Sam's Zambia Experience: South Africa

So we finally made it to South Africa, with our expectations through the roof. They were so high, that S.A. was bound to disappoint us, and sure enough … it did … at least initially.

Not So Good Start

Days before the trip, Interlink Airlines cancelled our flight, which caused us to have to spend a day in Jo’burg, and also caused us to spend roughly $300 more on a hotel in Cape Town for spending one night less. Note to self – Do NOT book with Interlink ever again – After this happened to us, I heard similar stories from others about their Interlink experiences in South Africa. Second note to self: Don’t trust that the Hotels.com agent knows what s/he is doing. If he (in this case it was a guy) was following proper procedures, we wouldn’t have had to pay $300 more. However, we couldn’t “prove” that the agent didn’t follow procedures (I assume I need to start recording conversations to ensure proper customer service), and hence we had the option of cancelling our booking free of charge, which would cost us significantly more on another hotel, or we could accept the offer of roughly $300 in different forms of discounts and an apology, but still pay $300 more than originally planned for staying a night less. Hotels.com – Usually, they are pretty good, if not excellent, but this time they did BAD, REALLY BAD.

Awesome Scenery & Good Food

Now, to the bright side – From what we’ve seen, Johannesburg and Cape Town are not really Africa as I would have imagined. These two cities (not sure what the rest of the country is like) are extremely developed, and seem to be a cross between Europe and the US. Cape Town, in particular, reminds me of a cross between San Diego (La Jolla in particular) and Laguna Beach. It offers absolutely breathtaking views, especially because Table Mountain is on one side, and amazing beaches on the other.

We plan on participating in several activities, and hopefully I’ll be able to write about them in my next post. So far, I can tell you that it felt good visiting good restaurants after a looong time:

Zorba’s: Nice Steak and Seafood House – After the appetizer (Great calamari - likely the best I’ve had), I enjoyed a 400g steak with potatoes and Mushroom sauce. It’s been a long time, and it was NICE.

Quay 4: Nice Fish & chips and nice location – Usually fish & chips are nothing to write home about, but in this case it is J

Next on the list is sushi – likely tomorrow night.

Lessons Of Zambia

I must say that I miss Zambia very much, and I can tell that Zambia has taught me several lessons. Here are a few of them:

Appreciation for food – I take special care not to waste food after seeing and spending time with people who are unable to eat “regularly”.

Patience – We planned on visiting Robben Island yesterday – the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for the great majority of his imprisonment – and the company cancelled the trip due to “wind”, which resulted in several hundred people forming a line to either reschedule or to get a refund. “Pre-Zambia” I would have gone through the roof – We wasted a few hours waiting for the trip, then standing in line for an hour or so to go on the trip, and finally standing in line for another hour or so to get a refund. I was quite amazed at myself of how I have become much more patient.

Appreciation for luxuries in life – Let’s face it – although I am disappointed with the “logistical parts of the trip” – flight, hotel & rental car – I am more than grateful for being able to enjoy such a vacation. Further, I actually appreciate the “little things in life” such as freeways and smooth roads for example.

I Miss Zambia!

From what we have seen so far, I must say that I find the people of Zambia MUCH more friendly, relaxed, open and hospitable. I wonder whether that has to do with the fact that South Africa is a more developed nation, or with historic events, or...

Further, we have been told that South Africa is “the” place to go shopping in Africa, and Azadeh got very excited about that. Once we arrived, we noticed that a lot of similar and sometimes even the same items (clothes, books, arts & crafts,…) are much more expensive than in Zambia. From bookstores in malls to arts and crafts markets, the difference in price is tremendous, often double or more (especially for arts and crafts, but also for books). However, the one benefit of having visited the arts and crafts market here in Cape Town is seeing the “Egg Man” in Green Market Square. He is a guy from Benin that I read about on the plane. He is one of the attractions not unlike the naked cowboy is in New York. Rather than being naked, this guy is known for his headwear – 22 pounds from what I remember.

Here are some pictures we took in the last few days:

The view from our original hotel room