Thanks so much for your quick posting Peter... it was extremely
helpful, as it's always great to hear first hand information from
someone who lives in the area.

Although I will soon be able to put all of these suburbs and areas into
perspective once I move there, do you know of any good online maps that
I would be able to look at to put these places in perspective? The map
that I've found to be the most useful so far (although it is quite
basic) is found at http://www.aboutcapetown.com/maps.htm.

In relation to the places found in the link about, where abouts is Kalk
Bay? Also, by public transportation, how long would the commute be
from Kalk Bay to Observatory?

From what I've read, I've gotten the sense that the City Bowl is the
main downtown core of Cape Town, meaning that it contains most of the
tall and important buildings for business, government, has the most
bars, etc. Is this the case?

Last question - the link above lists a number of places that are close
to the City Bowl (and thus also close to Observatory). They are
Vredehoek, Oranjezicht, Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Green Point, etc. What
would the distance from these places be to Observatory and how nice are
these areas to live? When I was asking earlier about "how safe"
Observatory was, I mostly meant in relation to the other suburbs of
Cape Town (not in comparison to other majort cities in the world, as I
think cultural and city differences make this a difficult comparison).

Thanks again Peter!
Anthony