Sent on Feb 21, 2003 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.