Maui Trip October 2008 The Plan Aloha David! 10/4/2008 (Aloha means with breath in Hawaiian; but it is generally translated as “hello” or "love".) I’ve been thinking about the Maui trip for over 30 years, but now it is getting to be real. It really started with this e-mail. The following is what I wrote to David on October 9th. On Oct 9, 2008, at 6:57 PM, Frank Gati wrote: David: You were in Maui in September of 1974 with your mom and me. The exact dates were September 21 and 22 of 1974. We stayed at the Maui Palms. Maui Palms may still be in business and if it is, I’m planning to stop by and check it out. So we’re undertaking this journey for a couple of reasons: (1) to revisit your very first trip. You were only 10 months old and we have pictures to prove it. (2) Although we did go up to Haleakala, we didn’t go down in it and I promised back in ‘74, that we would return and go down in it together. Haleakala is a 10,000 foot dormant volcano, also known as “House of the Sun” coming from a legend about the Demy-God Maui who forced the sun to slow down at this point to help his mother. We also need to drive the road to Hana; Hana is where the sacred pools are and the road to Hana has over 900 curves and is one of the most beautiful tropical coastlines. We also want to revisit the Ports of Lahaina. Lahaine used to be the whaling capital of the world, but now it’s a tourist town and a yacht harbor. We should be able to catch a boat from there to go to the neighboring Lanai Island. Lanai is about 7 miles from Maui. What do you think? This was the extent of my e-mail. By the middle of September, 2008, I was free to start preparing for the Maui trip. Gretchen Larsen, my Gurdjieffian friend and a DELTA stewardess secured us standby tickets from LAX to Kahului on Delta flight #1477 leaving LA at 4:45 arriving in Maui at 7:15pm ($78 OW). But before that I had to get down to LA. So I got a ticket on Southwest for ($49 going and & $75 Return). Lana and Zoli were also in Hawaii in 12-23-89 I’ve included a picture of them. Day 1 Tuesday 10/07/08 (Departure) Any trip can and will interrupt our regular life and takes us out of our comfort zone. However, this uncomfortable ness is exactly what we need to see Life differently. I am nervous and disturbed, but I’m getting ready. Thank God, Sally is helping me. We travel on a very low budget, but we can’t do without a car. One reason is that we will be arriving late in the evening, so we needed transportation. Sally reserved a car for us from Advantage Rent-a-Car for a week ($160 total). The car will not be exactly at the airport, but the Advantage shuttle should take us there. We were listed First Class, but the plane was full, so we were lucky to get any seat. Actually we were the last two who got on the plane. We had separate seats, but we eventually were able to sit together in the bulkhead. The flight was an uneventful 6 hours over the Pacific Ocean. We talked and ate our sandwiches. No meal is served on coach. David watched movies and I listened to music. We got to Maui on time, but it was already dark. We got our bags and found the Advantage shuttle outside the airport. Our car a Pt Cruiser was waiting for us. The drive to our hostel “Northshore” ($30 p/p/d) took us 5 minutes only. The hostel was clean and we got our own room, but bathrooms we shared. So far is so good! Hey...We did pretty good after all! Day 2 Wednesday 10/08/08 (Lahaina) our hostel was in a very poor area of Wailuku so the first thing I did in the morning was to check our car on the parking lot. The car was still there and was not touched. We didn’t sleep well the rooster next door was keeping us up. Kukurikuuíííííííí is what we heard all night long, but there was free coffee and the bathrooms were clean. We brought some hard boiled eggs from San Francisco and that is what we had for breakfast. Around 9 am we decided to drive to Lahaina, which is about 25 miles to the west on road #30. We didn’t know where to get off from the freeway, so we almost missed it, but eventually we did find our way into town. We saw houses built by the missionaries from the 1850’s. The place smelled American, but more about this later. At first we just walked around, but later we saw a lot of advertisement for snorkeling. At first I didn’t realize that these were also timeshare people who were selling snorkeling trips. After talking to them I saw what was going down there; and when one of them offered us a Molokini snorkeling cruise free if we would attend a sales presentation, we said “Yes.” I'm a sucker for free stuff. Besides this was a highly sought after cruise and would be around $150 for the two of us. However, timeshare presentations can also be high pressured, and they can become very uncomfortable. But I’ve had plenty of experience. The last time Sally and I went to such a presentation was in Las Vegas and the sales person realized soon that we’re hopeless and gave us the free tickets almost immediately to the Mystere Cirque du Soleil Show. In my opinion timeshares are somewhat of a scam, but apparently they work for some people. As David said “It’s for people who want on their vacation what they have at home”. I, however, like to have a little adventure on my vacation, so timeshares are not for me. A timeshare is the buying of property with other people -- and sharing the time you spend in it, hence the name “timeshare.” Nowadays, however, they don’t call it that, now they call it “Vacation Ownership” it’s all about marketing. The thing that bothers me the most about it is that: let’s say I buy a week or two and I pay for it in full, but then I still have to make the mothly payments for the upkeep, for the rest of my life, and I hate monthly payments with a passion. Luckily we got a simpathetic salesman. He didn’t even take us to see the grounds. We got the the tickets for the snorkling trip to Molokini within an hour, so tomorrow is taken care of. David and I did well together! Day 3 Thursday 10/09/08 (Molokini) today is our snorkeling day. We are to show up at the Maallea Bay Marina at 6:15 am for our free snorkeling trip. The Marina is not far from us about 15 minutes at the most, but I’m worried that we will oversleep, so we set all of our alarms for 5:00 in the morning. But we didn’t need the alarms since the rooster woke us up anyway. We are going on the Pacific Whale Foundation’s catamaran to Molokini Crater. It’s an ancient volcanic caldera that offers some of the clearest water for snorkeling in the world. Actually it’s a fish sanctuary. The trip includes breakfast, BBQ lunch and all the snorkel gear. I checked on the boat for the actual price and it was $79.95, but for us (thanks to our timeshare salesman) it was free. (Supposedly this organization is non-profit.) We got there in the dark way ahead of time. The boat didn’t leave until after 7:00. There were a lot of people. The first thing I did on the boat was to spill a whole cup of hot coffee on David’s lap. It was too crowded on the boat and it was moving. We rented wet suites for $10 apiece, but the snorkeling wasn’t that great – not much fish and crowded. However, after an hour or so we went on to Turtle Town, somewhere between Maallea Bay and Wailea close to the Maui shore where we swam with green sea turtles and that was spectacular. It was not easy to find them, but David is a good swimmer and he located one turtle right away, and I took some great underwater pictures of her. I think it was a “She”. The Green Sea Turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle in the world. They have survived more than 110 million years of evolution and geological change. They range in length from 2 to 6 feet and they can weigh up to 600 pounds. Their top shell can be olive green, or brown the one I photographed was brown. They are called Green Sea Turtles because of the color of their flesh. Swimming in these pristine waters with the turtles was unforgettable. It reminded me of a documentary I saw a long time ago by Leny Riefenstahl, who at age 72 began pursuing unerwater photagraphy. She made a film titled Wunder unter Wasser (Wonder under Water). It was a plea for the preservation of the coral reefs. She starts of the film with this request. The photography was stunning. The variety of life and the incredible connection between all lives is evident. It’s unlike any nature film I have ever seen. There is no "story", no voice over, just music. We are presented simply with a selection of creatures living in the coral reef. As I said, the variety was magnificent. She showed us huge rays swimming around and dancing in an elaborate ballet. The beauty is beyond anything I had seen in similar films - and all of this was done without comment, leading visually the viewer to reflect on the nature of life and form. After our incredible underwater experience we had lunch on the boat while we watched the spinner dolphins. The whole trip was really remarkable. We came back very tired in the late afternoon and had dinner at an Italian place on our corner. We went to bed early, but we swam with the turtles. I was able to get on the internet and wrote the following to Sally: Hi Sally: We're OK. We had a great morning snorkeling with the green turtles. I have some pictures. I'll call you this evening, but I was able to get on the machine, so I’m writing now. David sends his love also. Feri. Day 4 Friday 10/10/08 (Haleakala) the unfamiliar surroundings and the tension that goes with my type of travel seem to alter my consciousness and I have very vivid dreams. Every time I’m on the road I have this recurring dream of searching through a house. I dreamed about it last night again. I know this house very well. I have been dreaming about this house since I was a child. The first time was probably when I was 5 or 6 years old and was living in Godollo[1], Hungary. I lived there from the age of two and half until seven. The house in my dream is a two-story building with a large dining room. During the years, however, the house changed somewhat, but I always recognize it. I don’t remember the details of my dreams and I don’t know what it means, but I always recognize this house, and I’m always restless after the experience. So once again I didn’t get the rest I needed. I’m not looking forward to this day. In addition we have to find another place to sleep tonight, and also for tomorrow night. We knew this before we came. They (the management) told us that Friday and Saturday NorthStar will be doing some renovation. I brought a couple of flimsy sleeping bags, a tent and a ground cloth for us. We’re planning to go up to the Haleakala Crater and stay there overnight. We’re going into the Wild!! I’m taking some blankets and pillows from the hostel. The manager agreed to this because we will be coming back there Sunday. We were supposed to get some provisions, but breakfast was too expensive, so we bought only one sandwich for the two of us. Haleakala is one of those rare mountains that you climb from the top down since there is Hwy #37 which takes you to the top to 10,023 feet. About 10 miles into the drive we’re passing through the little town of Pukalani. This would have been the last chance to get some more food, but we passed it up again. Eleven miles from there at 7,000 feet is the park entrance. I showed my Golden Age Pass and we continued on to the Hosmer Grove campground. There were some people there already, but there was plenty of room, to put up our tent. Within 15 minutes we went to our first hike (1.5 miles one-way) to a Crater Overlook. The majestic setting of the Haleakala Crater with its moonlike landscape was incredible. After we returned to the trailhead we continued with the car to the second Visitor Center at 9,749 feet and from there another half mile walked up to the actual summit at 10,023'. Than at 1:00 pm we started on the Sliding sand Trail down to the Cinder Cones (2.5 miles one way.) The Haleakala Crater is a massive depression some 7 mile across, and 2 miles wide, and half a mile deep. The surrounding walls are steep and the interior is barren-looking with a scattering of cinder cones. The volcano is considered dormant, but it has produced numerous eruptions in the last 30,000 years. Early Hawaiians applied the name Haleakala("house of the sun") to the summit area only, most likely because from the west side of the island, the sun could be seen rising up over the eastern side of the mountain. The depression at the summit was the home of Maui’s grandmother(Maui was a Hawaiian demi-god) and according to the legend, Maui's grandmother helped him capture the sun and force it to slow its journey across the sky in order to lengthen the day for her. The walk down was nice, but climbing out from the crater was diffificult. When we got to the cinder cone David walked around it. We got back up around 5 p.m. very exhausted. We spent about another hour on the top then we drove back to our campsite. We ate our half a sandwitch and potato chips and got into our sleeping bacs. In the beginning it was OK, but later the cold became unbearable. I couldn’t sleap. I was up every hour on the hour, around 5:00 in the morning I was thinkig to get up and get into the car, but I didn’t do it. However, we were up by 6:00 a.m.; and we were ready to take down the tent and get the hell out of here. Day 5 Saturday 10/11/08 (Hana) It’s 6:00 in the morning. We’re still on the mountain. What a night! I didn’t think I was going to make it. It was too cold. Our sleeping bags were too flimsy. Actually they were not really sleeping bags at all, and the covers we took from the hostel didn’t help much either. We took down the tent in minutes. We got off the mountain and left for Hana, and within in an hour we were in the sunshine driving to Paia. We had breakfast there, but not in a restaurant rather in a coffee shop. I had bagels with cream cheese. David misplaced his sunglasses, but we found them in the upstairs bathroom. I then handed the car over to David because he wanted to drive the famous scenic, but very windy and narrow Hana Road. The drive was spectacular through the rain forest. We saw lots of waterfalls and the most incredible views of the ocean. When we came into Hana; and just by sheer luck, there was a native Hawaiian celebration and a procession on the streets. I jumped out of the car immediately and took several pictures. This was the only time we saw real Hawaiians on the island. Maui is full of Anglos from the mainland. We know little about Hawaiian history, but I did hear about Kahuna. Kahuna means “high priest” or “magician”, but lately anybody who is an expert in something can be called a Kahuna – a big kahuna. Originally Kahunas were like shamans who served as mediums in communicating with the gods; they served as healers. There was a revival of the Hawaiian culture beginning in the 1970s, and some of the native Hawaiian cultural practitioners call themselves kahuna today. We had a hard time finding a place to sleep. Hana was sold out, but eventually we got a place at the campground at the Haleakala National Park about 8 miles south of Hana at Kapahulu. It was strange that we were back at the volcano, Halaekala, but this time not on the mountain, but on the beach. This is the place where the volcano emptied itself into the sea. Before we settled down for the night, however, we took a short trip to an organic farm 2 miles down on the Hana Road. When we got back, I had a hard time getting down to the beach where the camping area was. Our rented car was not made for this rough road, but I did it very slowly. I put the tent up while David took a walk to the "Seven Sacred Pools", but he didn’t do the whole walk, he came back to the campsite in 20 minutes. Our neighbor gave us some water and we were ready to go to sleep. We slept on the beach and it was much better than the night before. Day 6 Sunday 10/12/08 (Return from Kapahuli and visiting the Iao Needle) Yes, I did sleep better than the previous night, but still sleeping on the ground can be dangerous. I remember a couple of years ago I threw my back out in Puerto Rico. But this time my back was OK. We were up early in the morning. We took the tent down and packed up the car fast. I wanted to get out of campground as soon as possible. I was still worried about the rough road leading out to the highway. This short trip out of the campground was very rough, and the following drive back to the North side of the island reminded me of the French film “The Wages of Fear”. Because one has to avoid bumps when your cargo is nitroglycerin, one mistake and you’re dead or in our case have a brokken axel and we get stuck for days. I saw this movie back in Hungary in 1954. It’s a simple, but an existential film about pennyless adventurers stuck in a nowhere place in South America. Four of them are hiered to drive a truck loaded with nitroglycerin to a burning oil well to put out an oil fire. Very mucho people an excellent example that the meek shell not inherent the earth. No film student should miss this film. It is not Citizen Kane, however, it is a classic. I probably saw it in a movei house on Istvan St. (now Landler Jeno street) a few blocks from our house in Budapest. Once I drove out from the campground I gave the wheel to David again and he drove all the way home. In the beginning road was very narrow and later it became even worse an unpaved dirt road. David drove well he kept it study and with an even speed. We have really circum navigate the whole island. We stopped for breakfast in a small place, and from there Dave drove back all the way to the hostel. This was a super effort. We got back to the hostel by noon and we got back our old room #17. The excursion to Haleakala and Hana was over In the early afternoon after a short rest we drove to the Iao Valley. This site is very close to our hostel. This is a tourist stop and a couple of tour busses was still there. This is the place where the “Battle of the Dammed Waters” took place back in 1790 between Kamehameha I and the forces of Maui. This is when Kamehameha unified the Hawaiian islands. The 2 armies were evenly mached and only the canons of Kamehameha operated by a couple of Europians decided the outcome in his favor. It was a very bloody battle, but it unified Hawaii. Tomorrow we’re going to the Island of Lanai. So once again we had to set our alarm because the ferry boat leaves early from Lahaina harbour. Day7Monday10/13/08(Lanai) today is our last day. Tomorrow we’re going home, but we’re going home in the evening, so we will have time to do the “last day” things like buying some gifts and sending home some postcards. I had a difficult night again. I was dreaming about Hungary. I’m including a poem which I wrote probably back in 1966. I was living in Santa Monica at the time. About the time Lana was borne. She was born in the Santa Monica Hospital on 14th St. and Wilshire Boulevard. Remembering. Ancient words tearing my lips apart, Last night again I walked in the Hungarian mud. In the land of my memories, my soul was wondering, Looking for the past, which I must now give up. How can I forget it, how can I give it up? The land where I was born and learned to talk. The tales my mother read and the summer nights Where the neighbors’ girl touched my heart. Land of the free and home of the brave, You lured me here and I had to come, But I’ve left my heart behind and now I’m unable to pay the price. I realize that including this poem in my travel diary is somewhat pretentious, but what is remembering, if not conjuring up old poems. Besides, back in 1966, I was still living in two worlds, although I really didn’t fit in with my own Hungarians culture either. I had to leave Hungary and I was glad to leave it; but, still leaving your country and your family is very, very, very painful. It’s 7:00 in the morning and we’ve parked our car at the Lahaina harbor. We’re taking the Interisland Ferry to Lanai. Lanai is a small island that used to be owned by James Dole of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, but there’s no more pineapple. Now it’s just expensive hotels and golf there. The ferry cost us $50 each, but we don’t care anymore; it’s the end of our trip. Only golfers were on the boat; they were going over to Lanai to play on the famous golf course at the Manele Bay Hotel where Bill and Melinda Gates on the 12th Tee were married on January 1, 1994. To ensure their privacy Bill rented every hotel room (250 rooms at $500 a throw) and chartered every helicopter close by. Mr. Gates is very lucky, even now in this recession he is worth over 40 billion dollars. The ride was about an hour if that. The island is barren and mysteries to us. We walked to the beach and we swam some. The water was great and David snorkeled a little. Later on we spent some time in the hotel enjoying its amenities. We came back to Maui with the earlier boat and had dinner in a Lahaina restaurant “Mixed Plate” on Front Street for David’s 35th Birthday. He had the Hawaiian food, but not the Luau. When we walked back to our car, I remembered that I had walked in this same exact place 34 years ago. . Day 8 Tuesday 10/14/08 (We’re going home today.) It’s early morning and we’re packing our stuff up; but before we checked out from the North Shore Hostel, we had some of the free food for breakfast. I’m worried about tonight’s flight. We’re standby on Delta flight 1212 leaving at 8:48 p.m. from Kahului to Los Angeles. This is the red eye arriving in LA around 5:00 in the morning. The question is: can we get on? I’m hoping for the best. We had a hard time finding the post office; but after several tries, we found it and wrote and mailed our Hawaiian postcards. We used the postcards which I bought from the Haleakala Visiting Center. I wrote to Lana and her family, George Soloki and Nick Gyore -- my Hungarian buddies and my Gurdjiffian friends -- Gretchen Larsen, Janet & Vincent Lidster, Ralph Colby, D.Sinkovits and my kid brother Laci. David sent a card to Sally and to his grandmother and my mother-in-law Shirley Cytron. After that, we went to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. This is Maui’s museum. There was an exhibit of drawings. What struck me was the incredible liturgical art of Jean Charlott. The woodcuts of “Christ’s walk to the cross” the Via Dolorosa[2]. I was able to take pictures of them and I’ve included the 8th Station. After the museum, we went shopping for presents -- some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and a book about the Hawaiian Royalty. Macadamias are originally from Australia, but Hawaii produces a lot now. We had one important task left to do. It was to check out the infamous Palms Hotel where we stayed 34 years ago. The hotel was still there, but now it is called the “Maui Beach Hotel”. It was completely remodeled, but there was a small section of the old hotel which still exist and we took pictures of it. I had a chance to show the hotel personnel the picture card that I still have from the place as it was 34 years ago. We were ready to leave the place; but there was a Nature Sanctuary close to the airport, so we spent some time there. Around 6:00, we were ready to return the car. We went back to Advantage Rent-A-Car, and we returned the car without any problem. We took the shuttle to the airport. Once we got there, we checked in and the waiting began. But we were really lucky, we not only got on the flight, but we got first-class seats. How nice! We immediately got served. We both asked for a beer and later we got steak sandwiches. We arrived on time around 5:00 a.m. and I said good-bye to David and he said to me, “Hey Dad, we pulled this off, didn’t we?” To which I said, “Hell Yeah!” He had to find his way home and I had to catch the 6:00 a.m. Southwest flight to San Francisco. The Southwest terminal was on the other side of the LA airport, and it took me for awhile to get there. As I was walking, I thought, “The Hawaiian Dream is over now and I’m back to reality, back into my ordinary life.” Of course Mr. Gurdjieff would have said “It is your ordinary life which is the dream and about reality, you can only get glimpses of it.” [1] Gödöllő is a town situated in about 30 km (19 miles) northeast from Budapest. Its population is about 31,000. Szent István Egyetem (Saint Stephen University of Agriculture) is located there. The royal palace at Gödöllő was built for the aristocratic Grassalkovich family, and later became the summer resident of Franz Josef emperor of Austria-Hungary and his wife Elizabeth. [2] The Via Dolorosa (Latin for Way of Grief or Way of Suffering) is a street, within the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been traditionally held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifiction It is currently marked by nine Stations of the Cross. There have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century, the remaining five stations being inside a churche. The route is a place of pilgrimage. The eighth station commemorates an episode described by Luke in the canonical gospels in which Jesus encounters pious women on his journey, and he is able to stop and give a sermon.

Preparation
Sally and I had been talking about an African trip for sometime. Originally we were thinking of going to Nigeria. Sally was there from 1964 to 1966 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and she wanted to see the place again and see if she could find any of her old students, a kind of nostalgia trip. But a trip to Nigeria seemed too dangerous, especially when the US State Department was warning all U.S. citizens not to travel to Nigeria. Crime was and still is rampant particularly in Lagos where Sally lived and wanted to go. The travel warnings were as follows: Tourist have experienced armed muggings, assaults, carjacking, kidnappings and extortions, often involving violence. In addition Americans have experienced harassment at checkpoints and shakedowns during encounters with Nigerian law enforcement officials. That was enough to change our plans.
Although South Africa was reported to also have some security problems, it seemed safer than Nigeria. So by May of 2009, we were ready to start preparations for our South African trip. We were debating about going with a group or doing it on our own. It is much more interesting to go on your own, than with a group on a prepared trip. Yet it was a very difficult decision for me because when we are on our own, we have to worry about everything. Despite that, we decided to go on our own, partly because the people in South Africa speak English, at least that what we thought. But, as you read this, I warn you not to take my advice. Going on your own is very difficult. Besides, going with a group to Africa is also very exiting. However, when you’re on your own, it becomes more of a journey, and the journey takes on its own life. This is when the trip can become very difficult and at the same time, it becomes very real. This then was a very serious moment in the planning phase. Once this decision was made and we had bought our tickets and reserved our hotels, there was no going back.
.
The following is a high-level chronology of our preparations:
5-12-09 called Craig Pollard 415-xxx-xxxx Gretchen’s friend at Delta Airlines. He handled our standby tickets. We charged our Buddy Pass to a credit card, approximately $350.00 per person one way. Very nice!
5-15-09 I read more about the trip and I was worried, but still liked the idea.
5-27-09: Going with a group or on our own? That was the question. I was still thinking.
6-06-09 Things we would like to do in South Africa:
Johannesburg, Cape Town, and possibly Kwa Zulu Natal, Kruger National Park, Victoria on another before it filled up. It was $939.00 pp plus $200 each for the local guides. This was a very serious move in the Falls in Zambia, Chobe National Park, Botswana, Etosha Park in Namibia. We had not thought of Zimbabwe.
6-10-09 the plan was coming together. George Soloki sent me some more information about the GAP tour to Namibia and since we were very interested in Namibia, we signed up immediately because the tour was getting full and we had to decide immediately. At this point, we have made the decision that we would be going on our own and we were married to the trip. There could be no more bemoaning about what we should do or what we should have done. We were together in our plan, us against the world. But still the journey had no particular purpose beyond “Seeing Africa”. But not long after that, by accident – as we were discussing what we wanted to do, we decided on the end point of the trip -- The Great Zimbabwe Ruins. To get to the ruins became the goal and things had to be organized with that in mind.
6-18-09 we went to Kaiser. Since we were going to Namibia, we had to get immunized against Hepatitis A and a Polio booster shot (inactive virus).

The following is what I packed:
Medications: In addition to my regular medication I took malaria medicine, also 20 tablets of 600 mg Ibuprofen, 10 tablets of 500 mg ciprofloxacin (against diarrhea), 20 tablets of Tylenol with Codeine, some Swiss Kriss herbal laxative and Metamucil.
Clothing: 3 socks, 3 underwear, 3 T-shirts, 2 long pants, 1 short pants, 2 turtlenecks, 1 sweater, 2 hats, 1 leader shoe, 1 walking shoe, 1 worm jacket, sleeping gear, vest, scarf and hats and gloves.
Miscellaneous: Wristwatch, map of Africa, 2 digital cameras with several disks, Digital camcorder, pocket knife, a big bag of nuts and fruits, and 2 books book for reading (Jacob Needleman recommended that I read Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, but I took only the first 380 pages, and the Lonely Planet.

Day 3&4 Tuesday Wednesday July 7-8 we were up by 7:00 am in the morning and out by 8:00am. We walked away from our hotel very fast for the one block to Park Station to lessen my anxiety. The plan was to catch the Shosholoza train to Cape Town (Shosholoza is also a folk song). This Shosholoza-Meyl train is a very comfortable long distance train and it would have taken us to Cape Town for 280 Rand, but there were no sleeping cars that day. The train takes a day and a night to cover the 1300 kilometers, so it would have been difficult without the sleeping car. That is why we had to find some other way to get to Cape Town. The SA Roadlink Bus company was leaving at 11:00 which was in an hour. The trip with them would be 18 hours for 450 Rand per person 900 Rand for the two of us. 900 Rand is about $135 dollars – still not too bad. We took it because we had to get out of Johannesburg. The bus was a double-decker and we went to the top and took separate seats from each other, so we had an additional seat next to us to put our stuff and we could also stretch out and possibly sleep. As I got on the bus I talked to the driver, a very big white South African man and he assured me that the ride would be safe and smooth. My anxieties subsided somewhat, but only on the surface. Deep down I was still jittery. South Africa is great, except for the security. I was still scared from reading the US Travel Advisory. Tourists like us are targeted and frequently robbed. The questions that came up in my mind were like “What am I doing here? Why on earth did I come here?” But the reality was that I had dreamt about coming to Black Africa since I was a child and now I was here and in reality it was fantastic! I was feeling better, and the adventure was on. The road was smooth and the ride was great and I was taking pictures as we were leaving the city. Sally was also excited about the trip, and she also took a lot of pictures. She also watched the onboard TV a lot. I continued reading Mr. Gurdjieff and slept a little. We arrived in Cape Town in the very early morning, around 4:30 am the next day. The place was still dark and empty, but there was a cab there. We took it to the Penthouse Hostel on Long Street for 20 Rand (3.00 dollars). The hostel was on the 6th floor and we had no problem getting into bed. Sally, thank God reserved this place for us for 4 nights for $30 dollars a day a real bargain. The hostel was clean and was centrally located. We slept until noon and than we decided to get up and look around the city. But first we had to eat something, so we went next door to an Indian restaurant and we had something vegetarian. After that, we started walking down on Long Street toward the Cape of Good Hope Castle. As we were walking there we stumbled on the First Dutch Congregational Church. I will write about this later, because we went in there again. We were anxious to find the castle and we had to ask for directions several times, but we found it. The castle was built toward the end of the 17th century, in the late 1600’s exactly between 1666 and 1679. We didn’t go in because it was closing when we got there. Maybe we should have. Apparently this is the oldest structure in South Africa. The "castle" was actually a defensive fort to protect the Dutch settlers. We took a lot of pictures there than went on to the District Six Museum: This area was the name of a former inner-city residential area which is known for the forced removal of over 60,000 of its people during the 1970s by the Apartheid regime. I spent a half hour with Mr. Noor the founder of the museum, and he told me that this was a terrible thing that the government did to this district. Because of this the peole are still suffering. Later on we, went in to the Woolworth Building to rest and relax a little and just watch people coming and going. We got back to our hostel around 9:00 pm.

Day 1&2 Sunday and Monday July 5-6. We’re to leave for Africa this morning. Delta flight #46 leaves SF at 6:00 am to Atlanta and from there in the evening at 8:05 another Delta flight #200 leaves for Johannesburg. Both Sally and I were up by 3:45 in the morning. I felt good and full of anticipation. I took a shower and packed my red backpack with food and some of my medications and one book Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. This bag is my carry-on, I’ll check through my green bag with my clothes and my sleeping bag. I called Sergio Torres, our neighbor; he took us to the airport. We got to the airport ahead of time and checked in at the standby counter. By flying standby we can only get on the plane if there were some empty seats. We were lucky; we got onto the 6:00 am Atlanta flight. Although we had to sit separately, we were on our way. In Atlanta we ate our sandwiches and waited, and waited, and waited. But we got lucky again, we not only got onto the Johannesburg flight, but we got seats in the Elite Business class. This was a major victory, because this means that we had a bed, so I could lie down horizontally, not to mention all of the other amenities. It started with champagne and orange juice I think they called it a “mimosa.” The dinner was also exceptional and after that I made my bed. I was reasonably comfortable and listened to some music and started to read the Gurdjieff book. This is a difficult book to read, and people who are not familiar with the Gurdjieffian system would not understand it at all. I’m somewhat familiar with his teachings, but still I had to force myself to read it. He raises a very important question “What is the sense and significance of life on Earth and human life in particular?” Wow! Very few people dare to tackle that question.
Much later I wrote the following in my diary on the plane: This is probably Monday already and we’re flying over the Atlantic Ocean close to Africa, and I just had my breakfast of croissants with butter and preserves. I had a difficult night, but I did sleep. I was thinking about the return trip already. Why am I thinking of the return trip already!? My God! The 1969 movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid” came to my mind, particularly the scene where Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) says as he encourages the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) to jump into a river way below, the only way of escape. Redford says “but I can’t swim” and Paul Newman replies “What are you worrying about not being able to swim? The fall will probably kill us anyway.” So why am I thinking about how I will be coming back? The question should really be “will I be coming back at all?”

After 15 hours in the air we arrived in Johannesburg around 6:00 pm. We easily got through emigration and as I walk out, I saw people with name cards picking up people. Nobody picked us up. I changed about 100 dollars to South African Rends with the exchange rate of 7:1 much better than I would have gotten back in Atlanta which was 6:1. I felt completely lost, but Sally was alert and was thinking about taking the local bus to downtown to our hotel, but common sense prevailed and we got a cab for 250 Rends to take us to the Formula Inn Hotel. Formula Inn is right behind Park station in the black section of Johannesburg next to the train station and the bus station. I felt very unsafe even in the car, but my fear diminished once we were in the hotel. We were 10,000 miles from San Francisco, but this was our home, because your home is where your bed is. We went to bed happy this is our first night in South Africa.