Hello
from the capital of South Africa;
Since my last postcard I have moved on to Pretoria and a 5-day
"vacation" to nearby Sun City, then over to Witbank and
Nelspruit with a brief foray into Maputo Mozambique. This is not what I
"planned" at all. I intended to run up the east coast of
Mozambique heading back to Kenya where I would have caught my previously
booked flight from Nairobi to Lagos Nigeria.
Information about transport beyond Beira on the coast of Mozambique
suggested rough sailing or busing and my courage waned. Then I learned of
a cheap flight from J-Berg to Nairobi and decided on the backtracking
strategy. So, here I sit reevaluating my options. My current travel
advisor suggests booking a flight to Spain with multiple stops along the
way as a better way of seeing West Africa before heading back to Europe.
He is looking for cheap flights as I write this.
None of the towns in which I've stopped during the past month have had
wonderful cyber cafes, so getting the pictures out of my little PenCam has
been problematic - the camera batteries nearly died twice threatening to
send all the stored pictures into cyber-hell. Eventually I found a place
in charming little Nelspruit that allowed me to get them out of the camera
and onto a floppy (50 of them anyway; that's about max). Finally back in
Pretoria I found a place where I could process the pictures on the floppy
and get them uploaded to ofoto.com (Not as easy as one might think because
many
cyber cafe operators pour boiling oil over anyone trying to read a strange
floppy into their machines!).
The long 11-hour bus ride from Upington to Pretoria turned out to be
more comfortable than I had any reason to expect. We got into Pretoria a
half hour after sunset... "dangerous" streets darkening fast. The bus staff assured me there were several decent
hotels within a block or two of the station... and I soon found the quaint
Hotel Victoria directly across the street from where we stopped, but not
before I had managed to nervously walk the un-lighted streets for ten minutes in the
wrong direction.
Previously restored by the owner of Rovos Rail in 1999, the century old
hotel
now exhibits most of its colonial glory. The current owners and staff of this family run
establishment makes a big effort to recreate an 1895 colonial ambience.
With only 12 rooms, each guest is assigned a named room... no numbers
here. Mine is called Laioni and comes complete with 2 baths (one modern),
a king-size brass poster bed, a TV room (with tiny TV) and a decanter of
Sherry each evening. I took the best room they had, as the rate is only
250 Rand or about $31 per night partially due to a strong dollar.
The current owner's father died a year ago and left the hotel and a
ranch to him and his brother. They drew lots to decide who would get the
hotel; a small slip of paper with HOTEL penciled on it now occupies an
honored place in a frame on the wall. Leo confesses he is not sure if he
won or lost the draw. It is a lot of work keeping a 106-year-old building
in top condition. Their website
offers pictures of the building interior.
The dining room is right out of the days of British occupation;
spacious, atrium ceilings, wicker chairs, elegant dining by candle
light... a bit too romantic for a Buddhist monk like me. During my total
of eight days in the hotel at least half of my breakfasts and dinners
found me the only guest in a cavernous dining hall featuring polished wood
floors and lush interior landscaping plus exquisite cuisine. Security
could have been better as the hotel is located near the bus station;
certainly this is not the best part of town, but only about eight blocks
from city center.
Eventually the casual security prompted me to investigate other hotel
options and I switched to the more centrally located and modern Bergers
Park Hotel - the one used by Nelson Mandela when he is in town. I imagine
Nelson Mandela has the equivalent of Secret Service bodyguards where ever
he goes and that the areas around any place he is staying must be
regularly cleared of ordinary security threats. However, the first night I
heard what sounded like a gunshot just below my window and a couple nights
later there were three bangs that seemed to come from the namesake Bergers
Park just across the
street. When asked, the hotel staff insisted that the city had cleaned up
the area to make it safe for foreign visitors in recent months and that
there had been no violent crimes reported for some time in the area. In
any case, the streets near the hotel seemed safe enough; I could see
conspicuous security personnel in front of the building and down the
streets nearest the hotel.
Two and a half blocks toward city center I found
one of the cyber cafes I used during my stay. Late afternoon sessions
sometimes meant returning back to the hotel after dark. One night I
decided to walk the additional two blocks on down to city center and the
main Steers Restaurant there. As I walked, 6 to 8 police cars and
motorcycles raced by and turned onto the mall sirens screaming. Later
while munching on my chips and chicken I noticed a private uniformed
security guard standing near the entrance to Steers... a shotgun partially
hidden by his side. He seemed nervous and agitated.
Back at the counter to order a soft ice cream cone for desert, I asked
the owner-manager how safe he considered the streets near the well-lighted
restaurant. "Not very." he replied. "Along that street that
runs back up to your hotel for example, there have been several muggings
in the past month. No place is completely safe in the city, particularly
for foreigners walking alone. You had better take a cab back to the hotel
as dark as it is."
I checked with one of the cab drivers parked next to the restaurant and
learned their "fear rate" for the 5 block drive would be 50 Rand
or about $6. I declined the outrageous attempt at extortion and returned
to the restaurant and ordered a can of Coco-Cola... plus a big plastic
bag. On previous snack shopping trips I had discovered a soft drink can
dangling in a plastic bag felt a lot like a weapon, as indeed it could be
in an emergency.
Seated again licking my ice cream I thought a lot about human predators
and their victims; and about animal predators and theirs. Lions prefer
prey that are weak and unprotected. They often target victims preoccupied
with other matters like eating and they use stealth to remain unseen as
long as possible, then making a spirited dash for the final kill. They avoid targets that might be able to defend
themselves. Full grown and alert adult males of even prey species seldom
become lion lunch. Human predators are not that different, except for the
added element of social disapproval. Most do not want a witness to their
devilry and generally don't strike when other people might be watching.
And, moving targets are always harder to hit.
Eventually I decided I'd been thinking long enough and picked up my
Coca-Cola shillelagh marching out to meet the foe. Now nervous, I made a
special effort to remain acutely alert to every potential threat along the
way: would be assailants skulking in doorway shadows, gangs of thugs
loitering on a street corner in my path. When I did once again reach my
hotel unmolested, I realized I had forgotten to put on my cloak of
fearlessness before starting the dash back. That more than anything
probably increased my vulnerability on a five-block walk in the dark.
Everyone has an opinion about personal safety for visitors in South Africa. I stumbled
on to one particular site
that could scare the devil out of a timid traveler!
The average South African faces dangers far worse than the threat of
muggers, however. The other day newspaper headlines announced: "50% OF SA ADULTS DIE
OF AIDS." Clearly, unprotected sex is a dramatically bigger health
hazard than city street crime, at least for local folks. My guess is that
Pretoria is no more dangerous than the streets of downtown Los Angeles or
New York City. I met an insurance salesman who told me that few black
people buy life insurance. I guess they don't feel threatened... or can't
afford such a luxury. White people, on the other hand buy plenty, says he.
Sunday is a day of rest for most storeowners along the modern Church
Street Mall; almost nothing is open in the center of the city other than a
few cafes. During the week the area enlivens considerably. Throngs of
shoppers can expect to be handed flyers along the way touting the virtues
of various traditional healers, astrologers, herbalists and
psychotherapists. "Doctors" aggressively advertise for new
patients. Many have no academic credentials and a few calling themselves
doctors seemed to be practicing with Bachelor's degrees in medicine! Of
course, there are highly respected medical facilities here as well, but
they seem to operate on an equal footing with the "witch
doctors."
Beggars in the city are mostly polite or passive. None pressed their
pleading beyond my first refusal. Most simply sat or stood displaying a
collection container. Several people here have warned that muggings
sometimes start with a feigned handout request. Most of the beggars I saw
here looked pathetic, incapable of attacking anyone.
The papers and TV news reports are full of stories about black-white
conflict. There are murders and home invasions everyday with both black
and white victims. Whites fear property seizures or property devaluations
because of the strife. Gun control is a contentious issue here as in the
U.S.
Pretoria served as my home base for explorations east into Witbank and
Nelspruit where I spent time checking out transportation into Mozambique.
Witbank didn't impress me as worth exploring. Nelspruit, on the other hand
offered charm and possibilities. It is the gateway to Kruger National Park
and many safari companies use it in their programs. It is a totally modern
town. My hotel sat on the edge of a delightful mall complete with a KFC
restaurant. Didn't bother to take any pictures.
A nice site I found for more background information about Pretoria
are located here.
That's it for this postcard. Another is in the works.
Peace,
Fred Bellomy 30 July 2001
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