Year-Beginning Trip of 2016: Pt. 3 - Cape Town, Back in the Saddle Again

There’s not many places I have gone to twice. If you remove traveling with family on one of those occasions, there is basically no place I’ve gone to twice. Well, there’s a first time for doing a second time, and that place is Cape Town. From the moment I left Cape Town nearly three years ago, on March 1^st, 2013, I’ve wanted to come back. That was the start of the longest vacation of my life. This is the end of my longest vacation since. I said then that I would have rather done Cape Town last, saving the best for last. Well, now is a good time to test that theory.

I arrived in Cape Town at 9:30 PM, and had to wait until about 10:00 to pick up my luggage and get a cab. When I left the airport, I felt a rush… of cold air. It is the dead of summer on the Western Cape, and it was basically 60 degrees and windy. Very windy. Almost unsettlingly windy. The cool air was a welcome site. This place really is right between San Francisco and San Diego in terms of weather. Something happened on my ride to my hostel, A Sunflower Stop, that didn’t happen the first time. It rained. Now, it did rain during my first trip to Cape Town, but it was in the morning and I was asleep. For the first time, I actually had to deal with rain. Now, because it is Cape Town, the rain meant a drizzle below partly cloudy skies, but that was still a bit unnerving to realize that it does actually rain in Cape Town.

After unpacking, settling in, and ensuring the Wi-Fi works, I got an uber and went straight to the Waterfront, where it was even windier but every bit as lively as I remembered. There was only one thing I wanted on my first night in Cape Town: a mug of Milk & Honey beer at Mitchell’s Tavern at the edge of the V&A Waterfront. I arrived to a familiar scene, Mitchell’s was crowded, as was the Irish Pub / Outdoor Karaoke scene nextdoor, with the big Ferris Wheel glowing across the pedestrian walkway. I settled in, got a Milk & Honey, and took a big long sip of that delicious liquid.

A few mugs of that and another of Mitchell’s own fare, and a few chats with the locals (or foreigners, given that it was a Wednesday Night), I went back to my room and settled in for a night’s sleep with a packed agenda for the next day.

The agenda for the next day would get dramatically less packed, however, because of the heavy winds cancelling my Robben Island tour. Having been to Cape Town before, the only attraction I wanted to repeat was Table Mountain, because it was just too amazing to pass up. Robben Island became the second one after I decided from my experience at the Apartheid Museum that I would like to re-do it with a more educated perspective. However, the winds that were battering the day before were even worse. The heavy winds would be a constant battle, but here it was definitely the victor ruining the tour before it began.

It did however give me a few hours to play with. I started with breakfast at Vovo Telo at the Waterfront, getting a South African omelet and Ginger Ale – both good, and then went for a long walk around the Waterfront area, through the more posh Norther ‘Albert’ half, down through the food market and then passed by a giant medium-end craft market that was recently opened. I decided then to add another attraction to re-do, as I did a quick jaunt of the Two Oceans Aquarium, which had opened a new predator area to couple with the winding shark tank.

Throughout all of these areas at the Waterfront are just stunning views of Lion’s Head and Table Mountain behind, looming as an incredible reminder of just how breathtaking the views in Cape Town are. I honestly think the Waterfront in Cape Town gives the best photo opportunities of any easily reachable place. Sure, if you hike miles in the Andes you may get some better views, but this is on level ground, reachable by Taxi. I thought that three years go, thought it today, and am guessing will think it tomorrow when I come back to the Waterfront.

When it came cose to lunch time I ahad to decide on a place to go. Doing some brief tripadvisor research before the trip, I did realize some of the top rated places had changed, but I wanted to go off of past experience more than anything. I chose Arnold’s for lunch. I actually went there twice in 2013 for lunch, one planned and once because Miller’s Thumb was closed (definitely planning to go there this time). Arnold’s has good food, but more than that has a ton of African Meat options, which is a personal favorite of mine. This time, I had the warthog ribs as a starter, and a crocodile curry as my main. The portions were big enough I couldn’t finish the curry, but both dishes were excellent. Situated on Kloof street, one of the best aspects of Arnold’s is the view of Table Mountain, but due to the wind they were not serving outside. Luckily, they have good food to go with the view that was taken away from me.

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Following lunch, with stil time to kill, I decided to just saunter around downtown Cape Town. First I walked straight down from Arnold’s on Kloof Street, to the end of the street and then onto Long Street, which is what it becomes. Long Street is the most popular area of the city for ‘youngsters’ with an overabundance of bars, pubs, clubs and hostels. At night, it is a madhouse, with more than enough people to remain safe. During the day it is still very crowded. At the end of Long Street, I paid a quick visit to the park and then walked through the street markets. All of this seemed very European. Cape Town is a great mix of European architecture, design and ambience, in a setting that is still uniquely African.

After milling around I went back to the hotel to rest for a bit – and to take a call, sadly I am now travelling as a gainfully employed adult, slightly different than my situation in 2013. I awoke from this slumber at 6:30, ready to go to one of the new places I had read about – Signal Hill, the third of the three main peaks towering over Cape Town. Signal Hill is the smallest and lowest, and the only one reachable by car, up a winding road. Signal Hill was called on Tripadvisor the place with the best view of Cape Town, and the place to watch the sunset. I decidd to test both of those claims.

I quickly did learn that it is te best view in Cape Town, better than Table Mountain. Why? Because from Signal Hill part of your view includes Table Mountain. One of the best aspects of the views around Cape Town is the fact that Table Mountain, that imposing flat-top wall, is in them. Obviously, from the peak of Table Mountain, it itself is not in the view. From Signal Hill, it is. Signal Hill actually sits in a place where you can see all parts of Cape Town easily from it.

The wind was actually great on top of Signal Hill, so much so that I nearly dropped my phone when trying to take a selfie with Table Mountain behind me. From the car park, there is a path that heads to the peak of the hill, from there you get views of everything. Great of views of Cape Town the city:

Views of Table Mountain and Lion’s Head:

View of the Soccer Stadium and the Waterfont:

And Views down south towards Camp’s Bay and the Cape:

When sunset started to set it, the Western face of the hill started to fill out really quickly. They have a tarp set out where dozens of people were camping out waiting for the sun to set. People had brought picnics and wines and beers and books and blankets and set in for the sunset. I did as well, waiting until the sun neatly nestled behind the clouds at 8:15. It really was a stunning site, made, oddly, even more haunting with the whipping wind. I’m not doing too many things during my time in Cape Town that I didn’t do last time. One of the main one’s will happen tomorrow when I go to Kirstenbosch, but I can’t recommend Signal Hill enough.

After dinner, I took an uber ride to Camps’ Bay, the first Bay south of Cape Town, with views of the beach below it and the mountains above it. Again, the wind played too strongly to sit outside, but I had a lovely dinner by the beach at Ocean Blue. The setting here was extremely European. I remember an almost identical road-side restaurant and beach setting near Valencia Spain. The difference here, though is having mountains that will rival Banff National Park in Calgary above on the other side. The food itself was good, Springbok Carpaccio, and a fried Baby Kingklip, of which there was nothing Baby about it. I tried to sit there soaking in the setting for as longas I could.

Before I knew it, I was on an uber back to the Waterfront, to have a few more Milk & Honeys, talk to a few more locals, and hit the hay after a long, worthwhile, relaxing day. I really tried not to visit the same place more than once for a long time, but having these 3.5 days in Cape Town, with really nothing much to do, is invaluable. I could come here again and again and again.

How to Keep a Coach

I was surprised, but not shocked when Chip Kelly got fired. Heck, I literally wrote about the great chance he was taking back in March. I was less surprised when Tom Coughlin 'retired' after four straight seasons without playoffs. (records since 2010: 10-6, 9-7, 9-7, 8-8, 7-9, 6-10, 6-10), was fired. However, I was shocked when Lovie Smith was fired. I'm not sure when NFL teams will learn, because while Chip Kelly and Lovie Smith getting the ax are examples of teams reacting possibly (and in Smith's case, probably) too quickly, Coughlin stepping down is a sign of teams reacting too late. There really is no easy answer.

Chip Kelly was on a short leash after feuding with Eagles mainstay's like Howie Roseman, essentially kicking all the Reid-era guys to the curb and getting full control. After basically all his moves turned our wrong, and his famed offense was getting figured out at every turn, it was only a matter of time. Still, Jeffrey Lurie is a patient man. He gave Andy Reid 14 seasons, and only let him go when they fell to 4-12. He stood by Reid as the Eagles lost three straight Championship Games (compare this to Elway firing Fox after seasons of 13-3, 13-3 and 12-4). He was supposed to be behind Kelly, but when he saw a cold, insular guy who's personnel acumen should be roundly criticized he took swift action.

But then I see something like Lovie Smith getting axed in Tampa and I wonder if even Lurie acted too quickly. Lovie Smith was hired in Tampa Bay to give the Buccaneers a sense of stability. They had cycled through two coaches in five years following Jon Gruden's firing. Lovie Smith was brought in to build a defense, which he did despite personnel issues at many key positions (will the Buccaneers ever get a pass rusher). Lovie Smith went 2-14 in his first year, but went 6-10, and started 6-6 in 2015. His team was on the rise, with Jameis Winston having an at worst decent and at best good rookie campaign. The Buccaneers were seen as a team on the rise - and now Lovie is gone.

How quick is too quick? This really is a tough question in the NFL. Generally when a coach is fired in three or less seasons, I often think it went too quickly. Firing Mike Mularkey kept Buffalo in neutral until today. NFL teams are quick to pull the trigger, and it is hard to say if they should be. It is hard to build a system, build a personnel base that quickly, especially when you are inheriting the wasteland that was the 2013 Buccaneers under Greg Schiano.

Tom Coughlin is likely going to be a Hall of Fame coach. He won two Super Bowls with the Giants in five seasons. He was beloved by his players from 2007 onwards. He gave the Giants an appearance of consistency. And let's be real, he was pushed out. You can argue he should have been pushed out a while ago. His team seemed to buy into the 'get hot at the right time' hype too much. They went from a team that made the playoffs four straight seasons from 2005-2008. Then, he made the playoffs once in 7 seasons. They won the Super Bowl that season, but that leaves six different years without meaningful January football, including bad collapses in 2009, 2012 and 2014.

You can argue the Giants kept Coughlin in too long. It really is hard to know when the time is right. The NFL is constantly in a balance between 'win now' and 'consistency'. It is odd that some of the more forlorn franchises are the ones that are staying with the plan. Despite seasons of 3-13, 4-12 and 5-11, Gus Bradley has gotten a 4th season in Jacksonville, a team that employed Jack Del Rio for 8 seasons. The Bengals stayed with Marvin Lewis after a 2010 season that ended with a 4-12 season and a discontented QB. He's paid that off with five straight playoff games.

The easy out is to say that these teams are cheap and keeping their coaches to avoid paying two coach-level salaries - and maybe there is truth to that. But maybe stability matters. Maybe letting your coach build his team with his players matters.

I am more forgiving of the Eagles axing Kelly as he had shown that he got his own players and failed quite badly; but the Buccaneers are not Lovie's team yet. Lovie Smith, as he was when he coached in Tampa under Dungy, is a defensive coach. His defense worked in Chicago and would have in Tampa Bay. Of course, the Buccaneers spent basically all their draft capital on offense, never gave Lovie Smith pass rusher to work with, and now have gotten rid of him.

This all brings me to my team, the Colts, who have decided to retain both Chuck Pagano and Ryan Grigson. Retaining Grigson is not surprising to Colts fans, but keeping Pagano is. Chuck Pagano is loved by his players, but seems to be disliked by everyone else in Colts managements - including the GM that he openly feuded with. He has an antiquated view of football that Ryan Grigson took amazing measures - like hand-picking offensive coordinators - to overcome. Yet, here we are with a 4-year extension for Pagano.

The Colts, even in a season that was a massive disappointment, even if you want to explain away part of it because of Luck's injury, decided to stay the course. The Colts consider themselves one of the premier franchises, and those teams are defined by consistency. It is odd that all the teams that are either elite, or want to be elite, try to stay consistent, follow the Patriots model. The Cowboys have tried this by retaining Garret, same with the Panthers and Ron Rivera, who escaped firing after a 1-3 start in 2013, and has gone 34-10-1 since. The Colts see thamselves as that type of team, and have acted like it.

In the end, I'm not sure I have come to any comclusion here, which makes sense since there is no real answer. Teams have succeeded and failed at both. The Broncos, who I am sure view themselves as a top team, cut bait with John Fox, and hired the Team President's personal friend as head coach, and it somehow has suceeded.

The only main takeaway I have is what I will wrote about shortly as a quasi-part 2: why is the GM seen as a more powerful position above the coach. We have seen numerous instances of the coach getting fired and the GM being retained. Is that the right way to go. That really should be explored more. It seems the GM always wins the power struggles, the GM is the one that always gets to pick is coach. Should it be that way? There definitely is ample reason to thnk that may not be the best approach. Until next time, I guess...

Year-Beginning Trip of 2016: Pt. 2 - Johannesburg

When I came to South Africa in 2013, the first stop on my Round the World trip, I didn’t get any closer to Johannesburg than the airport, taking an immediate connecting flight to Cape Town. This time, I decided to venture into the large city. Only for a period slightly longer than 24 hours, mind you. I wanted closer to 48, but the mileage flights United was offering during the Christmas season did not cooperate. Instead, I got 24 hours to pack as much as I could into a very odd city.

Johannesburg is many things. The financial and industrial hub of South Africa, one of the rising global cities as it moves further away from its, and its country’s, dark past. The city is also known for being dangerous, exceedingly so to the point where most lit streets are not walkable past 7 or 8 unless you are in a large group. It is also a massive, massive city. Google Maps does a bad job of showing the sheer size of the city. What looks like a relatively simple car ride is actually a 10km journey onto freeways. I learned all these things during my 24 hours in Johannesburg. I will likely go back, partly because I have to (there are major things I failed to do) and because I want to. It is not Cape Town – few places are; but it holds its own as a tourist destination.

In my drive to my Hotel, I tried to think of the best comparison for Johannesburg. In some ways, it is a good mix of a European city, with nice, clean, maintained highways and roads, and a distinctly first-world feel at the macro level, and Mexico, with pockets of slightly dirty areas with cobbled sidewalks and barred buildings. There is one immediate takeaway, though, and that leads to the fact that the safety concerns are very much real. Swaths of the outer city is residential neighborhood – nice residential properties, well designed and manicured. But all of them, truly all of them, have either barbed wire on top of walls enclosing the property, or have electric fences.

That was an ominous sign, to say the least, that no matter how out-of-America these streets looked, with trees in the middle shadowing the well-paved roads below it, there is danger lurking. The closest comparison I could think of was in the Jurassic Park book, when the group reaches the hotel rooms for the first time, they are totally luxurious, but the scientist notices that the windows are barred in with thick steel. Something is lurking.

One of the issues with Johannesburg is that it is so big that many of the nice sites are quite a bit outside of the city center. Things like the Monte Casino Bird Park and Lion and Rhino Park, top sites by my research, are just too far to dedicate a large portion of the 24 hours I had. I stuck to mostly sites inside the city proper. My first was the only one I had to do, the Apartheid Museum.

 

There’s no easy way to describe what I saw in the Apartheid museum, but I will say they were largely fair to the entire era in South African history – to all sides. The museum is sprawling, and doubles as a nice history museum for South Africa as a whole. There is no stone unturned in what they show you about South Africa’s history. Of course, it is largely horrible, but it also goes into the various factions, the multiple eras of protests and violence, the long struggle, the reasons Mandela was imprisoned, to why he was released, and finally to the modern South Africa that is trying to escape this past.

The museum itself takes about 90 minutes, closer to two hours if you want to see everything. It is a bit overwhelming actually. One of my favorite takeaways, actually, was learning how much of a presence Mahatma Gandhi had in South Africa (more on that later). By the end of it, you get an incredibly deep and lasting sense of what Apartheid, and the separation is all about. And you are also thankful that South Africa is a bit different today.

Of course, then I went to my next area to try to get some lunch and learned that maybe it isn’t so different, at least in terms of perception. I decided to go to Mabenong, a new ‘artsy’ district of Johannesburg that essentially is building up what used to be wasted land in the heart of the city. That description of the district is accurate, though the district is far more lively during their weekend markets, and during the day time. I reached approximately at 4:00 PM, and one of the large hubs of artistry, the Arts @ Main, closes promptly at 4. I went to a restaurant in the Mabenong district that lived up to that description.

The restaurant was called Baobeng, and it served various dishes from around Africa, while also moonlighting as a bar. Given I arrived at 4:15, most people inside were going there for the bar aspect. Now, when I say that maybe Apartheid hasn’t fully left us, I won’t be afraid to say I chose to go to the place where I saw the most foreigners. I’m not proud of this, as I usually laugh off these claims of ‘stay safe’, but I did this. In the end, I still chose a nice place that was frequented by foreigners and locals alike and the food, a lamb curry dish from Ghana, was quite good. Better was the cold Castle beer, one that I had forgotten. That and Milk and Honey (still to come) was the staple of my early trip.

After that I retired back to the hotel for a while, still a bit tired off of my long journey to South Africa, enjoying some of the added hospitality of being an IHG Platinum member using my free night – which made it all the more ironic that I was upgraded to a Junior Suite, given that I was staying for free. I went to the lounge for a bit, and then left for dinner. I chose to go to one of the restaurants that was recommended for both its food and service. It was called Browns of Rivonia. I’m not entirely sure what ‘Browns’ referred to, but Rivonia was the suburb it was in – a suburb known for being where Mandela and Co. used to ‘conspire’ to overthrow to South African Government in the 60’s. The place itself now is really nice, situated in a residential property with a lush backyard of greens and creeks and a terrace seating overlooking of all that.

The restaurant is noted for its wine list, to which I actually had some. I know nothing about wines, but it tasted good. It was a South African wine. For the meal, I decided to have Biltong as a starter. Biltong is a famous beef part that is used way to often (and often way too well) as a starter, and it was predictably good. The real treat, though, was my main, which was a dish that was essentially three different preparations of Ostrich. That big bird is already a personal favorite of mine, and the dish did it justice. Placed side by side, it was first a small Ostrich steak on top of a bed of sweet potato, then a Ostrich Spring Roll (the worst of the three, and a solid B+), and then a dish that mixed cut-up pieces of Ostrich with liver and onions. The meal was fantastic, the place even better. The only other people there were three couples (all separate), dressed up to the nines. I myself decided to dress up decently well given the place. All in all it was an enjoyable night.

My second day in Cape Town also had a defined starting point, as I had pre-booked tickets to the SAB World of Beer tour at 11:00. I decided, after sleeping in longer than I should have, and eating breakfast at the hotel. Working backwards, I knew I needed to leave to the airport at 6:00, so that gave me 7 hours to play with. The World of Beer tour started promptly at 11:00, and it was actually way more than I bargained for.

The tour itself is not of the brewery. SAB (now SAB Miller after merging with Miller – though there is zero mention of Miler anywhere) is anyway a multinational brewery. The tour was actually through the history of beer, and then through the brewing process. The history part was interesting, with various exhbits showing beer in the Egyptian era, the start of beer in Sub-Saharan Africa (including a taste of the thick beer brewed in these remote villages), and then through its expansion in Europe. Each part is designed like that period so there are Egyptian columns, African huts, and then an abbey hallway. It is very impressive given what I would have expected.

The tour through the beermaking process was about as impressive. It started in an indoor garden to show the actual raw product of malt barley and hops, and through each single step of the process. It really is a great education into the beer-making process, including an area where you can taste the raw barley. The tour finally ends at their in-house pub, where each tour ticket comes with two free pints of beer on tap. I also opted to pay like $2 extra to get a beer tasting, which was also informative. The beer tasting includes various South Africa only choices (Castle) and sampling of various other beers under the SAB umbrella (Peroni, Carling, Pilsener Urlequer, and no Miller). My favorite was the Castle Milk Stout, which I don’t remember the last time I was in South Africa.

The Beer tour actually took a lot longer than I had anticipated, leaving me with less time than planned. I think walked around the city center for a bit, all the while checking my six. It is actually a bit eerie how empty the streets are during the day. They aren’t empty enough to make me feel unsafe, but far less empty than streets in the center of any other main city. Still, it was a nice walk to see how urbanized, in a good way, Johannesburg had become. I think took an uber out to Bedfordview, another suburb that looked a lot closer on the map than it actually was, to go to lunch at Turn ‘n’ Tender, a locally famous chain of steakhouses. There I had the Biltong plate as an appetizer, and their lunch special of lamb chops, both quite good if a bit unmemorable.

 

From there I went back to the hotel to check out, and then do two last tourist stops during my too-short time in Johannesburg. Both were close to my hotel – in this case actually reasonably close. I still had to take an uber to the first one, but it was the shortest, cheapest uber ride yet. The destination was the Satyagraha House, the place where Mahatma Gandhi used to stay when he lived in South Africa, which he did for much of 1896-1920. The house is now a guesthouse, but the have maintained the actual house structure as a lasting museum, and it is set up in the way it was when Gandhi lived there. The house is incredibly serene, totally quiet except for a few birds chirping. In the house you almost feel a sense of peacefulness and zen. There is a ladder that takes you to the loft where Gandhi used to sleep and all the while you feel a sense of calm.

I spent about 30 minutes walking around the house – the only thing they added are panels in each room that explained the deep relationship between Gandhi, his South African host Kellerbosch, and how inextricably linked he was with the early push against discrimination in South Africa. Sure, he was largely against it from a perspective of what it did to the Indians living in South Africa, but he was an equal champion for the cause of the Africans. It was a great way to end my last tourist time in Johannesburg.

I returned to the hotel with enough time to have a coffee, and take my uber to the airport. Quick note about Uber in South Africa. I never really take Uber in the US. I took it in India because it is easier than being denied by umpteen auto drivers in Bangalore, and it is as cheap as a conventional cab in Mumbai. But I think the service works best in South Africa. This is a country where at many times, especially if you are largely alone, you want door to door service. Uber offers you this luxury. It is not cheap, but then from what I remember of my time in Cape Town, neither are the taxis. Uber is perfect for this environment, and I imagine I will take many an Uber in Cape Town as well.

 
My uber driver dropped me off to Johannesburg OR Tambo airport at 6:40, but that ended up being more than enough time to spare. I was a bit sad to be ending my time in Johannesburg. I didn’t have nearly enough time as I needed. I wanted an extra day, but I couldn’t get anything that would take me from Mumbai to Johannesburg other than the Turkish Airlines route that spent 10 hours in Istanbul. Those are 10 hours I would have much rather have had in Johannesburg. I didn’t get to do Soweto, or even venture a bit outside to some of the wildlife destinations that are there. Of course, those will be teed up for next time.