Getting Ready
This is one
of the very few trips that I get stressed out about packing the right things for the trip. Since we are doing the
Kilimanjaro climb as well as for the safari, I had to pack for my daughters to do a successful climb and to make sure that I don't
forget anything or pack more than needed. My daughters do not hike much (specially winter hiking) so I don't have a lot of
winter clothing needed for the trek. I
was reaching out to my buddies from the ASHA climbing group for down jackets,
mittens, etc. I had collected all of the
things that are listed in the checklist for the climb given by the tour
operator. My worries were about packing
the right stuff needed for the trek and not having the right stuff (e.g. shoes,
jackets) being an excuse for not summiting.
Also, our schedule was so tight, there's no time to buy anything in
Arusha if I missed any (we reached Arusha @2 pm and started the climb the next day
@8 am). I was little worried about the
hydration pack and limited number of water bottles that we had, I had only one
Camel pack 3.0L and 2 one liter water bottles.
Considering the trekking time on the last day of 12+ hrs, I decided to
get a few more bottles and another camel pack so that each one of us
will have at least 3.0L of water on the summit day. I bought these at the night before leaving.Diamox Dilemma
The Sunday
before the flight while packing the medicines I noticed that the Diamox (altitude medicine) prescribed for my kids was 4 times stronger than what was prescribed for
me. Which made wonder whether my doctor
was correct or my daughter's doctor was correct. Looking at the web and some more research,
figured out that the prescription for my daughters were overdone, so called
their clinic to talk to the doctor. When
the doctor returned the call, the doctor on the call mentioned that it's
recommended to have about 250 mg to 1000 mg a day so the doctor prescribed
1000 mg/day for my kids. Told him what I
had found on line and recommendation from my other climbing buddies and asked
to reduced the dosage. So he sent the
prescription to Rite Aid for 500 mg/day (250 mg twice a day). Didn't want to argue with him and decided to
give only half of 250 mg pill for each time.
The pharmacist at the Rite Aid, Debby, was very kind to cancel my
previous prescription and to issue the new prescription on time (which by the
way saved about $150).
The other
things were that my yellow fever card had a wrong date of birth filled out by
the travel clinic and quality of our rain jackets. I had given the card to the clinic to take
care of the date of birth issue and borrowed a different rain jacket from a friend. These small things added to the list of other
small things and made my life stressful however well I planed ;-)
Packing
Placed a
plastic garbage bag inside the backpack for water proofing and packed the
things that I needed for the Kili trek separately from the safari. Having a bunch of gloves, jackets and winter
stuff filled up the backpack quickly.
Bought some chocolate candies to give out to the kids in Africa but
decided not to take them: one lack of space and the second thing is that Shabina didn't
want to give them unhealthy food.
There's no reason for me to pack everything in the garbage bag at that point, I could have waited 'til the day before the climb day. Because I had to take out everything to show
the guide what I was taking.
I was
hoping that I could check-in only the bag that I packed with creams and liquids
but British Airways doesn't allow the
backpacks as hand luggage, so I had to check in all of the
backpacks. I always try not to check-in
the backpacks because I don't trust the airlines to deliver the bags on time
and I don't want to be waiting for the bags instead of continuing with the
journey. Given the current condition, to
have peace of mind, I decided to check in the bags only 'til London instead of
to Nairobi and decided to store them in the airport before visiting my friend.
Stopover in London
London
Landed in London on time and moved a bunch of heavy stuff from the backpacks to one pack to leave with the storage locker area. Didn't want to spend a lot of money storing the bags in the locker and didn't mind carrying lighter bags. By the time, I left the bag in the locker area to leave for the shuttle to catch the bus to Croydon, where my friend lives, it's 1pm. Confused about which shuttle to take because all of them looked like regular metro buses. I was told that there's no need to buy ticket to go where we needed to go and we needed to take the regular metros to our stop to get another bus. This is completely different from what we do to the tourists at USA by asking them to pay for luggage carts at the airport and nothing free once you land in USA ;-) Don't understand how we are inconsiderate to the person landing at the international terminal expecting them to have US dollars to pay for the luggage carts where these are free in most of the airports (even in the developing countries) ;-(Meeting
When we got
down at the East Croydon bus stop, I could spot her standing about 75 feet
away without any difficulty while I find it difficult to recognize my co-workers after a couple of year not seeing them ;-). It is amazing how you start where
you left off with the friends however long after even if there is no
communications, we were talking about
the things that happened in our lives.
My daughters were getting along well with her younger son (Sid). We were teasing and joking around with him 'til his brother Kaushik joined and started teasing Kaushik. After enjoying fresh dosas
and sambar vada for the evening snack, the memory lane discussions continued
while Sharada/Shabina went to take a nap. I was
very glad to stop over in London and meet with her family, and it made my list
of people that I wanted to meet this year complete, the other friends who I wanted to meet were Kasi and Murugan from Guindy College.
Leaving London
The
security check at the London was very quick and efficient, and we couldn't take
our backpacks as hand luggage so checked them in and prayed that they would make
it to Nairobi in the same flight. The security at the London airport was pretty smooth but they took away my (sealed) cough syrup because it was more than 120ml which the US security allowed me to carry..;-( I was planning to use that as sleeping medicine but now gone.
Africa
Nairobi Arrival
The immigration at the Nairobi airport was pretty quick and efficient. Since we already arranged for cab pickup from Comfort Hotel, there's no hassle in getting to the hotel on time for good night sleep. The only thing that I was worried about was that the luggage not making on time knowing of the British Airlines track record. But luckily, we had our luggage waiting and checked in to the hotel before 11 pm.Comfort Inn Hotel - Nairobi
The room was clean and spacious. Since the hotel was in the center of the city, there's a lot of road noise early in the morning. Anyway, we had to get ready by 730 AM to catch our shuttle, the road noise helped us get out of the bed quickly to enjoy the breakfast at the hotel more relaxingly. Packed a few bottles of water and juice for the shuttle ride.
Shuttle
The Rainbow shuttle driver came over to the hotel to get us around 730 AM and the 18 seat shuttle van (not really a bus) was just 2 minutes away from the hotel. The driver told us that the shuttle van is operated by Basecamp Tanzania too. All of our luggage were secured on the top of the van and we were able to get comfortable seats at the front of the van. Having our luggage on the top of the van covered with tarp was good and realized that there is no reason carry the bag around the immigration counters ;-) It looks like most of the shuttles leave from that area and a bunch of vendors selling some souvenirs. The vendors were not harassing anyone and they were pretty easy to deal with. I wish that I bought a few Kenyan stuff there but didn't want to change my dollar bills. Nairobi to Arusha
The USA citizens can only get multiple entry visas and they cost $100 per person. The immigration agent at Tanzania entry point was asking for new dollar bills that were printed after year 2006 to issue the visa. But all I had was older bills and they don't accept either travelers checks or Tanzanian Shillings. After discussing among themselves for a few minutes, he accepted the money and delivered the visa. The overall immigration and crossing border was smooth and took less than 15 minutes. We were looking for the view of Kilimanjaro but there's was no sight of it because of the clouds but we could see Mt. Meru. The overall trip from Nairobi to Arusha took about 5 hours and we had to wait in the bus stop for some other car to drop us in the hotel. After an hour, we were dropped in the Ilboru Safari Lodge for our stay before the climb.Departure Plan
Arusha to Home Plan
I was using
British Airlines Avios points, free companion ticket to fly for this trip
and I could not get the mileage ticket for the third ticket. So Shabina and I
were using the Avios points to fly to Nairobi and return from Dar Es Salaam while for my elder daughter, Sharada, I bought the round trip ticket from
Seattle to Nairobi, so on our return trip, we were flying separately. This was done to save to money and I had
figured out that travelling from Arusha to Nairobi airport during the daytime and alone shouldn't be a
problem. But I got harassed and advised
by a whole bunch of people (who care for us) how I was allowing a girl to travel alone from
Tanzania to Nairobi alone. My response
to them was if she could vote to elect the president for the most powerful country
in the world, she must be responsible & capable to travel alone ;-)
Why Shuttle To Nairobi
After researching about the air tickets from
Arusha/Kilimanjaro to Nairobi and flight reliability, I decided to book the
shuttle to Nairobi for Sharada. The logic was that
even if the shuttle breaks down, she'll be able to reach the airport on time to
catch her flight on time (there's about 5 hour allowance between the estimated
shuttle arrival time and flight check in time).
But I couldn't say the same about the flight reliability and the shuttle
trip is not bad at all. Guessing that
there'd be other travelers, thought it would be safe. Also, got the Tanzanian SIM card for her phone to keep us updated at main points, e.g. immigration points, arriving at the airport, etc. The decision to make her to take the shuttle was
one of the smart decisions and I realized it when we (Shabina and I) tried to
reach Dar Es Salaam with the Fly540 flight.
Plan for Dar
Most of the
shuttles to Dar Es Salaam take more than 8 hours, they leave Arusha in the morning 8 am reaches Dar Es Salaam after 5 pm, so I
decided to take my chances with the flight.
So bought the tickets using the online travel agency Vayama in the
Fly540 airlines to fly from Kilimanjaro to Dar Es Salaam. Couple of times before I left for Tanzania, I got emails from Vayama advising me about schedule changes stating the flight
leaves a couple of hours earlier. The plan was to take the 2 pm
flight from Kilimanjaro and arrive Dar Es Salaam at 4 pm to meet the family friend
of ours, and go for shopping there.
Departure From Arusha
Lake Manyara to Arusha
We were
initially planning to go for the morning drive to the Lake Manyara from our
camp but given up the idea because of the vehicle condition as well as the
confusion created by the tour operator.
Our jeep was having starter problem, needed manual push for the vehicle to start and the guide didn't know that
we paid for the morning drive. We had already been to the
Lake Manyara the previous day and also I didn't' want to get delayed going
to the airport, so it worked in our favor and asked the tour operator to pay back the park fees. Since we left our camp around
8 am and reached the Basecamp Tanzania offices to meet with Achmed around 1015
am. Briefly gave him our feedback about
the safari and collected $100 for the park fee, we left to collect the bags
from the hotel. Achmed asked me not to
worry about Sharada's trip to the airport in the shuttle and he advised that
the shuttle driver would come to pick her up from the hotel. During the mid-day, the traffic was pretty
bad in the city but nothing compared to the way people drive in India ;-),
drivers were still following the rules.Hotel Confusion
I was
assuming that the shuttle driver would come to pick up Sharada at the Ilboru
Safari Lodge and when the driver was taking a different side road, asked him
where he was going. He mentioned that
he's going to a different hotel and indicated that the shuttle would come there
to pick Sharada up. Then I had to remind
him about the need to pick up the left luggage from the Ilboru Safari
Lodge. Turning around, getting around
the traffic to go to the Ilboru Safari Lodge and going back to the Oasis Lodge
from where the shuttle would pick Sharada up, added additional 30 minutes. Gave the cell phone to Sharada and asked her to call our family friend, Partha, in Dar Es Salaam from the major points. Sharada was confident that she could manage to get to Seattle without any problem.
Fly540 Nightmare
We were getting nervous about reaching the
Kilimanjaro airport on time to catch our flight to Dar Es Salaam. The drive from Arusha to the Kilimanjaro
airport took little more than an hour and we reached the Kilimanjaro airport
around 1230 pm. When we entered the
airport, the security checked our passport/tickets and told us that some one
will come to talk to us about our flight.
Initially, I thought that the flight was delayed, but when I checked the
departure screen there's no sign of Fly540 flight at all, more than that there's
no counter or sign of Fly540 airline. I
totally freaked out and started running around asking about the flight, and no
one seems to have an idea about it.
There's a
family of seven from Sweden was also booked in the same flight, wondering what
to do. After asking around a few more
people and Precision Air representatives, we found out that the FastJet is a
sister company of Fly540 and they may be able to help us. But their office was closed and there's no
sign of anybody at the airport. The
security personal pitied me after seeing me running around in and out of the
airport, and gave the phone number for the FastJet local contact. When I called the FastJet person, after
checking the confirmation number for my flight, answered that the confirmation
number is not for his flight and he would be in the airport within 45 minutes
to resolve any of the issues (when he said that, the time was 130pm). While waiting for the FastJet person to show
up at the airport, the Swedish and I were exploring different
possibilities to get to Dar Es Salaam.
Options To Reach Dar
The options that we had were:
- Arrange a charter flight (cost is $5000)
- Buy new tickets from Precision Air to get to Dar (cost is $218/person)
- Book a private taxi to go to Dar (cost is $500).
There were few guys trying to arrange for the charter
for us and for the Swedish family that we refused. There were only 3 seats available in the Precision
Air flight @8 pm and all other flights were full per the Precision Air
agent. After waiting until 245 pm, after calling the FastJet agent a number of times, he finally answered that he'd be
in the airport within 15 minutes. After
3 pm, the Swedish family lost hope and arranged a private taxi to go to
Dar Es Salaam. They didn't have any space to
accommodate two of us and also, I didn't want to take the risk of traveling at
night in a private taxi. While waiting
for the FastJet person, called my tour operator to see whether he could do
anything, he replied a few minutes later saying that on Saturdays all of the
travel agencies will close at noon so he couldn't help.
Cash is King
I was ready to buy the tickets in the Precision Air but they were not ready to accept either credit card or travelers checks, and only accepting cash. To make things worse, the only ATM machine in the Kilimanjaro airport was not working and the money changer in the airport was ready to pay only 75% of the dollar value for my travelers checks. Even if I en-cashed all my travelers checks, I wouldn't have enough cash to pay for my ticket. I was ready to kick somebody's butt at that point, it's 4 pm and there's no sign of the FastJet person.Waiting Game
I was getting really worried how I was going to reach Dar Es Salaam to catch my flight at 9 am
the next day morning. I wanted to give a
chance to the FastJet person to arrive before 5pm and if not, ready to take the
taxi to go to Dar. I was thinking that
there's not much difference traveling at 11 pm or 1 am in the private taxi and
it would be of the same risk. Shabina was sitting inside the airport
wondering what the heck was going on and I briefly told her that I was waiting
for someone to get tickets for the next flight (to avoid unnecessary questions
from her as well as worrying her). Partha updated me of Sharada's safe crossing of the Kenyan immigration and advised me to get a new ticket to come to Dar Es Salaam.
Unorganized and Slow FastJet
Finally,
the FastJet person showed up around 415 pm and there were two other families waiting
for him to take care of. Except me,
every one was going to Zanzibar and you can understand the frustration from
everyone of us. This FastJet agent was
totally unorganized and working off from a piece of paper with our names. He was trying to take care of a family of
four from Holland before me, but unfortunately he had only three people's name
in the sheet he had and telling the family that he could get the tickets only for
three. After talking to the FastJet agent for some time, the Danish guy lost his cool and started shouted at the agent. The agent asked the Danish family to
wait in his office, asked us and the other couple to follow him to the airport to see whether he
could put us in the 5 pm flight to Dar Es Salaam via Zanzibar.
After some wheeling dealings with the Precision Air agent, he was able to get the tickets to the couple as well as to us. But when I looked at my ticket, it was to Zanzibar. When I showed him the ticket, he was rushing us the Precision Air office outside the airport to see whether it could be changed to Dar Es Salaam but it was too late because the flight gates were closed. For some reason, he was confident that he could get us to Dar Es Salaam and advising me to be calm. When I told him that there're 3 seats available in the Precision Air flight to Dar Es Salaam at 8 pm, he went to the Precision Air office got us the tickets to Dar Es Salaam. I was so relieved to see the boarding pass and called Partha to let him know of our delayed arrival to Dar Es Salaam. Partha told me that Sharada had arrived at the Nairobi airport and waiting to check in while we were still stuck at Kilimanjaro...;-)Brief Stay in Dar
Overnight in Dar Es Salaam
Partha has been living Dar Es Salaam for more 15 years and whatever I heard from him, the life in Dar Es Salaam is as safe as any other big city, as long as you use your common sense, you will be fine. Partha woke up early to make South Indian breakfast for us (Pongal with coffee) and after enjoying the breakfast we left for the airport around 630 am. Checking in the British Airlines flight was pretty smooth, the security at the airport was decent and there's an additional tax of $100 if you had bought your ticket after certain date, which we didn't have to pay.
Outof Africa
Brief Stay in London
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