Johannesburg - South Africa's Big City

Welcome to Africa! The thought of visiting the continent evokes stereotypical images of wildlife, beautiful scenery and warm people. South Africa also evokes thoughts of apartheid, corruption and crime. Part of the reason we wanted to do this trip was to start to understand the real story behind the world's 2nd largest continent through experiences in a handful of countries in Southern Africa.

For this two week trip first we are visiting Johannesburg, Kruger National Park and Cape Town in South Africa. Then we're flying up to Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe where we'll visit Chobe National Park in Botswana as well. Finally, we'll visit Zambia's capital Lusaka.

First stop, Johannesburg... the commercial capital of South Africa and the city responsible for approximately 10% of the total GDP of subsaharan Africa. While we're in Johannesburg, we're staying with our friend Kalyan who lives in the leafy northern suburb of Sandton. Sandton is to Johannesburg as Buckhead is to Atlanta. There's lots of big commercial skyscrapers and glitzy shopping along with high end apartments and housing. The area popped up as a key commercial area of Johannesburg after the end of apartheid, for similar reasons that Buckhead did in Atlanta after the end of segregation in America.

View from Kalyan's apartment in Sandton. Very nice!

First thing's first, we need some South African wine!

The infrastructure in Johannesburg is pretty great. Similar to the USA.

On Sunday, Kalyan took us downtown for Market on Main, which is basically a Sunday food and crafts market. Afterward, he had to catch a flight, so we were on our own for the next few days until we meet back up in Cape Town. From Market on Main, Christina and David visited the Apartheid Museum while Paul quickly popped into Gold Reef City to ride Johannesburg's coasters.

Outside Market on Main.

Hipster coffee shop.

Market on Main, a Sunday market in downtown

View from the upper floor of the market.

Some people were truly frightened on the roller coasters at Gold Reef City. Check out those faces!

Anaconda was a great ride.

The Apartheid Museum is a must visit!

The museum included information on how the races were sorted and separated to keep power in white hands.

View from the apartheid museum: Johannesburg's CBD behind Gold Reef City coasters.

Walking around Johannesburg can be a challenge. Incomplete sidewalks and barbed wire fences are everywhere.

Tried a local beer! It was OK.

Sunday dinner at Craft in Parkhurst. David had ostrich!

Food in Johannesburg has been wonderful and cheap in American dollar terms!

On Monday we went to the city center to see the Origins Museum and Constitution Hill (the site of an Apartheid era prison). Afterwards we had lunch in Melville before heading downtown again to the Carlton Center, which is the tallest building in Africa. Finally we took a stroll around downtown Johannesburg, taking in the sights, smells and sounds of this bustling district.

On Wits University Campus. Is this really a sign-worthy issue? 

The Origins Museum had lots of exhibits on the San people of South Africa.

A gallery in the Origins Museum.

Witwatersrand University in Braamfontein neighborhood of Johannesburg.

An interesting sculpture in downtown.

Constitution Hill prison. Gandhi and Mandela were both held here. Conditions were awful.

Looking towards the CBD from Constitution Hill.

Constitution Hill.

Paul's Homemade Ice Cream in Melville! It was closed unfortunately.

Meat pie for lunch in Melville.

Johannesburg from above at the Top of Africa in the Carlton Center.

Neat zebra art in downtown.

After our walk around the CBD we took the Gautrain back to Sandton.

At Sandton City Center Paul got pumped up for the Rugby World Cup!

Johannesburg makes a big first impression, both positive and negative. While the roadway infrastructure is really excellent, walking can be challenging with sidewalks sometimes just disappearing. Safe transit isn't very prevalent in the city - there is the Gautrain, which is state of the art and relatively cheap, but mostly only connects the northern suburbs to downtown and nearby Pretoria. Our predominate mode of travel has been uber, believe it or not. Trips across town have all been only $5-$10.

The city is dotted with large glamorous shopping malls. These contrast sharply with other neighborhoods that are rundown, dirty and dangerous. The contrast between rich and poor is stark and largely follows racial lines, 20 years after the end of Apartheid.There is definitely a sense of worry over crime in this city. Countless websites and travel guides, as well as friends who have lived in Johannesburg have bombarded us with warnings about everything and everywhere. We were more anxious traveling around Joburg than any other place we've visited (Mexico City for example). Driving through the northern suburbs, where most of the wealthy people live, reveals street after street of walled compounds with electric fences and razor wire. Wealthy South Africans are terrified of the poor, and it shows, as we didn't see a single normal house facing the street in the entire city. The worry may not be unwarranted, as the crime rate is huge. Our friends have known several people who have been mugged or had their car windows smashed while they were stopped at a red light. The homicide rate is over 6 times higher than the US.

With the current record exchange rate, Johannesburg restaurants are very cheap when converted to American dollars...our excellent Sunday dinner in a trendy restaurant was R580 (or about $40) for three people, including alcohol, tax, and tip. The same meal in the States would have easily topped $100. The median income in Gauteng Province is around $3,000 per year...meaning our "cheap" dinner out represented the average household's weekly wage. In a country that is 80% black, it was amazing to us how often we found ourselves in places with only white people. Tourist sites, museums and well-reviewed restaurants were almost totally patronized by white people (some of which were tourists like us), while the staff was usually black. Segregation is still a fact in South Africa.

Some interesting graffiti in downtown.

Lots of South African pride around the city.

Johannesburg was an interesting introduction to South Africa. We enjoyed our experience, and learned a lot about the long history and culture of this part of the world. Next stop, Kruger National Park for some wildlife viewing.