We've arrived in South Africa

So we were late getting into J'burg. It was almost 11:00 by the time we got on the road with the rental car. South Africa drives on the left side of the road. Plus automatics are hard to come by an expensive so we skimped on a standard. And UG was too tired to drive, so I took the challenge. I drive stick at home, but my left arm is not familiar with the process. Plus the signal lights and windshield wipers are reversed. So I was essentially learning to drive all over again, while UG sat beside me making terrible jokes. I think he'll be doing the rest of the driving, while I sit to the side comfortable and giggling.

The hotel is more of a resort than a hotel, which I hadn't expected. Several buildings, connected by outdoor walkways surrounded by tropical gardens and a couple of pools (one with a pool bar). UG commented that if I keep picking hotels like this, we aren't going to see much of the country. But I seriously though it was a standard chain hotel in the financial district! There's an office building across the street that houses Deutsch Bank and HSBC. And there's a mall next door! Yet I had breakfast outside in the garden. Ah, I may not come home.

We tore ourselves away from the hotel today to do a bicycle tour of some of the "townships". These are areas which were designated for the Blacks to live back in the mining days 100 years ago. During Apartheid, Blacks were forced to live in the townships as part of segregation. A bus tour of the area is considered a must-do of J'burg as it's the location of the homes of both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the start of the Apartheid resistance. It's still a typical view of how a lot of (maybe most?) South Africans live (Desmond Tutu still lives there). However, UG is a *bit* of a bicycle fanatic. Plus I read a review that pointed out there's something wrong about driving through a neighbourhood on a bus and staring out the window at the people who live there. So we booked a bike tour run by a hostel in the neighbourhood. I hadn't pre-booked it, but I knew about it through my pre-trip research, so I asked the hotel consierge. She knew about it, but was very clear it was not a hotel recommended tour, but she had a friend who had a friend who could arrange it. So we got picked up (apparently the neighbourhood has no maps, so finding our own way to the meeting point was likely futile) and delivered to the hostel in time for the tour. It was freakin awesome! I am completely out of shape, and would like if they had built these communities in a flatter location. But I survived. The neighbourhoods weren't at all what I expected. I expected a small, cramped shanty-town, too small for the number of people who lived there, and abismal living conditions. However, it was actually quite spread out, with a lot of reasonably nice, well kept, brick houses. Some houses were actually gorgeous. Some of them aren't so nice, obviously, there's still a lot of poverty. But when I expected nothing but poverty, it was a nice surprise. The kids here are all on school vacation, so there were lots of children running around, all of whom called out to us and waved as we passed. In a couple of areas, the children would run out and hold out their hands for a high five for each of us as we'd pass. We also stopped to try the local homemade beer, which is made with so much yeast it's a milky colour and smells like fresh bread. But it actually tasted pretty good. Although not as good as rosee beer.

We were told to greet the locals with something that sounded like "Sani Bonani" as hello. And the woman in our group from New Zealand kept yelling out "Sunny Banana". I was tempted to laugh and/or correct her. But I'm sure my own attempts were not any closer to reality. So Sunny Banana from South Africa.

I have also discovered the bakery at the grocery store next door has decent chocolate eclairs. Again, not as good as at the market, but decent. Apparently it's become my new addiction.