Summer Vacation - Day 5 and 6

Day 5 July 27, 2013

Flight to Johannesburg (JoBurg) goes well and we arrive ahead of schedule.  On these long flights, we’ve been served delicious dinners and breakfasts.  They provide a blanket, headphones and a toothbrush and toothpaste too.  We do our best at presenting ourselves for the day …..not much sleep but will need to rally to begin our day.  Vinnesh and Seneca picked us up from the airport and we drive about 30 minutes to their very nice 5 bedroom home.  All is gated and community has security all around.  “V” is Lily’s eldest son – David T. is V’s cousin….and Lily’s nephew.  We have spent time with all of these lovely people at one time or another in SF so it was a fun reunion. 

V and Seneca have 3 beautiful and extremely nice girls (ages 14-10).  The youngest has the same birthday as Taylor and David T!!  We enjoyed biscuits, sweet goodies, pancakes, juices of any type, for our second breakfast of the day! 

Breakfast with the women!
Erika, Mikara, Trishka, Vasi, Seneca, Auntie Lily and me - be quiet Amy - I couldn't handle my hair any longer after the 11.5 hour flight so I had to pulled it up. hahaha!!

We unpack a little bit and then drive off to Gold Reef City to go down, waaaaay down, taking an elevator deep down into a gold mine.  The park is themed around the gold rush on the Witwatersrand.  Park staff wear period costumes of the 1880's and the buildings on the park are designed to mimic the same period.  There is a museum dedicated to gold mining on the grounds where we saw how gold is poured into bars.  Very good tour and good history about Johannesburg gold mining.  

Our group heading to the gold mine with V and Seneca.

In England, and here in SA, we don't wait 'in line', they call it a Queue.
 Many times we were told to "wait in the Queue!"

Inside the museum - log chair - taken for my Daddy-O - the woodcarver!

Down under - in the mine!

It is not referred to a 'restroom or a bathroom either'.  Just call it the Toilet! 

After the gold mining tour we travel around downtown JoBurg – very sad.  Since changes due to apartheid the area has gone from being a beautiful economic area into slums….filled with crime.

Difficult to see in these next few pics but windows are missing and this is downtown Johannesburg.

Selling their 'goods' on the streets - packing it up now.

More 'selling' areas. No more businesses or conventions. All slums.

More large buildings, now empty with windows missing.

Driving through a large 'Muslim' area. Kind of scary.

 After downtown we stop at the supermarket for some supplies and head back to V’s.  We enjoy some delicious cheeses, crackers, V’s homemade sausages and homemade brew! Many others came over later for dinner.

We visit and snack with V, Seneca, the girls and Lily and cooking goes on….for dinner we enjoy delicious chicken biryani, lamb, Indian rice, curry…the works!! Fantastic as always!  Joining us for the evening were family of David and Vasi – Vasi’s sister, husband and their daughter, David’s brother Dan’s son and family, and V's sister - Ren (David’s cousin) and her family. 

Just in case we haven't been eating well!!


Abundance of food!

Me and V - love this guy - biggest heart!!

Some of the men - Dick, Tay, Denzel, David, another cousin and child.

Tay and his girls - with 'Uncle Elvis'


Vasi's sister on the right - first time meeting! The babies are Ren's 3 month old twins! A girl and a boy!!! You know how I am with babies!! Love!!

Davy Crockett arrived - don't mess with them!!

Great people and a great party.  We were exhausted and made our exit at 11 p.m. and had our best night’s sleep of the trip.


Day 6

After a good 9 hours we are now ready for another beautiful day.  Everyone is up and about at 10:30 when we enjoy a delicious breakfast at V's - pastries, coffees, ham, smoked salmon, cream cheese, croissants....After breakfast we all relax until about noon and then head out on another tour of the countryside.  Dan (David's brother) has joined the group.

Relaxing in the sunshine. Ahhhhh....exactly what I needed.
Of course my bro had to get in on the fun!! 

Interesting that there are a lot of rural areas.   Kind of reminds us of the foothills near and around the Central Valley.  Although we feel safe....the outside areas around Johannesburg are not necessarily very safe to travel.  Groups of blacks are somewhat of a threat.  They pull nice, expensive cars off the road and rob, steal and even murder.

Anytime traffic is slow, people are on the side of the road selling their junk.  You can get everything from toys, purses, food - even cowboy hats!! V likes to mess with them so we get one's attention by telling him that his shoe was untied!! He looked down at his shoe and V got a kick out of that one. These are harmless individuals, out here trying to make a living.  Tay actually bought a cowboy hat for $2! 

People selling their stuff - taking a break in the heat.

Seneca drives a new jaguar and was pulled over by the police.  We are told this happens often. The police see a nice car, a woman driving and pulls her over. In order to continue on, he wants money.  This time, Seneca's license had expired! He told her to get it fixed and let her go. Wasn't cool though. Felt like Mexico!

We drive about an hour to a place that has various shops and an outdoor restaurant.  After walking thru the shops we decide to stop for some snacks and beverages at the restaurant.  There is a rock band playing in this outside area - mostly American oldies! 

Roomies, enjoying the live music, sunshine and time together!

 V really wanted us to try a very famous African pork dish. We all had a good taste and LOVED it!! 

After our break, we head back to JoBurg to meet up with another of David's cousins - Mervin and his wife Lolita and their college aged daughter Sacha.  Lucien - their son is not there but we have met him on a visit to SF.   Mervin is Auntie Jane's son.  Their home is very nice - not as big as V's - but they have a smaller family.  They serve us some delicious Indian food and beverages but it is approaching dinner time and we can't over due it.  We feel bad not eating their huge spread. We ask them to join us for dinner and they accept so after an hour we head to dinner at a very good restaurant that is in a beautiful, modern, well patrolled for our safety shopping area with casino.  Reminds us a lot of Caesar's Palace and Paris in Las Vegas!

We all enjoy a good meal then it's back to V's for some late night visiting, drinking and staying up until 3 a.m.!!! WOW!!

Put on your favorite hat! The things that happen after midnight!!! HAHAHA

Another great day.  So wonderful to be with V, Seneca and family, and share

good stories.  We will miss them when we leave tomorrow for Durban but 

definitely have some new FFL's!!