Now we walk along the highway to Kempton park, take a minibus to downtown and swoosh up the 50 floor Carlton center tower to oversee the city. Square blocks, highrises. Only the distant African landscape reminds us we are still in Africa. We see buses meandering around Ghandi square, and being fans of Ghandi we decide to go there and sit down in the shadow of his statue.
We do some shopping. The purchase of a South African SIM card and we connect to Etienne, our couchsurfing host. He is available at night so we spend a worry free afternoon in downtown Joburg. The purchase of a nailclipper further removes some rough edges. And the purchase of a banana keeps me going until we arrive in Randburg, a quiet neighbourhood north of Johannesburg that makes both of us feel we are in Los Angeles.
We eat out in a Vietnamese restaurant that serves a good, yet westernized version of Vietnamese porc chops and noodles. After dinner, in a nice cocktail bar, we have a watery whisky cocktail whose description tastes better than its actual ingredients.