Johannesburg
SOUTH AFRICA
Africa Round Up
By AARON
Thursday, May 19, 2011
More so in keeping up with the correct consecutive destinations on our travel map, I am inclined to write a blog on Johannesburg, or J’burg if you will. Actually, not as bad as we expected, we even received a free ride from a guy at the bus station to our hostel since we arrived after dark (don’t worry moms and dads, we could have taken him).
The main highlight was visiting the Apartheid Museum on our only full day in the city. I must admit, I was lacking in knowledge with regard to apartheid, so I was keen to visit and learn – which is rare for me on a vacation.
The museum was set up extremely well and the history of the apartheid is, well, shocking. In summary, it was the white population classifying every race, and then making the blatant effort to separate the whites and “Non-Europeans” through segregation. People were kicked out of their homes, entire neighborhoods removed and leveled (to make room for new “white only” neighborhoods) and deaths and brutality were the day to day norm.
The shock factor? This was taking place up to the 1990s. Each “non-European” had to carry their race card on them at all times – the punishment for being without it on any of the numerous random checks was incarceration for an unknown period of time.
This faction gave rise to civil rights movements and activists which included major names like Ghandi and Mandela, and even though the end result is a good one (Mandela was released from prison and elected to the presidency in 1994) the events leading up to this and the aftershock can be summed up with all the words and phrases dished out by movie critics worldwide: amazing, poetic, gut-wrenching, spellbinding, gripping, etc.
All in all, the museum is a must see if you’re in J’burg, and even if you’re not much of a history buff, there’s a theme park right next door, so afterwards you can treat yourself to a funnel cake and roller-coaster ride.
The public transport to and from the museum was an adventure in itself – transfers, packed mini-buses, long walks to one of the many taxi ranks and comments from locals like, “Is the World Cup still going on?”
“Uhhh, no?”
“Then what are you guys doing here?”
But enough about J’burg, we were on to Delhi in less than 24 hours and it’s time for a good ol’ Africa round up! Yeeeeeehaaaawwwww!
After reading Paul Theroux’s “Dark Star Safari: Cairo to Cape Town”, I had trepidations about whether or not I would even like Africa. Now Theroux is known to be more of a cynical writer to begin with, so that was factored in, but regardless, I decided to go into my 3 months in Africa 50/50. Half of me figured I would like it, the other half not.
Africa is the place where at one moment everyone is trying to rip you off with anything from a bus ticket to a 20 cent piece of chapatti, and then just around the corner is someone else who would give you the majority of their day to help you out just for the sake of being kind.
The continent seems to balance this extreme dichotomy of good and bad, yet at the end, when we as humans are more prone to remember the bad, you find yourself remembering the good instead.
Africans have a contagious smile that seems to light up everything around them, and a sense of pride about their countries that would put the most patriotic westerner to shame. Politically savvy, it amazed Lyndi and I both how “in tune” each African was with the news on their political world. One bus ride in Kenya, we had both already read the local paper for the day, so when we turned down another paper seller who did not know this, he asked us with genuine confusion, “you do not wish to be informed?”.
The fact was that we had already read the paper, and were thus informed, but since he didn’t know that, he had a look of sheer perplexity. How could anyone not want to know about the current situations arising in the country surrounding them? Such is the African way.
The food, lodging and transport are extremely cheap, while anything touristy that you want to do will completely obliterate your budget. Safaris, without even breaking a sweat, easily average $125USD per person, per day, and excursions easily start in triple figures. Africa will reward you with amazing sights, and wildlife that will drain your camera battery – just don’t expect to have much left (if anything) in your budget afterwards.
The topography of this country is amazing: flat brush lands to lush, green rolling hills, to mountains and beaches. The landscape will amaze you in each and every country and whatever premonitions you had about African landscape will be shattered once you actually witness the diverse range that is offered from country to country.
Travel solo or with a group? I would recommend both – not just because we did it that way, but because there are advantages to both types of travel.
Independently, you get much more of a feel for the local people and culture, but you may get drained bargaining for bus tickets, and trying to avoid theft, cons, etc. seemingly around every corner. Yet, the best things in life aren’t free or easy, and although it is sometimes hard work, you feel rewarded with so much more when you look back.
Group tours offer a nice respite from the grueling day-to-day task of bus, hotel, food, ticket, etc. shopping. You’ll enjoy turning your brain off for a little while and having all of your accommodation, transportation and food taken care of which leaves you the simple task of sitting back and enjoying the sights and sounds.
I will miss Africa, the good and the bad. Some countries of the world you love because of the food, others because of the people, and even others because of the sights and sounds. Africa can leave you with fond memories of all three and at times, in places dotted all across the Dark Continent, you can find yourself immersed in all three harmoniously at once. It is in those occasions that this country can imprint something permanent on your soul, something so subtle, yet powerful enough to come crashing back into your memory further down the road, long after you have left.
So go to Africa – have a beer in a small village town, whitewater raft down the Nile, ride an ostrich and cage dive with great white sharks. Walk with lions and pet cheetahs, learn a bit of Swahili and practice it with some of the locals while sharing a pot of local brew made from corn. Go on a safari and spend the night at a watering hole observing animals at night.
Samuel Johnson wrote, “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are”. So go see Africa for what it really is, and I promise you, you will not be disappointed.
