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Very detailed Africa travelogue with lots of information for anyone planning a trip. Indexed for easy reference. 11 Countries over 3 months.
3 months in Africa -- detailed travelogue, travel tips, indexed
Larry2006-05-27 03:11:54
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lost, or not sure what street you're on, you can go for miles before
you see any hint of its name. Pretoria though, was very well signed).
Though street parking for 60 minutes or less was free in many areas, I
parked the car in an actual parking structure (the prices were quite
reasonable: R1.50 for 0-3 hours, R2.50 for 3-5 hours, and you don't have to
pay someone R2 to watch the car). I started walking, and arrived first at
Church Square, an area that reminded me quite a bit of downtown Los Angeles
with its old historic buildings and small park in the center. I walked into
a store and noticed a UFO-catcher (claw machines that you put coins into and
try to grab stuffed animals out of), and the music it was playing to attract
customers was (of all things), "Odoru Pompokorin", the theme song to an
extremely popular Japanese cartoon from the mid-1990s: "Chibi Maruko-chan"
(I later saw another one of these "Odoru Pomokorin"-playing UFO-catchers at
the Cape Town 7-11 store on the walk up to Bridle's B&B).
Walking into a small market for a soda, I asked the Chinese clerk where
he was from. He said Hong Kong, and when I asked how he found himself
living in South Africa, he said "well, the weather's better here." Later at
a bakery, a young 20ish Chinese girl had on a Hong Kong T-shirt, and I asked
if she was from there. She said yes, but that her family lives here in
Pretoria now.
One thing I noticed about South Africans (at least those in Pretoria) was
that they were quite good about waiting for a signal to show "walk" before
crossing the street -- there was very little jaywalking (though it was a
beautiful day, and it may not be the same in bad weather).
In Pretoria (as in most South African cities), there are a large number
of pawn shops. I walked into a branch of one of the larger chains (Cash
Converters) to
...
See photographs from:
Botswana Gallery
,
Cape Verde Gallery
,
Kenya Gallery
,
Lesotho Gallery
,
Malawi Gallery
,
Mauritius Gallery
,
Swaziland Gallery
,
Tanzania Gallery
,
Zambia Gallery
,
Zimbabwe Gallery
I just thought it might be helpful for you to know how i am finding your system.
Thank you
Susan J, 2008-01-28 14:00:20