Vacation time!!!

While in Storms River, Mairead raved about a place called Port St. Johns, a place she'd gone to 3 times already and spent 11 weeks earlier this year. Since my time was my own and I had no plans per se, I decided to join her there in time for her favorite backpackers' 3rd year anniversary. We booked ourselves onto the Baz Bus (a hop-on, hop-off backpacker bus), as all the other 'normal' buses were sold out and wouldn't allow us to get to Port St. Johns in time for the party. We had a 1 night pit-stop in Port Elizabeth (uneventful) and rode the bus the next day to get to PSJ.

This place is fairly remote, 1.5 hours away from the largest town in the area called Mthatha. It's in a region called the Transkei, which interestingly enough is the birthplace of Nelson Mandela and was its own country during the apartheid era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transkei). Just the journey to PSJ was amazing to me and somehow felt like the 'Africa' I'd imagined before I arrived in South Africa. Mairead and I took a minibus taxi/shuttle from Mthatha, and while we were the only 2 passengers to start off with, we kept picking-up and dropping off people along the way. Very Asia-like, all packed in the minibus, but with the major difference of having dark faces and beautiful smiles. I loved it already!

Once in PSJ at the Jungle Monkey, I was horrified to learn that it was a 'dress' party for Friday the 13th that night ('dress' party meaning costume party for us North Americans). Yuck. At best of times, with all sorts of stuff at my disposal to dress up, I would find a way to get out of a costume party. But with just a backpack full of ratty clothes I've been wearing since October? Like I said, Yuck. But I was here to have fun if it killed me, so I made an effort. Mairead knew a lot of people there already from her previous stays, and I met one of the managers/owners daughter within minutes of our arrival. A very lovely girl, Angelea organised both Mairead and I's 'costumes' and did my hair and make-up. Mine was to be the 'morning after' look, wearing pyjamas, smudged make-up and freaky hair.

I have to say, it's a good thing I was there with a friend, cause had I been on my own, I'd have probably hid in my room for the night. It was a crazy party, with literally hundreds of people around, mostly all drunk. Plus, there was a bit of drama as some guy was caught stealing from tents and the dorm, and as per the South African way, the guys who caught him were trying to bash his head in... My stay in PSJ was off to an exciting start, that's for sure.

I obviously wasn't scared off too much, since I did end up spending a total of 3 weeks there, more than any other place on my trip so far. What did I do while there, you ask? Nothing much, I say. It was a weird time of sleeping until noon, lazing around in the afternoons, having dinner and then dancing/drinking/chatting at the bar all night. Literally all night, as I'd go to bed anywhere from 2AM to 8AM most days, with an exceptionally late/early day of going to bed at 2PM in the afternoon!

It wasn't all drunken debauchery though, I did get in some of the most amazing scenery while in the area. The Jungle Monkey crew would every once in a while bring people around to see some of the area, with a barge trip down the river, trips to a nearby airstrip up top a mountain that overlooks the whole area, trips to the beach, mini-hikes to a blowhole and trips to a shebeen (informal bar in the 'townships' of South Africa). It really is a beautiful place, and regardless of the drama of my first night there, I always felt safe.

Another trip I took while there was an overnighter to a traditional Xhosa village. The initial draw was to see the mighty Magwa Falls, a beautiful waterfall that would be overflowing after the couple of days of rain we'd just had. Because of my night owl schedule, it was a very hard thing for me to get up at 7 AM to meet the group to leave for Magwa Falls, but boy am I glad I did. We bought food at the supermarket, used minibus taxis to get to the village and started wandering around. Louie, the guy who organises these trips, is actually building his own traditional house in the village, so it didn't feel as much like an intrusion as in some villages I'd been to before. The waterfall was spectacular (you'll see eventually when I post photos), but the highlight was visiting the children at school, having them sing and dance for us, then having a traditional meal of pap and veg by the fire. More kids came by the fire that night to sing and dance some more. Amazing. The Xhosa people are very friendly, if a bit shy, and have THE most beautiful smiles I've ever seen. I felt energised by the trip, that's for sure.

After 2 weeks of 'relaxing' in PSJ, I was slowly getting ready to move on. Because there was no Internet at the Jungle Monkey, I'd been out of touch for awhile and only found out a week and a half into my stay that Visa had been trying to reach me about some fraudulent transactions on my credit card. Long story short, my credit card was somehow cloned and had about 10 ooo$ worth of transactions on it for the past 2 weeks. Visa was great in that all the transactions were cancelled, but I still had to wait to receive a new credit card. Because I was in such a remote area, it started out that I'd have it in 3-4 business days, then 5, then finally 6. This is basically the reason I ended up staying a 3rd week at the Jungle Monkey, but honestly, it wasn't a chore...