Monthly Archives: January 2014

Jobe, Travel

Khartoum Day One!

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So I got a good solid 4 hours of sleep with my surprise roommate Michael (who slept through the rest of the day’s adventures) and then headed out with 12 others from our group (including Kam from Toronto who I met last night) and saw some neat things around Khartoum. We needed to wait until we got our photography permits to leave, but there’s still a number of rules, like we can’t take photos of government buildings, police or army forces, and infrastructure like bridges. Also, I don’t think we can take a picture of the spot where the Blue Nile and White Nile merge into the Nile. Odd, eh?

I’ve also got a sim card, I think $23 has given me a sim card and unlimitedish data for the next month in Sudan. If anyone wants to pay a fortune to call or text me, +249 907789991, lol. Just Facebook me!

Overall it’s been a good day. I tried some new food and a burger of unknown meat. Breakfast at the hotel was pretty good too. Lots of fun meeting new people!

Tomorrow myself and a new friend are going to go to some sort of Greek Club where we can run and go for a swim. I think there’s a mixer tonight too for meeting more people…

Jobe, Travel

Hello from 30000 feet! My new love for Turkish Airlines

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Am I on an airplane?! Really?!
Am I on an airplane?! Really?!

Ok, so in what will undoubtedly be the most luxurious experience of this entire trip, I somehow managed to book myself a comfort class ticket for the Toronto to Istanbul leg of my journey to Khartoum. The upside of which is that it’s basically business class or first class on some lesser carriers… Things I’ve found so far:

  • The seat reclines sooooo far. I don’t have a protractor to measure it, but it’s significant!
  • It’s a lazyboy sized chair
  • It’s got a footrest that comes out
  • There’s roughly two feet between my knees and the seat in front of me.
  • The entertainment system comes out of the arm rest and has about 500 movies as far as I can tell.
  • I’ve got USB plugs, 110V AC, a network plug (in case wifi doesn’t work)
  • WIFI! wtf? I’m writing this from a few miles above the Atlantic Ocean! How is technology so amazing all of the time?
  • I got these huge nice headphones that actually sound pretty good. Over-ear style.
  • There’s a little kit that came with my seat, it’s got lipbalm, hand cream, hair ties, a little sticky for “wake me for meals” or “leave me alone to sleep”, a toothbrush and toothpaste, omg earplugs!
  • I got slippers! And socks! The socks have sticky bits on the bottom so the slippers stay on better. This is pretty much the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me on a flight.
  • Hot cloth for washing my face/head. I needed that.
  • I got this nice printed menu, and the most elegant looking plane food ever. I tried the Roast Beef w/ yoghurt dressing, herbs, avocados, tomatoes, arugula, and frisee. It was ok. I didn’t try the Potpourii of Seafood. 🙁 I need to be hungrier! Not bad though for being all on my own.
  • I ordered “Cola Light” (Diet Coke) and some Whiskey, and there had to be about 3oz of Whiskey in 4oz of drink. I’m getting drunker by the second, so excuse the rest of this blog post. Oh god, the drink cart is coming back already.
  • I just got fresh baked bread! From a guy wearing a cook uniform! omg I hope I can score some seconds.

The flight isn’t even over! Who knows what amazingness is on the way? I think I’m going to look at the price of upgrading my ticket home to this class… Because my overall cost was not that high, and comparable to economy on other carriers. I’d say this experience is worth at least $100. And I’m a cheap bastard.

DID I MENTION I’M POSTING THIS FROM 30,000 FEET ABOVE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN?!! What the hell?!

On the minus side, the flight was delayed like 3.5 hours waiting in line for the deicer at Toronto International, but since I had 5.5 hours of layover in Istanbul anyways, I hope this will work out. There’s only one flight a day from there to Khartoum, so I’d better make it.

Why did I drink that drink?!

Oh, and I’m totally not eating dinner. Not nearly hungry enough to try the pasta option, and as many of you know, I react when eating chicken… Definitely would not be fun on the plane!

Maybe I’ll update this later with more amazing secrets Turkish Airlines has in store for me, but so far this is the most amazing flight experience I’ve ever had. Why aren’t they all like this? I only paid $2k for 6 flights including this one… It should be doable!!

Sorry this isn’t TDA or Bike related, but man, this airline is amazing.

Much love,
Scott