Continue with the journey ...
We actually got to sleep in until ... 7am
on Tuesday. Oh trust me, after 3 nights of getting up at 4am, even for a
morning person like me, it was amazing to get those 3 extra hours of sleep, to
have enough time to sit down and have a hot breakfast with eggs and toasts
instead of cereal and bananas. We spent the entire morning on the bus (more
sleep, amen) as we moved to our next destination – Soweto, moving from the
wilderness to an urban atmosphere, and from an exciting nature experience to a
historical and cultural one. To give some background, Soweto is a large, highly
populated township in the city of Johannesburg (I will get back to Johannesburg
later). Soweto stands for South West Township and is actually developed
enough to be a city of its own.
On the way to Lebo’s, the backpacker place
that we spent the next two nights at, we made a quick stop at Soccer City. I was ecstatic
to see the stadium that housed the World Cup with my own eyes. If only I was
here last summer to experience all that hype and excitement and to be able to
watch a real World Cup game in the midst of all the noise of the vuvuzela. That
would be one hell of an experience.
We arrived at Lebo’s backpacker just in
time for lunch. Similar to Old Vic, Lebo gaves out a friendly and homey
atmosphere, with its set up no different than a typical house: kitchen, dining
rooms, office, living room and backyard. The only differences would be there
were way more rooms and bathrooms (which is kind of a necessity) and a backyard
decorated in tribal style with the bar, a fireplace surrounded with cushions
and hammocks, fooseball table, pool, darts, picnic tables and a bamboo house. I
was in love with the decoration of the yard, especially the upstair section
that gave off a Mediterranean and African fused feeling with decorative beaded
throw pillows on the floor, for us to lie down comfortably while hanging out.
The workers here were exceptionally nice and they gave me the feeling of family
members. I became friends with them immediately, considering how often I snuck
into the kitchen to make coffee and tea during the 2 nights we stayed there.
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| The painted wall outside of the house |
After a light lunch with tomato grilled
cheese sandwiches, fish and chips, we set out to pick our bicycles for the bike
tour. It was a struggle for me to find a bike my height. Don’t laugh. I wouldn’t
exactly be happy if I couldn’t find a bike. Thankfully, there was one. We were
given a brief history of Soweto as well as various interesting facts about it
at the beginning of the tour. Not only it is big enough to be a city on its
own, with developed economics and industrial centres. Soweto also had a
surprisingly rich cultural background. It houses some of the most famous
landmark of South Africa, including the Nelson Mandela House and the Hector
Pieterson museum and monument. Without said, it has an extremely eventful
history, involving various significant events and political figures. Cultural
wise, there is one interesting fact that I actually remember. The popular
soundtrack “The lion sleeps tonight” from The Lion King is actually an English
version of the original song “Mbube”, recorded by Solomon Linda who lives in
Soweto.
As we biked along town, we got to
experience various local traditions and learnt more about the township. We
tried the local beer that the women made for their men during the time they had
to work in the mines, learned the dance that went with it, and showed the local
people an “American” dance. We stopped by a local “restaurant’, street style,
for people to try cow tongue. For a Vietnamese, I guess that is not something
new but it was interesting to see how they used different spices and other
dishes accompanied the meat. The way they served the food was also different.
We visited the monument of Hector Pieterson and made a quick stop at the Nelson
Mandela house. I actually realized I knew very little about the history and
politics of South Africa and Africa in general, since I couldn’t even think of
one fact about Nelson Mandela (except that he was black man, j/k). I have never
been really interested in history and politics but for some reason, I felt like
I should know the most basic things about the place I visit. Time to do some
research *sigh*
After around two hour biking around town,
we headed home. It was such a great exercise after all that time sitting in
planes, jeeps and buses. I felt like my muscle finally got to move again and
surprisingly, was still in good shape. After all the cakes and dessert that I
have consumed for the past few weeks, I did not expect myself to breeze through
all the hills without much problem. Pretty proud of myself, not gonna lie.
One thing I loved about the trip was that
we had plenty of time at night during dinner and after to hang out and really
bond with each other. There are only around 20 of us in the program, and
normally, we have always been pretty close to each other, going to class, field
trips and travelling together. However, this was an excellent chance for me, at
least, to break out of the normal circle of people I usually hang out with and
got to know the others more. Spencer, Ben, Wes and I started an “intense” game
of foose ball and obviously, Wes and I lost, thanks to my amazing eye-hand
coordination skill. Don’t really understand how people manage to play that game
=.= I actually got to know Ben much better during the time at Lebo’s. It was
great to be able to know more than just he’s from Switzerland, goes to U of R
and he plays squash. Also, during this time I have managed to convince Monica,
Spencer and Portia to come visit Vietnam, even if it was only for the spa, manicures,
and coffee shops. It actually occurs to me that knowing people from U of R is
actually quite a nice thing, especially when thinking that I can still see
Monica, Spencer, Ben, Toni, etc., next semester and maybe have lunch or dinner
with them and talk about the awesome time we had in Cape Town.
The guys at Lebo had amazing taste in
music. Everyone had the time of their life dancing in the yard, or gathered
around the fire place and had a little fun with good alcohol and fruity hookah.
I actually was being lame and fell asleep pretty early while reading my novel,
lol. Oh, one more thing I absolutely love about Lebo - the zebra skin on the
couch – I want one so badly.
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| Various locations in Maropeng |
Another morning, another delicious
breakfast being served by the amazing ladies and gentlemen at Lebo’s with
almost all the breakfast essential: cereals, toasts, cheese, scramble eggs,
bacons, sausage, mushroom, tomatoes, yogurt, fruits, juices, coffee, tea, etc. We
were so into breakfast that we were literally 15 minutes behind on our
schedule, lol. Besides the safari trip, I think the next destination was my
second highlight of the trip – Maropeng aka the Cradle of Humankind.
Years of
drilling in my head about various species of Homo erectus, Australopithecus africanus,
Homo neaderthalensis, Homo sapiens, etc., and Africa, as well as having to
write numerous reports and taking exams on Darwin and his theory of Origin of
Species, I thought I hated Evolutionary Biology with a passion. Apparently, I’m
more of a biology nerd than I thought I was. I literally had butterflies and
this feeling of immense happiness to take the first step on the ground of the “cradle
of humankind”. The extravagant stone columns at the entrance only elevated my
feeling. It was pretty epic, no exaggeration.
This is one of the sites that I actually
know lots of related background information about. The Cradle of Humankind was
named by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1999 (it was the 9-year-old’s
girl dream to be able to visit this one day, and it came true!). Maropeng is a
Setswana word that stands for ‘returning to the place of our origins’. The site
is actually quite large with around 40 to 50 caves in which fossils were found.
Too bad we only got to visit the museum part *sad*. I wish I could have seen
the Sterkfontein caves, the site where they found the skull of “Mrs. Ples”, a
2.3 million year old Australopithecus africanus. Statistics: almost 1/3 of all
hominid fossils ever found are all excavated in Sterkfontein.
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| The four elements |
The exhibition and display of this museum
is really well done, aesthetically and professionally. Most exhibits are
interactive, eye-catching and contain basic yet interesting information. The
walkway to the boat ride was painted with the time line of origin of species,
starting from the modern day as we walked into history, and ended at the very
beginning of time when the Earth only consisted of the four elements. The boat
ride showed us how the elements acted together in other to bring living beings
into life. It was a pretty fun ride, scary at some points when it comes to
certain elements, especially for people who are scared of water like Qamar
(lol, we made fun of him the entire ride). The main part of the museum contains
various information about the path of humankind development, its origins and
other related topic, up to those of the modern day. Along the side wall
presented various global and economic tissues that humankind are facing with,
with the intriguing opening line “Are we destroying ourselves?” The graphic
design of these posters and signs is impressive. They attracted attention with bright
colors and presentation, and they got the information across with amazing
typography. I was in love with them, and took way too many pictures. The museum
ends with a glass wall and the question “What is our future?” (glass wall =
reflection, clever, eh?), before it leads out to the open space with a gorgeous
view of the infinite scenery. We hung around in the yard, taking in as much
sunshine as possible. Spencer, Luke and I went explore and found this adorable
kid’s cave as well as a playground, where we spent a decent amount of time
playing a huge version of “snake and vines” on the ground, and played with the
swings of course.
The day became hotter and the sun rose
higher, telling our stomachs that it was high time for lunch. Thus, we headed
out to our bus and another hour drive to our next destination – the Sparkling
Waters Hotel and Spa – to get lunch and ready for our epic canopy trip. A
simple lunch was served in a sun-filled room as we split among us into three
different groups of 7 each. The groups went into a half hour interval after
each other while the rest waited at the hotel to enjoy all the facility,
including a swimming pool, tennis court, and other things. Monica and I decided
to go for a spa session as we both agreed that we were desperately in need of a
back massage. A sundeck back massage was the best thing I could ask for at that
moment, after many hours of travelling. Warm sun, soothing music, aromatic
smell of herbal oil, and a relaxing massage did the trick – my body was
revitalized and I felt alive again, ready for the adrenaline rush of the zip
line tour.
We had a brief session of tutoring how to slide, fitted with our
harness, helmet, sliding gloves, packed on a truck and drove to the mountain
for our adventure. I have always been a fan of extreme sports and I actually
love heights and the feeling of being on top of the world. As a result, I
breezed through the adventure with much excitement, yet a little part of me
wished it could have been a little bit scarier. I know, lol, I am kind of
crazy. It actually made me want to go bungee jumping and skydiving really bad.
I need more of an adrenaline rush.
Our group was perfect: Carimah, Monica,
Megan, Maxine and Wes. Monica, Carimah and I were singing random lines from our
“terrible song” as we slid down the line. Megan just made our adventure so much
better as she was literally scared and made all the best impression ever. Wes,
well, was just being silly was always with his “African swag”. We actually
ordered the DVD that recorded our tour and pictures. Although I actually
regretted not bring my camera with me, a self-taken picture in the middle of
zip-lining would have been pretty sick. Oh well. Everyone seemed to have
enjoyed the experience and all talked about it excitedly during the two hour
bus ride back to Lebo’s.
It was our last night before we did some
more touring tomorrow around Johannesburg and caught our flight back to Cape
Town in the afternoon. While everyone was outside drinking and dancing by the
fire place, I was too afraid of the cold and decided to make myself comfortable
on the couch with a cup of hot coffee. It turned out was not a bad decision at
all. I started talking to the other guests aka backpackers that stayed here and
got quite interesting stories from them. 2 of them are also study abroad
students from the US, go to UCT and are majored in architecture. I have to say
I’m mildly jealous, I can’t imagine get to study architecture in such a wonderful
country of diversity. Architecture here is just amazing. The other girl is from
England, and she has done a ridiculous amount of travelling, including Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, around Europe, now she is
in Africa and plans on going to South America next. She actually takes 2 years
of just to travel and learn more about tourism. We technically talked for
almost 4 hours, sharing with each other different stories of our travelling
experience (more of me listening and her telling). She was doing some
volunteering work in Soweta and has been there for 5 months. I’ve always read
on travelling blogs about how backpackers are such nice place for travellers
because they are extremely homey and people become attached to them easily, now
I know that these bloggers do not exaggerate at all. I wish one day I could
travel like that, from cities to cities, countries to countries, getting to
know the local people and learn the lifestyle. It is such an enticing and alluring
aspect of travelling. People came out and in of the living room, wondering how
the hell I was talking to a random people for hours and with the vibe that I
have known them for a long time. I didn’t even know their names. Actually, none
of us asked because we didn’t feel like we have to. I spent the rest of the
night watching a movie with Spencer and Ben, and didn’t really go to bed until
1am, the latest I had been the entire trip.
Thursday morning, at this point, despite
all the excitement, I felt like I was ready to go home. Five days full of
activities and lots of bonding time with people were just right. I needed some
alone time to do my own things, or nothing at all. I missed my comfortable bed,
warm room, hot showers, and talking to my friends online. I know travelling is
all about meeting new people and making friends, but what’s the point of having
all the fun if you have no one to tell? I could NOT wait to get home, edit my
pictures, write my blog and share the experience (and make people jealous,
haha). Packing that morning brought a mixed feeling of both sad and happy at
the same time. We had two more stops to make before we hit the airport: the Apartheid
Museum and the SA Breweries for a World of Beer tour.
The Apartheid was quite a turning point and
significant event for South Africa. I could never know how it felt to be
treated with racism. Being an Asian, racism has never been a big issue for me,
at least. Obviously, stereotypes come up often, especially when it comes to
inter-racial differences. However, I don’t think it has never been that
terrible an issue. On entering the museum, we were randomly assigned the classification
of “white” or “non-white” and entered via two separate gates. There was
information about this system of legal racial segregation into four groups:
native, white, coloured and Asian. They were classified according to skin color,
hair texture and other characteristics. White people became colour, colour
people became black, asian became white all using these rules. How could you
classify people like that, I have no idea and could not see the reasoning
behinds it. They were all treated differently, to the point of different gates,
bathrooms and other privileges. Again, the layout and design of the exhibition
was incredible. I learned a tremendous amount of information about Nelson
Mandela. My most favourite fact? The one that talks about how Nelson is an
extremely stylish person. He cares about how his style is presented to the
people and is always very concerned about his suit. His favourite suit was
tailored by the most talented designer in Africa and was among one of the most
expensive suits ever made. He is definite a great man, not that I didn’t think
he was before I learned about his fashion style. Overall, the museum did a
astounding job at illustrating the rise and fall of apartheid and the struggles
that people went through. It was a great learning experience.
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| I risked my life for this picture, lol. |
Putting all the serious things behind, we
moved on to a more light-hearted experience: the World of Beer tour at the SA
Breweries. Actually, I had no idea how the tour was. I am not a big fan of beer
so I joined Carimah, Qamar, Megan and Monica for a short tour around the city
of Johannesburg instead. Johannesburg, also called Jozi, Jo’burg or Egoli (city
of Gold), is the largest city in South Africa and is also one of the most
industrial and political city of SA. Joburg is famous for its large-scale gold
and diamond industry. It has some of the tallest buildings in the entire Africa’s
continent. I heard clubs and bars here were pretty sick too. Due to time limit,
we could only walk around for a few blocks, passing the market and several
interesting buildings on our way. Joburg has a completely atmosphere compared
to Cape Town. I felt like I was back in Ho Chi Minh City: lots of traffic, local
stores along the streets, vendor stands along the pavement, people rushing everywhere
and yelled at us for stopping and taking pictures. It wasn’t, from the
impression we had of our short walk, a very tourist-friendly city. That or we
just got into the wrong part at the wrong time. Our love for taking pictures
almost got us in big trouble with national security *cough* and almost got
arrested at the African National Congress headquarter building. Even the FNC
bank headquarter were not picture-friendly. It was interesting having a taste
of Joburg. We walked back to the Breweries to join the other for another
delicious lunch. I was glad to get my salad, needed the vegetables. French
fries here is delicious, by the way. We ordered like three extra servings of
fries, lol.
That was the last stop of our spring break.
As as the plane took off, I looked out the window and took in the scenery of
the place that had given me such incredible experience and made part of my
dreams come true. Without fail, Cape Town greeted us gloomy and rainy weather,
which was kind of depressing after five days of sunshine. There was this
paralyzing feeling lingered in me, the feeling of knowing that I was going to
leave a place for good, and that the chance of me being back was close to 0. It
felt like a dream, and the paralyzing feeling reminded me that I would need to
wake up to reality soon.
What
I got from this incredible-fantastic-mind-blowing spring break?
1.
Tons of pictures that captured priceless moments
2.
Amazing souvenirs and postcards
3.
A nice tan and several bruises of unknown sources
4.
An ice-cream addiction
5.
The astonishing diversity of this country and how lucky I am
to be here. I should appreciate history and cultures more.
6.
“All good things are wild and free”
7.
The feeling of getting
to what you learned from textbooks with your own eyes is indescribable.
8.
Great friends can be made everywhere and anywhere, if you are
willing to open up.
9.
The fact that people come together from various places and
belong to different races can eat, tak and laugh together is something should
not be taken for granted.
10. Cape Town has become
another “home” away from home for me (now I my own home in 3 different
continents, and 3 different states of the US, lol)
Nadia,
our RA greeted us with her usual cheerfulness and an endearing phrase: ‘Welcome
home, girls.”
And
the truth was,
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| I'm home - where humanity begins and where the wild things are. |
[az]
