Durbin adventure!

So our trip had a VERY rocky start, where we didn't know how we were getting to Durbin and were choosing between renting and borrowing the car we borrowed last weekend. Someone had suggested going to Ladybrand, SA to rent a car because it's cheaper, and then we found out that the car we borrowed wasn't registered in SA so we hired a taxi (a driver we know well, Pabalo) and went across the border to rent a car. That didn't exist. There were no cars for rental in all of Ladybrand, SA, and as far as most people are concerned there are no rental places there either. We persevered and found 2 places to rent, neither of which had any cars. But a very helpful agent in the second place we went called places in Maseru for us and we were informed there is in fact 1 car available in town, but it's a manual. And we need to get there in the hour. So across the border/customs again, and we made it to the rental place in time. During the drive over, our taxi driver taught Ashish how to drive a manual and we/he decided to take the plunge and go for the manual car. Which I think was brave. 

So at around 5 pm on Fri we started our journey to Durbin. The beginning was kind of rocky, a border official may have told Ashish to "Relax" and get out of the car so the official could drive it through customs for us (There's a lot of starting and stopping involved, passport checks etc)  but once we got onto the highway (the one lane in each direction high way) it was pretty smooth sailing. The first road on our trip (R26) goes through wheat and sunflower fields- sunflower fields are outrageously beautiful. (The trouble is Ashish and I both took pics this weekend, and only I have a cord for uploading, so his half of the pics will come after he's in the US) And then there was crazy weather, and really hard rain, and lightning bolts across the sky...and then this rainbow!

So we drove onwards, realizing that this car didn't have a GPS and we didn't bring our guidebook (oops) and it was too late to get a map. We stopped at a KFC in Bethlehem (there were a few jokes about wandering in the night to Bethlehem..) and got directions to go towards "Harrassment" aka Harrismith NOT Clarence. And onwards we drove, until we reached Durbin. Then we wrongly followed signs for the south coast and ended up wandering a beach town kind of early in the morning trying to get a hotel. And then got back into the car, got into central Durbin, and got rejected from all the hotels we saw..which was a blessing, since most of them had hourly rates. But then, finally, HALLELUJAH, we found the posh side of town and walked into this hotel, sopping wet and asked for a room and they told us they only have a suite left, is that ok? And yes, it was. So we found a home base at the Balmoral hotel, on the beach/boardwalk of Durbin. We also booked a safari trip (Ashish was done driving...) which in the morning was changed to Zulu and wildlife (which would go to a closer game park) for some reason I don't remember. Our tour guide was an Indian man (did you know Durbin has like 7 million Indian people?) who's grandmother is Gandhi's daughter, and he gave us a good narrated tour of Durbin as we drove out of town.

So the first place we went was Phe'Zulu, kind of a Disney land with Zulu flavor. We watched a dance/show, then walked through a crocodile and snake park. I made friends with a snake! It's actually kind of old hat now, after all the Indonesian animal parks, but still very cool.

Afterwards, our guide told us that our game park was rained out, and the animals weren't going to be out anyway since it's rainy. To soften the blow though, he took us to where all the taxi drivers eat, and we had some good grill, polenta and sides.

In an attempt to make up for the loss of half our tour, we went to Pietermaritzberg to see the train station where Gandhi was kicked off the train, which set off the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and ultimately the movement against castes in India. THe train station is really just a train station with a few plaques, but this statue is in town and is pretty awesome.

 After Pietermaritzberg, we drove back into town and saw a large Hindu temple (which had a large Hindu wedding in it!) and went to the Victoria street market, kind of a bazaar. Ashish got this baller shirt there. 

That pretty much summed up our guided tour. We went back to the hotel, changed then went to the beach. The beach at Durbin was great!! The boardwalk was huge, there's a carnival outside our hotel and the water is the perfect temperature. I could have stayed in it all day. This afternoon, I was kept out of the water for quite a while to take pictures with lots of South Africans who kept coming over and asking to take pictures with me. Here's a less flattering picture, pre-swim suit, on the beach.

I eventually slipped away from my newfound celebrity to join Ashish in the water and bopped in the waves for a while before going back to the room to rinse off, then go off in the hunt for Indian take out. Along the way we bough some art on the street (sorry David, a little more art to hang?) and ice cream at shop rite. We spent the rest of the night from 6pm onwards eating food and watching hotel TV because EVERYONE, local and not, told us it gets dangerous at night for tourists and we should just stay off the streets. We had only slept 3 hours the night before, so this was a pretty easy burden to bear.

The next morning, we woke up early and spent a few hours on the beach, swimming and watching surfers. Then we had another delicious breakfast at the hotel, and went out on the boardwalk to explore. We rented longboards, which last about 20 minutes until we switched them out for bikes. Then we were really going, and went down to the end of the boardwalk on one side, which was also where the soccer stadium is.

This is one of those fun signs with the distances to around the world. Mostly I want everyone to get how beautiful it was here, and the palm trees look extra picturesque here.

On one end of the stadium, we were sweaty so the fountain seemed like a good idea. 

Inside the stadium on our tour. It's very impressive. Our good stadium pics are on Ashish's camera. You can bungee jump off the top of the stadium into the field, which I thought about for a hot second. If anyone wants to come back and do it together with me (someone I'm traveling with is not so keen on heights) I would do it. We watched someone jump, and it makes me stomach writhe just thinking about it.

After the stadium, we biked to the other end of the boardwalk (it's about 5km I think) and saw U-Shaka marine world, which is a water park, dolphinarium, tourist trap. It looks like a lot of fun, but it was so crowded with white people (who could be locals...we are in SA) but we happily biked past, returned our rentals and rewarded ourselves with some ice cream.

We walked around town after that, where I was really happy to be traveling with a guy. The men there were a bit leery, and stared a little too long for our comfort. But we saw downtown, and the markets and I was pulled into a street show and laughed at by what felt like hundreds of Africans. We started our way back around 4:30 pm, But this time we had 4 cds, bought for 10 R each (about 1.25$) of what we thought were 90s hip hop and boy bands. In fact they are covers of said songs...which were executed to varying degrees of success. It did make the drive back in radio free SA a lot more fun though. We got back around 1am, stumbled back to our cottage and got ready for another week of clinic.