Post Vacation Recovery Vacation

After 5 days on safari we were finally headed for the vacation part of our vacation.  We boarded a 12-seat Cessna 802 for our flight to Zanzibar.  I was a little nervous flying in a plane where the cockpit was just a few rows in front of me and fully visible and the seatbelts were less advanced than the ones in my car, but once we took off and the plane cooled down a bit all was fine.

Colleen had emailed our hotel as well as two tour companies to find out about arranging transportation from the airport to our hotel on the east side of the island.  After some negotiations, she narrowed it down to one of the tour companies.  Although she notified the hotel that she made other arrangements and never heard from the other company, this did not stop either from sending cars.  There were three drivers holding up signs with Colleen’s name and the name of our hotel. Fortunately one of them was wearing a polo shirt with the tour company’s logo so we went with him.  Once he handed each of us an ice cold bottle of water, we were certain we made the right choice.

The ride to the hotel was surprisingly smooth.  We were all so used to the bumps and dust of the safari vehicle, we found the air-conditioned, smooth ride a wonderful treat.  Especially given the extreme temperature and humidity of Zanzibar.  After an hour or so, we arrived at the hotel and took a seat at the beach-front, pool-side bar for our complementary juice while they checked us in.  We were thrilled to find a cool breeze coming off the ocean and even happier to learn that the rooms were air-conditioned.

  

We spent the rest of the day at the bar enjoying the view, breeze and books.  A well-deserved treat after the dusty, rainy safari.  In fact, we staked out the same spot for most of the following day as well.  We did take the time to test out the bath-water-like Indian Ocean and take a stroll down the beach.  It didn’t take long for us to return to our little oasis at the bar.

For dinner we headed to The Rock.  We were expecting Sean Connery to greet us upon arrival but he apparently escaped again.  The Rock is a restaurant a little north of our hotel in a little house on a rock in the ocean.  We could walk out due to the low tide, but apparently during high tide you have the option to take a boat. After the sun goes down, the only lights are the candles at each table which made for amazing star gazing. 

For our last full day in Africa, we headed west to Stonestown with a short stop at a spice plantation.  Similar to my spice tour in Goa, we began to melt as soon as we stepped out of the car.  In addition to our tour guide, we had a plantation worker escort us on the tour. When he wasn’t climbing trees to access some leaves or flowers for us to smell he was weaving the fronds of a coconut tree.  By the end of the tour, he made Colleen, Holly and I necklaces, bracelets, crowns and purses and for Dan a tie and top hat.  And just for me, a ring.

From the spice plantation, the driver took us to our hotel in Stonestown.  I quickly realized how much time I spent sitting in cars during the last two weeks when my quads yelped at me walking up the stairs to our room.  After cleaning up briefly, we headed in to town.  It didn’t take long to realize that Stonestown was not charming enough to warrant the unbelievable heat and humidity.  I think I lost five pounds in water weight just trying to find a place to eat.  After lunch, we walked past the fort where the slave trade took place and stopped in a couple shops (one, fortunately, with A/C) before we decided that we needed ice cream or we might pass out.  We looked at the map and quickly discovered that most of the streets are actually allies that are neither named on the map or on the street.  But that didn’t stop us from finding what we were looking for.  A couple of scoops later and we were almost human again… sticky, but human.

During our ice cream break, we decided that for our last morning, rather than melting on the street again, we would all go to the spa for a traditional Zanzibari scrub and massage.  Something to look forward to for tomorrow before the 30+ hour trip home.  

In the Bush

Our safari and Tanzania started in Lake Manyara in search of the famous tree-climbing lions.  Shortly after entering the park we found ourselves surrounded by baboons.  At the start of any safari, which I learned from my time in South Africa, all new animals are exciting and you feel like you could watch them for hours.  However, by the fourth or fifth time you see them, you barely give them a glance.  But this was day one, and we were ready for anything.  After about 30 minutes of watching the baboons playing, fighting, eating and grooming, we move on and spent a similar amount of time with the elephants.  And then again with the zebra, giraffe, monkey etc.  But, like I said, we were really hoping to find the lions. A couple hours into the excursion, we saw a number of safari trucks lined up, which is usually a sign of something good.  We were told it was, in fact, a lion in a tree.  However, even with the binoculars I had inadvertently stolen from my parents, I couldn’t tell.  To me it looked like part of the tree was a slightly lighter color of brown than another part.   Shortly after searching and failing to really  see anything, it was time to leave the park and make for camp.

I was actually a bit nervous about this because the town where we were setting up camp was called Mto wa Mbu which translates to River of Mosquitos.  While the 98 percent Deet bug spray I was using was capable of destroying my pedicure and melting Holly’s shoes, it was largely successful in keeping the mosquitos at bay.

The next morning, we headed along a rather bouncy and winding road through the Ngorongoro conservation area to the Serengeti.  Along this road we saw a number of Masai villages and many Masai people herding cattle.  Next to the cattle were thousands of wildebeest and hundreds of zebra.  At one point we had to stop for a while and wait for about a thousand wildebeest to cross the road.  Watching this was spectacular and made you wonder what it must be like during the great wildebeest migration in the Serengeti when there are tens of thousands of wildebeest running in search of water. 

Shortly after entering the park, we came across a leopard napping in a tree conveniently located near the road.  (I really came to appreciate the animals that recognized how much we appreciated road-side posing).  The leopard more than made up for missing out on the tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara.  It looked so content just lying there, tail swinging in the wind, eyes closed with just the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth.  Shortly after, we came across a pride of lions.  They were a bit hard to see in the tall grass but one of them was nice enough to lay on her back, foot straight up in the air as if holding up a flag to let us know where to look.  But all the lions were, like the leopard, comfortably dreaming and not interested in putting on a show for us.

We spent much of the next two days on game drives.  By this point, we barely gave elephants, giraffes, zebra, baboons or antelope a second glance.  We had seen so many by this point that they really needed to work for it if they wanted us to stop.  And one baboon was indeed determined to put on a show.  We all regret that no one thought to video the baby baboon learning to climb and balance on a tree limb. He was up, he was down, he was hanging on to his brother’s tail, he was back up and then his brother stepped on the tree limb and both the limb and the baby went down.  But even this didn’t stop the determined baboon.

By contrast we could spend hours watching large cats doing nothing.  We came across a rather large pride of lions sunning themselves and spent 30 minutes watching their heads popping up and then lying back down.  Eventually all of the lions rose up, one at a time, walked about 50 feet to the left and then laid back down again in the shade.  We found another leopard that was a little more active.  We followed it (along with 30 or so other trucks jockeying for the best position) about 300 yards as it slowly worked it’s way through the grass.  At one point, it did manage to nab itself a rabbit but was clearly looking for something with a little more meat on it’s bones.  She finally diverted from the roadside and moved out of view to continue her hunt.  The cheetahs put on the best show.  We came across four that had spread themselves out in a perfect line such as a search party might.  They were clearly on the prowl for something good but the nearby impalas and wildebeest were on to them and moved safely out of the way.  But we enjoyed watching them work together to identify lunch even though it did not work out as planned.

The last day of our safari took place in the Ngorongoro crater.  I liked Colleen’s description, “it looks like an illustration from a fairy tale”.  Inside the crater was amazing, large green fields with a clear lake in the middle and a forest off to the side.  Here was where all the animals came together to play.  Elephants, zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, dik diks, gazelle, and a large variety of birds were all hanging out on the same fields of green.  As Dan said, it’s just like Dolores Park on a sunny day in San Francisco.  Here we finally saw the last of the big five, the rhino (others being elephant, lion, leopard, and buffalo).  Unlike some animals, the rhino were a bit shy and only visible via binoculars and cameras.  From the naked eye, they looked more like slow moving boulders. 

I think one of our biggest revelations is that, in nature, women do all the work (I’m not sure why we were surprised).  Men fight amongst themselves to be able to mate with the women but that’s about it.  Women do most of the hunting at which point the dominant male comes back to claim first dibs on the food.  Holly kept imagining the large male lions wearing white wife-beater t-shirts.  Headshots at the post office with all the rest of the dead-beat-dads.  I think this actually reduced her excitement when we finally came across a full-grown male lion.  But it wouldn’t just be lions in the wife-beaters. The same would be true for the majority of the male animals we saw.  That being said, this was my third safari, and I hope not my last.  I highly recommend that everyone, if given the opportunity go to Africa and go on a safari.  It is worth the long flights and the price for those few moments when you are face to face with a lion.

Penetrating the Imprentable

We arrived in Uganda to little fanfare.  It took us over an hour to get through customs and immigration and then another hour to get to the hotel. By the time we arrived, we both were hungry and in need of a shower.  After showering, Colleen and I met Holly and Dan in the lobby for a late lunch.  Soon thereafter, Colleen decided to nap but I was trying to stay awake until bedtime so I ordered a coffee and pulled out my book.  After an hour of shift position and trying to keep my eyes opem, I gave in and headed up to the room for a power nap before dinner.

Our next day consisted of 10+ hours in a Land Rover driving across Uganda to Kisoro.  To be honest, I spent most of the time sleeping but while awake I couldn’t help to notice the beauty.  I was surprised by how lush and green the country was.  This was striking, even when departing the airport, but more so the further away we travelled from the city.  Just after arriving at the Travellers Rest House (second home to Dian Fossey while she was living with the Gorillas) the rain began.  Not just a sprinkling but an outright downpour.  I wasn’t sure how this would impact our trek.

Gorilla day was finally upon us.  We woke up early so we could eat breakfast and be on the road by 6:00 AM for the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to 300+ mountain gorillas.  Although the drive was a mere 2 hours, the winding roads and rough conditions made it seem just as long as the previous day.  Shortly after arriving at the park we were greeted by our guide, Hobart, and guard, John and headed off into the jungle. 

Both Hobart and John were extremely friendly but being led by a man dressed in camouflage, rubber boots and a machete and being followed by another dressed the same and carrying an AK-47 kept me imagining how quickly this could turn from a tour to see the gorillas to something much worse.  It reminded me so much of the book that I read while travelling in Colombia about the presidential candidate being kidnapped by the FARC and required to trek all over the jungles. 

We had been hiking for a little over an hour when Hobart received word from the two gorilla trackers that had left much earlier in search of our gorilla family that we were close.  In fact, we just need to climb the hill to our right and we would be there.  Hobart asked us to wait a moment while he went in search of the best route but quickly returned with the news that we need to climb straight up.  Just to help you visualize, we had been walking a well-worn path up to the point with a practically wall of vegetation to our right.  Now we find out that we need to climb the 60 to 70 percent grade straight up to get to the gorillas.  We quickly learned what the machete was for as Hobart led the way.  For the next half hour or so, we climbed; walking stick in one hand, hand full of vegetation in the other as we worked our way up the hill.  The only things I could think of on the climb was 1) I needed some sugar to combat my rapidly falling blood sugar (thank you Santa Claus for the Tabasco Chocolate in my Christmas stocking) and 2) how would we ever get down? 

Once we reached the top we were greeted by two more men in camouflage pointing up into the trees were a handful of mountain gorillas were hanging out.  It was hard to make out any features, they were just large black blobs, but it didn’t matter at that point, they were the coolest black blobs I’d ever seen.  Quickly the climb was forgotten, cameras were retrieved and our hour with the gorillas had begun.  A few minutes after arriving, the gorillas were on the move heading to lunch.  As they swung tree-to-tree 20 feet above us, we quickly tried to keep up on the ground.  Fortunately, one female decided to head to the ground for her picnic lunch and we were able to really get some close ups.  The silverback (leader of the pack) made his way down to a lower branch to pose for pictures.  But as soon as our allotted hour was up, the silverback climbed out of the tree and exited stage left. 

Fortunately, the climb back down to the main path was easier (not easy) than expected.  The gorillas were nice enough to lead us to an area where the grade was closer to 45 degrees for the decent.  Once back on the main path, the route back to the trailhead was easy and fast.  About 5 minutes shy of the start, and a much needed lunch break, the rain began to fall.  Light at first but right after we made it to the covered enclosure, it really started to come down.  We felt very lucky that we were not still out in the jungle at this point tracking the gorillas like all of the other groups (about 30 people) that started at the same time as us but were assigned to other gorilla families.  Even after a leisurely lunch, none of the other groups returned.  Finally, we took the rainy path back to our Land Rover for the treacherous road back to the Rest House for a much need shower and, for me, a nap.

Although it was New Years Eve, we learned that we were once again to have an early morning departure to Entembe and after the work we all had put in, decided to head to bed prior to ringing in the New Year.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, the people of Kisora let us know when the time hit by driving the streets and honking horns, playing loud music.  Even the local dogs got into the spirit by barking out “Happy New Year” for an hour or so.  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much, but who needs rest for a 10-hour drive. 

Next up… Safari in Tanzania.

My Return to Africa

Many of you know that I spent four months in South Africa and neighboring countries back in 2002.  As much as I loved my time there, there is so much of the world that I have yet to explore.  I told Colleen that I would only go to Africa with her if we went to see the mountain gorillas.  My friend, June, has been twice to see the gorillas and after watching her videos I knew that I needed to add this to my bucket list.  Colleen agreed to my terms and before too much time had passed we talked Holly and Dan into joining us and booked a ticket to Uganda.  All this happened so many months ago that it is hard to believe that the trip is now upon us.

Tomorrow, Colleen and I leave SFO and board a flight to Frankfurt where we are lucky to have a 12 hour layover (arrgh).  The biggest challenge in this layover is that it is summer in Africa and winter in Germany.  Fortunately, I rescued a couple coats from the donation pile at my parents house which we will donate to the Frankfurt airport on our departure.   From Frankfurt we head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a four hour layover.  We are yet to determine if this is enough time to get a stamp on the passport and take a whirlwind tour of the city.  Then we finally head to Entembe, Uganda where we will spend one night before embarking on a 9 hour drive to Kisoro, Uganda.  We have one chance to see the gorillas so hopefully we will not be disappointed.

After the gorillas we plan to spend some time on Safari in Tanzania before finishing off the trip with some R&R in Zanzibar.  If you are interested in hearing about the details, stay tuned.  I will try to blog when I can.  

Two Days in Delhi

I thought having five days to see Jaipur, Agra and Delhi, I would feel rushed.  Instead, I'm happy that the tour has come to an end.  Yesterday we went to the Red Fort in Delhi. And had we not gone to Amber fort in Jaipur on Sunday, followed by Agra Fort on Monday, I might have appreciated it more.  Once again, we were taken advantage of by a rickshaw driver, this time the bicycle variety, who dropped us at Jama Masjid instead of the Red Fort.  And since it was, in fact, red, it took  us a while to discover the con.  Nothing in the description of the Red Fort in the Lonely Planet seemed to match up with what we were seeing.

Red Fort

At least the driver got us close and we found the way to the Red Fort on foot.  It really was a spectacular bit or architecture that I did enjoy touring.  But, it was developed in the same style as the Agra fort and both are now blended together in my mind.  After an hour or two wandering the grounds, we decided to find a place to eat.  Although, we seemed to be in a very touristy part of town, finding a sit-down restaurant was nearly impossible.  We probably walked 2 miles in total before we found one of the Lonely Planet recommended spots.

Our lunch spot was very close to one of the bazaar's that Nick wanted to check out, so we headed their next.  However, he must have confused the names, because this bazaar seemed to specialize in paper (i.e. wrapping paper and wedding invitations) as well as hardware.  Since neither of us are planning to marry soon, nor were we in need of new faucets for the bathroom, we decided to beat the heat by getting a beer.

Qutb Minar

Alien? Iron Pillar at Qutb Minar

Today, we decided to give sight-seeing one more try by heading to Qutb Minar in South Delhi.  I was reluctant to visit another fort, but this one was worth the drive.  Qutb Minar dates back to time of Islamic rule in India and had very different architecture that what we'd seen before.  The main site is actually the Qutb Minar, a 250 ft. tall, five story, minaret which really was an amazing site.  The rest of the complex is made up of a number of tombs and mosque as well as a mysterious iron pillar.  Some believe that the pillar was brought by aliens because it is constructed of iron so pure that it could not be cast using the technology available at the time. And yet, it still stands, rust free, for 2000 years.

We decided to end the day with a bit of shopping.  Tomorrow, we return home, to the land where hailing a taxi is tough (instead of 5 rickshaws competing for your business), shopping is easy (don't have to worry about being hassled for just looking) and eating is safe (fortunately, I never had stomach problems, but Nick never felt 100%).

Diamond in the Rough

I can think of no better way to describe the Taj Mahal than a diamond in the rough. Only in this case, it is a beautiful marble palace surrounded by a city of garbage.

We took an overnight bus from Jaipur to Agra which arrived on Agra at 5:00 AM.  The bus driver told us we had arrived, but it didn't really look like a bus station.  We seemed to have stopped on the side of the road where the only other people around were rickshaw drivers.  I should have realized then that we were being scammed but I was not fully awake yet.  One driver suggested that we get a hotel room so we could shower and leave our bags until our bus in the evening.  I didn't want to leave the bags unattended in the rickshaw so I sent Nick to take a look at the room. Not only was the hotel 6 km from the Taj Mahal, but it was a complete dump.  The driver assured me that all the hotels near the Taj were much more expensive which was completely false according to the Lonely Planet, but again, I was not fully awake.  There was no way I was going to take a shower in this dump, but after locking all of our bags together, I decided they were safe for the day.

Our first stop was the Taj Mahal itself.  And, even though at this point we were both fully aware that we had been scammed, everything was forgotten once you entered the grounds.  The palace really is deserving of being one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. From a distance the Taj is awe-inspiring but even more so up close.  Once you get right in front you realize how much work went in to the construction and how much Shah Jahan must have loved his third wife, Gauhara Begum, to honor here with this place.

View of Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort

After oohing and aahing at the Taj for some time, we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading to the Agra Fort.  The Fort is just across the river from the Taj and offers some nice views, which is unfortunately, the only views of the Taj that Shah Jahan had of his palace after he was overthrown by his son and imprisoned in the Fort. Once we got our fill at the fort, we decided to take a bus the 40 km to Fatehpur Sikri. Although, or perhaps because, the bus was extremely hot and crowded, I found I had trouble keeping my eyes open for the hour-long journey.  (That being said, I've found that if you can avoid looking out the window while in cars, buses, or rickshaws without getting motion sickness, I recommend you do so.)

Fatehpur Sikri

We had a bit of trouble finding the ruins in Fatehpur Sikri, but what would you know, a nice gentleman was happy to show us the way.  He assured us that he was not a tour guide and that there was no cost to his service.  Although, after he showed us around and explained some of the history to us, he requested we tip him. And we did, but apparently we did not appreciate his service as much as he thought we should.



Once back in Agra, I think that both Nick and I were ready to head to Delhi.  Unfortunately, we came to learn that our bus was cancelled and that they had arranged a taxi to take us. This was good in that it would drop us off directly at our hotel, but bad since it did not include a bathroom or food as was expected on the first class bus we arranged.  We also came to quickly learn that our driver was not familiar with Delhi and circled for quite a bit before I finally had to direct him using Google Maps to get to our hotel.  But at least we were guaranteed a good night sleep before exploring our last stop on our whirlwind tour of India.

The Pink City

On Saturday morning we boarded a flight to Jaipur, India.  This was our first stop on our whirlwind Golden Triangle (Jaipur, Agra and Delhi) tour of Northern India. Since we arrived around1:30 in the afternoon, our first order of business, after checking in to our hotel, was food. Both Nick and I were starving.  We were naïve enough to think that we could walk and find a spot, but within a kilometer of our hotel an Auto-Rickshaw driver, that called himself John Travolta, ran up and informed us that there was nothing nearby.  For a mere Rs 30 (about $0.50 US) he would drive us to MI road where we could choose from a variety of options, McDonalds and KFC to name two.  Instead, we requested a non-veg, north Indian spot.  Turns out, John Travolta has great taste because Nick claimed this was the best food he’d had in India.  My was good too, but, for me, everything is starting to taste the same.

Motorcycle and Camels sharing the road in the Pink City

After a leisurely lunch, John Travolta drove us through the Pink City (old Jaipur where all the buildings are painted pink) to a textile factory were we could see people block printing fabric and making rugs.  Unfortunately, they also sold some nice stuff which resulted in some unplanned purchases as well.  While my purchases were being assembled, I took the opportunity to “Go Native” and try on a sari. 

Next, Nick and I took in a Bollywood movie at the famous theater in Jaipur. We arrived a little after the start but since the majority of the movie was in Hindi, it really didn’t matter.  It seemed to be about a Bollywood singer/actress with low self-esteem that destroys any chance at love and happiness in favor of her career.  It was very dramatic and resulted in lots of oohs and ahs from the audience. 

One of many astronomical sculptures at Jantar Mantar

On Sunday, we hired John Travolta again to take us to all the sites Jaipur has to offer.  This included a museum, and astrological park, and several palaces.  All of the places were really fascinating for me, but tourists from India seemed more fascinated with Nick and I.  At the Central museum, I think I posed for at least 2 dozen photographs with a variety of Indians.  I had one, particularly long, photo shoot with some women and their husbands while I waited for Nick to finish his stroll through the museum.  Most people were friendly and asked for a photo, but many others attempted to take them on the sly.  It was both flattering and uncomfortable at the same time.

We continued our tour at the Jantar Mantar which is a hard place to describe. Apparently, Jai Singh II (founder of Jaipur) was a huge fan of astronomy.  It is said that he like astronomy nearly as much as war and built five astronomical observatories in India, with Jaipur's being the best preserved.   

View from Amber

Later we headed just outside of Jaipur to visit Amber and Jaigarh Forts.  These were build high up in the hills and you have three options for reaching them.  You can take a jeep, ride an elephant or walk.  We chose the latter in an attempt to burn off all of the heavy Indian food we've been eating.  The forts were a both prime spots for playing hide and seek.  There were many corridors and rooms to hide in and kids were running all over the place. The forts were pretty amazing, but it was the views they provided that really made the trek worthwhile.