Log> Thoughts> Dunes of Durban

In today's entry, good thoughts and bad thoughts, time dedicated for more of s.c. chilling out, more good books, more time to think and talk and look and learn.

As far as backpacker's hostels go, I'm staying in a palace. To me, the name Happy Hippo doesn't convey at all the loft-like converted warehouse with massive communal spaces, excellent rooms, brand new kitchen and a roof terrace with a bar. It's on the docks right next to surfing and the city centre. If coming to Durban, stay here, even if you're normally looking for a higher grade of accommodation. I'm here two nights and spent two nights before this at a more traditional, rustic and messy hostel a bit farther from the city, so I can compare. I just love these loft-style spaces.

But what comes to the city, I have not wished to photograph Durban. Something puts me off it. It's a strange city: potentially very appealing with the long stretch of a beach washed with the perennially warm currents of the Indian Ocean. Most of it is clean, orderly and developed, yet it gives off an impression of everything having been abandoned just a few months ago. It's as if a slow decay had just started, colours fading, paint flaking, an abandoned blanket flapping in a street corner. The central parts are bustling with people, but just a few blocks out an eerie stillness pervades.

Maybe I'm looking at the city, and the country, with too much of a Western (or Nothern) eye. Though the framework looks Western, it holds a highly unemployed population with multiple issues of development, health and adaptation. Crime is ridiculously high - it must be, with every single local that I've exhanged more than four sentences with warning me about it. I've dutifully avoided the idle groups of young men, the number one source of trouble in the world.

In spite of a fever that's been creeping along, I went out with a surfboard today and almost drowned myself with it (or below it, rather). For the fever, I got a malaria self-test kit that I haven't used yet, but will go and prick the skin right after this post. The buggers did bite me in Madagascar and Mauritius quite liberally, despite the toxins.

Right now I'm reading Lord of the Flies (last read in 1994), and listening to Kalas.