Travel Log Episode 4: She’s leaving on a Jet Plane aka It’s time to leave, and first leg of the journey to Tanzania
Timestamps:
Intro: 0:05
Last minute travel changes: 0:34
She’s leaving on a jet plane: 2:41
Layover in Istanbul Airport: 4:02
On to Dar Es Salaam: 5:33
Technology Problems: 7:19
Outro: 9:03
I was ready to go. I did my best to be fully prepared. I am a planner, very much so. I was feeling good and as ready as I could be. And then at the end of February Simon (my political junkie husband) says oh shit, Trump just bombed Iran. Now at first I was like, “UGH why” like most of us not in his crazy fascist cult. And then it hit me. I was supposed to fly through Qatar and that had become closed airspace.
Now I had booked the cheapest flight possible with no real travel protection. At first they were only refunding flights though the 10th. So I waited. Then the week before this trip Simon and I headed to Kentucky to celebrate a friend's birthday (heyy Brian Jones! I know you're listening!) Of course they opened up full refunds, for my first flight anyway, when I am not at home. So as I’m travelling between distilleries I’m searching for flights that will get me into Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania in time to catch my inter TZ flight that was already booked and non refundable.
The way it worked out, to not have only 90 minutes to connect I had to leave a day early and spend an extra night in Dar Es Salaam. That added another $100 to the budget in hotel stays, plus another $300 on the Turkish airlines flight, since it is more expensive than Qatar Airways.
My anxiety being through the roof I then booked my Turkish airways flight which means I actually went straight to Madrid and lost the $60 of my one way ticket from Barcelona to Madrid, since my original Qatar flight went to Barcelona. I also did not get a full refund on the Dar Es Salaam to Barcelona flight and lost about another $200 there. Plus now I am spending an extra night in Madrid, and that added to my hotel budget.
In the end it could have been way worse, but it definitely was frustrating as hell.
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Finally the day came to leave, Friday the 13th. My flight was at 8pm so I had the morning to prepare. I woke up expecting a typical rainy Seattle day - instead we got snow. ARE YOU KIDDING! Now I hate snow. I grew up in New England and New Mexico, living in snow is a pain in the ass and that is partially why we decided on Seattle. I did not want to spend the rest of my life shoveling sidewalks. And this snow was kind of sticking! I was already nervous about the whole thing and now freaking snow!
I am glad I did decide on the flight I did, because it took an hour to de-ice and get off the ground. And I was off! First of all, Turkish airlines was great. Kits with everything you need including slippers, toothbrush, eyemask. They had pillows and blankets and decent food too. For being in economy it was all around pleasant. I got an aisle seat, which with my back issues made it easier to to stand when the pain got really bad. I had a really nice neighbor in the middle seat who knit for most of the flight. She even gave me some fruit snacks! I binged most of the new Night Court (I loved to watch the old show), and read a lot.
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I arrived in Turkey about 8pm on Saturday the 14th, and then had about 8 hours of layover in the Istanbul Airport. I decided to stay awake and try and get myself closer to being in the timezone of Tanzania.
We arrived right around sunset, which if you don't know, it is Ramadan at the moment, and that is when those who are part of that religion break their fast. They have a Ramadan village for the kids to play in and explore. They offered dates ( what is traditionally used to break their fast with) and a man with a huge teapot on his back who would pour it into little cups by bending at the waist like a bow. The airport has built in prayer rooms and large collections of folks coming out afterward to grab food before their flights.
Inside the airport is basically a large ass mall. All the shopping you could imagine. So many high end stores, a food court with Saabaro, Burger King, and some other non-american fast food. There is a by the hour hotel, a museum, and a hair salon. Anything you could need really.
So I grabbed flatbread for dinner at the food court, which is just a type of pizza without sauce and it was great. I got a tea of some sort to go with it and people watched for a bit. When I was done I walked around the entire Bazaar twice before finding a spot to sit and read. I grabbed some more snacks before heading to my next flight, including a sour cherry drink that might be my new favorite juice.
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My next flight left Istanbul at 3:40am. This one was shorter and a smaller plane, but I lucked out and there was no one in the middle seat and I again had the aisle. This one I did sleep on as much as possible between meals and snacks.
I arrived in Dar Es Salaam about 11am. I got off the plane in my comfy outfit and was immediately sweating through it. Not much I could do but head toward the customs and passport control. But holy moly I’d fulfilled a life long dream to go to Africa.
You can get a visa on arrival, but since I had already done the work but it was not loading they sent me to the line where it could be confirmed. After a short but sweaty wait I got to the front, handed them my paperwork and after the usual confirmation and conversation I was good to go. I grabbed my luggage and went to find a taxi. I first had to get cash so I went to the 6 ATMs, each from a different bank and found which one would accept my card and then made my way to the hotel.
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I stayed at the Blue Sapphire not far from the airport. A sweet porter showed me my room and I hunkered down for the next day and a half. I am so glad I did because the jet lag got me good. I had intended to get more of the podcast episodes recorded (me and my tiny influencer mic) but really I read my book and napped for most of the full day I was there. I was kinda nauseous and was surprised how well the little wrist bands helped. I ordered room service for dinner both nights while watching movies (Moulin Rouge and The Devil Wears Prada) but did go down for breakfast the first morning I was there.
Unfortunately as soon as I got to Dar Es Salaam the e-sim I had purchased stopped working, even though it was just fine in Turkey. I spent hours on the help line, with multiple people. We tried all the typical trouble shooting and then they said they would email me after escalating the issue.
Then a few minutes later I got a message saying that Tanzania was not covered by their global plan. Now, I picked the provider and their global plan because it included all the countries I was going to. So they gave me a credit that would cover a week that was just a Tanzania plan. I activated it, but still no dice.
I reached out to help again, and this new person said Tanzania WAS covered in the global plan so the Tanzania specific would not work until the global ended. So they refunded the Tanzania specific plan. The problem is the Global is STILL not activating. After going through three more help people, doing all the same troubleshooting as before they again escalated it to email.
In email they had me go though the SAME set of troubleshooting and could not figure it out. As of writing this (another day later), I continue to do the same steps and send screenshots and they still don’t know what the issue is. Thank goodness there is such a thing as wifi.
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Then another early morning to catch my inter- Tanzania flight to Bukoba. Which will be a part of the next episode.