Charles Apple

Our Day Two infographics sessions went off very well Tuesday.

That’s two near-perfect days in a row. Our students are catching on quickly and seem very eager to soak up more. And I’m very impressed with the questions they’re asking, the direction we’re going with our discussions and the pieces folks are building on their machines during and after our sessions.

I had a momentary setback when, without warning, the batteries failed on my slideshow clicker-slash-laser pointer. Being Mister Prepared these days, I reached for my briefcase, where I had packed extra batteries.

But I had brought AA batteries. I needed AAAs.

D’oh!

I must have just missed a world-class sunset last night. When I got back to my room and drew open the certain, here’s what I saw:

After Tuesday dawned so foggy, it actually got much better and, by the end of the day, was quite nice.

I was on my own for dinner last night. I decided to eat in the hotel restaurant and then go to bed early. Therefore, I figured it was probably time to take you on a brief tour of the hotel.

The Westin Grand Cape Town Arabella Quays is 19 stories tall and contains 483 rooms. It’s connected to the Cape Town convention center via a walkway (you see it here on the left):

To capture a little whiff of the morning bayside air, folks can open windows in their rooms just a bit…

…which creates interesting patterns on the side of the glass building:

The hotel and convention center are located right on the edge of the core of downtown, between the main business district and the waterfront tourist area:

And a finger of the waterfront twists through the streets to connect the hotel itself to the harbor. Which means you can get to the waterfront itself via a water taxi, if you like:

Note the large plasma screens behind the main desk in the lobby of the hotel. One seems always tuned to news. The other advertises various hotel services:

I mentioned yesterday how disappointed I was with the way my room was serviced on Monday — which was basically not at all. The folks down at the desk, here, were quite shocked and offered to send someone up immediately to make it right. Naturally, I told them I’d be fine this time.

So when I arrived in my room yesterday evening, everything was immaculate. In fact, it was so gorgeous that I feel slightly guilty for mentioning it yesterday. I’m sure everything will be perfect from here on.

It was a little surprising, though.

The lobby is lavishly decorated with all sorts of high-concept sculpture and native-style art as well:

I’m not quite sure what this is supposed to be, but it’s quite large. The one on the right looks vaguely like broccoli. I never really understood modern sculpture anyway…

I admired the huge tapestry-like wall hangings a number of times before I finally thought to get a close-up look at what they’re made of.

Sure enough, it’s not weaving. It’s made entirely of beads, cheap pocket mirrors and safety pins!

Just amazing.

There is an upscale gift shop located just off the lobby (right) and a very small store where one can buy toiletries, snacks and other items (left).

I’ve been afraid to look at the prices of any of this stuff. It all looks very expensive:

Even the ceramic cow looks pricey. As well as the pig:

Wine is really big here — there are enormous vineyards just north of Cape Town. I find it interesting that the wine shop is larger than the other two shops put together:

Hmm. I’ll have the grande, please.

For folks who didn’t bring their laptops to take advantage of the free — but glacially slow — wifi service, there are four computers in the lobby:

I was pleased to find two of the four were Macs. Score one for the good guys:

Just beyond the huge broccoli sculpture and the computers is the hotel bar, which is a little too upscale, I fear, for me to hang out at night and do the wifi thing over beer. I ate a nice steak here last night — a steak topped off with a fried egg. Delicious.

During the mornings, this place turns into an elaborate breakfast bar, complimentary for all hotel guests:

Have I mentioned how good the food has been? Those of you who know me, know I’m a man of very simple tastes in food. A “meat and potatoes” guy. Sure enough, South Africa appears to be a “meat and potatoes” kind of place:

That is scrambled eggs, hash browns and some of the best bacon I’ve ever eaten, accompanied by decaff coffee and orange juice. I could easily make a case for calling this Southern U.S.-style cooking.

There are some exotic things here, though. For example, I’ve not yet made use of the extensive fruit bar. This country is a huge exporter of pineapples. They sell lots of pineapple and mango-type foods, including this interesting beverage I’ve named “green gook”:

That’s basically a breakfast juice made from spinach and papaya. Everyone says it’s delicious and that I should try it. I’ve not yet worked up the nerve.

From the ground floor, let’s shoot all the way up to the 19th floor so I can show you the spa area. In fact, I came up to 19 the other day to visit the executive lounge and have a couple of drinks. It’s just a bunch of couches, though, so I won’t bore you with photos of that.

When you enter the spa area, you’re confronted with a nice front desk and sign-in area:

The spa section is huge. The big draw, of course, is the lap pool. I didn’t think to bring a swimsuit from home. The water looked wonderful:

And what a view from the jacuzzi! This would have been fun.

I’m not a sauna kind of guy, but then again, apparently no one else was either, this morning:

The spa offers all sorts of massage and body therapy sessions. Here was an enormous display of various massage and body oils:

The number of services the hotel offers to its guests is just stunning. When I saw this sign, I put in for a face lift, a little liposuction and a tummy tuck. No word yet on when all that will get scheduled:

Two little TV monitors mounted in each elevator continually flash advertisements. They’re soundless ads for very high-class products and hotel services, though:

In that picture above, see the little silver thing at the lower right, just above the buttons? You have to swipe your room key in order to make the elevator move. That’s pretty standard in most modern hotels these days.

Not so standard is this second layer of security when you get off the elevator. You have to swipe your card again to get the glass door to slide open:

The first couple of days, I’ve already walked smack into the part you see here on the right — the part that doesn’t open. You can see it clearly in this photo, but it’s not so clear to me. Especially when I’m half-asleep:

Even the hallways are immaculately designed and decorated. This surely ain’t no Motel 6:

This sign made me realize the little symbol isn’t for airline gates at all. It’s an exit sign. That’s funny, because the little stick figure doesn’t look at all like he’s exiting. Or, at least, that’s the way it seems to me:

I kept glancing at this glass-etched photo in the hallway before I realized what it was: A closeup of a man playing guitar:

I suppose it’s the hotel’s way of telling you to relax and don’t fret.

I showed you my room before. There’s a nice working desk with two chairs. Perched on the wall above is an enormous LCD television:

I have to admit, after two-and-a-half days here, I’ve not yet turned the TV on even once.

I showed you the funky chair two days ago. It’s probably the most interesting conversation piece in the room. I finally tried it out; I didn’t find it terribly comfortable:

There’s a very nice king-sized bed — which I won’t bother to shoot, since a bed is a bed, I suppose, despite advertisements to the contrary. And a huge array of cabinets and closet space.

The bathroom, however, is fairly exotic. First of all, it’s guarded by a frosted-glass door, which makes it look different from any hotel bathroom I’ve ever seen:

Inside are more frosted-glass doors leading to the toilet (center) and the shower (left). There’s a giant double-sink in the center (right) and then a huge garden-style tub (which you’d see if I took two steps forward and turned to the right):

The bathroom itself is about the size of the Microtel Inn room I stayed in earlier this year in West Chester.

Oh, and see that gorgeous floor? It has its own heater control. I turned it off when I checked in, because the entire room was so warm at the time. Last night, I turned it back on, just out of curiosity.

Oh, man, that warm marble feels good on your feet. Just incredible. The floor heater is staying on the rest of my trip.

I wanted to show you the shower, though. It’s difficult to get far enough away from it so I can shoot it. I had to stand in the tub in order to get this shot:

The shower is huge. You could get five or six college football cheerleaders in there with you.

Um… I didn’t say that out loud, did I?

Today is Day Three of ten total instructional days I’ll have here. We’re moving along very fast, concentrating on my infographics lectures in the morning and then having a less formal free-form discussions in the afternoons so certain folks can take care of live work that is still streaming in.

Today, we’ll take on the second half of my scrounging riff, hit proactivity for visual journalists — one of my core topics — and then close with my telling of how my staff in Iowa covered the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. That’s a perfect closer because it ties together nearly every thread I’ve pulled so far this week.

—
EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA

You’re reading the seventh chapter of my journey to Cape Town, South Africa.

• CHAPTER 1: Preparing for the journey.
  
• CHAPTER 2: I made it as far as the Dulles airport bar
• CHAPTER 3: Getting really bored sitting at Dulles
• CHAPTER 4: Safe and sound in Cape Town
• CHAPTER 5: Day one in Cape Town
  
• CHAPTER 6: Day two; No effects at all from jet lag

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 2:23 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Travelogue, Trip to South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.