Done Durban - now we never have to go back.

What to say about Durban?

You know what Durban looks like? It looks, and feels, like this.We spent two nights here at the Royal Hotel in the city center. 4 star hotel and there were stains on the floor and you had to pay for internet. Ugg.

Durban is a coastal town, known for it’s Port, old Sugar Storage Buildings and the vibrant communities that have grown from former doc workers. We took a 3 hour whirlwind tour just after arriving and saw some of the city’s high points (the ports, the mosque, low income high rises and neighborhood redevelopment). We also saw the Indian Market (well meaning tourist trap) and had a grand adventure trying to find store with sari fabric. We did. It looked like the stuff in Gabs but cost 2xs as much. Just goes to prove Gabs is great!

At the end of the tour we spent a little time at the the botanical gardens.zoom in on the one above, Dad, it's called a cannonball tree.

All the while the tour guide is filling us in on local politics (very interesting!) and his experiences working in the tourism industry for the last 20 years. He was yet another person that swore to us that crime isn’t as bad here as everyone says, then two minutes later he warns us not to leave our hotel after dark and proudly explained how the convention center can be locked down for conferences. Then he talked about his most recent mugging and how a friend of his was killed.

Another Durban fun fact: they are in the process changing the names of all the streets. You would think, ok this is cool way to acknolege heros of the anti aparthide era right? There why are there Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro roads? Why also is there a road named after a guy who set off a bomb killing 5 people at a shopping center in that very neighborhod? Seriously now.
To cap our Durban experience the next day, on our way out of town, we saw some street kids having a knife/rock fight. Yes, really. Very Lord of the Flies.

Lance just read over my shoulder and said, “They were trying to kill each other.” This might be true as once of them had a huge kitchen knife and there was a lot of big rock throwing. It looked more to me like one kid was encroaching in on another groups area and they were chasing him out. Of course the chasing went into traffic at a busy intersection. No one looked older than 9 and the smallest kid (6 maybe?) was the one with the knife. OK, sure, kids have turf wars everywhere. But this was in the suburbs in broad daylight! What goes on after dark?

We did have a great view from the hotel though and seeing the tide go in and out was impressive.
We also had some great meals. The first night was at the Ilundi Indian restraint. Samosas now rival cheese as my favorite food. On the second night it was the Royal Grill. It was very posh with a live pianist and chandeliers. Like dinners in New Jersey but without the veal. (Some of you know I'm not kidding!) Lance had the fillet and I had prawns.

At this point I must say thank you to the South African mining companies for artificially devaluing the Rand so they could get more government subsidies and so we can afford all this. Total dinner cost in what might have been the nicest place in town was about $40 US. Not bad.

Along the way we continued to talk with and listen to anyone who would talk with us about life in South Africa and what people think about the changes in the past 10 years, the impact of missionaries, splits within policial parties...

Frankly I'm ready for some good news and so ready to get out of the city.