I am in Dubai (or at Dubai Airport to be more precise)! How I come to be here is a long story (which some of you already know). For the benefit of those who read this blog to learn more about the ways of the world, I will narrate the story again.
The easiest way to go from Kampala, Uganda to Brazzaville, Congo is to take Ethiopian Airlines. First you fly from Entebbe airport to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and from there you take the flight to Brazzaville. Although, the total flying time for the both flights is around 4 hours; the main problem is the connection. The flight from Uganda arrives Ethiopia in the evening, the fight for Congo does not leave for another 14 hours. While the Ethiopian airlines is happy to put you up in a hotel, our green passport does not qualify for a visa to get into Ethiopia (I hope you are suitably insulted). Thus you have to stay at the airport for the whole 14 hours.
The way around is to fly Emirates from Uganda to Ethiopia (because the Dubai flight stops at Addis Ababa for 1.5 hours) and then from Ethiopia to Dubai. You arrive in Dubai 30 minutes past midnight and stay at the airport for the next 4 hours. Then you take the Ethiopian Airlines flight back to Ethiopia which arrives there in time to catch the same flight from Addis Ababa to Brazzaville, Congo. So instead of sitting at Addis Ababa airport for 14 hours, you spend most of that time flying around. Below is a diagram which I made with Paint (as that is the only software available on this PC in the lounge) to explain the journey.
As enjoyable as it may sound, but it does play havoc with your internal clock. You change three time zone within 24 hours (GMT+3, GMT+4, GMT+1). And just like any flight through Dubai, you cannot sleep for 24 hours.
I am sure you would agree that Dubai has become the "Bus Terminal of the World". The whole airport is like a huge waiting area in which either people are queuing or waiting (or queuing outside their gates so they can wait inside). The duty free has so many people on checkouts that you would be forgiven for thinking that they are giving things away.
So busy is the airport that they have ran out of gates and planes are parked on tarmac from where the bus takes you to the airport. There are so many buses running around that we almost has a traffic jam at the airport. A glance at the screens in the Departure area showed 32 flights departing within 45 minutes (1.45am to 2.30am). That just over 1 a minute!
Having said that, if it was not for Dubai we would have to wait days to go anywhere. Since most of the international airlines have suspended services to our airports, Emirates is our only option which connects us to the rest of the world.
I am gonna go now and have a cup of tea (they have Earl Gray in the lounge), relax and try my best not to sleep as I have to get going in 45 minutes!
The easiest way to go from Kampala, Uganda to Brazzaville, Congo is to take Ethiopian Airlines. First you fly from Entebbe airport to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and from there you take the flight to Brazzaville. Although, the total flying time for the both flights is around 4 hours; the main problem is the connection. The flight from Uganda arrives Ethiopia in the evening, the fight for Congo does not leave for another 14 hours. While the Ethiopian airlines is happy to put you up in a hotel, our green passport does not qualify for a visa to get into Ethiopia (I hope you are suitably insulted). Thus you have to stay at the airport for the whole 14 hours.
The way around is to fly Emirates from Uganda to Ethiopia (because the Dubai flight stops at Addis Ababa for 1.5 hours) and then from Ethiopia to Dubai. You arrive in Dubai 30 minutes past midnight and stay at the airport for the next 4 hours. Then you take the Ethiopian Airlines flight back to Ethiopia which arrives there in time to catch the same flight from Addis Ababa to Brazzaville, Congo. So instead of sitting at Addis Ababa airport for 14 hours, you spend most of that time flying around. Below is a diagram which I made with Paint (as that is the only software available on this PC in the lounge) to explain the journey.
As enjoyable as it may sound, but it does play havoc with your internal clock. You change three time zone within 24 hours (GMT+3, GMT+4, GMT+1). And just like any flight through Dubai, you cannot sleep for 24 hours.
I am sure you would agree that Dubai has become the "Bus Terminal of the World". The whole airport is like a huge waiting area in which either people are queuing or waiting (or queuing outside their gates so they can wait inside). The duty free has so many people on checkouts that you would be forgiven for thinking that they are giving things away.
So busy is the airport that they have ran out of gates and planes are parked on tarmac from where the bus takes you to the airport. There are so many buses running around that we almost has a traffic jam at the airport. A glance at the screens in the Departure area showed 32 flights departing within 45 minutes (1.45am to 2.30am). That just over 1 a minute!
Having said that, if it was not for Dubai we would have to wait days to go anywhere. Since most of the international airlines have suspended services to our airports, Emirates is our only option which connects us to the rest of the world.
I am gonna go now and have a cup of tea (they have Earl Gray in the lounge), relax and try my best not to sleep as I have to get going in 45 minutes!
Labels: addis ababa, airport, dubai, emirates, Entebbe, ethiopia, ethiopian, kampala, uganda
Since Saturday is a working day here (in the company and not Uganda), we decided to go the Lake Victoria Beach which is near Entebbe. Although the original plan was to leave around 1:30pm after lunch; but you know once you are in the office, getting out on time is not easy. We left for Imperial Beach Resort (a hotel with its own private stretch of beach) around 4-ish and got to the beach an hour later. Since we used the beach entrance to get into the beach area, we ended up paying 2000 Ugandan Shillings ($1.20) at the gates. Had we entered through the hotel gates, we would not need to pay the fee.
Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake and the second biggest fresh water lake in the world (the picture is taken from space). It is split between Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania. It was named after Queen Victoria by the an British Indian Army office John Hanning Speke who after getting tired of all the fighting in India decided to instead go explore Africa.
Maybe it was a cloudy day or something else, but the beach did not appeal to me. Some of the sand was kinda white, but it did not feel anything like the beaches I had visited.
The resort area was nicely developed with gardens, outdoor food areas and a swimming pool (which you had to pay extra to get into).
Visit the Imperial Beach Resort picture gallery on Picasa.
Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake and the second biggest fresh water lake in the world (the picture is taken from space). It is split between Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania. It was named after Queen Victoria by the an British Indian Army office John Hanning Speke who after getting tired of all the fighting in India decided to instead go explore Africa.
Maybe it was a cloudy day or something else, but the beach did not appeal to me. Some of the sand was kinda white, but it did not feel anything like the beaches I had visited.
The resort area was nicely developed with gardens, outdoor food areas and a swimming pool (which you had to pay extra to get into).
Visit the Imperial Beach Resort picture gallery on Picasa.
Labels: Beach, Entebbe, Lake, LakeVictoria, uganda
