Cape Town, South Africa
It is possible that Cape Town may be the best place on earth. According to the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui, Cape Town is the perfect city. It is shaped like a U – or an armchair with Table Mountain behind it and Lions Head and Devil’s Peak on either side. The ocean at Table Bay provides the water where Chi/energy is received and Robben Island, visible from the shore line, slows the Chi down as it enters from the ocean. The towering Table Mountain and Ocean opposite each other represent the balance of the yin and the yang.
I’m not sure if all that is true, but yesterday we rode and walked around most of the city and the natural beauty here is breathtaking. On the shores of Cape Town, the warm Indian Ocean meets the cold Atlantic Ocean. This means there are tons of beautiful beaches – all in close proximity – that are great for different things (swimming, surfing, kayaking and sun bathing all have their perfect spot).
The meeting of the oceans also makes from some interesting marine life, which we got to see at the Two Oceans Aquarium while visiting the V&A Waterfront area. I love aquariums and this one was excellent. The coolest part was seeing a lot of the animals from the Indian Ocean, I had never seen before like the South African Butterfly Fish and the Bird Wrasse (a blue fish with a big nose. . .oh now that I’m typing this, I guess it looks like a beak. Ha!). The aquarium also had an ultraviolet exhibit on jellyfish and a touch tank. I got reprimanded for petting the sea anemone too hard. . .womp womp. . .
We also saw some familiar faces from our safari at Kruger Park. The first was this wealthy American family – who we never actually spoke to, but they were extremely recognizable due to their obviously alternative parenting styles. The family is two parents with 5 children (probably all under 7).
The kids are wild and had all very clearly dressed themselves (the girl had a princess dress on for a safari) and every time we’ve seen them, none of the kids are wearing shoes!
Later in the day, we ran into two Turkish women who were in our own tour group at Kruger while doing a walking tour in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. They were a mom and daughter duo who were literally and unapologetically late for every single thing we did as a group – dinner, game drives, luggage packing, check out. You name it, they were the last ones to do it.
Josh found it fitting that my interests clearly coincided with those of a pack of unruly barefoot children and a Turkish grandma who gives zero you-know-whats.
The Bo-Kaap neighborhood tour we went on in the afternoon where we saw the mom and daughter, was pretty interesting. Bo-Kaap is in the Malay Quarter of Cape Town where many of the non-african enslaved people from the Indian peninsula and surrounding areas settled after achieving freedom in the late 1800s.
What makes this community unique are the brightly colored houses throughout the neighborhood. The residents often repaint their homes a different color each year as a celebration of the diversity of the neighborhood and as an un-ignorable reminder of the city’s history of slavery.
The neighborhood is also home to the first mosque in Cape Town, Auwal Mosque. Inside the mosque is a copy of the Quran written by Qadi Absussalam, the first Imaam there who – while being held as a political prisoner – wrote the entire Quran from memory!
None of the enslaved people were allowed access to books and most definitely not the Quran – so this writing out of the Quran brought religion back to a people who had had everything stripped from them.
Last night, we dressed up and had dinner at Doppio Zero’ a Mediterranean restaurant across the street from our hotel. We got a tasting board which featured several small servings of their popular dishes for sharing.
The meal was served with bread and dipping sauces one was green and looked like some herbs and the other was a garlic mix. Our waiter didn’t warn us that the green one was actually a seriously hot chili sauce (that was recently taken off shelves in South Africa because it causes too many intestinal issues due to its heat factor). After unknowingly spooning a big pile on my piece of bread, I thought I was going to throw up right in the restaurant from the spiciness. The entire side of my face where I chewed was numb. When I asked the waiter what it was I was eating, he cautioned “Chili Sauce. Only use very little.” Yeah, thanks buddy!
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