Arriving in South Africa

On previous post: Turns out the No S sign means No Stopping in South Africa.

One of my Facebook followers posted a link on all the South African sign posts. Haha. Genius.


Slightly less than a month ago, I was given a once in a lifetime chance to travel all the way to South Africa to experience 8 days of adventures! for free! on Singapore Airlines!

In fact, I was going along with 20 other winners from Nestle Drumstick campaign contest "Holiday for the Brave" where you eat their Drumstick ice cream, join the contest, and wait for someone to call you that you've won the greatest adventure of your life!

Till now it still feels like a dream while I'm typing this.

But going through all the photos and writing up the next few posts is going be another journey for me again down the memory lane. It felt like yesterday when I landed myself in the rainforest of KLIA airport at 8pm in the evening.




We did a transit over at Singapore Changi Airport that lasted for 4 hours before boarding a 12-13 hour flight to Cape Town, South Africa.

It's been a while since I last took Singapore Airline. So I wasted no chance in ordering the infamous Singapore Sling cocktail even when breakfast was being served.




though the glass could have looked a bit more sophisticated than a... plastic cup.


It wasn't easy to sleep on the plane, by the time 10 hours was gone, I looked like the undead rising to walk the earth again.


If you think this is bad, think about how my dark-circles look like before the photoshop.


After what felt like ages of twists and turnings on my window seat, the view of South Africa slowly seeped in below us.




Then, I wasn't all excited and crazy about it when I landed in Cape Town's airport.

Probably because it didn't hit me yet that I was in South Africa. Not sure the cause of that but feeling wasn't there.

It didn't hit me when I was posing with FIFA World Cup 2010 Mascot Zakumi (that's his name) at the airport.




It didn't hit me when Niki Cheong (the other reporter and blogger who was invited to travel with us too) crashed in to grab poor Zakumi's left nipple in an attempt for a duo cam-whore with me.




It didn't hit me when we had a group photo of "The Spirit of Adventure" banner with Nestle Drumstick's winners.




It didn't hit me when I got on the van and on the road and saw people getting into the world cup fever on fields.




It didn't even hit me when I was passing by squatters and shacks that could have stereotyped how South Africans lived.




Which by the way, is a very bad way of stereotyping South Africa. No they do not live like that, not all of them anyway. :p

(See more of South Africa in the next few posts)


And nay it didn't hit me either when I saw kids in the squatters playing under an electrical tower, aka pylon.




and again, not all South African kids play like that.

In fact, I was so blunt to the point that the fact that I was in Africa continent at all did not sink in until 24 hours later!

I knew then that I was in BLOODY South Africa when I was submerged in freezing cold water and came face to face with a great white shark!




The things I need to go through to knock some senses into me.




Readers! Welcome to South Africa!!