Dusty Miller
23 August 2008
opinion
DON'T believe Gaborone is a tourist centre -- it's more for serious business -- though travellers are evident: en route to Botswana's breathtaking game reserves and natural beauty of Kasane, Chobe and Okavango Delta.
The only obvious pale-skinned, peeling nose, sun-bleached-hair travellers seen were young intense Germans, relaxing in a Game City shopping mall caféwith the magical name Mugg & Bean where we enjoyed the best cappuccino in ages, along with a great biscotti for (in real terms) about half Harare's cost.
Gaborone is hard to find your way around: almost no signposts, few streetsigns; I saw no maps sold.
It hardly existed before Botswana's 1966 independence. Most major cities, certainly capitals, developed over centuries from a few homes usually around a water source, ford, bridge or ferry over water. Inns, eateries, smithies, stables, mills followed; then post offices, police stations, shops, garages, hospitals, town halls, museums, art galleries, churches, graveyards, parks, sportsgrounds, etc. Towns and cities were spawned, rather than rigidly planned.
Like post-WWII UK New Towns and Garden Cities, there seems no real "heart" to Gaborone: just a series of overlapping residential, commercial and industrial suburbs oasis-like in near desert.
They're nicely laid out, but with little or no sense of history or tradition. I could wander for hours, days even, staring at Glasgow, Genoa, Geneva, Galveston, Gdansk, Gretna Green, Giggleswick or even Gweru, but doubt the "grand tour" of Gaborone would take long!
That doesn't mean there's nothing to see: buildings (no contractors' boards) shoot up everywhere; some obviously hotels, with maybe an eye on 2010 and Gabs' proximity to World Cup venue Rustenburg, indeed much of RSA.
Asking directions, I heard many references to "the Sadc Building", "the University" and "The Glass Building" but battled to find which was which.
I was shown the statue of the Three Chiefs. They asked Queen Victoria for Bechuanaland to become a British Protectorate as Boers from the south, Germans in the West and Rhodes set covetous eyes on this then barren bit of real estate, long before the untold wealth of its minerals was discovered, tourism developed and when agriculture called for far more rain and water reserves than it enjoys.
The sculptures rang a bell. It soon transpired (from a friendly girl civil servant delighted to let us in, pleased to answer queries) it was the same North Korean "artists" responsible for Harare's Heroes' Acre monstrosity, depicting unlikely looking "freedom fighters" in Stalinist-heroic poses.
I stayed at the bijou boutique family-owned Falcon Crest. My suit -- the Serowe -- was spacious, beautifully proportioned and decorated; furnishings (as in all public rooms and suites) an eclectic collection of good antiques.
English Victorian pieces abut classical French and much sought Cape furniture and artefacts. Paintings represent almost every school!
The bed was huge, soft and comfortable with enough blankets for chilly nights at the fag end of winter; there was air-con, heating and a retro fanlight. Ceramic tiles feature widely; bathroom with walk-in needle shower and jacuzzi with soothing whirlpool spa-like waters. The usual satellite TV had several channels.
Having driven seven hours+ (on a beautiful highway, leaving Bulawayo at noon) then hunting for the hotel, I was too tired to explore. Supper called clearly. It was chilly to eat on what would have been a delightful airy verandah weeks later; a roaring fire made the restaurant stuffy!
The room was romantically lit, but too dimly for me. I had to go to my suite, find specs then stand under a wall light to scan menus.
One hardy soul ate on the stoep and a lovey-dovey pair, plainly married (probably not to each other!) cooed behind a Chinese watered-silk screen in the restaurant.
Table tops are heavy decorative glass "rounds" atop Italianate garden statuary, such as birdbaths: surprisingly effective indoors and lacking naffness. A small tinkling garden-style fountain occupies a corner of the restaurant opposite a well-stocked bar.
Cutlery, crockery and crystal sparkled; linen was crisp; service attentive, but not in your face.
Creamy vegetable soup was exemplary, with great rolls and butter at P25 (US$4). I craved good chips but they didn't come with lamb chops (which, in any case, were "off). A Zimbabwean waitress recommended chicken breasts but added "There aren't chips on THAT menu, just rice, baked or mash."
I accurately guessed that meant there was another 'carte'. First item was fish and chips, which most Zimbabweans needn't be offered twice!
Pan-fried hake fillets, topped with (an unannounced) creamy garlic sauce, with great crisp, golden chips, crunchy outside, floury in, a fine side-salad of mixed leaves, red, green and yellow peppers and plump tomatoes cost P60.
I ended with a sharp clean-tasting fresh fruit salad and peach ice-cream.
After a long log-like kip, I was famished. The P702-a-night suite includes continental breakfast, which I relished the second day, but on the first BACON (they have it in Bots!) was lusted after: two thick, lean, slightly smoky rashers, looking half the size of a pig's bum after ages without the yummy breakfast staple!; giant golden-yolk eggs, sautéed mushrooms-and-onions, fried tomatoes, beans, toast, butter, marmalade and lashings of coffee came after international brand cereals, yoghurt and fruit, well warranting a P65 surcharge. Ambrosia and manna after many weeks on the involuntary Giddy Gono/Zanu PF diet! [" Eat as often as you like, but at least three times a day: a) little, b) very little or c) NOTHING. The kilos will just roll off!"]
Supremely elegant Falcon Crest Suites is set in clipped grounds near Gaborone Sun Hotel with its cabaret and casino, also shopping malls and golf club. There are eight suites, intimate pool and conference/banqueting facilities for six-30
Middle-management is Zimbo, or Zimbabwean-trained, under Serbian bosslady Irena Andrijevic.
Falcon Crest Suites, Nyerere Drive, (Plot 2571, Extension 9) Gaborone, Botswana. Tel 3935373; fax 3935374; cell 71499484. e-mail www.falconcrest.co.bw
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