The Maputo Files – 25 March 2022 – Gaborone to Maputo

With an on arrival visa for Indians, Mozambique easily got on to my list of countries to travel to, while visiting my daughter and her family in Botswana in March 2022. It was not very easy to get an acceptable air link to Maputo from Gaborone via Johannesburg and back; the layovers were ridiculous at over 14 hours. The one direct flight from Gaborone was priced at a ridiculous $800 or thereabouts. I kept on trying and a couple of days after I returned from the 15th edition of Record Drive in Botswana on 20 March 2022 I managed to get a return ticket for about $600. Then came the accommodation in Maputo. I had become so used to seeking accommodation through booking.com that no other possibilities seemed feasible to me. That is, till I booked the accommodation in Ghanzi through Airbnb. I took recourse to Airbnb yet again to book a four night stay near the city centre in Maputo for about $42 per night. The reviews were very good and the facilities included a washing machine in the accommodation. Airbnb payments are upfront and the actual location is intimated only after the booking is completed, including the payment.

While South Africa has lifted RTPCR test result for either traveling through or into the country Mozambique had retained that restriction. I had to possess a negative result of the test of the preceding 72 hours. Maya set up a home collection schedule with Diagnofirm at 9 am the day previous to my travel. Alfred turned up for the samples an hour late and promised that the result would be ready by 4 pm. When I had neither received a receipt for the payment nor the result by 5 pm we visited the Diagnofirm centre where we were given both. I must admit that there was a period of anxiety when the centre told us over phone that the sample had been registered in the centre only around 1 pm and that it would take about 6 hours for the result. In the end, all turned out alright and the final requirement to board the flight to Maputo was also obtained.

I had done web check-in and Kiron dropped me off at the airport by a quarter to six in the morning. At the check-in counter the lady wanted me to show her the filled in on-arrival visa form, which I did. She also took a peek at the RTPCR result, checked by baggage through to Maputo and gave me the two boarding passes with transit through Johannesburg. I had time to kill and I wandered the airport taking a few photographs. At the entrance to the airport was the statue of a young lady returning after drawing water from a well. As I was taking its photo a couple ladies dressed in airline uniform asked if I would like a picture beside the lady. I turned down the offer politely saying that I did not want to tempt the lady lest she abandon the pail of water! They were still doubled up in laughter when I moved on!!

Airlink is a Johannesburg based operator with 50 aircrafts flying to over 45 destinations. The small Embraer 185 aircraft was full and the flight landed in Johannesburg in 35 minutes during when a light breakfast snack was served. What struck me as odd, if I may call it that, was the discipline observed by everyone while deplaning. When deplaning was announced by cabin crew, row by row passengers stood up, claimed their cabin baggage and left the aircraft quietly without shoving and shouting. I haven't seen this happen anywhere else in the world. In one word, remarkable.

The layover in Johannesburg was 5 hours. The display of African handicraft, their colours and amazing array stunned me yet again. When it was the Out of Africa store last time, it was the Indaba store this time around. I wished I had the baggage allowance to cart some of these exquisite pieces home to India. The sense of humour of guys here is so spontaneous. An example at the Johannesburg international departure area. Before boarding the flight to Maputo I thought I should visit the washroom. As I entered I found one of the janitors using the urinal. He greeted me, "Welcome to my office, Sir, how do you like it?" "You know I have to test out my office once in a while", he said justifying use of the passenger washroom!

The flight to Maputo was full. I had a window seat in the last row. From the time of take off for about 25 minutes the ride was so bumpy that many passengers felt queasy and the guy next to me, a veritable Leviathan, was shaking like a leaf telling me repeatedly, it's a bad day man! Well the ride seemed to portend what awaited me at the Maputo airport. After verification of RTPCR test result and yellow fever vaccination certificate I went down to the Immigration. When I requested the officer for on arrival visa he flatly refused said that I am ineligible as I should have taken visa from India. When I asked what the on-arrival visa for Indians meant he blankly said that on-arrival visa facility is only for nationals of those countries where there was no Embassy of Mozambique.

The most ridiculous argument and he passed on my passport to a lady officer who said that I have to return to where I came from by a later flight. She kept the passport with her and went out of my sight for more than an hour. I started pleading with everyone there showing my return ticket and accommodation I had booked for the four days that I would be in the country. Blank walls and stares. In the meantime, an Airlink staff came up and said that they would put me on to a later flight for a top up fee. I refused point blank and said that I have no further money to pay to the airline as I have a valid ticket for the return. I further mentioned that Airlink should have detected any deficiency, if at all, at my first port of boarding, namely Gaborone. He told me that I would have to sleep on a steel bench for the next four days. I said I would and not pay the airline another penny. He vanished without a trace thereafter.

The airport did not have free Wifi as in some others. I was left without any means to contact a couple of contacts I had in the city. Finally, I talked to a medic to lend me his phone to make a local call, for a princely amount of $4, ostensibly to top up talk time. I contacted Sevi George, a friend of Mr. Ali, the Chairman of the Company I work for in India. He rushed to the airport with his friend Jimmy, both working in Mozambique Holdings. They moved heaven and earth, pushed the right buttons and spoke to the Chief of Immigration who mattered. Finally, after a few hours of anxiety and mayhem, the visa was stamped and I left the airport with Sevi and Jimmy after taking a local sim connection and exchanging a few dollars for local currency, Meticals.

Guardian Angels surface when all hope is lost and the challenge is overwhelming. The alacrity with which Sevi and Jimmy arrived at the airport and the cool head with which they worked out a solution surely was the work of the Almighty. As it also turned out Sevi belongs to Manimala, my paternal native and Jimmy belongs to Kanjirapally, my maternal native. The relation with Sevi is quite deep, as was understood during the short time that we were together. He later dropped me at the Airbnb accommodation and ensured that I was comfortably settled before he left for home.

A day that started quietly sprung a nasty surprise before all got settled properly. It rained cats and dogs once I got to the apartment. I hastened to the nearest restaurant in the rain as I was famished. I fetched a chicken dinner from a nearby pub, Mundos, after having a large glass of their specialty draught beer, 2M.