Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I had always figured that flying to South-Africa would take a lot of time, but I was only partially right. From Singapore, the flight to Johannesburg is only around 10 hours, thus it is about the same as going to Europe. However, due to various reasons that are not really that interesting, we ended up flying to Singapore through Bangkok. With a waiting time in Singapore of approximately 10 hours, we thus ended up travelling around 30 hours before reaching Johannesburg.
Since Singapore is such a tiny country, taking a train from the airport to the city center takes only about 30 minutes.
Another aspect I enjoy about Singapore airport is that almost all the airport shops are open 24 hours, which makes a 2:30 AM morning flight a whole less troublesome. We were also able to take a shower at the airport, thus we were very refreshed when boarding our flight to Johannesburg.
Singapore Airlines is a fantastic airline, and its entertainment system in economy class beats the business class alternative of most European and US airlines. It is also difficult to complain about the quality of food and wine, and perhaps even more importantly, the stewardesses are beautiful. However, this does not help at all when you are seated next to the Monster Kid from Hell.
On the other side of my aisle, a blond kid of about 4 years old was sitting on his mom's lap. Now, it is a mystery to me how this child was able to sit on his mom's lap during take-off, as he looked much older than the infants that normally are allowed to sit with their parents during take-off (thus providing the parents with a cheaper ticket price for their kids). He also had a milk bottle, which for a while made me wonder if he had some invisible mental retardation, but this did not seem to be the case. As they say (or ought to say), "Behind every annoying child stands an incompetent parent", and this was certainly the truth in this case. During the preparation for take-off, during take-off, and after take-off, the Monster Kid from Hell was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was so loud I was surprised the captain did not kick the kid off the plane. Mainly he was screaming "Papayan", and I still have no idea what that means (probably something in Afrikaans). The mother was just sitting by doing next to nothing. Before landing, she asked a stewardess whether her child could sit without a seat belt during landing as he would start screaming again if forced to wear a belt. Crazy mother.
Luckily all the screaming and shouting made the kid tired after about one hour following take off, and when he finally went to sleep the rest of the passengers could get some well deserved rest. Yuka, on the other hand, was sitting next to a character from Angola (we saw his passport), who obviously did not have much experience flying. During the flight, he even woke up Yuka to ask how he could use his remote control A normal person would probably think to ask a stewardess rather than to wake up fellow passengers, but this guy was not normal. He also thought he could control the main TV screen with his remote control, and was thus surprised to see that he had a personal TV screen under his seat (just like every other passenger).
When arriving in Johannesburg, we were met by our guide at the airport. Yuka tried to find a phone box that she could use to call home, and we had to go all the way to the departures hall to find one. As soon as we had found one, we discovered that it was out of order. Welcome to Africa.
The drive from the airport to our lodge was approximately 510 kilometers long, but it passed quickly as the roads are relatively good and there is little traffic. On the way to the lodge, we stopped at a rehabilitation center for wild animals. The living space of Africa's wild animals is gradually decreasing, and this is particularly serious for the birds and animals that require large territories in order to live. Certain eagles and other birds, for instance, may fly over hundreds of kilometers within a short period of time. Since there are virtually no parks that can offer wide spaces of this magnitude, many birds and other animals end up being killed when they leave the park. In addition there is the persistent problem of poaching, and many of the animals can be quite valuable on the black market. The poaching method of choice seems to be poisoning.
While this option is indiscriminate as it ends up killing lots of animals that can not be sold on the black market, poison is cheap to purchase and ends up killing lots of animals. The people at the rehabilitation center were mildly speaking not very optimistic about the future of African wildlife, thus it was an eye wakening experience. On a more positive note, the rehabilitation center offered the opportunity to get up close to several birds and other animals that you are not likely to see when visiting the Kruger National Park. In my view, the focus of the Kruger guided tours is mainly on the Big 5 (lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard, and elephant), thus many of the other animals and especially plants end up being ignored.
We stayed at the "Thornhill Safari Lodge", which is located within the Greater Kruger Park ecosystem - approximately 40 km from Kruger Park's Open gate. Our bedroom had en suite facilities, including mosquito nets around our bed. Prior to visiting Kruger National Park, I researched quite a bit regarding the risk of malaria. During winter, the risk of malaria is very low as there is little water in the park and temperatures can get down to the freezing point. During the approximately 3 days that we spent in the park, I did not see a single mosquito, though that is not to say that there is zero risk for a mosquito bite.
On our first safari day, we were woken up at 4:45 AM and left the lodge area at approximately 5:30 AM. We then reached the guide of Kruger Park just as it was getting light, and I will write more about our experiences there later.
Since Singapore is such a tiny country, taking a train from the airport to the city center takes only about 30 minutes.
Singapore Airlines is a fantastic airline, and its entertainment system in economy class beats the business class alternative of most European and US airlines. It is also difficult to complain about the quality of food and wine, and perhaps even more importantly, the stewardesses are beautiful. However, this does not help at all when you are seated next to the Monster Kid from Hell.
On the other side of my aisle, a blond kid of about 4 years old was sitting on his mom's lap. Now, it is a mystery to me how this child was able to sit on his mom's lap during take-off, as he looked much older than the infants that normally are allowed to sit with their parents during take-off (thus providing the parents with a cheaper ticket price for their kids). He also had a milk bottle, which for a while made me wonder if he had some invisible mental retardation, but this did not seem to be the case. As they say (or ought to say), "Behind every annoying child stands an incompetent parent", and this was certainly the truth in this case. During the preparation for take-off, during take-off, and after take-off, the Monster Kid from Hell was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was so loud I was surprised the captain did not kick the kid off the plane. Mainly he was screaming "Papayan", and I still have no idea what that means (probably something in Afrikaans). The mother was just sitting by doing next to nothing. Before landing, she asked a stewardess whether her child could sit without a seat belt during landing as he would start screaming again if forced to wear a belt. Crazy mother.
Luckily all the screaming and shouting made the kid tired after about one hour following take off, and when he finally went to sleep the rest of the passengers could get some well deserved rest. Yuka, on the other hand, was sitting next to a character from Angola (we saw his passport), who obviously did not have much experience flying. During the flight, he even woke up Yuka to ask how he could use his remote control A normal person would probably think to ask a stewardess rather than to wake up fellow passengers, but this guy was not normal. He also thought he could control the main TV screen with his remote control, and was thus surprised to see that he had a personal TV screen under his seat (just like every other passenger).
When arriving in Johannesburg, we were met by our guide at the airport. Yuka tried to find a phone box that she could use to call home, and we had to go all the way to the departures hall to find one. As soon as we had found one, we discovered that it was out of order. Welcome to Africa.
The drive from the airport to our lodge was approximately 510 kilometers long, but it passed quickly as the roads are relatively good and there is little traffic. On the way to the lodge, we stopped at a rehabilitation center for wild animals. The living space of Africa's wild animals is gradually decreasing, and this is particularly serious for the birds and animals that require large territories in order to live. Certain eagles and other birds, for instance, may fly over hundreds of kilometers within a short period of time. Since there are virtually no parks that can offer wide spaces of this magnitude, many birds and other animals end up being killed when they leave the park. In addition there is the persistent problem of poaching, and many of the animals can be quite valuable on the black market. The poaching method of choice seems to be poisoning.
We stayed at the "Thornhill Safari Lodge", which is located within the Greater Kruger Park ecosystem - approximately 40 km from Kruger Park's Open gate. Our bedroom had en suite facilities, including mosquito nets around our bed. Prior to visiting Kruger National Park, I researched quite a bit regarding the risk of malaria. During winter, the risk of malaria is very low as there is little water in the park and temperatures can get down to the freezing point. During the approximately 3 days that we spent in the park, I did not see a single mosquito, though that is not to say that there is zero risk for a mosquito bite.
On our first safari day, we were woken up at 4:45 AM and left the lodge area at approximately 5:30 AM. We then reached the guide of Kruger Park just as it was getting light, and I will write more about our experiences there later.
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