After 12 years, I am back in South Africa. It actually started from last year, when we planned the trip, bought the tickets but forgot to get the visa two days before the departure time. So it didn't work. We have a Chinese saying, you stand up at where you fall. There is No Reason not to try again to visit this beautiful country. So here I am, after 12 years, have my feet in South Africa, with a slightly rough start.
My first experience of Joburg airport was quite funny.12 years ago, I landed around 5:30 in the early morning and the passport control officers hadn't arrived. Some guy had just waved us through without checking and stamping the passport. This time it was much more organized. But it's also very obvious that South Africa has become a very popular tourist designation, judging by the que at the passport control.
We had a 1.5 hours connecting time to our next flight to Cape Town. The que was quite long but didn't realy bother us. We thought there are plenty flights connecting Joburg to Cape Town. If we miss our flight, we would get rebooked to the next flight. At least that's what we had been told by the ground staff at South Africa Airway checking counter in Munich. In the meantime, we couldn't help but noticing that some people just tried to squeeze through the que.
Finally we got to the very front of the que and a girl came over to approach the security who was matching the crowd and counters, saying that she has a connecting flight. At first, he told the girl that everyone has a connecting flight and he can't do anything about that. To prove that, he kept pulling out the boarding pass from the hand of the good Taiwanese lady in a package tour to prove his point. But in the end he kind of let the girl and her mother jump the line.
The end of the story is that we were behaving ourselves like good world citizens and missed our flight. The South Africa Airway did rebook us to a flight that's 11 hours later with expensive rebooking fees. Lesson learn for the world trotters coming to Sout Africa. Currently the passport control point when you enter South Africa is Joburg. One has to calculate the queuing time for the custom and re-check luggage. I would say 2.5 hours connecting time is a safe bet.
So we are stuck at the airport waiting our next flight drinking my South African coffee. It's super delicious though. 😂
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