So Long Kiribati

I hardly knew you but it is ok it was an interesting experience.




La suite!

The End Of The Line

This week I will have the huge pleasure of going home, I say the huge pleasure because it has been a very long time since a work assignment has been so trying; I believe the last one was in China in 2004. This assignment has been that tough on me mostly because of the culture difference between me and my customer, it has affected the work relationship.



Once I was here, I have quickly realized that for the local population nothing matters much. It usually is a good thing on a day to day basis because the people will be more relaxed but it can quickly become quite frustrating when it comes to keeping a work schedule and finishing a project at the expected date. Each time I would ask for something I learned to always specify a time constraint not to wait indefinitely for it. Even with this time constraint I would still need to go check how things were going. Whether I ask for something simple or complex to be done I would never get it done straight away. I would sometime get the feeling that what I asked was forgotten as soon as I was walking away, I even have the confirmation of such a thing when I would get in the office of the one I asked and he would jump out of his chair to go where he was supposed to do something for me as soon as he laid his eyes on me. In many cases I would get a “sorry sorry” (I will take care of it right away because I forgot) and the person would go back to internet surfing as soon as I would walk away. There is no point in getting angry because they simply wouldn’t understand why I would get angry, what matters to them is that I would get what I asked for; when simply doesn’t matter. I would have a hard time explaining that I can’t stay all my life on their island because they are incapable of meeting a time limit. With all the work I had, I took the time to go check the progress of each of the tasks I gave. I would go check the status when coming to work in the morning, I would check again just before or after lunch break and I would check again at 4PM before everyone would start to go home. I know it seems a lot but trust me, in a lot of cases it wasn’t even enough.



My company has taken care of every aspects of previous project with this customer and would only leave when all would be up and running. As this project is only an extension the customer has to participate in the setup of new services. He is so used to not having to do anything that the change is very difficult. When I ask something it goes a little bit like this:
- You’re not taking care of this?
- No it is completely out of my domain, I don’t know anything about this.
- Ok but usually your company takes care of this.
- Yeah well, this time there is no one to take care of this and you guys have people whose job it is to take care of this.
- I’m going to see what we can do
- Ah you can’t see what you can do but you have to do it otherwise it will never work
- Ok when do you need this?
- Right now.
When I say now, I know I will never get anything the same day, work stops at 4:15 PM here so work days are very short, when I ask something for the same day I may have a chance of getting it 2 days later.
Here is a variant if I ask for a cable to be put between 2 machines:
- Do you have the cable for this?
- You don’t have any?
- We have to check.
They in fact have the cable needed but they have to look for it, it is easier for them to ask me first if I have some.



On a few occasions when the customer has difficulties providing me with something I asked, the person will come to me and say something like: “we are doing our best and in case we can’t do it your company will help us with that”. I always feel like answering: “I really don’t see what my company can do for this, it is not our job”. I feel like the customer relies completely on us and as soon as they can’t manage something it is our duty to takeover. They relied a lot on me to help solve the problem they faced while I was here. I could have told them not to bother me with stuff out of my domain but if I really wanted to leave this place I had to takeover. When I do fun is over and you better do what I tell you otherwise I might throw you out of a window. Some guys from the customer had to stay till 8 PM because I wanted them to finish a task before going home. I didn’t make friends but put yourself in my shoes: I haven’t seen my wife for more than 2 months, the project I am working on is not moving forward and it is not my doing, the only way to get out of this is to push the ones who are not doing their jobs for reasons I just don’t understand. I am certain that each guy from my company who came to Kiribati before me was faced with the similar problem.



During my stay I understood that the reason why things were not moving forward when I was asking something to be done: they are so used to have someone take care of everything that they simply don’t understand how the stuff works.
Every foreigner I have talked to agrees with me, you can’t stay more that 2 weeks on this island. I am so lucky!


La suite!

Taiwan In Kiribati

Yesterday was a special day for Kiribati because the president of Taiwan arrived for an official visit. Everything was setup at the Otin Taai hotel to receive the Taiwanese delegation: the local operator worked all week-end to setup WI-FI access all other the hotel premises and a 1Mb satellite link has be contracted so that everyone could have a good internet connection (during the previous visit there had been complaints about the bad internet connection).



Sadly for my colleagues sleeping at Otin Taai they were not Taiwanese and they were asked to leave the hotel even though they had reservations for an extra night. They had the pleasure of having to look for a hotel room on the island at the last minute on the day of an official visit. One of them found a room with the missionaries of the Sacré Coeur and the other found a room in an empty house on the island; no need to say which one of them had the better night.



What was really funny yesterday is that the country decided to be clean for the president of Taiwan. You could see people with brooms sweeping near the road. I went for a walk before the arrival of the convoy to take a few pictures and I found a hole with garbage in it: instead of taking the stuff to the dump they had decided to burry it instead! It is true that it is quicker, I really didn’t think they would do such a thing. The inhabitants of Tarawa did something for the president of Taiwan that they don’t even do for themselves, I doubt that the president is aware of that.




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The End Of The Road

This is where I went this Saturday to test my theory: you need to go to an uninhabited part of the island to find a clean beach. As there is only one road here it was easy not to get lost, I took the minibus with a colleague and we rode all the way till the end of the road. When the bus was going back we stepped out and had to walk or get in the back of any vehicle willing to take us, we then arrived to where the sea and the lagoon meet.



It is at this exact place that we found a gorgeous beach, as the tide was low there was easily 20 meters of sand between the water and the tree line. It was amazing. You really have to go to an empty part of the island to have a clean beach and you can find this one in Abatao. If you feel like taking advantage of the place you can spend the week-end at Tabon Te Keeke, it is a small hotel which offers two rooms on stilts. You will be able to relax in this very calm place with the sound of the water as background noise while on a deckchair or protected by a mosquito net. In case it would start to rain or the wind would be too strong, there are removable shutters to protect you.




We didn’t stay very long in this place nor did we swim because it was raining all the time. Moreover by the time we arrived the tide was already rising and it was much more work to walk back to the other side with the current against us. With the rain and the current we finally reached the other side totally wet and were in no mood to walk back to where the buses are. Thankfully a broken down bus appeared out of nowhere and was heading our way, there was no sliding door on the side but we were so happy not to have to walk under the rain that we didn’t wait for another one to eventually show up. Thanks to this bus we could dry ourselves while waiting to reach the other buses.



On the way back we passed by a lot of people going to the airport. The country was organising a rehearsal for the arrival of the Taiwanese president on Monday. Taiwan has a lot of economic ties with Kiribati, they own some fishing ponds on land and have purchased fishing rights in Kiribati water. I saw the presidential escort they are not joking, but with the number of holes that are in the only road of the island I am not sure they will be able to go as fast as planed. Also looking at the quality of the hotels in Tarawa, I really have no clue where the president will spend the night...




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Water Is Life

It is the rainy season in Kiribati and it often happens that rain is falling almost non stop during the week-end. Water is a very important resource here and the local population is organized to manage water as best as possible.



Rainwater collecting is a vital thing on the island, as there are very little chances for underground water to be available on this type of island it is important to collect as much water as possible for everyone’s need. I learned this week that the country has 4 desalination plants to turn salt water into still water, the person selling and maintaining the technology is staying in the same hotel as mine. He explained that Kiribati islands have a few water tables but they don’t produce enough water for the need of the whole population. His plants produce the necessary quantities of still water needed for everyone’s well being. The still water produced in the plants added to the rainwater collected in each house prevents everyone to suffer from a lack of water.



When you go for a stroll you can’t miss those huge plastic tanks that are placed below the evacuation pipe of the gutter to collect as mush water as possible. The inhabitants will first use the rainwater as it is a free resource, without those tanks the country would probably need much more desalination plants.


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Week-end

Last week we moved from Otin Taai hôtel to the Fema Lodge, it is much closer to the office and I don’t have to endure the 30 minutes car drive on a very bad road anymore. In the Fema Lodge, I live in a 4 bedroom apartment where I share the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room. It is a real pleasure to be able to have a real breakfast in the morning and if you don’t feel like cooking the hotel can cook something for you.



This week-end we went to buy a few things with my colleague in the few shops we could find around our hotel. As there are very few things to do here, it is always nice to go for a walk, you get to see how and where people live and it is very interesting. On the way I saw that there were small houses in courtyards, looking more closely I found out that those were tombs. It seems that people bury there relatives on family ground. There is indeed a cemetery on the island but I think that it is a local custom to bury your elders where they have lived all their life. I was not at all surprised as I have seen the same thing in French Polynesia on the island of Raivavae. It is possible that this is common to all the pacific islands, anyway it is good to have your relatives close to you all the time. It wouldn’t be possible in France but I like the idea, here it is possible because the families never move.



The people are really nice and welcoming, some said hi to us on the way or waved at us. We went out to get some minced mint in order to cook some spaghetti bolognese but we had forgotten that it is not possible to find everything on this island. In one shop we found some frozen beef and some bags with frozen chicken legs but no minced meat. We then went to another shop where all four freezers were full of frozen chicken legs. We finally bought some chicken legs as well as some cabbage which seem to be very popular on the island. I had hoped to find some cheese but was not lucky, thankfully my stay here is soon coming to an end and I will soon be able to eat anything I wish.




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The Beach

I have only been once to the beach since I have been here even though there is absolutely nothing to do. The reason is simple, it is very difficult to find a clean beach on this island. I must have been to at least ten beaches before finding one that is not too dirty; not so long ago it was not too far from my hotel but now it is a 35 minutes drive to get there so I will try and find another one that is closer.



When you hear about Kiribati your first question will be where it is then once you find out that it is located in the pacific you will quickly imagine it to be a paradise and you couldn’t be more wrong. This place is one of the dirtiest places I have seen in my life! I live in a place where everyone who has some garbage will just throw it in the street, this didn’t occur to me in the beginning of my stay on the island because I was quite busy looking at the people. The locals are quite fond of frozen water with syrup which is kept in small plastic bags, they bite one corner of the plastic bag and suck on the ice; you will find those plastic bags everywhere along the road. Chinese noodle are also very popular around here but with a twist, you don’t eat them in a bowl with hot water but dry in the wrapping like potato chips and of course the wrapping ends up on the ground.



I have to be honest there is absolutely no trash cans anywhere and I haven’t seen any garbage collection. To get rid of your garbage you have 2 choices: either you bring it to one of the dump on the island, they are so close to the sea that when it is a little bit too strong it while bring some stuff in the lagoon; or you keep a place on your property or a barrel where you will put your garbage and burn it later. There is absolutely no education regarding how to deal with garbage on the island, yet it is crucial for such a place; anyone can do as they please. Almost every family has pigs on their property, they also act as waste management; some of them are cage but a lot of them roam free all day. Would you have pigs in your garden to take care of your garbage?



Coming back to the beach, you have to know that in the pacific islands, the inhabitants have become used to throwing their garbage to the sea thinking it would sink because they couldn’t see it anymore. In most cases what was thrown would be moved by the currents and end up somewhere else on the island becoming someone else’s problem: you get beaches covered with different kind of plastic products and metal elements. Tarawa is an atoll, there is an internal and an external lagoon, in each case what is thrown into the sea will end up on the ground.



During the week-end, the families will come to the seaside and have a picnic, as they spend the whole day there they bring everything they need. At the end of the day when everyone is gone you can see the traces of their stay. To find a really clean beach you need to go to an inhabited island. The photo below represents the same beach as above, you can now see what the beach really looks like when the angle is different and the garbage belt appears.




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Kang Kang!

Yesterday evening I cooked in the restaurant where I have lunch everyday as promised to the waitresses. I had been told to cook a boeuf bourguignon to properly represent France but it takes a minimum of 2 hours to cook this dish and I have a lot of work right now. I needed something simple and convenient so I chose something that was not too complex to cook and has an ingredient that everyone on the island eats in big quantities rice; I cooked a risotto.


Family Format: 3 dishes in one

I went to the restaurant at 6 PM to start cooking, at that time there are only a handful of customers so my activities wouldn’t disturb the restaurant business. I am not a good cook, my wife does 99% of the cooking not because I am a macho but because to be able to travel with me she doesn’t work. Whenever I cook, I use a great software on my Nintendo DS called cook lessons that guides me step by step. Thanks to this software I have cooked my first risotto, my first boeuf bourguignon, my first lasagnes… This time I didn’t need the DS as it would be my second time to cook that dish. I listed the ingredients we would need:
- 1 onion: OK
- 1l of water: rain water OK
- Butter: OK
- Parmesan cheese: NOK there is no cheese on the island
- Mushrooms: NOK there is no mushroom this week
You would normally need some white wine but you can’t find any wine on the island but it is more of a problem not to have any mushrooms because they should give the flavour to the water in which the rice will cook. Thankfully there was some mushroom soy sauce to replace them otherwise the risotto would have tasted like rice.



As we were preparing the dish, the girls were following all my recommendations, they would sometime even fight to be the one who would stir or cut something. The kitchen was very hot, in such places the only way to get some cold air is through the door or through the window. I learned a few local words that I will try not to forget because the pronunciation is quite different from ours around here. They don’t pronounce the R the way we do and you almost never here the L even if it is there. I explained to them that I would have liked to show them a typical French dish but it would take too long to cook, they seemed motivated to cook for hours. With the work days I have, I don’t have the strength to cook something complex.



It was time to taste the dish. The risotto was not perfect because of the lack of parmesan and mushrooms but the result was tasty enough. If they ask me to cook again I will have to find a dish that has ingredients easy to find on the island. Anyway it was good (Kang Kang).


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The Cook

Now that we changed hotel we have to have diner in the hotels restaurant were each evening there is only one menu (1 entry, 3 main courses and 1 desert): the dishes are not that good and are expensive. The Otin Taai hotel is lost in the middle of nowhere so we have no chance of finding another restaurant in the area. Luckily we discovered that the restaurant where we are having all our lunches stays open till 8PM and does take away. At the end of the work day before the driver takes us back to our hotel we go get our diner. Last Thursday as I didn’t want to eat a fried dish (most of the dishes are fried here) I asked if it was possible to the chicken boiled instead of fried.



I laughed hard when the waitress said that it was not possible, she didn’t understand what I wanted. I then explained what I wanted to one waitress who really understood English. She was surprised by my request so I told her that I could show her if she didn’t know how to do it. I was in the kitchen showing everyone in there how to proceed. They only had pans and woks which is normal as they fry almost anything. I grabbed a wok and put it on the burner, the waitress took some water from a bucket to pour in the wok but I stopped her to ask where the water was coming from. It was rain water which is quite commonly used around here, I told her to fill half of the wok with the water then to add the chicken only when the water would be very hot. It was quite a show for the other waitresses and their friends who happened to be passing by. It really looked like the women had never boiled anything before. When the chicken was cooked they put it in a Tupperware for transport added some rice and a spoon. I thanked them for the chicken and the waitress who speaks good English replied that she thanked me for teaching her how to boil the chicken.



In this restaurant you really have to be careful which word you use to order something. For example if I order some french fries I will get fried rice because I should have ordered chips to actually get my fries. When I order 2 slices of bread they will think I order two sandwiches and I will get one with butter and another with cabbage.
On Friday when we came to get our diner one of the waitresses asked me if I was coming the following week because she wanted me to show her something to cook. I will see how I can change the restaurants menu so that there is more choice.


La suite!

The Art Of Wasting Time

Today I wanted to tell you the reason why I have only been once to the beach since I have been here but it will wait because yesterday my colleague and I were thrown out of our hotel. I have been staying there for a month now and was supposed to stay there for at least another one but it seems that having a reservation doesn’t mean anything in this place.



In the morning my colleague received a phone call from someone at our hotel saying that we were supposed to check out at twelve. After trying to discuss with the woman he came to see me so that I would explain to her that the company we are working for made reservation in the hotel for the duration of our stay. I told her that I wouldn’t checkout because my room was booked for 2 months and my colleague room was booked for a month. She seemed to understand. Two hours later, she called back saying that one of us could stay till Thursday and one of us had to come to checkout now. We went back to the hotel to discuss with the management, they only thing they could to us was: sorrrrrry but you have to leave. I called someone with a high position in the company and asked him to solve the problem. We waited for him quite a while and when he finally came the only thing he could say was that there was a miscommunication between the hotel and the person making the reservation in their office. We expected him to come and tell them that it was their mistake and that we would not stay, we were quite disappointed. The person who made the reservation couldn’t be reached for more explanation because she had taken a leave and her mobile phone was off. We indeed had to move. I have been staying in this hotel for a month now and they couldn’t find the time to let me know that I was supposed to leave on February the 16th that is rich!



There are very few hotels on the island, the one we were staying was very convenient because it is a five minutes walk from the work. Also it has a restaurant where we can have dinner, there aren’t a lot of restaurants on the island and even less open in the evening. It is also very close to the stadium where I play volleyball. I usually find a good thing in any bad situation I find myself in but in this case I can’t find any. We have now moved to another hotel which is 30 minutes away from work, the drive should normally be 10 minutes but the road has so many holes that you can’t drive fast: it’s a little bit like riding a rollercoaster without the speed. The new hotel is of course more expensive than the last one and doesn’t even offer better services. If I want to continue playing volleyball everyday afterwork I will need to get organised but with the way work is going (I will talk about it in a week or two) it will be challenge. In all we have lost a half day of work just because the hotel people are too stupid to warn me. It seems I have a problem with hotels lately, what do you think?
I like this place, I like this place, I like this place... If I repeat it enough times it becomes true!


La suite!

Let’s Dance

Last Friday I discovered the dance parties in Bairiki. I met my volley-ball partner at the maneaba where they spend most of their free time. There was music and many people aged from 8 to 30 years old were sited on the floor; again I was the oldest person in the room.
As I was sitting I was asked to introduce myself in front of everyone because very few people knew me; someone was translating as I was speaking in English. Hello my name is, I come from France, I am staying at Mary’s Motel, I will stay here 2 months and I am happy to be here. I was then asked my age, what I was doing on the island and my room number (I declined to answer the last question).



After introducing myself, I took a sit on the floor; the young one where so fascinated by me that a lot came to sit next to me to be able to get a closer look. In the beginning I didn’t really understand why the DJ was never allowing a song to be played in its entirety, he would stop the songs after 30 seconds or 1 minute; it was pretty weird. Someone explained that the way the evening works is that everyone has to pay for the song he wants, how long the song will be played depends on how much he pays. It is a peculiar concept but that is the way they do things. Instead of ending up with a nightclub type of atmosphere it would be more like a family party where even the kids would pay for their songs and would not hesitate to dance.



Most people pay 10 cents for a song and will get a very short song. When you choose you con decide if the song is for everyone or just for you and your dance partner. Here nobody dances alone, you have to ask someone to dance with you either for a personal dance or a shared dance. I was invited to dance and made a lot of people laugh because of course I don’t dance the same way they do. When the song ends you thank your dance partner with a specific gesture: both ends start at the bust and then unfold as if you were opening a window. This exact gesture is also used to designate your dance partner, he or she is not allowed to refuse the offer.



I returned to my hotel room to put a few songs I like very much on a USB drive to have a little bit of fun on the dance floor. The first song I chose was personal, so I was dancing with my dance partner in front of everyone. The songs I chose later where shared and each time I made sure they would last long enough by paying 50 cents. Kids love to dance, it is a real pleasure to see them have fun on the dance floor. There is no alcohol at this party, to pay for a song is not common for me who really loves to dance but it doesn’t stop you from having a good time.


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Volley Ball

I have now been playing volley ball after work for a week now, it is one of my favourite sports. Here you play barefoot on a concrete court, I can tell you that in the start it was difficult. The way you feel the ground is totally different and you don’t have the little cushion the shoes provide when you fall after your jump. I have to be careful not to hurt myself, 2 years ago a colleague of mine hurt is Achilles heel while playing basketball and I replaced him in Tahiti.



Every evening roughly 20 young meet on the court to play volley ball, they play 3 against 3 or 4 against 4 depending on how many they are. I still don’t know how much you need to win a gain because very few speak English. They usually play till dusk then its spike the ball time. This week they invited me to join them after volley ball, they spend the evening in one of the many buildings that can be found on the island: it’s a like an open field but covered with a very low roof. They call those maneaba and explained that after having diner at home they meet there to spend the night, their home is boring so they prefer being together. Those kinds of shelter can be used by anyone, they are often dedicated to meetings in the week-end. This week I taught them how to play the Uno card game, it is great fun when we are more than ten to play the game. Tonight I will go to a dance with them, it will be interesting.




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Family

Moments ago the daughter of my colleague Toroko came by the office to see her father. She is the eldest of 7 children and tries to enjoy her holidays as much as she can before she has to return to school next week. I asked her if she liked school and she didn’t answer until she was sure that her father wasn’t listening. Which child her age likes school anyway?




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Gaelle And Henry

Last week I had the pleasure of getting to know Gaelle and Henry two tourists from Wallis and Futuna visiting Kiribati. Thanks to them I have discovered that Wallis and Futuna is a French overseas collectivity, it seems that I am worse in geography than I thought.



This nice couple was blocked on the island because there was a hole on the airport runway and no plane could land as long as the runway wasn’t fixed. The problem is that there are only 2 flights a week-end between Fiji and Tarawa and there is even less flight between Fiji and Wallis (one a week). Moreover Air Kiribati which is in charge of the runway was forbidding planes to land, the planes from Air Fiji couldn’t come to the island anymore and the couple had to take a flight from Air Calin to Wallis; who was responsible for what? As long as they were in Tarawa, Air Kiribati would take care of their accommodation but once in Fiji who would pay for the hotel bill as they were waiting for their flight with Air Calin? As Air Kiribati only flies to Kiribati’s islands, they have no office in Fiji for my Wallisian friends to go ask questions. Of course other people were blocked on the island but their bill would be paid by their companies as they were not tourists.



Gaelle is one of the 5 physiotherapists of Wallis and Henry is a teacher at the agricultural high school. He used to be a farmer and travelled a lot in Africa as a French aid worker, they met in Chad were she was working for an ONG. We spent the week talking about the different things we have seen in the world, it was great to share experiences. I didn’t ask them why they decided to settle down in Wallis after so many travels, maybe they needed to be in a quiet place after seeing so much of the world. I wonder if it is a feeling I will have when I stop travelling.
The runway was finally available a full week after being broken and they went to Fiji to wait for their next flight. I have to admit: waiting for a plane in Fiji is much better than waiting for a plane in Kiribati.


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Pay Day

Today as I was going for lunch I noticed a long queue in front of the ATM of the only bank in the city. There are usually a lot of people inside the bank but almost no one outside to use the ATM; today though is a special day: it is pay day.



As few shops accept credit card for payment everyone has to go to the bank to get the money and go shopping; there must be a lot of mattresses full of bank notes on this island.
A little bit further, a small sugar market was installed, you could buy full bags which would weigh around 10kg or buy smaller amounts of sugar. I saw some kids running around with a full bag on a wheelbarrow or some people riding their bikes with the big sugar bag. Back at work I asked my Kiribatian colleagues, they explained that the island inhabitants love sweet things and they always add some sugar to the water they drink. Sugar is being sold on pay day when everyone has enough money to afford it. I wonder how many have diabetes on the island.




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I Like This Place

I have to be honest there is absolutely nothing to do here, it is no wonder people walk very slowly. It is funny to be in a place where it is OK to do nothing, it is a great contrast to my home where doing nothing is an insult to the busy ones.



This week-end I went for a walk between Bairiki the city where my hotel is located and Beito the next town. To reach the next city I had the choice between the small buses that up and down the island all day long but as I have nothing to do there was no point in getting quickly to my destination. I walked for almost an hour and half to get to Beito. On the way I saw a few youngsters using the bridge linking the interior lagoon to the exterior lagoon as a jumping ramp, I saw some pretty nice jumps. As you can see below there is at least 16 or 19 feet between the highest part of the bridge and the water, I think I will try one jump before I leave this place.



I later passed the police school and the prison. It was funny to see a prison because I have to admit that in a way the people living here are in prison but I was wondering how crimes could occur in such a place. I then remembered that each time I went on an assignment in an island I saw that the local population had issues with alcohol, I concluded that the cells where used to sober up people. My colleagues confirmed that when I told them what I did during the week-end.



After that walk I needed a drink and stopped in a bar, as I went in I realized that there was no glasses on the table but big plastic bowls. When the waiter brought my drink I asked him what was in those bowls that everyone was drinking from. He explained that the beverage was called kava and it was the local drink; it was made by mixing some powder with water and made the drinker dizzy. He asked me if I wanted to try it but I declined the offer I wanted to be sure to be able to get back to my hotel. I then learned that the beverage was so successful that some people would come everyday to have 5 to 10 bowls, with such success the bar has now a happy hour from 6 PM to 9 PM where one can get as many kava bowls as one may want for the low price of 5$AUS instead of the regular 3$ a bowl price. I may give kava a try before I leave...


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You Can Learn A Lot From A Place

From a place by checking the restrooms!
These are the restrooms in the place where I work, I went there once and I disturbed so many flies that I vowed never to return there again.



Of course you just need to look at the picture below to tell yourself that it is not that bad and it is true but since I am here I have always had the impression that this paradise is not what it seems. Time will tell if I was right or wrong.




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Up In The Air

Here is what i wrote while i was in Los Angeles.
I am in Los Angeles, it is 3h15 AM in Paris and 6h15 PM here if I am not mistaken. I am patiently waiting for the boarding time for my flight.



When I exited the plane, I told myself that even if I had 6 hours to wait I could do it at the Air France lounge. There is Internet, there are drinks and there is food, I could wait there. I went to get my ticket for my flight to Fiji and the one to Kiribati and I found out that Air Pacific the company I was supposed to take was not located in the same terminal as Air France. Goodbye Air France lounge and hello waiting area, I couldn't get miles benefit from the flights from Los Angeles to Nadi and Nadi to Tarawa and to top it all I had to wait in the cold with an empty stomach. I usually take the opportunity of being in Los Angeles to enjoy a good whopper at Burger King as there are none in France but there is no Burger King in the other Terminal.



After doing the check in I went through the customs and found a panel displaying the location of the skyteam lounge on the superior level. So there was hope after all, I wouldn't have to be bored out of my skull. The lounge door didn't open as I stepped in front of them, a woman behind a desk looked at me and said that the lounge wouldn't open before 7h30, my flight was boarding at 8h30. When she saw I was disappointed by the news she asked me if I had a priority car, I flash I platinum card, she looked at it and repeated that the lounge wouldn't open before 7h30. What kind of airport lounge is not open as long as the airport is open?



I am now seated close to the gate where my flight will depart in a little less than 5 hours, I am BORED. I try not to use my electronic devices this way they will still have battery during the 2 flights I have to take to get to my destination. I have to be strong, I will get there Tuesday at 3h00 AM Paris time and I left France Sunday at 1h30 PM, now that's what I call a trip!


La suite!