Long Weekend that went by ..

Inscribed by Hariharan

Last weekend was a long weekend with Monday being public holiday on account of National Woman’s Day in South Africa. So I had added responsibility to pass time for one more day. So I decided to pack up my day with activities of all kinds.

Day 1 – Pretoria Darshan 

Joburg’s twin city Pretoria … We have been so close to this place, probably crossed this place as well several times while visiting other places but we could never make time to actually go see places of interest in Pretoria. So this was the time we decided to go visit places in Pretoria. We started our Tour with a visit to the Union Building office to the President of South Africa – I would have liked to meet Mr Jacob Zuma, but he was a bit busy that day so I told him “Not to stress too much .. Its ok”. After that was the quick visit to the Krugar house and Melrose House – which were basically Museums. We then had an lunch at a restaurant that gave below average food which was priced exorbitantly – Geet Indian Restaurant (My advice to people – Let it pass … Its not worth even a try !!). Post that disaster of a lunch we headed out to our last destination for the day – Vootrekker Monument. This monument was built to honour the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony between 1835 and 1854. I am not much into history but if you are interested in the long story then here is the link. It was a nice photo opportunity for me and I present to you some of the best shots of that day.

Day 2 – Bruma Flee Market

I have been here several times and this was yet another time when I went there. My time to leave back to India was approaching and I thought it was right time to buy some souvenirs to take back. So, I spent half a day to pick up some neat stuff to take back home back home.
Day 3 – Nanhua (Chinese) Temple

This was my second visit to the temple. I had last visited the temple of the Chinese New Year which was a nice experience with all the crowd and fireworks and food stalls.  This time around it was a different experience. It was silent and serene – with practically no one in the temple except us. I tried capture some different aspects of the temple this time around. We had the pleasure of eating nice Chinese vegetarian lunch with the Chinese Monks at the temple. We left the place with a peace of mind that stayed on with me for the rest of the day. We ended the day by seeing the movie – Once upon a time in Mumbai (A nice movie). Here again are the best shots of that day.

Untill next time ...