Part VII: Wandering The Streets of Johannesburg (in A Tour Bus)Usually, you have to begin and end your South African trip in Johannesburg (also known as Jo'Berg), no matter how many horrifying things you have heard abou this city and how much you tried to avoid it. Luckily, there is now a direct flight from Atlanta (via Ft. Lauderdale) to Cape Town. From Europe, KLM and British Airway also have flight all the way to Cape Town, with a 'short' stopover at Jo'Burg (Though I think both Bristish Airway and Virgin Atlantic do have a direct, 'non-stop' flight between London and Cape Town, don't they?). For those who do start their South African trip in Jo'Berg, they usually flock away like crazy as soon as they arrived at Jo'Berg International Airport (unless they are in SA for business, then they HAVE TO spend time here). Mmm...from Asia, there are just no flight to go all the way to Cape Town (though I heard Malaysian Airline has a route to Argentina via Cape Town and Jo'Berg). We have to start this trip right here at Jo'Berg... Before heading to Cape Town, at the beginning of my South African trip, we did spend an afternoon at Gold Reef City. A place that 'Lonely Planet' Travel Guide calls it "cannot make up its mind whether it's a Disney clone or a serious historical recontruction of old Jo'Burg." Sounds like a cheesy but fun place to be... The most interesting part of Gold Reef City of course is to go down a shaft to see the old gold mine. It is dark and a little slippery (it is no longer in operation so it is more like a "mesuem" now). Without a tour guide, we would have been lost there. It is really not a comfortable place to stay too long, and then I think about that the miners working here had to work many hours a day here with very little pay. However, such exploitation in gold mining was what made South Africa the richest country in the African continent and the largest gold producer in the world. Up in the town square, there are dancers performing "miners' dance" twice a day. The dance is supposed to tell the story of miners' miserable and harsh life down the shaft but they seem looked overjoyed in the dance. maybe it is just for tourists.... After several days' touring in the Southern Coast (including Cape Town, Cape Peninsula, Little Karoo, and Garden Route), we flew back to Jo'Berg again. And as scheduled, we will check in at another Holiday Inn in some surbaban 'safe haven' of Jo'Berg. (Now no tour group or business travelers are daring enough to stay in hotels in downtown Jo'Berg- if not all of the downtown hotels have already been closed). Before this trip, I have already been told there would be no city tour to see this largest and most prosperous city of South Africa. The insurance company won't pay the tour company if the whole group get robbed in the downtown area! After we got off the airport, I think we will have to spend another boring night at a surbrban hotel and possibly sipping martini to pass the long cold winter night in the hotel lounge. But it is only 5:00 pm., we should have some activities before we head to dinner and the hotel. And then, I find that we are on our way into the downtown area. Since we have already left the freeway, we are in downtown!! After passing through the skyline of Jo'Berg a few times in this trip, this is the first time we are physically in its downtown core!! From far way, Jo'Berg looks no difference from some typical North American big cities, with all the skycrappers, elevated roadways and rail tracks. Inside the city streets, we can see a lot of people just getting off work and waiting for mini-bus taxi (a van which can accomodate about 10 to 15 people, very popular all over South Africa) on the curbside. There are some litters and some gaffatti. Some buldings, but not many, have broken windows. And we don't even see panhandlers around. For my fellow Taiwanese travelers, they seemed very stunned on how dirty and messy the Jo'Berg is. Maybe my experience living near some tough neiborhood in Baltimore has altered my perception, I don't really think that Jo'Berg downtown looks that scary. To be honest, I might have seen more crumbling buildings in East Baltimore and North Philly. Flipping the pages of "Lonely Planet: South Africa," there is one whole page's special column on "Surviving Jo'Berg's danger & Annoyances -the First 48 Hours". In that column, it even claims:"It is a rough city,.....This Lonely Planet guide may be worth buying for the following advice alone!" Tell me about it..... Surreally, now we are in a tour bus (possibly with bullet-proof windows), trying to 'discover the real modern South Africa'. It's almost the dinner time now, and people are ready to escape from the downtown. Is it 'the real modern South Africa' I wanted to see? The bus passes a large department store, which is the famous Carlton Centre. No, they just closed their doors not long ago. Downtown is not a good place for shoppers anymore. Passing a tall, neo-classical building, we were told that it is the 'former location' of the stock exchange. They just moved it to the northern surburb earlier this year (In fact, even Nelson Mandela now lives in one of those 'nice' surburban town of Jo'Berg). Passing the train station, where you can catch the commuter train to Pretoria, the South African capital less than 50 miles away. Then we were told that now few people take that train now because they may get robbed at gun point on the train. People are robbed on the commuter train? My god, where are the South African Police? The driver tells us that the police department has continuously lost people to private security industry because "the pay is much higher and the weapon they can carry are more powerful". The police force has been shrinking and they cannot even protect themself now, let alone protecting the civillians. Then the bus passed Hillbrow, a area 'Lonely Planet' describing as "with more than its share of violent muggers, prostitutes, drunks, and street kids" For me, it looks a little bit scaring but still, okay. After 30 minutes' depressing bus tour wandering around the downtown core, we head to a surburban mall. "The mall has a great security measures" we were told. In fact, it has bullet-proof glass and a lot of metal detectors. I wonder why a shopping mall requires so much security, then I found it is a shopping mall specialize in selling all sorts of jewelry, including what South Africa is most famous for: diamonds. Diamonds and gold, what used to give this country its tremendous wealth, now have to be safeguarded against in the violent modern era. Is Johannesburg really that dangerous? I haven't seen much of that really scared me. But maybe we have just been very careful to stay away from all the possible trouble (and thus staying away from 'the real modern South Africa'). Just when I read a newspaper two days later in Sun City (a very expensive resort). The headline is about a nameless colored (means 'mixed-race' in South African terminology) girl's body was found in a vacant lot. "There are more than 1800 nameless bodies were found in Jo'Berg last year" The newspaper claims. In the "Crime Warch" section, "Five policemen were killed in the past week. The reason they were killed is possibly the perpetrators wanted to get their guns." Another big news: "More than 20% of security firme offer guards who might not be well-trained. These guard may not know how or when to use their weapons, which put themselves and people they sent to protect in danger"....A lot of bad news going on these days. But I feel the current issues that South Africans more concerned about is to get the 2010 World Cup (Soccer) held in South Africa. They just lost their bids to Germany for the 2006 World Cup. Of course, there are also many news about the World AIDS Conference, which was just held in Durban not long ago. Before we left our city tour bus and my fellow passengers are still in some shock state, I remember that our South African driver said: "It has been better than a few years back. It looked even much worse 5 years ago." Then he continues, "Come back 5 years from now, it will be even better than now, I believe." Optimistism is always a good thing, I think. |