I have a little treat for all my loyal fans today! Not only am I putting up a new update, but I’m also going back to my old college habits and plagiarizing!! So my mom and Miray were here for our EPIC Africa vacay and Miray wrote updates to our family so I’m basically going to put that up and include some editor’s commentary (in parenthesis) for your reading pleasure! Miray, unlike this panda, is a fantastic writer so hope yall enjoy and understand you’ll never get this type of entry ever again = ]
(After an overnight layover in Istanbul, they finally arrived in Maputo via Jburg, but because the flight was delayed, they just barely made the flight and their bags did not, but greeting them at the airport was a joyous occasion cuz I really missed them! Ok here’s miray...)
MAPUTO
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. It was definitely a learning experience and a good introduction to life in Mozambique. Apparently, it's not unusual for restaurants to take between 1-2 HOURS from the time that you order to the time they bring your food out because they start cooking from scratch when you order. So we sat down, ordered 4 dishes, and when they finally brought the food out over an hour later, they told us that they didn't have the ingredients for one of the dishes so they couldn't make it. (Haha so typical)
After lunch, Mommy and I both succumbed to the jetlag and fell asleep, only to be woken up by Misol (for those of you who didn’t already know, this is my Korean name) telling us that we had to go to the airport to get our bags. Originally, the airline had told us that the hotel should be able to send someone to pick up our bags for us, but when he got to the airport, he was told that there was an issue with one of our bags, so we had to come get them ourselves. So we shook off the sleep and dragged ourselves to the airport. When we got there, we had a bit of a panic moment when the airline guy told us that the driver had already left with our bags. But after some more back and forth, we finally found a woman with all 3 of our bags. That's when she called over a customs guy who told us that because of the food in our bag, we had to pay a special tax. Misol then started arguing with him in her awesome Portuguese, and it quickly became clear that the guy just wanted a bribe. But Misol wouldn't budge and after much arguing and finally pleading, he finally got tired of her and let us go. (I don’t know if tired is quite the right word… it was more like he was entranced by my awesomeness! I fed him the same crap I give every cop who tries to stop me for a bribe – oh I’m a volunteer teaching at a local secondary school for FREE, you have to emphasize the free part cuz they don’t understand what a volunteer is, and that I’m shaping the future leaders of Mozambique and I live in a mud hut with no electricity and no running water just like the other locals… ok so I embellish the truth just a tad, but gotta do what you gotta do!) So we were finally able to take our bags back to the hotel, and Misol was able to open the bag with all the goodies we brought for her. (CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!! It’s fitting cuz it is winter for Africa! Thanks so much Jungah and Cass!!!)
Dinner was at the hotel restaurant. Mommy ordered a pasta dish that tasted like noodles in ketchup. Misol ordered steak that was more grey than brown. I ordered fish and chips - the fish had bones, and the tartar sauce had hard boiled eggs. The only redeeming part of the meal was the piripiri sauce - that's the local hot sauce, and every restaurant makes their own version. It's made from these tiny little peppers that are super spicy. Most of the piripiri sauces we've had are red, but the one at the hotel restaurant was green, and it was delicious! Without that sauce, we probably wouldn't have been able to finish our meal.
On Wednesday, Misol dragged us out of bed at the crack of dawn because she couldn't wait to hit the hotel's breakfast buffet. (no joke as soon as I opened my eyes at 7ish I was jumping on their bed to wake up cuz we had to go eat the most amazing breakfast buffet on planet Mozambique!) The food was actually really good. There was lots of fresh fruit, an omelet station, and even baked beans! But the best thing at the buffet was this breakfast pastry that was like a cross between a Korean cream bbang and a deep fried ppat bbang. So the bread was fried on the outside and had this yummy cream filling. Delicious!
After breakfast, we went to the central market, where they actually had a pretty impressive produce selection. They even had fresh gahm (persimmons)! Right across the street, there was a store selling traditional African fabrics (kapulana) - they had hundreds of different fabrics (in a really tiny tight space), so it was a bit overwhelming, but we managed to buy a bunch of really pretty ones.
We then headed to the fish market to meet Misol's friend Colin for lunch. It was fairly small, and more surprising, most of the seafood was frozen. But we bought a kilo of jumbo prawns, a kilo of tiger prawns, a kilo of calamari, a whole croaker, and a whole red snapper. Then we took all the seafood to one of the restaurants behind the market and drank some beer while we waited for them to cook the seafood. It took awhile (like over an hour), but it was well worth the wait. The food was delicious, and we finished every last bite!
After a brief rest at the hotel, we went over to the Polana, which is the nicest hotel in Maputo. We walked around the hotel grounds for a bit, which were beautiful - the hotel is set right above the water, and then we had tea/coffee and dessert on the open veranda. It was lovely and a welcome break from the poverty of the rest of the city. After a while, we almost forgot that we were even in Maputo.
For dinner, we went to an Italian place and had pizza and pasta, both of which were surprisingly yummy. But because it's kind of a foreigners' hangout, as soon as you step out of the restaurant, there's a swarm of Mozambican men trying to sell you crafts, and they're very aggressive.
On Thursday, we got Misol checked into her conference hotel, and then we took 4 of her friends out for lunch, including Misol's roommate Vonnie. The restaurant that we went to was called Zambi, specializing in seafood. Misol found the restaurant online as the #1 restaurant in Maputo, and the rating was well-deserved. All of our dishes were delicious (seared tuna, grilled tiger prawns, grilled calamari steak), with the exception of Mommy's - she was suffering from a bit of seafood overload after our trip to the fish market, so she ordered pasta with a pesto sauce. The sauce was actually pretty good, but the noodles were completely overcooked. So boolsahnghae. (That means poor mommy) But the rest of us really enjoyed our food! For dessert, we ordered a bunch of stuff for the table, the standout being a cashew nut tart. Cashews are grown here, so you can find them everywhere. Anyways, it was a very pleasant surprise to find such good food in Africa. We're even going there again tonight, and hopefully, Mommy will make a better dinner selection.
After lunch, we went to a craft market. It was huge, set in a really pretty park, and there were all sorts of wax prints, carvings, jewelry, etc. We were able to get some great souvenirs, and Misol once again impressed us with her excellent bartering skills. (that’s a LIE! Miray actually yelled at me for not bartering harder and getting better deals!)
So that brings us to today. Like I said, Mommy and I are just hanging out at the hotel. The city of Maputo - especially the area where our hotel is located - isn't really the kind of place where we feel comfortable walking around outside, especially without Misol. It's much more urban than what Mommy expected, and much dirtier. There's no national garbage collection system, so there's trash everywhere. And we clearly stand out as tourists, so it's hard not to feel like a target for pickpocketing or worse. I feel like a wimpy American tourist, but I think it's probably safer for us not to venture out on our own. We are going to take a cab out to meet Misol and some of her other friends for dinner, so hopefully, that'll go smoothly.
Plus, Mozambique has been experiencing its coldest winter in history, so walking around outside hasn't been that pleasant. Thank goodness we're going to Cape Town, which is the only reason I packed any warm clothes. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even brought a jacket. But we had one really sunny and warm day yesterday, which was nice. The city seems much friendlier in the sunshine. :)
Friday: Misol’s program actually ended much earlier than expected, so she came to our hotel, and then we headed over to the Southern Sun, the 2nd nicest hotel in Maputo. Mommy and I hadn’t really had lunch, so we ordered some butternut squash soup and a ham, cheese and sundried tomato panini. The food was delicious! Mommy of course loved the soup b/c it was hot, and Misol would’ve eaten the entire sandwich if we had let her.
We then headed back to Zambi for dinner with 3 PCVs who hadn’t been able to make it to lunch. Once again, the food was delicious, but we were a little sad because it turned out that the dish that we all wanted to order – fried prawns – had been the special of the day when we came the first time, so they didn’t have it. But we still got to have the cashew nut tart for dessert, so we were happy.
On Saturday, Mommy and I were planning to stay in the hotel all day, but it was a beautiful day, and there were lots of little kids going to the church next door to our hotel, so all of it together made us brave enough to venture out on our own. We walked to Surf Café, a nearby café/bakery and ate club sandwiches. I was kinda proud of us for venturing out and ordering food all by ourselves. (I was def SHOCKED when I heard they had gone out, but so proud seeing as it’s like a 5 minute walk there! Whew! = ])
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. Mommy watched Korean dramas on my computer, while I took advantage of the South African TV, which played all American shows/movies. For dinner, we went down to the hotel restaurant. We were kind of nervous at first because we were the only diners there, but the food turned out to be really good. Mommy ordered grilled chicken in a piripiri sauce (but you couldn’t really taste the sauce, which Mommy liked), and I ordered grilled chicken in this delicious buttery, coconut-y Mozambican sauce. Both dishes came with steamed veggies and white rice, so Mommy was in heaven b/c she took a tube of gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) with her. Haha.
On Sunday, Misol came over to our hotel, and we headed to the Maputo airport. From there, we took a short flight to Johannesburg, where we had a 2 hour layover. Mommy wasn’t feeling well, so she took advantage of her priority lounge card, while Misol and I browsed the airport shops. Migum, we saw ostrich liver pate and thought of you.
Friday, August 26, 2011
EPIC Africa Vacay pt.2 Selous Safari
SAFARI
Arriving in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is when our trip started taking a turn for the worse. This was the part of the trip that we had actually arranged through a travel agency, which meant that someone was supposed to be with us every step of the way, but when we stepped out of the airport, there was no one waiting for us. Misol used her awesome living-in-Africa skills to ask a random taxi driver to call the local contact given to us by the travel agency. He of course had no idea who we were or anything about our airport transfer, but he did arrange for the taxi driver to take us to our hotel.
Dar es Salaam seemed similar to Maputo – very urban but rundown. Our hotel, though, was really nice. But when we tried to check in, first they had trouble finding our reservation, and then they said our room wasn’t ready. We finally made it into our room, which was pretty swanky. It was a 1 bedroom/1.5 bathroom suite, and the bathroom was amazing. Too bad we were only there for less than 24 hrs.
By the time we settled in, it was already 9 PM, so we headed down to the restaurant to grab a quick dinner. Little did we know that we were in for a nightmare dining experience. Mommy ordered bouillabaisse, and Misol and I ordered a couple of Indian dishes (I guess Indian food is pretty popular in Tanzania). We waited – no joke – over an hour for our food to arrive. And when it came out, Mommy’s soup was so salty that she had to ask for hot water to dilute it, and our Indian potato pancakes were burnt on the bottom. But luckily, our butter chicken, rice and naan were delicious. And then the chef, the restaurant manager, and various other people started coming out to apologize for the wait and the bad food, and when we finally left (after another long wait to get our check), they took the 2 bad dishes off the bill. So I guess that was good.
The next morning, the bad vibes continued. The night before, the hotel reception guy had told me that he talked to our travel agency and that our driver would pick us up at 7 AM. So we woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and went out to meet our driver. But of course, no one showed up to get us – again! Luckily, one of the hotel workers took pity on us and arranged for a private car to take us to the airport. Also, the hotel front desk guy – after much trouble and confusion – had been able to print out our plane tickets for the charter flight to Selous, so we were able to get check in for our flight without any problems. There was a strict 15 kg weight limit on our bags, and we just barely made it – Mommy’s bag snuck in at 14 kg. Haha.
Our plane was a little Cessna that was big enough for about 12 people plus the pilot and co-pilot, but it was just us and another couple. The flight itself was only about 35 mins. And once again, when we landed, there was no one to meet us. But one of the guides from a different camp called our camp for us and found out that our car was on its way. So we waited at the airstrip (which was literally just a strip of dirt, with a couple of benches near by), but during our wait, we saw a bunch of giraffes and impalas (kind of like gazelles). We even saw a lone elephant, which is apparently a big deal b/c elephant are hard to find. Our car showed up about 30 mins. later, but he was dropping off a family, and he couldn’t leave until they left, so we ended up waiting like another hour until their plane came.
So after about 2 hours, we were finally able to leave the airstrip with our guide Rashid. We traveled in a special safari jeep – the seats are elevated, and the back is open, but with a tent to provide shade. The drive to the camp took about an hour, but it was a mini-game drive b/c our guide would stop and point out cool animals along the way. We saw more giraffe and impala, as well as hippos, crocodiles, black faced monkeys, wildabeest, and a waterbuck! It was pretty cool. And then our camp is situated on the other side of the Rufiji River, so we had to then transfer to a small motor boat to take us across.
We’re staying at the Selous Wilderness Camp, which is really nice. Tonight, we’re the only guests in the camp because everyone else checked out today. Our tent is awesome. There are 3 twin beds, electricity, a toilet, 2 sinks, and a cool outdoor shower. There’s even a hammock on the patio. I took a shower before dinner, and it was so cool – being outside, stars in the sky, while you’re taking a shower is so cool. (Mommy, on the other hand, is too scared to shower in the dark. And what neither of them realize is that this ‘tent’ was like a mansion compared to my house so I was in HEAVEN!!)
After a lovely nap, we went out for a river safari with Rashid. We didn’t go that far, but we saw baby crocodiles, lizards, and lots of hippos. We also saw these beautiful birds, green with red/orange/yellow/blue highlights. After riding around for a while, we docked at a sandbank for a “sundowner.” That’s where they set up a table and chairs in the middle of nowhere and serve beer, cocktails and other drinks while you watch the sun go down. So cool!
Once we got back to the camp, we got ready for dinner. Here, when it gets dark, it’s pitch black outside, so they have Masaai (indigenous African people) who escort you throughout the camp after dark. We’re the only guests in the park tonight, so they set up a table for us right by the pool, overlooking the river (except that it was so dark that we couldn’t see anything past the lantern light on our table). Dinner was a spicy gazpacho, kingfish with a garlic butter sauce and basil rice, and crème caramel with peppermint tea. We also ordered a bottle of South African white wine. It was a great meal. And now we’re back in our tent, getting ready to play some GoStop. We probably won’t stay up that long b/c we breakfast is at 7 AM so that we can go on our full day safari ride.
On Tuesday, we went on a full day game drive, which meant that we had to wake up around 6:30 AM. It was still dark out, and there was so much noise in the area around our tent. After breakfast (fruit, eggs, bacon, toast, juice, coffee/tea), we took the ferry over to our car. The roads are not much more than dirt paths, so driving is extremely bumpy. Our guide Rashid was awesome – he knows so much about everything in the park – the animals, the birds, the plants, etc. In one day, we saw giraffes, impala, zebra, wildebeest, elephants, hyenas, lions, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, kudu, tons of different birds, black faced monkeys, baboons, waterbucks, mongoose, and warthogs. We also saw some crocodiles feeding on a dead elephant. Some of the animals are very skittish, so they start running as soon as they see us. But others just kind of stand/lie there watching us, trying to figure out whether or not we’re a threat. When we came across the family of lions, we drove up until we were maybe 10 feet away – it was so cool! Lunch was a “picnic” in the middle of the bush. In the distance, we could see a herd of impala watching us. Rashid set up a table (but no chairs) and set out a meal of cheese and tomato sandwiches (on stale bread), potato egg salad (with egg shells), and chicken wings. Mommy was *very* dissatisfied with our meal, but Misol thought it was delicious. (it’s true, I’ll eat anything and think it’s God’s gift to the world!) We discovered that Mommy has a special safari talent: Every time she would say, “I wish we could see __________,” that animal would appear out of nowhere. It was quiet useful. We didn’t get back from our drive until around 6 PM, and then there was a snafu with the ferry (our camp only owns one boat, and another group got back late), so we ended up having to cross the river in the dark. Mommy was SO NOT HAPPY. She kept thinking that a hippo was going to attack our boat. Haha. But we made it safely back to the camp. After dinner, we were all so tired that we crashed pretty much right away, and all of us slept through the night with no problem. (Most of the other nights both mommy and miray were afraid that the little geckos, ants, spiders were going to attack them in their sleep haha)
On Wednesday, we wanted to go on a walking safari, which is best in the morning, so we had to wake up at 5:30 AM. It was pitch black outside and we were still really tired from the day before, but we dragged ourselves out of bed. After a quick cup of coffee, Rashid took us in the boat to the park entrance, where we were met by a park ranger (equipped with a gun and best of all his name was Goodluck) and a park guide. The walking safari was really cool and very educational. We didn’t see too many animals because they ran away as soon as they saw us, but we learned a lot about various things in the park. It’s amazing how much the park workers know about everything in the park – there’s a certain swallow that always builds its nest on the northeast side of the tree in order to face the rising sun; elephants roll around in the mud and then rub against trees in order to get rid of bugs; other animals follow hippo tracks because they always lead to water. After our walk, we all took a long nap, ate lunch and then got ready for a river safari in the afternoon. We saw a hippo fight and lots of beautiful birds. When we got back to our camp, we saw a huge group of baboons right in the middle of our camp. After dinner, we played GoStop and Big 2 (because it wouldn’t be a Gweon Family vacation without card games).
Thursday was our last day in the bush. Rashid was out with another family, so our guide for the day was Kiki. In the morning, we went on another river safari. At one point, the water was so shallow that we got stuck in a sandbank and the boat driver had to get in the water to push us back out. We didn’t see that much stuff – some crocs and lizards, but it was really relaxing. Went we got back to camp, the group of baboons was playing on the beach right in front of our camp, and Misol walked right up to them. After lunch, we went on our last game drive. We saw lots of hippos out of the water, which is pretty cool cause you usually only see them in the water. We also went back to the dead elephant, and it was surrounded by a swarm of crocs – probably about a hundred! We saw one HUGE crocodile out on land – he was probably full from eating because he didn’t move the entire time we were there. It was also Baboon Day because they were EVERYWHERE. We saw lots of baby baboons, who were so cute. On our way back to camp, an elephant family crossed the road right in front of our car. The papa elephant got nervous because the baby was going the wrong way, so he trumpeted threateningly to try to scare us away (and Mommy did indeed get scared). And then about 10 mins. later, we saw another family crossing the road. It may not sound like a big deal, but elephants are actually kind of hard to see because they’re so nomadic, so we were happy to have seen two families during our final safari. Mommy was really cranky at dinner because they served lamb as the main course, and so she asked for fish instead, but she didn’t like the way they cooked the fish, so she didn’t really eat dinner.
On the other side of the river from our camp, between our ferry stop and the game reserve, there’s a small village that we drove through a couple of times. Not surprisingly, it’s not developed at all, and there’s a great sense of poverty. Most of the homes have mud walls and thatch roofs. There didn’t seem to be any electricity or running water. But the kids were so happy to see us (mostly because they thought we would give them candy) and so cute.
The meal portions were on the small side, they didn’t really serve snacks in between meals (other than a really small bowl of homemade masala potato chips once in awhile), and the meal times were normally at 8 AM, 1 PM and 8 PM. So we were hungry a lot of the time. Good thing we took lots of snacks. (I wasn’t very happy with having to share all my snacks all the time…)
Sleeping in the bush is such a cool experience. Other than a few geckos (which Misol said were our friends because they eat bugs) and a few gnats, the inside of our tent was really clean, but just outside our tent, we could hear an entire symphony of different bugs, frogs, birds, etc.
The shower was outside, so when we showered at night, we could look up and see an entire sky full of stars.
All of our dinners were served outside by lantern light. It was very romantic, but we couldn’t really see our food. Good thing we took our flashlights. On our last night, they set up a table right on the beach and built a small fire next to our table. It was lovely except Mommy and I had to keep our feet elevated because we were worried about what would crawl up from the sand. (Mommy was also terrified that hippos and crocs were going to come up on shore and attack us in the middle of our meal hahahahaha)
On Friday, we woke up around 7 AM, packed and ate breakfast. We had a small scare when we couldn’t open the electronic safe (which held all of our passports and money), but the camp manager had a separate key. We also had an unpleasant surprise when it was time to settle the bill – it turns out that when they say that the camp is “all-inclusive,” they’re only talking about the food. In other words, we had to pay for all of the drinks – including the bottled water! Plus, the camp only took cash, and we hadn’t had time to go to an ATM because of our airport transfer issues, so we had a very limited supply of cash. After settling our bill, we didn’t have that much leftover, so unfortunately, our tips for the guides and other camp workers was not as generous as we would have liked. Oh, well.
Arriving in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is when our trip started taking a turn for the worse. This was the part of the trip that we had actually arranged through a travel agency, which meant that someone was supposed to be with us every step of the way, but when we stepped out of the airport, there was no one waiting for us. Misol used her awesome living-in-Africa skills to ask a random taxi driver to call the local contact given to us by the travel agency. He of course had no idea who we were or anything about our airport transfer, but he did arrange for the taxi driver to take us to our hotel.
Dar es Salaam seemed similar to Maputo – very urban but rundown. Our hotel, though, was really nice. But when we tried to check in, first they had trouble finding our reservation, and then they said our room wasn’t ready. We finally made it into our room, which was pretty swanky. It was a 1 bedroom/1.5 bathroom suite, and the bathroom was amazing. Too bad we were only there for less than 24 hrs.
By the time we settled in, it was already 9 PM, so we headed down to the restaurant to grab a quick dinner. Little did we know that we were in for a nightmare dining experience. Mommy ordered bouillabaisse, and Misol and I ordered a couple of Indian dishes (I guess Indian food is pretty popular in Tanzania). We waited – no joke – over an hour for our food to arrive. And when it came out, Mommy’s soup was so salty that she had to ask for hot water to dilute it, and our Indian potato pancakes were burnt on the bottom. But luckily, our butter chicken, rice and naan were delicious. And then the chef, the restaurant manager, and various other people started coming out to apologize for the wait and the bad food, and when we finally left (after another long wait to get our check), they took the 2 bad dishes off the bill. So I guess that was good.
The next morning, the bad vibes continued. The night before, the hotel reception guy had told me that he talked to our travel agency and that our driver would pick us up at 7 AM. So we woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and went out to meet our driver. But of course, no one showed up to get us – again! Luckily, one of the hotel workers took pity on us and arranged for a private car to take us to the airport. Also, the hotel front desk guy – after much trouble and confusion – had been able to print out our plane tickets for the charter flight to Selous, so we were able to get check in for our flight without any problems. There was a strict 15 kg weight limit on our bags, and we just barely made it – Mommy’s bag snuck in at 14 kg. Haha.
Our plane was a little Cessna that was big enough for about 12 people plus the pilot and co-pilot, but it was just us and another couple. The flight itself was only about 35 mins. And once again, when we landed, there was no one to meet us. But one of the guides from a different camp called our camp for us and found out that our car was on its way. So we waited at the airstrip (which was literally just a strip of dirt, with a couple of benches near by), but during our wait, we saw a bunch of giraffes and impalas (kind of like gazelles). We even saw a lone elephant, which is apparently a big deal b/c elephant are hard to find. Our car showed up about 30 mins. later, but he was dropping off a family, and he couldn’t leave until they left, so we ended up waiting like another hour until their plane came.
So after about 2 hours, we were finally able to leave the airstrip with our guide Rashid. We traveled in a special safari jeep – the seats are elevated, and the back is open, but with a tent to provide shade. The drive to the camp took about an hour, but it was a mini-game drive b/c our guide would stop and point out cool animals along the way. We saw more giraffe and impala, as well as hippos, crocodiles, black faced monkeys, wildabeest, and a waterbuck! It was pretty cool. And then our camp is situated on the other side of the Rufiji River, so we had to then transfer to a small motor boat to take us across.
We’re staying at the Selous Wilderness Camp, which is really nice. Tonight, we’re the only guests in the camp because everyone else checked out today. Our tent is awesome. There are 3 twin beds, electricity, a toilet, 2 sinks, and a cool outdoor shower. There’s even a hammock on the patio. I took a shower before dinner, and it was so cool – being outside, stars in the sky, while you’re taking a shower is so cool. (Mommy, on the other hand, is too scared to shower in the dark. And what neither of them realize is that this ‘tent’ was like a mansion compared to my house so I was in HEAVEN!!)
After a lovely nap, we went out for a river safari with Rashid. We didn’t go that far, but we saw baby crocodiles, lizards, and lots of hippos. We also saw these beautiful birds, green with red/orange/yellow/blue highlights. After riding around for a while, we docked at a sandbank for a “sundowner.” That’s where they set up a table and chairs in the middle of nowhere and serve beer, cocktails and other drinks while you watch the sun go down. So cool!
Once we got back to the camp, we got ready for dinner. Here, when it gets dark, it’s pitch black outside, so they have Masaai (indigenous African people) who escort you throughout the camp after dark. We’re the only guests in the park tonight, so they set up a table for us right by the pool, overlooking the river (except that it was so dark that we couldn’t see anything past the lantern light on our table). Dinner was a spicy gazpacho, kingfish with a garlic butter sauce and basil rice, and crème caramel with peppermint tea. We also ordered a bottle of South African white wine. It was a great meal. And now we’re back in our tent, getting ready to play some GoStop. We probably won’t stay up that long b/c we breakfast is at 7 AM so that we can go on our full day safari ride.
On Tuesday, we went on a full day game drive, which meant that we had to wake up around 6:30 AM. It was still dark out, and there was so much noise in the area around our tent. After breakfast (fruit, eggs, bacon, toast, juice, coffee/tea), we took the ferry over to our car. The roads are not much more than dirt paths, so driving is extremely bumpy. Our guide Rashid was awesome – he knows so much about everything in the park – the animals, the birds, the plants, etc. In one day, we saw giraffes, impala, zebra, wildebeest, elephants, hyenas, lions, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, kudu, tons of different birds, black faced monkeys, baboons, waterbucks, mongoose, and warthogs. We also saw some crocodiles feeding on a dead elephant. Some of the animals are very skittish, so they start running as soon as they see us. But others just kind of stand/lie there watching us, trying to figure out whether or not we’re a threat. When we came across the family of lions, we drove up until we were maybe 10 feet away – it was so cool! Lunch was a “picnic” in the middle of the bush. In the distance, we could see a herd of impala watching us. Rashid set up a table (but no chairs) and set out a meal of cheese and tomato sandwiches (on stale bread), potato egg salad (with egg shells), and chicken wings. Mommy was *very* dissatisfied with our meal, but Misol thought it was delicious. (it’s true, I’ll eat anything and think it’s God’s gift to the world!) We discovered that Mommy has a special safari talent: Every time she would say, “I wish we could see __________,” that animal would appear out of nowhere. It was quiet useful. We didn’t get back from our drive until around 6 PM, and then there was a snafu with the ferry (our camp only owns one boat, and another group got back late), so we ended up having to cross the river in the dark. Mommy was SO NOT HAPPY. She kept thinking that a hippo was going to attack our boat. Haha. But we made it safely back to the camp. After dinner, we were all so tired that we crashed pretty much right away, and all of us slept through the night with no problem. (Most of the other nights both mommy and miray were afraid that the little geckos, ants, spiders were going to attack them in their sleep haha)
On Wednesday, we wanted to go on a walking safari, which is best in the morning, so we had to wake up at 5:30 AM. It was pitch black outside and we were still really tired from the day before, but we dragged ourselves out of bed. After a quick cup of coffee, Rashid took us in the boat to the park entrance, where we were met by a park ranger (equipped with a gun and best of all his name was Goodluck) and a park guide. The walking safari was really cool and very educational. We didn’t see too many animals because they ran away as soon as they saw us, but we learned a lot about various things in the park. It’s amazing how much the park workers know about everything in the park – there’s a certain swallow that always builds its nest on the northeast side of the tree in order to face the rising sun; elephants roll around in the mud and then rub against trees in order to get rid of bugs; other animals follow hippo tracks because they always lead to water. After our walk, we all took a long nap, ate lunch and then got ready for a river safari in the afternoon. We saw a hippo fight and lots of beautiful birds. When we got back to our camp, we saw a huge group of baboons right in the middle of our camp. After dinner, we played GoStop and Big 2 (because it wouldn’t be a Gweon Family vacation without card games).
Thursday was our last day in the bush. Rashid was out with another family, so our guide for the day was Kiki. In the morning, we went on another river safari. At one point, the water was so shallow that we got stuck in a sandbank and the boat driver had to get in the water to push us back out. We didn’t see that much stuff – some crocs and lizards, but it was really relaxing. Went we got back to camp, the group of baboons was playing on the beach right in front of our camp, and Misol walked right up to them. After lunch, we went on our last game drive. We saw lots of hippos out of the water, which is pretty cool cause you usually only see them in the water. We also went back to the dead elephant, and it was surrounded by a swarm of crocs – probably about a hundred! We saw one HUGE crocodile out on land – he was probably full from eating because he didn’t move the entire time we were there. It was also Baboon Day because they were EVERYWHERE. We saw lots of baby baboons, who were so cute. On our way back to camp, an elephant family crossed the road right in front of our car. The papa elephant got nervous because the baby was going the wrong way, so he trumpeted threateningly to try to scare us away (and Mommy did indeed get scared). And then about 10 mins. later, we saw another family crossing the road. It may not sound like a big deal, but elephants are actually kind of hard to see because they’re so nomadic, so we were happy to have seen two families during our final safari. Mommy was really cranky at dinner because they served lamb as the main course, and so she asked for fish instead, but she didn’t like the way they cooked the fish, so she didn’t really eat dinner.
On the other side of the river from our camp, between our ferry stop and the game reserve, there’s a small village that we drove through a couple of times. Not surprisingly, it’s not developed at all, and there’s a great sense of poverty. Most of the homes have mud walls and thatch roofs. There didn’t seem to be any electricity or running water. But the kids were so happy to see us (mostly because they thought we would give them candy) and so cute.
The meal portions were on the small side, they didn’t really serve snacks in between meals (other than a really small bowl of homemade masala potato chips once in awhile), and the meal times were normally at 8 AM, 1 PM and 8 PM. So we were hungry a lot of the time. Good thing we took lots of snacks. (I wasn’t very happy with having to share all my snacks all the time…)
Sleeping in the bush is such a cool experience. Other than a few geckos (which Misol said were our friends because they eat bugs) and a few gnats, the inside of our tent was really clean, but just outside our tent, we could hear an entire symphony of different bugs, frogs, birds, etc.
The shower was outside, so when we showered at night, we could look up and see an entire sky full of stars.
All of our dinners were served outside by lantern light. It was very romantic, but we couldn’t really see our food. Good thing we took our flashlights. On our last night, they set up a table right on the beach and built a small fire next to our table. It was lovely except Mommy and I had to keep our feet elevated because we were worried about what would crawl up from the sand. (Mommy was also terrified that hippos and crocs were going to come up on shore and attack us in the middle of our meal hahahahaha)
On Friday, we woke up around 7 AM, packed and ate breakfast. We had a small scare when we couldn’t open the electronic safe (which held all of our passports and money), but the camp manager had a separate key. We also had an unpleasant surprise when it was time to settle the bill – it turns out that when they say that the camp is “all-inclusive,” they’re only talking about the food. In other words, we had to pay for all of the drinks – including the bottled water! Plus, the camp only took cash, and we hadn’t had time to go to an ATM because of our airport transfer issues, so we had a very limited supply of cash. After settling our bill, we didn’t have that much leftover, so unfortunately, our tips for the guides and other camp workers was not as generous as we would have liked. Oh, well.
EPIC Africa Vacay pt.3 Zanzibar
ZANZIBAR
Our flight to Zanzibar arrived on time but then made 2 unexpected stops, so we got to Zanzibar about an hour later than expected. But we were really happy because there was a driver holding a sign with our name waiting for us! He had a nice, clean minivan, and he even took us on a detour to a Barclays ATM so that we would get some more cash. The drive to Konokono took about an hour and a half. The roads for most of the drive were paved and fairly well-maintained, but the last half hour getting to our resort was a dirt road that may have been even bumpier than the roads in the bush. (in reality this last part took about 10minutes…)
I was a bit nervous about our Zanzibar resort. I had found it online and asked our travel agent to book us there (she had never had any guests stay at Konokono). The pictures were really pretty and the reviews were good, but you never know… But my worries were completely unnecessary. The resort is gorgeous! There are beautiful flowers everywhere, and everything is clean and in great condition. We were greeted with cold towels and delicious fresh pineapple juice. Our bungalow is huge! We have a king bed and a twin, plus plenty of room for 3 chairs and a table, plus another bigger table where we can sit on the floor. There are also double sinks and a huge (indoor) shower. Outside, we have a big patio with big comfy chairs, and a “plunge pool” which is a small pool just big enough to sit in and have the water come up to your neck. We also have air conditioning and 2 ceiling fans, which is great because it’s pretty hot and humid here. But the best part of our bungalow is the view – we can see the Indian Ocean from our patio, and it’s glorious! It’s funny how much more relaxed Mommy and I are now that we’re back in “civilization.” Haha.
Today was the first day in awhile that we got to wake up without setting an alarm. Mommy woke up early and took a long walk (something she wasn’t able to do during our safari) around the resort and down to the beach. Misol and I rolled out of bed around 8 AM. After breakfast, Misol and I headed out to the beach. The water is amazing! There are a lot of leaves/seaweed at the top of the beach, but once you get past that area, the water is amazingly clear and beautiful. It’s straight out of a postcard.
Meanwhile, Mommy did laundry, which made her very happy. J It’s really funny to see how happy clean clothes make her. Haha.
The food is much better (and more plentiful) here than at the safari camp. Yesterday, we had lunch and dinner on the beach (dinner by lantern-light), and today, we had breakfast in our bungalow and lunch on the patio. We’re on an all-inclusive package, so for breakfast and lunch, we pretty much just order whatever we want from the menu. Dinner is a set 4-course meal. Last night was a Greek salad, cream of vegetable soup, fried calamari with rice, and caramel cheesecake, accompanied by a South African Sauvignon Blanc.
We had thought about going snorkeling or taking a tour of Stone Town (the main “city” on the island), but it’s pretty expensive, so it looks like our next few days will be filled with sleeping, eating, reading, swimming and sunbathing. (No complaints here.) There’s also a “spa,” and the massages are really cheap, so we’re going to make appointments for tomorrow. Needless to say, we are thoroughly enjoying our vacation!
Now that we’re in Zanzibar, we don’t really do that much, nothing worth writing about at least, so I’ll write about some random, hopefully funny things.
Both here in Zanzibar and in Selous, there are geckos (little tiny lizard like things) EVERYWHERE. Misol says they’re our friends (because they eat bugs), but Mommy and I don’t like them. Whenever I need to use the bathroom, I make Misol go in first to make sure they are no geckos on the floor. Usually, they hang out on the ceiling, which isn’t as bad – as long as I can’t see them, I can pretend that they’re not there.
Mommy’s favorite hobby in Zanzibar is doing laundry. Seriously, if we didn’t give her clothes to wash, I think she would be complaining of boredom. Haha.
Most of the time, the weather is gorgeous – a bit hot and humid but still sunny. But it also rains about once or twice a day. During our first day lunch, we got caught in a torrential downpour. Our table was set up under a small gazebo type structure (just 4 posts and a thatch roof to provide some shade), so we had to huddle under it to try to stay dry. And then last night, it started raining during dinner, so they had to move our table under the gazebo thing. Luckily, the rain was fairly light and didn’t last long.
When we were in Selous, because of our limited cash situation, we couldn’t order any alcoholic beverages, so Misol and I are doing a good job of making up for it now. There’s a full bar right on the beach with all sorts of pretty tropical cocktails (complete with a pineapple spear and flower), and every night, we order a bottle of wine with dinner. The wine is from South Africa, so it’s yummy and cheap (under $30 for a bottle).
The mosquito situation hasn’t been quite as bad as we had expected, but we’re not sure if it’s because there aren’t that many mosquitoes out or if it’s because of the mosquito repellant we brought. Mommy brought this little device that emits one of two mosquito-repelling sounds – either a male mosquito or a dragonfly (which eats mosquitoes). Both sounds apparently drive other mosquitoes away. And I brought a device that emits insect repellant and then has a tiny fan to circulate the repellant. We’re not sure if either device really works, but we still wear them religiously anytime we go outside at night. Misol, on the other hand, doesn’t give a second thought to bugs. Yesterday, she was outside reading on the back porch right through dusk while wearing a sundress, and now she has tons of little bites on the backs of her thighs. We’re not sure if they’re ant bites or something like a bed bug, but they’re gross. (there were about 50 bites on each leg and it was disgusting and SUPER itchy! Ugh so annoying… pretty sure they were bedbug type things or sand fleas or something… you’ll see pictures soon)
There’s a little spa here that’s actually pretty cheap by US standards, so we all booked massages for tomorrow. But there’s only one masseuse, so we had to book them all back to back.
Misol didn’t do a very good job of putting sunscreen on my back yesterday, so I have a strip of sunburn right across the middle of my back. Good thing I brought aloe gel.
Ok, that’s it for today. Sorry there isn’t more to report, but seriously, all we do is eat, sleep, read, sit around, and eat some more. The hardest part of our day is deciding what to eat for lunch. Haha.
Today’s our last full day in Zanzibar. Mommy’s ready to leave, but Misol and I could use another week or two or ten here. I thought we might get bored with nothing to do, but it’s wonderful. So peaceful and relaxing.
Swimming at the beach here is an amazing experience. The water is ridiculously clear, and it’s a beautiful greenish-blue color. It’s also really salty (per Misol, it’s the 2nd saltiest body of water in the world, after the Dead Sea), so it’s really easy to float in the water. It’s a bit cold when you first go in, but within a few minutes, it feels as warm and comfortable as bath water.
The sand here is also amazing. Zanzibar is famous for its white sand beaches, and I can totally understand why. The sand is a fine, white powder, and other than a few hermit crabs, leaves and twigs, there’s nothing else in the sand. At night, when we go to dinner, the sand feels so amazingly cool on your feet. Mommy’s convinced that the sand glows – when the moon and stars are out, it really does look like the sand is giving off a florescent light.
As I mentioned in my last email, Mommy has been hyper-vigilant about mosquitoes and bugs, but when she came back from her walk this morning, she had a bunch of bites on her thighs. She thinks there was a bug – like an ant or a tick – in her pants, which she’s now too scared to wear. So sad – she almost made it through 3 weeks in Africa without a single bug bite, only to succumb a few days before her departure.
Every morning for breakfast, there’s a different type of fresh juice. Misol and my favorite so far has been the pineapple, and Mommy’s is the passion fruit. We also had watermelon yesterday and mango today. So good!
The agenda for today is Skyping with Daddy (sorry, Migum, but it’s too hard to coordinate the time difference with you), massages, lunch…We’ll probably take it easy on the sunbathing, given that Misol is about 50 shades darker than her normal skin color, and my back is a flaming shade of reddish-pink. (when I was heading back to monapo I had to text von ‘don’t be alarmed if you think you see another Mexican approaching the house… it’s just me’)
Yesterday passed by in blur. We each had our massages – the masseuse wasn’t that great, but the setting was pretty cool. The massage table was set up on an elevated, covered platform, so there was a nice breeze and you could hear all the jungle chatter around you. (miray thought the breeze was nice, but I was FREEEZING! I mean aren’t massages usually supposed to be set in warm places so your muscles RELAX? i’m pretty sure mine were getting tighter with every gust of wind that my skin!)
After our massages, I passed out, Mommy watched Korean dramas and Misol read. We got in a few games of Big Two and GoStop before dinner, and then we enjoyed our last dinner on the beach. Our favorite part of the meal was the roasted sweet potatoes.
Today, we woke up, ate breakfast and packed. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 7 PM, but we changed to a 2 PM flight so that we wouldn’t get into DAR quite so late. The flight from Zanzibar to DAR is literally a hop across the ocean – it took about 15 mins from take off to landing.
When we got to the hotel, which had become a Hyatt Regency as of August 1st, it took forever to check in, and then they tried to put us in a really small regular room, even though we had paid for an upgraded executive suite. We then found out that the President of Somalia is here, so they’ve closed off the entire 7th floor, which is where we were supposed to stay. When I refused to take the first room (I have no idea how they were planning to squeeze a 3rd bed in there), they said they had to talk to their manager, and after much waiting (luckily, they had snacks and drinks in the executive floor lounge), they finally gave us our new room – they upgraded us to a diplomatic suite (aptly named the Selous Suite)! Now we have a giant living/dining room, and a separate bedroom.
Mommy, in doing some final repacking, discovered that she can’t find her US cell phone. As you might imagine, she’s not happy.
There are 2 restaurants in the Kilimanjaro. The last time we were here, we ate at the Palm because the Oriental was too expensive. But tonight, because it’s her last night here, Mommy said that she (and Daddy) would treat Misol to one last meal. So we went to the Oriental, but it wasn’t open when we first went up. So instead, we went to the 8th floor bar, where we had some pre-dinner cocktails (a mocktail for Mommy). As bar snacks, they served popcorn, cashews and these peanuts cooked in a spicy onion sauce. Quite good.
We then headed over to the Oriental Restaurant, where we had the best meal of our entire trip. The menu is ridiculously extensive because they serve Chinese (including dim sum), Japanese (including sushi), Thai and Indonesian food. We started with a spicy tuna roll as an appetizer, and after the first bite, we were pretty certain that we were in for a good meal. (I was already close to tears of joy at my first bite of sushi in 2 years!) The tuna was super fresh, the rice was nicely vinegared, and the roll was really spicy, but in a good way. But the best part of the meal – hands down – was the prawn dish. It was 4 GIANT fried king prawns in a hot chili sauce. The prawns were so fresh and perfectly cooked, and the sauce was amazing –better than a lot of gampoong shrimp I’ve had. We also ordered this curry dish, which was basically slices of really tender beef in a spicy coconut sauce. Misol loved it because it was pretty much just a big bowl of meat with no veggies to get in the way. Anyways, by the end of the meal, Misol was so happy that I think she was actually close to tears. Haha. And Mommy was happy because it turned out that all of the menu prices were inclusive of tax and tip, so the meal turned out to be way cheaper than we had expected. So basically, it was win-win for all. Daddy, Misol says a great big, “THANK YOU” to you for the awesome meal. (I also took a bath this night in scalding hot water, lotsa bubbles and bathsalts that made the water green! It was heavenly!! The tub was almost too big cuz I kept slipping and plunging into the water! But clearly I’m not complaining cuz it was the most glorious bathing experience I’ve had in 2 years! Also I wore the white fluffy bathrobe afterwards too!)
Mommy has a really early flight tomorrow, so her airport transfer is coming at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Misol and I have an afternoon flight, so we might go back for another helping of the prawns for lunch tomorrow.
Mommy got off this morning without too much trouble (her car was about 20 mins. late – hope it wasn’t a problem). Misol and I slept some more and then finally woke up to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we both enjoyed the wonderfully clean and pretty Kilimanjaro shower (Misol had also taken a bath the night before), and then we read until lunch time.
When we went down for lunch, we were a little early, so we took a quick peek at the hotel casino. Misol was overjoyed to see all the familiar slot machines, but I wouldn’t give her any money to play. Haha. (so so incredibly cruel… I mean hearing all the dingdingdingings in the back and flashy lights! How could I not be drawn to that?!?!)
For lunch, we had a spicy snapper roll, the prawns in hot chili sauce and rice. It was a perfect lunch.
Then it was off to the airport. We didn’t want to risk being late with the unpredictable traffic, so we left really early. It was probably a good thing because the line for the LAM check-in was really long and so slow. But we finally made it through, and luckily, they had our reservation and everything (I can probably stop doubting at this point of our trip, but a part of me is always a bit nervous about stuff I booked online).
Our flight to Zanzibar arrived on time but then made 2 unexpected stops, so we got to Zanzibar about an hour later than expected. But we were really happy because there was a driver holding a sign with our name waiting for us! He had a nice, clean minivan, and he even took us on a detour to a Barclays ATM so that we would get some more cash. The drive to Konokono took about an hour and a half. The roads for most of the drive were paved and fairly well-maintained, but the last half hour getting to our resort was a dirt road that may have been even bumpier than the roads in the bush. (in reality this last part took about 10minutes…)
I was a bit nervous about our Zanzibar resort. I had found it online and asked our travel agent to book us there (she had never had any guests stay at Konokono). The pictures were really pretty and the reviews were good, but you never know… But my worries were completely unnecessary. The resort is gorgeous! There are beautiful flowers everywhere, and everything is clean and in great condition. We were greeted with cold towels and delicious fresh pineapple juice. Our bungalow is huge! We have a king bed and a twin, plus plenty of room for 3 chairs and a table, plus another bigger table where we can sit on the floor. There are also double sinks and a huge (indoor) shower. Outside, we have a big patio with big comfy chairs, and a “plunge pool” which is a small pool just big enough to sit in and have the water come up to your neck. We also have air conditioning and 2 ceiling fans, which is great because it’s pretty hot and humid here. But the best part of our bungalow is the view – we can see the Indian Ocean from our patio, and it’s glorious! It’s funny how much more relaxed Mommy and I are now that we’re back in “civilization.” Haha.
Today was the first day in awhile that we got to wake up without setting an alarm. Mommy woke up early and took a long walk (something she wasn’t able to do during our safari) around the resort and down to the beach. Misol and I rolled out of bed around 8 AM. After breakfast, Misol and I headed out to the beach. The water is amazing! There are a lot of leaves/seaweed at the top of the beach, but once you get past that area, the water is amazingly clear and beautiful. It’s straight out of a postcard.
Meanwhile, Mommy did laundry, which made her very happy. J It’s really funny to see how happy clean clothes make her. Haha.
The food is much better (and more plentiful) here than at the safari camp. Yesterday, we had lunch and dinner on the beach (dinner by lantern-light), and today, we had breakfast in our bungalow and lunch on the patio. We’re on an all-inclusive package, so for breakfast and lunch, we pretty much just order whatever we want from the menu. Dinner is a set 4-course meal. Last night was a Greek salad, cream of vegetable soup, fried calamari with rice, and caramel cheesecake, accompanied by a South African Sauvignon Blanc.
We had thought about going snorkeling or taking a tour of Stone Town (the main “city” on the island), but it’s pretty expensive, so it looks like our next few days will be filled with sleeping, eating, reading, swimming and sunbathing. (No complaints here.) There’s also a “spa,” and the massages are really cheap, so we’re going to make appointments for tomorrow. Needless to say, we are thoroughly enjoying our vacation!
Now that we’re in Zanzibar, we don’t really do that much, nothing worth writing about at least, so I’ll write about some random, hopefully funny things.
Both here in Zanzibar and in Selous, there are geckos (little tiny lizard like things) EVERYWHERE. Misol says they’re our friends (because they eat bugs), but Mommy and I don’t like them. Whenever I need to use the bathroom, I make Misol go in first to make sure they are no geckos on the floor. Usually, they hang out on the ceiling, which isn’t as bad – as long as I can’t see them, I can pretend that they’re not there.
Mommy’s favorite hobby in Zanzibar is doing laundry. Seriously, if we didn’t give her clothes to wash, I think she would be complaining of boredom. Haha.
Most of the time, the weather is gorgeous – a bit hot and humid but still sunny. But it also rains about once or twice a day. During our first day lunch, we got caught in a torrential downpour. Our table was set up under a small gazebo type structure (just 4 posts and a thatch roof to provide some shade), so we had to huddle under it to try to stay dry. And then last night, it started raining during dinner, so they had to move our table under the gazebo thing. Luckily, the rain was fairly light and didn’t last long.
When we were in Selous, because of our limited cash situation, we couldn’t order any alcoholic beverages, so Misol and I are doing a good job of making up for it now. There’s a full bar right on the beach with all sorts of pretty tropical cocktails (complete with a pineapple spear and flower), and every night, we order a bottle of wine with dinner. The wine is from South Africa, so it’s yummy and cheap (under $30 for a bottle).
The mosquito situation hasn’t been quite as bad as we had expected, but we’re not sure if it’s because there aren’t that many mosquitoes out or if it’s because of the mosquito repellant we brought. Mommy brought this little device that emits one of two mosquito-repelling sounds – either a male mosquito or a dragonfly (which eats mosquitoes). Both sounds apparently drive other mosquitoes away. And I brought a device that emits insect repellant and then has a tiny fan to circulate the repellant. We’re not sure if either device really works, but we still wear them religiously anytime we go outside at night. Misol, on the other hand, doesn’t give a second thought to bugs. Yesterday, she was outside reading on the back porch right through dusk while wearing a sundress, and now she has tons of little bites on the backs of her thighs. We’re not sure if they’re ant bites or something like a bed bug, but they’re gross. (there were about 50 bites on each leg and it was disgusting and SUPER itchy! Ugh so annoying… pretty sure they were bedbug type things or sand fleas or something… you’ll see pictures soon)
There’s a little spa here that’s actually pretty cheap by US standards, so we all booked massages for tomorrow. But there’s only one masseuse, so we had to book them all back to back.
Misol didn’t do a very good job of putting sunscreen on my back yesterday, so I have a strip of sunburn right across the middle of my back. Good thing I brought aloe gel.
Ok, that’s it for today. Sorry there isn’t more to report, but seriously, all we do is eat, sleep, read, sit around, and eat some more. The hardest part of our day is deciding what to eat for lunch. Haha.
Today’s our last full day in Zanzibar. Mommy’s ready to leave, but Misol and I could use another week or two or ten here. I thought we might get bored with nothing to do, but it’s wonderful. So peaceful and relaxing.
Swimming at the beach here is an amazing experience. The water is ridiculously clear, and it’s a beautiful greenish-blue color. It’s also really salty (per Misol, it’s the 2nd saltiest body of water in the world, after the Dead Sea), so it’s really easy to float in the water. It’s a bit cold when you first go in, but within a few minutes, it feels as warm and comfortable as bath water.
The sand here is also amazing. Zanzibar is famous for its white sand beaches, and I can totally understand why. The sand is a fine, white powder, and other than a few hermit crabs, leaves and twigs, there’s nothing else in the sand. At night, when we go to dinner, the sand feels so amazingly cool on your feet. Mommy’s convinced that the sand glows – when the moon and stars are out, it really does look like the sand is giving off a florescent light.
As I mentioned in my last email, Mommy has been hyper-vigilant about mosquitoes and bugs, but when she came back from her walk this morning, she had a bunch of bites on her thighs. She thinks there was a bug – like an ant or a tick – in her pants, which she’s now too scared to wear. So sad – she almost made it through 3 weeks in Africa without a single bug bite, only to succumb a few days before her departure.
Every morning for breakfast, there’s a different type of fresh juice. Misol and my favorite so far has been the pineapple, and Mommy’s is the passion fruit. We also had watermelon yesterday and mango today. So good!
The agenda for today is Skyping with Daddy (sorry, Migum, but it’s too hard to coordinate the time difference with you), massages, lunch…We’ll probably take it easy on the sunbathing, given that Misol is about 50 shades darker than her normal skin color, and my back is a flaming shade of reddish-pink. (when I was heading back to monapo I had to text von ‘don’t be alarmed if you think you see another Mexican approaching the house… it’s just me’)
Yesterday passed by in blur. We each had our massages – the masseuse wasn’t that great, but the setting was pretty cool. The massage table was set up on an elevated, covered platform, so there was a nice breeze and you could hear all the jungle chatter around you. (miray thought the breeze was nice, but I was FREEEZING! I mean aren’t massages usually supposed to be set in warm places so your muscles RELAX? i’m pretty sure mine were getting tighter with every gust of wind that my skin!)
After our massages, I passed out, Mommy watched Korean dramas and Misol read. We got in a few games of Big Two and GoStop before dinner, and then we enjoyed our last dinner on the beach. Our favorite part of the meal was the roasted sweet potatoes.
Today, we woke up, ate breakfast and packed. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 7 PM, but we changed to a 2 PM flight so that we wouldn’t get into DAR quite so late. The flight from Zanzibar to DAR is literally a hop across the ocean – it took about 15 mins from take off to landing.
When we got to the hotel, which had become a Hyatt Regency as of August 1st, it took forever to check in, and then they tried to put us in a really small regular room, even though we had paid for an upgraded executive suite. We then found out that the President of Somalia is here, so they’ve closed off the entire 7th floor, which is where we were supposed to stay. When I refused to take the first room (I have no idea how they were planning to squeeze a 3rd bed in there), they said they had to talk to their manager, and after much waiting (luckily, they had snacks and drinks in the executive floor lounge), they finally gave us our new room – they upgraded us to a diplomatic suite (aptly named the Selous Suite)! Now we have a giant living/dining room, and a separate bedroom.
Mommy, in doing some final repacking, discovered that she can’t find her US cell phone. As you might imagine, she’s not happy.
There are 2 restaurants in the Kilimanjaro. The last time we were here, we ate at the Palm because the Oriental was too expensive. But tonight, because it’s her last night here, Mommy said that she (and Daddy) would treat Misol to one last meal. So we went to the Oriental, but it wasn’t open when we first went up. So instead, we went to the 8th floor bar, where we had some pre-dinner cocktails (a mocktail for Mommy). As bar snacks, they served popcorn, cashews and these peanuts cooked in a spicy onion sauce. Quite good.
We then headed over to the Oriental Restaurant, where we had the best meal of our entire trip. The menu is ridiculously extensive because they serve Chinese (including dim sum), Japanese (including sushi), Thai and Indonesian food. We started with a spicy tuna roll as an appetizer, and after the first bite, we were pretty certain that we were in for a good meal. (I was already close to tears of joy at my first bite of sushi in 2 years!) The tuna was super fresh, the rice was nicely vinegared, and the roll was really spicy, but in a good way. But the best part of the meal – hands down – was the prawn dish. It was 4 GIANT fried king prawns in a hot chili sauce. The prawns were so fresh and perfectly cooked, and the sauce was amazing –better than a lot of gampoong shrimp I’ve had. We also ordered this curry dish, which was basically slices of really tender beef in a spicy coconut sauce. Misol loved it because it was pretty much just a big bowl of meat with no veggies to get in the way. Anyways, by the end of the meal, Misol was so happy that I think she was actually close to tears. Haha. And Mommy was happy because it turned out that all of the menu prices were inclusive of tax and tip, so the meal turned out to be way cheaper than we had expected. So basically, it was win-win for all. Daddy, Misol says a great big, “THANK YOU” to you for the awesome meal. (I also took a bath this night in scalding hot water, lotsa bubbles and bathsalts that made the water green! It was heavenly!! The tub was almost too big cuz I kept slipping and plunging into the water! But clearly I’m not complaining cuz it was the most glorious bathing experience I’ve had in 2 years! Also I wore the white fluffy bathrobe afterwards too!)
Mommy has a really early flight tomorrow, so her airport transfer is coming at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Misol and I have an afternoon flight, so we might go back for another helping of the prawns for lunch tomorrow.
Mommy got off this morning without too much trouble (her car was about 20 mins. late – hope it wasn’t a problem). Misol and I slept some more and then finally woke up to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we both enjoyed the wonderfully clean and pretty Kilimanjaro shower (Misol had also taken a bath the night before), and then we read until lunch time.
When we went down for lunch, we were a little early, so we took a quick peek at the hotel casino. Misol was overjoyed to see all the familiar slot machines, but I wouldn’t give her any money to play. Haha. (so so incredibly cruel… I mean hearing all the dingdingdingings in the back and flashy lights! How could I not be drawn to that?!?!)
For lunch, we had a spicy snapper roll, the prawns in hot chili sauce and rice. It was a perfect lunch.
Then it was off to the airport. We didn’t want to risk being late with the unpredictable traffic, so we left really early. It was probably a good thing because the line for the LAM check-in was really long and so slow. But we finally made it through, and luckily, they had our reservation and everything (I can probably stop doubting at this point of our trip, but a part of me is always a bit nervous about stuff I booked online).
EPIC Africa Vacay pt.4 Monapo, Chocas, Ilha
MONAPO, CHOCAS, ILHA
Our flight from DAR to Nampula had a stop in Pemba. We thought we wouldn’t go through immigration until Nampula, but they made everyone go through in Pemba. It was a bit of a madhouse, but we actually made it through with 2 things going our way: (1) they were asking to see passengers’ yellow fever cards, which Misol had left at home, but she just very confidently said that she lived in Mozambique, and they let her through; (2) when Mommy and I first got to Maputo, I tried to buy a multiple entry visa, but the woman wouldn’t let me, so I thought they might make me buy another visa (which would cost another $66), but I guess the guy didn’t look at my visa very closely because he just let me through. This trip has definitely taught me to be more appreciative about the small pleasures and triumphs in life.
The flight from Pemba to Nampula was about 15 mins., so we were on the ground in no time. It’s so nice to be back on Misol’s home turf – she just feels a bit more relaxed and comfortable, and it’s great for me because I don’t have to be in charge of anything. Haha. (PSH I thought I wouldn’t have to do much once we got to tanz cuz they speak english there, but miray still made me do just about everything… call for this, ask for that)
We checked into our hotel, which is the nicest hotel in Nampula. It’s pretty luxurious by local standards – there’s air conditioning, and everything’s really clean. We’re just staying here for one night because our flight got in too late to drive to Monapo.
We had a great Indian dinner at the hotel restaurant, which I think is run by an actual Indian family. The food could probably rival some of the Indian food I’ve had in LA.
Tomorrow, we’re going to do some shopping for supplies in the morning, and then we’ll make the drive to Monapo, where we’ll spend a couple of hours. I’ll get a chance to see where Misol lives, Misol will get to unpack/repack, and we’ll pick up Vonnie and then head to Chocas for 2 nights. After that, Vonnie’s heading back home, while Misol and I head to Ilha for another 2 nights.
After breakfast, our driver for the day picked us up and we went to a few different markets to buy food and wine for our trip. We almost had an issue when we stopped for gas – Misol didn’t have as much money as she thought she did, so she didn’t have enough local currency to pay for the gas. Luckily, I had USD $40 in cash, which just barely covered the bill. Then it was off on the 1.5 hour drive to Monapo. (it wasn’t that I didn’t have enough money, usually you pay at the end of the trip and all my money was in monapo, but this guy wanted me to pay for his gas so I didn’t have enough money to cover that!)
It was really cool to see Misol’s town and especially her house. Her house is so much smaller and grungy than I thought it would be. I really can’t believe that she’s lived there for 2 years. I honestly don’t think I would’ve lasted one day there. But it’s also amazing to see how much they’ve done to make their home more comfortable and how much they’ve been able to achieve with so little space.
We also walked around the town and over to her school. I even got to meet a class of her 9th graders, who were all so nice and welcoming. (my rowdiest class…) I also met her school director – I can tell why Misol has so many issues with him. Even in the few minutes that I spoke with him, I could tell that he just isn’t a very nice person.
We ate a quick lunch and then got on the road to Chocas. The ride itself wasn’t too bad, but when we were only 3 km away from our destination, our driver flipped out b/c he said that he had only agreed to take us to Chocas, not all the way to our resort. After some yelling and a phone call to the person who had arranged the ride, he finally calmed down enough to drive us the last 3 kms.
But soon thereafter, the paved road ended and we switched to a sand path. After a few minutes of REALLY rough driving (worse than our safari game drives), the car got stuck! Luckily, we were able to flag down a local man walking by. It was a nervewracking 90 minutes, with lots of digging, pushing and waiting, but they were finally able to free the car.
It was dark by the time we got to the camp, but we were glad to have made it in one piece. Our bungalow is nothing like our bungalow in Zanzibar, but it’s really cute. There’s a porch with 2 chairs and a hammock, and when you walk in, there’s a small dining area and kitchen, a double bed and a bathroom (running water, but cold only), and then there’s a ladder to an upstairs loft with just a twin mattress on the ground. It’s not fancy at all, but it’s so peaceful. And the best part is that there are tons of windows, and the weather has been so nice and breezy.
We ate dinner at the camp’s restaurant. I had a delicious grilled calamari steak, Vonnie ordered a traditional Mozambican dish made with some kind of greens (similar to spinach), cashews (usually peanuts) and local spices – it’s similar in consistency to an Indian spinach curry or creamed spinach (without the cream). And Misol ordered a crab curry, which had tons of crab, but it was really messy and hard to eat.
After dinner, we played some games (Misol and Vonnie are both addicted to games – I think they’re going to have serious withdrawal when they go back to the States) and then went to bed. (We also had the brief period panic when Migum called us to tell us about Mommy’s canceled flight, but luckily, that all worked out ok.)
Waking up was great. It was absolutely gorgeous out. After a breakfast of cereal and juice, we went out to the beach, which may have actually been more spectacular than Zanzibar. It was definitely less populated, and the water was beautiful. We spent the entire morning swimming, sunning and reading. It was glorious. We then came in, showered and then had a lunch of crackers and cheese (there’s only one restaurant here, so we’re trying to minimize our number of meals there). The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games – Settlers, Big Two, etc. – and eating lots of snacks. Now we’re getting ready to head out for dinner.
It’s amazing how quickly the days go, even when you’re not really doing anything. I just keep trying to remind myself to appreciate and enjoy this time of doing nothing because I know I’m going to be back at work before I know it
On Saturday, we woke up somewhat early so that we could leave for Ilha. Although a car is faster, the cheapest way to get from Chocas to Ilha is by boat. And not just any boat but the traditional Mozambican dhow boat, which is a type of sail boat. There are no docks, so the boat just comes to the beach to pick you up, and then you have to walk out (until the water comes up to your thighs) and climb into the boat (easier said than done). Unfortunately, when we got out to the beach, there was barely a breeze and the water was almost completely still. So what they promised would be an hour boat ride ended up taking about 2.5 hours! But it was so peaceful and beautiful that we didn’t really mind.
When we landed in Ilha, the water was too shallow for the boat to get that close to the beach, so we had to land a bit out and walk in the rest of the way. We then walked to our hotel, which was lovely. It felt like we were at an old Spanish house somewhere in Mexico. There was an open dining area next to a swimming pool, and there were beautiful pink flowers everywhere.
Our room itself wasn’t quite so nice – it wasn’t terrible, just really…bare. Also, the hotel “accidentally” gave away the room that Misol had reserved, so instead of having a bathroom attached to the room, our bathroom was “right across the hall,” meaning that it was down the hall and around the corner. But the good news was that our room had air conditioning, which turned out to be quite necessary given how warm the weather got. And the room was much cheaper than a room with an attached bathroom, so we saved some money.
Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, so we started with lunch. Misol had been raving about the hotel restaurant’s tuna with basil sauce. Unfortunately, they were out of the basil sauce, but they had a garlic sauce instead, which was delicious. And Misol asked for the tuna to be cooked just barely seared on the outside, so it was completely raw in the middle – almost like sashimi. It was SO good!
After lunch, we headed for the pool, where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
The next day, I was feeling too lazy to do any sightseeing (there’s an old fort on the island that’s supposed to be interesting), so we literally spent the entire day by the pool again. For dinner, Misol arranged an awesome grilled seafood feast – grilled tiger prawns, a giant calamari steak and a whole lobster! It was fantastic!
The only negative of our time in Ilha was that, after having survived both Selous and Zanzibar without getting any mosquito bites, I got eaten alive in Ilha. (Mommy, I think this means that neither of our insect repellent devices really work.) I’m still suffering from it now.
Our flight from DAR to Nampula had a stop in Pemba. We thought we wouldn’t go through immigration until Nampula, but they made everyone go through in Pemba. It was a bit of a madhouse, but we actually made it through with 2 things going our way: (1) they were asking to see passengers’ yellow fever cards, which Misol had left at home, but she just very confidently said that she lived in Mozambique, and they let her through; (2) when Mommy and I first got to Maputo, I tried to buy a multiple entry visa, but the woman wouldn’t let me, so I thought they might make me buy another visa (which would cost another $66), but I guess the guy didn’t look at my visa very closely because he just let me through. This trip has definitely taught me to be more appreciative about the small pleasures and triumphs in life.
The flight from Pemba to Nampula was about 15 mins., so we were on the ground in no time. It’s so nice to be back on Misol’s home turf – she just feels a bit more relaxed and comfortable, and it’s great for me because I don’t have to be in charge of anything. Haha. (PSH I thought I wouldn’t have to do much once we got to tanz cuz they speak english there, but miray still made me do just about everything… call for this, ask for that)
We checked into our hotel, which is the nicest hotel in Nampula. It’s pretty luxurious by local standards – there’s air conditioning, and everything’s really clean. We’re just staying here for one night because our flight got in too late to drive to Monapo.
We had a great Indian dinner at the hotel restaurant, which I think is run by an actual Indian family. The food could probably rival some of the Indian food I’ve had in LA.
Tomorrow, we’re going to do some shopping for supplies in the morning, and then we’ll make the drive to Monapo, where we’ll spend a couple of hours. I’ll get a chance to see where Misol lives, Misol will get to unpack/repack, and we’ll pick up Vonnie and then head to Chocas for 2 nights. After that, Vonnie’s heading back home, while Misol and I head to Ilha for another 2 nights.
After breakfast, our driver for the day picked us up and we went to a few different markets to buy food and wine for our trip. We almost had an issue when we stopped for gas – Misol didn’t have as much money as she thought she did, so she didn’t have enough local currency to pay for the gas. Luckily, I had USD $40 in cash, which just barely covered the bill. Then it was off on the 1.5 hour drive to Monapo. (it wasn’t that I didn’t have enough money, usually you pay at the end of the trip and all my money was in monapo, but this guy wanted me to pay for his gas so I didn’t have enough money to cover that!)
It was really cool to see Misol’s town and especially her house. Her house is so much smaller and grungy than I thought it would be. I really can’t believe that she’s lived there for 2 years. I honestly don’t think I would’ve lasted one day there. But it’s also amazing to see how much they’ve done to make their home more comfortable and how much they’ve been able to achieve with so little space.
We also walked around the town and over to her school. I even got to meet a class of her 9th graders, who were all so nice and welcoming. (my rowdiest class…) I also met her school director – I can tell why Misol has so many issues with him. Even in the few minutes that I spoke with him, I could tell that he just isn’t a very nice person.
We ate a quick lunch and then got on the road to Chocas. The ride itself wasn’t too bad, but when we were only 3 km away from our destination, our driver flipped out b/c he said that he had only agreed to take us to Chocas, not all the way to our resort. After some yelling and a phone call to the person who had arranged the ride, he finally calmed down enough to drive us the last 3 kms.
But soon thereafter, the paved road ended and we switched to a sand path. After a few minutes of REALLY rough driving (worse than our safari game drives), the car got stuck! Luckily, we were able to flag down a local man walking by. It was a nervewracking 90 minutes, with lots of digging, pushing and waiting, but they were finally able to free the car.
It was dark by the time we got to the camp, but we were glad to have made it in one piece. Our bungalow is nothing like our bungalow in Zanzibar, but it’s really cute. There’s a porch with 2 chairs and a hammock, and when you walk in, there’s a small dining area and kitchen, a double bed and a bathroom (running water, but cold only), and then there’s a ladder to an upstairs loft with just a twin mattress on the ground. It’s not fancy at all, but it’s so peaceful. And the best part is that there are tons of windows, and the weather has been so nice and breezy.
We ate dinner at the camp’s restaurant. I had a delicious grilled calamari steak, Vonnie ordered a traditional Mozambican dish made with some kind of greens (similar to spinach), cashews (usually peanuts) and local spices – it’s similar in consistency to an Indian spinach curry or creamed spinach (without the cream). And Misol ordered a crab curry, which had tons of crab, but it was really messy and hard to eat.
After dinner, we played some games (Misol and Vonnie are both addicted to games – I think they’re going to have serious withdrawal when they go back to the States) and then went to bed. (We also had the brief period panic when Migum called us to tell us about Mommy’s canceled flight, but luckily, that all worked out ok.)
Waking up was great. It was absolutely gorgeous out. After a breakfast of cereal and juice, we went out to the beach, which may have actually been more spectacular than Zanzibar. It was definitely less populated, and the water was beautiful. We spent the entire morning swimming, sunning and reading. It was glorious. We then came in, showered and then had a lunch of crackers and cheese (there’s only one restaurant here, so we’re trying to minimize our number of meals there). The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games – Settlers, Big Two, etc. – and eating lots of snacks. Now we’re getting ready to head out for dinner.
It’s amazing how quickly the days go, even when you’re not really doing anything. I just keep trying to remind myself to appreciate and enjoy this time of doing nothing because I know I’m going to be back at work before I know it
On Saturday, we woke up somewhat early so that we could leave for Ilha. Although a car is faster, the cheapest way to get from Chocas to Ilha is by boat. And not just any boat but the traditional Mozambican dhow boat, which is a type of sail boat. There are no docks, so the boat just comes to the beach to pick you up, and then you have to walk out (until the water comes up to your thighs) and climb into the boat (easier said than done). Unfortunately, when we got out to the beach, there was barely a breeze and the water was almost completely still. So what they promised would be an hour boat ride ended up taking about 2.5 hours! But it was so peaceful and beautiful that we didn’t really mind.
When we landed in Ilha, the water was too shallow for the boat to get that close to the beach, so we had to land a bit out and walk in the rest of the way. We then walked to our hotel, which was lovely. It felt like we were at an old Spanish house somewhere in Mexico. There was an open dining area next to a swimming pool, and there were beautiful pink flowers everywhere.
Our room itself wasn’t quite so nice – it wasn’t terrible, just really…bare. Also, the hotel “accidentally” gave away the room that Misol had reserved, so instead of having a bathroom attached to the room, our bathroom was “right across the hall,” meaning that it was down the hall and around the corner. But the good news was that our room had air conditioning, which turned out to be quite necessary given how warm the weather got. And the room was much cheaper than a room with an attached bathroom, so we saved some money.
Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, so we started with lunch. Misol had been raving about the hotel restaurant’s tuna with basil sauce. Unfortunately, they were out of the basil sauce, but they had a garlic sauce instead, which was delicious. And Misol asked for the tuna to be cooked just barely seared on the outside, so it was completely raw in the middle – almost like sashimi. It was SO good!
After lunch, we headed for the pool, where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
The next day, I was feeling too lazy to do any sightseeing (there’s an old fort on the island that’s supposed to be interesting), so we literally spent the entire day by the pool again. For dinner, Misol arranged an awesome grilled seafood feast – grilled tiger prawns, a giant calamari steak and a whole lobster! It was fantastic!
The only negative of our time in Ilha was that, after having survived both Selous and Zanzibar without getting any mosquito bites, I got eaten alive in Ilha. (Mommy, I think this means that neither of our insect repellent devices really work.) I’m still suffering from it now.
EPIC Africa Vacay pt.5 Cape Town
CAPE TOWN
On Monday, we left Ilha in the morning and drove back to Monapo. After dropping Vonnie off and giving Misol a chance to repack, we headed to Nampula for our flight to Johannesburg. Originally, we were supposed to have a 1.5 hr. layover in Jo’burg before our flight to Cape Town, but our flight left Nampula over an hour late, and of course, we had to pick up our luggage and go through immigration and customs, so not surprisingly, we missed our connection to Cape Town. The good news was that South African Air has hourly flights to Cape Town until 9 PM, so we just had to get on the next flight. The bad news was that our Nampula – Jo’burg flight was operated by South African Airlink, and according to all of the SA agents we spoke to, Airlink is a completely different, unaffiliated airline, so SA couldn’t help us; we had to have Airlink rebook our flight. But of course, there were no agents at the Airlink counter, and when we called the Airlink customer service number, no one seemed able to help us. Finally, a random SA agent took pity on us and before we knew it, our bags had been checked and we were holding boarding passes for the next flight, which happened to be boarding in 4 minutes. Luckily, there was no one at the security line, and we were at the first gate after security, so we made it with time to spare. (I HATE HATE HATE AIRLINK! HATE! HATE! I had vowed never to fly them ever again after my agonizing experience with them coming back from Barcelona, but miray had booked the tix and I had no say… I hate them…)
By the way, it was FREEZING in Jo’burg! So cold that we could see our breath in the air! And Misol, of course, was in a tank top and skirt. (my teeth were literally chattering in the 10 minutes it took us to get from the plane to the bus to the terminal) We were worried that Cape Town would be really cold, too, but the weather has been great.
Cape Town is wonderful! I know this sounds totally spoiled, but it’s so great to be back in “civilization.” Shopping malls, metered taxis, and amazing restaurants. And the city itself is beautiful – it’s right on the water, so parts of it feel similar to San Francisco, but then there’s a giant mountain (Table Mountain) right in the middle of the city, which is very dramatic and beautiful. I can understand why so many people love Cape Town.
Our hotel is really nice. Clean white sheets on soft beds with great pillows. (THE COMFIEST BEDS EVERRRRR! I pretty much passed out as soon as I laid down in mine!) Gourmet chocolates on the beds for nightly turndown service. And best of all, no more geckos in the bathroom! Haha.
Our first day, we set out to walk to the V&A Waterfront, which is the touristy area of the city right near our hotel. But we got a little bit lost and ended up stumbling across the cutest little café! The food was delicious, and it was really cute inside. We liked it so much that we’re going back there tomorrow for breakfast. (my breakfast had a giant stack of bacon on it! mmmm like 20 pieces piled high! AHHHH)
After breakfast, we walked around the Waterfront a bit (there’s a giant mall with lots of high end stores, restaurants and even 2 movie theaters) and then headed to Green Market Square to check out the local craft market. Then we walked to the Mount Nelson Hotel, probably the most famous luxury hotel in Cape Town, for their famous buffet afternoon tea. We sat on the verandah of the lovely hotel and ate lots of delicious finger foods. I think our favorite thing was a puff pastry (shaped kind of like a mandoo) filled with this yummy creamy mushroom filling. I think we had at least 4 each! It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Mommy, we really wished you could have been with us!
After tea, we returned to the hotel to rest for a bit and then headed to a “small plates” style restaurant – instead of serving appetizer and entrée sized portions of their dishes, everything comes in a small portion so that you can sample a bunch of different things. We hadn’t really tried anything “African,” so we decided to try the ostrich and the kudu (looks kind of like a deer, but bigger). Both dishes were surprisingly tasty, as were all of the other dishes we ordered. We just wished we were with a larger group so that we could try more dishes!
Today, we decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus to tour the city (we saved 10% because I happened to have my ticket stub from Istanbul, which was run by the same company!). Our first intended stop was Table Mountain (the mountain in the middle of the city), but unfortunately, the cable car to the top of the mountain was closed because it was so windy. Instead, we stayed on the bus to Camps Bay, which is a famous strip of restaurants/bars right on the beach. It was beautiful! We grabbed a table on the patio of a cute little bistro and just hung out for awhile, enjoying the view.
Then we got back on the bus and rode to Sea Point in search of a Korean restaurant that Misol had heard about from some of her friends. You should have seen the look of pure joy and excitement on Misol’s face when we finally found the restaurant! We wanted to order everything on the menu, but with only 2 of us, we were limited to a few dishes. The food was just ok by US standards but amazing by Misol’s Korean food-deprived standards. That meal should definitely tide Misol over until she gets to Seoul in December.
After lunch, we took the bus back to the V&A Waterfront area, where we decided to spend the rest of the day watching movies (Misol was adamant that we watch the final Harry Potter movie). This may sound like a waste of a day, but movies are so much cheaper in Cape Town than in the US! We ended up watching two 3D movies, and for all 4 tickets, we spent less than $15! Totally worth it!
Tomorrow, we’re planning on going back to Table Thirteen (the really cute café from our first day) for brunch, and then we’re off to wine country for some wine tasting and dinner. Only one more full day in Cape Town, so we have to make the most of it!
After enjoying 2 days in the mid-20s, we woke up Thursday to a gray day with an expected high of 17˚C. We headed back to Table Thirteen for a leisurely brunch, and then our private car picked us up for the drive to Franschoek. Our first stop was a very small winery called GlenWood. Given that we were there on an off-season Thursday, it wasn’t surprising that we were the only visitors. But it was nice because we got to chat with the woman running the tasting, and we were able to taste some lovely wines.
A taxi then picked us up to take us to our second tasting at Haute Cabriere. There, we were able to go on a cellar tour, followed by a tasting. It was pretty cool, except that we were joined by a group of drunk Australian travel agents who were pretty obnoxious. But after they finally left, when we expressed sympathy to the tour leader for dealing with such an obnoxious group, he thanked us by giving us another free glass of wine each.
By that point, we had about 2.5 hrs. until our dinner reservation and had originally planned to walk around “downtown” Franschoek (which is basically one street with lots of cute restaurants, galleries, shops and cafés), but it was so cold that we decided to pass the time in a really cozy café, drinking coffee/hot chocolate.
Dinner was at the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, and it was fantastic! It’s a fairly small dining room, with excellent service (especially by African standards, but even by US standards). We opted for the full nine course “Surprise Menu,” and Misol added the wine pairings (I had already had too much wine at our 2 earlier tastings). All of the food was so unique and interesting, with good use of local African ingredients and cooking methods. Definitely one of the more memorable meals I’ve had in recent memory.
After our lovely meal, our private car took us back to our hotel, where Misol crashed while I packed.
When we got to the airport this morning, we almost had a problem when we discovered that our flight had been canceled. Luckily, we were just in time to make an earlier flight, so we made it to Jo’burg without issue. After buying Misol one final meal of KFC, I sent her off to catch her flight back to Maputo.
And that, Family, concludes my 28 day adventure. It was an amazing trip, filled with tons of once in a lifetime experiences. Now I have to return to my real life, where there are lots of documents waiting to be signed, emails to be checked, and messages to be returned. I can’t believe I have to be back at work in two weeks. My two-month vacation has seriously flown by!
On Monday, we left Ilha in the morning and drove back to Monapo. After dropping Vonnie off and giving Misol a chance to repack, we headed to Nampula for our flight to Johannesburg. Originally, we were supposed to have a 1.5 hr. layover in Jo’burg before our flight to Cape Town, but our flight left Nampula over an hour late, and of course, we had to pick up our luggage and go through immigration and customs, so not surprisingly, we missed our connection to Cape Town. The good news was that South African Air has hourly flights to Cape Town until 9 PM, so we just had to get on the next flight. The bad news was that our Nampula – Jo’burg flight was operated by South African Airlink, and according to all of the SA agents we spoke to, Airlink is a completely different, unaffiliated airline, so SA couldn’t help us; we had to have Airlink rebook our flight. But of course, there were no agents at the Airlink counter, and when we called the Airlink customer service number, no one seemed able to help us. Finally, a random SA agent took pity on us and before we knew it, our bags had been checked and we were holding boarding passes for the next flight, which happened to be boarding in 4 minutes. Luckily, there was no one at the security line, and we were at the first gate after security, so we made it with time to spare. (I HATE HATE HATE AIRLINK! HATE! HATE! I had vowed never to fly them ever again after my agonizing experience with them coming back from Barcelona, but miray had booked the tix and I had no say… I hate them…)
By the way, it was FREEZING in Jo’burg! So cold that we could see our breath in the air! And Misol, of course, was in a tank top and skirt. (my teeth were literally chattering in the 10 minutes it took us to get from the plane to the bus to the terminal) We were worried that Cape Town would be really cold, too, but the weather has been great.
Cape Town is wonderful! I know this sounds totally spoiled, but it’s so great to be back in “civilization.” Shopping malls, metered taxis, and amazing restaurants. And the city itself is beautiful – it’s right on the water, so parts of it feel similar to San Francisco, but then there’s a giant mountain (Table Mountain) right in the middle of the city, which is very dramatic and beautiful. I can understand why so many people love Cape Town.
Our hotel is really nice. Clean white sheets on soft beds with great pillows. (THE COMFIEST BEDS EVERRRRR! I pretty much passed out as soon as I laid down in mine!) Gourmet chocolates on the beds for nightly turndown service. And best of all, no more geckos in the bathroom! Haha.
Our first day, we set out to walk to the V&A Waterfront, which is the touristy area of the city right near our hotel. But we got a little bit lost and ended up stumbling across the cutest little café! The food was delicious, and it was really cute inside. We liked it so much that we’re going back there tomorrow for breakfast. (my breakfast had a giant stack of bacon on it! mmmm like 20 pieces piled high! AHHHH)
After breakfast, we walked around the Waterfront a bit (there’s a giant mall with lots of high end stores, restaurants and even 2 movie theaters) and then headed to Green Market Square to check out the local craft market. Then we walked to the Mount Nelson Hotel, probably the most famous luxury hotel in Cape Town, for their famous buffet afternoon tea. We sat on the verandah of the lovely hotel and ate lots of delicious finger foods. I think our favorite thing was a puff pastry (shaped kind of like a mandoo) filled with this yummy creamy mushroom filling. I think we had at least 4 each! It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Mommy, we really wished you could have been with us!
After tea, we returned to the hotel to rest for a bit and then headed to a “small plates” style restaurant – instead of serving appetizer and entrée sized portions of their dishes, everything comes in a small portion so that you can sample a bunch of different things. We hadn’t really tried anything “African,” so we decided to try the ostrich and the kudu (looks kind of like a deer, but bigger). Both dishes were surprisingly tasty, as were all of the other dishes we ordered. We just wished we were with a larger group so that we could try more dishes!
Today, we decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus to tour the city (we saved 10% because I happened to have my ticket stub from Istanbul, which was run by the same company!). Our first intended stop was Table Mountain (the mountain in the middle of the city), but unfortunately, the cable car to the top of the mountain was closed because it was so windy. Instead, we stayed on the bus to Camps Bay, which is a famous strip of restaurants/bars right on the beach. It was beautiful! We grabbed a table on the patio of a cute little bistro and just hung out for awhile, enjoying the view.
Then we got back on the bus and rode to Sea Point in search of a Korean restaurant that Misol had heard about from some of her friends. You should have seen the look of pure joy and excitement on Misol’s face when we finally found the restaurant! We wanted to order everything on the menu, but with only 2 of us, we were limited to a few dishes. The food was just ok by US standards but amazing by Misol’s Korean food-deprived standards. That meal should definitely tide Misol over until she gets to Seoul in December.
After lunch, we took the bus back to the V&A Waterfront area, where we decided to spend the rest of the day watching movies (Misol was adamant that we watch the final Harry Potter movie). This may sound like a waste of a day, but movies are so much cheaper in Cape Town than in the US! We ended up watching two 3D movies, and for all 4 tickets, we spent less than $15! Totally worth it!
Tomorrow, we’re planning on going back to Table Thirteen (the really cute café from our first day) for brunch, and then we’re off to wine country for some wine tasting and dinner. Only one more full day in Cape Town, so we have to make the most of it!
After enjoying 2 days in the mid-20s, we woke up Thursday to a gray day with an expected high of 17˚C. We headed back to Table Thirteen for a leisurely brunch, and then our private car picked us up for the drive to Franschoek. Our first stop was a very small winery called GlenWood. Given that we were there on an off-season Thursday, it wasn’t surprising that we were the only visitors. But it was nice because we got to chat with the woman running the tasting, and we were able to taste some lovely wines.
A taxi then picked us up to take us to our second tasting at Haute Cabriere. There, we were able to go on a cellar tour, followed by a tasting. It was pretty cool, except that we were joined by a group of drunk Australian travel agents who were pretty obnoxious. But after they finally left, when we expressed sympathy to the tour leader for dealing with such an obnoxious group, he thanked us by giving us another free glass of wine each.
By that point, we had about 2.5 hrs. until our dinner reservation and had originally planned to walk around “downtown” Franschoek (which is basically one street with lots of cute restaurants, galleries, shops and cafés), but it was so cold that we decided to pass the time in a really cozy café, drinking coffee/hot chocolate.
Dinner was at the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, and it was fantastic! It’s a fairly small dining room, with excellent service (especially by African standards, but even by US standards). We opted for the full nine course “Surprise Menu,” and Misol added the wine pairings (I had already had too much wine at our 2 earlier tastings). All of the food was so unique and interesting, with good use of local African ingredients and cooking methods. Definitely one of the more memorable meals I’ve had in recent memory.
After our lovely meal, our private car took us back to our hotel, where Misol crashed while I packed.
When we got to the airport this morning, we almost had a problem when we discovered that our flight had been canceled. Luckily, we were just in time to make an earlier flight, so we made it to Jo’burg without issue. After buying Misol one final meal of KFC, I sent her off to catch her flight back to Maputo.
And that, Family, concludes my 28 day adventure. It was an amazing trip, filled with tons of once in a lifetime experiences. Now I have to return to my real life, where there are lots of documents waiting to be signed, emails to be checked, and messages to be returned. I can’t believe I have to be back at work in two weeks. My two-month vacation has seriously flown by!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
I should change my name to ‘the LAME panda’
So unfortunately I haven’t been living up to my name as I haven’t really traveled much at all, not only since I got back from south Africa, but also since my last update. I had finally decided that I was going to get my act together and get out of the house more, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out… I made one trip so far to go visit my friend Camille in Gurue and it was absolutely breath taking! We talk a lot about the beautiful beaches in moz, but this time I headed inland to the mountainous tea plantations of Zambezia province. The trip I had been dreading so much was actually quite enjoyable and I even got to buy a giant basket full of tangerines for about a buck fitty! And they were so delicious too! Camille and her new roommate annie live in a cute little house in a teacher’s compound on school campus. There were about 15 volunteers visiting that weekend and as always it was a weekend filled with really amazingly good food and a fair amount of drinking = ] the only bummer was the first night we were all there, 5 ipods, including mine, and a set of speakers got stolen. After we had all gone to bed that night someone had cut a hole in their window screen, reached in and nabbed em up off the table… it definitely put a damper on the weekend. I also realized just how much my life had revolved around that thing! It had my entire address book (speaking of which I now no longer have anyone’s address cuz recently, when I was really bored, i moved all my contacts to my ipod, so everyone email them to me again please), calendar, pictures, video clips and of course music… no more mr.aahh, angry birds, word warp, trivial pursuit and scrabble!!!! Falling asleep has been a much larger challenge without games to make my eyelids heavy and my e.p.i.c playlist to lull me to sleep… although now I may actually finish reading my 900+ page whopper ‘shantaram’. It’s a really good book, but I read and read and read and just don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere! I’ve been working on it on and off for about 2-3months and I’m on page 470 or something… daunting! And that bad boy is so heavy to hold up and after like 10 min of reading my arms start falling asleep! Anyway can yall believe it’s already JUNE??? We’re about halfway through the second trimester and july’s gonna be a big month with some people coming through to visit including von’s best friend michelle and then MOMMY AND MIRAY COME!!!! I seriously seriously seriously can’t wait!
Oooh last month von and I also started English Club! It’s a very elite, invite only, group of our very best english students that don’t get the challenge and level of attention necessary during class. The group meets every Saturday and we’ve done everything from play games to paper folding to watching movies and the only rule is that you have to speak english! Oh my students also taught me this awesome new trump game! So pumped cuz it is by far the best 2person card game I have ever played and can be played with up to 8 people although at that point it’s just a hot mess. So the game started with just me and this kid Nelson so he taught me and I picked it up pretty quickly and I actually kicked his butt, but as more kids started trickling in we added them in and played in teams and every time kids came in and saw me playing they would look to nelson and ask ‘does teacher know how to play?’ and he would be like ‘I only just taught her, but oh she knows. she gets it.’ haha I felt like I was hustling them but what can I say? I’ve had lotsa practice! thanks gweon family! But they’re a great group of kids so it’s been really fun!
Also von and I started tutoring this 5-year-old cutie patootie! His family is totally loaded but he’s too young to start school and his parents just wanted him to get a jump-start on english so we see him 4 times a week. It is crazy the difference it makes to start learning a language when young though cuz I’m pretty sure he, after just 2 months, speaks better english than most of my 9th graders! He does some dang cute things like von taught him ‘I don’t know’ and he says it all the time now, and he says ‘thingers’ instead of fingers and I secretly hope he’ll make that mistake for the rest of our time together cuz it’s so so so cute!!! The parents wanted to pay us, but since we’re not allowed to ‘make money’ while we’re here, they instead bring us the most amazing snacks ever! From cookies and cakes, to green mango curry soup, we almost prefer it to cash!
So thanks to my malaria meds I’ve been having crazzzyyy dreams, and I really should start writing them down, but last night there was one where I was trying to save a talking dugong and running around trying to get him to water and instead we got chased by a crocodile and it got the poor dugong and I just barely got away. I swear I didn’t throw the dugong to the croc to save myself! But seriously… right? anyway I think I’ve been chased by crocs and sometimes snakes a few other times too which is weird cuz I still haven’t seen a crocodile in this country, or at least not in the wild as we do have 3 baby crocodiles in our ‘zoo.’ We call it central park zoo, but its just one little cement and gate structure that holds 3 baby crocs captive… it’s really kinda sad, but it’s the highlight of the Monapo tour whenever friends come to visit!
So von was gone this past weekend, she went to go help out with a conference, so I was home alone for about 5 days, and all I can say is thank GOD I don’t live alone… I almost lost my mind trying to find things to do and being alone makes you constantly THINK! I had a few things on my mind and I swear I was non-stop obsessively thinking about them and I don’t think it was very healthy… may have aged about 2 years in 5 days… no good… von don’t ever leave, ever. Ever.
Well I think that’s about it and I should have more to write in the coming months so I’ll try not to slack on the blog writing! I miss everyone SO SO SO SO much, especially my doofus of a nephew, bambo, who thinks Mozambique is filled with ‘beaks’ haha.
20 months down and just 6 more to go!
The lame panda
Oooh last month von and I also started English Club! It’s a very elite, invite only, group of our very best english students that don’t get the challenge and level of attention necessary during class. The group meets every Saturday and we’ve done everything from play games to paper folding to watching movies and the only rule is that you have to speak english! Oh my students also taught me this awesome new trump game! So pumped cuz it is by far the best 2person card game I have ever played and can be played with up to 8 people although at that point it’s just a hot mess. So the game started with just me and this kid Nelson so he taught me and I picked it up pretty quickly and I actually kicked his butt, but as more kids started trickling in we added them in and played in teams and every time kids came in and saw me playing they would look to nelson and ask ‘does teacher know how to play?’ and he would be like ‘I only just taught her, but oh she knows. she gets it.’ haha I felt like I was hustling them but what can I say? I’ve had lotsa practice! thanks gweon family! But they’re a great group of kids so it’s been really fun!
Also von and I started tutoring this 5-year-old cutie patootie! His family is totally loaded but he’s too young to start school and his parents just wanted him to get a jump-start on english so we see him 4 times a week. It is crazy the difference it makes to start learning a language when young though cuz I’m pretty sure he, after just 2 months, speaks better english than most of my 9th graders! He does some dang cute things like von taught him ‘I don’t know’ and he says it all the time now, and he says ‘thingers’ instead of fingers and I secretly hope he’ll make that mistake for the rest of our time together cuz it’s so so so cute!!! The parents wanted to pay us, but since we’re not allowed to ‘make money’ while we’re here, they instead bring us the most amazing snacks ever! From cookies and cakes, to green mango curry soup, we almost prefer it to cash!
So thanks to my malaria meds I’ve been having crazzzyyy dreams, and I really should start writing them down, but last night there was one where I was trying to save a talking dugong and running around trying to get him to water and instead we got chased by a crocodile and it got the poor dugong and I just barely got away. I swear I didn’t throw the dugong to the croc to save myself! But seriously… right? anyway I think I’ve been chased by crocs and sometimes snakes a few other times too which is weird cuz I still haven’t seen a crocodile in this country, or at least not in the wild as we do have 3 baby crocodiles in our ‘zoo.’ We call it central park zoo, but its just one little cement and gate structure that holds 3 baby crocs captive… it’s really kinda sad, but it’s the highlight of the Monapo tour whenever friends come to visit!
So von was gone this past weekend, she went to go help out with a conference, so I was home alone for about 5 days, and all I can say is thank GOD I don’t live alone… I almost lost my mind trying to find things to do and being alone makes you constantly THINK! I had a few things on my mind and I swear I was non-stop obsessively thinking about them and I don’t think it was very healthy… may have aged about 2 years in 5 days… no good… von don’t ever leave, ever. Ever.
Well I think that’s about it and I should have more to write in the coming months so I’ll try not to slack on the blog writing! I miss everyone SO SO SO SO much, especially my doofus of a nephew, bambo, who thinks Mozambique is filled with ‘beaks’ haha.
20 months down and just 6 more to go!
The lame panda
Monday, April 4, 2011
Tempo de fome
So since getting back to site and school in mid January, I really haven’t done a whole lot except teach. I haven’t traveled at all, only one daytrip to nampula for medical stuff, but other than that I’ve been burnin the midnight oil for 2 and a half months! So this year I’m teaching 9th grade again and I followed my 11th graders from last year up to 12th grade. In 9th grade, compared to last year, there are way fewer standout students that already know a basic level of English and are really eager to learn more. I’ve also decided that I needed to go at a much slower pace than I did last year and I started the year off with the alphabet! You wouldn’t believe how many students don’t know the order of the alphabet and also the sounds of each letter even though it’s almost exactly the same in Portuguese… yikes. Honestly, as long as they can conjugate ‘to be’ in the present and past tense perfectly I will be a proud mama. With 12th grade, I have my kids from last year and I inherited one of vonnie’s classes, and let me tell you, I got JIPPED! I didn’t have anything to compare it to last year since I only had the one class, but this year teaching two of them, I realize how BAD my kids were and are! Von’s kids are friggin angels and always want to do extra work and ask questions and don’t talk, but my kids are NEVER quite, never wanna do anything, and don’t even appreciate the awesome things I do for them like review games and prizes… the only thing I had to compare them to were my 9th graders and yeah compared to a class of 120 fifteen year olds, 70 eighteen year olds seemed like heaven! But now I know better and won’t be letting them get away with anything! So the past few weeks have been jam packed with testing and proctoring other teachers’ end of trimester tests and it is so tiring. They are pretty much constantly cheating and cheating really poorly… and it has been so hot and you’re just sweating bullets in the classrooms and having to walk around and btw aisles that I can barely squeeze through… absolutely no fun. But it’s almost over and we just have lots of grading and grade entering left to do til the end of the trimester. So right now we’re nearing the end of tempo de fome, and it literally means time of hunger, because there is hardly any food. The only things we’re able to get at the market are tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and lately cucumbers. But we’ve been doing pretty well as far as meals go, and even added some new meals to our rotation, like now I can make a banging white cream sauce for pastas, but the real highlight to my culinary feats is my pancake and omelet making skills! I can make amazing pancakes from scratch now! When I first started out they were flat and rubbery, gross, but now they’re fluffy and delicious! But there’s some real worry about the amount of rainfall this summer because it just didn’t rain enough and now all anyone is talking about is how nothing is growing in there gardens. This means they won’t be able to feed themselves, and that there won’t be much being sold in the markets, also it means we’re gonna have a hell of a time getting water again… it is no fun having to live in fear of not having enough water to cook, shower, and esp drink. So hopefully (everyone do some rain dances) it’ll rain a bunch more before the summer ends! What else… ohhhh von, megan and I have perfected drinking sorry! Haha and it’s absolutely glorious! Now if I could only get my hands on sorry spin haha = ] also our friend sam has proven that the ‘win by development card’ strategy in settlers does work! It is something that I have seen many people attempt and fail miserably at so parabens (congrats) sam! Also my mom and miray are coming out and it’s right around the corner!!! Almost all the plans are now set and I seriously can’t wait! It’s going to take some arm-twisting to get my director to sign off on my vacation days again, but hopefully since it’s my family coming here to Africa, and also to Mozambique, he’ll be more… what’s the word… pleasant? Understanding? Lenient? None of those quite fit the sentiments I feel towards him = ] ok well that’s about it for me since nothing interesting is going on in my life, but do you guys realize that assuming I get to leave in December, I only have 8 ½ months left!! WAHOOO! Home home home home home!
Teacher panda
Teacher panda
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