Durban boys go visiting

Meeting up with friends is great, especially Nelius and Enzo - guests of ours from Cape Town who love visiting Durban, and we love visiting Cape Town. So here we are on a glorius summer's day in Cape Town last weekend where we went for a quick visit.

In the photos from top are Dave (we stopped at Hout Bay for some lunch after landing at CT airport on Friday). Llewellyn is in the next photo on the beach at Sandy Bay - not too far from Hout Bay. Then we met up with our Cape Town "circle of friends" - clockwise Enzo, Nelius, Llewellyn and Dave.

In the bottom photos, LLewellyn sips a Long Island Iced Tea cocktail on the verandah of Soho Restaurant in the Waterkant Gay Village in Cape Town. Showing some beef is Llewellyn sporting one of his new pairs of underwear from the FMO (For Men Only) shop in Sea Point - one of our favourite underwear shops (and you should see our new neoprene jocks!)

Gay Friendly Cruise from Durban

Suzie and Colette of Bent Girls fame are organising a gay friendly cruise this summer coming. You can leave Durban for Maputo and Portuguese Island this November on board the awesome MSC Sinfonia which is makign a debut in South African waters. By all accounts the ship is a step-up from the cruising ships we have had here before and the few days onboard with a host of gay guys and girls should be great fun.

Of course before and after the cruise you could extend your stay at Durban's only exclusively gay guesthouse right here on the Berea overlooking the city and Indian Ocean.

Elections and Erections

ELECTIONS & ERECTIONS is a personal journey through the minefield of fear and fun on the eve of South Africa’s most crucial general election. Pieter Dirk Uys celebrates the two issues that were illegal for most of his life in South Africa: democracy and sex.

Shows at Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre from
Tue 17 Feb to Sat 28 Feb
Shows take place from Tuesday to Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm with extra 5pm shows on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets, available from Computicket, are R80 for the preview on February 17 and otherwise range from R90 to R120.

Shows at the Nelson Mandela Theatre stage of The Joburg Civic Theatre from March 3rd until March 15th 2009. All tickets are R150

Durban Events

Snap Wine Bar - Thurs 26 and Fri 27 Feb

Our local lesbians at the superb Wine Bar just down the road from our Guesthouse - their dinners are excellent too - have more entertainment in store this week. It's Josie Field who will be entertaining, for another 2 mesmerising evenings.

Beanbag Bohemia and BeanBag Bahia Beach Club - Tuesdays are their Gourmet Burgers at half-price evenings.

The Lounge Gay Bar and Club line-up for the week is:

Tuesdays - men-only nights

Wednesday - TipSy night: one price entry and drinks are free

Thursday - CrazyOKE with Darren (R20 entry and half-price drinks)

Friday - Bent ladies party

Saturday - uniform party

Don't forget also to look at the side-blog (right) for links to other Durban events and fun things to do.

See you there!!

Breakfast in the house

Enjoying breakfast in the Guesthouse is Schalk from Johannesburg down in Durban for one of his regular staff training trips for companies in Durban.

Valentine's Weekend at the Guesthouse

Enjoying Valentine's weekend away from the cold of Canada are Steve and Robert (guesthouse owner from Quebec), joined by Cape Town guys Enzo and Nelius, returning to the Guesthouse as their home-from-home in Durban.

Nelius, guesthouse co-owner Llewellyn and Enzo enjoy drinks in the guesthouse pub.

Nelius puffs a cigar in an evening out at Harvey's trendy restaurant in Florida Road.

A romantic Valentine's Day at the Guesthouse.

Guests Anthony and Dirk with guesthouse co-owner Llewellyn around the pool at the guesthouse enjoy the lazy summer sun on Valentine's Day.

Busy January

January has been a busy season for us, particularly with international guests escaping the freezing cold of Europe to join us in sunny South Africa. In the photos from top are Oskar and Roland, friends from Berlin, and in the bottom photo Alfons and Oliver, also from Germany, but living in Madagascar on contract at the moment.

Welcome Netherlands boys

From Amsterdam for a wedding are Rick (second from left) and AJ (right) having a welcome drink at the Guesthouse Pub with Llewellyn (left) and their Durban friend Catherine. Sorry your stay in Durban was so short guys.

Now for 2009

Here's our chance to thank everyone who has come to stay and made new friends during 2008. It has been a wonderful year and we have met so many amazing people from all over South Africa and the world.

There are so many places we would like to visit too - thank you for sharing some of the best kept secrets about the hot spots around the globe. So much to do and see, so little time!

Let's hope you have an awesome New Year and 2009 and hopefully we will catch up with you again soon.

Dave and Llewellyn

Relaxing in the Jacuzzi

Relaxing in the roof-top jacuzzi at the Guesthouse in the run-up to New Year are Martin and Marius (South Africans living in Uganda), Dirk from Johannesburg and guesthouse co-owner Llewellyn.

Gay Christmas in the Hay

Christmas is upon us and this is our opportunity of wishing all of our visitors to Durban and the Guesthouse a Merry Christmas, a "hot" festive season and much fun in the hay!

Guests go on Safari

Isn't this a stunning picture taken by our guests Pierre and Florian who visited the guesthouse this week and then went up to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve 2 hours away from Durban up our North Coast. They saw a huge range of animals including lions and these and many more giraffe, rhino and elephants. This was their first visit to South Africa and leave today for Cape Town, the garden route and then Johannesburg before heading back to Paris.

Paris in Durban

Visiting Durban and South Africa for the first time are guests from Paris with Guesthouse co-owner Llewellyn (left), Pierre (2nd left) and far right Florian with another Johannesburg guest and friend Eddy (second from right). Pierre and Florian will be travelling to the Game Parks, Hluhluwe and Mkuze not far to the North of Durban, and will then be flying to Cape Town and spending some time on the Garden Route to Knysna before heading back to Paris where they work as Space Engineers in the French Space Programme.

Annual Santa run

Our good friend and guest Richard has some wonderful photos of his travels around the world. Capturing the action in his home town, Boston, here are some of the pics of the annual Santa run part of his slide-show collection.

December boys

In Durban for the weekend are Gerhard (left) and Juanne-Pierre (right) seen with Guesthouse co-owner Llewellyn. The weather has been playing up, but the sun is shining again and the pool and sea are glorious.

BeanBag's 14th Birthday

It's BeanBagBohemia's 14th Birthday bash and you aarrrr all invited. Join us for the 80's Pirate party - Get those neon s out and combine them with a dessert Island Pirate look and get onto the dancefloor - RSVP to admin@beanbagbohemia.co.za to join us for the biggest Neon on the High Seas.....AHOY there 80's.

BeanBag is Durban's highly acclaimed gay-friendly/owned restaurant and stree cafe and is just down the road from the Guesthouse.

FREE vouchers for Guests

Thanks to restauranteur Theuns Smuts from Moyo restaurant and beach pub in Durban, and our gay club The Lounge, we are now able to offer Guests incredible free vouchers. A R50 gift card from Moyo entitles you to this value off you meal there at the stunning seaside restaurant at uShaka Marine World and Pier. Moyo has a sophisticated African theme with fabulous meals and cocktails... a must-see experience in Durban inside the uShaka complex, another must-see attraction in Durban.

And thanks to The Lounge we can now also offer our guests free entry tickets to The Lounge - both awesome offers making a Durban visit a celebration of everything gay and working together to make you stay-gay experience memorable.

Elvis in Durban

Here's Elvis in person in Durban... guest Rick is set for an evening out!!

It's party time... 330 style

It's 330 party time again here in Durban at our gay Club, The Lounge .

330 is a famous Club that closed a few years back and has reunion parties at venues in Durban. It is most successful when teamed up with Durban's only gay bar and brings the venue to live for a massive jol.

So join us at the Guesthouse for the party weekend.

Melbourne welcome

Welcoming an "old" exchange student friend from 20+ years ago - Melanie from Melbourne has been staying at the Guesthouse for a few days with Llewellyn, harking back to the days in Johannesburg so long ago...lol. A lot has changed in South Africa in the intervening years and Melanie has been fact-finding as she explores the city of Durban, mainly on foot. Melanie found Llewellyn on Facebook and decided to do some catching up..