Day 12 - Pointe Noire, Congo to Douala, Cameroon - Friday, May 8, 2009

Out of Africa!

Once I printed my ticket, sent my luggage with "the Evangelist" for check-in an formalities, a short prayer and good-bye with the Apostle Dzur and Kab, it was onward to the airport for my flight out of Pointe Noire to Douala, Cameroon.

The last time in Cameroon was supposed to be for a few hours and it ended up being two and half days. Was already leary about flying through Douala. The airline that used to run out of Cameroon was called Air-Peut-Etre - Air Maybe, OK, actually it was called CamAir but the other name was what everyone called it. An interesting story about the airport that I wish to recall quickly. When I arrive in Douala some years back, the airport looked great, nice decoration, air conditioning, new floors/carpet, until it changed, the second part of the airport looked like WWII. I was told that most of the airport was renovated but someone didn't pay the bill, so the Contractor decided to go back to the airport and take down the renovation that wasn't paid for and only left up that which was. Well, the airport hasn't changed and possibly gotten worse, maybe the contractor came back to take down the rest.

The flight left late and with each minute that we waited, I knew that the slimmer the chance of me making my flight to Ethiopia. I wasn't able to check-in my baggage all the way through so I would have to clear customs, luggage and then check-in again with Ethiopian Airlines. We finally left 40 minutes late and found out the reason for our delay; they forgot to warm-up the food. You gotta be kidding me. My day's going to be screwed because of food. I guess it's a little appropriate since I enjoy food so much.

As the plane was called for boarding, I found out that all the formalities were not completed. So an aggravated protocol official ripped my passport and boarding pass out of my hand and went to do the formalities. Well, I thought, this would be a good way to miss my flight. Almost felt like the formalities weren't done to sabotage my trip further. With every moment you get more paranoid as well. Well after 15 minutes he returned and I had to cover a few more formalities (aka money) with him. It's interesting these "formalities". You don't want to call them bribes but they are almost what the original intention of a TIP was to be. TIP = to insure promptness. In the good ole days, a tip was given at the beginning of a meal "to insure promptness". Without it, you may have waited for hours to receive any food. Well, "formalities" are to insure things are done in a timely fashion or even done at all. When "formalities" are expected after an action performed, this is to insure that he will be there the next time one of us needs help i.e. Apostle Dzur on Monday. Basically paying it forward, literally.

Frustrated on board, I prayed that the plane would go faster. I was the first one off the plan in Douala at 1:15 PM, 75 minutes before my flight was to leave for Addis Ababa. I found a "boy" that would help me past immigration, security and to the area where the luggage was going to come out. He proceeded to the Ethiopian counter to see if he could already start the process to check me in. I followed shortly after WITHOUT my luggage as I asked another "boy" to retrieve it for me and meet me at the Ethiopian counter. Well this is where my disaster begins. The ladies working for Ethiopian were very uncooperative and rude. I felt "prejudiced" against in the finest form. Cameroon versus Westerner. My day in Cameroon did turn around somewhat so I am not going to stereotype all those from Cameroon so I'll stop just there. Finally my luggage arrived and there was nobody to help me whatsoever. The "official" from Ethiopian finally arrived as well and pretended I wasn't there. This was not going to be my day. So a long-distance-roaming-phonecall to Donalda and my voyage through Ethiopia now became my 44 hour trip out of Africa through Cameroon, Kenya and Dubai, UAE to Bangalore, India.

It was about 2:30 PM by this time and my flight wasn't until midnight. Everyone is helpful in Douala and, of course, they're all looking for some money as well. I couldn't keep track of all the names and people I met but "Jacques" stayed with me from beginning to end and therefore I helped him the most. I wanted to have a copy of my ticket so we first went to the Kenya Airways office. Eventually the nice gentleman found my ticket and printed for me. He even agreed to keep my large suitcase locked in his office until later in the evening when I could pick it up. Now, what to do?

First, needed some more money. Thought I would be out of French Africa. So I exchanged €50 for the day and hoped it would suffice. Discovered some newly found friends, Jacques and Samuel. I know they're looking for $ but thought I'm better off with a couple of guys for some $ then alone in the airport for 10 hours. The three of us took a taxi, after an argument between taxi drivers who was going to take the oumouzoungou (white man aka mundele) to town. I thought just to go out for lunch, maybe find an internet cafe and then return to the airport.

I've been stuck in Cameroon before. Not for 10 hours but for almost 3 days. On a previous African trip, as mentioned before, I had to take the now-defunct CamAir aka Cameroon Airlines aka Air Peut-Etre aka Air Maybe when a promised connection to Kinshasa, DRC took three days to realize. At that time, I decided just to stay in a hotel room close to the airport for the 2 1/2 days, this time I wasn't just going to sit around an airport.

So we ventured off to Downtown Douala. Actually Douala's not that bad. Not as primitive as part of the Africa I'm used to but not as modern as South Africa or Kenya or Rwanda. Somewhere in between. Douala is a very "rich" city as it also is home to a large port. Out of this port Cameroon exports oil, coffee and cocoa. Unknown to most, Douala is the 2nd most expensive city in Africa after Lagos, Nigeria. It's the 34th most expensive city in the world. To put this into perspective, Toronto is the 54th most expensive city in the world. This is all relative but something worth noting.

With my two companions, we went to the "White House" for lunch. This restaurant is a good clean take on Cameroonian cuisine. An outdoor restaurant with lots of fans. I ordered grilled chicken (swiss chalet style) and my new friends ordered more traditional dishes (one ordered Ndole). Ndole (see picture below) is a local dish of ground nuts, Ndole leaves (like spinach) and sometimes added with meat. As, of course, I didn't know this until I looked it up on the internet, I thought chicken was safe. My side dish was deep-fried plantains (wow! good!).

From there, Jacques and I went to a nearby Internet Cafe. It's interesting, on this trip more than any other, when I would go "online" and check email it would take me home. When I would logoff and leave, I would only then realize that I'm half way around the world. A real interesting phenomena. The Internet Cafe had curtains around each station I guess to ensure privacy....a little strange but "oh well" at least it was cool (A/C was working). So an hour there and then back to the street for a taxi back to the airport. Of course the taxi to the airport was half the price as the taxi from the airport. We bought some bananas before "boarding" our taxi (bananas = nice and sweet) and a short 20 minutes later we were back at the airport. So I survived the day in Douala. By this time it was about 6 PM and in about 2 hours I could check-in. So we enjoyed a Coke and some good conversation in the Airport Bar (A/C again, although not as cool as I would have liked it). As the next two hours went by, we could see the airport terminal slowly fill up. When it was time to pick-up my luggage at the Kenya Airways office, we were wall-to-wall people. In Africa and many overseas countries, only passengers are permitted in the check-in lines. There are even some airports where only passengers are permitted into the airport at all. Sometimes for a small fee, they allow non-passengers. Again, a little different than home.

So I lined up about 4 hours before my flight in the secure area of the check-in lines. Patiently waiting for the check-in desks to open (what else could I do?) the Kenya Airways staff asked if I would be interested in Business Class. Of course, I asked, "for free?" No, they just targeted me as a rich foreigner. I said, "well, how much?". They stated something around USD $450. Not bad for a 2-3 hour flight to Nairobi. So back and forth between the check-in and Kenya Airways office (in and out of the "secure" area, oooh, that was fun - insert sarcasm). Eventually I checked in both my big bag and my little bag (after locking it) and then I was given access to the Business Class lounge even if I didn't make it into Business Class. Before that, another woman from KA asked if I had any Flying Blue points. Well, of course I do. She said instead of the $450 they could just take the points required. I would have to fill out a form and if there was place, they would take these points and upgrade me.

So in to the security and immigration check-in. Now it gets a little interesting. First, for non-transit passengers, a long line-up to pay for Departure Tax. Secondly, a taste of "hot as hell". In a room no bigger than the Willowdale church, about 250 people squished together haphazardly to go through the immigration process. No A/C, no fans, I would say easily 120 degrees and humid. After my 30 minutes of melting over two lines of National Security and Police Security, then through the X-Rays and over to the KA lounge.

This must be the best room in the entire airport. Cool, modern, cold beer, nice snacks, free wi-fi, decent washrooms, comfortable chairs, good tv reception, then about 30 minutes before my flight, a new boarding pass > business class! When eventually we boarded, again through 3 security checks, I was the last seat in business class on this flight. Things are looking up!