SA bits 31 - Joburg Lion Park

Going to the lion park is like a teaser to a full-blown game drive. This is actually my third visit, and I can still remember my first about 2 years back. The size of the lions are very intimidating when seen in real life, and like I said this is only a teaser. It was definitely more exciting back then. Now I know what to expect, but what made it even more disappointing was there were fewer lions than before. Not to mention they were all having an afternoon nap! (-_-) anyway .......

Akash & family came to visit from Durban.
We saw a bit of Zebras...


.. a few Kudus...

....and the Springboks. Personally, I think they taste horrible (like deer meat). They are sold in selected restaurants. That was my first and also my last time of chowing down Bambi's cousin.



Spot the Cheetah.

Like I said, most of the cats were napping.


There's a separate section in the park's reception area, where you can pet lion cubs. This particular one was about 4 months old.

I still remember the last time I tried to do it, cheeky bugger wanted to taste my knee :P

She looks lost and confused...


And the softer side of these "wild" animals?

SA bits 30 - Durban SA Part 2

We went to Uncle Taylor's house on Saturday evening and we had this awesome fried pork with chillies and vegetables/herbs. Uncle Taylor held a prayer on the same morning and slaughtered a fully grown pig. He cooked 3 different styles with the meat; fried with greens (chillies, vege and herbs), fried with chilli powder and herbs & lastly with tomato chutney. That's also my order of preference of the 3 dishes he made. Burppp...

The awesome-ness is out of this world! Pork fried with chilli,vege and herbs.

Davis warming up the food for us.

Davis and sons (Rowan, left and Ryan,right). The last time I saw Ryan he was not even 1 year old. Now he's already able to talk and dance!

Uncle Taylor dancing with Ryan!

The next morning we went to the beach! Water was c-o-l-d.




Couple of the year award, AKVK! Like tamileh movie la...

The one getting all the precious attention from everyone around him, Hareshan.

Castles in the sand.

I left Durban with Uncle at 5 in the evening and reached Joburg at midnight. All in all it was a good weekend!

SA bits 29 - Durban SA Part 1

After weeks of very odd working hours, our project finally came to a close (sort of). Before we move forward to the next project, I thought I'd take this opportunity to have a short break by visiting Akash. We drove down to his place in Durban (about 6-7 hours drive from Johannesburg) after work and the journey took 8 hours with multiple stops in between to freshen up and stretch our legs.

Durban has the busiest port in Africa (which means it's coastal and has beaches nearby, woohoo!)and it has subtropical climate almost similar to M'sia but is not as humid with average high of 25ºC and average low of 17º. Being the 3rd most populous city in SA, it has a very big Indian community. It is also the city with the largest Asian community in SA with 20% Asians.

We visited Gateway shopping center which was just across the road from where Akash stayed. Gateway is a h-u-g-e shopping center in Durban, suprisingly I also just found out today that it's the largest in Africa. It's h-u-g-e, and the environment reminds me of Mid Valley Megamall. A one-stop center of entertainment. This is what I saw during our short visit...


I thought this was all the squirting fountain could do until...

it shot up 3 storeys high, inside a shopping complex.

The entertainment section of the mall. When further explored there's actually a rock climbing wall.



At the base of the rock climbing structure was a swing for kids, except this is not like any normal swing. The kids are harnessed, and belayed over 2 storeys and literally swung. They look like they're only 4 or 5 years old and they are already this adventurous!
The next thing that caught my attention was this. Following pictures almost explains it all.





Here's a shot of Akash's serviced apartment complex, a new and comfy place for a couple (single bedroom place). It's only about 10 minutes from the beach.




Thanks for accomodating me, says Jansen shamelessly ;P