Since the end of apartheid tourism has mushroomed in South Africa. This was evident to me when I visited Cape Town some years ago. New hotels, new residential developments meant frequent electricity cuts and precious resources being used up such as water. Frankly even the hospitality industry was rough around the edges.
Giles and Monica visit two hotels. The Silo is a former grain silo turned into an expensive, industrial-chic, art-themed hotel in Cape Town. The hotel's set piece is its stunning windows giving magnificent views of Cape Town from a building that was once dubbed the tallest building in sub Saharan Africa. It also has an art museum and a luxury garden at the top floor.
Giles does cocktails with a fast talking barman while Monica abseils down to clean the windows. Although Giles notes that the water flow in the room have been reduced by water aerators to preserve water.
Giles and Monica then travel 45 minutes out to the vineyard country and to the hotel La Residence in nearby Franschhoek. A small luxury hotel with a lady with a cleaning fetish, she even cleaned Elton John's fruits once. Monica learns the art of Indian/Malay cooking (some would say this is real authentic Indian cooking from the state of Gujarat.)
Giles meets Eddie who works in the vineyard. I have to salute the presenters here as they do not shirk away from the problems facing South Africa. Giles and Monica notice that economic power is still retained by the whites even though they might have ceded political power two decades ago. As Eddie notes the poor may be getting even more poorer not helped that Zuma the previous leader of South Africa was too busy with alleged corruption.
The crime rate is also mentioned as Eddie again talks about friends of his who have fallen victim to violence crime and drug use. Monica and Giles visit a shanty town to see the real inequalities still facing the country.
Too often these kind of shows get lost within the hotel surroundings and not look at the bigger picture. Giles and Monica were visibly moved with the problems still facing the country.