South Africa!!!

November 20, 2011
The trip didnt quite start as planned, a mexhancal issue wth the plane n Senegal resulted in a 12 hour delay out of Washington dc. South African airlines did the best they could though; a room at the hyatt for 12hours, $30 for dinner, $15 for breakfast and 25% off a future flight. Most importantly though; they sent a new plane . You don't want to board a plane that may have mechanical issues when you are facing an 18hour flight. So, I gtabbed dinner, a few hours of sleep and was back up at 3am for a return to the airport. Unfortunately, I packed all my toiletries in my bag, a practice I've started doing in the post 9/11 world. If I'm checking a bag these days, my toiletries go in it. My carry on is too stuffed with laptops, cameras, tablets,Bose headphones and cords to have room for deodorant and a toothbrush. Oops. I will probably still do the same in the future so I guess I can't really say lesson learned.
The flight wasn't as awful as I had anticipated. I had spent the weeks leading up to the flight loading my tablet with movies,tv shows and games to while away the time. However, SAA has a pretty kick ass inflight entertainment center. It was full of music, games and many of the tv shows and movies that I had brought myself. Two open seats next to me only made things better. I watched hangover 2, a hastily made tipoff of the hangover. Cedar rapids was pretty good, wedding crashers is always good and I had a hot streak at the craps table that rivaled Omaha, minus the real cash part.
We stopped in Dakar, Senegal for fuel and to drop off a few passengers and pick up a few more. I'm always intrigued by the fact that almost every place looks the same from the air when you come in at night. Some are mre congested than others but they basically all look similar. I'm not sure if I expected there to be tribal bonfires or what but Senegal,on approach, could be any other city.
We sat in Senegal fir about an hour and a half. It was kind of disheartening to think that after 9.5 hours of flying, we were only barely halfway there. Had we been allowed to get off the plane and walk around a bit,it would have been much better.
I have a pretty extensive checklist of things to do, stuff to pack before I go on a trip. In the weeks leading up I start a pile of stuff I want to take and slowly add to it until the day I pack. Then I weed out the unnecessary stuff to minimize the load. I have special travel underwear. It will dry after a sink washing in about 4hrs. I also have a checklist of things I gotta do aside from work. These include holding the mail,contacting the credit card companies to let them know I will be traveling overseas so I don't have to worry about them doing their due diligence and declining transactions. However, i forgot to contact my bank.
When I finally landed in Johannesburg, I had,of course, missed my connection to cape town. I cleared customs and went to the SAA counter and was able to get on a flight in 45 minutes. I went to two different shops to get a sim card to put in my blackberry so I could call the travel company to let them know I would be arriving around 11am for the transfer to the hotel which was included in my package. Both stores were out of sim cards. By this time my flight was boarding so I was going to have to deal with things once I got to cape town. I got to cape town and went to the ATM to withdraw some south African rand and the transaction was declined. See above about not contacting my bank. Oops. I didn't stop at the ATM on the way to the airport because I was just planning on getting money once I got there. Thankfully, I always Carry cash and I was still hprint some of the dough I had won at the casino a few weeks ago. I hate exchanging money at the airport because they rob you,but I didn't really have a choice, I needed some cash. First, I stopped to get a sim card. Nope! The whole network was going thru an upgrade and no one would be able to do one until 3pm.
I exchanged some money,making sure to get change for a payphone,called the travel company asking for a transfer to the hotel.
As they didn't have anyone close, they told me to just tax a taxi and save the receipt for reimbursement through my travel insurance. Unfortunately, I waived the travel insurance :(. Luckily, I bought it on my own :). Unfortunately, I forgot to get a damn receipt :(.
Of course they didn't have my reservation when I arrived. They were very nice and asked if I'd like breakfast while they were sorting things out. After traveling for 44hours, I bartered for a dirty martini instead. Once things got settled, I went to my very nice room and grabbed a shower and a quick nap. As it was raining when I arrived I didn't feel like I was missing much anyways.
After waking, I went to the harbor area which is a nice shopping and entertainment complex. I went to get a sim card at vodafone and they were out. The place next door had them, but no prepay cards. So back to vodafone only to find out that they had no prepay cards either. He did assure me that, "sim cards and prepay cards are available everywhere." well everywhere except the first five places I had been to.
I grabbed dinner and a couple of beers at a pub and was back at the room by 11, took a couple Dramamine for today's shark diving trip and was out. I met a nice couple from las Vegas who will be at the game lodge in pilannesberg at the same time I will so I believe they will be my dates for thanksgiving dinner.
I felt pretty refreshed when I got up at 530. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep in days prior, the beers, the Dramamine or the cricket match that I had fallen asleep to was still on, and is probably stll going on.
I want to stop here and just say that I can pretty much guarantee my next posts won't be so long or boring. I just happen to be in a van for the two hour ride back to cape town.
I think I will leave that for another post. Tomorrow is a cable car to Table Mountain.