Protea & Table Mountain

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The amount of white-collar crime in South Africa is surprising. The press is rife with incredible accounts of blatant, mad-dash-to-the-border embezzlement and fraud. All of it is sloppy, but the sloppiest of all wind up in prison, such as J Arthur Brown, the former CEO of Fidentia Asset Management, a formerly giant Cape […]

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If you have been following the news (or picked up Tuesday’s NY Times - see here for the front-page article - if you read anything it should be that or this or this), you’ve seen the anti-immigrant riots in the Johannesburg townships. The mass influx of Zimbabwean refugees, combined with general unrest over immigration […]

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The guest book at the Waterford Estate winery in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
(Here’s a primer for those a bit confused)

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This is the first in what could an endless series about African bureacracy. And considering how tame South Africa is compared to the rest of the continent, I really have no friggin’ idea what I’m talking about.
When I purchased my motorcycle in Port Elizabeth, the motor vehicle department naturally wanted to know where I lived […]

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Cape Town Tourist Edition
On white sand beaches
Tourists hide wallets in shoes
Both stolen, dumbass
The only people
eating trad African food here
are all the tourists
Zebra print decor
Rooms named after animals
Only in hostels

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This is the debut post of what is obviously going to be a very, very, very long series of posts.
One tough thing about riding on the left side of the road after you’ve spent your whole life riding on the right, besides the whole holy-crap-I’m-going-the-wrong-way-on-the-freeway-again thing, is turning.

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On of my favorite aspects of traveling outside of the US is the complete inversion of the role that US citizenship plays in everyday interactions. Americans love to think of themselves as the blessed few in the land of unbridled opportunity, with billions of unwashed masses clamoring for a glimmer of a chance to […]

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So if you’re either wondering where I’ve been or wondering why San Francisco has seemed so pleasant over the last month, here’s a quick recap of my activities.
After being awake for 5 days desperately trying to buy all the gear I’d need, sell my old motorcycle, sell my car, pack my bags, move into a […]

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