I left on Monday afternoon and was supposed to touch down Tuesday night in Uganda ~38 hours later.
However, two cancelled flights meant I didn't actually get into Uganda until midday on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, but BIG thanks to Janet from eMi, who waited in vain for my flight until 4am the night of my cancelled flight from Nairobi. It was good to be able to offer any complexities straight to God's hands and know the peace of that in all my emotions.
PHILLIP
made the journey from Australia to Malaysia a great trip. We had long legs in common, so had managed to get exit row together. We chatted solidly for at least 6-7 hours of the 8 hour flight. He is a lawyer from the heart of London, over for the Ashes (to his dissapointment) and it was great to chat to him for so long, making the flight pass very quickly. It's great to meet friendly strangers on your travels, to learn a bit about them and hopefully keep in touch a bit too.
We spent some time together at the airport in Malaysia, although my stopover was an hour shorter so we eventually headed our seperate ways.
I boarded the 747 to Amsterdam, but there was a 20 minute delay forecast due to problems with the forward cargo hatch. After briefly chatting to the elderly Romanian couple beside me with their broken english, I went to sleep, according to my AntiJetLag theory. When I woke up 3 hours later, the 747 hadn't moved and shortly after we had to leave the aircraft. We lost our airspace window over Afghanistan, so I was content with the decision to avoid being shot down there.
I stayed at the airport for a few hours, it was a little chaotic figuring out what was happening, there are a lot of passengers on a full 747. Eventually, after sticking around to the last person, I got a new itinery to get to Uganda, as one of the flight legs which I had missed only flies once a week.
made the journey from Australia to Malaysia a great trip. We had long legs in common, so had managed to get exit row together. We chatted solidly for at least 6-7 hours of the 8 hour flight. He is a lawyer from the heart of London, over for the Ashes (to his dissapointment) and it was great to chat to him for so long, making the flight pass very quickly. It's great to meet friendly strangers on your travels, to learn a bit about them and hopefully keep in touch a bit too.
We spent some time together at the airport in Malaysia, although my stopover was an hour shorter so we eventually headed our seperate ways.
I boarded the 747 to Amsterdam, but there was a 20 minute delay forecast due to problems with the forward cargo hatch. After briefly chatting to the elderly Romanian couple beside me with their broken english, I went to sleep, according to my AntiJetLag theory. When I woke up 3 hours later, the 747 hadn't moved and shortly after we had to leave the aircraft. We lost our airspace window over Afghanistan, so I was content with the decision to avoid being shot down there.
I stayed at the airport for a few hours, it was a little chaotic figuring out what was happening, there are a lot of passengers on a full 747. Eventually, after sticking around to the last person, I got a new itinery to get to Uganda, as one of the flight legs which I had missed only flies once a week.
STAYING IN MALAYSIA
There were no KLM people at immigration by the time I got there, but they had left a general message to say we could stay at any hotel we wanted to, expense on them.
At 4:30am local time, I went through immigration, changed some money to RM and caught a taxi (mini van) to a hotel an hour from the airport which I knew some other passengers had gone to also.
After I was fairly convinced he was a legitimate guy and not going to knock me off in some dark alley, we struck up a happy chat in Malaysian (I learned Indonesian at Highschool) and finally arrived at the hotel. He only charged me a discounted rate and was very friendly, so if you are landing at Kuala Lumpur, let me know and I'll give you his mobile number, Kaye is his name. He does a cheap scenic tour of KL too, although I didn't take him up on that.
At 6:30am I had breakfast at the hotel, before going to sleep at 7am, setting the alarm for 12 noon. I woke up feeling refreshed and hearing the reverberating echos of the local mosque calling muslims to prayer. It was a giant mosque that echoed for about 5km's around. Later in the day I visited it with Judith. Judith works in Bristol, and had just visited her daughter in Australia. It was good to hear a bit of her life story and what's been happening in her life. I had just finished reading George Muellers autobiography before Leaving Oz, so I talked about it with her and she said the orphan buildins on Ashley downs are still there and heritage listed. I was encouraged to think about the lasting impact of this godly man and how God had used him so much.
We had buffe brekky, buffe lunch and buffe dinner thanks to KLM, so I tried a bunch of things that I didn't have a clue what they were or I would tell you.
Headed back to the airport and caught the new flight. By 1:30am or so, we were taking off and landed around 13 hours later, 6:30am in Amsterdam, my longest night ever. I slept 8 hours or so but forced myself to stay awake otherwise, praying and thinking, since all the lights were off. There was some rubbish on the inflight system, but my headphones were under my chair and I was too cramped to reach them anyway. I enjoyed the lights of Asia and Europe more anyway.
AMSTERDAM
has a huge airport so I cruised around for a while looking at things during my 4 hour stopover. The internet was very expensive so I gave it a miss. After deciding there wasn't too much of interest to me, I went and read the bible for an hour or two before the flight. Because of the cancellation they had upgraded my flight to Nairobi to Gold Class.
has a huge airport so I cruised around for a while looking at things during my 4 hour stopover. The internet was very expensive so I gave it a miss. After deciding there wasn't too much of interest to me, I went and read the bible for an hour or two before the flight. Because of the cancellation they had upgraded my flight to Nairobi to Gold Class.
FIRST CLASS.
I doubt I would ever jutify it of my own choosing, but KLM World Buisness Class is pretty tops flying out of Amsterdam. They have a gourmet chef's menu which you pick your 3 course meals from and it was excellent food. You can make your chair a bed, but my AntiJetLag theory meant I chose to stay awake that whole flight. I watched a short video on Kenya, and an hour of Harry Potter 4, to discern whether it is morally good or bad. Otherwise I wasn't interested in any of the videos, although I toyed with watching "happy feet" or "open season". I ended up reading and journalling instead. They offer a large range of spirits and classy wines too. I stuck with ginger beer, coke and water. I was however, quite pleased to use the inflight email and text message utility in first class. It's kind of neat to send emails and texts from 40000 feet over Libya but cost a little bit, so only my girlfriend and parents benefitted from the gimmick. Sorry :).
I doubt I would ever jutify it of my own choosing, but KLM World Buisness Class is pretty tops flying out of Amsterdam. They have a gourmet chef's menu which you pick your 3 course meals from and it was excellent food. You can make your chair a bed, but my AntiJetLag theory meant I chose to stay awake that whole flight. I watched a short video on Kenya, and an hour of Harry Potter 4, to discern whether it is morally good or bad. Otherwise I wasn't interested in any of the videos, although I toyed with watching "happy feet" or "open season". I ended up reading and journalling instead. They offer a large range of spirits and classy wines too. I stuck with ginger beer, coke and water. I was however, quite pleased to use the inflight email and text message utility in first class. It's kind of neat to send emails and texts from 40000 feet over Libya but cost a little bit, so only my girlfriend and parents benefitted from the gimmick. Sorry :).
NAIROBI
airport is quite a contrast to Schiphol International. They don't check passports much and the gates of flights change quite regularly, not that there are any signs to say where they are in the first place. To shorten a long story, several electrical faults delayed the flight for 3-4 hours, we boarded, the plane's lighting system was still working like a christmas tree, so the flight was cancelled and we had a night in downtown Nairobi. There are lots of suspicious looking characters in downtown Nairobi so at 4:30am in the morning, you just kept your eyes peeled. There are guards at every hotel anyway. Slept 3 hours, then a quick breakfast before heading back to the airport. I have some good videos of driving in a crowded Matatu (mini van taxi) in Kenya. The road rules are (in general), give way to a heavier vehicle than yours & tooting means "I'm here".
I received $100 for inconvenience which promptly got stolen, ah well, money I wasn't expecting I guess, but also a realistic introduction to Nairobi. Theft and violent crime are very common in Nairobi.
The flight to Entebbe was delayed as they tried to check all of us on (including our luggage) through one counter. They opened a few more eventually which sped things up.
airport is quite a contrast to Schiphol International. They don't check passports much and the gates of flights change quite regularly, not that there are any signs to say where they are in the first place. To shorten a long story, several electrical faults delayed the flight for 3-4 hours, we boarded, the plane's lighting system was still working like a christmas tree, so the flight was cancelled and we had a night in downtown Nairobi. There are lots of suspicious looking characters in downtown Nairobi so at 4:30am in the morning, you just kept your eyes peeled. There are guards at every hotel anyway. Slept 3 hours, then a quick breakfast before heading back to the airport. I have some good videos of driving in a crowded Matatu (mini van taxi) in Kenya. The road rules are (in general), give way to a heavier vehicle than yours & tooting means "I'm here".
I received $100 for inconvenience which promptly got stolen, ah well, money I wasn't expecting I guess, but also a realistic introduction to Nairobi. Theft and violent crime are very common in Nairobi.
The flight to Entebbe was delayed as they tried to check all of us on (including our luggage) through one counter. They opened a few more eventually which sped things up.
HIDDEN BEAUTY
The flight to Entebbe (where Uganda's national airport is) was beautiful. Interesting to look at the terrain and agriculture below and also the clouds were stunning, fluffy and motionless. It was very spiritually uplifting too. I was meditating on the fact that certain beauty could only be witnessed after the invention of air travel. I reflected that God too has much hidden beauty, beauty that we haven't even imagined let alone glimpsed. Then I realised that although we only know a small amount of God's beauty, as He gazes upon one of His spiritual children, He sees the entire righteousness of Christ in all it's unveiled fullness. It really uplifted and humbled my heart.
Unfortunately my camera was in the lockers, as we were ascending still with seatbelts on. No shot I took of sunsets/sunrises/clouds did justice to them anyway.
These pictures are taken in the first leg & the stay in Malaysia. 1) The plane at Melbourne 2) a sunset shot over Malaysia 3) My hotel room on 10th floor, courtesy KLM. 4) buffe brekky, before hitting bed. 5) me in the dining room. 6) random fountain. 7) my hotel 8)the mosque 9) view from my window.
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