On the Sea Again Still (with 1-1/2 months to go) -- headed east, then north
East London, South Africa 3/4/2009
Wanting to see more of “traditional Africa”, we headed inland on a tour to a traditional Xhosa village. (The “X” is actually pronounced as a “clicking” sound -- check out this video for samples, or this page). It was actually a mock Xhosa village set up to explain village life to tourists – but the participants were local villagers who, on days when tours were booked, stopped what they were doing to help run the tourist village. The kids, who learn traditional Xhosa dances and culture in school, were let out for the day to perform for us. It was actually quite well done and genuine. The dancers were enthusiastic and energetic, and pleased to be showing off to us.
<<Photos: EAFricaMaputo>>
We enjoyed our time there thoroughly – but it was an odd juxtaposition. What we were seeing was genuine, but the practices we saw are fading fast as the country becomes richer and more westernized. The teenagers doing the dances were dressed authentically, but the principal of their school showed up in a modern western dress, looking like a principal anywhere – the kids are probably in white shirts and dark pants school uniforms the rest of the days of the week. The local Xhosa ran the show for the day, and made a bundle selling their beautiful beadwork --but there were a couple of white South Africans on site who had helped create and market the village, and who made sure things didn’t get too far off schedule. While in one sense the village wasn’t really authentic, in another sense it was extremely authentic in that it was a snapshot of the whirlwind of changes going on in the country.
Durban, South Africa 03/05/2009
Durban is the third largest (?) city in South Africa, and for this port we decided we would do a “death march” through the center of a city – our favorite way of getting to know a place. A shuttle dropped us off at the edge of the city centre, and we headed out to see the sights and try to find the tourist information centre. As we headed down one of the main shopping streets, it quickly became clear that we were the only white people to be seen. (One of the South Africans on board had seemed puzzled that we would want to go into downtown Durban). However, no one paid us any attention, so we wandered for a while until we found the tourist centre – not very useful – then headed out to our next stop, the Indian market in the Indian section of town. This was mildly interesting, but not that large, so we decided to walk through the “African Market”, under the nearby freeway. We were a little nervous at being in a crowded warren of market stalls, but despite being absolutely the only white skinned people, again everyone seemed to ignore us. There wasn’t much of interest to buy – mostly very inexpensive, dollar-store-like Chinese clothing and household goods. We grabbed a bite for lunch at the local supermarket – goat in pastry dough, like an African empanada.
After leaving the market, we got thoroughly lost and wandered around trying to find a cab, finally finding one outside a supermarket. This was obviously a locals’ place – the cab driver had never heard of the port, let alone the passenger terminal (a distance of 5 miles or so). After asking around, he was able to deliver us flawlessly to our ship.
As we were getting on the ship, a group of local travel agents were disembarking, and we chatted a bit. An older white man was aghast at the thought that we might walk around downtown Durban, let alone go to the African market. I’m not sure which of us had the right take on reality.
Richards Bay, South Africa March 6, 2009
Grimy, uninteresting, and industrial, Richards Bay was our last stop in South Africa. We decided it was time to finally see some wild animals! The ship had had tours to private game reserves in the previous ports, but this was to be our first. We headed off to the impossibly-named Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Park (which is pronounced “Shoe shoe way”), where we proceeded to our 10 person open safari vehicles. Given that it was the wrong season of the year and the wrong time of the day to see animals, we did quite well. This is a huge park, and the animals are free to roam anywhere. Fortunately for us, many of them find it easier to meander along the road. During our three hour exploration, we saw water buffalo, giraffe, white rhino, elephants, crocodile, zebra, nyala (antelopes), and many different kinds of birds and bugs. Just enough of a taste to want to go back and experience a real safari!
<<photos from Safari +IMG0441 >>
Maputo, Mozambique 03/09/09
Know anyone who has been to Mozambique before? We certainly didn’t. The country was embroiled in civil war after independence, which lasted 20 years or so. Mozambique has only recently started to get its act together. Few tourists visit, even though it has wonderful beaches and seafood. The tour books warned that the guides were likely to be inexperienced and not all would be good at English.
One of the perks of being a lecturer onboard a cruise ship is that you can offer to ask as escort on a tour and thereby take the tour for free. Typically all the escort does is record the times, make sure the passenger count is right, and check the bathrooms are clean. Well, we both volunteered as escorts for the first time for the Maputo City Tour. We each escorted a different bus, though we saw the same sights. More on this later.
Maputo is an old Portuguese colonial city, and many of the big old buildings are still around, included a fading but stunning railway station alleged to have been designed by Eifel. First stop was the old colonial Natural History Museum, put together in the late 1800s, and from the look of it, hasn’t been changed since. It was full of stuffed African animals, arranged cheek-by-jowl in scenes of carnage and death, showing the natural order of things. They were dusty and a lot of the hair had fallen out, but it was still quite a good show. The insect room had pinned bugs with fading yellow labels. Most interesting was the cultural room, intriguing but labeled in Portuguese and thus not very informative.
The city itself was a faded glory, and obviously quite poor – though our trip to the formerly ritzy beachfront area show big new homes in gated communities being built by government officials & foreigners.
We’ve been very diligent not to buy things, and we resisted the wooden carvings at the local tourist market. The Central Market (where the locals shop) was far more interesting, though we weren’t given much time to look around.
The guide for the bus that Kathy escorted was a charming woman named Gina, who was a trainee from the local tourist school. She spoke clear English, if not entirely fluently. She combined her description of what we were seeing with snapshots of what life had been like during the war, how it was changing now, and how much the government was (or more accurately, was not) doing the for the country. Her take on the country was probably the most interesting part of the tour, and all the passengers showered her with tips.
Scott had a different experience. An un-air-conditioned aging minibus with 16 passengers. A soft-spoken “guide” who did not speak a useful amount of English. He found himself repeating for the guide, trying to set and manage passenger expectations without having any more knowledge of Maputo than the passengers. He sweat so much that the handkerchief he was using to mop up the sweat soaked a portion of the pants he was keeping it in; he went through about ½ gallon of water and the majority of his composure. Miraculously, the passengers were in pretty good cheer throughout, and Scott was thanked by several of them… no tips though.
Jaksa and the Code Blue (3/8 12:15am)
Often, the news is great. Sometimes the news is mixed. Sometimes it's just plain awful.
Jaksa is the Staff Captain on board; this makes him basically 2nd in command after the Captain (aka "Master" on the ship). He is seldom heard on the intercom...
Jaksa is from Croatia, so his accent sounds to us like those "scary Russians" of our youth (or like the Evil "Boris BadEnough" from the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"...). In any case, it was unprecidented to hear his voice in the cabin (most announcements are make only outside the cabins), and just after midnight at that. He's a really interesting guy, right around our age, from a seafaring family.
"Code Blue, Room 5396. Code Blue, Room 5396" broke our slumbers. We didn't ponder it much at the time. We're in cabin 5399; they'd have been in about the same spot on the opposite side of the ship -- 60 seconds away, tops.
Turns out a passenger had dropped dead in his room from a heart attack. His wife was with him at the time. Like most aboard the ship, they were getting on in the years: nobody on board has any delusions that they'll live forever, and most are savoring the time they have (some are making up for lost time!).
It is tragic for the wife left behind, but death is part of every life (we don't suffer delusions about this either) and I suspect it isn't that unusual an occurance on a cruise ship. Rest in peace.
Next
We head for Mauritius, Seychelles etc. before continuing up to the Maldives.
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