A day trip to Swaziland

**updated with pictures**

Swaziland is small, land locked country that is to the northeast of South Africa.  It is approximately a 3.5 hour drive from Johannesburg.  On Saturday Kanya and Avon needed to go to Swaziland and pick up one of their cars from Kanya's parents (actually both Kanya and Avon's families now live there).  So we decided to go there for a day trip and have lunch.

We left the house shortly after 8:30am (after a beautiful breakfast served by Kanya - with her delicious and healthy homemade granola, french toast, fruit and more).  We drove to Pretoria, then headed onto a highway that takes us to the border of South Africa and Swaziland at Oshoek.

Kanya and Avon said this was a mine blast.. but usually they would warn about it.. no one else seemed to be concerned about it except for me... of course.. the tourist

Eating Biltongs (beef jerkeys) and drinking grapetiser. (red grape this time)

christmas tree farms?

The border crossing process was quite interesting.  In a lot ways it was quite similar to the border crossing between US and Canada in Southern Ontario, but it's also quite different.  For example, we're used to toll booth type set up in Canada, whereas you have to park your car at the RSA - Swazi border ... twice.  So first you have to park on the RSA side parking lot.  Get out of your car with your travel documents.  Go inside and line up so that you can see a customs official.  They then do the standard procedure of scan and stamp if necessary.  You will also have to recite your car's license number in order to get it registered.  Then after getting an approval stamp on a little slip, you have to go back into your car and then drive across a gate (where the little slip with a stamp on it and your license plate number will let you pass).  Sometimes, the custom officials at the gates will want to check your car.


Once you drive through that gate, ta-da, you have now left RSA and entered the Kingdom of Swaziland.  There, the first thing have to do is to park your car, and then go in and line up for customs of Swaziland with your travelling documents.  Again you go through usual custom things, report your license number and then get back in your car and can then continue your journey.

The entire process probably took less than 20 minutes as it was not a busy day at all.  Kanya said the border is usually packed near pay weekend (month end) so need to avoid those if possible.   I can totally imagine how chaotic it would be given how little parking pace it has on both sides.. It's definitely not designed to handle high volumes.

It was quite interesting to note that in the bathrooms at the border, there are boxes of free condoms that are given out.  Apparently Swaziland has the highest prevalence of HIV+ cases in the world.  People said it's because people caught on a bit late, and also because the society is one that accepts polygamy.  (The current Swazi King has about 13 wives!).

Entering the "border"

this is the South Africa side (parking area)

The crowded area... where there's not that much room to line up towards a booth - I cannot imagine what a busy day looks like...

Kanya's superior (thicker) Cdn passport verus mine... hers is 48 pages.. mine is only 24 =\

Anyways, once we entered Swaziland, the scenery changes immediately (or at least it felt that way).  There are a lot more mountains, and roads in mountains and houses in mountains (so I was trying to chew a lot of candies so that I won't get car sick like I would going up the peak in HK on windy roads).  We drove to Mbubane which is the capital of Swaziland and dropped off Amanda as that is where she lives.  Then we continued to drive through to Ezulwini Valley to find Kanya's parents.  Then Kanya and Avon took us to Malandelas where there is a restaurant, an entertainment venue/stage called House on Fire and also a few cute shops.

We sat down in front of a beautiful view of the grassland and mountains in the distance.  It was absolutely stunning and very peaceful.  The view definitely eased the long wait for the food.  While we waited for our food to come, Kanya's mom, Brenda took us to the Gone Rural shop to take a look at local Swazi crafts and everything looks so beautiful.  I really wanted some of the placemats but it'll be hard to justify when I'm going to be a nomad for awhile.  I'll decide when I go back to Swaziland for a real trip in a month.

Swaziland!

The church where Avon used to go when he was little in Mbubane

one of the 2 Malls in Mbubane where people would go to town an hang out at

Kanya and her mom looking good =)

this was at a 5 star hotel where they held the graduation

beautiful purple flowers everywhere, but these are not the jacrandas that I need to see in Pretoria

At the Malandelas (the bathroom)

Waiting for our food

The scenery is just gorgeous

Look how peaceful this looks!

Looking back at our seating area

passionfruit (nectar) and lemonade - seems like a popular drink around here, and it's delicious

beautiful flower on a beautifully knitted swazi handicraft placemat - i want one!

They don't have printed menus, so they bring these boards to you

Love this shop (where you can get tons of beautiful Made in Swaziland stuff!)

the courtyard area

Stuffed trout with spinach... i was a bit surprised to see the entire fish served, but it made so much sense and it was delicious.. green beans and butternut squash are also very popular here

Taking a picture at the beautiful area near house on fire

Took off my sunglasses so that it doesn't look like i was a random person they found off the street

After lunch, we went back to Kanya's parent's campus to pick up their car (yes - I can't think of a better word than campus!) Because Kanya's parents run this Masters program that is jointly offered with the Leeds university in London in change management and leadership.   It is called the Mananga Center and an extremely cool program.  They were actually conducting a graduation ceremonies for the Masters student earlier that day and also this coming weekend in Zimbabwe.

Looking at a part of the Mananga Centre

And then it was time to say goodbye and begin our 3.5 hour journey home.  Now that we have two cars and 3 people, it was the time for me to stay with Kanya in case she needs me to drive (Kanya is very far along her pregnancy).  In the end, the girl triumphed the journey and baby didn't cause too much uncomfort.  One highlight on our way back, was there was random fireworks at a site close to the highway, so we got a bit of a show which was quite nice.

My attempt at showing how rural the drive was and taking sunset pictures

sunset pictures with Avon's car's back light =P and some trees lining the road

Random Fireworks!

It was another fun day hanging out with Kanya and Avon (and of course Siam - the baby tummy).  Speaking of the 3 of them, something quite funny/silly actually happened in the car and it went something like this:

Kanya: Ada, you're going to love it when Mango season happens.
Brenda: it won't be quite yet when Ada is about to leave
Kanya: oh... *some other conversation in between* - Ada you'll see me when i go from 1 to 2
Avon: it'll be from 2 to 3
Ada: No, it'll be from 2 to 1 to 1
Kanya and Avon: erm.. *confused*
Brenda: *confused* are we talking about dress sizes?
Ada: *confesses* actually i don't know what we're talking about... are we talking about form 1 mango to 2 mangos?
Kanya and Avon: *laugh*

anyways, so I thought it was dress size, but Kanya and Avon were both talking about their family sizes =) haha it was quite funny

P.S. Asian counter up to 10 now, saw a few more at the service station on the way!