Day 3 - December 3, 2008

Day 3 (roughly)

December 03, 2008

So, we were in South Africa.  Unbelieveable!!! We landed in the international side of the airport and needed to get to the domestic part.  So, like cattle, we were herded to immigration and we were off to find our luggage.  Mind you, I continued to get the stares from head to toe as we waited in the immigration line.  Being completely exhausted and having been up for over 24 hours, I just took it as a compliment and went on my way.  We were able to pick up our luggage and started heading towards the domestic part of the airport.  There we were greeted by several porters that were more than willing to help, of course, with a small fee/tip of course.  We really didn't know how the system worked, so we did have a couple porters escort us to the domestic part of the airport, which was pretty much just down the hallway.  Yet, the did lead us to the correct counter to get us onto our connecting flight to Kruger.  As we checked in, we ran into some difficulty with bags weighing over the limit.  I know you are thinking me, but nope, it was Roger.  He had two bags and combined they were over the limit.  Roger is super easy going and calmly said he would pay for the excess luggage.  He was told to go to another counter to pay the difference.  So, the porter and Roger went off with the extra luggage to pay.  Roger and the porter, then came back and told the attendant that he was exempt from the excess limit since he just flew internationally.  The attendant did no want to hear this.  She confirmed with her staff, the women next to her, where they backed her up and said yes you need to pay.  Easy going Roger, took the news and along with the excess luggage and porter in tow, trucked back to the other counter to pay.  This time he was told that he is exempt because he had just flown internationally.  Finally, the girl behind the counter couldn't contest and sent Roger's luggage to be checked in.  We were now free to go through security and head towards our gate.  

As we walk towards the gate, I realize that the planes seemed smaller and they didn't have a runway.  We would have to get on the plane the old fashion way, up the steel stairs.  Then, a scary thought entered my mind, what if the plane we would be on should be a smaller propeller plane, which I had mentioned to Rey, that I would not fly on!!! I had a horrible experience flying to Arizona and Colorado.  The turbulance was so horrible that I kissed the ground when we arrived.  I couldn't go through that again.  I quickly removed the thought of a small plane, creative visualization, don't think and energy won't feed the idea.  Well, subconsciously i must have been thinking too much.  After we checked in at the gate, we proceeded onto a bus, which drove us out to our plane.  I noticed that we were passing the medium sized planes and heading straight to a propeller plane! yikes!!! There was no way i could get on one of those.   But, I had no choice.  Roger and Rey were doing the happy dance, since both of them wanted to experience a prop plane.  To make things worse, as we were climbing the steel stairs, it starts to rain.  Rain and clouds mean bumpy and major turbulence.   Let us just say that I was not a happy camper.  Then, I remembered that I had some natural holistic medicine to help calm my nerves.  I busted those puppies quickly.  Actually, I was so nervous that I couldn't get them out of the bottle.  Thank God, Rey was there to save the day.  He was able to pop five of those wonderful pills out.  Don't worry, you were suppose to take 5 at a time.  As we find our seats, the plane set up is one seat on one side and two seats together on the other side.  Rey was by himself and Roger had the luck to sit next to me.  I look around and notice that there are only 27 people on the plane, one is the pilot and the other the stewardess.  I hear the propellers being pushed and started.  I am definitely sweating at this point.  I thumb through the airline magazine and secretly hope that I would actually feel something once the medicine would kick in.  Maybe something like being on It's a Small World at Disneyland.  We start to head down the runway and we are off and up in the air.  The plane sounds so small and puny compared to the other planes we were just on.  We have a couple of bumps, but for the most part not too bad.  It was pretty smooth to the point that I was able to work on a Suduko puzzle, which I finished correctly.  I even managed to pass out and sleep for a couple of minutes.  We did hit some clouds towards the end, but we were descending.  When we landed on the runway, I was so happy and couldn't believe I that I had just ridden on a prop plane and was still smiling!  As we exit off the plane, the stewardess says see your fear is over.  As I ponder her statement, I look outside and I am now in the airport that will leads us to Kruger National Park.  Jock Safari has it set up where they pick you up from the airport.  As we are walking towards the cute and cleaned cut thatched roofed airport, we look around and just see lots of greenery.  The baggage pull cart was painted as a zebra, which I thought was pretty funny.  We walk over to the baggage claim and walk into the airport, where we see a man holding a sign that says Rey Gonzalez, Roger Spinti, and Liza Soldivillosugar.  Yup, you read that last part right, it says sugar.  Sometimes, the L and the I combine together making a U.  He introduces himself as Tom and leads us to the front, where he plans to pick us up with the car.  We are met by porters that would like to help with our luggage.  As we starting loading our bags, we realize that we don't have any rand (South Africa currency) to tip the porters.  So, with a quick visit to the money exchange, we all get some denominations of rand and then we are off.  

Tom let's us know that the drive should take us about an hour and a half.  As we drive, the scenery is amazing.  South Africa is so green.  We see fields of different crops, such as sugar cane, lemons, oranges, and guava.  I am definitely surprised.  I was expecting to see barren land that is mainly brown.  Too much Lion King, huh?  Anyways, after a half an hour, we finally make it to the entrance of Kruger National Park.  This is a wildlife game reserve.  It is huge.  It costs about 35 rand per person to enter.  The exchange rate is about 9 rand for every US dollar, which is not too bad : >  We enter the park and it is still very green with parts that are open and parts that have green bushes and trees.  We come to a bridge that is over Crocodile River.  Tom explains that we will be going over this river several times on our way to Jock Safari Lodge.  In this river, we see our first look at wildlife and I see a baby crocodile.  We continue down this two lane road and we start to see several animals.  We saw Kudu or a Waterbuck (need to check google images to figure out which one :>, Zebras, Impalas, and Giraffes.  Amazing to see animals just grazing as you drive by.  

We finally come up to an enclosed area that has an electric barbed wire above the wall and we see the entrance to Jock Safari Lodge.  We enter and park at the reception area.  We are greeted by James, who offers us a warm and soothing scented face towel to wipe our faces and a flute of champagne, which has a cherry in it.  Nice, leave to Rey to book us a safari with class.  James asks if we would like to join the night safari which would begin at that moment.  We were torn.  We were so excited to be there that we wanted to just start the activities, but Rey points out that we all have been traveling for the last 24 hours.  I actually fell asleep on parts of the drive to the lodge.  We decide to pass and do it the next day.  We figure we should shower and settle in before dinner.  We decide on the sleeping accommodations.   Rey booked two rooms, one with twin beds and the other with a king.  I offer to Rey that since it is his birthday trip that he should take the king bed, if it was okay with Roger to share a room with me.  Roger, easy going as he is, agrees.  I did warn him that I snore, it didn't seem to phase him too much.  

Next, James gives us a tour of the facilities our rooms.  I wouldn't be able to describe our room with justice, so please look at the pictures.  I can tell you that we have an outdoor patio called a sala, a plunge pool and outdoor shower.  The room was beautiful and elegant.  The accommodations were unbelievable.  Roger and I begin to settle in by unpacking.  Roger decides to take a shower outside and I decide to take a bath, which has a shower head extension, if you want.  Before my bath, I decide to just relax and lay in bed as I take in the moment and just realize that I am in South Africa.  Our room has a view of Kruger and we can see open fields.  All of a sudden, I look over to the right and see a group of elephants walking across the grass in front of our sala. I quickly tell Roger, who is definitely the photographer out of the three of us.  He jumps up and takes out one of his two cameras.  He takes the one with a telephoto lens attachment and starts shooting away.  There is a whole group of elephants, at least there are 10 of them just walking by.  I decide to call Rey and tell him to look out his sala.  Roger and I are just in awe and are quickly reminded that we are in South Africa.  After the excitement and the elephants have walked away out of view, I decide it is time to shower and get a cat nap before dinner.  As I am in the tub, which is nice and long where I can fit and relax I see the elephants walk back towards us.  I take a deep breath and can't believe I'm in a tub as elephants are walking by!!! After my bath, I am totally relaxed and I was out by the time my head hit the pillow.  Roger to blog his experiences.  I snored away.  After a good snooze, I wake up in time for dinner.  At the reception area, James had told us about the sort of strict schedule.  We are to meet at 8 pm at the bar for drinks and then proceed to dinner.  We walk to the bar and order some drinks, which are included unless you would like the high end brandy or whiskey.  After being introduced to more staff members and seeing other people who are also staying, we are herded to the dinner area.  There is another group on a safari.  It is a group from Brazil, who are Japanese.  There are a big group of about 12.  As we are shown to our table, we are told that we are to have dinner with out guide, JV and a couple from Ireland, who just went on the night safari.  

We are told that dinner is going to be a BBQ buffet ( you know that I got excited about that).  The table is set up really nicely.  They have white tablecloths and are lit by candlelit lanterns.  We meet the Irish couple, Moira and Larry, who we will be doing the rest of our meals and safaris with.  As we wait for dinner, we discuss US politics, which I really don't know much about.  Rey and Roger are able to keep the conversation going.  JV, our tour guide advises us to go get our salad and soup.  The spread is awesome.  The salad choices are pretty basic.  The main dishes were venison and springbuck stew, lamb, beef fillet, and chicken.  The desserts were also amazing.  As we ate, they would be constantly refilling our wine and still water glasses.  As the wine kept getting poured, everyone seemed to be more relaxed and the conversation became more personal.  We discussed our careers and what we did.  Roger decided to show his true inner self.  At one of the dinner pictures, as we were posing, I hear this deep roar.  I look back and it is Roger's stomach!!!! What!!! We were in the middle of dinner.  He must have been really hungry.  You can imagine the uncontrollable laughter after that.  As dinner continued and wine was still being poured Moira finally asked which one was my husband, Rey or Roger?  I told her neither and gave her the Cliff's note version of my new life (new and improved by the way: >).  She quickly became sympathetic, supportive and confident that I will find someone someday, especially since I am gorgeous (I should start drinking wine more often).   Then, our guide, JV discusses the agenda for the next morning.  He said that he would give us a wake up call at 4:30 am.  At 5:00 meet at the bar for coffee or tea and hopefully by 5:15 be on the road for our morning safari.  What?!?!? 4:30 am??? actually, I  am usually up by then, but at the moment my time is all screwed up.  Anyways, the schedule continues.  After the morning safari, we are to head back around 9 am and have breakfast.  Then, if we wanted, we can go on a walk with a guide from 10:30 - 1 pm.  At 1 pm, lunch will be served.  Then, an evening safari at 3:30 pm.  Then, dinner will be served at 8:30, but evening drinks will be at the bar  by 8:00 pm.  When we first arrived, Jerry had mentioned that at Jock they have a strict schedule, which is to ensure that we will get the most of everything.  So, we say our goodnights and head off to bed to get ready for our early morning adventure.  I do remind Roger that I snore and to not call for backup in the middle of the night. 

Day 2 - December 02, 2008

We head to our departing gate and try to get situated.  As Rey is using the WC (water closet ~ educated by Rey), I was given a brochure for the SPA that they have in the airport!!! BINGO! I was stoked.  How awesome to get a french pedicure in Paris??? I couldn't wait to tell Rey the news.  We had joked earlier that day through chatting on Facebook.  We actually discussed leaving the airport and finding a salon.  I didn't realize it would be that cold.  But, at the same time, I figured we would mainly be in a taxi and a salon and not needing to be in the cold for very long.  In hind sight, there is no way I would have been able to handle the cold.  I could have busted out the Japanese motif and worn socks with my flip-flops, but I definitely would have been stopped.  Speaking of flip-flops, I will have to tell you later the story that goes with those.  Anyways, Rey returns and I tell him about my exciting discovery of the SPA.  We decided that I will get a french pedicure and he will get a manicure and pedicure.  It is a bit pricey, but hey, we are in Paris for Pete's sake.  So, we continue our journey and there we meet Edward and Harry.  Edward worked on Rey and Harry worked on me.  The SPA was very nice and luxurious.  Our chairs had leg and back massagers.  I was pretty embarrassed by my feet, it had been a good 3 weeks since my last pedicure.  Harry worked on my feet for at least an hour and a half.  He was a perfectionist/artist.  Rey and I were able to sit facing each other, where I was able to give him glances every now and then.  I did start to laugh when Harry placed the mask on and busted out a machine to remove my calluses.   I looked over at Rey who was making fun of the smoke debris coming off my feet and into the air.  Rey started to make jack hammer motions.  I told you, my feet were bad and in major need of a pedicure.  Rey's esthetician, Edward, was a tad on the odd side.  He had a terrible habit of staring.  Once you caught him in a stare, you would think he would look away or look down, but no, he just stared.  Then, once you acknowledged the stare, you would think he would smile or just acknowledge you, but no, he just stared.  He did this to Rey and I.  I thought it was my magic lashes (nickname that Rey has given my lashes) at first, but no he just stared.  Either way, Rey and I were able to put the staring past us and we ended up befriending Edward.  We actually ate lunch with him, while he was on his lunch break.  It turns out he is very nice and even though we befriended him, the staring continued.  Anyways, Rey got his email and we said we would befriend him on Facebook.

Oh!!! I forgot to mentioned that during our pedicures, I met Roger the 3rd musketeer on our journey.  Roger is really good friends with Rey from the San Jose area, Milipitas to be exact.  He actually arrived in Paris at 6 am that morning and ventured out into the city. He said it really was cold and he was glad he had brought several layers with him.  He looked at my flip-flops and told me that I would have been miserable.  Roger is very sweet and easy going.  He had good energy and was excited to finally meet the person who I would be traveling with for the next couple of weeks.  It is weird to have been thinking about this trip for months and then it was actually happening. (notice that I only said thinking ~ Roger and Rey, thank goodness, did all the planning and scheduling~ if I had to do it, we would still be in LA : >)    At this time, we still had several hours to kill in the airport before we boarded our flight to South Africa.  In the airport, they had little internet stations, which you could purchase internet time.  I purchased an hour checked my email and my Facebook account.  It was weird to see my last log in and how it said I was packing for Africa.    I was also able to chat with Alger, my cousin.  The only weird thing about the internet station was the keyboard.  The keyboard letters were not in the same order as our keyboard.  It also had several more symbol keys.  I guess you need that when you are typing in french.  It did take me a bit longer to type, but I was able to adapt pretty quickly.  Rey and Roger were able to update their blog.  

Eventually, it was finally time to start walking to our gate.  Yeah!!! We are heading to South Africa.  As we are lining up to board the plane, this is where I notice the stare at my flip-flops.  Usually people would start at my face and then work their way down to my feet, where the gaze stayed for several seconds.  At first, I thought that person had a foot fettish and loved my magnificent french manicure.  But, I don't think 7 people (count continues once we land in South Africa) could have a foot fettish.  Then, I thought that I was just tired and imagining it.  Then, Rey picked up on the glances and commented on it.  Well, all I can say is at least I had a nice french manicure.  

On the flight from Paris to Johanessburg, I sat next to Rey, who had a window seat.  Roger was two rows behind us in a window seat.  I must tell you that Air France had pretty cramped seats.  I remember when I flew to the Philippines that I was able to lean over my table and sleep.  On Air France, I didn't have room to do this.  At least, I could lean on Rey, but he had mentioned that I should move and find a seat by the aisle, since we did have another ten and a half hours flight.  I didn't act quickly enough and lost my opportunity.  The man on my right was fairly large and didn't seem to be the type that would be okay if a complete stranger in flip-flops leaned on him as she slept.  I am notorious for sleeping while seating, so I was able to manage.  I ended up watching Wall-E and  Ghost Town, which were both good.  I didn't fall asleep in either one of them.  I also ventured into the game choice and played Solitaire, where I would fall asleep from time to time.  Rey mentioned that I was doing the bob where I would drop my head down and my hair would go flying.  He also said I didn't wake up and would just pop back up and bob every now and then.  During our flight I noticed that my neighbor on my right had been ordering scotch on the rocks pretty frequently.  I don't know about you, but when I drink (rarely that i do ; >)  I start to sweat.  Well, so did my neighbor.  So, just imagine after sweating and being in an air tight cabin with really no air flow except for the recycled air being cycled through the cabin, odors start to permeate.  Along with the odors, sounds of deep throat snoring which penetrated through my earphones (i don't know why, but this kind of sounds like a porno or a naughty novel) kept me clearly leaning towards Rey the rest of the flight.  I was able to take my cat naps here and there, but finally we arrived in Johanessburg.  

Day 1 - December 1, 2008

The adventure begins.  I drop off the kids at Moni's, where out of no where the waterworks begin!!! I was full on bawling on the way to the airport.  Thankfully, Tammy, who dropped me off, said it was just nerves and stress.  As we drive to the airport, I am receiving texts from Rey, who is already checked in and waiting for me at the gate.  Yikes!!! I was still on the 405.  Luckily, no traffic and Tammy drops me off at 4:30ish at the Air France terminal, which was perfect timing, since my flight is at 6:35 pm.   I quickly go through the gate and security and see Rey.  We decide to get a drink and something to eat, since our flight will be about 10 1/2 hours.  I had to make my phone call to Ben, which only lasted 20 or so minutes.  Anyways, we go off and find a nice little airport bar that serves food.  I believe it is called Roadhouse.  I order a strawberry daquiri and a pork pulled sandwich and Rey orders a dirty martini and a turkey panini.   When we finally received our food, we here a Air France gate attendant shouting something.  She walks towards the restaurant and says anyone here for Paris.  I jump from my seat and tell her yes, we are!!  She says we have been waiting for you.  You are the last passengers to board.  I look at Rey and say, we need to go, it's our flight.  I look at the attendant and ask if I can bring my food.  She says yes.  She walks us quickly to our gate and holds my plate as I dig frantically for my boarding pass and passport.  Everyone at the gate seems perturbed.  I offer everyone a french fry, but I had no takers.  The gate attendant continues to walk down the ramp with my food as I gather my stuff.  As I walk by, I am very apologetic to the staff I encounter.  As I am about to board the plane, the gate attendant hands me back my plate and I am looking for Rey who is not directly behind me.  I am thinking at this point he wanted space between us and did not want anyone to know that we were traveling together.  I am greeted by the the airline crew now, which I of course offer my fries, again no takers.  As I walk to my seat, I am apologizing and receiving some annoyed looks.  But, what could I do, I couldn't leave my pulled pork sandwich behind!!!        

At last, I am sitting in my cramped coach aisle seat with my plate of food in front of me.  Rey finally catches up and is seating across the aisle from me.  I of course speak to him, which now verifies that we are traveling together.  He tells me that I may have to eat all my food before we take off.  I look at the gigantic sandwich and fries and start on the feat in front of me.  I was defeated before halfway finishing my sandwich.  I was able to demolish most of the fries, which of course I offered to my neighbors, yet again no takers.  It turns out that I didn't have to finish my food before take off.  Yet, it didn't matter, I couldn't have finished it.   It also turns out that we were not the last ones to board the plane.  Anyways, after that whole chaotic, anxious, and stressful event, I sigh and realize that I am now going to be sitting here for the next 10 hours!!! UGH!!!  Luckily, Air France had entertainment.  Each seat had their own monitor, which had several choices of what to do.  They had cinemas/movies, games, music, TV/shows, geo status, news, international, and other choices that I don't remember.  I decided to start with a movie.  I chose Tropic Thunder, which seemed funny.  Unfortunately, I still don't know if it was funny because i kept falling asleep and waking up throughout the movie.  Oh! Well, it will probably be a choice for on the way back and I can watch it again then.  I was able to doze off here and there.  We were also given two meals, which were very good, for airplane food.  Eventually, we made it to Paris at 2:00, french time.  We now had a 9 hour wait!!!  What to do? Well, of course, you are thinking we should go out and see Paris.  the only problem was that it was 2 degrees Celsius.  Being the southern Californian that I am, I was wearing thin capris sweats, a thin long sleeve, and my Rainbows: > Definitely not the appropriate attire for Paris in the winter.  So, we venture out and find out where our next flight will be and check out the airport, our temporary home for the next 9 hours.