Kingdom of Swaziland

I feel like I should apologize for these tiny pictures. I tried uploading the 'medium' image and it was taking forever. These will have to do for now.

It has been a restful week after spending two weeks on the road, going from one hostel to another. I've been in Nelspruit for the last few days. Nelspruit is a city in northern South Africa, in Mpumalanga province. I spent two days this past week in Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland. Swaziland is a kingdom with a king that rules that country. He has final say about everything that goes on. He appoints people to government positions. He has 13 wives. Every year there is a big cultural celebration called the 'Reed Dance'. All the eligible women from around the kingdom come and dance for the king. Then he chooses a wife. He doesn't pick one ever year and obviously someone caught his eye at least 13 of the past 22 years since his coronation. Swaziland is a beautiful country. When driving along you notice that the trees are very 'organized'. Apparently, Swaziland had one of the world's largest 'man-made' forest, covering over 7% of its total land area. That is a lot of trees and they are all in perfect lines.

Like most African cities, Mbabane (Swaziland) has a central area, where a lot of commerce happens. This picture is taken just outside of a mall. It is one busy place, it is also the taxi stand where literally hundreds of vans line up for different routes around the city. It is most often the only public transit in many cities.

This is the train car hostel that I stayed in a few weeks ago, you see the very colourful bunk-house just below.

These are beach huts in Cape Town. I thought the colours were cool.

Next week, I'm off to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, I'll likely be spending a few weeks in Tanzania before making my way to Rwanda and Uganda.

I expect to have regular internet access for most of the time now, so feel free to send emails.