Leaving Dubai
We set the alarm for 0640 and had banana, yoghurt and muesli before taxiing to the airport around 0800 for our 1050 flight.
We had been issued our staff travel boarding passes already online; Emirates processes these 6h before the flight unlike our own airline which does it about 1h before the flight. Despite that, we had to bagdrop at a dedicated staff check-in which was somewhat hidden from the public. Then going through immigration, the officer couldn’t retrieve my arrival record (because my passport only has a surname without a name, due to formatting issue that may be unique to Malaysian passports). Then she had trouble with the record actually found as I had landed in Abu Dhabi rather than Dubai.
I was directed to a special room where I met other people who had landed in Abu Dhabi and are exiting Dubai. This was sorted relatively quickly though and we made our way to the lounge to relax for about 40 minutes before going to the gate and walking straight on to the plane, as boarding has just commenced.
Air traffic congestion over Oman prevented us from leaving on time. We were held up for about 10 minutes but it took us over forever taxiing to the runway. A couple of overhead lockers on the aircraft popped open downwards but the crew ignored them as they remained seated. The ventilation on the aircraft was noisy and inadequate for the heat outside, so I was pleased to be finally airborne some 30 minutes after we pushed back.
Seated three-quarters back (door 4) of the 777-300ER, it was extremely noisy compared to my usual flights. It was probably a combination of engine roar (more audible around doors), cabin ventilation hiss and galley chiller noise. Kim had trouble listening to the soundtrack of his movies and had to resort to his own earphones. He developed a splitting headache.
Arriving at Dar
We landed in Dar es Salaam, the abode of peace, about 15 minutes late, which may suggest that the airline’s schedules are padded for lengthy ground-time which may be the norm in Dubai. When the engines turned off the ventilation continued whirring as if the cleaning team was already on board with vacuum cleaners.
Some Europeans rushed to the front of the plane once the plane approached the terminal but was still in motion. I knew that they were anticipating a lengthy immigration process. When it came to our turn to disembark, it was about the same through the front and back exit. But we only realised that the front door had an airbridge but we had airstairs and bus. Once we stepped on to terra firma, the bus door closed and we had to wait for the next one.
It was bedlam inside the terminal. The health officer wanted my Yellow Fever vaccination record but didn’t care about Kim’s; I fumbled to find it even though I knew exactly where it was. Next an immigration officer checked passports and waved me through whereas Kim was directed to the visa-on-arrival payment (VOA) counter.
Being Malaysian, I don’t need a visa and didn’t have to wait to clear immigration. From experience in other countries (especially Egypt), I was expecting staff not to be fully aware of this and was expecting to pay anyway. Kim was lost in a sea of people at the VOA counter but somehow managed to get to the front of the queue quite quickly (as usual).
He came through to the conveyor belt about 30 minutes after me. I waited for the luggage while he sat down as I didn’t want him to make his headache worse. My luggage came through over an hour after arrival and then we realised that Kim’s had been put aside already at the far end. As we put our luggage through the x-ray (yes, another queue), I could see that the VOA crowd was still several deep. Good luck to them.
I succeeded in getting money from the second ATM and then tried getting a taxi to the hotel. The prices were extortionate at USD35 for 12km. We managed to get it down to USD19 (TZS40,000) in an old Toyota Mark II (a model we love and is also very common here).
Traffic was at a standstill for most of the way and the driver did many diversions to avoid them. The short journey took an hour. Except for some parts, first impression of the city was quite tidy.
Our Hotel
The Formula 10 Livingstone Hotel was located slightly outside of the CBD in a dusty unsealed street. I think it was formerly a Best Western due to some old logos around the place. I was starting to join Kim with a headache, but my neck was starting to ache too (something that happens when I’m low on sugar, stressed or tired). We were both unwell enough to be puzzled over how to open our room door (we had been given an access card and an old-fashion plug-in tag which threw us off a little).
Our room was simple but clean. It could have done with a shower curtain to separate the shower spray from the toilet and we were apprehensive of the veranda that can be accessed from neighbouring rooms.
We went down for dinner soon after to avoid the crowd of students on a science fair. I ordered a Fanta to share and that seemed to make me feel better. The students streamed in before our very excellent meals arrived. A couple of them sat with us for dinner and they were very well-behaved 18 year olds. One of them had never seen potato chips (French fries) before.
Fallout from an unexpectedly bad flight
I retired at around 2000 feeling rather horrible with my headache and neck ache. It’s strange that a 5h25 flight on a premium airline (in an aisle seat and a spare seat next to me) can feel worse than a much longer one on a budget airline (stuck in the middle in a narrower seat) simply due to the noise and poor ventilation. Just shows that my body prioritises basic needs more than luxuries like inflight entertainment!