Back in Johannesburg
Avacado & shrimp salad at Bull Run
Friday night we had dinner at the hotel’s Bull Run Restaurant. The menu was a knock-off of a trading venue, reflecting commodities and various prices, e.g. the South African Rand, US Dollars, British Pounds, etc.
We left the hotel at 9 a.m. and headed for the Bryanston Veterinary Hospital (BVH), a private practice within the township of Bryanston, South Africa. This is a 9 doctor hospital that has been established for 37 years and is open 24-hours a day, 365-days a year. BVH is one of three emergency pet hospitals throughout Johannesburg and is the largest of the three.
Nikkie, the manager at BVH
Nikki is their practice manager who conducted the tour for our group of western doctors. After a very delightful tour, I overheard from several of our doctors, “it is almost exactly the same as our practices. Two major vendors are the same as what we have… just a different country!”
Lunch at Gramadoelas
The buffet at Gramadoelas
Next we were off for lunch in downtown Johannesburg at Gramadoelas for authentic tribal African Cape Dutch & Malay curries and a fish & vegetarian exotic game buffet. The lunch was very good and everyone left stuffed.
After lunch we toured downtown Johannesburg and observed the devastation to what used to be a beautiful city with 5-star hotels. But now, more than 2 million illegal immigrants are squatting within the abandoned hotels. The closed hotels have been gutted of everything, and it is not unusual to see fires erupting within the tall high-rises. There is no electricity or water in the buildings, but you can see satellite dishes protruding from the buildings, most likely running their TV’s from a generator. There are city personal dressed in red uniforms who have been hired to get the squatters out of the vacant buildings, but with little success.
All the high-rises have been vacant since 1994
This evening is a free one and we plan on walking back to the Nelson Mandela Plaza to dine at one of the many restaurants.
Sunday is an early up to leave the hotel by 7 a.m. for a 6-hour bus ride to our next destination.
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Sounds like my kind of trip – lots of eating and sightseeing. Interesting story about the squatters in the high-rise hotels – why don’t they just tear them down? You may have already seen that Sandi and I went to your house on Saturday afternoon 11/6 at 3PM and fed the fish; all in the house seemed to be fine. Alarm on, door locked! Stay safe, and be sure to take a lot of pictures during your BUSINESS trip.