Early views of Table Mountain.

I am obviously not the first person to develop a fascination with capturing views of Cape Town's neighborly mountains. On Monday we took a visit to the Castle of Good Hope, a fort built by the Dutch East India Company in the early days of settling the Cape, where we found a fantastic collection of early paintings of Table Mountain. I love images created in the early days of exploration-- they're always such an interesting mix of science and fantasy. Comparing them gave a real sense not only of the history of the Cape, but of changes in how artists depicted the natural world. Here are a few of my favourites. (I've included a recent photograph of the mountain at the bottom, labeled for convenience. You may have to click to make it larger, unless you have super sharp eyes).

This rather early one was done by Aernout Smit, in 1683. It is a little odd for me to picture Table Bay swarming with galleons (they would later be replaced by whaling ships, later on by massive tankers of international trade). Though Lion's Head is looking a little bulbous, on the whole the city is depicted rather well. If you look closely, you can see how little of the city was developed-- just a few forts and buildings near the shoreline.

This one was painted about 50 years later, in 1730, by Samuel Scott, who I suspect may never have visited Cape Town. Not only is Lion Head here transformed into a steep pinnacle, and Devil's Peak is given a sloping hillside that fills up the whole of the city bowl, but the whole mountain is for some reason carved of a blue-white stone. It almost looks like some sort of antarctic glacier. A Table Mountain ice sculpture? Looking at this painting, one can really get a sense of what a strange and fantastical place the Cape must have seemed to people in Europe-- a settlement on a distant corner of Africa, in the far Southern reaches of the known world.

This painting by William Syme, done in 1850, uses light and shadow quite evocatively. The scale of the humans are miniscule, just a fleck of paint compared to the churning sea, the distant afloof mountains, and the broken, cloudy sky.

While I like the moodiness of Syme's painting, this view, painted by Thomas William Bowler in 1857, might be my favourite. I love how well he used simple, flat shapes to depict the different peaks of Table Mountain. Lion's head is particularly effective as just a dark shadow.

And here's my own view, photographed in 2006. A little less glamorous without all the wooden ships? If you click on the photo to make it bigger, and look very very closely to the right of Devil's Peak, you'll even see the three towers of Disa Park-- which look no less alluring to me from this angle.

Travel is addictive.

Considering the globe-trotting many of my readers do, I'm probably not shocking anyone with the revelation in this post's title. Most of us have found by now that the more you travel, the more you need to travel.

2009 was our year of giving up travel completely, cold turkey, for settled life. Oddly enough, it left us all the more unsettled, even vaguely depressed at times. So, seeking a temporary cure, we took our quick honeymoon in September. And it felt fantastic to get out on the road, even for just a few days. I didn't realize it at the time, but this little trip planted an idea in our head. It was meant to get us over our need for travel, for a little while at least; instead, it reminded us how great it feels to be traveling.

A few weeks after our trip, when Bordeaux half-seriously suggested we get back on the road, this cause-and-effect didn't come to mind. But looking back on it, I can see: a little travel can be a dangerous drug.

Ugly/Beautiful.

Would you consider these Cape Town buildings, known as Disa Park, to be ugly or beautiful? Around here they're generally regarded as one of the city's ugliest architectural blights-- though I have to say I rather like them. I do understand the point that they sort of hamper the view of Table Mountain (blocked out in this photo by heavy cloud-cover), but I find something about them elegant. I don't know, maybe it's some strange connection I've carried from childhood that round high rises equal glamorous living. What are your thoughts?

culturedPRIMITIVE/style: Living is better with Muji.

We have many reasons for wanting to get back to Asia. The food. The lifestyle. A need for travel. And Muji. Their pared-down clothing and accessories are simple, functional, and so straight-forwardly handsome. I'm browsing the site now in advance, and I wouldn't mind a new Muji bag, or a new Muji notebook (I filled mine up months ago)-- I'd even be totally unhip and get a pair of Muji house-slippers, if I could find them in my size.

I'm thinking it's time for a little more Muji in my life.

And a view of the other mountain, for balance.

I know I rather favour views of Lion's Head, but Cape Town's more iconic Table Mountain does offer its share of incredible views as well. This one on the intersection of Annandale and Upper Orange is one of my favourites, for the bizarre contrast it offers; a contrast that to me says so much about Cape Town. The stately Presbyterian church, looking like a scene out of an English hamlet, and behind it Table Mountain, clouds unfurling over it like a primeval landscape from the 'Lost World'.

View of Lion's Head #11.

Or, perhaps, a game of where's Lion's Head.

culturedPRIMITIVE/stockist: Rooibos.

The global guide to stocking your pantry.

I am generally a coffee drinker, but I do occasionally take tea. In South Africa, that often takes the form of rooibos, a brewed beverage indigenous to the Western Cape. Rooibos is of course known outside of its country of origin; it is perhaps one of the few products with an Afrikaans name to successfully branch into the international market. That name, by the way, translates as 'red bush', an evocative descriptor of the rusty-earth colour the needles take once they have been oxidized. It is available in many brands, in organic loose-leaf or chai flavoured tea bags, and even in an espresso like form, but I rather favour Eleven O'Clock Rooibos for its no frills tea, and its attractively vintage graphics. Outside of South Africa rooibos is mainly sipped by the health crowd (it is high in anti-oxidants and caffeine free) and is generally taken black, but here in the Western Cape we take it in the proper South African way: with a little milk and honey, and preferably, a crunchy buttermilk beskuit on the side.

Taipei vs. Shanghai vs. Beijing.

Help me battle this one out. Any tips?

Virtual Taipei.

From February to September of this year, I lived without home internet. And at no point did I have a 'life without internet isn't so bad! what did I ever use that for in the first place?' sort of revelation. No, I missed it every day, and having it again (albeit at the slow, expensive, capped megabyte version available in SA) I only appreciate it all the more. Because really, cliche as the phrase sounds, it helps open up the world.

Like, for example, when Bordeaux and I started discussing the idea of going back to Taiwan. Within minutes, we were able to open up a half dozen webpages, blogs, and photo albums to get a sense of what life in Taipei would be like. Here's some of what we've found:

The New York Times offered a list of what to do over 36 Hours in Taipei. It is, of course, a very touristy list-- visiting the observation deck at Taipei 101, or spending $100 on dinner aren't likely to be part of our regular routine. But the list does at least highlight some of the the diverse attractions available in what must be the most underrated city in all of Asia-- and the writer does deserve points for taking a moment out of the high-spending schedule to enjoy a bowl of shaved ice at Ice Monster.

For more general info, the Rough Guide's pages on Taipei are rather useful. The Rough Guide Taiwan was in fact the same guide we used last time we were on the island, as it was clear from the author's writing that he had a real love of the island, and was committed to sharing its best features. More importantly, we found that he gave much more info on eating than the Lonely Planet Taiwan did.

We also scanned Robyn's Taiwan entries over at Eating Asia. She seems to have a gift for finding incredible meals wherever she goes, like the oven baked buns she sampled in Taipei, or the egg and tomato she supped on in Hsinchu. We may have been the ones who tipped her off to visiting Hsinchu, but when we make it back there, we'll be following her tips on where to go eat once we're there.

By far the best guide that I've found for eating in Taipei is at a hungry girl's guide to taipei, a blog of restaurant reviews from around the city. The reviews are descriptive, It also covers food trends (like the abundance of Frozen yogurt shops popping up around town).

And of course, there are my own entries on the island on this here blog. Look over my entries, and you'll see as my low expectations were continually blown away by Taiwan's incredible food, friendly people, and unique local style.

Anyone have any good web resources on the island? Or any other sites you go to when you need a little virtual vacation?

Looking back, looking forward...

One of the pleasures for a traveller in keeping a journal (or a blog, as it may be) is the strange pleasure of looking back and seeing how much one's life can change in a matter of months. Just by opening this blog's archives to October's pasts reveals a strange succession of past lives...

I am currently a resident of Cape Town, working in a local market, more settled than I've ever been, yet looking back to Asia and the Americas for a possible escape...

One year ago, we were in Southern Thailand, writing guides for Travelfish on the islands of Trang. The setting was beautiful but the schedule was intense, with our task of one island per day requiring us to spend most of our time on boats and buses, rather than on the beach. We did at least get lucky now and then, like this incredibly generous meal of curry and rice that we shared with some locals on Ko Libong. We had already made up our mind to head back to America, and then on to South Africa, and were trying to make the most of our last days in Asia.

Two years ago, we were just getting settled in Bangkok, learning how to make the most of the metropolis, and recording our observations, like these mannequin legs we spotted in Patpong. I was still very new to teaching, hating the tie I had to wear, but loving the opportunity to explore Bangkok. It was a little hard for me missing autumn in a tropical clime, but I was constantly finding new foods to try, new sights to engage me, and new parts of the city to explore...

And it gets even stranger if we look back beyond this blog, to three years ago when I was living in Cape Town, working on my Masters in African Studies, still relatively new to my relationship with Bordeaux, and figuring things out. We had just made plans to head to Asia together, a new continent for me, and one that I could hardly imagine...

...and finally, to four years ago, when I was a recent college graduate, just about to leave Los Angeles. I was preparing for a trip through the Middle East, after which I would be on my way to South Africa. I had left my job, given up my apartment, and was preparing to say goodbye to my home, completely unsure of what the future looked like.

Anyone else notice a trend? Always moving, packing up, travelling. Always a little displaced. What sort of progress is made in this drifting? And is that even the point? It can't continue this way forever, surely, but right now I don't know that it can continue any other way. At the very least, all I can say is that I'm eager to see what the next year will bring, and the next...