May 27, 2008 - Houston,
TX - I just
thought I would fill everyone in on my recent trip to
South Africa. It will probably be one of the most
memorable trips I have ever made. I left Houston at 3:30
PM on Friday, May 16th on my first business trip in quite
awhile. I flew for 9 hours to
Amsterdam and then a couple of hours later boarded the
plane for the 10.5 hour flight to Johannesburg, SA. I
arrived at the
Johannesburg airport at
9:30 PM on Saturday night and walked up to the passport
control counter. The guy there took one look at my
passport and declared that it was full. I said what do you
mean my passport is full. There are places for stamps.
He informed me that I need 2 pages, preferably facing, for them
to put their visa on and the other for their stamp. Boy
was I surprised.
I talked to another guy but there was no dealing and I was
hauled off to the immigration office. The guy in the immigration
office took his own sweet time doing the paper work and telling
me it would do no good to call the American Embassy. I
borrowed the cell phone of another man that was there to call my
business contact to let him know that I would not be using
hotel they had booked for me!! I spent the next 18 hours
in their "lovely"
detention center...or as they call it an airlines holding
area. So according to them I was NOT detained, just held
until the airline could come pick me up!! There were bars
on the windows and a locked bars at the entrance!! I was
detained!
Eighteen hours later KLM printed a ticket and came to get me.
They took me to the
Air France Lounge where I had my first shower since
Friday -- this was
Sunday night at 6 PM. I did call the American
Embassy but they could not get South African immigration to make
any accommodations like them bringing me pages or anything else.
They did try to negotiate a flight somewhere closer than
Amsterdam where I can get pages added and then return
here. But they said I had to fly out back to the
destination from which I had come. What a freaking
nightmare. I finally called my business contact and ask
him to call Jerry so he would know that I was all right.
So....the bottom line is that I flew 46 hours out of about 80...AND
technically I have not been to
South Africa since I never left the airport! Lesson
learned..know what the country requires before going to it. I
guess I relied on my Travel Department to let me know..but I won't
do that next time. All in all, it is funny now but it was definitely
NOT funny while I was going through it! I might go back in a
few weeks and I will be prepared.