Birthday & Beautiful World of Cape Town

30th June 2010

It’s my birthday!! I bought Ija a breakfast meal. There is this place in V&A Waterfront, called Love Revenge Cappucino, we had muffins each and I had tea, while Ija chose coffee. The muffin was very big, we could not finish at one go. It tasted healthy too..(not too sweet etc). I forgot to take the pictures. Ija didn’t even remember my birthday, guess she was still excited about the trip and forgot the whole thing ;p

Already bought the ticket to Robben Island yesterday and we went to Waterfront to catch the ferry. But due to bad weather the trip was cancelled and we have to differ to some other day. Since we are already at the waterfront, we decided to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus. For R120 a day, we can choose either Blue or Red route. Since the Red route covers most of the town area, which we can cover by walking, we decided to take the Blue Route. There are 20 stops altogether, but we only managed to stop at few places.

We passed by The Cape Town University, scenic route of Cecil Rhodes memorial, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Birds Park and few others. The tour is accompanied by audio narration in 17 languages explaining the histories and how certain places got their names. It was very informative and definitely relaxing. We sat on the second deck enjoying the view and chill breeze.

First place that we stop, Hout Bay, it’s a fishing area, with jetty offering services to go to Seal Island. The funny thing is, in the early days, Hout Bays merchant used to issue passport as marketing gimmick to attract people coming to this area. It was until one point, the passport holder tried to enter a European country using that passport and got away with it. Each passengers were given one and in there lies discount coupon to few shops in Hout Bay. We did not really shopped for anything.

We got onto the bus to and later decide on the bus on where to stop next. The bus route pass by few scenic beaches and breathtaking views. We also passed by the famous Twelve Apostle and approach the most expensive area in Cape Town, Sea Point. We decided to hop off there and see how the Upper East side of Cape Town feels like. Conclusion, too many tourist, doesn’t feel like Cape Town at all. But the beaches were incredible, waves were quite high and apparently the area is a surfers area. We also stumbled upon people doing paragliding.

After hanging around for a while, we hop on the bus again (blue bus come once in 45 minutes) and stopped at the city centre. From thereon we did some browsing for souvenirs in the city to be brought home before walking back.

The weather is cold as it is winter now in South Africa. On day time the highest it can get is 19 degC. At night it can go as low as 11 degC. I only took a shower on the evening, as I could not stand the coldness. The bathroom is outside the room, its on the alley going to the living room and its open air (the alley) . So you can imagine, after a bath while walking back to the room, some 2-3 minutes walk is done at 10 degC. (For Malaysian standard, memang tak tahan...). So for my morning pick up, till we get out and get decent breakfast, I need some hot drinks. There is pantry available but was a bit hesitant to cook food there, as I didn't know what was cook in the pots and pans before. (Nak samak..adus...duduk kejap je pon..)

But using the kettle is not a problem, so we stopped by a local convinient store and bought some local tea for my morning pick up ;)

p/s: till today I have not had post birthday cake yet. celebration with family will take place end of month when I go back SP ;)