Believe me, I've been down that road. Calling every day for 10 weeks is a bit tedious.

Is CPT, in general, the best area to go to in South Africa (as opposed to JNB and the surrounding area)?

Mine is a total Penguin fanatic. The number of stuffed penguins she has is truly frightening (one is over 5' tall). I was in the Dog-House for weeks for going to CPT solo... not because I went to CPT per se, but because I walked on the beach with the Penguins there. I made sure to remind her that I took her all the way to New Zealand in F/J to see the Fairy Penguin Colony at Oamaru. That somewhat lessened her ire.

I'm in my 9th week of calling. :rolleyes:

My last trip was late Oct. It is very nice. My favorite part is leaving. Quick trip through security, nice massage, a couple of packages of the good crackers (?) in the so-so lounge and off I go. There is some decent (and relatively cheap) shopping on the second level near the massage place.

I was doing that for domestic F for a while. I can't imagine doing it for TPAC.

You don't want to be flying around FIFA time. I had the misfortune of arriving at LGW the Sunday morning after England was eliminated last time. It took me two and half hours to get through immigration and the line more than doubled while I was there. It was wave after wave of people going to the EU lines and the immigration officers not being able to see the line couldn't see how bad the non-EU line had gotten.

You need to go see the Fairy Penguins at Phillips Island off of Melbourne. 1st Anniversary trip, perhaps?

My birthday trip to MLE involved so much calling and so many PNR changes that it caused the system to barf. All worthwhile in the long run, but it shouldn't have to be so darn hard.

Agreed. I knew I wasn't going to get things perfect the first time I called, but I never thought it was going to take this long. I can't help but wonder if KE is going to continue to hold back inventory since CO is leaving SkyTeam - who knows.

It's a shame the move to Star can't happen sooner...

The great thing about HKG is everything is in English and it is SO easy to navigate. The MTR (underground) is a piece of cake to use and cheap as well; the buses are even easy to use. The Hong Kong history museum is a gem and worth going to; can be done in an easy 1/2 day and well worth it. The only bad thing about HKG is the growing pollution.

The partner of a guy that I know has a penguin obsession. I haven't seen it, but supposedly he has a penguin that closer to six feet in their bedroom.

From everything that I have heard, yes (I've not been to JNB, though). I've heard that JNB is just a very large, crime-ridden city. CPT and the surrounding environs are simply stunning. I was at a loss for words at times as I drove around the Cape, as it was simply that beautiful.

FWIW, I heard whilst over there that Pretoria is also very nice, as are the beach resorts in Mozambique. I'm more interested in checking out the beach resorts in Namibia, though. At some point, I'll likely redeem (once CO transitions to *A) for TP's LIS-MPM (Maputo, Mozambique) flight, just for the cool FM line.

OK, I'm sold. Just read the pitch for it and I'm convinced that if I ever start selling photos, I'm going to be a SmugMug Pro guy.

I would come by car, so I am flexible. :)