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Dave’s Travel Blog
As we crossed the dateline, the blog misses a day. We transited off the Vancouver to Hong Kong plane through another security gate to a long waiting area where we had to wait another 4 hours to board the flight from HK to Johannesberg. I wasn't too impressed with the area of the Hong Kong airport we went through. They did however ensure there was lots of seating space at each departure area. I was getting a bit punch drunk due to lack of sleep and kept nodding off for little cat naps. It didn't last too long because a group of Chinese youth surrounded our seats and decided to have a spirited lengthy conversation about who knows what. They were either stone deaf and could only hear each other by shouting or it is a national characteristic to talk loudly. They all seem we are quite good natured but like we Canadians expect everyone else to be able to speak their language. One interesting note, The terminal announcer in our area had the most delightful cultured British/Scottish/Welsh accent in a voice that gave you the impression of pure honey which could switch to an abrasive Chinese screech! We were served dinner shortly after getting on the plane. Had a delicious halibut dinner with rice and broccolini. Very tasty and fresh! I am writing this in the dark as the plane flies towards South Africa. The cabin is dark and most are asleep. We flew over the Gulf of Tonkin and directly over Danang. What a difference a few decades makes! The countryside looked quite peaceful. Now we are somewhere over the Indian Ocean between India and South Africa having flown over the southernmost portion near Colombo. We are nearing the equator as we fly in a south westerly direction. We have another 6.5 hours flying and are just passing over the islands of Male and Gan which is slight south of us. another 5,780 miles to go I will try and sleep some more now. We arrived in Johannesburg at about 6:30am. 2 minutes through customs and no one was the least interested in our bags. Because we arrived early, we were able to get SA rand from an ATM and SIM cards for our phones. We loaded the phones with prepaid time and purchased 1 month data plans all for $14.80 cdn. Our guide picked us up and dropped us off at our B&B, run by a school principal who runs a school in Soweto. She was quite fascinating to talk to about the school system here. Her daughter is the host of the business program on SABC, the SA equivalent of CBC. We had a great discussion with her and her mother in the evening. It had been our plan to go to a local market but ended up sleeping for 4 hours because jet lag hit with a vengeance! We lazed about outside after watching the 2 large turtles, 2 beautiful peacocks and quite a variety of birds in the back yard. In the evening, our host treated us to an amazing genuine South African meal, the origins of which come from the "Western Cape coloureds" The weather was great today but really hot. I will try to take some pics of the flowers here - magnificent! Well, I am running out of steam so will close and sleep now.
- comments
Lynda Looking forward to lots of pics, love to both
Carol Mackie So pleased thst you made it safe and cruised thru customs. Looking forward to your pictures. Happy thanksgiving to you and Jean.