March 12th, 2023 Tuvalu, Somalia and Eritrea

 

Three more countries off the list. This was pretty much an around-the-world trip going easterly. I probably would not visit any of these again but who knows. Asmara certainly had very nice people to host me. Until next time!

March 12th, 2023 Financials

I spent 4120.67 USD on this trip, comprised mostly of airfare. I pretty much didn't pay for any of the stays except for the tour in Somalia. Depending on how much you value United miles, this might be lower since I counted 2 cents per Chase point transfer to United.

An update, I received my refund from Fiji Airways. So I am updating my expenses. It is 3310.11 USD only.

December 21st, 2022 Istanbul, Turkey to San Francisco, California

6:30AM I arrived in Istanbul. The layover was short. I thought I would be able to get on a later flight. There was no good lounge in Frankfurt. However, Lufthansa had no alternative routes. I ended up going to Frankfurt on the original flight.

8AM I arrived in Frankfurt. It took 2 hours to get to the terminal that had the Lufthansa lounge.No one had any. However, they didn't let me in because I had a United ticket.  I also called around the city to see if there are any Rolex Explorer. I ended up spending 6 hours at the Luxx Lounge landside.

8PM I arrived in San Francisco and took an Uber home.

December 20th, 2022 Out of Asmara, Eritrea

7AM I woke to take a shower. There was no hot water. They brought up some warm water for the shower. I was surprised. The climate is not that hot up here for winter. After showering, I walk to the Impero Cinema for some photos and I had a latte at the Asmara Sweet Cafe. I walked to Cathedral Our lady of the Rosary. 

10AM I ran into Kibri and his friend, who drove me to breakfast. They then drove me to the mountains for the Italian cemetery. We then came down for ice cream. 

We then went lunch. Bluebird Restaurant was closed so we went to a very old Italian restaurant in the town center for some fish.

Fish for lunch

3PM We went to Asmara Bowling Alley for a game. Next, we went to Fiat Tagliero for some photos.

   Inside Cinema Roma

5PM We lastly went to a plane graveyard.

8PM We went for some quick takeout and some drinks at a local bar. They then drove me to the airport.

10PM I waited around for 1 hour before they let people into the airport for the 11:50PM flight to Istanbul.

December 19th, 2022 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Asmara, Eritrea

 8AM I had breakfast and they drove me to the airport.

12PM I had no issues this time getting out. There was no COVID test required like they had in 2020. My flight left for Addis Ababa at 12:20PM. My flight arrived just past 5PM. The people are very calm here. There were no taxi hagglers. I got a ride from Kibri from Asmara, who I learned works out of Ethiopia.

7PM I arrived at my AirBNB but it was nowhere to be found. I called and no one answered. I called Kibri for help and he asked me to go to Hotel Khartoum. I exchanged some money there as there is no ATM or Visa use in this country.

Impero Cinema a block away from Hotel Khartoum

9PM I walked around Asmara. It is a small town. The Impero Cinema has a cafe in it. I had a latte at Cinema Roma, which was about 1 mile away.

December 18th, 2022 Mogadishu, Somalia

6AM The flight arrived at ADD and I spent a few hours in the Plaza Premium Lounge.

8:55AM I boarded for Ethiopian Airlines flight to Somalia.

11:20AM I arrived at Mogadishu now for the second time. The local temperature is 29 degrees Celsius.

Sahafi Hotel

12:30PM We left in an armored car for the Sahafi Hotel. The glass was bulletproof. We picked up 3 armed guards with AK-47s. We left the green zone and went by the Black Hawk crash site and a couple of tanks. We then walked along Secondo Lido Beach.

Black Hawk down site

1PM We walked along Lido Beach. We then drove by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We lastly tour the Peace Park before heading back to the Green Zone. We had to go through security.

Checkpoint back to the green zone

5:30PM We walked along the airport beach before walking back to the hotel.

6:30PM I had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed around 9PM.

December 17th, 2022 Hong Kong to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

9PM I arrived at HKG and grabbed a meal from Putien. I then checked out the Chase Lounge which was basically the Club. The Centurion Lounge was definitely better so I stayed there. I also had a fish ball soup from Plaza Premium, which was very crowded.

Putien

Shower

11:55PM Our flight left for Africa.

November 3rd, 2022 Funafuti, Tuvalu to Suva, Nadi then Auckland, New Zealand

6AM I woke and watched some more House of the Dragon and took a shower. I got a little anxious by 10:30AM and went down to speak to the Health Task Force workers. Michelle was the one who handed out the PCR test results and said she has been texting “them”, who will come later to pick me up.

11:05AM A truck finally arrived and they wanted to pick up my check-in luggage and passport only. I waited around until 11:45AM when some lady with an umbrella finally strolled in to pick me up.

12:00PM We walked to the tarmac and I waited for my passport to arrive before boarding. The plane took off around 12:25AM. The Chinese sitting in the row in front of me talked about how his group has been setting up antennas for the nearby islands. He said they hired a private plane to get here and they are on the way back to China via Fiji, Singapore, and Thailand.

2:35PM We arrived at SUV. I had to pick up luggage and the lady at check-in allowed me to use her shared Wi-Fi to apply for the New Zealand NZETA. I had to upload a new photo from the computer because it had otherwise been too bright. I checked in at around 3:30PM. There was no Wi-Fi at the departure gate.

5:30PM We departed on time for NAN. I arrived at NAN and I then went to the International Terminal. After spending 30 minutes at the lounge, I boarded the plane leaving at 7:30PM. We arrived 20 minutes past 11PM local time in New Zealand.

November 2nd, 2022 Funafuti, Tuvalu

 6AM Power and water stopped in the morning.

8AM Breakfast was served. The lady who served did not know what to make of me leaving tomorrow without staying in the 7-day quarantine. Power and water came back at 10AM.

6:30PM I asked the guard around 3PM what to do tomorrow. He didn’t know and I said I would return around dinner time. The health task force finally told me when I came out of my room to show my face. They said the customs officers would show up tomorrow morning and lead me to the airport.

November 1st, 2022 Nadi to Suva, to Funafuti, Tuvalu

6AM I arrived at NAN and ran to the international terminal to get to Tuvalu. They told me I had to go to the domestic side for boarding. I ran there and asked whether my luggage would go to Funafuti. They denied that and said I had to check it in again. They asked me to pick it up at baggage claim. I had to as I was told since I showed the tag to her on the back of my ticket. I then ran back to fetch the other luggage and ran back to domestic check-in. They let me check in both bags and then closed the check-in. I still had 20 minutes before boarding. They only had water on board, and we stopped for around 30 minutes at Suva.

Suva airport

7:30AM We arrived at SUV, where I had to ask them to check in my luggage. I asked the check-in desk to combine my SUV-NAN and NAN-AKL flights.

11:30AM We arrived at FUN. The quarantine is 7 days but it seemed like they aren’t charging for lodge and food, in contrary to what I was told in the email, 90 AUD for lodging and 40 AUD for food per day. I did tell the health authorities that I was leaving in 2 days.

Quarantine room

October 30th, 2022 San Francisco to Los Angeles

2PM I left for the airport for my SFO to LAX flight. The flight to LAX arrived at 6:30PM. The flight from LAX to NAN is at 11:55PM and only started check in at 8:45PM. I walked from terminal to terminal. I bought a Moroccan latte from Coffee Beans and Tea Leaf. AMEX lounge was closed by 7:30PM so there was no access to any lounges. A couple who also went to see if it was open said KAL lounge might take AMEX platinum cards, which they obviously did not. I just waited near the gate until boarding, around 11:15PM.