Maputo, Mozambique had been interesting but the traveller in me was moving ahead into Africa and now I was now headed to Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania – literally in Arabic – the abode of peace, the land of Serengeti and the Kilimanjaro and ZanZibar.
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I wanted to explore these exotic african landscapes. I was booked on a Kenyan Airways Flight to Dar-es-Salam with stops at Nairobi and hopping through Kilimanjaro!
It takes around two hours with a 15 min stop over at Kilimanjaro. At the Nairobi airport I wanted to smoke and the nearest smoking room was a ten min walk away. I decided to bribe the janitor and he allowed me to smoke in the women’s loo which was empty at that time. This is not the first time i have smoked in a no smoking zone and I recalled I had at the Khajuraho airport and such customs rarely change across geographies and bribing the janitor does the trick most of the time. Often they manage to arrange for a lighter also. So this is for the traveller smokers out their and a trick when the urge arises in you to smoke at airports!
After a meal of Sausages and Chips, I went to sleep in the plane. I took of my shoes with out realising that that I was unleashing a stink bomb in the plane. The sweet natured air hostess was kind enough to remind me to have consideration for others in the plane also and so I duly put my shoes back on. I arrived in Tanzania at 3:00 am local time.
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Tanzania has Visa on arrival facility for Indians and I paid 50 $ for my visa. I had my hotel booking done through booking.com done in advance and my Yellow Fever Form was with me and so I sailed through the various protocols and customs to reach my hotel.
The best way to get to know what are the various places to visit in a country if you are not one for reading it all up first on the internet is to get chatty with the visa officers or the local customs folk. They advised me on the sights and places that I should definitely visit in Tanzania. Armed with that knowledge I arrived at my hotel at 5:00 am in the morning and all I wanted to do after that was take a shower and crash out.
So far so good and I am preparing my itinerary now as to where to go in Tanzania. I have had discussions on this with my African friend on Facebook and their advice will go a long way in planning my trips in this country .