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Durban
Looking at the cityscape from just next to our backpakers. Great to be back in the big smoke after almost two weeks in the wild Wild Coast! I dont know what was our top priority, a long hot shower, a good coffee, a proper toilet to sit on or any of the handful of luxuries that you never think about 'til you don't have them. In the end washing our stinky clothes before they deserted us for other, cleaner travellers won out. And although we almost had to make them ourselves we found a small cafe with good coffee. Formalities out of the way we spent the next three days exploring every nook and cranny of what we soon discovered to be a very big, busy, vibrant and electric city. Like our beloved Sydney, Durban is a very multicultural city and boasts the largest Indian population outside of India. On every street corner we came across markets and all sorts of cultural pockets. African obviously, in particular Zulu, but also Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Middle Eastern...Ofcourse no market would be complete without an adjacent mini bus station and hoards of stereos belting out cheesy 80's music at decibal levels previously un heralded! We made sure we were back in city mode which
Spice Market
Certainly some interesting flavours in the Indian sector! meant a substantail increase in our security measures and whilst in the city we only ever carried a small amount of cash and the pocket camera. This allowed us to walk almost anywhere and not draw attention to ourselves by carrying bags or showing wealth. As if being the only white people for ages is not attention enough. Being city folk we feel street smart and confident in the decisions we make. We did however avoid areas behind the massive Victoria markets and also parts of Point Rd, where Nigerian drug barons are renowned for shooting first before asking questions, otherwise we roamed fairly freely. Whilst trying to find a particular mini bus rank we took in miles and miles of beaches and surf, marine parks and theme restaurants, massive shopping centres with indoor rock climbing, skate parks and wave pools, random groups of zulu performers practicing in the street, countless markets and bazaars. Durban is certainly a city persons treat! We did manage to find the bus rank and we'd only walked past it a dozen times. No one knows anything in Africa. What's the time? where is the shop? can i take a bus from there? how much
Africa Market
Be thankful you cant hear the Michael Bolton that was blaring next to me. is that? I dont know! It can be so frustrating. Every persons info or directions are more complex and totally different from the last so you just end up walking in circles 'til you stumble across what you are looking for. Something else we found on the mini bus mission was a hair salon willing to braid our hair for R6o each. We really had to haggle, but we got a bargain. It took about an hour each and to say I was in heaven is an understatement. I had atleast half a dozen women fussing over me the whole time! Dani went for the NBA style braids where i just went for the rasta braids. Everywhere we walked with our new heads locals would stop and tell us how cool they looked and that they were happy to see whities taking on African styles and traditions. Before Durban we had heard lots about a dish called Bunny Chow. It's and Indian curry served in a hollowed out loaf of bread and not Chinese rabbit like the name suggests. They are eaten by hand and are very tasty. They originate from way back in the day when the workers weren't
Mama Jugs
We weren't really sure about the gender of Mama Jugs but she could tie a mean braid! allowed, amongst other things, to use the white people kitchens they slaved away in. They'd simply cook their food in big pots on the fire and put them into loaves of bread! All over Durban are spice and exotic food shops, so since our first bunny we've been experimenting with lots of others. Yum Yum! We managed to pick up a hitch hiker for a couple of days in the form of an Israeli girl called Mole. She was nice enough, but it was her way or the highway and thankfully it didn't take us long to choose the highway option! Our BP was called Home, and like the name suggests it was very quiet, friendly and comfortable. Provided you asked in the morning they were also very informative, but after lunch drinking and smoking was fair game and their advice and info would be a bit patchy! We knew when we left Durban for the mountains that we'd return in a week or so to reconnect with Bazza and would be happy to return to Home.
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