030916 - After the free city tour by Turkish Airlines, we were driven back to the airport. Time to board the plane to Kilimanjaro. The flight is at 6.20pm and estimated time of arrival is 1am. I was a bit worried arriving at such an odd hour in a foreign country. Of course, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snap myself next to the boarding screen that states Kilimanjaro. I saw many passengers in their trekking shoes and I knew we were on the same mission. I spoke to one Irish lady - You are going to trek Kilimanjaro. She said yes, and I commented that I know it from your shoes. She laughed and looked at my shoes. She said - You are also going to trek Kilimanjaro. I laughed back and affirmed it.
That is the caterer's truck that supplies such delicious food in the airplane.
Don't mind my feet in the photo. I had to remove my shoes and let my feet breathe. That is my dinner. Pasta, salad and pudding. Seriously stuffed.
040916 - I arrived in Kilimanjaro Airport at 1am. It is a small airport. My luggage took some time to appear and it worried me. When I collected it, I noticed that one of my bag straps was torn. I went to the entrance of the airport and could not see anyone from Trekking Hero. But apparently, each agent knows one another. One of the agents asked who was I waiting for. When I mentioned the agent's name, he said that the representative is not here. So, I gave him Jackson's (the liaison person in Tanzania) number and he called Jackson who has the softest voice ever. He told me to follow this agent (the one whom I was using the phone) and this said agent directed me to an airport taxi driver. As I was on my way to Keys Hotel (the hotel we were staying in Moshi), Ali, the driver from Trekking Hero who was supposed to pick me up called the taxi driver and passed the phone to me. Ali apologised for not being there as he overslept.
Then, on the way to the Hotel, we got stopped by a police check. It is common to be stopped for late drives. Turkish Airlines, can you change your time of arrival to Kilimanjaro? It is not fun to be forgotten to be picked up at 1am, and also get stopped by the police. Anyway, I arrived at Keys Hotel at 3am, and I was happy to see my sister. She had arrived a day earlier than me. Obviously, she did not fly via Turkish Airlines.
We woke up at 8am. Fortunately, I was not feeling tired. It is 1pm in Malaysia. Time to have breakfast! We were late and there was not much left. It was a buffet breakfast - stir-fried vegetables, bread, cereal. I love their various options of tea, coffee and chocolate. My sister requested for scrambled eggs that came with sausages. As usual, my sister goes looking for birds before breakfast while I snapped photos. There are 2 dining rooms in Keys Hotel. This dining room which is behind the hotel is out of the WiFi connectivity. WiFi was only available in the lobby, the front dining room and some rooms upstairs.
At 10am, Jackson Lyimo from Trekking Hero came to meet us. He is in charge of the operations in Tanzania. I soon realised that Trekking Hero put all their customers in Keys Hotel because Jackson was seen talking to various people. I paid my bill of USD1,798 (earlier in April I had paid USD400 as a booking fee per person and the credit card charges was 2.9% - heart bleed when I saw my credit card statement because it was in USD). My tour package costed me USD1,649 for a 7-day Machame Day trek and USD549 for a 2-day safari drive in Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. This price covers our accommodation in Moshi, airport transfer, and provision of downjacket, trekking poles, sleeping bag and any required clothings for our trek. We did not have to pay extra except for the tips (trek and safari) and also the food in Moshi. He brought our guide to see us in the afternoon after lunch because our guide was in church in the morning.
Earlier, I had communicated to Jackson via WhatsApp if he could bring us to town to exchange our USD for smaller USD notes to prepare the tips. He drove us to a money exchange (only USD, Euro and GBP are accepted for change) in town without hesitation. Do you know that the mosque and the Hindu temple is situated next to each other in Moshi town? How peaceful. A lot of the shops were closed because it is a Sunday. It was pretty hot that morning but many of the locals are seen walking to town. The heat is unbearable for us, but for the Africans with high concentration of melanin resulting in their dark skin tone, the heat is not a problem for them. They won't get skin cancer or sunburn from the sun.
We reached back to Keys Hotel. Let me show you how the hotel looks like. From the entrance, to the open dining hall, to the lobby, to the bar to the stairs to our room to the gardens.
The other dining hall which has WiFi because it is closer to the lobby. I like the way the furniture is arranged and how the tables are draped with red and white cloth. It is a very cheerful outlook. Unfortunately, their service is very slow i.e. the cooking, and the paying of the bill, but we soon got to learn that the locals here move at a slow pace. No stress yo.
Check out the small elephant statue holding the door.
Some of the items for sale in the cabinet located in the lobby.
The bar. A bottle of beer costs USD2. I don't drink, so I don't analyse the prices. I love the murals on the walls. Such sharp and bright colours.
We were fortunate to be located in room 102 because there is WiFi connection. If you go to the other end of the hall which is further from the stairs, there is no WiFi. Our beds have mosquito nets. My sister got bitten by mosquitoes, regardless. We air-dry our clothes in the room. My sister brought her laundry rope. There is also an air-cond which we used during the day because it gets very hot during the day. The bathroom is clean and has hot shower too. It was a nice room.
I prepared the tips for the guide, assistant guide, chef, and porters in red packets. I have so many red packets to spare from home. It does look pretty.
The garden with a very nice landscape. It is located behind the hotel next to the dining hall where we had our breakfast. I was so surprised to see a swimming pool. It is a small one. I even saw people sunbathing. That will be the tourists with very pale skin.
I saw more accommodation behind the garden. Little huts on their own. Unfortunately, there is no WiFi connection here at all.
Time to have lunch. Here is the menu of the hotel. Now, you can see how much the food is priced here. It is not cheap. Well, if you earn in USD, then it is not a problem for you. You can pay either in TZS or USD. We paid in USD and the exchange rate is TZS2000:USD1.
For lunch, we ordered a Silver Pizza (TZS12,000 / USD6 / RM24), a fruit salad (TZS5000 / USD2.50 / RM10), tea jug for 2 (TZS3000 / USD1.50 / RM6). I went to the kitchen to see how the pizza was being made. It was baked for 7 minutes using the traditional method of firewood. I spoke to Chef Jacqueline. She cooks excellent.
After meeting our guide (our guide briefed us on the items to bring and to list down what we need to borrow from them - we borrowed downjacket, trekking poles, ski pants, thick gloves, gaiters and tumbler) and lunch, we rested for a while in the room, and ventured out in the evening to visit our neighbour. My sister had visited them the day before and she said they are nice people. Keys Hotel's neighbours are nuns. They have a beautiful garden of flowers and vegetables and rear poultry too. We saw a nun and introduced ourselves. She welcomed us to see the place.
There is a small gas station inside the nun's garden but I am not sure if it is working.
We left the nun's place and walked to a lane opposite Keys Hotel. There is an accommodation building provided by the government and we also saw an all-boys school. We did not see any female students. My sister sighted some birds and I snapped the photos. The first bird we saw flying in the sky - the Marabou Stork. It is a huge scavenger bird. Being a scavenger, it feeds on rubbish hence its bald head as it is easier to keep clean.
We saw weaver birds too and saw their nests hanging from very thin branches. Even saw one weaverbird in action of weaving a nest with leaves, grass and twig. Male birds weave the nest to impress the female birds - sort of like their way to attract their mating partners. I asked my sister if the birds went to a Bird Scout thing and she was not amused.
Nuns walking back to their hostel and we walked back to our hotel.
We saw a Marabou Stork perched on a tree.
We were not too hungry for dinner so we ordered Vegetables and Noodle Soup which came with bread. The very plain soup came after 1 hour and cost TZS5000 a plate. That is USD2.50 / RM10. Too expensive for a plain and tasteless meal.
That night, we proceeded to re-pack our bags. Whatever items that are not required in the mountains can be left in the hotel. The hotel will store for us at no fee. Time to enjoy our bed and shower because we are not getting any for the next 7 days!
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