You can enjoy the madding crowd in the Claremont CBD

One of the stalls
If ever you want to spend a morning enjoying the madding crowd, you have to visit Claremont CBD on a Saturday morning. Try not to combine your outing with any major mission like paying bills or compulsory retail visits. You need all your senses to be uncluttered and receptive to the array of sights and sounds of all things human and manmade.

The walkway hugging Cavendish Mall is lined with interesting stalls that look more upmarket than your everyday flea market stall. The cosmopolitan feel of the area adds its own dynamic. Somehow it seemed that the whole of Africa was rotating through the area. The array of languages and the rainbow masses created the energy and the vibrancy in the air. I felt like a tourist in my own country, minus the expensive camera though.
Taxi guard jumping out of the moving taxi

Do make your way to the Main Road as well, just to study the traffic movements for a while. The haphazard movement of the buses, taxis, cars and trucks is fascinating. One minute you will see a Golden Arrow bus stopping and then moving off.

Then in a flash the unoccupied space is taken up by a spluttering taxi. The taxi guard ( driver assistant) jumps out of the slow-moving taxi that hoots as it edges its nose almost on to the pavement. Next you hear the taxi guard shouting: "Cape Tjowwnnnnnn" (Cape Town). While  he is shouting his mantra, he bends his body and searches the walking crowds for would-be passengers. Once the taxi is full, the driver pulls off, with his young helper dangling in the doorway.

The first taxi had hardly left the space when another taxi pulled up alongside the pavement, and opposite the road,  I saw a bus travelling southward. The same scene unfolded. This time an older taxi guard hobbled out, adjusted his peak cap and then uttered a bored "Cape Town" into the air. Perhaps he was on duty since dawn, so I wasn't going to be too harsh on him.

The cars were just flowing casually by, seemingly unperturbed by these sudden stops made by their fellow taxi road users. All this road action reminded me of ants. Their jerky stop and go style is similar to the frantic movements of a disturbed line of ants trying to find their point of convergence again.

I am going to visit this part of the city again. I will leave home early, have breakfast at one of the many eateries that too spill out on the walkway, browse the stalls and check the zigzagging traffic.

This has therapeutic value for sure...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Packing for our Thailand trip

Image
I think I am getting better with packing for holidays - whether it is for local breakaways, camping or most recently, for our holiday in Thailand. I still overpacked ( rolling eyes) by putting in all my light lacy throw-overs because I prefer my "Sauls" arms to have a wee bit of covering. Believe me, those lacy tops stayed put in the luggage bag for the duration of our trip!   We use Jiffy self-locking  bags as our packing cubes, a cheaper version of the material cubes you can buy. The Jiffy bags are transparent and vacuum seal as well, creating more space in  your luggage bag. Our travel wardrobe I  think we worry unnecessarily about what to wear when going on holiday. All the clothes you usually wear when you run errands or when you go out, would be just perfect for Thailand as well. If you intend dining at an upmarket restaurant or want to visit a smart club, you can pack in dressy shoes and a fancy outfit. We however,were just going to do regular activities t
Read more

It's been a year since I had breast cancer and life is good.

Image
Ayesha (far right), my past student and now wonderful radiologist, posing with me after the mammogram and ultrasound moments.   On 18 May, it was a year after I had a lumpectomy.  As you will recall, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and the option my surgeon, Dr Edge, recommended was a lumpectomy. Fortunately, there was no evidence of spreading after the binodal biopsy and thus I had to only go for radiation after the operation. The year had flown past. Just the other day, my family and I were dealing with all the visits to the hospital for the lumpectomy, the 30 daily sessions of radiation and then the recovery period. In fact, our lives went back to normal pretty soon after this trauma and life has been good. Sometimes when certain well-meaning folk enquire about my health whenever they see me, my mischievous streak hovers below the surface. When they ask , "And how is your health  now?" their voices drop, their mouths contort  and I get that " I hope I lo
Read more

Our elephant trekking experience in Phuket.

Image
We had our own dedicated taxi to take us to go elephant riding and to experience the 9D images at the Trickeye museum. We met our taxi driver in Bangla road, who also waved his laminated brochures to passing Bangla road crowds. After agreeing on the cost of our trip the next day and giving our hotel details, we parted ways. The next morning, at exactly 11h00, our soft-spoken taxi driver was there to chauffeur us to our planned attractions. Our driver lives about five hours from Patong, where he works. He would go home some weekends or his family would join him in Patong.  The day we met him in Bangla road, his young son was with him but since we were three passengers, the little one had to stay at home. Our first stop was to do the elephant rides. Here again, you will experience the ingenuity of the Thai people. Once you had paid for your ride, you are invited to buy food for your elephant. The food is a tiny plastic bowl of small overripe bananas that will set you back 100 baht.
Read more