We Think We Own Them

Aaargh! Must rant.
This hol I’ve been pretty good about avoiding the usual sites with the large holiday crowds. It was actually much easier than I anticipated. Your standard vacationing crowd doesn’t evidently do the more exciting and non-commercial activities that are on offer.

Today, unfortunately, I thrust myself into the middle of the mayhem. Sherina and I decided to go to uShaka. Today was her last weekday of holiday so there wasn’t the option of pushing our trip to a point when non-residents had gone back to their respective provinces. In theory it wasn’t an issue; a quick drive, careful avoidance of the main crowds. The actuality, however, was a 20-minute wait for parking, wading through a sea of people in both the mall and the water world, and totally bypassing the entertainment park because of the queues.

Ah well. I shall, one day, return in a non-peak period.

Now for the rant.

We went into the aquarium which, by the by, is designed to look like a wrecked ship. Most of it’s done quite well actually. I did question the upside-down room with the open medikit on the table bolted to the floor which was now the roof…obviously if the ship had turned over, the kit would be lying on the roof which would now be the floor. But, weh, whatever.

The thing that really irritated me was having to be amongst those frikkin touristy humans. I swear if I had a blowdart pipe and a few lightly poisoned darts, I’d have been a very happy man. Not only was I subjected to the obnoxiousity of humans that are convinced they have a right to be on top of the food chain (barring zombies, of course), but virtually everyone had out their little flash cameras, snapping away at the poor fishies, in some cases ignoring the explicit signs on certain displays prohibiting flash photography.

I’m not a fan of zoos but I do understand that often the animals within are safer than those in the wild. Primarily because of our species’ greed and lack of foresight or compassion. Even so, I’d restrict the number of audience. Perhaps I’m a little pedantic but I consider zoos and aquariums to be places of learning and understanding rather than entertainment. I also have a thing about the mass photography. I can’t rightly say why. It just makes the whole experience feel more invasive than it needs to be.

Maybe I’m just irritated by having to spend that amount of time amongst a mass mentality severely inferior to my own.

Bleh. I really should invest in a blowdart kit.