Sunday,
23 December 2018
I
woke up at least twice to use the washroom and finally got up to perform
ablutions and morning prayers. The prayer room was very small and we had to
queue or contend with performing prayers in cramped space. After prayers, we
decided to stretch our legs and walk slowly to our gate. And it was a good
thing too as we had to take a train to our gate. DXB is huge alright. The
Airbnb host in Lusaka had also responded and agreed to have their sister meet
us at the airport and bring us to their apartment. We also agreed on the amount
to be paid for the apartment and transfer. Alhamdulillah, at least our
accommodation in Lusaka was sorted.
We
boarded at 08:30. I was unfortunate to be sitting in the middle seat next to a
big girl and I prayed my bladder would hold. I was confused throughout the
flight when I saw the duration to destination as it was shorter than I
expected. When we landed in Lusaka (yes, Lusaka, not Harare), I got up and
found HI already waiting for me a few rows ahead. It turned out that the Emirates
flight bound for Harare stops at Lusaka en route to Harare. We asked a man in
uniform if we could get down instead of flying to Harare and catching another
flight back to Lusaka and if we could get our bags out. He said yes so we went
down, went through passport control and then on to wait for our bags. HI was
unhappy with Emirates for not informing us the plane would stop at Lusaka en
route; had we known, we would have arranged to disembark there and not purchase
the one-way ticket for extra cost.
My
bags didn’t appear after some time although HI’s bag had emerged so I went to
the baggage desk to inform. The lady at the counter examined our boarding
passes and consulted a colleague who was an Emirates staff. This other
colleague then made some phone calls before telling us we should not have
disembarked. She said we should have stayed on the plane and flown to Harare
and then fly back to Lusaka. She further informed that by disembarking, we
posed security risks (say what?!) and that she would bring us to the airport
police station and we were to wait there until the plane safely arrived in
Lusaka. What the -? By this point, we decided we would just do anything as long
as we were thrown into a prison cell. She went to make copies of our boarding
passes before coming back to escort us to the police station.
Lusaka Airport
The
police station was a gloomy place and the police looked surprised to see us.
The Emirates staff who accompanied us explained the situation and the way the
policewoman responded indicated she didn’t understand why we had to be there
and why the police had to keep an eye on us. Her colleague told us to make
ourselves comfortable but the seats looked anything but. Then the Emirates
staff received a call on her mobile phone and when she ended the call, told us
we had to re-board the plane and for us to hurry. So we hurried after her with
our bags, quickly dropped our checked in bags at the check-in counter,
underwent security checks (two of them) and rushed to the tarmac. We had to
walk up to the plane and I could see the unfriendly unhappy faces of the cabin
crew waiting for us. One man asked why we disembarked so we told him that we
had checked with a staff and were told we could do so. Did he really think we
would be so stupid or so arrogant as to just walk off the plane like that
without consulting if we could so first? Duh!
We
settled into the first available seats we could find and buckled up. The plane
took off and we reached Harare about 40 minutes later. There was confusion when
we arrived as we searched for the transfer gate. We asked a few officers and
were told to wait aside so we did. And we waited and waited. Finally I asked a
passing gentleman and he looked surprised. He said the plane bound for Lusaka
was from Lusaka (yes, didn’t we know all about that) and wondered aloud why we
came all the way to Harare and had to return back on the same plane (albeit on
a different flight number) back to Lusaka. Yes, it does sound strange but try
telling Emirates that.
We
landed back at Lusaka at 20:20. Deena, the sister to the Airbnb hosts, was already waiting for us.
She drove to Airbnb apartment and showed us around. We paid her USD35 for the pick-up
service and USD35 for the apartment. It had been a long challenging day and I
was not happy to discover my clothes were all wet when I opened my suitcase. It
turned out that a water bottle broke in suitcase and I had to remove all the clothes
and dry them. By this time, too many things had happened and I just took my
clothes out listlessly and spread them around the bed and on the sofa in the
living room. After a quick shower, I settled in bed and tried to sleep.
Monday, 24 December 2018
I
had a restless sleep and woke up twice. I went to check on my clothes and
turned them. They were drying at least. I finally got up at 04:10 and went to
re-pack my clothes back into my suitcase. Then I woke HI and we got ready.
After
a quick breakfast, we were ready to leave. I brought my bags down (the
apartment would have to be at the top floor of course and there was no lift)
and asked the guard if the cab had arrived (Deena had asked him the previous
evening to help all a cab for us at 05:30). One finally came (it didn’t look
like a cab at all) and I was surprised to find two passengers already in the
car. We had to load the bags with us into the back seats (at least the foot
area was wide enough to accommodate the bags) and drove to the inter-city bus
station.
From
the map, the inter-city bus station is only a fifteen-minute walk away but
because of the one-way roads from the apartment, it seemed further. There was a
swarm of people around the cab asking our destination and the cabbie helped us
find a bus to Livingstone. I had to change USD25 as the ticket office didn’t
accept USD. The bus ticket to Livingstone cost us 200 kwacha each and although we were told it would leave at 06:30, the bus
only moved at 07:10. There was a bottleneck leading out of the bus station and
there was a preacher chanting prayers loudly in the bus. We stopped at Muzugawa
to use the facilities (surprisingly clean). We also passed the towns of Monze,
Choma (where we had a 10-minute stop), Zimba before we finally arrived at Livingstone
at 15:00. From the bus station, we took a cab to the border for USD10 each
although I paid him 70 kwacha and USD5. We then went through passport control and
the cabbie drove us across the bridge. Sadly, we couldn’t see any of the Falls
or indeed any water at all. It was a hot day and the summer rains hadn’t
arrived. We cleared passport control on the Zimbabwean side then took another cab
to N1 Hotel for USD10.
Lusaka inter-city bus terminal
Choma town. The sellers rushed to the bus as it was approaching. Passengers can buy produce from their window
We checked in and rested for a while
before venturing out. Unfortunately, we were unlucky not to be able to view or
even get near the Victoria Falls. The Lookout Café had burnt down the same
morning so we couldn’t even go near the café (area had been cordoned off) and
have a view of the Falls. What bad luck.
There was a KFC restaurant next to a
pump station near our hotel and it served halal chicken. However, the prices
were much higher than in Malaysia. We returned back to the hotel and had some
soup and bread. There was a strong wind that evening which then led to a
blackout all over town. It had been a long day of travelling and as there
wasn’t much we could do anyway due to the power outage, we had an early night.
Besides, we had an early start the next morning.
To be continued
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