So, Kristen and I are both the sort of people that want to take advantage of 'authentic African experiences' while we are here. This is an odd thing to look for in a simultaneously first and third world country. What I mean is that South Africa is extremely prosperous, and in many ways is a first world country, while at the same time, it has the greatest wealth disparity IN THE WORLD. They recently wrestled this title from a South American country somewhere (and before you get all proud that the US doesn't have the highest income disparity, we are number 4 or something) Anyway, SA is in some ways extremely modern, and you aren't going to find a lot of the 'traditional Africa' that you might expect in other Sub-saharan countries. However, my point was that Kristen and I are much more interested in experiences that we can't get at home, rather than going to fast food restaurants and malls.
However, in a bit of irony, between the two of us, we ended up being in a mall at least once every single day we were in Durban except for Tuesday. Kristen's mac was broken, and she needed to take it to an apple store to get it fixed, so Sunday we went to Gateway, which is a huge mall in Durban that claims to be the biggest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. Not only was it huge and super fancy (it reminded me a bit of the King of Prussia mall, complete with a movie theater, rock-climbing wall, wave pool, waterfall, valet parking, and three stories of stores), but the shocking difference between Gateway and the markets and minibuses we had been through on our way their was ridiculous. We ended up making an appointment to get her computer fixed on Monday, so we had to come back the next day (and again on Wednesday. Originally, the technician said on Monday that it would take 45 minutes to fix... then a bit longer... then "I'll call you when it's done"... then eventually when we went back to the store for the millionth time to bug them, he said it wouldn't be done that day, and she could probably pick it up the next morning.) So, although we went to Gateway multiple times (and spent so much time in there that even I knew where almost every store in the massive place was by the end) I think our most ridiculous/adventurous trip was the first one, so I will only describe that one...
When we asked about Gateway at our first hostel, the staff said it was really far away, and was going to cost a lot to get there by taxi (260 rand the one time we made the mistake of letting the parking guard convince us that we needed to take a taxi to get home instead of a minibus), so she explained how to get there using the minibuses. Later, we found an easier route from our second hostel, but the first time:
We caught a minibus on Florida Rd to 'the workshop', which was basically an open air street market. This was the friendliest minibus experience ever. Two guys asked us if we were lost while we were looking at a map posted on the road, and when we said we were looking for the fasted way to get to the workshop, one of them looked around and said "probably that combi (minibus) right there" and proceeded to hail the bus and enquire if it would get us to the workshop. The driver was really nice, and told us that we needed to watch our purses where he was dropping us off, and there was a friendly lady sitting next to us who offered similar advice. After working our way to the opposite corner of the workshop, we got on another minibus, which took us to Victoria Street market (step 2 in the directions to Gateway we had been given). This wasn't open air, but was another market area that was like a combination of chinatown in NYC and a mercado that I went to in the Dominican Republic. Basically, very exciting and also a bit terrifying. Again, I wish I had pictures, but it was not someplace you would want to wander around with a camera looking like a tourist. We ate lunch on Victoria Street at this fantastic little hole in the wall Indian restaurant and bakery that had some really cheap and yummy bunny chow, then attempted to find the minibuses that would get us to Gateway. At this point we got a little turned around (or more so than usual, I think the majority of the time we were walking around Durban I was either partially disoriented or working my way toward lost), and ended up at a minibus location that was not the one we were looking for. However, the drivers said they would get us to Gateway, or rather "just across the street" from Gateway.
It was the most ridiculous ride I have ever had. Luckily, we were able to hop the guardrail and walk up a semi-path to an overpass (with a sidewalk) that got us over the freeway and into an area full of big retail buildings, were we eventually located the mall.
(Our friendly, side-walked overpass)
Just in case you were curious, most of the other mall trips happened by accident as we were looking for ATMs, bathrooms, places to catch a minibus, grocery stores, etc. Later in the week, we went back to the workshop (I got myself a Springboks jersey... the rugby world cup is going on right now, and SA is doing really well so far!), as well as an Indian trade fair (more irony, we were in Africa and went to a market of things specifically made in India. What can I say, Durban has a large Indian population...), a cute, posh little Saturday market in Essenwood where I tried my first biltong (its a SA food similar to jerky), and a "lifestyle market" on Florida Rd that was similar to the Essenwood market. While I did not, unfortunately, visit as many markets as I did malls (not that I wanted to go to more markets, just less malls) Kristen and I calculated and figured out that our minibus to mall ratio was in favor of the minibuses, so I think we redeemed ourselves in the end.
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