So on Wednesday, I checked in at the Reef Hotel Gold in the Central Business District (CBD) of Johannesburg about midday. I was beat because it was 5 ½ hrs. from LAX to JFK, a 5 hour layover at JFK and then 15 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB). Remember, I'm winging it on this trip so I had not reserved a room for my first night in Joburg. I figured since I arrived at 8 am in the morning, how tough could it be to get a room before nightfall? I picked this place off Expedia while I was sitting in an internet cafe at JNB airport and it had two things I needed – internet access and a shuttle from the airport. Plus it was a good price.
A little background, Johannesburg is a city of 6 million people and they just hosted the World Cup in 2010. They are very proud of the job they did and rightfully so. A lot of money and effort has gone into cleaning things up, adding a metro rail train called the Gautrain and they are in the midst of a major revitalizing of this downtown area. The Reef hotel opened just as the World Cup started and is in a converted Government building. I have an office on the 8th floor that been wonderfully renovated to a hip trendy room with a platform bed, farm sink in the lavatory and a quarter round shower. The old cafeteria on the 3rd floor is now the hotel's restaurant. Very cool.
When I travel, I really try to get myself on local time asap so I checked in, freshened up and decided to go for a walk around the area to get the lay of the land. I ended up at in a plaza that had a big statue of a very young Gandhi in a business suit – not his usual look! I found out later that he came to South Africa as a young lawyer in his mid twenties, and became politically active over the harsh treatment of Indians. This is where he developed the philosophy of Passive Resistance (called Satyagraha here) – resisting oppression by using principled and peaceful refusal to cooperate with unjust laws. From 1906 to 1914 he lead the Passive Resistance Movement. He left South Africa in 1914, never to return.
Walking back to the hotel I saw a really beautiful older building across the street from a brick building being demolished and I stopped to take pictures of both. I had just finished snapping the rundown brick building and I was framing the beautiful building when 2 armed police men came up to me to ask me what I was doing and informed me that you are not allowed to take pictures of Government facilities. Apparently the older building was still in use for some legislative purpose. You know, it never occurred to me that taking pictures of the government building would ever be a problem. I apologized to the officers and said I wouldn't do it again. And I won't. Police 1, Shari 0.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Do I look like a terrorist to you?
No really, do I? I spent over 50 minutes having my carry-on bags searched (and re-searched) by TSA agents at LAX. Now sadly, since I am such a terrible procrastinator, it's my own darn fault. Here's the scoop:
Because of the variety of places I am going and the length of time I will be gone, I needed to bring hot weather clothes, cold weather gear, water filters and a boatload of electronic items, of which none of them have the compatible cables or plugs. I got to the counter at Jetblue and found my checked bag to be 2 lbs too heavy so they could not book it straight through to South Africa. No brainer! I opened my bag and pulled out my pump style water filter and a big Ziploc bag that held all the electronics cables, power converter - all the things I need for the electronics to work and to be recharged. I put these items in my carry-on and Jetblue checked my bag all the way through to Johannesburg. Off to TSA I went.
I had the backpack I normally carry to work and a small pouch style bag that held the odds and ends that you want to keep at your seat and not have to get into the overhead bins for every little thing. The TSA agent asked to check both of these bags. No problem because of course I know I'm not a terrorist.
We head over to a table and he starts in on all the exterior pockets, he pulls each item out and I explain what each item is or does. And you know what a chatterbox I am, I tell him my story, I'm off on an excellent round the world adventure and all the things I plan on doing or seeing... He empties the pockets and says he didn't find what he thought he was looking for - possibly a pocket knife but not a Swiss army knife b/c it didn't have a corkscrew.
Now I know that my Swiss army knife is in the checked luggage but okay. We take the backpack still half full, the stuff pulled out and spread out in another bin and the little pouch is a third bin. Now I can't touch any of my stuff or carry any of the bins because they suspect I'm a terrorist. So now, me, the guy searching my bag and two other TSA guys carrying my stuff are going back to the X-ray machine. They still see something suspicious so we go back to our table and pull the rest of the stuff out of the backpack and repeat but now we call for a senior TSA guy with better eyes and so now 5 of us repeat the above process. We finish up with the back pack and the pouch and no, they never found what they were looking for but they were able to determined that I had nothing that was not allowable. They finally let me go.
I stuffed everything back in the backpack and got to my gate with only 10 minutes to spare. I was one of the last handful of people to get on the plane. But I made it, so no harm, no foul! We jetted off to JFK where I had a 5 hour layover before my flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Knowing what a problem it was at LAX, I carefully repacked the items in my backpack and pouch so that it would be easier to search when I get pulled out of the line again at JFK international terminal. I headed over to the International terminal early, just in case.
While I was repacking I think I figured out what the problem was. Remember that beautiful pen and pencil set you gave me at my going away party? They were still in the backpack clipped in an interior pocket but completely visible when you knew what you were looking for! So I'd like to thank you all again not just for the pen and pencil set but for helping me be profiled as a terrorist with TSA. Thank you very much...
With much trepidation I walked up to TSA at JFK and I went through without a second look.
Shari
Because of the variety of places I am going and the length of time I will be gone, I needed to bring hot weather clothes, cold weather gear, water filters and a boatload of electronic items, of which none of them have the compatible cables or plugs. I got to the counter at Jetblue and found my checked bag to be 2 lbs too heavy so they could not book it straight through to South Africa. No brainer! I opened my bag and pulled out my pump style water filter and a big Ziploc bag that held all the electronics cables, power converter - all the things I need for the electronics to work and to be recharged. I put these items in my carry-on and Jetblue checked my bag all the way through to Johannesburg. Off to TSA I went.
I had the backpack I normally carry to work and a small pouch style bag that held the odds and ends that you want to keep at your seat and not have to get into the overhead bins for every little thing. The TSA agent asked to check both of these bags. No problem because of course I know I'm not a terrorist.
We head over to a table and he starts in on all the exterior pockets, he pulls each item out and I explain what each item is or does. And you know what a chatterbox I am, I tell him my story, I'm off on an excellent round the world adventure and all the things I plan on doing or seeing... He empties the pockets and says he didn't find what he thought he was looking for - possibly a pocket knife but not a Swiss army knife b/c it didn't have a corkscrew.
Now I know that my Swiss army knife is in the checked luggage but okay. We take the backpack still half full, the stuff pulled out and spread out in another bin and the little pouch is a third bin. Now I can't touch any of my stuff or carry any of the bins because they suspect I'm a terrorist. So now, me, the guy searching my bag and two other TSA guys carrying my stuff are going back to the X-ray machine. They still see something suspicious so we go back to our table and pull the rest of the stuff out of the backpack and repeat but now we call for a senior TSA guy with better eyes and so now 5 of us repeat the above process. We finish up with the back pack and the pouch and no, they never found what they were looking for but they were able to determined that I had nothing that was not allowable. They finally let me go.
I stuffed everything back in the backpack and got to my gate with only 10 minutes to spare. I was one of the last handful of people to get on the plane. But I made it, so no harm, no foul! We jetted off to JFK where I had a 5 hour layover before my flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Knowing what a problem it was at LAX, I carefully repacked the items in my backpack and pouch so that it would be easier to search when I get pulled out of the line again at JFK international terminal. I headed over to the International terminal early, just in case.
While I was repacking I think I figured out what the problem was. Remember that beautiful pen and pencil set you gave me at my going away party? They were still in the backpack clipped in an interior pocket but completely visible when you knew what you were looking for! So I'd like to thank you all again not just for the pen and pencil set but for helping me be profiled as a terrorist with TSA. Thank you very much...
With much trepidation I walked up to TSA at JFK and I went through without a second look.
Shari
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Counting down the days.....
I have 4 days of work left until I begin my 6 month leave of abscence. I'll refrain from yelling YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
shari
shari
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)