One Trip, Four Airports: Seattle, Doha, Nairobi, and Lilongwe

Traveling to Africa from the Seattle area is never direct. I was going to Africa for the third time, and the journey would be long and tiring. The first time I went to Africa I connected through London. The second time I traveled through New York. This time I though I would try a different approach and headed to Doha in the Middle East.

While Seattle is my home airport, I was traveling with a new-to-me airline, Qatar, so I encountered a new situation. As I was finishing checking in, the agent said I needed to weigh my carry-on. I did not expect that, and it turned out it was overweight. He said I needed to lighten it. I asked if my suitcase was overweight, and he said it was fine. I ended up taking books out of my carry-on and putting them in my suitcase. Fortunately my suitcase hadn’t been put on the belt yet, or I don’t know what I would have done.

It was a short walk from the Qatar desk to the precheck security station. Unfortunately, they had just closed that station so I had to walk back down to the next closest one. Then I had to walk back the direction I came from to get the train to my gate. At least I got some exercise in before my 14 hour flight.

When I got to the gate about an hour before departure, I was surprised to find they were boarding already. The flight to Doha was full so I enjoyed no empty seat next to me. In my section the aisle was also narrow, more narrow than on any other plane I had been on. Since I had an aisle seat, people hit me quite a bit as they walked by.

The 14 hour flight to Doha didn’t seem too long. Sleeping, reading, watching a movie and two dinners helped the time pass. However, the route was unexpected. I thought we would fly west, but instead we flew north over the Arctic and then south over Scandinavia and Russia to Doha.

After we arrived in Doha, I had an eight hour layover to endure. I had heard that the airport was quite interesting so I figured I would have time to explore it. A number of years ago I wrote about airports. Doha would definitely be one to add to the list of interesting airports.

The Doha airport has a central hub area with a huge teddy bear in the center that everyone was taking selfies with. From there the various wings spread out for gates. I walked down most of them and noted a few things. First there are prayer rooms, separate ones for men and women. They had these on all the wings. There were also smoking rooms and quiet rooms with recliners, again separate for men and women.

I had read online that there were sleeping pods one could rent, and I had thought I would do that with an eight hour layover. I finally found them, but the price was about twice what I thought I had seen online so I decided against it.

Since the Doha airport is so large they have a lot of electric carts driving down the different wings. Some of the carts could hold six to eight people.

Throughout the Doha airport were various art and decorative pieces. There were a number of cartoon like characters, often in a children’s play area.

I went down one of the wings, and near the end is a large tropical garden. It has a fountain and paths that meander through the tropical foliage with seats here and there. It creates a calming environment in a busy airport.

Since my flight was leaving at 2:00 in the morning, I decided to go to one of the quiet rooms. The first one I found was quite full, but the second one was about half full so I settled into a recliner there. While I didn’t sleep, I felt pretty comfortable and safe.

I’m not sure why my flight to Nairobi left at 2:00 in the morning, but it apparently was not the only flight to do so. About midnight I began to try to locate my gate, and the airport was much busier than when I had arrived. I couldn’t believe how crowded it had become. My thought is that because of the heat during the day in Doha, a lot of the flights leave at night when it’s cooler.

When I went to board the plane, the agent checking me in looked at me and asked about sickness on my previous flight. I told him I was not aware of anything. Then he asked me directly if I had been sick. I said no. Then he sent me to another agent to talk with. That agent told me he had a report stating I had been sick during the previous flight from Seattle. I was quite shocked. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would have said that. Convinced I was OK, the agent let me through to board.

In this case we had to take a shuttle bus out to the plane. Usually it’s a short ride. This one seemed to go on forever, but finally we arrived and were soon on our way to Kenya. The flight was about five hours and they served us a dinner in the middle of the night after about an hour on the plane. I thought that was very odd.

When we landed in Kenya, it was another bus ride to the immigration area. Since I was not staying in Kenya, I looked around for where passengers in transit were to go, but none of the signs indicated that purpose. Unsure of what to do I lined up with everyone else. The young man in immigration asked for my visa, and I said I didn’t have one because I wasn’t staying. He said I needed to pay for a $20 transit visa. I never had to do that before, but I didn’t feel I had a choice. He told me I needed to pick up my luggage and check in again. I argued with him on that. I told him it should have been checked all the way through to Malawi, but he said I needed to do it.

So I went in to look for my suitcase which I didn’t find. I still thought this wasn’t right. I saw a woman sitting at a desk and started talking to her about my situation. She agreed that it was wrong, and said I shouldn’t have gone through immigration. She took me back through, got my $20 back, and had the transit visa scratched off my passport. Next she showed me where I was supposed to go which was to the left as I walked into the room. I missed it because I had only been looking straight ahead. So I went into this area where I should have gone originally and passed through security.

At this point I expected the woman to point me in the direction of the gates and leave me, but she said she would take me to my gate, and she did. She walked with me all the way around the airport, which has a semicircle shape to it. At my gate she showed me how to access the airport wifi before leaving me. It surprised me how much time she spent with me.

When she was walking me around the airport, she told me that the arrival area was temporary. In the terminal it was obvious they were still working on the terminal because there were a lot of empty spaces. However, I thought temporary meant a few months. I was wrong. Three weeks later when I returned through the airport, we entered the terminal through a brand new entrance. The terminal areas had gained numerous new shops and restaurants. The airport had significantly changed in those three weeks.

While I waited for my flight I went to a small cafe to get some breakfast and was again surprised by their willingness to help. I wanted to use my iPad, but the battery was getting low. They had plugs at the table, but not American style. I asked if they had any converters I could use. The waitress spent about five minutes looking and eventually found something so I could charge my iPad. It was really kind of her. Kenyans impressed me with their willingness to help.

I had one more flight to get to Lilongwe. I was flying Kenya Airways now and a smaller airplane, but it was still nice. It was only a two hour flight down to Lilongwe, but the attendants did serve us a meal, it seemed a small dinner as it was dinner food but a smaller portion.

I knew that I needed to have a visa to get into Malawi. I tried to get one online, but for some reason it would not accept the documents I needed to upload. However, I knew that I could get one in the airport so I didn’t worry. When we arrived, I filled out the application and went to pay the fee.

The visa cost $50. I had brought money in $20 bills so I paid $60 toward the visa. The cashier asked if I had $10. I said no. She didn’t either. She called someone over and sent him off to find $10. He couldn’t find any. In the meantime I was waiting to finish up and leave, but I wanted my $10 in change. Everyone had left immigration except me. The cashier was wandering around discussing her dilemma with different people. Finally she asked me if I had $100. I told her I did have in $20 bills. She indicated that if I gave her $100, she could give me a $50 bill, and thus we solved the problem.

I was finally in Malawi, and my friend Bern was there to greet me wearing his Seahawks t-shirt he had gotten in Seattle this past summer. It had been a long trip with some unusual experiences along the way, but I arrived safely ready to see what Malawi had to offer me this time.

Have you had some challenging experiences in an airport? I’d like to read about them in the comment section below. Next week I’ll share more about my time in Malawi. To get that post in your email, be sure to sign up to receive the weekly blogs. See you next week.