The 1999 Big Trip: Africa

Part 1: Europe

  

I originally planned to take a trip to South America in 1999, but the budget for such a trip turned out to be a bit prohibitive, so instead I opted for a six week trip to Africa. Planning started in February, for a September departure. After setting a basic itinerary, I let my travel agent handle the details, and a September 21 departure date was set.

Three weeks before my departure, I took a trip to Alaska to test my gear and my preparations. It is a good thing that I did, since I discovered there were some minor problems with my camera. I had to send it back, and there were delays. The problem was that the pin that communicated aperture settings was damaged in cleaning, and needed to be replaced. The problem was it was getting closer to my departure...

I packed on the 19th, with the 20th as a work day, and my camera wasn't back yet. On the morning of the 21st, I was getting quite nervous, having not been able to find a replacement camera body. Going to Africa without a working camera would have been a major disappointment. I even investigated places in London where I might have bought a replacement camera body (for nearly twice the US price). Fortunately, at 10:15, Federal Express delivered the body, and my tests showed it to be working.

Unusually, SuperShuttle was on time with a 1:30 pickup. During the last hour, I relaxed with some music videos and cleaning up my email. I had anticipated spending six weeks away from my computer. As it turned out, I was overly optimistic, but that's life. I had a week without email...

On arrival at San Francisco airport, I received an upgrade to first class on Virgin Atlantic. Let me tell you, I can easily be spoiled by that kind of service! No waiting in lines, no crowded terminal. Even better was a seat that was comfortable and wider than an average 12-year-old. On takeoff, I saw an American kestrel (Falco sparverius) out the window.

Dinner was barbecued prawns in chili sauce on a lemon grass skewer. Clearly, one of those English dishes, with a wee bit of Thai influence. As there were no interesting movies on the flight, I slept. For about five hours, I was asleep, and I woke at 8AM London time to have a wake-up massage. Breakfast was a sausage roll. No Thai influence! During the flight, I noted one particularly attentive flight attendant, Jo Marsh, who gets high marks from me.

We landed early. At Heathrow, that isn't always a good thing; we had to wait for a landing stair to disembark. Being first class, I received an expedited path through immigration, and my bags were among the first off the plane, so I was in Heathrow for less than 30 minutes before boarding the Heathrow Express service. Arrival at Paddington featured a long walk to the taxi stand. There were no luggage carts available, so I had to haul all 36 kilos on my back. Oh well. On arriving the hotel, my room was not ready, but I could dump my luggage inside. I called my friend Richard Lumsden and we made arrangements for lunch.

Richard works at Sugar Quay, and I probably walked every surrounding street to find the place. Richard took me for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, where we had plum duck, dim sum, and Seechow beef. Delicious. I hadn't seen Richard in almost a decade, he looked almost the same. It was good to catch up.

London was quite humid; after lunch I went walking down Oxford Street and soaked a tee shirt. When I got back to the room, I showered and dressed for dinner. Ian Raine was supposed to fly in from Belfast to join Richard and me for dinner, but his flight was delayed by thunderstorms. While waiting to leave the hotel, I watched the news, and heard two particularly interesting news items.

One: Wandsworth Council was thinking of implementing a policy where if one took more than 5 sick days per year, one gets docked an equivalent amount of vacation time, or loses pay. Many American companies already have the concept of pooling vacation and sick time as "paid time off." The workers in Wandsworth were quite upset, obviously. I've always felt that the "pool" concept was just a means of encouraging people to spread their illness. Who wants to lose vacation time?

Two: Sky Sports has the ability for the viewer to change camera angles, see statistics, and perform replays, all with their own control. All in real time. I'm jealous.

After Richard got off work, we went to a pub to wait for Ian. We planned to go to Shimla Pinks, an Indian restaurant near Liverpool Street. Ian finally arrived at Liverpool Street at 9:30 PM, and we reached Shimla Pinks at 9:40. Last orders was 9:30. We decided to head over to Brick Lane for our curries, and went to a wait for a taxi, but the line was so long we opted to walk to Brick Lane.

Brick Lane has a lot of Indian restaurants, all "hole-in-the-wall" types. We went to Muhib, which was good. I had a lamb ceylon and shish kebob. Ian did not eat. We broke up at about 11:15, and I slept.

I got my 5:50AM wakeup call for my flight to Amsterdam. Dressed quickly, and I tried to do a check-in at Paddington Station, but the British Midlands staff was not present. I ended up needing to carry my bags again, and wandered through Paddington, and later Heathrow. The signage at Heathrow was confused, suggesting that all flights to Amsterdam were at Terminal 4. Nope, All British Air flights to Amsterdam were Terminal 4, all others were Terminal 1. I finally get checked in for the flight to Amsterdam, and while waiting to pass through the X-ray and metal detectors, some guy tries to cut in line. The security folks held him back.

I'm perspiring a lot; I wondered at the time if I was ill.

The flight to Amsterdam was OK, and landed on time. I think we spent more time taxi-ing in Heathrow than in the air. I took the train to Amsterdam Central Station, and connected from there to my hotel. I wandered around Amsterdam for a bit. As I mentioned in 1998, Amsterdam is a great city for walking. I had a croquette for lunch, and took an afternoon nap. I spend some time watching people in Leidesplein, and had dinner at Indonesia, an Indonesian restaurant (what a surprise!) nearby. It was a rice table, with many different foods.

I slept well that night, too.

By the 24th, I think I had fully adjusted to local time. I'm not normally prone to jet lag going east, but just hadn't had many hours of sleep, so I was almost sleep-walking the previous day. Ten hours sleep is a lot for me, but it allowed me to catch up.

It was quite warm and humid overnight, so the fact that I slept well was a real surprise. When I briefly woke at 3AM, it was eerie not to hear the sounds of the city. Breakfast was the typical Dutch breakfast, of which the tea is the best part. I walked a lot again that day, noticing how much shorter the skirts are here than in the US. There is something about short skirts and bicycles...

I first walked to the Van Gogh Museum, and saw there was a huge crowd around the place. Next stop was Stadelijk Museum, which did not open until 11AM. So, I went to the Rijksmuseum, where they had an exhibit on VOCC Dutch East Indies plus an exhibit on the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. I was surprised at how much time I spent in there. I ended up having lunch.

Water in Amsterdam is expensive! 4 Guilders (About $2) for a half liter. Two toes on my feet hurt after walking, and I thought they might develop blisters.

After lunch, I went back to the Van Gogh, which was still crowded. Off to Stadelijk. Maybe it is just me, but I don't "get" modern art. However, they did have some videos at an exhibit. They were definitely unusual. The first was a series of scenes of zoo animals, set to quotations from the Starr Report. Another was a video about becoming Buddha by a Scottish film group. Definitely weird.

After hanging out there for a while, I walked to Rembrandtsplein then over to the Dam, where I watched people until it was time to take a taxi to the airport. My flight to Cairo left early evening. When I checked in, I was assessed 434 Guilders in excess luggage. That's more than $200. When I went to the cashier to pay, the woman there asked if my flights originated in the US. Apparently, since they did, I was supposed to have a "2 piece" limit instead of 20 kilos. There was no fee. M.L. Grupp, the woman at the cashier's window, marked all my subsequent KLM tickets with a 2 piece limit.

I boarded the flight and was off to Cairo.