Day2-3 - Joburg and Durban

Trip Start Sep 12, 2004
1
2
57
Trip End Jan 05, 2006


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Flag of South Africa  ,
Wednesday, September 15, 2004

So in the evening of Day 1 Derek and I met up with some of his friends and had a meal out at a cool little cafe called 'Lapa Flow', ridiculously cheap but then everything is. Afterwards Derek and I went on to the Oh! Bar which is the only full time gay bar in Joburg. As it was a Monday night it was pretty quiet but it was also karaoke night (how convenient!) so I made a one night only guest appearance in Joburg singing 'If Tomorrow Never Comes'.......it kinda hit home how sometimes gay bars around the world are exactly the same, someone sang YMCA for gods sake!!!

But we had a good night, even tho it was quiet, in fact I think with it being quiet it gave us the chance to talk to a few people. Spoke to a guy and his friend from CT who was up for a few days so i'll probably see his face around in CT. Also a bloke from Milton Keynes was in the bar - he'd come to jbg to meet a guy he was speaking to on Gaydar!! Bloody long way to come for that, tho he always wanted to go to jbg so it made a good excuse, unfortunately it went tits up so he's going home early - poor bugger Hippo Hide Backpackers
Hippo Hide Backpackers
 !

Day 2 was nice and relaxed, had a little lie in to catch up on the lack of sleep on the plane, tried to have a little swim in the pool but the water was roughly minus 3000 degrees so decided against it! Just pottered around a bit and in the afternoon went to the Apartheid Museum which was really interesting, pretty heavy and a lot to take in all at once but it's amazing to think that SA only became a proper democracy 10 years ago!

In the evening we just went to see a movie - some bloke breaking his leg on a mountain and dragging himself back to camp and almost dying - don't think i'll be going mountain climbing somehow!!

And Day 3 I jumped on the BazBus at some unearthly time of day (8am) for the trip to Durban where I ended up at about 5.30pm. Now i'm in a hostel called the Hippo Hide, wanted a single room but they've all gone so ended up in an 11 bed dorm!!! Luckily only 2 others staying in it tonight. Realised upon arriving that I managed to leave my Rough Guides to Sydney and Cape Town at Derek's!! Great! I'm sure it won't be the last things I manage to leave behind.

Derek has also lent me a mobile phone for my time in SA and i've bought a sim card so I have a mobile number which can receive text messages: 072 318 0067 - can't remember what the South Africa code is so you'll have to check that...

Tomorrow I plan to get the BazBus again to a place called Port Edward which Derek says is lovely so I'll stay there for a night or two, then onwards and upwards.
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