A week in the Cambodian kingdom of wonder - Coconut beach and Phnom Penh

Continued from Part 1...

Day 4 - Siem Reap to Coconut beach, Sihanoukville

The day we had landed in Siem Reap, we had got an email from our next hotel, Coconut Beach Bungalows on Koh Rong island about a recent storm because of which ferries which would take us to the beach were not running regularly. They suggested booking alternate accommodation in case we were unable to reach the island. So I tried booking hotels in Sihanoukville itself but everything was booked out as it was New Years Eve that time. Since that did not work, we thought we would try our luck anyways and try to reach the bungalows somehow.

We did eventually do that, but it was quite an experience 😅. Even though everything had been planned well, it turned out to be a washout day and we spent almost the whole day in travel. I had booked a 7 am flight from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, so that we could make it to the 11am ferry to Coconut Island. But it all went very very differently...

Hai again dropped us at the Siem Reap airport in the morning in his airy and fresh tuk-tuk. The domestic airport was quite small and had only two gates, so all was convenient and quick in the morning. We were in Sihanoukville in an hour and took a taxi to the ferry stations.

The air already felt beach-ey and relaxed when we got out of the airport, with the humid winds and the palm leaves swaying around. There were lots of green areas on the drive towards the city. Once in the city, it felt like quite a big and bustling place. It is a major port in the area and had lot of high rises and stuff, very different from Siem Reap.

When we reached the ferry company (Buva Sea), they told us that there was an ongoing storm in the sea, because of which the ferries were not running normally and we could only take the 5 pm one - the last one for the day. There were at least 4-5 ferry companies around and we checked with all, but they all had the same answer.

Serendipity beach, Sihanoukville

This was quite a downer, but we bought the tickets anyways and went to Serendipity Beach to spend the rest of the day while waiting for the taxi. Our taxi driver conned us a bit and dropped us in front of a hotel on Serendipity Road which he said had an Indian restaurant but it didn’t. Anyways, we dropped our luggage at a travel agent's shop, and then walked around a bit in the area to pass time.

This road seemed to be the hub of tourist activity in the city. It was full of hotels, youth hostels, shops, restaurants, travel agents and and so on. We first had lunch at the only Indian restaurant we could find - the Kamasutra - and the food they served was very bad. Then we got a foot massage.

And we even tried to find a room for the 2-3 hours we had left, so we could sleep rather than stay outside. But there was not a single room available even though there were hundreds of guest rooms all around! Looks like all the tourists had descended on the beach to celebrate the New Year. In fact, even the king and PM of Cambodia were in town to celebrate the New Year 😝.

Serendipity beach, Sihanoukville

So we spent the remaining 2-3 hours on the beach itself. There were loads of restaurants there with outside beach chairs and food. It was nice to sit outside but a bit hot and humid as it was still afternoon. The beach was huge and extended forever. I went into the water a couple of times and it was good for swimming, very calm and clean. But I mostly sat outside in the sun, sleeping and lazing! While we were sitting there, the beach was being set up for the parties being held at night. It must have been an awesome New Years venue, with the music, the moon and the waves splashing in the background 😊.

After spending the whole day on the beach, we finally left in the 5 pm ferry which first goes to the more popular island and beach town - Koh Rong and then drops a few of the passengers to Coconut Beach on the other side of the island. By this time, even though the weather was hot, dark clouds had come out and it had started raining.

The ferry ride was in a huge speedboat and would generally have been very nice, though today it was quite crowded because of all the tourists going for the New Year party at Koh Rong. The sea was also quite choppy, which gave us a few scares, plus a few splashes! But all in all, the ride was uneventful.

The adventure of the day was not over though 😜. Once we reached Koh Rong, the captain of the boat told us that the boat will not go to Coconut Beach but instead will drop us at another village nearby. It was a bit disconcerting as it was getting dark by then, and we had a few heavy suitcases with us which were not that easy to lug around. Anyways, the captain felt confident that it was easy to manage, so we carried on.

We then landed at a village which was barely a village to be honest! It felt like a few small huts half on the water. And it felt scary and dark. The ferry was docked next to another boat which you had to go through to get to the jetty. So we (and all our luggage) had to jump over the other boat to get to land! And in the dark! By that time, I had lost my patience. But it still wasn’t over!!

The captain then said that our bungalows were a bit far, so we would be taken there on bikes! Thankfully, it turned out that they had a wagon with a trailer on which the luggage was taken to our bungalows. And for the passengers, they had 2 men on bikes who offered to take them to the beach!

One group of people left first, and then we waited for them to come back. During this time, somehow the data on the mobiles started working and when I checked on Google Maps, it seemed like the Coconut beach bungalows was only 10 mins walk away! (Weird that no one told us that and instead they were driving people on bikes to the hotel!). That seemed feasible and so all of us started walking towards the hotel, following Google Maps.

We walked on an unpaved road through the jungle, in the light of the phone flashlights. It felt like walking in the wild - the stars above, a cool breeze blowing on your face and sounds of insects all around you. It was an adventure of another kind 😁. The walk was more like 15 minutes, and the small paths were not very well marked either. So we took an early wrong turn, turned up at the beach and then walked all the way on the beach to reach our Bungalows.

There were a few other resorts and holiday homes on the beach that we crossed. And so, after a full day of being in transit, after waking up at 5 am, we were finally at our destination by 8 pm! But it was totally worth it, and we realised it at night itself. Even without daylight, Coconut Beach felt like a small little paradise by itself and we did not want to leave it once we were there.

The Bungalows were all on one side of a small hill, nestled in between the vegetation on the island and facing the sea. They were made of wood and had a nice windy balcony outside. They were basic but were furnished with everything you would need to be comfortable. The owners of the place were a guy called Robbie, his sister and father. They were all very jolly and made their guests feel at home.

Terrace restaurant at
Coconut Beach Bungalows

They had a lovely open air terrace restaurant which offered a nice variety of simple Khmer food. We were quite tired after the whole day of travel, so we had a nice tasty vegetarian dinner, cooked specially for us, and soon slept off. In fact, we slept with the doors and windows open to allow the wind and sound of waves to come inside. I think we even heard a gecko at night!

Except that it was New Years eve and Robbie woke us up before midnight to come down to the beach and celebrate! To be honest, since we were tired, we were in no mood to get out, but he came and called us twice and we finally did get out to the beach to celebrate. It was a short walk down to the beach, through the steps. And what a lovely beach it was, even at night!

There was already a large group of tourists there by that time, who were staying on the beach in the various hotels. They were all dancing and partying, with music, a choreographer and a bonfire all setup with seats around to sit and relax. And at midnight, there were fireworks set out in the jetty in the sea to welcome in the new year, 2017.

The ambience on the beach was great - pleasant temperature, stars above in a clear sky and cool sea breeze flowing - the perfect way to usher in the new year😊. Everyone danced through the night I think as we could hear the music for very long. We however went back and crashed soon enough after our long day of travel!

Day 5 - Coconut beach

Coconut beach

The next day was a relaxed lazy day at the beach itself. And we finally got to see the beach in daylight. It was a small remote private beach, with no real road coming in. It was connected with the unpaved walking path to the small village we had come from the last night. And all it had was a few small resorts with 10 or so huts in each. It was almost like having your own very private space with white sand to bask in the sun, and turquoise green waters to go for a swim. And given the beach was located in an inland lagoon, the water was quite calm. There were no waves there, just crystal clear water to swim in!

Terrace restaurant at
Coconut Beach Bungalows

The beach had white sand, but a bit of leaves and sticks which had come in through the storm the previous night. Swimming was comfortable, with the sun being hot enough to make the waters warm but cool enough to make it enjoyable being in the water. So we spent the whole day lazily eating in the terrace restaurant, swimming or just lounging on the beach.

Huts on the beach

We also saw all the 4 ferries from Sihanoukville coming in on time that day. There was a pier right in front of the beach and it was so efficient to just land and go up the Bungalows. Alas, it didn’t happen for us the day before and it wasn’t going to happen the next day either!

Coconut beach at night

In the evening, we went out on a walk towards the interior of the island to see what it had to offer. It felt quite wild and isolated, with the typical tropical vegetation of dense and green trees, dotted with some plantations. It felt so isolated and from a different world. For an hour, we did not see anyone at all, just trees around and the sky above. While coming back, we also saw a few holiday home coming up on the beach, I think those would be a good investment for sure!

At night after dinner, we went out to see photoplanktons in the sea. There is an area right in front of the bungalore, where if you walk a few metres into the sea (all very shallow), you can see the water shine and sparkle! This comes from the photoplanktons which shine when there is movement around them. And there were some in the sand too! So while you are walking on the sand, as you step, the sand starts to shine! Its similar to what we had seen in Vieques in Puerto Rico many years ago, and it was nice to experience the same again. We didn’t take any pictures and so its tough to explain how it works. But its something definitely worth experiencing once!

View from the terrace

We had all our meals in the terrace restaurant, with a majestic view of the sea and beyond. The food was awesome as always, with vegetarian dishes cooked specially for us. We had another fireworks show on the ferry pier for the New Years, this time conducted by another resort on the beach. And at night we could also see the lights of Sihanoukville twinkling away far off, a nice view by itself. So all in all, a nice good day but not bracing us for what was coming the next!

Day 6 - Coconut beach to Phnom Penh

The next day also turned out to be a full day of travel for us, waking up at 6 am to leave Coconut beach and landing in Phnom Penh only by 10 pm at night! Though most of it did not have to be like that. We had decided to take the 3 pm ferry to Sihanouk and then take a 2 hour taxi from there till Phnom Penh. However, Robbie woke us up at 6 am in the morning with the news that there was a storm that day. And so the ferries were not running as usual.

Coconut beach

He said we should get up early and be ready to take an early morning ferry from the same village 20 mins away where we had landed the day before. So we woke up and got ready. However, when we asked him when the ferry would come, he said 12 am! So he had woken up everyone who was leaving that day to be ready at 7 for a ferry coming at 12! I think he was being overly cautious but ending up wasting a lot of time for everyone. Thankfully, we spent some time on the beach in the morning though that was giving Robbie a heart attack that we would be late for the ferry!

The floating village

We went to the village again riding the bikes from the resort. There were already some 20-30 people from the beach waiting there since the morning, sitting in the village in the sun, doing nothing but patiently waiting. We finally did get to see the village during the day, it was partially built on the water, almost like a a floating village.

Once we reached the village, another long wait started for all of us. First the ferry was delayed till 1230. After a few phone calls at 130, it turned out that the ferry wasn’t coming at all. So everyone decided to rent a typical wooden tailboat to take us to the mainland.

Our tailboat ride to the mainland

It looked like quite a unreliable one at that, and took us much longer to reach there. It was a good experience though, being out in the open sea in a wooden fishing boat! We also saw another floating village on the way, with houses very far away from anything. Anyways, this boat was dropping us at a pier different from the ferry one. We had booked a taxi to meet us there to take us to Phnom Penh but the taxi wasn’t there! Apparently, since we were late, the taxi had found someone who would pay more and left with them 😂.

Then we took a tuk-tuk to Serendipity beach and started looking for a way to get to Phnom Penh. There were loads of travel agents there who offered taxi services. And a couple of buses too. We spent about 2-3 hours looking for another taxi but it didn’t work out as easily as we expected.

For one, everything was quite disorganised here. So we had to go and check with each travel agent individually. Then there was nothing available given it was New Years. And if there was something, they were quoting 3x of the price for the ride! It was a bit stressful figuring out how to get to your next destination in a new country where things werent too well organised!

Anyways our patience paid off and we finally got one taxi driver to agree to share the ride with another of his passenger. He was waiting for his passenger to come on the ferry and we waited with him. The weather in the afternoon had been very humid and had made us all very irritable when trying to find the taxi. In the evening though it improved, the temperature became cooler and tempers also cooled down 😊. And when the other passenger came, we all took off for Phnom Penh, finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Interestingly enough, the other passenger (a French guy working in Vietname) had also been staying at Coconut Beach and had had a similar adventure while getting into and out of the Beach. He was also waiting with us at the village in the morning, but when the ferry had got cancelled, his hotel owner had agreed to drop him off on his bike at the other end of the island, at the Koh Rong beach. The only problem was that there wasn’t a full road till Koh Rong.

So the hotel owner had dropped him and his luggage a kilometre away from the beach! And he had to walk that last km, with his luggage, through the forest!! And his adventures hadn’t finished yet either, as his ferry from Koh Rong to Sihanouk stopped working midway in the sea and a new one from the beach had to come to get them! After hearing his stories, we did not feel as bad about our day anymore 😁.

On the 4 hours drive to Phnom Penh, we each complained about our trips and the issues. So it was an entertaining journey! The road was a single lane one and we couldn’t see anything outside as there was limited light. But the driving was safe and disciplined, unlike India for sure. Anyways very late at night, we reached our hotel - the Skyline Boutique Hotel which was located right in the middle of Phnom Penh.

Independence monument

During the drive in, Phnom Penh felt like an old and rundown city. At least the outer areas felt quite poor, and the buildings felt quite old and falling apart. But the area we were staying in felt quite posh and well-to-do. It had a lot of huge buildings and monuments around which we saw when coming in. And our hotel was quite nice too with a nice little kitchenette and balcony to sit outside. We checked in quickly and crashed soon enough after our long long day of travel flaps.

Day 7 - Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is not really a touristy city, it almost feels like a poorer cousin to Bangkok. We ended up doing a few of the touristy stuff but we could have avoided Phnom Penh completely and stayed at coconut beach longer. We hired a tuk-tuk for half a day to take us around the city and drive us to a couple of places. Our tuk-tuk driver did not know any English though which was quite a tough thing to overcome! But the tuk-tuk ride with the wind blowing in the whole time felt fun, especially given how hot it was.

Wat Phnom

We drove around a lot during the day and Phnom Penh felt like a bustling metropolis wherever we went. It was a mix of the old and the new, the rich and the poor, the well maintained and the run down. Our first stop was the Wat Phnom, a temple which lends its name to the city.

A temple in Phnom Penh

Then on the way to the Silk Island, we visited a local temple made of gold! It was a Buddhist temple but you could see the impression Hinduism has made in the country over the last centuries. A lot of the sculptures were based on images of Hindu gods - Hanuman, Ram, Sita and so on.

A temple in Phnom Penh

After that we went to the Silk Village which was a bit of a ride. We had to take a ferry across the Mekong river to get to the island, our tuk-tuk went onto the ferry. Once there, it felt like we had come a world away from Phnom Penh. The island felt quite rural, with green fields and fruit trees everywhere, and people living in wooden houses with stilts.

As you drive through the houses, you start noticing that each of them has a silk loom on the ground floor and is selling silk products. It felt like everyone here was making silk - no wonder the island got its name. We stopped at one of the houses and observed them weaving beautiful pieces. Except that the ones they were selling were all Chinese made 😝. So we didnt buy anything there and drove on. We did notice though that the women there were all watching hindi serials dubbed in Cambodian, while they were weaving 😂.

Silk cocoons

After the house visit, we went to the silk centre where they grow mulberry leaves, raise silk worms on the farm itself and make silk. There were also some women who used to stay there and weave. As part of the tour, they showed us how the silk worms are raised. I learnt so much about silk making from there which I did not know before. Apparently, you can get 100-300 metres of silk from one small cocoon! And it takes 20 of those thin threads to stick together to make one usable silk thread!! The individual silk threads all stick together and don’t break. The whole process of weaving one of the silk shawls on display takes about 40 days and you can weave that only by hand.

Beautiful silk handicraft from Silk island

There was also a story about how this silk farm and the island name came about. A guy from this island had married a rich girl and then opened this silk centre to give jobs to the women on the island. There are only 18 women who stay at the farm and weave silk. They work 8 hours a day and get only 80 usd a month. Everyone on the island weaves now. Some of them use the silk from the silk farm and the rest from outside. As silk making increases, the place started getting known as Silk Island. The products there were pretty and worth buying. And the silk farm also had a few other things to keep people busy - a small zoo with iguanas, fish and monkeys. And typical Cambodian straw huts, with a pool and picnic area for families who visit.

Another temple on Silk Island

After the silk farm, we also stopped at a local Buddhist temple which was magnificent. There were three of them next to each other, each gilded in gold, out in the open and so beautiful and calm. And completely empty! We spent some time there but it had got too hot to stay out by this morning. So we decided to call it a day and head back to the main city. After an Indian lunch, we came back to the hotel and slept for some time before going out in the evening. It is generally so hot in Cambodia, even in winter that taking an afternoon siesta is definitely the best way to be a tourist. We were planning to go to one of the local markets but they closed early, So we went out for a walk to my favourite part of the city - the riverfront!

View on the waterfront

We walked for about 10 mins from our hotel to the area around the Royal palace. It was on the riverfront and a nice place to walk around, taking in the cool river breeze. There were lots of people around there at that time, just sitting around in the open spaces, having picnics and generally strolling around. I also noticed a lot of young people out and about there. The river front was well maintained and seemed like the centre of all activity. There were loads of restaurants and shops there. And lot of beautiful lights on both sides. It was a nice place to walk, and the waterfront was definitely better than what we have in most Indian cities.

Random monument on the walk

While walking back to our hotel, we took a road with loads of monuments around all lighted up. There were some grand old houses on that street and a lot of activity. We also noticed lot of Cambodian Peoples Party boards everywhere. Overall the city seemed safe enough and vibrant to walk around and enjoy.

We had spent the day visiting non-typical sites in Phnom Penh. Most people generally visit the National museum and the Pot Pol killing fields but I was not keen to go there as it seemed like quite a dark place to go to. Most people do find the visits eye-opening though. Other places to visit are the Royal palace, the Genocide museum, the Silver pagoda and Cruise along the Mekong. We walked by the Royal Palace but I think its much less impressive than the one in Bangkok, so we decided to give it a pass.

Day 8 - Phnom Penh to Delhi

The last day of our trip was relaxed. We had a morning flight back to Delhi, so we again took a tuk-tuk to get to the airport. We saw the outskirts of the town finally in daylight and it felt rundown, unlike most of the central areas. We also figured out that the tuk-tuks which wait just outside of the hotel are all crooks. They generally ask for 2-3X the price. We stopped a tuk-tuk which was driving on the road to take us to the airport which was much cheaper. He did not speak a word of English though (again)! Again on the ride there, I noticed how much more disciplined the traffic there is, as compared to India... sigh...

Overall, within our Cambodian trip, I thought Angkor Wat is a must-do and outstanding. Coconut Beach was amazing if you could make there without travel chaos. And Phnom Penh was missable. But the whole experience of Cambodia was amazing! It felt like quite a nice, calm and comfortable country. Somewhere where you can truly relax and be at peace...

Accommodation

Skyline Boutique hotel, Phnom Penh: The boutique hotel was very close to all the important tourist places, and very well done up. We had got a room with a kitchenette. It had big rooms and was well stocked. The hotel had a very nice little pool outside to deal with the heat. And a nice breakfast place in the morning, where you could sit outside in the sun, surrounded by greenery while you eat your morning breakfast. A good place overall.

Our wooden bungalow

Coconut Beach Bungalows, Sihanoukville: The infrastructure at the Coconut Beach Bungalows was amazing. We loved the vibe of the wooden bungalows, nestled in the jungle. Each of them had an outdoor balcony with a view of the sea and ferry pier. And then there were tents set up closer to the beach, for people looking for more basic and cheaper accommodation. The food in their in-house restaurant was tasty. And the views outside outstanding! An outstanding place and a definite recommend.

People

Women sorting seafood in the village

Overall, Cambodia felt like a relatively poor country, but still there was a calmness and satisfaction everywhere which had a positive feeling. People were busy living their lives. Everyone was helpful though English was not that common. It was safe everywhere. People did not cheat. Women were safe. So overall a nice place to visit. The organisation and timeliness was lacking though, but I think thats common for any developing country.

Tips

1) Carry USD with you if you have any. Its the most commonly used currency in the country.
2) Keep extra time for things to not go as planned. A lot of things don’t work in a timely manner and you need patience to deal with that. Like our ferries from Sihanouk to Coconut Island not working on both the days we needed them 😆
3) You can take a boat across the SonLap lake which can get you from Angkor to Phnom Penh over 6-8 hours. I think its definitely worth a try
4) Phnom Penh is not really a top of list tourist town. Its easily avoidable.
5) Tuk-tuks are one of the different things of SE Asia. They are convenient, airy, comfortable and generally fun to ride:). You should definitely use them for all travel around the city
6) Cambodian massages being good is totally based on luck (unlike in Thailand). So be ready to be disappointed sometimes

Lounging in Pringles Bay, Cape area

South Africa continues to amaze me, everytime! I have been to Cape Town twice already and I was under the impression that I had experienced and explored all there was to do there. But my third trip to the Cape turned out to be completely different from all my earlier ones, telling me that I still have a lot to see there still. We spent a weekend in and around the Pringles Bay area near the town of Cape Town and it has been one of my most active as well as relaxed weekends in SA. We went cage shark diving, saw penguins, some amazing sceneries and visited a few vineyards - all in the space of two days…

Drive to Pringles Bay, during sunset

We flew to Cape Town from Joburg on Friday evening and drove from there to Pringles Bay on Friday night itself. The drive was quite short, about an hour or so. It is apparently beautiful during the day - driving all along the sea, with bare hills in the background and the blue sea in front - but we missed all this beauty as we drove through it at night.

Belle Mer B&B

We were staying at Belle Mer Guest House, a small B&B in the village of Pringles Bay. It was right at the end of the village road, just next to the sea. It felt a little scary driving in at night, as there was no one around that late. And the road to the B&B was an unpaved one. But once there, it felt amazing and relaxed.

I had a room on the first floor, with a balcony from where I could hear the waves lashing on the rocks. I could not see the water, but only the clear sky and the stars twinkling up above. And the light house at Cape of Good Hope periodically beaming its light from miles away. I slept very peacefully that night but couldn’t wait for the morning given how beautiful I could already perceived the place to be.

Morning with a view, Belle Mer

And it did not disappoint! The morning brought to light what we couldn’t see the last night - we were staying right on the beach, and could see the foamy water lashing out at the reddish rocks in front. On Saturday, we did not spend much time in the village though. After a scenic and sumptuous breakfast, we left early enough for Kleinbaai - our first stop of the day and the location for cage shark diving!

Somewhere on the way

It was about a 2 hour drive till there and one of the most scenic drives of South Africa (I wonder why I did not know about this route when driving across the Garden Route). We drove through towns like Gansbaai and Hermanus, past townships and beaches, all along the coastal area dotted with holiday homes, lagoons and vineyards. It was green and sunny everywhere and made for a pleasant drive, the day enchanting us with beautiful vistas at every turn of the road. We did pass by some townships in between but overall, most of the area was full of luxury holiday houses. Beaches and hills; sea and the sun; greenery dotted with white houses and so on… What better view can one ask for on a weekend off?

Kleinbaai

Kleinbaai is a coastal village and the popular launch spot for cage shark diving. There are multiple operators there, all of them offering the same experience. We reached there around 10 am and spent almost an hour having breakfast, as well as being briefed on what to do and not to do when near the sharks.

Apparently the whole coast is full of sharks, but the shark diving for tourists is allowing only at one spot in the national park, slightly away from the residential areas. There are more than 60 species of sharks inhabiting this area, but only the Great White sharks comes to the surface and can be spotted on these trips. The most commonly spotted sharks are still teenagers, about 3 metres long. The adults are much huge, and can go up to 6 metres long. If you are lucky to spot an adult, they can be seen swimming below the boat and visible on both sides. But given that near land it is too shallow for them, they are spotted rarely, not more than 2-3 times in a year.

We left the coast in a speedboat to go towards one of the bays where the boat would be anchored and the sharks would come. The sea was very very choppy and the waves were huge. It felt quite unsafe and scary at times as the boat went up and down quite violently! Once at the spot on the bay, the guides threw a barrel of tuna oil into the water, and then we started waiting for the sharks to turn up. Apparently, there is a 95% probability to see a shark on any of these trips! There were 4-5 other boats also in the bay at the same time and looks like all of us saw the sharks that day.

Once the sharks started appearing, they started circling the boat and the guides used empty tuna heads to lure them closer to the boat. I had always imagined that we would go down underwater in a cage to see the sharks in the water. This was however going to be different. There was a cage tied next to the boat, with space for people to stand, Groups of 4 people would enter the cage at a time, wearing wetsuits (the water was 13 degrees!) and then wait for the sharks to come close. When the guides saw them close, they would shout ‘down’ and we would put our heads into the water to see the shark come close to our cage.

I went in the cage twice, and it was nice to see the Great Whites up so close in the water. It was scary to see their eyes and open teeth, as they would open their mouths trying to catch the tuna head and then skillfully swim away when they realised that the cage was in the way. But it was honestly more fun to see them from the boat - a top view of seeing them slyly circle the boat lazily and then make a move for the tuna head. They did seem menacing sometimes, when their mouths were open for the tuna (they were able to bite them off a couple of times), but mostly they seemed like huge harmless fishes swimming lazily on a sunny day.

(Shark video, may not show in some browsers)

We spent about 2-3 hours on the boat, admiring these majestic animals. In total we saw 4 different sharks circle our boat at least 50 or so times. Twice it was quite scary, as once the shark’s tail hit the cage, and the second time, a shark came very close to the boat while the cage was still open on the top! But overall, I loved the experience and wish I could have stayed there longer and seen them up closer 😜. It was the first time I had seen such huge sharks, and realised they are not as scary as they are made out to be.

Robert Stanford estate

Once back from the shark watching, we lazily made our way driving back to Pringles Bay. It was the same beautiful drive and this time we stopped at two vineyards on the way - Sir Robert Stanford estate and Benguela Cove. Both of them were landscaped beautifully. The Robert Stanford estate is an old vineyard with a history. It was set up in the 1800s as a farm by Sir Robert, an Englishman who founded the nearby town of Stanford too. At that time, he used to take his boat to Cape Town to sell his farm goods and later started selling wines. It was a beautiful estate, with a few ponds and an enchanting lake in front of the restaurant with blue lotus growing in it.

Robert Stanford view from restaurant

Benguela Cove vineyard

Benguela Cove vineyard was different, it was next to a lagoon and beautifully landscaped. Both the vineyards had a lavish lunch food menu and offered a place to stay for the night too.

African Penguins at Bettys Bay

While coming back, we stopped at Bettys Bay - a better spot for observing African penguins than Simon Town near Cape Town where I have been twice. There were a few thousand of these penguins just sitting around the rocks, barely moving, just aimlessly looking towards the sun with their eyes closed, as if tanning in the sun after a hard day of work. It was a beautiful and free sight, with no people around. I spent about an hour there, just observing these funny creatures in black and white…

Also known as jackass penguins

And then we drove past Pringles Bay for a drive next to the sea, the same way we had driven by last night. And we turned up at one of the most stunning views I have seen. We stopped at a couple of stops on the road, all with mesmerising views. We were surrounded by yellow hills behind us, with clouds crowning them and in front of us was yellow sand beaches dotted with some light green vegetation and then the blue sea beyond.

Sunset drive

It was all so picturesque that every turn of the road was worth a stop. We spent a lot of time there during sunset, walked to the beach, saw a baboon sitting atop a shark spotting room and just enjoyed the setting sun in a majestic colourful view. It was all so calm and beautiful, totally relaxing…

Sunset at Pringles Bay

After catching this view, we drove back to Pringles Bay and caught some more sunset colours on the local mountains and beach, before calling it a day. I did not have dinner that day but apparently, there were many nice little restaurants offering an amazing fare, even in a village with barely 1600 people. The day had been amazing, spotting sharks to relaxing with penguins, watching the setting sun to visiting a few vineyards. No wonder people love the Cape life 😊.

The next day was a relatively relaxed one. I woke up late and took a walk around the village. The village is nestled between bare mountains on one side, the sea on the other and lot of cape kind of vegetation all around. I took a round walk along the beach and the holiday homes and saw some different architectured houses - one was white and shaped like an igloo, one had no windows, one was built in brown as if made of sand and so on. It was interesting to see that people were experimenting with their houses, and that too in a village in the middle of nowhere!

It felt like a very small village with barely 100 or so houses, most of which were empty. I did note that none of the houses here had fences, unlike the ones in Joburg. It clearly felt a lot safer than other places in South Africa that I have been too. People were walking outside all the time without any major worries.

After exploring the village, we started driving back, with a lunch stop planned at Stellenbosch. This is the wine area of South Africa, famous for its mountains and breathtaking views. The drive till there was full of picturesque vistas, passing through many small beach towns. We passed through the Strand which had a beach (and reddish sea water) but very few people on the beach as the water was too cold to go in. The bay looked pretty from afar. We also had to drive through a township called Sir Lowrys Pass Village, which felt a bit scary but not for long.

Guardian Peak lunch

We drove through Somerset West to reach Stellenbosch and stopped at two wineries close to each other - Hidden Valley and Guardian Peak. They both had a panoramic view of the vineyards below. It was a very very hot day, so we decided to take a break and had a nice lazy lunch at the Guardian Peak restaurant. It was so amazing and relaxed, I really did not want to visit any other place or even go back to Joburg. It was so easy to just sit and read a book in such a relaxed place.

Anyways, after lunch, we drove back towards Cape Town along a long beach (Badel Powells Drive) right next to the townships of Khatelitsa, Mitchells Plain and then Philippi. The beach was many kilometers of pure white sand contrasting with the deep blue of the water. But there were limited number of tourists on the beach given the proximity to the townships. The townships were huge and unending, and looked like they was better managed than a lot of other ones, they had regulated electricity and water supply plus dishtv on every house.

Our last stop of the day was the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, which was just full of people out picnicking as it was a sunny day. And then the day ended. Just like that. This trip to Cape Town was my best ever to the city. I realised that people love this area not because of the city, but what lies outside the city, in the countryside. A place of green and sun; activities and relaxation; hills and wildlife, all rolled into one. A life here would be so awesome, isn’t it? This was one of my best weekend trips in the Cape area and I have a feeling I am coming back to the place again 😇.


Accommodation

Reflection of the sea

Belle Mer is a nice little guest house located at the end of the road in Pringles Bay. The hostess was very very friendly and talkative. She got something for me to eat both the days as we had got in very late. The views from the breakfast table and the balcony are amazing. And sleeping to the sounds of the waves is one of the best offering of this place. I would say its a definite recommend.

Map of drive

Weekend in Finfoot Reserve, South Africa

South Africa continues to amaze me all the time!! After spending two months in the country and travelling quite a bit, I thought that I had covered most of the interesting spots around. And then I discover that there are so many other amazing experiences available so close to Johannesburg which I did not even know of - one of them being the private game reserves.

One of the weekends this year, I spent in the Finfoot Lake Reserve which is quite close to Joburg. It is a relatively new resort that has opened recently. It is a typical private game reserve which has an accommodation option located in a huge open and green area. And the owners buy different kinds of animals and keep them within their property for the enjoyment of the residents and visitors. After the visit to Finfoot, I also realised that there were many more such reserves very near Johannesburg which I had never been aware of till now.

Finfoot is about a 1.5-2 hours drive from Joburg, on the way to Sun City. While driving there, we passed through the city of Pretoria. And though I have still not managed to visit Pretoria properly yet, we did end up driving through some of the central parts of town. We saw lots of grand colonial buildings in the central area but nothing out of the ordinary. We also drove past a couple of huge buildings while felt empty and falling apart. It was quite an interesting sight to see multiple storeyed buildings completely empty and run-down - this isn't something I have ever seen before. Some parts of Pretoria felt quite unsafe too but that may just be my perception.

The rest of the drive to Finfoot was through highways, so pretty uninteresting in terms of sights you see. I got excited towards the end when I saw people selling fresh and juicy local mangoes on the road but sadly I did not get out to buy them😡. (I think we all tend to over-stress on all the unsafe aspects of this country, ending up sometimes stopping ourselves from enjoying it fully. And I am as guilty of that as anyone else).

Vaalkop dam at night

Finfoot reserve is located within the Elands river game reserve near the Vaalkop dam in Rustenburg. It has about 3500 hectares of land and encloses a lake within its area. Coming from Joburg, the last stretch inside the game reserve needed us to drive on a long winded and muddy drive till we reached the resort. This road looked totally red due to the colour of the mud here. It was a bit dangerous to drive too because the rain from the previous night had created lot of small puddles, but otherwise I would not expect this road to be a problem. Also, by this time we had already started spotting some wildlife - a huge iguana was lazily crossing the road in front of us. So the drive was still fun😊.

Mother and baby giraffe

The animals inside the reserve were all mostly vegetarian and hence not dangerous to people. So it was ok to get out of the car while trying to observe them (unlike Kruger park). As soon as we entered the reserve while driving towards the resort, we started seeing various animals - a huge iguana slinking into the grass, a herd of ostriches running very fast, brown zebras (which I had seen for the first time in my life), a mother and a one week old baby giraffe, impalas, loads of gnus, kudus and so on. As there were already two activities which were included in the cost of the stay, we spotted the animals while driving towards the resort but then just stayed in the resort for the whole afternoon.

Finfoot reserve

Once at the resort, it was like a very different vibe, like a 'jungle main mangal' feeling. The whole resort was a cluster of basic thatched roof huts with a pool and eating area - everything you need to have a lazy time. There were also some bigger villas next to the lake for bigger parties of tourists, but the main area felt quite small and cosy. All around it was just the forest and nothing else. It was quite hot in the afternoon, so we just relaxed around. It already felt like living in the wild. When I was sleeping in my hut, I could hear the constant chirping of birds outside, to the point of being unable to sleep because of it!! And later I saw a waterbuck walk by the watering hole near the pool to drink water, everything was already feeling unreal by that time:).

Birds on the island in the lake

The first activity for the day was a boat ride in the lake nearby. It was a 2 hour activity, where we drove to the lake and took the resorts' boats to lazily float around the lake observing the birds and animals on both sides. There are two rivers which flow into the lake and there is a dam on the other side making sure there is always enough water in the dam. We spotted a lot of animals and birds on the bank and the island in between, while observing the sunset along the lake.

Snakebird

While boating around the central island, we saw and heard loads of birds - Fish eagle and Goliath eagle being the major ones amongst them. The only other bird which I can recall is the snakebird (or the African darter), which we saw in action too. It swoops into the water to catch its prey. And then swims in such a way that only the neck is above the water giving it the look of a snake moving with its head out of the water!

On the banks of the lake, we observed many herds of zebras near the owners' villa, as well as nyalas and red hartebeests grazing lazily. Apparently, there used to be buffaloes and rhinos in the area too earlier, but they have all been poached by now :(. And there were some hippos and crocodiles in the river too, but we did not get to see them either. Our ranger and boat guide were a chatty bunch, so it was fun to learn from them more about the area and how a private game reserve operates. And the whole atmosphere was so relaxing, that it did not feel that we weren't doing much at all😀.

Finfoot reserve

The day had started out quite hot, but turned a lot more pleasanter as the evening wore on. The food options for lunch and dinner at the resort were quite good, and the whole atmosphere was so relaxing... Green trees all around, warm sun above, bird and insect sounds all around, and a pool with cool water! What more can one ask for?

Running zebras

The next morning was a whole different experience. First, I went for a 30 minutes walk around (at about 7am) and ran into a group of zebras who did not like me at all 😀. They were lazily eating their breakfast (tree leaves) but ran away as soon as they saw me - it was impressive though seeing such a huge herd run away so fast like that. Then I ran into another herd which ran away even faster. Turns out people on foot are scarier than when in the car!

Once back from the walk, we went on a segway tour of the farm with the ranger as the second activity of the day. It was like racing very fast along the unkept roads of the farm, observing animals from much closer - it was so fresh and surreal. And manoeuvring the segway was a lot of fun too. I got stuck in the mud once, but still went quite fast on the tracks, almost like floating on air 😊.

Gembuck

During the sehgway tour also, we saw tons of animals - the adult mother and baby giraffe with her again, a herd of gembucks, 3-4 solitary nyalas, some herds of ostrich, impalas, zebras, blue wildebeests, baby wildebeests and so on. My favourite of them were the gembucks - they looked so cute and beautiful - and the one week old baby giraffe. We had run into a herd of gembucks, who ran across our paths very quickly. Then they stood waiting a long time for some of their herd members to cross our paths and come to them. While waiting, they all looked so majestic! I wish I had been able to get a better picture of them all standing together like that - but alas all I have are some iphone pictures which don't do justice to them at all. Towards the end, we also ran into a very small tortoise which our guide got with her to show at the resort.

Small tortoise on the trail

The whole segway ride was a two hour tour, during which we took a quick break at the lake and ate some snacks. I realised during the tour, that the animals run away when they see humans on their feet/segway but not when in the car. In fact, at one point I got off the segway and tried to follow a giraffe but he ran away faster than I could follow😁. So even though unlike the national parks, here you can get out of your car as there are no predators around, it does not help at all as they run away and don't let you observe them, even if from a safe distance:(.

The receptionist at the reserve was scared of reptiles and the team got a snake to show her - a beaked stilleto snake - which they had caught from the manager's house😀. It felt like she may not be working on the most well suited places for her if she doesn't like animals😆.

Leaving Finfoot

Anyways we had a quick breakfast at the resort and left soon enough for a safari at the Pilanesberg reserve. While leaving we saw a group of ostrich who started running and we were pleasantly surprised to see how fast they run - they were almost head to head with the car for a couple of minutes! I also saw some birdwatchers there and the big cameras they use - they are really huge (I did not know that before) While driving out of the reserve, I saw some amazing views which made my day, with bright colours all around - the red sand, green trees around and the blue sky above. The whole drive out was quite magnificent!

Rhinos showing their backs to us

Thereafter, we went to Pilanesburg Game Reserve for a quick safari, through the Manyane gate. We saw yellow tailorbirds at the gate which we had also spotted at Finfoot. Inside the park, we saw loads of animals - many rhinos, solitary wildebeests giving good poses and coming too close, lots of hippos in the water, 2 elephants standing with their backs to each other, herds of zebras, gnus and impalas roaming together and so on.

Elephants showing their backs
 to each other

We also saw baby giraffes, baby warthogs with their mum, lots of baby wildebeests and baby zebras too. It looked like it was the season of the little ones:). Unlike the last time I was there, it felt a lot more green and fresh also - a completely different view than when I went there in September last year. And so the colours all around were picture perfect- red sand, green hills, and blue and white sky.

The grass was a rich green everywhere because of the recent rains. The whole area felt very very unusually quiet too, wonder why! It was more hot now than my visit last time but still we managed to see more animals then before. Sadly again though, we spotted no cats :(. I was almost convinced there are none at Pilanesberg till a colleague showed me some pics of lions he saw next to a lake in Pilanesberg. So now I am partially convinced but still not fully😉! The roads were quite bad which I realised as we drove ourselves this time. Overall, a nice safari stop and soon it was time to back at work in Joburg. It was a nice weekend and I would recommend such lodges to everyone who enjoys a nice weekend away...

Warthog family with babies

Wildebeest with baby