South Africa’s Mother City – Cape Town

We flew to Johannesburg (Jo’burg) from Dar Es Salaam and arrived at 11am.  Then we waited for about 10 hours at the Jo’burg airport before flying to Cape Town.  Why would we do that?  Because we wanted to save $200.  It seemed to make sense at the time to book the cheaper but later flight, but because Eug was feeling under the weather when we flew out of Dar, the 10 hour wait turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated.  We tried for 2 standbys to get on the earlier flights, but both flights were full.  Eug sucked it up and we finally made to Cape Town at 11pm.  We were lucky to get a very good deal on this brand new serviced apartment hotel in the city, so we happily crashed in this comfortable modern one bedroom pad as soon as we checked in.  Eug recovered quickly after just one day and did I mention there was a washing machine?!  We found heaven again.  Although this time heaven ruined our white t-shirts because we used super hot water to make sure we don’t have any more bed bugs Eug inherited from one of the hostels we stayed at earlier.  Argh.

Early next morning we got a call from Ken (our USAID friend in Tanzania)’s friend Raymond who invited us over for dinner that night.  We were very pleasantly surprised as it was only our first day in a new country and we already had an invite!  Raymond is a Mauritius born Chinese and he moved to Cape Town about 15 years ago.  He has a beautiful family, amazing kids.  They were all great hosts, and Raymond’s a fantastic cook.  We ended up going to his house twice for dinner, the first time he made abalone with chicken and Chinese mushrooms (soooo good!), and the second time he had a Braai (South African barbeque).  There was T-Bone steak, warthog sausages, pork chops, and delicious fish that melts in your mouth.  They even had karaoke!  Eug and I couldn’t be thankful enough for Raymond and his family’s generosity and hospitality.  We had a really great time hanging out with them.

We spent the first two days walking around the city.  Even though it’s winter here, the weather was just perfect.  It’s like those sunny autumn days in Vancouver, the air crisp and the sun warm.  We paid a very interesting visit to the District Six Museum.  The host Noor who gave us a tour in the museum was born and raised in District Six himself before it was declared as a “white” area under the Group Areas Act in 1966.  Noor personally experienced apartheid and told us the compelling story of his life.  It was a tragic story but he was optimistic and uplifting.  He showed us where he used to live on the map inside the museum and he showed us pictures of his house before it was bulldozed over.  We also walked around Bo-Kaap, the Muslim quarter where there were brightly painted houses; Long street where we were told that during the World Cup, it was the most happening street with tons of people in the bars and restaurants; and the newly developed V&A Waterfront, where we watched the third Twilight (woo!) and Eug admitted it was the best of the three so far.  That was pretty awesome. 

There’s a mountain in the city called Table Mountain in the Table Mountain National Park.  It’s called Table Mountain because the top of the mountain is flat.  And the flat part is often covered by a dense white low cloud that locals call “the table cloth”.  We could see this from the balcony of our 7^th floor apartment behind the neighbouring buildings.  We walked about an hour to Table Mountain from our apartment and we took a cable car up to the peak.  There are also various routes you can take to hike up the mountain, but since we already hiked Kilimanjaro, we thought we would take it slow here.  At 1088m at the peak, it’s the ultimate viewpoint over the city and it’s absolutely breathtaking. 

We rented a Kia Picanto for the rest of our stay in Cape Town.  It was not a very powerful car but it did its job of taking us around.  It was Eug’s first time driving on the other side of the road, and also his first time shifting gears with his left hand.  He did become really good at it after the first day, but it was funny to see the windshield wiper going up whenever he wanted to signal a turn, and almost immediately I’d hear a “sh*t”.  We drove around the coast down to Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony.  The penguins were really cute.  They wobble around feebly like they are about to pk any minute.  We drove south to Cape of Good Hope which is supposedly the most southern point of Africa but really it’s the most southwesterly point.  We drove back up along the Atlantic coast and we couldn’t stop being wowed every five minutes by how beautiful the view was, especially on Chapman’s Peak Drive.  We both agreed it’s probably the most beautiful road we’ve ever been on.  We had to pull over a few times to fully absorb the scenery and take pictures.  We also checked out Camps Bay, a wealthy residential area with an amazing sea view.  There are a few nice restaurants there too.  One of our guest house hosts recommended us to go to a steak house in the area, and it’s here that I had the best steak ever.  And Eug had the biggest portion of ribs ever.  We were both laughing when the ribs came, even the table next to us was laughing at the gi-normous sized dish.  Though the next day we were both feeling the effect of meat overload.

Cape Town is an amazing city with a lot to offer.  It’s got the mountain, the water, good food, really good wine, excellent choices of accommodation, and amazing nature and landscape.  You can surf, hike, and see penguins all in one day.  We are really enjoying this place so far.