Please read for a completely unbiased ad objective interpretation of the news emanating from this morning's South China Morning Post:
Unsurprisingly, the big news out here at the moment is the Chinese chap, Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace but rots in a prison cell (you know how dangerous advocating democracy can be, right?). The new controversey, though, is what has happened to his wife, Liu Xia. Some sources say she ran, some say she is being detained at her apartment in Beijing, and some say she's been detained elsewhere. The SCMP quotes Freedom Now, a Washington-based human rights organisation as saying that Liu Xia hasn't been charged with a crime, but she is under house arrest and barred from speaking with friends or to the media.
Every city has its thing that bugs it the most: in Joburg it's crime, in London it's immigration, in Cape Town it's poor people... in Hong Kong it's very much property. 7 million people live in this city that's pretty tiny space-wise. So property, as you can imagine, is hecka expensive, and property dealers are the super rich folks here. But like seriously expensive and kak rich, respectively. So it's always pretty cool when a launch from a rich-ass property company fails somewhat because people won't pay HK$5.7 million (about R5.2 million) for a 401 square foot (37.2square metres) flat - that's R140 000 per square metre. Only two fo the 96 flats were sold. Yee ha!
If you want an example of a property tycoon in this part of the world, a chap called Lau Wong-fat is in kak for failing to disclose all his assets as he now has some involvement with Legco, Hong Kong's kind of parliamentry government board. Well, he accidentally forgot 390 plots of land, bringing his total of land plots and property up to 724, in this city where accommodation is so hard to come by...
137 couples were married yesterday because they wanted the 10-10-10 notable date for some or other reason. (To put that into perspective, though, there were over 10 000 weddings in Shanghai yesterday.) Also, in yesterday's newsaper, McDonalds (at selected branches) will be offering McWeddings. People can rock up, pay cheap, get everyone fed, sort out the nuptuals, and then go home. It's yet another indication that people in Hong Kong seem to take weddings really seriously.
In sport, Hong Kong are looking forward to the Rugby Sevens at the Asian Games in Guangzhou next month, even though they've been drawn in the same group as Japan, the only Asian team to beat them in the last two years. Due to the structure of the tournament, though, the two teams could still meet in the final of the competition.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Friday, 8 October 2010
Hong Kong morning news - 8 October
Courtesy of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard.
First up, as if you needed any more sticks with which to poke the SCMP in the eye, this insert came with the paper today. What excellent use of juxtaposition and irony putting this word next to this picture.
Remember that hostage bus situation in the Phillipines a few weeks ago? Well, 8 of the victims who died were Hong Kongers, so it's quite the emotional situation here from what the papers have to say this morning, as both carry front page news about it today. The basic premise is this: The Filipino government botched the whole rescue operation and ordered an inquiry afterwards after what The Standard called an "international outcry". The results of the inquiry were released and blamed a few members of government who happen to be buddy buddy with the President Aquino, so El Presidente has decided to blame two journalists who interviewed the killer. This is pissing Hong Kongers off as they want justice for the murdered victims of their city/country/special administrative area.
Derick Chan Po-fui, head of ICBC, China's biggest commercial bank lender by market capitalisation, has been busted for accepting HK$3.3million (about R3.6milion) of bribes to extenda client's loan repayment window. Although Chan is a Hong Konger, ICBC is a Chinese partly state-owned bank so he's in massive shit. Two others, Zhang Enzhao and Liu Jinbao, have been caught accepting bribes at state-owned banks, and were dished out 15 years in prison and a suspended death penalty sentence respectively. Corruption is a big deal here - one should not ever fuck with the Chinese government.
The USA has cancelled the visit of one of its aircraft carriers to Hong Kong. Washington swears it has nothing to do with diplomatic objections from Beijing and is because of "operational reasons". And my bum is a brinjal.
These two headlines are on the same page of the SCMP today: "Dumped baby may have lived briefly" and "Helper admits killing baby after birth in toilet". A pretty strong newsday for infanticide, wouldn't you say? Terrible, terrible. The baby in the first story was found in a plastic bag on a hillside. The "helper" who killed the baby in the second story threw the child out of a window. Stunning.
A passenger oin a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong had to be restrained and hand cuffed to his seat because he threatened to open the aeroplane door while they were in mid flight. I can advise you from personal experience that this is NOT the case on Qatar Airways where staff initially thought I was joking, then didn't actually know what to do when they realised that the girl on drugs behind me really had plans to do so. Not my best flight.
Graham McDowell, Ryder Cup hero, will join Rory McIlroy in November's Hong Kong Open golf tournament. Golf is popular in Asia, and the Open here is sanctioned by the European Tour so it's great news all round for HK golf fans.
Roger Federer backed Hong Kong to be the host of the 2023 Asian Games while on a stopover en route to Shanghai. "I won't ever play in the Asian Games but sport is always good for a city". He also went on to mention that his double gold in the Olympics in Beijing was one of the finest moments of his career. A man endorses a tournament he can't play in and then tells a story about a different city... pretty pointless endorsement all round then, eh?
First up, as if you needed any more sticks with which to poke the SCMP in the eye, this insert came with the paper today. What excellent use of juxtaposition and irony putting this word next to this picture.
Remember that hostage bus situation in the Phillipines a few weeks ago? Well, 8 of the victims who died were Hong Kongers, so it's quite the emotional situation here from what the papers have to say this morning, as both carry front page news about it today. The basic premise is this: The Filipino government botched the whole rescue operation and ordered an inquiry afterwards after what The Standard called an "international outcry". The results of the inquiry were released and blamed a few members of government who happen to be buddy buddy with the President Aquino, so El Presidente has decided to blame two journalists who interviewed the killer. This is pissing Hong Kongers off as they want justice for the murdered victims of their city/country/special administrative area.
Derick Chan Po-fui, head of ICBC, China's biggest commercial bank lender by market capitalisation, has been busted for accepting HK$3.3million (about R3.6milion) of bribes to extenda client's loan repayment window. Although Chan is a Hong Konger, ICBC is a Chinese partly state-owned bank so he's in massive shit. Two others, Zhang Enzhao and Liu Jinbao, have been caught accepting bribes at state-owned banks, and were dished out 15 years in prison and a suspended death penalty sentence respectively. Corruption is a big deal here - one should not ever fuck with the Chinese government.
The USA has cancelled the visit of one of its aircraft carriers to Hong Kong. Washington swears it has nothing to do with diplomatic objections from Beijing and is because of "operational reasons". And my bum is a brinjal.
These two headlines are on the same page of the SCMP today: "Dumped baby may have lived briefly" and "Helper admits killing baby after birth in toilet". A pretty strong newsday for infanticide, wouldn't you say? Terrible, terrible. The baby in the first story was found in a plastic bag on a hillside. The "helper" who killed the baby in the second story threw the child out of a window. Stunning.
A passenger oin a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong had to be restrained and hand cuffed to his seat because he threatened to open the aeroplane door while they were in mid flight. I can advise you from personal experience that this is NOT the case on Qatar Airways where staff initially thought I was joking, then didn't actually know what to do when they realised that the girl on drugs behind me really had plans to do so. Not my best flight.
Graham McDowell, Ryder Cup hero, will join Rory McIlroy in November's Hong Kong Open golf tournament. Golf is popular in Asia, and the Open here is sanctioned by the European Tour so it's great news all round for HK golf fans.
Roger Federer backed Hong Kong to be the host of the 2023 Asian Games while on a stopover en route to Shanghai. "I won't ever play in the Asian Games but sport is always good for a city". He also went on to mention that his double gold in the Olympics in Beijing was one of the finest moments of his career. A man endorses a tournament he can't play in and then tells a story about a different city... pretty pointless endorsement all round then, eh?
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Shopping in Kowloon
We’ve explored Sheung Wan, our area of choice on Hong Kong’s main island fairly explicitly, but over the weekend we decided to hit up Kowloon – a portion of the city which sits on the mainland. It’s a quick boat ride away which costs HK$3 (about R2.70) each way or about HK$4 on the MTR (the metro, tube, underground, whatever you wish to call it).
The first few streets of Kowloon are where the rich people shop. It’s like 5th Avenue in New York or Regent Street in London. As this catered neither for our tastes or budget, we caught the train two stops further to Mong Kok. And this is how we were greeted as we left the station:
There were more people swirling about than I have ever seen in my life. Block after block of this shopping district was just rammed with people who were peering into shops aplenty. We waded through the horde, all dispersing in different directions, only to be replaced by more and more bodies following them.
Getting used to the scale of things in Hong Kong is the process under which we’re currently going. In one of the electronic shops which wasn’t all that big in terms of area, there must have been 200-300 people wandering around, with at least 30 or 40 shop assistants helping them. And I’m not talking a big wholesaler like Makro – this shop was about the size of an average South African pharmacy.
While fitting around trying not to lose each other in the throng of spenders, we decided to pop into a restaurant for a cheap lunch. Mike ordered fish balls with noodles and I ordered black pepper beef balls with noodles. Well, the beef balls tasted so bad we’re still trying to ascertain whether they were meatballs or literally balls off of the animal that makes beef. I tend to lean toward it just being bad food, as I am sure that bull knackers would cost a lot more than the HK$32 (about R30) we paid. With our stomachs doing flik-flaks we carried on through the deluge of people and came across a proper market after browsing through a seemingly non-fake DVD store that had some movies for HK$20 and some for HK$300.
This market was the first place I thought had really cheap goods in it and two pairs of shorts and two pairs of undies later, at a cost of about HK$50 (about R45), I felt satisfied. Well, until the shorts broke the first time I wore them and the underwear turned out to be basically see-through... essence of markets and paying that sort of money, I suppose. Here's a pic of the market from a raised walkway:
We carried on ambling around and eventually, as night fell, we headed back towards Mong Kok station which was our first ever journey on the MTR (we’d ferried across the water earlier in the day). I still find it amazing that they can build tunnels under the sea through which trains can run, but nonetheless, it’s how it is. The MTR trains are much longer here than in any other city in which I’ve taken them (limited to London, Barcelona and Rome) and they are set up in far superior fashion too – it’s no surprise that over 90% of commuters use public transport here. The maps of the MTR in the trains are lit up with arrows telling you which way the train is going, which side of the train from which you’ll be exiting and all that jazz. It’s probably more flashy than useful, but it’s SO COOL! And as cheap as chips.
This arvie we’re off to look at flats to rent, so I’ll be able to inform you if real estate people are as irritating and useless as they are around the rest of the world. Recruitment agents certainly are.
‘till next post.
The first few streets of Kowloon are where the rich people shop. It’s like 5th Avenue in New York or Regent Street in London. As this catered neither for our tastes or budget, we caught the train two stops further to Mong Kok. And this is how we were greeted as we left the station:
There were more people swirling about than I have ever seen in my life. Block after block of this shopping district was just rammed with people who were peering into shops aplenty. We waded through the horde, all dispersing in different directions, only to be replaced by more and more bodies following them.
Getting used to the scale of things in Hong Kong is the process under which we’re currently going. In one of the electronic shops which wasn’t all that big in terms of area, there must have been 200-300 people wandering around, with at least 30 or 40 shop assistants helping them. And I’m not talking a big wholesaler like Makro – this shop was about the size of an average South African pharmacy.
While fitting around trying not to lose each other in the throng of spenders, we decided to pop into a restaurant for a cheap lunch. Mike ordered fish balls with noodles and I ordered black pepper beef balls with noodles. Well, the beef balls tasted so bad we’re still trying to ascertain whether they were meatballs or literally balls off of the animal that makes beef. I tend to lean toward it just being bad food, as I am sure that bull knackers would cost a lot more than the HK$32 (about R30) we paid. With our stomachs doing flik-flaks we carried on through the deluge of people and came across a proper market after browsing through a seemingly non-fake DVD store that had some movies for HK$20 and some for HK$300.
This market was the first place I thought had really cheap goods in it and two pairs of shorts and two pairs of undies later, at a cost of about HK$50 (about R45), I felt satisfied. Well, until the shorts broke the first time I wore them and the underwear turned out to be basically see-through... essence of markets and paying that sort of money, I suppose. Here's a pic of the market from a raised walkway:
This arvie we’re off to look at flats to rent, so I’ll be able to inform you if real estate people are as irritating and useless as they are around the rest of the world. Recruitment agents certainly are.
‘till next post.
Hong Kong morning news - 7 October
Brought to you by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard.
Bias alert: The SCMP is pro-Beijing and The Standard is kind of a pro-China nationalist paper, but it's a crap tabloid so you can't really tell.
This chap is Xie Zhenhua, National Development and Reform Commission deputy chief. The one who said the stuff in the first news item. Image from SCMP.
China shat all over the USA regarding climate change and told it to pull its socks up. According to the SCMP, Beijing has reformed its own policies in progressive fashion, and also only produces a quarter of the carbon emissions per capita of the USA. That being said, China has about four times the population of the US so the per capita argument works well for Beijing. Mother Nature though... well she doesn't give a shit how much pollution there is per person. She's into totals, I'd imagine.
On the front page of every paper I have bought since our arrival in Hong Kong has detailed the new social care health plan being touted in Hong Kong. Much like the troublesome too-positive effects that the NHS has on Britain, Hong Kong's excellent and affordable healthcare means that an ageing population is not dying, and is becoming a real strain on public health finance. The details of the new healthcare plan seem to be to get middle-upper to upper class folks to get off social care and into reduced medical aid packages, but the details still all seem to be pretty fuzzy.
Hong Kong does not have import taxes on beer and wine (although looking at the prices you'd never think so) but has a 100% tax on spirits. Some chap called Thomas Bohrer thinks this is grossly unfair and is on a mission to change it. So here's waiting for a "fairer" tax affecting the price of wine and beer... betcha...
The greenies are fighting Legco (Hong Kong's parliament) about expanding a landfill into a country park, and the bunny-huggers seem to have won as the government has declared that it won't begin dumping in the new zone until January 2012 (it was due to begin next month). I can't see why Legco has delayed this. SCMP reckons it's to win more support for the landfill, but whoever in their right mind thinks that they can win support for a landfill? Has it ever been done before?
A security guard appeared in court yesterday for accidentally shooting his gun into the roof of a shopping centre last Sunday. This is only notable because his name is Play Boy Choy Chi-wai.
The University of Hong Kong expects 6.2% GDP growth this year, up from the 5% it predicted earlier.
Angela Merkel has told Wen Jiabao that Germany will do everything in its power to have the EU recognise China as a market economy, but there are restrictions which have to be fulfilled, including China removing the much condemned policy of toying with its currency value. China overtook Germany as the world's number one exporter last year. Wen Jiabao is off to visit Italy next where Berlusconi is sure to do some sucking up.
Interestingly, and this was in the paper a few days ago, Singapore and Hong Kong are going to be replaced by Shanghai and Shenzen as the world's first and third busiest shipping ports respectively. Singapore is going to be knocked into second place by Shanghai and Hong Kong is due to drop into fourth as Shenzen carries on climbing.
The Standard informs us that a 97-year old woman was bitten on the toe by a rat - the 7th such attack this year. Eeeek! What an amazing piece of news.
Bias alert: The SCMP is pro-Beijing and The Standard is kind of a pro-China nationalist paper, but it's a crap tabloid so you can't really tell.
This chap is Xie Zhenhua, National Development and Reform Commission deputy chief. The one who said the stuff in the first news item. Image from SCMP.
On the front page of every paper I have bought since our arrival in Hong Kong has detailed the new social care health plan being touted in Hong Kong. Much like the troublesome too-positive effects that the NHS has on Britain, Hong Kong's excellent and affordable healthcare means that an ageing population is not dying, and is becoming a real strain on public health finance. The details of the new healthcare plan seem to be to get middle-upper to upper class folks to get off social care and into reduced medical aid packages, but the details still all seem to be pretty fuzzy.
Hong Kong does not have import taxes on beer and wine (although looking at the prices you'd never think so) but has a 100% tax on spirits. Some chap called Thomas Bohrer thinks this is grossly unfair and is on a mission to change it. So here's waiting for a "fairer" tax affecting the price of wine and beer... betcha...
The greenies are fighting Legco (Hong Kong's parliament) about expanding a landfill into a country park, and the bunny-huggers seem to have won as the government has declared that it won't begin dumping in the new zone until January 2012 (it was due to begin next month). I can't see why Legco has delayed this. SCMP reckons it's to win more support for the landfill, but whoever in their right mind thinks that they can win support for a landfill? Has it ever been done before?
A security guard appeared in court yesterday for accidentally shooting his gun into the roof of a shopping centre last Sunday. This is only notable because his name is Play Boy Choy Chi-wai.
The University of Hong Kong expects 6.2% GDP growth this year, up from the 5% it predicted earlier.
Angela Merkel has told Wen Jiabao that Germany will do everything in its power to have the EU recognise China as a market economy, but there are restrictions which have to be fulfilled, including China removing the much condemned policy of toying with its currency value. China overtook Germany as the world's number one exporter last year. Wen Jiabao is off to visit Italy next where Berlusconi is sure to do some sucking up.
Interestingly, and this was in the paper a few days ago, Singapore and Hong Kong are going to be replaced by Shanghai and Shenzen as the world's first and third busiest shipping ports respectively. Singapore is going to be knocked into second place by Shanghai and Hong Kong is due to drop into fourth as Shenzen carries on climbing.
The Standard informs us that a 97-year old woman was bitten on the toe by a rat - the 7th such attack this year. Eeeek! What an amazing piece of news.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Wan, two and free
Well it's 6am here in Hong Kong - midnight, South Africa time (at the time I began writing this) and I am officially nowhere near dealing with this goddam jetlag. The closest we've come so far was the first night we spent here where we made it up at 1pm. The other two "mornings" have been 2pm. It's tricky as Mike has to be up and at them on Wednesday when he starts his new job, and I am going to have to start keeping Hong Kong office hours to begin getting my life in order: work permits and all that malarkey. And I'd like most of my day to actually be in the light hours.
It's been an action-packed few days. We sedated ourselves into oblivion for the flights over here, remaining awake for meals (like anything is chemically strong enough to separate me from food) and the landings on our Emirates flights from Joburg to Hong Kong via Dubai. Annoyingly, out stopover was so short I didn't have time for a smoke and we were rushed around by some dwarven airport official who insisted we board our Dubai-HK flight immediately, which, again, thanks to sedatives was spent drooling while snoring, rather than the usual panicky, white-knuckled terror which regularly accompanies my every air journey (irony in a travel writer being scared of flying noted).
The first thing one notices about Hong Kong is that it is humid as all bloody hell. It makes Durban seem like a Johannesburg winter. We're currently heading into winter here - we're kind of just in the northern hemisphere - and there is so much moisture in the air combined with a 28-30 degree temperature. I can hardly put the beer in as fast as I sweat it out. And we've exercised, walked and explored so much that by god, there is barely any moisture left in me.
We are currently in the smallest apartment in which I have ever stayed. It's a studio, so it has two rooms. A bathroom, and a kitchen-bedroom-lounge-entrance hall. The front door virtually opens into the bed and is next to the kitchenette. Should you trip over the bed on your way in, never fear, the couch is between it and the wall on the other side. Our luggage takes up more floor space than there is available, but it's actually quite awesome and is being filed under "experience".
Hong Kong's main island has a similar make-up to Cape Town in that it has a mountain and the city is squeezed in between the peak and the sea. The major difference obviously being the fact that seven of the world's tallest buildings (amongst hundreds of others) have to fit in here for the incredible mass of people. The mountain is called Victoria Peak and highlights one of the quirky features of Hong Kong - the leftover British colonial names which sometimes permeate places. The area we are currently staying in is called Sheung Wan, but our road is called Hollywood Road. The roads running parallel to ours are Robinson, Caine and Queen's Road Central, yet the cross roads are Tai Ping Shah, Shing Wong and... erm, Chancery Lane.
Interestingly, the steep slope on which the CBD and suburbia on the main island are built is counteracted with a long-ass escalator which stretches virtually from the harbour to about two-thirds of the way up to as high as residential properties (read: 60-storey super luxurious buildings) are built. Loads of people call it the Mile Long Escalator but I doubt it stretches quite that far. Victoria Peak is about 550m above sea level and we climb it as exercise (twice in three days). Well, Mike runs up it (and halfway back down, then back up to the top) while I walk up it, sweating like a donkey praying that the muscles in my leg manage to stay fastened to the bone and each other. It is steep as all shit and gives me a decent work out though - added to a never-ending diet of noodles I should be nice and thin by Christmas. The view from the top is quite incredible but I refuse to put a camera in the pocket of my running shorts, lest it become sweat-logged (really, it is THAT humid. I was wringing the sweat out my shirt two days ago after jogging (ok it was a fast walk (ok it was a moderate stroll))).
So the beginnings of our lives are starting to fall into place. We know where the grocery shop is, shopping districts are, where the cheap bars are not (we're yet to find a good affordable one), where to exercise and all that jazz. We've also realised we want to live in Sheung Wan which is on the main HK island and kind of has a foot in old China and a foot in the modern-day first world. It's clean and safe and hosts a whole lot of trendy crap, but has a whole range of markets, really old people and dodgy (cheap) restaurants as well.
Oh, and the subject line? When a shop steward tells us something is free, we think it costs three dollars. That's not a joke. It's happened twice now.
It's been an action-packed few days. We sedated ourselves into oblivion for the flights over here, remaining awake for meals (like anything is chemically strong enough to separate me from food) and the landings on our Emirates flights from Joburg to Hong Kong via Dubai. Annoyingly, out stopover was so short I didn't have time for a smoke and we were rushed around by some dwarven airport official who insisted we board our Dubai-HK flight immediately, which, again, thanks to sedatives was spent drooling while snoring, rather than the usual panicky, white-knuckled terror which regularly accompanies my every air journey (irony in a travel writer being scared of flying noted).
The first thing one notices about Hong Kong is that it is humid as all bloody hell. It makes Durban seem like a Johannesburg winter. We're currently heading into winter here - we're kind of just in the northern hemisphere - and there is so much moisture in the air combined with a 28-30 degree temperature. I can hardly put the beer in as fast as I sweat it out. And we've exercised, walked and explored so much that by god, there is barely any moisture left in me.
We are currently in the smallest apartment in which I have ever stayed. It's a studio, so it has two rooms. A bathroom, and a kitchen-bedroom-lounge-entrance hall. The front door virtually opens into the bed and is next to the kitchenette. Should you trip over the bed on your way in, never fear, the couch is between it and the wall on the other side. Our luggage takes up more floor space than there is available, but it's actually quite awesome and is being filed under "experience".
Hong Kong's main island has a similar make-up to Cape Town in that it has a mountain and the city is squeezed in between the peak and the sea. The major difference obviously being the fact that seven of the world's tallest buildings (amongst hundreds of others) have to fit in here for the incredible mass of people. The mountain is called Victoria Peak and highlights one of the quirky features of Hong Kong - the leftover British colonial names which sometimes permeate places. The area we are currently staying in is called Sheung Wan, but our road is called Hollywood Road. The roads running parallel to ours are Robinson, Caine and Queen's Road Central, yet the cross roads are Tai Ping Shah, Shing Wong and... erm, Chancery Lane.
Interestingly, the steep slope on which the CBD and suburbia on the main island are built is counteracted with a long-ass escalator which stretches virtually from the harbour to about two-thirds of the way up to as high as residential properties (read: 60-storey super luxurious buildings) are built. Loads of people call it the Mile Long Escalator but I doubt it stretches quite that far. Victoria Peak is about 550m above sea level and we climb it as exercise (twice in three days). Well, Mike runs up it (and halfway back down, then back up to the top) while I walk up it, sweating like a donkey praying that the muscles in my leg manage to stay fastened to the bone and each other. It is steep as all shit and gives me a decent work out though - added to a never-ending diet of noodles I should be nice and thin by Christmas. The view from the top is quite incredible but I refuse to put a camera in the pocket of my running shorts, lest it become sweat-logged (really, it is THAT humid. I was wringing the sweat out my shirt two days ago after jogging (ok it was a fast walk (ok it was a moderate stroll))).
So the beginnings of our lives are starting to fall into place. We know where the grocery shop is, shopping districts are, where the cheap bars are not (we're yet to find a good affordable one), where to exercise and all that jazz. We've also realised we want to live in Sheung Wan which is on the main HK island and kind of has a foot in old China and a foot in the modern-day first world. It's clean and safe and hosts a whole lot of trendy crap, but has a whole range of markets, really old people and dodgy (cheap) restaurants as well.
Oh, and the subject line? When a shop steward tells us something is free, we think it costs three dollars. That's not a joke. It's happened twice now.
Monday, 4 October 2010
1928km and still not even close
The dead straight roads of the empty Northern Cape. Pic by Simon Williamson.
The next day we shot up to Springbok - the idea being that we wanted to use it as the base for exploring Namaqualand - something my grandfather used to do and it always stuck in my mind to pursue one day. Well, because there was no rain this winter, there were no flowers. We also visited Augrabies which only had a tiny stream of water bustling over it, unlike the cascading sloshing I'd seen in pictures. Later in the trip we headed up to Mafikeng as well to see an Anglo-Boer war museum and it was closed. So from the outside it looked like an unspectacular trip, but for the two of us who'd never been through the top of the Northern Cape, it was pretty damn spectacular.
Our trip up the West Coast on a beltingly hot day - we drove about 530km - was our introduction to the Northern Cape as we watched the famed white sand turn Kalahari red. Springbok initially presented a craphole in the middle of nowhere until we found a smart little B&B right in town. We went out to dinner at Springbok's (only) best grillhouse that night and realised the charm this little nook carries. I ate a kilogram of steak and so my name goes up on the wall of the restaurant - Springbok will remember Simon forever - and we retired to the bar in the restaurant for a few whiskies to wash down our meal. It was to choruses from the other patrons in the bar of the k-word intermingled with laughter that reminded me - not that I needed it - that there is a lot of South Africa outside the places I live, and a lot more South Africans other than the ones I know. Pretty sad.
The two of us with Augrabies in the background. Pic by Mike McClelland.
Day three was an epic journey across almost the entire Northern Cape, from Springbok all the way to Kuruman which is near the Northern Cape-North West border. I have driven through the Karoo numerous times, but the Kalahari is a far better example of wide-open spaces. There is literally nothing in the way of your view. Perhaps a rocky outcrop here, the odd small tree there, and loads and loads of nothingness. In fact, there is such a shortage of trees that the weavers in the area build their nests on the telephone poles which stride along the highway. The other surprise was our trip through Upington which I thought was a decent-sized town - the actioned part of the Northern Cape. Well, while it is large enough to be notable, it's half the size of Pietermaritzburg and twice as sleepy. Kuruman is a complete dump (hosting the rudest population of anywhere I have ever) been with the only attraction in town being The Eye of Kuruman, a spring which allegedly pumps out 20-odd million litres of crystal clear water per day. We stopped to see it and watched a little trickle built to look like a waterfall - creating the effect of a tiny waterfall. 20-million litres my arse. If I'd pissed in the fountain it would have doubled the amount of water in it.
Our B&B in Kuruman was an inspired choice though and was everything that Kuruman wasn't - it contained FRIENDLY PEOPLE. We ended up drinking R180 worth of whiskey at the bar (doesn't sound like much, but it cost R9 a shot) and within hours we had new friends-for-life in Kuruman.
Our last day saw us set off for Joburg, but via Mafikeng which was only about 60km out of our way. We didn't stay long because the place we wanted to see was shut so we decided to go and see the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg instead. We got bored of that idea about 100km into the trip and just set the GPS to take us to Rivonia. This detoured us through Lichtenburg, with the GPS attempting to get us down a non-existent highway. Sometimes technology is a curse, and poor Sam (my GPS' name) dealt with a verbal rant from me, heavily decorated with words which shall not be repeated here. Eventually he sorted himself out and guided us into Joburg via the West Rand - or somewhere around there. I'm from the northern suburbs and therefore retain the right to not have to know anything outside the area demarcated by Dainfern, Monte Casino, Witkoppen Road and Rivonia Road, with occasional trips to visit the kugels in Sandton City.
The car held up, we held up, and bar Mike having to squeeze his bladder with an internal clamp by the end, the trip in was pretty plain sailing. It was grand to see parts of the country we hadn't seen before, to see the utter expanse of the Northern Cape after climbing the stunning West Coast. Great to feel proper heat again which sated my resentment of the weather in CT just before we left while the rest of the country was celebrating summer.
It's off to Hong Kong on Wednesday evening. We're pretty set, we think. It seems like just the other day I started preparing to leave Cape Town. The time has flown like a concorde on biofuel (this simile is relevant for our greenie Cape Town friends).
Thank you Cape Town for a great year. Thank you Joburg for sending us off.
Hello, Hong Kong!
Cheers folks,
Simon.
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