Johannesburg : It's time for Afrika!

Ep.33

“Actually, in the wild, we'd be the only person that we wouldn't recognize, if you think about it.”- Diana Wynne Jones.

JNB – Johannesburg, South Afrika.

1^st-3^rd February 2012.

Introducing my new friend : Giffy!

It’s time for wildlife. After the torturous winter everywhere, it is the time for the sun and pack all the summer dresses (well, actually just some tanks and shorts) as I will go to Johannesburg, South Afrika! *singing the jingle for world cup 2010*. This time I will fly with another Indonesian crew from the other induction of the same batch, Irsa. And when I know that Emil would be arrived just a day after us, better! As soon as I knew it, I had a good feeling already regarding this flight.

Cheetah and exotic money!

the Safari Team

It’s the only flight to Afrika that CX has, 13 hour flight, midnight departure, which made us arrived at the South Afrika at around 7 am. Smooth flight, great set of crews, as we do joked a lot and we did silly things during the flight together. It was a memorable too. We realized that almost the whole set of crew came with different nationalities. The crew consists of 17 persons with Indonesian, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Taiwanese, and Japanese in it. The great thing from it? The main language would be English. As soon as we arrived at the Hotel in the city center of Joburg, the lady gave us a quick briefing regarding the hotel and the surrounding, what are we entitled of (that must be tiring if she has to brief every single set of crew everyday), and finally she gave us our password for our complimentary wi-fi connection. Irsa and I went directly to the concierge to see if we could join the safari tour right away. The fact is, we could (there were two departure per day, at 9 am and 1 pm), but considering that Emil would come the next day, (and I already promised her that we would go together) so we list our name for the next day 9 am departure (including Emil’s name). Ah! South African money were unique, it doesn't have any hero or president or queen printed on it, instead, animals were on it!

black mushroom with cheese

me and magnum

My room was not so far from Irsa’s, just a few doors away. She told me that she brought foot massage salt and asked me if I want to join her do a little girly time for our feet. I came to her room as soon as I changed my uniform. We soaked and massaged our feet in the bathtub while chatted about all the things and shared our stories. We round up our ‘feet treatment’ time by agreeing on a little walk to the nearest mall (which is connected to our hotel). I went to my room, get ready and off we go to the mall, Nelson Mandela Square.

me and the cubs

The most famous item of Joburg is their Bio-Oil, this oil believed to be able to refine stretched mark, burns, and other skin problem. Even my Indonesian senior asked me to buy 2 bottles for her. We went to the pharmacy to get the Bio-Oil and we were happy enough that after comparing the prices from 3 different pharmacies, we bought the best deal of it (girls!). We strolled around the mall, stopped from one shop to another. I found it rather not my type of clothing, in fact the size were too big and the colors were to striking (its not like I would go on a cabaret or something). But we do find something interesting in one of the shop. It was actually a sex shop + gift shop merged into one. The items that were provoking me so much were the aprons. It was so funny that I took pictures (discreetly) with it, and it cost ZAR 170 (1 ZAR = more or less 1 HKD). As I see no point of buying it, I left it in peace.

Mr. Nelson Mandela

We then walk around like scrapping the entire mall floor until we reached the open-air piazza inside the mall. There was a very big statue of Nelson Mandela in the middle of the piazza. We took lots of picture and searching which restaurant should we pick for dinner. Actually, when we arrived at Joburg the whole set of crew already agreed that those who were interested to have dinner together should come to the lobby at 6^th floor at 7 pm, anyone come later than that would be left behind. So, Irsa and I were just agreed to have a little teatime (considering it was already 2 pm). Well it was not teatime actually, it was more to snack time. We bought ourselves chips and ice cream (Magnum death by chocolate and white almond + lays biltong flavor for ZAR 55).

Hello Nature!

We found a book sales on the corner of the mall, searching for good book and finished empty handed. So we walked back to the piazza and how were we spent the time until 7 pm? We went into a café called PAPAS, and ordered 2 cappuccinos and a black mushroom with cheese (we shared the mushroom) for ZAR 146. We chatted again, discussed many many things about the job and so on and so on until we finally left the place at around 5.30 pm. We went back to our room, prepared ourselves and got back in the lobby at 6.45 pm. Some of the crew were waiting already, and as soon as we reached the number of 7 crews and no sign of others coming, we decide to go for dinner.

Dinner team at TRUMPS

The restaurant was called TRUMPS Grill and it was located in the heart of Nelson Mandela Square. One of the seniors said that the steak from Joburg is the most famous and best deal for the prices, and TRUMPS is where she suggested us to go. I (once again) shared the Fish and Chips with Irsa (ZAR 90) and nice enough, the waitress said that due we were airline crew, they provide free wine (red or white) for us. NICE! They provided us 2 bottles of red wine to accompany our meal. It was a fabulous dinner! The seniors even shared some flying tips during the dinner and joked between the food. We even shared some food together. My first night in Johannesburg was more that perfect than I could ever imagine.

silly pose silly pose.

The next day started when I checked my message from Emil. She said that she has arrived at the hotel (8.30 am due to flight delayed) and I asked her to get ready for the safari tour ASAP. She got less than 1 hour after she checked in and listen to the lady’s briefing to get ready. Apparently, she was just changed her uniform and dismantled her bun. Her make-up? still on company standard. Haha! We paid the tour fee (ZAR 490 per person) and the guy said that there were another 4 person that gonna join us for the trip. It was actually our friends (Irsa’s and my crews). Perfect! We introduced Emil to the, and as we work for the same company, it would be very easy to get along. We laugh and teased at each other along the way to the safari. Ah! We went to the Lion Park. 40 minutes later, we arrived at the Lion Park.

Lion Park!

The Lion Park is neither a game reserve nor a zoo. It has been split into two areas – one area for the herbivores such as zebra, giraffe, and various plains antelope and other grass-eating animals, and the other area for the carnivores. The herbivores roam freely around the area and visitors are able to view the animals at close proximity at any time. Barriers and fences to prevent the different prides from attacking one another protect the carnivore camps, which currently house three prides of lions and a clan of hyena. By nature, lions are protective of their territory and can become fierce and aggressive if other lions or prides enter their domain. The camps are therefore divided by two fences – each about three metres high and a few metres apart – and they conform to Gauteng Nature Conservation specifications. The unique lavatory sign greeted us stated “LIONS” and “LIONESSES”. 

which one are you?

We started the safari right away. The guide drove us from one area to another, where many animals could be seen. Black steer, hyena, wild dogs, llamas, zebra, ostrich, giraffes, and many other exotic wild animals. He even taught us how to differentiate the male to the female (that’s important). He reminded us not to open window to wide, while he did the contrary by open it wayyyy toooo wideeee……We continue the safari by entering the real safari. I don’t know when did I become so interested in cheetah. It was slim, run fast and the line between those eyes were just perfect in my eyes. My bf always said that he never know why my knowledge about animal is just broad enough that I can tell mostly type of the animals when we went to the zoo. Guess it was because of Animal Planet? Anyway, the guide instructed us not to open the window more than our camera lens wide as we enter the lion area. There were only 5-6 lions in a pack, 1 lion and 4 lionesses or more, and then we could see the young lions as well. We move on and another pack of lion appeared, but this one, the lion is the white lion, it’s mane was slightly lighter in color as well as his fur. Next the cheetah are, unfortunately they were not in the mood of posing. They were just sitting there and keep their head up. I was still amazed though. 

Hakuna Matata!

Moving on to the other wild animal, and soon we could got off from the car. Before we went to the lion cubs area, where we could take picture and make direct contact with the cubs itself, we treat ourselves another good deal of ice creams and jammed the souvenir shops. And then we queued behind a foreigner group, and while we were waiting we’re just took more and more pictures, stupid one if I may say. 8 people per session and only 10 minutes. So, as soon as we entered the cage, we took a lot of pictures, took as many as we can and sort it later. The man from the park also took a picture of us and if we like his shot, we could print it and buy it for ZAR 30. Finished with the cub we spotted a small cage of hyena (so ugly that I don’t want to take any picture with it) and also a small cage of (I don’t know what it calls) the animals like in Hakuna Matata. Aw! Now I remember Lion King movie.

Giffy and Me

We moved forward to the giraffe area, where we were entitled of giraffe food so that we could feed it directly from out bare hands. I was so excited to make direct contact with the giraffe, that I took like 30-50 pictures and still buy the one that the man from the park took for me (well it was a good shot, even though I knew that I should go on a diet right afterward). Feeding a giraffe was new for me. The sensation when its tongue licked your hands was a little bit tickling. Finished with the giraffe, I gave the other chance to do the same feeding session. I spotted an ostrich nearby and I automatically stretch my hands to it, to my surprise, it came and has a quick bite of my hand. Don’t worry! I’m not injured; I guess it was just attracted by the scent of the giraffe food that lingered on my hands. Ha-ha! That was fun! That was the end of the safari tour. The driver drove us back to the hotel and on he way, the 7 of us agreed to have dinner together that night at 7.30 pm. 

Into the Wild

We love Giffy

Emil, Irsa and I were hungry and craving for more walk, so we went to Nelson Mandela Square again. This time we decided to have a big lunch in a restaurant called Ocean Basket. You could guess from its name, it main dish was seafood. I admit now that I loved all foods and fish dishes in tartar sauce will make my day. Yes! I ended up ordering the fish and chips for ZAR 75. And Emil ordered the prawns and Irsa went with the sushi. We strolled out from the mall to the road outside the building. Nothing much in the area, just few offices buildings and some hawkers with traditional food, but we’re full already. Too bad! We went back to our own room, but Emil came to mine. We chatted all the way that we didn’t took any nap. It was coincidence that Emil’s sister was my basketball teammate during my high school time and Emil knew some of the people I knew. It seems that we came from the same circle of people. 

@ Wangthai Restaurant.

At 7.30, we met the other 3 (one was missing in action) at the 6^th floor lobby and we started to discussed where we gonna eat. Irsa and I suggested to try the Thai restaurant called WangThai in the Square (now we can’t live without Nelson Mandela Square). The time we entered the restaurant, the atmosphere shocked us. It was such a high-end decoration with dim candlelight and seems so pricy. We hesitated a bit, and as we sat to our table, opened the menu, looked on the price, and an exhale of relieve came from us, it was not that pricy and it was a good deal price. I can’t remember well what did I ordered due to the complexity of the menu name. And as Irsa, Emil and I had a big lunch already; we decided to share 2 portions of food for the three of us. It cost us ZAR 95 per person and that was the last night for us in Johannesburg.

Rub rub rub

The next day, Irsa and I made our way home together with the best crews I have ever flied with. We still share the joy between the rest period inflight. Took some memorable pictures, laugh and joked around. I would say that I never felt that a 13 hours flight was that fast with a solid teamwork of the crews. Johannesburg is one of the most memorable flights for me. It left so many traces and good memory. And the wine, you should buy some if you got the chance. The cheapest Rose wine and other as well, great taste in the same time. Paradise! 

“Experiences teach us more than books.” –Me.