Introduction
ANA Business Class Chicago to Tokyo
United Club – Tokyo Narita
Thai Airways Business Class Tokyo to Bangkok
One Night in Bangkok
Thai Airways Business Class Bangkok to Bali
D’Wina Villa Kuta and Exploring Bali (Part 1)
Exploring Bali (Part 2)
Exploring Bali (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Bangkok to Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge and Addis Ababa to Seychelles
Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Exploring the Seychelles (Part 1)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 2)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Seychelles to Addis Ababa and Back to the US
After an amazing week in Bali, it was about time to head on to our next destination – the Seychelles. We arrived on Tuesday from Bangkok, and stayed at a beautiful villa, where we had our own private pool and courtyard. On Wednesday, we explored several beaches and the Uluwatu Temple. On Thursday, we tried a watersport package (with mixed reviews), capped with an indescribable sunset dinner. Friday was a full day tour all over the island with our fantastic private driver. Saturday became almost a “typical” Saturday – we did some grocery shopping for snacks, since everything was so cheap in Bali. We also did some laundry, and relaxed by the pool for a bit. We ate at a Macedonian restaurant, which had just mediocre food. I had a salad that was very fresh, with baby octopus on it. There were about 6 little (2” long) octopi around my salad…they were somewhat fishy tasting, but they tasted ok as long as I had a tomato or something else flavorful in the same bite. Lauren tried one by itself, which was a big mistake – she couldn’t stand it!
On Sunday, it was finally time to start packing up…the only downside to having a huge 2-story villa is that it took a while to get organized, since we had spread out during the week…but of course, it was completely worth it! We took our time getting organized, and before we knew it, it was time to head to the airport for our flight. After a 20 minute ride, we were back at Denpasar Airport, where we followed the maze to get to the check-in counter. Economy check-in had about a 45 minute wait, but Business Class only had 3 people in front of us. I had read in advance that there were 2 lounges in the Bali Airport: one is only mediocre, and if you don’t know otherwise, they will give you a pass for that lounge. Instead, I asked for the “Premier Lounge.” The agent looked a little surprised, and said, “Oh, you know that place?” I just smiled politely and said, “Yes, I’ve heard it’s a bit nicer.”
With Boarding Passes and Premier Lounge Passes in hand, we headed to the gate. Before passing through Immigration, we each had to pay a 150,000 Rupiah ($15 USD) departure tax. The Premier Lounge was pretty nice, although nothing amazing. We ate some lunch, and headed to the gate, where we found an unbelievably long line to even get into the gate area. There is an additional security check to get into the gate area, and it’s a shared security screening area for several gates. Our 777 and a Malaysia Airlines 777 were both leaving within 15 minutes of each other, which makes for a total of about 700 passengers trying to feed through 1 doorway with 2 security lines. It was honestly mind-boggling how this setup could in any way seem reasonable, but they deal with these 2 flights daily, and similar rushes at other times, so apparently somebody still thinks it’s an acceptable process. 2 lines were formed that snaked back and forth multiple times, a distance of about 75 feet, but there were no line ropes. It was just a huge mass of people trying to stay in some sort of order, blocking the entire width of the terminal. It took several minutes just to FIND the end of the lines, and people were trying to skip to the very front of the line. Here’s a diagram of how this mess of 700+ people blocked the entire walkway:
Even though the diagram might not look chaotic, picture each dotted line with about 350 people.
To make the situation even worse, while we were sitting in the lounge, Lauren started having some stomach pains that were slowly getting sharper and sharper. By the time we got to this crazy line, she was hardly able to stay standing up because of the pain. About 35 minutes later, we finally reached the front of the line and passed through the security checkpoint, while Lauren could barely move. As we walked to our gate, we were afraid of whether she’d be able to make it through the rest of the trip – we still had a week to go, and about 13,000 more miles to fly. By the time we reached the gate, all of a sudden her stomach pains seemed to finally ease.
We settled into our seats, another very comfortable Thai Airways 777. The flight attendants on board were extremely friendly, and we were beyond relieved that Lauren was feeling better. At the end of a very pleasant 3.5 hour flight back to Bangkok, the flight attendants brought around a fresh pink orchid to all the women on the flight, just as they did on the flight from Bangkok to Bali.
We landed on time at about 7:40 pm, and were ready to zip out of immigration, and spend a few quick hours seeing the sites of Bangkok before our flight left for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 1:40 am.
Unfortunately, about 3 minutes into the walk to immigration, Lauren’s stomach pains kicked in again. They continued to get worse and worse, but being the fighter that she is, we trekked on through customs and immigration, and started to head to the trains to the city. As we got closer to the terminal exit for the train, I could tell that she literally could barely put one foot in front of the other. Neither of us knew what was wrong, but trying to go into the city could have made things even worse (if that was even possible!) and could have made the rest of the trip miserable, so we decided to just wait at the airport instead. We were able to get Lauren to lay flat on her back across a few seats, which felt slightly better. This view shows the Bangkok Airport Check-In area:
I knew that there was a lounge that had “slumber rooms” – just simple flat beds with small pillows, but unfortunately, Thai Airways in Bali wasn’t able to print our connecting boarding pass to Addis Ababa, since the flight was operated by Ethiopian Airlines. Our flight wasn’t leaving for about 5 hours, and the check-in counter wouldn’t open until 3 hours prior to departure, so we were stuck waiting in the terminal for about 2 hours. At least we found a place for Lauren to lay horizontally, even if it wasn’t very dark or quiet. Finally, we headed up to the check-in counters, with Lauren still able to barely move. The check-in area was total chaos, right next to a China Airlines flight to Shanghai, and the staff hadn’t put out the rope/lane dividers yet for our flight. Well, there were some dividers setup in random directions, but nothing that resembled an organized line. Somehow, we found the one counter that would be dedicated for Business Class check-in, and parked ourselves in front of it. Lauren, still barely able to even stand, was a trooper through it all and never complained. After 3 eternities, check-in finally opened, and we got our boarding passes.
Fortunately, the lounge with the slumber rooms (there are 6 or 7 different lounges throughout the Bangkok Airport) was very close to our gate, but that terminal was still quite a hike to get to. In Bangkok, on the overhead signs directing you to the terminals, they have the distance to each terminal, which is kind of cool so you at least know how far you have to walk….but on the other hand, maybe it’s just depressing to know – our flight was leaving out of Terminal C, we had to walk 850 meters –half a mile! We asked for a wheelchair at check in, but after 20 minutes of waiting, it still hadn’t shown up so we gave up and just walked. Finally, we made it to the lounge, and Lauren conked out for almost 2 hours.
Even after resting, she still felt miserable, but we made our way to gate C5 for Ethiopian Airlines flight 619. Boarding was again a mess, as they had both a ramp and stairs to get down from the walkway level to the gate level – the stairs came down about 20 ft ahead of the ramp, but they were checking everyone’s passport and boarding pass before entering the gate area. We didn’t realize this at first, so we took the stairs, but then ended up at the front of the line, so we had to weave our way back up the ramp to the end of the line. After a pretty rough wait in line (let’s just say that other cultures have different views on showering and deodorant), we made it down into the gate area, where boarding started a few minutes later.
Still writhing in pain, we boarded our 8.5 hour flight – one of Ethiopian’s rather outdated 767s. I had read that the 767s Ethiopian has range from mediocre at best to old city bus quality at worst. This one was somewhere closer to mediocre, so it was sufficient enough. There are only 5-6 airlines that fly regularly scheduled flights to the Seychelles, and Ethiopian is the only one that is partners with United for redeeming miles. The seats weren’t completely lie-flat, but reclined pretty far and had good leg-rests. The Business Class cabin on Ethiopian is called “Cloud Nine”
Lauren was asleep before the boarding door even closed, trying to just escape the miserable pain. The service on the flight was very good – not necessarily as polished and refined as ANA or Thai, but the flight attendants were overall friendly and happy to help.
They served dinner (which I was a little surprised about, since it was after 2 am local time by the time we were in the air), but I had a pasta dish that was really pretty tasty. After dinner, I slept for a good 6 hours, and woke up somewhere over Saudi Arabia feeling pretty refreshed.
Lauren woke up a little later, and surprisingly was starting to feel a little better. She said she had spent the entire flight dozing off in between waves of pain, but by the time I was served my breakfast, she felt a little better each minute that passed. About 30 minutes later – after about 15 hours of pure misery – she was pretty much back in action. She even felt good enough to eat a little breakfast, which made the flight attendant very happy, since she was visibly worried about Lauren who hadn’t had a single thing to eat or drink the whole flight. By the time the flight landed, Lauren was pretty much at full strength, and nothing was going to stop her now. Before we disembarked, we took a quick picture with one of the flight attendants wearing traditional the African dress.
As is common at foreign airports, our plane parked at a remote stand (basically just a parking spot away from the terminal, with a bus waiting to drive you to the terminal). We were pleased to see a dedicated Business Class bus, which quickly drove us to the terminal.
Leading up to the trip, I was really excited for our Ethiopian Airlines flights – it’s one of those airlines that you see at random airports around the world, but don’t expect to fly on (at least that’s what I thought). After this first flight, I felt like their product was overall reasonably comfortable. The food was good, the flight attendants were mostly nice, and although the seats were old, they were decent enough. I certainly wouldn’t choose to fly them over ANA, Thai, Lufthansa, etc. but for flying to Africa – especially for going to the beautiful Seychelles – I wouldn’t avoid them in the future.
Continue to Part 11: Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge and Addis Ababa to Seychelles