swaziland: mbabane

It was not easy to get from Pretoria to Mbabane, Swaziland, even though they're close to each other, or relatively so. It was cheap, but not fast.) I will admit that the main reason I visited Swaziland was to get another stamp in my passport. I knew I wouldn't have enough time in the country to really explore, but I wanted the basic stamp.

My day started by taking the Gautrain from Pretoria back into Johannesburg, and then to the airport. I figured out where to check in and all that, then took the short flight to Swaziland. When I booked the flight, it said it landed in Mbabane, but that wasn't true.

The only international airport (and for all I know the only airport,) in Swaziland is fairly new. It is named for the current king, King Mswati III, it's small, and I think the only flights come from Johannesburg. Perhaps there are plans to expand? The airport is sortof in the middle of nowhere.

Getting through passport control and customs took no time at all. I found an ATM in the arrivals hall, and made a withdrawal, which ended up being South African rand, (it wasn't my choice, it was simply what the ATM gave me,) not Swazi Lilangeni which was what I was hoping for. This was the first time I was really aware that you can use Rand or Lilangeni all over Swaziland.

I hopped on a shuttle, and told the driver I needed to go to Mbabane. He asked exactly where, and when I gave the name of my accomodation, he didn't know where it was. Hmmmm...

It turned out that the airport is semi close to Manzini, which is the biggest city in the country, but is not the capital. The shuttle drove through Manzini, and somewhere on the other side of the city the highway goes into a valley. This valley is a cultural center of the country, which also means there are resorts, some of which are very expensive. Some of the shuttle passengers were dropped off at these resorts.

I was the last one to get off the shuttle. I got off the shuttle when they told me the ride was over. It was at a gas station, somewhere in Mbabane. By this point it was dark, and I had no idea where I needed to go or how to get there. I discovered my South African SIM card got no service at all in Swaziland, so I wasn't able to make a call, or find out where to go. It was very disconcerting to find out that I had no idea what to do, and didn't know where to go to find out.

I must've looked as lost as I felt, because a guy in a transport truck asked me if he could help.

I explained my situation, and he said he knew a guy who would know. This random stranger guy ended up being my savior, I was so thankful.

He called his friend, who knew the name of my accommodation, and even more important, where it was located. I didn't know it ahead of time, but the place had moved, and had NOT updated their web page. ARGH. Thank goodness for the stranger. His friend directed him to my accommodation, which lowered my stress level by a lot.

I checked in, figured out that wifi in the hotel (and all over the country apparently,) was terrible. Slow and spotty. Ugh. When I turned on the TV I found programs in English, Afrikaans, and a few others. Due to the stress of finding the place I crashed early.

Breakfast was included in the price of this room as well. (Surprisingly expensive, considering how poor Swaziland is, and how cheap everything else is.) It was another buffet-ish spread, yahoo. I got to order hot breakfast food (bacon, eggs, and tomatoes,) exactly as I wanted them, and have cold breakfast food as well. Juice, tea, yogurt, cereal, etc... It was a bit strange for me when I asked for milk for my cereal, and the waiter asked me if I wanted cold or hot milk. Really? How many people pour hot milk over cornflakes? Strange. (Strange to me at least.) I ended up asking for hot milk for my tea, and cold milk for the cereal.

I stood out on the balcony of my room for a few minutes, enjoying the quiet, and view over the whole city. Absolutely lovely.
Eventually I started walking into the city center. Mbabane is the capital city, but it isn't all that big, and certainly doesn't feel very big. I didn't feel any sense of nationalism, or culture. I think it's a relatively new city, it definitely isn't where the traditions and culture of Swaziland are found.
My travel apps didn't really list much in the way to see, but I figured there would be something, as I've always found something.

It turns out the travel apps were right. Well, sortof. One of them listed a church, but it wasn't marked on the map in the right place, so I didn't find it until my second day of wandering around. There was also a park, though it wasn't listed as a sight on any travel app or in the guidebook.
I took a few photos in the park, which I think is called Coronation Park. I didn't find the church the first day, even though I walked every street in that area. Maybe it was closed, or had moved? It seems internet isn't a big thing in all areas of the country, so who knows.

I found a mall, which wasn't very interesting. At all. I found a place to eat fish and chips.
I walked the length of one street just to keep moving, and have a higher step count for the day. Yes, that's how bored I was in Mbabane.
The highlight of this visit was probably the lady who sold me popcorn every day. She remembered me the second and third days, which was awesome. To point out how cheap things are, the price of the popcorn (fresh popped with oil and salt, yum!!) was 3 lilangi/rand. At the time, that was around 20 cents US.

When I came back the next day she laughed and added extra popcorn to the bag.

I walked through another park, just because it was a green place.

I walked through numerous supermarkets, just because I love them. I figured out which one had the cheapest yogurt, and which one had the cheapest granola bars.

I can't say anything additional happened over the next couple days. I walked a fair amount each day, not seeing anything in particular. I saw a few fast food places, but I didn't really notice much in the way of restaurants. Did I miss something?

I stayed an extra day because I had to. Internet/wifi wasn't working well enough for me to book a flight (and those I found ended up being really expensive,) so I had to wait until the day a bus would take me out of the country. Shuttle buses leaving the country don't run every day.

My shuttle to leave the country ended up being a 7 hour road trip. The driver took us east, across most of the country, which was not the direction I expected. We exited Swaziland through it's southern border, taking me back into South Africa.

As we were going through passport control to exit Swaziland I noticed a box of condoms. Visitors and locals were encouraged to take some. Swaziland has a huge problem with HIV/AIDS, this is one of the ways they are trying to fight the problem. Definitely not something I've seen in Europe.