This trip was with my big sister. She drove us there from Johannesburg. I know all about the pitfalls of driving in South Africa…car jacking, rapes, murders etc. We were told several times not to stop for anyone even the police as they are probably fake cops, not to drive after dark and certainly not to pick up hitch hikers. Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. We got to the border early enough and completed all the formalities. One of the guys processing our passports asked where we were heading to. We said Mbabane and he asked if we could give him a lift. We said yes laughing away thinking yeah sure. When we got to the gate there he was, waiting for us. We told him that we thought he was joking, he said he wasn’t and it was kind of awkward saying no, so yes we picked up our first hitch hiker. If anything happened we hoped at least one of us would survive and know that he worked with immigration, plus his signature was on our passport. We also drove in the dark on one night like 10pm…that was late. We got lost in the reeds going the opposite way..kinda scary!
We chilled out on out on our first day just stocking up the fridge with food and we experienced god awful food at a local place called Casserole. The following day we did the tourist route of Ezulwini trying out the cultural village and handicraft markets. We checked out the Memorial Park where the last King was laid to rest there, and checked out his cool cars in the museum…fab Cadillac!
The next day we headed for the best resort in Swaziland. It was ok, a little bit too quiet for me as it was set in a botanical garden. Plus I had to share a double bed with my sister…she likes hogging the duvet…annoying. Plus there was no hot water and they couldn’t move us as it was full because of the Reed Dance Festival. They eventually got the water fixed but it annoyed the hell out of me so I pinched all the 200 ml toiletries in all the bathrooms, all the tea/coffee packets, complimentary water and 3 books from their library. I know it’s was bad but I needed to get my monies worth plus at breakfast I swiped all the pizzas and muffins for our snack back to Johannesburg. It was obvious the resort felt bad as they offered us a complimentary stay on our next visit and they would upgrade us to a villa as well. Like I’m ever coming back to Swaziland again…but my sister said she would.
We also caught up with some friends we met at Kruger National Park. We met for dinner at the local casino resort and then ended the night in a god awful karaoke bar. Some of the ladies were desperate to sing. So we waited until it was their turn…long wait. Very smoky bar with loud girls screaming and nasty rich men hitting on us offering to buy us lots of drinks. We got out of there as soon as the two ladies finished singing and headed back to the resort.
We drove back to Johannesburg the following morning and obviously both my sister and I had reached our tolerance level for each other so we were a bit snappy when we got to the hostel. By the way she is a terrible driver…even my little brother drives better without a license. Oh well we live and learn…another 10 years I guess before I see her again which is a good thing if you ask me…I’m no good with family.
