This week was jam packed with travel activity, and unexpected planning. The week started quietly as we ran out the clock on our time in Colombo (days 249 and 250). War in the middle east impacted our travel (day 251), but we adjusted and still managed to travel from Sri Lanka to South Africa. Part of the adjustment saw us spending a night in the island paradise of Seychelles (day 252), and then a welcome back to western culture with amazing buffet food at our Johannesburg hotel (day 253). By the end of the week (day 254) we were finally in our condo in Knysna South Africa.

Travel Log: Day 249 (3/3), Sri Lanka

We had a nice quiet day in our Colombo condo today. We did school from 10am-2pm as we continue to shift our entire schedule later to prepare for the time zone shift in South Africa.

Through the day I did Duolingo, and finished writing the blog post about our tour down through Galle yesterday. After that I dusted off our taxes because the functionality I need in Turbotax opened up. It still took me over an hour to finish the taxes, and I haven’t yet submitted them. The screens in Turbotax were very confusing, and the internet is so glitchy that it made things difficult. I have them ready but I’m just going to wait until South Africa to submit them.

We had our favorite restaurant (Paan Paan) for dinner again. I had a different soup (lentil) and it was really good. JC and I had some drinks while just hanging out in the living room with Alexis. Both AC and BC earned extra screen time, which occupied their time.

Travel Log: Day 250 (3/4), Sri Lanka

Normal school day today.

We booked a hotel room by the airport and will be leaving tomorrow afternoon to go stay there. I want no risk of failing to get a ride in the overnight hours.

AC and BC earned more video game time again. I spent a lot of time writing the February budget post.

Travel Log: Day 251 (3/5), Sri Lanka

Our morning was mostly normal, but we got to an earlier start so we could wrap up school and leave the condo by 1pm. We ate from the remaining things in fridge for both breakfast and lunch. It resulted in some weird meals, such as me eating two blocks of cheese over the last few days.

After lunch we packed our last remaining things like chargers and adapters, and took the exit pictures. We put the keys in the lock box, said goodbye to our caretaker, and ordered a PickMe. It took about 10 minutes to get a car, and then the ride took around 75 minutes.

We have been pleasantly surprised with our hotel. The front desk guy was friendly, spoke great english, and assured us our shuttle would be there waiting for us at 2am. The room is basic but clean, nice, and cold. The wifi is exceptionally fast at about 250Mbit, as compared to the almost unusable 1.5Mbit at our airbnb.

After lounging around for a couple hours, we got dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was good, but the amount of flies was annoying. Between dinner and our hotel room we were able to drain most of our rupees.

The plan for tonight is to go to bed at 8pm and sleep the best we can until about 1:30am.

Travel Plans Disrupted

As we were winding down for the night, I checked my email and found that our flight for tomorrow morning had been delayed by 4 hours. We knew this was a big problem because our layover wasn’t even 4 hours. Shortly thereafter we got another email from Air Seychelles saying our connection was rescheduled for a day later. We scrambled with how to adapt our plan to this and did the following things over the course of a couple hours:

• Notified the hotel our shuttle time needed to be later
• Filled out the eTA for Seychelles since we would be staying overnight
• Asked Air Seychelles via email if they would be providing hotel/meal vouchers since they introduced an overnight stay
• Booked a room in Seychelles
• Modified our flight from Johannesburg to George to be on 3/8 instead of 3/6. We couldn’t find a 3/7 flight that would work.
• Found a hotel for the night of 3/7 in Johannesburg, but didn’t yet book it

None of the flight trackers would show our updated flight time for the morning which concerned us a little.

Travel Log: Day 252 (3/6), Sri Lanka and Seychelles

Going to the airport

We set our alarms for 4:15am to catch our 4:45am shuttle, and that all went on schedule. It wasn’t until half way through the shuttle ride that the driver in broken english asked what time our flight was and we said 8:50. He said “you are going 4 hours early”? T’hat’s when it hit us that we got up an hour earlier than necessary. I was sleeping hard too when my alarm went off, and I could have easily clocked another hour.

The security guy at the front door of the airport hesitated letting us in, doing the math in his head on how long till the flight. He let us in, but it showed us that we could not have arrived earlier the prior night like we thought about doing.

Checkin and Security

We asked the ticket counter if we could get our bags in Seychelles instead of having them go to Johannesburg. They said yeah, so we checked them and went through immigration. It seemed like we weren’t going to have to do any security beyond the simple bag scan before check-in. When we arrived at our gate through, they had a security checkpoint.

It was the dumbest setup we’ve ever seen. There was no room for a line to form so it was just out in the hallway. They were telling everyone to get going through with over 90 minutes before the flight. Once through, there were no bathrooms, water, or anything. There were just chairs in tight quarters.

The flight & Pickup confusion

We got on the plane and it was pretty nice. I ended up with an empty seat on one side and the aisle on the other. The flight was good and felt quick. There was a guy directly in front of me hacking his lungs up, clearly very sick. He was coughing at a rate that I have never in my life coughed at. It wasn’t more than a few minutes between uncontrollable coughing fits. That didn’t stop him from getting wine though. I just hope I don’t get a notice soon saying we were exposed to TB.

Since we were in row 5, we were near the first to hit immigration and sailed through. We had to wait about 20 minutes for our bags, and then we breezed through customs and hit the outside area. We tried to exchange our Sri Lankan Rupees for Seychelles Rupees but they didn’t take them, and they didn’t even seem to know what they were. I got 5K rupees from an ATM (~$359).

We kept sending messages to the host about our status, but she wasn’t there to pick us up. I asked her if she was going to or if we should take a taxi, and she said we should take a taxi. The price was absurd at 6K rupees (~$43) to go just a couple kilometers. I set aside another 600 and asked the same driver to come get us at 6am tomorrow.

Guest House & Evening

The host showed us around the house, and it is pretty amazing. It’s a whole little house to ourselves with good AC, a good sleeping situation, and decent wifi. Everything is very clean, and we’re sort of in a little compound with another airbnb and the hosts house. The host offered to drop us at a place for dinner where we could also walk to the beach, so we did that at 4pm. Before that we walked to a little grocery store to get water, movie snacks, and some drinks.

The beach was amazing looking at first, but then we realized how overrun with seaweed it was. A Russian guy we ran into said it was the worst beach in Seychelles. We walked for about 30 minutes and then went to a restaurant called Green House. The food and vibe were really good, but it was expensive at almost $90. We messaged the host to come get us, and we didn’t hear from her. After 30 minutes we decided to walk and JC sent a message letting her know, and then she said she was on her way. She got us just down the road from Green House and was apologetic.

We never got around to watching a movie because of everything we had to do to wrap up the night and get ready to leave in the morning. Seychelles is cool and I’d consider coming back, but it’s probably just too damn expensive.

Travel Log: Day 253 (3/7), Seychelles and South Africa

We got up at 5:15 this morning to meet our cab that was arriving at 6am. The cab driver showed up early like a true pro, so I almost didn’t mind paying him the $43 for the one mile ride.

Our lodging was really good, aside from the noisy pee cover on the mattress just like we had in Sri Lanka. I really liked the whole estate and thought it would be fun to own it. It has the main house and two guest houses that Rita (the host) rents out.

Airport & Flight

The Seychelles airport is very much like the Guam airport in terms of size and speed getting through it. We checked our bags, made it through the minimal security, and arrived at our gate in about 20 minutes. If we hadn’t checked bags we would have been there in five minutes.

As we waited to board our flight, we heard a familiar cough that we knew so well. It was TB guy and he was on our flight. Luckily he didn’t sit anywhere near us in the back of the plane. He wasn’t even the sickest person on the flight. The lady diagonally behind me was healthy walking the beaches of Seychelles when she lost feeling and movement on her left side. They were flying her back to South Africa for medical attention. I felt bad for her because she sounded like she was dying, and I think she threw up several times.

Everything with immigration, customs, and baggage was smooth. We hit an ATM and got cash, and I got a Schwab fraud alert and had to tell them it was me taking out money. That was a nice simple process through text. My guess is that I triggered it by using the contactless feature, which is the first time I’ve done that.

Next we walked to the bus terminal to catch our shuttle, which happened to be there waiting for us. We’re staying at a hotel named Southern Sun, and they run a free shuttle every 15 minutes.

Hotel

After we arrived and checked in, the guy helping us with our bags asked if he could give us USD for ZAR, and we said yes. This didn’t strike me as weird, because we could exchange the currency at the going rate, vs him getting a lesser amount at a money exchange. It was a three part exchange and I was very careful to make sure it wasn’t a scam. I only had large ZAR bills, and he had 28 USD. First was him giving me $24 for 400 ZAR, since I only had 200s. Then he broke another of my 200s into two 50s and a 100. I gave him the 50 in exchange for $3, and that’s as far as we could make it, leaving him with $1. It still could have been a scam if he was giving me counterfeit bills.

For dinner we went to the restaurant at the hotel and it was incredible. It was a buffet that felt like a welcome back to western lifestyle. They had a salad station with crab, chicken slices with avocado, tomatoes, and other things. I started with a salad, and then for the main course I got a mashed potato thing called “pap”, some chicken with sauce, and some beef with sauce. I rounded it out with a small piece of cheesecake and a macaroon type thing. It cost us about $80 with tip.

Travel Log: Day 254 (3/8), South Africa

Hotel

We did our best to sleep in this morning, but I was up at 3:30am for the day. The time change was just too much to overcome, and really 3:30am is the best I could have hoped for. That would be 7am in Sri Lanka, and I was honestly never sleeping in that late there. Our schedule adjustment has given us the best shot at minimal impact with a 3.5 hour timezone shift. We need to start working our schedule back over the remainder of our gap year to where we are going to bed at 2am. That will put us at a natural bedtime in Denver of 7pm, which is workable.

The breakfast at the hotel was just as good as dinner. I had potatoes, bacon, sausage, and fruit. They had all sorts of other good options as well.

Johannesburg Airport & Flight

After checking out we went to the airport around 8:30am, and we had to wait a half hour to check in. The Johannesburg airport is pretty unique and rather nice, so it was a decent spot to hang out. At security they scrutinized me pretty hard, giving me a thorough pat-down and searching my bag. They also searched AC’s bag since she was in line with me.

The plane was pretty nice for a budget airline and fairly spacious. I had an empty seat beside me, and the flight seemed quick for two hours. JC felt pretty sick because she took an off-brand dramamine. From what we have found, nothing works except for actual dramamine.

George Airport & Knysna

At George our baggage came quickly, and we went and got our rental car from Hertz. It was easy just like in Guam. I think because I’m booking through Chase travel they just save their breath on the collision and extra coverages. We got oriented with our car, a Suzuki something, and then took off. The hardest part of the reversed driving was I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. We made it to the condo without much trouble.

The condo is nice, although smaller than we thought it would be. We got our plug adapter and charging set up, figured out water (filtering it), unpacked, etc. After that we went to the grocery store and got a large haul for only $97. There is a new Checkers just a few minutes walk from our condo. It was large, clean, and the prices were good. This initial load of groceries coming in that cheaply is encouraging. Subsequent runs to the store are usually half the amount of the initial run.

Before dinner we went for a brief walk up a flight of stairs we saw just outside of the condo complex. It was a steep set of stairs, and at the top you could see the water front area and the ocean. We took in the view and then walked down the stairs, at which point we crossed the first pair of locals we have seen. The guy asked us for money, and JC told him “no, sorry”. This was a disappointing turn of events, starting off with a 100% rate of being seen as an ATM.

Giving money to people who ask is tricky here from what I have read, just like in the US. On one hand they can truly use the money, the money is nothing to us, and inequality is staggering here from what I understand. There’s also the worry of reinforcing their dependence on money handouts, and also from a selfish angle of being seen as an easy target. I don’t have a firm stance on giving money, and we will probably play it by ear on each situation.

For dinner we intended to have frozen pizza, which we found for only $4 each. One of them had obviously been melted and severely misshapen though, so the kids ate the one pizza we kept and cooked. JC and I opted for peanut butter banana sandwiches.

In the evening we played catchup on administrative things. We did our logs, investigated the trip disruption benefit our chase card provides, prepped school stuff, and other things we’ve neglected in this scramble to get to Knysna.