Getting to work when you're traveling is usually a simple thing. Today, however, I found myself driving on the "wrong" side of the car, the "wrong" side of the road, and on the wrong roads to the office.
SA drives like the Brits: steering wheel on the right, on-coming traffic to your right. That was the first (and second) challenge. After that was the small issue of directions. Jo'burg is NOT a place you want to wander around. We had a map, but....
Eventually, we got to the office (only 5 mins behind schedule!) and lived to blog about it.
Why not take a taxi? Like many African cities, Johannesburg has a chaotic informal public transport system in the form of minibus "taxis". These are not taxis in the typical Western sense of the term – they won't give you a lift to your doorstep. Rather, they are small-scale bus services, often unmarked, operating with neither timetables nor formal stops. You can read more here.
There are taxis your hotel can call (I'm at the InterContinental Sandton Towers) that are more familiar to most travelers. But unlike many things in Jo'Burg, these taxis are relatively expensive. If you're here for a long time, you'll run up a big tab, which makes renting cheaper, and easier once you get the hang of it. (Tomorrow will be better!)
I guess the upside of today's commute is that if the kids ask "how do you get to work in Johannesburg?", the answer will be more adventurous than they expected.
Monday, December 03, 2007
What was wrong with the drive to the office?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Sometimes I work in Johannesburg
I am leaving for "Jo'burg" Saturday.
This is a trip of record duration: 2 weeks. This is also a first-ever trip to South Africa, or the African continent for that matter!
This is also a 2 week period at a busy time of year. There are only 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I'll be gone for 2 of them. Holiday parties. Buying gifts. Getting a tree...all the things that are so much easier when both parents are home will be made tougher because one parent (that's me) is traveling.
I'm hoping readers of TravelingParent.com who travel for extended periods can share some tips!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Is this a hard sell?
As a business traveling parent, this is a big conflict.
If you travel to places that you'd also visit for fun, the tempatation to add a few days is strong. I've only done it once when I added a day to a trip I took to Beijing. Otherwise, I tend not to add more time away from home.
Case in point: The recent trip to Barcelona. I'd never been, but didn't add a day to see any of the sights. A mistake perhaps, but I just couldn't rationalize it.
What's the view of other business traveling parents? How often do you add an extra day or two to explore the cities you visit?
