Finally out of Arusha

Home sweet home. Way too much time was spent in this little room. On the left you can see our peanut butter making factory and on the right, our fabulous beds.

Penner and I on our Nile felluca excursion.

Just reflectin' while cruising down the Nile.

Looking at the sheesha pipe makes me want to vomit. I still don't even know what it is exactly but I consumed way too much of it last night.

Myself, Penner, our guide, our camels and the pyramids. The one major accomplishment of the pyramid trip was the addition of next year's Canim drinking hat in the form of my new Arab towel thingy.

Just Protectin'

After another miserable bus ride we appeared in Arusha to the endless sound of the dreaded touts. Jason did a good job of explaining exactly what a tout is and how they function (http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=78201) so I won't go too much into it. Needless to say I hate them, but at the same time I find myself already missing them. Ryan and Kris immediately set about organizing a safari, and sure enough left the next day to visit the Serengeti and the crater. Jas and I stayed behind in Arusha. I still felt like garbage thanks to malaria, plus I had already done my safari in Kenya, and Jas didn't want to spend the extra money, so we lay in our incredibly comfortable beds for a week. At first we had ambitions and dreams of going canoeing down some nearby stream, or doing a day hike to the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but one by one these fell off our schedules as we realized that it's just so much easier to lie in bed. I was able to use malaria as an excuse to my laziness for the first few days, but even that started to wear off after a while and by the end of my stay in Arusha I felt fairly close to 100%. After venturing out for dinner one night, Jason had his money belt swiped by some local bastard, this changed things considerably. Originally we were going to all head north to Nairobi as soon as Kris and Ry were done the safari. From there, Jason and I were going to continue up, going through Ethiopia and Sudan and finally arriving in Egypt. But, now with Jason's lost passport and his inability to leave Tanzania for at least 3 weeks, I would have to do this alone. The thought of traversing Ethiopia and Sudan by myself didn't overly appeal to me due to safety reasons, so instead I opted to fly to the Middle East, a region so reknown for its security and stability, while poor ole Jas continues his stay in Arusha. In total we spent 7 very strange days in Arusha. We rarely left our hotel due to a complete lack of things to do outside and the frustration of dealing with the touts. At least 75% of our diets there consisted of peanut butter sandwiches and the odd chocolate bar. Nearing the end I thought I was going to start developing bed sores and/or cabin fever, and for those of you who know what Jason and I are like when we have too much energy and are couped up together for longs periods of time, you'll have no problems seeing why the woman who ran the hotel began thinking we were totally insane by the end of our stay. Loud, mindless ramblings, insane cackles, Nintendo induced shouting matches and energy releasing screams could be heard echoing through the halls from our room probably every 15 minutes, frightening the cleaning woman so much that she began noticeably avoiding us.

Saturday afternoon I sluggishly crawled out of my bed and got back to actually travelling. Heading north courtesy of Ethiopian airways, I touched down in Cairo right about the time that ole Uncle Davey was tying the knot up in Edmonton. Kris had flown up here the day before so for the third time in the trip I managed to meet up with Mr. Penner. Yesterday was an action packed day and managed to bring me out of my lazy haze that developed in Arusha. Hopping on a local bus we rumbled across the Nile and into Giza, where we rented a pair of camels from an extremely shady guy a few kilometres from the pyramids. We realize now that the guy ripped us off a bit, but even still it wasn't that bad of a deal. There is no exaggeration about your stereotypical haggling Arab. Extremely nice people, but they will barter the clothes off your back faster than any other group of people I have met on this trip. Everything is negotiable and some of the prices they hope to get out of us westerners are just absurd...more about that later though. To avoid paying the entrance fee, the guy who accompanied us, pretending to be a guide, took us through the "back entrance" to the pyramids, which consisted of a hole cut through the chain link fence. Once again it was strange seeing something that you've only seen in books and on TV and as usual its a bit different than you actually imagined, but all in all I thought the pyramids were great, aside from my incredibly sore ass courtesy of Michael Douglas (my camel).

Following the pyramid tour we grabbed a felluca (the classic Nile sailboat) to go for a little cruise out on the water. It's cheap if you haggle the captains down and made for a great happy hour as we watched the sun set through the palms of the Nile. Thinking that it was Penner's last night (it actually wasn't, he forgot July had 31 days in it and thus had nowhere to go for another day) we decided to stretch it right to the limits and visit a belly dancing bar. We couldn't afford any of the nice ones at the hotels, so we mosied on down to a shadier establishment on the other side of town, getting incredibly lost on the way there. I really didn't know what to expect, but wasn't surprised to find the place pretty much like a north american strip club except all the nudity has just been replaced by shaking stomachs. Something about the undulating abs didn't really appeal to us, but the local guys seem to absolutely love it. At some point in the night after befriending some fellow sheesha smoking locals, I discovered that we were being charged waaaaaay more than the locals for everything we did at this place, which is no surprise as it has happened to us in every other country we've been too. It was still very cheap by Canadian standards so we didn't mind, but it was interesting to see just how much we were being ripped off. To put it simply, we spent easily as much as the entire rest of the bar combined, probably quite a bit more in fact. Time seemed to accelerate once we entered the place and before we knew it, it was 7am and time for us to stumble home. The ridiculous amount of beer and sheesha we consumed made for an entertaining trip through awakening Cairo.

I don't have a lot of time before heading over to India, so I'm already going to be headed towards Jordan later on tonight. This bus ticket was the most difficult purchase I've made on the trip. The station is hidden a loooong way from where we are, and me being cheap and stupid I decided to walk. There's absolutely no english or even any words that resemble english, being that it's all written in Arabic and very few of the locals speak enough english to be of any help, although they certainly try. At one point I had to cross in front of the Lebanese embassy and was greeted with what will hopefully be my first of many 'Death to America, Death to Israel' rallies, complete with armies of riot police, Hezbollah banners and these funny pictures of Bush dressed in drag. I dread finding my way back to this place tonight with my bags, so will probably go the taxi route. Penner leaves for real tonight bound for Sweden, not sure when I'll see him again, but I'm sure it won't be too long as he plans to meet us once we're in Southeast Asia. That's about all for now, adios!

Into Tanzania

Countryside through which we hiked, somehow about 90% of the village populations were under the age of 15.

At any given point there seemed to be an army of Jambo kids tagging along for the hike.

Ah the convent, even looking at this picture brings me closer to some kind of inner peace.

Step 1 to curing what ails ya, lie in bed all day and play video games.

The ferry ride from Zanzibar wasn't nearly as horrid as we had hoped for. Unfortunately as soon as we boarded the dilapidated vessel they managed to get a look at our skin colour and immediately moved us to 1st class for our own good (either that or we actually bought 1st class tickets without knowing it...). Arrived in beautiful Dar Es Salaam 8 hours later, surrounded by loving gangs of touts. Quickly hoped on a bus to Lushoto, a small town north of Dar Es Salaam. Being my first African bus ride, it really reminded me of Central America, where space is a premium, shocks are non-existent and each stop brings an army of peddlers aside the bus to attempt to sell you watches, glasses, dolls, radios and anything else. We stayed in Lushoto for one night (at a bank breaking cost of $1.25 per bed) then headed out the next morning with a guide for a 4 day hike through the countryside.

Felt good to get off our asses and actually do something. Wandered a bit through the jungle before appearing out into one rolling village after another. They don't get a lot of foreigners here, so each village is home to seemingly thousands of little kids staring at you. Some become so terrified that they take one look at us and run away screaming, but the majority will jump up excitedly and wave, then follow us for a few hundred metres. As we got further into the countryside each step seemed to be accompanied by a chorus of 'Jambos' (hello in Swahili). Kids from hundreds of metres away would be screaming jambos at us and we soon discovered that word of our arrival was traveling faster than us, meaning that we often walked, unexpedantly, into ambushes by mobs of screaming jambo kids. After seeing the sheer excitement that most of the little gaffers got, it was virtually impossible to become tired of the tirade, but I did get a glimpse into the awful life that celebrities must lead. At one point I figured it would be a good opportunity to hand out the remainder of the pens, pencils and whistles that Mom had left me (she had brought them down to hand out to kids, but hadn't managed to give them all away). I had no idea what I was about to unleash. It seemed like kids appeared out of nowhere once word got out, climbing out from under rocks and logs to surround me. I didn't have nearly enough to give to them all, but I did what I could. As we left the town and climbed into the hills beyond, we could hear the one who had secured the whistle, endlessly blowing the cursed thing to the cheers of his peers. Our first night was spent in a town that seemed to stop when we walked down the main strip. For the second we hiked about 5 hours to a convent of nuns where they put us up on the premises. It was here that ole healthy Jord came to a violent and quick end.

I awoke just after midnight with an unsettled stomach and decided to take a trip down the hall to the washroom. About 5 steps in, I was hit by a wave of nausea completely unparalleled in my life. The next 3 minutes saw me crawling along the cement floor leaving a trail of sweat, in an effort to get to the toilet, which I finally reached and managed to have a second look at what I ate for dinner. The rest of the night followed in suite, with me continuing this act every 30-45 minutes until 6am. There was a point at about 1:30 where I actually saw the grim reaper standing over me and for the most part was quite relieved.

The following morning, the nuns bundled up my corpse and had me transported to the convent dispensary, where I was put through a series of tests, which declared me the proud owner of two malaria parasites. Given that most of the locals grow up with malaria, it's not uncommon to find them each with 2-3 parasites in them at all times, their symptoms will typically begin to appear when they reach 4-5 parasites. Unfortunately us westerners just don't have the same immunity and she said that 2 parasites were more than enough to knock me on my ass, which was proven the night before.

I decided to stay at the convent while the rest of the guys continued on with the hike. I really can't think of a better place to have to stay while sick. Every hour or so one of the little nuns would come waddling into my room, "Jambo John! You want tea? Biscuits?" (I gave up trying to tell them my name wasn't John). Probably the most peaceful place on earth and I've already decided that if I'm ever on my deathbed, I want to be flown here.

I caught a bus back to Lushoto the next morning (the guys were already on the bus, having come from a town farther in), where we laid around for a day before heading to Arusha. Kris and Ry left for a 4 day safari today, leaving Jason and I to bum around this town. Not much to do here, but that seems to suite us fine as we both need some rest and can foresee many a rough travel day in the near future as we head north toward Egypt.

Zanzibar

I didn't mean to put this picture up, but it does give a cool idea of what rural Zanzibar looks like.

Never before have I seen so much attention being paid to nutmeg.

Felt great to protect again now that we have sufficient backup.

An intricate nutshot on Kris. Each participant knew their roles inside and out and performed with valour and courage.

Mom, Maurice and I left Nairobi on the 10th and flew to the island of Zanzibar, which is off the coast of Tanzania. After sorting out some minor hotel problems, we set off to meet up with Jason, Ryan and Kris (same Kris who I stayed with in Sydney, who's now conveniently in Africa). Most of the time spent here has involved lying around in one way or the other. The first full day we spent at our resort pool, while the next day we headed over to the other side of the island to visit one of the more remote beaches where we lounged on the sand while locals worked endlessly to collect seaweed from the giant tidal pool next to us. It was hard work watching them, so instead I decided to fall asleep for a while.

Seeing as how Zanzibar is known as one of the "Spice Islands", we figured we should take advantage of this, so the next day we ventured off on a spice tour. Very cool little tour ensued where they showed us pretty much every spice I can think of; cinnamon, vanilla, peppers, curries, nutmeg...the list goes on and on. Was interesting to see how all this stuff actually grows and how much it smells and tastes like the actual spices before it's even processed, especially the cinnamon trees that are basically normal trees but with cinnamon bark, seemed like something out of Willy Wonkas. My last full day with mom and Maurice was spent once again lying around our pool and reading (or in my case, playing the new fantastic video game contraption that I am now addicted to). Originally I was to fly back to Nairobi with them yesterday, but opted to stay with the guys on the island and float back to the mainland on a ferry tonight. It would have been a bit of a hassle meeting up again if I went back to Kenya, so it seems like the right decision, but it did suck missing another full day with my mom. They flew back yesterday afternoon, leaving me alone in the dusty Stone Town streets...

Last night we toasted the island with the help of several dozen beers and other strange alcohols. We then visited a nightclub where we introduced the local populace to the absurdity of white guys trying to dance. Wandered home sometime in the middle of the night and awoke with a fantastic hangover...which is really hampering my blog writing skills. Luckily I should get a great sleep tonight seeing as we're going to be stuck on a ferry for 8 hours on our way back to Dar Es Salaam. Other than that, not much to report. Much of our days are spent watching the news and slowly seeing our Middle East travel plans fall apart. We had a great route planned out a few days ago, but it looks like we probably won't be able to fulfill it all...but damnit we'll try!

Kenya

Little did I know that one of Maurice's lifelong goals was to be involved in a nutshot. I grabbed a nearby elephant bone and made dreams come true.

One of the three Cheetah brothers that we continually saw throughout the safari.

Me and my mom! Set against the backdrop of beautiful Nairobi.

Typical Savannah scene, lioness poking around in the grass. Awesome animals.

After leaving Perth it took a short 32 hours to finally touch down in Nairobi. Along the way I visited such beautiful destinations as the Kuala Lumpur airport and the Qatar airport. The airport in Doha (Qatar) was so unbelievably crowded due to some renovations, that it was making me ill, the air constantly stunk of this strange BO mixed with sewage smell. Luckily I found an empty planter to sit inside and tried to read while billions of Arabs stepped over and on me.

I spent the first two days alone in Nairobi, basically watching football and reading before finally rendezvousing with mom and Maurice at their hotel. We were obviously both quite happy to see one another and spent the rest of the night catching up (as well as exchanging gifts...it was a one way transfer really, thanks to everyone...you know who you are!). We had three full days in Nairobi before hitting the Savannah, so we decided to make the most of it and see what the city has to offer. First day was pretty much relaxing around the hotel with some short walks out into the dirt of the city to poke around. Visited the market on the second day to pick up some souvenirs. Was great to see Mom and Maurice assaulted by the peddlers and shopkeeps, apparently they made much more inviting targets than I did, I think traveling over the last 9 months has given me a resistance to their mischievous tactics. The third day we took a small tour of the city just to confirm that Nairobi has absolutely nothing to offer the tourist.

Thursday morning we woke up early and ventured out into Kenya for the safari. The trip took us to the the Maasai Mara game reserve, which is just the northern part of the Serengeti (it changes names when it crosses the Tanzania/Kenyan border). Really didn't know what to expect from this but whatever I expected, I was totally blown away by what we actually saw. Too much to really go into detail here but we saw pretty much everything. Lots of the regulars; Zebras, Gazelles, Impalas, Elephants, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Monkeys, Ettins, Baboons, Hippos, Boars etc as well as the good stuff like Water Buffalos, Lions, Hyenas and Cheetahs. There were a few that we missed including Leopards, Rhinos and Orcs, hope to see these guys as I continue through Africa though. Some of the more exciting parts of it came with the "kills". We spotted three different kills, the best two being a lioness gnawing on a wildebeest carcass and three Cheetahs being chased off their Impala corpse by an army of vultures.

Each night was spent in a camp just outside the park where our guide and cook (both very awesome guys) would tend to our needs and made some great meals. Definitely knew I was in Africa the one night while seated alone at the fire, I looked over and found a hyena staring back at me. Unfortunately that was the only intrusion into the camp as there was a 24 hour surveillance by Maasai warriors who walked around the area with spears and swords just in case things got ugly. The Maasai themselves, once fabled warriors, are still very traditional in their lives, but seemed to have switched to fabled peddlers and trinket hawkers. More often than not they found Maurice to be an easy target for their pestering when he would buy whatever they had usually just to shut them up. Was funny by the end as Mom and Maurice gave out these little Canadian items (pins, pencils and pens) until almost the entire village and staff of the camp (the same people pretty much) walked around with all these items pinned to them and hanging around their necks. All in all it was an awesome safari and probably the best tour I've been on during the trip.

We're finally back in Nairobi now for a short stay before flying to Zanzibar tomorrow afternoon. Not sure when or how, but that's where I'll meet back up with Jas and Ry. It promises to be a very tearful reunion.