What I love about Durban

There is something wonderfully different about Durban or eThekwini in Zulu language. The South African third largest metropolis by the shores of the Indian Ocean is the sort of place you will want to silently slip off to with your wife, fiancée or even alone for a life time adventure.

It is a destination for aquatic animal lovers, honeymoons, ‘dirty’ weekends, night clubbing, and even cultural fiestas – where no one accosts you in the street corner demanding a free wristwatch consultation. You truly need not watch your back because everyone is engrossed in fun with Mother Nature.

The city’s geography is dotted with breathtaking manmade and natural beauties that offer additional thrills to visitors.

But, you hardly need a map or a tour guide to get around or figure out where exactly the city centre is, or how to access Golden Mine, a stretch of golden sand and one of the most spectacular views in the rainbow country. Taxi rides around the city seemed to take you through an endless, unremittingly beautiful landscape of freshly painted apartments and urban highways.

I couldn’t have imagined it before now but for the couple of days I went around the city, trying to consume it, I unhappily wondered how and why a country like Nigeria and a city like Lagos lost out in the opportunity to draw the mixture of colour that is the different human faces that throng the very clean pavements of Durban streets everyday.

The city’s racial mix is indeed extraordinary. Though originally the land of the Zulus, a major ethnic group in South Africa, the city is alive with people from different races, faith and backgrounds; who peacefully co-exist and take advantage of their diverse cultures. In Durban, you will see more Indians whose ancestors set out to the African soil in search of new world and fortune centuries ago.

The Indians make up almost equal proportion of the population with Black South Africans in Durban. The city also habours coloured people, Europeans, Chinese and Arab migrants who couldn’t resist the allure of the aquatic nature of the city.

My affection for Durban is born, in parts. One, for being insulated from the twin demon of city violence and traffic, and secondly for being awash with the best of nature and manmade thrills.

The apartments are separated from the roads by wide grassy spaces that could take three traffic lanes. The traffic is predictable-morning rush hours, this usually last for about thirty minutes, depending on where you are driving from and evening rush hour that begins exactly from 5pm when workers are thronging home for early evening diner. The traffic predictability makes the city more attractive as a place to live and work than just a place to pass the night.

Durban has always been South Africa’s leisure capital. It is a practical down-to-earth and leisure oriented city. The city seems to bend over backwards to offer services of all types at any time of the day or night. The city centre boasts an impressively dense network of small businesses covering every life essential. The local gastronomy (comprising the traditional Zulu and Indian menus) competes quite fiercely with foreign culinary as the city has a deserved reputation in this area.

In Durban, service always seems to come with genuine good grace and friendliness. On the drop of a South African Rand or the least of its denominations, it is an unending shower of appreciation on the generous donor by the sand artists that mold breathtaking works with wet sand for visitors delight.

Same is also the case in the hotel I stayed. Service also comes with a smile as the hotel attendants seem through bred in hospitality. In the bar, the bartenders will patiently take you through the beers and spirit to get the motions just right. They happily stay up deep into the night to service the army of tourist that would invade the bar before stepping into the night club in the hotel or somewhere in the city.

The other striking thing is how hard working and optimistic everybody is in Durban. Right from the King Shaka International Airport, the hotels, shops, eateries to the various convention venues in the city, every hand is on deck. The taxi driver does his job with such a passion that you query how much he earns, he even takes you on a mini tour of the town with wonderful explanations that you wonder if his is a staff of the tourism bureau.

True to their optimism, the populace engages their hands in anything productive – from tour guide, swimming instructor, lifeguard, people sweeping up leaves somewhere in the park, some lending hands in the shopping malls, hotels, among others. While doing so, it is evident that they are so removed from the worries of politics now the country is about going to the polls again. Obviously, that seems to drive the optimism that runs through the local Durbans.

These enshrine peace and security which further attract tourists in their millions to come and frolic in this all-year-round warmest part of the rainbow country. Truly, Durban is the adventure that awaits you in South Africa.

OBINNA EMELIKE