Can't call me Cal no more

... 'cause my streak is over: I got mugged in Cape Town. I totally forgot to mention it in my long trip-update diatribe. I guess that says something about the severity of the thing. As far as muggings go, I think it was pretty tame.

I was walking back to my hostel from the train station after spending the day in Khayelitsha and I was about a block away from Long St., which is the main thoroughfare in downtown Cape Town. Just before Long St., I saw a sign pointing out the direction of the "company gardens" which Kylie had told me were worth a visit, so on a whim, I decided to turn down the street. I was in the heart of downtown Cape Town, which hadn't seemed dangerous at all, and it was around 6pm and still very much in daylight, but I quickly realized that I was the only one on the street. Well, the only one aside from a very aggressive-looking panhandler. As he approached me, I knew pretty well that he wasn't going to be content with any pocket change, but as he got close, a car passed near us which presented a brief diversion and I turned around and tried to speed walk in the other direction up to Long. He, of course, caught up to me, grabbed me (not too forcefully, though) and told me to give him my money. I resisted a little, telling him I didn't have much (which was true, and I was a little worried that he wasn't going to be content with what I had) and then he told me he didn't want to use his knife, so I quickly reached into my pocket, grabbed some cash and handed it to him. Then he left.

I only lost about R80, which is about $12, so really it wasn't too bad. And I'm pretty sure he was a drug addict looking to get a fix, because I had another R50 in my pocket, but he seemed content with what I gave him. He was about the same size as me and by himself, so not physically imposing at all, and I never saw or felt a knife, but I wasn't exactly wanting him to prove to me that he had it. It's possible that if I had resisted more or shoved him away or something he would have backed off, but I figure that for R80, I wasn't really prepared to call his stabbing bluff.

I was a little shaken up after it happened, but then I was just annoyed by the irony of it all: Everyone gasps when I tell them that I'm in Hillbrow once a week - or even that I've been living and working in Jo'burg - and they all say, "You should go to Cape Town; it's way more chilled and laid back." Fuck that. It may have been that I let my guard down in Cape Town and wasn't as sharp as I usually am walking around Jozi, but still. I actually can't imagine getting mugged in Johannesburg - it's just too chaotic and insane to allow for that to happen. Then again, I'm not usually walking around downtown at that time, when the shops have all closed. I don't know, it felt annoyingly ironic anyway.

It was actually a good thing that it happened on my way back from Khayelitsha, because I had prepared myself to be mugged there, so I didn't have much cash and I wasn't carrying my bag or my camera. Again, the irony.

My mug-free and crime-free streak ended at 144 days.

Give me Jo'burg's filthy, angry streets over Cape Town's ritzy cafes and narcissistic beaches any day of the week.