Cape Town is One of the World’s Luckiest Cities

Cape Town, or the Mother City, as South Africans describe it, has it all. Literally.

Mountains, beaches, history, great food, great shopping, vineyards, a location to die for – and despite the mockery of people from Johannesburg, it actually doesn’t even have such awful weather.  It does rain, that’s true, but that explains why it’s all so lush and green.  It does get misty, but that’s what you get for living at the tip of Africa, washed by two oceans. 

Cape Town, when the sun is shining, with Table Mountain watching benignly over the sparkling sea below, is beyond fabulous.

Table Mountain is as good a place as any to start exploring the city, because from its peak you get a wonderful view over the city, with the mountains behind the city bowl, and, out to sea, Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 long years, under the apartheid government.

You can walk up Table Mountain – it’s a bit of a slog, but well sign-posted, and there is a certain smugness about doing it the 'hard' way. By far the easiest and most picturesque way up Table Mountain is via the cable car, which thoughtfully rotates to give everyone a fair chance of seeing the different views of the mountain and the sea.

Robben Island should be on everyone’s To Do list.  Take a boat from the V & A Waterfront and experience a truly historic visit. All of Robben Island was a prison during those grim apartheid days, with Nelson Mandela the highest profile inmate. The guides who show you 'round the island today are ex-detainees themselves, but all political prisoners, not criminals, and they bring an added insight into an iconic place.  You see the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and the quarry where he was made to work; it was the glare and the dust from the years of labor in the quarry that has so affected his eye-sight in the years since his release.

The V & A Waterfront is one of the magnets of the city: shops, restaurants, brilliant craft markets, a boardwalk with views of the harbor, the mountain and with noisy sea lions lolling about by the fishing boats, and the Two Oceans Aquarium.  The Aquarium is truly excellent and has the added draw, if you are a qualified scuba diver and also a slightly lunatic seeker of thrills, of allowing you dive with the sharks in one of the huge fresh-water tanks. It is actually a lot of fun, though as you sit on the rim of the tank, looking down at the sharks circling below you in the freezing Atlantic water, you are forgiven for having a moment of 'What on earth am I doing here?'

There are many less stressful ways of enjoying Cape Town, of course.  Drive down the coast to Cape Point, on the tip of Africa, which is set in the Cape Peninsula National Park.  Seeing ostriches walking along the beach, among the sea weed, is a great thrill.

Drive to the pretty village of Boulders and see the Jackass Penguin colony there.  They wander pretty much at will, so there are signs reminding you to check under your car before driving away.  There is a boardwalk down to the beach, and as you walk down, look out for penguins, nests, eggs, and fluffy baby penguins at every turn.  And yes, there are massive boulders on the beach. And yes, the penguins really do bray like donkeys, hence their name.

Drive through the mountains, over Chapman’s Peak, visiting the string of pretty villages that constitute many of Cape Town’s more beautiful suburbs.  Visit the stunning Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which nestle at the foot of Table Mountain.  The Malay quarter of Cape Town, called Bo-Kaap, is well worth exploring, with its brightly painted little houses in eye-popping colors. At 12 o' clock every day, the Noon Gun is sounded from the Observatory above Bo-Kaap, in a centuries-old tradition.

Cape Town is surrounded by vineyards, and each one seems more picturesque and beautiful than the other. Many of the wineries offer tours and wine tasting, amongst the most famous being the gorgeous Vergelegen estate, which dates back to 1700.  Vergelegen has not only vines and peacocks that wander around the open-air restaurant, but also an avenue of exquisite old camphor trees, which are actually national monuments, and therefore protected.

Shopping, excellent sea-food, world class wines, mountains, beaches and history, with fabulous views in every direction – the Mother City truly has it all.

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Courtyard 7 - A Gem Amongst Hotels

Visiting Beijing, as a tourist you owe it to yourself to visit this hotel for a few nights, it's a gem, if a little difficult to get to by taxi.

Situated in the middle of the hutong part of Beijing, this traditional courtyard dwelling has been tastefully turned into a small and very comfortable hotel. It's not difficult to find, but be prepared to walk or take a rickshaw as the normal taxis can't, or more truthfully won't enter this district. Not due to anything you should worry about, just the streets are small and often crowded so driving is difficult.

The hotel is comfortable and pretty traditional, the decoration fits the hutong style and the rooms are compact but well fitted, the bathrooms are excellent. From the outside you'll wonder what you are in for, from the inside the staff are warm and friendly, they can't do enough for you and they speak pretty good english too. Through reception is the first courtyard with restaurant and bar to one side, immaculate toilets to the end(been to China? You'll understand the importance of this once you have) and then a secure gate allows you through to the two traditional, spacious and quiet courtyards which are well laid out for summer use with seats and tables. Off these are the rooms, with modern electronic locks, though security here is never and issue.

Each room, some with private courtyards too, has a traditional four poster bed, which can be a little hard for some, tiled floors which are heated, air conditioning, fridge, coffee tray, guides, complimentary water, and somewhat old but functional phone system. On the whole very comfortable, but a little cold in the midst of winter.

The bathrooms are modern with lots of tiles and wood. Well laid out, everything you need including shaver points, hair dryers, comfy robes, towels, flushing European WC, and large shower with heat lamps and lashings of hot water generated via a ground source heat pump system... Green credentials too at Courtyard 7.

Food is provided via a small restaurant and bar. I never ate in the evening, preferring street food and local restaurants which are many and excellent value. The breakfast is comprehensive, fresh fruit, meats and cheeses, cooked (sometimes cold) and also fresh cooked eggs and omlettes. Cereal, coffee, tea and fruit juices are also included, so you won't go hungry in the morning. Service is good and friendly. In the evenings the bar is pretty well stocked and prices very reasonable, but there are plenty of small bars and tea shops close by too worthy of a try.

Within 2 minutes you are in the heart of the local tourist street and there is plenty to see and buy. Its a little tacky in places, but for the most part good fun and great to people watch and explore. Good bargains can be found, but if you really want to bargain hunt try else where. We tried a number of street food outlets and never suffered, plus even though it can be very busy at the weekend, we never felt unsafe, China and particularly here is tourist friendly if you obey the normal rules.

The hotel can offer trips to the Great wall and Ming tombs, via a private car and driver. Worthy every yuan, they take you in comfort to the wall, water included, and the tombs over about 8 hours for 150yuan per person. Easy to arrange and charged to your bill.

All in all a gem of a hotel if your prepared to venture from the centre and big corporate hotel chains. Give it a try!

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Johannesburg is a World-Class City

Jo’burg.

Jozi.

Egoli, the city of gold.

Whatever you call it, Jo’burg is one of the most dynamic and exciting places on the African continent, a heady combination of big and brash, rich and poor.  It can be a volatile place and has undeniable crime problems, and yet it's the driving, dynamic power-house of Africa.

Johannesburg is a world-class city, with stunning food and shopping, efficient and friendly people, and a good infrastructure.  Add to this excellent hotels, dazzling shopping malls and wonderful shops, and you are all set. 

You can easily spend a full day wandering around the malls in Sandton, the shopping and business heart of Johannesburg.  The iconic Sandton Square was re-named a few years ago, and is now Nelson Mandela Square, dominated by a massive statue of Madiba, the nation’s favorite leader.

If you are in town on a Sunday morning, head off to Rosebank Roof Top Market for yet more shopping, but of a totally different kind.  This weekly market is a magnet for crafters, who come and set up their wares in the unlikely venue of the multi-story car-park on the roof of the Rosebank Mall – hence the name.  Handicrafts from all over the country, home-made food, face-painting, artists, funky clothing, second-hand book stalls, musicians wandering around, all combine to make the Roof Top market a Jo’burg institution.  You will be surrounded by Jo’burgers out relaxing and doing what Jo’burgers do best – shopping.

Other than shopping and eating, what else is there on the “to-do” list for Johannesburg?

There are two museums which are absolutely not to be missed.   The Apartheid Museum, which explains the tragedies and inequalities of apartheid in a striking format with a novel way of portraying the nation’s troubled history.  As you enter the museum, you are randomly classified as either 'white' or 'black' and as such, you view exhibits from different places, different angles, forcing you to look at things anew.

Another must-see is the brand new Origins Centre, a dazzlingly new and innovative museum, which uses cutting edge technology to explain the origins of mankind, much of it centered, appropriately, on the African continent. The Origins Centre is located on the Campus of Wits University.

In the northern part of the city, check out Montecasino, a shopping, restaurant and cinema complex themed around an Italian village.  It has recently added a state of the art theatre, and as you wander through cobbled streets, past laundry hanging from tiny balconies, watching the sky change color from evening to night, you could be forgiven for thinking you were indeed in Italy, instead of the biggest city in Africa.  Sit at a pavement café and watch the African world go by, under an imaginary Italian sky.

Enjoy Johannesburg, the city of gold, Egoli.

Travel tip: Johannesburg has a reputation for being an unsafe city, but it's largely a question of knowing how to live in the city, how to be aware, and of keeping your antennae finely tuned.  You lead a different kind of life in Johannesburg.  You don't wander around the city, certainly not the downtown financial area.  When you drive, you always have to remain aware of what is going on around you.  You are, basically, much more alert and more cautious than you would be anywhere else in the world, visiting a new place. 

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Excellent Hotel - True to The St Regis Brand

I stayed at the St. Regis for 5 nights after I became quite ill in Beijing. It was a real bummer! I was supposed to be backpacking along the great wall, staying in hostels and guest houses on a budget. I woke up on check out day from a mid range hotel in Beijing, ready to explore the great wall, but I woke up very ill with a powerful virus. I decided that I needed to cancel that trip and get well, and I wanted to do that in a place with total comfort, no need to leave the hotel, and no annoyances whatsoever. 

So, I chose the St. Regis. I splurged, but I figured that I will likely not leave the room for 5 days, so I will get the most out of this luxurious splurge.

The room is amazing. I had the entry level room. The bathroom and bathroom amenities are divine. The bed was delicious. The TV was amazingly high quality, and I was able to connect my macbook with hdmi cable and watch movies from my computer on the TV very easily. The furniture was very comfortable.

The breakfast was good, and had a huge variety, but the juices are not great. I am quite picky with juices, and the orange and grapefruit juices are not very fresh. They had a funky, kind of fake taste.

The lunch special at the italian restaurant was amazing. The minestrone soup was the best I have ever tasted, and I come from Chicago with its fare share of Italian restaurants. The Japanese restaurant made me feel like I stepped into Japan. The food there was also quite good. The room service food was ok, but not great. The descriptions of the dishes were sometimes not very accurate. But overall, pretty good.

The concierge was not good at all. I almost complained to the management. He gave me a quick negative response to a question I asked. I had to coax him along to actually find out the information I wanted. In the end, he still failed. This was quite annoying and not up to par for this hotel brand.

Overall, the stay was excellent, and the quality and cleanliness was top rate. The housekeeping staff are excellent. They provide ample amounts of free, bottled water, as opposed to some high end hotels that charge $10 for a small bottle of evian! The laundry service was expensive, but excellent.

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The Sumatran Rhino’s Most Striking Feature is its Twin Horns

While traveling throughout Southeast Asia experiencing the foods, the customs, the different ways of life, it's easy to overlook the wildlife. One inhabitant that deserves attention – the good kind – is the Sumatran rhino.

Nobody could describe the Sumatran rhino as ‘a looker’. In fact, the stocky, stumpy monster mammal with reddish-brown skin is spectacularly ugly. One Sumatran rhino hallmark – shaggy hair sprouting from its ears – raises the specter of an ageing human male in need of ‘manscaping’.

Unfortunately, unless we wise up, the Sumatran Rhino could be doomed to go the way of the recently discovered Tibetan woolly rhino species [http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/02/science/la-sci-woolly-rhino-20110903]. Only some 270 Sumatran rhinos survive – speckling Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.

Horn hoax

The Sumatran rhino’s most striking feature is its twin horns that hunters covet for alleged medicinal properties. Highly valued as a supposed cancer cure rhino horn fetches more than gold [www.skynews.com.au/eco/article.aspx?id=650547&vId] – as much as US$30,000 per kilogram on the black market. Yet no evidence actually exists to back the assumption that rhino horn helps your health.

Under 300

Still, humans keep hunting the stunningly clunky species, whose armor-style plating offers little protection against attack. No wonder the species is now ranked critically endangered [www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=6].

Just to make the rhino’s prospects more precarious, it is a loner, which makes breeding tricky. So too does the female’s unwillingness. She's only 'in the mood' once every three or four years. And then you know about it.

Tough love

The Sumatran rhino courtship dance is violent. It starts with a male multitude fighting over who just gets to chase the female. Then, the winning alpha rhino marks his territory with dung. Then, underlining the herbivorous mammal’s unromantic outlook, further fighting erupts between the male and female before they finally get down to it. No wonder the females are normally in no hurry to breed – doubtless, they would rather just wallow in mud.

Chatterbox

The low reproduction rate is tragic, because the horned hermit cuts one of the most imposing figures in the Asian animal kingdom. Also far from dumb, it makes three distinct noises: ‘eeps’, ‘whales’, and ‘whistle-blows’.

The eep – a one-second yelp – is the most common sound. The whale, which echoes the humpback whale’s call, is the most song-like sound and the second most common. The whistle-blow consists of a two-second whistle then a burst of air. The whistle-blow is the loudest call the hairy rhino makes – loud enough to rattle a zoo cage’s iron bars.

Crack the code

Mystery shrouds what the calls mean. Perhaps they convey danger, sexual readiness (a long shot for females), or geo co-ordinates. Or who knows? Perhaps the Sumatran rhino lacks the proverbial rhino hide it needs and is begging: “Please, stop hunting us! It’s not worth the effort. Our horns are made of keratin — the stuff your hair and nails are made of!"

See them in Indonesia

The Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia houses the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary and gives travelers the opportunity to see other native species such as Sumatran tigers, Sumatran elephants, and the white-winged wood duck, plus myriad Southeast Asian species such as the leopard cat, gibbons, macaques and more. Guided tours are offered, bookable from eco-lodges and hotels in Bandar Lampung, a two-hour drive from the park. (http://www.agoda.com/asia/indonesia/bandar_lampung.html).

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Hilton Beijing Wangfujing is Superb in Every Way

Excellent property in a great area of Beijing. Top quality amenities and service in all of my 3 stays. The claw foot deep tub and the rubber ducky are really a nice touch. Will stay here again. As typical in Beijing there may be a 10-15 minute wait for a taxi during the busy parts of the day.

I recently completed my second stay in the past year at the Hilton Wangfujing. For the second time, they've proved to me that this is really an excellent property. The location is excellent and just about as central as you can get in Beijing. From the tourist perspective, you're steps from the Forbidden City, Wangfujing Pedestrian/snack street and plenty of excellent restaurants. If you're headed elsewhere, you'll never be caught in a situation where you have to drive to/from extreme points in the city given its superbly central location. 

For the second time, I emailed the hotel concierge to arrange airport pickup, as well as a tour. They are incredibly responsive and we were able to arrange everything weeks ahead of time, at my leisure, without even picking up the phone. The week prior to arriving, I emailed the front desk to request an executive lounge upgrade, which they confirmed since I was a HHonors Gold Member. Upon arrival, I was met at the curb by a member of the concierge team, who whisked me upstairs to the Exec Lounge for checkin. They sat me in a comfortable chair and brought me a glass of wine as I checked in.

Upon arriving in my room, I was greeted with a tower of fresh sweets and cakes, along with a "thank you" card from the hotel manager for returning. The rooms are modern, large and very comfortable. 

The Exec Lounge has a nice breakfast spread, but it can feel cramped when business. The main restaurant has an absolutely superb breakfast with every type of food that you can think of. If you want western food, it's great. It you want Asian food, it's spot on. Do you want a special juice blend? If so, there's a guy standing there all morning waiting to make it for you. 

Service, overall, is excellent. The manager of the Exec Lounge is superb and goes out of his way to take care of their guests. Upon departure he gave me his card and told me to contact him if he could help in any way when traveling to Beijing in the future. 

I'll certainly be back.

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Mumbai is India’s Ultimate 21st Century Show-piece City

Finance, industry, commerce, Bollywood – Mumbai has it all.  Add to that a great location on the shores of the Indian Ocean, and it’s no surprise that Mumbai is one of Asia’s great cities.

Unlike the Indian capital city, New Delhi, where who you are and who you know is ultra-important, Mumbai is cosmopolitan and seriously easy-going.  Long used to absorbing people from all over the country, who still flock there in droves, lured by the eternal hope of fame and fortune, Mumbai has an open-hearted, welcoming feel to it. The island-city has a dramatic location surrounded by water, and since land is limited, Mumbai grows ever upwards.  Skyscrapers mushroom, constantly changing the city’s skyline, and at night the city is a blaze of lights.

Make your way down through the concrete jungle to the seashore, and you can still find traces of Mumbai’s early origins as a tiny fishing village.  Wooden fishing boats bob on their moorings, while nets are set out to dry in the warm humid sunshine, all against a backdrop of dazzling new architecture.

Any visit to Mumbai should start with the Gateway of India, the city’s principal landmark.  The archway was constructed in 1924 to commemorate the visit of King George V in 1911, and it is the place Mumbaikers flock to at weekends, to wander, to gaze, to snack, to see and to be seen.

The south of the city is the oldest and most historic part, and visitors should make time to see the Afghan Church, Horniman Circle and the Prince of Wales Museum.  A cruise along Marine Drive offers views of the city’s iconic skyline.  Lined by solid mansion blocks with views to die for, Marine Drive is home to traffic and joggers, to lovers and hawkers.  The whole of India on one dramatic drive.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his time in the city, and the picturesque Haji Ali Mosque on an island 500 meters out at sea provide different facets to this multi-cultural city.  Haji Ali at sunset, as the tide slowly laps over the walkway connecting the mosque to the mainland, is a magical sight.

At Dhobi Ghat, washermen literally wash the city’s dirty laundry in public, and in bustling Crawford Market you can shop for the freshest produce Mumbai has to offer.

Mumbai has malls galore – which Indian city doesn’t, these days – but much more iconic shopping can be done along Colaba Causeway, where you can haggle hard for Kolapuri chappals (flip-flops) and t-shirts.  Chor Bazar – or Thieves Market – is always fun, wandering through alleyways of antiques and 'antiques.'

It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to escape from Mumbai, but should you feel the need, hop on a ferry across to Elephanta.  From the iconic Gateway of India you take a boat out across the harbor, through the shipping lanes, and out to the 1200 year old Elephanta Caves.  These rock cut caves are some of the most important in the country.  The famous Trimurti, a massive sculpture of Shiva, showing his three faces – the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer – is the high-point of this visit.

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