Swaziland

Trip Start Nov 10, 2004
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Trip End Nov 27, 2004


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Where I stayed
Sugar Cane Plantation
(Mbabane hotels)

Flag of Swaziland  ,
Wednesday, November 17, 2004

The drive to Swaziland from Krueger is short and painless. The much anticipated border crossing was merely a few forms and quickly executed. Much different from Turkey! The overwhelming thing was the sheer number of advertisements for condoms, the free handouts at the border and avid warnings about AIDS.

Driving to Piggs Peak where our reservations were was beautiful and so different from the savannah of Krueger. We stayed in a private nature reserve with waterfalls, hiking trails and lots of trees. The next morning we were off to Manzini to the "best market in all of South Africa and Swaziland". Although it was mostly a fabric, fruit and necessities market, upstairs is the tourist stuff. Masks, beads, necklaces, shields, animals.... You name it. And, the prices really were the best we found anywhere. In retrospect, we wish we had purchased more of those masks after we haggled them down to $1.50. The rest of Manzini is a bit of a wash so we started heading South toward the border at Golela. The day wore on; we got tired and found ourselves settling at a Sugar Cane Plantation guest house in Nsoko. Hospitality here was at its best with dips in the swimming pool, dogs to play with, dinner and beds available.

Our final views of Swaziland are driving through the really poor rondeval villages on the road out of the country. If you paused for more than a second for a photo, children, men and women would come rushing out to ask for money which seemed to concern many on the road but the mere pictures are so different from others you have from home that it may be worth it.
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