Cape Town - Bo-Kaap and Long Street

When the Dutch was running the country in the 1600s' and 1700s', they brought a lot of slaves from East Africa as well as slaves from India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Malaya (now Malaysia) and Indonesia.  The ones from Malaya and Indonesia were brown-skinned and during the apartheid days, they fell into the "colored" category as a race.  Most of them were Muslims and continue their faith to this day.  Some were political prisoners who were against Dutch rule in their home country.  They settled in an area above the city center called Bo-Kaap.  Here you find they live in brightly colored houses.  There are several mosques in the area, which are also brightly colored.
Because of their faith, you don't find any businesses selling alcohol in the area.  One of the best known restaurants in this area is called Biesmallah.  I went there for dinner one evening hoping for a true Malay dinner.  But I think what they called Cape Malay cuisine is really a mix of Malay and Indian cuisine.  The two are very close but in Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia, Malay food is generally not as strong flavored as Indian food.  Yes, they both use a lot of curry and other spices.  But Malay food usually adds coconut milk to the curry to give it a more aromatic and softer flavor.

Lime Green?

Not a boring neighborhood

More than 1 shade of green

Great color combination

A mosque

Curry Fish dinner at Bismellah

Even some businesses in the area have brightly color buildings

As I mentioned before, Long Street is the center of the tourist area.  It is about 2 blocks away from Bo-Kaap.  Here you find the cheap backpackers' hostels and restaurants.  It is not a very nice area and it's definitely not a representation of what Cape Town is.  St. George's Mall, a nice pedestrian mall that kind of continues from The Company's Garden, is also a popular tourist area with a lot of vendors selling all kinds of stuff:  food, African souvenirs (like in Green Market), coffee shops, books, etc.  You can also sit on one of the benches here and watch people go by.

St. George's Mall

Vendors on St George's Mall

Flower Market, about 3 blocks from Long Street

Hostel on Long Street

African Restaurant on Long Street

Long Street

Table Mountain

Table Mountain is Cape Town's famous landmark.  You can't miss this iconic structure from anywhere in the city.  It rises from the ocean and creates a striking backdrop to the city and goes all the way down to Cape Point.  You must visit Table Mountain when you come to CPT.  You can do it the easy way, like most people do, taking the cable car up to the top.  Or, you can hike up on one of three trails, with different degrees of difficulty.  However, CPT, because of its geography, gets a lot of strong winds and when that happens the cable car does not run.  If you are there for only a few days, then you have to hike.
Some friends (that I met on the Bazbus) and I decided to hike up there.  The cable car wasn't running that day anyway because of strong winds.  We were told it'd be an easy 2-3 hour hike.  Heck no!  It was anything but easy.  To make things worse, not too long after we started, the clouds rolled in.  It started getting cold and when we got to the top, we couldn't see anything.  That defeats the purpose of going to the top - so you can have a beautiful view of the city.  We weren't prepared for the cold so we were glad to be coming down.  A couple of Dutch girls in our group have never hiked a mountain.  They said there are no mountains in Holland.  They had a hard time coming down because they are not used to climbing down rocks.  We were so glad we finally got down to the bottom of the mountain.

Taken from the City Center on a clear sunny day

Visitor Center where you take the cable car up

It was a clear and beautiful day at 9 am

A beautiful view of the city and waterfront

Clouds start rolling in when we started at 9:15 am

Top is still visible while we were climbing

Got to the top but can't see anything.

Cloudy most of the way down

Can't see the city at all until we're almost at the bottom

So glad we finished and get to the bottom!

Geraniums are native to this part of South Africa

A few days later the sky cleared and the winds stopped blowing so hard.  I took the opportunity to go up to Table Mountain again because I heard the views are fantastic on a clear day.  I took a city bus to a street near the mountain and walk about a mile to the Visitor's Center.  It was quite crowded, being a Sunday, but the line for the cable car was not too bad.  I waited perhaps about 15 minutes before I got on the cable car.  Boy, am I glad I did.
The view of the city and the surrounding areas were wonderful.  The South Africa National Parks (SAN Parks) did a great job building the top for visitors.  The cable car ride took only about 5 minutes.  It was designed so that the bottom of the car slowly rotates while it is going up so that everyone has a rotating view around the mountain.  On top, there was a cafe where you can have snacks or lunch and enjoy the views.  They also set up interpretive stations to educate visitors about the geography, wildlife, plants, etc around CPT.  I spent about 90 minutes up there and took a lot of pictures.

Cable car taking passengers down

Someone ready to do abseiling (climbing down). Lion's Head is in background

Nice Cafe and Gift Shop on top

Beautiful view of the city

Someone and her dog at the edge.  Crazy!

Cape Town - Green Market, Company Gardens, St. George's Mall

I've been in Cape Town (CPT) for 5 days now and I still haven't seen all that I want to see in the city center.  Instead of having one big post to talk about all of CPT, I decided to have separate posts to talk about each individual area of interest.  The first I am going to talk about is the Green Market, The Company's Garden, and St. George's Mall.
Most tourists think of Long Street as the middle of the tourist universe in CPT.  This is the street where many popular backpacker hostels are located.  As you can imagine, catering to a low-end clientele attracts low-end businesses.  I guarantee you won't find a Coach store here.  Most of the backpackers pay less than US$20 for a dorm bed.  The businesses here are pretty run-down.
Long Street runs in a north-easterly to south-westerly direction, from the harbor to Table Mountain.  A few blocks from Long Street are some very interesting attractions:  Green Market, St. George's Cathedral (where Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu used to preach), Company's Gardens (a beautiful park), House of Parliament, Museums (Slave Lodge, SA Museum, Jewish Museum, District Six Museum), Flower Market, Castle of Good Hope, etc.

Map of Cape Town

The Green Market used to be a place where farmers came to sell their greens.  Today it's a place where you buy African souvenirs, many of them made in China, I heard.  Some are made in the poorer African countries like Mozambique, Zimbabwe, etc.  Since I do not have any interest in buying any souvenirs, I did not approach any of the sellers.  I did not want to get into any haggling and get trapped into buying something.  The way I travel, it's not practical for me to buy souvenirs.
Regardless, some of the souvenirs are beautiful and I'd love to display some in my living room.  I guess I'll just have to be contented with just pictures instead of the actual souvenirs.

Green Market Square

Lots of souvenir sellers

I was surprised to find a park near Green Market Square called The Company's Garden.  The reason why it's called Company's Garden is because back in the 1600s' The Dutch East India Company grew vegetables here to supply ships that stop in Cape Town.  Today it's a beautiful park that is like a sanctuary for residents and tourists to get away from the traffic and the city.

Entrance to Company Gardens. Parliament House is on the left

A beautiful fountain and many trees here

The statue below is of Cecil Rhodes.  You may not have heard of him but he is one of the most influential persons in the history of South Africa.  He was the founding chairman of De Beers, the diamond company.  The country, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was named after him.  Later on in life, he established the Rhodes Scholarship, which is awarded to bright young students from the former British Commonwealth territories, the US and Germany, to study at Oxford University, his alma mater.

Statue of Cecil Rhodes

A View of Table Mountain from the Garden

One block north-east of Company Gardens is St. George's Mall.  This pedestrian mall starts from St. George's Cathedral and continue to almost the waterfront.  Vendors sell all kinds of stuff here plus there are many coffee shops and restaurants lining the mall.  It's a nice place to walk without worrying about the dangerous traffic.

St. George's Mall

Cape Peninsula

I arrived in Cape Town (CPT) late on Saturday evening and stayed at a hostel called Ashanti Gardens.  It appears to be a very popular place for backpackers.  I was not able to book my own room so I had to stay in a room for 10 people.  It was a little crowded but that's not what bothered me.  The place played some very loud music until about 1 am in the morning.  I did not sleep very well, not just from the music but also concern about my next accommodation.  Since I'm going to be in CPT for almost 2 weeks, I want to find a place with my own room and bathroom (called ensuite) and within the city area.  I looked at Airbnb.com but most of the Bed and Breakfast places are on the fringe or outside the city.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time going to and from the city or rent a car.

I booked a room at a hotel/hostel but they were going to charge me a higher than normal rate.  I wanted to negotiate with the manager to get it down to a reasonable rate.  After a lot of stonewalling by the weekend receptionist, I finally spoke to the manager on Monday morning and got the room rate down to R630 (about US$60) a night, which is still fairly high for this area.
On Monday morning I took a Cape Peninsula Tour with Bazbus.   There were 22 of us in a big van, with 1 driver and 1 guide.  This is a tour that takes you outside of Cape Town south through the Cape Peninsula.  Our first stop is Hout Bay, where we were given the option of taking a boat cruise to Duiker Island where they are a lot of seals.  Great white sharks swim around the area to feed on seals who stray too far away from the island.  Our next stop is the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony in Simons Town.  Here we saw lot of African Penguins on the beach.  Next we got on bicycles and rode in the Cape Point Nature Reserve.  We rode about 6 km to the Information Center where we had lunch.  On the way we were warned about baboons in the area.  These baboons are very aggressive and would not hesitate to snatch things, especially food, away from you if you get too close.  There are stories that some people get out of their cars to without the baboons without closing their windows but the baboons get into their cars and won't leave.  Baboon monitors patrol the area to alert the public of the baboons.
After lunch we drove to Cape Point where we hiked to the top.  This is one of the most southerly points in Africa and it was a great view of the ocean from the lighthouse.  From the area, we also hiked to the Cape of Good Hope.
During my elementary school days, we learned about the adventures of the great Portuguese and Spanish explorers.  I learned about Vasco de Gama rounding the Cape of Good Hope on his way to India and the rest of Asia.  Never did I think that one day I will be standing at the Cape of Good Hope itself.  Many ships have been lost in this area during the 15th to 20th centuries.

Map of Cape Peninsula

A seal having fun in the water

Many many seals on the island

You talking to me?

Lots of African Penguin

Close-up map of the tip of the Cape

You can take the funicular if you don't want to hike to the top

Lighthouse at Cape Point

View of Cape of Good Hope from Cape Point

Long hike to Cape of Good Hope

The most south-westerly point of Africa - Cape of Good Hope