After Swaziland we left (with the help of many kind Swazis) to go back down to eShowe, a town in the heart of Zululand South Africa. Eshowe is in the middle of nowhere but it's really really green and pretty. Laura had originally booked us there because she thought it was on the coast, in the good surfing area north of Durban. We didn't realize until we were on the trip that it's actually very far inland. Because of this, we thought that we would only stay a night there and then move on to have a full day in Durban.
We arrived at our backpackers which was actually behind the George Hotel. This was the first hotel built in Zululand by the colonists and it's very old and pretentious looking. At one point while we were there I went into the hotel kitchen to see if I could find a can opener and I was pretty sure I saw a ghost. It's that kind of place. Anyway, we were shown to our bed and were surprised to find that Laura and I actually got our own room with regular bed, instead of bunk beds, and a door that locked. After a little over a week of sleeping in dorm style hostels with 20 strangers we liked the idea of some comfort and privacy and decided to spend two nights there.
As it turns out, the hotel has a microbrewery attached to it that makes a beer called "Zulu Blonde" and you get a free beer with every night you stay there. The beer was absolutely horrible, but it was free so we drank it on principle:
We woke up on Easter Sunday and while Alex was cooking breakfast I hid eggs for an easter egg hunt. Laura is catholic and it was the first Easter that she was away from her family which was pretty hard for her so I wanted to give her a little celebration. Then while we were eating on the porch all hell broke loose.
Suddenly there were monkeys EVERYWHERE. They were screaming and running over the roof back and forth. It looked like they were directing their anger at something on the other side of the fence so we went over to investigate. I guess in Zululand monkeys are a total pest, and the neighbor to the hotel had killed on and was holding it up by the feet taunting the other monkeys. We were pretty sure they would seek their monkey revenge on us.
That day we went to the Zulu museum and art gallery. I didn't know before but zulus are such good beaders because they had no written language, so they use bead patterns to communicate over distances. After that we went to explore the forest in the area and walk around a bit more. Then it was back to the backpackers to sleep so we could leave for Durban in the morning.
We only had an afternoon in Durban and Laura had heard of something called the "uShaka Marine World" that was an aquarium/amusement park with a big shark collection, so we decided to go there. It was like the Disneyland of aquariums and I don't mean that in a good way. The aquarium itself was fine. It was in a building that was designed to make you feel like you were in a sunken ship and they had a collection of dangerous reptiles and bugs that was interesting. Then we went to see the dolphin show and that's when things got a little weird. The show had actors dressed up as zulu warriors who would dance to songs that didn't make any sense about marine conservation. The premise of the story was that king uShaka was telling people to protect the wildlife, and as he did it the "authentic zulu warriors" would bow down and grovel at his feet. It was slightly uncomfortable to watch. I compare it to having people dressed as native americans doing a rain dance at 6 flags to demonstrate the importance of water conservation.
The real purpose of going to Durban was to have Indian food. Durban has a huge Indian population and we were excited to finally have some sort of good food. Most South African food is just watered down versions of American food. They have a dish in Durban called "bunny chow." It's basically the Indian version of a clam chowder bowl; a hollowed out loaf of bread with curried vegetables or meat in it. It was DELICIOUS! Then we went back to the hostel and ate ice cream until we wanted to die and left for Cape Town the next morning.
So that was my break. Pretty neat right?
JEALOUSY!!!
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