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Vee L

Vee L

8 カ国を旅行しました もっと詳しく
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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Travelling... In general.

    2016年3月29日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    No more travelling stories. No more new adventures in East Africa. This post is really just thoughts on traveling, and comparing the 4 countries I just did. Sorry if you don't find it too interesting. If you're interested in backpacking yourself, I'll throw in some pointers.

    When I left for this journey, I thought East African countries would be similar, and that I could apply one thing learnt from one country to another. Boy, was I wrong. All 4 countries were so incredibly different. Ethiopia was incredibly religious, devoted, traditional in its ways, even the youth still do shoulder dancing in clubs, and they still listen to traditional music, and wear traditional ceremonial clothing during religious holidays. In one word, Ethiopia was traditional. Rwanda was very green (the greenest of the 4), helpful people, yet somber, introverted, and didn't seem to have a past that went beyond the genocide. As if it took over any of their past worth mentioning. Uganda was joyful, outgoing, loud, and proud. And finally, Kenya was rougher, it was the most diverse population, it offered the most variety in towns within its borders, and had incredible wildlife.

    The country I felt safest in - Rwanda. The least safe, Kenya. The happiest, Uganda. The poorest, Ethiopia. The most needy children, Ethiopia. The most needy adults, Kenya. The greenest, Rwanda. The cleanest, Rwanda. The most organised, Rwanda. The most English, close call between Uganda and Kenya, but I'd give it to Uganda. The best food, Ethiopia by a landslide. Although we spent the least in Rwanda, I can't say it's the cheapest because we just didn't do big ticket activities there... The cheapest, on day to day, Ethiopia.

    The best moment, seeing chimps, Uganda. The best activity, cycling through Hell's Gate National Park, Kenya. The coolest sight, the volcano, Ethiopia. The best capital, Kampala, Uganda. The best town vibes, Masaka, Uganda. The most surprising town, Lamu, Kenya (so different).

    As for how it was to be me in East Africa, interesting. I was often misgendered, which isn't surprising. The surprising part is that it was never associated to my sexuality, as I'm sure it is back home. Not once did I feel someone was doubting my sexuality. They would go from apologizing for having called me sir to asking if I have a husband. And in these parts of the world, I was very thankful for this. Problem is, it only shows how little exposure they've had to queer people and how far they have to go until they can have acceptance. It was incredibly hard at first to resist speaking about Jack as my partner, or not admitting to anyone along the way the true nature of our relationship. Like most things, it got easier with time. So much easier that I am now worried as to how we will go back to being partners. How does a couple go back to it's ways when you've been friends for 3 months? I guess we'll find out soon enough.    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Well, that was Kenya!

    2016年3月29日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    I guess 540am on a flight to Zurich is as good of time as any to write my concluded thoughts about Kenya.

    Kenya and I have a love hate relationship. Didn't like it coming in from Uganda - too many idiot boys or young men calling you out for being white and simply walking in their streets. It was almost like they wanted you to have a bad impression of their town. I always found myself wanting to explain the concept of tourism, and how their country profits a great deal from it, and by us consuming their goods, and staying in small scale guesthouses, we were promoting the "little people" of tourism... But no one had enough English or gave two shits about it. They had much more fun just making our experience that much less pleasant.

    From then on, ups and downs. Like Kericho's tea tour - the man who booked it for us knowing it wouldn't happen sucked, but the driver and the guide were fantastic. Much like anywhere else in the world, some people really do care about helping you. Or like the "cultural" diner we had in Lamu was obviously a bust, yet his family was nice and inviting, trying to catch us up in the soap opera they were watching.

    Nairobi, again, love hate. I had one of my worst anxiety moments here, simply because the sun was going down, and yet I never truly felt unsafe. The people in Nairobi were actually quite helpful, we managed to walk everything with the help of my phone's gps, it was a really good experience in a town where people warn you of its security risks and toughness.

    The funny part of this next story, is the night before this incident, the very night before, Jack and I had a conversation on how we were impressed that everything has gone so smoothly up until now. Other then my t-shirt and sweater in Ethiopia, we hadn't been robbed, we hadn't been mugged, we hadn't been stopped by police and asked for a bribe (we met people along the way that did have to pay 2000ksh for not carrying their passports) ... Everything was going so well. And then Mombasa happened. Ah, Mombasa, how do I hate thee.

    So we get there after taking a bus over from Watamu. The bus station is a little far from where we want to stay, so we hoped on a tuk-tuk. While stuck in traffic, in this tuk-tuk, I had my phone in my hands to follow with my GPS as to where we were going. Next thing I know, someone is tugging on my phone. I tugged back, there was that second of resistance, and then it's gone. My phone's gone. I had my bag straps still on, so I removed them as fast as I could and ran out of the tuk-tuk, and after these two boys running away from me. All I could think of yelling was "thief! thief!" since according to my readings, locals tend to take the law into their own hands when it comes to thieves. I chased them down maybe 200m yelling, and at this point there were another 10 guys also chasing them. And then, they ran into an alley. I stopped. Something told me following a gang of men into an alley, even if it was broad daylight, wouldn't be smart. Few seconds pass, Jack shows up behind me, says the tuk-tuk is waiting with our bags. Her being close by gave me the confidence to go into the alley. I find 5 or 6 men standing around a fence with various "weapons" in their hands. Apparently the boys jumped the fence and were gone. One man holding a rock, another a brick, and one most impressively a piece of cement about 4 feet long. I can only imagine what would have happened if they did manage to stop him. I thanked everyone, then spent a bit of time going around the fence, asking around who saw the boys running, knowing all too well that it as long gone.

    To be honest, if it was just my phone, then so be it, no big deal. If it was money, no big deal. But this was my pictures. I have one week left to a 3 month trip, and I just lost all of my photos. I was so, so incredibly disappointed. Jack kept reminding me, I have her photos, I have the blog's photos, and whatever I put on facebook. But 3 months of photos! 3 months of my perspective on things, my views, what I found interesting enough to capture on a photo, gone. Needless to say, the rest of my day in Mombasa was a little difficult for me to enjoy. The whole event just kept replaying in my mind. What if I did follow him into the alley, would I have caught up? If I jumped the fence behind him, would others have helped me stop him? Is there a way I could have predicted this? Kept my phone out of reach from inside the tuk-tuk? So I'm writing this from my brand new, top quality, itel 1506. Who says 65$US can't buy you a topnotch phone?

    My time in Mombasa was mostly spent in fear. Granted, losing the phone started the feeling, but Jack agreed that this was the roughest city yet. People just have that look in their eyes, a look you don't trust and know to keep walking. Having to come back to Mombasa for our night bus to Nairobi was tough. The bus left after dark, so I decided I would just sit at the bus ticket office until the bus left. I had no interest in being out in that city after dark.

    I fear Mombasa tainted my impressions of Kenya as the roughest of the countries. I felt less safe here. People were just rougher with their approaches. Grabbing your arm when you walk by their stalls for you to have a look. Physically imposing themselves for you to feel intimidated. Just yesterday while shopping, I wanted to buy a shirt, started negotiating, saw that it wasn't going where I wanted it to go so I wanted to leave. The man put himself between me and the exit and literally blocked my way out. Another grabbed my arm to "lead" (more like force) me into his shop. The touching gets a little much.

    I guess that was quite the rant about security. But, when all is said and done, we're safe, and to see the reaction of the locals at a thief was proof that the thieves are still the minority, and it isn't something that is accepted by others. On to other thoughts!

    The West of Kenya and the coast were incredibly different worlds! The west was was mostly black Africans, Christian mostly, the towns were quite uniform. Whereas the coast was mostly Muslim, many more olive skinned population, the diversity was much more obvious, with some women wearing the bui-bui (full dress like cloak), some just the hijab, some hiding their faces, others none of the above. Many of the men were wearing the kofir (round hat, traditionally Muslim, brought in by Iraqi traders). The Swahili coast had beautiful carved entrance and small alleyways for streets.

    Many of the towns along the way were relatively big towns, so Nairobi didn't seem as intimidating as Kampala did in Uganda. Every town we'd arrive in was bigger then what we imagined. Just when I thought we were heading to a small town, I was surprised. For someone who likes small towns, this was slightly annoying.

    Food was close to Uganda, except for Rolex. Plenty of chapati, they just don't roll it with eggs. Breakfast around here is mostly just tea and andazi (fried triangular piece of bread) for the locals. That wouldn't hold a couple of Canadian girls who like their breakfast, so it often took persistence to find somewhere that sold beans and rice. Many of the towns along the way had at least one, if not a few westerner restaurants, so if ever we missed western food, it was never out of reach. The coast is actually popular with Italians, so plenty of wood oven pizzas and homemade gelato!

    Much like Uganda, activities here aren't geared to independent travellers. We were staying at base of mountains and there were no tourist agencies around to help organize a hike. We were in a town right next to the Masai Mara and yet again, no one to help us go. Everything had to be booked and organised from Nairobi. Since we came in from the west, we literally had to pass these things, only to come back to them with a driver from Nairobi.

    The Masai though! And Hell's Gate! Those two safari days, though very different, were absolutely amazing. Cycling so close to these incredible animals is something I'll never forget. And then seeing so many lions, and the incredible landscapes in the Masai... Now I understand why everyone said to keep the safari money for Kenya. Their wildlife is gorgeous.

    Another thing Kenya has going for itself, is public parks. Most big cities have them, they're relatively well maintained, and locals actually use them. Grabbing a drink, a tea, and sitting in the grass, people watching, was just great. After a day of walking around to explore towns, it's the perfect way to relax and kick up your feet while still being amongst locals.

    As far as budgeting goes, a quick calculation says we spent roughly 49$US per day. Turns out, Uganda was more expensive! We thought Kenya would be terrible because of all the safaris, the boat trips, and we even took a flight along the coast... But day to day life was cheaper. And since we were in Kenya for 26 days, the big expenses get spread over more cheap days.

    That seems to sum it up. Kenya was really good in some parts, and intimidating in others. Still, an experience I would never have wanted to miss!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Some shopping, some hangin'

    2016年3月27日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today was easy, it's almost like things were being brought to us to do! The streets of the city center felt entirely deserted. Easter Sunday, figures. On our way to breakfast I was signaled over by an army guy while I was crossing the street. I had noticed a few army people patrolling, so I assumed it was simply to warn me of something. Finally, the man asks for my passport. Right then and there, I wasn't sure if I should run, or play stupid. Rumor is, any authority figure will try to extort money from unknowing tourist. The passport gag meant he would threaten to arrest me for my lack of ID unless I paid him. I went with the play stupid role, said I didn't have it on me. He asks why. I say it's safer in my hotel. I respond I was stolen from recently so the streets aren't safer (since I know there's a huge pickpocketing issue here), we go back and forth. Finally Jack appears and says if he wants a passport, he'll have to follow us to our hotel, after which we just slowly walked away... Yep, just walked away from the army man. He never did ask for money, but he must have seen we weren't intimidated. Well I say that, but my heart was pounding! Imagine, having to bargain a bribe with an army personal in the middle of the day downtown. According to what I've read and been told, the only thing to do if they insist is bargain down. A bribe is the only way out.

    After that fun little bit, we find the breakfast shop we were looking for - great coffee and actual breakfast items! No beans for me this morning! We then explored downtown, walked by the parliament and huge fancy official buildings. Our only true goal today was to go to the Masai market (tourist market), but it turns out, the market came to us! In front of the Supreme Court was a little market with a bunch of touristy trinkets. We didn't even have to leave downtown! Did some shopping. Hard bargaining. I was quite proud of my skills. Every time I offered a price, they were outraged because it was usually a third of their initial offer, yet with some tough looks exchanged, I usually ending up paying exactly what I wanted. I honestly don't feel I overpaid once. Being cheap pays off!

    After all this walking, we wanted to kick our feet up an relax in the city's park. Turns out, Sundays is fair day! There's tons of locals roaming the park with rides, and mini trains, and paddle boats on the lake, and cotton candy, and camel to ride on... Everything a girl could ask for! We sat for a while, until this homeless kid, maybe 10 years old, inhaling gas, wouldn't leave us alone. Even when we left to walk around the park he followed us for about 15 minutes until we finally lost him. Sorry I didn't want to contribute to the petrol purchases...

    It was great to see Kenyan families just enjoying their outdoor spaces, relaxing on the weekend. Walking out of the Uhuru Park and into Central Park, another little surprise - outdoor mass. A big celebration amongst what appeared to be mostly religious figures of the church. Everyone chanting and dancing under the shade of the trees. It was great. A little bit of true culture before it all ends. Walking back home we dropped by the National Archives, more of an art museum. Some beautiful pieces, and very little pottery thankfully. Mostly sculpture and traditional tribal wear. Nice exhibit.

    My anxiety and my need to explore more are colliding with tomorrow's plan. Since we only leave at 740pm, we could do a full day activity like the Nairobi National Park or a tour or something. But there's a little voice in my head telling me I can't go too far from the airport, I must avoid any situation that could make me late for my flight... Who knows what we'll do. We were told that as deserted as the streets were today, with all the shops being closed, it will be worse tomorrow. Staying downtown all day just doesn't seem like fun...

    Side note! (it's been a while!)
    I've become very efficient at fixing toilets! Pierre would be proud. The amount of times I've had to take the lid off the tank and problem solve is ridiculous. The most entertaining part is trying to fix a toilet which has been previous fixed, African style. Metal wire as a flushing lever, parts holding together with zip-ties or tape. This current room for example, I took the lid off the toilet to find the thing that gauges the water level in the tank taken apart in 3 pieces. Guess who made it work!? Good thing too, since I told them yesterday at 6pm that the toilet was broken and the sink has no water running. At 7pm, I reminded them of this coming back from diner. At 830pm I went down to ask for at least a bucket so we could flush, until it was fixed. Not too long after I got a bucket of water. We are now more then 24 hours later, I remembered them of it again today at 530pm, its now 650pm and my sink is still not running, and I've had to trouble shoot fixing the toilet every time we go. Let's just say service isn't the quickest when it comes to repairs... But we have a bucket! FYI - great for laundry!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Last Leg

    2016年3月26日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Well, this is it folks. Night bus arrived in Nairobi just before 6am. Sun still down. We walked over to Hotel Medina, the one we stayed in during our first visit in Nairobi, since it was right around the corner. Jack wanted the wifi to wish her brother a happy birthday, but he unfortunately didn't answer. While there, I managed to borrow the receptionist's phone to call the hotel we had reserved, to try and cancel the reservation. I had reserved being nervous that everything would be booked for easter weekend, but turns out Medina has rooms! Everything worked out great! The cancelled place said they wouldn't charge me, Medina gave us a temporary room to nap in until our room would be ready for 10am, and they're letting us stay in a single room, instead of double, which means cheaper. Score!

    After our nap, we bused over to a district called Karen and Langata, what was supposed to be a cool, hipster, richer area. Turns out, it might be, if you have a car. Nothing was walkable. KMs between everything. So we had coffee at the cafe place, you know, since we were there. Then took a bus right back where we had passed to go watch a cultural show.

    The Bomas of Kenya are these grounds with homesteads from every Kenyan tribe. To see how different each tribe builds their home was fascinating. Then who doesn't like watching people dancing in traditional clothing while drinking a beer? Drums, singing, chanting, and even the odd accordion! Mom, it could have been your time to shine! Great show, ending with an acrobatic act that was very entertaining. And to make it all that much sweeter, we paid half price with our handy student cards!

    We bused back home, and had this really nice guy walk us home, since we went a route we didn't recognize at all! A personal escort, how nice. It's kind of nice to be back in Nairobi. After Mombasa, my enjoyment of big cities had taken a dip, but I like Nairobi! The people are all busy doing something, hustle and bustle everywhere, and they couldn't care less that white people are walking by. I don't feel their stares as much as I did in Mombasa. The people are quite helpful. Other then the obvious downside of not being able to be out after dark, I really wouldn't mind sticking around here. Tomorrow, shopping! I haven't bought anything to bring home all trip, so tomorrow's the time to let loose!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Perfect Ending

    2016年3月25日, ケニア ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    So our second night camping at South Coast backpackers was just as shitty as our first. Again, the grounds are beautiful. And if you like to party, then it's the place for you. But if you're like Jack and I, and in bed by 9pm, reconsider.

    I got the permission to set up the tent on one of the day beds that was further set from the pool, along the back wall. I blamed the possibility of rain as my reason to set up there, but really I just wanted the mattress underneath me, the ground can be kind of hard... Incredibly warm again, the mosquito net of the tent blocks any possibility of a breeze, the music played until 3am... People were still sitting at the bar when they shut it off. Jack slept on the poolside cabana again, this one offering more of a breeze, having moved over around 1am. At this point, I made the executive decision to splurge for our last night on the coast. After tonight, we've got a night bus to sleep in and a cheap hotel in Nairobi for 2 nights, so this is my last chance to indulge in luxury. With some research, and lots of negotiation skills, we got a 7,000 cottage for 4,500. People, we've got air-con! The bedroom is wonderfully cool, the washroom all to ourselves, a front porch to enjoy a night cap glass of wine (bought at the groceries), a full kitchen, and yes, a pool overlooking the ocean. It's low season now, so prices tend to drop. It's a somewhat large resort, and there's about 10 people here.

    We spent the day lounging at the pool, playing around with a ball I bought yesterday. Went into town (across the street) to grab lunch and some groceries for our evening. We got to watch National Geographics all night sipping wine and coke. Pierre would be proud! And turns out, wombats can be fascinating.

    I got mugged by monkeys this morning. We had bought our breakfast at the groceries, including a banana, a mini bread loaf and a bread bun for me to make a sandwich. I left the front porch for 30 seconds only to hear Jack yelling my name. I returned to find her starring at a fence, and beyond it a couple monkeys enjoy some bread. When we both gave up on attempting to get it back, I returned to my plate and found I was missing my banana. Change of plans, we had our lunch snack early.

    We had to check out for 10am from the cottage, but still got to enjoy the grounds for the day. We walked close to 2 hours on the beach, heading to the Kongo Mosque, the oldest Mosque still in use, or something along those lines. The best part of the mosque were the baobab trees in front, huge gorgeous trees. Quick swim in the clear, warm ocean to cool down and headed back to the pool, where we were welcomed by the pool boy with a freshly opened coconut. We drank the water and Jack ate the coconut itself. Not bad service for people who just paid close to half price for a cottage for the one night.

    Sadly, and dragging our feet, we made our way out to the matatu junction to make our way back to Mombasa. I'm not a fan of Mombasa, so I'm not looking forward to being there. And I know we'll be taking a bus that isn't leaving until after dark, so that scares me a little. I've already made the decision to just sit in the bus office once it's dark and wait there, the safest plan I could come up with.

    We sat at a local restaurant across the street from the bus office to make our walk over short. I had a small amount of money left, but didn't want to go to the atm until I was off the overnight bus. Turns out, I was a hundred short for diner! We had a meal that would usually cost 150, maybe 200, and the bill showed 350! I was so confused. I explained the situation to the waiter, and reluctantly he said it was ok. Nice guy! I remembered that we had a fruit knife, that I won't be needing anymore, and can't fly home with, so I offered it to him as a peace offering for the kitchen. He took it. I don't know if he appreciated. He chuckled a bit. And then another customer turned around and said he'd cover it, said to take back my knife. So many nice people! Who would have thought, shitty Mombasa had so many nice people in it.

    So here I am, sitting in an air conditioned bus, front seat so plenty of leg space, awaiting our departure back to Nairobi. Seems odd to think it's the last time I'll have to carry my backpack to a new town... We were warned that easter weekend would make all hotels very busy, so we reserved a place for our 2 nights in Nairobi. Again, such an odd feeling that I'm done looking for accommodation. I'm done arriving in an unknown town. I'm done exploring new towns. I'm returning to where I've been, only to return home. Odd feeling.    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Scuba, done

    2016年3月24日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    A matatu to the ferry, a passenger ferry trip, a matatu to Ukanda, a tuk tuk to South Coast Backpackers, and we're here! This place has a huge fence all around it's grounds, which is shared with theses huge villas, and it doesn't have signage in front of it other then a 2x2 sticker on the door... Let's just say hard to find! But there's a pool! No jellyfish mommy! Again, it's warmer then our showers, but refreshing nonetheless. There's a bar, a cook if we want food, the grounds are beautiful, and we get to camp for 600 a night. Not bad at all considering the beach is 5 minutes walk away! Organizing our dives for tomorrow was as easy as telling the reception girl to make the call. All day boat trip with a morning dive, booked. It's actually to a point further south that I really wanted to go to, but didn't have the time to get to. How perfect! Now lounging by the pool, eating a fruit salad we made from this morning's market trip, waiting for our homemade guacamole to "infuse" in coriander. Not a bad life. Not a bad way of finishing a pretty damn cool trip.

    We didn't sleep much at all. It's hot as hell, music played until 2 am, being squished together in our hammock, that we set up on the ground for more space, increased the heat... Jack ended up going to sleep in the pool side cabanas at 3 am. Still, the grounds of the place is beautiful, the pool is great, so we shall try again.

    The boat trip and scuba was fantastic! They picked us up for 7am, we drove the hour and a half to Wasini island. 14 people on this beautiful carved wooden boat. The staff was friendly and helpful. They served tea and crackers on board before the dive, fruit at our return. They docked at this deserted island with just this huge, beautiful restaurant along the waterfront that served us crab and a ridiculous amount of traditional foods complete with a song while serving it. The food was actually delicious despite the amount of things from the sea. White wine. Coke. Heaven.

    We did one dive and some snorkeling. We saw 4 big turtles, a leopard eel, some long nose things, a large grouper... The coral wasn't great but fish a plenty! I decided against doing more dives since we would be seeing the same thing and its not how I want to spend my last day on the beach!

    Beautiful day. More to come!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Mombasa, oh boy

    2016年3月22日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    To be honest, this city's rough: Sellers are aggressive, smells are abundant and strong, garbage everywhere, but that's not new... We stayed in our usual cheaper guesthouses, but this one actually felt like a neighbourhood wasn't one I would mess around at dark in... They mostly say not to be out anywhere in Kenya after dark, but I believe it here. I felt safer in Nairobi, which says a lot. That being said, I'm a smart girl. I keep my stuff close, stay polite, yet firm. That's what we've learnt so far. 

    We got to Mombasa around 12pm from Watamu, just enough time to walk around old town, explore the old port, beautiful carved doors again, gorgeous balcony architecture... Crossing some people welcoming us, and some looking at us just creepily enough to make me keep walking. We got to the Fort Jesus, main attraction here, and spotted other tourists at the door. My goal was to ask if it was worth visiting, but they were just heading in with their own guide and invited us to tag along. Free guide! Entrance fees were 800 as per our lonely planet, which we thought was expensive, but getting to the gate they were actually 1200! Again, student cards save the day! They let us pay the "under 16" price of 600 instead. Score! 

    The Fort was our first bit of true history on the country. We've seen cultural history, tribal history, but not the whole Portuguese coming in 15?? And Omanis taking over to then be over taken by the English or something along those lines... It's funny, during these tours, I'm super interested and curious, and the second I leave those gates I forget everything that was just said to me. But the Fort was cool! Lol. The doorways had a mix of Portuguese, Arabic, and Muslim carvings. And of course there's the obligatory clay pot museum that I sat outside to get a nice breeze. It's still brutally hot on the coast - averaging 34 C during the day and 27C at night. 

    We didn't get to doing the spice market on the same day as the old town, so we set off to it in the morning before moving on to Diani beach. Turns out, we found a bunch of fantastic materials we plan to use for our hookah lounge / pillow pile! We have all these great plans for our apartment, the only thing missing is the actual apartment that won't happen for another 3 months... Lol. Successful morning!     もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    White Sand Heaven

    2016年3月21日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Watamu beach, why have I just now discovered you!? The sand is whiter then I thought possible for sand, it squeaks under our every step. The water is clear and blue. It's a bunch of coves, so there's maybe 2-3 resorts on this beach, not enough to be oversized or touristy. A beautiful little cove of heaven. We got here around 5pm, just enough time for a short beach walk and watching the sunset with a beer, sand under our toes. We liked the place so much, we ended up having dinner there too, coconut rice and prawns while hearing the water coming in and out. 

    Jack has been doing quite well with eating meat, you just get a glimpse of her vegetarian ways when there's too much ... realistic animal imagery. Like eating beef off of bones, not a fan. Getting the chicken off the bones, same. Getting served a full fish with head, not good. So in these times, I usually do it for her. So debone the fish and chicken and just hand her the meat, like a baby bird! Well the prawns from our dinner came intact. I had seen it plenty of times before, but not Jack. Once she saw the eyes, she was done for. I, of course, prepped them, took the shell and the head and tail off, yet she still needed a little convincing to eat it. My little tree hugger.

    As sad as it is to only spend the one night in Watamu, I know we'll get plenty more beach time. On to Mombasa! Second biggest city in Kenya, big ports. That's what I know.    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Airport thoughts

    2016年3月20日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    While I was sitting in the airport on Manda island, I was deep in thought on my impressions of Kenya. Not really, I was drinking coke and eating chips out of boredom, but still in thought! Coming into the country through Kitale was a rough start: I thought Kenyans were rough around the edges, not helpful, all calling out muzungu! They saw us as wallets again, or as intruders. Seems as time went on, I grew to enjoy Kenya and Kenyans. We found towns, or at least areas of towns, that I really enjoyed. Kenya is the first country that actually has public parks in most of their cities, the other countries never had green space to sit in. I got to enjoy some tea, or whatever drink, sitting in a park people watching, which I love. More and more Kenyans have started yelling out to us "welcome to Kenya" or "kariboo Kenya" for a change. There's always the ones that have no interest in helping or serving you, but others that will actually help out. Some try to help us with buses, tell us the real pricing, and of course there's the one who send you the wrong way or triple the prices. Kenya's got it all. Just a little more abrupt about it. The matatu drivers a little more aggressive to get you on their buses. The touts a little more loud about staying in their accommodations. 

    So back to sitting in the airport! We just took a ferry boat (more like a canoe with a motor) from the jetty in Lamu, across the waterway, to the deck of the airport... Coolest airport ever. Security was a metal detector that went off when I went through and a bag scanner that very clearly showed my huge fruit knife, but no one said anything. I checked my bag in with the knife, but I'm sure no one would have noticed if I hadn't! Destination: Malindi, where we'll make our way to Watamu.    もっと詳しく

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    I love boats!

    2016年3月19日, ケニア ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    First off - the dinner last night. How funny! The guy selling it to us said we would be served 10 traditional meals from his home, cooked by his wife, tea, coconut wine, he said he'd be playing the drums and a local violin thingy, his wife would show us the cooking of the meals, someone somewhere was going to belly dance, and we would be accompanied by two Canadian guys, students in Nairobi. So we settled on 500 each, he had started at 1500. Keep in mind, Jack and I can have a meal at a local restaurant for 200-300 total (we had diner tonight for 78 shilings total). How much of that do you think we got?

    We met him at our meeting point, he says the Canadian guys were coming from the other end of the town so we would meet up with them. We get to his house, we ask about the guys, he says someone else is bringing them over. We pass a family member sitting on the ground making chapati in the hallway and sit in their main room, on the floor, which also has a TV playing an Indian soap opera and a bed. A couple family members were watching TV, so Jack and I are sitting in front of them.

    They start bringing food out, Canadian guys aren't there. He says not to worry, we can start without them, there's plenty more food. He served a plate of beans, chapati, tiny half plate of fries, these grilled breads apparently (about the size of a Joe Louis) and finally this lobster meat pie, pie being made of chapati dough. Oh and tea. Add all these items together in a restaurant and you're looking at roughly 320 shillings if I'm being generous.

    No coconut wine, no music (he said a neighbour passed away today so they had to be respectful), no Canadian guys (he said they must be waiting time drinking beer on the boat that was bringing them over), no dancing (he said his sister would bring us to a wedding tomorrow when he knew we had booked a boat trip for tomorrow), and if you counted, that was 4 dishes, not 10. Having already paid 500 shillings as a "down" payment from him to buy food, we waiting to be out of his home and away from his family to argue that he wasn't getting a penny more. We had to argue quite a bit, he said it was his money and we had to give it to him, when we said it was 4 out of 10 dishes he responded "if you're still hungry, no problem, we go to shop right now and get more" referring to the restaurant we could have gone to ourselves... It wasn't until Jack started raising her voice once we were around many locals that he suddenly changed his gears, begged us to lower our voices, and said "I agree, I agree, 500 is enough".

    To be honest, I enjoyed the experience. We got to see his home, meet his family, eat a meal on the ground with our hands which is always fun, and in the end pay almost the same as we would in a restaurant. Worked out OK. We ran into him the next morning and he ran in another direction to avoid confrontation. It was nice of him, lol.

    That being said, today was AMAZING! Mohamed met us this morning at 9am, as promised, and brought us over to the pier where we waited for our boat. He had said he would be our captain yesterday, but by now I knew to expect otherwise. He finally admitted once asked that Masjid would be our captain, the man who is coming with the boat. Our only question - does he speak English? And he does! Turns out, I guess we were good company, because Mohamed decided to come along for the day anyway! He, Masjid, a third guy that I can't remember the name of, Jack and I had an amazing time on the boat and on the beach.

    We drove and sailed to an island called Manda Island. Hung out on the beach for a little over an hour while our lunch was being grilled. The water was clear. The island deserted. There was maybe 2 resorts on this beach, and no apparent guests. One of the resorts was 150,000 shillings per night (1,500$us) and I believe it! It was absolutely gorgeous with sun beds and private beach and anything you could dream of. Except for guests. We got to see Lamu from the water. Just cloudy enough to offer shade in the morning, and bright and sunny in the afternoon. The third guy on the boat assured me there were no jellyfish here, not the season he says. So I swam!

    Once lunch was ready, we hoped back in the boat and drove though a gorgeous mangrove to get to the Takwa ruins. Ate some coconut rice, fresh grilled fish and fresh fruit. Believe it or not, it was perfect. I know fish isn't my thing, but it fit too perfectly with the day. The ruins were nice. I never know how to describe these things without sounding super boring. They were made of limestone and coral rocks from the island itself. There was a mosque which showed the Muslim faith was present a long long time ago. It was deserted because the well water was contaminated with salt water, so the whole community moved across the waterway to Lamu Island. It was honestly interesting to see, maybe you should google it?

    Jack hopped back into the water, this time being on the other side of Manda Island, therefore being in the big Ocean as Mohamed said, so enjoyed blue waters and big waves. It was again a deserted beach that went on for days. Kind of happy no big development company took over this land, because it's emptiness is part of it's magic.

    We sailed back home in perfect winds, kicking back and talking politics with the boys. We even talked about the kidnapping that happened in Lamu in recent years. They were laughing that the women was kidnapped from Manda Island by a boat with a 50 horsepower engine... That was the same as our boat, and it's really not the fastest! They said it was 3am, and the boat had to pass by 2 naval bases and 1 police department to return to Somalia. They said no one moved, no one acted.

    We also chatted about their identity as Lamuniens, not Kenyans. They're separatist. They say the port brings in most of the money for Kenya and yet the port offices are in Nairobi. So all the big money makers aren't in Lamu or on the coast at all, but in Nairobi, profiting from their labour as they saw it. They believed that Kenya wouldn't survive without the income of the coast, which is the only reason they are still associated. Makes sense, coastal countries always perform better.

    All in all, a fantastic day. I feel completely relaxed, pleased with my day. Happy we made the decision to stay longer in Lamu. I got to enjoy a local tea from a street vendor along the shore, watching people walking by, some working, some just enjoying the stroll, donkeys and cats a plenty... Nice.    もっと詳しく

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    Exploring Lamu

    2016年3月18日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I actually carried around my DSLR today (I don't usually in cities), so unfortunately for all of you, I don't have too many pictures of Lamu to share! The ones I did post happen to have been taken right now, as I eat the fruit I bought at the local market from my hotel's balcony by the ocean front. Just as hot throughout the morning. Nice and breezy in the afternoon. We spent the morning getting somewhat lost in the back streets, somewhat following this walking tour suggested by the lonely planet. I was grumpy not having eaten, so we made a small detour to feed me. Sorry Jack...

    The doors have beautiful carvings, all houses have these inner courtyards, the women get to remove their veils inside so there's always a curtain in front of the door. Mini streets leading to more mini streets, and just as you think you've hit a dead end there's an opening somewhere. As soon as we exit the 2 downtown streets, again people are all saying jambo, smiling at us. Welcoming us. Truly warm people. There's cats everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Locals here feed them. There's donkeys all over also, including a "donkey sanctuary" just around the corner.

    I think both Jack and I are feeling the end is near, and we're reacting to it differently. Jack seems unable to make decisions, she wants to do it all but she wants to stay in Lamu for always. I want to relax, anywhere really. I feel very satisfied with what we've accomplished, I loved my time here, and I'm ready to relax before heading home and to work. I work a night shift within 24 hours of my arrival, so relaxing here is my only option. I've been short tempered for 2 days now, and I think my mind just doesn't know how to act when the end is so near... It's angry at me and won't let me relax and enjoy. Little annoyances like food taking too long to arrive are driving me crazy. I don't have time to waist! So many mixed emotions.

    That little rant comes from us spending the morning trying to decide when to leave. We made the decision to take a flight back to Malindi to save the bus time, but when to take it took a while. I was OK with staying in Lamu if that meant I could relax, which means Jack would have to go off and explore on her own. I was also OK with leaving and trying to get all our "planned" stops in (planned used losely here). Jack couldn't bring herself to chose. Staying here means not going to Watamu or the Gede ruins. She wants it all. Apparently our conclusion was to spend a lot of money. Lol.

    We booked a flight Sunday afternoon, a boat trip for tomorrow and just to top it off, a home cooked traditional meal with local music in some guy's house for tonight. We're going all out ladies and gents! I'll get to relax, and probably burn to a crisp, tomorrow all day on a sail boat. Jack will get to explore the streets when we get back and Sunday morning. Easy peasy.    もっと詳しく

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    The World of Lamu.

    2016年3月17日, ケニア ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    What an interesting bus ride... We drove north for about two hours, at which point the bus stopped on the side of the road, but not for long. The driver chatted with an armed solder, and was cleared to continue. The next check point, everyone had to get off the bus with their belongings. We lined up in front of the 4 standing soldiers, as they checked our passports (ID for the others) and looked into our bags. Once the bus cleared again, we continue maybe 5 minutes and wait on the side of the road. At this point all the buses are waiting to just accumulate, so that all together we continue our journey with a military convoy leading us. There's about 6 buses following a military truck for about an hour. One last time, during this hour drive, we all had to get off again for ID check, this time no need for the bags. Talk about heightened security! Everything went very smoothly of course, but all the check point were interesting.

    Once at the dock where we are supposed to take a ferry to Lamu (it's an island), these boys we met on the bus signalled for us to follow them onto their choice boat. There's speed boats and regular ferries, apparently being 5 minutes long and 45 minutes long depending on the choice of boat. We got a quick one, and thank God. The two boys kept trying to chat with us, making obvious efforts to make plans to party together, or go to an island together, Jack says the guy next to her kept touching her... 5 minutes was enough, we basically ran off the boat so we could lose them at our arrival on the island.

    What a different world! The waterfront and pier is beautiful! Restaurants with patios align the boardwalk. The touts though, of boy. There's maybe 5 different guys trying to take us to their hotel, or whoever's hotel for commission. Their trying to sell us a boat tour for tomorrow. A nice meal. Anything you want, I'm sure they would make happen. Thing is, I just wanted to be left alone, as usual.

    We set out to explore the island and find a home for the night, but the touts, seeing us with our backpacks, were relentless. Finally we actually followed one and got a room simply to get the guys off our backs. Now we could set out to explore with no one bothering us.

    This Swahili town has strong Arabic influence, their roads are simple, small alleyways weaving between homes and store fronts. The doors are all beautifully carved, making for these grand entrances. Just a couple turns off the main alleyway and we can already tell we were no longer on the typical tourist trail. Everyone was saying jambo (hi) to us, smiling, some even saying kariboo (welcome). A large percentage of the women are veiled, some of which with full face coverings, some of which with simple head coverings.

    The sun was going down, so I didn't want to be too deep into the maze of the Lamu back streets. I think Jack could have continued for hours, but we attempted to head back to the waterfront. We both no longer had a clue what direction to go in. Not the faintest idea of where the ocean was. Asking directions was actually quite difficult. Words like "waterfront" or "boats" or "pier" were not recognized by most. We got a school age boy to point in the right direction, and eventually a man with decent English helped us. Funny part is, he pointed to the alley next to him and said "just go straight, don't turn, straight straight". As if that's possible in here. I think the alley went straight for about 1.5 minutes and came to a wall. So you zigzag through, attempting to remember the intended direction.

    With plenty of time to spare, but still lost enough to make me nervous, we make it back and find a cute little roof top restaurant next to the main square. Not having been in such a strong Muslim space before, it was interesting to people watch. We definitely no longer feel like we're in Kenya anymore. This is all new. Men sitting all around the square, either playing some kind of dice game, or just chatting with their neighbours. The women, very few, were always walking to a destination. None were just sitting down, not even amongst themselves.

    Night cap tea along the waterfront, feeling the breeze coming in, slight sense of salt accumulating on the skin, smell of the sea... Just perfect. Again, the people have been welcoming, smiling, and I'm feeling perfectly secure. I was afraid that coming here I would constantly be looking over my shoulder, or always afraid of anything happening, but I'm at ease. This is a really nice town, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.    もっと詳しく

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    Malindi

    2016年3月17日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    What a shitty night's sleep. The mosquito net seemed to be keeping the mosquito's in, not out. We got eaten alive. Jack got up at 3am to take the flash light out and assess the damage, she swells at every bite and she was covered. I was sleeping until that point, but no way I was falling back asleep. I kept having to slap myself attempting to kill every last one of them. Plus the warmth, the sweating... Honestly shitty night. But ah well, life goes on.

    Since we were up, we tried to go see the sunrise, but the doors of our guesthouse were locked and the employee was sound asleep on his mattress close to it, so we saw no point in waking him up. We still set out early for breakfast, about an hour later, starved since we've been up since 3. Beans and rice, my favourite! Walked around town, discovered that further down the main road, passed a bit that seems like you're no longer downtown, you arrive in the rich people's downtown! A bunch of fancy buildings, living compounds, nice coffee shops, covered in tourist agencies... All of who's people, local and foreign, address us in Italian. Every person we have met is Italian, except for one German. So we settle in for a nice latte in one of the fancy shops. We're white, so we blend in, but if you looked closer, everyone there was dressed so nice, white shirts and pants that we could never keep clean, big summer hats, makeup. I've got on grungy t-shirts and shorts.

    Still hot as ever outside. We walked around this fancy downtown, and made our way cutting across living compounds to the beach to cool down. This is a different spot from yesterday, it's by the main pier, no beach clubs or restaurants on the water here. Just seems like deserted land. No one around. But the water was clear of algae and therefor inviting. I went in, attempting to forget about yesterday's jellyfish. Everytime something touched my feet, because the water wasn't clear at all, I flipped out. After a bit I gave up, went back to shore. Walking back to the pier, Jack tried to distract me from seeing a pile of washed up jellyfish, and obviously failed. There was at least 10, creepy transparent jellyfish. I'm done with the ocean for today.

    With big walking plans again, we set out to explore old town. I uploaded a map yesterday so this time I could follow with my GPS, making sure we're going in the right direction. It was a great walk through mostly residential areas. It's mind blowing how an hour ago we were walking amongst the rich, and now we're walking passed clay and wood structures that I hesitate to call houses... People were saying hi, no calling out of muzungu, no following us around selling anything... Kenya is starting to grow on me. We finally found someone to sell us handkerchiefs, being tired of having "water" drip down our faces. In this same little shop (wooden shack along the road), we bought this lovely piece of material to add to our hookah lounge collection. I don't think she's ever had white people buy things in her shop, because right away we got the best price to date. Local price. If she only knew she just blew her first opportunity to screw over muzungus.

    Making our way to the waterfront, well hotels along the waterfront, I set out on a mission to find one that will let us use their pool. Those jellyfish aren't getting me! After passing a few, we found one that was beautiful and affordable, but I reevaluated. We're at the ocean. There's a huge natural body of water right in front of me and I'm looking for a pool... Screw that. I know Jack well enough and she's dying to jump into the waves. So after all this careful walking to the beach clubs, we grabbed a mototaxi back to the pier so Jack could jump in the ocean, free of algae (the water at the beach club area wasn't as clear of algae then the water at the public area... Who would have thought!). I sat under the pier, in the shade, coke in hand, reading my book.

    Jack says I should mention how much fun she had. She thinks I didn't put enough emphasis on how great the water was, how fun the waves were...she had a great time. That is all.

    Another relaxing afternoon after a tiring warm day. We've drank 4.5L of water in the last 2 days... Grabbed a cheap local diner so that we could treat ourselves to that amazing gelato I had yesterday. Honestly mind blowingly good gelato. And wine. Of course.

    This time, I slept fantastic! We changed rooms this morning, since we were up so early we had time to check out a few places. This one is in town, so not on the water, so cheaper, with a fan on the ceiling and good bug nets. Lesson leaned - fan on the ceiling is non negotiable! Off to Lamu we go today.    もっと詳しく

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    The Ocean!

    2016年3月15日, ケニア ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    We made it! I've been excited for the ocean for quite some time now, and we're here! And holy crap it's hot! We got here around 745am after our VIP night bus, and we already feel the heat! Usually we can start feeling warm around 11 ish, but this town didn't give us a break. We first thought we could explore the town with our backpacks and eventually stumble upon a guest house we like. That plan went out the window when we were drenched within 20 minutes of walking, just trying to make our way to the ocean front. We saw the ocean, we walked in the sand, and we went straight to a hotel the lovely fisherman said was the cheapest on the water front. Done! It's probably the worst deal we've had yet, but we were sweaty and tired of carrying our backpacks. So we got an OK price for a pretty crappy room. Meh, there's a bed and a toilet. All I need.

    Once showered, laundry done (remember, I only have 2 T-shirts, so considering the heat, I wanted to have one clean for diner time while I knew I'd be sweating through the day one), we set out to explore the town. Again, we were too ambitious with our plans, considering how hot it is. We made it to "downtown", walked around a bit. I needed to be fed, getting a little grumpy, so we found this selfserve local place and it actually had things we haven't seen yet!

    Insert - The coast is said to be a different culture, Swahili, with a higher Muslim population then inland and since its the oldest port, the population of Indian people is large due to it's trade history. Inland Kenya, much like the rest of what we've seen in East Africa, isn't very diverse. Kenya has Kenyans, and a tiny bit of Indians are visible. The coast actually has some diversity and it's refreshing. End insert.

    So the food was different! Still managed to find my chapatis though. Everything still fried, I feel right at home. Well fed, coke to cool me down, and back out we go. I blame Jack for having lost our sunscreen when she went biking without me at Naivasha Lake. Blaming aside, we had to buy more considering my glowingly white skin that's hiding under my farmers tan, is about to be exposed on the beach. 13$US that little sucker. And it's 200ml, I can't fly home with it. How insulting.

    The Malindi museum was... Well it was worth the dollar I paid to get in. Lol. Basically Jack was interested, so we got her the student price (yay for student cards!), and when he saw I wasn't joining, he assumed it was the price and said I could join for 100KSh (1$). I guess I can't really say no at that price. It consistent of exactly what I don't like about museums, pottery. Lol. Old big pots found somewhere that mean something. Sorry, I'm just really not that interested. The rest was just photos with information plaques next to them. Old Malindi photos were nice. Old traditional tribal wear was interesting... Lol.

    Now the goal, which was over estimating our energy in this heat, was to walk through the Old Town to eventually make our way to the beach. We managed to do a couple blocks, a couple market streets, constantly looking for the side of the road with shade, to then have a seat in shade and have Jack drink tons of water as she felt faint. The women likes to push herself and ignore her body until it wants to give out on her. Once her energy level was barely enough to get her up, I managed to convince her that a mototaxi to take us to the beach is an OK thing to do. Turns out, the beach was still pretty far, neither one of us would have made it!

    We're excited! We want to refresh in the water, cool down. Swim around like we're kids again. And then we feel the water. It's hotter then most showers we've had here. Not the most refreshing, but it did the trick! Jack got some energy back, I got to have my second coke of the day at this nice beach club... It was a beautiful afternoon. You can't go wrong with the ocean! My usual fear for jelly fish was yelling at me to get out, but I managed to ignore it. That is until we started making our way in to apply some fancy expensive sunscreen, and I had to get by a damn jelly fish! I saw it! I saw the whole thing, with tentacles and everything! I ran out, leaving Jack to fend for herself, and refused to get back in. Ew, jelly fish.

    Stopped by a cute little peninsula called Vasco de Gana point, and the oldest church in East Africa apparently, built in the 1490s, Portuguese. Relaxing, beautiful and sunny afternoon. After our second shower of the day, I put on my now clean and dry shirt, wash the other, and off we go to diner! This town has a large Italian influence, so the pizza restaurants are of plenty!

    We checked out 4 menus, picked a pricey but fancy one. Sharing pizza and a Rocket pesto, tomato and mozzarella something... It was delicious. Worth every penny, accompanied with some house red wine. Finally, some chocolate gilato. Omg it was good. Treating yourself every once in a while is important. Refreshes the batteries.    もっと詳しく

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    More Masai fun

    2016年3月14日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    Just like yesterday, we woke up really early to set out for our game drive, this time stopping inside the park to watch the sun rise over the mountains. Absolutely gorgeous sight, with antelopes and wildebeests to add to the scenery.

    Today was a shorter game drive, 3 hours, so we stayed close to the gates. Surprisingly enough, that's where most of the animals were yesterday so I'm excited! We actually saw a ton of lionesses and their cubs! We saw three different groups, mommas and cubs laying or playing around. It's actually what we mostly saw, few zebras, few elephants, no giraffes, but tons of lions. Amazing morning, of course Jack being on cloud 9 during all of it.

    The giraffes made their way to the road to say goodbye to us instead of saying hi in the park. There's no fence around the park so the animals are free to roam as they wish. So along the road back to Nairobi was 4 huge giraffes within feet of the road. Obviously tall, but muscular and majestic animals. Gorgeous.

    A long drive later back to Nairobi, we make the decision to ride an overnight bus to the coast. Apparently 3 days in a van hasn't deterred us from spending another 10 hours overnight on a bus. It saves us the hotel night in Nairobi, and saves the precious time we have left. Apparently being white has it's privileges for overnight buses! I just so happened to be the first person at the door of the bus, and the ticket guy upgraded us to VIP. I didn't even know there was such a thing on a bus but we got there extra wide seats, tons of legs room, reclines beautifully. I'll take it! Good night y'all!    もっと詳しく

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    Worth the Wait

    2016年3月13日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    What an amazing experience! Today confirmed that waiting for the Masai Mara to do our big safari was worth it. In the first 3 hours of our full day game drive, we saw lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, bunch of antelopes, wildebeest, wart hogs, and I'm sure I'm missing some.

    We saw a male lion walking across an open field within feet of our van, just strutting it's stuff. It was our first big cat sighting, and Jack was in awe. I loved seeing the lion, but I LOVED seeing her see the lion. Probably quite like she loved seeing me see chimpanzees.

    We later saw a lioness with 3 cubs laying down within feet of each other. One cub stood up and walked over to us, laying within feet of us with its paws pouring into the street. It sounds ridiculous, but Jack agrees with me, that for a few seconds, the cub looked up at the truck and actually maintained eye contact with Jack. I swear, there was a few seconds where Jack and this baby lion were just starring at each other. Quite like me and my chimps, she actually shed a tear as we pulled away. I absolutely loved her in that moment, she was feeling just pure joy.

    Families of elephants with babies, and giraffes in groups of 5-6, everything was breathtaking. Ostriches! They look so funny, exactly like old flamingo dancer with the large feathers. Perfect little burlesque performers.

    Animals are apparently more active in the morning, so we saw tons starting off our day. Eventually, in the afternoon, sightings became rarer. I could tell our driver was looking for something specific and speaking over the radio with other drivers on locations... And finally, laying under a bush for shade, a cheetah! How fucking cool! A cheetah! Just chiling.

    Everytime we saw something, we all stood up from our seats, popping our heads out the top of the van (pop up top), snapping pictures. It was truly an amazing experience, and I get to do it all over again in the morning. Let's hope for more big kitties!

    Upon our return to camp, we were walked over to the near by Masai village for a cultural experience of some kind. I felt a little awkward about it, having to pay someone to fake their traditional ways, knowing very well that most of these rituals or ways of doing things have changed. We get there, and they give their obligatory "your money is going to help over 200 Masai communities" speech, to which I felt like answering "but I thought the Masai were self sufficient and didn't need money?" 10$ later, they talk to us about their traditions, they show us a dance they would normally do when celebrating... During this dance, the men have to jump as high as they can. Whoever jumps the highest gets to pay fewer cows for his wife... Yep, it's 10 cows to buy a wife, unless you jump high enough. Then you get a discount.

    There was a little too much English around this village for me to truly believe they live in the ways they describe. They're polygamist, so a man can have as many wifes as he has cows to buy them with. I got a house tour of someone who's father had 4 wifes, and who had 24 siblings. Their houses are made of wood covered with mud so they have to move every 9 years because of termites, making them nomads. So many of these facts could be challenged. Like they currently have this community right next to their primary school, which the kids from the village attend. So we asked how could they relocate? His answer was "well because of the school we wouldn't go far"... Mhm.

    One man said they get circumcised at 15 years old, then as a group of around 20, they must leave the community and go live in the "woods" for 5 years, and to return only once they have killed a male lion. First off, that's illegal and I highly doubt you still do that. There's no second. But later on during my private little house tour, the guy said circumcision was at 14, 4 years in the woods, to return at 18. Then we brought up school, so they all have to quit school at 14/15 then? To which they said they would go to school and return to the woods when school was off... All starting to sound a little fishy...

    I believe all of human kind evolves eventually. Communities, including tribal ones, need to evolve and adapt to the world changing around them in order to survive. I'm sure being relocated from their land when it became an official National park in the mid 60s, instigated a lot of change in this Masai community. That is why visiting this village today, and having them put on a show of their traditions, yet fully knowing that many of these things no longer exists, feels a little odd. It's a catch 22, you want to see what their culture used to be, and how they live now, but to do so you have accept this almost fake show put on for paying tourists... Human safari.

    FYI : Many of us have this formed idea of what a Masai person looks like, or what a traditional tribe in Africa looks like, and the Masai people stick pretty close to that image. They often have one largely gauge ear, without plugs in them so leaving a hanging ear lobe, they are always drapped in red fabric, they have tons of bead work on themselves, men with beaded belts and necklaces, women adding earrings... The interesting part is that you can find them everywhere now! We saw traditionally dressed Masai people in markets, walking around in towns, even having a beeer in a bar. They advertise Masai markets where you can buy their handy work in many towns. The tradition of being self sufficient and secluded is no longer upheld. They integrated into whatever society they chose, and yet kept a lot of their traditional clothing and accessories. It's interesting. I bought ice cream in a supermarket and in front of me in line was a Masai man drapping his shoulder with a red blanket, large ear lobe, beaded belt.    もっと詳しく

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    The famous Masai Mara

    2016年3月12日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    We've now spent a little over 2 months in East Africa, and we've kept our big safari hopes for this long awaited moment! The Masai Mara. The morning was almost too smooth. Our tour driver was early picking us up, so we had just enough time to finish our free hotel breakfast. We went to pick up the other tour goers and happened to stop in front of Java house, latte to go! It was a little disappointing to see that the 3 other people we were told were on this trip was actually 7 others... Yep, we're 9 people in a pop top mini van. But we all seemed to get along, the driver is nice, played tetris with the suitcases and off we went for the Masai!

    It's trials like today that really show you what it is to be positive, and what it is to be negative in life... We got onto unpaved roads, which we're used to so no biggy. Some on the bus started complaining about the bumps, and about the lack of space or comfort... Then we hit a big bump and broke something on the frame under the van. So we stop, all the men get their opinions in as if they know what they're talking about. The tourist men all agree if the van runs we should keep driving, but obviously the driver doesn't want to worsen his van, it's his livelyhood.

    So a few minutes in we decide to keep driving slowly, and apparently a mechanic on a motorbike will catch up to us with a spare belt of somekind. Now a bunch of people are complaining of how slow we have to drive. You hear the van scrape on the ground at every bump. We keep going for maybe 45 minutes and get to a big dip in the road with water running through. You can see the driver is very sceptical. So I offer we all get out to lighten the load. I thought I was so clever! Anywho, we do, and the van passes, but the driver decides to wait for the mechanic so we can fix it.

    Mechanic arrives 30 mins later, jumps directly underneath the van which was driven over a large rock to prop up, and works away. 2 hours we were stopped here. Again, this is where positivity goes a long way. It was beautifully sunny out. Nice breeze. We went for a walk, only nature and the odd person in sight. Most of the people in the area are Masai, they still where their colourful, often red blankets around them, gauged ear lobes (much bigger then mine, finally they won't judge me!), women have big dangling jewelry... Jack eventually read her book under the tree, some of us just chatted... And then some of the others were either bitching or sporting a good resting bitch face, calling the booking companies to complain (we all booked through different companies, they just put us all together). I for one, had a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon, just not like I had planned it. I actually caught myself complaining but about the complainers. Jack kindly reminded me that it was no better. She really is the eternally positive one.

    Finally getting to camp just as it gets dark, we get checked into the nicest tent set up! There's a tiled washroom in the back of each tent with full shower and flushing toilet! There was one tent for 2 people, and 2 tents for 3 (one personne was staying at a lodge). These are the times where the heteros get the advantage again... They were wondering how to split the people, so the most logical set up was the hetero couple in the 2 person tent, 3 girls in one and 3 boys in the other. Jack and I get a roommate and two separate little single beds. No possible goodnight kiss, not even a quick "I love you". Just a generic "goodnight ladies" to my two roommates.

    Now that the van is fixed, nothing is going to stop us from seeing those big kitties tomorrow!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    1

    Still Nairobi.

    2016年3月11日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Traffic noise from the room wasn't enough to stop me from sleeping awesome, thank you! Breakfast is included with our room, and the best part about that is not having to look for breakfast in the morning! It always takes us a while to find anything open in the morning and serving food. Today, I just have to go down a set of stairs. Strenuous!

    It took us around 2.5 hours to find and book our safari to the Masai Mara. We went with Baboon Budget Safari, it was the first place we stumbled upon, we got a great impression from Charles, the man who book it with us, and it was the best price. And by best price, I mean it's the same price and same tour concept offered everywhere, but they were willing to negotiate the price because they already had a group of 3 going, so we would just be tagging along with this group. There's tour agencies around every corner, and on top of them all, there's touts. The touts were so incredibly annoying. Granted we were the only white people we saw all morning, and the only touristy looking ones I saw all day! We would tell them to leave us alone, and they followed from a few feet behind, then when we would come out of any building or establishment they would pop back up asking we go have a look at their offices. We kept seeing the same 4 guys constantly that we became more direct; leave us alone, stop following us, we don't need your help... Nothing worked. One guy actually responded "be polite please" after we asked him to leave us for the 10th time... Really? Polite? In Canada, I could have you charged with harassment, but apparently I have to be polite.

    By the time the tour was settled, it was 1230 ish, so we set out for the National Museum. Beautiful day, sunny but not crazy warm... Downtown has a mix of high rises and interesting architecture. Very metropolitan. Obviously very different from any other big city in Kenya. It is huge, yes, and there's tons of districts... But all the districts make sense when walking them, and we've manage to easily find our way around. It's hasn't felt overwhelmingly big. I was more lost in Kigali, Rwanda, then I am here.

    Jack did the museum while I grabbed a drink and read my book in the shade of the museum grounds. I've noticed that I really don't find too much enjoyment in reading info cards and looking at glass displays of old pottery... I just don't like museums. I had myself a wonderfully peaceful afternoon, and Jack told me all about the museum, excited at what she had read. That was of course after she flipped out of excitement after seeing a T-rex statue... The women's love for T-rex, or any creature for that matter, is hilarious. She warned me that she might cry when she sees a lion. I already figured she would.

    This is where my day took a not so good turn. But for honesty and transparency's sake, here goes:
    It was 5pm by the time we were done with the museum grounds. I had the list of things we needed to do before heading back to the room in my mind and started getting a little anxious. I had a backpack with me to carry our guide book and water for the day, and knew that it would attract attention. I had expressed wanting to be back at the hotel before dark to at least ditch the bag and drop off extra cash. We stopped to have a quick diner on our way back, we picked a place we knew would be quick so we could keep going. We stopped at the atm since we had a balance to pay for the safari tomorrow morning. We still have to stop at a pharmacy and grocery store on the way home, and it's now 545pm. Sun goes down around 630pm, total darkness at 7pm. My anxiety is rising.

    My anxiety is amplified when I don't have a sense of direction. I mapped out our way home with my phone map, but Jack requested I trust her directions, as she gets a sense of satisfaction in knowing her way around. At this time, my anxiety was controlled, or so we both thought, so why not just follow her. There's more and more people walking the streets, assuming because they're all finishing their work day. I have to make my way around people and buses and cars to make my way home. People keep brushing up against me, bumping into my shoulders. Knowing I was carrying a lot of money due to our atm stop, and a bright red bag, and you know, I'm white, my anxiety kept roaring at me. I just wanted to get home.

    We finally got to our "sub-neighbourhood", Jack said we were close to home and we're standing next to a Tuskys (grocery store). At this point, Jack went a different way then what I had mapped out, so I didn't recognize myself at all. I'm lost. And it's 610pm. I gave Jack a 10 minute limit to get what we needed (she gets distracted and read all the labels and over thinks which cookies to get). Getting in Tuskys, it's just clothing, the food section was a block down the street, apparently away from our hotel. For some reason, going into a store that I thought I would recognize (since it's in every city), and still feeling entirely lost, increased my anxiety x1000. Jack asked if I was OK going to the other, and I acted tough and said yes, even though I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or hide in a corner somewhere. We walked to the other store. Again, it was different. I didn't recognize the layout. The lineups at the cash were long. There's tons of people, I had to almost push my way through them. Anxiety x100000. I looked at Jack and said, one for word, "I'm overwhelmed, I want to go home". I think she could read in my eyes that I wasn't doing well. She didn't argue, didn't try to calm me, she just said OK and asked if I wanted to map it out with my phone or trust her. My phone GPS wasn't reading, time ticking away, it's 620pm, so I went with trust. It took us 5 minutes to make it home. I didn't stop anywhere along the way, I held back whatever confusing emotions that were coming over me... Once in the hotel I had to take a few breaths once passed the front gate, but knew that I needed to be alone somewhere safe asap. Jack saw it again I guess because as I rushed upstairs to the room, she rushed to open the door ahead of me and I burst into tears getting into the room.

    Even now, I can't fully explain what happened. I knew I still had about 20 minutes of daylight. I knew there were enough people around to keep me safe. I just couldn't control my emotions, I got incredibly overwhelmed and needed to get out of the crowds but couldn't do so without walking through them. It was irrational and inexplicable. Anxieties is a bitch. I've never had it be as highly uncomfortable and uncontrollable as today. It was rough. And I'm so incredibly thankful Jack was there and able to read what I needed.

    A few slow, easy breaths... A few tissues... A big hug... And I was back to myself. Believe it or not, I decided to go back out there! No way Nairobi was going to win over me! I dropped the bag, dropped the money, just kept enough for groceries and pharmacy, and off we went. We actually got what we needed at the pharmacy and made it back to Tuskys before dark! That just meant one way, 5 minutes, of walking in the dark, in busy enough streets to have power in numbers. I did good! And before any of you avid readers get too worried for me, the pharmacy is because I developed a ridiculously itchy rash on my neck and it's driving me crazy! So I got ointment. That is all.    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    The Big City

    2016年3月10日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We finally made it to Nairobi! Truth be told, there isn't much "touristy" things to do here, but we're using it as our base to book Jack's hike and our safari to the Masai Mara. As we've mentioned, these countries aren't built for independant travellers. We stayed in the town that's at the base of Mount Elgon and we still couldn't find an agency to organize the hike, it's all done from Nairobi. So today's goal is to find a tour agency that will be keeping us busy for the next week or so.

    Getting here went smoother then I thought. We woke up this morning and waited for the man that had said he was also going to Longonot (old extinct volcano) today, and would give us a ride. By 9am, we knocked on his door and his friend was still asleep... So that didn't work out, but we took a chance. Having that ride would have saved us 2 buses and a long walk to the park gates. So 2 buses later, and a long walk half way to the gates (a mototaxi met us along the way to drive us to the gate), we arrived at Longonot National Park. Zebras and giraffes were at the base, but we were there for the hike not the furrys!

    The hike up is said to be steep and strenuous. They were right. It was just an hour long, but we were sweaty and out of breath by the top. The views along the way and obviously at the top were breath taking. The crater was 2 km wide covered in big beautiful green trees. We started the 2-2.5 hour walk around the crater but there were so many little flies forming clouds around us that it was no longer enjoyable, so we turned back around a third in. We went down in half the time it took to go up.

    Hiking is funny to me. Jack gets this sense of satisfaction. She likes hiking mountains, getting to views, pushing herself physically... I have no particular interest in exhausting myself to go up a mountain only to return back down. Going down a mountain I just climbed is insulting to me, all my hard work erased. I'd rather have a motortaxi bring me to the top. Lol. That is why Jack will probably do her multi day hike without me. It's a lot of money to spend on something I don't really enjoy. I think I enjoyed the Siemens so much because it wasn't really uphill, it was just across mountains.

    Anywho, post hike we prep ourselves for the 4 km walk back to the main road carrying our backpacks, and a few minutes into it, Nelson passed by and offered us a ride to town! Well, we waved him down, but he accepted! On route we chatted about us going to Nairobi and he actually drove us 2 towns over to get the bus to Nairobi! Otherwise, it would have been 2 buses again. He was great! Honestly the first Kenyan to offer us help and not require anything in return.

    We were of course warned that Nairobi was expensive.... But damn! We've averaged 500-600 KSh for a room... But we had to walk around and ask for help for 1.5 hours yesterday to find something at 2000. That's the best we can do, and it's central, and one of the prettiest rooms we've had yet! I guess staying downtown means you have to up your game!

    Walking through Nairobi was actually pretty quiet... It's a huge city, but doesn't feel that huge. We chatted with people along the way, and were warned by everyone to find a place before it gets dark and not to leave it... Seems a little intense of a warning. Of course, Jack feels like it's just another big city and she isn't phased by any of it. She wanted to explore the town last night. I convinced her to head home. We went to diner at the corner of the street and carried only the cash required for diner. No trouble at all along the way. We bought a bottle of wine across the street so I could enjoy half of my chocolate bar... Mmm... I kept the other half to go with a latte tomorrow. Yep, I've got plans for my chocolate!    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    My Birthday was better then Yours!

    2016年3月9日, ケニア ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    8th : It took 3 buses to get here, but we're settled in at Fisherman's camp, rented a tent for the night. We're along the shores of Lake Naivasha: All I hear from my tent are the calming, natural sounds of birds, frogs and crickets. My pre-birthday meal was a splurge! Unplanned splurge since it's the only food available and the restaurant at our campsite is fancy and expensive. It's funny to think, just like at Kibale NP in Uganda, we're paying more for this tiny two person tent rental then any accommodation yet, and the restaurant is fancy and expensive. The atmosphere is where they get away with it. Feet away from our tent is an electrical fence that helps keep the hippo, currently eating grass, out of the water, from getting too close. Yep, on our camp grounds are 3 hippos, and of course the odd birds and monkeys.

    9th : It's my birthday!! And for my birthday, I got to wake up with the sounds of birds. Grabbed our rented bikes and went for our usual bean breakfast in the town next door. And I use the word town loosely. It's about 100 feet long along the main road with mini shops. Only this breakfast had a slight twist! MILK!!! For some reason, when I travel, I never drink milk because I'm afraid it will make me sick, or I won't like it. I'm a milk snob. But considering I have a glass almost everyday at home, I've had huge cravings for cold milk. All the milk I kept seeing in stores was full fat, so 3.3%... I knew that wouldn't satisfy my craving so I never bought it... Jack found me low fat milk! In a juice carton! And it was cold! She got the campsite restaurant to put it in the fridge for her... She's so smart. It's my birthday!

    Jack must have given the park a quick call before we got there, because the animals were out to say hi as soon as we passed the gate into Hell's Gate National Park. For my birthday, I was greeted by about 30 zebras, 5 girafes, a bunch of different gazelles that I wish I could name, countless hogs and a heard of African buffaloes. And this was all done in such a natural way, I felt like I was right next to them with this bicycle!

    To Jack's parents - I cycled for 3 hours! That's pretty good for me... We were at the park gates by 830am (cycled there from our camp 5 km out) and I had returned to town by 1250pm... Minus an hour hike through a beautiful gorge. That's right, for my birthday, up close and personal with animals AND got to walk a beautiful, short hike.

    I was getting a little tired, heat starting to increase, so I decided I was allowed to stop there! No need to push myself further, it would only frustrate me. I didn't want to end my cycling morning negatively being exhausted, so Jack and I chose to split. The energy bunny wanted to keep going. I went to an even smaller town then the morning breakfast to grab a good ol' cold coke. She continued down the main road to the next lake, about 12 km down. I returned my bike at the camp site and hoped on a minibus to meet her at the lake. I love motorized vehicles. Don't get me wrong, doing the park via bike was absolutely perfect. But getting through towns, I don't need to make any effort. I sit in a van, say where I want to go, and they bring me, they even tell me where to get off since I have no clue what Kongoni looks like. I was sitting in the front seat, so it was funny to wave to Jack from my comfy transport as we passed her cycling hard. We were originally worried not to find each other in the town, because every town we've been in in Kenya has big bigger then we expected. If you saw pictures, you'd know why that's hilarious. Kongoni was the last stop. The road literally stops there, it becomes dirt after and then nothing. There was a T intersection, so one could debate the possibility of getting lost there... But it was about 150 feet long, and the T road was about 50 feet long, again of tiny shop stalls. At worst, if we couldn't see each other, we could just ask around town for the other white girl. I doubt they've seen too many.

    The goal was to see a lake filled with flamingos! With our Kenyan luck, you've guest it! No flamingos. But gorgeous views at the lake front anyways, and this tiny little town made the trip worth while. At least it was for me, I just had to sit there. Jack now has to cycle back, knowing the size of the mountains that await her! We almost got back at the same time! I beat her by 5 minutes. My bus didn't leave for a while because it's hard to fill a minibus in the world's tiniest town. And she's a beast! A cycling beast!

    I got a warm shower for my birthday too! The gifts just keep on coming. They lit a fire under the water tank when they saw us approaching the showers. Now I'm refreshed, I've got my new t-shirt on, my hairs all did... I grabbed a tea to relax and guess what! This young lady got me Salt and Vinegar Chips !! Apparently she listens to my every craving, because I've been looking for them and obviously haven't found any... She's a genius!

    Since anyone who knows me, knows I'm a big family kind of gal... A birthday would not be complete without reaching out to the fam jam. I got to speak to both my mom and dad! It's a weird thing to call your parents for them to wish you happy birthday, but it felt great! I went next door, to another camp site who had Wi-Fi, and said it was my birthday and I just wanted to send a quick email. The manager said I had to order a drink for the Wi-Fi password, but the waitress gave it to me right away. Score! I had a voice message from my dad when I logged on, and right away I looked at Jack and said "20 bucks says he sings me happy birthday". And sure enough, it's a recording of him singing to me! Every year, he never skips a beat. If for some reason he didn't reach me on my birthday, there was always a voice message of him singing to me! My mom was at work but of course acted like she had all the time in the world to chat with me. They're awesome. The only thing missing, the only thing that would complete my day, is chatting with Gen, the world's coolest twin, wishing her a happy birthday. Fortunately for her, she's a big girl now, with a big girl job, and her students probably wouldn't appreciate her answering her phone. So I didn't call, instead I left her my own personal rendition of the happy birthday song. I hope her day is as epic as mine, in her own way! I have comfort in knowing I spoke to her Sunday, when she was celebrating her birthday, and she seemed to be surrounded by those who love her. Comfort. Xox. Leaving the hotel with the Wi-Fi, the security guard asked if he could sing to me. To which of course I said yes! He actually sang me the whole happy birthday song, top to bottom... Jack and I danced around at the security gait. It was a beautiful moment. Lol.

    The birthday shenanigans continued! We had diner, I got to chose whatever I wanted! I've gotten so used to us sharing things that I couldn't make up my mind on my own... We ordered two amazing dishes and shared both. I got to have two dishes! And because Jack had to store the milk in the restaurant fridge, they knew it was my birthday, so they paid a drink for me! Free beer! And believe it or not, I got a card! And candles! Jack had been carrying candles and this card since leaving home! This is a women who has difficulty making plans for the weekend because it's too much of a commitment... And here she is, carrying candles and a card for 2 months... This was without a doubt an amazing day. Topped off with a kitkat and dairy milk chocolate bars... I swear it's like this girl knows me or something... Like she actually pays attention to what I say... Actually cares about knowing what I like... She's absolutely amazing, and she made this birthday perfect.

    Side note : according to east Africans, Jack and I look alike. The amount of times we've been asked if we're sisters (or just as often brother and sister) is ridiculous. I guess the classic joke of "all Asians look alike" is true for any ethnicity that isn't your own. I don't think I have to point out just how little Jack and I actually resemble each other... But here, people are shocked when we tell them we aren't related. We were even told a few times they thought we were twins... Lol! Twins. And people think my actual twin and I don't look alike, Jack? Oh boy.    もっと詳しく

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Tea Time

    2016年3月8日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    The day started out perfect! We grabbed breakfast to go in the morning - beans in a plastic bag, chapatis, and voilà! Bean roll! Our driver Emmanuel showed up on time. We chatted during the hour and half ride to Kericho all about Canada and the differences. Trying to explain winter to someone who's never seen it is slightly challenging. We said in winter everything is covered with snow. Then we said the crops die every winter. Emmanuel hadn't made the connection that snow would make crops die. When he heard it, he was shocked saying "what do you eat if the crops are dead?" Right. We explained super markets. So by his shock, I figured he didn't understand what snow was. I asked if he had ever had ice cream, and he had but rarely because it's too cold for him. So I said the ground was covered with ice cream, and it sometimes felt even colder. He couldn't believe it. Absolute disbelief. He asked how did we survive? What did we wear? Such simple questions that you wouldn't even think of asking coming from that environment. But for someone who's only seen summer temperatures, I get it.

    Arriving in Kericho was where things went a little south. We were brought to a fancy hotel, actually the oldest hotel in Kericho, Tea Hotel. The grounds were beautiful overlooking gorgeous landscapes. The hotel itself showed a little age though. Anywho, we waited 45 minutes for our guide to show up only to tell us the factories were closed today for local elections. Now that's our luck! It's not even a large scale election, the mayor was caught doing something or whatever so they were holding local elections in Kericho only to replace him. The only town in Kenya doing an election, is the one we paid to do a tea tour in. The universe just doesn't want Jack to do a tea tour...

    So she got a little emotional, a little a lot angry, and walked off because she was no longer functional in the conversation of what to do next. The anger mostly came from the idea that this was known, and could have been told to us yesterday, before showing up today. I understand the reaction, she really wanted this to happen, hence the actual tour booking, so I took over the conversation and attempted problem solving. After a lot of back and forth between our driver, our tour guide and Kenneth from Integritours who booked this, we came up with a plan! Half today, half tomorrow. It's not ideal, but this way we get to see everything from picking to processing, and we don't take up too much of tomorrow, since we want to move to the next town. Having only 3 weeks left makes us feel like there's suddenly a dead line and we want to fit everything in.

    After all these discussions, off we go to a nearby tea farm to see the "plucking processes". I learned more then I ever thought I wanted to know about tea. One women can pluck up to 40kg per day. They're "allowed" 5% bad leafs, which really isn't much of a margin for error. The women make it look so easy, yet there's such a technique to it! You take just the top 2 leaves, leaving the rest of the plant perfectly groomed flat. We spent an hour just chatting along the side and inside this tea farm, where Paul, the guide, explained the whole processes. The farmer pays "mama" (the ladies who pluck) 7 shillings per kilo, and keeps 7 shillings. In the farmer's 7 shillings, he has to pay insurance, fertilizer, etc, so really he ends up with 3 shillings per kilo. Kericho is the perfect place to grow tea because you need a certain altitude, it needs an average temperature of 18C, at least that's what it is here, you need rain all year round and for some reason, in Kericho, there's no dry or rain season because it rains all year round, and it needs soil that's self draining. Fascinating. Tea is one of the largest export in Kenya (according to our guides it's the largest), but surprisingly it's the small scale farmers that provide 60% of the tea, not the corporations. Who would have thought the little guy was really the big guy!

    That's enough about tea. I'm all tea'd out. It took us more time to find a guesthouse here then any other town. There weren't very many options and 3 that we finally found and visited were full! We were told it's the elections, people coming to vote. Our luck, I tell ya! Finally found one that fits right in our new pricing goal - 500KSh per night. Not the nicest room I've been in, but not the worse. It's funny what you'll put up with travelling. I wouldn't come close to a washroom like this back home, but here it's tolerable. You have to pick and chose where to put your money, and a room where all we do is sleep, I have no need for something fancier.

    I actually enjoyed this town! Truth be told, we haven't been that big of fans of Kenyan towns so far... But this is one is large enough to have plenty of distractions, yet small enough to walk all of it and not get lost. We grabbed a tea at a little cafe shop and sat in the park in front of our hotel. I'm starting to really enjoy these city parks, there were none elsewhere. Sipped our tea, enjoyed the mix of sounds from the park (which had monkeys FYI) and the busy streets. Walked through a market with the usual staples - used clothing in huge piles, fruits, beans and whatever else for your kitchen needs. Also like every market, the charcoal selling section was covered in a layer of black dust, always looks so dark.

    Bed time - I slept fantastic!! And I say it with such joy because it's been so long! Most cheaper guesthouses are either above bars or in court yards where music is playing until the wee hours of the morning, and people start talking/yelling by 6am. This hotel, as unattractive as the room was, and as much as the bathroom smelled of urine, the bed sad comfy, and everything was so quiet! Just great.

    This time, everything really did go smooth for our tour at the tea factory. Again, too much information on tea... What to do with this knowledge, no one knows. The most interesting fact - all tea, black, green, white, comes from the same plant, same plucking mommas, just different processing! There's steps like laying it out to dry to a certain percentage of moisture (66-67% to be exact), then it goes through the munching machine and then the big rollers that minces it, then fermentation which takes 90-100 minutes and turns the dhool (munched tea is called dhool) from green to brown, then a big heater thing which turns it to black and dries it out further, then a magical conveyor belt separates the tea in grades 1 through 6, 1 being the best and purest tea you can buy. Then of course packaging where big companies decide what percentage of which grades get mixed together for the ideal quality vs quantity ratio for profit. We were taken through the factory by a manager that works there, and Paul, our guide followed. After, he told us not to buy their tea because it wasn't good enough. He then told us what he would do better, like they didn't sort out the bad leafs at the very beginning. They mix too much of the lower grades with higher grades, the result being low quality... More then I ever dreamed of knowing about tea! But very interesting.

    We get dropped off at the bus and off we go! It may not have been the tour we signed up for, but it worked out perfectly. Jack was grinning ear to ear.

    Side note again! I didn't mention it way back when, because I didn't want to start off too negative... But during my second week here, I got my t-shirt and sweater stolen. You spend so much time preparing for a trip, I had put a lot of thought in what I was bringing, actually bought a bunch of new clothes that's perfect for travelling... My sweater was brand new, I paid a ridiculous amount of money for it considering the whole quick dry, no wrinkle, moister wicking, insert fancy clothing words here... Same with my t-shirt - merino wool, quick dry, odor resistant. Gone within 2 weeks of a 3 month trip, stolen from my bag while it was in the custody of the porter in the Siemen Mountains hike. Worst part - I tipped that damn porter! I replaced the sweater with a not so attractive black knit sweater found in the second hand clothing markets in Gonder. I hadn't replaced the t-shirt, just made do with what I had. Problem is - I was down to 2 t-shirts, and only one of them matched my shorts... Lol. So if I'm wearing shorts, for the last 6 weeks, I'm wearing my red shirt, no choice. The grey one I kept for when I was wearing my pants. Well, today I pocked a hole in my grey shirt! Small hole, still wearable, but I think at this point, it's worth getting another shirt. I think the universe was telling me it was tired of seeing the same 2 outfits on rotation! My new t-shirt - blue American eagle, very lightly used, clean, smells fresh, 150KSh. And blue! I get variety with my shorts now! I'm gonna look so good!    もっと詳しく

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    3

    Water front bliss

    2016年3月6日, ケニア ⋅ 🌬 32 °C

    It's hot! Not to rub it in, my fellow Canadians, but it's hot (33 degrees celsius today) ! Finding shade has been my favourite distraction when walking around town. Well, the shops and people are interesting too... But shade! The difference in temperature between sun and shade is absolutely ridiculous. I'm wonderfully comfortable in shade, I'm sweating buckets not even moving in the sun. The slimmest of trees are still welcomed along my journey.

    That being said, we walked all morning until we finally made it to the waterfront around 145pm. Wandered around town (saw this massive gathering of people - outside church), found a cheaper place to stay for tonight in a more interesting part of town (last night had incredibly loud music playing until about 4am), and booked our tea plantation tour! Jack's been really hoping to visit a tea plantation, and we've attempted but it's never worked out. So this time, we took no chances and booked a fancy tour. Kenya is funny, I really haven't bargained much, yet prices have dropped. The tour was 8000 per person. I was shocked and it showed. He then said he could bring it down to 7000 total. Lol! That's less then half. What the heck? Our hesitation came from us having contacted Harman via email. Harman is a man who lives in Kericho and offers informal tours for 200Ksh. Problem is, Harman is the guide this tour company uses, and when they heard we had emailed him, they contacted him to let him know we were in his office. So that option disappeared.

    Tea tour booked. Wandering around town satisfied. We walked the hour to the water front and I rewarded myself with, you guessed it, coca cola. We spent a couple blissful hours sitting along the water front, breeze and shade a plenty, being served my coke and beer and fries and all my hearts desire! Simple end to a simple day.

    Side note - (apparently I'm starting to like these side notes...) breakfast here is a little tricky. Africans in general have not been the most morning friendly. To be honest, I don't know how many of them even have breakfast. I wake up starved in the morning. I need a good breakfast. What we've been able to find in Kenya are local restaurants selling rice and beans and sometimes these wonderful little baked / fried breads. So most mornings, we eat beans and rice. To top it all off, African tea (made with boiled milk and spices instead of water). I like classic tea better, but when in Rome...    もっと詳しく

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    The Big Town

    2016年3月5日, ケニア ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Our evening in Kakamega consisted of Jack taking me to the limit of the town where she had seen graffiti on our way into town. It was the first time we had seen graffiti at all during our trip, so she got a little excited... There's actually no graffiti in East Africa. If there's painted lettering on a wall, it's always the name of the store it's on. After taking the obligatory pictures, we wandered around and stumbled upon a tiny little bar. It was the size of its two tables, with wraparound banquets. Maybe 5 men and a women bar tender. Perfect. We sat and had a beer, and surprisingly enough, we weren't being starred at, we weren't being mocked... They obviously noticed our presence, acknowledged it, and moved on. It was perfect. We almost felt like we blended in... Almost.

    Planning for the next day, there's a tiny mention in lonely planet about a town called Khayega, which had bull fighting events every Saturday morning, but only from 7am to 8am, and with specific location. Since the hike we wanted to do was close enough to this location, we thought, of course we want to see bull fighting! Not surprisingly, we didn't get to see it... We got up at 6am. Were out waiting for the bus by 630am. It didn't fill up until 725am (remember, if there's an empty seat, it doesn't leave). Anywho, we got there in time for the last little bit only to be told in very, very broken English that it was every second Saturday, and that we were more then welcomed to returned the following Saturday. Personal invitation received! I guess that experience will have to be for another time.

    Mototaxi to Kakamega Forest Reserve, meet our awesome guide Nancy and off we go! It was our first female guide, and I loved it. Girls are chattier in nature, so we got to exchange experiences and information throughout. She was my favourite part! She told us about her family, she takes care of her sister's 2 kids since she died in "the violence of 2007" as Nancy put it. I was clueless but Jack answered "oh, the election riots, I'm so sorry". She's so smart. Elections here are scheduled for next year, I'll make sure to miss those ones.

    The walk was fantastic of course! Anything with nature makes me feel at piece with the world. We set out at 9am and were done by 3pm. Saw black and white colobus monkeys, red tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, a hornbill which is an awkward looking huge bird, and plenty of beautiful birds and butterflies. Nancy was very knowledgeable on the plants and trees around, so she told us all about the medicinal plants found in the forest... Including bark from a certain tree that if you boil in water and drink it three times a day you cure prostate cancer in 2 weeks... I don't know about that one. I feel like the pharmaceutical companies would have exploited that a long time ago...

    Done with our walk and done with Kakamega, we hoped on a minibus to Kisimu, the 3rd largest town in Kenya. Our lonely planet, which I'm really starting to dislike, described it as a town that "doesn't feel as large as it is". It definitely feels as big as it is. It feels bigger. We found a place to stay (expensive FYI, and no cheaper option) that's close to the water front, but that streets all around it are deserted. And it's supposed to be the downtown. I guess we'll see if it picks up tomorrow, although it will be Sunday so I doubt it. There was a shit ton of people in the area where our bus dropped us off, but apparently lonely planet believes in taking you away from the locals and towards empty streets with fancy shops... Boy oh boy. We still managed to find a spot to have a drink on the upper deck of a restaurant along the shores of Lake Victoria. The sound of crashing waves and the breeze of open water are some of the best feelings!

    Side note - coca cola is amazing. I blame my parents for this addiction. But seriously, after a hot, sticky and sweaty day, nothing feels better then a cold coke. Sugar for energy, coffee to wake me up from the sleepiness of the heat, cools you right down. This was my ode to coke. That is all.    もっと詳しく

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    Made it! Sort of.

    2016年3月4日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We're settled in, bags dropped, and sitting in a park with a cold drink and it's not even 530pm! A bus scheduled to leave at 10am for an 8.5 hour ride to Lodwar... So how did we do it you ask? Simple! We're in Kakamega. Let's face it, it's much more fun to say out loud! Kakamega!

    Thanks to our preview from yesterday, we were expecting for the bus to leave later then 10am, but arrived on time just in case. Around 12pm we decided to have our packed lunch because we were getting hungry, still parked in front of the ticket office. By 120pm, Jack and I simultaneously hit a point where we were both tired of sitting on the bus, and we hadn't even left yet. 3.5 hours sitting on a parked bus is tiring, no distracting landscapes, nothing to change your mind from the obvious frustration. People on the bus were saying the bus can actually take up to 10 hours to arrive. Seeing that it's 130pm, we weren't arriving before at least 11pm, and without a map or guest house in mind, we both thought it was no longer worth it. Furthermore, this landscape is suppose to be absolutely beautiful as you arrive closer to Lake Turkana. It's this emerald lake, and you see volcano peaks around it, should be gorgeous. But we would have had the last 4 hours of our journey in complete darkness; it ruins the point. Plenty of other places to visit, no need to torture ourselves for another 10 hours.

    Jack had to argue quite a bit to get a refund, even if our ticket was written "no refund after departure", which clearly doesn't apply. Finally, someone came in just at the right time, wanting to buy tickets. So we sold ours. And by sold ours, I mean the guy working at the ticket office was holding our tickets, and gave them to this new customer. So as Jack was complaining that he wasn't being sympathic, she slowly grabbed the money and walked away. To which he responded he wanted a coca cola. Done.

    Walking off the bus felt wonderful. I'm so done with this town, I couldn't care less where we go, just somewhere. So the closest town of interest was Kakamega! There's a forest reserve with apparently great walking trails that we will attempt tomorrow. I assumed the town would be tiny since the lonely planet doesn't even mention the town... Boy was I wrong. FYI - lonely planet continues to fail us. We use it to know where we're going, and loosely follow the town maps, but that's it. We've found better and cheaper accommodation in every single town we've been in. Even transportation is still turning out cheaper in some cases then what's in the book. And since I highly doubt the prices were lowered in the last year, it still leads me to believe no one actually came to these countries to revise the information provided.

    Matatus here are confusing... 9 passenger seats, and 9 passengers... I actually had my own seat. So did Jack. And we only picked someone up along the way twice, that's after we let someone off of course, because again - we each had our own seats... Hm...

    And we've gotten fair pricing so far! Buses haven't overcharged, not even matatus. Same price as others. Local restaurants have been charging real prices. Street vendors, real prices. It's a nice change. I don't need to argue the price. I just bought a power bar and the guy selling said 300. I looked confused so he said 200. I didn't even have to say anything and he dropped 100. Just for the heck of it I said 150 and he said OK. Lol. The power bar is because the guest houses we're staying in tend to cut electricity during the day, which means we can only charge things at night. I have both our cellphones and Jack's tablet to charge, so we've been putting alarms throughout the night to switch what's charging. 150KSh (2$CAD) not to have to wake up at 1am and 4am, money well spent.

    I'm now sitting in a well maintained park, in the middle of Kamamenga, which turned out to be huge! And for it to have a park in the middle of downtown has been amazing since we haven't seen in city green spaces in a long time. I get to people watch while Jack reads. Perfect. That is of course if you ignore the time we had to change spots because the begging kids decided to sit next to us and mock us for the longest time. They seemed to be sniffing something out of a bottle. A bunch of what appeared to be homeless 8 year olds high as kites.

    Side note - Throughout this trip, I feel like we've had quite the ability to pick good accommodation. Even today, we visited a few different options which confirmed our first spot to be great! It's the cheapest we visited, yet it's the cleanest and the staff was so nice and attentive. When we said we were going to walk around and visit other options, she responded "no problem, but please come back, we would love to have you stay with us". Yes mam! Hot water, shared but squeaky clean bathroom, 500KSh. Score. Most guest houses are set around courtyards behind restaurant or store fronts. Our place yesterday had again, clean shared bathrooms, hot shower at night thanks to the fire they lit under the water tank, 450KSh. The lonely planet doesn't mention any places for under 1500KSh. Pft.

    Also a side note - I don't really mention boring daily routine stuff, but it is an important part of our day. As backpackers, you have a limited amount of clothing, and you don't always know what you're next place will look like. So you always do your laundry when you can. Always. Everyday when I'm showering, I wash my underwear. You do the classic sniff test for your shirt. Wash if needed. Also a daily must is water bottles. Obviously with the warmth, we always make sure to have water available, and that often means stopping to buy some in the evening on our way home. Our malaria pills in the morning, which we are surprisingly taking. Sunscreen used to be a daily thing, but I seem to have gotten used to the sun, because I no longer need it when in a city. Actually I think I only put some one maybe the first 2 weeks... You should see my farmers tan "spell whistling here*. Just simple daily things.    もっと詳しく

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    Uganda - Final Impressions

    2016年3月3日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    I don't want to leave! Like my last country conclusion inputs, here are some short points that I will remember about Uganda.

    I feel like we went through Uganda too quickly... We had 3 weeks in mind for Uganda, yet made our way through in 18 days. 18, mostly, wonderful days. Jack was just asking what I would have done differently or where I would have wanted the extra time. It's easy to look back with the information you have now and "perfect" the itinerary, but I really think we did Uganda justice. I may have spent an extra day hanging out in Masaka since I liked the feel of the town quite a bit. An extra night in Jinja would have been nice, it was beautiful and we finally got to swim in the river (bilharzia in most of the water)! And I would have stayed an extra night in Fort Portal, mostly for the Duchess restaurant, lol, but also to do a tea plantation tour during the day. Like I said, easy to look back, but I don't regret anything.

    I saw chimps here! It was our first wild life experience, and it was of course amazing. Same thing with our day at Murchison Falls. What these two days have taught us though, is Uganda is not made for independant travellers. At least not when it comes to activities. Transportation is easy to manage. Food easy to find. Plenty of English speakers to help out if needed. But without big ticket safari tours, it's hard to have access to parks. Hiring a private driver or staying at ridiculously expensive lodges were our only solutions.

    And parks are expensive in Uganda! An average of 40$US just to set foot in the park, with obligatory guides. We had to be quite picky as to which parks to visit. Jack was unfortunately too picky, and didn't end up hiking. She's having a lot of trouble finding a company that will organize overnight hikes for a decent price. I think Ethiopia screwed us, and we're expecting the same pricing here, which isn't even close to happening.

    As for a more original experience, we got to see the country during elections, something that only happens every 5 years. I didn't want to mention this while we were in Uganda, as to not make anyone too nervous... Or rather not to give my dad his first heart attack. But when we were in Kasese, we were wondering why the streets were so empty... We finally found a little local restaurant that was open (everything was closed and it was 7pm ish). They were all watching the news, and we saw videos of a riot and police intervening with tear gas... We finally see the tag line "Chaos in Kasese". Yep, in the town we were staying, streets were empty because people were staying away from chaos. The good thing is the riot was in front of the polling office which was slightly outside of town, so no violence or anything was seen from where we were. On the bus out of town we drove by this same place, with protesters lining across the street, still yelling. Apparently the office received two ballet boxes that they thought was filled with preticked ballets, yet were later discovered to be empty, so the people thought the elections office was corrupt... Anywho! Safe and sound, writing from Kenya. There were so, so many election signs covering all the public walls, every household had a sign up. Most of the signs were of Museveni (in power for the last 30 years, just reelected) with his beige safari hat, lol. All the conversations in bars revolved around who voted for who. We obviously didn't volunteer our opinions. For a whole week after the elections, things seemed to be closed or slowed down, less buses running, all because of the elections (they vote for local elections a few days after national elections). Of course after the winner was announced, the conversation became was it free and fair. External EU observers did not use the words free and fair when rapporting on their observations, leading some people to conclude it was rigged. The newspaper front page was Besigye (Museveni's main opposition) getting arrested or on home arrest constantly... The head police officer who kept arresting Besigye responded to the question "why do you keep arresting him" with "soon you will know"... How creepy, lol. These arrests are said to be the reason Besigye was not able to file an official appeal of the votes within his 10 day limit. This all gave me an interesting perspective on the country.

    Food in Uganda was repetitive... Pretty much all the locals geared restaurants served what they actually call "food". I even saw it on a menu! It was written food with fish, food with chicken, food with g-nut sauce... G-nut sauce is something we discovered too late in our journey. It's a wonderful peanut sauce they serve either on its own, or with fish in it. And so what this "food" consists of if, if they have it, white rice, matoke, posho and cooked spinach. Matoke is fried plantains, which winds up having the texture of mashed potatoes, only less mushy, kind of like old mashed potatoes... Tasting obviously like plantain. I actually really like matoke. Posho, not so much. It's made with maize, and the consistency is thus rubbery, chewy mashed potato thing... Anywho, we always asked for food with no posho, and switched it up mostly between beans and fish. The chicken was always on the bone and impossibly dry and the beef isn't chewable. It was cheap and easy. But it was a daily thing, sometimes twice a day, hence why a nicer western restaurant was so welcomed every now and then. The timing of local food was also something difficult to manage. If you're too early, food isn't ready. If you're too late, there's no more (they make batches and sell what they have). Right as the sun sets is what we gathered as the perfect time.

    Another conclusion of my Ugandan experience, one I have previously spoken about, is the excessive drinking in rural areas. Unfortunately, this was part of my experience and it is a reality in Uganda. The men sit around in circles and drink banana beer or straight out of mickeys, or even these little vodka or gin pouches, much like the little juice pouches you can get. The unemployment rate is high, men have difficulty finding work, life is harder, so they find something they can all do together, and that's drink. They could at times be loud when speaking to us, approach us not so skillfully to try and start conversations, question us not so respectively, and sometimes simply laugh at everything and anything, including the muzungas. This was much less obvious in larger cities.

    Now the people! Best for last. Ugandans are friendly outgoing people. Always willing to chat. Always willing to help out. Even the ones asking for more money then they should, we could joke around with them and we'd all be laughing by the end of negotiations. Most of the Ugandans who would say hi to us were genuine in their attempts. There's obviously the odd jerk who would keep bothering us, or laugh at us for whatever reason, the "muzunga" yellers who were just trying to get a reaction... But for the most part, absolutely lovely people.

    I realize I've only got 3 africain countries done, but this one tops the list. And as much as the activities were expensive, we still managed to average 66$CAD each. That's 41$US each per day, and our trusty travel book states a cheap budget is under 50$US. Nailed it! That being said, we lived wonderfully, didn't stop myself from splurging when I wanted to, ate all the food I needed, and had a great time!    もっと詳しく

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    Waterfalls and a Border

    2016年3月3日, ケニア ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    As cute as our little banda was, we realised the spider population greatly out numbered us, about 200 to 2. No mosquito nets because according to our friend Tom, there are no mosquitos in Sipi. So we took the one bunk bed in the room and set up our hammock tent over the bottom bunk acting as a net. Perfect! Not too spacious, but considering we weren't hanging in the hammock, but laying against the bed, it was so much more spacious then our last night in the tent. We just needed to cuddle a little, darn.

    Up bright and early for our hike that should have started for 7am. We had our complimentary tea and bananas. Then waited. 730am off we go! Tom had woken late. No biggy. Grab a Rolex for the road and we walk. What was said to be 3-4 hours turned out to be a 2.5 hour, beautiful walk to 3 different waterfalls. We walked through crops and gardens. We got to walk up to the second waterfall which blessed us with its splashes, refreshing us for the second half of the walk. Even though it really wasn't that warm yet at 9am... There was a little cave behind it where Tom said he sometimes does picnics or camping with a fire. Sounds wonderful.

    We were back from our walk around 1020am ish... An easy stroll, not so much a hike. Grabbed our bags and by the time we were back on the main road Tom had stopped a pickup truck filled with plantains and Ugandans to take us to the border! So far, Tom has been really welcoming, nice guy, negotiated the price of the hike a little for us, made sure his staff at the camp site were taking good care of us... Great! They lit a fire under the water tank to give us a warm shower, tea was ready for us right on time in the morning... He was getting a great review on TripAdvisor! That is until he told us, and told the truck driver, it was 20,000USh each for the ride to the border. Now Jack and I have been here for a bit, we're not the easiest to rip off... That's a ton of money considering it cost us 14,000USh total for both of us to get to Sipi the day before... So I quickly pointed out that it was expensive, but at this point we're already comfortably sitting on our respective metal bars, so we left it at that. Along the way, a fellow passenger confirmed it was 10,000USh each, not 20, half the price. Oh Tom, you were doing so good!

    One person had said the ride was 3 hours, the people on the truck said it was 4 hours, so 5 hours later we reach the border! The first hour I was sitting on the side bars of the truck, holding on to keep me from rocking backwards off the truck. That was a tough hour, especially considering the ridiculously deep pot holes along this wonderful red dirt road. Wind blowing strong, so I wasn't too hot. I could feel my skin burning by the second but not much I can do about it when sitting on bags of plantain; except of course hoping the layer of sand on my skin would eventually be thick enough to act as a screen from the sun. Jack was better prepared, she had her Buff and sarong handy to cover up from the sand and sun. I eventually got a seat off the bars and onto the produce which was a little vacation for my bum. The scenery was gorgeous along the way. I actually preferred my 5 hour uncomfortable truck ride to my short yet terrible minibus ride from the day before.

    Arriving at the border, the "conductor" (yes, there was a guy in charge of taking the money from the passengers that got on and off the truck along the way) offered to have us follow him to the border, he said he could direct us. But Jack and I have these walking borders down tight now, so we handed the 20,000 total and walked away. He of course complained, seemed angry, to which we decided to pretend there was a misunderstanding and we thought Tom said 20,000 total. We obviously pointed out that everyone else was paying that price, so while he kept complaining we walked away. It's interesting how when we pay the same price as everyone else, they act and look like we just screwed them out of money when really they were the ones attempting to do the same to us. I guess we're not all equal after all.

    Crossing the border was, as usual, uneventful yet hilarious. We walked up the road, which was eventually "blocked" by a hanging chain. To the right of the chain was a sign telling us to report our departure with immigration. We went to get our exit stamps. Walked maybe 3 minutes on the other side of this high security chain, and got to the Kenyan immigration office. Along the way was one guard who barely looked at us. At least at the other borders someone looked in our bags. This guy barely set eyes on us. The border is called Suam River due to, yes, the river it crosses. There were children swimming along this river, so I wondered, Ugandans or Kenyans? The immigration officer was reading his newspaper when we arrived for our stamp. He had to stand from his chair on the deck outside to come in for our finger prints and picture. And that's it! The hardest part was counting how many days we had spent in Uganda since we had broken it up with Rwanda...

    1.5 hours on a matatu and we're in Kitale. The road was dirt for half of it, and the mini, mini towns along the way were made of wooden structures. Not plaster and cement like most town centres in Uganda. The kids and some adults had more torn and dirtier clothing... Within just our first hour and a half we had the sense Kenya was poorer... We had to keep in mind, we're in the North, where probably not too many resources reach since most larger cities, and therefore tourists, stay more south.

    For the sake of staying positive, I won't go too much into details about Kitale. To be fully honest, at this very minute that I'm writing this blog, I want to go back to Uganda. So far, the people aren't as warm, they're a little rougher, the boda drivers line the streets ALL of them yelling different things at us, the English is a little worse... And usually the language isn't an issue, I wouldn't judge a country or it's people with their amount of spoken English. But here, we've had people try to answer our questions or "helps us" (get business from us) yet leading us so far in the wrong direction because of their English... We spent 2 hours NOT organizing a hike for Jack, we've had multiple menu items be "not available", then available, then something different is served, we waited 25 minutes for a Wi-Fi password that never got checked, then 45 minutes waiting at a bank for nothing really since the ticket number wasn't getting called...

    Sorry! I said positive! I actually like the town. It's got tons of little markets. Clothing lining the streets. Fruits everywhere. Large supermarkets where I can find all the ice-cream that I want... There's a busy downtown and calmer surroundings. It's cool. And I have to keep reminding myself that this was just a rough start to what could be a great country. Fresh start tomorrow. I'll have plenty of time to "reset" in our 8.5 hour long bus ride up to Lake Turkana. That is if the bus leaves at 10am... The man selling the bus tickets assures me the bus will leave on time, even though we bought the tickets at 2pm when their 10am bus was currently leaving... And he asked for our cellphone number to "let us know when the bus is ready tomorrow"... Yet guarantees it will leave at 10am and didn't understand why he shouldn't need our phone number if the bus was to actually leave on time... Wish me luck. No, wish me patience!    もっと詳しく

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