Tuesday, July 20, 2010

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 ;)

6 comments:

  1. you make me more motivated to plan the 2014 World Cup trip, less shopping from now on to save more money!

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  2. Azita,

    Seronok baca your adventure! Nanti jalan, tulis lagik ye! :)

    Thanks for the tips and info share! I'm all into nature so kalo ada rezeki, buleh la mencuba. :)

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  3. kak liza: good to know ;)sy pon kena start simpan duit nih!!

    aida:insyaAllah, ade rezki tgk tmpt orang, bumi ciptaan Allah, kita kongsi sesame :)

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  4. thanks for succumbing to my unrelentless pressure asking you to write ALL about it :-D

    looking forward to brazil 2014!

    aida, jom? dekat dah ngan kampung senor tomi di argentina kan? perhaps we can drop by and visit his nenek moyang kat sana ;-D

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  5. i mean relentless !!

    punyalah semangat sampai double negative.. so spanish of me hahaha!
    u know like "no hay nadie" kind of double negative ;-)

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  6. dieya: no probs, all these things eventhough ada pics we can easily forget the story behinds it if not documented anywhere. I would want my 5 years old niece to read this when she grows up ;)

    btw : spanish suka double2 ni.. a mi me gusta...hehehe...

    ReplyDelete

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