Fun things to do in Cape Town

The firing of the Noon cannon from Signal Hill is a Cape Town institution and takes place at 12:00 each day (except Sundays and public holidays). The cannon shot served as a time signal for boats in the harbour and can be heard across the city, which can be quite alarming if you're not expecting it! Obviously the precision of the timing was critical, and the cannon is triggered remotely by the South African Astronomical Observatory's master clock.

You can observe the shot at Lion's Battery, a short way down the side of the hill (and not on top). Aim - if you'll excuse the pun - to get there by 11:30 to catch a presentation undertaken by the South African Navy.

The cannon used is believed to have been used in the Battle of Muizenberg in August, 1795 and were moved from their original position at the Castle of Good Hope to Signal Hill in 1902.

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White sandy beach and clear waters ... Even they offer a massage service on the beach as u r sipping ur drink to make ur time more enjoyable ...

The best is, even in hot weather, the sea water is always kinnda chilly, not cold, but also not so hot as Mediterranian Seas, so, makes u very refreshing under heavy sun heat ... :)

Enjoy ....

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As u decide to visit the Table Mountain, first thing u gonna pay attention is the weather condition, as if its much too cloudy its not worth, as u wont be able to see anything w covered view downhill to the city below ... Also consider in case its too windy, the operation of the cable car will be banned due to security reasons ...

Table Mountain is actually a part of National Park where u can take amazing photos of Cape ...

Famous for the tablecloth of clouds that pours endlessly down its slopes when the south-easter blows, this is a mountain of many moods and offers walkers and hikers a range of routes that vary from strolls to rigorous hikes.

One of the "must visits" of Cape Town City ... :)

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Long Street is a major street located in the City Bowl section of Cape Town.

It is famous as a bohemian hang out and the street is lined with many book stores, various ethnic restaurants and bars. Restaurants include African restaurants such as Zula and Indian restaurants such as Masala Dosa.

Long Street exhibits a diversified culture and attracts tourists from all over the world. It also has a number of youth hostels which provide accommodation to an international roster of guests.

Several theatres which showed anti-apartheid plays were located on the street during the 1970s and 1980s, although most have now closed and been replaced by restaurants or stores.

Architecturally it is noted for its Victorian buildings with wrought iron balconies.

I suggest u to take a walk daytime and/or at evening, meet some locals and tourists, very crowded and popular spot of Cape Town ... :)

... well, perhaps the person you are talking to didn't just have a holiday in South Africa!

One of South Africa's most rapidly expanding tourism sectors is 'medical tourism' ... which is also one of the fastest growing 'niche tourism' sectors worldwide.

The country's state healthcare system is a disaster, so anyone who can afford it has private healthcare insurance (known as medical aid), consults private medical practitioners and uses private hospitals. The private hospitals are equal to any in the first world, and the cost of procedures is considerably lower than if patients were seeking equivalent treatments in Western Europe or North America, making it a cost-effective alternative even when you factor in the cost of flights and accommodation.

South Africa's particular 'specialities' are plastic surgery and dentistry, and local practitioners are generally of a very high standard and well thought of by their international peers. This is not surprising given the practice that they get on their domestic clientele: there are many suspiciously young looking 'mature' women wandering around suburban shopping malls and every second child - and quite a lot of adults (myself included) - have braces on their teeth!

The advantages are twofold: high quality medical services at an internationally competitive price, and the opportunity to retreat to a secluded environment where you can enjoy a luxury holiday whilst you convalesce. Many clinics have arrangements with exclusive retreats such game lodges, where you can let your scars heal before venturing home: hence the rather inventive brand names of some of the service providers (I am particularly amused by 'Surgeons and Safaris'!).

My personal take on the issue is that even though the mirror is getting ever less kind, I'd rather spend the money on another trip than on plastic surgery (but then I'm probably more focused on maintaining a youthful spirit than a young appearance)! However, if this idea appeals to you, then I cannot overemphasise the importance of doing your homework. To start with, it would be extremely unwise to not thoroughly check the qualifications of a practitioner before deciding to embark on surgery: see the website below for guidance on how to do this. Also I would strongly recommend the following website which features a briefing produced by the American College of Plastic Surgeons on having plastic surgery overseas, which provides an excellent checklist of questions that you need to ask and issues that you need to consider before having surgery overseas:
http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news-and-resources/briefing-papers/cosmetic-surgery-tourism.html

OK, this is very obscure, and probably only for people like me who have a 'greater than average' interest in the history around the first heart transplant ... but if you fall into this group and/or want to do something that you can guarantee that 99.99% of tourists to Cape Town won't do, then read on ...

Obviously a heart transplant is only possible if a suitable donor heart becomes available, and this corner, at the intersection of Main Road and Queenspark Avenue in Salt River (only a couple of kilometres from Groote Schuur hospital) is where poor Denise Darvall was critically injured.

The Darvall family were on a Sunday outing to visit friends, and stopped here to pick up a cake from a well known bakery (which no longer exists). She and her mother were hit by a drunk driver who was rushing to return to the bakery where he worked: her mother was killed, and 24 year old Denise was diagnosed as being brain dead on arrival at the hospital. Ironically, one of the people who passed by the scene soon after the accident took place was Anne Washkansky, the wife of the man who would ultimately receive Denise's heart.

The ultimate hero of this tale was her father, who had just lost his wife, and was then asked to sign over his daughter's organs for transplant, with her most emotive organ - the heart - to be used in a procedure that had never before been attempted (one of her kidneys was also transplanted). One can only imagine the mental anguish that this poor man - who ironically suffered from a heart complaint himself - experienced, and it is to his eternal credit that he agreed to give consent within five minutes of being asked. When Louis Washkansky died 18 days after the transplant, he commented that he now considered that his daughter was really dead, and he himself died just over a year later.

To get to this location, turn left out of the main entrance to Groote Schuur (the one that you use to visit the museum): this is Main Road, and you follow it for a few kilometres in the direction of the CBD. Once you're done, you can continue along Main Road, which will take you into the CBD close to the Cape Town Castle - it's not a particularly attractive drive, but it is interesting as it takes you through a vibrant (if somewhat gritty) area that has a lot of small businesses (including clothing manufacturers) and factory outlets (including the Queenspark factory shop - see below) where you might pick up a bargain, and also saves you having to get back onto the highway.

On a completely unrelated note, which will only be of relevance to South Africans - most of whom I suspect won't give two hoots either - there is now a Queenspark factory store on this corner (Queenspark being a well known South African clothing chain). I have not been able to find any evidence to support this theory, but I am surmising that the rather unusual name of the chain was derived from the name of the road? If you have information to support or disprove this theory, please let me know!

Ask people to name a famous surgeon, and chances are that they will only be able to come up with one: Dr Christiaan Barnard, who performed the world’s first human heart transplant. It is therefore not surprising that a museum has been developed in the hospital where this momentous event took place: what is a complete revelation is what an absolute cracker of a museum it has turned out to be!

Everything about the history of the first transplant is fascinating. Firstly there is the ambitious, charismatic and libidinous Chris Barnard himself – best described by his brother Marius (also part of the transplant team) as ‘a surgeon who wanted to be a playboy’. Barnard was the son of an impoverished minister assigned to the Coloured community of dusty Beaufort West in the Karoo and both he and his brother rose to prominence despite their ‘poor white’ background.

As a result of his achievement, Barnard went on to become an international media celebrity and - albeit rather toothy - sex symbol who would most certainly have been an excellent candidate for a reality TV show had he lived in this day and age. Sadly, in later life, he would become better known for his love of the high life, his obsession with youth and celebrity and his womanising. Chris not only had problems maintaining his relationships with women, but also with his brother. Chris and Marius’ very different personalities lead them to frequent conflict – and ultimately become estranged – in later life, and his brash, publicity-seeking personality also caused him to clash with many of his medical peers during the course of his career.

Add to that the human drama of two families united by tragedy: the family of Louis Washkansky, the upstanding and terminally ill man who bravely volunteered as a guinea pig for the transplant in a desperate bid to live, and the heroic Darvall clan, whose bereft father agreed to let his brain-dead daughter’s organs be used in an untried procedure, despite having lost both his daughter and his wife in a hit-and-run incident only hours before.

As if this wasn’t a potent enough mix, the whole drama played out in the stark period of Grand Apartheid. Barnard’s achievement raised South Africa’s scientific profile at a time when it was the pariah of world politics, and one of the sad outcomes was that the National Party government later manipulated the rather gullible Barnard as a stooge to shore up their tarnished international reputation (most notably in the infamous ‘Info Scandal’). The second heart transplant Barnard conducted also involved the transplant of a donor heart from a Coloured man to a white recipient, which further raised questions about racial segregation.

Although liver transplants (which had been successfully conducted well before the first heart transplant) also require an organ from a dead donor, the debate around the medical definition of death was a particular stumbling block for heart transplantation. Ironically, perhaps the single factor that allowed Barnard – rather than one of his more experienced American rivals – to perform the first heart transplant was South Africa’s clearer legal definition of death which focusing on (the absence of) brain function and made no reference to whether the heart was functioning or not.

It is only possible to visit the museum on a guided tour which takes two hours, including a couple of short audiovisual presentations. The tour walks you through a section of the original Groote Schuur hospital building where the transplant took place, and the highlight is the operating theatre where the transplant took place, which has been eerily reconstructed.

The use of display material throughout the exhibition is outstanding, and my only regret that I didn’t have longer to peruse these fascinating documents and photos which narrate an absolutely fascinating tale. Some of the original hearts involved in those early transplants are on display, although visitors are asked not to photograph these as a mark of respect to the families of both donors and recipients.

If you are particularly interested in this fascinating episode in history, it is also possible to visit the site where Denise Darvall was knocked over, although this is not commemorated with any sort of memorial.

This is one of only a handful of museums that have ever touched me to the point of tears and I shamelessly blubbed my way through much of the tour, maybe because I had a young cousin with a heart defect who died before she could find a surgeon able to help her. My challenge to you? “How could you possibly leave this museum and not have an organ donor card in your wallet?”

Visitors to Cape Town who use the airport as their point of entry will probably be familar with the elegant proportions of Groote Schuur Hospital on their right as they head into the city on the highway. It is an impressive building in its own right - and even more impressive when you consider that this was the location for the first human heart transplant ever performed.

More about the stupendously wonderful Heart of Cape Town museum - which occupies part of the original hospital building - in the travel tip below (and the associated travelogue), but firstly a bit of background to the hospital itself.

Groote Schuur (meaning 'big barn' in Afrikaans) is Cape Town's major teaching hospital. It was established on a large tract of land bequeathed by Cecil John Rhodes on the flanks of Devil's Peak: the University of Cape Town was established on another section of the same enviable piece of real estate.

The hospital was only built in 1938, and has since been enlarged by building additional wings. It is a state-funded hospital - and, given the sadly shambolic state of South Africa's public healthcare system, is therefore woefully underfunded, underresourced and overcrowded. Most South Africans who can afford it have medical aid (private health care coverage) - if only to cover hospitalisation - and would try to avoid using state hospitals if at all possible.