Friday, June 21

In the morning we packed up and got our exit pass from the desk.  We wanted to return the car before 11 to save a day's rental fee, so we skipped breakfast.  My journal says I felt completely over the Comrades, although that means I was no longer sore walking around or sitting in the car.  We got to the airport on time, after filling the gas tank in a questionable neighborhood, but no problems.  We flew to Johannesburg, and called the hotel, after figuring out how to use my international calling card to make a local call (not a good thing to do - MCI nicks you for that!) and asked them to pick us up.  They sent a Mercedes limo, and asked for R400 when we got to the hotel.  I remember being driven through lush neighborhoods where all the houses were like compounds, with tall stone or brick walls, topped by rolls of razor wire.  Gave me the creeps.

The hotel was luxurious.  I don't think I've ever stayed in a hotel this fancy.  There were 3 bellmen all over as as soon as the limo pulled up.  After cleaning up and settling into our room, it was time to meet our friends.  We had agreed to meet at the bar in the hotel lounge.  Tiekie showed up first, then Glen and Lauren, then Alec and Pauline.  Leon joined us later at the restaurant.  We had a couple of beers and they showed us to the restaurant they'd selected, which was right there in the Sandton Square mall.  It was terrific, and I ordered the steak I had wanted since finishing the race.  We had wine, and I noticed my head getting more and more congested.  We had another terrific meal and wonderful conversation.

After dinner we had a nightcap in the lounge and said our goodbyes.  Tiekie said she would pick us up at 5 the next day at the hotel and take us to the airport.  Pauline gave me instructions to get over my cold.  I soaked in a hot bath as hot as I could stand it, until it made me sweat, and finally fell asleep.

Saturday June 22

First thing in the morning I went to the bell stand and asked about a chemist (drug store).  The concierge told me where to go and who to ask for, and even though the store wasn't open yet, they let me in and got me what they recommended.  Then I returned to the room and Tom and I went to the dining room for our included breakfast, which was also 4 star, like everything else at this hotel.  We hung out in the room watching the world cup semi-final and writing cards until our 1:00 checkout, then we left our bags with the concierge and went shopping in the mall.  My journal notes that I was anxious to be home.  Maybe this trip was too many days.

After a couple hours of shopping we'd had all we wanted.  I had my souvenirs, and we again retired to the lounge where we ordered a light lunch.  As we were finishing Tiekie showed up and we had another drink with her.  Then collected our bags and she chauffeured us to the airport.  She came in with us after parking and the place was packed.  I've never seen so many humans in a compressed space.  You couldn't tell which part of the crowd was a line, and which part was people like us looking for a line.  We decided to take a table up along the mezzanine and wait since we had a few hours before our flight.  Tiekie said good-bye after an hour or so, and we waited some more.  Finally it seemed like we could get to our check-in counter and we headed down there.

After an hour or so in line, it seemed odd that no one else had come to the line after us.  We got almost to the counter and then everything seemed to stop.  I thought their computer system had crashed.  Finally the lady called us up and we presented our documents.  After doing some work on her terminal she informed us that the flight was full and there were no seats for us.  Choking back panic, we asked what would happen.  She instructed us to go through the counter to the office and someone would talk to us.

Still hoping to argue our way on board, we went to a tiny office off the hallway where about 8 tickets agents were clustered around a terminal.  After waiting quite a while someone took our tickets and went back to the terminal.  A young woman, Patience Khumalo, eventually explained that there were no seats.  I think there were about 10 people in the same boat.  Apparently in South Africa, seating is first come first served.  In the US we are used to the airlines announcing that the flight is oversold and asking for volunteers to get off for compensation.  That didn't happen in Johannesburg.

Patience took us to another counter where we were given vouchers for a night in the Holiday Inn, 3 meals, and a "flexi-flyer" coupon good for any round trip passage anywhere South African Airways flies, travel must be complete within 356 days of date of issue.  Date of issue was 22 June 2002,  355 days is 13 June 2003.  Unfortunately I only use SAA to go to South Africa, and I only do that once a year to run the Comrades, which is always on June 16.  So unless the end date is waived, the coupon isn't much use.  If the end date is waived, and I can use it for next year's trip, then it saves me about $2000.

In any case, Patience took us to the bus stop and put us on the shuttle for the Holiday Inn, which was at the airport.  She explained that we were confirmed on the flight tomorrow afternoon, and she would be working all day.  She would meet us when we came back to the airport, get our boarding passes, and etc.  So we spent a lovely night at the Holiday Inn.  Well, the food was buffet, so we ate what we wanted.

Sunday Jun e 23

It was an uneventful night, and breakfast was also okay, and then we re-packed our bags and decided to go the the airport, find Patience, get our boarding passes, and try to negotiate an extension on our flight coupons, seats in business class, use of the first class lounge, and anything else we could get away with.

Patience was there and checked our bags and got our boarding passes.  We couldn't get into business class, but we did get the window seats we'd asked for.  We were told that no one at the airport could extend the date on our coupons and that we'd have to take that up with the office.  We were allowed to use the business class lounge.  We walked around outside for a while and I took some photos of the airport expansion underway.  We went to the rental car counters and got a price on a car.  We were thinking of driving to Pretoria, since we had some time, and we could see the architecture there.  I chickened out on that idea, since I was nervous about getting in an accident, or hijacked, or lost, and not getting back to make the flight, and spending another night in Africa, but this time on our own.  Anyway, we walked around for a while, then went through Customs and to the business class lounge.  There, we had a quiet, smoke-free comfortable place to relax.  Food and drink, telephones, and even internet terminals.  Tom read and I got on the internet.  I was able to check my home e-mail and find my results on the Comrades page.  I called Bob and Robin to make sure they'd heard my message from the night before about our delay.  They hadn't, so Robin called Bob at work and let him know we'd be a day late.

Eventually we were called to board, and after a very thorough security check, and receiving messages from patience at the ticket check to enjoy our flight, we got on and flew home.

Here are my photos of the hotel:

And photos from outside the airport: