Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Fate vs. Stupidity: Being robbed at knife point in downtown Johannesburg (aka the crime capital of the world)
April 10, 2006, Cape Town, South Africa
After a long, tedious journey Sean and I have finally arrived in Cape Town. My last blog was set in Naboomspruit, where the car broke down, again. As I mentioned before, we were leaving Naboomspruit to go to Johannesburg, when the shock absorber started rubbing against the tire. This resulted in an awful sound, the smell of burning rubber, and the disintegration of the tire.
The next morning, Sean and I went back to the mechanic who had worked on the car earlier in the week. He directed us to a panelklopper (welder) who had a shop just around the corner from his. We went to his shop and he informed us that the problem was a bit more complicated than a bent shock. He drew our attention to the back of the car, which looked like it had bowed legs. He told us that he would have to bend a bunch of stuff and weld a bunch of stuff to fix it. This meant a few more days in Naboomspruit and a bunch more cash for car repairs.
The following day Tuuli left for Jo'burg to start a new job and we planned to meet her a couple of days later. The car was finished on Thursday and we headed to Jo'burg to spend the night with some great people who we met at the kudu dropping spitting contest. The next day we went to the house where Tuuli was staying to have lunch with her boss. We were originally told to be there at 12:30 sharp, so just to be safe we got there at 11:30. We waited for the next three hours and there was no sign of lunch being made and no sign of her boss. Around three we had lunch and then Tuuli told us that she wanted to show us around "town" where she had spent the previous afternoon.
"Town" ended up being central Jo'burg, one of the most dangerous areas in the world. We were a bit weary of central Jo'burg but Tuuli assured us that she had done it the day before and it was safe. We walked around for a couple of hours and then decided to stop off for a quick drink and a rest. We saw a bar advertised on a sign board and proceeded to enter. The bar was filled with about 70 men and a few women. I realized that we were the only white people in the bar; however this is not an uncommon thing for us given that we are in Africa. What took me by surprise though, was the man who immediately approached and asked if I was scared and that I should be because Jo'burg is a dangerous city. Being a bit overconfident and very naïve, we sat down and had a drink.
After about 45 minutes, we decided it would be best to go to the bus station and get a mini bus back to the house. As we left the bar, I realized that night was quickly approaching. Considering that the Lonely Planet guide book said that "you'd be crazy to walk around central Jo'burg at night" I was a bit nervous. However, the streets were still really crowded and the bus station was not far away. I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but there was suddenly a knife blade three inches away from my face. I wanted to look around and see what was happening to Tuuli and Sean, but could not take my focus off of the knife. Two men started going through my pockets and I attempted to hurry the process by reaching in my pocket to take out my money. I quickly stopped, however when the man with the knife told me that he also had a gun and he would shoot me in the face. The men emptied my pockets and then the man with the knife thanked me (yes he actually said "Thank you very much").
All of the men, about eight in total left us all at the same time. I looked around and saw that everyone on the street had been watching, but I understand why they didn't help. Luckily, the men left 40 Rand in my pocket, enough to get us back to Tuuli's house. The next few hours were spent canceling credit cards and being told "I told you so" by all of my South African friends.
The next day, Sean and I got back on the horse and headed to a hospital in Soweto, the main township of Jo'burg. We met with a few different organizations that are doing great work, which will be discussed in a future article.
On Saturday, we decided that we should head down to Cape Town and meet up with Nate. Before leaving, I went to the bank and exchanged money, hoping that it would be enough to get us to Cape Town, where Nate had more money. As if the concern about money wasn't enough, Sean's international driver's license expired last week and his California driver's license was stolen in Jo'burg, which meant that I would be driving the entire 1,000 miles.
Saturday's drive was pretty uneventful. Around six in the evening we pulled off in a small town and checked around for accommodation. We found a place that was reasonable, but were still concerned that we would run out of money. Sean told the man that we would be back later, but that we wanted to grab some food first. The man recommended an Irish pub around the corner.
The pub had great food, at great prices and a nice crowd of people. While we were eating we started talking to some other guys at the bar who had passed us on the road a few times that day. They were very impressed with the trip and with the car and invited us to stay with them in a couple of weeks when we will be further up the coast. We hung out with the guys for the next few hours. When we were ready to go to sleep we thought about going to the lodge where we inquired about rooms. We realized, however, that the price of accommodation would put a dent in our ability to buy fuel. Given that making it to Cape Town was more important than staying in a comfy bed for a night, we decided to sleep in the car, which was parked in the street outside of the Irish pub.
Five hours later, I awoke and realized that I would not be able to sleep another minute in the car due to the freezing temperatures (my teeth were chattering), Sean's snoring, and the uncomfortable position in which I was attempting to sleep. I woke Sean up and spent the next twelve hours driving to Cape Town, where we were happily reunited with Nate, completely broke, at the bottom of Africa.
April 10, 2006, Cape Town, South Africa
After a long, tedious journey Sean and I have finally arrived in Cape Town. My last blog was set in Naboomspruit, where the car broke down, again. As I mentioned before, we were leaving Naboomspruit to go to Johannesburg, when the shock absorber started rubbing against the tire. This resulted in an awful sound, the smell of burning rubber, and the disintegration of the tire.
The next morning, Sean and I went back to the mechanic who had worked on the car earlier in the week. He directed us to a panelklopper (welder) who had a shop just around the corner from his. We went to his shop and he informed us that the problem was a bit more complicated than a bent shock. He drew our attention to the back of the car, which looked like it had bowed legs. He told us that he would have to bend a bunch of stuff and weld a bunch of stuff to fix it. This meant a few more days in Naboomspruit and a bunch more cash for car repairs.
The following day Tuuli left for Jo'burg to start a new job and we planned to meet her a couple of days later. The car was finished on Thursday and we headed to Jo'burg to spend the night with some great people who we met at the kudu dropping spitting contest. The next day we went to the house where Tuuli was staying to have lunch with her boss. We were originally told to be there at 12:30 sharp, so just to be safe we got there at 11:30. We waited for the next three hours and there was no sign of lunch being made and no sign of her boss. Around three we had lunch and then Tuuli told us that she wanted to show us around "town" where she had spent the previous afternoon.
"Town" ended up being central Jo'burg, one of the most dangerous areas in the world. We were a bit weary of central Jo'burg but Tuuli assured us that she had done it the day before and it was safe. We walked around for a couple of hours and then decided to stop off for a quick drink and a rest. We saw a bar advertised on a sign board and proceeded to enter. The bar was filled with about 70 men and a few women. I realized that we were the only white people in the bar; however this is not an uncommon thing for us given that we are in Africa. What took me by surprise though, was the man who immediately approached and asked if I was scared and that I should be because Jo'burg is a dangerous city. Being a bit overconfident and very naïve, we sat down and had a drink.
After about 45 minutes, we decided it would be best to go to the bus station and get a mini bus back to the house. As we left the bar, I realized that night was quickly approaching. Considering that the Lonely Planet guide book said that "you'd be crazy to walk around central Jo'burg at night" I was a bit nervous. However, the streets were still really crowded and the bus station was not far away. I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but there was suddenly a knife blade three inches away from my face. I wanted to look around and see what was happening to Tuuli and Sean, but could not take my focus off of the knife. Two men started going through my pockets and I attempted to hurry the process by reaching in my pocket to take out my money. I quickly stopped, however when the man with the knife told me that he also had a gun and he would shoot me in the face. The men emptied my pockets and then the man with the knife thanked me (yes he actually said "Thank you very much").
All of the men, about eight in total left us all at the same time. I looked around and saw that everyone on the street had been watching, but I understand why they didn't help. Luckily, the men left 40 Rand in my pocket, enough to get us back to Tuuli's house. The next few hours were spent canceling credit cards and being told "I told you so" by all of my South African friends.
The next day, Sean and I got back on the horse and headed to a hospital in Soweto, the main township of Jo'burg. We met with a few different organizations that are doing great work, which will be discussed in a future article.
On Saturday, we decided that we should head down to Cape Town and meet up with Nate. Before leaving, I went to the bank and exchanged money, hoping that it would be enough to get us to Cape Town, where Nate had more money. As if the concern about money wasn't enough, Sean's international driver's license expired last week and his California driver's license was stolen in Jo'burg, which meant that I would be driving the entire 1,000 miles.
Saturday's drive was pretty uneventful. Around six in the evening we pulled off in a small town and checked around for accommodation. We found a place that was reasonable, but were still concerned that we would run out of money. Sean told the man that we would be back later, but that we wanted to grab some food first. The man recommended an Irish pub around the corner.
The pub had great food, at great prices and a nice crowd of people. While we were eating we started talking to some other guys at the bar who had passed us on the road a few times that day. They were very impressed with the trip and with the car and invited us to stay with them in a couple of weeks when we will be further up the coast. We hung out with the guys for the next few hours. When we were ready to go to sleep we thought about going to the lodge where we inquired about rooms. We realized, however, that the price of accommodation would put a dent in our ability to buy fuel. Given that making it to Cape Town was more important than staying in a comfy bed for a night, we decided to sleep in the car, which was parked in the street outside of the Irish pub.
Five hours later, I awoke and realized that I would not be able to sleep another minute in the car due to the freezing temperatures (my teeth were chattering), Sean's snoring, and the uncomfortable position in which I was attempting to sleep. I woke Sean up and spent the next twelve hours driving to Cape Town, where we were happily reunited with Nate, completely broke, at the bottom of Africa.
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