24 May 2014 (Saturday) -After 14 hours of travel with 12 hours and 55 minutes of uninterrupted feet numbing plane experience from Hongkong, finally I was in Johannesburg, South Africa. I was fetched by Daddy of Sol-Ant Travels and brought me to my hotel in Pretoria where I spent my entire seven days.
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| En Route from O.R. Tambo International Airport to Pretoria |
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| The view from my room in Southern Sun Pretoria Hotel |
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| The fancy hotel room |
The day I arrived was South Africa's 5th democratic president,Jacob Zuma's inauguration. Unlike any other country in the world, South Africa has three governmental capital cities: Cape Town, Pretoria and Bloemfontein. I was fortunate enough that the hotel I was staying was few blocks away from the Union Buildings where the celebratory inauguration events were being held. The streets were brimming with locals chanting and dancing- it was very festive but at the same time jammed with people that I couldn't even inch through the large crowd so I decided to go to the Church Square instead.
I especially enjoyed my visit to the Church Square where 19th century architecture outlined the historical center (and the friendly Africans who were consistently calling me a Chinese :) ).
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| Old ZAR Council Chamber (1891) |
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| Standard Bank (1934) |
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| The Palace of Justice (1902) |
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| The Statue of Paul Kruger (1896) |
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| Tudor Chambers (1904) |
After the Church Square, I went to the Kruger Museum which was originally Paul Kruger's house. Since everyone was at the Union Buildings, it was nice to be the only tourist in the museum.
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| The Kruger Museum, Pretoria |
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| In front of the Kruger Museum- one of my few personal snapshots in South Africa. |
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| The Krugers' Horse Carriage |
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| Some of Kruger's artifacts |
Since I had few time left in my Saturday afternoon, I went to the Pretoria Art Museum but it was already closed when I got there. Surprisingly, the Pretoria Art Museum was adjacent to the Arcadia Park and spent the rest of my afternoon before finally settling back in the hotel.
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| Olmec Replica Statue |
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| Color is definitely one of Africa's main attractions in nature and culture |
25 May 2014 (Sunday)- Today, I visited the Union Buildings, the Voortrekker Monument, Freedom Park and the Pretoria Art Museum.
Words can never perfectly describe the vastness and magnificence of the Union Buildings.
The Voortrekker Monument found on a hilltop south of Pretoria is another impressive architectural structure. This monument took 11 years (1938-1949) to build in commemoration of the Voortrekkers.
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| One of Voortrekker Monument's two main features: Historical Frieze |
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| Voortrekker Monument's second main feature: The Cenotaph. On top of the building is an opening where the rays of the sun directly shines at the center of the Cenotaph at noontime every 16th of December. |
After the Voortrekker Monument, I went to the Freedom Park and visited the Hapo Museum and the Garden of Remembrance. One distinct characteristic of the Hapo Museum is that it recounts the history of the African people and their struggles for freedom.
Here are few pictures I took inside the Hapo Museum and the Garden of Remembrance:
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| The 697 meter long Wall of Names |
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| The Garden of Remembrance |
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| The view of Pretoria and Johannesburg from the Freedom Park |
My last stop of the day was the Pretoria Art Museum (finally!).
26- 30 May 2014- Management Sciences for Health's Global Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Workshop- A whole week of meeting colleagues and learning with esteemed M&E professionals around the world. I am very grateful to be given an opportunity to learn about recent trends in data visualization, evaluation methods and operational researches.
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| MSH M&E Colleagues |
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| With Neusa Bay (SIAPS Technical Advisor) of Mozambique and Dr. Obakeng Khaole (Senior Technical Advisor TB Services Support) of South Africa |
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| With Tobey Busch (SIAPS Technical Advisor) of Arlington, USA |
On my last night in South Africa, I had a safari tour in the
Lion Park in Johannesburg. I enjoyed the safari tour while we bravely wandered around the park at night. Aside from the lions, there were cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, leopards, zebras, antelopes, giraffes freely roaming around the park and I greatly enjoyed the thrill of having the animals follow our game vehicle.
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| The glorious Johannesburg sunset on the way to the Lion Park |
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| With the lion cubs |
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| The Lionesses |
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| The King of the Jungle selfishly devouring his meal. |
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| With the best Safari tour, Mr. Steve Stephansen of Africa Explore Tours& Safaris |
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| This is my favorite South African shot (by far) taken by Steve and as he said "At least we know that giraffe is really tall." |
