Opera in the Jungle

One of the more ironic occurrences on our Africa trip was during our visit to Botswana. We went for a journey out into the bush to visit a wildlife reserve. The way it turned out, we didn't have enough time to explore the vast park, but we did have a nice dinner at the restaurant at the entrance headquarters. It was a hot sunny day and the restaurant was in a large thatched roof outdoor building, with a great view.

It was a nice meal, and the food was good, and we could view some wildlife and birds while eating. They were playing some nice African music during the first part of the meal, and it really set the mood. It was late afternoon, and we were looking forward to the sunset.

Eventually the african folk drum music stopped, and all of a sudden, they started playing ... opera! We thought "what the ...?".

I mean, I am a music lover and I like almost every kind of music except - opera. It was the screeching high pitched singing, you know the kind that breaks glass. And they turned up the volume, it was horrible. It was the european kind of opera nonsense that hurts your ears. Talk about ruining the mood. It was totally out of place. I was really tempted to ask them to turn it off, but I thought it might be rude.

So we finished our meal, and left. What a bummer ...