We woke up early and had to wait about 2 hours for the kitchen to open up so that we could eat our breakfast. With that accomplished, we decided that it would be a good time to head to the post office and to the internet café. We had each paid Allen 50 Rand for this ride, but we were told that he wouldn’t be back from Nelspruit for another hour or so. We decided to walk.
That morning, while paying for the next couple of night’s lodging and for the canopy tour, we asked Allen’s girlfriend about the pricing discrepancy. She said that the deal was brokered through another hostel and that they were doing it as a favor. We were somewhat satisfied with this response, so we let it drop. To settle the books, we prepaid for the next nights lodging and for the 2 rides that we expected to receive that day. In total, we ended up paying for three nights of lodging and for two rides. Now, if you are keeping track, we stayed at this trashy hostel for 4 nights. Two were paid for already with our tour. Sadly, we did not notice the extra night until after we had paid. This would cause major problems the next day.
We walked to the internet café and tried to take care of my banking business. This was to no avail, as PSECU was not allowing me to sign in at the time. I was incredibly frustrated, but I let it drop and we walked to the mall to go to the post office. We were shipping home some questionable items, so we were a bit afraid that they wouldn’t ship them. But, again, this is Africa, and they were shipped with no problem.
Allen picked us up from the Mall. Julio was going to join us for the canopy zip-line tour. The three of us were dropped off at the site and Allen told us to buzz him when we were finished.
The canopy tour was so much fun. As a kid, my friend Jack had a zip-line setup in his backyard. That was fun, but this was better. This is the longest canopy tour in South Africa. They drove us up into the mountains, and we zipped down the mountain from tree station to station. Then, you attach your harness to the line and fly over the trees. It is not exactly what flying would be like, but the speed and height are spectacular.
After the canopy experience was finished, we were taken back to the starting point. It was rather early and we decided to wait a bit before buzzing Alan. I took the opportunity to catch up with some of my blogging and Jeremy and Julio looked over animal books in the lobby. At about 5, we buzzed Allan. Then, about an hour later, someone came into the lobby and asked if we were waiting for a ride. It seems that Allan had been waiting out in the parking lot like an idiot waiting for us. I would have felt sorry for him, but he is so overwhelming, rude, and controlling, that I felt absolutely no sympathy for him. He should have called us when he arrived. Or, he should have checked inside the building!
Anyhow, he seemed pretty mad at us, but he dropped us off at Kuka’s Restaurant with no complaint. Still, when we made sure that he could pick us up (like we had already paid for), he said “Fine, but I don’t know what my plans are.” Now, when you are paying 50 rand each, for a total of 150 rand, you expect some sort of service. The other day, when getting picked up from the pizza place, Jeremy and I had waited 3 hours. Before, at the coffee tour, we waited for 2 hours. I was already annoyed at this terrible service, and I had the fear that things weren’t going to go well later on.
Dinner was good. I ordered the fish, and Jeremy was excited about all you can eat ribs. It seems that he took the wait staff by surprise when he ordered his second plate. I am not sure if they really understood what all you can eat meant. It was also amusing that they kept making his plates smaller and smaller. The first had about 6 ribs. The second had 4. The third had 2. The fourth had 1. Then, the fifth, which filled him up, had 2. My fish was great, but I was tired of watching Jeremy eat, so I ordered desert: pancakes with ice cream. The pancakes were more like crepes, but they were great.
After dinner, we first called Allan for our ride, but there was no response. Then we called his girlfriend. She said that he was asleep and asked if he knew about this obligation. We said yes and she said that she would go find out and then call us back in 2 minutes. 15 minutes later, I called back and she said he was on his way. 1 hour later, we called back and were told that he had been there, didn’t see us, and then left. WHAT A JERK! We were sitting right by the entrance. He was not there. And, what did he think that we were going to do? Were we going to leave? And he didn’t even bother to call us. We ended up having to pay a taxi to get us back. Happily (or unhappily), this cost us 60 rand TOTAL! We have been paying Allan an extraordinary amount of money for terrible service. Consider it a lesson learned. First, don’t EVER stay at Big 5 Backpackers in Hazyview. Second, learn more about transportation. Third, don’t pay up front to a shady person.
Back at the dorms, we went right to bed. Julio was taking a bush walk at the park, and needed to be up at 4 am. We just wanted a relaxing morning. By this point, I had also figured out that we had paid for an extra night at the hostel, and we needed to confront the owners about the money we paid for the taxi ride when Allen owed us a ride.
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