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Monday 25 January 2010

The trip of awesomeness part 1: Durban

I have been in hibernation these past few days trying to recover from the nasty shock that is the Real World. What a bleak, harsh place. You spend your holidays sleeping and doing one fun thing after another, so going back to work was like a slap in the face with a frozen tuna.

I am hoping that recounting my adventures will cheer me up with happy memories.

Here is part one of the SA roadtrip 2010 chronicles:


Durban.

- One of the first things I noticed after stepping off the plane is how friendly everyone is. People just randomly chat to you all the time. I was a bit shell shocked at first but got back into the groove pretty quickly.

-At O.R Tambo airport the first thing we saw when we looked out the window was someone reversing along the freeway for quite a way. Then we knew we were home :)

- It was monsoon season in Durban which meant it rained pretty much every day we were there.

-This was torture, because we were champing at the bit to swim in the sea.

- I rediscovered that Durbanites do not like going to the beach.

- We hung out with my aunt, had braais, ate lots of food and bonded well with my aunt's DSTV.

-watched some bizarre Afrikaans movie with two "Bill and Ted" type misfit characters who clearly never left the anal phase.

- The place was crawling with Vaalies (what do you call Vaalies now that they are not Vaalies any more? Gauies?) We were amongst them with our GP numberplate and our general confusion over where we were going.

-They have changed all the road names in the city centre, which leads to much fun. Some of the roads still have the old names with a line through them, some not. Our map book included some of the changes and left some out. Also new roads have been put in which confused the hell out of us. We managed somehow. We did get lost a few times, but Durban is small.

-We went to Moyo, on the one sunny day, and it was very fun being painted and sung to, but I must say sitting so close to the sea and not swimming was killing me.

-On the final full day we had left in Durban we decided that we had to go swimming in the bloody sea. Unfortunately the monsoon was in full swing. This is me going for a balmy stroll along the azure coastline:



I was using the umbrella as a shield.

-While this may be a commonplace scene in the UK, trust me, we were the only people at the beach apart from a few workers and they were looking at us as if we were deranged.

-Needless to say we did not swim that day, but we scooted off the next morning before we left and finally swam in the Indian Ocean. Hooray! Note to self, do not go on holiday to Durban before April.

-We also took the cable car up the funky new Moses Mabhida stadium like real tourists, and it was totally cool to see an aerial view of ole Dirtbin.



IT is good to see that Durbs has finally been deemed worthy of a revamp (read bulldozing every old landmark to the ground), because it was really starting to look a bit sad and crumbly for a while.




view of the Durban Country club, in full colonial splendour.




Durban beachfront being bulldozed.


Final Scorecard for Durban:


Dassie score:
BFG: 0
Po: 0

monkeys seen: a measly one

times we got horribly lost: at least twice

sea swims: 1

16 comments:

Cam said...

Shame Po...sorry Dirtbin had such kuk weather for you guys. How's that staduim though...awesome.

There's a new funny insurance ad about some guy reversing all the way to Cape Town...might have been him. :)

Helen said...

I reversed on the highway once, after a metrocop told me to...

BioniKat said...

I believe that most of the major cities have become dirty wastelands, not just Durban. The last couple of weeks have seen fantastic beach weather though, now that everyone is back to work, with the rainy weather moving to Gauteng. Maybe we'll have to move the holidays!

Tamara said...

Po, are you becoming a Brit... walking on the beach in the downpour with your brolly ;-)

I love that stadium. And I'm surprised the guy reversing down the highway wasn't a Metro cop. Or a politician in a black BMW with blue lights on top.

Jeanne @ Cooksister! said...

Hmmm, yes, I heard there was a bit of a monsoon going on. Love the "umbrella as a shield" beach stroll shot!

Would have loved to go up onto the stadium too - colour me tourist. I predict that the name changes will still result in much tearing of hair and rending of clothes - lucky old 2010 supporters, they don't know what they are getting into...

And was the bizarre movie anything to do with Poena and the Leeuwloop? I was shown that too in December. Still recovering!

po said...

Cam: well I should have known about the weather, being a local an'all, but it has been 12 years since I last lived there...

Helen: bwaha! Well, that's all right then.

Momcat: really, why did Durban wait for me to leave before bringing out the sun?!

Tamara: I am sure I looked like a Brit this whole holiday :) as pale as one for sure.

Jeanne: good grief, yes that was the movie!!! Do you know what it was called? Mwahaha the Leeuloop, hmmm. I only started watching it cos I thought it was a series, but it was flippen long, and I forced myself to watch the end as a kind of cultural resubmersion :)

Anonymous said...

teehee sounds like JHB.

I really dig the stadium... funny though, I thought they were still building it... but I'm VERY delayed most of the time.

Glad you came for a look see though :D

Damaria Senne said...

Awesome pics. love the pic of aerial view of Durban country club.

LadyFi said...

Oh no - only one swim in the sea! Poor you.. at least all that rain reminded you of Britain! ;-)

po said...

Paula: they have not finished all of the stands inside, but the outside is finished and they are doing tours, not that I bothered with one of those, the outside was more interesting!

Damaria: yeah the view was great, my geographical orientation is always bad, so it was good to get a different view of the city!

LAdyfi: um, yes. Luckily things improved!

po said...

P.S. Paula: there is no comment section on your blog any more, is this deliberate?

Anonymous said...

Heya Po.

It is kinda diliberate. i heard people don't like personal blogs... so I took it off so that people could just read if they wanted. I've converted it to my online diary... that way my brother can't find it.
teehee.
He's used my diary against me once... and I've been scared to keep one since. [he's a mean guy generally... but what brother isn't]
So it's just easier for me. I'm letting people into my life big time.
But you could mail your comments to chocnnilla@gmail.com ... I should probably write that on there. :D

po said...

ooh I can totally relate, my brother found my diary once and unlocked it and read it, of course there was loads of stuff in there about how much I hated him.... I feel pretty awful about that now.

Anonymous said...

lol. Mine had a detailed account of the crush I had on one of his friends... and then showed that friend... at the time my whole life was ripped apart.

In retrospect... he wasn't that cute anyway.:D

EEbEE said...

Durbanites avoid the beach... very true.

i just can't understand why though?

(btw if you ever set foot in blue lagoon, you should most def stop by my uncles spicey pineapple stall for some pruduct. mmmMMMmmmm)

po said...

EEbEE: hmmm, spicy pineapple... thanks for the tip :)