Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2014
The journey to Arusha was long. I started at the Saskatoon airport at 7pm on Wed., of course two hours earlier then the flight. Flying to Vancouver gave me the opportunity to visit with my beloved cousin Janet and David. I was whisked away from the airport, and given crackers, cheeses and conversation. Most definitely, it was the best wait between flights I was to have. The next flight was 13 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong. I managed to sleep almost half the time. Cathay Pacific has good flight food, and good movies so it did not feel like a hard ship. Two hours in Hong Kong, then fly to Phuket. To meet Jacob and arrange our flights together, I had to leave the security section in Phuket, go through immigration and get my bags. Many people had warned me of potential problems that could occur with extended flights and immigration. I slid through immigration unscathed and collected my bags, and was able to hug Jacob minutes later. It was awesome to see him after six weeks separation. The wait in Phuket was 4 hours, but certainly went faster shared with Jacob and stories of his travel. Then it was on the next plane to Bangkok, for a two hour flight. The plane was late leaving and our transition time in Bangkok was the shortest, so I was a little worried that we might miss our flight. We didn't, their transition system was the best and we still had wait time at the gate. Then it was a flight to Abu Dhabi of six hours. Again, I slept a few hours, although Jacob didn't, and the food was good. Two hours wait there, then 4 hours to Nairobi. Jacob slept that flight, and I got an hour or so. After three hours wait in Nairobi, we finally caught the last plane of 40 min to Kilimanjaro. Immigration there, was the fastest ever and we were out to meet our ride. We still had an hour drive to get to Arusha. I was able to watch Tanzania flow by outside the windows, although Jacob was asleep in seconds. I did nod off half way through the trip despite my efforts to soak up everything.
Now we were at our host house and it was before noon. We met the other volunteers Michael and Catriona and the hosts Isaac, Elizabeth and little Greti. The after noon and evening were spent in unpacking, napping, a walk to the school and a bit of soccer for Jacob. Already, we know that we will like the food, our room is nice and we can have showers every day. I was 55 hours en route and survived it well. This adventure has had a good beginning.
Good Night and Sweet Dreams
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0326s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Janet
non-member comment
The long journey
Hello my dears, 55hours!!! You are amazing and you survived it. There was an old movie called Around the World in 90 Days. If you had kept going in the same direction you might have made it around the world in 90 hours! You will be settling into a bit of a routine by now and will have met the kids at the school. How many have you fallen in love with? All is fine and dandy here. Coldest week on record for Vancouver in Feb. It was wonderful---like a very mild Sask. time with temp of -8 and lots of sun. All good except for all the tiny plants that thought it was spring and now wish they could suck themselves back into the ground. Talked to Jacquie who was on her way to their cabin. Unfortunately too cold to cross country ski. Bet you are nice and toasty. Off to meet PKPJ for bowling. thinking of you with much love Janet