Greetings from the great, massive land of Africa! We're currently in Cape Town, and I'm busy catching up on some blog posts from an ultra-chic cafe on Kloof St. The area here and much of Cape Town is predominantly white, a remnant from apartheid (which only ended with the start of the '90s I might remind you). It's strange to be here, the city feels wealthy and European almost, not what I expected of Africa. The coastal areas are really nice as well, almost a copy of Marin in the Bay Area.
We've explored the coast and made it down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope and back. Tomorrow we're heading out for about a week into the eastern part of the Western Cape. Of course, that's not before we have a chance to do some wine tasting! We haven't yet made it to the top of Table Mountain, which dominates the city here, because of the weather. It's been quite San Francisco like, in fact... Cool but not cold and cloudy in the mornings.
We came into town through Jo'burg, and there wasn't too much going on there other than malls. Houses are built like fortresses, but I didn't at any point feel threatened. That's likely because we spent so much time in said malls. The Apartheid Museum was a very moving experience. The Steve Biko temporary exhibition was great as well. It was all just too much to move through in the 3 hours that we had to explore it.
Well, the clouds are breaking, off to Table Mountain!
14 June 2008
10 June 2008
Doin' It Bollywood, Mumbai
We've completed our month long, hopping tour of India and arrived in Jo'burg, South Africa on the 8th of June. Mumbai was a blast, and we really lived it up... It's kind of a funny story, or maybe sad, but we went from looking at any budget hotel we could find to living it up on the shoreline in a 5-star luxury hotel. Hey, it was only two nights... Our logic was something like this: Well, it's quite expensive just to stay in these "budget" places, and they really aren't very nice. So, we might as well go for the best... I'm not sure what was better, the free breakfast buffet or the rooftop swimming pool with a view of the bay.
Mumbai was mind blowing, a total mish-mash of people, poverty, and glamour. Walking the street at night to dinner you might be followed by the cutest children begging just for a few rupees until you cross the threshold into the restaurant. Then, just a bit further north into the city, you can browse books in a frostily air-conditioned bookstore with a great cafe just after passing the local Porsche dealer. You might see a Mercedes driving past the shanty towns on the way from the airport. There were contrasts everywhere. Hopefully Emilie will type up our incident with the guide and the rip-off scheme on the way from the airport, or else I'll have to tell you about it in person.
We also had our first real taste of the monsoon in Mumbai. As we were selling some books to a street vendor, it started to rain. A few minutes later, it started to really rain, about as strong as a good thunderstorm in the US. And then... Just a bit longer and it was like a fog of rain had covered the city. People either scrambled for cover or just walked right through it. The street turned into a full on river. We were stranded with a sugar cane juice seller (basically under a tarp). I wasn't sure if I should laugh with amazement or cry at getting soaked. It's funny, the Indian women can look very calm and graceful walking through what must have been the hardest rain I've ever seen. Amazingly, once the rain finally stopped, Mumbai drained out into the bay extremely effectively.
We set out in the rain to make it to a gallery displaying a retrospective of photographs from Raghu Rai, an India photojournalist. He has some really amazing stuff. Unfortunately, the exhibit was closed due to the rain. Great! And the gallery was closed the next day, our last day in the city. Great! We ended up at the Jenaghir gallery instead for a taste of some Indian modern art (all for sale), but I was mightily disappointed at missing the photography exhibit.
We also visited the Gateway of India in the rain and made a walk through the super-fancy Taj Palace Hotel before heading off to the airport for our flight to Africa. We didn't take in any of the newest flicks so I guess we weren't really all that Bollywood after all.
Mumbai was mind blowing, a total mish-mash of people, poverty, and glamour. Walking the street at night to dinner you might be followed by the cutest children begging just for a few rupees until you cross the threshold into the restaurant. Then, just a bit further north into the city, you can browse books in a frostily air-conditioned bookstore with a great cafe just after passing the local Porsche dealer. You might see a Mercedes driving past the shanty towns on the way from the airport. There were contrasts everywhere. Hopefully Emilie will type up our incident with the guide and the rip-off scheme on the way from the airport, or else I'll have to tell you about it in person.
We also had our first real taste of the monsoon in Mumbai. As we were selling some books to a street vendor, it started to rain. A few minutes later, it started to really rain, about as strong as a good thunderstorm in the US. And then... Just a bit longer and it was like a fog of rain had covered the city. People either scrambled for cover or just walked right through it. The street turned into a full on river. We were stranded with a sugar cane juice seller (basically under a tarp). I wasn't sure if I should laugh with amazement or cry at getting soaked. It's funny, the Indian women can look very calm and graceful walking through what must have been the hardest rain I've ever seen. Amazingly, once the rain finally stopped, Mumbai drained out into the bay extremely effectively.
We set out in the rain to make it to a gallery displaying a retrospective of photographs from Raghu Rai, an India photojournalist. He has some really amazing stuff. Unfortunately, the exhibit was closed due to the rain. Great! And the gallery was closed the next day, our last day in the city. Great! We ended up at the Jenaghir gallery instead for a taste of some Indian modern art (all for sale), but I was mightily disappointed at missing the photography exhibit.
We also visited the Gateway of India in the rain and made a walk through the super-fancy Taj Palace Hotel before heading off to the airport for our flight to Africa. We didn't take in any of the newest flicks so I guess we weren't really all that Bollywood after all.
01 June 2008
Waiting for the Monsoon!
According to the paper today, the monsoon has officially started here in Kerala. That seems a bit off to me as the sky is bright blue and there are but a few clouds off in the distance. True when we arrived here there was a fierce thunderstorm the first night, but it's been near perfect weather since. As to where we are... We've made our way down from the hill station of Munnar, to the sandy beaches and (back to the) heat of Varkala. It's the off season here at the moment, so the beach and town is somewhat deserted. Almost all of the businesses and restaurants are closed but there are a few, with great views over the beach cliffs, that are still open.
Munnar was a nice, refreshingly cool place to be for a few days. We ran out of things to do and see after a day or so, and the little city itself isn't that interesting. The area around makes for great viewing as it's mountainous and covered with tea plantations. Most of the area is owned by Tata, who also makes cars, sells cell phone service, provides satellite TV, and much, much more. Oh, and they just bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands... A little game we've taken up is pointing out all the new things of everyday life we see that have a Tata branded offering.
As for Varkala, there's not much to do other than be at the beach, and I'm fine with that at the moment. It's quite the beautiful place, with the beach nestled and protected from development by cliffs. A nice town is perched at the top of the cliffs, and there are even police that patrol the beach to keep hawkers and gawkers moving along... Trash is cleaned up regularly off the beach too, so it's really nice and sandy. A few more nights here reading and swimming, and we'll head off to Cochin for one last night and then to Mumbai. I'm excited to see it, especially so since I just cracked Shantaram (soon to be a movie featuring none other than the demon barber of fleet street, Johnny Depp).
Off to the beach!
Munnar was a nice, refreshingly cool place to be for a few days. We ran out of things to do and see after a day or so, and the little city itself isn't that interesting. The area around makes for great viewing as it's mountainous and covered with tea plantations. Most of the area is owned by Tata, who also makes cars, sells cell phone service, provides satellite TV, and much, much more. Oh, and they just bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands... A little game we've taken up is pointing out all the new things of everyday life we see that have a Tata branded offering.
As for Varkala, there's not much to do other than be at the beach, and I'm fine with that at the moment. It's quite the beautiful place, with the beach nestled and protected from development by cliffs. A nice town is perched at the top of the cliffs, and there are even police that patrol the beach to keep hawkers and gawkers moving along... Trash is cleaned up regularly off the beach too, so it's really nice and sandy. A few more nights here reading and swimming, and we'll head off to Cochin for one last night and then to Mumbai. I'm excited to see it, especially so since I just cracked Shantaram (soon to be a movie featuring none other than the demon barber of fleet street, Johnny Depp).
Off to the beach!
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