During this week I’ve been out traveling quite a bit. For the ones of you who know my current job quite well this won’t come as a surprise. However this trip is worth mentioning. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting South Africa and Brazil for some work related tasks. Two days in Pretoria (a city close to Johannesburg) and 3 days in Sao Paulo. I’ve never been in any of the two countries (or continents – for that matter!) so it was very interesting to see and experience cultures outside of Europe/Asia.
My first stop from Singapore (10hours flight) was Pretoria, which was a very laid back and positive experience. Very much like Adelaide in Australia – with its low rise buildings, big cars and HUGE portions of primarily Western food. The weather was quite cool – which for me – is a good thing considering my all year 30 degrees Celsius. South Africa has a very bad reputation for sky rocketing crime rates and unfortunately most South Africans I met had experienced some kind of assault – either personally or in the close family. Fortunately I didn’t experience any problems and as my hotel was a quite well protected place the visit proved to be a very positive experience. I managed to spend a full day as a tourist around Pretoria where I visited a site called “The Cradle of Humankind” and a park with lots of African animals. Visit my Album page to see a few pictures.
After another 10 hours in a plane I arrived at Sao Paulo in Brazil in the middle of the week. Here everything was business releated, so I didn’t have too much time to see anything much. I did manage however to try some of the amazingly good food that Sao Paulo has to offer. The two things that stood out were Moqueca and the famous Brazilian Churrasco. A very exiting place and with 20 million people living there I hope I’ll have the time to return.
Currently I’m sitting in Johannesburg Airport after a 10 hour flight from Sao Paulo. Its morning and within 3 hours I’ll be having another 10 hour flight back home to Singapore where it will be morning – again. And that brings me to the last topic of this post – EXHAUSTION! I don’t think I’ve ever tried to be so time confused as on this trip. When I’m back in Singapore tomorrow morning I’m most likely going to sleep all day until Monday morning where I’m going to be very hungry and my body tells me to eat – dinner !