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Africa 3--Johannesburg #3782
06/12/2005 07:20 PM
06/12/2005 07:20 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,470
Central Florida!
Carol_Hill Offline OP
Traveler
Carol_Hill  Offline OP
Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,470
Central Florida!
MAY 14 TO 15, LONDON TO JOHANNESBURG

Our flight on Virgin Atlantic from London to Johannesburg left on time, around 9 PM and we seriously lucked out by being able to get four seats for two of us, in the center 4 seat section of the plane. We knew that there were lots of empty seats in the back center section of the plane by looking online right before we left, so we moved around and got lucky. For this flight, our goodie bag from Virgin included the socks for our feet, which is a nice thing on long flights, to take off your shoes and put on their socks. For this flight we got a full meal, I had a decent chicken curry and Eric had the beef. We get a glass of wine each with dinner and Eric gets a beer, and the liquor service seems more generous on this flight. I was finally able to get about three hours of sleep, as Eric sat on the floor and I was able to actually stretch out across four chairs. The idiot in the seat behind Eric decides to leave his light on basically all night, and Eric is able to get a bit of rest, with a blanket over his head.

Virgin Atlantic has individual consoles in the seat backs of all seats, which have a selection of movies, TV shows and games, etc., to choose from. I didn’t think it was real convenient, as the movies and TV shows all start at a certain time, you can’t just go to them at any time and start the movie or TV show at the beginning. I didn’t use it much. Later on they served breakfast, a kinda weird vegetarian omelette, sausage and pork & beans, which is apparently some type of an English thing?? Huhm...

Our flight arrived on time around 9 AM, but we waited 1 ½ hours on line for immigration at Johannesburg! Apparently this is a fairly normal thing. Other people reported waiting almost two hours in line. Make sure you have water to wait in line for immigration at Johannesburg!!! There were only two immigration agents to begin with for non-Africans. Eventually, they opened a couple of more lines, and then they came to the BACK of our line and took people out of the end of our line to the new lines. ARRGH!!! To their credit, the Virgin Atlantic people did take care of our bags, as they took them off the baggage carousel and waited with the bags for us to arrive. We did not plan on using a porter, but one basically insisted on hauling our bags, even though I advised him we did not have any rand, as we did not change money, as we didn’t intend to spend any time in South Africa itself. We had a fairly nasty interchange with the porter, who wanted more money for porterage than the $5 Eric gave him for two bags. He b*tched about taking American money–even though we had told him we didn’t have any rand–and eventually he went away when Eric refused to give him any more money. Because of how cool it gets here in their winter, I didn’t expect to see palm trees in Johannesburg and am surprised to see them, but eventually we are safely ensconced in the free shuttle to the Holiday Inn Johannesburg Airport.

HOLIDAY INN JOHANNESBURG
[Linked Image]


I’m not entirely sure how much we paid for the HI, but I think it’s like $200 per night, booked through Wilderness Safaris, who gets it cheaper than your travel agent can on his own. We stayed at the HI Johannesburg International Airport. There are two Holiday Inns there, so make sure which one you are staying at. The hotel is like 2 minutes from airport! We arrived at the hotel at about 10:30 am and they let us into our room immediately, although checkin time was not until 3. Thank goodness! After not having slept for 48 hours, we fell into bed for a few hours, but made ourselves get up around 3:30, or we would have slept the night away. We took a few pictures around the hotel, which has a very nice grounds. [Linked Image]
We also did a dab of shopping at the hotel, which has some Out of Africa items, so I just HAD to buy a scarf. The hotel has a very nice restaurant. I ordered an onion and gruyere cream soup, and chicken salad, and Eric had the beef. Mid way through, I didn’t feel good, so I left the rest of the meal and went to the room to lie down again. The meal, including a nice bottle of merlot, was 220 rand. After an hour or so, I felt better, and Eric and I went downstairs to check out the wireless hotspot in the hotel. You get 2 hours free time, which is kind of neat. We typed a message on TTOL, had a couple of Irish coffees, and went to bed. I didn’t sleep well again, and once again listened to Eric sleep.

The HI is a very nice hotel, we would stay there again, if the circumstances were right. [Linked Image]
The lounges and rooms are in the process of being redone, and our room was very nice. There appeared also to be lots of new employees, many of whom seem not to be able to work computer system, or know where some things are, so I’m guessing they did a complete re-haul of all employees also. Everyone we meet is unfailingly courteous and polite and helpful though.

Breakfast is included in the room rate, for everyone, I guess. It is an excellent buffet, which includes omelettes made to order, bacon, potatoes, breads, fruits, an excellent orange juice and coffee. After breakfast, we went back to the room to collect bags, made the mistake of signing onto TTOL for one last time before we left ‘civilization’ and the board is down!!! Eric did that voodoo that he does and he was able to fix the problem remotely and fixed TTOL from SA! [Linked Image]
We then took the very prompt hotel shuttle to the airport, which is a mere two minutes away.

The Johannesburg Airport is very nice, very clean, with lots of wonderful shopping, and a nice food court with tables with a view of the runways (so long as you stay UPSTAIRS, away from the gates, and the huge amounts of people down there...) . We got a coke and a bottle of water and smelled the lovely pizza smell, but didn’t indulge in pizza this time. [Linked Image]
There is a wireless hotspot at the airport, at $5 per half-hour, but we didn’t utilize it. There are no announcements for flights here in terminal, which is kind of nice, in terms of upstairs being away from the noise and hustle/bustle of downstairs.

We had originally booked an 11 AM Flight on Nationwide Air to Livingstone, which ended up being cancelled, and the airline booked us on the same flight an hour later. We went to check in for our flight, not knowing of the cancellation. I suspect partially because we didn’t make a big deal about the hour delay, the guy wass nice and offered us exit row seats, which we thankfully accepted. We were surprised to find there is food on even this short flight. Wow, good food, with a full hot lunch with free wine on a one and one half hour flight!!! American Airlines could sure take some pointers here!!!!

Immigration at Livingstone was easy, and there was only a short line. Wilderness had given our names and passport numbers to the authorities ahead of time, so they had our names on the list for River Club so we didn’t need a visa for Zambia. Folks from River Club met us at the airport and took us for the 20 minute drive, then 10 minute boat cruise to the River Club.

Link to next section of trip report


Carol Hill
Sponsors
Re: Africa 3--Johannesburg [Re: Carol_Hill] #3783
06/13/2005 05:24 PM
06/13/2005 05:24 PM
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 726
Washington State
ameless Offline
Traveler
ameless  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 726
Washington State
Really enjoyed the 1st three installments, Carol! Keep 'em coming!


Re: Africa 3--Johannesburg [Re: ameless] #3784
06/13/2005 06:23 PM
06/13/2005 06:23 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,470
Central Florida!
Carol_Hill Offline OP
Traveler
Carol_Hill  Offline OP
Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,470
Central Florida!
Hope to post number 4 tonight..


Carol Hill

Moderated by  Eric_Hill 

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