Day 110 of places giving smiles – Reliving the Gold rush at Johannesburg
The first thing I had heard about Johannesburg was that it is too risky to get out at night because of the high crime rate in the city. Luckily we were staying at a good hotel inside a safe complex called Emperors Palace, so we had lots of time to explore all its happening joints within.
Our first surprise was when we opened the door of our hotel room and were greeted at the sight of a bath tum next to our double bed, a unique space saving technique. We explored the other swanky hotels in the complex and even lost some token money at the slot machines in the casino.
In the next morning we drove through the so called notorious downtown Johanessburg, which looked like any other big crowded city in the world, except that I saw only black coloured Africans on the streets.
Our stop was inside another gated secure complex called the Gold reef city. Our attraction was to experience a heritage tour of what it must have been to live like an ancient gold mine worker. With our helmets and torches, we went underground in a caged lift just to two levels instead of the original 35 levels, walked through the cold and wet mine shafts, took sample rock pieces home…a ton of rock gives only one button sized gold, which were hauled up in small rail carts by immense manual labour. The museum gave us a glimpse of the pathetic conditions the workers lived in those ancient days. We saw how gold was melted out and actually carried one kilo gold bar.
We also experienced thrilling rides in the amusement park outside for some more time, which left us spinning in our heads, and stomachs!
The apartheid museum visit made us revisit the difficult times that this country went through in its efforts to live together with people of black, white, coloured and Asian communities.
As we bid goodbye to South Africa from Johannesburg airport, I said Thank you God for an opportunity to experience this wonderful country, and thanks to my brother who suggested this holiday and arranged for everything.
So what place made you smile today?
Be thankful for the places that make you smile!
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