Day 1. Fly to Cape Town

 

Flight

We first flew from San Francisco to Washington Dulles (5 hours). At Washington Dulles, we ate a bit, and met our friends from Texas. I caught a bouffalant pokemon right before boarding. We then flew to Cape Town. It was supposed to be a 16 hours but we arrived 1 hour early.

Documents

Before the trip, United Airline app did not allow me to check in Claire. It was because of an outdated rule that required the other parent’s consent and birth certificate for the minor, however, South African government changed it in 2019 and only required a passport. I printed out the updated rules, and also prepared the consent form and a copy of Claire birth certificate.

It turned out that I was completely over prepared. At the San Francisco airport, the UA staff came over to the check-in kiosk, hit the override button several times, and got us checked in. I don’t think she even looked at the texts on the screen. At the Cape Town immigration, the officer just stamped a visa on our passports while having a good conversation with me about how to pronounce the name Hoedspruit. I pronounced it as “whose fruit”, she told me that it should be “who’s bright”.

Cape Town Airport to Hotel

I bought a VodaCom SIM card at the airport with my credit card, it was about $10 for 2G data.

I withdrew rands from ATM. I brought both my Capital One 360 and my Bank of America debit cards. Bank of America charged $18 fees while Capital One 360 did not. My credit card gave the best rates with close to 19 rands per dollar, the airport ATMs gave 18.5 rand per dollar. The hotel also has an ATM which gave only 16 rands per dollar.

Our guide Hank was waiting for us after we got out of the baggage claim area in the airport. He took us to the President Hotel.

Hotel

We will be staying at the President Hotel for four nights. Highly recommended. The room was very nice and we can actually see the ocean from our room. It was a very quiet. The pillows were comfy. Claire and I found that it was really cool that the key cards are made of wood. It is also cool that the toilet is square and does not have a water tank above it.




We had dinner at the hotel restaurants downstairs. Since cocktail only cost about $5, I happily ordered a martini.

We were very tired after the long trip. After dinner, we took a shower and went to sleep.


Location: South Africa

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