Coffee, Tea or Yee?: South Africa Adventure 10 - 13 July 2010

10 July 2010 - Singapore to Johannesburg

- Sony World Cup Finals Gala Dinner

Though we've won the tickets for some time, the actual excitement, anticipation kicked in only a few days prior to our departure.
Might be due to the tons of reports on the crime rate, violence etc that we came across.
Many have advised us on precautionary measures to make sure we return to our city safe and sound. Thanks all! :)

Nevertheless, we are pretty sure we will be fine since this trip is with compliments from Sony and believe they will do their part in making sure we are back in a piece.

And sure enough, we were superbly taken care of! ;)

After a day's work on Friday, rushed home, threw last bit of stuff into my luggage and we are off to the airport.
Been some time since I last took SQ, couldn't wait!
Our flight timings are good actually, we depart early Sat morning and will be reaching Jo'burg in the morning, their time. That means, no time wasted!

Our 2nd overseas trip (not counting M'sia)!

Hung around till it was time to board, at 1am+...

Our plane took off a little late though...
Total hours from S'pore to Jo'burg: 11! Phew!

NB wasn't too lucky cause his inflight entertainment console was out of service.
So, for the whole trip, he got to lean over to use mine while I slept.
(yes, he didn't wanna change seats with me)

Arrival at OR.Tambo Airport, Johannesburg.
First glimpse of SA.

The first continent other than Asia that I've been on!
(Still can't believe it's Africa! =D)

Interesting!: Even their plane has a football painted on it!

Welcome to South Africa!

Coca Cola branded everywhere!
Cans of Coke freely distributed when we arrived at the airport.
Love the pint sized cans!

I was so excited to see this! ;)
So many vuvuzelas! *Buuuuuuuu*

Was afraid Sony guys couldn't find us/ we couldn't find them initially.
But no, there was an army of Sony staff, we won't be lost!

All Sony staff in black!

The process was pretty smooth and we were quickly escorted to our vehicle, to the hotel.
We also met our security guy and someone from Sony who chatted with us along the way...

The airport we arrived at was in Jo'burg but we had to travel some 40km to Pretoria, also a city within the Gauteng province of SA, where our hotel is situated.
Wowed by the vast piece of land we see on the way to the hotel, we were wondering what Singapore would do should we have so much land available?

As we chatted, we learnt that Sony has actually invited over 3,000 guests (the likes of us) and 3,000 staff all over the world to the WC matches.
Let's take the average cost per pax to be S$10K with lodging, flight, match tickets, food, security officers etc included.
That would be... how many zeroes?
It's not just money, imagine the amount of planning, logistics that's going on just so this will be a success. Kudos to them!
*Salutes*

We reached Court Classique Suite Hotel with a warm welcome from the hosts.

Picture courtesy of Court Classique, didn't manage to take the external view.

We were ushered to the Sony Hospitality Suite while they brought our luggage to the room.

In there, we can make ourselves at home and help ourselves to the free flow of food and drinks, all day long ;)

There, we were also presented with our Sony Guest pass, Sony gift pack and a vuvuzela with compliments from the hotel!
Weet! Our first Vuvuzela! *beams*

Our room, no. 8~

This is how the hotel's surrounding is like...
They've got ducks wandering around and we got to becareful not to step on their poop.
Pity we can't use the pool cause it's damn cold!
Court Classique is not your typical 4-5 star posh hotel but you will definitely feel like home, very cosy with many many friendly staff. :)

As it was still early, we popped by the nearby mall, Brooklyn Mall with new found friends from Washington D.C. and NYC. Interesting how we get to meet people from all over the globe through one trip huh?

Honestly, there wasn't much things to buy but we did manage to get some interesting flavoured chips that we don't see in Singapore to share.
Random: Looking at the pics above, don't you just love the sky there?

This trip alone cost us S$20 each just on transportation!!

Interesting!: Speaking about the transport in SA, because their country is huge and their public transport network isn't well developed, it's really not very convenient to travel from one area to another.

Just taking the hotel for example, the subway/train station is about 5-8km or so away.So you probably need to take a cab to the station before taking the train?

And for a staff who lived about 3km down the road, he had to take a bus to the central of the city and switch to another transport back to the hotel, making a huge detour!

Maybe we should be more forgiving towards our local public transport providers...

Hmm...

After much grumbling about the expensive trip to the mall, we had to get ready for the Gala Dinner.

Dress Code: Business Wear/ Dresses

All Dressed up!

Wore the huge jacket over my dress cause it was freezing la...So super un-glam =P

Off to our special invite...

Sony GL Dinner at Sandton Convention Centre.

And I swear we had a close encounter with the Spain Footballers cause our bus was passing by a hotel with tons of fans awaiting at the entrance. And in front of the entrance stands the official Spain footballers' coach bus.
They were no where in sight when we left... =(Pity =(

Before the dinner, we had to go through this 3D presentation which is actually Sony's chance to present to us their latest 3D technology brought to our homes...

I would have to say this really brings a whole new meaning to "Home Entertainment".
Can you just imagine wathching live football matches in 3D?
You can with Sony, as the images practically jump into your face and you can feel just as if you were in the stadium yourself!
Would love to get 1 in my home but I believe the price ain't low. :(
Being a Sony fan isn't cheap :P

Hanging around at the cocktail party before the dinner.
NB loves the prawns (or "Shrimps" as what the Washington D.C guy would say, I'm wondering how big are prawns in the states...)

Nice setting for the dinner below:

Coincidentally, 2 of the Singaporeans sitting at our table is actually of the same age as well (all 1986s) and they know my colleague as they've worked with them before. How crazy is this? Getting linked up half a globe away!