours for the flight to Pyongyang!

Asmara to Doha on Qatar Airways, 20 hours in Doha

Attractions, Business Class, East Africa 2015, Flights, hotels, Qatar, Restaurants No Responses »

May 152015

After a solid 3-4 hour nap I woke up just before midnight, showered, and headed down to the front desk of the Asmara Palace to check out. The travel company had already paid the bill so all I had to do was sign the bill and be on my way. The hotel offered a shuttle to the airport, and it was just me and one other passenger, and soon we were off.

When we got there, the hotel doorman/concierge made a point of walking me to the check-in desk, which was absolute chaos. With Turkish and Qatar leaving within 15 minutes of each other, it was a mad scrum, with no signage anywhere. There was one desk marked business class, but it had a couple dozen people clustered around it who were most certainly not flying business. I (politely) pushed my way to the front, and was checked in all the way to Helsinki in about 10 minutes. Immigration was very quick with no questions asked, except by the driver/concierge: “perhaps you have a tip for me?” Um, no, didn’t ask for or need your help, and you insisted on following me. Grrr!

Security was somewhat silly…regular x-ray machines, and then they insisted on going through each piece of handcarry individually. Usually developing country practices in place, a quick 10-15 second check of your bag (open it up, quick look, close it up) if you were western looking, but if you looked local they basically tore it apart and flung everything out of the bag. Ugh!

Upstairs was the waiting area, which was just one big room for 300+ passengers. Just enough seats for everyone, as well as a small cafe and a couple of small shops. No lounge, of course. I decided to kill the 90 minutes until flight time (hopefully only 60 til boarding) people watching, which was reasonably interesting. Several Australian guys getting rather happy on local beer after local beer, a few exhausted looking development worker and missionary types, and lots of people looking fairly nervous like they’d never been on a plane before…you know, the usual developing country travel crowd.

At about 1:50 the plane arrived and unloaded quickly, and by about 2:30 we’d taken our bus to the plane (no special bus for business class this time) and boarded. Pushed back about 35 minutes behind schedule, which the captain said we’d likely make up in the air.

Qatar Airways flight 1444
Asmara, Eritrea (ASM) to Doha, Qatar (DOH)
Depart 02:00, Arrive 05:20, Flight Time 3:20
Airbus A320, Registration A7-ADE, Manufactured 2003, Seat 2D

Unfortunately, upon boarding we were greeting with the old style A320 seats, which since I’d already been expecting them wasn’t so bad. They’re still better than domestic U.S. first class seats since they have a couple inches of extra legroom, and they’re heaps better than European business class since they’re in a 2×2 configuration. Interestingly, my seatmate was the same guy I’d sat next to on the flight into Asmara two days prior who works in the same field as me, and we knew many of the same people. Champagne (white or rosé), juice, or water was offered before takeoff, along with a hot OR cold towel service. Quite nice! My seatmate was asleep before the plane even left the ground, but I decided to stay awake.

My plan was to get four hours of sleep before heading to the airport, stay awake for the awkward 2.5 hour redeye, and then get another 4-5 hours upon arrival in Doha since it was Friday morning anyways, and everything would be closed for prayers in the morning. It sounded good in theory…it remained to be seen if it would work in practice.

Nice meal service for a short redeye, and only myself and one of the other 12 passengers decided to partake:

Pre-meal bubbles and nuts…today’s offering was Veuve Cliquot Rosé:

The prawns and salmon starter, which was super tasty, along with more bread than any one person needs:

The chicken main which was good, but nothing super special. Most surprising was the mashed potatoes…something which usually doesn’t interest me enough to partake, but which was super good. Must have been the ridiculous amounts of butter:

….cheese course one of two. Yes, it was that good, and everyone else was sleeping, soooo…. Had it along with a couple of glasses of a fairly nice tempranillo, and just as I finished the sun was coming up outside. It was about 4:15 am and we had about 45 minutes of flight time remaining:

Then, horror of horrors…there was no dessert left! It seems the passengers on the inbound had consumed all of them, and there were none at all remaining. Seriously Qatar? You don’t cater enough for each passenger in each direction? …and I can’t believe the crew served two each to every passenger on the outbound. Boo hiss! I need my Ladurée. Oh well, my pants thank you at least.

Parked at a bus gate (of course) and took the business class bus to the terminal. Short walk towards immigration (where I spied the creepy giant teddy bear again), and immigration was a breeze. Agent spoke nearly no English, but was anxious to try and chat. “W Hotel! Party! Hot girls!” So, I responded with the only appropriate thing: “na’am…shukran habibi!” (yes, thanks my friend!) It’s amazing how many situations that basic phrase comes in useful in!

Easy to find a cab to the hotel and my taxi driver Mohammad from Pakistan was rocking out to Pitbull for the entire drive. Just what I wanted to hear at 6am…and 50 Qatari Rial later I was at the W. They’d been waiting for me, and asked when I’d like to check out. I’d asked for the 4pm SPG Platinum late check out, and that was no problem…how much later would I like? Can I do 6pm? “What time is your flight? 1am? Oh, how about 8pm, is that ok?” Wow, very nice job…so I had a dayroom for 14 hours. There’s a reason this is one of my favourite SPG properties in the world.

Plus, they upgraded me to a huge “W Suite”

Closed the blinds, cranked down the AC which got nice and frigid, and after a shower was in bed just before 7am…and promptly passed out hard until noon. Was very glad to see that my plan actually worked out! Got up, showered again, and walked the four blocks to the City Centre Mall in the 44C (111F) heat…but at least unlike Massawa it was a dry heat and actually felt nice. Got there at 12:30 and everything was still closed for prayer time…I had to wait 30 minutes to get caffeine. NOOOOO! Did laps of the mall for 30 minutes to get the legs moving, and then finally…coffee!

Uh, Jason, Andrez, sounds totally the same…right?

Walked around a bit after coffee, and found where they hide the skeletons: 😉

What’s not to love about a mall with an ice rink? Reminds me of Kettler Capitals Iceplex where I play…except the rink is supposed to be on the roof, not in the basement! Really wanted to skate, but with a torn rotator cuff decided to be smart and not risk getting hurt by cheap rental skates and out of control children:

I couldn’t resist Chili’s for lunch…I’m betting this margarita had no tequila in it, but honestly I was so tired it was hard to tell!

After lunch caught an uber to the Islamic Museum and wandered around for a couple of hours. I think this is one of the most interesting museusms in the world to me, and actually manages to hold my attention for over two hours which is saying quite a lot for a museum! After wandering caught another uber back to the mall, grabbed another coffee, and then walked back to the hotel:

Swinging chair in the corner of my room where I relaxed, blogged a big, and killed the last hour or so before heading to the airport for my onward flight. There was a sandstorm blowing in, and I hoped there wouldn’t be serious delays…

Eritrea – Arrival and Day 1

Attractions, East Africa 2015, Eritrea, hotels, Restaurants 1 Response »

May 132015

There’s no jetbridges at Asmara airport, and it’s a short walk to the terminal, but they insist on making you take a bus. In a surprisingly nice touch, the 12 people in business class got their own bus, and we made it to immigration ahead of the rest of the passengers. I thought this was a good sign, but alas, it was not to be that easy.

When we arrived in the small one room arrivals area, only one of the four counters was open and I was 7th or 8th in line. Shortly, a second one opened, but they were only processing one person every five minutes or so. After about 20-25 minutes I finally made it to the front of the line, where the immigration officer spoke absolutely no english. I handed him my passport, and my letter showing approval for visa on arrival…and he just started at me. After about a minute of sizing me up, he just started thumbing through my passport and saying “visa” over and over. I pointed at the letter and said “visa on arrival” which was met with him saying “visa” again. I said “no visa” and he pointed across the room and said “visa office.”

Oh, look, there’s a small room off to the side with six people and a few computers in it. They understood what was going on, took my passport and the letter, and gave me a visa application to fill out. Gave it back to them about five minutes later, and they said “wait.” At this point, it had been 30 minutes or so, and not just our entire Qatar plane of 150 had unloaded, but a Turkish 737 had arrived as well, so there were nearly 300 people in the small immigration room. About six of us were waiting for our visas on arrival after around an hour, and finally, the first guy was give his and got to join the remaining 200 people or so…at the back of the line.

After 1:15 or so, the second person got their visa. I was third of the six…but no visa for me. “You go there!” pointing at an office that had “Chief Immigration Officer” printed on the door. He didn’t speak a whole ton of English, but his point was pretty clear. There’s an embassy in the US, why didn’t you get your visa there? I tried to very slowly explain that I had tried to get it there, but due to the delays I had to ask special permission from the Immigration Dept for a visa on arrival, which had formally been granted. This was followed by “where you work? CIA?” Uhhh, no? It’s not the first time I’ve gotten that question, and no clue why…but eventually after showing him business cards, a letter explaining my job, and some other items he agreed to believe me and issue the visa. $70 later I got a nice sticker in my passport for it, and about two hours after arrival I finally had my visa.

It took another 45 minutes in the slow lines to get through to an agent, and finally at around 4am I left the airport, nearly three hours after landing. Oh well…could have been worse? Fortunately, my driver was still waiting for me, and with his limited English he took me to my hotel, the “Sunshine Hotel” for the night. When I got to the room, it was basic but adequate…except there were no blinds on the windows, and the sun would be up in 30 minutes. Unfortunately according to the hotel worker none of the rooms had blinds, because they were all out for cleaning. Ugh. Ok. I just want sleep at this point. Earplugs in, eyeshade on, and attempt to sleep. Bzzz bzzz bzzz…unfortunately, the room also seemed to be a feeding frenzy for mosquitoes. My strategy was to put the Qatar pajamas back on, crawl completely under the covers…head and all…and hope they couldn’t find me. It must have worked because I managed sometime in the next 30 minutes to fall asleep.

My driver had wanted to pick me up at 8am for the city tour, but I told him there was no way that was happening, and we agreed on 10am. Unfortunately, at 8am, there was a knock on my door. It was someone from the travel agency. They needed my passport to go apply for the permit to allow us to drive to Massawa the next day. I was still too tired to argue, so I gave it to her, and told them I’d see them at 10. Managed to fall asleep for another hour or so, then stumble downstairs for a decent, but basic, breakfast. Two fried eggs, two slices of toast, and coffee. Perfectly adequate.

The lobby of the Sunshine Motel, which also served as the dining area:

My luxury, super-bright no shades on the windows room:

Hide from mosquitoes here:

The room could definitely use some renovation:

Just shortly after 10, my driver reappeared, and said we were off. I asked first if it was possible to change hotels…I couldn’t do another night here. He said yes yes, no problem, and we headed off to the Travel Agency. The owner who I’d been corresponding with on email invited me into her office, offered me coffee, and got down to business. First “do you want to change money?” She agreed to front me 4,000 Nakfa at the official rate of 15 Nakfa to the Dollar. Now, the black market rate is closer to 50 to the Dollar, but she told me that was too dangerous. Whatever, it was only two days, and I wasn’t in the mood to argue. She confirmed the tour program, and I was off with my driver, who would also be my tour guide. Despite his basic English things worked pretty well, and we set off on Day 1’s plan, the city tour.

First stop was the Nda Mariam Othodox Church:

We walked around outside the church for a bit, but unfortunately it was closed, so we continued on. Our drive took us past the Red Sea Bottling company, producers of Coca Cola in Eritrea:

From there, we headed just outside of town to the World War II era cemetery, where the soliders of the British Empire who’d died in the area were buried. Fascinating old tombstones for members of the Sudan Defence Force, several South African units, the Punjab Regiment, the Indian Infantry, etc:

At this point we headed back into the city, and picked up the owner of the tour company, and she gave me some suggestions for lunch. We ended up at the Midian Hotel restaurant, where I had a nice plate of Eritrean “Tibs” – a beef dish and gravy, and some injera. It was also my first encounter with the local beer, called appropriately “Eritrea Beer” which came in a short brown bottle with no label on it…but it was tasty enough.

After lunch (which it turned out wasn’t included in my tour, and set me back almost $30 at the official exchange rate – extremely expensive for East Africa), we continued our tour to the Cathedral of Asmara which was also…closed:

This was followed by a stop at the Al Khulafa Al Rashiudin Mosque, which was also closed to non-Muslims for prayer hour:

After this, it was suggested I might like a nap. I think I was dozing off a bit…so we headed back to the hotel just before 3p so I could check into my new hotel and get an hour or two of rest. I was moving to the Asmara Palace Hotel, which was the former Intercontinental. It was $130 a night, quite a step up from the $55 at the Sunshine, but at this point I didn’t care. Oh, and did I mention that even for $130 the “air conditioning hasn’t worked for quite some time.” That would be fine if the hotel was the same temperature as outside, low 70s or so, but for some reason it was an inferno of nearly 80F inside. Opening the windows wasn’t an option with the mosquitoes either. At least they had nice carpeting:

…and a funky atrium lobby:

…and a nice pool, complete with outdoor AND indoor versions:

Took a great 90 minute nap, and at 5pm my driver picked me up to continue our tour a bit. The next stop was the Fiat Tagliero – an old gas that was one of the best examples of art deco architecture in this former Italian colony. It was meant to have the shape of an airplane, and rumour was when it was time to remove the support columns for the “wings” the workers refused to do it because they didn’t trust the architecture, so the designer had to do it himself:

Stopped at the post office to buy some postcards and mail them next…we’ll see if they ever get delivered!

Across the way from the post office was the Albergo Italia hotel, which was listed as one of the better hotels in Asmara. The location couldn’t be beat right in the middle of the city, and it’s probably where I’d choose to stay if I was exploring the city on my own and didn’t want to deal with too many taxis. No clue how nice it was inside, however.

The Roman Catholic church of Asmara:

More art deco, the Cinema Imperio which supposedly still shows movie along with having a bar inside. Unfortunately it was taken over by a school group when we went past, so we weren’t able to go inside:

…and our final stop for the evening, the “recycled goods market.” Here you can find just about anything and everything, constructed from recycled junk that people have foraged for. This pic is a good example of the unique transport options in Asmara. Horse and cart, bicycles, I even saw one camel, and several people using donkeys to haul things:

Back to the hotel, and tonight’s two inside dining options were the buffet (which looked pretty underwhelming) or the Italian restaurant, which looked pretty lively. You can guess which I chose. Delicious lasagna:

It was approaching 10pm at this point, and I was absolutely exhausted from the last two days and managed to pass out for nearly 10 hours. There was a long daytrip to Massawa planned for the next day!

Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam on ZanAir, overnight Dar

Airports, East Africa 2015, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, Tanzania No Responses »

Feb 172015

After my evening wandering the streets of Stone Town trying to find my way to and from dinner, I had a nice relaxing morning. Breakfast was included in the hotel restaurant, which was on the top floor and had a nice view out over the roofs of Stone Town. As an added bonus, the breakfast buffet spread was pretty good and service was quite good as well. Nice relaxing start to the morning.

Checked out, and had the hotel call a taxi for me, which took about 10 minutes to arrive. While waiting, I saw this table in the hotel lobby. I loved it…nine little compartments on top, each filled with a different spice. Something like this would be a great souvenir from the spice island!

Taxi came in about 10 minutes, and the fantastic hotel staff insisted on carrying my bags to the tax, which was maybe a 100 meter walk from the hotel. Many of the streets in Stone Town (including the one the hotel is one) are so small and narrow that no vehicle traffic is possible, so cars just come as close as they can.

Got to Zanzibar Airport, and found out that domestic flights depart from a different terminal, which is just one room with one x-ray machine. There were maybe 50 people waiting when I got there, for an assortment of flights in tiny planes to Dar, Arusha, and possibly some other destinations. There was one check-in counter, with no real signs/indication of where to go for which airline…of which there were at least five different airlines. I just went up every 10 minutes to ask, and eventually, yes, they were checking in my flight lol.

Boarding was five minutes before scheduled departure time, and we started walking to the plane. There were a couple of dozen small plans scattered around the tarmac, so I was curious to see which one we would get. View of the airport:

This little guy turned out to be our plane. Pilot plus room for five passengers, one of which sat in the copilot seat. Smallest plane I’ve ever been on.

ZanAir flight 105
Zanzibar, Tanzania (ZNZ) to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (DAR)
Depart 11:00, Arrive 11:20, Flight Time 20 minutes
Cessna 207A Stationair, Registration 5H-ARD, Manufactured 1980

It was getting hot out. Very hot. So what do you do if you’re the pilot? Hold the window open to get a good breeze going during taxi…of course!

View of the apron at ZNZ just after takeoff:

Flight was a total of about 40 miles, and lasted just over 20 minutes. Soon, we were in Dar es Salaam at the domestic airport:

The domestic and international terminals at Dar are quite a way apart, and all of the other passengers on my plane were connecting to international flights so ZanAir gave them a ride in a company car over to the other terminal…how nice! There were plenty of taxis for me, and prices were posted, so there was no question what a fair price to the hotel would be. Traffic was horrendous, and it took well over an hour to get to the DoubleTree hotel located in the neighbourhood of Oyster Bay.

Was given a very nice upgrade to a suite upon check-in:

I was exhausted from several days of go-go-go traveling, and it was mid afternoon by this point, so I decided to relax for a bit and just enjoy the afternoon by the pool…where I was the only person for most of the afternoon:

Sunset near the hotel:

A friend had recommended I get dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market restaurant, which was located near the hotel. I asked for directions from the bellman, who seemed terrified that I was considering walking there. After convincing him I was serious, he gave me directions, and it was an easy 10 minute or so walk. The neighbourhood didn’t feel the least bit dangerous, even after dark, so I’m not quite sure what the big deal was.

The restaurant itself was fascinating people watching. It was packed with various expat types as well as what appeared to be lots of middle and upper class locals. There were clearly lots of regulars, because the staff were greeting everyone by name. It was a nice warm evening, although there was a breeze, so sitting by the ocean and having dinner was perfect. They tried to sell me on a salmon entree (seriously? salmon? in Africa?) but I passed and asked for something local. Ended up with a red snapper which was quite tasty. Wanted to get dessert as there were several tasty looking options on the menu, but wasn’t all that hungry. I’d later find out the next day that I was getting sick and that’s what had killed my appetite.

Not feeling great headed back to the hotel and early to bed to hopefully sleep it off before heading to Uganda in the morning.

Mombasa to Zanzibar on Fly540, overnight Zanzibar (country #175)

Airports, East Africa 2015, Flights, hotels, Kenya, Restaurants, Tanzania No Responses »

Feb 142015

Somewhere in the middle of the night the aircon in my room decided to crap out, so woke up nice and early a sweaty mess. Lovely. I would have enjoyed the sunrise, except it was super hazy, so there wasn’t really anything to see. Oh well! Might as well check out what the all-inclusive breakfast has to offer.

It was a pretty poor selection, and honestly a step below almost every hotel breakfast I’ve ever had in a major hotel. It was pretty disappointing…there was enough to eat with the fruit, breads, etc, but it was far from exciting. Well, I may not have enjoyed it, but the guest who joined me for breakfast sure wanted some!

My taxi showed up right as promised, 2 minutes early actually, but he apologized up and down for being two minutes late. I informed him he was early, and he was relieved, lol. I don’t know why so many taxi drivers in the developing world are unpleasant and try and cheat you…it kind of goes contrary to the idea of providing good service and making money. Is the concept of service really that foreign? That said, this driver was fantastic and I really appreciated the effort he made to me more than “just” a taxi.

No line to check in at the airport, and off to the departures lounge.which involved going upstairs. Apparently, in Mombasa, knowing how to use an escalator doesn’t go hand in hand with flying:

There was as lounge in the airport which was nice and air conditioned, but apparently my Priority Pass card had expired three days prior and they never bothered to send me the renewal. Sigh. Service from AmEx goes downhill further and further every year. At least I had less than 30 minutes to go until it was time to board.

Walking to the plane:

My big orange ride for the trip to Zanzibar….anything goes!

Fly540 flight 105
Mombasa, Kenya (MBA) to Zanzibar, Tanzania (ZNZ)
Depart 10:50, Arrive 11:30, Flight Time 40 minutes
Canadair CRJ-100, Registration 5Y-BXC, Manufactured 1997, Seat 12A

Not that this plane was a throwback or anything, but they even had borrowed beverage carts from TAROM:

…and other storage carts from Air Littoral:

My boarding pass said “open” for seating, but apparently they’d assigned seats to everyone else. Oh well! For some reason, despite the plane being booked 42/50, there was nobody at all in the last two rows. So I moved back there and had a whole row to myself. Go figure!

Plus, the inflight magazine came with free fashion tips:

Quick flight, no food served, just a bottle of water handed out upon boarding…which was more than enough for barely 30 minutes in the air. Soon, we were landing on Zanzibar!

Visa on arrival was an unpleasant $100, but it came with a full colour sticker and was good for multiple entries for a full year, so I suppose it wasn’t awful. The ATMs in the airport were all broken, so my next task was to find a taxi who would take me to the hotel and accept Euros or US Dollars. I’d been told to expect roughly $30, so when a driver offered me a ride for $10 I jumped on it…20 minute or so ride, and I was at my hotel, the Doubletree Stone Town Zanzibar.

This hotel is almost a small boutique hotel right in the heart of Stone Town, and has maybe 60 rooms spread across 6 floors. I received a Diamond upgrade to a “deluxe king” room which was very nice…and freezing cold! I was in Heaven! The decor felt “very Zanzibar” to me, and for the price paid it was a fantastic room.

My first mission was to go on a long walk and enjoy stone town, but first I needed a coffee. Delicious double espresso at a little cafe right next to the hotel. Price? Less than $2

After rejuvenating thanks to the magic of coffee, it was time to begin my walk through Stone Town:

Walking along the corniche:

The tree known, appropriately, as “the big tree”

To Comoros via Mayotte on Air Madagascar, exploring Comoros (country #174)

Airports, Attractions, Business Class, Comoros, East Africa 2015, Flights, hotels, Madagascar, Restaurants 1 Response »

Feb 122015

Up early to do a bit more exploring in Tana before heading to the airport for my flight. I’m generally not a big fan of organized tours, but in this case I’m super glad I booked it. Despite only having three nights in Madagascar, this company packed a lot in when I told them I wanted to see as much as possible and they really did their best to not only be flexible when I changed what I wanted to do – but also to cram in as much as I wanted.

That said, early check out from the hotel and off to do a bit more touring. First stop was Haut-Ville, the part of the city built high in the hills overlooking downtown Tana:

The National Stadium:

After walking around the upper town for a bit, we got back in the car to visit a souvenir/craft market on the way to the airport. Lots of interesting little things, but nothing I liked so much I wanted to haul it around Africa for another couple of weeks. View of the river next to the market:

Some of the market stalls:

Check-in wasn’t open yet when I got to the airport, as it was nearly three hours until the flight. My driver was afraid of traffic jams, so wanted to be sure to leave plenty of time just in case. The queues to get to the check-in counters weren’t marked at all, so I had to ask around which one to get in. “Oh, and is there a business class one?” Nobody seemed to know. Everyone just sort of lined up, and waited. It seemed there were no mid-morning flights at all, but plenty of them around the same time as mine…as there were three different flights waiting to check-in.

As it got more obvious they were about to open check-in I asked a few security guard looking types where Air Madagascar business class line was. They just escorted me to the front, and I was first to the counter when check-in opened. No problems at all, immigration and security were a breeze, and soon it was time to see what the Air Madagascar Business Class Lounge was all about:

There’s no pictures. For a reason. It was so dark in the lounge I’m not sure they would have turned out. It was also incredibly warm, despite the fact it was nice and cool outside. There was a fan…which I commandeered and pointed at my seat. There was plenty of beverages – coffee and espresso made to order, which the lounge attendant happily delivered. The internet kept cutting in and out, and was more or less useless. With an hour to go to flight time, I decided to go people watch in the terminal instead. Soon, my plane arrived:

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