Coming Down

Trip Start Jan 10, 2006
1
54
60
Trip End Jun 02, 2006


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Kenya  ,
Thursday, May 18, 2006

My flight from Addis to Nairobi was delayed an hour for transit passengers. Duty free shops are taxed. I called Margaret to tell her I'd be back that night. The flight was smooth once we got going. We flew straight down the Rift Valley, over Shashamane and all the beautiful lakes.

I had to kill four hours in the Nairobi airport and try to change my Ethiopian birr into usable currency. I had kept some because I was told I'd have to pay an airport departure tax in Addis. No one asked for any money.

I ended up selling my birr for USD to my Ethiopian flight crew who were having lunch with me at the airport. They must be the highest quality flight attendants in the business.

Kenyan Airways ended up combining all three of their afternoon Nairobi-Mombasa flights into my flight and calling in a bigger plane. Leaving at 6:30, I was only delayed about an hour, but others were supposed to fly at 1:30. When we were in the plane waiting to take off, a huge U.S. Air Force cargo plane pulled up right next to us and started unloading into unmarked trucks. There weren't any Kenyan military folk around. I wonder who they were dealing with.

We finally did take off, and I watched the sun set behind a distant Mt. Kilimanjaro. I landed, got my bag, took a taxi to a matatu to Kilifi, watched the second half of the Champions League final (an ugly game, but the good guys won), and went to bed.
Print this entry Kilifi hotels