A divided Johannesburg to wrestle with

Rogier — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:50:22 +0000

If you think apartheid ended somewhere around 1990 as I did, Johannesburg will come as quite a shock. Segregation between the black rundown downtown-area and poor townships and the white luxurious northern neighbourhoods is almost perfect. The dividing lines are invisible yet razorsharp. I stayed with three amazing guys – thanks R&L&S! – with whom I stayed a whole month! This is a city I wrestled with to understand. And still do. But it’s fascinating and tantalizing.

Joubert Park, downtown. I’m positively the only white guy around. Not safe.

Disturbing sight at the Apartheid museum.

Bentley’s for sale at Hyde Park Mall. All visitors white. All servants, security personnel, parking attendants and waiters black. Classifying Johannesburg as 2nd world makes no sense: it’s 1st and 3rd world.

Great autumn/winter colors of Zoo Lake.

Isolation cells for black people at Constitution Hill.

View on downtown from “Top of Africa”.

A penthouse without a view?

More Johannesburg pictures.

Johannesburg with Veenema Tours

Rogier — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:06:07 +0000

So good to visit Ilona in South Africa! The very first day Ilona brought me to this chocolate-cum-champagne tasting evening… now that’s quite a change from Iran!

After 40 tough hours of travel (including my first nighttrain)…

Ilona picked me up at the airport (priceless!)…

Got me set up at the shabby place of one of her colleagues…

And showed me her Joburg-(night)life…

Touristy but loads of fun.

More Johannesburg pictures.

Moving Forward... » Johannesburg

A divided Johannesburg to wrestle with

Johannesburg with Veenema Tours