Snarky in Africa

Not much in the way of new photos. The first in the set is actually moonrise over the mountains of Saudi Arabia, though it looks like sunrise. It was taken from one of the on-the-beach hotels as I’m drinking my strawberry juice. The rest of the photos can be found at the link below

More Dahab Photos

A note about snorkeling. I only do this once a day in the late afternoon as usually wind and the tides make it difficult to snorkel otherwise. Almost each day I’ve gone snorkeling in a different location and I can see why the Red Sea is one of the worlds great dive destinations. Even though I’m not into diving, the snorkeling is wonderful. I like it better than when I snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef last year because there you needed to go out on a boat for an hour or more to get to locations, here I can just leave my clothes on a chair and walk out to the reef, and come back whenever I want. Of course the negative is you are walking out ON the reef and that is really difficult (and bad for the coral). To get around this, several of us have become masters of swimming in 8-inch-deep water to get out to the reef. The problem with swimming in water that shallow — sea urchins. I have come to dread sea urchins almost as much as my phobia of sharks, except that at least sea urchins don’t come after you… but I digress… [read on]

Sorry for the lack of detail of anything I’ve been doing. I’ve been lazy about keeping my notebook handy which means memories slip through my brain pretty easily. I’ll try to recount events that may (or may not) be of interest, but most of my time has been spent eating, vegetating, or snorkeling.

In case my other posts have been making you jealous, be comforted in the fact that yesterday I managed to sunburn myself possibly to a crisp (I could feel the heat radiating off my skin as I type) and the bottom of my feet my be covered in blisters. So there, paradise has its drawbacks, too. But, I get ahead of myself… [read on]

Yeah, not much to report. If you want your days to pass quickly despite doing pretty much absolutely nothing, Dahab is the place to do it. Here your 12-step program to doing nothing, as I did today:

1: Woke up, 7:30
2. Went down to breakfast 8.
3: Sat in breakfast spot eating, reading, dozing, talking until 11.
4: Internet: 11-12
5: Hung out and talked people: 12-1
6: Ate lunch, read, and talked with M: 1-3:30
7: Napped: 3:30-5:30
8: Snorkled: 5:30-6:30
9: Showered: 6:30-7
10: Internet: 7-8
11: Dinner: 8:30-10:30 (expected)
12: Sleep, time TBD
13: Rinse and repeat as needed.

My friends are going to go hike Mt. Sinai to see the sun rise, which involves leaving at 11pm the night before, driving for 2 hours, then hiking starting at 1am. I’m told it’s amazing and a “must do” while here. Unfortunately, I more “want to want to do it” rather than actually want to do it. Laziness is infectious…

As I indicated earlier, the temple photos and scenes of the nile all blur together. But the Nile scenes from the Cruise really were spectacular. Probably the best thing I’ve seen in Egypt other than Dahab.

Dahab photos

Hot Air Balloon photos, Luxor

Valley of Kings, Valley of the Queens, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Collosus of Memnon photos, Luxor

Luxor and Karnak Temples, Luxor

Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples, Egypt

Nile Cruise and Nile Scenery photos

The next morning I did a hot air balloon ride at sunrise. I did this because a) it was much cheaper than the one in the Serengeti ($80 vs. $450) and b) every person who posts to the travel boards that they did a balloon ride said it was the best experience they’d had in Egypt and it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, it isn’t. [read on]

Luxor was quite fun, as much from the people I met and hung out with as for the sites the town has to offer. I did do all the usual stuff, which includes half a day on the East Bank seeing Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, and the Luxor Museum, and the West Bank which included the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Colossus of Memnon, and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

There are people who say “you can spend 2 weeks in Luxor and still not get bored.” I can only say in response “you are freaks.” Having been to the Pyramids and Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Abu Simbel, Temple of Philae, Kom Ombo, and Edfu already, by the end of the few days Luxor I have sworn “As God Is My Witness I will Never See Temples Again.” [read on]

Hi all. Am writing from a hotel in Luxor this is nicer than I expected it to be. They offer internet, which is great, but it happens to be the one computer behind the front desk, so that’s where I’m sitting now, with keyboard in my lap.

I took a 2-day cruise from Aswan to Luxor on the M/S Renaissance, which is a 5 star cruiser, but they are all mostly 5-star cruisers. Within the 5-star grouping, I suspect this was the lower end. But it was nice in many ways. rooms were very nice as were the bathrooms and showers. the food was edible, but nothing exciting. It seems most people got sick, but i think that’s pretty common on cruises. I can feel a cold coming on, but no stomach ills or anything.

Did have a few adventures though… [read on]

Despite being the the one-horse town that is Aswan, I am blessed with the BEST internet connection I’ve had yet in Africa. Been uploading my photos like a dickens! Internet is $2/hour here and there’s nothing else to do in town, so a good use of time and resources, I’d say! In fact, I am now completely caught up with both blogging AND photos!! Yeah!!! [read on]

So this is what they mean by “hotter than hell” I think.

Despite being told to be ready for the taxi at 3am, we didn’t leave until closer to 4 for a 5:15 flight. I did not sleep, it was too noisy. Got to the airport and had a bit of series of minor misadventures. Taxi driver took me to international, not domestic terminal. He suggested I walk there, I suggested he drive me there. I pay, I win. [read on]

Sorry it took so long, but they were quite the bear. Note that my camera is really not good enough to take photos in a dark forest without a flash (not allowed) so these are the only decent ones that came out, out of probably 200+ or more. Many are blurry, but I left them in so you can get a sense of how close we were, etc. The videos are short as they take up a lot of memory [read on]

Well, it is 1:30 am and I need to leave for the airport at 3 and sleep is not happening. Friday night in Cairo is NOT a quiet place (neither in the streets nor my hostel). So, I’ll do one last update before I leave. Word of advice, consider the overnight train rather than a 5am flight if you’re going to Aswan or Abu Simbel, I suspect you’ll get more sleep on the train!

T, C, and I (T and C are two of the students studying arabic who want to work for their respective countries’s various 3-letter-acronym government branches) had decided to go downstairs to the shops on our street around 8:30pm for us to shop for more conservative clothes (headscarf for me, long-sleeve tunics for all of us). The only long sleeve stuff I have is really heavy weight and no fun at all to wear in this heat. The shops really get going around 8pm on Friday night. Then we were joined by H, the aussie guy, and instead of walking around we found ourselves in a cab going to the main bazaar, Kahn-El Khalili. H is the kind of guy who fun follows and bad things never seem to happen. Despite my not wanting to go that far because of my middle of the night flight … oh well, we were off… [read on]

Rather than re-link, if you’re interested, go back to the Lake Bunyoni and Gorilla Forest Camp review posts and photo links have been added.

Am about 1/2 way there to uploading the Gorilla pics, but not sure what kind of connection I’ll have in upper egypt.

Well, to begin. today is not a good day to enjoy much of anything. My body is in agony from doing the pyramids yesterday. Partly, it is a sign of the deterioration of my physical being, and part it was really hard going up tons of stairs and then down long tunnels hunched over practically in half. In any case, pretty much every footstep hurt, and every step up or down stairs agony. So this was not the ideal day to go to the Egyptian Museum which has a lot of stairs!

My original plan had been to go to Islamic Cairo in part because — no steps! But setting out at around 9am on a Friday morning (their “Sunday”), well it was like a post-apocolyptic city, for all there were people around. An empty Cairo is much more frightening than a full one. So I decided to reverse routes and head to the museum. [read on]

Did the whole “Pyramid thing” today. It was cool and surprisingly a little hum-drum at the same time.

The taxi driver who picked me up yesterday at the airport picked me up again today at 8am to begin our tourist-du-jour adventure. I wasn’t sure whether he was the wisest choice of drivers, but the hostel guy (who has been Mr. “let me help you”) said he was trustworthy and other hostel folk said the price (120 EP or about $24) for the day and multiple sites was a good price. In the end, I was very glad to have had him. In addition to lots of good advice, he brought along Sophie, his 12 year old daughter to accompany me to two of the sites (she pretty much got in for free), as she had never been there before. She spoke very little English and was kind of shy, but I liked having her along. If nothing else, it seemed to reduce the number of hasslers I had. [read on]

Arrived in Cairo. Was on a 4:30am flight, so got up at 1:30am. Urgh. Slept most of the way.

It is 90 degrees at 9am. The hostel owner was SO helpful when I arrived, he sent his 17 year old son out with me to help me get a new sim card and money for my phone. Don’t think I would have been successful without him. Today I’ll toodle over to the museum, tomorrow it is “pyramid day”.

Stay tuned.

Gorilla Forest Camp (GFC).

If you go to Uganda.
If you go see the gorillas.
If you can afford it.
STAY HERE.

You won’t be sorry. [read on]

I’m currently in a quite cheap internet cafe at the Uganda Wildlife Authority park in Entebbe, which is in essence a zoo, but you’re not to call it that. So far as I can tell, the only difference between it and a zoo is that the animals inside are all in some way injured, orphaned, or otherwise cannot be returned to the wild.

On the whole, it’s a somewhat depressing place, as it has cages or small enclosures much like an old American zoo, maybe circa 1970s. However, I got her very early this a.m. and was the only person here so I had the animals all to myself. Most of them have a look of desperation about them (except the Rhinos which don’t emote at all, and the lion who just looked bored), but you can get very very close to them. I was maybe 6 feet from the lion, and he and I just looked at each other for a while. [read on]

In some ways, I suspect what I post here will not be much different from other people who have posted about seeing the gorillas. If you’re into it, which you must be if you’re willing to pay the price, it really is almost magical. My dad asked me ‘why’ and I’m not sure I can articulate it any better than anyone else. There’s just something about being a few feet away, in the middle of the jungle, looking into faces so much like your own (technically they’re our second-nearest living ape relative, after chimps), seeing them amble around utterly uncaring about you staring at them … I don’t know, it is just pretty incredible. [read on]

As I have fewer than 24 hours left in Uganda, I feel pretty comfortable saying that my most recent trip was both the best and the worst experience I have had while in the country.

Ironically, the reason it was awful was because I went on a very expensive, high-end luxury tour that screwed me over left and right. Pieces of it (not in control of the tour company) were amazing, the the rest was so awful, that I must share. Don’t get me wrong, nothing awful in the “I lost a limb and am scarred for life” (much), in fact most of it in hindsight is very very funny. It just wasn’t at the time. [read on]

Just a quick note to say I am alive and well, but not readily connected here in western Uganda. I probably won’t get a decent post up again until Egypt (next week) and who knows when I’ll get the photos posted. Meanwhile, I know this is out of order and I have lots of adventures to share, that happened before today — but you know how I keep saying “it doesn’t get much better than this?” well it does. So, here’s just one example to share:

I’m in a room lit only by flickering candles and the dimming sunlight from outside.
I’m lying in a steaming bathtub so large that when I touch my feet to one end, I submerge my head on the other.
The cool air from outside conflicts with the steam rising off the water in the huge tub making a wall of white that drifts around the room.
I’m looking out through a curtained opening in the room wall, looking at trees and birds.
The only sound that occasionally drowns out the birds is the very loud clap of thunder and the rain.
But this is no “sounds of the rainforest” soundtrack, this is the real thing.

I spend more than an hour soaking in the tub, reflecting on the fact that today I saw the mountain gorillas. Honestly, I don’t think it CAN get much better than this…

Ngamba Island Chimp Sanctuary photos

Various Kampala photos (no labels, sorry!)

Ladies, after your basic needs of food and shelter are met, if you have the disposable income and want to treat yourself to a pedicure so divine it damn near should be illegal, get yourself to the Garden City shopping center, go to Sparkles Salon and ask for Moses. For the ~$8-10 USD believe me, you won’t be sorry!

It was so fabulous, I’m going to write a post just dedicated to this pedicure. Anyone other than women and metrosexuals should not bother clicking the “read the rest of this post” link.
[read on]

These are my last few days in Kampala so mainly I have been souvenir shopping and hanging out around the hostel talking with folks. For example, I met “D”, and ex pfizer guy who mid-life quit his job and is traveling around the world freelance writing for some papers in the midwest. He’s about to go to Sudan and spent a week in Congo interviewing some general last week. He was there when the latest group of gorillas were killed (more on that below). [read on]

Photos:

Jinja and Bujagali Falls

As with the Murchison set, these are not well edited, so there is much repetition. Sorry!:

Sipi Falls, or the Hike From Hell photos

Masindi is the town were we stopped for lunch on the way to and from Murchison Falls. The food at the place we ate at was awful. Didn’t have time to label these, so just view these as a typical medium-sized Uganda town. The mopeds are what I’m talking about when I refer to a boda-boda in my blog. Note how people cram on them even with kids or pile them high with stuff. The guy with the water jug collects water from afar, bicycles with it to a location like this, and then people come up and get water from him.

Because it has been impossible for me to upload photos to my kodak site since leaving Tanzania, I’ve switched to flickr. But, I’m still having a LOT of trouble with photos, but here is the first set from Murchison Falls. I really was not able to edit these well, so there are way more than there need to be. Lots of photos of hippos, crocodiles and the falls, but I am having a tough time editing them. Sorry you’ll just have to slog on through.

Snarky’s Murchison Falls photos

Got up in time for dinner, ran again into the Irish couple who not only did all the water falls but went on to another one farther away and seemed quite well-rested and chipper (what are these people, freaks??). I have an excuse that the bruise I got on my thigh when I slipped and fell the other night has turned a spectacular shade of black/purple, so maybe that’s why I am mush compared to everyone else around me. Clearly when I get back I am going to need some serious getting-back-in-shaping. [read on]

I wake the next morning around 8, quite happy to see the hurricane lamp did a good job drying much of my clothes. I might actually have both clean AND dry underwear to change into at some point!.

I go down for breakfast and have a “rolex” which is an egg/vegetable scramble inside a chapati – a local favoriate, apparently – which was quite good. I then meet up with Joseph, my guide for what I later termed “the hike from Hell.” [read on]

I decided to leave Bujagali Falls as originally planned when the night before I felt the local rodents had too intimate a knowledge with my banda.

Checking out was great because they actually take traveler’s checks, so I had a chance to dump a couple of those otherwise-worthless pieces of paper and got some US dollars in return! I followed the “its so easy” directions everyone gave me about taking the shuttle from Bujagali back to Jinja, a boda-boda (with my full baggage) to the bus park, and ask for the matatu to Mbale (pronounced “Bali” as in Bali, Indonesia). [read on]

Well, I said I wanted adventure, and adventure is what I got. Just as a taste, it included

1) one bicycle boda-boday with me and my full pack rushing across town to get to the correct matatu
2) one 1+ hour ride in a matatu built for 8 that was crammed with 19 (including the 5 kids of various ages)
3) one bus breakdown that included about 30 people sitting on the side of the road waiting for the bus company to figure out what it should do
4) one 7km hike that damn near killed me from exhaustion
5) no electricity at one of the places I stayed for 2 nights and nobody there seemed to have much concern [read on]

So I’m at the Nile River Explorers hostel in Jinja having just had a bone-warming hot shower and gobbing conditioner on my hair. I’m now in clean (ish) clothes and am waiting for them to figure out my room. I had wanted to stay 2 nights at their campsite at Bujagali Falls, around a 15 minute drive from Jinja, but they only had the second night available and were going to put me in a room at the hostel for the first night. Then, they had a cancellation and I was able to stay a the campsite at both nights.

When I got to the campsite and they showed me to my room, it had such a great view that I asked if I could book it for a third night. [read on]

As those who know me can attest, I’m not the type to give in to peer pressure. Especially those who have been trying to get me to drink all through school (miz JS!). Normally, I am very good at resisting doing that which I don’t want to do. Somewhat stubborn, in fact, some might say…

I had decided to go to Jinja, a town located at the ‘source of the nile’ (where the nile starts from Lake Victoria), about an hour from Kampala, with the idea I’d just go visit, and not do the number one thing people do here in Jinja — White Water Rafting (grade 5 rapids).

See, I don’t really like the water, I don’t like adrenaline-rushing, life-threatening experiences (I’m fairly wussy that way), and I’ve never done white water rafting before so doing it at grade 5 to start would be really really stupid, don’t you think? So as I was sitting in the raft heading for our first rapid I was thinking to myself — “what the hell were you thinking??!” [read on]