Cheap Flight! Irresistible Deal! R800 Round-trip!

... and the deal expired in a few hours so. Laura, Spirit and I booked our flights. In the end, Spirit couldn't come along because the dates interfered with her Mom's visit from the States, so her crazy Afrikaans surfer roommate, Francois, came along instead. Eventually Francois came to be known to Laura and I as simply "Bro" (pronounced "Brew") because this word was the final one in most of his sentences. Emma the Famed Roach Killer bought a ticket the day prior and joined as well.

The first thing one does in Durban, South Africa, is hunt down some authentic curry (the Best in Africa, we are told). We were referred to an outfit aptly named "My Diner" on the coast, just blocks from our hotel. On one side, it was a hot dog and waffle stand (waffles being everywhere in Durban for some wonderful reason) and on the other, it was a sit-down restaurant decorated with beautifully carved Indian wooden ornaments combined with paper doilies, pink heart napkins, dusty silk flowers, neon lights and silver glitter on every table. We were the only chaps in the joint.

On the waiter's suggestion, I ordered Chicken Jal Frezi, while Laura and Brew ordered different versions of lamb curry. Emma inexplicably ordered fish and chips. Once delivered, Brew raved about his curry and we all agreed it was the best on the table. Then we realized that the waiter had confused my curry with Brew's (including spicing mine to Brew's tastes), so he and I swapped our curries half and half as a compromise (because Brew didn't want to fully part with mine) and vowed from here on out to always order on the waiter's suggestion. Laura's curry wasn't spicy enough for her taste, so she was a bit disappointed.

Then halfway through the meal Emma commented on how tan Laura looked. It turned out she was breaking out in hives. Then Brew found maggots in the extremely expensive side of rice we were sharing.

The waiter took the maggots away and eventually presented us with our bill. We thought we should not have to pay for the maggoty rice. The waiter said we did. Brew asked if we could speak to the manager. He sent over another waiter, said the manager was busy eating on the Hot Dog Side of My Diner.

I have no idea why we didn't just drop it by then, but Brew went to talk to the manager, who was indeed eating on the Hot Dog Side. The manager immediately began screaming at our waiter, whose fault the whole thing wasn't at all, and this made us all really, really regret saying anything. We still had to pay the full bill, too.

So Brew made the manager promise to not fire our waiter and handed over the cash while I held ice cubes to Laura's flaming face.

Then I bought some unlabeled Indian sweets from the Hotdog Side to make everyone feel better, assuming it was going to be delicious sweet nan, but it was actually sticky black anise candy wrapped in a leaf wrapped in foil. Laura and I boldly took huge bites of the thing (leaf and all) and immediately started spitting it out all over the parking lot. The parking attendant came over and rolled his eyes, said we weren't supposed to eat the leaf part.

The laughter ensued for 30 breathless minutes until Laura's face returned to normal and we finally drove home.