Best travel blog in March 2009
In March 2009 we featured the following travel blog postings:
Brett visits the apartheid museum and is concerned about the ongoing gap between rich & poor in South Africa and the corruption of the ANC |
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Two Brazilian missionaries (Bill & Sue) celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in the fairest Cape. |
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Mike flies around Cape Town taking in the peninsula's views. |
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Refusing to bribe the offiicials at Douala Airport results in Abdul & Mahesh spending a week there sleeping on an old couch! (hyperlink to the blog deleted, as it stopped working) |
And the winner for March is Alexis Grant's tale of Abdul & Mahesh's unwanted week at Douala Airport (link deleted, as it stopped working) , in Cameroon. We've all heard stories of having to bribe officials in African countries, but this one trumps all others. On inspecting the mens' travel documents, officials at Cameroon's airport realised they had been invited by a diamond company (they are diamond cutters), and insisted they pay a "fee" to board their place (4000 euros at that!). Abdul & Mahesh refused to pay the bribe and the uniformed officials refused to let them leave. For a week they slept in the only chair in the airport (see photo), until their company and the Cameroon government came to the rescue.
Best Feb 2009 travel blog posting
Our favourite travel blog posting in Feb 2009 is Marie's - not many tourists get wedding proposals (including one to become a 3rd wife!) whilst here, and even fewer take photos of butchered cows' heads which help remind me why I'm vegeterian! Add that to the fact that she met up and conversed with Hector Pietersen's sister Antoinette, and I get the feeling she soaked up plenty SA culture during her stay her.
Best Jan 2009 posting
January's winner was Colleen's blog of her expedition to go teaching in Lesotho, which started with her having to jump airport lines to make her connecting flight from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. Below is a photo of her on top of Thaba Bosiu (translates to "Mountain of the Night" in Lesotho), a sandstone plateau where all but one of the Basotho kings are buried, and which King Moshoeshoe used to defend his nation from Zulu invaders (colonialists?) in the 1820s. Colleen has been teaching grade 1 - education is the cornerstone of the civilised world and from us at SouthAfrica.TO, we'd like to congratulate you on making a difference - you are a great example for others to follow.
Best travel blog posting in 2008
With dreadlocks forming from a buildup of Namibian sand in his hair, braving a cruel 12 hours in a combi-trip from hell (filled with sweaty people), and having chats with a philosophising englishman amongst Swakopmund's lego-like structure; Sebastian Modak's account of his Namibian travels was our travel blog of the year for 2008.
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