Reflecting at the start of 2013 on the wonderful TRAVELIFE that was in 2012, this is part of a series of blog entries that looks at the best aspects of our never-ending, and never-endingly eventful travels. 

This year was so full of indescribable and inspiring experiences — and we’re certainly looking forward to an even more wonderful Travelife in 2013. 

A blessed New Year to everyone

from all of us at Travelife Magazine.

We wish you a year of happiness

and an amazing Travelife.

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Cape Town’s Table Mountain

In fact, thinking about it now, I don’t know why it took me so long to get to South Africa.

It’s a beautiful country blessed with amazing nature, a great lifestyle, and some of the best wining and dining on the planet. Boy, did we eat in some fabulous places. And it’s not even very far compared to Europe.

From Hong Kong, it took us about the same time to get to Johannesburg as to fly to Paris. 12 hours, and on both ways, we just pushed the “flat bed” button and slept for most of the way. Talk about a pretty painless flight.

And guess what. South African Airways has amazing deals from Manila to Johannesburg via Hong Kong. I saw their advertisement in our current Travelife issue (December 2012 – January 2013) and the prices made me do a double take.

FLY SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS

Manila to Johannesburg for as low as US$795

Manila to Cape Town for as lowas US$928

www.flysaa.com

Tel 884-8129

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Then came the fun part.

I volunteered to do the basic planning for the trip because no one can really plan a trip the way we can – we are Travelife Magazine after all, the Philippines’ leading travel and lifestyle magazine. Honestly. I’ve seen lots of seasoned travelers plan their trips pretty nicely, but so far no one — absolutely no one — can plan a seamless and truly interesting trip like us, regardless of destination.

We always include really interesting things to do, we stay in very nice hotels, and we never bungle flights, trains or restaurant reservations because we know what to do about these.

But back to South Africa. I did remember to ask my friend for his wish list, and fortunately it was the same as mine: seeing the Big 5 on a best-of-breed safari, discovering the new hype and vibes of Johannesburg, and exploring the great dining and wine opportunities in the Cape Town area.

Read us every Sunday in the Business Mirror

Knowing my penchant for luxury, perhaps, he left all the hotel choices to me, so I basically chose all the places I’ve always wanted to stay in on a South Africa trip.

These are the places I chose for our trip:

The Westcliff

An Orient Express Hotel

Johannesburg

Sabi Sabi Game Reserve Selati Camp and Earth Lodge Greater Kruger National Park

Le Quartier Francais
Franschhoek

La Residence

Franschhoek

The Mount Nelson Hotel

An Orient Express Hotel

Cape Town

The Steenberg Hotel

Constantia

Then, after I was done with the basics, I turned over the itinerary to him as “homework,” to finish off with things he wanted to do – like go to the top of Table Mountain, visit Robbens Island, where Nelson Mandela was jailed for over two decades, and book all those great cutting-edge restaurants he’s so keen on.

After emailing him the basically finalized itinerary, regarding the non-dining and wining parts of the itinerary, I told him: “Everything not mentioned in this itinerary is part of your homework. You can plan the free time any way you wish and I’m happy to go along as long as you leave enough time for breakfast and get us back in time to dress for dinner.”

We have the same general interests and we both like good dinners — even if he is way more of a “World’s Best Restaurants 2012” kind of person than I am — so I was sure it would work out in the end.

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from all of us at Travelife Magazine.

We wish you a year of happiness

and an amazing Travelife.

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I took this from the deck of the Silver Shadow, as we sailed out of Hiroshima last April

A Franschhoek sunset

The sunset views from Table Mountain are very famous, and supposedly one of the most beautiful in the whole world — especially because of the panoramic view of Cape Town’s amazing coastline and the sprawling city below.

The view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain

That’s our favorite Mount Nelson concierge, handing over our picnic basket to take up Table Mountain.

The very grand Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town

A pretty nice way to tick off an item on our bucket list, and just another day in our never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

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Last weekend in Cape Town, living a TRAVELIFE, we decided to take a food hamper up Table Mountain at sunset for a little picnic while watching what is supposed to be one of the most gorgeous sunsets in the world.

Seeing the sunset from the top of Table Mountain has long been on my bucket list and I really wanted to be on top of the mountain at this very time, as everyone who has been to Cape Town has told me not to miss the sunset from Table Mountain.

I took this from the car from below the next day. But from the top of Table Mountain, you can see this mountain range in full glory.

Then The Boss had a very nice idea to order a food hamper from our hotel, the Mount Nelson, which is Cape Town’s most historic and famous hotel, and take it up Table Mountain. Luckily, the hotel could prepare a picnic basket with no problems.

They even had a proper menu from which you could order all kinds of easy-to-eat food for your picnic basket.

I guess many of the guests at the Mount Nelson — affectionately called The Nellie by the locals — like ordering picnic hampers for drives or even for boat rides as the hotel has all the paraphernalia for a fancy picnic.

I don’t know if any guest from Mount Nelson so far has brought up a picnic hamper to Table Mountain, but it’s hard to believe that no one else has done so, as it’s such a good idea.

The view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain

But the hotel driver who drove us from the Mount Nelson to the Table Mountain cable car terminal, you see, took one look at our picnic hamper when we got into the car and complimented The Boss on his great idea.

Then, as we made our way through Cape Town’s winding roads and up the mountain, the driver said: “I’ve never seen guests bring a picnic hamper up Table Mountain before.“

Well, if we were the first ones to do this, I can certainly recommend this as a Travelife way of enjoying Table Mountain’s sunset. It was so nice to find a spot to see the sunset and to have some food to enjoy the view with.

That’s our favorite Mount Nelson concierge, handing over our picnic basket to take up Table Mountain.

We’d ordered all the sandwiches on the picnic hamper menu for a traditional English afternoon tea — the Mount Nelson is famous for its afternoon tea — and a delicious Greek salad besides. The sandwiches included smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese, and chicken sandwiches.

The picnic hamper itself was beautiful — just like the old-fashioned picnic hampers that English people once brought along for a day of sitting by the Thames River, for example.

And when we opened the hamper on a bench, we certainly attracted a lot of attention.

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A South African lady even came over to inspect the picnic hamper closely. She said: “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.” Indeed, everything was immaculate and so prettily prepared.

Then she asked us: “Where did you get this beautiful picnic basket?”

There were some people sitting around Table Mountain with bags of food as well, but no one had anything close to our beautiful picnic basket.

We answered: “From the Mount Nelson.“

The very grand Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town

That seemed to answer everything, as far as the lady was concerned.

“Oh the Mount Nelson,” she exclaimed. “Of course.”

Then she brought over a couple more people to closely inspect our picnic basket. I was certainly amused at the commotion, although a part of me, of course, wanted to be left to eat in peace.

But we so enjoyed this picnic on Table Mountain, gazing at one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.

And when we finally got down from the mountain just as the sun had set, we headed straight for the very cozy but lively Planet Bar of the Mount Nelson with plans for a nightcap of champagne and oysters.

A pretty nice way to tick off an item on our bucket list, and just another day in our never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

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Part 1 of breakfast at the Mount Nelson Hotel. We always have part 1 and part 2 of breakfast, with part 2 being the hot food orders.

What a nice day today was in South Africa, living a TRAVELIFE.

We began with another one of our long breakfasts at the Mount Nelson hotel in Cape Town, a lovely Orient-Express hotel which is one of the city’s iconic landmarks.

That’s all our luggage for two weeks in South Africa, being loaded into our car after checking out of the Mount Nelson…

Then we checked out of the Mount Nelson and drove out early to the waterfront for lunch at Reuben’s, a very nice bistro in the ultra-luxury One & Only Resort in Cape Town.

It was slightly early so we got the valet to take our car, and then we actually went to the aquarium next-door for about an hour.

Cape Town has an award-winning aquarium by the waterfront.

The aquarium was fun but it was rather surreal, considering that The Boss and I, two very busy people running businesses (and in his case, lots of businesses), were walking around an aquarium like two kids.

But this is what we did, and it was nice.

Then we went back to One & Only for lunch.

I’ll write more about this delicious lunch in a later blog because I really enjoyed every single dish I ate.

Yes, it’s been long breakfasts, long lunches and long dinners throughout this trip.

Lunch at Reuben’s was delicious

You can imagine what havoc that’s done in terms of calories and kilos, but I haven’t dared stand on that weight scale yet, since I set foot in Africa.

But during this lunch, we happened to talk with one of the hotel staff about driving routes between Cape Town and our next hotel in the winelands of Constantia.

She suggested that we drive by the beach.

Reuben’s at the One & Only Cape Town

What a wonderful suggestion that was, as otherwise we would have taken the inland road.

It was a perfect day for driving by the beach, and the scenery that awaited us in this part of South Africa was truly magical.

I can’t ever forget this day, even just for the beautiful scenery and the sight of Cape Town’s famous Twelve Apostles in the sunshine.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world, especially on such a perfect day as today.

I took this from the front seat of the car, as we drove the coastal route of Cape Town

Then we finally arrived at our amazing hotel, the Steenberg, which is the last in the long series of hotels we have stayed in for this South African trip.

It’s located in the wine and horse region of Constantia, only 20 minutes away from Cape Town but an entire world away.

I have to write about this hotel in a separate entry. But needless to say, it took our breaths away in a very understated way.

Both the Boss and I have stayed in some of the most beautiful hotels in the world, but both of us were quite floored by the understated elegance we found here.

We both loved it. That really says a lot.

We spent the sunset hour doing a wine tasting and just exploring the property. Then we had dinner at one of Constantia’s best restaurants.

Constantia has at least three excellent restaurants, including one world-famous one called La Colombe. That’s where we’re eating tomorrow.

And tonight we had dinner in one of the top three: Catharina’s at Steenberg. It was a Monday night but it was very impressively full.

Before dinner, we did a wine tasting at a really cool winery. The structure and the scenery were beautiful, and for a moment we didn’t know where we were in the world.

Maybe this was because it was the second to the last night before heading back to Manila, but we were pretty sentimental over dinner.

We toasted countless times to such a happy trip, full of amazing experiences, and talked about our favorite memories of it so far.

We also actually had a pretty good conversation about all kinds of things.

Then the Boss said something like: “Want to do a Travelife again next year?” I can’t remember whether these were his exact words now but it was something to this effect.

I just smiled and said: “We can do that.”

We’d had such fun on this trip, and there was never a dull, stressful, difficult or angry moment in our two weeks in Africa.

As early as May, we’d penciled in this trip in November, and the travel machinery — The Boss and myself, and our respective staffs — started working on this from June when we’d decided on the country to visit.

I still remember that I was in the Czech Republic in June, and he was somewhere in the Black Sea, and by BBM we’d decided to go to South Africa in November.

For a couple of weeks, we’d been looking for a country we’d both never been to before and that we both wanted to go to, and that was pretty hard to do. Eventually the shortlist became Peru or South Africa.

And after looking at the distances and times involved, South Africa won out in the end.

So anyway, The Boss asked me: “Where shall we go? Namibia? Tanzania?”

We’d fallen in love with Africa, and much of the trip we’d talked about the other amazing places to visit in this continent.

And he knew Namibia was at the top of my bucket list at the moment — along with about a hundred other places.

I want to do a different kind of safari in Namibia, as well as see the amazing sand dunes. In Tanzania, I want to see the Ngorongoro crater and the magical island of Zanzibar.

As for our two weeks in South Africa, we both certainly needed a good break from the real world, even for a moment.

And what a wonderful holiday this has turned out to be.

Good night for now from a most amazing place, and an almost unreal world, living a never-endingly eventful TRAVELIFE.

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Test Kitchen is located in a somewhat industrial district of Cape Town

Tonight in Cape Town, living a TRAVELIFE, The Boss took me out to dinner at a cutting-edge new restaurant he’d been hankering to try in South Africa. It’s run by South Africa’s most famous chef and restaurant reservations are extremely difficult to come by.

But The Boss had made the reservations about two or three months ago, and that was how we got the best table in the house on a Saturday night in the best restaurant in Cape Town.

The bread and the menu at Test Kitchen

The evening started out very nicely with champagne — yes, more champagne. We met up very briefly with a couple living in Cape Town, in the lovely gardens of the iconic Mount Nelson Hotel right in the center of the city.

Test Kitchen is very casual in vibe, and their wines are all young and stored in cabinets on top

As usual, we were terribly pressed for time, so we could only sit with them for about 30 minutes before heading out to dinner. Throughout this trip, we’ve been meeting people we know in South Africa for about 15 minutes to 30 minutes each, as we seem to have no time at all on this trip.

The beautiful Mount Nelson Hotel. Perhaps South Africa’s most famous hotel institution.

We met someone for 15 minutes in Joburg, and another person for about 20 minutes in Franschhoek, which is about an hour from Cape Town.

This time, though, having drinks with this couple in Cape Town, it was a big shame as The Boss and I both liked them and had a very animated time discussing travel and experiences in different countries.

At just before 7, The Boss began signaling me that it was time to go. The restaurant we were headed for is in a new trendy commercial/ warehouse district about 20 minutes away from the Mount Nelson, and he was afraid that we were going to lose our reservation if we appeared late.

Otherwise, we would have stayed on talking into the night with champagne and all.

Test Kitchen is under pressure to make it fast as a top restaurant locally and internationally. It’s owner-chef used to run La Colombe,  South Africa’s most famous restaurant, until he broke off and decided to go on his own. We’re eating at La Colombe tomorrow, by the way.

So after hurried goodbyes, we jumped into a taxi and headed across town to this hot new restaurant. I can’t tell you too many details as it’s appearing in an upcoming issue of Travelife Magazine, but it’s called Test Kitchen and it’s run by Luke Dale Roberts, arguably South Africa’s most famous chef.

We made it in time and we got the best table, which was a table for two right by the kitchen. The Boss was really excited, and I was quite excited too, since he’d told me about it and talked up the merits of the chef.

There are only three course choices at Test Kitchen: a three-course meal, a five-course meal, and an 11-course degustation meal.

We chose to have the grand 11-course menu and then to share a wine pairing for one person between us. The first time we’d done a wine pairing in South Africa, it had been for a seven-course meal and we’d drank so much. So since then, we’ve decided to just split one wine pairing between us, and it’s been working fine.

The meal was the most cutting-edge we’ve had so far in South Africa — and that’s a pretty big statement considering we’ve eaten or are eating in almost all of South Africa’s top restaurants. Almost all our meals have been very enjoyable, but some have been more cutting-edge than others.

Our 11-course meal at Test Kitchen was very enjoyable. 11 courses took us over three hours to finish, and in-between we watched the action in the open kitchen, took lots of photos and observed what people in other tables were doing.

That’s the open kitchen set-up for Test Kitchen. We were right next to the action.

Across us was a couple seated sideways almost the entire time so that they faced the kitchen instead of each other. They hardly talked.

I said: “What do you think’s the story there?“

Without hesitation, The Boss replied, sure as usual of everything in his world: “They’ve been together for a long time so they’ve run out of things to talk about.“

It certainly looked that way. And on our way back to the hotel, I remembered this earlier conversation and said: “Hey, we’ve been together in South Africa for eight days now and I’m not too tired of you yet.”

An interesting set of appetizers

We had a running joke about who would tire of whom first, and what was the time frame we were talking about: 8 minutes, 8 hours, or 8 days. The Boss is on the hyper side and he has a fairly short attention span, whereas I have a long attention span but only for things I like.

Put a boring thing or person in front of me, and I shut down in about two minutes. But we’ve been laughing and I think we’re enjoying much of the trip even if he’ll never really admit this to me directly.

Not one to miss a beat, The Boss said: “More importantly, you haven’t asked me whether I’m tired of you yet…”

I retorted: “No need to ask a question I know the answer to already.”

Just another day in our never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

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