Paris in the Fall

There is almost nothing I enjoy more than good friends, fine bread and cheese and a spot of wine. This November I got to enjoy all of the above in one of the most idyllic settings: the Eiffel Tower. This was my first time in Paris and I was meeting up with my best friends from my exchange semester in Singapore.

It had been seven months since we had last been together and the girls had assembled from Germany, Morocco, Italy, Austria and France. I was on route to South Africa and all I wanted for this weekend together was enjoy some amazing food and each other’s company.

That’s why I was delighted when Julie, our resident Parisian suggested we spent our first afternoon together with a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. So off we went to the Carrefour to buy five different cheeses, four bottles of wine, three baguettes, two smoked meats, assorted grapes, baby tomatoes and a package of Madelines.

Despite it being something like 8˚ we cheerfully set up shop and began snacking. Well with the exception of my Moroccan friend Zaynab, she studies in Paris and was beyond embarrassed at how cliché we were being. But no matter, we somehow coerced her into taking this photo. What a spectacular reunion!



Cheers to la belle vie!

I have arrived.

I arrived in Singapore when I felt the humidity.

It was my second time landing in Changi Airport. I turned to Marie, my French traveling companion and told her that I always felt like I had arrived when I could feel the humidity while disembarking. I said the contrast with the crisp Vancouver air got me every time. She laughed because we'd just returned from Thailand. 

The fact was this time I really felt like I was in Singapore. Not that the weeks leading up to this moment were insignificant, but rather they passed in a bit of a blur. Arriving at Sleepy Sam's, meeting exchange student upon exchange student, figuring out how to get around Singapore, where to go, what to eat. Now I was more at home. I was two weeks into classes and fully settled into my apartment and had a nice friend group. This time when I arrived I knew where I was. 

I was in Singapore.

So let's talk about Singapore for a minute. It's a really interesting place. It feels a bit like Dubai in the fact that its got a lot of expats, and there is always a certain culture that goes with that. But its also in the middle of Asia and English speaking and is a tiny island with a population of 7 million. Interesting indeed. 

There are a few big differences between here and Canada. I will discuss two, the food and transportation. 

The food was a big adjustment for me. The previous exchange students all raved about how amazing the food was here, yet it seemed I was batting zero. There were lots of  whole hanging ducks and chickens everywhere and rice with every meal. At first I thought that I could just stick to tofu and veggies but then I discovered the delectable habit the Chinese have of putting pork in absolutely everything. So I started eating halal. Now my Ismaili roommate Farah and I have a grand time exploring the full menu of our favourite neighbourhood Indian spot. 

As for the transportation Singapore has this really amazing underground subway called the Massive Rapid Transit (MRT). The MRT is absolutely essential because as I previously mentioned, 7 million people live here. A car, or 'private transportation' as its referred to as here is prohibitively expensive. There are import duties, licensing duties and traffic levies all designed to keep as many people as possible off the road. Well done Singapore, but now could you find a way to make the MRT less crowded? Apparently this city could accommodate up to 9 million people. I would not be one of them. This is probably one of my main annoyances with Singapore, lack of personal space. It's probably very Canadian of me to say so.

Miss Ohio's journey begins..

I suppose it begins with a song.

Sitting at 1720 Fernwood, Katherine and I were saying goodbye. She was just about to return home for the holidays and I was leaving in a few days for my exchange semester in Singapore. Katherine sang Miss Ohio for me. 

"Oh me oh my oh, look at Miss Ohio
She’s a-running around with her rag-top down
She says I wanna do right but not right now"

I was tremendously sad to be leaving my friends in Victoria. 

I knew my exchange would be an amazing experience filled with personal growth, still it felt odd to be throwing a wrench in my already happy life. Sort of like fixing something that wasn't broken.

In times like this I like to fall back on sayings that I hold close to give me wisdom. 

That night Katherine gave me a new saying. She said, "When you come from a strong place you can do anything." 

Fiji loves an ear infection

“this too shall pass”

“this too shall pass”

This was the mantra that I repeated over and over to myself as I lay in a shack on a remote island in Fiji with a raging ear infection. For the first time in my 8 months of travel I was regretting traveling alone. I was three days into my stay at the gorgeous Octopus resort on Waya Island in the Yasawa chain of islands in Fiji. Waya is everything that tropical postcards, calendars and computer backdrops depict: as in white sand, stunning coral and azure water. Not that I was really getting the benefit of any of that from my perch in the fetal position. I certainly couldn’t swim; felt revolted by the idea of baking in the sun and couldn’t swallow without pain, let alone sip away at coconut milk cocktails. In short, I was in a bad way.

How exactly did it come to this?

Although you might not have readily surmised this from my 3 month absence from blogging, I have been in Australia, specifically Sydney, where I spent a solid two and a half months working to repay my travel debts. There was nothing so fascinating about the work, just a typical restaurant job as a waitress, although it was incredible to really live on the other side of the world for a bit. And live is what I did. I had a job, a gym routine and a family. And oh what a family! I was staying with my aunty ma and cousin Janis, whom I love to bits, but rarely get to see. As well I got to connect with my mom’s side of the family. Cousin Archie and the rest of the Arenson gang: Elana, Bess, Belinda and my little cuzzies Dani, Sam and Mikaela! Oh and of course who can forget the fact that BOTH of my grannies were in town: Granny Gertie for Pesach and Granny Dor for a jol. So anyways after a solid amount of time living and working I dedicated the last ten days of my trip to Australia’s east coast. This was too short of a time by any estimate, but as anyone who has been to Australia knows, nothing about oz is cheap. I broke my trip down into two priorities: surfing and diving. If you may recall I had certified for my Padi open water diving while in Plettinburg bay, South Africa. As for surfing, it was just something I had always wanted to try, but preferably not in freezing cold water. So I did the Mojo surf camp from Sydney up to Byron Bay. I originally signed up for the 4-day camp, but ended up extending my time to 5 days because I loved it so much. To drive from Sydney to Byron would take 12 hours. On the first day we drove 6 up to this gorgeous little surf shack right on the beach. Then we had our first whack at the surf, as the sun was setting and the moon rising in the dusk of the day. It was pretty romantic, but we also got absolutely pummeled. For the beginner, a significant aspect of surfing is understanding how to hold your board so that a wave doesn’t crash it into you. Anyways over the next couple of days we showed significant improvement in this field. As well we managed to actually get up on our boards, which is no small feat. We stayed two nights at the little surf camp and then drove another 3 hours north to Coffs Harbour where we stayed at a larger camp with different tour groups integrated. Here we worked on the next skill to master, which was paddling and learning to catch our own waves. Two nights flew by and then it was another 3 hours to Byron where we all went out on Friday night. At this point I felt quite close to my group and was quite sad when it came time for me to bus to Brisbane the next day, as I had a flight up to Cairns.

Cairns sucks. It’s way touristy and not at all as cool as Byron. But my live aboard experience was really impressive. I stayed on this boat called Reef Encounter that’s stationed out on the Great Barrier Reef. To get to it you take a transfer boat. It was on this boat that I met Courtney and Ben, two likeminded twenty-year olds from Southern California. We struck up a quick friendship and were thrilled to find out that we were sharing a room on the boat. The next three days were filled with diving, eating and hot tubing. Essentially we would wake up, dive, sit in the hot tub and talk about food and then eat. And repeat. We did 3-4 dives a day including two night dives! And that brings us to the aforementioned ear infection, which undoubtedly was a result of all that time underwater. The day after my live aboard concluded I flew back to Sydney and the next day onwards to Fiji.

Notes on the Dubai scene from our local reporter on the spot during the Leap Year

Sometime ago I got it in my head that I wanted to go see Dubai. Something about its incredible growth over such a short amount of time piqued my business-inclined mind. And while at first it didn’t seem like it would happen on this particular journey, a clever routing to Sydney via Abu Dhabi made it possible. That combined with the fact that despite being an Arab country, I had relatives there. So I took a detour on my way to the land down under and spent a few days in Dubai, the city of gold. Dubai is one of the seven countries comprising the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and a short 40-minute drive or a complimentary hour-and-a half Etihad bus ride away. Etihad is the new airline that I flew and while lesser known than Emirates they operate an efficient and luxurious flight; a comparatively cheaper journey than Emirates that connects Abu Dhabi to the world. And that is precisely what Dubai and now Abu Dhabi are striving to be, cosmopolitan hubs. They are succeeding. It all started back in the sixties when oil was discovered in Dubai. Dubai is a family run business err, country and the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum rules the country with brilliant foresight. About five years ago the Sheikh realized that the oil in Dubai would run out by 2020, so he invested large sums of money to turn the country into the massive tourist destination and celebrity hotspot that it is today. I must say he did and does a very good job. Dubai is a flawless plastic bubble of perfection: somewhat of an Arab Disney-land if you will. Everything is immaculately landscaped and buildings are erected in record time and according to budget. And the country just drips money. Locals live in private palaces and all labourers have been imported from surrounding areas and skilled labour recruited from around the world. And so it is reasserted: if you build it, they will come. And who exactly comes? Tourists come in droves from all corners of the earth and a whole work force of expats. Many of which are South Africans like my cousins. These ex-South Africans are enticed by the crime-free society. Dubai has virtually no crime. Venders in the Spice Souk even leave their merchandise is the streets overnight. It remains untouched by morning. In addition to the lack of crime, the expats also enjoy the tax-free (including income tax free) living as well as free public education in British, International or American schools. And despite being an Arab country, Dubai is liberal; one need not cover up in public. Although of course some Muslims do. This is one of the fascinating contrasts of the place: women in burkkas cruising some of the largest and most commercial shopping malls in the world. Malls that are lovely I might add. When Dubai does something, it does it right. Everything is elegant and tasteful and of course air-conditioned. This is due to Dubai having only two seasons: hot and extremely hot. Summer temperatures can spike to 50 degrees Celsius!

Overall I found Dubai to be both weird and fascinating. I am glad to have experienced it and happy for the opportunity to get to know my family there. The place is so popping that I even might consider living there for a year or two. It definitely is a place to watch over the next couple of years. I am sure with the Sheik’s master plan it will continue booming.


The Burg, the world's only seven star hotel


the gold souk


Alexa and I


Alexa & Weston


Michelle at lunch


landscape


typical tourist shot

The end of the road

No matter how long you spend in any place, at the end you always run out of time. This was the case for my three-month stay in Cape Town. The last two weeks were an absolute whirlwind of activity. During that time I managed to cross some major goals off of my list. To begin with I finally managed to go into the Kyalitsha Township with Debbie Goetz. Debbie is a friend from camp who started a women’s support group in the township years ago. She used her nanny as her resource, as her nanny lives there and managed to make many friends and contacts. People that she regularly goes to visit. So I went along for one such trip and was absolutely blown away. When you drive along the highway, Kyalitsha appears as a massive, sprawling squatter camp of tin shacks. But inside it is a real community. Compared to the rest of gated Cape Town, Kyalitsha is the only place that one is guaranteed know their neighbors. Children play in the streets and everywhere was the sound of music and laughter. We visited on a Sunday and it was wonderful to see everyone dressed in their church best. We met several of Debbie’s friends, but one stood out to me in particular. Vivian is both street smart and has a university education. She has opened an orphanage and runs a soup kitchen that feeds over 250 people daily. By working with a private Swedish donor she has even managed to expand her project and renovate her home to include space for more children. She is incredibly warm and is definitely a go to person for anyone wishing to volunteer in the township. Her organization’s webpage is now a link.


Vivian outside her house


Sunday best


a child playing in the sand

Another thing on my list to do was hike up Lion’s Head Mountain. Jon and I had to make two attempts at this. The first time we tried we had to turn back as we started too late in the evening and it was getting dark. So we went again a few days later and it was absolute madness. It was the day after the lunar eclipse and so the mountain was popping with people waiting to see the moon rise. Everyone and their dog were there and I even saw one of my campers. Not wanting to get caught in the dark, we descended shortly after we hit the peak only to meet serious traffic. As we were coming down, hordes were still going up! Indeed you could see torches on the mountain well into the night. What a scene!


on top of Cape Town


Jon and myself at the top


Table Mountain in the back


re-fuelling

And finally, on the Monday, two days before I left I went with my granny to Robben Island. This is where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were oppressed during the fight to end apartheid. It was a fascinating tour and I only wished for more time in the prison to look at the artifacts and hear stories from our guide, who had himself been a prisoner there. He told us some shocking stories of injustice. For instance when his own father had asked to come visit him, the wardens went to the father’s house and shot him eight times; all for the non-existent crime of wanting to visit his own son. They deemed this ‘fraternizing with a terrorist’ and have not been reprimanded for this crime up to this day. They remain successful businessmen while our tour leader’s father was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.


the lime quarry where Mandela worked


Mandela's cell

In the end it was difficult to say goodbye to the many friends I had made. I hosted a farewell tea to do so and am certain that I will be back in Cape Town sometime soon. Certainly sooner than the eight years between this visit and my last one!


farewell tea


Goodbye!

Yacht Racing!

Myles hooked Jon and I up big time and we got to go on a yacht in the weekly sail race. Our boat was called Thunderchild and we had once hell of a time racing around for 2 hours with the crew.

Here are some gorgeous shots from the ship.


View of Table Mountain


the race!


jon


the captain

The ‘They’re not the way they were’ Tour

Even though I’ve been now in South Africa since the end of November, there is still much of Cape Town I have not seen. To be fair, I did spend a considerable amount of time in Onrus and Hermanus for camp and afterwards went straight to Plett for ten days, however my Granny was rather unimpressed with it all. Therefore she rallied her ‘young friend’ Myles to take me on the ‘Orientation Tour’. Miles is a contemporary of my Aunty Lol and has been working for and with my Granny for years now. They get on like a house on fire. So we set out to see the sites. We started out at 8:30 am from my Gran’s house in Seapoint, on the Atlantic Seaboard and made our way to the Indian through False Bay where the two oceans mingle. First we drove past Muizenberg beach which back in the day was the absolute place to be. Myles said he used to take the train there all the way from town at age 14 with his surfboard, because it was just that safe. Nowadays he reckons you’d get mugged within an inch of your life; and so began the ‘they’re not the way they were’ tour. Things have changed a lot in South Africa since apartheid ended fourteen years ago, and like anyone else whose been witness to it, Gran and Myles have a lot to say about it. To begin with the current governing party’s presidential candidate is facing fraud charges. Then there’s the recent Eskom energy crisis has everyone here hopping. For it seems the Government did not pay heed years ago when it was warned that the energy systems needed to be expanded. Therefore today’s system is inadequate and there are massive daily power cuts in an attempt to load shed the overwhelming energy demands. The cuts are so heavy that the mines which contribute so heavily to this country’s GDP, can only use enough energy to safely maintain the mines. Therefore nothing is being extracted and no gold melted. People are also missing out on wages and the ripple effects of this disaster are untold.

Next we went to Kalk Bay for breakfast. We went to this little hole in the wall place called the Olympia Café that serves the most incredible smoked salmon omlette croissant. Their adjacent bakery is so divine that it’s just indecent. We popped into Fishoek beach next and then past Misty Cliffs to Scarborough. All the way driving along a panorama of stunning azure ocean views and pro kite surfers. Then we went to Scarforth and Boulder’s, which is home to the South African penguins. According to Gran this has been vastly commercialized. Afterwards we went to Simon’s Town for a lunch of fresh fish at Salty Dog. I had the Snoek. It was delicious. Then I bought a beautiful copper painting and we drove back to town over Chapman’s Peak, which has been slightly marred by unsightly and debatably efficient boulder-catchers. But which is still home to rip-tide seeking surfers. Next we past Haut bay, which to me is one of the most beautiful beaches. However Myles tells me that one can’t swim there as the disease-ridden runoff from squatter camps is deposited in those waters. Finally we drove through Camps Bay. Which in my opinion is like the Kits beach of Cape Town. You know, where people go to see and be seen. There Granny was shocked by the fact that her friend’s ex-next door had managed to get permits passed which enabled them to not only partially block her drive-way, but also made completely obsolete the stunning ocean views of the house directly behind it.

After expressing such opinions one might be misguided to think that my Granny and Myles do not actually like Cape Town much at all. But then perhaps you might have missed out on just how stunning the whole day’s adventure was. And how neither my Gran or Myles, both whom have traveled the whole world over, would rather live anywhere else. This is the fascinating paradox of this country, for it definitely has it problems and it’s future remains unpredictable. Yet it is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been and a whole lot of people feel precisely the same.


Myles and Gran


just stunning!


penguins!

Dinner at Moyo

Last Saturday my Granny treated Jon an I to dinner at Moyo. Moyo is more than a restaurant, it is an entire indigenous experience. It offers authentic African music, sublime pan African cuisine and true hospitality rooted in the ancient cultures of Africa.

There are 3 Moyo locations in South Africa and the Moyo in Cape Town is located at the Spier Winery.

"In a garden where a 300 year old Oak tree stands as confirmation of Africa's greatness, moyo nestled itself amongst the surrounding tree tops in 2004. Tree house, gazebo’s and Bedouin tents created an enchanting African wonderland on the Spier Wine Estate. This 1000 seater sensory experience, with a buffet span of 25m soon became a 'must-see' on any winelands tour."

Needless to say we had the most incredible evening full of eating and relaxing. Thank you Granny Dor!


The 300 year old Oak


beautiful Moyo atmosphere!


entertainment


chilling by the tree