Category Archives: Travel

The Lesedi Cultural Village。

Am I really going to write about this?  Let’s be frank.  I visited this place and not at the same time.  Why?  Because we went there in the afternoon at around 3pm but the evening tour entry was only starting at 4.30pm.  While we were not determined to do the full tour, i.e. the dinner, there was no other alternative to enter without taking the full tour package.  Hence, we decided to give it a skip and only spent some times strolling around the handicraft shops in front of the reception.

As I could remember, the tour package cost around 400 Rand and would take approximately two hours to complete.  Included in the tour package is the tour guide, introduction to the cultural of the five biggest tribes in South Africa, the cultural dance and the dinner or lunch.  For someone who would like to know about South Africa’s people and cultural but couldn’t afford a long stay at South Africa, this tour definitely is a quick introduction.

Perhaps sometimes in the future, I should be coming back for a “Truly South Africa” experience.

SONY DSCWelcome to the Lesedi Cultural Village.  Obviously besides taking the tour, you can also spend nights at their huts.

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Various local handicraft sold at the Lesedi Cultural Village.

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The handicraft shops.

SONY DSCThe café area.

SAB World of Beer。

Beer lovers absolutely are going to love this – The South African Breweries World of Beer Tour.

Together with Chen’s friend, this was another place we visited in March.  Actually it wasn’t an appropriate option as they came in a family with two very young kids.  Thinking back, I regretted because the young kids had been asking several times during the tour that why they were not allowed to drink.  It is always very difficult to explain to kids of which things that adults do but kids are not allowed to do.  As I was pregnant during that time, I used that as an opportunity to explain the harm an alcohol drink could bring to young kids.  Of course, I was not drinking back then.

While it wasn’t part of our initial plan to visit the SAB World of Beer, I found the tour to be a very informative one.  The beer tour had received good reviews on the web which was the main reason we went there.  Indeed, it was a relaxing outing to do on a weekend’s morning.

The tour costs 55 Rand for adult and 15 Rand for children below age of 17 years old.  With that price, it includes a tour guide, one half way beers, a souvenir glass, two drink vouchers redeemable at the Tap Room and some bar snacks after the tour.  The tour started off with a movie showing the background and history of beer brewing industry in South Africa.  As we proceed down the walkway, it led us to the beer stories of other countries.  Then we entered the ingredients section – the greenhouse settings section.  It is the place where they showcased the essence of beer – the malted barley, the hops and the water.  Next, the tour guide explained the different stages involved in the beer brewing process and their machineries.  Finally, the most exciting sections for the beer drinkers are the halfway beer stop and the final Tap Room.

SONY DSCThe Draught Beer Barrel on the move.

SONY DSCThe movie showing the history of South Africa Beer.

SONY DSCHistory of German Beer.

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The Greenhouse Settings Room growing the barleys and the hops.

SONY DSCThe essence of beer brewing – the malted barleys.

SONY DSCThe craftsmanship of the beer barrel.

SONY DSCThe beer car which is still in use for major events.

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Welcome to the halfway beer stop.  The beer glass is the souvenir that given to visitors.  Of course, the empty glass is mine.

SONY DSCDifferent degree of roasted malt which made up to the different tastes of beer.

SONY DSCOne of the big fancy machineries.  There are a few of these look-alike equipment but with their own functionalities.  The stand board video explained it all.

SONY DSCLastly, the Tap Room that served beers and snacks.  So, go grab your beer now and enjoy !

Gold Mine Museum at Johannesburg。

For the past 1 year living at Johannesburg, we have not been spending much time exploring its CBD downtown area.  Nevertheless, the main reason was that we spend more time outdoor exploring the nature, the wildlife, and the scenic landscapes compared to the buildings.  However, with Chen’s friends visiting us in March; we seized the opportunities to tour around the downtown area.  One of the places that we made a quick stop is the Gold mine museum situated at the 5, Main Street, CBD Johannesburg.

Johannesburg is a city boomed by its gold mining industry, tracking its gold history back to afar of 1886.  The gold rush had brought in large number of inhabitants, and thus the development of Johannesburg town.  There are a few gold mine museums scattered around Witwatersrand area.  The one that we went was the mine showroom (I wouldn’t even call it a museum given the size and the amount of displays) located at the underground of Standard Bank.

Do these museums worth a visit?  Well, not so much for me.  In my opinion, it is sufficed for me to know the relationship between gold mining and Johannesburg.  I don’t mind it to be an extra stop along the way, but I personally won’t drive down to town merely for this.

SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCUnderground Gold Mine Showroom located at the Main Street.

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Not to be missed the explanation signboard at every tourist sites.

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The lift leading to the underground showroom and the interior of the showroom.

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Escape to the Wild。 Hlane Royal National Park, Swaziland。

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The 10th of February 2013 – it was a fine morning with good weather and sunny day. We would be driving down to the Swaziland for a 3-days and 2-nights getaway at the Hlane Royal National Park. According to Chen, this adventure would be our Valentine day celebration. In actual fact, the truth was to get his Visa extension for a couple more days before he travelled to Gabon for a proper 3-months Visa extension. If you were an expatriate at South Africa, you will soon get used to the many obstacles and lengthy processes along the way for Work Visa application. We could whine endless about this but looking at the bright side, we got to visit Swaziland in exchange of the visa complication issue, which was just brilliant!

Kingdom of Swaziland is a small independent country situated in the land of Greater South Africa. It has very low population and depends largely on agricultural for revenue and employment. It is considered as one of the poorer Africa countries and has faced with bankruptcy threat. In general, many Africa countries suffer from high HIV infection rate which lead to low adults life expectancy, high infant mortality and death rates. And Swaziland suffered the same if not the worst. The catastrophic HIV widespread has greatly hindered the overall Swaziland development and growth. Despite the many banes, Swaziland itself is blessed with many beautiful landscapes and terrains. Along the way of our drive, the mountainous landscape just took our breath away. Entering the land of Swazi, the people were friendly and the streets were clean, even in the town area. I had foolishly assumed that it would be worse than South Africa but it proved to be the opposite.

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It was an outbound journey of approximately five and a half hours drive from Johannesburg to Hlane Royal National Park. As usual, we always travel with our tough buddy “the black GWM Hover” whenever we visit the National Parks. The Hlane Royal National Park is the largest protected area and national park in Swaziland. It is home to the usual animals we see in many National Parks in South Africa except for the Cape Buffaloes. When one is a frequent visitor to the National Park, one will soon realise that spotting the Big Fives especially the predators via self-driving require enormous luck. Soon after many trips to the wild, it was not only the Big Fives that thrilled me. But I began to appreciate many other occurrences. A mug of hot coffee, cool breeze blowing to my face and some yummy food in the car during drive; the huge savannah and the different landscapes and sceneries; and spotting rare animals like the spiders, the tortoises and the jackals in the National Park; all of these excited me. Just recently I was telling Chen that how blessed we are to be able to experience the life in South Africa. Where else in the world would have the Safaris and animals as real as in the Africa continent!

Hlane Royal National Park Map

Hlane Royal National Park is approximately five and a half hour drive away from Johannesburg.

By the time when we arrived at the Hlane National Park, it was already nearing 5pm. It means no game drive today and rest early. After all, we were planning for an easy breezy trip. On the first day, we were allocated a cottage somewhere further north part of the park. They were the newer cottages with electricity access. They were clean, cosy and fully equipped. But there were only six of them and seemed to be rather remote. While on the second day, we moved to the little hut near to the reception area but there was no electricity access in the hut.

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Arriving at the Hlane National Park Gate for registration.

The routes in the Hlane National Park were all gravel roads and rather narrow. Hence you would really need a good 4×4 vehicle to explore the park. On the second day, we went out for our self-driving game drive in the morning. The roads were so bumpy that even our tough buddy had a hard time. Thus, later that afternoon we decided to go on the park sunset game drive programme to give our tough buddy a rest. The sunset game drive was awesome. The guide was experienced and we got to have our complimentary drink while admiring the beautiful sunset. Furthermore, this was the ever first time in our experience that we were allowed to descend from the game vehicle and approached the animals for a closer distance.

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The small little hut on the right picture is the park reception hut which is located in the NdLovu Camp area.

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The restaurant area with the bar.

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The cottage for our first night stay.
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The Little Hut for our second day stay. There was no electricity for these huts but the National Park provided all the candle lights and the oil lamps.

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Chen was preparing the dinner which was bought from the Chinese New Year celebration at Nan Hua Temple earlier on.

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The Wildebeests

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The Impalas

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The Warthdog

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The White Rhinos

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The Giraffe

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The Elephants

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The Lioness

DSC_3788Huge Spider

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Animals lazying around the water point in front of the restaurant.

DSC_3583Walking in the bush to a closer distance to the animals.

DSC_3436Head skeleton of different animals.

We later realised that many animals that we tried to spot through the game drive would gather at the water point just in front of the restaurant. The elephants, the rhinos, the hippos and the antelopes would normally spend their leisure time here. So even without doing the game drive, one would still able to watch many animals by sitting in front of the restaurant.

All in all, it was a slightly different experience compared to the well-known Kruger National Park with its less visitors-packed and quiet atmosphere.