24 Mar 2009 – Durban

This morning Kevin, Dan, and I went running on the beach outside our hotel at 7:30. We ran north along the harder packed sand by the water for about a mile and half, until we reached a shipping yard and were shooed back in the opposite direction. Even though the sun was still low over the water, the utter lack of wind and the considerable humidity made the run rather grueling, so I was thankful for the distraction of the pretty scenery and the rare chance to run on the beach.

After a buffet breakfast, the whole group met in the lobby for transport into the center of the city to a tour of the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere. We removed our shoes outside the large but unassuming building that sat in the middle of a bustling market area, and followed our guide inside for a lesson on the traditions, culture, and rituals of Islam as practiced within the South African mosque. We were allowed to take pictures of the ornately gilded building during the tour, so camera flashes filled the room as we sat on the Persian-carpeted floor of the prayer area and listened to the guide speak.

We walked across the street at 10:30 and spent the next two hours in the much-talked-about Indian market, which was located inside a mostly-enclosed building and smelled overwhelmingly of the eastern spices that many of the stalls were selling. The city of Durban has a large Indian population, and the crafts and culture have been influenced by the demographic. We all charted our own course through the maze of eager vendors and bright, colorful fabrics, browsing and purchasing an array of crafts and clothing, and doing our best not to offend any of the vendors who latched onto us hoping to make a sale. The noisy, redolent market certainly felt like the Indian markets I’ve seen in films and documentaries, selling everything from wooden crafts and beadwork to spices and live chicks. It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the atmosphere, but eventually we all seemed to make out well with some good bargains and good stories to boot.

On our own for the afternoon, we returned to the hotel to change for the beach (or other destinations) and then went separate ways until dinner at 7PM. Most people hit the sand and surf across the street, but some walked around the city and wandered through the road-side shops on the beachfront road. Later, we all met up and drove to dinner at an Indian restaurant about ten minutes away, where we once again faced an impossibly large and tasty assortment of ethnic cuisine. The foodies of the group especially enjoyed the departure from fast food dining for the second night in a row, ordering curries, rice dishes, and items that were far too spicy for me to take more than a bite. The group morale was high when we left the restaurant around ten o’clock, and ten of us headed to the cinema down the road to see a 10:30 showing of Slumdog Millionaire.

As anticipated, the Oscar-winning Best Picture was a fantastic film that had us all talking the entire cab ride back to the hotel at 1AM. The depiction of the Mumbai slums had felt very similar to the townships we’ve been encountering outside of Cape Town, and the setting of the film against the powerful backdrop of Muslim India seemed to fit wonderfully with our tour of the Indian market and mosque just hours earlier here in Durban.

Tomorrow morning we’re off excursion destination number three: the Valley of a Thousand Hills and the Drakensberg Mountains.