Sent on Feb 19, 2003 from J'burg.

1. GEOGRAPHY.  Mbabane is in Swaziland, a landlocked
country in northeast So. Africa (like Lesotho), about 300km
east from Johannesburg.  Maputo is in Mozambique, about
400km east from Johannesburg, or about 125km northeast from
Mbabane, though there is no major highway connecting the 2.
 (I did it by getting back to So. Africa.)  The famous
Krueger (Wildlife) Park is in the most northeastern part of
South Africa, about 400km north to south, 50km east to
west, covering an area of some 20,000 sq.km or 7200
sq,mile.  It borders Mozambique on the east, Drakensberg
mountain range on the west, Zimbabwe on the north.  Soweto
is a township adjacent (on southwest) to Johannesburg. It
is where the history of Apartheid is encapsulated, like our
Civil Rights history in Selma, Alabama.

2. JOHANNESBURG.  I came to J'burg by bus from Durban, to
the Park (Bus) Station in town and was picked up there. So
on my way to the hostel, I got to see some of it.  It is
NOT a pretty city and I did not see a single white person
downtown, though surely there must be some.  (However,
Johannesburg has the nicest weather; in summer (now) it is
like Miami in March or April.  In contrast, Durban was hot
and humid, Cape tolerably hot, the rest (desert) VERY hot.)
Hostels offer a city tour for 250R.  While I was thinking
that surely no one would sign up for this tour, an Aussie
girl did just that, before her flight back.  I hope she
enjoyed it.  I suggest that instead you do the SOWETO tour,
if you are interested in history, OR read about it and do
instead a more fun tour.

HINTS.

* In Johannesburg, taxi fares are expensive.  (Downtown
Park (bus) Station to airport = 150 to 180R, $18 to
$21.)Find out the hostels that will pick you up for free. 
Backpackers Ritz is one such (Tel: 325-7125), as Fairview
Hostel (Tel: 618-2048), as J'burg Central Hostel (Tel:
643-1213, 484-7672).  If you want a hostel near airport say
on your last night with free delivery, first ask the hostel
you stayed at to take you to the airport (for free or
cheap), then call AIRPORT BACKPACKERS (394-0485) to pick
you up for free, bring yo to airport for free the next day.
 (I did not like the Africa Center Hostel also near the
airport, though they will also pick you up from the city
when you arrive say on a bus.)

* In any major city, car rentals at the airport may be
fully booked.  The cheapest are either NATIONAL/ALAMO or
no-name companies.  Better get your car thru the your
backpacker lodge.  They have special rates that are cheaper
(e.g., 171R/$21 per day, or 248R/$31 with full insurance
and unlimited mileage, something like a basic Fiat, Opel,
or VW.)  Gas prices are 4R per liter, or about $2.60 per
gallon, still much better than in Europe.  Busses are
better for city-to-city travel, like 460R/$58 for the
24-hour bus from Cape to Durban, though, of course, this
rate much too steep compared to busses in SE Asia, Morocco,
etc.)

2.  J'BURG EAST TO KRUEGER.  Half of the 400km is on a
landscape that is relatively flat (like Ohio), or rolling
hills (like Missouri), high plains (like Kansas).  Then the
mountains start, at first like Pennsylvania or West
Virginia, then (because the land is arid) more like the
canyon country.  KRUEGER Park itself is bush country--grass,
generally thorny bushes, small to mid-size trees with dense
foliage, like in our southwest, as also the landscape), as
also the area around it.  If you want something similar in
USA, drive anywhere in southwest where the land is not all
naked and desert, the best perhaps the BIG BEND Nat. Park
in Texas.

3. KRUEGER PARK.  The landscape is magnificent; as a
wildlife park it disappointed me.  Forget hard-to-see
animals like the leopard or wild dogs, thru 400km drive
thru the park in 10 hours, I did not see a lion, not an
elephant, not a water buffalo, not a hippo, not a crocodile
. . . you get the picture.  I did see about a dozen
giraffes--single or in groups-- same numbers of zebra, a
family of baboons, 3 wart hogs, scores of smaller size
antelopes--half of them at the lodge where I slept in a hut
for a night--families (of 3) of some of the larger antelopes
like the elan, 2 rhinos--one too distant to see well. 
Having watched the National Geographic shows for years,
many taken at Krueger Park, I had the impression that behind
every new hill there is a pride of lions, that all you had
to do is wait for them to do something--since they sleep
for 20 hours per day.  That one hour footage, now I know,
probably took 6 months.  Of course there are all those
animals in the park, BUT THE NUMBERS SEEM VERY LOW GIVEN
THE SIZE OF THE PARK.  This is exactly what I said in my
report/comments to the park management, adding: 1) they
should import many more animals of ALL species, as the park
seems practically empty, 2) come and see the WILD ANIMAL
Park in San Diego, until they got their animals.

* 2,3,4-day tours from J'burg to Krueger Park exist from
various hostels, but they are expensive.  Most people do
this in a rental car.  There are several NOT-well-marked
gates to the park, one south, one west-central, and one
north.  Entry is 54R, plus a fee for the booklet about the
park.  Gates open at 7:30am or so; to enter, you must have
a lodge secured for the night, or they try to get you a
lodge at the entry (if the lodge is close enough to make it
by 6:30pm at 40-50km/hr limit; by 6:30pm, you must be at a
lodge, as driving is not allowed; lodging costs 130R for a
nice circular hut with a fan, 180R with air cond; you can
get gasoline at some camping sites; most camping sites have
a shop, cafe, place to put up tents, post, etc. Main roads
at Krueger are paved, rest gravel.  For 95R in early in morn
and eve, you can join a SAFARI ride with the park rangers.

* DRAKENSBERG is a very scenic mountain range, somewhat
like the steep rocky cliffs along the road in Colorado as
you cross say north from Gunnison to Junction City,
including the valleys, etc. (The hills are not as high as
in The Rocky Mount. Nat. Park.)  This range is about 150km
west of the Krueger park, on your way to PRETORIA or J'BURG.
 It takes about 4 hours to cross them, also thru very
colorful black villages and towns--where, unlike the
living-dead white culture, everyone is seemingly out with
friends or doing something.


ADDENDUM, Feb 21, 2993 from Kuala Lumpur.
=========================================

BEWARE OF TRAVEL IN SO. AFRICA.  Friends, I will make an
official report of the following about So. Africa and
forward the report to the Lonely Planet, Lets Go So.
Africa, Frommers, US State Dept., Aussie, New Zealand, UK,
and German and So. African Tourism boards, and others I can
think of later, so that there will be pressure on So.
Africa to correct its dubious business practices affecting
tourists.  First, let me say that I rate Malaysian Air as
one of the best airlines I know--I used most of the
airlines around the world--ALSO because you can change the
day and/or flight for FREE when most other airlines will
charge you $75 to $150 for this.  Use it if you can, also
because it is cheaper in SE Asia.  Now about So. Africa.

1. In my opinion, the Krueger Park is overrated as wildlife
park.  The landscape is very nice, but you go there
primarily to see wild animals in their natural habitat. 
There are just not enough of them to see. As I also
mentioned in my last report, take out the scores of small
antelopes--that run around like cows on a pasture, also at
the lodging places--seeing a (mere) dozen zebras,
wildebeest, and giraffes, 3 wart hogs, 3 baboons, 2
rhinos--too distant and obscured by brush--2 or 3 of a few
larger species of antelopes in 10 hours and 400km of
driving is not much.  Imagine driving around that long and
that far and not encountering a single lion, hyena,
buffalo, elephant, hippo, crocodile, leopard, wild dog. 
Oh, I am sure the latter are there . . . somewhere.  The
river banks too--rode for an hour along several
rivers--were empty but for a few birds.  Hell, you can
enjoy much more in a much shorter time at the Wild Animal
Park north of San Diego, in an almost natural setting. 
Unless the Krueger Park imports many animals of ALL species
into that huge area, the trip is not worth it.

2. VAT TAXES in So. AFRICA.  In So. Africa you pay 14
percent VAT TAX for all purchases, for which you as a
foreigner can get a partial refund.  How this works is as
follows.  On the day of your flight, you bring all your
receipts to one of the several desks in the departure hall.
 You are asked to open your luggage and show each item you
purchased for which you are seeking a refund for the VAT
Tax.  If all OK, they stamp the receipts, which you take to
another counter after you pass thru immigration.  There
they give you NOT money but a check.  This check you must
take to the bank next door and pay a 11-Rand fee to get it
cashed to Rands.  The idea of paying a fee to cash in a
refund is a turn off. OH, you want Dollars?  Guess what? 
You must pay 76 Rands ($9) for your first Dollar.  Neat ha?
 I asked the agent there why they did not put a masked
agent with a gun at the gate and rob the tourist directly
as they passed by, without all this cumbersome paperwork.

3. CAR RENTAL STORIES IN SO. AFRICA.  Beware that of all
the countries in which I rented cars, the ones in So.
Africa are the most dubious and corrupt.  By giving them
your credit card number you practically lend them the key
to your bank account. The point is, unless So. Africa
decides to join the list of civilized world of car rentals,
the stories below are bound to repeat:

a) 4 British girls aged 18-22 arrived in Cape Town about
the same time when I arrived there (on Feb. 5), rented a
car--one girl charged it to her credit card--and were
driving to their hostel when a drunk driver hit their car
really hard, so that some of the girls needed medical
attention, though no hospitalization.  The drunk driver
either did not have insurance, OR his insurance company
decided they would not pay for the accident because the
driver, by being drunk, became ineligible.  Anyway, the car
rental company the girls used took the price of entire car
from their credit card.  (This story was being told at the
hostels I was staying.)  Concerned, I brought this up with
my car rental agency.  They assured me that the insurance
company would put a lien on the drunk driver's property
(assuming he has such a property), collect the sum, and
eventually credit the girl's account.  GOOD LUCK, if and
when this happens.  The last I heard, the girls were left
penniless, their families back home trying to scrounge the
money to get them back.

b) This story was told by a South African male staying at
the Zebra Crossing hostel in Cape Town. He used to work for
a catering company that used also rental cars when their
own trucks were occupied.  On one occasion, he was given a
rental car on which the clutch froze the same afternoon. 
When he asked them to replace the car, they tried to charge
him 11,000 Rands ($1,200) for fixing the clutch.  Because
he had not personally charged the car to his credit card,
he was able to tell them to go and jump in the lake.  But,
he said, he got so concerned about being liable for
nonsense like this that he quit his work and was looking
for another catering company that did not use rental cars,
or assumed the liability for rental car mishaps.

c) When you sign the car rental contract initially, the
agents gets all the information about you--passport number,
license number, credit card, but puts down almost nothing
about their obligations, even the rate, insurance, hidden
charges, nothing, stating that you will be charged as
outlined on the posted advertisement sheet.  I rented my
car from TEMPEST car rental agency taking full insurance;
they brought the car to me from the airport to the hostel,
a distance of 2 km.  I returned the car to the hostel the
night before it was due and called the agent to come and
pick it up and finalize my bill.  He did not; he collected
the car the next day at 11 am, AND giving me no bill.  He
said it would take a day to finalize the bill. I told him
that I was leaving the next day; he said he would talk to
the bookkeeper.  She called and gave me and the hostel
agent the figures on the phone,  correct amounts but still
no signed invoice.

The rental agent then brought an invoice that afternoon
when I was away.  The invoice now showed 50 Rands ($7) as
car pick-up charge, which charge the bookkeeper had not
mentioned on the phone. (And I could have used the option
of delivering the car myself had someone mentioned such a
charge.)  Even worse, the bill he brought was just a
typewritten invoice, no company letterhead, logo, no
signature, causing some concern that I might find other
hidden charges in the real invoice after I returned to USA,
since the blank credit card slip I had signed initially was
in their possession; I had no receipt of what they actually
billed me.  Imagine the sick feeling one would get in view
of the other stories by car rental companies in So. Africa.