gone living

one search term on both google and yahoo search that gives very poor results is the search term for "movie showtimes south africa", or similar queries (unless you use the option to limit your queries to "pages from South Africa"). as a result, it was really difficult to find up-to-date movie showtimes for south africa via web search.

so for the record, the best (and possibly only) site to get current movie showtimes for cape town or any other city in south africa is The South African MovieSite. enjoy the popcorn!

jagshemash! after waiting for weeks to be in a country that was actually screening the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", starring the always-amazing character borat, i checked the local theater listings in cape town, and found that nearly every theater was showing it several times per day!

so i made my way down to the V&A Waterfront theater at the waterfront, paid less than USD $10 for a ticket, and laughed straight through the movie (along with the rest of the audience) for 84 minutes. hilarious -- i haven't seen an audience laugh like in a movie in recent memory. and being borat, it was extremely uncomfortable at times. absolutely worth the price of admission. and as an extra bonus, here's the video of "borat's" recent appearance on the Tonight Show:

howzit? there's no question about it: cape town is one of the world's best cities to visit, ranking easily with san francisco, london, dubai, and others. and the relatively low cost of many things here (expect for the glaring exception of the cost of taxis) makes it easy to be here for an extended stay.

i've had a fantastic three days here in cape town, staying at a backpackers on long street (with crowds of fun people coming in and out as they head across or return from other parts of africa), going on bar/club crawls with my fellow backpackers, watching the sun set over a sublime beach from a well-situated beach cafe, exploring the botanical gardens planted in the city, staying out at all-night parties, eating dinners out (or even the occasional home-cooked meal) with new friends every night, and even sleeping on the sofas of the beautiful apartments of new-found cape town friends. and i still have three days left!

and the locals? the people in cape town are very friendly and outgoing, in addition to being some of the most good-looking people i've ever seen. in addition, i've run into a high number of expats, so there is a good international community here as well.

it's not all perfect here -- there are serious social problems that still need to be resolved under that initial veneer of beauty and fun. as a symptom of these problems, the crime rate is astoundingly high. it's not uncommon for a scenic low-slung art deco house to have its surrounding wall topped with an electrified fence and large "armed response" sign warning of attack dogs and so forth. i've already seen cars and houses broken into during my short visit, and the problems occur in all areas, even those that appear "safe". this was unsettling, but if you take care, you can cut your chances of being a victim of crime - it seems like most incidents happen when people miss a security precaution. it's not like there are gangs of organized hoodlums ready to jump you the second you walk out of your hotel or anything like that.

i'm returning home to los angeles on thursday for a 3-week hiatus from my trip, so i can be home for the holidays and recharge for a bit before heading down to south and central america in january, so i'm enjoying this all while i can! more updates and details on my adventures here when i get a chance... lately i've been too busy with all of these activities to be updating my blog much!

it's funny -- now that it's the day that i'm finally leaving for home (the plan is to spend three weeks at home, so i can spend the christmas and new years holidays with family and friends, in addition to just taking a little break before heading down to south america), my emotions aren't what i thought they'd be. i've been feeling pretty "slow" the last few countries, as if i wasn't able to really take in and appreciate everything that i was seeing, and as a result i've been really looking forward to spending some time at home to decompress, as well as not missing another family holiday.

but i had this moment in the taxi ride to the airport where i felt a strong pang of regret and a real desire not to leave cape town. i can only attribute it to the surprising depth of my feelings for this city -- i really had a wonderful time here, and it was my favorite city that i've visited on this entire trip (and believe me, that's a long list of cities).

i probably would have changed my ticket to stay longer in South Africa (and delayed my visit home by 1-2 weeks), but it's impossible to do so without missing Christmas at home, so i'm sticking with the current plan. but i'll definitely be coming back to south africa in the future, and next time it will be a much longer visit than just 8 days!

i'm really looking forward to getting to spend some time at home, but it's definitely hard to leave a country that you've just fallen in love with.