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| They didn't even look up at us |
When we were leaving the border crossing from Zambia, we took the "short cut" through the bush and came across some warthogs and King Kong. Seriously....This guy with long dreads stopped us and introduced himself to us as King Kong, then went into his sales pitch. He had some old Zimbabwe money including a one hundred trillion Zimbabwe Dollar bill. After some negotiating (his starting price was $25 USD), I paid $1 USD...I still probably over paid but he said he wanted some money to go watch the Manchester United vs. Liverpool soccer game. How could I say no to that?
Many of the sales people would call themselves crazy names so that you would remember them... King Kong, Wisdom and Simba just to name a few.
For dinner our last night, we just went to a pizza place in the casino connected to our hotel. We struck up a conversation with the waitress about life in Zimbabwe. She said that during the inflation days she would not have enough money to buy food for her 2 children even though she had a full time job. Inflation was so bad that you didn't know how much you were making would be worth when you took it to the bank. She said that during that time, on more than one occasion she went to the bank to cash her MONTHLY pay check and she only received $1USD and there were time when she didn't even get paid! You would literally have to take stacks of money to the store to buy a loaf of bread! Now the official currency in Zimbabwe is the USD and these million, billion and trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes are practically worthless - except of course in the eyes of tourists - then they're apparently worth at least $1 USD each.
Many of the sales people would call themselves crazy names so that you would remember them... King Kong, Wisdom and Simba just to name a few.
For dinner our last night, we just went to a pizza place in the casino connected to our hotel. We struck up a conversation with the waitress about life in Zimbabwe. She said that during the inflation days she would not have enough money to buy food for her 2 children even though she had a full time job. Inflation was so bad that you didn't know how much you were making would be worth when you took it to the bank. She said that during that time, on more than one occasion she went to the bank to cash her MONTHLY pay check and she only received $1USD and there were time when she didn't even get paid! You would literally have to take stacks of money to the store to buy a loaf of bread! Now the official currency in Zimbabwe is the USD and these million, billion and trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes are practically worthless - except of course in the eyes of tourists - then they're apparently worth at least $1 USD each.
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| That is 15 Zeros! Across the street from our hotel there was a gas station and convenience store that we would go to get drinks at every day. The second day I offered to buy Hloni, the young man working there a Coke, he was shocked and very happily took me up on it. He told us that he has a 10 km walk to and from work. He works 10 hour days, 6 days a week. When we told him we were leaving he asked if we had a Face Book page... apparently we are literally the only people in the world without a Face Book page.  When we got to the airport (again, the smallest airport ever!) the line was long, it was crowded and HOT and no A/C... again. When we finally got to the counter we found out EXACTLY what was taking so long, the boarding passes were all hand written. Not a computer in sight!  |
I have never looked forward more to getting on a cold airplane - especially on the first leg of a long journey "home." After we arrived in Johannesburg, we "enjoyed" another 13 hour flight to Hong Kong.
What a great trip! Now, the only question that remains is when are we going back?
What a great trip! Now, the only question that remains is when are we going back?
You are getting a little too adventurous ! Glad that you had a good time....
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