Southern Africa

What a nightmare place. Not as much polluted as Hanoy. BUT too crowded. I got a taxi at a taxi stand before I exited the airport. He wanted cash. No ATM at airport. He had a 2nd guy take me to a bank. The person there was very lazy. He tapped on the glass to get his attention. I exhanged $50 and it took 10min and lots of paperwork. Gave him the $17 for the taxi. He took my luggage and we went outside where there were 1000+ people. We waved thru and he got a taxi. He paid him and put me in it. He was just the 2nd middle man. The taxi was driving like crazy. Nobody was staying in their lanes on the freeway. We were going 40-50mph then bumper to bumper. My driver was passing on either side or in between 2 cars on a 2 lane freeway. We finally got off the freeway to very crowded streets with big trucks, cars and motorcycle and bicycle tuk tuks and pedestrians. Every time we stopped for traffic or lights there were people knocking on the windows asking for money. When we got to the Intercontinental there was a 10 feet cement fence around it with a wire gate. It opened and the guard checked the car and luggage in the back. At the hotel porch they had armed guards with airport luggage detectors and I had to walk thru a medal detector to get into the hotel. It was an oasis of calm. Wonderful room. The next day I was afraid to walk out by myself so I went to the spa.
Monday morning the taxi picked me up at 5am for the airport. Nobody around. We got there 20 min. Half the time as before. At the airport I watched the super ball on the phone.
The flight was full of migrant workers going to Singapore for work. With pages and pages of documents. I just had my passport
Not going back. Glad it's off my listRead more