We arrived in Kampala, Uganda after almost 3 weeks traveling around Kenya. Lots of adventures to write about! Our route took us from Mombasa to Tsavo Park on safari, to Nairobi, to Samburu Park, Marsabit, the Chalbi Desert, Lake Turkana, Maralal, and back to Nairobi. Most of it was on tour/safari, since it's near impossible to travel to some of these remote locations on your own, unless you have loads and loads of time.
Some "experiences" to share:
- Seeing the "red dust elephants" of Tsavo, magnificent. The earth is very red in this area, and elephants like to give themselves dirt/mud baths, so they are all painted bright red. We had to have a Masaii warrior walk with us around our campsite at night since the elephants roam thru there. When I say "campsite", we did stay in a tent, but we had real beds and a full bathroom inside the tent. Luxury!
- Samburu park: Seeing 10 cheetahs, including a mom with her cub eating a dead baby gazelle while the mommy gazelle looked mournfully on at a distance. Watching a herd of elephants ford a river, with baby elephant struggling not to get washed away. Dancing with the Samburu people in their village, looking like a complete mzungo fool. Having a monkey jump up beside me and grab a crepe off my plate at breakfast in camp (I did not react in a calm manner unfortunately - no I screamed extremely loud and thru my plate, narrowly missing our friend Roberta. gave everyone a good laugh though.)
- Driving thru the Desert on very rough tracks. You really felt like you're in the middle of nowhere. Watched the sun set over the desert. And cooled off in our camp's "swimming pool" (ie. water tank). Highlight was stopping for lunch "on the side of the road", where a camel herder was resting with around 20 camels. Our friend David from Belgium was keen to ride a camel so he paid the guy a few dollars to (awkwardly) jump onto a camel's back and ride around the field. I was crying I was laughing so hard, watching poor David holding on for dear life onto the camel's hump (he was basically sitting on it's butt) while the camel ran around - he eventually fell off, but he stayed on for 10.5 minutes! Impressive.
- What can I say about Lake Turkana? Out of this world. Where the Constant Gardner was filmed. The lake is huge, and a beautiful blue. Enticing in the heat, but not so tempting when you realize how many crocs live there (though Brian still went in). The weather is super super hot, but with a crazy strong wind so that you couldn't walk upright. The wind whistled thru our straw bandas (huts) all night driving us mad. The land itself is barren - volcanic rock, sand... Nothing grows there. This is where the Turkana and El Molo people live. Don't know how they survive there. They do, barely, with help from the government. They look much poorer and malnutritioned in this region, for sure. But very colourful, with beautiful beaded necklaces similar to the Samburu and Masaii people, and the Turkana women have cool mohawks. There is also still a lot of fighting between tribes. The El Molo village we visited had to uproot itself the week before since it got raided by the Gabra during the night and one person was killed. pretty brutal.
- 5 days trekking on a camel around Maralal in north central kenya. An experience of a lifetime, meaning i don't need to do that again. I was mostly with a 12 year old camel named Jet - quite liked him. Feisty. He liked to body check other camels. And he didn't like getting hit by our Samburu warrior guide ("Doctor"), so he'd try and run to avoid the stick. Fun times. My butt and back still remember well. But seriously it was fun seeing the countryside in this way, sleeping in the bush, walking by zebra, warthogs, gazelle, etc. Our first night we camped by the lake where a couple hundred years ago the Masaii and Samburu split - Masaii went south, and Samburu went north. We passed by many manyattas (villages), and as soon as people spotted us they'd run out to get a better look at the strange mzungos on camels (it was just Brian and I actually on the trip). I'm glad that we could provide some solid entertainment for the region - they all seemed to think it was hilarious. Even donkeys, goats and cows seemed intrigued. If we were walking beside the camels they wouldn't pay attention, but if we rode them they had to rush over to watch. Strange. Anyways, I was glad personally when the trip was over, since I was getting the flu. got back to base camp and our hut just in the nick of time, and spent the rest of the day in bed and in the bathroom. Fun times.
- Worst travel day ever - 13 hour trip from Maralal to Nairobi. took us 8 hours to go less than 100 kms. We got stuck in the mud at least 7 times, and had to have a team of men to pull us out. It was absolute carnage out on the roads, with trucks everywhere. I was just thankful we didn't have to stay the night there, like our driver did the night before. Can't believe that the government wouldn't do something about the roads. Apparently the minister of tourism of kenya went up to Maralal to attend the famous Camel derby, but he of course flew. I took some pictures of the roads so I can send them to him. We took in a few people into our private minibus so that they could help us when we got stuck, including a man and his two small adorable children. Our "niceness' got us nowhere, since when we arrived in Nairobi we discovered we had been robbed. Whoever it was went into our bags and took out select items, including my only pair of shoes, all my contact lenses, our malaria pills, a flashlight, etc. Very upsetting! good reminder that you really can't drop your guard here. Luckily we were able to get more malaria pills in Kampala today, so we're ok.
- 16 hour ride to Kampala, when we thought it was going to be 10 hours. As we were leaving the town of kisumu we read the paper which reported on the big bus crash that happened in that exact spot, just a few days prior. A bus driver swerved to avoid a tanker, and the tanker ripped the bus apart, killing 21 people. The last few hours of our bus ride was in the dark on crazy roads in uganda. thought we were driving in a field rather than a road, but there were big transport trucks whizzing by us.
I'm sure I've missed something, so much has been happening. But now I'm off to pack up and get some sleep - we head to lake Bunyoni tomorrow to relax for 4 days. bought a new book and a new journal so I'm set - have already read at least 7 books since arriving in Africa, and have written one full journal. Need to take full advantage of this time off - as soon as we land in singapore we'll be focused on the job search.
Brian has posted a few pictures on Picasa website. you can reach them using this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/briananderson15/AfricaHoneymoon He did have to crop the pictures quite a bit, and drop down their size, to get them on the site, so they probably don't look as good as they should. But it'll give you an idea!
Love to all,
Anne (and Brian)
Friday, August 31, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Life on the road
Can't believe we've been in Africa for 2 months now! Only 1.5 months to go now before we head to Asia. We just arrived in Kenya yesterday (Mombasa - Kenya's second biggest city on the coast), after spending just over 3 weeks in Tanzania.
Last time we wrote we were in Zanzibar, in the old Swahili Stone Town. The town itself was very interesting - lots of tight winding "streets" (really small corridors, but people still whizzed around on motor bikes), white washed buildings with beautiful carved wood doors, Mosques around every corner, bustling markets, and interesting museums/ruins. We went into an old Omani bathhouse, as well as down into a cellar where they kept the slaves who were to be sold in the slave market. They built a beautiful church on the site of the slave market - the altar is situated where the old whipping post used to be. We also visited the night market a couple nights for dinner - for a couple of dollars you can feast on things like Zanzibar pancakes, samosas, french fries, meat sticks, etc. Not exactly fine cuisine, but tasty. They also have tons of seafood, but we didn't get that adventurous. We did try the fresh cane juice. They press it there in front of you, and add lemon juice and ginger. Very yummy. Two gentlemen from Oman bought us a round, which was very nice.
After Stone Town we spent 2.5 days at the beach - staying in a bungalow right on the beach on the East Coast of Zanzibar island. There were only 5 bungalows at the "resort", and nothing else along the beach except for a small village a little ways away, so it was really quite deserted. We swam, went snorkeling on the reef (not the best, but still fun), got burnt, and read tons. Also met a nice couple (French/Slovakian) so we didn't have to talk to each other all the time :)
After the beach we took the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam. A somewhat hellish 2 hours, but we survived. The waves were pretty huge so the boat was very bumpy. People in the front of the boat were screaming for a good half hour at the beginning. I didn't see anyone get sick, but I'm sure there were many - we were just trying to hang in there. And on top of all that, they played Michael Jackson music videos for over an hour, and then Celine Dion!
After spending an evening in Dar we took the luxury bus up to Mombo. They gave us cookies, juice, water, and showed a movie! The movie was called "Prey", and it's about a family going on safari in Africa and getting hunted by a lion (the lion kills their guide, along with a few other people). Found this very amusing since there were many tourists on the bus heading up to Arusha, which is the starting point for Serengetti safaris! Someone working on the bus had a twisted sense of humour.
So, we got off at Mombo with another couple - the four of us got into a minibus headed up to the town of Lushoto. It looked comfortable enough, but we soon realized that they wouldn't leave until they had filled up the van. And "filling the van" in Tanzania is very different from North America. At one point we had 25 adults in the minibus, plus at least a couple of kids. Crazy! An uncomfortable 1.5 hour ride, but it was up a beautiful winding road through the mountains.
In Lushoto we found a cheap place to stay - for less than $7 we had a room with a double bed, ensuite bathroom (squat toilet and cold bucket shower, but at least something), and a tv (showing whatever channel they were watching in the lobby). Can't beat that! (Trying to stay positive here)
We then went on a 2.5 day hike, with a guide and the other couple (Polish/Dutch) from the minibus. It was amazing! We walked from village to village in the beautiful Usambara mountains. The villagers plant banana trees, yams, cabbage, rice, sugar cane, avocados, potatoe, trees, etc. It's so green and gorgeous, with the hills all terraced - every inch of land is used. White people don't visit the area too too ofen, so as soon as you approach a village you hear little voices yelling "Mzunga, mzunga!" (white people), and they all come screaming to see you - asking us to take their picture, etc. Some kids would cry and run away if you approached them (when I say "you", I mean Brian :) The secondary school kids would often want to talk to us so they could practice their English. Also chatted a bit with the nuns and priest at the convent that we stayed at the one evening (where there was no electricity - not even a generator - so we stumbled around with candles after foolishly leaving our flashlights in Lushoto). It was an amazing experience - the landscape, culture, everything. Our last day we had to get up at 3:50am, to take the 4am bus back to near Lushoto. 2 hours on a bumpy uncomfortable bus in the middle of the night - not exactly fun! Was glad to get off and hike for a couple more hours to a beautiful view point and an excellent breakfast.
After this we went back on the road, again with the Polish/Dutch couple, taking a local bus from Lushoto to Tanga on the coast. Another killer uncomfortable bus ride. The local buses stop every few minutes - people get on, get off, etc. They pack as many people as they can in - when you think, no they can't fit any more people on, they stop and 5 more people get on! Insane. But as they say in Africa, Hakuna Matata. Our backpacks were tied onto the roof, which was a bit worriesome. Hakuna Matata. If they fall off, they fall off - nothing you can do. (But we were fine!)
After getting off at Tanga we were under siege by around 10 guys all trying to sell us bus tickets to Mombasa, etc. Nina (Polish girl) and I looked after the bags while the boys looked for the best deal. The four of us were extremely pissed off by the time we left, and were hating Tanga already - couldn't believe how much they were harrassing us, lying to us, etc. Hakuna matata ? We decided to book the tickets the next day, since we didn't trust anyone enough to pay in advance.
The next morning at the bus station was another gong show. We finally got on a minibus headed to Mombasa, express. But as we were leaving they were still piling people in so that it was quite squishy. The couple we were with weren't impressed, so they ended up getting off to find a more comfie bus. Brian and I stuck it out - we just wanted to get to Mombasa - and it didn't really turn out that bad. Met a nice Kenyan man who gave us advice on where to go.
Mombasa - lots of headaches trying to book a safari in Tsavo Park. Won't get into it, but it took quite a few hours of our time. Could have gotten a cheaper price, but the guy lied to us a couple of time so we didn't want to give him our money. Going with a reputable company, and it's just the two of us, so should be good. Brian's trying not to have a heart attack over the cost :)
Last night was amazing - we went on a dinner cruise in the harbour. Again very expensive, but worth it. We were on a beautiful dhow (traditional wooden sail boat, with gorgeous carvings, etc.), the weather was perfect, the dinner (seafood) was incredible... So romantic that a guy there proposed to his girlfriend on the dance floor, while the cheesy band was singing a depressing James Blunt song, and the rest of us watched. Very funny.
Did enjoy getting dressed up a bit (even wore lipstick!) and going out in style. You wouldn't recognize Brian - he's got a beard now! Yes, a full beard. We are taking pictures - but still not having any luck posting unfortunately. At some point, we promise!
Today we hung out in town, visited the old Portugese Fort Jesus, wandered around the Old Town, etc. This internet cafe is getting very very hot, so I think we'll head to a local pub and have a beer now...
In case you're interested, our itinerary looks like this:
August 13-15: Tsavo safari
August 15/16: Night bus to Nairobi, stay in Nairobi
August 17: Depart on a 13 day trip to Samburu, Marsabit, Lake Turkana, Maralal, and a 5 day Camel Safari, then back to Nairobi
Then we take a bus to Uganda...
Take care!
Anne (and Brian).
Last time we wrote we were in Zanzibar, in the old Swahili Stone Town. The town itself was very interesting - lots of tight winding "streets" (really small corridors, but people still whizzed around on motor bikes), white washed buildings with beautiful carved wood doors, Mosques around every corner, bustling markets, and interesting museums/ruins. We went into an old Omani bathhouse, as well as down into a cellar where they kept the slaves who were to be sold in the slave market. They built a beautiful church on the site of the slave market - the altar is situated where the old whipping post used to be. We also visited the night market a couple nights for dinner - for a couple of dollars you can feast on things like Zanzibar pancakes, samosas, french fries, meat sticks, etc. Not exactly fine cuisine, but tasty. They also have tons of seafood, but we didn't get that adventurous. We did try the fresh cane juice. They press it there in front of you, and add lemon juice and ginger. Very yummy. Two gentlemen from Oman bought us a round, which was very nice.
After Stone Town we spent 2.5 days at the beach - staying in a bungalow right on the beach on the East Coast of Zanzibar island. There were only 5 bungalows at the "resort", and nothing else along the beach except for a small village a little ways away, so it was really quite deserted. We swam, went snorkeling on the reef (not the best, but still fun), got burnt, and read tons. Also met a nice couple (French/Slovakian) so we didn't have to talk to each other all the time :)
After the beach we took the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam. A somewhat hellish 2 hours, but we survived. The waves were pretty huge so the boat was very bumpy. People in the front of the boat were screaming for a good half hour at the beginning. I didn't see anyone get sick, but I'm sure there were many - we were just trying to hang in there. And on top of all that, they played Michael Jackson music videos for over an hour, and then Celine Dion!
After spending an evening in Dar we took the luxury bus up to Mombo. They gave us cookies, juice, water, and showed a movie! The movie was called "Prey", and it's about a family going on safari in Africa and getting hunted by a lion (the lion kills their guide, along with a few other people). Found this very amusing since there were many tourists on the bus heading up to Arusha, which is the starting point for Serengetti safaris! Someone working on the bus had a twisted sense of humour.
So, we got off at Mombo with another couple - the four of us got into a minibus headed up to the town of Lushoto. It looked comfortable enough, but we soon realized that they wouldn't leave until they had filled up the van. And "filling the van" in Tanzania is very different from North America. At one point we had 25 adults in the minibus, plus at least a couple of kids. Crazy! An uncomfortable 1.5 hour ride, but it was up a beautiful winding road through the mountains.
In Lushoto we found a cheap place to stay - for less than $7 we had a room with a double bed, ensuite bathroom (squat toilet and cold bucket shower, but at least something), and a tv (showing whatever channel they were watching in the lobby). Can't beat that! (Trying to stay positive here)
We then went on a 2.5 day hike, with a guide and the other couple (Polish/Dutch) from the minibus. It was amazing! We walked from village to village in the beautiful Usambara mountains. The villagers plant banana trees, yams, cabbage, rice, sugar cane, avocados, potatoe, trees, etc. It's so green and gorgeous, with the hills all terraced - every inch of land is used. White people don't visit the area too too ofen, so as soon as you approach a village you hear little voices yelling "Mzunga, mzunga!" (white people), and they all come screaming to see you - asking us to take their picture, etc. Some kids would cry and run away if you approached them (when I say "you", I mean Brian :) The secondary school kids would often want to talk to us so they could practice their English. Also chatted a bit with the nuns and priest at the convent that we stayed at the one evening (where there was no electricity - not even a generator - so we stumbled around with candles after foolishly leaving our flashlights in Lushoto). It was an amazing experience - the landscape, culture, everything. Our last day we had to get up at 3:50am, to take the 4am bus back to near Lushoto. 2 hours on a bumpy uncomfortable bus in the middle of the night - not exactly fun! Was glad to get off and hike for a couple more hours to a beautiful view point and an excellent breakfast.
After this we went back on the road, again with the Polish/Dutch couple, taking a local bus from Lushoto to Tanga on the coast. Another killer uncomfortable bus ride. The local buses stop every few minutes - people get on, get off, etc. They pack as many people as they can in - when you think, no they can't fit any more people on, they stop and 5 more people get on! Insane. But as they say in Africa, Hakuna Matata. Our backpacks were tied onto the roof, which was a bit worriesome. Hakuna Matata. If they fall off, they fall off - nothing you can do. (But we were fine!)
After getting off at Tanga we were under siege by around 10 guys all trying to sell us bus tickets to Mombasa, etc. Nina (Polish girl) and I looked after the bags while the boys looked for the best deal. The four of us were extremely pissed off by the time we left, and were hating Tanga already - couldn't believe how much they were harrassing us, lying to us, etc. Hakuna matata ? We decided to book the tickets the next day, since we didn't trust anyone enough to pay in advance.
The next morning at the bus station was another gong show. We finally got on a minibus headed to Mombasa, express. But as we were leaving they were still piling people in so that it was quite squishy. The couple we were with weren't impressed, so they ended up getting off to find a more comfie bus. Brian and I stuck it out - we just wanted to get to Mombasa - and it didn't really turn out that bad. Met a nice Kenyan man who gave us advice on where to go.
Mombasa - lots of headaches trying to book a safari in Tsavo Park. Won't get into it, but it took quite a few hours of our time. Could have gotten a cheaper price, but the guy lied to us a couple of time so we didn't want to give him our money. Going with a reputable company, and it's just the two of us, so should be good. Brian's trying not to have a heart attack over the cost :)
Last night was amazing - we went on a dinner cruise in the harbour. Again very expensive, but worth it. We were on a beautiful dhow (traditional wooden sail boat, with gorgeous carvings, etc.), the weather was perfect, the dinner (seafood) was incredible... So romantic that a guy there proposed to his girlfriend on the dance floor, while the cheesy band was singing a depressing James Blunt song, and the rest of us watched. Very funny.
Did enjoy getting dressed up a bit (even wore lipstick!) and going out in style. You wouldn't recognize Brian - he's got a beard now! Yes, a full beard. We are taking pictures - but still not having any luck posting unfortunately. At some point, we promise!
Today we hung out in town, visited the old Portugese Fort Jesus, wandered around the Old Town, etc. This internet cafe is getting very very hot, so I think we'll head to a local pub and have a beer now...
In case you're interested, our itinerary looks like this:
August 13-15: Tsavo safari
August 15/16: Night bus to Nairobi, stay in Nairobi
August 17: Depart on a 13 day trip to Samburu, Marsabit, Lake Turkana, Maralal, and a 5 day Camel Safari, then back to Nairobi
Then we take a bus to Uganda...
Take care!
Anne (and Brian).
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Zanzibar
Not sure where Anne left off - today we had a nice day in a Spice plantation and then an isolated beach. Now I'm attempting the first picture upload... Last night we had drinks and dinner at a place called Mercury's (because Freddie of Queen fame was born nearby). It was right on the beach and we had a front row seat to the sunset and a game of football by the local kids. Very pleasant and civilised. And we even have hot water at the place we're staying now! The last two were cold showers and bucket baths. If Anne had it her way I'm sure we'd have nice showers every night! Hmm. The uploading isn't going so well. I'll try on Picasa and post the web address later if it works.
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