I will post my tentative itinerary by Friday hopefully. I plan to go to
both Cape Town and Jo-burg.
Train:
I have heard wonderful things about the Blue Train that goes between Cape
Town and Jo-burg. If you have the time (a whole day) in your itinerary,
I'm sure it will not be a disappointment. The cheapest airfare I have seen
so far between the 2 places is $120. If I don't find something cheaper, I
may opt for this train myself.
Crime:
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE CRIME IN JO-BURG. Car jackings are very common
and you do not want to be walking by yourself at night, or anywhere within
the city centre at night. That said, I was there for 3 months and did have
or see a single incident. Just about everyone I worked with however had
been a victim or closely related to a victim of a serious crime: rape,
assault, car jacking, etc. Just be smart, don't go to the parts of the
city that the locals tell you not to visit. When driving, always keep your
doors locked and be careful to keep your windows up as much as possible.
Do not leave anything of value (or that looks like it might be of value) on
the seats of the car (even while driving). People have been known to smash
car windows, lunge in, and grab whatever you have on your seat. I found it
reasonably safe and had no problems, but you just have to be aware. I
found just about everyone to be very friendly and helpful, and I got out
quite a bit, so I did not find the crime rate to inhibit me much at all.
As far as getting from the hotel to the show and back, I'll have to check
exactly where the stadium is, but I don't think it's in a great part of
town. So I would recommend car pooling, calling for cabs, or better yet,
I'll arrange with my travel agent friend over there to take some shuttles
over. He is a big U2 fan and will help me arrange a pre-show gathering.
Rosebank:
If you are in the Jo- burg area on a Sun, the Rosebank Mall Rooftop market
is not to be missed. They close the top level of the parking garage on
Sundays and hundreds of artisans (many from nearby tribes, particularly the
Ndebele tribe) sell their crafts. Prices are very low (you can bargain a
little, but they don't usually budge more than 10-15% from the stated
price). It the best place to get souvenirs. They have a lot of incredible
stuff. The mall is only 1-2 blocks from the Hyatt.
Sandton:
Sandton is nearly a city of its own. It's about a 5 minute drive north of
Rosebank. It is a thriving business community of its own, as many
businesses have opted to move out of Jo-burg city centre for the more elite
suburbs. One of the biggest, nicest malls I have ever seen is Sandton City
(adjacent to the Sun Intercontinental and Michelangelo hotels). It's a
great landmark to navigate by as you can see the green-topped tower of the
mall/office complex from all over. You can find everything you need in
Sandton.
Randburg Waterfront:
This is a nice complex of shops, restaurants, bars and games. They even
have an Internet cafe here, as well as a laser tag game. It surrounds a
small man-made lake and is very livey, especially on weekends. There is a
mexican cantina here, called Cantina Tequila. I know the owner, and intend
to contact him to see about setting up a nice pre-show gathering there.
This is a very fun and lively place. Every night they turn up the music
and people get up and start dancing on the tables. I'm sure he could cater
to a group of U2 fans on a nice Sat afternoon. I don't think it is far
from the stadium, but will verify this.
Cape Town:
There is not much I can say about this place except it is one of the most
beautiful places on Earth. Some things not to be missed:
* Hike or take a tram to the top of Table Mountain. A hike is 2-3
hours.
* Tour the beautiful nearby wine regions of Stellenbosch or Paarl.
(These rival some of the best wines in the world - similar to
California climate)
* Visit the southwestern-most point of SA at the Cape of Good Hope
* Watch the humpback whales from the shore at Hermanus.
* Sunbathe on one of many beautiful beaches. At some, tops are
optional.
* Walk around the very nice Alfred and Victoria Waterfronts where you
will find the Hard Rock and many other shops and restaurants.
* Take in a game reserve. There is one on the way from Cape Town to
the Cape of Good Hope.
Excursions:
If you have the time I HIGHLY recommend Kruger Park. This is about a 4
hour drive from Jo-burg (it only took me 3.5). You should leave a minimum
of 2 days for a visit. Five days would not be too long to visit this park
(which is the size of Wales) and surrounding areas.
There is a very small game park just outside Jo-burg called Krugersdorp.
This is easily done in a half day, but you won't find elephant or leopard
here (it's too small). You will find lion, but most are in an enclosed
fenced area, so it's not quite the same as seeing them a few feet away from
your car or Land Rover.
Another game reserve that *could* be done in a day is Pilanesburg. This
has all of the Big 5 game (lions, elephants, leopard, rhino and buffalo).
It is about 2.5 hours from Jo-burg, adjacent to Sun City, a
casino/entertainment/water park resort. I did not care for the guided game
drive I took here as the vehicle was too big and had too many people on it.
Word of advice: always sit on the driver's side - they tend to pull up to
things they can get a good view of.
There are many beautiful mountains and canyons to explore within 3 hours of
Jo-burg too.
Soweto. I hear this a great one-day or half-day tour. This is the largest
township in Africa, created during Apartheid. It is said to be even bigger
than Jo-burg. It is technically part of the Jo-burg area and is not a far
drive from Sandton or Rosebank. Do not go by yourself. I hear Jimmy's
Face to Face Tours offers the best tour of the area. In the townships you
will see some extreme poverty, indications of a high crime area, but also,
particularly in the smaller townships, you will see a lot of activity -
people out and about and a strong sense of community and a thriving human
spirit. It can be refreshing and initimidating at the same time.
To: Jason Mayfield <ironman@saltmine.radix.net>
cc: popmart-sa@Nice.CH, Karen Kiefer/NGSINC
Subject: Re: Cape Town to JoBurg
Jason Mayfield <ironman@saltmine.radix.net> writes:
> > There's also a train ride, sleep wagon, 1st class, takes 26 hours and
> > it's $110. Might be more fun than the plane, who knows ? Jason ?
> > You're the adventurer :-)
>
> I'd say it certainly sounds like the biggest adventure. :) If I were
> going to Capetown that would certainly be my plan.
So, who would be interested in taking the train to go from Cape Town
to JoBurg, speak up if you're considering it, as Darci said, it could
be fun if more of us go by train...
> Can anyone give me a serious appraisal of Jo'Burg crime? A friend in
> London who left Jo'Burg three months ago says he was afraid for his
> family's safety. Not like there's crime everywhere, but it's certainly
> dangerous. He also said the stadium area tended to be very bad with no
> public transit options. Any ideas? How are people getting from the
> concert to hotels? Just wanted to make sure I got all the opinions...
> Jason
So far, I've heard, that it's more dangerous than South America, which
proved not to be more dangerous than other places, so... I've also
heard of a friend of a friend who got almost robbed and beaten to
death and getting help after he was injured proved to be difficult,
since the gangs have scared people to a point where they don't want to
help somebody in danger or who was attacked by the gang. I don't know
what to think of this. On the other hand there's this info from the
police on the website you found some days ago (stadium info) which
tells you what to do to be safe, which is not really different from
other cities, so...
Since Taxi's supposedly also rip you off (whatever that means... do
they take you somewhere where you don't want to go and then rob you or
do they "just" charge too much ?) we were thinking about getting a
rental car, but I don't know how well that works for getting to the
show and back, I mean finding a place to leave the car nearby the
stadium, might be difficult. From the pictures on the Web, the
stadium seemed not so far from downtown, but as you said, that's not
the part of town, where you want to be at night, so walking is
probably not an option. Maybe Karen or her friend in South Africa can
give us some hints about this ?
christian