Mount Sinai - Late Night Hike to the Ten Commandments

I left last night at 11 pm to hike up Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is the much publicized sight where Moses received the 10 Commandments; however, archaeologists think this is not true. But this doesn't deter the tons of tourists that climb the mountain to view the sunrise.

We arrived at the mountain at 2 am and began our hike. We had a guide who couldn't really tell us anything. Well, I take that back.... When asked about Moses, he said, "Man went up mountain and stayed a couple of days and then came down." Very informative. He also asked on of the Canadians if she was "Girl or women?" Everyone said she didn't have to answer that. He led us on a rapid ascent which seemed like quick hikes just to hurry up and rest at the coffee shops/stops of his friends on the mountain. I wasn't impressed. We finally made it to the top around 5 am and waited another hour for sunrise.


Then we took the stairs down to Saint Katherine's monastery as shown below. On the way down, our guide accosted a French lady and told her "French all you do is eat, eat, then litter." She said not all French but he simply replied, "Merci Bouque." Then he found a Canadian guy and tagged along with him. They joked for a bit but then I heard the Canadian say, "Don't touch me. Get away from me." We were all laughing as he harassed others.

We finally made it down to the monastery where the bush that caught fire and Moses talked to God through was. Our guide didn't take us into the Monastery because he didn't know anything. So I don't know anything beyond the facts about this bush written on a sign. (Please tilt your head to your left to view the photo properly.)

I made it back to the hostel at noon and took a nap because I hadn't slept all night. I definitely feel like I am in the Middle East because right across the water is Saudi Arabia. I tried to take a picture to show everyone but it's on the horizon.

Luxor - A Very Hot Valley of the Kings

Luxor is where the pharaohs who ruled Egypt from this southern city are buried. Tutankhamen is one such pharaoh. I spent two blistering hot days down there where the temperature reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit).

The first day I stupidly rented a bicycle and rode 2 km to the Temple Karnak. I was sweating like crazy but managed to wander around the temple with 2 water bottles and without a guide. Here's a photo of some statues at the Temple.

At one spot in the temple, I managed to get a guard to show me around for 10 Egyptian pounds (2 USD). He took me all around this older part of the temple, even to the rooftop. He made me crouch down and sneak out there, acting like we weren't supposed to be there. I played along and kept my head low until he told me to stand up and take this photo. Afterwards, he made me promise not to tell anyone.

That evening, I took a felucca cruise on the Nile River. A felucca is basically an Egyptian sailboat. It was nice but didn't really blow me away. Below is a sunset photo.


Day 2 in Luxor was my visit to the Valley of the Kings, a temple and the Valley of the Queens on the West bank of the Nile. I went with an organized tour from my hostel and got a great guide. These two Americans went on the tour the day before and got a guide who didn't know anything. I was pretty impressed with our guides knowledge but sadly don't remember most of what she said. I do remember that all the colors were the original natural colors which is pretty impressive considering the age of things there. Photos were not allowed in the tombs.


We went to a temple built by a queen who ruled Egypt. Below is a photo of me and some Egyptian guy who insisted on getting his photo with me. Kinda odd but I went along with it.


Below is a photo of a drawing of the queen. Her head is missing because her son that succeeded her did not like her and ordered her image removed.

That night I got back to the hostel and plotted to get a train ticket back to Cairo. I had heard from others at the hostel that the train was sold out for the next 4 days. I decided to spend more money and take the sleeping train. I paid a premium at the hostel for my ticket because the guy told me the train was sold out and he got the ticket on the black market. It definitely was not sold out because I was in a double room on the train and no one showed up for the second spot in the room. I got a chuckle out of the sales job the guy did on me. Below is a photo of the bed on the sleeping train. It was much more comfortable than the train I took down to Luxor and I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.

Egypt - Old Cairo and Sweating at the Train Station

Yesterday was super hot. I went around town with my Swedish friends. We went to the train station so that I could buy my train ticket to Luxor. We took the metro to the train station. The metro was jam-packed with people and was hot as well. We sweated on the way there. Then once we got to the train station, I went to wait in line at Platform 11 to buy a ticket. People pushed behind me and it was really a line but a mob with me at the front. I was sweating like crazy, because of the extra heat from all the people around. I was nervous because I wasn'tsure if the ticket lady understood English, but luckily she did. I purchased the ticket and we got out of there.

We jumped back on the Metro and went to Old Cairo. Old Cairo was a collection of churches from the 9th Century. We saw a Greek Orthodox Church, a coptic church and synagogue, all right close to each other. Everything was very old. We called it quits early because we were so hot.

Later in the evening, we went on a cruise down the Nile. The entertainment included belly dancing. We were pretty tired from walking around all down and Jonas wanted to go to the top deck to get some fresh air. He got up and went by the belly dancer. She grabbed him and said she would kill him if he left. Jonas promptly returned to our table. We all got a good laugh out of it and quietly snuck out.

I'm pretty thankful for meeting up with Magnus and Jonas from Sweden. We explored Cairo together and had a great time. These guys were pretty funny because they didn't understand how someone could spend a day in Petra, Jordan. They were talking about this with Tosh and May, the girl that came with him. May asked if they saw this particular church, even showing them a photo on her camera. Turns out, that they didn't walk far enough at Petra and missed one of the great sites. Similarly, we were in the Egyptian Museum and we thought we were down with the second floor. Jonas, even said "I am done with this floor." We walked towards the stairs and I saw signs for the other Royal mummy exhibit and I asked if we had seen it yet. We hadn't so we went in. We all laughed becuase they almost left without seeing it.

An interesting thing about our hostel is that new people would always sleep in our dorm room. There were two extra beds and someone who worked at the hostel was always in there taking a nap. It could be night, day, basically anytime. We always wondered who would show up next. The bad part is that they never changed the sheets after sleeping there. Glad, I'm outta that place tonight.

Egypt - Cairo - Expensive Pyramids and Tosh, random

I got from the airport on early Sunday morning and Muhammed Ali from the hostel picked me up. He drives an old Puegot. He told me, "Old but strong car." We made it to the hostel without any problems even though the car was pretty old. There are a lot of old cars here in Cairo for sure.

I met up with Jonas and Magnus, two brothers from Sweden, yesterday morning and we headed out to the pyramids. They're staying in the same dorm room as me and we figured we would have more bargaining power with three people. We also put too much faith in the manager at our hostel. He bought us tea and did a nice sales job. Off we went in Ali's "strong car."

Ali dropped us off at a stable outside of the Gisa pyramids and we thoght we negotiated a good deal to ride camels into the pyramids. My camel made a lot of noise. It sounded like one of those things in Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, one of the animals they ride in the snow.

Another guy named Ali was our guide. Riding the camels is kinda rough. I was bouncing up and down in the saddle as the guides made the camels run. I think they enjoyed seeing the Westerners struggle to stay on the camels. We rode right up to the pyramids. It was a bit surreal always hearing about these pyramids and finally seeing them. They are quite massive.

We even went into one. We had to crouch as we walked down about 30 meters and then up about 20 meters more through a tunnel in the pyramid. It was extremely hot and I kept on hitting my head on the ceiling. There was absolutely nothing inside the pyramid because they took everything to the Egyptian museum for preservation.

After seeing the big 3 pyramids we went to the Sphinx. It's much smaller than I initially thought and we weren't able to get too close. Then, that's when the trouble began with our guide because he asked us for a tip. I gave him 20 pounds. He said it wasn't enough so I gave 50 and then he wanted even more. I said no. And then I told him that I was already being very generous because it was a 20% tip and that I was only a student. He could tell that I was pretty upset. I even told him that I was unhappy with how things had turned. He didn't ask me for more money but hit up my Swede companions.

On the ride back to the hostel, we realized that we had overpaid to go see the pyramids by doing some more research in our Lonely Planet. We weren't too happy about that and were upset that we placed too much trust in our hostel manager. We then vowed to haggle much more.

Last night, we went to restaurant to grab a beer and Tosh, a fellow student from Michigan, walked in randomly. He had just gotten into town and checked into a hotel near the restaurant. He and a girl he was traveling with randomly chose the restaurant. Very small world. Tosh's friend went to bed early and we all headed out for one more beer. It was roughly midnight and the streets were packed. Everyone was out shopping because the temperature is much, much cooler at night.

Mangus found this bar listed in the lonely planet. We were the only Westerners in there and they were very happy to have us. They bought beer over and a water pipe. Then, they quickly hit us up for tips. The one lady kept on telling Magnus and me, "Remember Selwa tips." Selwa was her name. There was also some live entertainment there with a keyboard player and a pretty bad singer. He sung loudly in Arabic. After one beer, we got out of there, left a little tip and headed home.

Today, I headed to the Egyptian museum with the Swedes. Lots of Egyptian artifacts there. The highlights were the royal mummies (where we saw Ramses the Great) and a gold mask for Tutenkamen. This was placed over his mummified head so that his soul would recognize him in the afterworld. Quite impressive.

Tanzania - Moshi Guns and all

I made it to Moshi yesterday. I was a bit nervous about the bus ride here, making sure that I got on the right bus and with all my stuff. Isaac and Mr. Bean told me to be careful because the bus station is plagued with thieves. I walked briskly from my hotel with all my bags and hopped on the first bus that I heard was going to Moshi. Guys were standing in front of its dor yelling"Moshi, Moshi." I got on and asked a couple people if I made it to the right bus. All was good and I even got charged the local price. The bus flew to Moshi. I mean the driver gunned it every chance he had. I have no idea how fast we were going and probably don't want to know.

Sitting next to me on the bus was man named Mahari. He was on his way back to Moshi where he worked in admissions at a local hospital. When we got to Moshi he was kind enough to walk me to my hotel. He asked, "Can I escort you to your hotel?" I was skeptical but said yes. And he walked me there without any problem and didn't try to hussle me. I was pretty happy about that.

For dinner, I decided to go to Deli Chez, a western/Indian restaurant that someone recommended. On my way there I got lost but knew I was close. I asked a taxi driver and of course he wanted me to hop in and he would take me there. I told him no way because I knew I was close. He laughed and said it was just around the corner.

As I walked around the corner, I noticed there was a policeman with an AK47 in the street, waving people back. He was clearing the street right in front of the police station. People were getting out of the way. The restaurant I wanted to go to was right on the other side of the station so I had to wait. Then, there was an opening as people crossed to the other side. I ran with them. The police guy was waving cars and a bus off the street. Then, a pickup truck like an army transport, shot out of the police station. The truck gunned it and was out of the area pretty quickly. There were guys in the back with guns as well. I quickly went into the restaurant and asked what happened. The waitress said she thought it was a thief. Needless to say the restaurant was overpriced so I kept on looking. I found anything place that was cheaper and didn't have as much activity outside.

Tanzania - Big 5 and a Guinea Fowl

I met with success on my 8 day safari in Tanzania. I managed to see the Big 5 (being lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino) and ran with bushmen hunting and killing a guinea fowl. I went with Duma Explorer. Our guide, Isaac was awesome and our cook, Mr. Bean wasn't too bad either. Isaac gave us lots of information on the animals we saw and regaled us with stories of other safaris over dinner. My other travel companion was a guy named Matt who is from the US and will be attending Darden for business school in the fall. Here's the safari crew from left to right: me, Mr. Bean (the cook), Isaac and Matt. What follows is a rough account of each day.


Day 1 - Tarangire National Park
I don't really remember too much about it because it was nothing out of the ordinary compared to my overland. We saw mostly elephants, giraffe and zebra. It was Matt's first day in the wild so he really enjoyed just seeing the animals. We saw some buffalo, big animals and really dangerous because of their strength.

Day 2 - Tarangire National Park
The highlight of the day was seeing two male elephants chase after a female and try to mate. Isaac alerted us to the action after we heard the female trumpet as she ran away from the first male. Isaac said they were trying to mate but the female didn't accept the male, hence the noise and running. Then another male chased after her, as shown below but he was unsuccessful as well. Isaac commented on the chase, "See the fifth leg is out." Other cars drove past this scene but didn't stay long enough nor were they quiet enough to see everything play out.
The next major sighting was two ostriches chasing each other in another mating ritual. Isaac pointed out the female fluffing her wings as a sign that she was ready to mate. The male took the hint and chased after her wildly. They ran back and forth across the field and even crashed through a herd of zebra. However, the male was not successful here either. Once again, everyone else missed the action because their drivers didn't know what was going on and they drove by. Isaac was great because he pointed out the animals and repositioned our truck so that we could get a better view. He told us Spanish and Italians sometimes don't get to see a lot because they make a lot of noise.

Day 3 - Lake Manyara
We drove into a pack of elephants by mistake. They were hidden by bush and we came upon them fairly quickly. Isaac moved us out of the way into a safe position. Apparently elephants can only see 1-3 meters away from them and because we were in a car we looked like another big animal to them. Below is a mother elephant eying us and protecting her baby.


Next we encountered a chameleon crossing the road. He was bright green and slowly changing color. He was also ever so slowly making his way across the road. Another driver almost ran over him but luckily, Isaac had to warn the other driver not to hit the chameleon.

After driving a bit, Isaac pointed out an leopard and we have no idea how he spotted it. It was about 250 yards away, laying in a tree. He told us later that he saw something there and said to himself that there's not supposed to be a nest there so he backed the car up and pointed out the leopard. He knows the area pretty well.

While we were watching the leopard, two kids and an older lady drove by. We pointed out the leopard which the kids saw but the old lady couldn't. She kept saying "I can't see it. Can I get out?" Having been denied getting out by her driver, they drove on. She was lucky she didn't get out....

As we were watching the leopard, some impala started to make huffing noises, alerting others to the leopard or so we thought. Then out popped a lion, looking right at us. It got down in a crouched position ready to spring. Isaac had his door open but quickly shut it saying he didn't want to become its next prey. Other trucks stopped to see the action but they made too much noise and the lion and leopard left. Although, I think the leopard left because of the lion.

Day 4 - Serengeti
On our way to the Serengeti, we stopped for lunch at a popular eating spot. There were a so many people there that I remarked to Matt,"Everyone and their mother must be here." And right afterwards we ran into the Michigan crew, Irene, Addi, and Munish all eating lunch.

On our drive into the Serengeti, we saw a couple of lions lying under trees and a leopard in a tree. The best sighting was of one lion trying to attack a baby elephant. The lion was sneaking up but the mother elephant charged at it and made a loud trumpeting noise. The lion reared on its hind legs and ran away.

Day 5 - Serengeti
We saw a lot of lions just laying around and a bunch of zebra at this water hole. Zebra are nervous animals that are good at sensing danger. They ran from the hole every time a car drove up.


Isaac informed us that the zebra and wildebeest often travel together because the wildebeest have a good sense for finding water holes and the zebra are great at sensing danger. The zebra are the ones who say its ok for the wildebeest to go to the water hole.

Day 6 - Serengeti
We passed a truck that had been broken down for 3 days (which was the entire time we had been there). The front axle was off the truck. Isaac talked to the driver and gave him water and peanuts. Apparently he hadn't eaten anything since they broke down and was just waiting for repairs to come.

After some more driving, we saw a lion stalking a herd of zebra. We were tracking it until it got too low to the ground for us to see. Then all of a sudden it jumped up closer to the herd but it jumped too early and only managed to split the herd in two groups. One brave zebra stayed near the lion and alerted the others to its presence as they others ran away.

Next we saw a cheetah. This cheetah was very hard to see. We had been looking at where this other guide told us the cheetah was for about 10 minutes and couldn't see anything. Frustrated with us, this other guide got on top of his truck and made some noise. Then the cheetah got up and walked a bit further away, giving us the glimpse we were waiting for.

On our way to Ngorongoro that afternoon our truck got a flat tire. Isaac and Mr. Bean, our cook, quickly changed the tire, which was punctured by a big screw.

Day 7 - Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro was cold. I wore my warmest clothes there. Isaac even wore a blanket over his everyday short sleeve shirt. We started out at 6 am and got down in the crater in enough time to see some action. We saw some lions playing with each other while the male guarded their kill. Hyenas and jackals were waiting for chance to steal the kill.

Then we saw a male and female lion stalk another herd of zebra and wildebeest. They got too close and the herd saw them so the hunt was over.

Afterwards, we drove through a spot where Isaac normally sees rhinos but didn't see any. After leaving the area, he pointed out one that was really far away. I got to check it out with the binoculars but it was really hard to tell if it was a rhino or no. I asked Isaac how he knew it wasn't a buffalo and he said the face is different. It did kinda look like a rhino. Although, later Isaac pointed out another rhino and it turned out to be a buffalo so this makes me wonder about this first sighting.

Day 8 - Hadzabe Hunt in Lake Eyasi
We woke up early again to meet the Hadzabe tribe and go on a game hunt with them. We headed out into the bush with two men from the tribe. They were armed with bows and arrows and a couple of dogs. The men quickly spotted some guinea fowl in the trees up ahead and they took off running. They could run fast. The older guy got underneath this tree, under a bird and fired a poison arrow up at it. The bird got away and we had to look around the area for the poison arrow head because it fell out of the arrow. After searching for a good 20 minutes, we gave up and headed in the direction the bird flew. Then the dogs spotted the bird and the other guy ran quickly and shot it with an arrow, right through the lungs. It turns out that the poison arrow had actually hit the bird and cut its leg so that it couldn't really move around. The men made an impromptu fire by rubbing sticks together and cooked half the bird right there. They offered me a piece and I turned it down the first time but took them up on their second offer. It tasted a bit like chicken and was very smoky because of the fire. They took the other half back to the camp. It was definitely a pretty exciting last day.


Sorry for the long posting. I could actually write a lot more but decided to cut down a bit.

Arusha - Michigan Reunion

Yesterday was a reunion day of sorts. I met up with Addi, Munish and Irene from Ross. They're in town to go on a safari but with a different company. Addi got in first so I met up with her and headed to Khan's for dinner. It's a BBQ place by night and an auto parts store by day. Good, you were right. The food was fantastic. The chicken and mutton were my favorite.

We headed back to the Impala Hotel to meet up with Munish and Irene who arrived later. Munish just came from Madagascar and Irene just finished an overland trip. Her trip was the reverse of mine. She went Vic Falls to Capetown. She also confirmed that her guides were scuzz balls as well, sleeping with the guests. Ha pretty funny. She went with Acacia and apparently they had to do more work than us. They had to help with the cooking. Bummer.

Ok. I'm off on my safari so I won't be able to update this for about another 7 days. Sorry but I'll fill you in on the adventure.

Arusha - Can They Get the Bill Right?

After flying through Dar from Zanzibar, I made it to Arusha. It's the jumping off point for safaris to the Serengeti. Today I took the public transportation for the first time in Tanzania and boy did they take me for a ride. I was going to visit my Safari operator. I got in this dala-dala which is a Toyota mini bus and told them where I wanted to go. They pretended to understand and drove me to the next bus station where they discussed my intended destination with a bunch of people. There was lots of shouting and pointing. I didn't know what to do so I called my safari company and let them sort it out. After a brief telephone conversation, the driver took off and dropped me off at the right spot. Dala-dala's are supposed to operate like buses picking people up along the way. But I think these guys sensed an opportunity and drove me there like a taxi. They charged me taxi prices too. The safari people helped me get a ride back and I didn't get ripped off this time.

Last night, I met these two American guys and we grabbed beers and dinner at our hostel. I had to sort the bill out at the end of the night because they added 2 pasta dinners to our bill that we didn't order. It was a bit complicated because their calculator was broken too and they weren't too quick with the math.

Then, I ate with the same two guys again for lunch at this Chinese place nearby. Chinese cook and everything. We paid the bill 27,000 shillings and then headed back to our hostel. The waiter must have followed us all the way back to our hostel because he walked in a minute after us and said we didn't pay enough. I knew he was wrong because I had just counted our money. I had to sit with him and count it in front of him. And lo and behold, it was exactly 27,000 shillings. Exactly what we owed. We'll see how the next bill works out.

Zanzibar - Jiggy Jiggy Robert

I met Robert about two nights ago at the grill market outside of the Old Fort. He was talking to some South Africans who I had met on the bus earlier in the day. He's from Santa Cruz, California so we chattted for a bit about surfing and took in a movie at the Zanzibar International Film Festival.

I ran into him again last night at the same market on my way to grab a sundown drink at Mercury's (in honor of Freddie Mercury of Queen). I invited him along and we grabbed a drink and dinner. Robert is a 54-year old surfer guy who does cement work on interiors (for example, he'll make a countertop or sink). He's got floppy gray hair cut like a old surf bum and talks like one too. Since he runs his own business he'll work for a bit and then travel the world. He told me he recently completed the founder of O'Neil surf boards house in Santa Cruz. I got a full description of it over dinner.

Afterwards we headed to the film festival. It was the last night of films. We took in a really good Danish film called Overcome. It's about a boy who challenges a schoolmaster back in the day of corporal punishment.

Robert had been talking about this club called Bwawani. He said that was the happening place on Sunday night. I was pretty tired after the film but I gathered that Robert was not the type of guy to roll into a place on his own and would rather someone go wtih him (He wanted to rent a car and drive to the beaches in the north but no one else watned to go with him.) Robert promised to pay for the cab ride out there and I said I'd check it out. He told me there would be a good mix of locals, tourists and "a good place to meet ladies."

We arrived at this place and it was all locals except for two other white guys. The place was pretty cool because it was on a roof top with a huge outdoor pool. However, the pool did not have water in it and was casual roped off. Gotta love African safety standards.

Now, Robert claimed not to be a sex tourist but man he has a nose for prositutes. These two girls came up to us right away and Robert just started chatting. Robert ordered soem more food and then we sat down at this table. The men sat across from the men and the ladies across from each other. It was funny because the two girls were trying to figure out how interested I was and I wasn't at all. They decided to try a switch and see if that worked. The one talking to me talked to Robert etc but nope it didn't. Not my style.

Then all of a sudden Robert tells the ladies, "We can't be with you all night. We want to talk to other girls." Not two minutes after making his pronouncement, Robert walks off and snags another one. Then he says to me, "Let's go downstairs to the disco." We headed down but the cover charge was a bit too steep for me and well Robert already got what he wanted. He did some negotiating and we shared a cab home. Robert and his girl hopped out at his hotel and the cab driver mumbled something. I asked him what he said and he snickered and mumbled "Jiggy jiggy" as he drove me to my hostel.

Zanzibar - Thumbs up

I've spent the last couple of days in Zanzibar, just relaxing on the beaches and checking out the nightlife. I say nightlife... some places have it but others do not. That's what makes it relaxing.

Before heading to Zanzibar, I spent a night in Dar es Salaam. Luckily I met Daniel at the airport. He was on business here and works as an accountant for an Australian mining company. We chatted about the mining business over a couple of beers. Chinese are buying up all his company's nickel.

I arrived just in time for the Zanzibar International Film Festival. That's where I went my first night here, but only after spending 3 hours walking around looking for a hotel room. Every place was booked up or way too expensive.

The Film Festival was pretty cool because screenings are outdoors in the courtyard of the Old Fort. It's a cool venue but the concrete seats are not conducive to 4 hours of watching movies and that's what got to me the first night. Or perhaps it was the first movie which was about 2 Kenyans, male and female, stuck in a bathroom or toilet as they call it. This movie was 2 hours long which involved lots of political conversations. I think the toilet was a metaphor for Kenya and only by working together were the two people able to get out of their mess.

The next couple of nights I spent up north on the beaches of Nungwi. After negotiating a decent rate for my hotel room with Ali at Safina Beach Bungalows, I headed to the beach. On they way I was accosted by all these "beach boys" as they call them. These guys offerred snorkeling trips, rides back into town and many other things. After staying in Nungwi sometime, I realized they all seemed to know everything about me. They had sized me up, knew which place I was staying and what I had already done. After I went snorkeling, I didn't get asked to do it again.

Nightlife in Nungwi revolved around Cholos, a bar with hammocks right on the beach. I went there every night with Peter, a Brit I met on the ferry ride over. He was a fellow solo traveler who worked up in Kenya. Peter and I had a good ole time meeting people at the bar. We even persuaded a couple of them to go for a night swim our first night. Interesting enough, I probably met the most number of Americans at this bar. 2 guys from Austin, 2 from New Orleans, 6 girls from the Bay Area and then most amazingly, two girls from Cleveland, Ohio (Avon and Elyria to be exact).

Peter was staying with 2 other Brits whom he had met on the ferry as well. They headed back early and Peter and I split a room. We had to renegotiate with Ali and agreed on a price of $25. But we disagreed on the conversion rate resulting in Ali getting 1 USD less than he wanted. We stared him down for awhile. He said "It's only a dollar" and we echoed right back saying "It's only a dollar." He acquescied but wasn't willing to shake Peter's hand. Apparently I was still on good terms with him because he gave me the thumbs up all the time.

One thing I really like about Zanzibar is how people signal hello to each other. It's thumbs up. Ali and all the beach boys used to do that to me all the time. I gave them the thumbs up right back.

I also became a local hero at the internet cafe there, having fixed their copy machine and demonstrating how it worked. Little did they know that I was an expert on copy machines having worked in litigation consulting where I would spend whole days just photocopying.

After Nungwi, I returned to Stonestown and caught a film at the festival, only to head out to the East coast of the island the next day. The east coast was very relaxed and very few resorts. For dinner, I had to order 2 hours in advance so that they could get it ready.

Now, I'm back in Stonestown and plan on going on a spice tour tomorrow.

The Overland Adventure

My overland adventure consisted mainly of waking up early for sunrises, taking down our tents, driving in the overland truck, seeing animals or landscapes, pitching our tents and then chasing another sunset. All the while I would be joking around with my Irish friends Meabh and Paul and two Germans named Christian many others. One of the Christians joined in Swakopmund and he took the seat next to me. It was previously empty and I begrudgingly accepted him. However, after awhile, I learned that he had a quick sarcastic wit and we got along very well, joking with each other for the rest of the trip. Our favorite topic was the guides.

Also on the trip was Zoe, a Dutch girl who managed to turn the cook against me. He was a bit jealous of how she and I got along. Christian who sat next to me was automatically assumed in my camp and the cook didn't like him either. Our cook was not the brightest and managed to catch himself on fire on the first part of the trip. His scarf dangled too close to the fire and he ran around like a madman. (I later learned from a person in Jo'burg that worked at Kruger park that the cook is engaged. What a punk.) I wasn't a big fan of his cooking either. The first day we had soup from dried packets. All the cook did was heat up some water and viola soup. Meabh Paul and I would often joke about lunch because it was pretty much just ham and cheese. Meabh would say that she might spice it up the next day by adding Mayo. Yummy.

Our first stop after Swapkopmund was SpitzKoppe which is a mountain with sand paintings. I joked with the Irish that the tour guide would not be too great and that he would probably just point out the drawings and say "This is an elephant." I had become somewhat cynical of the trip but I was right. The guide said "This is an elephant. This is rhino." I laughed because I could have lead the tour.

That night some of us slept in a cave. We drank some beer and Zoe told a scary story sine we were in a cave. It was a story that she and I passed back and forth. She jumped in when I was telling it because I was leading the characters to a quick demise.

The next day we headed to Etosha where we saw two lions right off the bat. They were under a tree mating. I didn't get to see them all that well since it was our first real animal sighting and everyone was jostling for position in the truck.


The watering hole near our camp site that night was a spectacular. When we got back from our drive. There were giraffe and 2 elephants at the watering hole. Then, came a herd of 20 or so elephants pushing the giraffe away. After dinner, a rhino came to the watering whole. He came so close mainly because they are blinded by the lights and have poor eyesight anyway. Then came another rhino. We stayed here pretty late into the night just drinking beer and watching the animals. I came back to the hole around 2 am to see if there was anything there. I ran into Kisung the Korean photographer on the way there and he had been awake since I went to bed and saw nothing. I went down just to verify and he was correct. I didn't stay long because I was the only one there and a lot of jackals were running around the campsite.

Our next stop was the Himba village. This was supposed to be a small inhabitant of tribes peo0ple who still lived the original lifestyle. I didn't think so and thought it was more like going to Williamsburg in the US where people dress up like they did in colonial times. everyone was friendly but they definitely wanted our money. At night we walked to the camp because he heard music. We originally thought they were doing some tribal dance but as we got closer we realized. They were just listening to a tape or radio. The next day I saw the some of the Himba women in town. They were just sitting on the street asking for money for people to take their photographs. I thought since it was ok to take their photos the day before it should be ok now. They weren't too happy about that.

We then went to the Kavango river and did a sunset cruise. That night we saw some local village dancing and I even participated. Later, we all played a drinking game and they girls led by Zoe were definitely out to get me. I got really drunk that night and out guide nicknamed me "Eric the Entertainer."

The next day we played a football/soccer match against the local villagers. They were pretty happy to play against some Europeans. I even got to play and had a spectacular kick on the sideline. ran as fast as I could to get to the ball and then kicked it right into a bunch of kids standing ting on the line. I fell down afterwards and took a substitution. Everyone agreed that it was quite a theatrical moment. The game went on and ended in tin a 4-4 draw.

Our next stop was the Okavango River Delta. We camped here for three night and heading to the bush for one of them. Christian and I were in the same canoe as we were poled out by Kato. On our way out, we all ran into two hippos. Apparently we came too close and they charged the canoes. We were all pretty afraid of them. Christian, (yes, another German named Christian) was the lead canoe and the hippo came out at them about 4 meters from his boat. Kato backed us up and took us a different route. We got to see the two hippos and Christian asked Kaoto If we needed to stay here and just watch. Kato said no and off we went at a hurried pace.That night our tow guides slept outside.

Later that night, around 2 in the morning they heard some lions and panicked fleeing too our tents. Of course, they went to the girls tents. CJ, the other Korean was awakened by the commotion. Emblazoned by the knowledge that hippos are the only animal that attack humans (imparted by a wizened poler), CJ went into the bush with his video camera to catch the lions. Luckily he didn't find them and they didn't find him. I laughed when I heard about this because CJ headed out in the wild while our fearless guides fled.

The next day we camped on the banks of the Zambezi. The highlight of the day was dinner. The cook made tomato soup for dinner. I was pretty frustrated because I don't consider something a meal unless it has meat in it. Luckily, there was a restaurant at the camp site. My compadres and I decided that the tomato soup was an excellent started and would have dinner at the restaurant. Of course, Meabh, Paul, and Christian were in on it too. Christian and I both ordered Kedu, which is like impala. It was delicious. Very lean and tender. It was by far the best meal I had in Africa. Maybe even the whole trip. It's right up there with the alpaca steak I had in Peru.

Chobe National Park was our next stop. Christian had given me Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson to read. It's about a journalist who is always drinking rum down in Puerto Rico and the trouble he encounters. It's a pretty good boo0k but I never finished it. Inspired by the book, Christian and I bought a six pack of beer on our game drive. We had a good time drinking our beers and taking photos of giraffes and elephants. We even saw a buffalo on this trip. In Chobe, we got the closest we have ever been to the animals. That night we drank some more and I had and enjoyed the local bar. Meabh and Zoe were on dish duty and I walked over to talk to them. It was hilarious because the cook and the guide were helping Zoe while Meabh toiled away on her own. I yelled "Meabh, why does Zoe get all the help" and rolled up my sleeves to help Meabh. I dried all the plates for her and then went about hiding them. Christian persuaded me that this was not the best idea so I took the plates out of hiding.

We arrived in Vic Falls the next day. This was our final stop. We visited the falls that evening and I wasn't too impressed because Iguazu is much bigger and you can get a lot closer there. That night we had our farewell dinner. Everyone went to bed a bit earlier than usual because they were all going white water rafting in the morning. When we left the bar, we found an elephant munching on a tree across the street. Christian and I took some photos and our flashes disturbed the elephant and got him running. The elephant made a quick exit from the area.

I said good bye to everyone the following morning. It was a pretty rushed and confusing good bye,. The hotel made me account for everything I had put into the safe so we had to meticulously check off every frequent flyer card I had. At the same time everyone was loading up for rafting. The gang came over and said good bye to me and I followed them to the waiting cars. I jumped on the one bus to say good bye to everyone and the rafting guy overheard me say bus. He told me it's not a bus but a truck. This same guide heard me use the word oar earlier and told me it wasn't an oar but a paddle. I didn't care for that guy too much. After saying good bye, I waited for my taxi to the airport and flew off to Jo'burg. The taxi driver was another Nomad guide who lived in Vic Falls. He seemed much more knowledgeable than our guides and I wondered what the trip would have been like with him. I don't think he would have schemed on our girls as much.

Here's a photo of me and the gang. In the top row, starting from the left, it's Christian (the one that sat next to me), me, then the other Christian. Below is CJ and then next to him is Paul. Meabh took the photo.

Well, that's the end of my overland adventure. The computer I am on now is super slow and I will update this page with photos later. Hope you enjoyed it and for those who wen ton the overland with me, feel free to let me know if I missed parts of the story.