I'm going to send occasional reports of the trip to South Africa to several of my closest friends and associates.... [The following pages are those emails, edited for publication...]
OK, I didn't get to sleep until like 2 AM after spending 3 hrs on the conference call with the folks at work. Then packing everything, etc.
Up at 5, leave by 6 to get there 1 hour early for the 7:40 flight.
Got to the phoenix airport at 6:50, The line at the ticket counter was
LONG, and the sign said "no need to check in here if you
have a ticket and no luggage", well I just went outside to the skycaps,
the line was MUCH shorter, but accordingly slower, and
after 15 minutes, it was my turn and the skycap said "sorry, we can't
do international" (first leg was only to DFW then Miami!),
so back inside, maybe 7:05, now I'm starting to panic. The line is
even LONGER inside. Finally got my luggage checked, found a mailbox to
drop off my absentee ballot (I'll be in Africa on the first tuesday after
the first monday in November) and
got on the plane, just in time.
Got to DFW for a plane change, had to make it ALL the way across the
terminal only to find the flight to Miami LATE! We left
45 minutes late.
Since I only had 1:25 to get from my AA flight from Dallas onto the
SAA flight to Capetown, I'm really startin' to worry... It's
gotta be a 4 mile walk and an hour verifying passports.... Turns out,
the incoming flight and outgoing SAA flight were at
adjacent GATES! With "business" class tickets, I checked in and walked
right on, 5 minutes.
Business class seats on a 747 are NICE!!! They were HUGE compared to
coach on a 727! And the service was GREAT, a
buncha really pretty stewardesses of various ethnic backgrounds were
constantly bringing drinks and food. TV screen in the
seat in front of me, choice of movies, real-time map, music etc etc...
made the 13 anda half hour trip more bearable. Got to sleep a little. Half
the plane got off in Capetown, so I had a window seat to Johanesburg. Got
in around 5 PM local.
Short line at customs, I can stay until 30-Jan-99, Got my luggage, NOBODY
wanted to look in it! Found an ATM, stuck my
Credit Union Visa in it and out comes 500 South African Rand. I was
accosted by a freelance porter who carried my bags to a
waiting taxi for $1 US.
Taxi ride in was uneventful, I gave him 200 rand (sometimes call ZAR Zud Africa Rand), thats almost $40 US, or about the same from Phoenix to Scottsdale.
Hotel is pretty luxiurious, and its connected to a Huge Mall, The Sandton
Mall, even bigger and more varied than Scottsdale fashion square. I walked
around the mall a little, had dinner at Nando's Tasca Taberna Portuguesa,
really good ribs for about $12! Waiter was an Ndebele dude named "Peace".
Kunjani means "how are you" in Ndebele, Ngiyabonga means thanks. They had
Latin sounding music playing, including several tracks from Gloria (Miami
sound machine) Estafan's Abriendo Puertas. It was on an open square (Sandton
Square) on the edge of the mall with a Chinese, Italian and some other
restaurants, none of which was named anything thing like "KwaZulu house
of Steenbok steak and Wildebeest Grill".
This place is paranoid about security! There is a SAFE in the hotel room!
Couldn't plug in the lap-top, brought the wrong style adapters, but I could charge it in the bathroom shaver outlet!
Tried to call in, couldn't get into the computer network.
Set the wake-up call for 5:00 AM, to bed after midnight