Waka-waka is Do It, Do It!!

When I was in the stadium, waiting for the kicks off, this song were playing repeateadly (plus the catchy Coke commercial + UN advert) So now I can never listen to this song like I listen to any other song. Some feelings are just to hard to fathom....

Waka-waka (This time for Africa) by Shakira

You’re a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
Get back in the saddle

You’re on the front line
Everyone’s watching
You know it’s serious
We are getting closer
This isn’t over

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you got it all
Believe it

When you fall get up, oh oh
If you fall get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Cuz this is Africa
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

Listen to your God
This is our motto
Your time to shine
Don’t wait in line
Y vamos por todo

People are raising
Their expectations
Go on and feed them
This is your moment
No hesitations

Today’s your day
I feel it
You paved the way
Believe it
If you get down get up, oh oh
When you get down get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

(Lady Singing)

Voice:

Tsamina mina,
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina
Tsamina mina,
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
(2x) This time for Africa
(2x) We’re all Africa

*I definitely lived up to the song!! ;)

Bragging Rights for the Next 4 Years

I know by now people would be sick of reading what I wrote on this label, but I have to get this one out..hang on, this is the second last post on this topic, lepas tu takde dah..tutup cerita and we start a new one OK?

The title is actually quoting what my colleague said to me first day I got back to work from you know where. He was among the first one that I told about my trip, a big fan of football himself, of course he was both excited and jealous of me when he knew about this 3 months back. Since then he gets excited everytime he saw me and too bad at that time he could not share it with anybody at work because I asked him to keep it a secret until I return.

I only told few key people in the office (breakfast kaki, and some of the cik-kaks gang). I did not even told my boss, as he is the kepochi type. He would make a big fuss over just some rumours ;p. Just before I left, we had a Dept dinner and somehow, one senior guy poked me to spill the beans, I keep a straight face, won't budge even a bit, denying what ever they were guessing (which was right anyway..hahaha..)

When I left, two guys in my dept (who were kept in the dark) somehow managed to find out and they started to spread the words..Imagine when I came back, I felt like celeb of the day..hehehe..but then till today not everybody in the company knows yet. I only told those that are close to me, and by this week, all the talks have vanished, they found new topic of the week already ;)

So there it is, 'Bragging Rights for the Next 4 Years' this one did not comes from me,OK ;) This guy actually dreamt of watching World Cup live too, but his immediate planning was his coming Euro Trip, so now he is determined to make it to the Brazil in 2014.

My trip to World Cup has sparked quite a few 'things', some good and some bad but I guess everything is all right now ;)

At VISA's booth! They painted your face and took your picture, later they gave cards with passcode and get the pictures from the internet..

See my journey since 2008 here!!

Cape Town : I have learnt....

1. Cape Town is an expensive city (transport, food, and general accomodation). But since we stayed in the backpackers lodge, its pretty much bearable. Just to give some idea, a can of Coke (325 ml) cost about R8 (~RM4) compared to our price, max RM1.50..tak ke mahal tu? Newspaper can cost R12 each, depending on which day, the lowest I get is R5 (I bought just remind myself of my birthday)
2. Halal food are aplenty, that is why I did not really focus on the food in my post. The location itself near the sea, so you can get a lot of seafood stores, tapi kalo hari-hari makan seafood pon bosan jugak kan? Best seafood, is at Kalky's in Kalk Bay.
3. The southern metro train line is the only ones that offers hop on hop off ride. Which is good as you can stop at most of the tourist attraction, Simons Town (they may fix the rail later..) Muizenberg, St James, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek. Do not stop at Wynberg, very dodgy place, unless you have arrangement to meet someone there, else, can just skip.
4. If you have international driving license, rent a car would be a good idea as you can get to much more beautiful places. But the rent is ~R200 per day + petrol ~R9 per litre, so you do the math. That is what I meant when we follow the DayTripper, it was worth it.
5. Souvenir, only shop at the tourist attractions' gift shop (Table Mountain, Castle of Good Hope and the Craft Market) The one on the street cekik darah..seriously. We tried asking for price of certain craft things (wooden teaspoon, kecik je pon tablespoon size) R25 (RM12.50) a piece, no chain whatsoever. I would be happy to buy if the seller is the one who made it, nampak sangat orang tengah amik untung..the price at gift shop is much better, although much more expensive if you compared with other country (one fridge magnet ~R35 (RM17.50))
6. Spoke to few other tourist and the locals, Cape Town has the most things to do and to see, compared to other town in South Africa (Jo'burg..etc) So definitely a good place to go.
7. Place for solat is almost nonexistent, (if you minus the Auwal Mosque). We did not find the mosque earlier as it is not clear in the map. Its actually very easy. From the main Buitengratch Street, you will see a boutique hotel Dutch Manor, turn into the street, the mosque is 2-3 doors away. (next to Dutch Manor, there is Nurul Islam mosque, but it is under renovation now..)
8. Hop On Hop Off bus is really worth it. You can try to cover all the attraction in one day (first bus at 9 am). We started late, around noon time, therefore we did not have much time to cover all. If you were to travel to those places by taxi, it will cost you more than R120 definitely
9. Like any other developing country, beggars are all around. For South Africa, unemployment rate is 40% (Malaysia berapa ek?) so any tourist will have at least one chance to be approached by these people. General rule of thumb, dismiss them politely. I was approached by this decently dressed guy asking for money to pay for shelter, for him and his son. We said no, and he just went away.
10. Its the company that matters, in our case, the company at the house. Most of them are American undergrads. They are on 2-3 months summer break and travel all across the Africa. After the game, the went back home straight, no drinking on the street. Nobody came back wasted, and they are the decent lot. Apart from the last night when a new group check in, there were some havoc around 2-3 am. Not sure what was the issue though..but the group that we hang out with while watching few games together are definitely the nice lot.
11. If ever going for backpackers style lodging, bring one small pan (at least boleh masak maggi) as they normally provide stoves in the pantry.
12. World Cup tickets: doesn't matter which category that you buy, local people get to sit at first tier (some lucky foreigners may also gets it). Good seats are given to those who bought Team Specific Tickets (TST). The only perks of Category 1 is you'll be seated close to the goal, not somewhere in the midfield, but level wise, they can put you anywhere...

That's it, as much as I can remember...all in all, it was a fun experience!! Glad that both of us made it ;)

Diamonds & Memories are Forever...

6th July 2010

Our last day in Cape Town!! For the last day, we managed to squeezed in few more main places to visit...(haha..sempat lagi tu..). It was drizzling when we went out and not far from the house, we spotted rainbow!! The background is Table Mountain.

About 5 minutes from our house, stood the Afrogem factory. I actually planned for one diamond factory tour, but since the company did not reply my email, I decided to let it slide. We pass by this factory everyday and spotted the Free Tour signage and decided to give it a try on our last day. We were taken to the manufacturing floor where all the jewelleries were made.

Ija bought few stones (nice cut btw) since the jewellery design is just asi-asi . But the stones are real bargain. For a total of 4 stones that can be made into one ring,one pendant and a pair of earring, she only paid less than RM 1K.

We target to go to The Bo Kapp Museum, but it was dissappointing. The museum sopposed to show the history of Muslim in Cape Town, I expected to see the items that was brough together by all these slaves from all over (maybe cooking utensils from Indonesia probably since Dutch did transport most of the Muslim slaves from there.) But what we see was just a house, with not much artifacs, the best that they have is posters showing how Bo Kapp used to be during British colonization. The second house link to the museum gave more about Islam, but still not much. I noticed that they emphasize much on the religious leader and some places where this leaders were buried was dedicated as shrine. We came across one shrine at Robben Island.

One old man that was manning the place was kind enough to show us one of the first mosque in Bo Kapp. This is after I asked him why all the mosques was locked when we tried to go in the other day. I could not get straight answer from him, but good enough we made way to the mosque, Auwal Mosque (est 1794). It was not even Zohor yet, so nobody was around, but it was not locked. The old man passed us to one young man that is studying inside the mosque. This young man, Sayed, is a Muslim revert, we spoke quite a while and from him I found out about the true Islam in Cape Town.

Although there is a big population of Muslim people in Cape Town, they are still looked down upon by other religion. This is because the Muslim youth is not living the Islamic ways. They partied and drank like nobody's business and some even got involved in crimes. Eidul Fitri is not gazetted as public holiday, but mostly the bosses acknowledge that their Muslim employee need that holiday and it was arranged internally within the organisation.

There is no objection from the government to practise Islam, but the Muslim community is not strong yet, they have no say in the cabinet. Probably that is the reason why it is so hard to find musolla in the shopping centre although the halal certificate is all over their fast food joint.

I wanted to know more and I think I can spend all day talking to that boy, but we planned to go to the Castle of Good Hope before 12pm. So we have to leave.

We got to the castle 5 mins before the ceremony begins. At 10am and 12 pm everyday, there is guard exchange ceremony that took place in the castle. We stayed until the ceremony is over and took a tour on our own (for guided tour, we have to wait and since we are running out of time, we just strolled by ourselves)

We bought lunch at one of the fast food in the area and took taxi home.

We did some last minute packing and managed to say goodbye to the lady in the cafe, Browyn. There were a few nights that we had dinner at this cafe, my favorite was tomato and lentils soup with toast, yummeh..no pictures though as we mostly forgot to bring the camera when we went out for dinner. The white lady is Stacey, the house admin, she helped us with all the day trip, taxi and safari bookings.

The taxi came at 3pm, we have to check in at 4.30pm. The airport is just 30 mins away but since we want to settle some tax refund, we decided to go early.

While waiting for check in, we had drinks at Mugg and Bean as our farewell bid to Cape Town.

It was showing repeat of Spain vs Paraguay.

We departed 2 hours before the Netherland vs Uruguay kick off, when the plane passed by Green Point Stadium, there was an undescribable feeling inside me. Definitely a memorable journey and I highly recommend to all those nature lovers out there, Cape Town is a must visit place, beautiful and will instantly takes your breath away....(macam nyanyi lagu pulak...hehehe..)

Of Bo-Kapp and Kirstenbosch

05th July 2010

We decided to take it slow today..(yes dieya..kitorang dah pancit..hehehe..) So started the day by walking to Bo Kapp and took pictures of the iconic colourful houses. Some of the Cape Town postcard took its background here..

I told Ija, "best kan kalo rumah kite camni, nak bagi direction kat orang, rumah aku yang biru cair..in between rumah kaler pink and kaler hijau, takla sesat orang nanti.."

Wanted to enter the Museum, but I guess we were too early. Then we head to Waterfront Area, to do some souvenir shopping ;) The giant red thing is actually made up of coca-cola carton, when we first got there, it was only at the waist level. After almost 1 week, they almost finished the head, that is how much coke was consumed during the world cup in Cape Town. Oh ya..we had breakfast at Love Revenge Cappuccino again ;) Outside the shopping complex, a football focus show was going on. There were quiz session and I didn't bother to participate because the questions were tough!!

We also went in the FIFA shop one last time (never failed to enter each time we went to Waterfront!!). The merchandise prices are above the roof!! I actually wanted to buy a Spain sweater (yang tulis España ye..bukan tulis Spain) but they were out of stock.

There is a craft museum next to the shopping centre and we bought most stuffs there. Price is much better than on the street, and they accepted cards as well.

We liked the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, so much, that we decided to go on it again!! We packed some lunch and board the bus at Waterfront, this time we planned to stop at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Although it is winter season, we can still see various species of indigenous flora that was planted there. During summer they actually have concerts in the garden.

I could spend all day here, enjoying the cool breeze and lovely sorrounding, just take the stresses away ;) We board the bus at close to 4pm and that is the last one. Its almost dark when we get to the last stop, in the city area. We walked back and have dinner at the house.

I snapped this picture when the bus passed by 12 Apostles going to Sea Point. Isn't it amazing?

Safari Day Trip

04th July 2010

I remember one of the first thing I wanted to do if I ever get to South Africa is to go on Safari Day Trip. So, its a must in my planning from the very beginning. I sureveyed quite a few game drive, and made up my mind to pick Aquila Game Reserve. Sounds familiar? yup, Amazing Race Asia was there. They were supposed to get a clue from the lions' place if I'm not mistaken.

They package includes a pick up from the place we stayed. We chose the early morning ride. The driver came at 0530H and drove us to the northen part of Cape Town. It took us 1.5 hrs drive to get to the game drive area. The outside temperature at that time is freaking 4.5 degC!! I was doubting can we ever see any animal in this cold weather. Package also includes breakfast and it is served in this magnificent cafe.

The game drive started at 9 something, we we put on the 4 wheel drive with another 4 persons. We were also given a blanket each, (must be due to the cold weather..hehehe..) The driver greeted us and explained about how the drive will take place. The animals are free roaming and we may not get to see them, but he will try to find them for us. We can also go on quad bike like these kids did. Thanks but no thanks, I'll freak out once the elephant or rhino gets close and then I froze, how??

First 30 minutes, we didn't see anything and just about when I wanted to ask for refund, we spotted the white rhino and the baby. It is huge...Later we went on the see zebras, springbrook (national antelope for South Africa). They have this Big 5 which are (rhino, giraffe, elephant, lion and springbrook). All these animals are featured on SA's stamps. We get to see all of them, plus the giraffe, well the giraffe were very far, so we only get to see the tiny bit.

The lions were placed separately from the other animals, for fear they will hunt them. We enters the gate to lions area and according to the driver, sometimes, the lions are up in the mountains, and we may not get to see them. But we did, they just had their meal...(nasib baik singa tu sume tengah kenyang...)

After 2 hours of game drive, we were driven back to main building. They also have huts all over, in case you want to take the overnight package for the night safari.

The driver drove us back close to 12. The journey passed by miles and miles of grape farm, (not wineyard though..) Both me and Ija fell asleep on the way (bangun kul 4, mana tak ngantuk?)..hehehe..

Got home around 1330H and after lunch at Nando's We decided to call it a day :)

Table Mountain & 2nd game day : Germany vs Argentina!!

03rd July 2010

We started the day by taking taxi from the house to the cable car going up to the Table Mountain. It was only about 20 mins from the house.It cost us R30 for both of us. We can also walk up to the peak - 2 hrs walk in the cold weather, no thank you ;). Luckily the weather was good and the cable car can be operated. So we took the cable car up. One trip can fit 60 persons.

The view from top is simply magnificent. There is a cafe and gift shop on top of the peak. The cafe is so cozy,both me and Ija decided to have coffee there while hanging out, looking at people. After a while we browse through the rest of the peak. There are few points to see different parts of Cape Town from up above. We could also see the Signal Hill where we went during our second day here.

Anybody up for this?

We got down around 12pm to make way to the stadium. There were a lot of taxis and van waiting take passangers. A van driver approached us and offer R60 for both of us to go to the Waterfront. We think its a reasonable because from house to Waterfront also cost us another R35. So we agreed. The van kinda dodgy, they waited until its full then only they made a move. Going downhill suddenly the van died. It was at an intersection, people were honking, finally the driver managed to start the van and when we got to the city centre, it died again...We were placed to his friend's van and squashed to sit in between the existing passangers until Waterfront. The taxi pass by Green Point, and I saw the Fan Walk.

Fan Walk is a route from city center (Fan Fest) where are the concerts were ongoing dedicated for the fan to walk to the stadium. So I decided to drop at the fan walk and join the rest of the people walking.

We spotted one stall selling halal food and decided to get our lunch there. I bought the Boerewors roll. It tasted so good, I was so sorry I did not bought two.

From the stadium, Ija make way to waterfront while I enter the stadium alone, yup, she did not have the tickets. I think its a bit pushing it to drag her who was not a hardcore fan like me to begin with to both games (ye la..satu game dah berapa hundred USD, I am lucky enough that she agrees to come with me to Cape Town)

From here, the story gets kinda interesting. After the first game, I sort of know the layout of the stadium, and from my ticket, I am getting a third tier seat!! So I figured probably I go down, take pictures during the players warming up, and later go up right before the kick off. So I asked the FIFA volunteer to enter the first tier area, I was rejected, I was told to take pictures from my seat :(

I was not ready to give up, I stayed at the walkway to first tier and when nobody saw me, I jumped the seat and voila, I'm in ;) So there I was, sneaking in and tried to blend in the Argentina's supporters. Having a baby blue sweater sort of working for me ;) I met one Ghanaian lady, she was there by herself too. I told here where my seat at, she just suggested that I stay, in case any seats were not taken..hehehe...So I did, during the warm up session and total first half, I could not really concentrate for fear that the actual seat owner comes and claim the seat!!! Come half time, one American guy came up to me and said..

" You are sitting at my seat, I want my seat back."

Me of course having no objection whatsoever, walk away and go to my third tier seat, no problem.. I got these pictures already..hehehe.....

This is after I got to my OWN place..hehehe...what a view, eh?

I guess by now the whole world know how they game went ;) After the game, I walked to waterfront to meet Ija and we walked back home. When we got home, the Spain vs Paraguay game was about to kick off.

So we decided to hang out in front of the TV with the rest of the backpackers and watch the game together. Seems like the whole house is rooting for Spain, yeay!! After the triple penalties that can cause heart attack, Spain finally made their way to semis and will be up against German!!

Historical Lesson in South Africa

2nd July 2010

What is the first thing that came to our mind when people say South Africa? Apartheid of course. It still baffles me how people can diffrentiate others just by skin colour and their races. Apartheid regime ruled South Africa from 1948 to 1994. In all those years, many people has rebelled towards apartheid and many of them are political leaders.

South Africa was ruled by the Dutch for 250 years, before English took over for another 100 years, so they were never really freed until 1994. In all those years, the Dutch and English ruled other countries as well, (including Malaysia) hence you could expect the same rebellion taking places in those countries. The leader (rebels) from all over the world were taken into custody and sent to maximum security prison situated at Robben Island. The island housed a prison complex and only facilities to staffs of the prison.

After apartheid was knocked down, the political prisoners were released and criminal prisoners were relocated. So the complex was restored and opened for visitors.

We bought the ticket to Robben Island Tour on my birthday but the trip was cancelled due to bad weather, so we differed to this day.

We took the 9am trip. The jetty is situated at Waterfront, the boat is the big one (like the one going to Langkawi) . On the way to waterfront, we spotted this!!

The tour on the island is led by ex-prisoners, and they told us first hand how they were treated back in those days. We were taken on the bus tour, and the guide is this man Yassin. He was really entertaining. He started by asking around the bus where we all came from, and he relates his narration to each and every country that was on the bus. His ancestors were both from Malaysia and India, so he said to me, we probably some 3rd or fourth cousin..kelakar la pulak...;)

He made a lot of jokes, one that gets the most laugh is,

Q: Why India can never win a football match?

A: Because everytime they gets a corner, they open a shop.

We passed by few main landmarks. This one is the house where the pioneer rebels Robert Sobukwe was kept. I always thought Nelson Mandela was the one who started it all, apparently I was wrong. Read more about the late Sobukwe here.

We we are also taken into the inmates cell, shown artifacs of how the prison cards look like. We had the chance to go to the block where Mandela spent his 27 years in imprisonment. In each cells they posted personal experience of former inmates, on how they were arrested, under what act they were charged, so on and so forth.

We were also shown the limestone mine, where the prisoner was tasked to work there during day time. Limestone is white as it is, the scorching sunlight in the day makes it hard to work. This task were given not to get the limestone, but serve as a sort of punishment. Many of the prisoners were blinded due to that punishment.

My camera battery died here during the beginning of the tour, so I do not have that many pictures, more with Ija, but have not met her yet since we came back. So I kinda forget what we did for the rest of the days...bole tak? hehehe...Will update once I got the pics from Ija.

Day Trip : Worth It!!

1st July 2010

When we consulted the house admin on how to get to certain places, we found out that we could not go to this one particular place, Cape Point, which I really really really wanted to go. Reason being is that there is no public transport going there and both of us do not have international driving license to hire a car. So she suggested we follow on a day tour. I found out about that in the net but at first I thought it was not worth it. But seeing the difficulties that we faced, I am willing to take the tour.

So we paid R545 for a day tour. The driver pick us up at the house around 0830H and later went on to pick up the rest of the pack. We have with us 2 French ladies, one American guy, 2 Indian guy, 2 more American (a guy with his father..sweet kan? but he's married, - yup, I checked the finger, boleh? hehehe...) 2 German guy, a Korean kid (he's still in uni) and a Columbian lady.

Our tour guide, Alex, is very good, he was willing to answer all kind of question. From him we found out that the train rail to Simons Town are out of order, that is why we could only got to Fish Hoek the other day (even people at the station didn't think to tell us that..)

So off we go to our first destination, Hout Bay with options to go to seal island. Both me and Ija went there already via Blue route yesterday, but we did not go to the seal island. So this time, we did. The boat is big but the waves are more nasty, turbulent waves to get to the island. There were few moments that I thought I would have thrown up. The island is not actually an island. Its just a big rock where most of the seals rested.

We bumped into a group of Indonesian that is being sponsored by Coca Cola to watch the World Cup (they won contest maybe..)

Next to Simons Town to visit the penguins, yay!! But we passed by this cliff with magnificent view and stopped to take some pictures,

Nak amik mcm aida, tapi salah shot..;)

We also passed by this part of the Cape Peninsular, they actually drilled onto the hill to make road. It look pretty scary though..

We finally hit Simons Town, we passed by the stone factory that was once used during Amazin Race Asia (the challenge where they have to find 3 marked stone out of thousands other stones) but we did not stopped there. Simons Town is popular of its Boulder's Beach, that is the place where they keep the African Penguin. The birds on its own will destroy their own food by stamping on it, so the center actually put a fence to new plants and opened parts by parts once the plants are ready to be eaten. (Yes, they ate plants apart from fishes..I just knew it too..) Entrance fee is R35 but included in the tour already.

Last but not least is what I have been waiting for, Cape Point!! We got there around 1330H, just about lunch time. At it is included in the package. We did asked for vege menu, as we are not sure what kind of meat that they have. We combined with another van (same co. tour) and the other driver bought us chicken salami, it was nicely wrapped. I told Ija just take it, sebab orang dah belikan, so just being polite, we took the chicken and later left it at the house pantry.

Entrance fee to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was R70 but it was paid for (in the package). We were driven to the cable car station going up to the light house. There is also staircase for those who opt to do a 'healthier' way. Me and Ija climbed up with majority of the people. The view from the light house was magnificent!!

Next we cycled from the Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. It was around half and hour cycle downhill. On the way we bumped into ostrich and baboon. We were told not to stop as babboon can get really nasty. We took more pictures here, more here.

We got home exhausted, like any other day and crash to a really good nite sleep ;)