IT’S TIME TO HEAD BACK TO MZUNGU-VILLE

It’s time for me to head home to Africa. 

It is a shame that we can’t be in two places at the same time as I would chose my home in Nairobi and London as my second city.  As much fun as I have had here, and I think I could have stayed another week to catch up with more friends and to try and see a few more tourist sights but I know I will be back next year, with a ticket booked in March.  The excitement of meeting Baby Addleton (Digby) just makes it so much more enticing to come back in 2014!

I have yet to travel on a direct service into Kenya and today was going to be the day.  Usually Egypt Air or Ethiopian Airlines have had the cheapest fares but because I am combining this flight with some internal Africa flights, Kenyan Airways came in top dog and it will be nice to do a long haul flight with a carrier I haven’t been on before and a direct service.  It was also nice to have the whole day to chillax and get some last minute shopping done as my flight didn’t leave till 8pm and I would have to get on the road around 3pm as I had baggage to collect from a Paddington Hotel that I had left there on Saturday and then get myself to London Heathrow with all my luggage and for once I wasn’t too worried about the weight of my two checked bags (well besides carrying them) as Kenyan Airways work on the piece system and you are allowed to have 2 pieces and as long as they don’t weigh more than 32kg each we will be cooking with gas.  This is also excellent for my West Africa trip as I will be able to shop up a storm and bring all sorts of souvenirs home-which I am excited about.  It is funny now when I book flights that one of the things I look at now is what their luggage allowance is and what their excess baggage costs are as purchasing the cheapest flight will not always work out the cheapest if you are going to be bringing a lot of luggage.

I had been in London for 16 marvellous days and 2 of them were spent in a hotel as I had credit note with them that I had to use otherwise the 6 month validity was to expire and I lose all the money.  So on Saturday I booked my last night and thought it best that I carry all my luggage on Saturday to the hotel, thinking it would be less busy on the Tube than trying to move it all on Monday.  I was then going to leave it in storage for the night on Sunday and then go back today to collect it.  Since my odyssey began I have been using a chain of hotels called Tune.  They are a budget hotel, so you still get your own room and facilities but the rooms are brand new and small, and if you want TV it is extra, if you want a towel it is extra and room cleaning is also extra.  But the base rate if you book far enough out starts at 40GBP a night and for London and the locations of the hotels this is really good value especially if there are 2 of you as I know hostels in London are around the 20GBP a night-really it is a great deal.  Back in April 2011 Tune only had one hotel in London at Westminster and I stayed there several times and they also held my luggage while I was in Africa for 3 months.  Now they have 4 hotels and I now stay at the Paddington property as it is just a 7 minute walk to Paddington station and this is where the Heathrow Express comes in-so it is super handy and fit into my plan beautifully and that plan was to leave the Addletons, tube it to Edgeware Road luggage free, 5 minute walk to Tune Hotel, collect baggage-repack with the stuff I had bought today in the lobby, walk the 7 minutes to Paddington Station, jump on the Heathrow Express and 15 minutes later-wallah arrive at Heathrow terminal 3 for check-in AND I could co-ordinate the whole plan with the Tube Map app on my IPad and I had it all timed perfectly to arrive at Heathrow around 5pm. 

And the plan worked perfectly.  I said goodbye to Paps at 2.45pm (I had got up at 6.30am to say goodbye to Emma before she left for work) and the whole plan ran like clockwork and after changing trains at Heathrow Central to connect on the free train that then terminates at terminal 3 I arrived at 4.45pm…. PERFECT.  I was now travelling with 2 checked bags (I had bought a smaller collapsible bag from home) and it was a beautiful sight to see a trolley waiting when I came off the train.  So after catching the lifts up to departures the Kenyan Airways check-in was right there and there were a few people straggling around as you have to self-check in before you can head to the counters and like anywhere in the world people go dopey when it comes to self-check-in, and even with 3 staff on hand to help the dopey’s, there were spare machines, so I jumped on and when it came to seating I always check where I am and the seat map comes up and I was in an aisle seat.  This was not going to be a great flight if I was in an aisle seat but looking at the seat map there were NO windows left.  Crap.  I accepted the seat I had been allocated and I would check with check-in as they sometimes can see seats that we can’t and I also know that they sometimes have secret squirrel seats that they will sometimes release.  I only had to wait 10 minutes to get to the counter and the chick I had was super nice.  I asked about a window and she said she did have one but it was at the back of the plane, which I never care where I am on the plane and I snapped that up quick smart-I was now back in windowland and a happy camper.  I also got her to check if my frequent flyer number was in the booking which she said no, tried to add it and the system wouldn’t take it so I was told to go and see the counter after I had checked in to get them to add it in.  I am not a frequent flyer addict.  This is the first programme I have joined since I joined Ansett, an Australian carrier that went defunct in 2001.  I do regret that decision now as my 2 round world tickets I travelled on for my world odyssey were with Qantas and affiliates and I probably could have earned some pretty points on that-but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I have now joined the Kenya Airways programme as most flights out of Kenya will be with them or Ethiopian Airlines (who I have also joined) and I will make sure I get those points now.  So with my window seat boarding pass in hand, my 39kg of baggage checked in without any issues I made my way to the Kenya Airways counter to find no-one there.  So I headed back to check-in and asked the staff helping people self-check-in if there was a staff member around for the counter.  A lady in a red suit responded that that was her and she would be there in 5 minutes as she finished a conversation with a co-worker that seemed to be of a personal nature rather than work chit chat, but I let it go and walked back to the counter to wait for her.  I had waited 10 minutes when another lady in a red suit came up to me and asked if I had been served.  I told her that I hadn’t, but she was on her way and she said she would go and get some-one immediately and she had an air of authority and I had a sneaky suspicion that first red suit was going to get a small boot up the bottom and that made me smile and frosty red suit was there within 3 minutes and she was snobby and frosty and I knew that she wasn’t happy.  Ha ha is all I have to say and I was super sweet to her to just rub it all in.              

      

While I have been in London I have been using ATM’s that have euros in them in preparation for my West Africa trip in September.  That part of the world accepts euros more readily than US dollars and my local payment is also required in euros.  So after 2 weeks I have an acceptable amount of euros for the trip and as I was leaving the counter I saw an ATM that distributed US dollars.  I always like to have a small amount of US for Kenya, so using my card I pulled out a few hundred US and I was now all ‘cashed up’ as rates and exchanges are a little bit of a rip in Kenya and to know it is one less thing to worry about for my trip is all the better.  So not only do I have the monetary side of things covered, I also leave the UK with 2 of the hardest visas of the trip acquired, a smile on my dial for the GREAT time I had here and also butterflies and a smile for my trip back home to see my friends and the babies. 

I then made my way to immigration and security.  The first check is a small post that you scan your boarding pass over to get you through to immigration.  I showed my passport, it was checked and not stamped and then it was through to security and this can be a hit and miss affair depending on the time of day.  Today it didn’t look too bad and I was directed to a queue that had a handful of people waiting.  I took off my bracelets and had pulled out my IPad ready to go and when I got to the belt I just had to take out my laptop and put it all into trays.  The system at Heathrow is all automated from the boxes returning for use to the boxes that are being rejected for a manual check is all done my machine.  Well as it happened my box was rejected and I went into a queue where I had to wait as there were people in front of me also waiting.  I am not sure how much time this saves, actually it doesn’t as there is no pressure on the manual check-it guys and there was one old timer that was taking his sweet old time checking the people in front of me.  Thank goodness when my time came I got the younger guy and the concern was my electric bag that has all my chargers and adapters in it.  It isn’t the first time that I have been checked because of this but I refuse to check them as I am terribly paranoid of a lost bag and then all my appliances going flat while I wait for my bag to be returned to me… yes call me paranoid-but it happens and I don’t want to be caught in that position.  While he has me he also drug swabbed my bag and came back with the all clear and it is always nice that they offer to help re-pack all your stuff, but I managed to get it all back in and with a smile and a wave I was now in the departures. 

I also don’t normally do duty free, but as I was on a direct flight and duty free alcohol can’t be purchased on your arrival into Kenya I decided to price what a bottle of Jameson was and also a bottle of Pimm’s.  The Jameson’s wasn’t cheaper that what I can buy in Kenya and as you are only allowed to bring in one bottle of spirits I decided to grab the Pimm’s as my bottle of choice.  I checked out Harrods while I was there and making my way to the gate I bought a drink and quiche to wait the 45 minutes now till we started boarding our flight.  I have to say as far as travel days go this was a perfect check-in day and to be on a direct service was the icing on the cake.  Our flight was called on time and being in the western world, it was back to being boarded by rows and I was in the first call category (which is always awesome) and I found my window seat and then the wait was on to see if it was going to be a full flight and if I would be getting someone sitting next to me.  I didn’t have to wait long till the ‘aisle’ man came and then finally after 40 minutes the airplanes doors were closed and we had the middle seat spare.  That is now the perfect flight!  I would take a spare seat next to me than a bulk head/exit seat any day.  Kenya Airways operate a Boeing 777-200 on this route and they have in-seat TV’s (it’s been a while since I have had them), there was plenty of overhead space, they have the high arm rests and also the high tables and even the seatbelt fitted with room to spare.  So far so good and I think I am a Kenya Airways fan.  This flight seemed to be hosted with more male staff than female staff and with their big cheerful faces; it really does make a difference to a flight.

We took off on time, and then I tried to use my in-seat TV and the sound was all crackly and the screen rolled.  Uh Oh… maybe I had spoken to soon?  I wasn’t too worried as it was a night flight, departing London at 8pm-I would sleep most of the way anyway.  The ‘aisle’ guy next to me pointed to the middle seat TV, so I tried that and after 15 minutes into a Tom Cruise movie it booted me out.  I tried again, and then tried a different movie and all to no avail.  I think it was a sign to sleep and after we had been fed it was time to batten down my hatch.  I do have to mention that the food was very ordinary-no bells and whistles, a main meal, a small salad and a crusty bread roll.  But even with the TV not working and the ordinary food I am still a big fan of the airline and hope that the next 3 flights I have with them are going to be similar to this one, but with a working TV would be nice.  I did sleep for 6 hours of the 8 hour flight, woken up for a croissant and juice for breakfast before landing and we arrived into Nairobi 20 minutes early at 6.10am!!!!  It is a shame that we were just a little too early to see a sunrise from the air as I have seen a few in my travel time and they can be quite extraordinary when you are 30,000ft in the sky-but this was not to be seen today and it was also too dark to try and spot giraffes in the Nairobi National Park as we descend over the park. 

So I am now back in Mzungu-land.

It was nice to be inconspicuous for nearly 3 weeks, blending into the crowds like a ‘normal’ person BUT I do have to say I am happy to be ‘home’ and I feel like my batteries have been recharged and I am ready to take back my role as a mzungu and slip back into my wonderful life I have set up in Kenya.