South Africa 1996

---

THE GROUP....

I was part of the Indian delegation sent by the Spices Board to look at opportunities to export spices to South Africa. The delegation was headed by KPG Menon (Director - Spices Board). The other members included Mammen Verghese (Malayalam Manorama), Mathew Jr.(Bolst Condiments) and a couple of other exporters (Lalah's & Rani Food Products) - I forget the names. This was a nice group which made the whole trip more enjoyable.

JOHANNESBURG

We arrived in Johannesburg from Mumbai on South African Airways. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of service with SAA - it was really good. We were met by representatives from the Indian Consulate. KPG Menon as Director of the Spices Board (which falls under the Ministry of Commerce) ranked equally with the Deputy Consul and therefore we were in for some Royal treatment. Transportation for the group was arranged by the Consulate and were escorted at all times. This made things a lot easier of course.

The city........

South Africa had just come out of the apartheid regime. Expectations of the down-trodden native populatiosn were very high - they expected that everybody would get land and become rich immediately. Millions flocked to the cities but found that they would not really get what they expected. As a result, slum areas cropped up around the bigger cities. Flying in to Johannesburg was pretty much like flying in to Mumbai - there were huge slum areas (primarily tiny hutments with tin walls & roofing) around the airport. Crime rates were high in Johannesburg. The downtown area was the most dangerous. Apparently one could get attacked / stabbed or killed for as little as 25 Rand (about US$ 5 then) while walking down the street (in broad daylight I might add). The newspapers dedicated at least 1 full page every day to report crimes in the city - murders, rapes, break-ins & assault. The fastest growing industry in South Africa at that time was the security industry. As local police did not have adequate man power or the will to fight crime, private security was the only way out for most people. All homes (without exception) in the better residential neighbourhoods had very high walls - 10 to 12 feet high - with electrified fencing AND other security devices. These would be linked back to security companies who had their own patrols in all of the neighbourhoods that they serviced. All shops & establishments had high security controls and would leave all of their lights on at night just so that intruders would be visible if they got in. Large shopping malls were the only areas that visitors felt safe. Security was high at the malls too with security guards monitoring the parking lots, entrances and the insides.

We were housed at a Holiday Inn right by a shopping mall in the township of Sandton in Jo'burg. This was an upmarket locality - nevertheless, we were warned about walking outside after dusk. We attended a food fair at which the Spices Board had a stand.

The efficiency and punctuality of the South Africans was incredible. If you asked somebody how long it would take to get to some place, they gave you the timing down to the minute - they would perhaps say "17 minutes" - and invariably we got to those places in exactly that time! If there was an appointment, all parties turned up at the correct time - nobody was ever late.

And then Sun City.............

After the meetings, we set off for Sun City - just a couple of hours away from Jo'burg (about 160 km). Sun City was amazing. There were theme parks, gaming (slot machines / roulette / card tables) and resorts. The Palace of the Lost City was the largest resort - looked amazing with it's architecture both on the outside as well as the inside. There were water bodies with simulated waves and even a bridge/tunnel with a simulated earthquake. It was a great vacation spot. After we'd toured the facilities, we even got to go on a safari in the attached animal park. This was a controlled and fenced area spread over 55000 hectares and over 4000 animals had been brought in from South Africa as well as neighbouring countries to be housed here. Obviously various parts of the park contained habitat that was suitable for the different animal types. We got to see Lions, Elephants, Giraffe and the Rhino in their habitat. A very enjoyable day at Sun City.

Dinner followed at the Deputy Consul's residence. Although I do not remember his name now, he was from Kerala and his wife was pleased to receive this delegation, most of who were from Kerala.

ON TO DURBAN

We arrived in Durban from Jo'burg - again to a grand reception. We met with the Deputy Consul at the Consulate. This was followed by a buyer-seller meet organized by the Consulate. We had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi - Indian Consul General in South Africa - also the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He inaugurated this buyer-seller meet. Following this we were taken to the site where Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from the train (which then lead him to start his fight for equal rights for all) - it gave one the goose bumps to be standing at that historic site!

The people.......

Durban has the largest population of people of Indian ethnicity. Naidoo and Pillay were pretty common surnames - although their origins may have been from several parts of India - Maharashtra / Karnataka / Andhra Pradesh / Tamil Nadu / Kerala. Durban was relatively safer than Jo'burg on the crime front.

My own escapade in Durban.......

We were put up at The Royal Hotel - a historic hotel over 150 years old. After the meetings and official work, the group decided to go to Umhalanga Rocks for dinner. I had an appointment with a potential customer at the hotel itself. I'd informed the rest of the group that I would be at the bar at the lobby level with the customer I was meeting and that I was to be notified when they were leaving for Umhalanga. As luck would have it, the bar was pretty packed and the customer suggested we go on over to the roof top bar instead. I'd completely missed out on informing the rest of the group that I would be at the roof top bar - they looked for me at the bar downstairs and then left when they could not find me. By the time my meeting was over I found that the group had already left - the customer I was meeting suggested we go out for dinner. When I returned after dinner, the rest of the group was pretty much in panic as I was not back in the room(given the South Africa's crime scene). KPG Menon was very nervous and anxious - he had even alerted the Consulate that I was missing! If only cellphones were more common those days...........

FINALLY CAPE TOWN.....

Cape Town was our last stop on the tour. We landed in gusty wind. The winds were so powerful that it threatened to knock the hand bags out of our hands when we got out from the plane! We were told that these winds were normal. Cape Town was even safer than Durban. It is a nice city located close to the Southern tip of the African continent. After a quick visit to the Acquarium, we had our first IMAX experience. They were screening SERENGETTI - a movie on wild life in Africa and it was awesome in the IMAX environment. We followed this with a trip out to sea in a boat to the seal island - thousands of seals rested on the rocks just like in the documentaries! We also got see some penguins at a beach nearby. These penguins did not need ice in their habitat - they were aclimatized to warm weather - it was about 25 Degrees C. What was amazing was the whiteness of the sand at that beach - we had to resort to sunglasses as the sand was so white that it hurt our eyes to look at it! We then travelled to the bottom of Table Top mountain to see if we could ride up in the cable car - the gusty winds were too much and the cable car operations were stopped until the winds cooled off a bit - so we missed the opportunity....

Cape of Good Hope

The next day, we travelled out to the Cape of Good Hope. It was pretty cold when we got there. The temperature must have been about 12 to 15 degrees C and there were gusty winds to boot. I was surprisd to see that there were a lot of people in the water either surfing or just swimming inspite of the cold.

Some Trivia about Cape of Good Hope..........

Cape of Good Hope was pretty much deemed to be the Southern most part of the African continent - it is actually NOT. The Southern tip is about 150 kilo metres way from the Cape of Good Hope - Cape Agulhas.

THE FOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA

South Africans are big meat eaters. Standard steaks are about 600 gm of meat!! Baby back ribs were much bigger than their American cousins. Boerewars - a huge sausage (a meal by itself) was considered to be one of the national favorites. The Seafood in Capetown was amazing both in terms of flavour as well as variety.

KPG Menon and his Tomato Soup..........

KPG Menon was a staunch vegetarian. He found it difficult to get vegetarian food for most of the trip. He primarily indulged in the salad bar at most restaurants while the rest of us gorged on the steaks, ribs and seafood. Here's the funny part - a large steak or mixed grill or seafood platter cost about 35 Rand while Mr. Menon's salad bar cost 55 Rand!!!! On top of this, he would also have Tomato soup which he swore was awesome - much better than any Tomato soup he had tasted in India. While we were in Cape Town (at the Cape of Good Hope), one of us in the group asked the waiter what stock was used for the Tomato soup - the reply that promptly came was "Beef stock"!!!! Mr. Menon's tryst with Tomato soup ended abruptly - he was upset for the next couple of days reminiscing about his previous consumption of Tomato soup.

DUBAI

After Cape Town, it was time to bid adieu - the rest of the group moved on to Mauritius while I travelled to Dubai.

A forgettable experience....

For me Dubai was (and still continues to be) a forgettable experience. Upon landing, one needs to get in a big queue to obtain the original visa which is kept there. This line is dedicated to Indians and Pakistanis and moves ever so slowly. People from other countries did not have it so difficult - they had multiple lanes - all of which were moving quickly! As I got closer to the counter, suddenly all of the people manning the counters decided to go off to get dinner while all of the people still waited in the queue! They came back after about 45 minutes and resumed handing out of the visas. After this one had to get into another big queue for immigration clearance. The staff manning it were so inefficient that every passport was being referred to a supervisor and needless to say that took ages as well. Finally after almost 3 hours in queues, I got out of the airport.

The Poultry farm and the chicken story.....

After the meetings and the fair that I attended, I was scheduled to travel to Al Ain to visit my uncle - Dr. Prem Mohan Raj who managed a Poultry farm there. My cousins Kiron and Chicku joined me in Dubai. My brother in law Roshan came by as well and drove us to Al Ain. We were shown around the Poultry farm. The size of the farm was astonishing - they had over half a million chickens I think - there were several sheds (all air conditioned) - each containing 25000 chickens. The idea in separating the chickens was to ensure that if there was damage to the chickens, it would be limited to one shed - several diseases that affect chickens spread very rapidly and in minutes the entire population of chickens in a shed could die of the disease. The chickens were placed in small cages that did not really allow for much movement of the chickens. Apparently the chickens need to focus their energies into making good eggs instead of running around and wasting energy. This concept does not go down well with Animal Rights groups as the chickens are virtually tortured under these conditions. The feeding of water and solids was assembly line type and automated - as was the collection of eggs as well as excretion. The eggs were run under powerfullights to ensure that they did not have cracks or damage before they were packed. All visitors wore protective coats and hats as sanitized their hands as well as soles of the shoes / footwear.

A grand lunch was dished out by my aunt. Left for Dubai in the evening and flew back home the next day.

I was not fascinated by Dubai and fail to understand the fascination that it holds for thousands (read millions) of Indians. It was deemed to be a "cheap" shopping destination - as far as I saw it, with the cheap pricing came cheap, poor quality. This was very apparent everywhere - on the shelves of the supermarket, I saw bottles of chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper powder from a very popular international brand - the colour of the product in each bottle was different from the other!! Taxis were cheap (resulting in the low prices for gasoline I guess). I am not sure I want to go back there for a holiday.........

---