The most popular destination in Africa : Cape Town - Day 3 - Robben island

My last day at Cape Town was a bit more relaxed than the previous two.  I've booked my ticket in advance for a tour to go visit Robben Island.  The island that used to be a prison where a lot of the political prisoners were held including Nelson Mandela.  Once it was no longer in use, it became a museum.  You are recommended to book way ahead of time because the tickets do get sold out.   As well, when you book online, you can pick different boats, there's one called Susan kruger and one called Sikhululekile.  I did some research online to find out that Sikhululekile is the newer and faster boat, so I booked for the 11am boat as supposed to one at 9am.

Having woken up at around 8:30am, i decided to have a quick breakfast at the hostel, and go for a walk around V&A harbourfront before boarding the boat at Nelson Mandela's Gateway to Robben island(which is in the same area).

Lucky for me, the hostel is a short 10 mins walk to the harbourfront.

And I found these statues in front of the table mountain backdrop

with what looks like a giant lego man

but is actually a coka cola crate man

This red statue is made out of coka cola crates and it's part of a recycling project, quite cool eh ;)

Inside the V&A shopping area - beautiful artwork

I can't wait to see these in real life!

This reminded me of when I tried it in China, quite fun but hard!

After a bit of exploration and shopping,  I was ready to board the boat.  You were recommended to get there at least 10 minutes before your boat departs because the gate closes at that point.  However, the queues were very long and they are not very good at keeping their schedule.

The newer boat that I was supposed to get on

the oldest boat that i ended up getting on to, it's not even the susan kruger.. =(

And for that they are also not very good at keeping the boat that you're scheduled for.  I ended up on this really old boat.. and let's just say it was a long, rocky and unpleasant boat ride =( I really need to remember to bring some chewable candies when I get on boats...

at least the scenery was nice for a bit, looking back at table mountain

Could it be!?! a ghost ship!

After an hour of rocky boat ride staring into the endless ocean, we finally arrived on Robben Island (and I can stop feeling seasick).  We were then to board a bus which drives you around for a tour of the island with commentary.

Entrance to Robben island

The lime quarry where the prisoners were to do work in silence.  The bright rocks reflecting the sun have damaged eyes of the prisoners including nelson Mandela who cannot cry anymore coz his tear glands have been damaged.

There are now people living on robben island, former prisoners, former guards, and there is a post office, a school, like a small village

This was where we stopped for a tuck shop to get some snacks

Then the bus portion of the tour ended and we were dropped off at the maximum security prison area for the walking part of the tour.

Prisoners lived in very harsh conditions and are only allowed a handful of letters with a very strict word limit in a year.  These letters have to be censored by the guards who are fluent in all the languages in south africa.  They will cut out parts of the letters to prevent certain messages from being sent out and delivered.  Our former prisoner tour guide said their job is to make sure the prisoners are deprived of anything that's happy

a nice garden

the communal cell

our tour group which was huge!

our tour guide

Nelson Mandela's single cell where he spent ~4 years of his prison time in here (I might have quoted it wrong)

And the tour was then over!

On the way back, I ended up falling asleep on the boat because it was too cold to be outside, and it was too rocky.  By the time I returned ashore, it was almost 3pm.  Since I haven't had lunch yet, I was quite hungry an decided to have lunch at the harbourfront.   Since Cape Town is famous for its seafood, I figure it was time to have some sushi and satisfy my sushi craving!

Replay of the rugby game where south Africa lost and was knocked out

I found sushi at a restaurant called Cape Town Fish market which i later realize was a chain =\

but it had a sushi conveyor belt and it was pretty legit looking and tasting.

It was at the restaurant where I met the sushi chef whose name was speedo.  He's chinese and he came to work in cape Town in the restaurant industry for about 10 years.  He plans to move to the States but he's still working on his visa.

After a delicious meal, I went back to the hostel, packed up my stuff and took public transit to the airport!
Still quite impressed with the transit system in Cape Town.

The slums on the way to the airport, quite saddening to see...

Lots of restriction on the public transport though

Goodbye Cape Town!! I will definitely visit you again in the future!   Not sure if it'll be within the next couple of months since I feel like I've seen most of what I needed to see.  Although that being said, I do not mind seeing the beautiful mountain and sea once again! See you soon!

My postcard to send home, still unclear whether or not its made it