Ragnar's World: A room with a view

Finally arrived at my hotel. It is located in the Catembe area on the other side of the bay from Maputo. A more peaceful spot outside of the bustling city. Perfect for my first nights. The trip was long, and I didn't sleep much on the plane. As usual. I never do. The massive turbulence that threw us around in the air, didn't exactly help.
Most of the trip was event-less. Just airports, checking in and flying. And the usual fight for baggage rights in the overhead lockers, the crying kids and the over-sized people in the seat next to me. It wasn't until Nairobi it got really interesting. We arrived more or less on time. And where bussed along to a stair that we had to scale to get into the terminal. Like it has always been as long as I can remember. But with the interesting new feature that we had to fight for space with people going OUT to some airplane. I got into the terminal and found it just as adrenalin-rushing, bustling and claustrophobic as always. I found that my flight to Maputo would depart from gate 12. I checked in, and sat in the checkin-area. Suddenly everybody got up and started walking out to the boarding gate. Only to find out that there was another flight from the same gate at the same time. For Kigali in Rwanda... So we were stopped by the people in the door. We had to wait until the people for Kigali had left. And they took their sweet time arriving. When we finally were allowed to board the buses for our flight, the time was more or less the original departure time. "Oh well", I thought and smiled. "African time! Hakuna matata!". I looked at my ticked as the shuttle bus stopped outside the airplane. 16J. 16J? I looked at the obviously too small plane for such a seat number. In a regional jet liner? What were the seats like? 3 inches wide? I thought maybe the delay was in order to change from big to small airplane. But realized when boarding they only used four letters with BIG spacing. If it isn't big, make it sound bigger spacing the letters...
Half an hour after original departure time. They had finished boarding. Now the captain came on the speakers. There were some "VIP movement" on Maputo airport, so they had closed it for security reason until the VIP's had stopped moving. So we had to sit on the tarmac for another 30 minutes before taking off. Ah well... I sat there, looking at the people going about their business on the tarmac. Tractors pulling carts of luggage. Personnel talking and joking. I fell asleep.
I jumped when the sharp voice from the cockpit screamed in the speakers. We were ready to depart. An hour late. The plane roared into the air and I sat watching the houses of Nairobi disappearing in the morning mist below. The plane shook and jumped as we roared through the clouds. Soon we popped out into the blue skies above. I tried to sleep some more. But found it hard. Especially as the clouds broke up underneath us, and we could see the peak(s) of Kilimanjaro peeping out of the clouds. The red-brown landscape below. Lake Malawi. Smaller towns and cities. Rivers. I love watching this.
A few hours in the air and Maputo appeared below. It was bigger than I thought. But most of it was miles upon miles of houses arranged in rows and columns around the core on the horizon. I looked down as the plane descended steeply into the airport. The airport lay smack dab in the middle of the city. We hit the tarmac 55 minutes late. The plane rumbled across the uneven surface before it came to a stop outside the terminal building. Everybody off. Into a arrival area. I needed a visa, so I got into the visa line. Which was the longest, and the slowest. If this had been at home, my heart would be racing. But here, in Africa, on vacation, hakuna matata. I sighed. My body needed to adjust to the new tempo of vacation. Normally takes a few days. An older lady in front of me, holding a UN passport, asked me why the other queues were so much shorter. "They have visas. This is for those with no visa." I explained. "Ah! She smiled. I already HAVE a visa! Thank you!" she said and left the queue.
After half an hour in line, I was allowed to pay my $78 for a visa. They took my photo. I almost laughed when I saw it. I had blinked as they took it. So I looked like had smoked something not recommended by the chief surgeon. My eyes just two thin slits. Whatever.
I was now allowed to stand in the line for passport control. I handed over my passport. The guy looked at it. "Norway. Is that in America?" I shook my head and started saying something. "Asia?" he tried again. I shook my head and started saying something again. "Europe?" he interrupted and looked at me almost surprised. I nodded. "North Europe" i said. "Scandinavia?" he asked. I nodded. He smiled. "Ah. I know!" he said. I smiled and nodded. Of course you did. He stamped my passport and gave it to me. I had to put my bag through an x-ray machine before I was allowed to leave. Nobody looked at the screen, so I'm not sure why they wanted to fry it. I got out and finally found an older guy with a sign from my hotel. I smiled. He smiled. "Ragnar" I said. "No!" he said. "Catembe hotel?" I said. He smiled and nodded. At least we agreed on that. I just remembered that I needed to change money. I changed a fistful of dollars. And he took me to his car. An old Toyota. I tried talking, but his English wasn't too good and my Portuguese is practically non-existing.
Me : "How many people live in Maputo?"
Him : "Many, yes!"
Me : "How many?"
Pause
Him : "Many thousand!"
Me : "Impressive!"
Him : "Yes..."
His driving was spastic. Full throttle, then flat out brakes before every crossroad. After a short and not to conversatory drive, we arrived at the ferry to take me to Catembe across the bay. "I call hotel! They have somebody to pick you up other side!" my driver said. I saw the line to the ferry, and given the size of the ferry, I expected the wait to be long. Then the driver waved me along "Here boss!" he said. And we walked past the whole queue. I hate this. But what to do? I tried not to look anybody in the eyes. Too embarrassing. When we arrived at the ferry, the ticketer shoved everybody aside. "Here boss!" he said and pointed into an overcrowded boat. I got on board. Then there was a short discussion between him and the boat driver. Then I was taken out and led to a new boat, where I was shoved first in line. "Here boss!", "there boss!", "come boss!". Finally, I sat down on a bench on the deck. We were off. There was a nice breeze as we crossed the bay. On the other side, I started looking for someone to pick me up. I walked to and fro, and found nobody interested enough to assume it was a driver. So in the end, I just started walking. It was a nice three km walk. People smiling and greeting me. "How are you friend?" "Fine thank you!". Children smiling and saying "hi". People in local bars smiling and laughing when I passed. I just smiled back at them.
After half an hour or so, I arrived at the hotel. The receptionist apologized. He had sent the driver, but he didn't find me. He had tried to call me twice. I checked my phone and found it indeed to be the case. I just hadn't heard. Oh, well. It was a nice walk. I had been sitting on airplanes for a total of 16 hours, so I didn't mind the walk. And since the temperature wasn't any worse than a normal summer day in Oslo. It wasn't too bad either.
My room is small, but it has a nice view of the beach below. The area is quiet. Only the gentle singing of crickets can be heard when the music in the restaurant is off. And the gentle breeze blowing through the trees. And the waves splashing towards the beach. It is wonderful. I am glad I opted for staying two nights here. Relaxing after 31 hours on the move.
"When a man loves a woman" sounds on the speakers. The cool, gentle breeze outside gives the air a smell of freshness. I am looking forward to a good nights sleep. And refreshed for new adventures tomorrow. Across the bay, I see the lights of Maputo. Above, the skies are clear and the stars are out. The full moon lights up the haze in the air. Blocking what could have been a wonderful starry sky here from this peninsula. But who's complaining?