Why visit durban? Why not when it has this to offer!

Durban was a blast. Iain and I spent 10 great days staying in a nice hotel right on one of the most popular beaches in the city. Durban is a great place to live and visit if surfing, shopping and sunshine are your major interests.

There is excellent shopping in posh malls around town (the best of what was called Gateway Mall). Gateway hosted hundreds of brand names at really low prices, great theatres (including all the latest Bollywood hits – Durban has the largest population of Indians outside of India) and even a skate park and one of the world's few man made Wave Riders (surfing indoors). We watched a couple of different movies (There Will Be Blood and Juno) and ate some great tasting food the entire week.

The highlights of Durban for us were the Junior Pro Surfing Competition, which was held for three days on the beach outside our hotel and uShaka Marine Park. Massive crowds came to see the incredible skill of the pro surfers, stunt bikers and sea-doers over the three-day Surfing Competition. There was live entertainment all day (including dancers, hip hop groups, stunt bike demonstrations and Red Bull and Oakley sponsorships). There were mimes and sand castle builders for a kilometre along the beach walkways and an amusement park that kept people excited into the later hours of the evening. We even got to enjoy a Hari Krishna parade on our way back to our hotel one day.

uShaka Marine Park was my personal favourite. This is the home of the world's fifth largest aquarium, which is built around a shipwreck! A river that surrounds the park can be cruised in inner-tubes as onlookers come across shark tanks, beautiful gardens, penguins and dolphin arenas. There were so many fun waterslides in the park and Iain and I spent the day reading in the sun, swimming and checking out all the cool marine life. I even wore a dress that day, which is almost unheard of.

During the time we were there, we had a chance to explore some of the historical side of Durban and found out that some of Iain's family were some of the first settlers to help build Durban in the first place. There was a street named after them and even a small monument dedicated to their name. Unfortunately we didn't find this out until we left town, but were still happy to learn that part of Iain's family contributed to this really cool city.

In our last days, we made an attempt at surfing. It was harder than I thought, but really fun. I got up about three times before I was tired and returned my board rental. Being in the water was SO relaxing and Iain and I swam in the ocean a few times. South and North Beach are my two favourite beaches to walk on so far in the world. They are totally pristine, with no stones, shells, garbage, seaweed or animals in the sand. It was the perfect temperature by the water and the sand was easy to walk on.

If South Africa can keep its economy going (and peace remains) both Durban and Capetown are cities I would visit again.