This morning our private guide/driver picked us up at Janes in Durban to take us to Shakaland in Zulu.
His name is China, the nicest fellow. He is black, 35, engaged and very smart and personable. It is raining like hell - kinda disapoointing, but Africa isn't lush for no reason - they do get rain.
This is spring. We have had mainly nice sunny 20ish days. And I finally warmed up - actually totally adjusted, and have been feeling fine in cold houses!!!
Angela, at Mala Mala at Kruger Park arranged this whole part of the trip for us. She told us our private driver would pick us up in a LIMOSINE at JAnes at 10 am Sat.
Weeeelllll, the limo is a Toyota Corolla - RIGHT, and we have a BIT OF LUGGAE. The poor guy is about my height and 125 pounds - I could see the blood vessels busting in his eyes as he loaded our stuff.
He is Zulu, so gave us a great education driving out on the culture etc. He speaks 6 African languages!!!
The greatest thing EVER EVER EVER, while still in Durban he took us to a public market that was AMAZING. Gary and Denise would have had a fit if they knew we were there, I'm sure, but we were very safe. It has a zillion shops/stals, mainly run by East Indians and Asians - weird. There are spice stalls with pyramids of spice that you would only see in Morocco.
Anyway, we just got here, checked into our "rondavel" - round, thatched roof house, it is pourinr rain, the goats are hiding under tables, or anaything else they can find. I'm using the computer in the office - no wireless here baby!!! It is quite an experience.
I will get back to you tomorrow after the dinner tonight, the dance ceremony, after the chief welcomes us to his home etc. We are wet, the goats are wwet, but the flavor and tribal feel is amazing. It feels like we're living 100 years ago.
Great photos next time I can rob some computer time - probably tomorrow in this same office!!! The goats are bleating louder - think it's supper time!!!!
LUv, N-j!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Spelling Errors and Durban!!!
First, I know I have a lot of spelling errors, which piss me off too, but understand, I'm always doing this on the run, often on someone elses computer in some weird location. I really feel like Chritianne Amanpour - my hero, and who I hope to be when I grow up!!!!
WE got to Durban in a little small-ass seat mini plane, but they came along at one point and gave Tom and I what looked like a box of Pot of Gold chocolates. Kinda a weird snack (compared to WestJets mini bag of pretzels, but hell after the night I had had with the Weighing Nazi, I was ready for a fried skunk!!
We hesitated to take the whole flippin' box, looked puzzled, and the the steward said it was supper - my gawd, a whole supper in a box for a 1 hour flight!!!!
It was a nice bun, 2 slices of nice cucumber, a nice cherry tomato, 4 pieces of kinda nice cold potatoe (salad, I guess!) A NASTY, NASTY, NASTY square of meatball, and a mini piece of cake. I wadded all the stuff together in the bun, covered the nasty meat with my napkin, and it wasn't half bad!!!!
We stayed Thursday and Friday night at the home of our travelling friend Denise's sister-in-law, Jane and Manuel. A beautiful home with a wild wookland view, with mondys and sun birds, a swimming pool (too bad it rained and was cool both days).
They were amazing hosts - Jane made amazing meals, MAvis, the "domestic" who comes 4 days a week (Ic could handle that!!) did all our dirty laundry, and on Friday night we had Janes family over, including son Cameron who was in Edmonton for 7 years with Gary and Denise, and we love him!!! Laughed a lot, told jokes, and had a wonderful time - they are such a kind, warm family. I hope they all come visit us in Canada.
WE picked up Denises 87 yr old mom on Sat. to take her for lunch and see the sights. My gut has been absolutely amazing the whole time here - not one attack or cramp. The food is fabulous - very fresh and homemade in every restaurant we've been to. But this was a restaurant in an old boat. It smelled rather moldy when we went in, but I order Teriaki Norwegian salmon and it was terrible - greasy and not great. Consequently, I had a gut attack afterwards. Hell of a time too, we were at a very Africa themed shopping area where I could have done some damage!!! God saving Tom again.
Went home, had a sleep for a couple of hours and felt better. Started taking our Malaria pills on Thursday night. I was a bit concerned about side effects, but so far so good.
On Sat. morning we will be picked up by a private driver to go for our adventure in Zululand. Tom, I know, bought his mile long telephoto lens for the topless Zulu women dancing, but I bought my new Fuji zoom camera for the Zulu dudes with the lin cloths - we can only hope for a REALLY windy day!!!!!
More pix and posts to come. I can hear the zulu drus beating from here!!!!!
WE got to Durban in a little small-ass seat mini plane, but they came along at one point and gave Tom and I what looked like a box of Pot of Gold chocolates. Kinda a weird snack (compared to WestJets mini bag of pretzels, but hell after the night I had had with the Weighing Nazi, I was ready for a fried skunk!!
We hesitated to take the whole flippin' box, looked puzzled, and the the steward said it was supper - my gawd, a whole supper in a box for a 1 hour flight!!!!
It was a nice bun, 2 slices of nice cucumber, a nice cherry tomato, 4 pieces of kinda nice cold potatoe (salad, I guess!) A NASTY, NASTY, NASTY square of meatball, and a mini piece of cake. I wadded all the stuff together in the bun, covered the nasty meat with my napkin, and it wasn't half bad!!!!
We stayed Thursday and Friday night at the home of our travelling friend Denise's sister-in-law, Jane and Manuel. A beautiful home with a wild wookland view, with mondys and sun birds, a swimming pool (too bad it rained and was cool both days).
They were amazing hosts - Jane made amazing meals, MAvis, the "domestic" who comes 4 days a week (Ic could handle that!!) did all our dirty laundry, and on Friday night we had Janes family over, including son Cameron who was in Edmonton for 7 years with Gary and Denise, and we love him!!! Laughed a lot, told jokes, and had a wonderful time - they are such a kind, warm family. I hope they all come visit us in Canada.
WE picked up Denises 87 yr old mom on Sat. to take her for lunch and see the sights. My gut has been absolutely amazing the whole time here - not one attack or cramp. The food is fabulous - very fresh and homemade in every restaurant we've been to. But this was a restaurant in an old boat. It smelled rather moldy when we went in, but I order Teriaki Norwegian salmon and it was terrible - greasy and not great. Consequently, I had a gut attack afterwards. Hell of a time too, we were at a very Africa themed shopping area where I could have done some damage!!! God saving Tom again.
Went home, had a sleep for a couple of hours and felt better. Started taking our Malaria pills on Thursday night. I was a bit concerned about side effects, but so far so good.
On Sat. morning we will be picked up by a private driver to go for our adventure in Zululand. Tom, I know, bought his mile long telephoto lens for the topless Zulu women dancing, but I bought my new Fuji zoom camera for the Zulu dudes with the lin cloths - we can only hope for a REALLY windy day!!!!!
More pix and posts to come. I can hear the zulu drus beating from here!!!!!
The Post That Flew Away!!!!!
Damn! This past Wed. night we were in Kynsna, a wonderful seaside vacation spot, staying at an incredible guest house where our palatial room overlooked an ocean (Indian ocean) cove, waves pounding in!
It was maganificent - luxurious, comfortable,sat in the living room of the house with a fire going, watching the sea, drinking guava juice, coffee and of course South African rusks!!
This was the room with the HUGE bathroom that included a swimming pool length bath tub - well if you're 5' 2"a that is - I could actually float in it. And get this, it was surrounded by glass that looked out on the headlands sea cove with the waves pounding etc. - I bathed non-stop!!
The guest house was on the side of a mountain with many huge homes - vacations homes mainly for rich people from Africa, Russia and Europe - amazing. At the very top of the mountain was a castle sized mansion, overlooking the whole expanse of the Indian Ocean, but it sits empty. Yup, seems it was built be some rich-ass Russian - maybe he was head of the KGB, and then they decided not to live there. We've put in a "stink" bid, but doubt that it will be accepted
It was our last of 2 nights in Knynsa, and tyhe last night anywhere is always hell because we have to pack everything up AGAIN!!! OK, and maybe I did shop a bit again, so it's the old push, shove, squash into the case and then Tom and I sit on it to compress everything - very effective.
I sat down to write a post here for you all at 11:30 pm, and wrote until !2:30 am. When I went to click on "publish post" I had a weird feeling that it wasn't going to go - that it was going to fly away (I've had so daaaamn much computer problems here that I am jumpy every time!!!).
I was tired, really tired, we had a very laong drive to Durban the next day, and I was wanting to kill Tom!!!
I now totally believe that it was God's way of being kind to alter boy Tom, because I had spent most of the post bitching (NO, not me!!) about Tom and that Damn luggage weigh scale that I ACTUALLY BOUGHT HIM before we left!!! He morphed in the suitcase Nazi - weighing, weighing, and weighing!!!!! He gets his knickers in a knot for 2 pounds over - so the hell what, I told him. We were taking a smaller airline from Port Elizabeth to Durban, domestic class, and he is such a ninny when it comes to BSing over loads onto the plane.
I actually had to phone my Super Friend Ron to get words of support that evening - Ron, who has travelled Africa and understands that it is all about $$$$$ in these 3rd world countries - plunk $1,000.00 down and you can take a rhino home with you!!!
Ron could bull shit a Hollywood film crew and 6 metal camera cases onto a Cessna, no problem!!!!
Soooo, after getting good tips from uberfriend Ron, I tell Tom the plan is emergency drama - something no airline wants either in its waiting line or on the plane. I told him when we got to the counter and they came on with the "your overweight, sir (like we didn't already know that, tee hee!!!!!!!!!), I would fall, sobbing to the floor, and he will loudly say, "Oh no, not another stroke" or something like that!!!
He's a magaician and knows that it is all about mis-direction - they don't want sobbing people around so just push them on the plane!!!
The night got sooooo bad that that, in the middle of the night, I decided I was going to squeeze the air tube shut on his sleep apnea machine in the middle of the night, he would stop brething, I'd put the pillow over his head, then claim it was machine malfunction and still get all the insurance - yup, I hated him that much that night!!!!!
End of story - we got to the airport I SCHMOOSED THE COUNTER LADY UP - TOLD HER HOW WONDERFUL HER SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG SCARF WAS, OOHED AND AAWED THE COUNTRY UP, ETC. AND TOLD HER I WAS GOING INTO REHAB FOR MY SHOPPING ADDICTION WHEN I GOT HOME, BUT COULDN'T SHE HELP ANOTHER WOMAN IN A TIME OF NEED!!!!!!!
Buuta Boom - worked like a damn - she said since we were travelling executive calss for all of our trip, she would forgive a good deal of the weight and charged us for only some - big flippin' deal - Mr. Muscle only had to pay $100.00 CAD and we were out of there. He should thank me more often for my big mouth and PR skill (BS!!)!!
We were off to Durban!!! Going to stay with Denises's sister-in-law ther!!!
Glad I didn't have to snuff the old boy out, he really is a lovely man, and lets me buy jewellery!!!! No pix this time - I have gobs coming though - come back for the color!!
Love you and miss you all, N-J, the African Shopping Queen!!!!!!
It was maganificent - luxurious, comfortable,sat in the living room of the house with a fire going, watching the sea, drinking guava juice, coffee and of course South African rusks!!
This was the room with the HUGE bathroom that included a swimming pool length bath tub - well if you're 5' 2"a that is - I could actually float in it. And get this, it was surrounded by glass that looked out on the headlands sea cove with the waves pounding etc. - I bathed non-stop!!
The guest house was on the side of a mountain with many huge homes - vacations homes mainly for rich people from Africa, Russia and Europe - amazing. At the very top of the mountain was a castle sized mansion, overlooking the whole expanse of the Indian Ocean, but it sits empty. Yup, seems it was built be some rich-ass Russian - maybe he was head of the KGB, and then they decided not to live there. We've put in a "stink" bid, but doubt that it will be accepted
It was our last of 2 nights in Knynsa, and tyhe last night anywhere is always hell because we have to pack everything up AGAIN!!! OK, and maybe I did shop a bit again, so it's the old push, shove, squash into the case and then Tom and I sit on it to compress everything - very effective.
I sat down to write a post here for you all at 11:30 pm, and wrote until !2:30 am. When I went to click on "publish post" I had a weird feeling that it wasn't going to go - that it was going to fly away (I've had so daaaamn much computer problems here that I am jumpy every time!!!).
I was tired, really tired, we had a very laong drive to Durban the next day, and I was wanting to kill Tom!!!
I now totally believe that it was God's way of being kind to alter boy Tom, because I had spent most of the post bitching (NO, not me!!) about Tom and that Damn luggage weigh scale that I ACTUALLY BOUGHT HIM before we left!!! He morphed in the suitcase Nazi - weighing, weighing, and weighing!!!!! He gets his knickers in a knot for 2 pounds over - so the hell what, I told him. We were taking a smaller airline from Port Elizabeth to Durban, domestic class, and he is such a ninny when it comes to BSing over loads onto the plane.
I actually had to phone my Super Friend Ron to get words of support that evening - Ron, who has travelled Africa and understands that it is all about $$$$$ in these 3rd world countries - plunk $1,000.00 down and you can take a rhino home with you!!!
Ron could bull shit a Hollywood film crew and 6 metal camera cases onto a Cessna, no problem!!!!
Soooo, after getting good tips from uberfriend Ron, I tell Tom the plan is emergency drama - something no airline wants either in its waiting line or on the plane. I told him when we got to the counter and they came on with the "your overweight, sir (like we didn't already know that, tee hee!!!!!!!!!), I would fall, sobbing to the floor, and he will loudly say, "Oh no, not another stroke" or something like that!!!
He's a magaician and knows that it is all about mis-direction - they don't want sobbing people around so just push them on the plane!!!
The night got sooooo bad that that, in the middle of the night, I decided I was going to squeeze the air tube shut on his sleep apnea machine in the middle of the night, he would stop brething, I'd put the pillow over his head, then claim it was machine malfunction and still get all the insurance - yup, I hated him that much that night!!!!!
End of story - we got to the airport I SCHMOOSED THE COUNTER LADY UP - TOLD HER HOW WONDERFUL HER SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG SCARF WAS, OOHED AND AAWED THE COUNTRY UP, ETC. AND TOLD HER I WAS GOING INTO REHAB FOR MY SHOPPING ADDICTION WHEN I GOT HOME, BUT COULDN'T SHE HELP ANOTHER WOMAN IN A TIME OF NEED!!!!!!!
Buuta Boom - worked like a damn - she said since we were travelling executive calss for all of our trip, she would forgive a good deal of the weight and charged us for only some - big flippin' deal - Mr. Muscle only had to pay $100.00 CAD and we were out of there. He should thank me more often for my big mouth and PR skill (BS!!)!!
We were off to Durban!!! Going to stay with Denises's sister-in-law ther!!!
Glad I didn't have to snuff the old boy out, he really is a lovely man, and lets me buy jewellery!!!! No pix this time - I have gobs coming though - come back for the color!!
Love you and miss you all, N-J, the African Shopping Queen!!!!!!
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