Safaris, and Beaches and Rivers, OH MY!

OK, it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted anything – sorry about that! I’ve been traveling all around East Africa (I’ve now officially been to every country in the East Africa Lonely Planet) so you’ll have to forgive me for my tardiness in updating the blog! It’s going to be yet another long one so I hope you’re in a comfy seat!

4/3/2009
So our flight on Rwandair to Kilimanjaro was originally scheduled for 6:00am. When we actually paid for the tickets, we were told the time had changed to 4:00pm. Two days later, Anita got a call saying the flight had been changed yet again to 2:00pm. Needless to say we were a bit skeptical about our time of departure when we went to check in at noon and of course, at 1:30pm an announcement was made that the flight had been delayed until 3:30pm… what a mess! Anyway, we got on our way by about 3:45pm and met a group of travelers (Amy, Philip & Cindy) that were heading to Arusha as well so we jumped in on their pre-arranged transportation and saved ourselves about $30. During the hour long drive, it became apparent that Tanzanians love speed bumps and car washes… who knew?!? As it turned out, Amy Philip & Cindy didn’t have a hotel booked so we directed them to the lovely (insert sarcasm here) Meru Inn where we had arranged accommodations and wound up with two rooms next to each other. We all went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant Katie had recommended and had a lovely Hibachi meal. Our chef was really into practicing his English so with each dish he served, he made sure to tell us which sauce to use… the teriyaki chicken with Mustard SAUUUUCE was quite delicious.

4/4/2009
Our safari was supposed to be underway by 7am but instead Charmy showed up around 8… after profuse apologies we started our trip from Arusha to Lake Manyara. We passed several Maasai shepherds along the way and had an amazing view of the Rift Valley escarpment for most of the drive. We enjoyed some red bananas in Mto Wa Mbu (River of Mosquitos) which is (according to Charmy) the only place in Tanzania where members of all 120 tribes reside together. We got to Lake Manyara by mid-morning and immediately began our search for the elusive tree climbing lions (which unfortunately was unsuccessful). Charmy kept checking in on the ham radio to see if anyone else had spotted them… there was a lot of “Roger, Roger” going back and forth over the radio. He also told us all about the Impala mating habits and how the males are polygamous. Every once in a while he would also point out a “looser impala” that was a bachelor exiled from his group. We saw some monkeys with bright blue scrotums (not sure what the evolutionary advantage of that is) and then had our picnic lunch interrupted by the sound of what Charmy thought were lions nearby but actually turned out to be a herd of elephants. We headed out of the park mid-afternoon and made our way up to the Ngorongoro Crater rim, took some amazing pictures and then checked in at the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge (normally $420 per night but because it was off-season, we got a night there for less than camping would have cost)! This is by far the nicest place I’ve ever staid in my life and Anita and I kept thinking someone had made a mistake and was going to kick us out at any moment. Instead, we got to enjoy an acrobatics show, a delicious buffet dinner (I ate so much that I was actually in pain after) and some yummy drinks before heading to bed in our suite overlooking the crater.

4/5/2009
After a delicious breakfast buffet at the Serena, we headed down into the crater at about 8am. We decided our guide’s name was good luck – Lucky Charm(y) – since we got to see all of the “big five” including lions mating on the side of the road for about an hour and a half… they go at it for about 20 seconds at a time, 5-6 times per hour and seemed to be enjoying the voyeurism of the whole thing. Anyone considering ever doing a safari should ABSOLUTELY include Ngorongoro on their itinerary – it was amazing. On our way back to Arusha, we had a run in with a spitting cobra in the road – Charmy tried to run it over since he said they kill a lot of people but missed and basically just pissed it off. We made it back to Arusha before dark and got to see the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda before checking back into the lovely Meru Inn and grabbing a quick Indian dinner before bed.

4/6/2009
We caught the Dar Express at 6am which was a miserably hot 8 hour bus to Dar es Salaam. The entertainment for the trip was a Kiswahili dubbed movie called “The Public Life of Jesus” – a “documentary???” from the gospel of Luke. At least they chose my version of the story… We got to Dar by around 3pm and jumped in a cab to take us to the ferry terminal so we could catch the last ferry of the day (4pm) to Zanzibar. Of course the ticket agent refused to sell me a ticket but thankfully Anita’s slightly darker skin helped her charm the other ticket agent into selling us two “standing only” tickets (we wound up getting seats in the air-conditioned compartment regardless). Unfortunately the ferry took almost 3 hours instead of the advertised hour and a half so we arrived in Stone Town after dark without anywhere to stay… After about 2 hours walking around trying to find an affordable place to stay (sadly the Serena wouldn’t bargain with us), we wound up at the Coco de Mer. A quick cold shower (it was disgustingly hot and humid) and a change of clothes and then we were out to a Swahili style dinner at Monsoon which was delicious… Zanzibar definitely lives up to its reputation as the spice capital of the world.

4/7/2009
We jumped onto a spice tour for the day where we met a couple of British women (Una & Philippa) as well as a family that was staying at the Coco de Mer with us. We all decided to meet up for dinner in the evening (after sundowners at the Africa House Hotel) at Two Tables which is literally two tables set up in a family’s living room. Again the dinner was amazing and the experience of eating in the family’s home was really fun. Afterward we got some sugarcane juice at the night market and then went for a drink at the Serena with Una and Philippa.

4/8/2009
We had a late breakfast, did some brief internetting, changed some more money and bought a little gift for Gail before picking up a shared taxi at 1pm to head up north to the beach. We had intended to go to Nungwi but after talking to some Mormon missionaries (I’m assuming based on the fact that they were teaching in a bible school in Tanzania for 2 years), we were convinced that Kendwa Rocks is the place to be so we got out with them and bargained with the bitchy receptionist to bring down the price of a double room (with A/C thank goodness since it was SO hot and humid). We promptly both took showers which flooded the room since the drain wasn’t working… this got us upgraded to a suite since all the other rooms were occupied! We managed to fit in a little beach time before dinner and then took a nice walk along the beach under a full moon toward some music we heard in the distance. It turned out to be an all inclusive resort that promptly kicked us out when they saw us walk in from the beach after dark.

4/9/2009
We got up in time to enjoy the delicious free breakfast and joined a group of 20-somethings that turned out to be really fun. We spent the rest of the day with Mike, Luke, Teresa, Ulrikka and took a trip up to Nungwi just to check to be sure we weren’t missing out on anything… we definitely made the right choice since the beaches there were no where near as clean and it’s way more developed and touristy. We got some street food (brochette and samosa) which was clearly a mistake judging from the sounds my stomach is making now. We made it back in time to take some pictures of the gorgeous sunset and then spent the night playing drinking games.

4/10/2009
Well some combination of sun poisoning and the street food from yesterday has led to a terrible headache, diarrhea and crazy cramping… after avoiding breakfast, Anita and I got a cab to the Zanzibar airport with Mike who happened to be taking the same flight as us to Entebbe, Uganda. It had a layover in Dar es Salaam (literally the shortest flight I’ve ever been on – about 8 minutes) and then we headed on to Uganda. Mike had arranged for his friend Jean to pick him up from the airport and she was kind enough to give us a ride as well. We hadn’t made any accommodation arrangements so we went to the Red Chili Hostel in hopes of getting beds for the night but unfortunately they were totally booked for the night. We made reservations for the next night and then went across the street to El Gazelle which was the biggest shit hole I’ve ever seen in my life but we were pretty much out of options. They had three rooms with nothing but a bed in each and the “shower” consisted of a toilet with a bucket next to it. Dinner consisted of extra sandwiches and pound cake we snagged from the flight attendant on our plane and we went to bed pretty early.

4/11/2009
We survived the night and headed to Jinja in the morning with Mike’s friend Jean and her husband Chris. He is friends with the manager of Adrift which is the original rafting company that first charted the rapids on the source of the Nile. Unfortunately the rafting trip was fully booked for the day but we did get to go out on a speed boat and flip a couple of rafts while doing spins and tricks. It rained for a good part of the afternoon so we went and got lunch (whole Tilapia) at a nearby hotel and then returned to Adrift after the rain to go BUNGEE JUMPING!!! Probably wasn’t the best idea ever since my stomach was still quite unhappy but I went for it anyway and it was amazing. It was 44meter jump into the Nile River – a video is available upon request. We headed back to Kampala in time to check into our triple room at Red Chili and then meet up with two other friends of Mike’s (Danny and Martin) at Khana Khazana… I’ve now been to two of the three Khazanas in East Africa – fingers crossed that the one in Kigali will open before I leave and I can complete the trifecta. We were starving not only for good Indian food but good night life and Danny promised to show us all that Kampala has to offer (and remind us of all we’ve been missing out on in Kigali). We started the night out with drinks at Matteos, moved on to dancing at Iguana where YET AGAIN I was hounded by a couple of prostitutes… From there we went to Club Silk and then headed back to the hostel around 4:20am.

4/12/2009
We slept in until noon and then had a light lunch at Red Chili before heading over to Danny & Martin’s house for Easter dinner. The food was phenomenal and it was great to spend the afternoon/evening with a group of super friendly Ugandans.

4/13/2009
We arranged to go rafting today so Chris met us at the Red Chili and we took the 8am bus to Jinja. We were given the choice of “wild or mild” and of course went with wild. Our boat was Chris, Mike, Anita, Me, Patrick, Claire, Patrick & Angee as well as our guide Clarksey. We flipped our raft 5 times on 9 rapids and in the process I think I managed to drink about half of the Nile River… hello schisto!!! It was an awesome experience and I won’t try to do it justice by writing about it – you’ll just have to check out the pictures. We took the bus back to Kampala, grabbed a tiny dinner at Zone 7 (my stomach still wasn’t so happy and I’m sure the river water didn’t help) and then we went back to Danny’s house to relax until our bus back to Kigali.

4/14/2009
We caught the 1am Gaso Bus to Kigali and in a stark contrast to our last 8 hour bus ride, we were freezing cold the entire way. We spent about 2 hours getting through customs and made it back to Kigali by about 10am. It was great to see Gail again and she and I went for lunch at La Sierra and finally picked up the package from my dad at the post office (thank you very much despite the tardy arrival).

4/15/2009
Well Mike has decided to change his plane ticket back to London and join us in Rwanda for a few days. He arrived this morning at 10am (on the same Gaso bus we took yesterday) and I took him on the typical first day tour of Davindrah’s forex, and the UTC. We went out for trivia night at Torero Café with Katie and Carly and we actually won so we got a free round of drinks! Jessica, an MPH student interning for WE-ACTx, arrived at around 11pm tonight and so we headed back to the house early to welcome her.

Here's some pictures:
Tanzania - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146251&id=2600785&l=d9a61bc80d
Zanzibar - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146471&id=2600785&l=612f160014
Uganda - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146549&id=2600785&l=e1c7703501