KUL-DXB-ADD-EBB

Four airports within 24 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Kampala, Uganda.
By the time we arrived at Entebbe International Airport before a 40km drive into Kampala, we can be forgiven for not wanting to go home immediately, not that Uganda ranks high on our list of countries to visit.
Despite being seasoned travellers, we find that the trip this time to be a little bit more taxing that we expected.
I travelled here with my colleagues from Berita Harian and TV3 while the Utusan Malaysia and Bernama reporters arrived a day earlier. We all had stories to tell of our journey here.
Utusan’s Aznan was delayed in the airplane for seven hours in Dubai (yes, in the airplane instead of the airport) while Bernama’s Retna had his luggage lost in transit out of Chennai (beats me why he chose to go via Chennai).
We were delayed at every airport (no, we were not travelling on MAS but Emirates) and ended up at the Royale Imperial Hotel here 24 hours after we left KL International Airport at 1.15am on Tuesday morning, 45 minutes later than schedule.
From KLIA, we flew into Dubai for a four-hour transit (which we took advantage to browse and shop), changed planes and flew into Entebbe (Uganda) via Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).
For the first time in my travelling experience, I heard the azan reverberated throughout an airport. It was the call for the Subuh prayers and we were at the Dubai airport. We arrived the airport at about 4 am and our flight out was 8.25am. But it was close to an hour later than scheduled that we made our way to Addis Ababa.
At the Dubai airport, don't be surprised to see bodies sprawling on the floor, complete with blankets to shield them from the cold of the air-conditioning. Bags are placed on the chairs but these passengers prefer to lie on the carpeted floor instead while waiting for their next flight out. Lucky for us, our transit time was four hours. Or else, we could easily end up like them too. The ever-bustling Dubai Airport at 4am

What boggles the mind was the fact that although Emirates made clear that we had to be at the boarding gate at a specific time, they were still boarding passengers even after the specific time we were supposed to be in the air.
In Addis Ababa, we weren’t allowed to disembark from the plane when we landed at the airport. From the airplane window, I could see the modern-looking airport (with aerobridges) amidst the yellowish grassland. It was hot and we’re lucky we were in transit in an air-conditioned plane. I could take any pictures because we were not allowed to use flash photography while the plane was re-fuelling.
We were delayed yet again. This time, the pilot said we had to wait for the brake temperatures to go down before we set out to our next destination. Apparently, the temperature reached an abnormal level upon touched down at the Addis Ababa airport. Not exactly the information we want to know, isn’t it?
We occupied ourselves silly by watching the videos on board (100 movie channels to choose from ... yes, even on the economy class), playing games, reading books and magazines or sleep!
So you can understand why by the time we got into Entebbe International Airport (which doesn’t have aerobridges), we were worn out. On top of that, we had to travel another 40km by road to the capital city, Kampala.
We couldn’t wait to get into the hotel to wash the day’s grime off us but we had to wait for another hour or so for the hotel to sort out my reservation and that of TV3.
They’re still new to the hospitality sector and I think this is one sector where we can help them especially in terms of training the workforce. In fact, the hotel we’re staying in is still in the construction stage. The sign on the exterior showed that the formica-like wall cover of the building had only recently been installed.
My room is as big as my apartment’s living room with a flat-screen TV to boot but everything else is pretty basic. There is even a rocking chair in some rooms. The only consolation is the free wifi. which enables us to work from our room (then again, we're paying US$407 a night inclusive of a 22 per cent here.) The green part of Kampala from the 14th floor of the Royale Imperial HotelBut seriously now, if you’re looking at doing business here, why not consider exporting deodorants, perfumes or aromatherapy for homes and public places. You can probably do brisk business but you have to first invest, and I suspect rather heavily, on educating them on personal hygiene.
It is for this reason I think that my friends are not envious of my travel this time around. And I don’t blame them.

P/S I have to thank my bosses for assigning me to Uganda. There is a new stamp on my passport. At last count, I’ve travelled to more than 70 towns and cities (including Malaysia).