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A marathon twelve hour sleep due to sunstroke was much needed. The forecast for today is thirty two degrees, but it's the windburn that's melting me. Factor50 applied first thing this morning and will be carried around with me for the day.
I decided to do the touristy thing this morning and hop on a city tour bus..( usually against these, but walking was not an option in this heat).
My taxi driver,'Shaka', who drove me to the tourist office,had no change for my fare so I was either going to pay thirty or fifty rand. After a quick, vague explanation of rock,paper,scissors to him, thirty rand was handed over.. scissors stabs rock right??
Driving around on an open top bus getting a city history lesson was not very exciting..Every two minutes we were been told to look to our left or right at some building, it was like watching a slow paced tennis match- almost had whiplash by the end of it. Three observations I remember- 1. Gandhi used to live here hence the large amount of Indians about the place. 2. Durban is a sister city of Daejeon(zzzz...) and 3. There is a hairdressers every fifty meters here, the barber shop huts on the roadside are class..much more happening but that's all that took my interest. Very nice city though!
We got dropped off at the Golden Mile (North Beach) so had to walk it again. The beach is class apart from the constant strong winds. Some quality sand sculptures along the beachfront, but once I took a snap, it was time for a donation..picked up a nice pair of 'authentic' Oakleys for sixty rand off some dodgy looking character, haggled down from a hundred, not a bad bargain, although gave my profits away to beggars and sculptors..
The impression I was given of Durban was that it was a dangerous city; I have had no hassle here and am now off to get my hair chopped for free as promised after buying a few rounds the last night! If I get stabbed in the neck by a scissors, I'll eat my words..
Turns out one of the locals I bought a beer the last night, owns four hairdressers in the area..problem was they are all dreadlocks specialist salons..I felt like a right spud in there getting my 'short, back and sides' while all the brothers and sisters were getting their hair twisted..there's not enough weed or Bob Marley music in this world to convince me to even consider getting dreadlocks.. The hairdressers was similar to the scene from Coming to America with everyone taking the piss out of each other while the RnB music blared out in the background- very funny indeed..
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the big market in the city looking for bargains- a pair of Nike runners for $50 was my only purchase, besides a Nando's chicken meal.. Nando's knows best!
That's me done with Durban; flying to Cape Town in the morning to meet up with relatives that I haven't seen in twenty years.. will have to devour the breakfast buffet before I leave!
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