A diary of travel buddies
China Diaries is more than just a travel show, it’s also about friendship and that’s why it’s a joy to watch, writes Buhle Mbonambi
TAKE two strangers and have them traipse their way through a foreign country and film it for TV. What do you have?
A potential nightmare. Or, in the case of China Diaries, an interesting TV show about how even strangers can become friends, especially in a foreign environment.
I’m a fan of travel shows. I mostly cannot afford to travel to all the countries I want to and besides living vicariously through social media’s #Passportgang, I watch travel shows.
One I have been watching every Wednesday night at 8.30pm since it started in July is SABC3’S China Diaries. The show sees actress and presenter, Leera Mthethwa, explore China with Durban’s Khabonina Nkwelo (chiropractor, model). It’s not like every other travel show the channel has aired before. It’s young, edgy and shows everything – warts and all. From their uncomfortable fights, dealing with incompetent tour guides and also having to be courteous when the Chinese want to take pictures of them. It baffles them at first, but they soon realise that for many of the Chinese people, it is a culture shock. I can relate. Eleven years ago I went to Hong Kong for a week and the first night I endured so many stares from people. My old friend Keegan and I, ended up going to a karaoke bar with a friend of mine and even the music stopped. The owner of the bar came to greet us warmly, asked where we were from and when he heard South Africa, he asked: “Nelson Mandela? Do you know him?” I was about to say no, when Keegan stopped me and told them I was his grandson. The drinks flowed from that moment and everything we wanted, we got from them, for free. I don’t know how many pictures I took with random strangers. It felt weird at first, but I soon got over it.
So seeing it play out on TV made me laugh. The girls go from being bewildered to offering people to take pictures of them.
What makes the show work so well is their camaraderie. As much as they only met just before departing for China, we get to see a lifelong friendship being formed. We get to see them telling each other on what they love and hate about each other, what’s good or bad about what the other said and how they still end up making up even after a major fight. I sometimes feel sorry for their tour guides, but it makes for great TV. It shows how frustrating travelling can get, too, now imagine travelling with someone you don’t really know?
It’s well produced. Their choice of places to go to makes the show one of the most memorable lifestyle TV shows SABC 3 has commissioned. Forget the big cities. These girls go to places like Dalian, a place I, as obsessed as I am with China, didn’t even know existed. It turns out it was colonised by Russia and this is evident in
the city’s Russian-style architecture. It’s very modern, too, and while it does have tourists, it’s not like in the popular cities and regions. And that’s the point of a travel show, to show us a new perspective about a particular area and China Diaries does exactly that. That the show chooses to show you the way that locals live and mostly does away with most of the usual touristy stuff, is a breath of fresh air.
I like that they decided to have confessionals, which is not usual on a travel show. Sometimes you really do want to know what they were thinking when something odd was happening to them.
While the show is entertaining TV, I do sometimes wish they would dial down on giving the tour guides a rough time. It’s really awkward as not everyone in China has a good command of English.
And the wardrobe? I know you want to look great, but it’s not cute when you’re walking around hundreds of people and we can see how uncomfortable the heels they sometimes wear, feel. If SABC3 wants to give this show a second season, I’d love to see them tour another country, like Singapore or Vietnam.
The culture shock would be great and since they know each other better, I wonder how they would handle any issues they face.
I missed SABC3’S Top Travel with Janez Vermeiren and Jeannie D, but China Diaries has filled the void.