Ambar Hamid World Travel Video Blog|The Wonders Of World Travel

Mar

Finally, We’re Here At The Cape Of Good Hope (Part 6)..

By Ambar Hamid · Comments (0)

The journey to get to the tip of South Africa was a scenic one indeed. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind doing it all over again

Simply gorgeous.

OK, we finally arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. There were already tons of tourists when we got there so Zoey and I decided to do a wander around.

Here are some pictures for you..

… and there was this stony hill by the beach and I saw people trekked up the hill. I didn’t do it cause I ain’t a climber. You never know that I might slip or something. Eeeeeeeeuuuwwwwww.. Hence no abseiling for me but watching is pretty cool for me

At this point, I was tempted to go by the shore of the sea because it was simply divine. The sky was still blue and clear. I mean, all the more reason to walk around this area and before I knew it, I found myself walking here like an object being forced by the gravitational pull. LOL

One quick note though, that there is no beach here, just lots of stony rocks that you can walk on. I didn’t mind.

The sea water around it was so clear and you can see the sand at the bottom. In fact, if you did watch the video you could hear me bumbling away about something. Well, what I was trying to say was that I saw this tiny little baby fish by the shore. I know, big deal… but it was so small and almost invisible and I found it really exciting..Hahaha

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Most of the tourists who arrived before our group had left and I immediately took the chance to snap a photo of this infamous sign. Obviously, I couldn’t be in the picture on my own .. Hordes of new tourist were coming. Darn…

Well, at least I had my pic taken. On to the next one

Categories : South Africa

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Mar

Our Onward Journey To Cape Point Continues (Part 5)…

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We left the ostrich farm about an hour or so later and we continued our journey to Cape Point.

Now before you moan about the amount of times that I have been showing you of the South African seas then allow me defend myself

Honestly, I do not think that the video does any justice particularly in comparison with the ‘real life’ view of the seas here.

I mean if you were here yourself , I’m certain that I could probably hear you say, ‘Oh My God!!!!’ several times

So if you try to envision yourself being here with the help of this video without the ‘light overexposure’ then I’m sure you’d appreciate it more. Whatever that means

If you don’t understand that, don’t worry…I dont either. Hahaha

Ok, here is another video of the sea from the coastal areas of Cape Point.

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I honestly thought that my visit to the ostrich farm was the last time that I would see ostriches again…

Boy, was I wrong.

This time these big bird creatures don’t just stay in its ‘caged’ surroundings but they do roam wildly in the coast.

Yes, these are some real WILD OSTRICHES…..

If you watch the video, you’d hear our tour guide, Martin explaining about the ostriches that they are bunch of ‘nice’ creatures and they don’t PECK humans…

Hmmmmm, I’m not sure if I would risk that and come close to any of these ostriches…even with 0.000000000001% of it happening

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Categories : South Africa

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Mar

Ostrich On The Prowl (Part 4)

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It was very windy when we finally arrived at the ostrich farm. The sky was still bright and blue.

I wasn’t going to complain

To be honest, I’d never seen an ostrich up close before in my life so this was definitely going to be really an exciting venture. The farm was huge. It’s like the size of a proper vineyard.

I saw a bunch of ostriches at the enclosure and went straight to them. They were big but I couldn’t muster the courage to getting closer to the fence because I might get pecked ….noo not really, they’re practically harmless..

Here is a picture of myself with the background of an ostrich trying all his might to peck me. Classic. LOL

My travel mate, Zoey is such an animal lover. She had probably snapped zillions of ostrich pictures. Bless her.

Here is another picture of the well fed ostrich…

..and of course, I have a video of the ostriches for you as well. In fact, on this video, you’d see the ostrich pecking away to their heart content and if you scrutinise intently, you’d see that some of them had wee cat naps and they shut their eyelids. Well, that’s just based on my speculation anyway, as they could be avoiding the dusts or small flying particles from the blustering winds.

Oh well, what do I know eh…

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The ostriches are amazing animals. Everytime when they lay their eggs, the owner would recycle them by turning them into souvenirs and art deco stuff. The wall of the eggs are really thick and hard so this would make it ideal for making other useful stuff.

The shop in the farm was amazing. They literally sold everything that could be made out of the ostrisches, eg wallets, key chains, carpets and other great stuff. I found it truly amazing. Nothing could really go to waste. This was indeed an eye opener.

Categories : South Africa

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Mar

Totally Unbeatable Views of Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak and Noordhoek (Part 3)

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If you have been following me around on my travels via this video travel blog for any duration of time, you can probably tell that I am not usually a serious person.

I like to joke around and have fun anytime, anywhere and whenever possible

But what I am about to tell you is seriously, I believe is my most sincere opinion about this place.

Now here’s the review

“I have never been to such a beautiful place in my life. This part of Cape Town totally blew me away! “

by Ambar Hamid

Now, you may use that testimonial anywhere if you like.I’m sure whatever it is you’re selling will be gone in just minutes.Total sellout…Hahahaha

But seriously guys, this place is amazing. In fact, amazing is probably an understatement. It is far more than that. The beauty is totally unreal and I am still in awe of its beauty to this very day…

OK, let’s go back to the blog shall we? We don’t want to get too carried away here…or is it just ME?

The journey to Seal Island was simply divine and as soon as we arrived back on the mainland, we immediately hopped on the van to go to our next destination and that was Chapman’s Peak Drive.

To my surprise, it was only minutes away from Hout Bay. Not wanting to miss any opportunity to record every moments of the day, I quickly took out the camera from the bag and within seconds, I am all set to go, ready to shoot and record to my heart content

But most importantly, allow me to officially show you my entourage..

Yes, I am indeed a full blown DIVA-man..LOL

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The backdrop on the video is actually Hout Bay. Think of it like an overly humungous blue lagoon.

Here is the picture of Hout Bay taken from Chapman’s Peak..

Of course when it comes to beautiful scenic view, I gotta be in it..so here is my picture with the gorgeous backdrop

another picture of Hout Bay,

One last photo for you. This picture is interesting because if you take the
magnifying glass out, you can clearly see Seal Island in the far horizon..

Can you see it?

The tour man who I now remember as Martin, is a very kind man and he never stopped in giving us valuable tourist information about everything that there was to know about our trip. He’s like a knowledge bank filled with unstoppable stream of exciting data that you could never get enough of. It was all sooo exciting…

Our next stop was the Ostrich Farm and throughout the journey, we were driven via the Noordhoek coastline route.

I must tell you. It was really something. Simply put, I didn’t know the real definition of ‘Beautiful’ till I saw this…

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We also stopped by this spot where Martin started telling us about the story of the whales. It’s kind of interesting.

Now, if you do watch the video below you can immediately spot a whale in cement

…and of course you get to learn more about whales and orcas too..

so hit the play button. You know its a fair deal

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I think the South Africans are sports mad bunch. They love the outdoors. I mean who can complain, – weather here are just so good and lovely.

I did see people jumping off Table Mountain to paraglide down the slopes and this happened as I was walking back towards the hotel yesterday. I thought it was keeewwwwlll.

Anyway, I couldn’t help but to press the record button and show you a bunch of people having fun paragliding at the beach.

Here you go (video is a bit shaky though )

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Categories : South Africa

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Mar

Hout Bay View and Wild Seals at The Seal Island (Part 2)

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We arrived at Hout Bay in a gorgeous sunny weather. There was a slight breeze in the air and it was amazingly refreshing.
The tour van was parked very close to the pier and as we got out, we could see people peddling local souvenirs and wares.

It was interesting but I didn’t buy anything. My bag was way to overloaded with my overwhelming ‘crap’

Anyway, we bought our tickets to Seal Island to see wild seals in their natural habitat. It was ‘optional’ in our tour today so we had to pay ourselves for the boat ride. Don’t worry, it was cheap…

We didn’t have to wait for very long. I think it was less than 10 minutes or so when the next boat finally arrived to take the next tourists on board their not so ‘posh’ boat. Hahaha

The sea was a bit choppy and it made the the journey slighty bumpy. I didn’t mind because it made the journey more interesting. It reminded me of the ‘kiddie rollercoaster’ ride that I was on with my other adult friend while we were at Alton Towers… and yes before you start asking me a ton of questions – yes, it was indeed a kiddie rollercoaster and we were the only adults on it. Muhahahaha

..and again, before you ask – “What is Alton Towers?” .. It is a big theme park in the Midlands, England.

It’s far more exciting than Disneyland Paris and I go to Alton Towers almost once every year particularly during the heat of summer.

Here is the video of the trip on the boat starting off with an introduction from Zoey and I,

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followed by excited screams like little girls.

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I think because the sea was so choppy the rescue boat escorted us along the way. I’m sure someone must have been taken overboard by accident due to the sea condition. Otherwise, why would they be there in the first place eh? Hmm maybe we’ve got a celebrity on board. Hehehehe

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When we reached Seal island, there were literally thousands of seals basking happily under the warm sunny heat. They were so cute.

I had managed to snap some good video footage of those seals swimming around in the open seas.

Trust me, you’ll love it and that comes with a money back guarantee..Hahahahaha

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Categories : South Africa

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Mar

Nature Beauty Of The Extreme At The Peninsula and Cape Good Hope…

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I woke up to another beautiful Cape Town morning sunshine. Its funny isnt it on how the bright sunny sun could really change your moods to the better

Now today is going to be another great day. I had booked a full day tour to the Cape Peninsula and Cape Good Hope. I’ve had loads of recommendations about this trip and now I am just hours away from witnessing it myself

I had my shower and dashed downstairs at the hotel restaurant for my breakfast – just like what I had been doing for the past 2 days here.

The food was fine. Well, you know the drill, coffee, tea, omelette, croissant etc.

But today it was slightly different. Nothing too major but different.

I had managed to have a quick chat with this British couple whilst I

was in the queue waiting for my turn to order my freshly made cheese omellete – and you know, we talked about the weather, places and stuff like that. They were at the front of the queue so for obvious reasons they would get their omellete before me. I am not being childish here

Anyway, that wasn’t the interesting bit.

OK, do you want to know the rest of the story….

If it a yes, then I must warn you that if you are a bit squemishy type of person to try not to read the next paragraph and skip it to the next one.

I had told this story to many of my friends especially the girls and most of the instant feedbacks I had was a shrieking `Euuuuueeeeewwwww`.. LOL

OK, this is the story….

I turned my head briefly towards the chef . What I saw was nothing peculiar..I mean the chef was pretty oblivious with us who was standing and waiting in front of him. I mean surely he wouldn’t be able to cook if he continuously stared at us, right….. Duh!

Anyway he took 2 eggs from its box, cracked it open and out came a slimy ‘incomplete’ chick with feathers here and there. The guy whom I was talking to went blue and he quickly walked away along with his wife.

As for me, I felt rather sick and I could almost feel my vomit. Luckily, I had managed to control my thoughts and tried to think of the mouth watering food at The Ivy.

Realising the drama the chef had caused, he quickly grabbed a spatula and slid the ‘mess’ straight down his bin.

I didn’t cancel my order. I was hungry and I wanted the omellete real bad. You probably think that I have gone absolutely bonkers but I really do love omelletes.

Anyway, it finally came and I took it to my table. It tasted real good but I had to ensure that there wasn’t any ‘bits’ that wasn’t supposed to be there. If you know what I mean….

And yes, I definitely wouldn’t want it to end up in my mouth…EEEEuuuuueewwwwww

After breakfast, I went directly to the hotel lobby to wait for the tour man. This time it was quick as I didn’t have to wait too long. I think it was 10 minutes or so.

He was a nice and friendly and walked me to the van. Honestly, I know it’s bad but I seriously could not remember his name.

The van was packed with tourists like me and not to my surprise, it was full with the Brits.

I got in and sat at the back. There was not much of a choice really. I was the last one to be picked up and it also marked the beginning of our journey for one whole day today …

Our next destination was Clifton and Camps Bay. Whilst we were on our way there, I befriended this lovely young lady named Zoey. She works for Virgin Atlantic and instead of going real bored staying at the hotel, she decided to go on a tour and guess what, she met me LOL …It’s fate you know..

Anyway, we started yapping about things and in just 10 minutes, we had arrived at Clifton. Clifton was the place I went to yesterday for that beach party. It’s an amazingly posh residential area. You have some real well off people living here.

It is rumoured that David Beckham has a home here…and the ever so camp – Graham Norton

Luckily we didn’t stop. Instead we just enjoyed the view.

We stopped at the Twelve Apostles. It was really really spectacular. Weather was perfect. I loved it.

Here is my photo that Zoey took for me.

and here is the video showing you the surrounding areas,

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This next video also shows you the surrounding views of the Twelve Apostles but if you look real close, you will see a pool. Now that is not some ordinary pool.

The reason I say this is because there is no pipes to fill the pool up with water.

You see, when the sea rises, the pool gets completely flooded with cold sea water and when the sea subsides, the pool gets filled up.

People here would then wait till the water gets slightly warmer before they jump in and have a jolly good time.

Cool eh You can save a lot of money from the water bills..

This also explains that the sea water here is not for swimming. It’s just a friendly reminder to you guys so that when you do get here, try not to be so hasty to take everything off and swim. You might get some sudden respiratory problems or something Hehehe

I did warn you

However, there are many places in Cape Town that people can go swim but they are mainly on the other side of the Cape.

Quick reminder though, it is also shark infested…… well maybe baby sharks..dont wants us all to get paranoid like me

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We continued our tour heading towards Hout Bay after about 15 minutes at the Twelve Apostles. The journey was simply divine as we were driven via the coastal roads of Llandudno. Gorgeous…

OK, I think this blog chapter is getting longer as we speak so before I start to blab any further, I am going to separate it into different chapters so it makes it easy in the eye and easier for you to enjoy and read my blog

Categories : South Africa

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Mar

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

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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….