We had a very relaxing week in Cape Town. It was also very nice to speak with friends and family after our six week hiatus of cheap phone cards!
We landed in Cape Town on Saturday evening witnessng a tremendous sunset over Table Mountain from the window of the plane. We were also unsure whether or not our airport pick-up would be waiting for us because our initial flight was cancelled and we were booked onto a later one. But as we walked out customs there was our driver awaiting our arrival and on the drive in he gave us a very informative tour. Both Jill and I were amazed at how sub-human the Townships actually were, very dilapidated sheds with no running water or electricity, not to mention the unsafe and unhealthy living conditions. Very sad.
We arrived at our hostel called the Big Blue Backpackers and we were very impressed. Dave, our soon to be Welsh friend, who was working the front desk was very helpful and led us to our room... we must admit, after living off a truck for five weeks we thought we were in paradise! It turned out that it was also very centrally located. It only took us 10 minutes to walk to the waterfront which was very, very commercialized, but still quite nice. It had a huge mall with two theatres, lots of craft stores and all of this was situated along the harbour where you could catch the ferry over to Robben Island (more info. to come later). All in all, we spent a couple of days just hanging out down at the waterfront and taking full advantage of the two theatres. For movie buffs like Jill and I we were in heaven considering we haven't seen a movie in over two months. As well, one theatre was similar to the Bytowne in Ottawa in the sense that it only showed the international films, not the Hollywood blockbusters, which we enjoyed (though, Jill was nice enough to attend the Lord of the Rings III with me! Great flic by the way if you enjoyed the first two). If any of you are interested, when "In America", "Whale Rider" or "I'll Be There" comes to town, definitely check them out, they were excellent!
We only had five days in Cape Town so we couldn't do everything we wanted but luckily my buddies Trevor and John have both been there so they gave us some hints on what the main attractions were. Jill and I also made a deal with one another that after the five weeks on the truck with very little exercise, that we would try and walk as much as possible for our remaining four months of travel. Well, for those of you that know Cape Town, we definitely did that. One day we walked along the waterfront from Greenpoint, down through Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton Beaches and then finally to Camps Bay. All in all it took us two and a half hours one way but we were able to justify eating a huge meal so that we could walk it off on our way back to the hostel. The walk was truly amazing though with all of the beaches and just open ocean as far as the eye could see with the magnificent shoreline carved out by Mother Nature... really breath taking.
Another day we decided to hike up Table Mountain. What a beautiful spectacle this is erected slap dab in the middle of a 'bursting at the seams' city of Cape Town. To our disappointment we weren't able to climb up to the top because once we hit the mouth of the gorge the one huge lingering cloud that just hung overtop of Table Mountain, it just kept seeping into the valley. For safety reasons we decided to turn back. But, we still decided to take another trail down that went across the face of the mountain down to where the 'lazy' tourist, hee hee, caught the cable car up (which wasn't working on that day because it was too windy). From there, we decided to walk over to Lion's Head and we climbed two thirds of the way up and enjoyed the views of Robben Island and the city below. From there, we had hoped to catch a cab as we walked back into town, but our efforts weren't rewarded... until we came across this little bakery where we decided to have lunch, and the food was unbelievable! There were so many choices on what to eat but once the sandwiches that we chose came, our tongues were dancing! Then, to justify once again, we thought after all of this walking we earned a dessert, or two... ok three (Dad you would have been so proud)! By the time we got back to the backpackers (seven hours later) we were exhausted. But not that tired that we decided to walk to the cheap internet place we found which was another 45 minutes away from our hostel (one way). I guess you could say we slept well that night!
Thursday morning we caught our ferry out to Robben Island. This is famous because this is where all of the political prisoners were sent when Apartheid began in South Africa, not to mention that this is the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. The tour was fascinating and to top it all off, the two tour guides we had were actual inmates at one point so they told us their own personal stories as well. It was quite a powerful and emotional tour but well worth it. We took a bus all around the island first, visiting the original prison, the lime stone quarry where they bashed rocks into littler rocks all day for 30 years, the new prison and the cemetery where the lepers were buried (they were sent to the island as well as mentally challenged people because they were outcasts of society). Then we took a walking tour of the new prison where Nelson Mandela actually helped build during his tenure... I say tenure because listening to the accolades of what went on during the years on Robben Isand, the blacks put education first. Those that were already educated taught those who weren't. One story about Nelson Mandella was actually quite funny. Our guide told us that the book "A Long Walk To Freedom" in which Nelson Mandella wrote while he was in prison, was smuggled out by one of Nelson's friends at the time. Once Nelson was freed from prison and became President in 1994, he appointed this same friend to become the Minister of Transportation, because he was good at transporting information! I kid you not.
That afternoon we finally were able to get in contact with Trevor's gran. Trev, what a woman! Did we ever have a lot of fun with her. She is such a sharp woman at the age of 89, and she tries to keep up with what's all going on in the world. Jill and I were very shocked when she started telling us how she was reading this story about Ipods and how technology has changed! We had so much fun. We talked and laughed and ate and laughed some more and then decided to walk back home. Which was quite interesting because it was yet another part of Cape Town that we didn't get to see earlier in the week. If anyone is ever contemplating whether or not to visit Cape Town, we definitely recommend it. We are very happy that John and Trevor talked us into it.
Now we are in Bangkok, after 12 hours of total flying and four movies! By the way, has anyone ever travelled on Malaysia Airlines? We must admit, it was the best flight we have had so far in all of our travels. The service was efficient, the food was great (we actually got menus and a choice of what to eat) and we had our TV monitors which we could choose to watch movies, play the radio or play computer games! Hence, the four movies I watched. Even Jill was able to stay up for at least three of them.
Bangkok is a very interesting city, at least what we have seen so far. We had no accommodation booked so once we landed we caught the airport bus into the hub of the city called the "Khaosan Road" area and found a cute little guest house, called the Wild Orchid. We just started to roam the city and check out some of the sites near our guest house so I will sign off now and one of us will write about Bangkok once we see more.
Until then...
Bow