I am sure there are many sides to Africa. I can't pretend to know them all in only a few short days. But 1 of which we are all at least peripherally aware, and I have now had a chance to see first hand, is the poverty. I doubt you could come here and not see it.
It's pretty visible, even from the passenger seat of a safari jeep. If you are paying attention you can even see it in the most luxurious hotels: the service is exceptional, and for the hope of a 1 or 2 dollar tip you are treated like an absolute king. I've seen grown men bend over backwards to do the simplest things I could easily do myself, handle my disgustingly dirty laundry with the utmost care, not to mention meticulously manicure the hotel lawns by hand, and then beam when they see my hand go into my pocket. The people here are very willing, even eager, to work and will do whatever they can to improve their economic situation. But their options are limited. My only regret leaving here was that I didn't bring more cash with me to be able to tip more generously.
If you have any amount of conversation with the guides, hotel staff, and shop keepers, which I did a lot since I was traveling alone (and now glad that I did... I would have learned a lot less if I had been in a group and more drawn to just comparing travel stories and first-world-problems), you will be asked a lot of questions about how much your trip is costing, followed by silence as they try to comprehend that sum, and told a lot about the relative incomes, costs, and hardships here. I am sure some of it is targeted, perhaps even choreographed, to draw out the largest tips and best prices they can get. I don't mind at all. I know you are supposed to haggle but it feels close-to-immoral to be able to pay thousands to come here and then nickel and dime the locals. I am happy to tip well and pay the asking price, knowing its still far less than what I would pay at home. The reality is, when it comes to money and being from Canada, there is more where that came from. By the way, if you are German and coming here, you need to do your country proud - leave any colonial attitudes at home open your wallet a bit - to a man every person I asked said your country-men were usually the worst clients. A shame given how friendly I've found you in your own country. British, Italians and French - you aren't too far behind them in their lists. Canadians and Scandinavians, we can hold our heads high as being at the top of their lists. Americans too, this is one area of the world you are loved.
Yesterday I had a relaxed agenda, and so spent much of the day waiting around for my guide, Freddy, who was busy trying to find someone who could fix a problem we were having with our jeep. His concern over what his boss might think if he returned it in defective condition was evident, and he spent more than a quarter of his monthly income trying to rectify it. It gave me incredible opportunities to peer more into this side of Africa, and while not as exciting as the safaris, it was far more impactful.
Jacob, the young manager at country lodge Karatu, upon hearing my guide say he will be at least another hour, said "do you want to go for a walk?"
Why are the unplanned events of a trip always the best?
We walked for an hour as he told me me about his life; his uneducated but good parents, his 9 brothers and sisters (common here, although everyone I've met under 40 has only 1-3 children), his daughter's schooling, his own schooling - he is taking a tourism diploma on top of a full time job (like I said, hard working people), and his dreams of starting his own business. Everyone I've met here shares that dream, and it's vital for the African economy that some do. I believe he will. He was determined and intelligent, the only one in his family to complete secondary (grade 8-12) school - his eldest sister married early, got a job, and made a lot of sacrifices to pay for that. He wouldn't have been able otherwise.
We went to a field where a market had been held the day before, which meant it was now "the day for the bird's market" and was indeed filled with birds picking over the remains. There were people roaming about too, but I paid them little heed thinking they were just cleaning up. I did ask Jacob if that's what they are doing though.
"Oh that is the street children".
You know those moments when you notice something you hasn't before, and the whole world seems to shift in front of your eyes?
All of a sudden I realized those "people" were in fact young kids, rummaging through the garbage piles looking for food and anything else that might have some value.
"They live on the street?"
"Many. Some in the government houses. Some have the parents, but they don't know the importance of education. Or, it is common here, for the woman to get the early pregnancies, maybe before she is married, and she has only a small place to sleep and uses the drink a lot instead of fighting with life. So her kids will come here to look for food, even though it is a school day. The teacher will not repeat the lecture again so when there is an examination they will fail. Their parents will not care. The government tries to help and provides them free schooling. But you know, the parent is your first teacher."
I was moved deeply as I stood there taking in all the information, verbally and visually, not sure what to say or do. 2 young boys kept looking over curiously, giggling with each other. I was picturing my own nephew doing this, and they were even younger than him, and was having a hard time not crying.
I had a half eaten corn-bread muffin in my hand that I had been eating on the walk, but wasn't sure if that was offensive to offer it - homeless people in Canada wouldn't accept it. But I asked and Jacob said sure, so I started walking towards them. They got even more excited and started running towards me, waving, smiling, and laughing, yelling "hello" over and over again with the most delightful sounding childish African accents. Even like this, kids are still kids and are - both full of, and a source of, joy. Another young girl approached with them, seeming more cautious and somewhat like a mother to the two boys. I suspect they know and look out for each other. Everyone here seems to, helping each other with whatever little they have.
I broke the partial muffin in 3 and they each stepped forward with an open hand and gratefully ate the meager offering. I was mad at myself for not bringing my bag and being able to offer more, knowing I had a few granola bars left. Heck, I wanted to put them in my bag and take them with me. How could you not? It's hard to even write this and not tear up. I did have a litre of water left. It was hot and we had to walk back still, but again, there's more where that came from. I gave it to her and Jacob translated my request for her to share with the boys.
Her name was Oseana. She was in standard 6, and already apparently fending for herself and looking out for the younger children. One boy was Nada, in standard 2. The other was Edward, who had never gone to school. Likely none of them will finish, and will struggle to eke out an existence their whole lives. The government houses and schools are there for them, but like Jacob said "your parent is your first teacher".
By the way, thanks mom and dad.
"you had good parents eh?" I asked.
"ya. My dad was not bad, but my mom mostly - she was a good teacher. She was so strict and made us work so hard!" haha. Well, he was one of the youngest people I conversed with here, and the only one who had already bought some land and started building his own house - his family already living there without being able to finish it - so apparently it worked. The others were all saving what they could (you can't get a loan here anyway, unless you have a government job), but all just hoping to one day make that kind of progress. "If God wishes" they like to say.
Freddy came back with the truck shortly after we got back and we drove to quietly to the next town, he a little worried about the repairs they didn't have the tools to complete and myself still a little disturbed by the economic inequality of my situation to the locals and wondering what I could do about it. We got to mosquito creek village (nice name eh?) where I was dropped off to meet my local guide Latif and Freddy headed out to try to find another garage. Latif took me on a walk through the village. With 20,000 people representing over half of the country's 120 tribes. (despite my previous assumptions of inter-tribal tensions in Africa, at least here in Tanzania they have done a bang up job of moving past that in the post colonial era. Freddy said their first president was a great man who made sure that "first, we are all tanzanians - one language, one people". I've not seen any hint of tribal boundaries, they intermarry freely, and speak highly of each others customs. )
Despite its size, the town has only the paved highway, 2 dirt roads large enough for cars, and the rest is just mud walkways between people's houses and "farms". Mud and stick structures are as common as brick, and occasional "businesses" pop out in the most random locations - anywhere someone had a home and the capital to acquire something to start with: a barber's chair, a store inventory, or just produce from their garden. I could go on but when I post pictures in sure they will describe it better than I.
Our tour took us to a local "pub"- a woman's home where she brewed banana beer that we got to try. It's unfiltered (you have to scrape the fermented schlopp off the top first) and quite frankly terrible. But the locals love it because it's cheap, abundant, and has almost 2% alcohol content. Personally I was just glad they showed me the fermenting room after I tried it. It's in large buckets of what looks more like cow dung than beverage, complete with buzzing flies all around, in, and on it. Did not get sick thankfully.
Next was a local house where the family had prepared a traditional lunch for us. Some boiled polenta, plain rice, and also several vegetable and beef stews, some of which were so good I had to have seconds, even though I wasn't sure what was in it (ochre, eggplant, and tomatillos I think).
Again the best part was the unplanned part. Freddy hadn't returned yet so we wondered through the central "shops" and market - my favorite being butchers row that had meat hanging everywhere and live cows you could see in the back. I tried a red banana from one vendor who had just picked it out of his yard that morning - it doesn't get any fresher than eating with people who literally live off the land. Then I bought us a couple of drinks and we sat at a local pub to cool off in the shade, and Latif told me more of his life. He has no salary, all the guides at the town's "cultural program" are self employed - meaning they are just given a little money when a travel company books a walking tour with them, plus whatever tips they get. His rent is only $25 a month (in Arusha it's more like $200), but is only 1 room and has no electricity. A cold water tap. A radio he can use when he can afford batteries. No tv or computer. His meals are mostly just boiled polenta and he seemed to enjoy the home cooked meal as much as I did - it may actually have been a big part of his "income" that day. He seemed a little more beaten down than the drivers and hotel staff I encountered in bigger town. I think here, like in Canada, there is more wealth in the cities than rural areas, only here lack of wealth really means something. On the flip side, the rural areas are also safer and friendlier than cities and we were able to walk around mostly undisturbed, except with frequent school children laughing and running up to say "hello" and grab my hand. You should have seen the look of bewilderment on one boy's face when he did that before I had finished re-applying sunblock. Why is this white guy slimy?!?! Hahaha!
Before driving bak to Arusha, we made one last stop at a Masai village. The Masai are the poor people in this poor country, living in mud and thatch huts with each large family camp surrounded by 5 foot high walls of thorny bushes for protection. They sang and did a bit of traditional dancing, gave me a tour of their homes, and then we were on our way. Apparently their payment is in the form of food as I saw Freddy give them some from a bag he had in the back. I remembered I had a couple large bottles of juice in the back we never needed and asked if I should give them those too which Freddy quickly approved. It feels so good here every time you have the opportunity to help in even a small way and see how gratefully it is received.
What I think I've concluded in seeing this side of Africa is that eventually, the situation here will improve. As much as people talked about how life is now hard and things are getting more expensive, especially gas and electricity, they also all acknowledged that it is getting better, and they love their country. Here especially they are grateful for the peace they enjoy which many other African countries, including their neighbors, do not have. But it will take time to really get where it needs to be, and a happy ending is not guaranteed.
I'm certainly no expert, but from the "Poor Story" book I read 2 years ago, 6 days of hanging out with locals, and my 30+ years of, um, "wisdom", my oversimplification of the problems here are this:
- it has nothing to do with lack of resources: the country is rich in arable lands, gold, diamonds, tanzanite, tourist attractions, and recently some oil discoveries.
- it has nothing to do with the people. They are incredibly amicable, eager to please, and willing to work far more so than we are. Almost every hotel staff that waited on me at night were the same staff waiting on me in the morning too. They have built a social fabric of trust and reciprocity here that is on par with (and required for) the best economies in the developed world.
- that said, corruption and rule of law is a bit of a problem. Not as bad as other African countries, but still an issue that has to be remedied.
- an uneven playing field with developed countries... That was the main take away I got from "Poor Story", a great read if you want to understand more. Short version is the rich get richer.
- colonial era damage - as if the psychological damage of the slave trade wasn't bad enough (it's hard to ask questions about it to be honest), the traditional tribal ways of living were simply not prepared for the more developed and imperialistic European cultures they were hit with, and the power vacuum created afterwards has left much of the capital in the hands of south African and Indian business men. They've been left scrambling to catchup in a world that is changing ever faster and getting more expensive ever since, and it's not easy to catch a speeding train.
- education - until recently, access to it has been very poor and being here is an eye opener to how important it really is. The difference in life quality between those like Jacob and Freddy who had good parents and got education, and the street kids who eventually grow up to be not-so-cute-but-even-more-desperate street vendors is, well, that description describes it actually. Even the Freddie's and Jacob's are a long way behind the average Canadian. The newspapers and magazines I've read here are written in very simple language that I doubt surpass a Canadian junior high reading level. Very few are able to get university degrees, and even a college diploma to learn how to work at a hotel is hard to afford. I just finished reading a local article about how the hotel industry can't find enough "skilled workers" to staff properly.
- lack of capital - there's just none to be had here and most people live day to day with no option to access financing. Getting invited to apply for a credit card while walking through a mall might make their heads explode.
I'll be honest, I haven't the slightest clue what to do about the first three issues. But I think there are a few things we can do about the other two, and I can't imagine anyone being able to come here and not want to help more (aside from those darn Germans :).
1) contribute to education in developed countries. It wasn't that long ago Canada's education system was where tanzania's is today. I still remember my cousins being excited when the book mobile came to their town so they could borrow new books. I've seen the 1 room school houses that many rural Canadians went to as recently as 1 generation before mine. And I remember my grandma, just 2 generations ago, telling me she didn't go past grade 3. It's already better here than it was a few years ago, but anything we can do to speed that up will go along way to ending their poverty. The people here all talk about starting businesses but they really have no idea how to go about it... simple accounting and business plans that we could probably intuit well enough to succeed here without any further training entails concepts that are still quite foreign to average secondary school grad here. I'm willing to bet that local farmers could vastly improve their production if they simply had the ability to navigate around the Internet properly for even a few hours. There are so many other simple problems here that could improve the country's way of life if basic education was enhanced.
I saw a sign last night with a picture of kids and a caption that summed up my feelings beautifully and precisely:
Nourish their bodies.
Feed their minds.
Secure our future.
I probably should have just posted that and spared everyone my long-windedness. And my thumbs. They hurt now.
2) make capital available through micro loan organizations like Kiva. You'll get your money back so it costs you nothing, but could help 1 person go from barely providing for his own family to providing employment for several others.
3) travel. It's fun to do, and every dollar you spend here - for services people work hard to provide and truly earn versus just get - helps.
I don't believe in handouts, but do in providing a hand up. I think the above actions qualify as such, and plan to do more now. I am confident that the more people who have do these for those who don't, the faster the Tanzanians will pull themselves well above the poverty line. And it is themselves who need to do it. I'm now confident they can and will.
Freddy shared a very cool insight with me in the Serengeti. The national animal is a giraffe, which is first of all much cooler than a beaver. :P But he said the reason is because a giraffe is incapable of walking backwards so it always has to move forward. And this is the attitude the people have here, we have to always move forward. I think as their lives and economy improve they will solve the other systemic problems in time also. While there is some "hard feelings" towards a few specific European countries, I haven't sensed any of the bitterness one might expect. Only a lot of smiley people, and a determination to roll up their sleeves and get work.
But a helping hand along the way never hurts.
If you have a few more minutes, I'm hopeful the descriptions of what I've seen will encourage others to offer another one. Many hands make light work.
Assante for reading.
Gregor
(What everyone seems to call me here, and I actually caught myself introducing myself like that this morning)
PS. Swahili is a beautiful language. I'd like to learn it someday. And the tribal languages that speak in clicks. :)
PPS. I love how they call everyone here "my friend"
PPPS. I got to the hotel last night just in time to drop off laundry, grab dinner, and get an email that my 3:30 flight had been cancelled and I needed to leave for the airport at 6AM, precisely 6 hours before my scheduled transfer. Thankfully Freddy had given me his phone number so I was able to call him and he made arrangements to get me an earlier ride. Also the Nairobi airport is pretty decent. I was worried what I was going to do in an Addis-Ababa-like airport for 7 hours. Shudder.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Serengeti pics
Some photos are up now. Just teasers, the best are on my camera and will have to wait till I see a proper computer again. And am not running late for a flight. That was bumped up by 6 hours. :P
Taken with Tanzania
Jambo!
That's Swahili for hello. I'm back from my African safari, so it's time for an update. In the last few days I passed through Addis Ababa airport (which now replaces Donetsk as the worst airport I've ever been in), Kilimanjaro airport, Arusha town, Oldupai Gorge, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro crater. A few highlights and random thoughts:
- my first impressions of Africans was that they were incredibly friendly, socialable, and hospitable. Also, fairly disorganized and not prone to suffer many rules. I wasn't sure why exactly we started boarding a 4:30 flight at 3:00 buy when I saw these characteristics in action it made perfect sense. Sheer poetry in motion, we managed to take even more than the allotted 1.5 hours. From the seeming inability to understand the colored stickers on the boarding passes when asked to embark in a set order, to the seat belts that came off as soon as the flight attendants who had just asked them to be done up walked past, to shiny suit guy who absolutely refused to move to his assigned middle seat until the pilot came back and threatened to have him removed, I was already enjoying my first cultural experience before even leaving Dubai.
- now I really am a loooong way from home. About 14000 Kms as the crow flies, surpassing my previous best (Ayers Rock) by 500Km, and within 2000km of the practical earth-bound limit of Madascar. (The theoretical limit is apparently Kergulen Island, which involves spending $20,000 to take a multiday boat ride to an island full of nothing. Not gonna do it).
- it takes about 9 hours to drive the 400km from Arusha town to Serengeti, mostly because it's nothing but dirt roads from the Ngorongoro conservation area entrance gate. Not gravel. Dirt. My guide said it is called the African massage. I think it's motivation to lose another 5 pounds. Or get a sports bra.
- enroute we stopped at Oldupai Gorge - an archeological site where the oldest hominid remains have ever been found. Some 2 to 3 million years old. The "museum" holds some of the most primitive stone tools and partial skeletons ever unearthed, and you can't help but be awed as you sense the ancient past while over looking the gorge.
- once you hit the Serengeti gate, it would be difficult to overstate the vast multitude if animals. Picture the largest herd of deer you've ever seen. Multiply it by 100. Then place 100 of those all over an open prairie as far as the eye can see. Convert it into wildebeests, then add 50% more in the form of zebras, gazelle, and a sprinkling of other animals, and, well, you might be close. Words, and even pictures, really cannot describe it, the great migration is something you simply have to experience in person.
- here's the list of animals I can remember seeing: wildebeest, zebra, Thompson gazelle, grand gazelle, impala, toapi, heartebeasts lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, black rhino, cheetah, savo cat, hyenas, jackals, dik dik, white stork, black stork, guineau fowl, hoary bastard (I did not make that name up), crowned crane, egrets, hippos, water buffalo, cessafly, baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, flamingos, ostrich... That's all I can remember, but I'm likely forgetting a few. I think I saw just about everything but crocodiles, which I don't mind cause I've seen those before. The rhino we just caught on the way out of Ngorongoro crater at the of the safari, completing the Big Five. Ditto for the cheetah, which was the last of the big cats I needed to see. My guide said I was lucky to see all that, especially the leopards. He said most of his safaris never see those, but we caught 3. It was at a bit of a distance, and they were sleeping, so I was far more struck by the lions, but the look on the faces of other drivers when he told them we saw three clearly showed how rare that was. 3 days later he is still talking about how "luck you are" (no typo).
- I didn't get to see anything kill anything. But I did get to see a gazelle chase an ostrich for several hundred yards. And 2 waterbuffalo smash heads. And a male lion move in on another lions mistress. Beat him out but she wasn't having none of that.
- Ngorogoro crater has incredible views from the rim, and seems almost like Disney must have built it after you do the 600 meter plunge inside. I enjoyed the Serengeti game drive more because it felt more special when you managed to spot something non-hoofed-herbavorial, but it is pretty cool to be able to see wild cats, warthogs, hyenas, and several different types of herds just hanging out together all in one shot. Plus there are 25 black rhinos there, compared to only 8 in the whole Serengeti, so a stop there is almost mandatory to see them. Sad how close they are to extinction.
- speaking of which, there were several moments where I felt a tinge of the loss for North America's great wild herds. The Serengeti plains are virtually indistinguishable from Saskatchewan (I actually felt like I was home at times), and I imagine our now defunct animal kingdom used to look a lot like this too. Sad face.
- I sunblock here like a hobbit eats: breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies... It doesn't slow down till the afternoon rain clouds roll in.
- I was so incredibly exhausted after my sleepless night/4am flight (really ms flight attendant? Was the hot towel so important you had to wake up for it??) that I fell asleep shortly after arriving at my hotel and didn't wake up until my 6am alarm. 13 straight hours.
- driving in the country side, you pass by numerous flocks of sheep, goats, donkeys, skinny cows, and Masai herders. Often, they are only 8-10 years old, some as young as 5. I hope some of my pictures turned out cause its quite a sight. Ditto for the women walking around carrying large loads on their heads without needing any hands to balance it. One thing to see it on tv, but so surreal to see it in person.
- most memorable moment was the first night in our camp lodge. By "lodge" I mean permanent tents. And by "permanent" I just mean really big and only moved every few weeks. Anyway... I woke up in the middle of the night hearing what I thought was branches breaking and heavy footsteps. A friend just told me about his safari and seeing a couple bull elephants by the camp, so I thought it was either that or giraffes, and hopped on top of the toilet to peer out the roof of the bathroom. Nothing. Went back to bed. Heard it again! I was not going to miss this so I grabbed my headlamp, threw on my shoes, went to the door, paused briefly to wonder if it was really, really stupid to be going outside alone at night, then tentatively did it anyway. Before I got around back to check the noise, I was greeted by the reflection of three sets of eyeballs not 30 yards away. The one closest to me crouched behind the grass. Hmmm, not good. All the jungle cats hunt at night, and the lions often in threes. I scanned the rest of the area then looked back to find the third set of eyes back up, and seemingly a bit closer. Then it crouched again. Interesting. Looked away. Then back. Same thing, a bit closer, then crouching. Ok that's enough! I headed back inside, did up the zipper, shuddered, and then did not get out of bed until again until light. My guide said he heard a lion roar each night, and the camp manager said a lion killed an animal only 70 yards away from the camp last month, so it's possible, though not likely, that's what it was. We also heard hyenas and jackals all during dinner, and after seeing both in daylight now I would estimate what I saw to be more hyena-sized. That's what my guide thinks it was too, and he swears they are not dangerous to humans. I'm inclined to believe that but glad I didn't get closer to find out. Shuddering again.
- incidentally, the next morning I found out that sound was just a flap at the back of the tent when the wind caught it a certain way. Definitely not worth dying for :P
- you do not mess around with shower time at camp. You tell them what time you want it in the morning, and they show up promptly at that time with a few gallons of hot water that they dump into a canvas bag above a wooden crate in your bathroom, then say "good morning, shower's ready." Every minute you linger in bed, the water gets cooler. Once in, it's a race against time to finish washing cause once it's gone, it's gone. By the time it falls to your shoulders it feels only lukewarm, so it keeps you moving pretty quick. The tickle of small growth under your feet helps too. By day two though I was kinda enjoying the morning rhythm. I actually thought I was going to be staying in a more "permanent lodge", but to be honest I totally loved the experience. The scenery was breathtaking, with a herd of taupi frequenting our front doors, and spending a few days that close to nature felt good for the soul. If you are on the fence about doing a safari in your lifetime, I cannot encourage it enough.
- food here is typically eggs and beef bacon with grilled tomato for breakfast. Lunches are packed and you generally get a cold price of meat (chicken leg, tough beef), something brownish (quiche, onion cake), bread and butter, fruit, cookies, juice box. Dinner is usually a soup that could rival Marcel, then meat, mashed potatoes or baked fries, and some vegetables. Nothing you will write home about (except I just did) but decent quality, and too much quantity.
- oh there was actually 1 even more memorable moment. The dirt roads here become mud roads when it rains, and the back roads to the non-permanent camps are essentially then just slip and slides for jeeps. It rained especially hard last night, and we did significant portions of the drive out surfing sideways. Imagine driving through a parking lots of black ice with bald tires. Now imagine the parking lot is full of trees you have to avoid, and the "roads" in between often have just 2 foot wide runners for your tires, with washed out ruts more than a foot deep everywhere else. Factor in that you have to keep your speed up or risk getting stuck, with a good chance no one will drive by for a few days. In the jungle. It made the desert safari seem like go karts. Oh, and seatbelts here are not only optional, but often omitted. Neither Freddy nor I had one. Safety fail. I tried to capture some video of the experience but I'll be honest, I spent most of the time just hanging on. When I get a chance to post pictures from my camera, you will see why.
Spent last night in Karatu now, just outside Ngorongoro park, at an extremely nice hotel (country lodge). Back to Arusha today for some much needed laundry (my white cargo pants are now brown), then off to Egypt Friday. What an amazing trip. Happy face.
PS. Actually wrote this while still in Karatu. Back In Arusha now. Will post later with details of today.
That's Swahili for hello. I'm back from my African safari, so it's time for an update. In the last few days I passed through Addis Ababa airport (which now replaces Donetsk as the worst airport I've ever been in), Kilimanjaro airport, Arusha town, Oldupai Gorge, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro crater. A few highlights and random thoughts:
- my first impressions of Africans was that they were incredibly friendly, socialable, and hospitable. Also, fairly disorganized and not prone to suffer many rules. I wasn't sure why exactly we started boarding a 4:30 flight at 3:00 buy when I saw these characteristics in action it made perfect sense. Sheer poetry in motion, we managed to take even more than the allotted 1.5 hours. From the seeming inability to understand the colored stickers on the boarding passes when asked to embark in a set order, to the seat belts that came off as soon as the flight attendants who had just asked them to be done up walked past, to shiny suit guy who absolutely refused to move to his assigned middle seat until the pilot came back and threatened to have him removed, I was already enjoying my first cultural experience before even leaving Dubai.
- now I really am a loooong way from home. About 14000 Kms as the crow flies, surpassing my previous best (Ayers Rock) by 500Km, and within 2000km of the practical earth-bound limit of Madascar. (The theoretical limit is apparently Kergulen Island, which involves spending $20,000 to take a multiday boat ride to an island full of nothing. Not gonna do it).
- it takes about 9 hours to drive the 400km from Arusha town to Serengeti, mostly because it's nothing but dirt roads from the Ngorongoro conservation area entrance gate. Not gravel. Dirt. My guide said it is called the African massage. I think it's motivation to lose another 5 pounds. Or get a sports bra.
- enroute we stopped at Oldupai Gorge - an archeological site where the oldest hominid remains have ever been found. Some 2 to 3 million years old. The "museum" holds some of the most primitive stone tools and partial skeletons ever unearthed, and you can't help but be awed as you sense the ancient past while over looking the gorge.
- once you hit the Serengeti gate, it would be difficult to overstate the vast multitude if animals. Picture the largest herd of deer you've ever seen. Multiply it by 100. Then place 100 of those all over an open prairie as far as the eye can see. Convert it into wildebeests, then add 50% more in the form of zebras, gazelle, and a sprinkling of other animals, and, well, you might be close. Words, and even pictures, really cannot describe it, the great migration is something you simply have to experience in person.
- here's the list of animals I can remember seeing: wildebeest, zebra, Thompson gazelle, grand gazelle, impala, toapi, heartebeasts lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, black rhino, cheetah, savo cat, hyenas, jackals, dik dik, white stork, black stork, guineau fowl, hoary bastard (I did not make that name up), crowned crane, egrets, hippos, water buffalo, cessafly, baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, flamingos, ostrich... That's all I can remember, but I'm likely forgetting a few. I think I saw just about everything but crocodiles, which I don't mind cause I've seen those before. The rhino we just caught on the way out of Ngorongoro crater at the of the safari, completing the Big Five. Ditto for the cheetah, which was the last of the big cats I needed to see. My guide said I was lucky to see all that, especially the leopards. He said most of his safaris never see those, but we caught 3. It was at a bit of a distance, and they were sleeping, so I was far more struck by the lions, but the look on the faces of other drivers when he told them we saw three clearly showed how rare that was. 3 days later he is still talking about how "luck you are" (no typo).
- I didn't get to see anything kill anything. But I did get to see a gazelle chase an ostrich for several hundred yards. And 2 waterbuffalo smash heads. And a male lion move in on another lions mistress. Beat him out but she wasn't having none of that.
- Ngorogoro crater has incredible views from the rim, and seems almost like Disney must have built it after you do the 600 meter plunge inside. I enjoyed the Serengeti game drive more because it felt more special when you managed to spot something non-hoofed-herbavorial, but it is pretty cool to be able to see wild cats, warthogs, hyenas, and several different types of herds just hanging out together all in one shot. Plus there are 25 black rhinos there, compared to only 8 in the whole Serengeti, so a stop there is almost mandatory to see them. Sad how close they are to extinction.
- speaking of which, there were several moments where I felt a tinge of the loss for North America's great wild herds. The Serengeti plains are virtually indistinguishable from Saskatchewan (I actually felt like I was home at times), and I imagine our now defunct animal kingdom used to look a lot like this too. Sad face.
- I sunblock here like a hobbit eats: breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies... It doesn't slow down till the afternoon rain clouds roll in.
- I was so incredibly exhausted after my sleepless night/4am flight (really ms flight attendant? Was the hot towel so important you had to wake up for it??) that I fell asleep shortly after arriving at my hotel and didn't wake up until my 6am alarm. 13 straight hours.
- driving in the country side, you pass by numerous flocks of sheep, goats, donkeys, skinny cows, and Masai herders. Often, they are only 8-10 years old, some as young as 5. I hope some of my pictures turned out cause its quite a sight. Ditto for the women walking around carrying large loads on their heads without needing any hands to balance it. One thing to see it on tv, but so surreal to see it in person.
- most memorable moment was the first night in our camp lodge. By "lodge" I mean permanent tents. And by "permanent" I just mean really big and only moved every few weeks. Anyway... I woke up in the middle of the night hearing what I thought was branches breaking and heavy footsteps. A friend just told me about his safari and seeing a couple bull elephants by the camp, so I thought it was either that or giraffes, and hopped on top of the toilet to peer out the roof of the bathroom. Nothing. Went back to bed. Heard it again! I was not going to miss this so I grabbed my headlamp, threw on my shoes, went to the door, paused briefly to wonder if it was really, really stupid to be going outside alone at night, then tentatively did it anyway. Before I got around back to check the noise, I was greeted by the reflection of three sets of eyeballs not 30 yards away. The one closest to me crouched behind the grass. Hmmm, not good. All the jungle cats hunt at night, and the lions often in threes. I scanned the rest of the area then looked back to find the third set of eyes back up, and seemingly a bit closer. Then it crouched again. Interesting. Looked away. Then back. Same thing, a bit closer, then crouching. Ok that's enough! I headed back inside, did up the zipper, shuddered, and then did not get out of bed until again until light. My guide said he heard a lion roar each night, and the camp manager said a lion killed an animal only 70 yards away from the camp last month, so it's possible, though not likely, that's what it was. We also heard hyenas and jackals all during dinner, and after seeing both in daylight now I would estimate what I saw to be more hyena-sized. That's what my guide thinks it was too, and he swears they are not dangerous to humans. I'm inclined to believe that but glad I didn't get closer to find out. Shuddering again.
- incidentally, the next morning I found out that sound was just a flap at the back of the tent when the wind caught it a certain way. Definitely not worth dying for :P
- you do not mess around with shower time at camp. You tell them what time you want it in the morning, and they show up promptly at that time with a few gallons of hot water that they dump into a canvas bag above a wooden crate in your bathroom, then say "good morning, shower's ready." Every minute you linger in bed, the water gets cooler. Once in, it's a race against time to finish washing cause once it's gone, it's gone. By the time it falls to your shoulders it feels only lukewarm, so it keeps you moving pretty quick. The tickle of small growth under your feet helps too. By day two though I was kinda enjoying the morning rhythm. I actually thought I was going to be staying in a more "permanent lodge", but to be honest I totally loved the experience. The scenery was breathtaking, with a herd of taupi frequenting our front doors, and spending a few days that close to nature felt good for the soul. If you are on the fence about doing a safari in your lifetime, I cannot encourage it enough.
- food here is typically eggs and beef bacon with grilled tomato for breakfast. Lunches are packed and you generally get a cold price of meat (chicken leg, tough beef), something brownish (quiche, onion cake), bread and butter, fruit, cookies, juice box. Dinner is usually a soup that could rival Marcel, then meat, mashed potatoes or baked fries, and some vegetables. Nothing you will write home about (except I just did) but decent quality, and too much quantity.
- oh there was actually 1 even more memorable moment. The dirt roads here become mud roads when it rains, and the back roads to the non-permanent camps are essentially then just slip and slides for jeeps. It rained especially hard last night, and we did significant portions of the drive out surfing sideways. Imagine driving through a parking lots of black ice with bald tires. Now imagine the parking lot is full of trees you have to avoid, and the "roads" in between often have just 2 foot wide runners for your tires, with washed out ruts more than a foot deep everywhere else. Factor in that you have to keep your speed up or risk getting stuck, with a good chance no one will drive by for a few days. In the jungle. It made the desert safari seem like go karts. Oh, and seatbelts here are not only optional, but often omitted. Neither Freddy nor I had one. Safety fail. I tried to capture some video of the experience but I'll be honest, I spent most of the time just hanging on. When I get a chance to post pictures from my camera, you will see why.
Spent last night in Karatu now, just outside Ngorongoro park, at an extremely nice hotel (country lodge). Back to Arusha today for some much needed laundry (my white cargo pants are now brown), then off to Egypt Friday. What an amazing trip. Happy face.
PS. Actually wrote this while still in Karatu. Back In Arusha now. Will post later with details of today.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Goodbye Dubai
I'm killing time at the airport now. 4 hours to be exact. Thought I'd crank out a few final thoughts while waitingl:
- bastakiya and the Dubai museum were worth the visit. Nothing mind blowing, but walking through there and past the "creek" left me feeling like I'd experienced a little bit of Arabia finally. Also, despite it's ancient origins and Arabic culture, it's striking how similar dubai's modern history is to Calgary. Both definite oil boom towns, and follow roughly the same growth chronology. Obviously their city planners are a bit more flamboyant however.
- the Burj Khalifa is HUGE. I mean MASSIVE. Even looking up from the observation deck on the 124th floor, it's still bigger than any building in Calgary. Its a bugger to try to capture the whole thing in one shot. Definitely worth the trip here to see it and the al Arab.
- the views from the top are something too. Haze as far as the eye can see in all directions. :P I've heard you can see Iran on a clear day, but today I could barely make out the shoreline.
- The skyscrapers here are all so unique, beautiful, and tall. The Bow in Calgary would be very unremarkable here.
- speaking of which, I did not make it to a beach. Sad face. I was pretty worn out from work and didn't really start feeling like I was on vacation until last night though. Should be far more adventurous from here out, provided I survive tonight's flight. I never did fall asleep again last night and eventually gave up when the breakfast cafe opened at 7. Caught a few hours before checkout, but tomorrow could be rough.
- Dubai mall is interesting. Also HUGE (largest in the world apparently), and packed. Very much an upscale, and upsized west Ed. A shopaholic's dream come true, even a shopophobe like myself easily killed 4 very enjoyable hours there without even setting foot in a store and only getting lost twice.
- For all the talk of modest dress, there sure were a lot of surprisingly short skirts around there. Most worn by the relatively few white girls. Man... white people.
- there are prayer rooms everywhere here, and its pretty cool hearing the call to prayer while shopping in a mall. The vast number of minarets protruding above the low lying skyline areas is quite neat too. Even the houses out in the desert had ones in their backyards.
- man can they make hummus here. I've had the best pita, falafels, and hummus of my life this week, but the lebanese restaurant I ate at tonight topped it all. My side of hummus came with a basket of straight-out-of-the-oven pita bread that was unbelievable. I don't know what they did to it cause it was still just flat bread and mushed chick peas, but I was having outright foodgasms, complete with eyes rolling back in my head, and that hasn't happened since the fresh-out-of-the-water sushi in Japan. More please!!!
- it wasn't all grand though. The Lebanese white coffee tasted an awful lot like the hot water bowls you get to wash up with at Swiss chalet. Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if the waiter was having a good laugh at this dumb backpacker's expense.
- after dinner tonight, I sneezed so violently my nose made a high pitched squeal as loud as an industrial strength alarm. Not sure how that happened, but I sure startled a few people around me. Glad I don't live around here.
- milk chocolate made with camel's milk doesn't taste all that different. Recommended.
- wandered through a supermarket to burn off my last few dirhams and got curious when I saw the "ethnic food" aisle. Still has the same curries and whatnot we have. But also Mexican and cheese whiz.
- for some reason, India was never that high on my bucket list, but a few days here, where the majority of people are Indian (or Philipino, with a healthy dose of Iranians) has wetted my appetite substantially.
Whoop, flight checkin just opened up. On to Africa!
PS. I found it strange how long I could go in the older parts of town today playing spot-the-white-tourist and not winning. But of the 9 lines tonight, each more than 20 people deep, I am not only the only ginger, but the only white guy period. Either Dubai to Addis Ababa to Kilamanjaro is not a common route for westerners, or I'm going to have an even harder time blending in than I anticipated! :)
EDIT: forgot 1 important detail - they have a Tim hortons here. Its between that, the skating rink, ad the mention of Ontario's contribution to the construction of the khalifa for our best representation here.
- bastakiya and the Dubai museum were worth the visit. Nothing mind blowing, but walking through there and past the "creek" left me feeling like I'd experienced a little bit of Arabia finally. Also, despite it's ancient origins and Arabic culture, it's striking how similar dubai's modern history is to Calgary. Both definite oil boom towns, and follow roughly the same growth chronology. Obviously their city planners are a bit more flamboyant however.
- the Burj Khalifa is HUGE. I mean MASSIVE. Even looking up from the observation deck on the 124th floor, it's still bigger than any building in Calgary. Its a bugger to try to capture the whole thing in one shot. Definitely worth the trip here to see it and the al Arab.
- the views from the top are something too. Haze as far as the eye can see in all directions. :P I've heard you can see Iran on a clear day, but today I could barely make out the shoreline.
- The skyscrapers here are all so unique, beautiful, and tall. The Bow in Calgary would be very unremarkable here.
- speaking of which, I did not make it to a beach. Sad face. I was pretty worn out from work and didn't really start feeling like I was on vacation until last night though. Should be far more adventurous from here out, provided I survive tonight's flight. I never did fall asleep again last night and eventually gave up when the breakfast cafe opened at 7. Caught a few hours before checkout, but tomorrow could be rough.
- Dubai mall is interesting. Also HUGE (largest in the world apparently), and packed. Very much an upscale, and upsized west Ed. A shopaholic's dream come true, even a shopophobe like myself easily killed 4 very enjoyable hours there without even setting foot in a store and only getting lost twice.
- For all the talk of modest dress, there sure were a lot of surprisingly short skirts around there. Most worn by the relatively few white girls. Man... white people.
- there are prayer rooms everywhere here, and its pretty cool hearing the call to prayer while shopping in a mall. The vast number of minarets protruding above the low lying skyline areas is quite neat too. Even the houses out in the desert had ones in their backyards.
- man can they make hummus here. I've had the best pita, falafels, and hummus of my life this week, but the lebanese restaurant I ate at tonight topped it all. My side of hummus came with a basket of straight-out-of-the-oven pita bread that was unbelievable. I don't know what they did to it cause it was still just flat bread and mushed chick peas, but I was having outright foodgasms, complete with eyes rolling back in my head, and that hasn't happened since the fresh-out-of-the-water sushi in Japan. More please!!!
- it wasn't all grand though. The Lebanese white coffee tasted an awful lot like the hot water bowls you get to wash up with at Swiss chalet. Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be or if the waiter was having a good laugh at this dumb backpacker's expense.
- after dinner tonight, I sneezed so violently my nose made a high pitched squeal as loud as an industrial strength alarm. Not sure how that happened, but I sure startled a few people around me. Glad I don't live around here.
- milk chocolate made with camel's milk doesn't taste all that different. Recommended.
- wandered through a supermarket to burn off my last few dirhams and got curious when I saw the "ethnic food" aisle. Still has the same curries and whatnot we have. But also Mexican and cheese whiz.
- for some reason, India was never that high on my bucket list, but a few days here, where the majority of people are Indian (or Philipino, with a healthy dose of Iranians) has wetted my appetite substantially.
Whoop, flight checkin just opened up. On to Africa!
PS. I found it strange how long I could go in the older parts of town today playing spot-the-white-tourist and not winning. But of the 9 lines tonight, each more than 20 people deep, I am not only the only ginger, but the only white guy period. Either Dubai to Addis Ababa to Kilamanjaro is not a common route for westerners, or I'm going to have an even harder time blending in than I anticipated! :)
EDIT: forgot 1 important detail - they have a Tim hortons here. Its between that, the skating rink, ad the mention of Ontario's contribution to the construction of the khalifa for our best representation here.
More pics up
Threw a few more pics up just now. Mostly just me embarrassing myself at the burj khalifa. I did send them in the right order this time, but they got stuck in my outbox with this uber fast free wifi connection I've hopped on so it's completely disordered now, but if you start at the bottom again you'll get the gist. Go to the same link as before.
Again this is just a small sampling of iPhone pics. The best ones are on my camera and will have to wait until I get home.
Again this is just a small sampling of iPhone pics. The best ones are on my camera and will have to wait until I get home.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Picstures!
Neither blogger nor Picasa seem to want my iPhone uploading from here, so I've had to come up with a backup plan. I give you, my shiny new Flickr photo stream:
Click Me!!!
Apparently I uploaded them in reverse order, so read from the bottom up. I'll try to do better next time :P
Click Me!!!
Apparently I uploaded them in reverse order, so read from the bottom up. I'll try to do better next time :P
(Almost) Done in Dubai
I'm laying here awake at 4AM, exactly 24 hours before my flight to Tanzania. The plan was to get a lot of sleep then stay up till my flight tomorrow, but going to bed early backfired and I've been awake in the middle of the night for a couple hours now. Apparently my body thought that was just an afternoon nap. It was lunch time back home when I laid down afterall.
Tomorrow is still going to be a busy day so I may as well make use of the time and update the ol' blog. Doing it on the phone, so short form only:
- Dubai is a looooong way from home. I never really looked at where I was going when i booked this, and was surprised to realize I'm actually past Iraq, and due south of Iran. You can't fly much further east before you are actually flying towards home again. In fact, Muscat in Oman is the only other major city in the world you would fly east from Calgary to reach, and it's only 300km further. Next major city is Karachi and that's closer flying west. The only places in the Northern Hemisphere that take longer to reach are on the Indian Ocean coastline, like Mogadishu. Or Sri Lanka. 11 hour time difference and 23 hours in transit. I won't be doing this trip too often!
- didn't get to my hotel until 3AM (Welcome to Dubai! Please enjoy a 1 hour wait in the passport control lines). So I crashed pretty hard the first couple days. I did manage to walk over to the Mall of the Emirates, go for a swim in the hotel's rooftop pool, and take a half day trip into the desert.
- the mall was really nice. But unless you plan on dropping $100 to access the indoor ski hill, it is still just a mall. Albeit with mosques on the top floor.
- Just realized I didn't take any desert photos on my phone so no pics of that until I'm back unfortunately. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, but the ride out was definitely worth the price of admission. We had the most aggressive of the "dune bashing" drivers in our SUV (I know cause he kept passing the other drivers, who were themselves going insane speeds). It was by far the roughest and scariest roller coaster I've ever been on. I could have sworn we were going to roll several times, and there were long stretches where the only time the seat touched my butt was to ensure I stayed suspended in mid-air. Took a couple hours walking around the campsite to get my stomach to settle back down. The entertainment was ok but I found all the Indian tourists more entertaining than the belly dancer. They sure got into that! There was only 1 dune by the camp suitable for sand boarding, and even there you only got about half way down before the fun stopped. I guess I can say I've done it now, but I'm going to have to leave the Sahara on my bucket list to get a real good experience. Still, the free seesha at the end of the night left me feeling like it was a decent experience overall. :)
(Note: I've started saying "Indian" instead of "East Indian". After a couple days here you start realizing there is no need to clarify and you just sound silly if you do. It's like coming to Canada and calling it "ice hockey".)
- today I took the long walk all the way to the Burj Al Arab. You need a reservation at one in the restaurants to get on the grounds, so I booked into the sky view bar, whose minimum charge of only $60 was the cheapest I could find. With cocktails at $40 and up, it's not hard to hit that. The interior is very nice, with gold plating just about every where you look (including some parts of the toilets) but I was actually more impressed just looking at the building on my walk over. I'd seen it hundreds of times in pictures so wasn't expecting much, but it's a seriously imposing structure and stands out even among all the architectural eye candy in this city. At $1800/night for the cheapest room though, it's purely a status symbol. Cool experience going there, but if I were actually going to splurge on a room I'd stay at the Madinat next door. Walked through there on the way over and was far more impressed with what it offered.
- in between both hotels was a poster for the Red Crescent (the local version of the Red Cross I assume), with a picture of a starving child and a caption "Your Wealth. Her Happiness." Well played. And I do agree. I'm all for having nice things and enjoying life (obviously, given my travel itineraries), but there comes a point where it's just excessive. I'm sure most people could do just fine spending a mere $800 on their hotel room and giving the other $1K to someone who needs it. Please shoot me if I ever start spending money quite that excessively.
- tomorrow I check out and head to the Old Dubai area to explore the quaint area of Bastakiya before heading to the Burj Khalifa for my "ride to the top" at 4:30, after which I'll kill my remaining few hours at Dubai mall, the current largest in the world (until they build a bigger one, also in Dubai I'm sure). I never did make it to a beach, so if I have time in between I'll try to pop by 1, although chances are looking slim now given I'll likely (hopefully) be sleeping till noon.
Tomorrow is still going to be a busy day so I may as well make use of the time and update the ol' blog. Doing it on the phone, so short form only:
- Dubai is a looooong way from home. I never really looked at where I was going when i booked this, and was surprised to realize I'm actually past Iraq, and due south of Iran. You can't fly much further east before you are actually flying towards home again. In fact, Muscat in Oman is the only other major city in the world you would fly east from Calgary to reach, and it's only 300km further. Next major city is Karachi and that's closer flying west. The only places in the Northern Hemisphere that take longer to reach are on the Indian Ocean coastline, like Mogadishu. Or Sri Lanka. 11 hour time difference and 23 hours in transit. I won't be doing this trip too often!
- didn't get to my hotel until 3AM (Welcome to Dubai! Please enjoy a 1 hour wait in the passport control lines). So I crashed pretty hard the first couple days. I did manage to walk over to the Mall of the Emirates, go for a swim in the hotel's rooftop pool, and take a half day trip into the desert.
- the mall was really nice. But unless you plan on dropping $100 to access the indoor ski hill, it is still just a mall. Albeit with mosques on the top floor.
- Just realized I didn't take any desert photos on my phone so no pics of that until I'm back unfortunately. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, but the ride out was definitely worth the price of admission. We had the most aggressive of the "dune bashing" drivers in our SUV (I know cause he kept passing the other drivers, who were themselves going insane speeds). It was by far the roughest and scariest roller coaster I've ever been on. I could have sworn we were going to roll several times, and there were long stretches where the only time the seat touched my butt was to ensure I stayed suspended in mid-air. Took a couple hours walking around the campsite to get my stomach to settle back down. The entertainment was ok but I found all the Indian tourists more entertaining than the belly dancer. They sure got into that! There was only 1 dune by the camp suitable for sand boarding, and even there you only got about half way down before the fun stopped. I guess I can say I've done it now, but I'm going to have to leave the Sahara on my bucket list to get a real good experience. Still, the free seesha at the end of the night left me feeling like it was a decent experience overall. :)
(Note: I've started saying "Indian" instead of "East Indian". After a couple days here you start realizing there is no need to clarify and you just sound silly if you do. It's like coming to Canada and calling it "ice hockey".)
- today I took the long walk all the way to the Burj Al Arab. You need a reservation at one in the restaurants to get on the grounds, so I booked into the sky view bar, whose minimum charge of only $60 was the cheapest I could find. With cocktails at $40 and up, it's not hard to hit that. The interior is very nice, with gold plating just about every where you look (including some parts of the toilets) but I was actually more impressed just looking at the building on my walk over. I'd seen it hundreds of times in pictures so wasn't expecting much, but it's a seriously imposing structure and stands out even among all the architectural eye candy in this city. At $1800/night for the cheapest room though, it's purely a status symbol. Cool experience going there, but if I were actually going to splurge on a room I'd stay at the Madinat next door. Walked through there on the way over and was far more impressed with what it offered.
- in between both hotels was a poster for the Red Crescent (the local version of the Red Cross I assume), with a picture of a starving child and a caption "Your Wealth. Her Happiness." Well played. And I do agree. I'm all for having nice things and enjoying life (obviously, given my travel itineraries), but there comes a point where it's just excessive. I'm sure most people could do just fine spending a mere $800 on their hotel room and giving the other $1K to someone who needs it. Please shoot me if I ever start spending money quite that excessively.
- tomorrow I check out and head to the Old Dubai area to explore the quaint area of Bastakiya before heading to the Burj Khalifa for my "ride to the top" at 4:30, after which I'll kill my remaining few hours at Dubai mall, the current largest in the world (until they build a bigger one, also in Dubai I'm sure). I never did make it to a beach, so if I have time in between I'll try to pop by 1, although chances are looking slim now given I'll likely (hopefully) be sleeping till noon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)