Sawadee Kap!

Yes, I finally arrived in Thailand after a grueling 48 Hours in Airports and aboard planes. ...Only to find out that somewhere between Luanda, Johannesburg, Hong Kong and Phuket, my luggage went missing.
Eish!

I actually suspect that it is still going around on the carousel at OR Thambo Airport.
See the thing is: When Boarding a plane from Luanda airport, while in transit, you never have the opportunity to "check" your luggage to wherever you are heading.
The standard operating procedure seems to be, as you are about to board the plane, just before you leave the runway, someone will spot that you have a "bigger than handluggage" bag, and stop you there. They will offer to take it from you, and in return you will get a little sticker with a barcode.
This, amazingly, works quite well when only traveling to Johannesburg. i.e One hop. Where it gets tricky, is when you have connecting flights out of JNB, as they cannot issue a barcoded tag to check the bag through to JNB, Hong Kong and finally, Phuket. (or wherever else you might be connecting to.)

In other words, what they want is: Once I arrive in JNB, I must go to Passport Control, enter South Africa, go to the carousel and pick up my bag, go to passport control again, and leave South Africa. All in All a 10 minute stay in the country. - And...I cannot do this as I have to be out of South Africa for 63 consecutive days.

Eish again!

The guy on the runway assured me that, once I get to JNB, I can just give the ground staff my barcoded ticket, and they can get my bag for me. So that's exactly what I did.
Went to the ground control staff, and the guy told me that I must speak to the Passport Control/Immigration officials. Arriving there, these guys told me that I must speak to SAA to get this done... At which point, the future of my bag is becoming less and less clear.
and the story goes on... blablabla..
Needless to say, when I got to SAA, they told me that I should speak to Cathay Pacific staff to ensure that my bag comes out of the "cage" (as they call it), and that it is loaded on my next flight.

So, it wasn't such a big surprise when I got to the Airport in Phuket, to NOT see my bag on the carousel. Filled out all the forms, and all I can do now is hope.

Now for the good part
Arriving in Phuket, and walking around in the Market, I realized that losing my luggage almost a blessing in disguise, as clothes here are Really cheap. Bought myself 2 (nice) Boardshorts and 4 (nice) Shirts for around R250. (Had some scuba gear in my luggage though, which would not be such a blessing if I lost it)

Weather today wasn't as great, so the beach was nice, but not Paradise-like!
It's extremely humid here, and the temperature never drops below, I'd say 25 Deg C.
Lekker!

On another note, I have been looking at the Sony α (alpha) DSLR-A100K camera for the past year, and today I decided that now is the time to buy this camera. After all, I am in the East and electronics are significantly cheaper here. Only had a short while to play with it as I need to get the battery charged, but it's GREAT! ...Like the Ferrari of DSLR cameras.

Anyways, it's 12:20 at night now, and I'm getting ready for bed, as I am starting my open water scuba course tomorrow morning at 9am. REALLY looking forward to that!
Spent almost my entire day watching the required pre-course DVD training material.

I will (try to) post more blog entries as I continue my travels, but for now, this is it.
La Gon!