First day in Windhoek

Arriving

We reached Hosea Kutako International Airport at Windhoek at 1:30pm; about two hours later than our scheduled arrival. We had flown in to Johannesburg at 6:30am. From there we were to take a flight to Windhoek at 9:30am. But, even though the information board showed that our flight was leaving on time that did not happen. We stood waiting at the departure gate for about an hour before finally the flight was announced. The two hours’ flight departed more than one hour late.

A single storey building came into view as the plane landed at the Windhoek International Airport. We climbed down the steps on to the tarmac and walked the less than hundred metres to the building which was the terminal. As I looked around me while walking, I could see a total of two other planes parked on the tarmac!

The immigration process went quite smoothly; being Singapore citizens, we did not need visas to visit Namibia as tourists.

At the airport

After collecting our luggage (we were impressed by the overall efficiency of such a sleepy looking place) we went to collect our rental car. Standing at the counter we understood that life happened at a different pace in this part of the world. We had booked our car through VIP Cars. When we arrived at the counter we were second in the queue. The couple in front of us were trying to get a safer vehicle, with seat belts for all seats, for their son’s family coming to visit from the USA. It was proving to be a difficult task! It took us about an hour to get all our paper work sorted out, but there were two more steps to be completed before we could be on our way to our hotel.

First, monetary matters. Namibian dollars are not available outside of the country. And Singapore dollars are not exchanged in Namibia. But we were prepared and had got US Dollars with us. So, we joined another queue, this time to get our foreign currency converted to local money. We spent another half an hour so there before we headed to the MTC booth at the corner buy a local SIM card. That took us all of five minutes. Mobile phones have really become the fastest things on this earth!

Taking charge of our ride

As we walked out of the terminal building we were greeted by the bright winter sunshine of Namibia. We felt the dry crisp cool air on our skins – so different from the tropical warm humidity back home. An unusual looking tree at the exit caught our attention, we took a picture hoping to find its name someday – almost a year after the trip but I still haven’t done so.

The rental company representative was waiting for us with our rental vehicle keys. He showed us where the spare tyre was stored and the tools for changing tyres was kept. He also showed us how the car jack worked. We, city dwellers, always call the car repairing service if we get a flat tyre. Such things don’t work in the Namibian wilderness as the next car repair service may be 50 kilometres away when you have a busted tyre. Hence, being able to replace a tyre is an essential skill in this country.

The landmarks of Windhoek

Airport to hotel took us about 40 minutes through meandering and sometimes steeply sloped roads. Our GPS guided us well and so we reached the hotel without any problem. We spent our one night in Windhoek at the Olive Grove Guesthouse. It is a small and comfortable place.  It was past 4pm when we parked our car and walked up to the reception.

We planned to have dinner at Joe’s Beerhouse. And guesthouse staff recommended that we have pre-dinner drinks at the rooftop bar of Hilton hotel. But before that we had to take a turn around the city.

Christuskirche, the most famous church stands like a traffic island at a four-way crossing, around which cars pass by. Traffic is light, roads are clean and buildings are not very tall in this capital city. Lucky for us, the cars are right hand drive and people drive on the left side of the road. We parked our car in the lengthening shadows cast by the church spire and walked around the building. It was closed, so we could not enter. A young man came up to us to sell key rings that he said he had fashioned himself by passing rubber bands through holes in hand painted nuts. But we were not in the mood for buying.

Beside the church was the Independence Memorial glowing in the light of the late afternoon sun, and across the road were the Parliament Gardens. Beyond the gardens stands the bright yellow Tintenpalast which is the seat of the Namibian Parliament.

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After Sunset

We sat at the Hilton rooftop bar as dusk changed to darkness over Windhoek. It is a low-rise city and so at 8 storeys the Hilton hotel towered over the cityscape. We sat huddled close to the warmer waiting for our drinks to warm us up. But finally the cold wind got the better of us, we made our way down to go for dinner.

We followed our GPS to Joe’s Beerhouse. The parking is fenced and the entry regulated by stern looking people standing at the gate. It was almost full when we reached. Butsome people were already finishing their dinner and leaving, we managed to wedge in between two sturdy looking pick-ups. We had reservations, so we were escorted through a passage lined with assorted bric-a-brac. The place had open and covered dining areas. It was a Friday and all tables seemed to be occupied. We mentally thanked the receptionist from our guesthouse for booking the table for us. If not for her, we would have gone hungry. It was a very cosy, informal place and the food was good. But it was cold and the warmers were not very effective; so we sat down to dinner in our pullovers and jackets.

By the time we left around 10 pm, the crowd had thinned. We were also beat. The time was six hours behind Singapore, so at 10 pm our body clocks were telling us that it was 4 am, early in the next morning. We somehow managed to drive back to the guesthouse, parked the car and threw ourselves on the bed. We needed to sleep well as we the long drive to Sossussvlei ahead of us the next day.