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Africa > South Africa > (Johannesburg) Apr 1 - 3, 2006 ![]() ![]() |
Back to South Africa,
Africa Prev: Addo Elephant NP |
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Overview:
We spent 3 nights in Johannesburg, more commonly called Jo'burg in South Africa. Scroll down for the stories, or skip directly to a section: Airport Arrival, Town, Melville, ![]() |
South African Rand (ZAR) ZAR 1 = US$ 0.1624 US$ 1 = ZAR 6.16 check current rates Telephone: +27 |
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Satellite Photo:
See this South Africa satellite map
with pushpins and then zoom in at least once. |
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Airport Arrival:
We arrived from Addo Elephant NP via a flight
from Port Elizabeth, around 18:00 and almost 3 hours late. |
Airport codes: PLZ, JNB |
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![]() Badia, the friendly assistant at our B&B, picked us up at the airport in her older green Mercedes. Most hotels and B&Bs offer a pre-arranged pick-up service for a fee, which for security reasons is highly recommended in Jo'burg. Perhaps even more so than Cape Town, you really must be careful where you go in Jo'burg, especially at night! In the dark, one of the two towers in downtown Jo'burg reminded us of Toronto's CN Tower (though it turns out this tower's base is round). |
Ride: R200 |
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Melville:
We checked in to the Die Agterplaas B&B
(meaning "the land behind", or Hinterhof in German)
in the safe, middle class, ethnically mixed suburb of Melville to the northeast of downtown.
True to the B&B name, there is a second building of rooms on the hill right behind the main house.
Despite the safe neighbourhood, the B&B is fully surrounded by a wall topped with an electric fence.
A convenient side-gate leads to a narrow public stair/walkway up the hill to the foot of 7th Street,
the 3-block long main restaurant- and shop-lined business street in Melville. The good breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit, coffee, eggs, ham, tomato, toast and cheese was filling. The owner, Jannie, is an accomplished musician and the walls of the common areas are adorned with posters from his gigs. He recently released a CD, with a great video on YouTube of the choral classic Pie Jesu. |
R590/night |
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Dinner: R180 + tip |
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![]() ![]() We were the only guests, so the 3 of us set off in his car. Soweto, an abbreviation of SOuthWEst TOwnship, is 16km southwest of Jo'burg and much different than we expected. In the early 90s it was one of the most dangerous places on Earth, but now it is essentially a sprawling Black city, minus a business downtown core. There are even B&Bs and a backpackers there, mostly near the key tourist attractions around Vilakazi St in Orlando West. There are four distinct types of housing visible: squatter slums (relatively few), plus low, middle and upper class housing meaning there are Blacks in all economic classes here (in contrast to most townships, where are virtually all poor with some middle class homes). Oupa mentioned that a few dozen Whites live here too, not to mention many Coloureds (mixed race) and Indians (Asians). Much like in other townships, the people seemed happy. |
R280 pp |
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Miscellaneous sights from the tour, some just seen from the car:
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![]() A taxi back to our B&B, going past a golf course estate, cost R60. |
Lunch: R112 + tip Taxi: R60 Mask trio: R450 |
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![]() The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast, chatting with a Canadian cameraman who had been filming an AIDS documentary near Kruger NP and was now on a week break before flying home. With an early 10:00 checkout, we packed up and left our bags in the B&B's storage for the day. Briefly used the Internet in the back of a used bookshop, where I also sold my "Naked Bachelor" book. |
Internet: R40/hr? |
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![]() We bought a nice bottle of wine, L'Ormarins Merlot 2003, for R70 at a bottle shop - it was recommended and cost R120 (a "reasonable" markup) in the resto the night before, but they were out! We weren't starving, but we figured we should eat something before the airport, so we ate tasty appetizers in the romantic courtyard of Café Mezza Luna before returning to the B&B for a quick shower made available in a bathroom in the main house (not in a guest room). |
Lunch: R87 + tip Coffees: R24.50 + tip |
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Airport Departure:
Summary: We flew overnight from Jo'burg to London, then to New York's John F. Kennedy airport. At 19:00 Badia drove us to the airport, and seemed genuinely surprised when we tipped her. On checking in, we were sad to hear that our 21:25 flight, to New York's John F. Kennedy airport via London's Heathrow airport, was very full (unlike our flights over to Africa) so we wouldn't be able to stretch out on this first overnight leg. We stopped at the customs booth to get VAT receipts stamped (yes, we had to show the goods) before returning the rental cell phone and then going through security. Inside were a large number of shops (Susan found a stuffed Vervet Monkey toy), plus the instant VAT refund desk, which rejected one of our receipts. We chose the "refund to credit card" option to avoid a cheque-cashing charge at the bank booth next door. |
Ride: R200 Airport codes: JNB, LHR, JFK |
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The flight was indeed full, with lots of French aboard due to the strike in France against the new youth labour law (which makes it
easier for employers to fire a new employee). The plane, with a 3-4-3 seat configuration, was indeed quite full.
I watched a movie or two on the in-seat entertainment screen before the 2nd sleeping pill finally got me enough rest (despite the upright
seated position) before arriving in London at 7:30. |
21:25 JNB -> LHR 7:35 +1 (~11 hrs) |
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We made our way from Terminal 1 to 4 for our 10:25 (7hr20min long) flight to JFK.
Again our flight was full; we chatted in French with the guy next to us, and he explained the strike situation in France.
Then I realized that our flight had actually avoided French airspace the night before. A taxi from JFK to LGA cost $27.60 + tip, taking less than ½ hour since it was early in the afternoon. |
10:25 LHR -> JFK 12:55 (~7½ hrs) |
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