DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
On Christmas, 1497 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on the KwaZulu-Natal coast while searching for a route from Europe to India. He named it ‘Natal’ or Christmas in Portuguese.
The city of Durban is the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and is famous as a major tourism center due to the city’s warm climate and beautiful beaches. Durban has the busiest port in South Africa and the busiest container port in the Southern Hesmisphere. Until 2002 is was a full naval base but today it only contains a naval station and other military facilities.
We stopped at the Victoria Market in the center of Durban. It is 3 floors of stalls, run by Indians (from India) selling a huge variety of Indian goods. We were fortunate to find things here that we didn’t get a chance to buy in Mumbai! The aroma of spices dominated the whole market. I was able to buy saffron from Iran and vanilla beans from Madagascar. Here like most of the countries we visited, we had to bargain – we never paid the first asking price and most of us have become experts!
We drove along the ‘Golden Mile’ which is a stretch of beach along the Indian Ocean with beautiful resort hotels, malls and shops of all kinds. However, we were warned to be aware of sharks in the ocean. The heritage of the Zulus is handicrafts, expert weaving, intricately beaded work. The jewelry was spectacular. Even the Zulu rickshaws at the beach were totally beaded! We purchased some of the beautiful beaded jewelry which will always remind us of the friendly and kind Zulu people.
On Christmas, 1497 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on the KwaZulu-Natal coast while searching for a route from Europe to India. He named it ‘Natal’ or Christmas in Portuguese.
The city of Durban is the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and is famous as a major tourism center due to the city’s warm climate and beautiful beaches. Durban has the busiest port in South Africa and the busiest container port in the Southern Hesmisphere. Until 2002 is was a full naval base but today it only contains a naval station and other military facilities.
We stopped at the Victoria Market in the center of Durban. It is 3 floors of stalls, run by Indians (from India) selling a huge variety of Indian goods. We were fortunate to find things here that we didn’t get a chance to buy in Mumbai! The aroma of spices dominated the whole market. I was able to buy saffron from Iran and vanilla beans from Madagascar. Here like most of the countries we visited, we had to bargain – we never paid the first asking price and most of us have become experts!
We drove along the ‘Golden Mile’ which is a stretch of beach along the Indian Ocean with beautiful resort hotels, malls and shops of all kinds. However, we were warned to be aware of sharks in the ocean. The heritage of the Zulus is handicrafts, expert weaving, intricately beaded work. The jewelry was spectacular. Even the Zulu rickshaws at the beach were totally beaded! We purchased some of the beautiful beaded jewelry which will always remind us of the friendly and kind Zulu people.
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