TravelStream™ news feed for member mchao on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mchao en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:57:03 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260523372/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260523372/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260523372/tpod.html Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:57:03 -0500 Collaboration and Holiday: Summer in South Africa

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Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Leaving South Africa is part relief and part sadness.  On one hand the weight of feeling like I should be fearing for my life/money/camera is lifting, but at the same time, everyone I've met has been really friendly and leaving them behind to enjoy the rest of summer while I head back to work and winter is rather depressing.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it here--South Africa reminds me a lot of the US, but at the extremes.  There is a heavy reliance on cars with all the concomitant freeways, traffic jams and construction issues.  Cars are a status symbol here, even more so than back home.  I've seen more BMWs, Mercedes and even a lamborghini and ferrari on the roads here than I've ever seen back home.  From what I hear, it's common to sink more than you should into a luxury car for the sake of having bragging rights.  Of course, the irony, is that all the flash comes with an exponential increase in fearing carjackings and theft, so they come with anti hijacker systems (a second key you have to put in to allow the car to operate) and even higher fences in people's homes.

The newspaper was reporting that murders in South Africa were decreasing, but petty crime and burglary remained ridiculously high, and public opinion is extremely pessimistic about the safety of the streets.  Probably part exaggeration, but everyone I've met has this sense of suspicion ingrained, though they manage to go through the day just fine.  Although you'll soon realize the 'best' places (restaurants, shops, etc) are located in these massive malls that go on for miles and represent safety with their gates and security guards.  Myself, maybe I let the paranoia get to me more than I should have, so there were a few things I wished I had just got up the courage to do, like wander about the streets some more.

But the country is really making strides to improve.  There's this optimism/pessimism about the upgrades being done for the World Cup in 2010.  By far there is more construction and security and propaganda than I ever expected and at a superficial glance, it could really revolutionize the infrastructure of the country beyond 2010.  But of course, there's common belief in South Africa that the work is always behind and nothing finishes on schedule.  While the World Cup arenas are pretty close to completion, many of the public works will be finished after the event.  Here's hoping they do actually finish, even if not in time for the starting game.

So I feel cautiously hopeful about the next step for South Africa, at least in terms of propping up the domestic infrastructure.  There are still political issues to cross, not the least the ever-widening gap between rich and poor.  The same happens in America, though I can say the poorest of the poor generally can get some type of shelter with running water and electricity.  Not so much in South Africa, but the accelerating rise of the middle and upper classes (and the accompanying price of food and services) means it'll be all the more difficult for the unemployed living in shacks to really improve their lives.  I'm not sure the government has a good idea what to do about this, and it's really unacceptable.  As a tourist, you generally don't know the amount of this destitution unless you search it out, but once you see it, you just know there's nothing in my hands (or wallet) that's going to change anything.  Sympathy is free; change is unaffordably expensive.

The nature in the country is amazing.  And it's not surprising that it's a 'jock-ocracy' as my South African boss referred to the place.  No less than 6 sports channels on the TV carrying everything from soccer, to rugby, to cricket, to mountain biking to surfing.  The country is sports obsessed and you can't escape it, and it's tied up with all of the politics and history.  Actually, 'Invictus', the new film with Morgan Freeman is about Nelson Mandela's inroads with the white Afrikaaner population by supporting the rugby team (which historically has been essentially a whites' sport) early in his tenure.  I caught a few pages of the book at an airport book store and it's surprisingly moving given all the bitterness that's divided the country.

But this love of sports translates to the amazing land within South Africa's borders.  From grasslands for safaris to endless desert and prairies to mountains and forest and mediterranean beaches, you can find it here.  And so much of it is untouched, surprisingly.  Unlike the US, where every square inch of useable land is in use, much of the landscape is barely touched, probably a reflection of lack of infrastructure, but all the better for the tourist on a nature bend.  I'll miss the sun that burned me (and I'm still peeling from it) and the wind that also burned me and the rain that terrified me sometimes (the evening thunderstorms over Pretoria thumped on the roof like reindeer hooves and the thunder rolled without stop for minutes on end and the lightening flashed so bright and violent it was momentarily bright like midday).  And the people, who by far were accommodating, pleasant really laid back, despite all the stuff happening around them.

I'd like to think I'd be happy to return if and when my project requires.  And I think I'll enjoy it even more the second time around.  For anyone wanting to see South Africa, in celebration and renewal, I recommend visiting during the world cup next year.  Go on safari and hike outdoors while the others are watching the games on TV and then return in the evenings to really live it up with the locals and fellow travelers.  I'm sure you wouldn't regret it.

-mike
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619439/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619439/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619439/tpod.html Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:20:07 -0500 Collaboration and Holiday: Summer in South Africa

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Robben Island, Western Cape, South Africa

Today was the last full day to do some sightseeing. And the last day to really go souvenir shopping, of which I had many to get.

We set off early to the nearby souvenir markets to go shopping--Sophie to get a specific Zulu doll and me to get an assortment of keychains and trinkets. All for probably inflated prices, but the haggling is coming easier, though I'm still not happy to do it. You can't pay the stated price because they're ridiculous, but arguing back and forth for what really is a dollar or two is also crazy. It's just pride that makes you haggle for that number in your head, even though it probably doesn't make a different one way or another. But we bought what we wanted on the first stop, so all looked good and I could stop running prices through my head.

We walked up to the VA waterfront--actually the Victoria and Alfred waterfront, not Albert, as the son was more instrumental in setting up the marketplace. It's an artificial place, full of malls and whaftside cafes and tourist institutions. It is al a bit overdone and overworked and diluted. The craft stalls are more sterile and more tourist friendly to a degree.

The waterfront is very symbolic for that dichotomy that exists in South Africa. There's this persistent suspicion about bad elements. The security guards (black) at the building of the hostel tells me the area's not safe, don't do this/don't do that, and a seller (white) at the waterfront tells me Long street has gangs and drugs, etc. And you just don't know what to make of it, because I haven't had any problems, and yet there's all this negative information around. Which is truth? I'm guessing it's somewhere between my naivete and the local paranoia.

Of course this is why the waterfront is this extremely sterile place, dominated by huge malls. I went to get a gift for my parents and literally spent an hour getting lost in a mall, without backtracking I think. Either way, I found some gifts and left that area, because it had no personality--I could be in the US and it'd look the same basically.

While heading back to the hostel to drop off my crap so I didn't have to carry it to Robben Island, I was accosted by a distraught Canadian. Apparently, he was staying in Stellenbosch and travelled by minibus to Table Mountain, but (and I'm not particularly clear on this point) was instead dropped off at the waterfront, and having been taken for '20 bucks'. He lamented that no one warned him about the minibus taxis and I felt bad for him and gave him the last 20 rand I had on me, but I'm not sure if this is an example of ignorant traveller or intrinsically dangerous country...

But I managed to drop off my stuff and get back to the waterfront to leave for Robben Island without incidence.

So mini history lesson: Robben Island is an island off the coast of Cape Town, in use for exiles ever since the beginning of Dutch settlement in the area. It began as a place to exile political prisoners/slaves from the Dutch Cape colony. One of the first exiles was a muslim chief from Indonesia, who rallied for more freedom for the slaves. He eventually died on the island and the Kramat, a mausoleum was built in his honor; this structure would be an important symbol of freedom for the apartheid era prisoners later placed on Robben Island.

After slavery was abolished, Robben Island was used to exile lepers. On the island you can find a renovated church used by the lepers and a leper cemetary, but otherwise no other structures from that era remains, as they burned it all down to prevent spread of disease.

What Robben Island is infamous for is that it's the site of imprisonment for apartheid era leaders like Nelson Mandela. One of the first prisoners was Robert Sobukwe, the leader of the PAC, a militant arm of the ANC (African National Congress). He was imprisoned indefinitely because he refused to renounce the possibility of violence in the struggle for freedom. The government placed him in his own compound to be guarded by 3 or 4 guards at all times. No one was allowed to talk to him for over a decade, and eventually he lost the ability to talk and developed mental disease. He was transported off the island and died on the mainland. But the story goes that when Mandela and other prisoners arrived, Sobukwe would stand out in his yard and grab a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers, a sign of solidarity.

Hopeful gestures notwithstanding, island life was brutal for prisoners. Next to Sobukwe's house is a quarry that was used as punishment. Prisoners were made to work at the quarry all day, with only a cave to be used as lunchroom and toilet. The sun reflecting off the white limestone caused many of the prisoners to develop sight issues.

We saw most of the island, including prisons, the beach and rocky coast by bus tour for about 45 minutes. We were then dropped off at the main prison to meet our tour guide, an ex-prisoner. He was a student at the time of the student protests and left the country illegally to train in Angola and then reentered South Africa via Botswana. He was arrested for illegal entry and exit and his out of country military training; he was sentenced to Robben Island for 7 years.

He lead us through the single cells that high level prisoners like Mandela were imprisoned--a bed roll, a bucket for toilet, a barred window out into a sterile yard. He lived in a communal cell that housed up to 40 individuals, 2 people to a narrow bed. Ironically even the prison was divided racially--of course white political prisoners were kept in a mainland jail, but the Indian and 'colored' prisoners were placed in one cell while the 'African' prisoners another. The coloureds were provided a different (read better) diet than the Africans as well as more covered prison uniforms. This was a psychological ploy meant to breed resentment between the two groups, who had struggled cooperatively for civil rights. It didn't work, as the groups shared resources behind the guard's backs.

The really weird thing about Robben Island is that it's a beautiful island; it houses penguins, antelopes and seals, has sandy beaches and rocky shores, wildflowers and a great view of Cape Town. But it's all poisoned by the horrors of the prison, which looks so innocuous now as a museum. A resort, and the island could be a weekend getaway instead of the site of atrocities... But all in all, it was good experience to have; I'd recommend it for any short visit t Cape Town.

Slow night, packing and organizing for the long trip home tomorrow. Can't say I wouldn't come back in an instant, but I'm definitely ready to go home and sleep in my own bed and pick up everything where I left off.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619390/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619390/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619390/tpod.html Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:38:15 -0500 Collaboration and Holiday: Summer in South Africa

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Cape Town, South Africa

So today was back to wandering about with Sophie, who I'm starting to dislike. Just normal backpacking nueroses, I think on both our sides. But we use each other mutually to have someone to talk to, wander the streets with and feel safe, and having someone to take pictures. But I'm pretty confident neither of us will want each other's e-mail or want to ever communicate again after this trip. So goes single travel.

But today's a new day and we're taking the Hop On/Hop Off bus around Cape Town. Normally, I find these really overrated, but in Cape Town it's a good idea because public transport is minimal and not the safest. Especially to Table Mountain, it's very expensive by taxi and not serviced at all by public transport. But the tourist bus goes to the cablecar station and the trip to the mountain almost pays for itself, plus you get access to the beach and nice neighborhoods on the east side of the city.

We started off early and arrived at the mountain, but there were clouds all around the top, affectionately known as the 'tablecloth'. Legend goes, a Dutch pioneer met the devil up at Devil's peak (connected to table mountain) and had a smoking competition. The Dutchman won the contest, but the smoke continues to bathe the mountain in clouds.

Vaguely discouraged, we took the bus around the city through the high end beach communities of Camp's bay at the foot of the 12 apostles (actually 17 buttresses behind table mountain), then Clifton beaches (not actually beaches as their rocky, but lots of posh houses), and then seapoint and greenpoint art deco housing with seafront. Suffice to say, these communities are separate entities from downtown Cape Town. Secluded geographically by Signal Hill and Lions Head, they exist as rich playgrounds of sun, beach and wind protection.

The funny thing about these communities is the totally different look--the houses are modern or art deco, whitewashed and fenced in, as if any of their rich neighbors might want to come break in. It's like Miami here, while it was New Orleans on Long street. I'm seeing so much of America in S. Africa, just in smaller scale.

As the bus continued, we saw the grand parade and downtown including the Castle (read fort) of Good Hope, old city hall and the barely populated space of what used to be District Six. The tour in general was quite refreshing, on a partly sunny day with odd facts through your headphones and taking quick pictures as you zip through the streets.

We headed back to Table Mountain, which was still enshrouded but we went up anyway. The top of table mountain is great, a shrubby rocket plateause of hiking up and down boulders. The tablecloth is so eerie, as it comes from a level below the top of the mountain and then climbs up over the lip to totally occlude visibility and then dip back down over the other side. Basically, you see nothing except white.

And we waited, because the weather can change on a dime. And Sophie was characteritically grumpy and disappointed, chain smoking while starting at the clouds. I buggered off to walk around and have lunch, which was so much nicer than sitting at the side of a cliff hoping the clouds would dissolve away. And about 2.5 hours later, it suddenly cleared for a spell. The clouds just passed and thinned and all you were left with were views of the city bowl, the peninsula and the beaches. Great views and great photos and I'm not sorry we wasted a few hours waiting.

Of course, it was about 3:30 by the time we got back down the mountain and took the bus to the beach at Camp's bay, a white sand paradise with palm lined streets and the 12 apostles as an awesome backdrop. We were supposed to just get our feet and wet and go, but decided to just end the day there and spend the next 2 hours walking along the water and laying in the sun. A great, relaxing way to spend the day, if I must say so, especially since I'm on a beach getting a tan in December while it's freezing back home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mchao/2/1260619340/tpod.html Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:04:15 -0500 Collaboration and Holiday: Summer in South Africa

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Cape Town, South Africa

Today started with clouds and drizzling rain, maybe not the best day to be venturing out on foot, but there's a lot to hit in the center of Cape Town and it has to be done. Cape Town is a relatively small city center; Long street is easily within ten minutes walk of major sites, which are in turn about 15 minutes away from others.

I started with Parliament, which has an interesting history. South Africa has three capitals, that corresponds to the three branches of government--legislative, judicial and executive. In reality, maybe it's about four capitals. In Cape Town, is the parliament that has the two houses of the legislature, while the judicial capital is in Bloemfontein in the Free State province. The court of appeals has traditionally been the highest court in the land in Bloemfontein, but I think there's a higher court now based in Johannesburg. In Pretoria, the civil servants and bureaucrats are alive and well because the president's office is centralized here (though he actually lives in Johannesburg and makes the commute every day--we've passed his rather demure two car cavalcade on the highway between Jo'burg and Pretoria).

So Parliament was established in Cape Town in the 1800s, as this was the center of the British colony in South Africa. In the early 1900s, when South Africa 'unified' into a single republic, there were two houses in the legislature. In the smaller conference room were the appointed black and coloured delegations--basically rubber stamping puppet of legitimacy for the white elected party housed in a traditional British green caucus room. Upon free elections and the new government in 1994, the black/coloured house became a domestic minded house that represents the 9 provinces. LIke the US senate every province gets a set number of representatives (10) in this house, but unlike the US senate, this house is considered the lesser house, as their decisions can be overrode by the main house and it has no input on foreign policy or international matters. So ironically in some way, this house remains a rubber stamping committee.

The green room, that housed the Afrikaaner led Nationalist party, who set up the policies of Apartheid, is not used anymore, both both symbolic and practical reasons--the main parliamentary body is now too large for its room. The architect of apartheid, Henrik Verwoerd, was assassinated in the green room, by a schizophrenic pro-apartheid member, ironically. The new chamber for the main house is a large gold and black affair, which has apparently housed lots of raucous debate, a la British parliament. Overall, the tour was nice--it was free, led by a knowledgeable a guide and good insight into how the government today actually functions...or doesn't.

After parliament the rain had lifted to a degree and I wandered back to the hostel to drop off my passport (paranoia again) and then head in the opposite direction to the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. This neighborhood is billed as the muslim and Indian quarter of Cape Town. It was outside of the actual town during its early life as Dutch colony--in fact, freed slaves founds homes here, which explains the historical background for the colourful houses--slaves were usually forbidden to wear color, so when they won their freedom and built houses in Bo-Kaap, they painted them garish colors as a symbol for their newfound freedom. Today, the neighborhood is fairly residential with a few shops, but the main sights are the vivid houses, the noon gun and Bo-Kaap museum. Noon gun is a very accurate description--it's a large cannon situated on Signal Hill that was fired every noon to give the residents a sense of the time of the day. You can hike up to noon gun via Longmarket street, up a large hill. At the top is a restaurant, Noon Gun tearoom, which overlooks Table Moutain and downtown Cape Town, as well as being a bit a hike from Noon Gun. I decided against going up to the gun and instead have lunch in the restaurant, though somewhere during lunch, there was look boom and the whole place shook a bit, so in the end I got to experience Noon Gun anyway.

Lunch was really nice--the restuarant is also the residential house, so you enter a clean open space to eat and have all this daily conversation and home cooking around you. I had babotie, a sweetish/sour curry with minced meat mixed with egg to be baked into like a meatloaf or custard. Really delicious and filling, the first spices and really flavoured food I've had in the country to be honest.

From Noon Gun, I wandered back down into Bo-Kaap to check out the local mosque and the Bo-Kaap musuem, a small four room historical overview of the neighborhood. All in all, a nice varied, but strolling morning. From Bo-Kaap, I walked back over to the Parliament area to see the Slave Lodge, a white edifice that belies its history. The current structure is due to its conversion to a court sometime in the 1800s after slavery was banned in the British colonies. The original structure was basically a low prison with a dirt center yard abut a graveyard. Here housed the slaves that served the city administration, which was relatively a better proposition than being shipped elsewhere. The museum was a really moving experience, relying heavily on images and structure rather than text. You transition from early slave trade documents through some flavor of the modern civil rights movement.

By the time I left the slave lodge, it was sunny and clear and the walk over to the District 6 museum was relaxing..until you pass the police station and a load of prisoners are being carted off to prison while yelling out the barred windows. District 6 referred to a slum that existed on the outskirts of the city. It was crowded, had episodes of epidemics and was crumbling due to poor upkeep by blase landlord. But more to point, this was a racially mixed cauldron of low income families, who existed more or less without racial boundaries. The apartheid government decided under the guise of revitalization to destroy the entire neighborhood, while carting off the different families into their new racially segregated neighborhoods, to both garner new land for white development and also prevent racial mixing, which was though to dilute out white supremacy. On one hand I think you can understand the 'official reason', which is' what do you do with a slum that continues to get worse?' However, we can say the answer is not 'seize the land, move off the residences and raze the area to the ground.'

One of the structures that survived is the old Methodist church because the government, out of a strange fit of conscience, couldn't bring itself to destroy churches. The old residents of district six would continue to attend the church through the whole campaign, commuting in from an hour's away just to be in their old neighborhood. The church has been converted to the district six museum, which houses this collection of tons of momentos from that slum, including street signs and pictures and recreations of the local beauty salon or small single bedroom apartments. There's tons of text, small stories from the families that lived there, to give witness that this used to be hundreds of lives connected and then pulled apart. It's very graphic, very moving and really enjoyable.

The irony of district six is that 60% of it remains in weeds and political limbo. During the 1960s, the development of the area was put on hold by huge international opposition to the government, and all the white areas never came up. With the free elections, the politicians promised to restore the land to former families, but only a handful have been given back the land and houses. Now, there are a tons of claims that have to be verified and it's a constant cycle of red tape that makes it unlikely for the matter to be resolved any time soon.

From District Six, I decided I needed some fresh air so I wandered through the Company Gardens. Originally set up as a garden for the Dutch East India company, now a nice stroll behind Parliament and connecting to the national gallery. Lots of people having lunch or laying around the grass. Went to have a cup of rooibos tea (herbal) at the SA Jewish museum and cafe. I didn't get to the actual museum though I did wander through the free holocaust center, which despite being heavily about the European plight of the Jews, had real parallels with the apartheid regime in this country. Maybe on different degrees, but ideologies and subtle discriminations were really quite complementary...it's terrifying.

Originally, I had wanted to either get up to Table mountain or hike up Lion's head, but it was 5PM when I was done and too late do either of them...will have to see Table mountain tomorrow. Totally tired, but enough energy to do some cooking...which was so nice not to have sausages or sandwiches. Tomorrow, Table Mountain and some beach relaxing.

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Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

Today I headed out to Stellenbosch, the wine lands region outside of Cape Town to the east. It's a large student town that is surrounded by hundreds of vineyards. The grounds are very California like, down to the mountains in the background, the levels of grape vines in the valley and dirt paths for biking that connect them.

We took a tour from Wines and Bikes, which was supposed to be a long ride between four wine farms around the Stellenbosch area and then get up a hill for the view of the area. Given the bright sunshine and warm days, it seemed like a really good day ahead. And it was an early start at 7AM, where we met our guide. That's when we learned that another group had booked the tour-four Jehovah's witnesses who were in town for a convention. They had booked for a slightly different tour, which is what we were doing instead. A little disappointing but we were still supposed to hit a brandy distillery, two wine farms and a cheetah preserve, while doing 8km of biking. Though Sophie was a bit sore on the point, I was OK with the change.

We took the Metro out to Stellenbosch, which was an interesting experience unto itself. If you ask people, they would probably tell you never to take the Metro--I got that advice from a colleague back in Pretoria. The ride out to Stellenbosch took one hour and passed through many of the suburbs and townships outside of Cape Town. Not necessarily, the best of places, but not terribly dangerous on a Sunday morning. However, there were a few policemen who got on at one of the stations and stayed with us for a bit of the trip. It's a bit of a circular cycle there--do you feel safer with the police around or worse that the police got on at all?

We were in the first class cabins, which weren't that special, but the price difference between first class and economy, while not great to a tourist, is apparently a sufficient deterrent for most of the riders, who cram into the economy cars.

We arrived intact at our station, where we picked up our bikes, and a local kid, Brendan, who asked to come biking with us--though our guide was warned by another local that the kid had a history of taking cameras and bikes. But he was harmless enough and could be found zipping around tirelessly the whole day on the bike. That's probably a great boon for a kid to get access to a bike for a day.

Things did not start out auspiciously--the other Americans were not really in the best shape. From the start I had figured out who would be the slowest, an oveweight twenty something who really looked as if she had been pampered about. True to form, she was unfamiliar with a bike and when she was able to get going, was huffing and puffing and totally worn out by our ten minute ride to the first wine farm. Her husband, also overweight (but yet who managed to exude that peculiarly American bravado of espousing his supposed fitness despite all physical evidence to the contrary), also had a struggle with it. Basically, the guide was in front, then Brendan, then Sophie and the me and then way behind was the rest of the pack, who we constantly had to wait for. It might be OK, if we weren't stuck with other obstacles. The first stop is a co-op wine farm, where we were supposed to see a bit of fair trade happening. But they were hosting a wedding, so we thought we'd head back over later.

So instead we cycled back down the road to a the Cheetah farm, which sits in the property of Spier, the biggest wine farm around. But we had to wait about half an hour for a tour of the Cheetah facility. We ended up lounging about at Spier, which houses massive gardens and open spaces to cater to the weekend families. Suffering through the nonstop chatter of one of the Americans set my teeth on edge. When we finally got to the cheetah place, no tour guide could be arranged so we just went in to watch the cats by ourselves, which is fine, except we could have saved an hour by doing that when we first go there...

The farm itself must house about a dozen cats, most of which were born in captivity or rescued. They live in separate enclosures that aren't huge and are hand fed. It's most likely they will never be released into the wild, so I'm not quite sure what their overall mission is. But the cats are beautiful. The cheetahs have a very similar spot pattern to leopards, but their body shape is totally different. I actually think the cheetahs facially look more like cats than leopards, who look, I don't know, like bears or something...

Of course the real draw were the cubs and juvenile cheetahs, who were admittedly adorable, but the adult cheetahs are pretty awesome too, totally streamlines like racing greyhounds, fast like no one's business.

So we lingered at the reserve, and then headed to Van Ryn's brandy distillery via some sandy bike paths skirting the vineyards. Again, lots of waiting for the second group to catch up and hold conversations about how difficult the track is. Sweating, we arrived to the distillery to a mango brandy welcome drink (deliciously much appreciated) and found out that they don't hold tours on Sundays (more bad luck), but we did get a tasting of the 5 and 12 year old brandies.

Brandy, like wine, is from grapes. Actually, you distill out the alcohol from white wines and then age the alcohol in oak barrels much like whiskey. In fact the 5 year aged brandy tastes just like whiskey, overwhelmingly of alcohol and smokiness. But the 12 year brandy mellows out quite a bit, and you can start to taste some fruit--like fig or something.

Fairly buzzed, we then biked back to Spier vineyard to taste a few wines. Five tastings later--two of which were good, three only so-so, I was even more drunk (even though it was only tastings) and decided I really needed lunch. Spier has a deli, so we bought a bunch of break and meat and cheese and ate with the many, many families out back enjoying the sun and wine.

By the time we biked back to the trains station, it was too late to visit the second winery, which disappointed Sophie to no end--she has this German sensibility of getting what you pay for and what is advertised and anything less is a grievous offense--but I was pretty much done with drinking, being dehydrated, overheated and eyes stinging from sunscreen. And I had an OK day overall--we didn't even hit the two advertised wineries, but I saw some cheetahs, got some brandy and wine for souvenirs and enjoyed the sun.

Sophie's self-involved passive aggressive (there's that French blood) diatribe about being tricked or disappointed notwithstanding, a pleasant day nonetheless. It could've been better, if there were no Jehovah's witnesses, no wedding and more wineries, but it could've been much worse. Tomorrow is another day and I'm heading out into Cape Town alone to see some sights. Hopefully the weather will agree and there will be no muggings. Let'd hope.

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Cape Peninsula National Park, Western Cape, South Africa

Got up early today to take a daytrip to the Cape Peninsula, including the Cape of Good Hope, the most 'south western' point in Africa (clever PR people huh?). Did the trip with Daytrippers. I set off with Sophie, a French born, German reared, Vienna residing Austrian airlines flight attendant, who is sharing the hostel room with me. The other two on the tour were two jetsetting Americans from New York, who by all appearances have touched down everywhere I can think of.

The first stop was Hout's bay, whose main attraction is a boat ride to see an island of fur seals. The actual bay is ringed by mountains and communities climbing up the slopes, but the bay is chock full of tourists (Chinese today) and souvenir sellers. The boat ride is really pleasant with a stiff breeze, and the seals are lazing about. You first smell them--a stench of rotting fish and then you see all these buoy like things laying in the water, with a flipper out. Apparently, they like to lie on their sides, head underwater with either the right of left flipper standing straight out of the water. Not particularly in a playful mood, most of the seals lay sunbathing, in typical Cape Townian fashion, on the rocks and watching us watching them. One of the more amazing things is the clarity of the water. You can see down to the bottom, white rocks with kelp forests sprouting from them, looking like sea snakes.

From Hout Bay, we drove over Chapman's drive, a snake-like road halfway up a mountain barely staving off rockslides, to an overview of Hout bay. I have to say that Cape Town is an improbable place for a city, as it's bascially carved out of the slopes of Table Mountain and Devil's peak. But people have settled the area and it makes for some amazing sights, of the secluded bays and isolated neighborhoods.

Next we headed to Simon's Town, a retirement area filled with rich houses and a naval base to boot. The local celebrity was a dog that became part of the Navy and whose 'marraige' and funeral were attended by a wealth of celebrities and state officials. But the draw now is the jackass penguin colony. For all those looking to commune with the penguins, there're two sections of Boulder's beach where the penguins live. The first is the park section which you pay and the penguins are fenced away. The second is down the road a bit, a small community park where you can see the penguins up real close. There are fewer penguins at the second sight, but you can literally stare face and face with them (they have disconcertingly pink eyelids). And it's free. It was so disorienting walking into the park and almost stepping on a penguin hiding in a bush.

From Simon's Town, we headed into the Cape Point national park, which extends down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. From here, we cycled some 5 km to Cape of Good Hope, over some gorgeous shrubby paths. The park is a sanctuary for Cape baboons, which we saw only one of (outside the park), but we're told some days you're overrun. Plus, baboons, as our guide liked to day, can be really spiteful and take over cars, so we kept a keen eye out in case they flocked to us to steal our cell phones. But we did see some wild ostriches (who knew they lived here?) to Cape of Good Hope, which was overrun by tourists. We got the prerequisite photo op and hiked up an 1.5 hr path to the overlooks and then the lighthouse at actual Cape point. On the way, there's a totally secluded beach called Dias beach--white sand, accessible only by a staircase from the hiking path, but we didn't have enough time to go. Too bad, next time.

All in all, a particularly great day out in the sunshine and seeing all this nature surrounding Cape Town. It's a like a totally different country here, with winelands outside, peaks all over the place and barren brush, nature reserves and sandy beaches all within an hours drive.

Totally dozed off on the way back to town, but had a great day. Tomorrow, biking around the Winelands, near Stellenbosch.

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Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Last day at CSIR was strange--feeling particularly relieved to be leaving to be honest, especially since we've run every experiment I can imagine and have got a big goose egg. So, I really would've liked to flee the scene of the crime, as they say. But we went out for dinner with the group and I started to feel I might actually miss the place. Who knows, maybe I'll be back?

Spent the night in Musa's place, as it's in Jo'burg. He's got a really nice flat, open and comfortable, and more wires and cords for computers and Wii and Playstation and stereos, etc, that I can imagine. Untangling those must be a nightmare. His girlfriend, Marta, was nice enough to shuttle me over to Val's lab the next morning.

At Val's lab, I hashed out the case for dormancy with Bavesh for about 2 hours. Not necessarily sure we came to a full consensus, but I think the story is taking shape. Now to get it down the right way...not likely the next week in Cape Town, considering I've not got computer access and will be dead in the middle of party central.

Bavesh took me into Park station to the rail office, as he was worried I'd be mugged there--apparently, he had been accosted with a guy wielding a rusty knife (and everyone around him either watched like it was street theater or walked on). But I guess it's part of the FIFA cleanup because the facility was open, clean and police were wandering about. I had no issues getting to the departure lounge and settling in.

So, it's a strange scenario in that departure lounge. Most of the travelers are South African and Afrikaaners, while all the staff are black Africans. And the median age must be 50 or 60 in the group. Which I expected, frankly, because of the cost. But it's strange nonetheless, because you get this whole uncomfortable white/black dichotomy on the train. But you can't change that, I suppose. I wonder if I was the odd one out.

I'm taking the Premier Classe train, which is billed as a luxury alternative to the ultra high end Blue Train. The Premier Classe for December is around $350 (2500 ZAR), so it's actually about 3x more expensive than the plane, but I was willing to splurge to enjoy some luxury and see more of the country, as it traverses the lowveld, the karoo and the winelands on the way to Cape Town. The actual train is intensely purple and has about 8 cars, 3 of which are for passenger berths, 1 is for employee berths and a spa, two dining cars, 1 lounge/bar car, 1 kitchen. My single sleeper's not that big, but it comes with a couch that becomes a bed, a sink and storage. They give you a bathrobe and slippers and toiletries--so essentially a moving hotel.

We started in grandiose fashion with a welcome and glass of champagne, which seemed at odds to the passing scenery of poorer Jo'burg suburbs, but I won't say it wasn't a nice start, and much appreciated.

Meals are a multi course affair--they're good, not great, but you certainly get quantity and being able to look out window over amazing scenery is really the main draw. We left in the afternoon and traveled through the lowveld, a grassy, meadowland with rolling hills and farms that are spaced miles apart. They made my bed while I ate and I slept as we entered the middle karoo region of the country. Sleep was OK, especially given the occasional tossing of the train and the brakes. The A/C was on and I curled up under two blankets--my favorite way to sleep. We stopped twice (only 1 of which I was aware of) and I made myself get up for sunrise over the karoo, which was highly recommended to me.

Luckily, I was facing East and had a great view of the sun, though it took an hour to really see the sun come up over the horizon. The karoo is a bit like prairie, with lots of clumps of shrubs, but mixed in with the mesas and mountains of the southwest. Basically, in the short span of the country, we'd gone over the landscapes across the US. I wouldn't say the sunrise was the best one I've seen, but it was pretty, with the far away mountains black and the sky lightening--still, though, I think the best sunrise/sunsets are in poorer air quality areas with nice refraction from smog particulates. Then I fell back asleep for a couple of hours so I could have breakfast feeling vaguely alert.

As we rode through the Karoo, you pass by lots of these one street ghost towns, where the only thing remaining intact is the not so rusted town signpost. Instead, the four buildings of so that made up these old towns are nothing but heaps of rubble in the middle of parched and inhospitable terrain. It boggles the mind that some people might willing live there for some period of time just to tend to the trains/prospect?

We passed by a tourist town of Maijtesfontein (pronounced MIkeys-fon-tane), which was the home of a Scottish entrepreneur who set up a really ornate and old fashioned hotel that has changed little over the past century. Of course, aside from the hotel, there's nothing else in the town as far as I could see. But it's definitely this unexpected oddity of an olde tyme hotel passing by the windows, surrounded by open unsettled shrub land.

But the Karoo changed into cultivated valleys as we headed into the Hex River valley, which apparently is responsible for almost all of the grapes grown in South Africa. The landscape is amazing--lakes and reservoirs, fields and fields of vineyards all surrounded by mountain ranges on both sides. We actually plunge into 10 minutes of total darkness through a mountain before the Cape Town region.

So over the trip, we've basically traversed an entire continent's worth of different ecological biomes and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course when we got to the outskirts of Cape Town, where the townships of the Cape Flats lie, you start seeing the shacks and poverty again, just reminding you that as you travel the luxury train, most can only dream of seeing inside the train.

Cape Town, at first glance, is busy, with people all around the station and streets. But the streets are open, there's a Grand Parade lined with palms, that reminds me of pictures of Rio or somewhere tropical and South American. And then quite a few skyscrapers, with the huge Table Mountain erupting from the back of city. Looking back, it was a great day, but I was paranoid in the new place and walked with my eyes fixed on the street signs, as I searched for my hostel.

My hostel is on Long street, the nightlife capital of Cape Town and it shows. Lots of bars and shops line this crowded street, plus hawkers for craft stores, restaurants and sometimes marijuana.

I decided to dump all my crap at the hostel and wander the street a bit to see what was going on. And then I stumbled upon the mob. Today was the FIFA draw--the soccer world cup next year in South Africa for those of you not in the know. And the celebration 'fan fest' was held in Cape Town, on Long street today. Thousands packed the end of the street to hear music, watching promotional montages and basically drink and cheer. People from all over--lots of Europeans, Australians, Africans, South Africans, Brazilians, etc.

I was trapped in the crowd for about 3 hours, as we watched the draw--which had the pomp and circumstance of the Oscars, including having Charlize Theron as co-host and David Beckham (with an atrocious hair style) appearing. Despite lots and lots of self-promotion and touchy-feely 'soccer is the world' speeches, you really do get sucked up into fervor of the people around you and I started to maybe feel a little South African, at least in the sense that you were proud the country was holding such a huge event and maybe they'd emerge from FIFA in an even better place than they are now. Still, that will remain to be seen, as it could go either way.


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Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa

Had a whole day trip where we visited the Apartheid Museum and Soweto, in an effort to see the division of rich and poor that still remains, and how apartheid was developed and still kind of reflects today's development.

I had booked a tour and joined four middle aged Dutch tourists on the trip. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but there are a lot of Dutch tourists in S. Africa. They were pleasant enough, though easily tired, I think. We ended up in some classic traffic on the way to Jo'burg, but we managed to arrive at the museum at around 11AM.

I've noticed that the museums I've been to have been on the small side and usually attached or nearby some larger general amusement center. Sterkfontein caves had Marupeng and the Apartheid museum has Gold Reef City, an amusement park based on the recreation of a gold rush theme. Incidentally, that's how Jo'burg really developed as a city--a superficial gold strike revealed a forty mile vein that drew in thousands of poor black and white workers to live in urban slums. The amusement park is disconcertingly close to the museum, belieing the solemnity of the museum with it roller coaster looping above the treeline and the squeals of laughter from the park visitors. Imagine a Six flags next to the National Holocaust museum in DC and it's a bit disconcerting...symbolically.

The museum itself is concrete and very modern. At the entrance we received a ticket identifying us as non-whites (a misnomer for the Dutch tourists), and we have to enter a caged mazed that carried pictures of the passbooks and ID cards all non-whites had to carry during apartheid.

I've come to realize the best museum aren't the ones that's filled with text and theses, but rather the ones that are simple and visual--i.e. Anne Frank's house. It's similar in the Apartheid museum--the descriptions are short, and there's pictures of everything, everywhere. I really got a good sense of what the history of apartheid was, in contrast to what we learned in high school, which was there was apartheid and people needed to carry pass books around.

So, short history lesson (I can't vouch that I've got all the details right)... Early nomadic Khoe-San tribes wander South Africa until Bantu speaking tribes originally from Nigeria end up setting up farms and settling eastern S. Africa. No signs of Europeans until the Portuguese arrive on their way to the East Indies. They bypass S. Africa for Mozambique because of the dangerous currents and unpredictable weather around the Cape Town area.

Portuguese power declines with the upswing of the Dutch trading companies, who actually set up a fort at Cape Town and decided to use it as a base of refueling and stopover port. To produce food and services the port, the Dutch allow white settlers (burghers, or farmers) to create estates inland; this attracts some with the pioneering spirits and more importantly, Calvinist emigrants from Europe seeking religious freedom. This is a mix of Dutch, Swiss, German, French Huegenots, who set up large scale farming in S. Africa and imported the huge slave workforce from Madagascar and Indonesia.

As the burghers' land expanded, some went far to the east to settle, becoming highly individualist and manifest destiny minded--these were the Boers.

Things slowly declined for the Dutch, and British imperialism becomes the new fad. They arrived in the 1800s to annex the Cape Town colony as British territory, and brought over thousands of middle class immigrants, who established the English culture as the height of culture. The Boers remained uneducated and pastoral, and resentful especially as the British took up the high end jobs and banned slavery (really, in name only), which the Boers took to be their God giving right.

Fed up with the British expansion, some of the Boers picked up their things and moved further north, and are called
the Voortrekkers (pioneers), ending up in the region now known as
Gauteng and northward. But this suited them fine as there are lots of
grazing grounds and they believed they'd arrived at the promised land
for the predistined elite (ah, Calvinism...). After several skirmishes with the native African tribes, the Afrikaaners (descendents of the Boers) established their own territories in Norther S. Africa, with Brisith colonies to the east and south. Incidentally, the British brought huge Indian populations to the Natal province in the East for labor.

Then everything went fruit-shaped when diamonds are discovered in Kimberely, in Afrikaaner territory. Thousands of white and black treasure seekers descend into the area occupied by rural white farms. Further incensed, there were a couple of wars between the Afrikaaners and British, ending with a truce that unified S. Africa as one country under British rule, but gave self governance to the Afrikaaners.

Things for white people looked up--they set up extensive mining and prospered, while elevating white power to new heights. After the world wars and the British left, the Afrikaaner Nationalist movement created a highly polar system where blacks were being relocated to townships to prevent racial mixing with whites and provide easily accessible labor for white families and industries.

This is how Soweto was developed, as SOuthWEst TOwnship to serve the white population in Johannesburg. With the election of an ultra nationalist Afrikaaners party (only white could vote), aparthied came into being.

Across the country, each race was classified: whites, non-european whites, coloreds and blacks, and the moved about the country as a human supply and demand. The township schools reflected the ideology--non-white students had little education and learned enough to function as employees for white owners.

As a counter, militant and non-violent civil rights groups emerged--the ANC, of which Nelson Mandela belonged, being a key figure. Through many bouts of boycotts and sabotage and massacres, the apartheid laws became more severe. Eventually, several township massacres caused international sanctions and pressure to isolate S. Africa from resources. Britain and the US were not early approvers of these sanctions (the US wanted S. Africa as an ally to fight off the 'red scare'.)

In Soweto, things came to head with the institution of Afrikaans as the main language of instruction at township schools. Students took to the streets to protest the move and ended in shooting. For fear of large mobs, the government only let one victim, Hector Pieterson (13 at the time), be buried symbolically. This began a nationwide unrest, leading to exile of leaders, unlawful arrest of students and more international scorn.

Eventually the upheaval of the eighties plus the sanctions against the country forced the ruling party to start undoing aparthied, eventually highlighted with Mandela's release and eventual election. By most accounts, in law everything looks cheerful now--the S. African constitution is one of the most progressive in the world, but what's on paper is not th same as what's on the ground.

We drove through Soweto, which remains divided, not by race, but by money. Millionaires own lush homes only hundreds of meters from shantytowns. We visited a fence-less enclave of high end homes (apparently, township anti-crime tactics are more effective than the police--think IRA policing with blown out kneecaps), and within ten minutes of driving we ended up in a mile long shanty-town behind the Soweto hospital.

Visiting the 'shacks' is a strange feeling. We arrived and were accosted by children, who were there to ask you questions and endear themselves and then ask for money, which you gave them because you feel guilty otherwise. We visited a shack of a woman named Gladys, who had on a pristine pink dress and cooked on a hotplate in a shack the size of a trailer. The roof was haphazardly placed plywood planks and the walls corrugated tin. There's no electricity in the entire shanty town, instead they use paraffin candles and there's a water spigot every now and then. And Gladys was lively and charming and toothless, and I'm not sure if it was real. But we gave her money anyway. At least I did; the Dutch tourists were either extremely cheap or have no concept of the value of S. African money. One guy tried to give her a 1 rand coin (~15 US cents?), which boggles the mind. Believe me, I didn't give her that much either, but at least I felt guilty about my useless contribution.

Therein lies the rub. In the US, we see these commercials about how $25 a year could change the life of child in Africa, but that's totally impossible for S. Africa, where the economy is set for the rich. Bread and eggs and milk and rice cost a comparable amount to the US and our pittance and change is not going to get very far for the locals who have to survive on the new S. African economy. So it's humbling, depressing and futile. You stand to the side, giving away your pocket money, doubting whether it adds anything at all. I can't say I was pleased to have experienced this poverty--it's unromantic and seemingly intransigent to aid and, as the gap betwen the haves and have nots gets wider, it becomes even more mired in inevitability.

After the conflicted visit to the shantytown, we headed to the Hector Pieterson memorial, which highlights the school demonstrations in teh 1970s. A very small and focused museum, it had a nice openess, though the other tourists were really, really not in the mood to see it. I basically said I wanted to go and we bargained for a 30 minute stop.

Then it was late afternoon and we were all tired, but we drove through downtown Jo'burg, which was not safe apparently and then headed back to Pretoria.

All in all, it was a good experience to learn about the history of all these complicated politics that are still around. And it was good to see what problems remain for the country. We have similar issues around the world, and especially the US where the gap between rich and poor keeps getting wider. It's not as bad as in S. Africa, but it could have easily been. I would say I'm richer for the experience, though I don't particularly feel any more enlightened, but maybe that feeling will take a bit of time to emerge...

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Marupeng, Gauteng, South Africa

Outside of Jo'burg is an area of rolling hills and meadows as far as the eye can see. It's so different than the developed, traffic clogged highways of the Pretoria-Jo'burg metropolitan corridor.

In this area is the Cradle of Humankind, named because of the many famous fossils of prehistorica apes discovered in the area. Two of the most treasures are Miss Ples and Little Foot. Can't quite explain the differences between the various evolutionary branches, but they are key figures in the transition from treelife to bipedalism.

A coworker, Bavesh and his family invited me out on this sunny warm day. We arrived at a random small structure in the middle of a grassy knoll--the Sterkfontein caves. The actual museum part of the complex is a somewhat small room, wtih various reconstructions of famous fossil finds. It's relatively simplistic and quite easy to understand, but a nice 15 minutes wander before the tour guide came to collect us.

We wandered out into the sunshine down to the stairs that lead to the actual caves where Little Foot was excavated. The cave was discovered by an Italian miner who was in search of limestone for European markets. After finding the cave, they began to chip away at the stalactites and quarrying the grounds. During their blasting they unearthed several fossils of human ancestors. Little Foot was found this way. They don't actually think any apes lived in the cave--they were more arboreal, but likely fell into the caves to their deaths when they stepped onto leaf covered holes in the cave ceilings. Or were dragged in by prehistoric cats to be eaten...

The actual cave has a large lake that extends 100 kilometers or so and several chambers, some connected by one meter wide holes. There aren't that many impressive stalactites and stalagmites in the cave, probably due to some mining in the 1800s, except an elephand shaped formation.

The tour is an hour long and vaguely interesting, though you can't see the Little Foot excavation, which has been going on for aobu 12 years and still has a skull and femur to go. On the whole, not a bad way to spend some time, but not that visually exciting.

After lunch, we headed to Marupeng, a more kiddie/family oriented museum for human evolution. It's in a random mound in the countryside and entrance includes several high tech fountain and water displays. The entrance is a boat ride through an exhibit about the four elements. And then a random tunnel of spinning lights called the vortexer that plays with your perception and makes you stagger like booze filled soccer fan.

The actual exhibits are very colorful and random--looking at fossils, matching jaws to various skulls. The kids were enjoying it a bit, though not the kiddie cave, a stucco reproduction of a cave at the back of the building. Very mediocre in general--I think wandering around the meadows or going to the animal reserves nearby might be more visually interesting.

Spend the afternoon and evening with Bavesh's family in a suburb or a suburb outside of Jo'burg called Lenasia South. There's a heavy Indian community there and he lives in a gated house with a huge extended family nearby. He drove me around the area for a bit and saw the gated mansions sitting next to the very modest lower middle class housing. Plus the local clinic, which people avoid at all costs.

His family was extremely friendly and I spend the night before having to head out with him to Jo'burg at 5:30 AM to avoid the traffic. We still hit traffic and I swear I want to never do that commute again. I succesfully ran a digest and gel for Bavesh at work, as payment for my stay at his place, and caught a ride back to Pretoria. And I get to starting the week on a discombobulated Monday. Hooray for me.

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Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

So we headed up to Pretoria from Jo'burg to CSIR, the national research institute where I'm working for the next three weeks. The road there is a highway that is infamous for gridlock traffic. Despite the road improvements and the late start (aiming to avoid the traffic), we got hit with it half way between the cities.

Now, Pretoria is an administrative capital for South Africa, meaning it's got tons of bureaucrats working in city center and maintains a less hectic feel than Jo'burg. Also, it was founded as a center of the white settlers, so the area has a heavy Afrikaners influence.

We arrived to CSIR, which was founded in the 1960s, as a whites only research institute. The buildings have this old tropical modern feel, which I kind of like, especially as the insides have been upgraded to reasonably modern lab spaces. The grounds are huge and double fenced in, more for keeping the wildlife out (we're right in forest space) than for security. The campus is located in East Pretoria, which houses the rich neighborhoods.

Historically, the CSIR has been a large center for research, tinged with aparatheid era politics. Not only was it a whites only research center, but it was a focal area for natural resources research, in an effort to synthesize petroleum and other resources that South Africa couldn't get when the international community was imposing sanctions on the country for its apartheid policies.

Like Jo'burg, the city center is considered not safe, though in Pretoria, city center is home to all the government offices and only becomes dangerous at night and on weekends. However, all the 'safe' areas are outside of city center. The university and all the students are in Hatfield and Brooklyn neighborhoods, while you get progressively richer and nicer estates as you move eastward. I'm in a Bed and Breakfast just outside CSIR in a neighborhood of houses all hidden behind gates and fences with signs saying that they have armed response security. It's a bit much and it makes you scared a little, no matter what your brain tells you. Plus the staff is black, who cooks and cleans for you and another black gardner. Not that it's really any different in the US, but given the recent history of apartheid in the country, this division of labor between white owners and black workers says there's still a lot of ground to make up for social equality.

The actual BnB is nice. I've got a room at the back of the house and the proprietors are a lovely old couple, who have lived here for about 35 years. The room has an old homey feel, but it opens to the garden and functions on plantation shutters and old fashioned locks. This is actual common in buildings in South Africa, that you still have these antiquated keys that you'd see in a British period piece set in Victorian England. It's quaint, if not a bit unexpected.

Won't go into details about work. Suffice to say, I've got a lot of optimization and testing ahead of me. Hopefully, I can get something to work...and write something...and maybe see some stuff...

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