Air Travel Chaos
I'm writing this almost a week after the events. (I feel a bit guilty about writing a blog rather than catching up with Family and Friends).
Finishing on site was a last minute rush, as expected. I was out at 7:00 am taking water samples and purging putrid partially decomposed polymer out of the boreholes.
A young English speaking Angolan guy who I had got some job contacts for and found some temporary work for, asked me what I was going to give him so that he would remember me as his friend. I pretended to mis understand and said something about my email address.
A guy on the flight who I told the story to suggested that I should have given him a black eye. There was something typically south African about that thought...
Check in at the Airport was at 9:30am for a circa 2:00pm flight.
Luanda airport is a real example of socialist ineficiency, when you go in you need to go to a counter and present your passport and flight documents twice Before you join the checkin que.
The little bureaucrat at the first desk told me that I needed to put some bank notes in my passport for the chief, otherwise I would have to que and get my bag searched. I told him I wasn't putting anything in.
After this I have to present my pasport, flight documents and a chit from the first guy before I can join an un labelled que to check in. (it is easy to get the que for the wrong flight).
Following an uneventful check in, I think documents were checked again and a form filled in before proceeding to the immigration desk, which takes about 5 minutes of typing on a keyboard for each person...
Then its on to security. Welcome to no liquids on flights. I Didn't witness it but heard of one man whose expensive aftershave was about to be confiswiped. He slapped a handfull on his own face and passed the bottle back for every other male in the que to do the same.
He need not have worried, it would not have been wasted, I expect it and a lot of other confistolen goods would be for sale on street corners that afternoon...
For some reason, I made it through un scathed, and was not invited into the small room to be searched for Kwanza (the local currency) which is not allowed to be taken out of the country, although i am told that some searchers get a little over enthusiastic and try to take dollars as well.
Next, sit in the departure lounge getting bitten by mosquitoes. there is a better lounge that you can pay to enter, but the basic one has a bar and good coffee, together with a hoard of female airport employees watching the soaps on the TV beside the bar.
Conversation in the lounge is generally good, as the expats begin to relax for the flight. I ended up talking to a man who has opened a small business in Angola with a helpful private partner who actually invested rather than asked to be given 51% of the funds brought in.
Miraculously, he has found good and reasonably priced living accomodation in the city as well. The normal going rate for a decent size house is $15,000 / month with 2 years deposit! No wonder everything else in the city is expensive.
Finishing on site was a last minute rush, as expected. I was out at 7:00 am taking water samples and purging putrid partially decomposed polymer out of the boreholes.
A young English speaking Angolan guy who I had got some job contacts for and found some temporary work for, asked me what I was going to give him so that he would remember me as his friend. I pretended to mis understand and said something about my email address.
A guy on the flight who I told the story to suggested that I should have given him a black eye. There was something typically south African about that thought...
Check in at the Airport was at 9:30am for a circa 2:00pm flight.
Luanda airport is a real example of socialist ineficiency, when you go in you need to go to a counter and present your passport and flight documents twice Before you join the checkin que.
The little bureaucrat at the first desk told me that I needed to put some bank notes in my passport for the chief, otherwise I would have to que and get my bag searched. I told him I wasn't putting anything in.
After this I have to present my pasport, flight documents and a chit from the first guy before I can join an un labelled que to check in. (it is easy to get the que for the wrong flight).
Following an uneventful check in, I think documents were checked again and a form filled in before proceeding to the immigration desk, which takes about 5 minutes of typing on a keyboard for each person...
Then its on to security. Welcome to no liquids on flights. I Didn't witness it but heard of one man whose expensive aftershave was about to be confiswiped. He slapped a handfull on his own face and passed the bottle back for every other male in the que to do the same.
He need not have worried, it would not have been wasted, I expect it and a lot of other confistolen goods would be for sale on street corners that afternoon...
For some reason, I made it through un scathed, and was not invited into the small room to be searched for Kwanza (the local currency) which is not allowed to be taken out of the country, although i am told that some searchers get a little over enthusiastic and try to take dollars as well.
Next, sit in the departure lounge getting bitten by mosquitoes. there is a better lounge that you can pay to enter, but the basic one has a bar and good coffee, together with a hoard of female airport employees watching the soaps on the TV beside the bar.
Conversation in the lounge is generally good, as the expats begin to relax for the flight. I ended up talking to a man who has opened a small business in Angola with a helpful private partner who actually invested rather than asked to be given 51% of the funds brought in.
Miraculously, he has found good and reasonably priced living accomodation in the city as well. The normal going rate for a decent size house is $15,000 / month with 2 years deposit! No wonder everything else in the city is expensive.
posted by Keith at 4:56 p.m.
1 Comments:
Wow, I live in a medium sized city and I just have to get to the airport only an hour before the flight time. Nobody asks me for any money either.
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