The East Rand - Lets do the Time Warp Again...

Since Ive been back in South Africa. I've not had any inclination to spend time again in Jhb. I used to live on the East Rand before I left for the UK and to be honest the place holds no special place in my heart. I have seen plenty of my friends from the area but they have all come down to Cape Town. My son also comes down every school holiday.  But life being what it is I had to go down to Jhb, specifically the East Rand a few weeks ago. I booked my flight with Kulula and was pleasantly surprised at the affordable prices. I do have a soft spot for Kulula planes, my Jhb flight was on the "camo plane" staff were friendly, plane was on time things were looking up.

On landing I eventually found my way through the Oliver Thambo airport maze and was meet by  an old friend. There was no way I was driving. As the reason for my visit was jointly seeing my son, I had booked a hotel  close to the East Rand Mall, so in my free time I could spend time with him, with plenty of shops and entertainment on my doorstep. Another pleasant surprise awaited me in the form of the hotel. I stayed at the very well priced Europrime Hotel. Clean, modern and secure, I was actually starting to enjoy my visit to the far East. There was even internet (although in my room it wasn't working - the very hard working chap at reception did his utmost to fix it) Every morning there was a hearty full English breakfast, with some added SA flavor (slap chips) lol not quite my thing but my son loved it.

My son came to stay with me for the last two days of my trip, we did movies at East Rand Mall and the Flea Market. Have you ever been to the East Rand Flea Market ? Not? well let me try to explain. It is a huge indoor market which surrounds an open air entertainment and food court, sounds normal? Well no, not really, its the visitors that make it "unique" There are literately hundreds of over weight men and women dragging yelling kids around, buying the most random stuff I've ever seen. The highlight for me was a lady demonstrating a taser "cleverly disguised as a torch" at one of the stands. There were literally 20 people elbowing their way to the front to catch a glimpse. Second to this excitment was the entertainment court. There was no live music playing "yet" thankfully, but a DJ was pumping out songs that I haven't heard since I was in High School. Fat couples toed tapped, while stuffing in yet another mini doughnut, kids played in the play park. Everyone was smoking with abandon, for a moment I thought I was back in the 80's.

The last night of my stay I told me son to pick what he wanted to eat and we would find somewhere (very near by) to go. He picked Sushi "well taught" right behind the hotel is a center with several restaurants and I clearly remember seeing Sushi advertised, so the deal was on. It turned out the Sushi was from Jimmy's Killer Prawns. There was a separate Sushi bar but it was deserted save for the chef, so we opted to go into the main restaurant. We took a table for two in a quite area, the restaurant was quite busy and we wanted to chat. Waiters rushed past, there was a definite feeling of pending crises. We ordered a Sushi platter to share and sat back to chat. Within minutes our "Sushi" arrived. It must be said that had my son not been there, I would of sent it straight back to the hell that it had come from. There was nothing, and I mean nothing enjoyable able this dish. The rice was stale, there was NO presentation, (just 20 odd pieces of rice clots on a plate) The amount of salmon and avo in the pieces was laughable. 4 Pieces in my son looked up with sad eyes. "I guess this wasn't such a good choice Mom, he managed" Determined to make our last evening in Gauteng together a success, I suggested a great big Steers Burger and Ice Cream, his face brightened - On removing the still full plate our waiter had the cheek to ask us if we enjoyed our meal.  As we left all hell broke lose on one of the large tables, some choice words were flying, referring to K$k food etc. It was defiantly time to leave - Family restaurant - ah don't think so ... It was off to Steers for burgers (luckily in the same center)

The next day it was time to head back to the airport. The Kulua flight was full so I was bumped up to the BA flight, no problem there...  I must say landing at Cape Town airport I breathed a sigh of relief. Guess what hubby and I had that evening, you guessed it real, fresh, beautifully presented Sushi ... Ummm no taste like home!