Johannesburg, South Africa was not a destination we were excited, or even planning, to see while in southern Africa. We've been strongly cautioned by locals of all backgrounds of the city's crime and danger. Not to mention, it's where we've personally had packages from home tampered with before they've reached us, and passengers' luggage at the JNB airport is known to be no different. But when we had to go there to drop off Patches for his flight home, we ended up seeing a different side of this city that we'd been avoiding.
I suppose especially after being in the sparsely-populated, less developed Namibia for this long now, the tall buildings, multi-lane highways and freeways, selection of restaurants, and HUGE shopping malls were really something! (Maybe it's just my fading memory, but I could swear the King of Prussia mall would have some competition!) The TREES were amazing also! Anyway, it's certainly not what you picture when you think of Africa.
While there, we took up a couple of (white) South African business guys' offer to show us around Sandton one night, and the upscale area truly impressed us. Not to say that we weren't careful and aware, but after the scared, looking-over-your-shoulder paranoia wore off a bit, we came to enjoy our visit in the big city. (I guess I should add that one of those South African guys used to be in the special forces, so that probably helped relax us too!)
Despite feeling more at ease about our immediate safety, we were not about to knowingly make ourselves targets by carrying around a camera, so we therefore have no photos of our own of Johannesburg. At least
there's always Google Images!
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