One year later

A really big thank you to everyone who remembered it was our anniversary on Monday. And thank you as well to everyone who interrupted their normal life a year ago to fly to San Francisco for our wedding. Now that it’s been a year we can confess we considered eloping rather than getting married. We were going to fly to Norway and get married somewhere. Anyway, we are really happy we didn’t. Having our friends and family at our wedding was what made it special

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since that happy day. Married life has been surprisingly easy and fun. Though it’s hardly been a “normal year”. We’ve probably logged more miles last year than any other year in our lives (at least for me).

I think we were both a bit concerned about moving in together. For one, we are not spring chickens anymore, with lots of bad bachelor, or bachelorette, habits—and it’s not so easy to change at our age. Plus the flat in London was really small (even if it did have lots of storage by London Standards). Our bad habits haven’t gotten the best of us (yet! :) ), and the storage wasn’t an issue, since we both got rid of almost everything before moving to London.

We are both looking forward to next year. Though there will (most likely) be less miles traveled, we think it will be an exciting year, as well get to settle into a new place and continue our life together.

The past few days we’ve spent mostly doing the nitty-gritty planning for the rest of the trip, which involves lots of calling and emailing. We are happy to be done with the planning but we wish we could have gotten out a bit more as the weather was really nice. We are now done (fortunately!) though we’ll have to do more planning for Asia.

For the past few days there’s been absolutely no wind and no surf. Like no waves at all. The ocean looked like it was a big lake, which was really mazing, given the display nature put for us over the weekend (with 65km/h winds). And because there is no swell, the water is really clear. We took some pictures (you can see one down below) though they don’t really do justice to the beauty of Clifton Beach. You can tell how big the waves are by looking at the figures. Update: Sorry the photo is so small. We’ll upload it to picasa later.

By the way, looking out the window at the beach is a never-ending source of entertainment. That’s another topic that deserves it’s own post.

R

New photo album

Our apologies for not posting any updates the past few weeks. We’ve been enjoying our little home here in Cape Town, and we’ve been deciding what to do for the rest of the trip. And though we haven’t ventured out much, the city has been nice enough to bring the entertainment to us.

I just posted a couple of back-dated entries, to bring you all up to date on our adventures. Also, I wanted to let you know we’ve posted more pictures to a new album on Picasa Web. We hope you enjoy the slideshow and the updates.

One more thing. I wrote last week about how Cape Town can be really, really windy. Well, today we got to experience it for the first time. Since last night the wind has been blowing really hard. Weather forecasts call for wind gusts of 65.5km/h (about 40 mi/h). Where we are is “relatively” calm, as the mountains protect us. But just 2 or 3 km further south (in Camps Bay) it gets very windy. I went running in the morning and I got blown around quite a bit. It would be fun to go down to the cape again and see how windy it is there.

It is also really interesting to see the wind on the surface of the ocean. From our bedroom we can look south toward Camp Bay. And we can clearly see the white caps on the ocean and the change in the color of the water. Every now and then a puff of wind will blow in our direction, and we can see it as it spreads over the water. I guess, though I have not confirmed it, that Camps Bay is not as protected by the mountains. If tomorrow is still blowing, I’ll try to take some pictures.

R

Where two oceans meet

If you read lots of books about sailors and pirates as a kid, which I did, you might remember reading about the Malacca Straits, the Cape of Good Hope, the Cape Horn, or many other “landmarks” all over the world, which had an almost mystical significance. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn were meaningful because it is where the oceans meet and sailors could go “around” the continent., i.e. after having traveled south for many days they would turn around and sail north. At the cape the weather was stormy and the sea treacherous. The Malacca Straits were the home of merciless pirates.

Anyway, my literary talents don’t do justice to the great writing that some of us read growing up and which captured our (my?) imagination. But it was cool. And never did I imagine I would get to visit some of these places 30 years later.

This trip we will actually visit two of these landmarks; the Cape of Good Hope here in Africa, and the Malacca Straits in Singapore. Though to be fair I’ve been there before.

So I was very excited when earlier today we set off to visit the Cape of Good Hope. Now, my creative imagination led me to believe that the Cape of Good Hope was the southernmost point in Africa. It is not. Cape Agulhas, a bit east and south of Cape Town, holds that honor. But it was still cool to go see where “two oceans meet”. This most be like the official motto of Cape Town or Something, as you see it everywhere.

Anyway, we left our place relatively early and headed south. We decided we would stop first in Simon Town, where there is a large colony of African penguins (formerly known as jackass penguins because of their donkey-like mating honk). Debby fell in love with the penguins and wanted to bring one of the babies home (heard this story before??)

There are about 3000 penguins in the colony. It’s a bit surprising that the penguins live not more than 30 yards from human population, and there is a beach which is “shared”, i.e. you can find both penguins and humans on the beach. Needless to say the penguins are quite used to humans and mostly ignore you.

We learned lots of interesting stuff about the penguins. They are born with downy feathers that are not water proof. After about 60 days they change feathers and take on a distinctly blue tone, which gives them the name “baby blues”. At around 2 years old the adult feather grow and they take the traditional black-and-white coloring. They molt every couple of years, and, while molting, cannot go into the water. So they grow fat before the molt so they can survive the three weeks when they can’t eat. Penguins eat fish so if they can’t swim, they can’t eat. If you have time and bandwidth you can watch a short video of the penguins (it’s about 1MB).

From Simon Town we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope. We parked our care and did a short hike (about 1 hour) from the lighthouse out to the tip of the peninsula. We both enjoyed the exercise and enjoyed the views.

Somewhat unexpectedly the park is full of baboons. Because visitors feed them, the baboons have become quite aggressive. So one has to be careful, especially in the high-traffic areas. Apparently they will get into your car if you have food and leave the door open. We saw one baboon that was on the roof of a car, leaving the owner a nice warm present. We got lucky and managed to avoid them.

R

It's raining cyclists

One aspect that surprised me a lot about Cape Town (at least the little of it we have seen) is how many persons run and cycle. Having heard ad infinitum about the security situation, I was unprepared for the number of people I’ve seen on the road. It was really a most unexpected and pleasant surprise.

But we were even more surprised today, when the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, rode by our door. This is a massive timed race held annually. It starts in downtown Cape Town, heads down the peninsula (toward the Cape of Good Hope) and then rides up the peninsula, and finished in Green Point (about 5 miles further north from where we are). The race is 118km (under 75 miles) and has some significant climbs. And it literally rode by our door.

Cyclists ge t split up into numerous groups, based on ability and so on. The race started at 6:15am, with the men’s pro race, followed shortly (about 15min) by the women’s. But riders were starting at (decreasing) intervals until past 10:00am! Yeah, there were riders starting for a whole 4 hours! About 35,000 cyclists participated.

We knew the race would go by our door, so we got up early and turned on the TV to watch the broadcast. Once the pro peloton was near our place we ran upstairs and watched them go by. I went back up to watch the pro women (which, by that point had gotten mixed up with some the 40+ men). After a short nap (since we had gotten up so early) we went back up to watch some of the amateurs. This year the event was a great success, no doubt helped by the weather—it was sunny and warm without any wind (which is not always the case).

It was really inspiring to see all the amateurs ride by. With such large numbers, there are clearly riders of all abilities. Some take it very seriously and really race. Some do it for charity (all kinds). But for most it is a fun day in the saddle. Some riders dress up—like runners in Break to Breakers.

It really brought back many memories, and now I feel ready to get back on the saddle. Being here has really inspired me to get back in shape. We’ll see how long the inspiration lasts once my tights start burning on the way up Old La Honda :).

R

P.D. Robbie Hunter won the mens pro race (for those who care).

The Atlantic Ocean

I had written a lot about the amazing view we have of the Atlantic Ocean. But the official photographer has gone on strike and hasn’t taken any pictures of it. Today I decided to take matters into my own hands, so we can post a few photos here (after all, what’s the point of having a view if we can’t brag about it, right? :) ). Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, and the Twelve Disciples are sit behind us. We can see them from the parking lot, but we can’t see them from our apartment.

Apparently it can get really, really windy in Cape Town, but our beach is one of the (or the) most protected beaches on the peninsula—since the the mountains are right behind us. We’ve been lucky so far and it hasn’t been very windy—though once or twice we’ve seen fast moving clouds coming over Table Mountain.

Oh, and the water is really cold, and the surf is pretty rough. To give you an idea, dudes surf on our beach (and they wear full wet suits). Lots of people come to the beach, but very few venture into the water.

R

Malaria

Both Debby and I have tried to stay healthy while traveling. We’ve been conscientious of washing our hands, using hand sanitizer when there isn’t soap available, we got all of our immunizations, and we’ve been following a strict anti-malarial prophylaxis regime. We also brought a small “medicine cabinet” with us with all the basics. Fortunately we haven’t had to use it very often (knock on wood!).

We debated which immunizations to get and which anti-malarial pills to get quick a bit before starting our trip. Immunizations are great for the population at large, but they always carry a risk and, in my opinion, should not be taken lightly. Doctors always prescribe them, but when you read the fine print you realize it is not a risk-free decision. The rabies vaccine, for example, does not prevent the disease. It only give you more time before you need to get shots and it makes it easier to find the medication (if you have been immunized you require a simpler intervention).

We also had a small problem that we were moving around a lot. Some immunization regimes, like rabies, require multiple shots. We got all the 1-shot vaccinations in London and the rest we did in Paris, at the Institute Pasteur (which was kind of cool as that is where the first immunizations were developed).

The anti-malarial pills were another tricky decision. There are basically three choices; malarone, lariam, and doxycicline. Malarone is probably the best and the newest option, but also the most expensive (by far). Lariam is cheaper but makes you crazy—some people have severe side-effects and it can take some time for them to go away. Doxycicline is cheap and relatively side-effect free (it is an antibiotic). I think the main reason it is not used more is that it makes you sensitive to the sun, and, in women, can cause yeast infections. Since malaria is prevalent in tropical places the sensitive to the sun part is a real drawback.

Debby wanted to take lariam, as she was afraid of the side-effects of doxy and found malarone too expensive. Fortunately I convinced her that it was better to be poor and healthy than rich and crazy. So she is taking malarone. Malarone is nice to have because it can be used as a prophylaxis (to prevent the disease) and it is also a cure. I decided to use doxy. We bought enough of each for six months. I don’t seem to be suffering any side-effects from doxy (I’ve been tanning quite nicely if you ask me).

One advantage of malarone is you only need to take it for one week after you leave the high-risk areas. Doxy you have to take for three weeks. So while I have to take doxy all the time we are here in CT, Debby can take a break for a few weeks.

We’ve read a lot about malaria before leaving. But to me it always seemed somewhat impersonal; hard to imagine happening to me. Plus I know they make it sound worse than it is, to make sure people will take the pills. What brought it home was finding out the bar tender at Karamba (in Zanzibar) got malaria three times in a two year period! That’s right, while in college she got sick three times. Since then I’ve found out malaria is a really big problem in Zanzibar and Dar. We also found out a significant proportion of the cases in the coastal region of Tanzania are due to plasmodium falciparum, the nastiest form of malaria.

Here’s to staying healthy the remainder of the trip.

R

Prison

Cape Town, South Africa (3 March, 2008)

This is the main entrance to our flat here in Cape Town. You might notice more than a passing resemblance to a prison cell. But pretty much all flats in the complex have this kind of “security” gate, or so they are called by the local residents. What I find fascinating is the gate can only be opened with a key from the inside—it doesn’t have a handle. And the lock is so close to the frame it’s hard to turn the key—from the inside at least. In case of emergency, there’s no way we’ll be able to get out the door—we’ll have to jump out the window. Fortunately there are some sturdy trees right by our window so we should be able to get out with just some scratches.

By the way, our flat is inside a gated “compound”. There is a waist-high gate at the street entrance, with an automatic gate for which one needs a code or a frob. The gate is only waist high, but it has a nasty saw-tooth pattern at the top. And this seems to be a laid-back place. Some of the neighboring complexes have electric fence and/or barb-wire!

Also, everywhere you look you can see signs that aim (or so they seem) to deter crime. There are a million security and/or emergency response companies and their signs are on every property they protect. On the door of the rubbish closet in our complex is an interesting sign that indicates all the possessions of the residents are specially marked. Presumably so they can be identified and restored to the rightful owners by the police. Kind of like your clothes were when you went to summer camp.

I don’t know what compels people to live in such prisons. Clearly they do it to keep evil-doers out, but the security mechanisms bear an uncanny resemblance to those used to keep inmates in. The same happens in Mexico City, where people build 8-foot walls around their house. I’ve never seen barb-wire at a house in Mexico City. Then again, I haven’t been there for some time. Perhaps they’ve learned the trick by now.

It’s been very interesting to see how different security mechanism are used in different cities. In London our flat had a solid metal door (well, it had metal on the outside) with a “Chubb” lock. These are much in vogue in London as they are reputed to be un-pickable (and required by insurance companies). The key to these locks looks like an old-fashioned key, but the “bottom” is unique to each lock. You’ll get a better idea if you look at the Wikipedia article. This is the lock, by the way, for which we did not have a key the day the real-estate agent locked us out of the flat. They locksmith had to drill a small hole in the door to break the lock. This was followed by a very expensive visit by the landlady’s handy-man to replace the lock.

In Paris our flat has a sophisticated locking mechanism that had both vertical and horizontal dead-bolts, all of which were moved by the same key. I don’t know what this kind of lock is called, so I can’t find a picture for it. The key mechanism was waist-level near the door frame. As you turned the key, four horizontal bolts would slide into the frame plus two vertical ones; one at the top and one at the bottom. I always felt like I was closing Fort Knox when locking the door. We also had a metal door. In Paris and in London we lived in a larger building, which itself had a lock. In London we used a key, and in Paris a code.

All this security is in sharp contrast to the carefree ways of San Francisco, where millionaires feel comfortable with a simple lock on the door—and maybe an alarm system.

For now we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope we don’t have to evacuate through the window…

R