Cape Town

So I flew from JFK->Dubai (12 hours +3 hour layover)->Jo'burg(8hours +2 hour layover)-> I finally land in Cape Town(2 hours) after literally 27 hours of flying and being in airports. I found a really nice hostel on Long Street, the main party/bar area, Cat and Moose, which for R100(~$15) a night it was awesome. HIGHLY recommended.

The first night, Saturday night, was a bust, I went to sleep at around 10 after eating at some weird Indian place. Long Street was hoping, but I just got out of a 27hr marathon trip. It looked fun!

So in the morning, I try to figure out what I want to do. This was the initial plan for Day 1:

1. Wake up and walk to Victoria Waterfront and get breakfast, and book trip to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope
2. Go to Robben Island
3. Come back, walk to bus station pick up ticket for 19hr bus trip back to Jo'burg
4. Climb Table Mountain
5. Ride cable car back down
6. Party
7. Sleep

If everything worked out just as I planned, it wouldn't be, to quote my friend Nancy, "typical Zao-like shannigans". This is what ended up happening:

1. Woke up, booked trip, and got decent food at Victoria Waterfront
2. Robben Island tickets were sold out until Wednesday (I'd be in Zambia by then). FUCK!
3. Played drums with guy in his store for 15 minutes.
4. Walked to bus station to pick up ticket, but told by ticket people I needed to go to the Computicket (online retailer) office to pick it up.
5. Walk 2 miles to nearest Computicket kiosk, to be told that my reference number "did not exist" and I needed to go back to the bus station
6. Walk back to bus station, and get told that I didn't have a ticket.
7. Buy ANOTHER bus ticket
8. Climb to cable car station at Table Mountain, only to find it to be closed.
9. Climb halfway up and gave up due to the lack of light.
10. Walk back to hostel, chit chat with Austrians and Brits all night, because all the bars are closed on Sunday..yay Christianity.
11. Find out trip to Cape Point got cancelled, because I was the only one, in Cape Town, that was going.

Yeah, didn't really happen as planned. But it was a great time dealing with South African customer service. The one thing I learned about this experience is: YOUR REFERENCE NUMBER FOR ANY PURCHASE IS GOD!!! Fuck other forms of identification or the purchasing credit card. It is the reference number that counts. No number, no service.

So since day 2 got shot to shit, I decided to hike Table Mountain, successfully this time, with the 2 Brits I met. I also found CDO South Africa, and they had classes at night, so I thought about paying them a visit.

So the climb with the two girls was tough, but not impossible. Both of them beat me to the top, which was quite embarrassing. I ended up staying up there for sunset, but that didn't happen, since sunset was after the last cable car going down. It was still pretty though, check it out:

After climbing up, talking the cable car down, and an extremely expensive cab ride back to the hostel, I was thinking that I wouldn't go to capoeira. The mountain was a mile high and I walked a fuck load the last 2 days. But my love for capoeira (masochism) got the best of me and ventured to CDO South Africa with C. mestre Espirinnho. I've now played capoeira on 3 continents and 4 countries. Love the roda, and good people there. I wish them all the best of luck! Good folks. They did have an awesome studio, check it out:

I'm walking back from the capoeira place, at about 1030pm, and this guy come up to me. I've seen him the night before and he wanted to sell me some coke and liked my shoes. I first gave him no mind, until he says "I like your shoes, can I see what size they are?"

I tell him my size and he start measuring his foot against mine and trying to reach for me shoe. And walking me to where ever he wanted. I'm thinking "Is this guy trying to steal my shoes? With me having them on?" He keeps grabbing at my leg, almost doubled over, looking at my shoes. I finally had enough of him and told him to fuck off, which worked.

So the next morning I get up at 9, chit chat and say goodbye to the people I met, and head off to the bus station for a 19hr bus ride to Jo'burg. Yay.....