Saturday, Mar 4. Flight was loooong, but uneventful. The hotel is adjacent to the tallest building in South Africa. Sandton District is the country’s Ginza. Immense, beautiful mall, protected by many guards, some with rifles. Very safe. “You could fall asleep drunk and be at no risk”, one reviewer wrote. Definitely not your typical South Africa.

Things are so cheap I keep doubting my currency conversion math. Large ribeye steak, $12.50. A bucket of (7) prawns, $6.50. Fancy soap, $5. An F1 Racing specialty store returned me to reality. $60 shirts.

This is largely a single hero country. Nelson Mandela is everywhere. Not surprisingly, though sadly, most of the patrons at this upper class mall are white. A guard attempted to shake me down a little by saying I couldn’t take photos of Mandela’s large statue with my good camera without paying a fee. But phone cameras were okay. I got confirmation that it was BS.