Journey to Africa 2017. Istanbul-Jeddah-Johannesburg.
Saudi Arabia. I was not allowed to take pictures, although I did not like anything there.
Journey to Africa 2018. Istanbul-Jeddah-Johannesburg.
After a road trip across Europe, I did not want to think about a new trip at all. I rested, solved household problems, and as always there are a lot of them. Healed up a little. There was a lot of time to think in the hospital, as he checked in there twice for ten days. Poisoning in the Netherlands backfired, and not proper nutrition.
With him to the hospital he took a map of the world, wiped to holes. I often walk along it when I have free time. And yet the thirst for travel took its toll. There were two directions, to the northern part of South America or to southern Africa. I decided to fly to South Africa, and then how it goes. I read a lot of reviews about Johannesburg.
I did not find a single positive review, all negative horror stories about robbing, killing and raping in Johannes. Even travel sites, as a blueprint, wrote negative reviews in general terms. I had to watch the movie Gangster Johannesburg again. In such cases, I would like to ask the writers. Which one of you has been robbed? In response, silence.
At the airport in Johannesburg I was met by the President of South Africa ZUMA.
I bought air tickets Krasnodar-Istanbul (Sabiha)-Krasnodar. Why did you take tickets not through Moscow? Just tired of hearing about the next closure of Moscow airports in the winter. Through Istanbul, bad weather is a very rare occurrence. I bought the second ticket on the Istanbul (Ataturk) route with a transfer in Saudi Arabia-Johannesburg.
I left Novorossiysk by the last bus, since the flight from Krasnodar to Istanbul, bypassing Moscow. It was raining, slush.
Almost nothing reminded the New Year. From the Krasnodar bus station, as always in the evening, there is no public transport to the airport. Local authorities have handed over transportation to greedy taxi drivers who charge three times as much as a ticket from Novorossiysk to Krasnodar costs. Apparently in Russia there will not soon be a civilized service sector for tourists. I flew a half-empty plane to Istanbul Sabiha Airport. In Turkey, civilization is immediately noticeable.
Beautiful train station.
What I liked about Istanbul Airport was the speed of crossing the border. Quick queue. No declarations and picking in things arriving. What I did not like was that Russia is a visa for Turkey.
We can swim in Turkey, have fun, buy the necessary things, Enjoy beautiful places for two months, and the Turks can’t do any of this without a visa, which is issued to them with difficulties for a short period. I was ashamed to hear all this from the Turks on the plane.
Everywhere is clean, and that's where cleanliness ends in Johannesburg.
Russia tells the whole world to come visit us, but at the same time we are dragging the entry procedure for foreign tourists. Apparently we don't need tourists' money. After all, we are rich without their money. But who gets rich from this? I firmly believe that we should have the closest friendship with China, Turkey and Egypt.
Every thirty minutes there is a first-class bus from Sabiha Airport to Ataturk Airport, with a transfer only two hours later in the Taksim area.
The transfer itself took place in thirty seconds, and after 30 minutes I was already at Ataturk Airport, from where I flew to Saudi Arabia. After 3:15 our plane landed at the airport of Jeddah. After the rains in Krasnodar and Istanbul, Arabia met us with a hot day with sunshine. We were dropped off very far from the airport. We drove to the terminal 55 minutes through the sands. Since I deliberately made a long transfer in Arabia, I immediately asked the officer to allow me to leave for the city. At first he refused, and then for $100 he agreed to take me out of the airport, on the condition that I go without things and leave my passport. At the same time, he made a reservation that it is impossible to take pictures in the city and at the airport. By the way, I was the only foreigner at the airport for a day. I saw a piece of Saudi Arabia. The city did not inspire me at all. The same gray and unkempt, as the peripheral settlements in Egypt. I expected more from this closed country.
The airport sucks. The mass of locals, women are completely covered in black clothes, as if they were in mourning. I did see one face. Quiet horror. There was so much plaster on the face without the selection of texture that I have never seen a scarier woman. Very modest selection of food, rubbish everywhere. Every thirty minutes there is a very loud voice calling to prayer. It seemed that the speakers would bring down the ceiling of the airport. Now I will be the side to fly Arabia. I didn't like her at all.
The last leg of the flight went well. It's good that I registered tickets online with a seat selection at the exit of the plane, which was completely filled with 400 seats. Two places with very large space. What I didn't like about flying through Saudi Arabia. No alcohol is served on flights. The food is very scarce. Monitors are completely off. There was no kin, the kinschik fell ill. It was boring and dreary to fly.
For 400 people, I was one white. A young Arabian sat next to me. He spoke about his large family. It turns out they can not create a family with foreigners. Preserve the purity of the blood of the inheritance. But the Russians have long forgotten about it. It does not matter if a foreigner looks like a crocodile, the main thing is to profitably give his daughter for him, and he had pennies, as they used to say in the old days.
Jhannesburg Central Bus and Subway Station.
I lived in Johan for a week. All the rumors of tourists and travel agencies about the danger were not true. I walked in various parts of the city all day until evening. I photographed a lot.
I was waiting to be robbed. Tourists caught up with my fear for a year ahead. It seems to me that it is better for tourists to describe their adventures while traveling, and not rewrite the rumors of others. If I was robbed with robbery in Tunisia in the center of the resort, then I described it that way.
If I was once robbed in South Africa, then I wrote exactly what happened to me personally.
She asked me to be her husband and the children would be mine. "But I need it, I thought"?
Central Station. I lived close by.
This is far from Krasnodar, which is a hundred times worse.
My number is two tiers. What else does a poor tourist need?
View from the room.
Gandhi inherited everywhere, like Lenin in Russia, but he disentangles the people.
They never wanted to rob me, although I was looking for adventure on my own...
The photo is not mine.
South African President Zuma flew to Russia and canceled the visa for the Russians.
The photo is not mine. President Zuma decided to marry for the fourth time. Pretty boy.
Everything, as Zhirinovsky promised the Russians, only he does not have a wife, but a lot of mistresses.
The photo is not mine. South African President Zuma, like our Yeltsin, when he was drinking.
Without whites, Johannesburg sucks.
The photo is not mine. Nelson Mandela: We defeated apartheid with a bright head and a good heart.
We took everything from the whites, and now drive yourself.
Former President of South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and politician with the most impeccable reputation has died at the age of 96
The only beauty in the whole country.
The gilding has not yet been torn off.
View of the outskirts.
