My first day on the continent

My first step on the continent has been in the International Airport of Johannesburg. The contrast to the small airport in Antananarivo is great. The whole place is sparkling bright with shops, lights, neon signs and marble floor (or something fancy anyway). The place smells of luxury. I thought, well it's probably only the airport anyway. But once a got to Windhoek in Namibia, i couldn't even detect something like a village from the airplane. When you fly over Madagascar, it's rare you can't see any village (if you're not too high up). What i could see was estates and modern buildings once arrived and driving to the city which lies 40km from the airport. The roads look better than in Mada too, even the cars look a bit less dumpy. There's a big influence from white settlers (Afrikaaners) over here. There are still lots of them living here. Windhoek itself has absolutely nothing to compare with a Malagasy town: it's more an american city than an african town. There even is a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken, an american fastfood for the ignorants :P). I will have to wait to get to the back country to see how a Namibian village looks like.

The drivings a bit the same as in Mada. They don't follow the roadsigns until in the city where there's some police presence and red lights. There are no red lights in Madagascar.

On the road from the airport to the city of Windhoek (which is about 40km) i have seen two giraffes and some baboons !! This is a country i'm going to like a lot.

Namibian electrical plug

Once arrived in my hotel, i asked a few questions, took my room, took a shower, and went off to the town center. I took a cab without noticing it was a cab at first (a guy asked me if i needed a lift with a finger wink and i went in his car). It cost me 8N$ to get to the town center with this collective or shared taxi (a taxi which takes several people at the same time). This is quite cheaper than a normal taxi which would cost around 40N$. I went to the mall and first thing i bought myself a namibian phone card (MTC) with a 10N$ credit which i still couldn't load onto my number. Thus i can phone local agencies around without paying much. SMS and phone to other countries works too, but anyways, i only have a few important numbers with me. People who want to try my Swiss number won't get anywhere near catching me. The best way to talk to me is by e-mail or if you are lucky enough, you can catch me on FB or MSN while i'm connected (which will be possible this week, but far less from the 12th on because of my youpiiiiiiiiiiiie camping-safari). Other stuff i bought was some Cadbury chocolate, dried meat, cookies, water, beer and an electrical converter. The Namibian electrical plug consists of two large round plugs (or three with earth). It's approximatively 1.5 times the size of European plugs.

I went to eat at KFC and drove back by shared taxi to my hotel with my new belongings.