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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The car ride from Cape Coast to Accra was by far the worst part. Well over three hot, dusty hours of tooth-jarring bumps and insane traffic of the third world variety. Once you get there, however, things get better. If waiting in the airport isn't your thing, you can get one last taste of Ghana at the swanky restaurants located on the edge of the airport parking lot (including an immaculate, air conditioned Chinese restaurant (very surreal) and a pleasant outdoor cafe). But inside the airport, in the departures area (the arrivals area was a different story), you find yourself in an immaculate relic of Ghana's old affluence. That is, the airport is clean, modern, ambitious, and deserted. Helpful signs pointing to the "Internet Cafe" and "Shopping" lead to blank, cavernous halls. The airport has been condensed into one area on the second level, where you'll find a small cafe proffering cold drinks and bagged snacks, a stately duty-free shop full of high-end Ghanaian trinkets, and a surprisingly posh seating area complete with two (count 'em! two!) wide-screen TV's. There's not much to do once you're there, but there's a lot of room to walk around. It's sad to see so much space gone to waste--one can only imagine what the airport was like when it was first built. The staff seem to be really happy to work in the airport, and like anyone Ghanaian they're friendly. They'll cheerfully call you "obruni" right up until you're packed into the plane. Oh, and the bathrooms, like the rest of the airport, are deserted and clean.
RachelC, could we get in touch? I spent the last 3 years of my life roaming between Bamako, Dakar and Ouagadougou, we may have run into each other!
Patrick, from the slug of this article I had a feeling it was going to be a West African airport. Frankly, though, I didn't think Dakar's was all that bad. It's certainly nicer than Bamako's, though the atmosphere is decidedly different as you mention. Ouagadougou's was probably the least well-equipped, it was far too small IMNSHO.
Some US airports have signs at domestic security saying that the following airports do not have adequate security measures. PAP is always on the list.
I have been through that airport several times, and have never once gone through a security screening. Usually, the only thing that anybody checks are gigantic empty duffel bags and cheap chinese suitcases (Haitians visiting the US usually load up on consumer goods and resell them in Haiti), but with such lax security, I always spend most of the flight wondering what could be in the cargo hold...
Smith's description of Senegal International airport "a five to one scoundrel to passenger ratio" -- reminds me of living in pre-gentrified Brooklyn.
OK, here's my contribution-- just back from Salzburg and Vienna.
Best airport to do Euro business out of -- Salzburg. Not a great place to hang out, but small, with polite employees, and virtual hub service to lots of cities in Europe. Fantastically easy to fly in and back in a day, and there are some nice pensions that are literally 3 minutes walk away in the adjacent community of Loig. I will do ALL my business out of Salzburg next time I go to Europe. Not the cheapest place, but time and stress are also money!
Worst airport to get stuck in and that is clean-- Salt Lake City. Fantastically sterile, booze is fantastically expensive, and served in pitifully small quantities, so you can't pass the time drunk. They repeat the same banal messages over and over. Food sucks. The only way out, which they remind you over and over again, is a bus to downtown SLC that takes you to the Mormon Temple. Basically, you're stuck in Hell, and the only path out is their offered redemption. New security rules prevent you from packing in your own booze.
...if you are an American. If you are not, be prepared for an agonizing wait in the immigration "queue" (more like a herd) as you miss your connecting flight to the Caribbean.
I don't care how much cheaper it is to buy that AA ticket, if you are going from Europe to the Caribbean, do NOT fly through Miami.
Also, the immigration queues at Newark for foreigners are infinitely better than those at JFK.
The new airport in Bangkok: all the shops, eateries, and other things to entertain yourself while your flight is delayed are *outside* security. As are all the arrival and departure boards. Inside security all you have are the various waiting areas. Also inside security, there is no way to post a gate change unless a staff member tapes a sign up to the departure board.
Hmmm.... Has the author ever visited Russia's finest - Sheremetevo 1, or Moscow Vnukvovo? They're certainly a match in craptasticity.
Balad, Tikrit, Ramahdi, Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf, Baghdad and Basrah.
The real worst airports are the ones where people are trying to shoot you out of the sky on takeoff and landing. The real worst airports are the ones where your aircraft is attacked by rockets and mortars once it's on the ground. Any other crummy airports in the world are merely uncomfortable and inconvenient for the discretionary traveler.
It's good to keep things in perspective.
Mr. Smith: I read you your wonderful piece with trepidation as my daughter is traveling to Mozambique and will have to stop in Dakkar on her way to Johannesburg and on to Mobutu. It's not clear whether she will deplane or just make a fuel stop. I hope it's the latter. As for my picks and pans, I can't stand San Francisco, O'Hare, or Hartsfield-Atlanta, but for some reason I'm fond of Logan, LGA, and Manchester NH. I love your work. Thanks for the article.
Diana
Monrovia Liberia (ROB)
Conakry Guinea (CKY)
Sierra Leone (SRK)
These airports were my introduction to West Africa. I was in for a shock when I first landed at Conakry Airport. You are greeted by mobs of people forcefully grabbing your bags. They have a baggage carousel, that they bring the luggage to in hand carts to be placed upon (it doesn't work). There was actually only one ATM in the whole country of Guinea and that did not work.
It was shocking to me at first but now I think it's a good experience and reminder that we are very privileged in the West to have our nice airports and ATM machines. I can't blame the hustlers who made my airport experience uncomfortable. I mean, what should I expect? If I was African, I would be a hustler too. What else is one to do when crushed by poverty?
You think the airports are scary? Try getting on an ancient Antonov 24 (complete with cockroaches in the plane) to fly between the airports. I didn't choose this flight either, it was booked for me by the agency I was working for.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
