Iguazu Falls

Well, the bus ride from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu was nothing short of spectacular. I was anticipating a greyhound bus-style of a ride with uncomfortable seats and little sleep. I was pleasantly surprised.

The bus we took was a double decker bus, with fist class seats on top, and others down below. I had booked a first class seat, because at only 380 pesos round trip (about $130), I figured why not. I went up into the bus and to my amazement, found seats that back homne would cost a lot more. If you´ve ever had the opportunity to walk through first class on a long flight, or better yet sit in first class on a long flight, you will know the seats I am about to mention. Large. Comfortable. Roomy. They fold all the way back, with a foot rest coming up and locking in place, so you are completely horizintal. To tell the truth it was better than some of the hostel beds I have stayed in. I was also surprised to find that there were meals served on the bus by an attendant, and tv screens to watch movies on. We left at about 7:40 pm, and after a long comfortable drive and excellent sleep, we arrived at about 12:45 pm the next day.
After walking around a bit, I found my hostel and dropped my bags off. Back to the bus terminal and caught the next bus going to the Falls. The temperature had dropped off and it was only sitting at around 7 degrees with the wind howling, which I´m sure made it much colder.

At the falls I walked around and took a train out to Garganta do Diablo, which translates to The Devil´s Throat. The views are nothing less than mesmorizing, with massive amounts of water going over the edge, and large plumes of water vapor rising from the depths below. From the edge of Garganta do Diablo, you can see across to the Brasilian side fo the falls. I would´ve gone over there, but I don´t have a visa for Brasil, and don´t want the hassle of haggling at borders trying to get in.Iguazu has several different levels of falls and is a massive national park. Absolutely stunning to see, it is approximately 3 times larger than Niagra Falls.

Today it is back on the bus, back to Buenos Aires, then on to Santiago de Chile on Sunday.

Argentina

Arrived in Argentina on Sunday, after a 10 hour flight from Cape Town.

I have been spending the past few days just wandering around the city, looking at this and that, and having fun trying to order food in Spanish. I eat a lot of chicken, as pollo is one of the few food associated words I know in Spanish.

Later today, I have an 18 hour bus ride to Iguazu Falls, which is approximately 3 times the size of Niagra Falls. Not looking forward to that.

Kruger National Park Day 4

In the morning at the Lodge, we went for a walk around looking mostly at native plants. No gun necessary this time, as there were no large predators around here, except for the occasional Leopard. Reassuring, hey?

We were told about lots of plants that can be used for other things, some that can be used as an alternative to shampoo, medicines, etc. A pretty subdued walk around as it was our last day and we weren't hunting around for large animals to see, just looking at plants.After breakfast, we set out on the approximate 6-7 hour ride back to Johannesburg, with a few stops along the way, including, like I mentioned, at God's Window, on the top of the Blythe River Canyon.

So, after a while, we made it up to God's Window, and had a look around. Very nice, very scenic, with some of the edges dropping straight off, all the way down. We were looking around and hopping from rock to rock, probably a little close to the edge (hindsight is 20/20, right?), when I bit the dust. I flew off the one boulder, fell about 6 feet and came to a stop on the ground, right next to the edge. It was a looong way down. It scared one lady who saw me go flying more than it did me, she screamed, I just kind of laughed it off. A few scrapes, and a hole punched into my left palm, but nothing major to speak of. Adds some excitement to the trip!

We then got back inside the van and continued on to Johannesburg. A lot of violence erupting here right now, with a lot of fighting going on between refugees from Zimbabwe and local people living in the townships. They had to call in the army to assist the police in quelling the riots. Flying back to Cape town the day following, and on to Argentina on Sunday.

Kruger National Park Day 3

For the third day in the park, we had to make the long drive from our camping site at the northern end of the park all the way down to the Lodge we were staying at for the final night, just at the south end. Again, we had a 5:30 am start, did some looking around, and after breakfast, we set out.On the way there, we spotted two Lionesses hunting Wildebeest, which were mixed in with a large herd of Impala. We watched what went on for about an hour, and a few times I thought we were going to see some action. Twice, an Impala came within about 20 feet of the Lions, but they ignored it both times, more focused on the Wildebeest. Eventually the Impala noticed the Lions, and began to snort and make noise to alert the others, but surprisingly, did not run away. Eventually, it walked away when the herd left, and we also went on our way.We spotted a herd of Water Buffalo, and got some good pictures of that. We were told they are the preferred meal of Lions due to the fact that they are so thick and full of meat. However, they also can kill Lions due to their size and aggression, so it isn't as easy as picking off a Wildebeest. Our guide said it can take up to 3 hours for a group of Lions to take down a Water Buffalo.
We then went over to a large Dam that was built to control the flow of water to Kruger and the surrounding area, called Blythe River Canyon. We took a small boat cruise there, going around on the reservoir, which at the bottom ranges from 700 to 1300 metres, depending on the size of the cliffs surrounding it. Tomorrow we were going to swing around to the top on the way back to Johannesburg. The river cruise highlighted things such as the weeping face of nature, which is a natural formation in the rock that has a small waterfall running down what appears to be the right cheek of the face.
Eventually, we got to our Lodge and had the rest of the afternoon and the evening to sit around and do nothing. Tomorrow would be the final day.

Kruger National Park Day 2

So we set out at 6 am after getting up at 5:30 and drove around looking for the tail end of the night animals, who were just finishing hunting before going to bed.

We caught sight of a male Lion right away, who was walking fairly slow, and once we got close enough, you could see why. When he turned so he walked away and we could see his profile, it was obvious that he had killed something the night before. His large belly was slung so low to the ground, that it almost touched. He was in no hurry to get anywhere, and just sauntered along, seemingly content with how full he was.
As was the case yesterday, there were plenty of Impala and Wildebeest around, usually hanging out together, which our guide said they do as a form of protection to have more eyes out for predators. Sometimes apparently Zebra and Kudu tag along as well.

We came across some Zebra too, as well as Baboons, Giraffe and Elephant. We just spent the day driving around.
When the afternoon rolled around, we went on a walk with two Rangers from the park, who take you out for about 2 hours just before the sun sets. Each one had a .458 rifle, so there wasn't too much to worry about. We wandered around, spotting smaller animals, before coming across a large Elephant, followed by a younger male. Luckily, we were down wind from them, so they didn't really realize we were there, even though we were only about 70 feet away. They stopped and ate for a bit before moving on.

Finally we spotted a Hippo on the other side of a creek, and once we got within about 40-50 feet of it, it up and bolted through the bush, taking a few trees with it on the way. Hippos kill more people in Africa each year than any other animal, as people sometimes happen upon them in the bush when they are going from watering hole to watering hole. I was surprised at the sheer size of it, and how quickly it could move and accelerate. We were told they can reach up to 4000 pounds.

After that we came upon some remains of a Cheetah, but didn't manage to find anything else. Returning to camp, we had another excellent meal, and spent the rest of the night around the fire, looking at the Hyenas 10 feet away, on the other side of the fence.

Kruger National Park Day 1

So Sunday morning at 5 am, I set out for Kruger National Park. We hit the road for the long drive, about 6 1/2 hours from J'Burg to there and arrived in the afternoon.

We met our guide, Martin, who took us into the park and dropped off people here and there, depending where we were staying. Turns out there were only 3 people in my group, myself and an American brother and sister from Michigan. We started spotting animals right away, starting with the Giraffe. What they want everyone to see is the "Big 5" that they taut as being the ones to see. Elephant, Lion, Jaguar, Water Buffalo and Rhinoceros. After the Giraffe, we ran into Elephants, including a huge older male with both it's tusks still intact. They were only about 20 feet off the side of the vehicle, which was nothing more than a pickup truck with 9 seats in the back. It was pretty interesting to see Elephants in the wild as opposed to a Zoo. There were 3 or 4 males there, and after eating a bit, they crossed the road in front of us. After the older male crossed, a younger one did behind him, and stopped and looked at us for a bit. He charged the vehicle a bit, whipping his trunk around and raising it in the air, and flapping and flaring his ears about, but stopped after about 4 steps before continuing on.We moved on and spotted Rhino from a distance, about 70 meters, close to a watering hole. It's size was enormous, and it seemed very light on it's feet as it trotted along. Unfortunately, it was as close as we' d get to seeing a Rhino.

Continuing on to the camp, we spotted Hippo in the water, with only their eyes and ears protruding, and also saw herds of Impala, as well as Kudu, Wildebeest, Vultures, Eagles, Monkeys, Baboons, Hyena and Water Buffalo from afar.At camp, we were in tents, and after dropping our gear, we set out for more touring around. This time we managed to find Giraffe that were really close, only about 20 feet outside of the vehicle. After a few hours, we returned to camp for supper.

After supper, we went out on a night drive to see what we could find, as most animals are somewhat nocturnal, preferring to hunt at night when it's not as hot, and sleep all day. The last 2 animals we had to see to complete the Big 5 were the Lion, which we were almost certain we'd see, and the Jaguar, which is fairly elusive. Our guide stated he had only seen Jaguar about 3 times in the past year he had been working as a guide, so we had our work cut out for us if we were going to find one. That and we needed a lot of luck.

Right off the hop, we ran into a male and female Lion on the road, about 5 minutes out. It is mating season here, so the male Lion was entranced with the female, following her around. She didn't seem to like the vehicle much, but the male didn't mind at all, he was focused on her. The Lions were literally right outside the truck, and at more than one instance, I could've reached out and touched the male. He looked up at us a few times, but didn't really care we were there. The size of these cats is amazing. I have seen them in zoos before, but to look into the face of a Lion from 5 feet without an inch of plexiglass between you is an unforgettable experience. We followed them for about 10 minutes, as they slowly sauntered up the road. They would stop and sit, the get up and walk a bit, and kept going like this before disappearing into the long grass.

As we continued on, we came across Elephant, more Impala (which are everywhere), a large Honeybadger, which has a black body and white tail, and is quite long and apparently very aggressive. They are known to go after Elephants and all kinds of large game to scare them off when they are in the way of what the Honeybadger wants.
Finally, when I was working the spotlight, I came across a pair of eyes glowing in the bush. We thought it was a Lion at first, but it came out right beside the vehicle, and turned out to be a male Jaguar. It didn't stick around long, walking up the side of the truck and across the front before heading into the golden grass, vanishing right before your eyes. So, after seeing that, it completed us seeing all Big 5 animals in the first day, as well as several others. We were very lucky. Finally the night tour finished, and we went to bed, trying to get a bit of sleep before the 5:30 am wake up call.

Safari

I take a flight today from Cape Town to Johannesburg to go on Safari in Kruger National Park for 4 days, starting on Sunday. Should be good!

Robben Island

Took the boat out to Robben Island today, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner by the Apartheid government of South Africa. He was sent to the island in 1964, and released in 1990. His prisoner number, 466/64, represents the fact that he was the 466th prisoner sent to the island in 1964. Robben Island closed as a prison in 1996, was opened as a museum in 1997, and was declared a UN world heritage site in 1999.

The tour started with the 1/2 hour boat ride out to the island in the choppy waters. Once there, they load everyone on buses, and do a small driving tour around the island, visiting places like the Limestone quarry, and various other buildings that made up the prison. Unfortunately, you are not allowed off the bus to look around by yourself. They go over the history of the island, as it has gone from prison to military base and back to prison again. They have sent Lepers and the Mentally Insane here, and use it now as a museum and host weddings in the small churches, and government and corporate events in the halls it has. Parts of the island were briefly used as a B&B, but that was closed down after a few 'incidents', which weren't elaborated on.

After the bus tour, you are taken inside the prison where most of the political prisoners were held. The tour from that point is operated by a former political prisoner, who gives you a view on what it was like there and how life in prison was. You get to stop by all the cells, including Mandela's, and take a few photos. then it's back on the boat and back to shore.

I wish I had more to write about this place, but there isn't really more to offer. I found the tour surprisingly short and somewhat uninformative, with a lot of repetition on dates and facts, but not a lot of insight as to what took place, different stories and personal accounts of what went on. I left felling a bit ripped off, thinking there would have been more. Still, for the low cost of the tour, it is still worth the time it took.

Photos to follow....

Table Mountain

Went up to Table Mountain today. Table Mountain is the large flat mountain that lies to the south of Cape Town, and overlooks the downtown and surrounding area, called the City Bowl. It is over 1000 meters high, and obviously gets it's name from it's large flat table top. You can take a cable car up, or choose to hike it, but as fog rolls in quite frequently and tends to stick around, hikers tend to get trapped when the 300+ routes tend to disappear, so most people take the cable car. That and the fact that people have died from time to time trying to hike up to the top. The clouds seemingly always surrounding Table Mountain are known as 'The Tablecloth'.

There were several hundred people in line when I first showed up, accompanied by some people from the hostel. The cable car had broken down the day before, so there were a lot of people returning from yesterday, combined with the fact that the weather here is so fickle, this was the first day in about a week that Table Mountain had been visible.We got our tickets and stood in line, only to find out they were allowing people from yesterday that had tickets to jump the line and head straight up. That, as well as that the cable car was now running much slower as it was not fully fixed yet, and the high winds, made everything go much, much slower. Much. We waited in line for about an hour and a half before finally getting on the car, and taking the 6 minute ride to the top.

It was very windy at the top, and has spectacular views of both Cape Town, and the southern cape, stretching all the way to the most southern point in Africa. You could see all the way down. There were also great views of Lion Rock, and the Ocean in any direction you looked.The edges in most places were secured by railings, but if you got in the right spot, you could look all the way down...... 1000+ meters is a long way to drop. Great spot to go have a look at the layout of the city, if you can manage to get there on a day where there is no clouds.

Rough Seas and Big Sharks....

Set out for doing some cage diving with the Great Whites today. The shuttle showed up 35 minutes late, and I started to get that feeling of dread again. Last time my shuttle was late, there was a bomb scare on my plane, it was delayed for 20+ hours, and I had to spend the night in a hotel. As today I was dealing with sharks, I didn't really want bad things to be happening off the get go.

It was about a 2 hour drive to where we were going, a small town close to Dyer Island, which has Geyser Rock beside it, forming a channel in between. This channel is known as 'Shark Alley' due to the fact it has the densest population of Great White Sharks known in the world. That and the fact that Dyer Island is teeming with seals. The Great Whites come there to mainly pick off the pups that haven't learned about sharks yet.
We set out into huge swell in the ocean, about 20-30 foot, and the boat was thrashing all over the place. It was the first time they had been out in three days due to the terrible weather and I could see why. The tour company had taken over for another and was running one boat for 2 companies, as the previous month, the one company's boat had flipped due to a rogue wave that the captain didn't see in time, and couldn't turn into it fast enough. Not what you'd want in shark infested waters!

It took about 25 minutes to get out to where we wanted to be, right at the mouth of the channel, on the south side. It wasn't long before there were people throwing up everywhere. I quite enjoyed the show, as did most people that weren't bracing themselves on the railing, bent forward, giving their morning offerings to the Ocean.

I was one of the first ones into the cage on the side of the boat, after sliding into a thick 7 mm wetsuit. They give you a mask and a weight belt, and you just have to throw yourself down in the cage to get underwater, due to the heavy buoyancy of the wetsuit. They also have a seal decoy, which is simply a piece of wood cut out in the shape of a seal, and they toss in some fish on a rope as well, all the while chumming out the back of the boat with fish oils to attract the sharks. Recipe for success.

It wasn't long before the sharks came around. There were 5 of us thrashing about in the cage due to the waves, and the real danger seemed more from flying elbows than from the sharks outside. I was in the water for about 40 minutes, and had 2-3 large sharks come by. None came as close as I had hoped, staying about 10 feet out. One guy to my left decided to get sick inside the cage, and for a little while, we had the pleasure of floating around in his breakfast, but it soon washed away. After a while, we were asked to get out of the cage for another group, and I reluctantly left. However, due to the swaying and thrashing in the cage, I wasn't feeling very good at that point either.

I got out, dried off, and went to change. All was okay, until I decided to hop down into the little washroom to throw on some pants. That took a while, getting tossed around inside, and I found out quickly that small spaces and nausea from sea sickness don't go well.

I promptly got sick all over the side of the boat.

Most of it went in the Ocean, a little on the deck, but I wasn't too concerned.

After that, I must say, I was feeling tip-top, so I went back to looking at the sharks and taking pictures. Many, many more came around, and some were absolutely huge. One male was very aggressive on both the bait and the decoy, actually coming out of the water a bit. At one point, he did a small leap, and crashed into the side of the cage, much to the delight of the people inside. The shark flipped upside down, and they pushed it away with a stick, but it continued to hang around trying to get the bait. The second group and the third group definitely got the best viewings out of all of us.

After all that, there was a little more throwing up by a few, but we made our way back into Port. The swell had dropped, so it wasn't as rough, and before long we were on dry land again. Great time!

New Photos

New Photos have been added, all the way back to "The one that got away..."

Township Tour

I set off on a tour of Cape Town's townships today. It was slated for the entire afternoon, and luckily, there were only a few people on the tour. The only thing I really knew about the townships around Cape Town were that they were similar to the Barrios of Rio, and supposedly not a place to be venturing out into by yourself.

The tour started out going through one particular village, which is where the tour guide was originally from. He ran through the history, the effects of Apartheid, and what to expect to see. First off we started at a community centre, then moving on to 'dorms', a house, and on to the small shacks that people tend to construct and live in. At first I thought it was going to be another one of those "typical ______ homes" tours, just insert whatever country you're in at the time in the blank. If you've been to Mexico or Dominican Republic or Fiji, you know what I mean, having done the village tours. Turns out it was pretty good, if you had questions, you could talk to people, look around, and other than having to pass by the standard arts and crafts 'for sale' table when you left, it was okay. The dorms in the past had up to 16 families living in one dorm, with only 16 beds in three rooms, and one small sitting area. The size wouldn't have been as large as most people's garages. However, they have changed that, not packing so many people into so many places. The houses were typically what people moved into after spending time in the dorms and applying for a house. Not much bigger, but more livable. Finally, the shacks, most of which had no electricity, were also horribly cramped and unstable. The only way people managed to get electricity was to climb the pole and run a wire down. All the land and buildings except the shacks were owned by the municipality, who charged small amounts of rent to live there. Shacks are what they want to get rid of, getting people into buildings, but shacks are where most people live, and they are everywhere. Cape Town's township population is estimated to be in the millions.

Next we went and tried some locally brewed beer, which was made from dried corn and some form of milk. They said the alcohol percentage was somewhere in the 2 1/2 to 3 % range, but can get as high as 90% depending on the fermentation and brewing process. The government outlawed it a long time ago, with several incidents of people going blind, but they still make it in township shanty bars today. Turns out it was not half bad. A little warm, and you could definitely taste the milk, but it was decent. It was served in this bucket, and was passed around communally for everyone to have a slurp. When in Rome...

After that, we toured around several other streets, looking at the shacks people had erected. It is crazy to drive around for 20+ minutes at a time, and just be surrounded by nothing but theses shacks, make out of wood, plastic, tin and iron. A pretty unreal sight.

Finally we stopped at a B&B, which actually operates inside the townships. It was simple, but nice, and the owner said it did quite well, which I can believe. When we stopped, it was currently all booked up.

According to our guide, unemployment in the townships runs high, about 40%, so most turn into entrepreneurs, starting B&B's (12 in total in the townships), small hair places, fruit stands, etc.

An interesting tour. Tomorrow, it's diving with the sharks.

Africa

Well, after a long, arduous trip from Malaysia, I am finally in Africa, Cape town to be specific. It is cold and wet here, lots of fog. Everything is closed, as it is Sunday, so I will have more of an idea what things are like tomorrow. Hopefully the sun comes out.

Singapore

Flew down to Singapore from K.L., a short 50 minute flight. Singapore is more humid than K.L. was, seeing that it is a small island state.

After getting my bearings there my first night, I basically just found some food and relaxed in the air conditioning in the hostel.

The next day, I headed out, walking the 15 minutes or so to the LRT station. I am continually impressed with the LRT setups of cities around the world compared to what we have at home. Singapore's system was no exception. It reaches far across the city, is impeccably clean, and widely used by all kinds of people. It is busy all the time. No graffiti, no damage, clean, on time and cheap make it an outstanding way to travel.

I first headed over to Sentosa Island, which is an island that has a lot of attractions that locals use as a bit of a holiday island. It has a cable car or train that connects to the island. I opted for the cable car, which is several hundred feet off the ground. The great thing about being up there for the approximate 5-10 minute ride, was the fact that you could see across the city, and all over the multiple ports that Singapore has. There is literally hundreds of ships as far as the eye can see, all waiting to come into the harbour to load and unload. Going hand in hand, there are also several hundred incidents of Pirates (yes, Pirates) attacking and storming boats every year. Most don't succeed I was told, but some actually do.

Sentosa was nice, but the biggest attractions were to be seen by walking around the island, and seeing as I was already a sweaty mess, even when standing still, I opted against hiking around in the bush for the better part of the day. I took a few pictures, including that of the Merlion, the tourist symbol for Singapore, featuring the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It's no giant Vegreville Pysanka, but it was nice. After that I decided to go back onto the cable car and into town.

I found out gradually that there is not a lot to see and do in Singapore, unless you like shopping and shopping malls. People in Singapore love their shopping malls. They are everywhere, and there is something for everyone's tastes and price range. However, Singapore is not as cheap as Malaysia, where the dollar is trading at just over a 3:1 ratio. Here it is around $1.33 Singapore Dollars to $1 Canadian Dollar. The better part of the day, I hung around Orchard Road, just looking in shops and doing some free reading in the book stores.

The one thing you do notice in Singapore is how clean everything is. There are large fines for all kinds of offences that would make a mess, no matter how small. Littering is around S$1000, spitting is around S$500. They don't allow food or drink on the LRT, another S$500 fine, and if your caught with a flammable fluid on the LRT, it's S$5000. I wondered if that included something small like having a lighter, but it's probably better not to find out.

Going back to the hostel, I ran into a few people from England and one from Canada, and we decided to head out for the night. One girl suggested we go to the Raffles Hotel, which is where the Singapore Sling was invented, somewhere around WWI. We did go there, and had one. It was good, but not S$25.00 good, like they charged. Going out is not cheap here, as I found out later as well. A simple pint of beer is S$13, with prices going all the way up to S$26. So therefore, drinks were few and far between, but we managed to stretch the night out, getting back pretty late.

The next day, it is back to Kuala Lumpur, last stop before Africa.

Kuala Lumpur

After finally arriving in Malaysia, the first thing that you notice, is the excessive humidity and heat. The day I arrived it was 33 degrees Celsius, at about 90% humidity. You walk out from the air conditioned airport, and it's like a warm slap in the face. Reminds me of Dominican Republic, but worse.

I made my way to my hostel, which is nice and new, and luckily has separate rooms, which is great. Finally able to get some solid rest without having to put up with idiosyncrasies and habits of those around you.

In the morning, I headed over to Kuala Lumpur's famous twin towers. They were the tallest buildings in the world from '98-'04, and are quite a sight. There is a connecting skyway between the two towers on the 41st and 42nd floor, and it is free to go up there to have a look around. Regrettably, it is closed on Monday, so I missed out on going up. The towers reach a total height of 1482.9 feet, at the top of each spire.

After not being able to get in there, I wandered around for a while. People sometimes approach you here, some for honest reasons, some for not, as I found out.

As the scam goes, someone approaches you, asks you where you are from. Harmless enough. They then try and associate with you, saying they have a sister or cousin who is going to your country soon, specifically a big city. Their mother or grandmother or whatever is worried about their sister or cousin going to such a 'large' country, and it would sure be great if you could calm her fears about your country, as the cousin or sister is only 18 years old.

They then ask you to come back to the apartment they live at to talk to the grandmother or mother, as she can not come talk to you, because she is sick and suffering. Won't you please help out a sick lady? Make her feel better? I laughed a bit at the lady that was pitching this to me at the time, and 'excused' myself from the conversation. Talking with a few vendors in the market in Chinatown later, I found out how the rest of it goes, even though I cant believe people actually fall for it.

So, if they can get someone to come back with them, they show up to the apartment, but nobody is home. They make a phone call, and say the sister or cousin took the grandmother or mother to the hospital, so we can just wait a bit for them to come back. Say, in the meantime, why don't we play some cards to pass the time? No money involved, of course, just for fun, between 'friends'.

After playing a few hands of whatever, it is apparent you are winning all the time. They compliment you on how god your skills are. Why, you must be a real card shark! Amazing! I can't believe you win so much! They then say that they know somebody that works at a gaming house nearby. You could probably win a lot of money with your skills. What do you say?

So, after getting you there, you are systematically picked apart in card games played by people better organized at cheating and scamming than you or I ever will be. Some market vendors even told me that they get the fake jewelery scam involved as well, selling you fakes to export to your country, convincing you to re-sell them there for a profit.

I had a good laugh over it, but they say that a lot of people actually go for it. Talking to a guy from Calgary, he had the same story fed to him twice in the same day. Funny.

Next stop is Singapore for a few days, then back to Kuala Lumpur for a day before the long, long 14-hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa.

Bombs away!

So after Darwin, I flew into Perth, to be able to catch my next flight to Malaysia, the 4th country on my schedule. I spent a few days in Perth just killing time, wandering around and catching the (few) sights. I spent a significant amount of time haggling with Malaysia Airlines trying to get my ticket changed so I could fly out. Originally, I wasn't slated to leave until mid-July, so I had to update it.

The first agent I spoke to refused to change it, saying I had to call the agent who booked it, and they had to change it. Odd I thought, seeing as it's my ticket and I paid for it. Nevertheless, they wouldn't do anything, citing section so-and-so of the stupid airline handbook, or something similar. So, I decided to try phoning back with another agent and see if they next person had any sense.

Of course, they didn't. Neither did the supervisor I got passed to.

So, left with no alternative, I waited up late to call San Francisco, where my agent was, as the time change was quite different. When I finally got ahold of her and explained the situation, and how the airline wouldn't help me out, and they needed her to change it, she said "Gee, that's odd. It's your ticket, you paid for it" and that I should be able to change it.

My point exactly. So, with some emails here and there and some $$$ to change the ticket, I had it done, ready to fly.

Finally the day came. May 3rd. Flight to Kuala Lumpur. Ready to go.

Things didn't start off right, the shuttle failed to show up at the hostel I was at, and I had to phone their office again to get one to come, even though I had booked it the day previous. Then when the shuttle arrived, they wanted me to hang around for about an hour so they could pick up another person, and avoid sending a second shuttle to get them. As they were already putting me a bit behind, I declined, and we headed to the airport.

When I got to the airport, got in the long line, and after a while, I got up to an agent. I was then informed that I was not on the flight, and she asked to see my ticket. I explained that it was an electronic ticket, and therefore I didn't have one. She went off to talk to someone else, and after about 20 minutes, managed to find that I was, indeed, on the flight. Thank you very much.

So, through security, customs, and nothing to do but wait. Turns out I would be waiting longer than I thought.

Time to board came, and they announced that the flight would be delayed by about an hour.

Then they said that they were moving the gate from one end of the airport to the other. Then they moved it back.

They explained that there was a 'cargo issue' on the plane, and they couldn't fly until it was figured out. That turned into 'suspicious packages', and in came the Australian Federal Police. As soon as I heard that, I pretty much knew the flight was a bust, we wouldn't be getting anywhere very quickly.

As the hours rolled by, they closed half the gates in the departures area 'just in case'. Then the whole area, and we had to go back through customs into the main area of the airport.

Next, we were told to go outside the airport entirely, and wait in the parking lot. After about an hour, they decided to just shut the entire place down, and told everyone to go home, come back tomorrow.

So, with that, everyone who wasn't complaining started looking for a cab or a bus or something to head back into the city. No such luck, they closed the road at the highway, so it was time to hoof it. There was no luggage to take, as they had left it on the plane, so away I went. After about 3 kilometres, I got to where the cabs were held up, and went and spent the night in the Holiday Inn.

The next morning, I called the airline, and they stated they were going to open up check in at 8 a.m., with the flight leaving at 11 a.m. So, I went over to the airport. Apparently there is a lack of communication at Malaysia Airlines, and they didn't open up check in until 9:45 a.m. Still, they maintained they were going to fly at 11, saying it would go faster because there was no luggage to check in.

We flew at 12:30.

Don't ever fly Malaysia Airlines.

To check out the Bomb story, go here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/04/2234646.htm?section=australia

or here: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23643377-662,00.html