December 20 and 21 - East London

The contrast between the backpackers we are staying at now in Plettenberg Bay and the one we just left couldn't be more stark so I thought this would be a good time to write about our accommodation experiences on this trip.

The coastal port city of East London proved very much to be like its namesake for the two nights we were there. Gray and raining. Unfortunately this drabness seemed to affect our impressions of the whole town. I tend to anthropomorphize most non living things as well as most non human living things so I don't ever want to write something off or be too negative as well, someone's (or something's) feelings will be hurt. We had a hard time with East London. Though there are some beautiful neighborhoods, (as in all cities in SA mostly habited by white South Africans), where we ended up in the central inner core right next to the waterfront seemed to be somewhat of an empty shell filled largely with holiday/vacation accommodation of all sorts ranging from hotels to cheap weekly or monthly apartment/flat rentals. It felt somewhat to me like a more sturdy Belize City combined with a depressed and blighted English seaside town. It feels a little like Tacoma, the city we have called home for the past few years. Yes there are nice physically beautiful neighborhoods and the city has done some nice thoughtful things but in spite of its best intentions there is still a grim grittiness that lingers in areas. East London may not have quite experienced the renaissance that Tacoma has in the past decade though! When we went to St. Pauls Presbyterian Church on Sunday we had a very nice older woman tell us it is a really lovely place, that you can get everything here but if felt like she was potentially trying to convince herself as well as us.

And it is a nice city – I'm just not sure we would come back here again (and wouldn't recommend it to anyone) which we have not said about anywhere else we have been on this trip. This also might have to do with the backpackers we stayed at which could be so much more than it is. It is the first, maybe the second place we have stayed where we feel the owner is just in it for the money and is not even doing the bare minimum to keep it up. More on accommodation comparisons in a later post.
We left early Monday morning for another long drive to Plettenberg Bay, our home for Christmas. Ironically (after having driven close to 6000 km at this point, we have begun to crave something other than the mix of top 40/hip-hop and sappy ballads that are the staples of most of the radio stations across the country – no Jazz, Classical, hey we would settle for Spirit 105.3 at this point, ok, maybe not) we found a Christian station that was playing some Christmas music and of course you know where it was broadcasting from...East London!

Duncan