Laying Over
June 12th, 2015
THERE’S A SEGMENT in Cockpit Confidential where I reminisce about layovers. I talk about different cities, different hotels, the sometimes strange items available through room service, and so on.
The quality and duration of airline layovers can vary quite a bit, from ten-hour naps at the Holiday Inn Express in Kansas City, to the chance to spend several days in a place like Cape Town, Buenos Aires or Hong Kong.
My YouTube channel includes a pair of videos highlighting two of my favorite layovers: Cairo, Egypt, and Dakar, Senegal. I have additional footage from Georgetown, Guyana, that I haven’t edited yet. I should maybe do more of these?
The Senegal video is in two parts:
The other one is here:
Related stories:
POVERTY, HEDGEHOGS, AND THE WORLD’S WORST AIRPORT
SOUTH LATITUDE: SEARCHING FOR SOUL & SKY IN FLORIDA AND BEYOND
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5 Responses to “Laying Over”
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Please keep the videos coming! I used to work overseas and have been to many of the places you write about. Can’t get enough of your articles, photos, and now videos. Was in Georgetown in 1975… looking forward to seeing how much it has changed.
On an unrelated note, am expecting you to weigh with a review/critique of the (new?) book “Skyfaring: A Journey With a Pilot” by Mark Vanhoenacker.
Bill W.
Wow Patrick,
Pretty heavy stuff on Dakar and the airport. I have also been to slums in Johannesburg, India, and other pretty dreadful places but your Senegal story is downright scary. Very few Americans have even the slightest hint of how bad other places in the world can be and how lucky we are. I had wanted to get out of my South African 747 when we stopped in Dakar between JNB and ATL years ago to just hang out, see the airport, wonder around, as I enjoy airports as well-but after ready this Im sure glad I didn’t.
I also like your comment about animals and couldn’t agree more – your Hedgehog story rings of some true human compassion, which in the darkest moments of our existence, hopefully shines light on the truest inner nature of us – I hope.
I’ll now go watch the video’s but wanted to let you know my thoughts on the article – one of your best.
Kevin B
Yet Senegal is a haven of prosperity compared with much of what surrounds it. A black friend of mine (teaches French and Spanish on the south side of Chicago) took part in a one-year exchange in Dakar a decade back. West Africa is where her ancestors came from and she wanted to see it. Her apartment (you had to take the stairway since somebody had stolen the elevator’s motor) was right under short final to runway 03 (I believe it was). Nearly all the traffic was during the night, and the terminal is a sort of hell, both coming and going.
Yet the school she taught in was decent and public, in a pretty modest neighbourhood. When you see so much of the rest of Africa, you think “Dakar isn’t so bad”.
The runway at DKR is 18 / 36.
The poverty I saw in Mali was worse than what I’ve seen in Senegal. Considerably worse, in some areas. I’ve never been to Guinea or any of the other countries bordering Senegal. I imagine they too are worse.