Memoirs Aboard The Pekin Express

When filming is over and the last clip has been cut and the programme is on air the man on the street devours the programme without knowing the nitty gritty of what goes on behind the scenes in making sure that the programme works and becomes a success. I am going to take you through my experiences during the Spanish version of the Pekin Express.

It is always a privilege to work in a big production and when news trickled through that  the Pekin Express would be in our country once again every Video Technology student was excited and wanted to sign up for the work experience.

The over zealous team that joined Kanakna Productions consisted of a combination of first, second, third and fourth year students. This not only was a working experience, but it was an opportunity for students at different levels to unite and take a mutual journey towards the realisation of the success of the work at hand.

We journeyed to Johannesburg, the City of Gold on Easter weekend joining hordes of people that were either on their way to relatives in different parts of the country or just taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the city life.

With a blink of an eye it was daylight and we were in Johannesburg meeting the Belgian and the Spanish team, they were to be our family for the eight days to follow.

The Peking Express is a European reality TV programme production where 2 man teams race each other and must survive on $1.00 per day. Games and challenges can earn them extra cash, but they must survive on being able to solicit help from local people for accommodation and food. It’s the interaction with the locals and the team members – who speak Spanish that will drive a lot of the viewer’s interest.

 In the production I worked as an LPA for locations where I worked with Thomas ‘the Belgian Cowboy’. He is the location manager for the Production. I was had to travel with him to all the check in and checkout locations.

Soccer City Stadium by Vuyo Lima

Kick off was at the Soccer City, the former FNB stadium. Walking through the stadium there was memorable and every now and again I felt I saw glimpses of the opening of the Fifa World Cup that occurred in June last year. Taking pictures at the stadium felt strange and intrusive in the silent, but listening ghosts of yesteryear.

Bara Taxi by Vuyo Lima

Driving into the Bara Taxi rank that reminded me of our Durban’s Claremont Rank, very busy with many people and vendors. Everyone trying to sell you something. Here I had my first Johannesburg pineapple flavoured Yhogetta courtesy of Thomas.

Driving through Soweto brought about feelings of nostalgia as I haven’t been home in a while and seeing normal unfabricated part of the city made me have a happy feeling inside.

Winnie Mandela’s restaurant was not at all what I imagined it would be, but the welcoming smile from Baba Vuyisile who manages the restaurant compensated for any tumultuous thoughts I may have had with the appearance of the place. I felt rather disheartened by what I call tourist lane where Nelson Mandela’s former house has become something to be viewed rather than be respected, but that is only my opinion. For me it seemed rather fabricated as you find people who will never venture out to Soweto there to drink in tourist lane as though it were something to be devoured.

But the most important task of the day was to find cutlery, crockery and a couple of pots. Off to Maponya mall we went – this was the beginning of the adventure. When the big Maponya Mall, heavily armed with shoppers and hanger-onners couldn’t provide us with what we needed we had to look for other alternatives.

Now this was my first time I had been to Soweto let alone take a taxi. I was a bit nervous, but I trusted that my communication skill would get myself, Liesbeth and Thomas to where we needed to go. We all agreed that we would be able to find something at the China City – usually everything in China shops is available and at cheap prices, but this was not the average China City, we couldn’t find what we were looking for and what we did find was insufficient for use. Hungry and tired we popped into a Chinese shop for some Chinese food and a bit of South African and Belgium politics, very interesting stuff came through from that conversation.

Our trip back to the hotel was rather interesting as our cab driver was a rather spontaneous optimist. He taught us three a song, this is how it goes – I love eating Bananas, Bananas, Bananas, Bananas – but you have to sing it with energy and whole lot of optimism. It would have been fantastic if we could have joined in with the soprano, bass and all the other musical tones, but one day that may be realised. To cut a long story short Joanelle another Central Production LPA ended up having to organise cutlery and crockery from a catering company.