Since we had arranged a 1:00 pm checkout and all we had to do was shower and pack, we were in no hurry to get out of bed. The past several days have been extremely stressful, and we were both exhausted, so we turned off the alarm and snoozed for a while. When we did finally get up, we made short work of packing. We've been living out of the same bags for 3.5 months and know where everything goes. Later, we headed down for breakfast and then back up to the room for some quality internet time. Around noon we went out in search of lunch and scored a couple of extra delicious chicken shawarmas, which we took back to the room and enjoyed in air-conditioned comfort. As we had heard that the Dar Es Salaam airport is not air-conditioned, we stayed in our room until the last minute, trying to soak up as much cool as possible.

At 1:00 we schlepped our bags downstairs, where we ran into Patrick and Eddie, who is one of the hotel owners. Eddie is also a motorcycle enthusiast, and we spent the next hour chatting about bikes and riding in Tanzania. Eddie is an interesting fellow. He's first generation Tanzanian, and his parents emigrated from Yemen. Eddie's dad apparently amassed quite an empire in Tanzania- the family's holdings encompass rice farms and real estate. Most of their holdings are in the western part of the country, so Eddie often travels to the Mbeya area, usually by motorcycle. He's also traveled extensively in central Africa, mostly by bike. His most dramatic story involved a nighttime ride back to Dar from Mbeya and an encounter with bandits. Eddie and one of his friends were on the road between Morogoro and Dar Es Salaam and came upon an area of road construction at around 3:00 am. When they slowed due to road conditions, they suddenly heard several motorbikes fire up and people yelling. By their headlights they could see six or seven motorbikes being ridden by machete-wielding men. Eddie and his friend were on big bikes but were barely able to keep ahead of the bandits due to the road conditions. He said they could hear shouts and engines for the approximately 20km they were chased. Eddie and his friend finally stopped, pulled out their pistols, and fired several warning shots into the air. He laughed when he told us that at the sound of the gunshots, the headlights turned around and they could hear the bikes riding away at a fast pace. Eddie went on to tell us that he never rides in Tanzania unless he is armed. Good to know.

After story hour, we grabbed a taxi and headed to the airport. We had low expectations of what we would find, and they were mostly met. I'm glad we arrived more than two hours early, because to get through the multiple security checkpoints, the ticket counter, and immigration took more than 1.5 hours. We finally boarded our Oman Air flight to Muscat (for all of you who survived music in the 70s, Re didn't seem to enjoy my rendition of Muscat Love). The flight was very nice with good food and plenty of legroom. The one funny moment on the flight came when it was time for dinner. When we booked our tickets, Re requested the Hindu vegetarian meal service. The stewardess walked up with the special meal, looked in our row, looked back at the meal, looked back at Re and I with a puzzled expression on her face, and finally asked, did we order a special meal? Re laughed and said it was hers. I guess the stewardess wasn't expecting a blonde American to have ordered that meal.



We arrived in Muscat near midnight local time and looked for something to kill the two hours before our next flight. What we found was the Dairy Queen! Since it has been over two months since I've had a Blizzard, it was time. Lucky for us, the cashier accepted USD and we enjoyed a midnight snack of familiar ice cream. Shortly thereafter, our flight left for Mumbai. We tried, mostly in vain, to get some sleep, but neither of us could more than doze.

Transportation wrapup. Our flights on Oman Air from Dar Es Salaam to Mumbai were 455 USD each. The air freight cost for our 320kg was 3.96 USD per kilo, for a total of 1367 USD (including 10 USD air waybill prep and 80 USD in dangerous goods fees). We also paid 300 USD for our “deluxe” crate and freight forwarder fee.