The South African adventure begins: Landing in Cape Town.

We arrived this morning after the flight, which didn’t feel as long as the 13 hours that it was.

I haven’t been on Malaysia Airlines in four years, in fact, I haven’t been on any long-haul flight in four years. It seemed less cramped, but that might just have been the excitement of going home. The in-flight entertainment is also way more advanced in that every seat can control every movie, which means at whatever time you feel like watching a movie, you go to the appropriate channel and if the movie is half way, for instance, you simply rewind it and watch from the start.

Previously I spent long-haul flights playing games, but this flight was ground breaking, because I fell asleep not too long after take-off and slept until two hours before we landed at Joburg. We were also lucky to sit in a section where the service was attentive and a super-friendly stewardesses brought us plenty of fluids.

We landed at Cape Town International Airport under clear blue skies, but icy cold weather. My mom, sister and brother-in-law met us at the airport and several rounds of hugs and greetings ensued and then introductions as I formally introduce the Journo and the Sausage to their South African hosts.

After settling in at home to the accommodations my mom prepared for us, we went to Cape Town’s biggest mall, Canal Walk, to pick up some braai supplies, but decided to go walkabout first before we buy things that would have to stay in the car. Whilst at Canal Walk we also changed some money, because we lucked out on Rands in Kuala Lumpur.

It was an exceptionally expensive exercise and we only did it once. In Malaysia there’s a rate on the board, which is a rate not far different from the international rates you can get from sites like xe.net for instance, and this the rate at which you exchange your money. In South Africa however, the poor rates displayed on the board is just the start.

Before we exchange money xe.net said the Ringgit vs. the Rand was something like 2.35 – we looked around the various exchanges at Canal Walk, but they were pretty much the same. Eventually we got a rate from Rennies. The board displayed something like 2.15 – but we needed money so took it. However, once they converted our Ringgit to Rand, they take a commission off the Rand they give you as well, so I worked it out that effectively our rate was something stupid like 2.05. That’s a big loss for your average tourist.

We decided then that exchanging money here like this is going to make our holiday more expensive and we would start using our cards wherever possible. Much later in the holiday I needed more Rand and drew money from the machine. I got a rate virtually the same as the xe.net rate and currently it doesn’t seem like I paid transaction fees, although that could still come at the end of the month.

Something else that also incentivised me to do this is that as a South African passport holder I must provide a utility bill with my name and address on it to prove where I live. WTF!? My Malaysian friends only needed to show their passports.

So Cape Town Tip Number 1 is don’t exchange money here: just draw it from the ATM.

As we went through the Waterfront looking at prices of stuff, I realised Cape Town has become a very expensive place, certainly much, much more expensive than I anticipated.

We had a BBQ that night, but the 3 of us were completely floored and had to cut it short because we simply couldn’t stay awake. The South African adventure begins.