A 7.30 breakfast (raining outside) for the great sausage mystery. B&B breakfast costs Ksh 250 (Ksh 80 to US$ 1) but the menu says Ksh 350. The menu says 2 sausages, we only get served one but are charged Ksh 350. There's no clue as to what you get for Ksh 250 but one sausage can't be the difference for US$ 1.25. Ah well, this is Africa.
We say goodbye to Paula, laden down with extra bags (having had her luggage go missing en route to Jo'burg and thus buying new stuff [before getting her luggage back at Vic Falls]) plus Kim's strange South American musical instrument -- looks like a bow and arrow plus a coconut shell [go figure].
Time to pack [ourselves]. Very good showers in the hotel -- it makes a pleasant change to have too much hot water -- even if the towels smell a bit nasty. Waste a bit of time on the Internet, wisely ignoring the cheap pay-in-advance options and being hammered at US$ 3 per hour for a painfully slow connection. You know when IE crashes? Well it sure does hurt when it's taken ten minutes to reach the second page of NatWest's secure login. When I did get in my balance read as "?,503" which left me none the wiser.
I had a Hawaiian burger for lunch. The burger lacked yesterday's bacon and had a very thin slice of pineapple. This is Africa.
Off to the airport having negotiated a US$ 15 fare from the US$ 20 charge. When we got there I offered Ksh 1200 (a generous Ksh 80 to US$ 1), I was charged 1250 and handed over 1300. The driver kept it saying, "thanks!"
The check-in [desk] opened a few minutes later, about 4 hours before take-off, which was handy. That does have us wandering the rather uninspiring departures shops. Helen manages to buy two US$1 [each] postcards and Ksh 60 stamps that managed to attract a Ksh 5 handling charge per stamp. That blows the drinks budget out of the water. I guess we'll be drinking the 3 litres of water that Helen has insisted on us carrying here and has, at the time of writing, managed three sips...
In fact, we scamble together enough coins to buy a couple of drinks (any excuse for a comfy chair [in the cafe] -- JKIA has hideous school [comfort] plastic seats). We leave a litre of water behind and board with a full 1.5 litre bottle. Which doesn't get drunk.
Dubai is a bustling hive of activity at 12.30am with the outside temperature and impressive 26C. We hunt for both hair shears and an electronic barometer/temperature guage. Sadly, the electronic barometers only give a trend but I do now own a set of Moser shears. Next trick is to work out how to plug them in (German two pin connector), the trick after that is how to cut my hair. There are some vague, as to the point of unhelpful, diagrams at the back of the 16 language instruction booklet. I fear that as the refinement process takes place I may emerge with the minimum advertised 0.1mm all over!
Once again, I think about, then decline the Dhs 500 (Dhs 3.6 to US$ 1) lottery ticket for a 1 in 1000 chance of winning a Porshe 911, Mercedes 600 or Bentley. [You can try online, if you're interested]
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.