Ahoy, mateys! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
| My Pirate Name Is... |
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My trip probably gave me a better sense for the geography of the world than the average American. Here, as pointed out by a Freakonomist, is an average American.
Anyway, I've made at least a little bit of progress.
chao,
sg
I'm a b-a-a-a-d boy. And, like Chuck Berry and MC5, I'm back in the USA.
Hey, I'm home! I just neglected to tell you that...
I'll write lots more about the trip (and more) in the near future. In the meantime, in no particular order (well, a particular order, just not the one in which I'll do the stuff), here's some of the stuff on my to-do list:
Sorry about the lack of entries, and thanks to those of you who prodded me to get moving. I'll keep working on this stuff, and if you wanna help, or want my help, or just wanna say hi, give me a call. We can hang out--I'm pretty much free any time!
ta,
sg
No reason to think it's from the medication, but I had another weird dream.
28 July 2007, 3:30 am, Perissa, Santorini, Greece
The Dream:
I wake up.I'm driving along on my way up nort dere. When I get to Analfi, MN, I see a series of signs along the road commemorating the highest scorer each year on AHSME, the American High School Mathematics Examination.
One sign has a bunch of flags around it. I stop to check it out--it turns out that this was the guy that set the state record, and I'm surprised to find that I know him. It's Virgil Amundsen, my friend Christine's dad.
As I'm looking at the sign Virgil walks over and says hi. He's old, and he's wearing an eye patch.
He shows me some recent press clippings from some newspaper in Pennsylvania, I didn't catch its name, that just did a story about his accomplishment. The article also mentioned that the other person on the math team the same years as Virgil was Nelson Muntz, who barely qualified but of course went on to become a famous comedian.
Greetings from Santorini!
Since we last talked I've visited Alexandropolis, Istanbul, and the monasteries of Meteora. All of which I'll tell you about...later.
It's been really hot--CNN reported that Athens hit 107 the other day, while other parts of the region have been even hotter.
So I mostly stayed in my room, which had air conditioning, for a coupla days when I first got here. Now it's cooler, so I've been able to get some beach time in. Today I moved to a (much cheaper) campground, and tomorrow I'm gonna rent a car or an ATV and spend another couple of days exploring the island. (I wanted to get a scooter but I've never ridden one before, I have skin, and I'd like to keep it.)
Then, Tuesday I'll catch a ferry back to Athens. Wednesday and Thursday I'll finish up my tourist stuff, and I leave for the airport at 5am Friday morning. Let me know if you want anything (small) from Athens!
I was thinking of having a get together at some New York bar next Saturday, but I think the only people I know in New York right now are Andrea and Snu. But the G parents will be in town, so let me know if you'll be around and wanna hang out.
Okay, off to dinner. I'm gonna try rabbit for the first time.
αντίο,
sg
I was in Αθήνα
I spent a couple of days in Athens, wandering around some of the historic sites, eating gyros, and practicing my reading skills on every sign I saw.
Overall, Athens is beautiful. Every time you turn a corner you hit some other ancient ruin or something. And from all over the city you can see the Acropolis (a collection of temples and such, including the Parthenon, atop a hill--acropolis means "high city"). And the taller hill in town, Mt. Lycabettus. And from the Acropolis or Lycabettus you can see the surrounding mountains and islands--I always forget, or never knew, that Athens is right on the sea.
At night, they light up all the historic sites. Very pretty.
I saw the Parthenon!
Oh, sorry, that's the replica in Nashville. What I really saw was a whole mess of people and construction.
The historic sites, especially the Acropolis, were extremely crowded. And everything is under construction--the old stuff is still okay, but the repairs they made in the 1920s (or even 1990's) all need re-repair.
I also saw a Putzmeister.
I also saw the changing of the guard. (Hey, I took movies of that, too, which you can watch at my new video site!) When they've changed, they wander off down the street. Not sure how they do it in England, but I always pictured them just walking inside or something.
I am in Θεσσαλονίκη
Thessaloniki is second largest Greek city and the main center of Macedonia. It's also called Salonica, as in Gardens of.
Took the train to get here. Decided to take the overnight train so that I could avoid a night in a hotel and have all day Saturday if necessary to find a place to stay here. Turns out, I didn't have a seat. Spent some time in a virtual cattle car. Saw Greece on fire. Standing all night wasn't really an option, so I eventually made my way with some Spanish students to a car where there was some room on the side to lay down in the aisle. Right under the air conditioner...brr.
I'm Jewish (and a Sethicist!), but I don't get so excited about Jew Tours. The Jews of Central Australia or such just doesn't interest me. But, and I didn't know this until I got here, Thessaloniki has a fascinating Jewish history--apparently, this used to be Hymietown.
I went to the the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. Some facts:
I'm in Greece.
No flight problems other than the fact that I didn't get here until 23 hours after I left there.
I've eaten gyros and some hummus, but no olives yet.
ta,
sg
I have a coupla random things for you. And in my mind, and I'm pretty sure nowhere else, they're both related to Fish Heads, a wonderful novelty song from my (and Erin's) youth.
They can't play baseball
But maybe they can play cards. Paige and I have invented a wonderful game: FishWar! And it's certainly roly and poly.
You start out by playing Go Fish. Each time you successfully get a pair you add the cards to your pile. Then, once you've worked your way through the deck you use your piles as your starting hands for a game of War.
The strategy elements (having a pair of aces is good, having a bunch of 2s, 3s, 4s and such doesn't do anything for you) add a fascinating layer of complexity to your game of Go Fish and truly invest you in the outcome of your game of War.
You scoff only because you haven't tried it.
We're working on a drinking game version and will let you know when it's complete; for the basic version, patents are pending.
They don't wear sweaters.
But you know who does? Evo Morales, el presidente of Bolivia. We were sitting around the lunch table today and I opened a copy of The Economist to a picture of EM. He was just wearing a shirt, but I told Phil and Paige about seeing a recent press conference of his.
FIFA, the world soccer governing body, had decided that international matches could no longer be played at altitudes over 2500 meters. La Paz, Bolivia is at 3600 meters, and soccer's hugely important throughout South America, so it was a big issue. They called a special cabinet meeting, and at the ensuing press conference his cabinet ministers, wearing suits, lined up behind Morales, who was wearing jeans and this ugly sweater.
I described his sweater as something I wore in 1988 or so. And I'm not now, and certainly wasn't then, known for my fashion sense.
Turns out, he really likes the sweater. And I'm not the first to notice--I started laughing so hard I had trouble breathing when I saw that the BBC website had a slide show of him wearing it on normally formal occasions.
I've gotta tell Bad Sweater Guy about this...
Okay, tomorrow I leave for Greece. And I'll be home in 36 days, so if you have any ideas about what I should do with my life you could maybe let me know?
Eat them up yum,
sg
I went on a safari.
It's impossibly expensive to go alone; I needed to join a group. So I went to the Tourist Board--there's a bulletin board with lists of partially filled trips that need more people. I called around and wound up choosing a 5 day, 4 night trip. I think I would have taken a 4/3 trip if I'd found one, but I certainly didn't want to come all the way here and not see what I should so I went with longer rather than shorter.
And, unlike Kilimanjaro, I was quite confident that the group existed--I paid $110/day, which is about what you'd pay to rent a car. And, like Kilimanjaro, the park fees eat up much of that cost, so if I'd been alone the company would have surely lost money.
I got paired with Brad from Vancouver. His wife was planning to join, but they're traveling with their 11-month old so they decided that he'd go alone. Our vehicle was a Land Cruiser with removable roof sections. While in the parks, we could stand up to watch (or catch a breeze) while guide Frank drove around. And any time we saw something interesting, we'd pull over to park and watch. Also joining us for the trip was cook Isaac.
Our first morning we headed to Lake Manyara National Park. And, after having done some game walks and drives before, I think the topless Land Cruiser is _totally_ the way to go. (And it helps that the animals in these parks are pretty used to traffic and gawking tourists so lots of them aren't too shy.) About two minutes into the park, we sat and watched a baboon troop from about 20 yards away. Lotsa babies. Pretty awesome.
We went on to see elephants, impalas, Masai giraffes (noticeably different than the ones in Kenya). And two lumps that I'm told were lions.
Then, after lunch, lots more elephants, giraffes, a herd of buffalo, vervet monkeys, dik diks, and more impala.
Camp the first night--we weren't exactly roughing it. They set up my tent for me, and the site had hot showers and a bar/restaurant. We ate Isaac's food on a table set up out back, but still.
The next morning we were joined by the last member of our group, some Swedish guy whose name we never learned. He had all sorts of safari clothing and about $4000 of camera equipment with him (the special bag alone had to cost more than my camera), and much of the rest of our trip became a quest to search for photo opportunities. He was kinda a tool, but one who spent 20 years in the Special Forces (I resisted the strong urge to refer to the Very Special Forces!). We ate breakfast and headed off for the Serengeti, about 6 hours away.
On the way we stop at a Maasai village. The lands they've historically tended are disappearing (or being turned into protected conservation areas) so many Maasai make a living by selling their culture. They ask for $50 per car to come see their village and take pictures, which apparently lots of people actually pay. I know Björn would have paid his share; I just laughed. Brad and I started reading and acting disinterested while Björn negotiated. I spoke up and said I'd pay 5000 shillings, $4. Brad said he'd pay the same, and we wound up settling for 20,000 shillings total, with Björn kicking in $8. In real life the Maasai herd cattle, but this is sort of a demonstration village where they jump up and down and sing songs. Our Maasai guide took us around, showed us a home, tried to sell us jewelry and made us promise not to tell anyone what we'd paid. Oops.
Also, the Maasai wear tire shoes.
We get to Serengeti National Park and do a game drive on our way to the campsite, somewhere inside the park. Now, the park is about the size of Connecticut, so we don't even try to cover the whole thing. Instead, for the rest of the time we, and most of the other groups, drive around an area that seems fairly large but is surely only a small percentage of the park area. You can only drive on the roads (that decently criss-cross the area), no taking off cross-country.
The campsite in the Serengeti was more basic, with pit toilets, no running water, and a bunch of other safari groups.
We did game drives in the Serengeti on our way to the campsite on day 2, in the morning (sunrise - lunch) and evening (3pm - sundown) of day 3, and in the morning of day 4.
There are a couple of places that we can go to try and see certain animals (the hippo pool, a shady area where lions sometimes sleep, etc.) but mostly we just drive around and hope to spot something. We keep a lookout for animals, and for other safari vehicles--when someone sees something particularly interesting word gets around (Frank spent a lot of time on the CB) and everyone descends.
One constant theme was our search for the leopard. One of the classic "Big 5" (along with elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo), we spent way too much time trying to see one. It was like a game of telephone--we'd pull up to a large group (more than 10, we saw as many as 26 vehicles gathered) where someone said that someone had seen a leopard in "that tree over there". We'd spend a half an hour sitting around, seeing nothing, before finally convincing Frank to move elsewhere. Once, after looking through binoculars for about 10 minutes, I was finally able to make out some paws hanging down from a branch in a dense tree about 100 yards away.
We saw a lot of antelope (impalas, gazelles, dik diks). Lots of zebra and lots of wildebeests (aka gnu) and some of the other beests, the harte.
The zebras and wildebeests are buds. Zebras are really smart, and maybe like to hang with the wildebeests because they are dumb as shit--if there's a predator about, odds are it catches a gnu. The wildebeests maybe hang out with zebras because otherwise they'd have no idea when there were predators about. They don't smell, hear or see very well. They tend to follow each other in single file lines when moving, unless one gets spooked, in which case they take off in all directions. We'd frequently come across zebras and gnus in the road--the zebras would get off the road, and the gnus would run down the road away from the truck. Zebras are pretty. Wildebeests are ugly and they grunt incessantly. It was hard to fall asleep in what sounded like a hog farm...
On the morning of day 3 we saw a bunch of lions fairly far off. After watching for a while we realized there was another road that went right by where they were sitting. There were several sitting around, and one male was still working on the wildebeest that the rest had had their fill of. He went on for a while, and was still going when we left. And the birds of prey were gathering, waiting for the scraps... (There are some cool pictures, though vegetarians might want to stay away.) We found another lioness eating nearby, soon after we left the first.
There's no way to tell if the lions had killed it--despite their reputation, lions steal about 2/3 of their meals from other predators. (And hyenas, who have a scavenger reputation, are actually fierce group hunters who kill about 2/3 of their own prey and only steal 1/3.) We never did see the "action" of an actual hunt.
Magnus threatened me at breakfast on day 4--I'm pretty sure he didn't hear Brad and I talking about him and instead misinterpreted something completely innocuous that I'd said. Frank didn't understand what he was talking about either. Frank talked to him, Brad avoided him, I turned on the charm, and the detente lasted the rest of the trip.
After lunch day 4 we headed back to the Ngorogoro Crater, where we stayed at a campsite (hot showers, zebras grazing, but not much else) on the crater rim. It was really cold. And instead of grunting gnus I got to fall asleep to the sound of a zebra chewing grass about 20 yards away.
The crater itself is about 2000 feet deep and covers about 100 square miles. The sides are very steep so for the most part animals don't just pass through. Apparently, almost every type of animal in East Africa can be found in the crater. Except my favorite, giraffes.
We woke up early (~5:45) to get there in time to maybe see some of the normally nocturnal animals. But it was really foggy and we couldn't really see anything. We wound up finding a black kite perched near the road at about 7:45, and it was almost 9 before we saw any animals, a lion from a distance. At 9:30 we finally came across the density Ngorogoro is famous for--a small lake with storks and flamingos and hippos, with zebras and gnus grazing and hyenas hanging about looking for an opportunity.
About an hour later came our most surreal moment--two male lions were walking down the road. We, and a veritable host of others, followed. We jockeyed for position, with one truck speeding ahead and waiting, then hurrying to follow when the lions got there. At times, the lions needed to weave between stopped vehicles to continue on. This lasted for almost 20 minutes. And I think our truck took more than our fair share of viewing opportunities--for quite a while we drove along, right next to one of them, matching his pace.
After some more driving around we stopped to eat our box lunches. They were mostly inedible, just like virtually all the other food we were served. We headed out, and finally, on our way out of the crater, we found a rhino, the last of the Big 5. We left and headed back to Arusha, arriving about 5pm yesterday.
This time, I tipped 10%. Again, I have no idea if that's right. I know that Brad paid $780 for the trip and Leif paid $560 for his 4 days. I "only" paid $550 (which I didn't happen to mention to them...). I gave the cook $20 and the guide $35. Frank had to work much less hard than Rafael (my Kilimanjaro guide) did, the food was terrible, and they were getting tips from 3 of us so I think I'm okay with it.
I have no contact info for Brad or Gunnar, which I'm fine with. I do wish I'd gotten info from the Canadian trio on a trip that largely matched ours--our table was next to theirs at the Manyara campsite, we ran into them quite a bit arriving at and leaving the Serengeti, saw them again in the crater, and I chatted with them for a bit just before we left for Arusha. They're climbing Kili starting tomorrow--good luck, Canadians!
Pictures are up. There's a lot, and the best have been added to my group of favorite shots from my trip so far.
Next for me: Rwanda. God forbid I'd be healthy at any point while in Tanzania--now I hab a cold. So, to avoid 2-3 (or 4 or 5) long days on a bus, which I wouldn't love even if I felt great, I'm gonna fly. I leave Arusha Monday, probably in Rwanda just 'til Wednesday or Thursday, then back to Kampala to say bye. And a week from Monday I'll leave Africa. Next stop: Athens.
Kwa heri,
sg
Hey, just got back from safari. Five days, four nights in Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park and the Ngorogoro Crater. I'll write it all up for you tomorrow, but the highlights: we saw lions eating lunch, saw other lions at _extremely_ close range, giraffes are awesome, wildebeests suck, a Swedish guy threatened to maim me.
Before I left I had dinner with some interns. As promised, here's a shout out to Ting Ting. TTC is in the hizzouse!
For now, I'm back in Arusha 'til probably Saturday, when I'll head west towards Rwanda. I'll soon circle back to Uganda, and July 2 will leave Kampala for Greece.
Where I will stay (with a side trip to Turkey) until Friday, August 3, when I'll head for New York. I think all my NY friends will be out of town, but if not there'll maybe be a small get together on Saturday night. Come see me, and meet the G family! If not, maybe I'll just take my sister out to celebrate her new job.
On Monday, August 6, exactly 9 months after I left, I'll return to Minneapolis.
Where I'll be staying... Some of you seem to have an idea that I'm moving to Boston to study Metabusiness. I dunno, kinda sounds like something someone made up on April Fool's Day.
So if you have any ideas about what I should do when I get back, let me know. Did I mention I'm broke and unemployed?
Okay, more soon.
chao,
sg
Er...I mean I peaked.
Helen (Allen's second cousin, my new favorite elephant, travel companion and pillow) and I climbed to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro last week. Yeah.
I've got some travelogue for you, some random thoughts, some whatever, but I'll just throw it all in here and let you deal. Grab some popcorn, it's pretty long...
The trip:
I didn't sleep that well the night before we started, and I had some stomach issues. So I didn't eat any breakfast, but the first day should be easy. They picked me up at 8am. We go to the company offices to drop off some of my stuff and pick up stuff they're gonna lend me--a coat, gloves, boots. Tour company woman never asked my size, and they just had two pairs for me to try, but she'd done a decent job estimating and thankfully one of the pairs fit okay.
As we left the guide gave me the day's schedule. I asked when we'd meet up with the other hikers in our group. "It's just you." "But Joanne said there were two others." Blank looks. "Oh, yeah, they cancelled." Or, I'm thinking, maybe "didn't exist". So it's just me, a guide, a cook, and two porters.
It takes 'til about 1pm before we've gotten to the park and everything's organized for us to start. We start out at Marangu gate at 1970m (6500 ft). The first day's walk is only about 8km (5 miles) and takes you up to the Mandara Huts at 2700m (8900 ft), about 3 hours total. A nice easy walk through rain forest. It's just the guide and me--the porters and cook walk separately, and on the first day they even have a road to walk up while we take the "tourist" route.
By the end of the first day, even though it was easy I was tired and sore, especially my left knee and right ankle. And my right elbow, which I'd SMASHED in the shower that morning...
The only book I brought with me was David Copperfield--lotsa pages, small print, I figured I could make it last for several days. At dinner I got about 25 pages in...not so promising. I would read no more over the rest of my trip. Does anyone actually enjoy Dickens?
Dinner was pretty good--cucumber soup and beef and potatoes with a vegetable sauce. I was asleep about 7:30.
Day 2 we walked about 5 more hours up to Horombo Huts at 3700m (12000 ft), and that's when the altitude hit me pretty hard. I had mild Acute Mountain Sickness. Thankfully, even though the 'A' in "Acute" is capitalized the "mild" is more important. I had a headache, no appetite, nausea, and lotsa trouble breathing.
I started taking the pills I'd brought (Acetazolamide) to help with the altitude. I'd have started before we ever started climbing, but some people recommend you don't take them if you don't need to as if you react poorly you're not really near any medical help. In retrospect, what I should have done is taken a couple of doses back while I was in the States to see if I had a problem and started taking them before I climbed anywhere. In any case, I was a bit off kilter for most of the rest of trip, and my contemporaneous notes stopped.
Luckily, my itinerary called for an extra day for acclimatization then. Day 3 I woke up and it still really hurt to breathe, but my headache was better so I had hope. We left around 10am to walk up to Zebra Rocks at 4000m, just an hour and a half or so. Hung out there for I'm not how long--I took a nap--and headed back to Horombo Hut about 1:00.
Day 4 we walked from Horombo up to Kibo Hut at 4700m (15,400 ft). I spent much of my time daydreaming about marrying Julie née Holland's kid sister. I went to college with Julie, and we weren't exactly close--we maybe took a class or two together but I probably haven't seen her or had any contact since graduation, and I have no idea if she has any siblings. Well, guess I'll email her now...
Kibo was, well, cold. The best part: the 7 kids from UNC-Chapel Hill. Philip and six women, all seven of them attractive, came to Tanzania to spend several weeks doing environmental work and then climb Kili. One was named Zina (I'm spelling it like Garrison instead of Warrior Princess but I'm not sure...), the other 5 names, not sure. I heard them but couldn't keep track. Not sure why I liked them so much...
$360 park feesThat leaves $367 for salaries for the guide, the cook, and two porters, transportation to and from Arusha (about 80km), food for all of us, equipment rental, champagne, overhead, other expenses...
$250 camping fees
$ 20 rescue fee
$ 3 some fee
= $663 went to the park.
My second night in Nungwi, on Zanzibar island, I walked into the restaurant at the same time as another guy who was alone. There was one table left overlooking the water, so we ate together. He's Andre, from California, traveling with girlfriend Nushin but she wasn't feeling well.
I traveled a bit with them (and with Nushin's cousin, Rona(sp?)). We were in the same van back to Stone Town, stayed in the same places (or together) in Stone Town and Dar Es Salaam, and rode the bus to Arusha together--they'll be working here for a coupla months while law student Nushin interns at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
My first night in Arusha I stayed at a campground. I was the only person there. And, in fact, I was the first person to sign the registration book since April 9. So after a day I moved to a hotel across town. My room is essentially a closet, but it's really clean, the bathrooms are really clean, there's free breakfast at the pretty decent bar/restaurant on the roof, and it costs $5 per night.
Since we got to Arusha I've run into Andre and/or Nushin basically everywhere I go. And then yesterday I walked into a cafe and a guy who sorta looked familiar said "Hey, I know you from Upper Hill in Nairobi. I forget your name but I remember you play ultimate and worked with coupons. Oh, yeah, and you're older than you look, something like 34?"
I am, in fact, 34. Kyle, who's maybe a bit too much into trivia, is also an intern at ICTR. So I've been hanging out quite a bit with all the interns. (And today, I went with Andre to watch some of the testimony of Dr. Casimir Bizimungu, the former Health Minister of the Interim Government, as far as I know the first genocidaire I've ever seen in person.)
Yesterday, I was in the office yesterday of the Tanzanian Tourist Board when a guy walked in wearing a shirt that said "Da Burgh". I said "I'm from the (Pitts-)Burgh." He bought the shirt in Kenya or something, but he and his wife did just move to Pittsburgh.
Then, at dinner last night with the interns, we're talking about random people coincidences. I tell about seeing this guy. The intern across from me said "I'm from Pittsburgh." Usually that means somewhere in some town in southwestern PA, but in this case it meant that she lived maybe 150 yards away. We went to the same high school, just 10 years apart.
I came to Arusha to try arrange a trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. It's really hard to do research here because _everyone_ wants to give you information. For example, the Tourist Board found me a group leaving tomorrow through Shidolya Tours. And when I got to the Shidolya office (right at the Arusha International Conference Center, same place as the ICTR, so I ran into Nushin in the lobby) there were 3 guides from competing tour companies in their lobby trying to
steal me away.
I wound up joining the group. Which is I think two other climbers, plus guide and cook and porters. The woman said the others speak good English so she thinks they might be Australian, or maybe English, but that's all I know about them. In any case, tomorrow morning at 8am I'm leaving to climb Mt Kilimanjaro! We're doing the Marangu route, which isn't my first choice but I didn't want to keep looking for a group and working with all the companies (and street touts.)
Two posts today, but definitely no more for the next 6 days, 5 nights!
_sg
One thing I forgot to mention about Zanzibar: spelling on the menus.
I find (and I'm sure make...) spelling errors all the time, anywhere, but in East Africa they're everywhere. My favorite might have been the Grossary store I passed in Uganda, but two of the restaurants I ate at in Nungwi had some fun ones.
At the Paradise Bar and Restaurent things on the Barbercue menu come with barbicue sauce. There's a Bolognesex pizza. And the Non Alcohol Coctails include spirits such as
Around here, you're supposed to assume that flu-like symptoms are caused by malaria. But sometimes, like in my case, flu-like symptoms are actually caused by flu-like illnesses.
Actually, I think I had neither--Dr Omar thinks I had some sort of bacterial infection. And he may be right--whether it was the antibiotics or just the natural course, I feel much better now. The fever broke, my headache is gone, no sore throat, stomach fine, I have some appetite back, I only napped once today.
So my stay on Zanzibar got extended a bit.
Zanzibar is the Spice Island. (Actually, it's an archipelago, and is apparently not to be confused with the Spice Islands.) Off the coast of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, about an hour and a half by fast ferry--it's not that far from the coast, but it's a bit north of Dar. It's part of Tanzania (in fact, the ZAN part) but I still had to pass through immigration and get my passport stamped when I got here.
The most exciting thing I did is Mr. Mitu's Spice Tour. (Not to be confused with the other Spice tour.) Basically, things that grow where it's really hot and wet grow here. We sampled 11 kinds of citrus and I ate un-ground pepper.
Other than some fruit we ate on the spice tour, the food in Zanzibar has been uniformly bland. And I've tried Zanzibari, Italian, Indian, Chinese, generic Tourist, etc...
I spent my first couple of days, and again after I got sick, in Stone Town, the historic part of Zanzibar City where no one speaks much English, the streets are alleys that do not go straight, and it's dangerous to be walking around alone at prayer time, when everyone but the criminals is in a mosque.
I spent two days in the middle in Nungwi, a theoretically paradisical resort at the northern tip of the main island. It was sorta pretty but nothing fantastic. The surf was really choppy. Lotsa guys wanting to sell you art, sunglasses, jewelery, drugs, all of the above. I was gonna head down to Kendwa, about a 30 minute walk south, which is supposed to be idyllic, but that's when I got sick. And since I got back to Stone Town it's been raining pretty much every day, so today I'm going to head back to the mainland instead of extending my trip even further to head to the beach.
Hey, I used to play Ultimate with some guys who are pretty good. Congrats to Heijman, and Q and Shane and Drew and other Hodags,
sg
Yeah I am!
(Though that might be more a side effect of my malarial pills than a judgement about any particular qualities I might have.)
21 May 2007, 12:41 am, Mombasa, Kenya
The Dream:
I'm flying somewhere. The plane has some problems, but I wasn't scared. We come in to land but touch down briefly and take off again. The sign says we'll be landing in 342 minutes. Everyone groans. Changes to 40 minutes. Then 6 minutes.I wake up.
As we approach again, I overhear the flight attendant ask if we'd lose power again. Sure enough, the power goes off as we hit the landing tunnel. The cockpit disengages, the main body lands fine. I'm immediately in Rik's car on my way into town (though we're actually on the Parkway going the other way past downtown Pittsburgh). We see the cockpit fly past, flip over and crash just ahead of us.
I should call my parents and sister to tell them I'm safely off the plane. Mom first, turns out she and Snu are at dad's office. I tell them to wait there and head to the office. Dad, the only one there, is on the phone, helping arrange a job for me. He asks if I'd be willing to teach temporarily, I tell him I'll try out anything as long as its temporary.
While he's on the phone I wander over to Lewis Taffer's office down the hall, maybe to ask him about a possible job? While waiting outside, 'cause he's in a meeting, I glance out and seek Kristie R smoking on the porch roof. She's wearing gray cords and a burgundy turtleneck, which seem very dowdy.
The door opens, a guy comes out of LT's office. Turns out, the meeting was about a crossword newsletter and competition for July. Lew points out (I hear--I only see the anonymous guy) that the guy should remember to include that there were three perfect scores on puzzle A3, including two from the people that tied for 1st, and a perfect A2 from the 2nd place guy, in the last competition.
I need to run home from work 'cause I forgot something. The home: 505 S. Linden, but it's mine. I drive past Sarah and Dave on my way and wonder if they'll ever stop by to see the house. When I get out of the car in the driveway, they're standing there, having passed while walking their dog, who doesn't seem to be around.I wake up. And as I'm waking up, I think that if George is looking for projects to work on around my actual house to work off some more rent, and if Bridget and TY think that it's a good idea, if he hasn't put in glass block to replace the basement window at the foot of the stairs, when he does that he can also use glass block or something like it to replace the doggie door in the wall of the kitchen.
I explain that I'd love to show them the house at some point, but I only had a minute and had to rush back to work. Russ walks by. We all talk for a minute. I say I gotta go, but if they wanted to help run my errand they could at least sneak a peek inside: turns out, a bed and mattress for Snu had been delivered and needed to be carried inside. Don grabs the bed, Sarah the mattress, I go to unlock the door, Russ follows along.
Turns out, the front door is unlocked. Sarah looks around, sits at the piano, and comments that the house is in a style called "standard" rather than the "pre-modern" or whatever that I thought I had. I usher them out, but it seems like someone left the radio on in the kitchen. I go in, and the back door is standing wide open. The radio on the wall is BLARING a Monday Night Football game. There's a lot of crowd noise and Al Michaels is giving Dan Marino's stats from the game
I start to leave with Sarah and Dave. Russ seems to have wandered off upstairs, but I'm just gonna leave him wander as I need to get back to work.
Wait Dorothy was in Kansas, not Kenya. Sorry, I was in Kenya, in the Rift Valley.
I left Nairobi and headed west to Nakuru. On the bus, it was 80's Saturday on Classic 105! Jungle Boy (Baltimora), Like a Prayer (Ciccone), Abracadabra (Miller), Together Forever (Astley). But then we left town and they switched to REALLY LOUD NEWS. Spent the night in Nakuru in a suite on the roof of the Mt Sinai Hotel, across the street from a "Subway" restaurant. Note that Dar Es Salaam has actual Subway franchises--can't wait to try the pressed beef sub!
In the morning I got a ride out to the Menegai Crater. It's...a crater. I took some matatus up to Lake Bogoria. I wanted to camp at the Fig Tree Camp. From the map in the guidebook it looked like it'd be about 6 miles. But it's not, and since I didn't think I'd be able to walk the 18 miles to the campsite in the 3 hours left until sundown I wound up heading to the campground at the hot springs. About 8 miles in, past flamingos and ostriches and a coupla zebras and hydraxes and antelopes.
I stayed just one night. My tent pole broke, and I went to borrow some tape from the other people at the campsite--Barbara (Swiss) and Karsten (German) and their dog Mali (Malian) had what looked like a very well stocked van. They volunteered to drive me out. And since they'd take me all the way to my next destination, saving me a 8 mile walk and three different matatu rides, for each of which I might have had to wait some hours, I accepted.
The next night was at the Flamingo Camp at Lake Elmenteita. There was no one else at the Flamingo Camp at Lake Elmenteita. And not many flamingos. But it is beautiful, and the lake was totally reminiscent of the lakes in New Zealand famed for the mountain reflections.
Turns out, the millions of flamingos are now at Lake Nakuru. But that's in a national park that you can't go into without transportation, so it would have been _really_ expensive to rent a taxi for a day and pay the park fees and such to see them. But at several viewpoints from the road back from the crater and in Nakuru town you can see the pink shores.
Next stop was Fisherman's Camp on Lake Naivasha. Which I visited to go to Hell's Gate National Park, just across the way. I decided not to camp in the park--I figured at night, when the nocturnal animals were active, I'd be huddled in my tent rather than wandering in the dark looking for lions and leopards. I rented a bike and headed off to the park.
Which was really neat. As I entered, some of the park rangers were burning trash, right next to the sign indicating the current fire danger level: EXTREME. There isn't a huge density of animals, but the ones I did see I saw with literally no one else around. No guide, no other park visitors, just me and the mostly antelopes and zebras (and two giraffes, but at a distance). And the animals are used to humans, and there was no engine noise to scare them off. At one point I looked up and there were zebras maybe 25 yards away that I hadn't noticed until then.
The other park attraction is the gorge. The ranger tries to get you to pay $15 so a guide can take you in--"otherwise you can easily get lost." Which is kinda like getting lost in a tunnel, and not the confusing Boston kind of tunnel. You're going in, or coming out, but you're just following the river in one of the directions. As I was eating lunch a Canadian woman walked up, and we decided to walk in together. One of the Maasai guides followed, and we agreed to have him show us the way in return for a tip, but certainly not $15.
We took the 2 hour walk, which took about 30 minutes, ending up at the path to take back to the ranger station and our bikes. We gave the guide a coupla bucks each and decided to continue on to the hot springs, another coupla hours. We went not quite all the way to the hot springs before we came to a section that would have been hard to get through without getting quite wet. And we'd each seen enough hot springs to not need to see these, so we headed back. Biked back out to the road (5 miles to the park entrance, 2 to the main road), I went left, she went right, I headed the 3 more miles back to the camp.
The next day, Thursday, I headed back to Nairobi.
Friday I got a new tent--the pole had broken all the way, it couldn't be fixed until Monday, and I paid about $40 for a much better one than the one I'd had. It'd been used, but pretty lightly. It's much bigger (I think it'll sleep 4) but only weighs a bit more. Gave my old tent to the guard at the campsite in Nairobi, along with explanations about how to get it fixed, which hopefully he can do and then sell it to someone. Or use it, but I'm betting on the former.
Saturday headed to Mombasa, to see somewhere else and break up the bus trip a bit. Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, is really hot. And a bit disturbing--it's the first place I went where the street beggars are really in-your-face, and I felt a little unsafe for the first time this trip. I stayed a day and then headed down to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Where I've been for a day and a half. It's supposed to be safer than Nairobi, but still feels more like Mombasa. And, unlike Kenya (and certainly unlike Uganda), most people do _not_ speak English. Finally! Of course, I don't speak muck Kiswahili... In any case, I'm off to catch a ferry to Zanzibar, the Spice Island!
Ta,
sg
Which is a good thing, as I've been here for a couple of days longer than I'd planned.
I hung out with some Canadians for a bit, spent a day waiting around to meet a friend of a friend who came six hours late and left after 20 minutes, and spent more days than you'd think it would take trying to change my flight.
Now, I've finally changed my flight--I'll head to Greece on July 2, and probably get home in the first week of August--and will leave town this afternoon, heading off to Nakuru. Either today or tomorrow, depending on timing, I'll head out to Lake B?--I forget its name, but its hopefully got millions of flamingos.
For the next week or so I'll be around the B? Lakes, Nakuru, Naivasha and Hell's Gate National Park in the Rift Valley. I'm especially looking forward to Hell's Gate, where you can rent a bike and pedal (or walk) freely through the park--hopefully, the cheetahs and lions and leopards and such are used to such things... Then, back through Nairobi on my way to Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar!
Flickr (the host of my photos) reports that you can now view slideshows with titles. Haven't tried it, but it might now be easier to view my pictures (and know what you're seeing) of Nairobi. Which include shots from Nairobi and the running, screaming mob I ran into just after arriving, Nairobi National Park, and of me with Laura (including a hopefully not too explicit photo of our first kiss!). And my photos from Sipi Falls in eastern Uganda are up as well.
And a generic note--Flickr shows photos in the reverse of the order in which they were loaded. So it's kind of a pain to make things coherent for you as I need to load them one-by-one in reverse order so you can see them properly, but it also means that you can always just go to my photo link and easily see my most recent pictures if you've been hankering for some Joy when I'm not obliging.)
ta,
sg
I went to Sipi Falls in eastern Uganda. It is pretty, but probably isn't worth the trip unless you're in the area anyway.
Which lots of people have reason to be as the falls are right outside Mt Elgon National Park, Mt Elgon being one of the highest mountains in Africa. And, like Kilimanjaro, it can be climbed in a coupla days without any specialized skills or equipment.
I was in the area because I was gonna pass close by on my way to Kenya.
Now I'm in Kenya.
I've started my eastern swing. For the next, I dunno, six to eight weeks I'll be in Kenya (Rift Valley, Kakamega Forest, maybe Masai Mara and a treat for Kristina), Tanzania (Zanzibar/Dar, Kilimanjaro, Karatu/Ngorogoro, Serengeti and Mwanza) and Rwanda (Kigali and maybe a park).
The trip here:
I caught a bus to Nairobi. Which means I'll have to backtrack west quite a bit, but there were no better transportation options. The bus left Mbale, Uganda at around 5:30pm. At about 7:30 we got to the border. We pull up to Ugandan customs. I follow everyone out of the bus and into the office, fill out a form, wait in line, and officially leave Uganda. I went outside and there was no one on the bus (and bicyclists were fighting for my attention) so I figured we were supposed to walk over to Kenya. I did.
Passed a gate with soldiers on each side wearing different uniforms. I guess the border. Crossed a bridge. Walked past a building with what looked like lots of closed offices that should be full of customs agents. Then through a gate.
Wait a minute...I'm in Kenya. Where's the bus? I went back.
I said to the guard at the gate "Do I need to show my passport anywhere?"
"Welcome to Kenya. Jambo!"
I turned to his friend. "Jambo!," said the friend.
Went over to a small building nearby. A guy in a suit said "Jambo!". "Sijambo," says I, "where do I go?"
Apparently, it's around back, behind the original dark building. There are no lights, no signs. He sent someone to show me the way, and we walked through two unlit corridors to get to passport control.
I waited in line, and the bus came by. Good, at least I'm on the right track. My turn at the window. "Hello, I need a visa to enter Kenya."
Man flips through passport. "You do not have a visa." He flips through again. And again. "I need a visa." "You don't have a visa." "I know. I need one."
Finally, he asks me for $50, which is a good sign again because I know that's what it should cost. He takes my money, slides it into a drawer, stamps a page in my passport with like eight different stamps, and writes in yet more details. He proudly shows me the results, turns it several different ways and asks for my opinion. I take back my passport and turn around...to see the bus leave.
I follow it down the road, it stops a bit later, and when I get on my stuff is even there--I'm on the right bus! That's another good sign.
Twenty minutes later, we get stopped at a checkpoint. We all get off, with all of our stuff, and line up by gender. They search lots of bags. When it's my turn I give him my passport, which he doesn't even open. I'm thinking it's gonna take forever to go through my pack as everything inside is also inside a translucent pack liner in case it gets wet. But he asks me what's inside and cuts me off when I say "a sleeping bag, some clothes, some...". I get back on the bus.
At about 1:30am, I think slightly before Nukuru, this happens:
I was awake, trying to shut the window and stop the draft. I'd just put my book away (The Mill on the Floss) and was thinking about going back to sleep. A pretty big bang, but it was obvious pretty quickly that I was fine. Not even sure that the seat belt, which, Mom, I was wearing, stopped me. It probably did, but I know most weren't wearing them and I think no one got hurt.
We climbed out of the only slightly collapsed driver's side and got on other buses as they came past. I got into Nairobi at about 6:30am, by which time it was light, so thanks to the crash I didn't need to wander the streets of "Nairobbery" in the dark with no Kenyan money.
I hung out at the bus station until the currency exchange opened, got a bit of money and took a MUCH needed shower, and headed off for breakfast.
Now, I'm off to Nairobi National Park.
ta,
sg
So it's April 28, and even today I got a coupla notes and comments that brought back some memories.
Last year my friends Brian and Becca traveled around the world. They didn't hit Africa, but overall it was a much more extensive trip than mine and I'm still jealous.
Their blog is well worth reading, but for now you should really read some musings they posted while in China:
Read this
Then read this
Once you've done that, this might make more sense.
ia,
sg
When we left off, I was heading to Semuliki National Park. I headed to Semuliki National Park.
Semuliki is an extension of the "vast Itumi forest" of DR Congo. It's in extreme western Uganda, contiguous with the DRC border along the East African Rift Valley.
The drive there is absolutely gorgeous. I was in the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains, but if the road had been paved and if I hadn't been in a matatu with 23 others I might have thought I was in New Zealand.
Semuliki park itself is renowned for its diversity of flora and fauna. There are over 400 different bird species and 63 different mammals (including 9 different primates). And almost 400 different butterfly and moth species, most of which I bet I saw--they were _everywhere_. And I don't have numbers, but I know I saw oodles of lizards. Unfortunately, most of the park isn't really accessible to most visitors. Most of it is lush tropical forest--there are no roads or paths through it, and it's maybe not safe in the lowlands because of those darned Congolese rebels. So for the entirety of my visit I was within a mile or two of the east edge of the park.
There's a pretty big security presence in the park--only once did I walk between the main gate and the campsite (about 3km) without an escort. At one point several soldiers suddenly appeared in the campsite. Most had rifles but at least one had an RPG. They talked to one of the rangers and then disappeared back into the woods. I wanted to take a picture but really didn't want to ask them for permission (I wanted to keep my camera) so I did what I could on the sly. Then I altered the settings on my camera so there wouldn't be an audible click when I took pictures in the future...
I did see lots of different primates, especially colobus (black-and-white and red) and red-tailed monkeys. And baboons, though it might have just been one baboon that I saw several times. The monkeys hang out in the trees. And they're pretty shy, so they take off when they see me around. To travel, they take these flying leaps from tree to tree, grabbing hold of whatever leafy branch they happen to jump to, or the one below it if it's not sturdy enough. And these are big leaps, like over my head across the road, not just gingerly hops to the something a foot away.
The other thing the park has: hot springs. I took a nature walk with Bosco, who was born on 7/7/77. But we basically just walked to the springs. Did see lots more monkeys, lots of agama and monitor lizards, our baboon friend, and some birds. Didn't see any of the elephants, leopards, crocodiles or buffalo that are deeper into the park. I almost fell into boiling mud.
I left the park and headed back into Fort Portal for yet another night of transit. I stopped in Hoima the next day, and the day after that finally reached my final destination on my tour, Murchison Falls National Park. Murchison is Uganda's biggest park. It's bisected by the Nile and is named for the falls, where the Nile is squeezed through a channel about 20 feet wide. The water doesn't fall very far, but the resulting pressure creates what's said to be the most powerful natural water flow in the world.
My intention was to head first to Kaniyo Pabidi, close to the park entrance, where the forestry department offers the cheapest chimpanzee tracking in Uganda. I got to Masindi, the nearest town to the park, and hung out by the side of the road trying to catch a ride--it's about 35km to the park entrance from town, then another 8km to Pabidi. I thought I had a chance,
especially 'cause it was Friday afternoon so I figured people would be coming through on their way in for the weekend. But...nothing.
A motorcycle driver asked where I was going. I said "Too far. There's no way I can afford you." He insisted. I told him. I asked how much. He said "80,000 shillings." Almost $50. I laughed. "I might give you 10,000." "Okay." The other guys thought he was nuts, but he apparently wanted to drive the white man.
But when we got to the park gate they told me the campground at Pabidi was closed because there were a lot of lions there. And the huts had burned down and they hadn't built the new ones yet, so there was nowhere there to stay. My best option was to hang around and wait for a park vehicle that'd be coming through to take me to the campground by the main park headquarters at Paraa, about 80km away. So I did that. There's essentially no way to do the chimp tracking if you don't have your own transport. Rode the 80km in the back of a pickup, watching hundreds and hundreds of monkeys and antelopes scatter as we drove down the road.
I stayed at the campsite. Met some people who were there as part of a group tour--one was originally from Minneapolis and knows some people I know. The next morning I hung around the campsite and did some laundry. While the group tour people were on a nature drive--most of the animals are in the part of the park north of the river, while the campground is just south of it. The park has a huge number of leopards, lions, elephants and giraffes, but you can't really see them without going on a nature drive.
I did see an awesome spider (I think...it's called a velvet mite) all over after the rain. It looked like a raspberry with legs. (Even if you normally think spiders are icky or don't look at my pictures you should check these out...)
In the afternoon I went with the group on the boat trip up the river to the mouth of the falls. Just like on the other boat trips (Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth National Park) I saw lots of birds and animals during the 2-hour trip to the base of the falls. In this case, storks and geese and kingfishers and bee eaters and hippos and baboons and buffaloes and crocodiles.
I left the group when the boat dropped me off near the base of the falls so I could hike up to the top. Only about 40 minutes, but it was really hot out. Much sweating. I spent the night (alone) in a campsite near the top of the falls, much of the time huddled in the gazebo avoiding the big storm.
The falls: wow. It's pretty impressive. The total volume of water that passes through is tiny compared to something like Niagara Falls, but Niagara Falls is I think more than 20 feet wide. Well, I've heard--never actually seen it...
I went back to the falls in the morning when the tour group came through. And here's where I'm really an idiot: I'd left a bag at the main campsite so I wouldn't have to carry it with me up to the falls. So instead of being able to catch a ride to Masindi, or maybe even Kampala, at 9am on Sunday, I stayed around the top of the falls waiting for a way to get back to Paraa.
At 10:15 one of the rangers got a call that there was a morning boat trip. "What time does the boat get there?" "Oh, any time after, say, 10:30." So I hiked (quickly) back down the to the base of the path and waited for the boat. It came by about 15 minutes after I got there and picked me up. A small one this time, just one family, but they were nice enough to let me stay on instead of having to transfer to the really crowded big public boat. The ride back took about an hour. We did spot some elephants, but otherwise uneventful.
I got back to the campsite and grabbed my bag and ordered lunch. After lunch, maybe 1:30 or so, I headed over to the park HQ to wait for a ride. The HQ is right by the ferry, so any park vehicles or any others that are on game drives or such would have to pass through. But, yup, no ride. I waited until about 5, when a HUGE rainstorm came by. I moved inside and waited until about 6:30, by which point the rain had let up.
The park guy told me there'd be a park vehicle heading to town in the morning so I should try again at 9am. I headed back to the campsite, set up my tent and had some dinner.
In the morning I ate breakfast and went to the park office at 8am to be sure to catch whatever I could. The 9am truck left at about 10:30. We got about 20km out and...broke down. I dunno, something about a pickup truck carrying 23 people up some big hills... We all got out and they sent some students to find a water hole. When the truck cooled, the driver headed back to HQ while the rest of us hung out. A couple of us started walking towards town--a couple of miles ahead were the turnoffs to the top of the falls and one of the lodges, so we wanted to get on the other side of those to increase our likelihood of finding a ride as quickly as possible. The new park vehicle got there about three minutes after we'd stopped. On our way out we passed Pabidi, and what looked to me an awful lot like several tents in the campground...
The park guy let me off in Masindi and I headed to the taxi park at about 1:00. It was probably 3:00 by the time we left. We went about 25 miles (in two hours) to get to the main road. Then waited another 45 minutes or so for another taxi that was heading to Kampala. I got to Kampala at maybe 10pm, then had to get all the way across town to PABs' house. I arrived, probably 32 hours later than if I'd come down Sunday with the tour group.
So now I'm back in Kampala for a little bit, planning my swing east through eastern Uganda and Kenya and Tanzania and Rwanda and maybe even Burundi.
For now, pictures are up of Semuliki, Murchison, and my entire swing through the southwest.
Hasta,
sg
