Image credit: Nomad Tales, November 2008

In the last three months the number of foreign tourists to India from Western lands has plummeted by 25% overall, and 35% fewer women have visited.   This is according to a survey of 1200 tour operators in India conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

This sharp decline has resulted from widespread international reporting of the horrific rape of an Indian woman, and further reports of savage attacks and sexual attacks on foreigners.

The research shows that the tourists have not stayed home, which is troubling to the travel industry there.  They have diverted to safer countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam.

The British Foreign Office recommends no travel at all to certain parts of India, and essential travel only to other parts of the country.  They also consider that there is a risk of terrorism through-out the country.

The tourists that have gone to India since the attacks have shunned the areas where the attacks took place.

Of course, not all of the tourists will have been chased away by the personal security risk: Some will be staying away because of the increased visa costs: the price of a visa for UK residents has recently gone up and is now £92.20.  For the US citizens it is now $76.00

ASSOCHAM Secretary General, Mr. D S Rawat, acknowledged the long-term impact of the attacks on inbound tourism.  He further noted that “security needs to be further strengthened at major tourist places and a programme to sensitize the importance of tourism and respect for tourist be continuously held across the country”.  [sic]

This will impact on the Indian government’s plans to boost tourism.  They have a plan to double the amount of foreign exchange that tourism earns, by 2016.  The dramatic loss of tourists has occurred during what is traditionally the peak season for visitors to the country.

The first expensive lesson learned by India is that tourists go where they feel safe and welcome.

V&A Waterfront Cape Town Harbour - Copyright DIY Travel Expert

Cape Town is definitely a destination and not just a ‘stop-over’.  It has something for every taste.

People from many different African nations mix side by side with South Africans as well as having a fair amount of European expats living in the CBD and suburbs.

If you have a day in Cape Town, what attractions should you aim to see?

Long Street is popular for nightlife and is a good place to go to if you are a night owl.  It is lined with pubs and restaurants that are frequented by locals and foreigners alike.  From the chic to the dowdy, and the downright seedy.

By day Long Street is an amazing street for shopping, by night it is “party central”.  Either way, if you can’t get in Long Street what you are looking for then it is probably not available anywhere else either.

Below are a few suggestions of the top major attractions that can be seen in one day.

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

Taking the cableway up Table Mountain is a must-see.  It is weather dependant, and closes when there are high winds.  You get a panoramic 360 view from the car as it rotates slowly during the short journey up or down the mountain.

There are lots of great photo opportunities from anywhere on the mountain.  A return ticket costs approximately $25 per person.  This goes up and down based on the rate of exchange.

Tickets can be booked online at the Table Mountain Cableway website.  Online tickets are date- and time- specific.  You will save yourself 10% by booking online rather than at the ticket office.

Further outdoors activities that you can fit into a day in Cape Town could include a visit to the world-famous Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens on the lower slopes of the back of Table Mountain.  Hundreds of acres are left wild in the upper reaches to conserve local flora and are beautifully manicured lower down.  It has first-class facilities, two restaurants and ample parking and in the lower, landscaped section, the names of all the plants are indicated.  You will find surprisingly familiar plants here: marigolds and geraniums (pelagoniums) hail from the Cape.

A final outdoor treat is a drive around the Peninsula, which should include a visit to Cape Point, the most south-westerly point of Africa and the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, despite what hydrologists may say.  The Cape Point nature reserve comprises approximately the lower half of the peninsula and has abundant local wildlife.  You may spot kudu and ostriches, baboons (which can be pesky because of ill-advised feeding, which is prohibited by law) and the seemingly ubiquitous “dassies” (hyraxes) who brazenly sun themselves on any warm rock.

Castle of Good Hope

This fort is the oldest building in continuous use in Southern Africa, built between 1666 and 1679.  (There are ruins from a lost civilisation at Mapungubwe near the Limpopo and further north at Great Zimbabwe.)  It is simply called ‘The Castle’ by locals and has a wealth of history.  It was built on the site of an earlier, rudimentary fort constructed in 1652.

It is perhaps the finest example of Dutch military architecture remaining from their Golden Age, and was built as a VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – the Dutch East India Company) outpost to victual ships travelling between the Netherlands and Indonesia via the Cape.

Entrance fees are nominal at R25 (under $5) and one can wander around at leisure, walk the battlements or look at the artefacts displayed in the military museum.  There is also an unrivalled collection of VOC tableware.  You may also witness the firing of a 4 pound field gun in the courtyard.

There is a restaurant on site serving teas and lunches.  For more information on this attraction, see Castle of Good Hope.

If you wish to keep to the theme of antiquities you can walk up to the Slave Lodge by way of the Golden Acre where, remarkably, the first dam built at the Cape is preserved within a modern shopping centre.  From the Slave lodge (a cultural history museum, which includes an unexpected collection of Masonic memorabilia) you can walk through the original Company’s Gardens (then used to grow vegetables but now dominated by lawns and exotic trees brought by sea captains from faraway places).  To the right of the entrance to the gardens, past St George’s Cathedral, is the National Library, the main repository for copies of any book published in the country.

At the top of the Gardens there is the National Gallery on the left, the South African Museum in the centre, and one of just two planetariums in Africa on the right.  Very close to the National Gallery is the Cape Town Jewish museum in the Old Synagogue, and the more modern Holocaust Centre in the same complex.

Robben Island

Robben Island has become famous for having served as a prison home for a number of leaders of the ANC movement, most notably the venerated Nelson Mandela, who were imprisoned there following their convictions for politically-motivated crimes.  The tour takes 3.5 hours, which includes transport there and back on the modern Robben Island Ferry that leaves from Cape Town harbour.

If you like your tours strongly didactic then you will enjoy the rigid program with a strong educational slant.  You will not have an opportunity to wander about independently and there are no opportunities to view the extensive wildlife on the island.  It is very much a guided tour with a fixed programme.

Tours cost R220 (approximately $30 subject to the rate of exchange).  Tickets can be booked online, but are date- and time- specific.  Note that boat trips can be cancelled when the Cape of Storms lives up to its name in winter and spring months (June to November).

Tickets can be booked online here. 

The Robben Island Ferry sets out from the Waterfront.  If your visit is cancelled due to wind you could hardly wish to find a better place to console yourself.  Otherwise, on your return you can shop at a wide range of places from African curios to haute couture, and there are any number of restaurants and drinking-holes.  Capetonians hang out at the Waterfront too, so it is not merely for tourists.  You may be surprised to see rich and famous persons here, who have slipped in unannounced and whom the locals tend by nature to give the space and relative anonymity they desire.

Climate

The Cape Town weather is generally moderate.  In winter (the sometimes wet, “green season”) there can be rain storms, but the temperature seldom gets below freezing overnight.  If you dress for the season the chances are that a visit at any time of the year will prove to be a pleasant one.

Personal safety

Robbery on the mountain has been reported in isolated areas.  You can still enjoy the experience, though, by being cautious.  No robberies have occurred in the general area around the restaurant and curio.

The British Foreign Office has this general safety advice about South Africa:

Most cases of violent crime occur in the townships. Consult a reliable tour guide if you visit a township. The risk of violent crime to visitors travelling to the main tourist destinations is generally low. The South African authorities give high priority to protecting tourists. Tourism police are deployed in several large towns.
Incidents of vehicle hi-jacking and robbery are common. You should be vigilant of the risks, particularly if driving after dark. Keep to main roads; park in well – lit areas.

There are frequent incidents of car windows being broken and valuables (e.g. handbags) taken whilst cars are waiting at junctions (smash and grab). Keep valuables out of sight.

Discreet luggage label

See stay safe at your destination part 1

• Before leaving your home country, get the local emergency numbers at your destination and save them on your mobile phone contacts list.  Also have the list on paper – if your battery is flat and the phone dies you still want access to the numbers.
• Don’t share your travel plans with strangers.  This includes keeping it off Facebook and other online places that are leaky about information.
• Keep your passport with you at all times.  While this increases the risk of it being stolen, it may help you if you have a sudden medical emergency, or police start shouting at you in a language you do not understand.
• Leave copies of your passport with someone back at home.  There is some dissent within our team on this one, though this is the generally accepted advice.  The idea is that this would help you get a new passport if your one is lost, stolen or damaged.  Will a simple photocopy be sufficient for re-issue of a passport – it seems doubtful.  (Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!)
• Leave behind a copy of your medical and insurance papers with someone trusted.  They can then assist you with claiming if necessary.
• The best place for booking adventure activities such as sky-diving and bungee jumping is through the local tourist information offices.  This is to make certain that you are using reputable companies who stick to the safety regulations.
• Reputable hotels frequently have information on tours available from reliable organisers, if you have not booked these prior to leaving home.
• It may be wise not to wear patriotic apparel or to festoon your gear with your country flag.  You may encounter someone who is bitter or resentful toward your country.  Ill-feeling can last hundreds of years in some regions.

The following tips include information from “Don’t Panic” by Helmke Hennig and Frances le Clus.

• Do not have your home address, hotel’s name that you are staying at, or your telephone number anywhere visible on your luggage.  You can get luggage tags that close, meaning that a casual inspection will not reveal who you are, where you are from, or your destination.
• If you accept a free drink or meal offered anywhere, do so very cautiously, as there are usually strings attached.  This is specifically true of certain types of bars in the Far East.  You may wake up naked, beaten and robbed, or at the least you may end up paying many times the going rate for a drink that you did not really want in the first place.
• Sometimes our best protection is our instincts.  If a situation feels wrong, move away as quickly as possible.

Maputo Central Station

The former colonial power Portugal left in a hurry at independence, draining it of expertise, and long years of civil war further impoverished the people.  The net result was that for thirty years no new buildings went up, and many of the existing edifices acquired a shabby appearance.

Safety

The Mozambican countryside is largely unsafe, with landmines and AK47s left over from the civil war, and police roadblocks renowned for taking a bribe from anyone they perceive to be wealthy or a tourist.

In the city things are safe during the day but you may be stopped on inadequate grounds at night and it could be suggested that “you sort out things” on the spot with the policemen rather than going back to the police station.

Independent travel in Mozambique is only for the adventurous and we would recommend that ladies especially should join up with a tour group to do your sightseeing.

While the hawkers and beggars are not a menace, they are certainly a nuisance and they do not take “no” for an answer.  We suggest that you do not stray from your group into unfamiliar territory, and if the group goes to one of the local markets, be sure to have a designated meeting point.

That said, with a smidgeon of care you can have a good time.  A few places to see include the following:

Maputo Central Train Station

Completed in 1910, the main building is charming and attractive in its own right.  There is an accessible bar/restaurant just off the platform.  An ice-cold Laurentina beer can be bought here for a good price.  The platform is open to tourists and one can even climb up the broken steps of one of the local trains to have a peep inside the carriage.

The Fortress

Although the current building is not all that old, the site has a lot of history attached to it.  The big tree that stands close to the entrance is talked about enthusiastically by the tour guides, mostly because it has a somewhat macabre story to tell.  The prison governor of the time was captured and hanged from it in 1883, a story which gets some elaboration that is quite entertaining when one is on a guided tour there.

The Central Market

This is a must-see and you can see all the above and the market in a day tour, owing to the compact layout of the city centre.

The smell of fish drying in the sun on a hot day can be fairly overpowering.  And there are a lot of hot days in this warm African tropical climate.

Fish, fresh fruit, spices, cashew nuts and souvenirs can be bought here.  We suggest that you buy only what you can consume on the day because of the risk of spoilage.

Cashews are cheap and abundant but they are largely grown by small-scale farmers who do not have access to suitable insecticides.  As a result there is a good chance that the cashews you buy may be infested by grain-borer insects.  Any cashews remaining when you reach your home country will likely be confiscated and destroyed!  Rightly so – before about 1970 there were no grain-borers in Africa.  They were inadvertently imported from South America into Tanzania and have since spread to nearly every southern African land.

Wooden items may be infested with wood-borer and we don’t recommend buying any wood products as souvenirs.  If you do, be sure to have it treated for borer on return to your home country and keep it in an air tight bag until you are able to have that done.  It is probable that you will not be permitted to bring such curios through your local customs, so be sure to check this beforehand.

Natural History Museum

Scenes of animals that are native to Mozambique are shown in their natural habitat here.  These exhibits are well done and worth seeing, though the scale and presentation are of a rather provincial standard.  There is also a collection of cultural relics and photos of by-gone days in Maputo.  Some of the descriptions, though, have not been translated into English.  The building does not boast air-conditioning and in summer, temperatures inside and out can be oppressive, which led in our case, to several tourists lying on the grass outside and cooling off instead of seeing what was on offer inside.

If you are in a tour group and you have a good tolerance for heat then you should probably go into the museum even if it is not the sort of thing that usually attracts you, just out of self-defence.  Should you opt to remain outside you will be besieged by hawkers selling cheap tee-shirts, locally-made African jewellery and of course, cashew nuts.

If you are travelling on a grand budget then a good way to end off the day is with High tea at the Polana Hotel, which still maintains the high standards it was known for back in the colonial era.  (We cannot speak of this first-hand as the “high” also appears to refer to the price, and we had already spent our budget on keepsakes.)