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Visiting Various Destinations in Cape Town, South Africa

Aired August 10, 2011 - 03:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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YASSER BOOLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER: Morning, morning. Good morning, morning, how are you doing? Very well thank you, how are you? Everyone good?

Mr. VanGoo (ph) can I have a black white take away, please?

This is where I start my day every day, simply because it's the best stuff in Cape Town. It's not as tightly a guarded secret that it used to be. The big coffees are incredible and they're the cheapest in the city.

These guys import and roast their own beans at the back over there. So in winter especially it's nice and warm inside here, you know? When I come down on the bicycle my hands are cold, I get a nice cup of coffee and warm up, and visit with the people.

Also a lot to be said about the decor, they've got a Vespa over here. Inspiring spot to start your day.

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I never get tired of this route. This is basically where I was born and raised. This was an extension of my playground. I still live in that area over there, this area over here is Boca (ph) and we used to spend all our time coming up here and playing in the forest at the back and running around wild basically.

And in the Boca (ph) you've got the (INAUDIBLE) colored as it were community but because of the forced removal of the (INAUDIBLE) we have the same kind of social cultural background. The defining characteristic of Cape Town as a city is that big rock over there.

People don't really realize the fact that we are just a tiny peninsula and all that connects us to Africa is that tiny bit of the cape flats over there.

This part of Cape Town basically, the city is referred to at City Bowl. Table's Peak, Table Mountain then you've got Lion's Head, and figure here at the back here that form a natural bowl.

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We are now on the grand parade, which is basically, one of the first markets that was established in Cape Town, and that kind of makes sense because you've got the castle in the background, the first port open in the country.

And also interesting enough, we have another symbol, a great symbol of South African history on the right over here is the City Hall, and it's basically the place that Nelson Mandela made his first speech to the Public of South Africa upon his release from Robben Island.

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Hey.

So we're still in the same place and now we're come to the meat market, Cousin Abdullah (ph) who is going to take away on the parade and it's a place we can find some food of which I'm going to participate in right now and give myself a mushroom sinobre (ph).

A mushroom sinobre (ph) is basically a mushroom patty that's wrapped in a tortilla or a choparty (ph) it's also called a ruti (ph) and it's all the patty in the ruti (ph) and it's wrapped up nice and tight and sometimes they make it a bit sweeter by putting apricot jam in it. Delicious, juicy mushroom sinobre (ph). If you'll excuse me I'm about to go, uh. I'm about to go and have one.

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GABRIEL CLARK-BROWN, EDITOR, SOUTH AFRICAN ART TIMES: Hi, we're at the National Gallery in Cape Town. This gallery at the time was built round about 1920, but it took about 40 years to conceptualize and bring about, being in Cape Town.

The South African National Gallery is pretty much the premiere gallery in South Africa and represents generally the best shows that are around and what we've got in South Africa as a whole.

The national gallery has come a very long way in the last 20 years. It's become a lot more representative of South Africa now and South African culture and art. You know, people got tired of looking at colonial work that they could see the same work and the same artists in Palmall (ph) in Mandinou or you know, you can't keep having Hong Kong (ph).

When you come here you really feel that we've all come very far as a nation of free and individual thinkers as well. I love this place as well.

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Hi, we're in Woodstock just outside of Cape Town where pretty much everything happens here. There are about six or eight contemporary South African galleries right in this theatre. And here is my favorite place, Michael Stevenson, pretty much the king of South African art.

This is pretty much my favorite gallery in South Africa. Michael Stevenson has come a long way in a very short space of time just due to a huge amount of hard work and dedication to serious contemporary art.

We've only got one or two galleries that really can attract the best South African art and sustain them and put them further as well. What difference Michael Stevenson makes to the South African art market is he takes raw, really good talent and he is able to professionally put them together and direct them, but also let the artists grow for themselves.

Hylton Nel, Hylton Nel lives in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Carlisto (ph), with his partner, has the most wicked a bad sense of humor, but his only place really you'll find him is at Michael Stevenson.

Rachel Philisiopus (ph) pretty much the hottest painter around the circuit.

And there's much love in terms of how Michael has actually put the space together. Parquet flooring, light bulbs; it's pretty much a temple here in Woodstock.

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GEORGE DALLA CIA, DALLA CIA WINERY: When you visit Cape Town and the wine lands specifically, you should always stop by and visit us here at Bosman's Crossing. This area was established in the late 1600s, 1690s and this area is famous as a brandy producing district.

It's a kind of wine village, a kind of wine district we have three other boutique wine producers, which are settled down in this area. One of them is Dalla Cia, which is a African winemaker, female winemaker who has done really well. And then there's The High Road, another boutique wine producer. And then there's Vilafonte which is an American-South African joint venture, a first in South Africa.

There's a really good synergy, and again, a sense of community. We will often get together as wine producers and discuss the harvest before and after, exchange notes, tasting the wine together, things like that.

And this is our grappa distillery. My father's family first started to produce grappa in the 1920s and ever since my father moved here in the - - in 1974 his dream was to produce grappa here. But unfortunately there were laws prohibiting that, which fell away in 1994 with the release of --

GIORGIO DALLA CIA, DALLA CIA WINERY: Mandela.

GEORGE DALLA CIA: -- Mandela, exactly.

So we went to Italy and we purchased a small state of the art still, and our production is very artisanal. We produce the traditional northern Italian style. It's made by the distilling the skin of the grape after fermentation.

GIORGIO DALLA CIA, DALLA CIA WINERY: We have a (INAUDIBLE) which is very suitable to produce great wine. We've got a very long light day, year, which is longer than France, so our grapes can mature much better. And then we have Benguela currents coming from the sea, which is actually cooling down this coast of Africa. And so we have very good Mediterranean characteristics who allows us to make great wine.

Which has been a surprise for me. I thought, you know, South Africa, Africa, you know, bananas and elephants. Of course, not, this is just like a little corner of Europe.

GEORGE DALLA CIA: We are now going to a fresh fruit market which has become very popular with the years, and also for getting slow food and where you can find fresh ingredients.

This is the fresh fruit market of Stellenbosch, it's been going for about four years now. And from there you'll find a lot of amazing fresh products and very much focused on slow food kind of lifestyle. So it's grown remarkably over the years. And it's a great meeting point, of course, for locals and for foreigners, and this has all been through word of mouth really.

OK, this is the food section. This is where things get really interesting. A lot of the products are from South Africa and are all made entirely from scratch.

Let's go through here, let's go through here and out.

This is all very traditional. All very traditional. All very traditional cape filets (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and then they married (INAUDIBLE) mixture of little Eastern (ph), little Milay (ph).

GIORGIO DALLA CIA: Smells delicious. What is this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that's the (INAUDIBLE) tries to keep it local meat.

GIORGIO DALLA CIA: OK, here we are. My favorite place where I usually go at least twice a day. These are all my friends, or really part of the family.

I actually gave it a particular name. I call it the everything cave because it's so full of stuff here. The shop is (INAUDIBLE) antiques.

But anyway, you've got everything from books to old furniture, all Cape, very rare pieces. It's basically Basque style but it has been made here in the Cape with our local wood.

Because Stellenbosch is basically the capital of culture, capital of the Cape, OK? And so, there's local history around here and because a lot of old South African families are of Dutch origin, they still owns all these things and then every now and then they sell it.

And this used to be an old brandy storage facility where they used keep old barrels. You can see there all the beams sticking out from the wall were all layers and layers of barrels up to the ceiling, and now it's the most beautiful antique shop.

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GARY KLEYNHANS, GARY'S SURF SCHOOL: In Cape Town there's always a wave somewhere. This beach is Muizenberg Beach. It is warm, the waves are nice and calm, that's why we set up base here. And if you have a look here, all the surf school are based in Muizenberg. It's very safe, the waves are gentle.

I love living in Cape Town because there's just so much to do. In Cape Town you can have all four seasons in one day. Farthest (ph) down the drag we've got Kalk Bay Harbor, which is beautiful. You can go down there and buy some fish fresh off the boat at bargain prices. And if you're really keen, you can jump a boat and get a taxi from Kalk Bay to Simonstown, which is just a beautiful experience. I mean, there's just so much to do.

Cape Town is cooler than most cities because it really takes nine months to get anything done in this town, I mean people are very chill and it's very relaxed. I think it's more of a lifestyle than it's -- you know, the guys are really chasing the dollars, making big cash, they all go to Joberg. They all make top dollars in Joberg and then they come spend their weekends and holidays in Cape Town, come and relax and unwind.

We're heading up to a place called Kalk Bay. Kalk Bay has got a lovely little harbor It's a fishing village and there's some really good surf over there. It only has one spot that one can really surf, it's called Kalk Bay Reef. It's not recommended for beginners and intermediates. You will break your board or your collarbone or your neck, but it's definitely worth checking out.

Now we're off to the Olympia Cafe in Kalk Bay for a lovely cup of coffee and probably a chocolate croissant. All kinds of people come from all over Cape Town, this place is like, on the map. You don't come to Cape Town never pop in here for, especially in the evening, for dinners, the food is really, really good. It's got a nice vibe, it really has. Unfortunately, you have to make reservations for dinner and stuff, it's very popular.

There's a few spots around that have been around for a long, long time and they'll always be around. They're not caught in the mainstream and they're not affected by the economy, and the food is good and it's priced right. People have to eat, people have to drink, and they will go there no matter what.

TARRYN TRUSSELL, RADIO DJ: So this is Long Street, one of Cape Town's longest, oldest and hottest (ph) spots. You'll find you can save (ph) the (INAUDIBLE) creativity of the cool are here, or the session coolest hang out spots, nice little buys that you won't find at your, say, commercial shops.

So you'll get all your goodies, your vintage, you're little diamantes, your pretty sneakers, you're sandals, whatever, and also yummy food, local catonian (ph) (INAUDIBLE) food. And that's exciting part about Long Street is that real authenticity happens right here in Cape Town.

So this is WAG, one of my favorite, favorite clothing stores in Long Street. Now the beauty of the store is that there's only one other kind in it, OK? So every garment here you'll only find right here in Long Street, in the mother city. It's made once, maybe in two or three colors, but you're the only one in the world to have one because the designs are -- that's individual, intellectual property exclusive to the mother city.

We are now in Green Point, one of the hottest spots in the mother city. This spot got lots of fame during the World Cup because it was a lovely cosmopolitan culture and a beautiful 90,000 capacity stadium.

We are now going to over there (ph), one of my favorite, favorite spots, Jade Cosmo lounge, one of the hottest spots. Best looking people, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, because that's what we're all about here at the Cape of Good Hope. It's celebrating and experiencing different cultures. Let's go check it out.

So what you'll find at this club or lounge, cocktail lounge, is the nice thing about this, the thing that satisfies me is the fact that there's so much diversity. The cosmopolitan crowd, it's a lot of people black, white, Indian-colored, everything, there is no white club or black club here, everybody gets together, has fun.

You'll find that in Cape Town you don't have your stereotypical, massive warehouse-type club. Many of the clubs, lounges, cocktail clubs, spots are old houses that have actually been renovated and made into a lovely cozy area. So you'll find that it's very intimate, there's rooms, there's walls, there's doors, and it adds to the nice warm quaint atmosphere that we have going here.

I think it was the World Cup, the fact that we needed to be so on par with technology and with the media, we're very much up to date with the music and with the fashion and with whatever's happening around the world. And as a result, you will always hear the latest right here in the mother city.

So you'll find different types of music. You have your big deep house club, you have your full on traditional hip-hop rap lovers, you'll find a bit of everything.

BOOLEY: So, Long Street is basically one of the busiest streets in Cape Town during the day and at night especially. It's where we find all the -- a lot of the clubs, also a lot of the live venues.

But if you walk down Long Street with your eyes on the ground, you may miss something because at The Waiting Room, there's another level and there's another level above that. So when you're walking down the street be sure you look up and check out the buildings, check out the possible things that you're missing out.

The music scene in Cape Town, I would say, is quite large. You find so much talent. The types of music you find in Cape Town is jazz, you have your alternative, you have your rock, there's a large hip-hop scene, and, you know, a little bit of everything. You've also got the classic music that happens on the Thursday evening at the City Hall, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.

So the range of music in Cape Town is expansive. It's always interesting to go out, one night per weekend and see what you're going to find because you're bound to be pleasantly surprised.

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