To suggest that one could experience Johannesburg and Soweto properly in 24 hours is almost patently absurd. But you do what you can, you make the best with the time you have. That's what we did. And here's how we did it.

Nighttime in Melville

7 PM: Stroll around Melville at Night and Find a Book Lover’s Heaven

Johannesburg is vast and varied, so one of the big decisions you’ll have when visiting is where to stay. We knew we’d be visiting downtown Johannesburg and Soweto the next day, so we opted to spend the night in one of Johannesburg's neighborhoods. We chose the suburb of Melville as we heard it had a good creative scene, was laid back and had some fun restaurants, bars and cafes.

Most of the action in Melville is along 7th Street. In addition to checking out some of the cafés and restaurants, consider taking a side trip or two down 4th and 5th Avenues to see a taste of traditional Melville and its old school style butcher and barber shops.

But our favorite find of the night was the Book Dealers of Melville on 7th Street. A reader’s dream, visually attractive, too. Stacks and stacks of books, story upon story. There’s a risk you might emerge over-stimulated.

8 PM: Drinks and Dinner on 7th Street in Melville

Ratz Bar (#9 7th Street, Melville): One part dive bar, another part throwback 80s lounge, Ratz Bar attracts a cross-section of local humanity and makes for a fun hour of people watching and chilling out.

Ant Café (#11 7th Street, Melville): We were drawn to this place during our walk around Melville as the inside looked homey and warm, full of people and lively conversation. Although the thin crust pizza at Ant Café is good, it’s the atmosphere and the owner’s sense of humor that you’ll remember most. It’s also very affordable (i.e., around $12 for two pizzas and half liter of South African wine).

Daytime: Melville, Johannesburg, Soweto

8 AM: Morning Walk and Quick Breakfast in Melville

Café de la Crème (corner of 7th Street and 4th Avenue, Melville): We didn’t have time for a long breakfast so we just grabbed coffees, a croissant, and a pain au chocolat and ate standing up in the bar section of this café. The pastries were surprisingly good and inexpensive. The breakfast menu was vast. Plates emerging from the kitchen looked really good, so we’d recommend spending some time and getting a full breakfast if you can manage it.

9:00 AM: Johannesburg: A History Lesson and Street Art in Newtown Cultural Precinct

Johannesburg has been — and still is — South Africa’s business center. The foundation of the city itself was based on the discovery of gold and other minerals in the late 19th century. To the point, Johannesburg’s downtown area has mining museums and monuments dedicated explaining that dimension of the city’s development.

We chose to spend our time focused on street art instead.

Sophiatown Jazz Bar in Newtown Cultural Precinct:
Location: Intersection of Jeppe and Henry Nxumalo Streets
The entire area of Newtown in Johannesburg is filled with public art – wooden statues of heads line the sidewalks, murals and paintings take over city walls. If you stop by the Sophiatown Jazz Bar you’ll get a crash course by way of all the photos and memorials to Johannesburg’s great jazz artists. On the brick wall nearby you’ll find portraits of famous South African artists from the 20th century.

10:00 AM: Mandela & Tambo Law Office

Location: Chancellor House, Fox and Gerard Sekoto streets
A stop at the Chancellor House tells the incredible story of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo and how they represented thousands of people from this Law Office between 1952 and 1956. They used the word of law to defend people who otherwise had no voice against the apartheid regime and who were accused of “crimes against the state.” Mandela’s and Tambo’s experience gained here set the foundation for a fight against apartheid they would carry out for most of their lives.

The actual office where Mandela and Tambo practiced is still closed to the public, but the history and photos are displayed across the ground floor windows. Definitely worth a visit.

11 AM: Apartheid Museum

We have a mixed relationship with museums, but the Apartheid Museum is a near-requirement during any visit to Johannesburg. When you enter, you are given a pass indicating whether you’ll experience the entrance hall of the museum as a white person or a black person. Your corresponding walk will indicate the privileges and discrimination afforded your race. A jarring, disturbing, and creative way to communicate the metaphor and split life in South Africa that was apartheid.

It’s easy to get lost in the museum and spend hours reading through the exhibits and watching films. During our visit, there was a in-depth exhibit on Nelson Mandela’s personal life that will likely be replaced later this year. Each time I read the story or see photos of Mandela wearing the Springbok jersey for Rugby World Cup final in 1995, I choke up. I remember working in London at that time and hearing news of this. I had no concept then of what it all meant. Only years later when I read John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy did I begin to understand. Such a powerful story demonstrating Mandela’s strength, creativity, and faith in humanity and his country.

1:30 PM: Lunch in Soweto, Sakhumzi on Vilakazi Street

Vilakazi Street in Soweto is unique in the world. It’s the only street where two Nobel Peace Prize winners called home. And so it was on the historic street — where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu once lived — that we took lunch at Sakhumzi Restaurant for a crash course in South African food.

At Sakhumzi, the buffet offered a chance to try pap (a porridge made from ground maize), umngqusho (boiled maize kernals mixed with beans) and our favorite, chakalaka (spiced cold salad with Indian and Malay influences). As Soweto is so diverse with various South African ethnic groups and immigrant groups from across Africa, it seems a fitting setting to highlight the country's food and its backstory diversity.

“My daughter is six years old and speaks four languages. That’s just how it is in Soweto; people come from everywhere and you want to communicate. If you learn a language you get insight into their culture, too.” TK, our guide’s son said amidst his response to our barrage of questions about Soweto.

2:00 PM: Soweto Bicycle Tour

Soweto. Just the name features a certain ring or mystique. We think of people fighting for freedom, uprisings under the apartheid regime – even a dangerous place.

But what of Soweto today?

That’s what we were hoping to find out in our Soweto Bicycle Tour. Our bicycle tour guide began with a historical overview of Soweto.

Soweto, news to us, is an abbreviation for South Western Townships. It was set up in the 1930s as a place for black workers to settle. It was also the site of the famous Soweto Student Uprisings in 1976 and a hotbed area for anti-apartheid and union worker demonstrations in the 1980s. Surprising to some, Soweto is actually more populous than Johannesburg (3.5 million vs. 2 million people).

Another thing that may also surprise: Soweto, to a certain degree, appears rather ordinary today. There are residential areas, shops, restaurants, bars, big roads, small roads, and people going about their daily business. Sure, certain parts of Soweto are much better off than others and poorer areas still suffer from a lack of public services (e.g., running water and electricity). But life at its most basic looks like something familiar; this perspective is something that the bicycle tour attempts to show.

We even visited a shebeen (local drinking hall) in one of these poorer areas to get a feel of the difference from one side to the other. In a lesson in contrasts, while the shebeen was dark and full of men drinking, the areas surrounding it were filled with kids playing on their way home from school.

Our visit ended with the site of the Student Uprisings in 1976 and a look at Nelson Mandela’s home. Joe, our guide, told stories about his own role as a leader in the student uprisings and the anti-apartheid movement. Our visit was grounding, as it afforded an opportunity, however quick, to see where it all happened — and to contrast it all to the relative peace on local Soweto streets today.

When we asked Joe later about integration today in South Africa, he said, “It will come, more and more, with each new generation. My grandchildren go to school with all sorts of children. They just see them as other children to play with, not as black, white, or colored. It’s through this and through investing in education that real change will come.”

5 PM: Johannesburg Airport

Since traffic is notoriously bad in Johannesburg we got an early start to the airport to catch our flight. Joe, as unassuming as he was, mentioned off-hand that he was set to pick up Miss America the following day.

—–

We haven't tricked ourselves into thinking that we've even begun to remotely understand Johannesburg and Soweto, but we're glad we took the opportunity when we had it.

If you happen to be traveling through South Africa and you have even the whiff of opportunity, check out Johannesburg and Soweto, even if for a short time. They’re an important part of South Africa’s past and present.

• Find a hotel in Johannesburg
• Find a hotel in Soweto

A word of thanks to our guide, Joe Motsogi, for not only sharing his knowledge of Johannesburg and Soweto history, but for sharing his personal stories of being a leader in the student uprisings and anti-apartheid movement.

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When they say “off the beaten track” in South Africa, Northern Cape is what they mean. And why it’s not more beaten, we’re not sure. This is the sum of our short time there, including a surprising and deeply moving human encounter at the very end.

As we carved a path into the sunset along the Orange River border between South Africa and Namibia, it dawned on me (or would the appropriate phrase in this time context be dusked on me?) that we were far away with the trappings of something eye-catching and mind-wandering, wowing and calming, all without being contrived.

To get there, way up in the South Africa’s northwestern most province of Northern Cape, it took a serious road trip. It had to really. We were smack in the middle of far away and no plane could ever take us where we needed to go. Ed, our guide and a man whose age was indeterminable to us and whose leisure time was spent training for ultra-marathons (there’s a connection between the two), worked to build our expectations to the brink but not beyond. The captain of our vessel was a man named Happy, born on Christmas Day, a man who'd spent each day since collecting and slowly dispensing the wisdom of a genuinely expressed deep satisfaction in small things.

In just a couple very short days in the Northern Cape, we’d gone to another world and back it seemed, to a world flush with natural and human works of staggering beauty that we'd previously heard nary a peep about.

Augrabies Falls National Park

Like any good canyon and falls, Augrabies Falls National Park is the result of time wearing, of spits and splits. We were treated to heaving, roiling falls on one hand.

And gaping, winding canyons running the span of one’s field of vision on the other. When light plays as the afternoon comes to an end at the canyon's edge, it's difficult to pull away.

And we meet colors, contours and funny animals great (giraffe) and small (the dassie, for example) along the way.

Orange River Canoe

There’s nothing like setting down on top of the water with a canoe, particularly as the day wears on and the light softens. Our experience on the Orange River was no exception.

After a stunning and somewhat thrilling paddle — after all, we found ourselves on the border between South Africa and Namibia — we pull up on the Namibian side to appreciate the waning light and its affect on the open sky.

South African Braai

At the end of a long day, we settled down for a little rest and relaxation which included a bottle of Pinotage to go along with a signature South African barbecue called a braai. As we chatted up the owner of the camp along the Orange River where we stayed, we discovered that the woman in charge of the braai, Maudie Bleach, had also been a contestant on Ultimate Braai Masters, a South African reality cooking TV show. Not sure I've ever seen someone with such command of cooking over an open fire. The resulting meal was delicious, too.

When we awoke the following morning, it was to a proper braai breakfast (or would that be braaikfast?) and a sunrise view over the Orange River to Namibia, South Africa’s neighbor to the north.

Nama (Namaqua) Culture: A Lucky Break

Based on a tip Ed received, we headed in the direction of Nama Khoi and a little town nearby called Wolfkraal. This area was home to the ethnic Nama people (sometimes traditionally referred to as Namaqua). Good timing was in our favor, as the children at the local school just happened to be in their best duds and fresh off performing their traditional dance for a government-sponsored regional conference. They kindly offered us a private performance.

They were absolutely beautiful kids. And to us, they looked like the future.

Some of them even taught us a few of their dance moves. Or more correctly, they tried their best amidst my limited abilities to teach us.

A Personal Story in Upington

Upon our arrival in Upington, Northern Cape's provincial capital, our guide Ed asked if some close friends could join us for dinner.

Turns out that his friend, Zonga Mokgatle, was among a group of final prisoners whose release was negotiated just prior to the formal end of apartheid and the ultimate and final release of Nelson Mandela.

Mokgatle was one of the so-called “Upington 26”, a group of 26 people convicted on the principle of “common purpose” and accused of taking part in the murder of a policeman, when their only offense happened to be being near the scene of the crime. Fourteen of them, Mokgatle included, were sent to death row in Pretoria.

During his time in prison, Mokgatle was visited by a young NGO worker from the United Kingdom. He and that young woman, Kathi, sat with us. Between forkfuls of springbok carpaccio, they told bits of a death row love story in an apartheid era Pretoria prison. (The entire story for those interested can be found in Kathi's book, Love on Death Row.)

To say that they'd been through lot – hope and despair and a mixed race marriage in post-apartheid South Africa — is perhaps a gross understatement. Sitting at the table, we could see it, feel it. How does one even begin to tell and honor a story like this?

We had our questions, among them: How did Ed know them? As it happens, he'd been a prison warden in Upington.

A prison warden?

“But why?” we asked.

“Someone who cared” he said, “had to be on the inside. They needed a friend.“

South African Sunsets, A Northern Cape Close

Vast and remote, the Northern Cape is dry at its core and green at the edges of the Kalahari. There’s something special about this place. It's a region in South Africa we'd known almost nothing about and we'd heard virtually nothing of from other travelers.

In going, our only regret – if we have one at all — was that we didn't have more time to spend there, to go deeper into the Kalahari, to better understand this unknown province and get under its skin at bit more.

But sometimes it's good to leave a bit on the table. For South Africa’s Northern Cape, until next time…

A word of thanks: We'd like to thank Happy and Ed of Tata Ma Tata for sharing their Northern Cape with us and stoking our curiosity to return to experience more of their home. We'd also like to thank Adam and Maudie Bleach from Bushwhacked on the Orange River for taking great care of us on our river paddle and evening braai.

The post Northern Cape, South Africa: The Land of Far Out appeared first on Uncornered Market.

Cape Town, a city we had heard so much about over the years, but for so many reasons never took the opportunity to visit – until recently. Like most, we were originally attracted to Cape Town for its natural beauty – think Table Mountain cut by coastlines – but we also knew there was more behind that exterior.

Cape Town. You may come for beauty, but you’ll leave with a story.

Once we arrived, landing on what was to us a surprisingly foggy morning, our curiosity set loose to its people and to its context — the collision of past and present merged with hopes and dreams of where it may go in the future. Cape Town’s complexity sits right on the surface, drawn from history, geography and a diverse group of residents whose families have called Cape Town home for centuries.

Just as we struggled to a put a finger on what we were experiencing, Mariette, a Cape Town native captured it apropos to our experience, “Cape Town's beauty is in its imperfection. In its chaos comes creativity.”

The density of experiences in Cape Town span the spectrum, from township walks to wine tastings, from outdoor adventure to food market hip. Particularly when you’re faced with limited time, making decisions regarding what to do across the sprawling Cape Town area can overwhelm.

This is our basic grok of what to do in Cape Town in just a few days.

Note: When people say “Cape Town” they mean the entire area of Cape Town, not only the downtown area (CBD), but also the surrounding suburbs and Cape Point.

Swimming with Seal Pups: Hout Bay

We arrived at Cape Town airport at 9 AM. By 1 PM, we were squeezing into wet suits and jumping into frigid waters to snorkel with seal pups. That’s what happens when you have a local friend waiting for you to arrive and excited to show you her adopted home (thanks, Kerry!!).

In full disclosure, when we heard that the water was a frosty 13 degrees, we had our doubts. We really do not like cold water. But once you’re suited up and you’re in the water, you easily forget about the cold since you’re surrounded by playful seal pups swimming under, over and all around you.

If you want to fall in love and be overwhelmed by a little wildlife in a stunning setting, it really doesn’t get any easier than this.

These curious little guys came right up to us, looked right at us with their big, black eyes, did a twist and then were off again to play some more. The whole thing was addictive.  Even though it was essential for our bodies to rest and to recover from the chill, we were resistant to being called out of the water more than 45 minutes later.

The seal pups are out swimming near Hout Bay between mid-March and the end of May. You can still swim with seals at other times of year, but you won’t experience the fun of the pups.  What makes the young ones so great is that they haven’t developed the inhibitions of their parents, so they are simply more fun, innocent and trusting.

Sound familiar?

And don’t worry about sharks – we’re told this particular area does not attract sharks because it’s too shallow and cold.

And if you happen to be in Hout Bay on the weekend, be sure to check out the market. It’s chock full of freshly prepared foods, local crafts, great coffee and a particularly friendly atmosphere.

Practical Details: We highly recommend this seal pup experience with Steve Benjamin from Animal Ocean.  Cost: 600 RS Disclosure: We received a 50% media discount.

Table Mountain

Table Mountain. No matter where you are in the city, you can see it. This is how locals orient themselves. Everyone talks about Table Mountain being a “must see” in Cape Town. Honestly, we didn’t really believe it until we were on top of it all, drawn up by an absolutely astounding cable-driven gondola ride on a perfectly clear morning.

The views are stunning. But don’t make the same mistake we did and spend too much time at the first few overlooks. Pull yourself away from each one and make certain to walk all the way around to every spot just to see how the landscape and perspective changes around you. Remarkable.

On the western overlook you’ll see Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held during apartheid. Gazing out at the island, we imagined with impossibility what prisoners must have thought peering out to Table Mountain every day.

“During the many years of incarceration on Robben Island, we often looked across Table Mountain at its magnificent silhouette. To us on Robben Island, Table Mountain was a beacon of hope. It represented the mainland to which we knew we would one day return,” Mandela wrote.

Practical Details: Book your tickets online to avoid the lines (and it’s cheaper, $19 round-trip). Go as early in the morning as possible to avoid haze and heat. The cable car stops running during bad weather, so if the weather looks sketchy, call ahead to be certain the park is open.

Cape Malay Cooking Course

“The beauty of Cape Town lies in its people. We use the universal theme of food to encourage people to interact, to help visitors find this beauty,” Monique Le Roux, founder of Andulela, explained. This is the reason why the cooking class is held in regular Cape Malay family homes. The goal: go beyond the kitchen, beyond the recipes.

Who are the Cape Malay? We wondered. We had no idea, so when we met Sabz, our guide, at the Bo Kaap Museum, we buried him with questions. Here’s what we learned.

For the most part, the Cape Malay are descendants of slaves that the Dutch brought to the Western Cape from places like Indonesia and Dutch Malacca (present-day Malaysia) in the 17th century.  In addition to working the fields, those slaves also built much of Cape Town. Today, the city features a large Cape Malay community, descendants of those early slaves, many of whom still live in colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood.

After picking up a few key spices at Atlas Spices (a truly phenomenal spice shop where you can stock up – we highly recommend the 12-leaf masala), we arrived at Anima’s door. She welcomed and ushered us in, spices in hand, with a friendly chuckle.

We began our course with snacks – samosas and daachi (fried chili bites made from chickpea flour, spinach leaves and spices).

Amina explained: “Daachi are a popular snack during Ramadan. Every house in the neighborhood prepares something special to break the fast, and we prepare A LOT of them. We take plates of food to all of our neighbors. In return, our neighbors bring plates of food to us. This system is in place not only so we have lots of different dishes to break the fast, but more importantly so that none of our neighbors will go hungry during Ramadan. It’s how we take care of each other.“

Over the next few hours we learned how to fold samosas, roll and knot roti dough (“beat it like Michael Jackson,” Anima said), and cook a rich Cape Malay chicken curry. She offered instructions, but allowed us to make our mistakes so we could learn for ourselves firsthand what works and what doesn’t.

Anima also reminded us, bringing it all back to what the essence of cuisine, cooking, creating: “It’s about having fun. We all need to remember to have fun.”

A life lesson by way of the Cape Malay kitchen.

Practical Details:Cape Malay Cooking Safari is organized by Anduela Tours. When we met Monique, the owner, she expressed the following goal: To bring people together to interact and connect over a shared human theme – food.Cost: 660 Rand per person.

Disclosure: Cape Town Tourism arranged our tour and provided it to us for free.

Masiphumelele Township by Bicycle

We make one request of you if you are interested in taking a Township tour in Cape Town (or anywhere else, for that matter): book a tour that is either done on foot or bicycle. Please do not book a tour that has you going through the township in a car or tour van. First, this prevents you from interacting and engaging with the township and its people, which is the real reason to do a tour.  Furthermore, it looks like you are going on safari, faces and camera pressed against windows.

While walking is our preferred method of getting around urban areas, bicycles give the opportunity to cover more ground while still staying close to the street action. That’s why, when considering how to see Masiphumelele Township, we opted to take it in by bicycle.

In the course of a few hours, we rode with our guide (a resident of the township for eight years) through the streets – big and small – to visit a preschool, a sangoma (medicine woman), a local restaurant, and other random stops and chats along the way. The goal: understand a township and what it means in the context of South Africa today.

For more description and detail on who we met and what we learned during the tour, read the full article on the Masiphumelele Township tour.

Practical Details: We booked our tour with AWOL Tours who partners with BEN (Bicycle Empowerment Network) as a local township partner and provider. About 80% of the money stays in the community of Masiphumelele going to the guide, preschool, sangoma, and restaurant.

Cost: Prices start at 550-650R ($55-65)/person. We paid 760R ($80)/person including lunch and everything above (but excluding transport there – we had a rental car).

Disclosure: We received an educational/media discount of 50%.

Wine tasting in Constantia

Coincidence of our schedule, but it felt a bit odd to go from walking a township to wine tasting within an hour, but that’s the diversity and spectrum possibility of a Cape Town experience.  Our late afternoon arrival in Constantia, one of the wine regions closest to downtown Cape Town, allowed us a brief chance to visit Groot Constantia Winery, Cape Town’s oldest winery dating back to 1685.

But for as short as that visit was to Groot Constantia Winery, we’re grateful we did it because it gave us a completely different perspective on South African wines than we’d otherwise have just tasting what’s available for export on wine store shelves in the U.S. and Europe.

Tasting Notes:

• Groot Constantia Chardonnay 2012 – Crisp, citrusy and surprisingly full-bodied without knocking you over the head with the new French oak it’s aged in.
• Groot Constantia Pintotage 2011 – Pinotage is the signature South Africa red varietal.  Though our impressions of Pinotage before this visit bordered on “thin”, that’s no more. And while this wine was decent on its own – juicy, surprisingly dark fruit and plummy with a bit of an idiosyncratic finish like some Spanish wines we’ve known, it seemed to taste even better when paired with food, especially a grilled meat braai (South African barbeque) on the Orange River in South Africa’s Northern Cape.
• Groot Constantia Merlot 2010 – Like Miles in Sideways, we are tough to Merlot, but South Africa again surprises.  This one was surprisingly good – there go the expectations again.  Nice tannins combined with dark fruit and plums, with a little softness.  We found other Merlots elsewhere in South Africa that were even better still.
• Groot Constantia Shiraz 2011 – For us, this was a winner.  Bold, round with hints of pepper. We were glad to drink it on its own, but happier still to take a bottle back to pair with grilled meat like lightly-spiced slow-cooked brisket or peppy beef stew.
• Groot Constantia 2010 – The almost 2x the price blend was tasty and balanced, but not enough to sway us from the varietals above.

We found out even more about South African wine throughout our visit to the country, and we grew surprised further still.  From white varietals to red, South African wines struck us as of remarkably high quality and value given the price.  Why were we so surprised?  Not sure about you, but the South African wines that make it to export and neighborhood shelves don't often feature high quality price ratios (QPR).

Cape Town Road Trip: Chapman’s Peak Drive to Cape Point

If you’re into coastal road trips, then Cape Town certainly delivers. We began ours in Cape Town with stops at Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Chapmans Peak Drive and Noordhoek before reaching Cape Point, where the famous lighthouse stands and where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans do not actually meet, contrary to the prevailing myth.

It’s all beautiful nonetheless.

On the return to Cape Town we stopped by Boulders Beach to see the African penguins. Warning: you could spend hours watching these guys.  We were tempted, but they needed to go to bed.

Practical details: You can rent a car (see below for details) and easily make this drive yourself or you can take a tour. Our tour was with Escape to the Cape and lasted a full day with a lunch stop at Cape Point.

Other Experiences to Check Out in Cape Town

• Mohogany Room: If you like jazz and want to meet local musicians, this is the place to go in downtown Cape Town (CBD). There are two sets each night – 8:30 and 10:30 PM. It’s 60R for one set or 100R for the two. Reservations are recommended as it’s a small venue.  Update 2018: Sadly, the Mohogany Room in Cape Town has closed down.
• Theatre in the Backyard, Nyanga East: Mhlanguli George, a playwright and dramatist, has developed a theatre production that takes place in a yard of a local home. The audience follows the play through to different parts of the house as the story progresses. The experience is powerful, disturbing and grounded in local context. Highly recommended. Get in touch with Coffeebean Routes for more information.

On our wish list for our next Cape Town visit:

• Robben Island: We regret not having time to go to the museum at this former prison site. Next time we’re in Cape Town, this will be first on the list.
• District 6 Museum: District 6 was an area that was declared a white area in 1966, meant for new development. The neighborhood was bulldozed in 1982, forcing out 60,000 inhabitants. The District 6 Museum reportedly does an excellent job of telling the story of District 6, as well as what life was like under Apartheid when forced removals were common for many people.

Renting a Car in Cape Town

We were surprised at how easy and inexpensive it was to rent a car in Cape Town. And we did everything at the last minute – about 12 hours between the time we reserved it and picked it up. The price from major rental car companies was pretty similar – $25-$30/day. We ended up going with Budget because of convenience of location and cost. Most cars are manual transmission, so it may cost more if you require an automatic.

The fun comes after you pick up the car and you realize you have to drive on the left side of the road!

Photo credits: Underwater photos courtesy of Steve Benjamin of Animal Ocean.

The post Cape Town: Our Beginner’s Guide on Things to Do And See appeared first on Uncornered Market.

This is a story about taking a township tour in Cape Town, South Africa by bicycle — where people and life and answers to questions are up close and personal.

As we rode to the end of our visit, a big white van, way too clean, rolled passed us in almost slow-motion like you might expect in a movie. From the side windows, faces peered out, their eyes snagging on us. Others pressed cameras. They were touring the township from above, behind closed doors. They looked at us on our rickety bicycles, a tad perplexed.

We looked at them much the same way.

They were missing out.

South African Townships in Context

Up until our recent visit to South Africa, the word “township” for us always carried a negative connotation. Townships were the places where the then South African apartheid government dictated black South Africans should live segregated from the white community. Ghettos, basically. When townships made their way into the news — if memory serves — it was for protest and unrest.

What is life like in townships today, in the context of modern-day South Africa? And who lives there?

This is a glimpse of what we found in one of them through a township bicycle tour in Cape Town’s Masiphumelele Township. It’s a taste of not only what the visit taught us about South Africa, but also a little bit of what it taught us about life.

Old Dutch Bikes on Township Streets

We met Zwai, our guide, in a yard of converted cargo ship containers. Each housed a workshop-meets-training center for local residents. The container he was affiliated with, one called Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN), focused on repairing bicycles donated from all over the world and offering them for rent. Two of the fleet, a couple of old Amsterdam throwbacks, would be ours for the afternoon.

Through roads paved and unpaved, we cycled. Some people shook our hands, gave us high fives. Many were just as curious about us as we were about them. I personally love the South African hand-shake of pressing thumbs to a snap!

The idea: use the bicycles to cover some ground, but take it in slowly.

Our first stop? Anything but slow. As we approached a local preschool, kids poured out and began chanting “Teach-ah! Teach-ah! Teach-ah!”

I don’t know if I am a teacher, but I’m apparently fun to climb on.

As we performed the service of human jungle gyms, we learned that because the center does not meet government requirements, it receives no public funding. A small group of women have their hands full with over 65 children. Parents, many of whom work far from the township in order to support their families, pay what they can.

The bicycle tour makes a stop here not only to give travelers an opportunity to goof off with crazy little kids, but also to provide some funding to help the center.

The Official and Not-So-Official Parts of Town

We rode through the established part of the township, past clinics, community centers and libraries. Impressive. Much a function of aid money, no doubt. I just hope that those in the community would remain vested, regardless of funding.

Zwai explained the ethnic contours of the township. Over eight languages are spoken (Zwai speaks around seven, not unusual in South Africa) and the community is made up of people from across the country and the rest of the continent. Somalis rent buildings from the South Africans and run the shops (“Somalis keep prices low, good shop keepers.”) while Nigerians are the hairdressers (“The Nigerians, they just do hair better than the rest of us.”).

Little details, they make our fascinating world tick.

Towards the edge of the “official” or registered part of the township, we put our bikes away and proceeded on foot through streets, alleys and backyards.

Houses shifted quickly from brick to corrugated tin. Services vanished. There was no sewerage service, no water system, only shared bathrooms and wells. No official electricity hook up either, though some “share” with those a few meters away who are fortunate enough to have it.

The stream running between these outer settlements was putrid, strewn with garbage. The distinct smell of waste, human and otherwise, battled with the runoff of laundry soap and blended just enough to penetrate the inner channels of one's nostrils with remarkable precision.

We crossed a small footbridge to an enclave of tin shacks. As the odor of the channel fell behind us, what began to strike me: kids in school uniforms, people walking by and saying hello.

Walkways were swept clean, homes were numbered, often colorfully painted – and stereotypes of poverty and life at the edge of a township faded into something simply human.

Beyond that, I witnessed something of surprising order, something that I can only imagine and hope that people are proud of. I peered into a couple of homes whose doorways were open, and I amazed by what I saw: tidy little existences in those shacks, everything in its right place. Pictures of family, makeshift music systems, maybe a TV, pillows, furniture, dishes, curios and memories. Residents here had carved out a dignified existence from which many of us could learn the lessons of limitation.

Sangoma: The Girl Haunted By Dreams

We reached the house of a local sangoma (the Zulu word for a traditional healer) named Maria.

“Ask me anything,” she said.

Not having the faintest idea what a sangoma really was, we took her up on the invitation.

“How does someone decide she’s going to be sangoma?” I asked

After all, she was so young. Aren't healers supposed to be old and wizened? She certainly didn’t appear to have the marks of wisdom. She didn’t quite look the role.

Maria told a story of how she began having dreams from about the time she was seven years old. The dreams seemed to foretell of events – good and bad – that would happen to people in the community. At the time, though, she had no idea what was going on. She put it out of her mind and never shared with her family what she was experiencing.

The dreams and visions continued — for nine years — until, as she describes, her body told her no more and she became really sick. Her family had no idea. Neither did the hospital; they couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Only after some family probing did she think to tell what was really going on.

Maria's mother, also a sangoma, explained the burdens and blessings of those dreams and Maria decided to pursue “the calling.” Seven years under her belt, she has a lifetime yet of learning ahead of her.

She also suspects her three-year old daughter of being a sangoma. “She just knows things about people she’s never met, but she isn’t old enough to understand what she should say and what she shouldn’t, especially if it’s something bad.”

Imagine your ESP-enabled three year-old neighbor, no social filter, sharing the visions she's having about you. Awkward. Funny. Kinda' creepy.

The Lesson of Emmanuel

As school let out, kids poured forth into the streets. Children, particularly ones in their school uniforms, will always give me hope. They are bright-eyed, purposeful. As I offered hellos, a few looked down shyly, but most looked me in the eye and offered greetings right back.

I like that.

As I rounded a corner reflecting on all this youth, all of what could be, I came across a man sitting on a stoop, a raised bit of sidewalk. Our eyes met, I nodded and said hello. To me, he looked like he belonged in a movie or a maybe even a band.

But there was something more, something deep in his eyes.

“Don’t worry about yesterday, be happy for today,” he offered.

I acknowledged his wisdom and rode past, thinking not to interrupt his day. Half a minute later, I said to Audrey, “Hold on. I have to go back.”

So I did, and I engaged the man, exchanging a few more pleasantries.

Eventually, he offered some context for what he'd said: his sister-in-law died the day before. Although he and his family grieved, he was thankful for what he had. He didn’t know when he might go either. So he aimed to be happy for every day that remained.

Reflections and Broken Stereotypes

Over lunch at a local restaurant – grilled chicken and pap (a puffy polenta-like white paste of ground maize/corn), we reflected on our experience.

What surprised us most?

How “ordinary” it all seemed, township life. People went about their days much as they would anywhere else – kids went to school, laundry was hung, people shopped, women went to the hairdresser, men to the barber. People lived, people died.

Historically, townships were places where black Africans were ordered to live segregated. Today, a township is a community — with local governance, schools, clinics, libraries, community centers and a range of socio-economies encompassing the poor and the better off.

Sure, there are still problems and challenges. No tour, bicycle or otherwise, will single-handedly fix that. After all, that’s life anywhere. With the legacy of apartheid, townships are still almost exclusively composed of black South Africans and employment-anxious immigrants from further up the continent. Under those circumstances, it’s difficult to fashion yourself into a beacon of racial integration.

But step back after just a couple of hours and a landscape of interactions and observations and you just might realize you’ve learned something.

As the big white van drove past us at the end of our half-day journey, Zwai noted: “This is how some of the other tour companies run township tours.”

“They make it seem like it is dangerous here. But you’ve seen how it is. How can you experience a place unless you are on the streets? This is why we are on bikes. Local people like it when they can talk with you.”

“We’re all humans here,” he said.

Indeed, we are all humans here.

—–

Township Tours: What to Ask For, What to Look For

We understand there's some controversy surrounding township tours. Based on our own experiences in Cape Town and Soweto, they can be carried out respectfully. Township tours can also benefit the community financially and interpersonally by enabling human encounters and connections with people from all over the world.

Before you book a township tour, here's what we suggest you ask the tour company:

1. Does the organization have a local partner from the township? Is the guide from the township?
2. How is the money from the tour distributed in the community? Who benefits from the tours?
3. What are the goals of the tour, both for the community and for the tourist?
4. Does the tour involve lunch at a local restaurant or home? This isn't essential, but we find that sharing a meal is one of the effective ways to connect with people.
5. How many people will be on the tour? We find that the larger the group, the more intimidating it is for locals to interact. Seek out a private tour or a small group.

Practical Details for Our Township Bicycle Tour of Masiphumelele

We booked our township experience with AWOL Tours based on a personal recommendation. All tours are private, so you don't have to worry about being lumped in a large group. They partner with BEN (Bicycle Empowerment Network). Approximately 80% of the money we paid stays in the community of Masiphumelele – proceeds going to the guide, sangoma, preschool, and restaurant. Cost: Prices start at R550-R650 per person. Our tour cost R760 ($80) per person, including lunch. This excludes transport to Masiphumelele. We had a rental car so we drove ourselves.

Disclosure: We received an educational/media discount of 50%.

The post Masiphumelele Township By Bicycle: Getting Up Close appeared first on Uncornered Market.

This is a story about an afternoon in Durban, South Africa where everything seemed to go wrong, but somehow ended up right. It’s also everything you ever wanted to know about bunny chow but were afraid to ask. And how we found the most perfect and delicious bunny chow in Durban.

As our chow-master drizzled the final layer spoonful of gram dal atop an already generous mountain, each of our senses aligned themselves in appreciation of something approaching culinary perfection.

The aroma of fresh spices, the tinkling of ladles, the din of restoration, the scene of satisfaction, and the heaviness of kitchen air that lands just so on the surface of the skin. This is masala, literally a mix.

Pent up hunger and a longer journey than expected conspired to place us at the precipice of something so good we’d bet our lives on it.

But how did we deliver ourselves to something so satisfying after so many wrong turns?

Timely Trains and Bustling Markets That Weren’t

Public transport and markets: two contexts we often use to orient ourselves, to interact with and appreciate ordinary people, and to find something about a place that the brochures surely missed. So when we eyed the Durban city map and realized that we could take Metrorail, the public train, to get from Moses Mahbida Stadium to Victoria Street Market, we figured: perfect combination.

But it was Sunday, sleepy. The train station was dusty and desolate, ticket offices were closed. After clearing the automated gates, we were just late for a departing train. We found ourselves the only ones on the platform, save the cleaning lady. We asked her about the train.

“It comes,” she reassured us.

A few minutes later another hopeful passenger emerged: “The train comes.”

Then, a security guard arrived: “It comes.”

The train never came.

Victoria Street Market, In Search of Lunch

Should you find yourself in Durban and possess an even faint interest in food and spice markets, Victoria Street Market is supposed to be the place. Images of heaping piles of brightly colored Indian spices danced in our heads. Dreams of cheap, delicious food stalls wafting with curries, too.

The reality? By the time we arrived, closing time for all, except an occasional souvenir store. A few hours late, we found ourselves defeated. Starving, too.

On our way out, we passed a convenience store whose entrance featured a few square metal tins filled with spices. I smiled at the Indian man presiding over his small empire as I passed.

A few meters on, I turned around. An instinct told me he held the keys to changing the course of our day. I gave into what felt like a stereotype: “He’s Indian. He’s selling spices. He must know where to find good Indian food in the area.”

“Could you recommend a place to eat nearby? Where do you eat lunch?” I asked.

“Do you like Indian food?” he shot back, excited.

I couldn’t nod energetically enough.

“It’s a simple place, vegetarian food. Very good, where I go for lunch. And it should still be open. It’s called Little Gujarat. I have lunch there often.”

Sold.

A few minutes and several wrong turns later, we arrived. The aroma of popped Indian spice wafted into the street.

This was it.

Inside, simple tables and chairs took up one side, as the kitchen counter and dozens of cafeteria vats loaded with curries and masalas – from greens to beans – took up the other. Two Indian women moved quickly, customers bustled, too. Homemade menus from a family printer listing options and specials — from rotis to dosai — adorned the walls. Prices? Sub $2.00. The feel: family and restorative, cafeteria yet caring.

This was our kind of place.

At this point, you might be asking: Indian food in South Africa? And what the heck is bunny chow?

Gandhi, Durban Indians and Bunny Chow

Durban, South Africa’s third largest city, also happens to be the biggest “Indian” city outside of India.

Why is this?

In the late 19th century, the British brought thousands of indentured servants from India to work the sugar cane plantations of KwaZulu-Natal and to build the Trans-Natal Railway. A wave of immigration followed as traders sought business opportunities and a better life. Mahatma Gandhi even arrived in Durban in 1893 as a young lawyer and spent a surprising 20 years in South Africa. Today, Indian-South Africans make up about 30% of Durban’s population.

But what of this bunny chow you refer to?

Bunny chow is essentially a hollowed out piece of plain, white sandwich bread stuffed with curry (or masala, if you like). There are many legends as to how the dish came to be, but the one we heard most often from Durbanites goes something like this:
Mr. Bunny, an indentured servant working the sugar cane plantations, was challenged by how to bring his lunch with him into the fields. Curry can be unwieldy, messy, overwhelming. To mitigate all these, Mr. Bunny’s clever wife nipped it all the bud by burying curry into a loaf of bread so that his lunch was self-contained and field-ready to eat.

Today, bunny chow is a legend in Durban.

The Ultimate 5-Layer Bunny Chow

Back at Little Gujurat, we were overwhelmed by choice. “Which curry do you want?” the woman behind the counter asked.

This was a critical moment. We almost choked. Instead, Dan asked her, “Which are your favorites?”

A bizarre question judging by her initial reaction – a sort of “Who are these crazy folks who can’t make a simple decision?” She quickly eased into a smile, pointing to the curry vats below.

Then, you could see a click in their eyes. They both broke in the same direction. “Can we have a bit of each? Is that OK?” Dan asked hopefully.

Win.

She nodded and put her expertise to work. Each of the five layers were imprecise yet somehow perfect: sugar bean curry, moong dal, gram dal, broad bean curry, and mixed veg curry. This was a culinary tour de force.

Would it all work together?

It certainly smelled outstanding. Dan began to pant. I think I saw tears.

The man of the house came out from the back and witnessed our excitement. (He smiled. There’s nothing like the beauty of subtle, restrained pride.) As we photographed our tower of bunny chow from every angle, he added a finishing touch: a little bread “hat” and a topper of dal gravy for dramatic effect.

Painfully beautiful at $1.50.

We’re embarrassed to say that we didn’t stop with bunny chow. We ordered a bowl of pumpkin curry, dal and two fresh rotis. Then I insisted on a plate of pani puri, the Indian chaat food combination of sweet (tamarind sauce) with savoury (spicy cilantro, chili and black salt sauce) I adore.

Although the pani puri and roti and masalas were all good, the five-layer bunny chow was something transcendent. It stole the show and qualified as the best Indian food we’d eaten in years, at least as far back as our last visit to the subcontinent in 2008.

Human Connection, Ultimate Beauty
As we waddled up to the counter in our fullness to settle our bill, the owner asked us what we were doing in Durban. We explained, and he decided it was his duty to show where and how to truly enjoy his city.

He disappeared for a moment, and proceeded to rifle through every piece of paper in his desk drawers and cabinet. We waited, unaware of what was going on. Finally, his wife pulled a paper from her purse and the man’s smile grew big.

The magic paper: a discount coupon for the aquarium. He went over everything on the paper, from what we would see there to how much the coupon saved us. The likelihood that we would have time to actually use the coupon was slim to none, but at the foot of kindness, you graciously accept what’s given you. Good will, whatever the circumstances, ought to be preserved.

We took it, thanked him and his family profusely, and paid. The grand total for our Indian feast gorge? Roughly $5.00.

Even though things don’t always work out as we’ve planned, they do work out somehow as they were meant to be, and even in our favor.

These are the times that you want to throw your arms around the world.

We walked out. Then walked back in, asked to take a photo – if only to remember the moment, because the moment itself was enough to carry us away.

Practical Details for Little Gujarat Vegetarian Restaurant:

Address: 107 Prince Edward Street (or 106 Dr. Goonam Street), just a few blocks from Victoria Street Market.

The post Bunny Chow Serendipity in Durban, South Africa appeared first on Uncornered Market.

This is a slice of backstory regarding our current visit to South Africa. It’s about a man named Tutu, a book entitled Invictus and a musician called Rodriguez. It's about South Africa and about our relationship to places before we've ever visited them. Finally, it’s about our journey from Cape Town to South Africa’s Northern Cape.

In 2000, just after Audrey and I married, her stepfather gave to me for Christmas a copy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's then newly published book No Future Without Forgiveness. (It was her stepfather’s Christmas tradition to give everyone in the family a book, the same book, a book that touched him deeply the previous year.)

In it, Archbishop Tutu tells the story of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a mechanism that sought closure and healing for the victims of apartheid while rejecting the temptation of reprisal and the endless cycle of violence it can set off. No Future without Forgiveness was the sort of book whose story was framed in a broader lesson. It reminds you of the human condition – all the struggles and hopes, the triumphs and cycles. It tells the story of the recent evolution of South Africa, of conscious choices to do something different this time – all wrapped in the broader appeal to each of us and our better angels.

As we unwrapped our books that Christmas morning, Audrey's stepfather reflected on reading the book, remarking on what was inside it and the era it chronicled. He cried.

After reading the book myself, I understood why.

Years later, another book relevant to South Africa called Playing the Enemy found its way to us by the same Christmastime path. (If you haven't read the book, you may be more familiar with the film adaptation, Invictus). The story is a brilliant and accessible one regarding how Nelson Mandela enabled reconciliation of a nation through sport. In 1995, one year after South Africa’s first democratic elections, it was scheduled to host the Rugby World Cup.

What comes next is a story that’s almost too good to be true. Mandela used the context of the event and South Africa’s appearance in the final (no spoilers…read the book) to continue to pull the country together.

It's a book that will leave you sailing and choking up, in turns. (Even if you’ve seen the film, read the book. The film can't hold a candle to it.)

Finally, only three days before our flight and in light of our pending departure to South Africa, a friend suggested we watch the documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, suggesting somewhat obliquely to draw us in, “…it gives some interesting background about South Africa.”

Indeed it did, rather indirectly and through a better-late-than-never story of redemption.

The film tells a story about an American musician named Sixto Rodriguez who, while drifting into musical obscurity in the United States in the 1970s, had unknowingly become one of the most popular musicians to a generation of South African protesters. Poetic, working class, down-to-earth, and ethereal, his lyrics and style were sometimes compared to that of Bob Dylan. While Rodriguez' message didn’t quite make it in the U.S., it clearly resonated with South African youth who thought their country and its government could do better.

Rodriguez’ story demonstrates that we are all much more connected than perhaps we’ll ever know.

These stories helped us develop a relationship with South Africa before we’d ever even stepped foot in the country. They planted the seed of interest and fascination to begin to know the beauty on the surface as well as that which lies underneath, the stuff that exists between the folds of pages, between frames, between all the top line tourist destinations.

And now we’re finally here in South Africa to check it out, to catch a little glimpse, to grab a little taste through the lens of travel.

Our Itinerary: Cape Town to the Northern Cape

At this point you might be thinking, “Please Dan, get on with it. What are you doing in South Africa and where are you going?”

We are currently guests of South Africa Tourism on the #MeetSouthAfrica campaign whereby a group of international travel bloggers were invited to experience different provinces in South Africa. We chose a slightly unusual itinerary that begins in Cape Town and ends in the Northern Cape, a place we were told offers a great deal in the natural beauty department yet doesn’t garner much tourist attention. Sounded great to us.

From Cape Town (more on this city later!) we follow a route that takes us through the Western Cape, stopping to learn about San (Bushmen) languages and culture at !Kwattu San Culture Centre, take an afternoon game drive at Buffelsfontein Game Park, cruise down the Berg River at dusk to enjoy a few of the 200+ species of birds lurking in the area and sleep behind the dunes at Draaihoek Lodge.

Then comes the Northern Cape, South Africa’s largest province with its smallest population (1 million). A land of vastness, we ride out to the border with Namibia, canoe down the Orange River (South Africa’s longest river at over 2000+ km), ogle at the gorges and waterfalls of Augrabies National Park and catch the edge of the “green Kalahari” on horseback.

After the Northern Cape we are in Durban for INDABA, Africa’s biggest travel conference. At INDABA 2013, we’ll share experiences from this trip as well as other experiences from around the world that fall under the general category of responsible travel. Our session will tie together how organizations can employ storytelling and engage bloggers to effectively market responsible tourism. If you are interested in tuning in, you can do so at 3:15 PM South Africa time (9:15 AM EST) on Friday, May 10 with this Google Hangout.

On our return to Berlin, we requested an extra day in Johannesburg to get a wee taste of this giant city we have heard so much about over the years. If you have suggestions for either Durban or Johannesburg, we’d love to hear them!

We understand this visit doesn’t offer nearly enough time to do South Africa justice. We’ll engage, perhaps we’ll have only scratched the surface. We’ll consider this a down payment journey on understanding a country, which to this point lived for us in someone else’s stories.

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