Indian School in Erode
Wine tour in Stellenbosch, South Africa
Wine tour in Stellenbosch, South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
Train to Simonstown, South Africa
Day 37 Thursday October 2, 2008
Recap of my week in Cape Town:
Friday: Arrived in Cape Town in the morning. Beautiful port, table mountain, a huge plateau, looms behind the city. We are docked at Jetty 2 of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. There is a mall right across the road, we walk in, very posh and upscale, we have lunch there at a chain restaurant named Mugg and Bean. It’s good, the dollar goes pretty far. $1 = 8 Rand. Went to the aquarium, saw a bunch of stingrays getting fed by scuba divers, saw some penguins. Accompanied by Danika, Ginny, Kate, Kristen. Dinner at Green dolphin, live jazz. Head to Long Street, bar district for the night, go to a bunch of clubs. Predictable scene, not my thing, entertaining but I’m over it.
Saturday: Breakfast with Kristen at a pancake place. Going to Robben Island, Nelson Mandela’s former prison. Meet up with Kelly, cool SASer I haven’t met, she hangs out with us. Rickety old boat takes us to the island, used to take the prisoners there, it’s a 45 minute boat ride and quite rocky. Still tired from late night last night. Saw Nelson Mandela’s cell. Quite jarring to see how recent these injustices were, the specter of Apartheid is still palpable. Back to the ship, take a nap, dinner w/ Kelly at Mitchell’s, then a SAS trip titled Jazz Safari.
We hop in a van, our tour guide directs us to two Jazz musicians’ homes. The first is an older saxaphone player named Robbie. We eat curry with his family and he plays with JJ, a young keyboardist. They play whatever comes to mind. I brought my guitar, eventually I play a song, we jam. We talk about the Jazz scene, apartheid, colored townships, family, music, life. He’s a really cool guy, awesome at the saxaphone.
Then to the second musicians home, more experimental jazz, its cool though. Younger guy, plays everything, guitar, piano, indigenous instruments. It was a cool trip.
I get back to the ship and go out for a bit, run into Julien and Jess at the local Irish pub. No matter where you go, there’s an Irish pub it seems.
Sunday:
Stellembosch
Monday
Blue orange for breakfast. Lots of milkshakes on this trip. Today is Mango. Train back to ship, meet Yolanda, South African, friend of a friend of Kate’s from the states. Takes forever to find her, meeting her at the mall but accident has caused terrible traffic. She tries to take us to a drum café but its closed. She drives the wrong way down a one way street. Her friend Winston can’t follow her driving. She takes us to Canal Walk, a garishly costumed mall. Eat at a Native American themed restaurant, Spurs, with her and Winston. Winston has two young children, is wary of violent culture influence of America. Very nice fellow, works with educating kids in his spare time. Both he and Yolanda work for Water Conservation department of SA gov’t.
Yolanda takes us to Long street. Again, not my scene, not any of our scenes, we sit in an Irish pub/club “Dubliners”, watch drunk people dancing and laugh at each other. Regardless of poor venue selection, its nice to hang out with her, doubt she gets out much, she’s very cool.
Tuesday
Train to Simonstown (south of cape town, halfway to cape point, southern tip of the continent/cape peninsula) with Virginia and Alan. Eat at The Meeting Place, we share our meals, everything is good. Trying to get to Cape Point. Taxi drivers at train station don’t want to take us, tell us it’s a 4 hour drive and try to overcharge us. Its really only 35-40 km away. By the time we figure this out its too late. Companions need to go back to Cape Town for a field trip. I stay, because Simonstown is awesome. Reminds me of Maryland, Annapolis particularly. Naval base there, quaint, beautiful views. Book a room at a hostel and rent a bike. Rode to Boulders, a penguin viewing beach. Ride back to Simonstown, around town, up the hill, meet a Londoner and chat for a while, bike back, walk around. Encounter a church service, walk in, black south Africans wearing star badges standing in a circle. I join, we sing and dance for an hour and a half, they discuss church business in some other language for half an hour. At the end they explain, they are the Zionist Christian church and they are trying to establish a congregation in Simonstown. They want me to come to their song practice the next day, but I never made it, feel a little guilty. Eat pizza at Pescados, sleep in the hostel.
Wednesday
I wake up early, eat my left over pizza, start riding my bike to Cape Point. Not sure how far it is, and it’s quite hilly. Takes me two and a half hours, amazing views around every turn. I am riding through families of baboons, eyeing me curiously. Finally make it to the point area, hike up to the lighthouse, out to the point. Almost the Southernmost tip of Africa. Quite amazing. Sit there for a while. Interesting how people just go up, snap a picture, and leave. Some don’t even look for themselves. Uh oh. Storm coming in from the west. I hightail it back to my bike, I won’t beat this storm though. Luckily the rain doesn’t fall too hard, but I haven’t had lunch, legs start cramping up really badly. My legs die, but I’m near a phone so I call the Fitz’s to see whats up. Tough it out the rest of the way back, I’m drenched though and I don’t have any spare clothes. I ride the train to Kalk Bay, have lunch in a boxcar restaurant, Kalk Bay Expresso. Had another pancake dish, which are pretty much the same thing as crepes. Popular around these parts. Walked to Fish Hoek to buy socks. Train back to Kalk Bay, supposed to be livelier than Simonstown, but not really anything going on here either. Find a place to stay, take a shower, and walk around looking for a dinner spot. Olympic Café is packed, I decide to try my luck there. A nice couple from England invite me to eat dinner with them, I was hoping someone might. Carol and Alan. Carol recently moved to South Africa, Alan is her former coworker from London. We talk about SAS, Alan’s kids, Carol’s niece, music, politics, life. We exchange info, Carol picks up the tab, I promise to send Cd’s her way. Walk over to the “Cape to Cuba” bar/restaurant, owners obsessed with Cuba, décor is all Cuban. No one in the bar. Make friends with bartender, 22 year old named Rodwell. Hang out with him until he cashes out, then go to a local sports bar, meet his brother and friends, watch football, talk for a while, they walk me back to the guest house, will keep in touch hopefully. Glad I met some nice people, no regrets after all, even though I missed my meeting with Mark from the singing/dancing church thing. That would have been cool too. Next time I’ll be sure to get people’s numbers so I can call for changes in plans.
Thursday
Went back to the Kalk Bay Express for breakfast, chatted with waitress, Kim. Likes her husband, most of the time. Don’t know how that came up. Has two kids, very nice lady. Take the train back to Cape town, meet a mother and daughter, Sam and Alaska. Alaska really cute lively 5 year old, reminds me of Sara Jane. She wants to be a rock star, I give her mom my info (she sent me an e-mail the same day). So wonderful to meet them.
I’m back at the waterfront now, our ship will be departing in about 3 hours. There will be a local township choir performing aboard at 6 pm. I enjoyed my stay in Cape Town, I’m getting better at knowing when to travel with others and when to be alone, though they recommend not traveling alone at all. I guess it’s not so much being alone that I find necessary, but just staying far away from the SAS crowd. Maybe a small group would be OK. I did all of the big things that I wanted to do (except maybe skydiving), and I met some really cool people towards the end. Now, 12 days to India. I think I have my recording equipment figured out though, maybe I’ll get some more tracks done.
Day 41 October 6, 2008
The schoolwork is starting to get intense. I’m going to have a classroom concert soon, maybe invite about 30 people. Should be fun.
Day 44 Thursday October 9 7:08 pm
Lat 13º 3.8 E
Long 064º 13.49 E
Speed 21 knots
En Route to Chennai, India.
We stopped at Mauritius the other day for a fuel stop. I had classes/work all day so I didn’t get to see much of it. Industrial port area, buncha smoke stacks. Can’t imagine living on an island all of my life. Guess we all live on islands of different sizes.
On the MV Explorer, the student body is divided into “seas”, according to which hallway you live in. For example, I am part of “yellow sea”. There are 10 seas in all. Today we had the “sea Olympics”, with seas competing against each other in events from hot dog eating, to volleyball, to sudoku. My events were the Workout Relay and Jeopardy. I think there were about 20 events, and it took all day, but the Yellow sea emerged victorious. Hooray!
Recap of my week in Cape Town:
Friday: Arrived in Cape Town in the morning. Beautiful port, table mountain, a huge plateau, looms behind the city. We are docked at Jetty 2 of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. There is a mall right across the road, we walk in, very posh and upscale, we have lunch there at a chain restaurant named Mugg and Bean. It’s good, the dollar goes pretty far. $1 = 8 Rand. Went to the aquarium, saw a bunch of stingrays getting fed by scuba divers, saw some penguins. Accompanied by Danika, Ginny, Kate, Kristen. Dinner at Green dolphin, live jazz. Head to Long Street, bar district for the night, go to a bunch of clubs. Predictable scene, not my thing, entertaining but I’m over it.
Saturday: Breakfast with Kristen at a pancake place. Going to Robben Island, Nelson Mandela’s former prison. Meet up with Kelly, cool SASer I haven’t met, she hangs out with us. Rickety old boat takes us to the island, used to take the prisoners there, it’s a 45 minute boat ride and quite rocky. Still tired from late night last night. Saw Nelson Mandela’s cell. Quite jarring to see how recent these injustices were, the specter of Apartheid is still palpable. Back to the ship, take a nap, dinner w/ Kelly at Mitchell’s, then a SAS trip titled Jazz Safari.
We hop in a van, our tour guide directs us to two Jazz musicians’ homes. The first is an older saxaphone player named Robbie. We eat curry with his family and he plays with JJ, a young keyboardist. They play whatever comes to mind. I brought my guitar, eventually I play a song, we jam. We talk about the Jazz scene, apartheid, colored townships, family, music, life. He’s a really cool guy, awesome at the saxaphone.
Then to the second musicians home, more experimental jazz, its cool though. Younger guy, plays everything, guitar, piano, indigenous instruments. It was a cool trip.
I get back to the ship and go out for a bit, run into Julien and Jess at the local Irish pub. No matter where you go, there’s an Irish pub it seems.
Sunday:
Stellembosch
Monday
Blue orange for breakfast. Lots of milkshakes on this trip. Today is Mango. Train back to ship, meet Yolanda, South African, friend of a friend of Kate’s from the states. Takes forever to find her, meeting her at the mall but accident has caused terrible traffic. She tries to take us to a drum café but its closed. She drives the wrong way down a one way street. Her friend Winston can’t follow her driving. She takes us to Canal Walk, a garishly costumed mall. Eat at a Native American themed restaurant, Spurs, with her and Winston. Winston has two young children, is wary of violent culture influence of America. Very nice fellow, works with educating kids in his spare time. Both he and Yolanda work for Water Conservation department of SA gov’t.
Yolanda takes us to Long street. Again, not my scene, not any of our scenes, we sit in an Irish pub/club “Dubliners”, watch drunk people dancing and laugh at each other. Regardless of poor venue selection, its nice to hang out with her, doubt she gets out much, she’s very cool.
Tuesday
Train to Simonstown (south of cape town, halfway to cape point, southern tip of the continent/cape peninsula) with Virginia and Alan. Eat at The Meeting Place, we share our meals, everything is good. Trying to get to Cape Point. Taxi drivers at train station don’t want to take us, tell us it’s a 4 hour drive and try to overcharge us. Its really only 35-40 km away. By the time we figure this out its too late. Companions need to go back to Cape Town for a field trip. I stay, because Simonstown is awesome. Reminds me of Maryland, Annapolis particularly. Naval base there, quaint, beautiful views. Book a room at a hostel and rent a bike. Rode to Boulders, a penguin viewing beach. Ride back to Simonstown, around town, up the hill, meet a Londoner and chat for a while, bike back, walk around. Encounter a church service, walk in, black south Africans wearing star badges standing in a circle. I join, we sing and dance for an hour and a half, they discuss church business in some other language for half an hour. At the end they explain, they are the Zionist Christian church and they are trying to establish a congregation in Simonstown. They want me to come to their song practice the next day, but I never made it, feel a little guilty. Eat pizza at Pescados, sleep in the hostel.
Wednesday
I wake up early, eat my left over pizza, start riding my bike to Cape Point. Not sure how far it is, and it’s quite hilly. Takes me two and a half hours, amazing views around every turn. I am riding through families of baboons, eyeing me curiously. Finally make it to the point area, hike up to the lighthouse, out to the point. Almost the Southernmost tip of Africa. Quite amazing. Sit there for a while. Interesting how people just go up, snap a picture, and leave. Some don’t even look for themselves. Uh oh. Storm coming in from the west. I hightail it back to my bike, I won’t beat this storm though. Luckily the rain doesn’t fall too hard, but I haven’t had lunch, legs start cramping up really badly. My legs die, but I’m near a phone so I call the Fitz’s to see whats up. Tough it out the rest of the way back, I’m drenched though and I don’t have any spare clothes. I ride the train to Kalk Bay, have lunch in a boxcar restaurant, Kalk Bay Expresso. Had another pancake dish, which are pretty much the same thing as crepes. Popular around these parts. Walked to Fish Hoek to buy socks. Train back to Kalk Bay, supposed to be livelier than Simonstown, but not really anything going on here either. Find a place to stay, take a shower, and walk around looking for a dinner spot. Olympic Café is packed, I decide to try my luck there. A nice couple from England invite me to eat dinner with them, I was hoping someone might. Carol and Alan. Carol recently moved to South Africa, Alan is her former coworker from London. We talk about SAS, Alan’s kids, Carol’s niece, music, politics, life. We exchange info, Carol picks up the tab, I promise to send Cd’s her way. Walk over to the “Cape to Cuba” bar/restaurant, owners obsessed with Cuba, décor is all Cuban. No one in the bar. Make friends with bartender, 22 year old named Rodwell. Hang out with him until he cashes out, then go to a local sports bar, meet his brother and friends, watch football, talk for a while, they walk me back to the guest house, will keep in touch hopefully. Glad I met some nice people, no regrets after all, even though I missed my meeting with Mark from the singing/dancing church thing. That would have been cool too. Next time I’ll be sure to get people’s numbers so I can call for changes in plans.
Thursday
Went back to the Kalk Bay Express for breakfast, chatted with waitress, Kim. Likes her husband, most of the time. Don’t know how that came up. Has two kids, very nice lady. Take the train back to Cape town, meet a mother and daughter, Sam and Alaska. Alaska really cute lively 5 year old, reminds me of Sara Jane. She wants to be a rock star, I give her mom my info (she sent me an e-mail the same day). So wonderful to meet them.
I’m back at the waterfront now, our ship will be departing in about 3 hours. There will be a local township choir performing aboard at 6 pm. I enjoyed my stay in Cape Town, I’m getting better at knowing when to travel with others and when to be alone, though they recommend not traveling alone at all. I guess it’s not so much being alone that I find necessary, but just staying far away from the SAS crowd. Maybe a small group would be OK. I did all of the big things that I wanted to do (except maybe skydiving), and I met some really cool people towards the end. Now, 12 days to India. I think I have my recording equipment figured out though, maybe I’ll get some more tracks done.
Day 41 October 6, 2008
The schoolwork is starting to get intense. I’m going to have a classroom concert soon, maybe invite about 30 people. Should be fun.
Day 44 Thursday October 9 7:08 pm
Lat 13º 3.8 E
Long 064º 13.49 E
Speed 21 knots
En Route to Chennai, India.
We stopped at Mauritius the other day for a fuel stop. I had classes/work all day so I didn’t get to see much of it. Industrial port area, buncha smoke stacks. Can’t imagine living on an island all of my life. Guess we all live on islands of different sizes.
On the MV Explorer, the student body is divided into “seas”, according to which hallway you live in. For example, I am part of “yellow sea”. There are 10 seas in all. Today we had the “sea Olympics”, with seas competing against each other in events from hot dog eating, to volleyball, to sudoku. My events were the Workout Relay and Jeopardy. I think there were about 20 events, and it took all day, but the Yellow sea emerged victorious. Hooray!
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