Related Cape Town Pages
by Phoque
"Despite all the hype, I thought that Cape Town was a rather dodgy place overall. But the experience at the rail station topped it! I'd been out to the one relatively secure place of the city at night, ie the Waterfront, and was wanting to get back to the place where I was staying (ie Rondebosch) at around 9 or 10 PM. Naively (I'd only been in CT for 2 days), I headed to the railway station to catch a train back as I had ridden it on the way there. Luckily, I had a friend with me; when we got the station, it was completely empty, no trains were running after 7PM. Empty? Not quite, a "security guard" was there, and he immediately proceeded to ask me if I something to eat to give him, or money or both. I only had cigarettes, gave him a couple and asked him if he had an idea of how we could get home. He then took us upstairs to the "taxi" (ie "informal" minibus) station, which was the most horrific site I ever witnessed: it looked like a horror movie with litter flying everywhere, almost no lighting, and people running after each other, yelling and apparently attempting to kill each other ...there were no minibuses running to R'bosch, of course, so we asked the security guard to take find us a taxi (ie a real one) for a few more cigarettes and all my spare change. He eventually called up one of his friends and we got out of there ...Piece of advice then: don't ever got to CT railway station after 4 or 5 PM, as I was harassed by gangs of teenagers sniffing glue at those times, and you seen what it's like later..."
