Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia | 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!

Exploring N’Djamena, Chad

Attractions, Chad, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia No Responses »

Oct 082015

There was no alarm set this morning. Despite the terrifying bug on the window when we checked in, managed to sleep in a good deal before heading down to breakfast. After a solid meal, we checked with the front desk about the possibility of getting a driver for the day. We had written to several tour companies before leaving, but they all wanted in excess of 200 Euros for a day of touring. No thanks!

Meanwhile, the hotel was willing to provide us a driver for 10,000 CFA an hour, or less than $20. Sold! The only catch was that he would not be available to slightly after lunch. No problem there. Nice morning of relaxing, and we were off to see the city. We had wanted to go out to Lake Chad, but unfortunately, it was closed with military roadblocks thanks to terrorist activity in the area. THANKS BOKO! So, we would have to be content with a tour of N’Djamena. After grabbing lunch at the hotel, we met our driver, complete with air conditioned car, and we were off.

First stop was the National Museum, which was located maybe a five minute drive from the hotel. We pulled into the car park, and everything was suspiciously quiet. As we walked up to the front door, there were a few guys lounging out front just sitting around. Turns out one of them was the museum manager/guide/not sure what he did. This whole thing was seeming very informal. Yes, the museum was open, and we could see it if we wanted.

Went inside, and he had a surprisingly formal receipt book, with all sorts of official stamps. Then, he requested ID to let us visit. We hadn’t brought passports, and I could tell he was debating if it would just be easier to send us on our way so he didn’t have to give a tour. Eventually, I found my PADI scuba certification card in my wallet, and he agreed that was official enough to let us in, hahaha. Receipt stamped, and he started giving us the tour. We started in the main room which was a tour of the history of Chad.

Unfortunately the guide spoke no English, and his French wasn’t fantastic either so we more or less had to go by the signs on the exhibits, which were at least in proper French. One of the first stops was this bird costume used in ceremonial rituals:

Along with a traditional xylophone:

Ancient Islamic prayer mat:

Verses from the Koran sculpted on wood:

After spending a while touring the first floor (along with the guide, we were definitely the only people in the entire museum) he took us upstairs to the exhibit which was the highlight of the museum. The centre of the exhibit was a 6-7 million year old skull which was found in Chad in 2002 and is thought to be the oldest ancestor known of humankind, which has been named Toumaï man. The skull:

Another angle, along with another skull found in the area:

After the museum, we decided we would go see the Central Market/Grand Marché. We’d been highly discouraged from this by several sources, mainly because just a couple months prior Boko Haram had bombed the market, killing dozens. Even our driver wasn’t keen on going into the market, so dropped us off, and told us to come back to the car when done, he would go to the mosque to pray. We wandered for maybe an hour, and other than quite a lot of curious stares, no trouble at all. Perhaps the funniest moment was running into the only other white person in the market, and the WTF are you doing here?! look that he gave us, lol. In fairness, we wondered the same thing about him!

Had to be extremely careful taking pictures, however, because it was banned by the military since the bombing. One decent covert shot:

From the market we headed to the Cathedral of N’djamena, which had clearly seen better days. It was surrounded by a fence, and when we got close to try and take better pictures of it, a group of police/military guys with big guns started yelling at us. We decided it was best to go back to the car and be satisfied with a poor shot/visit:

After that, the next stop was the Place de la Nation monument to the founding of Chad. We wanted to stop and get a proper picture, but it was clearly “inderdit” according to our driver, so instead he drove around the square a few times until I managed to snap a pretty decent covert pic from the car:

After this, we headed to another market on the outskirts of the city where getting photos was a bit easier:

Hauling goods at the market:

Busy market scene:

At the edge of the market:

Really thrilled to get this picture, great example of local transport, local dress, and goats in the background!

…speaking of goats, they were everywhere:

Our final stop on the route back to the hotel was for a haircut, at the world-reknowned “Salon Obama” for men:

After several hours of driving around seeing the few sights N’Djamena had to offer it was back to the hotel just after sunset to relax and get ready to head onward the next day!

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!

Exploring Lomé, Togo, and a sidetrip to Abomey, Benin

Attractions, Benin, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, Togo 4 Responses »

Sep 302015

After unwinding in the hotel for a bit and relaxing, we decided to head out and get some dinner. Ian had found a place recommended by a friend that promised to be really interesting. It claimed to be “kind of ” German food, and the online reviews called it a fascinating cultural mixing pot…so we had to go! Took a taxi towards where google maps said it was, and it turned out to be a little further walk than expected, but eventually we found Alt Munchen. It definitely had a bit of that beer garden feel, and even some semi-authentic sausages and sauerkraut:

…and flaming bananas for dessert!

Next morning we were up early for breakfast at the hotel before our driver picked us up. He was right on time, and we headed east on the road out of Lomé to the Togolese border. The border was a pretty lively place, but there was absolutely no hassle. Usually at west African borders like this there are dozens of touts trying to sell you pens, arrivals cards, whatever they think they can get a little money for. Here, it was super easy. Stamped out of Togo no questions asked, and then onto Benin.

We already had our Benin visas, and got a few questions about where we were going, how long we would stay there, etc. They spent a lot of time writing down all of our passport details in some big books, and eventually started asking more and more questions. The conversation turned to what seemed to be the “you’re missing something” direction, but then the customs officer asked about my tattoo. I had to first explain to him what an octopus was, and then why I had one. He didn’t seem to grasp it, until I made up a really wild story about being attacked by an octopus as a child, and then he let us go.

There’s a theory that when dealing with corruption there are three ways to approach it. First, you can give them “power” and you will always lose. Then, you can interact with them as an “official” or a job-related approach, but they could come up with some technicality that they think they can get you on. However, the third layer if you can get there is to have a one-on-one personal interaction with them, and then graft is almost impossible. Seems to have worked in this case when we had a long chat about the tattoo, and he soon sent us on our way. Our driver was already waiting for us on the other side, and we set off to the town of Grand Popo, Benin:

Up until this point the road was pretty good, and we were making good time:

But when we turned to the north, the road became dirt, with giant car-swallowing potholes to avoid:

Village woman selling bananas:

Eventually, after a long drive we arrived at the Royal Palaces of Abomey. These were built by the Fou people from about 1650 to the late 1800s, and each king would build a new palace when he took over. There was a tour just starting when we arrived (French only, of course), so we joined in with some local families. We were definitely the only tourists from abroad today. First stop was the palace of King Glele:

The courtyard, and entrance to the palace museum:

This was the structure where they buried the king, with animal sacrifices scattered around:

Photo of Ian in the courtyard:

Inside of the burial structure:

In total the tour was about two hours, and was a good introduction to how the kingdoms and tribes of the area had not only resisted colonialism, but had cooperated with colonialists to resist each other. In the end, of course, the colonialists won and everyone pretty much got screwed over.

On the way back, given the condition of the road, we decided to take the other route back to Togo. This involved heading west to the border, before shooting south to Lomé. We thought it was a good idea initially, and the terrain was quite lush and the road quite good:

However, after about ten miles, the road got much, much worse than that we had come in on:

Huge trucks stirring up dust on the heavily potholed road:

At this point, we came across a police truck having pulled over a truck searching for contraband. We never did find out what they were looking for, however, they got several of the big trucks off the road which were blocking traffic, so it sped up our journey at least slightly.

Then, we finally got to the border. In contrast to the southern border, this one was super quiet and deserted. Nobody in sight. Getting stamped out of Benin took much longer than it should…the official invited us into a small building, asked us to sit down, and took what was nearly an hour to fill out his log book and apply all the various stamps he decided he needed to to both the logbook and our passports. Then, it was time to walk a small bit before the Togo border.

At this point, we weren’t sure our visas were good for a second entry, so it was time to play it by ear. We were standing outside at the Togo border, goats and chickens walking around, and he started to write our details in the logbook. He seemed happy with the visas, and then…the question came again. What’s the story with the tattoo. It took a while, but eventually ended in the same way. No hassle at all, and we were allowed back into Togo. Our driver, however, did have to pay a small bribe of around 1,000 CFA to get the car across. Also, while we were waiting to have all our details recored, a few people walked through the border, just handed the border guy a little change, and he waved them through. Seems that if you’re local, you just pay a small sum, and cross. Kind of sad.

We got back relatively late, and were absolutely exhausted after a full day of driving on rural African roads, so decided to stay in at the hotel and eat. Solid meal in the hotel restaurant, and got a good long night of sleep to catch up.

The next morning, our driver picked us up again to take us to the Marché des Feticheurs – basically the voodoo market. I’d visited there before, but thought it was something quirky and local Ian should see. It had become a bit more touristy since my previous visit, and even had signs posted offering tours and English-speaking guides. Bonus. The guide took us around and showed us all the “ingredients” for the various things…starting with miscellaneous owls and birds:

…moving onto bats, starfish, and other assorted critters. The porcupine quills are for cutting a gash in the skin. Then, after the ingredients are ground up they are smashed into the bleeding skin to let them work their magic. Sounds hygienic, right?

More birds, all for various ailments:

Overview of the market stalls:

After the tour, we got taken to see the local witch doctor, who unfortunately wasn’t in today. But not to worry, his son was, and was happy to try and sell us all sorts of trinkets. Ian bough a talisman that was supposed to be for safe travel (they know their market) and soon we were back to the hotel to pack up and head to the airport. It was time to head on to Chad!

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.

Exploring Bangui and the CAR

Attractions, Central African Republic, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia No Responses »

Sep 212015

We were up early the next morning, and met up for breakfast. I went to the front desk to check on the status of our driver for the day, and they still hadn’t heard anything…but promised to let us know. No clue why it was so difficult! Went back 30 minutes later and it was confirmed. The price was lower than we expected, so it turned out to be all good in the end.

Unfortunately our driver spoke no English, so I got to chat with him and play translator. I felt semi-bad for Ian and Jordan, but he was a good driver so it worked out. He was happy to share his version of the recent troubles CAR has been going through, and his insights into how things are now. The one word he kept using over and over to describe the current situation was “calm.”

Turns out the reason for the delay is the hotel has one driver they use, and he was sleeping/unavailable when we originally made the request. When they finally got in touch with him, he was happy to take us and he decided the price he would charge. We were headed to the Chutes de Boali waterfalls, about a two hour drive out of town. The roads turned out to be pretty good for the most part, and I’d guess it was a roughly 120-150km drive each way through pretty typical African countryside with wide open spaces:

After about two hours of driving, we got to the turnoff point to the falls, where the road was gravel and quite a bit rougher:

Headed to the waterfalls:

When we got to the falls, we were swarmed with local kids insisting on playing guide. There was no way we were getting rid of them, and they only wanted a few dollars, so we decided to play along. It was worth it in the end because they were happy to show us around. First stop on the overlook, the falls were much bigger than I had expected!

Our driver turned out to be a pretty good photographer too!

Wide angle view of the falls:

The kids asked who wanted to go down to the base of the falls, and Ian and Jordan decided to go. I decided that with the semi-recent shoulder surgery it was better that I passed on it, and in the end I think that was a good call. I don’t think Jordan went all the way down, but Ian did:

Unfortunately somewhere near the bottom he slipped pretty badly and banged his jaw on a rock. Fortunately nothing cut or broken, but he was definitely pretty sore for the next few days!

Our driver taking a selfie at the falls:

After that, the kids took us to the top of the falls, maybe 100 meters from where they plunged down below. Of course there was a bridge across the river, which given how it looked I decided to skip again. Ian was a bit braver:

…as was Jordan, with the kids making sure he was safe:

After the bridge we headed to the final viewing platform at the top of the falls. There were a few UN types hanging around there, and they’d brought their own personal bodyguards to make sure they were safe. I still don’t know if this is just typical UN overcautious, or if the situation was really that volatile that things could have gone south at the drop of a hat. Either way, at no point at all did I feel the least bit unsafe:

After the falls, our driver asked if we would like to see the small city of Boali. Absolutely! He took us to the house of the local pastor, saying we would be safe with the pastor walking us through the town on a Sunday…nobody would mess with the pastor!

We set off on the walk, and everyone we passed was smiling and waving to us, and greeting the pastor. It was a super cool experience. A little girl with her mother, playing in the wreckage of a burned out car:

Street shot of the town of Boali:

The walk was super interesting, and the pastor was happy to share his views on things. Seems the Seleka rebels had come to Boali because of the hydroelectric plant there, and they wanted to cut power to the capital. People resisted him, but he said they brutally killed hundreds of townspeople. You wouldn’t know it from the friendliness we saw, but apparently Boali had seriously suffered as recently as just six months ago.

I wanted to keep walking and talking to him more, but the sun was also super strong and we were getting pretty hot, so it was time for the long drive back. On the way, we passed a group of women in very colourful outfits just walking down the road:

We also saw several men transporting wood on carts like this:

Very overloaded car…this guy didn’t seem happy to have his photo taken:

We made it back to the hotel late afternoon, and grabbed a snack, hanging out for the rest of the day. We considered wandering the city, but given we didn’t really have the lay of the land and darkness was just over an hour away decided it probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas. It was time to fly out early the next morning and continue the adventure!

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!

Exploring Douala

Attractions, Cameroon, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, hotels 2 Responses »

Sep 172015

So, this is going to turn out to be a lot shorter than initially planned. Thanks to the Pullman being such luxurious accommodations, and thanks to Turkish being over an hour late, we didn’t make it to bed until nearly 4am, but somehow managed to sleep until 10am…waking up to what looking to be very ominous clouds. We did manage to hurry up and get out the door to see how much we could explore before the skies opened up.

Headed out the hotel for a short walk, first stop being the Place de Gouvernement about 1km away. The skies were starting to look very ominous at this point, but managed to see the World War One monument, which had changed quite a bit in the three years since I’d been there. The statue that used to sit atop it was gone, but not sure why. Political reasons? Things just falling apart? Regardless, it had seen much better days.

The Palais de Justice, which had also seen much, much better days. I “littoral”ly could hardly take a pic of it it was so depressing! I was beginning to get the impression after the hotel and a few sites that all was not well in the state of Cameroon…

Another monument/obelisk on the square…but was unclear what it was…but it looked semi-photoworthy!

At this point, the rain started, and in five minutes it had become quite a downpour. We opted to bail on the last stop on the walking tour (the cathedral) and hail a cab back to the hotel. Managed to find one, and hit the hotel coffeeshop for something resembling breakfast. By resembling I mean a couple of double espressos each (which turned out to be $8 each…ouch!) and a few biscuits. Since that wasn’t cutting it, and the rain had finally let up by this point, we headed to the poolside cafe for an early lunch. The pizza was surprisingly tasty, and the Castels were ice cold and adequate…

At this point it was less than three hours until our next flight, so packed up, checked out, and caught the hotel shuttle (which was there this time) to the airport to begin the real adventures…the Central African Republic!

Delhi to Douala, Cameroon on Turkish, overnight in Douala

Airports, Business Class, Cameroon, Chad CAR Middle East Mongolia, hotels, Turkey No Responses »

Sep 152015

When I was booking this trip, I debated for a long time the merits of getting a hotel in India. I would land in India just before 22:00 and depart the next morning at 06:00. Best case, after immigration, check-in, etc, I knew that meant I’d get four hours of sleep max in the hotel. Was it really worth it? Well, immigration ended up taking nearly an hour, and it was 11:15 by the time I got to the hotel, 11:30 by the time I checked in. I decided to push it as much as possible, and leave for the airport at 04:00, getting there just 90 minutes before an international flight. That meant…4.5 hours at the hotel. By the time you subtract showers, the half bottle of wine the hotel gave me (great sleep aid) I slept a grand total of 3:15.

It was worth every penny…and must have been the perfect long nap to reset my body clock, because I’ve been sleeping amazingly this entire trip. Not a single sign of jetlag. Money very well spent!

Hotel car took me to the airport, and check-in was pretty easy although they had a pretty hard time figuring out how to print my onward boarding pass to Cameroon. No line at immigration and security, and off to the lounge. Oh yes, the lounge. What was really strange at check-in is they had stacks of lounge invites to three different ones, and were just randomly handing them out. There were two colleagues in front of me at check-in who got invites to different lounges…and the check-in agent couldn’t figure out why this was a problem!

I ended up with an invite to the ITC Green Lounge, which was perfectly adequate at 04:30. Not crowded, plenty of power outlets, plentiful ice cold diet coke, and a variety of hot and cold snacks. I had a few samosas which were pretty tasty along with a few diet cokes, and I was ready to go. Off to the gate, and boarding was already underway.

Turkish Airlines flight 717
Delhi, India (DEL) to Istanbul Attaturk, Turkey (IST)
Depart 6:05, Arrive 10:25, Flight Time: 6:50
Airbus A330-300, Registration TC-JOB, Manufactured 2014, Seat 4D

Nice lay-flat seats on this bird, but odd that the foot rest/shelf had no separation from the seat next to it, meaning if you sleep at all angled you could be playing footsie with your seatmate. Awkward. Decided to go with the lemonade welcome aboard drink instead of my usual orange. Tasty!

What’s for breakfast this morning?

Champagne brunch. I figured since I was already disoriented timewise, and it was like 21:00 back home, it made perfect sense. Yes, this is how I rationalize things! Nice starter, and the cheeses were quite tasty.

The “turkish pastry with cheese.” It was rather odd, and I think I might have finished half off it. Just strange, but wasn’t really super hungry anyways so it sufficed.

Debated a small nap, but instead got sucked into a horrible movie. Something about people bending dimensions and traveling to other solar systems to colonize a new home for mankind. It was three plus hours of my life I’ll never get back, but it did make time go by quickly. Soon we were just an hour outside Istanbul and a small snack was served. I can’t escape the samosas!

Landed right on time just about 10:00 and headed to the lounge to grab some water and check e-mail. After a detour to Starbucks, of course, to ingest large amounts of caffeine to get me moving. Mission accomplished, around 11:00 I decided it was a waste to sit around the lounge all day and decided to head into the city. The Turkish lounge has nice lockers where you can lock bags up, so I packed a daybag and headed out. Passport, wallet and cell phone and I was good to go.

Had to find my way back downstairs to arrivals, which I finally did, purchased a visa, and found the metro to the city. Decided I would go see the Blue Mosque, which would require a short ride on metro followed by a tram. Fortunately, I remembered how this worked from previous visits and it went off without a hitch. The walking around really helped, and maybe was another secret of why I avoided jetlag this trip. I tried to walk as much as possible and see as much daylight as possible to help my body realize just what time it was. The flight to India had moved me forward 9.5 hours, now I was back 2.5 hours, and the flight to Cameroon would go back another 2 hours. Regardless, it was a gorgeous day in Istanbul:

Got back to the airport about two hours before the next flight, right after Ian’s flight from Munich had landed. Snacks in the lounge, a well-deserved shower to rinse off the sweat from a 90F sunny Istanbul day, and it was time to head to the final flight of the day…the never-ending 737 flight from hell…nearly seven hours to Yaoundé, Cameroon followed by another short hop on to Douala. Jordan’s insane flight from Houston had just landed and he met us at the gate. Hats off to him, there’s no way I could survive 20 hours in economy!

Our gate area was an interesting mix of folks, but very few from Cameroon. Lots of Ukrainian, American, and South African passports around us, many of whom we’d see the next day on our flight to CAR. Any bets what’s going on there?

Turkish Airlines flight 69
Istanbul Attaturk, Turkey (IST) to Yaoundé, Cameroon (NSI)
Depart 18:15, Arrive 23:05, Flight Time: 6:50
Airbus 737-900, Registration TC-JYE, Manufactured 2012, Seat 3F

Two pieces of good news on this flight. First, these were the longhaul 737 seats, which meant there was approximately 18 extra inches of legroom over a standard “domestic first” configration. Even better, business was only booked to 3 of 16 seats tonight, so we had tons of space to spread out. We must have been exhausted, because we were still both too exhausted to think about logically switching rows to have more space, and stayed in 3E and 3F. Switched from the lemonade to the orange juice this time for a welcome drink…and water.

Takeoff from Istanbul at sunset…

So, what’s for dinner tonight?

This is where it got ridiculous. Turkish decided that since there were only three people in business class, they would order exactly one of each main course. One fish, one beef, and one vegetarian green beans. I was second to order, and got my request of beef. Ian, unfortunately, was asked if he “would mind having the green beans.” Ugh, yes, I’m pretty sure he minded. They promised they would find something else…

As usual, a fantastic starter from Turkish:

The beef, however, was tough and pretty much inedible. They found Ian some other beef dish that looked much, much better. Was probably a crew meal…

Passed the flight trying to nap unsuccessfully, and watching episode after episode of Scandal. About an hour before landing a small snack was served, including a delicious raspberry cake of some sort.

This is what we call “avoiding Libyan airpace” and no-fly zones. It must have added at least an hour to the flight.

Then, we noticed we appeared to be circling. Turned out the airport at Yaoundé was closed due to being fogged in and below minimums for landing. Um, after nearly seven hours in flight how much fuel can be left on a 737? After about 20 minutes circling, the captain announced we were landing. He didn’t, however, announce that minimums had been met. Entirely possible there wasn’t enough fuel for an alternate?

Turkish Airlines flight 69
Yaoundé, Cameroon (NSI) to Douala, Cameroon (DLA)
Depart 00:05, Arrive 01:05, Flight Time: 1:00
Airbus 737-900, Registration TC-JYE, Manufactured 2012, Seat 3F

After about 45 minutes on the ground, we took off for the 35 minute flight to Douala and arrived about an hour late at nearly 2am. Ugh! Fortunately, immigration was a breeze and we were out to find the hotel shuttle around 2:15. Except, the hotel shuttle was nowhere to be found, and the ATMs at the airport were all broken. The taxi mafia settled on 10 euros to drop Jordan at his hotel first, and then take Ian and I to our hotel. It was a ripoff, but at 230am there wasn’t much choice.

The hotel. Ugh. I’d stayed here about two years ago when it was the Le Meridien, and it was…adequate. Now it was the Pullman, and reviews online weren’t great. First off, I’d screwed up and booked a locals-only rate, so we ended up having to pay about 50% more than expected. Then, they couldn’t understand the concept of a room with two beds. Once that was finally sorted we got to the room…which was a sauna. The second room was marginally better, but not great. I left Ian to see if it would cool down, and I went and checked out another two rooms which were even worse.

Then, there was no water in the room. I went to the front desk three times to ask water to be brought up, but it never happened. Fortunately, I’d saved a bottle from the plane to brush my teeth, and Ian (being the fancy one he is) ended up using the minibar Perrier to brush his teeth. Finally, around 4am the room cooled down just enough to consider sleep, but I was thirsty and had to settle for the only option in the minibar…beer. I threw a bit of a fit at checkout the next morning about not being able to get water, and they did kindly comp the Perrier and beer. But ugh, this property has gone from adequate to dismal…and for the price recommend avoiding it at all costs.

We got up at a semi-reasonable hour, and decided to head out exploring just a bit to get some walking in before the adventure was to really begin!

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