The World Around Us

South Africa’s Joburg

Country: South Africa by Lisette

13-05-2013

So, there’s not going to be much information in this category, South Africa, of our blog. We barely went to the country and during our extremely short fling we didn’t fell in love with it. Nature seems to be stunning, but we haven’t had the chance to view it as of yet. Realizing it sometimes takes a long(er) time to warm up to a place, we advice the reader to take our feelings with a grain of salt.

That being said, let’s have a quick look at the quick peek we took of Johannesburg (often times called Jo’burg).

Lesson #1 : Don’t stick around Park Station (Johannesburg’s bus station) if you don’t have to. The area is considered dangerous with, amongst others, daylight muggings and we felt intimidated. The station itself has a smart layout and helpful staff. The variety of shops and restaurants make it easy to deal with any, usually boring, layovers you may experience.

Lesson #2 : The Museum Africa is worth going to. Not the best museum ever, but chosen by us for its proximity to the bus station and a shopping mall. Once there, we realized a so-called market theatre complex was around the corner and that no shopping mall was known to be around. Thanks, Lonely Planet!

Lesson #3 : Mini-buses are considered a “no no” if you are a white person. We were warned by one of our co-travelers of else we would have tried to take the South African variant to the Mozambican chapa. What a shame, taking the chapa has been part of my experience of ‘really being in Mozambique’. Just like using an auto-rickshaw was in India, jeepneys in the Philippines and cyclo in Vietnam. I always felt that to further understand how a country functions, it helps to live partially like the majority of the population.

Lesson #4 : Do go to Jazz café Nikki’s Oasis ! It is diagonally across the Museum Africa. It’s a gritty looking place from the outside, but cozy and friendly inside with a good food for a reasonable price.

That’s it, folks!