So you have put your backpack down and now it is time to check out the Natural Science Museum at the Durban City Hall.

Try the vegetarian restaurant at the Temple of Understanding. See what’s on at the Bat Centre in Durban central. It’s a focal point for art, craft and alternative happenings.

Visit the Durban Art Gallery which has huge collections of everything. Current and historical art sit beside anonymous carvings, clay pots and beadwork and English masterpieces compete with the works of celebrated South African artists. It has over 3500 works.

Sample a fiery local Durban curry, buy henna for DIY temporary tattoos and visit the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere.

Buy a curio at the Victoria Street Market located in the Durban city central, some spices to make your own curry with and finish off with some magic muti from a kerbside witchdoctor.

Durban is the gateway to the kingdom of Zululand and the majestic Drakensberg Mountains. It lies on the warm Indian Ocean, is the third largest city in the country and has the largest port in Africa.

Durban vibrates with suppressed energy – hothouse plants grow wild by the roadside, the markets and the city centre can become a frenetic jostle of crowds, emotions run high at rush hour, smells and sights assault the senses - all these extremes combine to give the city an exotic edge unlike anywhere else in South Africa. That edge comes from the meeting of a rainbow mix of cultures.

Zulu, English and Indian have each carved out their enclaves, which overlap and rub shoulders in strange juxtapositions of Victorian architecture spiced with Hindu temples and mosques and the high rise hotels on the Golden Mile which are sandwiched by vibrant markets and the townships that push against the borders of the city.