Sawubona!
I'm back from holiday in South Africa! Somehow, I always imagined every country in Africa to have a savannah terrain (this is what I get when I take geography lessons from the Lion King), but SA has rolling countrysides, expanses of white sandy beaches, and a backdrop of mountains. Everything was super cheap too because the dollar is worth 7 rand. Also, everyone speaks English, so its easy to get around and communicate with the locals. Add in a rich culture, good food, and a well known political history, and you get a perfect vacation. I was very impressed with the country (it is so beautiful) and the hospitality of the people. There were a few kinks with some in the tourism industry here and there, but overall, everyone was super nice. South Africa is really trying to build on their tourism industry, and with the world cup coming in 2010, I think they will become one of the top destinations for travelers worldwide. Hopefully, the country will be able to accommodate all the visitors they will get...
Some Highlights:
-South African Airlines is like the best I've been on. Really decent food, three meals on our flight, lots of refreshments and beverages served throughout the entire transatlantic flight. The sewards were really nice to me, except one kept on asking me questions while I was trying to sleep. The strangest thing is that we all got sprayed with pesticide after we landed in Johannesburg on the plane (this mist of sanitizer smelling stuff was released on all the passengers) and before we departed for NY. I watched 7 movies (Blood Diamond, Bobby, The Holiday, Happy Feet, Night at the Museum, and Stranger than Fiction and Casino Royale again), on the personal movie screens and played like 3 hours of poker.
-Cape Town is amazing! The beaches are gorgeous, even though the water is freezing! Table Mountain provides a beautiful backdrop to the city. There's a V&A waterfront which is the cutest harbor of shops and restaurants. We went to the Cape of Good Hope, which is where the Indian meets the Atlantic Ocean, and Boulder's Beach, where they have PENGUINS. Like real live penguins that live there. We also went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18/27 year sentence. We had to go on a boat for like an hour to get there, and needless to say, I felt like shit thereafter, so I couldn't enjoy that excursion that much.
-Durban has a huge indian population (Gandhi lived there) and there are markets filled with spices and handicrafts and curios. People spill out into the streets in a blur of color. Our hotel was amazing, too, because there was an oceanfront view, and there was a craft market set out in front of it. The rickshaw drivers dress up in these elaborate costumes of feathers and beads.
-Swaziland was filled with forests and I had some of the best Chinese food I've ever had in my life there (yeah, seriously, in Swaziland).
-Hluluwe Game Reserve: saw warthogs, rhino, giraffe, a herd of elephants, wildebeast, zebras, and buffalo.
-Kruger Park, which is like 1 million acres of game reserve where I saw Africa's big five: Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Elephants, and Rhino on two days of safari. Seeing the animals is sooo exciting. There were like thousands of impala, baboons, monkeys (one of which who almost attacked me), crocodiles, hippos, terrapins, tortoises, zebras, kudu, waterbuck, etc...and at our hotel, monkeys were like all over the place!
-Johannesburg/Pretoria: went to Soweto, which are the townships in SA, Nelson Mandela's old house, Desmond TuTu's house and church, Hector Pieterson museum commemorating an uprising in 1976 in which students were killed when they protested learning subjects in Afrikaans. Pretoria, which is their financial capital (SA has three capitals) is like a European city in Africa--down to the Dutch inspired architecture and grand parliament buildings. Our tour guide took us to a coffee shop, where we just relaxed and watched the people gather in Church Square. Nelson Mandela square is a HUGE shopping center that goes on for like days...and its topped off by a 30 foot statue of the man.
There were a lot of other great things about my holiday (the people on our tour were really nice), but these are the only things I could remember right now--I'm a little jet lagged. I woke up at 2 AM this morning after going to bed at 9 PM.
Some teasers:
I'll probably post some of the rest of my 600 pictures on facebook. Additionally, I've never watched more soccer and cricket in my life...and all I have to say is Cristiano Ronaldo is like almost too devastatingly handsome to be on TV. Ah, latin men.
Stayed in my favorite city in the world for one night before coming back to KC, and it was sooo crowded on the streets of Soho and Chinatown. Like, the Euro is really strong right now, but seriously, the amount of people shopping was nuts! But I love NYC so much, maybe I'll have to look into doing my residency there...
More pics: View from Table Mountain in Cape Town
Some Highlights:
-South African Airlines is like the best I've been on. Really decent food, three meals on our flight, lots of refreshments and beverages served throughout the entire transatlantic flight. The sewards were really nice to me, except one kept on asking me questions while I was trying to sleep. The strangest thing is that we all got sprayed with pesticide after we landed in Johannesburg on the plane (this mist of sanitizer smelling stuff was released on all the passengers) and before we departed for NY. I watched 7 movies (Blood Diamond, Bobby, The Holiday, Happy Feet, Night at the Museum, and Stranger than Fiction and Casino Royale again), on the personal movie screens and played like 3 hours of poker.
-Cape Town is amazing! The beaches are gorgeous, even though the water is freezing! Table Mountain provides a beautiful backdrop to the city. There's a V&A waterfront which is the cutest harbor of shops and restaurants. We went to the Cape of Good Hope, which is where the Indian meets the Atlantic Ocean, and Boulder's Beach, where they have PENGUINS. Like real live penguins that live there. We also went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18/27 year sentence. We had to go on a boat for like an hour to get there, and needless to say, I felt like shit thereafter, so I couldn't enjoy that excursion that much.
-Durban has a huge indian population (Gandhi lived there) and there are markets filled with spices and handicrafts and curios. People spill out into the streets in a blur of color. Our hotel was amazing, too, because there was an oceanfront view, and there was a craft market set out in front of it. The rickshaw drivers dress up in these elaborate costumes of feathers and beads.
-Swaziland was filled with forests and I had some of the best Chinese food I've ever had in my life there (yeah, seriously, in Swaziland).
-Hluluwe Game Reserve: saw warthogs, rhino, giraffe, a herd of elephants, wildebeast, zebras, and buffalo.
-Kruger Park, which is like 1 million acres of game reserve where I saw Africa's big five: Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Elephants, and Rhino on two days of safari. Seeing the animals is sooo exciting. There were like thousands of impala, baboons, monkeys (one of which who almost attacked me), crocodiles, hippos, terrapins, tortoises, zebras, kudu, waterbuck, etc...and at our hotel, monkeys were like all over the place!
-Johannesburg/Pretoria: went to Soweto, which are the townships in SA, Nelson Mandela's old house, Desmond TuTu's house and church, Hector Pieterson museum commemorating an uprising in 1976 in which students were killed when they protested learning subjects in Afrikaans. Pretoria, which is their financial capital (SA has three capitals) is like a European city in Africa--down to the Dutch inspired architecture and grand parliament buildings. Our tour guide took us to a coffee shop, where we just relaxed and watched the people gather in Church Square. Nelson Mandela square is a HUGE shopping center that goes on for like days...and its topped off by a 30 foot statue of the man.
There were a lot of other great things about my holiday (the people on our tour were really nice), but these are the only things I could remember right now--I'm a little jet lagged. I woke up at 2 AM this morning after going to bed at 9 PM.
Some teasers:
I'll probably post some of the rest of my 600 pictures on facebook. Additionally, I've never watched more soccer and cricket in my life...and all I have to say is Cristiano Ronaldo is like almost too devastatingly handsome to be on TV. Ah, latin men.
Stayed in my favorite city in the world for one night before coming back to KC, and it was sooo crowded on the streets of Soho and Chinatown. Like, the Euro is really strong right now, but seriously, the amount of people shopping was nuts! But I love NYC so much, maybe I'll have to look into doing my residency there...
More pics: View from Table Mountain in Cape Town