On the Road



In Ottawa, packing the bins onto the bus to Montreal

Memories from 22 hours of travelling...

Uneventful bus trip (except for one passenger who was angry about all of the bins that we were storing in in the luggage compartment!)

Body scans - Two!! One in Ottawa and another in Amsterdam

One thing about KLM, they are pretty amazing. Not sure if all transatlantic flights are like this but they were excellent. They feed you, then you sleep, then they give you free booze (FREE!!), then you get fed again, then you sleep then you get hot towels, then you land and do it all over again on a second flight.  Seeing the Alps and the Sahara desert from the air was pretty cool.

Personal entertainment centre that was in every seat on the plane.

Usually during the last leg of any flight you get a declaration form to fill out. Unfortunately they didn't have any, so approximately 400 people crowded into the customs office in Kilimanjaro airport, standing around the corners and sitting all over the floors, madly trying to fill them in.



Haria Hotel in Moshi



Once we got in, we had to gather the bins plus our luggage, then wait for a customs official to inspect the bin contents. Instead of going through all of them, they picked 2 of the biggest bins to open and go through. Lise was there with a bus and truck to meet us with hugs,"habaris"and "karibus". We loaded the bins into the truck with some help form a few locals and then we were off. Half way to Moshi, one of our doctors (with much chagrin) stated that he had lost his passport so the bus turned around and headed back to search the parking lot and the terminal. The passport was no where to be found so he reported the loss to the airport security and hoped for the best. (The passport was later found in his jacket pocket so all was well)

After about a 15-20 minute ride to Moshi we checked in to the Haria hotel (pretty much downtown Moshi). Beers and snacks on the outdoor patio. Many of us don't have Tanzanian shillings, so a trip to find an ATM machine will be the first thing we do in the morning.

The rooms are pretty frugal (this is no luxury hotel). A single toilet, shower, and sink are shared by our entire floor. The sink is in the main hallway. For security, a watchman sits in the hallway all night.

Our room @ Haria Hotel—clean and comfy