Delta flight 200 arrived almost an hour early at JNB, at 4:20pm. Looking out the window after the double ding which signaled our descent had passed below 10,000ft (Is that above sea level, or above ground level? If the latter, does the double ding ever happen when landing in La Paz, Bolivia?) I was surprised at how flat the Gateung province stretching below in every direction. I expected mountains of some type, but the area looked like the midwest.
After a really soft landing (much better than 737 landings), we spent the next ten minutes taxiing to the terminal. The wind was blowing strongly, as evidenced by the long grasses undulating, the bursts of breeze leapfrogging across the undeveloped areas of the airport.
My next worry was immigration. How closely would they look at my profile? Would I be asked my length of visit? Would immigration understand the concept of the mileage run if forced to describe it? Well, it turns out that I had nothing about which to worry. At the very least, I expected to pay for a tourist visa (the country's requirement is that two pages in one's passport are unstamped); however, the immigration official took a cursory look at my passport, stamped it, and allowed me to move on. Having no baggage checked, I and having been waved through customs, I found myself in a large arrivals hall.
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| International Arrivals Hall, JNB |
With me were Christian & Patrice, who were waiting to be picked up by their friend. As they waited, they helped me find an ATM, and also convinced me to try out the Emperor's Casino which was just down the road from the airport, and which offered shuttle service from the airport. My original plan was to take a $40 cab (each way) to the MonteCasino Entertainment Complex. Emperor is basically the same concept, but closer.
After bidding this nice and helpful couple adieu, and made my way to the shuttle area. I ran into the crew of the Delta flight waiting for their transport, and chatted up a couple of the flight attendants. I explained why I had traveled to JNB for a day, and they thought I was nuts.
I was surprised that their layover was only 24 hours, especially since these flights are ultra-long hauls (14+ hours). However, perhaps since the FAs and flight deck crew get rest times (there's a tight spiral staircase leading up to a rest area at the very back of the 777), 24 hours is enough. I believe that Singapore crews get 72 hours (at least that's what I recall a FA telling me after the ultra-long haul SIN>LAX flight).
While waiting for the shuttle, a small group of young and hip South Africans were also waiting. I chatted with one of the guys, and discovered that they're from Cape Town, up to Johannesburg for a hair show. Apparently they were hair stylists. They all encouraged me to hit Cape Town, the jewel on the sea, where orangatans roam and vinyards are more plentiful than in Napa. However, the casino is all I got time for (rather, all that I'm willing to risk, given that I need to try and get seat 30C/G on the way back, requiring me to get to the gate early enough).
Upon arrival, I walked into the Peermont Metcourt, one of several hotels located in the Emperor's Palace complex. The front desk clerk told me that she thought the hotel was fully booked, but upon finding a couple of guests who didn't guarantee their rooms with a credit card, sold me one of them. When I gave her my Alaska Airlines affinity Visa card, she assumed that I worked for the airline and gave me the industry rate of R700, around $100 at a 7:1 exchange rate. Given it was the last room, I expected to pay more. That was a nice surprise.
Heading to the first floor (in the USA, the lobby is the first floor, and our second floor is their first floor), I made my way to room 1201. It wasn't bad. Small, with two twins beds, each individually made, but placed flush to each other. I've seen this before, but usually the twins made a poor man's king bed. The room had a flat screen TV, and the bathroom was located in the same room. The room was more of a studio (a curtain allowed a modicum of privacy if traveling with another).
I took a photo of myself to post on facebook, looking absolutely terrible - the result of traveling 25 hours since my last shower - and my daughter pointed out that she thinks there's a ghost behind me. Indeed, some odd swirls did appear in the photo. Turning around, I was delighted to see a beautiful reproduction of a sketching as a wall mural.
Arriving at the room around 6pm, I didn't end up leaving for the casino until 9pm. First off, this is one occasion where I planned to use my room safe to hold everything of value. After fitting my camera, iPad, computer, money, lenses, phone, etc. I went to lock it - nothing. I called down to the front desk. Long story short, it took an hour for them to realize that it couldn't be fixed. I chanced it, and after hiding things in different parts of the room, I headed to the the casino.
I knew it was somewhere in the large building adjacent to the hotel, but wasn't sure where. After passing through another hotel, a hallway exhibit charting South Africa's path towards freedom for all and the end of apartheid, a conference hall area, I arrived at what was essentially a rip-off of Caesar's Palace Forum shopping area in Vegas. The ceiling was painted as blue sky with puffy clouds, just like Caesar's. However, the centerpieces of this mini-mall was a large statue of Michaelangelo's David dressed as a surfer dude.
Finally, I reached the entrance of the casino. How did I know? Metal detectors. "No guns allowed" said the sign. Of course, my mind wondered how violent things can get in South Africa. Would bandits attack a casino, going after all the money within? Nah. It only took me a few moments to find the poker tables. Seated immediately, I bought into a R10/R20 no-limit game with a stack of R700 to start. The game was Texas Hold'em, naturally.
Lasting a good seven hours at the table, and having hit quad Kings on my last hand of the night (seriously, I was under the gun, ready to pop out of the game just before the big blind hit me), the bonus for the quads brought my total losses (blech, and I had doubled up at one point) came to around R500, or about $70. Not bad for a night's entertainment. As planned, I got back to my room at 4am and spent the next hour winding down before taking an ambien and getting to sleep....
....only to awake to the sound of the phone ringing - my wake-up call set for 10am. Damn, only five hours sleep. I went down to the front desk and asked for a late checkout. I was quoted R100 for the extension to 1pm. I politely asked for a complimentary extension since my safe didn't work, leaving me somewhat anxiety ridden while out of my room (not too anxious...admittedly I played that up a bit) and also because the wired in-room broadband Internet was down at 4am, exactly when I wanted to do a little work while I was winding down for sleep. After several calls to technical support and the front desk, nothing could be done about it until the next day.
The front desk manager agreed to let me check out at 1pm, allowing me to catch up on work. I couldn't know until when I arrived stateside, but upon shutting down my computer and getting offline at 1pm, I would be off the grid for the next 27 hours (no wi-fi at the airport, nothing on the flight, and my phone - even in roam mode - did not pick up any network across which I could at least text my wife).
Upon check-out, I took a quick jaunt to the casino in case a game of poker was ongoing. I would have enjoyed passing a couple of hours playing some cards. My flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 8:20pm, leaving me 7 hours to kill. No action in the casino, so off to the airport I headed.
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