Orion Piggs Peak Hotel and Casino Mbabane

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From the border, we clime to a higher elevation and the terrain is gently rolling. The crops production we see are mainly bananas and oranges.

Initially from the border, Swaziland appears to be a poorer country as evidenced by the type of housing and the number of people gathering water with jugs. The standard of housing and living seems to improve considerably as we near the capital, Mbabane.

Swaziland was the first in southern Africa to have ...

... I can say about my backpackers’ dive. I chose it because it promised ‘free broadband Internet,’ when actually it had nothing whatsoever, just a box sitting in drydock ‘waiting for repair.’ I suspect it’s been waiting a long time. I ask the American who’s been there two weeks, and he confirms he’s never seen it used. That’s not cool. You don’t advertise Internet, then not ...

... but the bus driver was having none of it in case he got caught and fined by the police.


It turns out that two of the guys who had got on the bus from the same hostel as us in Jo'burg had booked to go to Swaziland but the office had messed up and booked them off at Nelspruit. I told them that if it were me I'd fight my corner as it wasn't their mistake. Unfortunately they haven't heard of customer service in South Africa and insisted that the customers were wrong ...

... now I look forward to the flight to Johanesburg to New York and then to Portland. I will be travelling for 30 plus hours!! But hey, it's what you go to do to get accross the world. I learned a lot about Pediatric HIV/AIDS, Swaziland, and southern Africa. I hope that you enjoyed the travelogs and I hope that I see each and every one of you soon. Take care, sumeeth

... time understanding was how the HIV rate is so high here, particularly when the religious views are quite conservative and evangelical. The best way that I have heard it explained is that often people have multiple sexual partners, even when married, and condom use is not desired as "comfortable" here. However, the Christianity practiced here, versus what is preached, is a mix between the local tribal customs and literalist christianity ...

... the meds. I hope she does as this kid will likely die if he doesn't get the meds, but what can you do when people have certain stigmas or notions about some disease. I also got to practice some family medicine!! There was this lady who came for an appointment b/c needed to get refills on her meds since she just delivered her child 3 weeks ago. I finished up the interview and planned on the meds to give her. I called my supervising doc, and ...

... grandma is assuming care of the kids. But she has no idea about their HIV status or what is going on. So the dilemna of do we tell the grandma when we should really be disclosing this to the mom comes up. Well since the grandma is likely to be assuming caring for the children in leiu of the mothers illness, we decided we needed to tell the grandma. She just said that she wanted us to help the children and she would do whatever is neccessary. Here is a HUGE problem in swaziland ...

... is "saving poor Africans". When she was speaking of the child, she kept saying "my child here.....". It is quite pathetic but I think an atitude that many people who do live in foreign countries develop when thinking about/interacting with the local population....luckily is not most people and this is one of my first experiences of this, but it is quite eye opening. Well those are my travel stories for now...I hope you are well and take care, Sumeeth

... proved to be harder that it looked, rather like climbing a mountain, through the gorges on the Malotja. The wildlife and mountain scenery was a bonus and the rest of the day was spent soaking up the Swaziland atmosphere, catching up on diaries and of course the dreaded laundry. The evening was spent playing cards and shooting star and milky way spotting on blankets under the stars. I have to also say that the beds and duvets in our chalet were the best i have ever slept in!!

... doubts about that assumption. There were shows about the weapons and dress and everything to do with tribal life. They had dancing and singing and all te good stuff. It was very interesting and it inspired me enough to try my hand (legs) at the tribal dancing after a few castles in Cape Town.

The next day we headed to Ngwenya Glass Factory which is a factory that uses recycled glass to make everything from Wine glasses ...