On This Day: June 1st 2016 - Victoria Falls
On this day in 2016, one of my life long dreams realized. For those who may be interested, an extract from my Journal:
From The Big Tree we went to Victoria Falls where Darryl said he'd take us on a 3 Km walk overlooking the falls. One couple in our party had enough hard currency to buy a 15 minutes helicopter flight over the falls. Quite a few of our party, myself included, wanted to take the flight, but lacked the requisite US$150 in cash. In fact I had the money, but felt I may need it for my week in Botswana.
Darryl called the helicopter operator to arrange a pick up and delivery for the couple who were flying. Suddenly the operator was willing to accept credit card payments for flights; it's amazing what ten passengers, now at US$200 a head, will do to a man's business principles.
Our Victoria Falls walk was cut short, two transit vans appeared from out of the scrub and we were whisked away to a small helipad on the edge of town. There followed an excruciating delay while bank approvals for credit card payments were obtained over dodgy phone lines. Next came the catch, we also had to pay an entry fee for the National Park, even though we'd already paid to enter the park. The entry was a mere US$12, payable only in cash, and no he'd not accept credit cards for this transaction, however he'd accept other hard currencies. I paid in South African Rand, of course no ticket was issued, this was Zimbabwe and extortion was the name of the game.
While we waited the operator tried selling us souvenirs and 250 ml cans of Coke for a mere US$3 each. Some people bought a can and were surprised to receive change in US dollars. Already I'd learned from transactions in South Africa, that when buying anything it was essential to offer the correct sum. If you didn't, the vendor suddenly had a change shortage. If you bought something more, and paid a little extra, things might even out, but usually the buyer came up short, and the vendor was even better off.
On This Day: June 1st 2016 - Victoria Falls
On this day in 2016, one of my life long dreams realized. For those who may be interested, an extract from my Journal:
From The Big Tree we went to Victoria Falls where Darryl said he'd take us on a 3 Km walk overlooking the falls. One couple in our party had enough hard currency to buy a 15 minutes helicopter flight over the falls. Quite a few of our party, myself included, wanted to take the flight, but lacked the requisite US$150 in cash. In fact I had the money, but felt I may need it for my week in Botswana.
Darryl called the helicopter operator to arrange a pick up and delivery for the couple who were flying. Suddenly the operator was willing to accept credit card payments for flights; it's amazing what ten passengers, now at US$200 a head, will do to a man's business principles.
Our Victoria Falls walk was cut short, two transit vans appeared from out of the scrub and we were whisked away to a small helipad on the edge of town. There followed an excruciating delay while bank approvals for credit card payments were obtained over dodgy phone lines. Next came the catch, we also had to pay an entry fee for the National Park, even though we'd already paid to enter the park. The entry was a mere US$12, payable only in cash, and no he'd not accept credit cards for this transaction, however he'd accept other hard currencies. I paid in South African Rand, of course no ticket was issued, this was Zimbabwe and extortion was the name of the game.
While we waited the operator tried selling us souvenirs and 250 ml cans of Coke for a mere US$3 each. Some people bought a can and were surprised to receive change in US dollars. Already I'd learned from transactions in South Africa, that when buying anything it was essential to offer the correct sum. If you didn't, the vendor suddenly had a change shortage. If you bought something more, and paid a little extra, things might even out, but usually the buyer came up short, and the vendor was even better off.