January 2012
10 posts
The Great Road Trip, Part 1: Botswana
On the first day of the trip, at the South Africa-Botswana border, a young immigration official stops our car to check our passports. As N. hands him the stack of little blue books, he eyes the contents of the SUV.
“Five women,” he says, “but where are the men?”
“We didn’t bring any,” N. tells him. The immigration officer looks up from thumbing through our passports and lets out a throaty laugh....
America the Great
In South Africa there is a chain of restaurants called Spur, which are essentially American-Indian-themed Applebees. That is to say, they serve onion rings and quesadillas and are decorated with feather headdresses and blocky geometric paintings of animals. The place mats feature stories about a fake tribe of American Indians who enjoy such noble cultural traditions as eating hamburgers for every...
The Three Times I Have Been Pulled Over in South...
#1 (October)
I have had my car for about four days. For three days and 23.5 hours, said car has been in one of the following states:
a) on the verge of overheating (10 minutes)
b) in the process of overheating (3 hours)
c) getting repaired (3 days, 20 hours, 50 minutes)
But miraculously, it has returned to me from the mechanic, blown gasket replaced, ready to hit the open road. Now all...
Travels With Andrew
…in which we zip around Johannesburg, spend Christmas in the only place that’s open (the city’s Indian neighborhood, Fordsburg), fly to Cape Town, look at lots of mountains and beaches and vineyards, take a train back (!), and then spend new year’s drinking champagne on a farm. I’m not sure if my life could possibly be any better than it is.
