Flying to Addis Ababa

The first day,getting from home to Addis Ababa, was always going to be a long one. But it's even longer than it needs to be because of the choices I have taken. The cheapest flight my travel agent could find was with Emirates so I have flown further East than I needed to in order to spend some time waiting in Dubai before coming back West to Addis Ababa.
Secondly I've broken my journey a couple of times within the UK. I've stopped off in London for a couple of hours to have lunch with Martyn and then got to Gatwick early enough to check in my bag and sneak out to go and share a pint with one of my travelling "buddies" who lives very near Gatwick.
The flight with Emirates is fairly comfortable. I think I've been hardened by years flying with RyanAir and I'm not used to the flight attendants bringing me a hot towel to freshen up with and the menu for the choices (!) (!) for dinner instead of trying to sell me a scratch card! I have an entertainment system with just about every recent film I never got around to seeing on it and I've managed to check on on-line and grab myself an aisle seat with, hopefully, the opportunity to stretch me legs out during the flight.
As my second flight is boarding in Dubai a woman in front of me is struggling with the escalator and has a bit of a panic attack. Its obvious that she has never been on an escalator before. It's hard to imagine that nowadays somebody will be taking an international flight without ever having been on an escalator.
My arrival at Bole Airport is fairly straight forward and stress free. As promised I don't have any problems in buying a visa for $20 and my bag has been transferred at Dubai and is there waiting for me. It feels a bit lighter than when I checked it in at Gatwick - hopefully that's my imagination; I can't believe that anyone would want to steal my underwear!
I am met by someone from the tour company {Luxury!!!} and taken to the Awraris Hotel. Addis Ababa itself doesn't appear to be suffering from a lack of rain. My driver tells me that they had a small amount of rain about 3 weeks ago in the shortage areas.

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Part of trip: Ethiopian Explorer

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