What is it about third world airlines and screaming babies? I had ANOTHER one on the flight into Frankfurt. At least all my luggage made it through.
As I said before, even though the week in Ethiopia was cut out of the trip, I still had to route through Addis Ababa (that’s AH-baba, not ah-BA-ba). Lufthansa didn’t have a flight from Addis to Frankfurt on Sunday, so I was on Ethiopian all the way. Ethiopian air was described to me as an airline that once was very nice and is back on the way uI can see that. They’re trying hard. There is a brand new terminal at the Addis airport and the airline has a pretty good fleet of planes, including a few long-haul flights. Of course they’re still in Africa and no matter how well you plan or how hard you try Africa will win. Africa Wins Again (AWA) is a popular phrase among expats.
Malawi has been having real power troubles – rolling blackouts throughout the country for weeks now and it will continue that way for months. Of course when it was time to check in, fly out and such we were in the middle of one of the blackouts. In fact it had started at about 10:00am and I was checking in at 4:00pm. Of course there were generators for the critical systems (radar, lights, etc), but nothing for the folks at the counter. There had to do everything by hand with no access to their computers or records. My bags got checked as far as Frankfurt, but once here I had to claim everything, clear customs, and then come back through departures and so on. Not a big deal since I’ve got plenty of time to kill. I also wasn’t able to get boarding passes for the rest of my trip and things were looking tight with only a 1 hour connection in Addis (that turned into 2.5 hours – AWA).
Anyway, I made it and I’m sitting here in Frankfurt Main airport enjoying a croissant and a strong cup of coffee while watching the planes come and go. How bizarre to see the prices here in Euro and not Marks. It is 8:00am and I’ve got 3 hours to kill, but I don’t think the croissant will last that long. I’ve already seen some military traffic come & go. These were transports – a C5A and a C17. I didn’t see any fighters on the tarmac as we taxied up, but there were plenty of transports. I think I remember hearing that the US relocated a lot of its fighter force to Aviano in Italy.
Despite being the armpit of Europe, this can be a neat place to just watch the planes and see all the nationalities represented. A big Quantas 747 just landed – those folks had a long trip!
When I checked in I found out I was selected for further screening at the gate. Yipee. My upgrade out of steerage better come through. I’m going to try to talk my way into the Business Class lounge, but I’m not optimistic. There is no lounge here available to AMEX holders, but if I had a Diners Club… Ah Ha! I was proven wrong! In the Delta concourse (that’s terminal 2, concourse D), the lounge is available to AMEX Platinum holders. I got in, had a nibble, a drink, freshened up a bit and feel like a new person. Amazing what a little time in a real bathroom can do.
So, I got the upgrade after all. I don’t care what anyone says, because the larger seat, better food, more frequent refills of water or whatever, is worth it. Just not having the press of people around is relaxing and almost makes the trip enjoyable.
The lunch on the plane was good. I chose salmon that was encrusted with a breading seasoned with horseradish. Of course there was also the fresh tomato and mozzarella with balsamic vinegar, and the cheese plate and port for desert. All served on real china, and not a rectangular plastic tray. not a meal to be missed at all.
So, final impressions of Malawi. This time of year it’s an okay place. Warm & humid, but not killer. The terrain is quite varied and colorful with lots of greens, reds & yellows. Plenty of critters around, too. All the people were quite nice. They’ve got some real hurdles to overcome, though, like a serious lack of infrastructure to transport commodities around the country and to other places for export. There is no port, so everything has to come & go by road, rail or air.
They could have tourism. Plenty of diverse terrain is available to explore, from mountains over to what turned out to be the southern end of the Great Rift Valley. The lake is beautiful, but you can’t swim in it because of disease, so the attraction is greatly diminished. There really isn’t much to do that isn’t rough tourism. No great shopping or museums, for instance. For folks in North America, the distance is also a killer. There are so many other equally nice places that are substantially less than 22 hours away. I don’t know how many people in the region (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc) have disposable income for tourism, so Europe and the Middle East would have to be the markets. Europe is no closer than the US, really.