The morning view as I drew open my hotel room curtains was one of a very grey looking sky. It wasn't raining, but looked like it could at any moment. I got ready to go for breakfast, grabbing the bag of birthday goodies that I had purchased before, at Checkers, the nearby grocery store chain. Today was the day that two of our team were celebrating birthdays! Upon getting to the dining room, most people had arrived before the guests of honour, so I handed out party hats while Marilyn put candles on the two cakes for the birthday boys, and we prepared for the celebration.
Jose was the first of the honourees to appear, so we put a hat on his head, and we all broke out into a boisterous singing rendition of "Happy birthday", while he blew out the flaming candles and we pelted him with streamers. Jose was very surprised, which made the whole thing even more fun.
The next birthday boy, Joedy, appeared shortly after all of the first commotion. We quickly repeated the serenade of "Happy birthday", and managed to surprise him also. The guys he was out with the night before got a bit of a lead on congratulation Joedy, by waiting till midnight to celebrate, but Joedy had no idea that the whole group was going to throw him a birthday breakfast party. It was also funny that neither Joedy nor Jose knew that their birthdays were on the same day.
This day was not only a double birthday, but was also Good Friday, and the beginning of an extra long holiday weekend. 9 of us were going to fly to Cape Town in the afternoon, and the remaining 4 were planning multiple day trips from Bloem over the next 4 days. I returned to my room to pack my knapsack to be ready to head to the airport in Bloem. We were booked in to take a Mango flight, and Paola and I were going to share a room. We had booked tickets for Table Mountain and Robben Island, two must-see attractions, and we were very excited about that.
At the Bram Fisher Airport, there were some interesting tiled sculptures, of people and also a lizard, that I really liked. Even the sculpted suitcases strewn around the sculpted passengers were tiled.
After getting checked in at the airport, the next task at hand was to wait, chatting with a Mugg and Beans coffee. Their sizing is a bit different from what we have in Canada; instead of small, medium, or large, their coffee sizes were Short, Easy, and Serious. While I am a 'short' coffee drinker, we had some takers that were 'serious'.
We got comfortable on the lounge chairs they had there, with the typical scene of a room filled with people, all checking their mobile devices or talking on their phones. Of course there was conversation and laughter also, but most people had their phone within quick access, a sure sign of the times.
The flight wasn't too long, although there was some turbulence, which is always a bit unnerving, but we made it safely and that is ultimately the measure of success of flying.
We reached the hotel, The Southern Sun Cullinan, and it was most grand! Outside were blooming bird of paradise flowers (I love the vibrant and deep colours!), and inside was a beautiful foyer, with generous bowls of chocolate Easter chicks, fancy triple layered juice mocktails, and a welcoming staff, ready to check us in.
Paola and I were on the 15th floor, the top, and the view was spectacular. The view offered wall to wall sunshine and clear skies over a very busy urban city centre, surrounded by majestic mountains covered with low shrubbery, with the exception of a few clusters of trees here and there.
We all checked in, and agreed to meet shortly in the hotel courtyard. The courtyard had a small dark-blue tiled pool, and tall palm trees that reached high into the deepest blue sky ever.
What a lovely spot to wait. I could feel relaxation settling in nicely. Ah!
Mark, Joedy, and Mani decided to test the courtyard lounges... that looked like a very tough job (not!).
Once we all gathered from our respective rooms, the first order of business was to walk the short distance to the waterfront.
It was easy to find, with a tall ferris wheel serving as a 'North Star', to guide us. We stopped for a 'quick' beverage at one of the pubs at the waterfront, although 'quick' was not really what it turned out to be. This was yet another reinforcement of the lesson for us to understand that time in South Africa is a bit different, and takes more time, especially for our meals and service. It was pleasant service, just not fast.
Nonetheless, this gave us more time to people watch, and the waterfront was a great place to do that. Talk about hustling and bustling! There were lots of people, lots of characters too, I might add, and lots of bikers, who had parked their motorcycles everywhere.
My beverage of choice was a ginger beer... they didn't have the dragon one that I tried last night, so I chose Crabbie's, which the bottle said was from Edinburg.
It was quite different, very gingery as promised, and had an elephant on the label, which was a nice touch. After we finished and paid for our refreshments, and we left to explore other areas of the waterfront, including a very busy indoor food market which was packed with vendors selling all kinds of food, from Chinese, to Dutch, to African, of course! We checked out all that was offered, and decided to see what else was available elsewhere before deciding on supper. We exited the food market, out onto the busy waterfront complex of shops and restaurants.
My husband, who was back at home taking care of our dog while I was on my project here in South Africa, he had decided to start his own blog "While Deb's Away..." and he was posting pictures of him trying out new pickup trucks, and trying to decide on which model to buy while I was away. All this was done for my benefit, of trying to make me nervous about his potential big purchase while I was not around to stop him.
Not to be outdone, I hammed it up at the waterfront, posing for pics with new expensive sports cars, a huge boat, and a fabulous hotel, with the understanding that if HE was going to buy a new vehicle, I could also do my fair share of big ticket item shopping too!
As we continued to explore the outdoor offerings the sun began to set, with the cooler night air putting a chill in us, so that helped us to decide on a restaurant with an outdoor patio with heat lamps. There were so many heat lamps, that we joked about putting on sunscreen and sunglasses, as we were sure to get a tan while eating under those bright lights! Some of our group decided to seek out a vegetarian eatery instead, so it made things easier for the rest of us to get into this one, which was quite busy. The funny thing was, that Andrea from our group had phoned earlier to try to get a reservation at this very place, and was told that the place was booked solid. Lesson learned: try anyway, in person, even if you were told no on the phone.
We were seated under the red glow from the lamps, and started perusing the menu. We decided on appetizers, and beverages (sparkling water for me), and there was a lot of discussion over our main course decisions. I decided to get brave, and order some eland as my main course.
Eland is one of the native deer-like animals in this wonderful country, and I figured that I may as well try some native meat while here. Paola asked if she could try some, and I was happy to agree to that.
Dave ordered a beer called "Bone Crusher Darling Brew", which the label described as being inspired by the Spotted Hyena, a misunderstood creature. It went on to say that it was a Wit beer with a candy nose aroma with hints of coriander and orange peel; with that description I was tempted to try one, but stuck with my sparkling water.
Time was passing, as time does here, slowly, and we were enjoying conversing and laughing in the warmth of the heat lamps, and happy to not be directly in the cold, and now dark night air. Then suddenly without warning, we found ourselves suddenly in darkness, and everyone stopped talking for a split moment, trying to comprehend what happened. What happened was that the power went out!
It started to get cold right away, and as we sat there wondering if our meal was going to be served in the darkness, the waiter came over and said that the kitchen would be closing, and no more food would be served. Oh, and could we please pay for our beverages and appetizers before the wireless credit card payment machines lost power. The waiter said that when this happened, loss of power, there was no guarantee of if or when it would come back on, so their policy was to just shut down until the power came on again.
Some of our group had ordered a bottle of wine, and still had a lot left in the bottle, so they decided to recap it, and take it with them, after all, they had paid for it. It was getting late, and we were getting quite hungry, and miraculously much of the main building of restaurants still did have power, so we decided to go for one of those, and settled on Ocean Basket. We made our way through the crowds in the mall-type building, and went to the second floor only to approach the restaurant just as it was closing! Oy! Now what?
Our group split off with some people going for a fish and chips place, and I, along with some others ordered some rice and chicken from Simply Asia Thai Food. It seemed to take forever yet again (minutes on an empty stomach can seem like hours), and we waited for the lights on our notification gadget to light up. A couple of our group who ordered right after me were told to not leave the counter area, as there was no light buzzer that worked, to give to them.
Eventually we all got our food (the last two orders we thought would never get here!), and we assembled with our respective 'fast' food meals at a high counter with stools. Not to miss out on the wine that had been opened back at eatery #1, out came the bottle, the wine was poured into a couple of paper Coke cups, and there was a friendly and relieved toast made to our improvisational, and definitely not eland supper, while some of us had soft drinks and others enjoyed their red wine.
Not lingering too much over our 'food', we headed back to the hotel in a cab, to call it a day. Now here's the thing. We were staying in the Southern Sun Cullinan. Just behind this hotel was the Southern Sun Waterfront. One of our group called out to the driver that we were at the Waterfront hotel, and as we made the 5 minute drive there, upon turning into the hotel, we all recognized that this was not the right one. The driver obliged, and drove us around to the parallel street to leave us at the front door of the Cullinan. So a good rule to go with is to always know exactly which hotel you are staying at... know the full name of the hotel that is... in case there are two named similarly. And before you go thinking that would never happen anywhere else, I had this very same experience last summer when my husband and I vacationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They have two hotels by the same chain within 10 metres of each other. Hopefully I will wise up for the next time I stay at a hotel, and ensure that I know the correct name and exact location.
We said our goodbyes in the lobby, and I went to my room, tired from the day's adventures, but very happy to be doing all of this fun stuff, with awesome people, in this incredible place. It still seems surreal that I am here in South Africa.
With one final look at the pretty city lights in the night, I closed the curtains, and snuggled down in my bed with a full tummy, to dream about what adventures we would have tomorrow.
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