Bo Kaap and the V&A Waterfront

(If the embedded video above doesn't work, check it out on Youtube.)

Woot! :) Today was my first day really wandering far out into the city. I would say in all, I walked at least 8 miles, but it's hard to guess because the primary map I've been using doesn't even have a scale on it.

First I went up to Bo Kaap (the Muslim neighborhood I mentioned in my previous post) and visited the small museum there. I wasn't able to glean a ton of information from the museum that I didn't know already, but it was still interesting. The museum has about 5 rooms in one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, and one worker. What's cool is that they have an upper room connected to their courtyard that is used as a community center for the neighborhood. (Hybrid programming, anyone? :D) The Bo Kaap neighborhood has many descendants of slaves that were brought over from India, Malaysia, and Indonesia as part of the Dutch-East Indian Trading Company. The area is still definitely very Muslim and has several active mosques, some hundreds of years old. One thing that stands out (see pictures) is that many of the houses are painted vibrant colors (see pictures). They were built under government programs, so they are very similar in style and layout. Therefore, to "personalize" their homes, the residents have painted them in bright colors of their choosing. Combined with the neighborhood's steep, narrow, cobblestone streets, it's a very distinctive part of Cape Town.

I stopped in a few of the shops there, including Atlas Trading company that carries all kinds of traditional Cape Malay cooking spices. For over a hundred years after the first slaves were brought to Cape Town, they were not allowed to practice their own religion (freedom of religion came about on the Cape in 1806?). So traditional cooking methods and recipes, passed on orally through the generations, became one of their ways of "retaining" their culture from back home. I find all this so interesting.

After Bo Kaap, I wandered over toward the V&A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront, the place where all the ships come in to Cape Town. It was about what I had expected, very touristy. But it was still great to watch the waves crash and feel the sea mist. Lots of sea gulls. The coolest part, in my opinion, was the marimba band they had playing on one of the plazas. They were really good, and I was impressed. Makes me miss my marimba days back in high school. :( haha. (See video below!) There's a lot of development going on down by the Waterfront. Though it's very touristy and more upscale than most parts of Cape Town, it's not THE tourist place. That's Camps Bay, which I will probably get to another day.


(If the embedded video above doesn't work, check it out on Youtube.)

On my way back, I stopped at a couple markets along Long Street. One of them, the Pan African Market, was crazy. It was in this multi-story building with tons of little rooms, with shelves of goods lining the walls up to the high ceilings. Completely overwhelming. I had my first African market bargaining experience but I think I could've done better.

Both in the markets and wandering around the city, it's really easy to slip into the stereotypical Westerner mindset, romanticizing everything here. I'm already enamored with Cape Town and I've only been here a few days. I realize it has some pretty big problems, and that Cape Town is in no way representative of Africa as a whole or even just the country of South Africa. But it's simply amazing how much there is to do/see here, and the HUGE variety of cultures, food, people, neighborhoods, etc.

One thing I've noticed that bothers me a bit is that they don't seem too excited about recycling in general here in Cape Town... which is a particular shame because things like Coke cans and soda bottles are much heavier here (meaning more resources) than they are in the US. I guess glass recycling is common, but that's about it. I have, however, seen art in the markets produced using things like Coke cans, so at least some people are finding further use...

Tonight I'm going to a "happy hour" of sorts for dinner with some of my hostelmates at a nearby Cuban restaurant. I've noticed that this city really IS an agglomeration of all kinds of cultures. Just in terms of restaurants, I've seen Italian, Portuguese, American, Chinese, Thai, Kurdish, Cuban, Indian, Irish... and those are only the ones I'm thinking of off the top of my head. The potjie last night at the hostel was pretty good. Though Amanda (American) and Kim (English) at the hostel told me they've had much better. The pineapple in it was unexpected for me - I've never had a vegetable stew with sweet fruit in it before. Some of the vegetables were unfamiliar to me, too.

Tomorrow my plans are to go over to District Six, which I've mentioned in previous posts. As always, thanks for reading my updates. Hope all is well for you all!

(Note: I have so many more pictures, but I will wait 'til I return to the States to upload them, probably to flickr.)