**warning*** Some of you may find this post incredibly boring, especially since we didn't take photos after leaving Zanzibar, but it's my blog and I can do what I want!!!!
Left the wonderful Zanzibar Serena hotel around 10.30am, after a quick good bye to Mum (better that way...less tears!). The courtesy bus took us to the airport, which was PACKED with Italian tourists...and this was just outside the terminal- the check-in counters are actually outside on the footpath. Seems like there is a giant Italian airplane arriving soon to take them all home. So, keep in mind it is about 34 degrees, very muggy, and there is plenty of chaos and loud people all over the place. We manage to check in, and enter the airport (note: no air conditioning). Then we have to pick a booth to line up in front of, to pay our departure tax of $25USD each. The booths are unmarked, in English at least, so we decided to pick the left hand one. The wrong one, as it turns out. We have to then line up for the other one, and end up paying only $5USD each. Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth??
We finally get through security into the main airport. The seats are all full. There are a million more Italians in here. The women are dressed very 'designer' with lots of gold jewellery, big hair, and amazing makeup. The men are dressed pretty well too! I feel somewhat daggy in my safari clothes and no makeup or jewellery (but I get over it pretty quick as I am roasting like a pig). Luckily Shane has a big sleeve on his shirt that I use often to mop my face! (thanks baby!)
We are totally grossed out by a giant obese Italian man who has chosen to walk around sans shirt. So there is basically a giant belly prancing around, covered in sweat. Wish I hadn't eaten breakfast....
We find a doorway, open to the outside, where it is somewhat cooler. We meet the security guard, a young woman in a head scarf, we have a chat with her, her English is as good as our Swahili, so you can imagine the great conversation! she teaches us the word for 'husband' and 'wife' and we find out she has a 2yr old son at home with her mother. She would like to see Australia some day, but says she could never earn or save that much money (and knowing that the average wage here is around $50USD PER MONTH!! you can imagine it's true). Anyway, we enjoy passing the time with her.
We do start to become concerned when there is no sight of our plane to Dar es Salaam, only the jumbo Italian jet. But we meet several others who are waiting as we are. We meet a British woman, late 60's, who has just been trekking in Ethiopia with her husband. Now, they look like travellers!
Our plane finally arrives, we get on and 20 minutes later, arrive at Dar es Salaam, an airport which is also mainly outside! We are too early to check in with South African Airlines, so we use up the rest of our Tanzanian shillings to grab a hamburger, chips and Coke at the cafe (they have Maasai people as the doormen). After all that chaos, heat and noise in Zanzibar, it's nice to have a break.
Around 1pm we get on the flight to Johannesburg, it is a 4 hour flight only, but we are happy it's so short! By the time we land and get a shuttle to the hotel, it's dinnertime and we are tired and hungry. We have been travelling all day. The hotel is actually attached to a big casino (Palace Casino) and not to a shopping centre, as we were led to believe. Since neither of us are big casino type people, the revelation did not really excite us. But we checked in, and then Shane went for a look around, and found a restaurant for dinner: Tribes African Grill. They sold him a couple of Castle beers to have in our room first (remember, we have been having Happy Hour drinks every night for the last 2 weeks!) and after we drained those, and showered, we had the BEST steaks in the world. It was a great meal, including HOT FRESH bread (never had that in Kenya or Tanzania). Caught up on the CNN channel later in the room, which wasn't too interesting, I must admit - I haven't missed TV at all.
Had a lazy morning and then headed back to the airport, where we were delayed 1.5 hours because there was some kind of problem with our e-tickets. Luckily they gave us meal/drink vouchers though, so we enjoyed a bite to eat during all the drama.
We made it on the plane! but unfortunately missed the great shops in the airport. Not like we needed to spend money though......
A very long 14 hour flight (babies, children, sneezing adults, Chinese gabbling, people wearing masks, the woman next to me sleeping on my shoulder --- NOT conducive to sleep or rest!) later we arrived in Hong Kong. The airport was SPOTLESS (at least one cleaner in every toilet, cleaning and mopping constantly) (This was a big change from Africa: something I'll never forget is all the garbage in Africa: blue plastic bags all over the place.) and well signed in English. Plus, everyone we asked for information was friendly, efficient, and spoke English very well. We organised a half-day tour of Hong Kong, then went to have a coffee and tea before the tour left. We felt pretty horrible, tired and whatnot, but didn't want to spend our whole 17-hour layover in HK in the airport!
It was a grey and dreary drizzly day in Hong Kong, but we still enjoyed the tour, we saw the longest suspension bridge in the world, the walk of the stars, the HK skyline, a Buddhist temple filled with incense smoke, antique markets. I would like to go back someday for a proper look around. In HK they speak mainly Cantonese, and in mainland China it's mainly Mandarin. So Willy (our guide) was teaching me a few words in Cantonese. I wish I remembered it better, but we were close to collapsing of exhaustion by the early afternoon. The tour ended, we were going to shop a bit but gave up - had lunch out instead, and then took the very quick electric rail back to the airport.
Returned to the airport around 3pm and found the Travellers Lounge - this is a great concept: we got a $60AUD package each. This included: a 2hr nap in an Asian inspired 'resting room' with futons on the floor in small divided rooms, total peace and quiet, and a wake-up call, a shower (heaven!), free food and drinks, tea/coffee, free internet, magazines, newspapers, and plush comfy armchairs, for 10 hours. So we lounged and relaxed until out flight at almost midnight. We felt wonderful, tired, but wonderful.
Only an 8.5 hour flight this time, and then finally back to Brisbane, another hour's drive, and home again. Kimberly and Mitchell were thrilled to see us, almost as much as we were to see them!
So, the end of our wonderful trip, but not the last one - especially not to Africa. We are already planning our next trip.............................
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