Johannesburg

I enjoyed the night life in Nairobi. The quarter where was my hotel, near the university was safe and there are a lot of bars like in any big european city.
Then I flew to Johannesburg. I was staying in a lodge, it was like a big house, not far away from the airport. I thought it was OK as I were only staying here for one night.
The guy running the business, Bob, was living there with his wife and his 7 years old girl. He was very nice and gave me a lift at the airport.

At first I didn't like to be in the middle of nowhere but now, I can tell that it was an interesting experience.

The first adventure was to find an internet coffee with a printer. It was a 10 min walk. But the network in this shop (it was a few computer in a Beauty Saloon) wasn't working. So some young black guys indicated me another internet shop "in town" another 10 minutes from here. I was a bit scared to get lost in this residential area. Like in Cape Town almost every houses had fences, sometimes with electricity, sometimes with dogs or a shield "armed response" on them. The only people I had seen so far were black. As a arrived in the junction where I should have seen some people, there were but I did not feel very safe. A guy promptly came to me and asked me what was I looking for, but his voice wasn't friendly at all. After Nairobi, where almost everybody is black and were I felt pretty safe and where people didn't care about me, it was something very different, like: "what this white guy is doing here?", like people were amazed to see me here.

Anyway the internet shop was a computer institute with a lot of computers and nobody inside except the manager. We talked and as he knew that I was french and not south african he really became frendlier. He was from Zimbabwe, had an MBA in accounting and it was very difficult for him to find a good job here. He asked me a lot of question about France and job opportunities.

That reminded me of a conversation I have had with a white south african guy I have met in cape Town about the fences, the security, etc... He told me that another problem his country was facing was the massive Zimbabwean emigration. Because those black people were really more educated than those in South Africa, they take the more interesting jobs. All the Zimbabwean who have received a proper education flew Zimbabwe, I think...

There were two ads in the streets on little sheet of paper, where you can detach the phone number, that I saw quite often: one was for transport services with a pick up and the other one was more amazing for me:"Abortion 100% safe".

Back to the house, the little girl was so excited by my guitar that she was jumping everywhere when I was paying and she really enjoyed "playing" it. She had noticed a little pink guitar in the shopping center and she would like her dad to buy it.

Otherwise I met this 66 retired american guy who was traveling around the world non stop since 10 years! He visits around 14 countries a year. He has done the Olympics in 1964 with the 400 m. He was still in good shape, did not drink alcohol, tea or coffee and did not smoke either. His only vice is the diet coke.
We had a long chat: he already traveled before retiring but since his wife died , he is always on the road. He was an electrical engineer during 30 years and then taught biology during six years.

In the bathroom there was no shower, only a bath :-) So I took my first bath since nearly two months, so good...

I went running 40 min in the morning before spending 22 hours in airports, flights and transfers. When I arrived at Singapore, my luggage was still in Hong-Kong :-(