ah da's adventures: The most popular destination in Africa : Cape Town - Day 1

**added pictures!**

Last weekend, I took a day off on Friday and went to Cape Town for a long-ish weekend (since everyone at home was having their Thanksgiving long weekend, I figure it's only fair that I get one too!)

Because of the last minute nature of the booking of my flight and the fact that I currently have no income and will be in lots of student debts soon, I tried to book the cheapest flights I could find. Unfortunately, because it was so last minute, I still had to pay quite a bit (if you book far out in advance - like book for late November now, you can get away with paying only about 60% of what I ended up paying).

I ended up booking with South African Airways. The only consolation is that it is still a Star Allliance hence I get to collect points. My flight departed at 7:30 in the morning and I had to get to the airport by 6:30am which prompted a 5am wake up. I had arranged for a newly recommended cab driver ( a recommendation by a recommended cab driver) to pick me up at 5:15am. He was surprisingly on time (i would recommend him again!). (I also had plan B, plan C and plan D just in case of a no show). So off we go to Rosebank Gautrain station (pronouned "Hou-train" because it's named after Gauteng which is pronounced "Hou-ting" after one of the native languages). The Gautrain was built to connect Johannesburg to its airport as well as to Pretoria. It's actually a Bombardier project (one of my future classmate at INSEAD who I've met here was sent here to build it).

In order to get to O.R. Tambo from Rosebank, one must take the Rosebank train to Sandton (1 stop away) then switch onto the airport line. The train ride from Sandton to the airport should only take 12 mins. And Rosebank to Sandton should take 4 mins. Hence a total trip of 16 mins ex wait time. (I got this confirmed when I called Gautrain to get information since their timetable link takes you to a youtube video, it's actually quite funny -try it if you're bored: Gautrain website.- then click on "Times and timetable"). The cost of the trip is R115 (~$20 CAD) + a R10 deposit for your card. Like the system in HK, it charges by the distance travelled.

So I was a bit unfortunate and had to wait almost 10 mins for the train to depart from Rosebank (train runs every 15 mins at that point), and then had about a 5 mins wait at Sandton for the airport train to depart. Other than that the ride was quite smooth. You can see the train in the pictures below.

short train long platform! And for the airport coach, you have to stay in the first two train cars because the platform at the airport is short!

Inside the Gautrain

The Gautrain drops you right off at the airport and it's a short walk to the departure area. Since I've already checked in and had no checked baggage. I made a beeline towards the domestic security line. Surprisingly that was the fastest security line I had ever gone through... (drop bag onto conveyor belt, pull out liquid in a ziplock bag, walk through the scanner, pick up bag). I think the entire process took less than 2 minutes.

It was still quite early and I was getting a bit hungry and hence I went to the Wimpy's and ordered a breakfast (which later on I thought was somewhat dumb, since my flight did come with a meal). Nonetheless, it was a good breakfast and it allowed me to sleep most of the way on the plane (I had the whole row to myself).

The total flight time was only around 2 hours, and exiting the airport was also quite fast (no checked bags!). I took the R53 public transit airport shuttle which takes you into the city center at the civic center. The ride was only around 20 minutes. Then I can either take a taxi for R40 to get to the hostel, or a R5 connecting bus (which I went for). I was quite impressed with the Cape Town public transport system (Myciti) The hostel was a very short walk from the Stadium station (it was quite new, built last year for the world cup), and I was brought to the room in the second floor. It's quiet, quite well lit, with a high ceiling and most importantly duvet blankets even in the dorm rooms!! (I loved my stay at Atlantic Point hostel and i will stay there again the next time I go to Capetown).

After I settle down, I wandered out to the main station of the Hop-on Hop off bus at V&A harbourfront. If you're only interested in hitting up all the touristy spots, then it's a really great way to get transportation to those location. With my cablecar tickets in hand for Table Mountain, I figure this was a good way of getting there plus to see the city. I only bought the 1 day pass for the Red bus tour of the city since I had booked a private tour for Cape point on my second day already. If I had known about the deal (one day ticket for R140, two day ticket for R250 + you get a free wine tour, a free canal cruise and a free night tour), I would've totally gone for the 2 days. Then again I really enjoyed my private tour on my second day. So it's a bit of a hard decision.

I'm such a tourist!

16 different language of commentary! I was tuned into English most of the time, but did try mandarin and french sometime

Anyways, using the red city line tour of the Hop-on Hop-off bus, I first took the entire loop around and "browsed" through the 17 stops of the city which includes the water front, the city center near green market square, st george's church, the national gallery, the SA museum,the company garden, table mountain, camp's bay, seapoint just to name a few. The bus is scheduled for a short stop at the lower cable way of the table mountain. Unfortunately due to high winds, the cable car was closed the first time I got there. Hence with disappointment, I boarded the bus again and hoped for better luck the next time around.

Seeing the bus's reflection while touring the city

at the lower cable car station of table mountain (first time)

The cable car was closed due to high wind.. i'm not sure why this person is riding it outside the cablecar?!? for a thrill ride?! also visa advertisement!

boo hoo

The full loop took about 2 hours, and by that time I was starving (it was roughly 1:30pm). I took the stop in the city near Green Market square and ventured off to look for this South African restaurant called Nzolo from my lonely planet guide book. To my disappointment (again) the restaurant no longer exist. Hence, I picked a cute little cafe on the side of the street, sat down and had a burger. To my surprise it was extremely delicious (I suppose you can't go wrong putting bacon with avo with chicken, the restaurants in South Africa has yet to disappoint).

A cute little cafe called mozarts cafe on church street that I wandered into

I tried one of these expensive looking toni glass tea, it's silk bag and everything. I had the pomegrante oolong which turns out to be ti quan yin.. which is a different type of chinese tea i thought

Mozart burger!! Chicken, avo, bacon goodness, yum

After a satisfying lunch on the patio and watching the world go by a bit, I walked over to Green Market square to check out the craft market. There's quite a bit of history at Green Market square. In the past, this location used to be a slave market. However,with the exception of a few store, all the souvenirs on the stand are starting to look the same (as the one in joberg). The stallowners will always say "take your time and look, i give you a very good price", and then they would be okay if you haggle. I guess I am not quite in the mood to haggle knowing that they probably need the money even though they are ripping me off. The feeling is quite different than when I was in China. Hence I didn't end up buying much. I then walked along St George's Mall which was a very beautiful street covered with lots of trees and more craft stands!

After my little exploration of city centre, I then decided to get back on the bus and head over to my next must-see stop, Table mountain. This time, I was super lucky and gave a little cheer when I saw that the cable car was opened again. (yay!) It was perfect, because this time it was near sunset, and the shadows on the mountains just add so much to the already stunning view. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

The afternoon sun just adds so much more to table mountain - this is the ride up, oh the anticipation!

waiting for my cable car ride up! with signal hill in the back! yay!

Looking down at the camps' bay area.. beautiful lighting

I wish I was that guy over there in my picture.. one of the frustrations of a lone traveller

a nice couple helped me take this one, but it's not the same

i climbed out there just to get this picture of the view of the city bowl and table bay, it was worth it!

no clue what that means?

You can see Robben island in the distance, it doesn't even look that far.. I'll write about my experience there in day 3 - stay tuned!

upper cable way

lower cable car station

There were definitely quite a few of those delegates from the outerspace conference touring Cape Town. I mean regular people don't really head up the mountain in a full suit with a briefcase and their DSLR right? These Asian guys were also a bit weird.. one of them kept looking at me and smiling. I know it's quite a rarity to see asians in South Africa.. but there's no need to be that friendly. It was a good thing that i dashed off to the bus stop as he was about to make conversation. However, I ended up making conversation with the bus attendee, who somehow managed to get my contact information. I really need to come up with some fake email addresses and phone numbers and work on being a bit better at saying no.. =/

After I came back down from Table mountain, it was nearing the end of the bus' schedule. I had planned to spend some time at camp's bay, just to walk through the beautiful white sand, admire at the sunset and look around at the houses that I will buy when I become rich one day. However, I didn't want to risk missing the last bus and getting stuck there. So that will have to be next time (besides I didn't have my bathing suit, and also the water was still too cold).

just some more shots from the bus

i really like this picture.. not sure what it is

post card-esque picture!

I went back to the hostel and got a recommendation to a cuban restaurant nearby. It was a cute little joint where I had excellent black tiger prawns (which were sold at a per unit price ~R15 each). I ordered 6 and they were absolutely delicious. Apparently there is salsa dancing for entertainment there too. But I've always struggled with spending a long time at restaurants when you're eating by yourself. I was also very tired from a long day, so I figured I'd head back to the hostel early and call it an early night.

In addition to Caity (from wisconsin) who interns at the hostel, we had an additional french lady join us in the room. She was a very nice lady. (and yes, I had the urge to practice my French with her again ;))