Mar

Amazing! Cape Town Is The Place To Be…Part 2

I got back to the hotel bang on time and early enough to have a quick shower and freshen up.Now, I know that I didn’t tell you about my Cape Town City Tour this morning. I had completely forgotten all about it.

I don’t normally book any tours. I am more comfortable with travelling on my own devices but this time it had to be different. This time the place I was in was South Africa and I definitely did not want to end up in the wrong place. I hope you understand my meaning

Anyway, I got slightly peeved off because the tour lady didn’t turn up on time. I waited for her at the lobby for what seemed like hours. I contacted the tour officer in the hotel lobby and he said he’d get it sorted out asap. Obviously, he failed miserably.

She finally turned up and her excuse for being so late was because she had to drive her clients back to their hotels after their morning city tour…Hmmmmmm…

Poor management if you ask me….

People in the tour was amazing. There were friendly and interesting bunch .

We started off the city tour with a visit to the Parliment Buildings then to the City Hall and the Castle of Good Hope. I didn’t snap any pictures this time because I didn’t find these formal building interesting.

We then had a quick drive in the Malay Quarters or locally known as Bo-Kaap. Now, I found this to be an interesting trip. Most of the people here look so familiar. It’s just like being in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

However, if you look closer, they don’t look Malay too much anymore. I guess they got married with the locals here hundreds of years ago and everything is a bit mixed up now..LOL

We continued our journey to the Diamond factory tour. ..Now this was interesting. Let me explain…

As you enter the venue, you were greeted with a glass of wine and directed to a personal guide. I couldn’t remember what she was yapping about but I remembered that she explained about how diamonds were digged, and the whole end process.

They had lots of diamond making machine in there . They also showed us how these diamonds were polished. Interesting.

We were shown different colours of diamonds, Blue, green, white and the whole shebang.

I got a bit tempted to buy but wasnt sure what I could do with the diamond. Don’t ask me why. I love shopping. Its in the genes. LOL

If you had to know. No is the answer. I didn’t buy anything. I shied away from group and walked out from the whole thing.
I didn’t want to take my wallet out for things I didnt need..LOL

One of my new buddy on the tour helped me snap this picture.

I was starting to get on really well with the people on the tour bus particularly this Indian couple. They told me some great stories of their adventures in the States and other great places. It was truly exciting.

But the highlight of their story was about their adventure driving from the UK and all the way to India in about a month or so. I thought -”Oh My God – How I wished I could just sit behind their car!” That sounded like the ultimate adventure to me

We continued our journey towards Table Mountain and we were driven by the foot of the mountain. Now, I’ve got issues with heights so it was rather scary for me

Here are more pictures taken at the foot of Table Mountain (next to the cable car). You will also see that the ground is slightly barren. This was caused by a ‘muppet’ who threw a fiery cigarette butt and caused a huge wild fire. I was informed that this ‘muppet’ is now behind bars. Serve you right. Hahahaha. Im evil I know

I must admit that the day was really beautiful. We had clear blue sky. Simply Amazing!

Now my next ‘threat’ was the cable car. This cable car will take you all the way up to Table Mountain.

I must tell you that this mountain is really high and the temperature is slightly cooler than below.

Now, I’m sure I’d prefer walking up the mountain than taking the cable car but the thought of gasping for breath walking against gravity was enough for me to quickly change my mind.

To my surprise, the floor of the cable car rotated to give tourist 360 degrees view as it went up. Not good to me

Honestly, I almost peed myself as it went up but I managed to capture a beautiful video of Cape Town.

If you did see the video shaking, that was when I almost felt like fainting..LOL

This is a MUST WATCH video…

The ‘almost fainting experience’ on the cable car was worthwhile afterall as the views from the top of Table Mountain was simply divine.

The weather was just right. The sky was amazingly clear and the air was fresh. Gosh, It’s beautiful here..

There’s a walking trek that’d lead you around Table Mountain. I could not muster the courage to walk by the ‘edge’ of the mountain. It was just too overwhelming for me

This is another vantage view video of Table Mountain. You can also see Robben Island and Cape Town in the far horizon.

And more glorious pictures for you….

The journey back down wasnt so bad. I had met some nice people at the top of the Table Mountain to help me from any ‘fainting’ issues

For some weird reason, the video that I captured on the way down are not editable and subsequently it will not be embedded on this blog

I know its a bummer but I will try and figure out why it is so.

Anyway, the Table Mountain trip marked the end of our tour and we were driven back to our respective hotels.

During the journey, the tour lady (whom was incredibly late) shared with us a valuable tourist tip about a beach party that was about to happen.

The event was also broadcasted over the radio and so I thought if it did come out on the radio then the event must be interesting. Also, we were informed that after sunset, all participants would light up a candle and let it float in the sea and you’d end up watching thousands of lights

Hmmmm, how could I miss such a thing

So, here I went discussing the tour plan with my new found Indian couple.

I told them that I would go back to my hotel and have a quick shower then walk towards their hotel and get a cab together to the beach party.

It was literally a unanimous decision.

I got changed and when I was ready, the day was getting dark. I thought I’d better be quick before it really got even darker. I’d definitely did not want to walk the streets of Cape Town in the dark.

Anyway, I finally got to their hotel and we booked a cab as we previously planned.

It wasn’t really that far. I mean if we were to walk it – then it’d probably take us 15 minutes or so.

We arrived at the beach and the party was in full swing. They had a stage with singers singing jolly good old happy songs
Gosh, there were indeed a lot of people here.

I didnt mind because we were surrounded by some seriously nice big houses and Damn, how I wish I could live here.

Imagine waking up in the morning and walking towards the balcony and all you see is the stupendous view of the sea and breathing the crisp air. I mean how could you refuse

I didn’t want to sound boring but the weather was a bit chilly and I didn’t bring enough clothes to keep warm. What made it worst was we didn’t bring anything at all eg: things to sit on, sandwiches, party gears etc

In the end, we left the party earlier than we planned and yes, I did not get to see the floating candle lit occassion. Sob.

But hey, I still have some beautiful pictures for you….