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Published: August 19th 2006
Joburg.Soweto Tour
Tour Bus in JoburgFriday morning we flew Air Mauritius from Mauritius to Johannesburg International. We arrived at our hotel around 1:30pm which was close to the airport. We then headed to a large shopping mall where we spent the afternoon after a meal at Nando's restaurantant. The mall had over 250 stores and was quite nice. We were quite impressed with the infrastructure in Johannesburg especially with their motorways. After a quick pizza dinnner we headed back to the hotel for a early night.
Saturday morning we headed on a tour of Johannesburg. First we visited downtown which was interesting. Numerous times our tour guide told us to keep the cameras and video camera down as we were going through rough areas. He mentioned they will break the glass if they see valuables at a traffic light. There were quite a few tall buildings around the financial (gold and diamond) area. A couple of their 5 star hotels are now deserted buildings as they have closed operations in the late 90s since there was too much crime in the inner city (including stolen cars from underground parkades). Since then they have installed 350 video cameras at intersections which has reduced the crime significantly,
A Local in Soweto
how the locals live.. but is still apparent, especially after dark.
Next we entered Soweto (South Western township) where most of the Blacks were told to live during the apartheid and still currently live. The area is densely populated with over 4 million people. The area consists of 10% good homes, 80% bad home and 10% ugly homes (the shaks or squatter camps). However, it is still relatively safe here compared to downtown JoBurg. We visited one of the villages to see how the locals live in a poor area. We also had lunch at a local world famous restaurant in Soweto called Wandi's where they take mainly tourists and celebreties including Bill Clinton, and Micheal Jackson. The buffet lunch was quite good and under 10 dollars/person.
On the drive out of Soweto we saw the aftermath of a robbery at a local BP petrol station. It was quite the site with the police and hundreds of locals bystanders. Also, it was interesting to note the many vendors that approach your car at the traffic lights selling everything from gum to CDs to car chargers. We ended the tour at the Apartheid Museum where they show the history of South Africa including
Soweto Housing
aerial view of Soweto housing the various segeration of races that they have encountered over the years and the efforts of Nelson Mandela for equal rights for all human beings.
Tomorrow we are heaeded to Nelspruit and then to Krueger National Park to see some wild life. Hopefully we have some luck to upload pics today - the connection seems quite slow.
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Roopa Rajani
non-member comment
wow... it looks like fun!
Hi guys, glad that you are having such a good time! its great to read your blogs - mum keeps asking about your progress! glad that all is going well. dont forget to send us brummies a postcard! hope the rest of the trip a is much fun... roopa