So I took a trip to Johannesburg, my birthplace, and it was so lovely coming home after such a long time. Although not alone this time I came with family. We arrived here on Thursday the 29th of March for Easter Holidays. The first day, however, we did not go anywhere except come straight home. It was an exhausting journey, so from the airport we just came straight home.
Got home around 17:30. My mom was very happy to see us and she immediately welcomed us in, caught up and had dinner. The next morning we then started with our program for the day. Look, there a ton of activities to do in Johannesburg and cutting them down to just 8 was a very long task that took at least 30 minutes to do. So after all the surfing and browsing we decided on the following activities:
i. Go to the mall.
Get a few things that we will need over this period and see the mall that is built on a lake.
ii. Go to China Town.
A Neighbourhood in Joburg where Chinese people stay, restaurants, shops, etc, all Chinese. Gotta explore that.
i. Take a Tour bus (commonly known as The Red Bus).
This bus tours around the city of Johannesburg with a tour guide showing you different places worth noting and knowing in the city. Like historical places, monumental places, museum(s), etc.
ii. Go to a braai (barbecue) place in Soweto.
Might also go to Uncle Merve's place. The name of the place is called Unlce Merve. This is an up-class pub, chilling out place to catch up with your friend while having a drink and listening to good music, also braai place facilities available.
i. Go to Monte Casino.
There are markets also there that we are gonna explore and have lunch at.
ii. Go to a place called Amazing Birds.
This is a place where they do bird shows and show you all the amazing things that birds can do, pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to this one for sure.
i. Take the Gautrain.
This transport system was brought to my country back in 2009 or so, in preparation for the Soccer World Cup which was held in 2010. This train is very fast, no no no!!! SUPER fast. Has its own railway but it does not have wheels to run on tracks like ordinary trains.
ii. Then also take a tour to SAB - South African Beer.
This is where they make beer. So here we will get a tour of the place and get to see the whole beer making process. They have non-alcoholic beers as well so we will also get to see that.
Open Day.
So here we get to do whatever you want to do. My wife and I will probably go watch a movie and leave the baby with our parents. That's right, both my and her parents are here. So we'll probably escape on Tuesday to see a couple friends and maybe a movie or whatever.
Wednesday we will be leaving, going back to Cape Town where we stay. My new home.
So China Town is this neighbourhood in Johannesburg where the population is 98% (safe to say) Chinese. The residential area, the restaurants, the supermarkets, shops, everything is Chinese.
Above you can see Hang Cheng Palace and a Supermarket on the left. There are quite a bit of Supermarkets in the town. Another Supermarket below and there's a few restaurants and flats.
I enjoyed walking around and touring the place first before we sat down at a restaurant for dinner. We went to another Supermarket where, expectedly, everything was in Chinese too. It's like you are in China, the whole town gives you a Chinese experience and how they live and do things.
This picture was taken at the restaurant. My daughter was very tired from walking around and exploring the whole day. She had so much fun.
And here's what blew me away, literally under the water. A bill written in Mandarin. How awesome is that? It's handwritten as well. I mean I thought that was cool.
It is now Saturday and ready for yet another exciting day on the Red Bus tour around the city. I do not really need the tour but since I'm with my Wife and Kid, and the in-laws. But all exciting nonetheless. I'm sure I will learn something. And then it's the Braai ;-)
All the images were taken with my iPhone, except for the first one
Be on a look out for my second post where I will be telling you how it all went today. They weather forecast said it's going to rain today so we will see how it goes.
