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East Africa
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East Africa

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    It had to happen once...

    16 февраля 2016 г., Руанда ⋅ ☀️ -3 °C

    Gisenyi was perfect for relaxation. We had an amazing diner at a new Californian restaurant where we actually had baguette with pineapple chutney, and actual goat cheese, and caramelized onions... So good...

    We left early to get to Musanze so we could organize some tours we wanted to do. And then it happened. We were on the minibus about 20 minutes outside of town and Jack realized she couldn't find her phone. Last seen, in her bed last night. So we get off the minibus, pay, then cross the street and wait for another minibus. Thankfully they never take very long. Get to our "centre d'accueil", remember - this is a church, so I'm feeling good about our chances - and sure enough, phone still on the bed. Second take, off we go to Musanze!

    Again, pretty easy. Get off the bus at the bus station, follow lonely planet map to Amahoro Tours, only to find where it should be it wasn't. Then someone who clearly sees we're somewhat confused signals us to follow her, through a little alley, in a back alley, and into a courtyard and we're there! Turns out, we were at the right place but we never assumed there would be no signage at the street or any indication... Here, we reserve our camping tent, our village cultural tour and our banana beer making course. Done deal. The Red Rocks accommodation from where all this is based is outside of town, so they supply the transfer over after giving us time to explore the town for a few hours. Too easy.

    Once at Red Rocks, they decided to give us a room for the price of a tent, they say it's because they like us. We'll take it! This is turning out to be quite the useful last town in Rwanda. Harriet, the manager or something, is also planning to go to Uganda, but she says she's going tomorrow (17th) instead of the 18th because she believes the border will be closed the 18th. Even better - we get a ride! She's originally from Rwanda, her family moved to Uganda after the first genocide (1964ish), then in her childhood they moved to New York and eventually California. Anywho, she's organized our "cultural" tour to be in the morning, we get back, have lunch, do banana beer and off we go all together to the Ugandan border where she says we can then stay with her family for the night. How absolutely perfect!

    This hostel has a very easy vibe, relaxed, 3 other travellers. Breakfast included, communal meals, too easy. We're hoping to get to know some of the local culture tomorrow since it's our last chance in Rwanda and we feel we haven't seen much of it... Let's hope for tomorrow!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Back to Uganda, so happy!

    17 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We walked back to Uganda! This is after a full day of activities at Red Rocks.

    Yesterday Harriet had taken us along with this other girl to tour around the different homes and families their organization was helping. It was pretty much a bunch of village home visits because this other girl was starting her own organization with homestays and wanted to check out what they had running in the local community. We were just bored so we joined.

    So today for our cultural walk, we said we wanted less of a house tour and more of a cultural experience. Instead we got more of a nature walk, with milking cows at the end (to my request). It was funny, we were asked what kind of experience we were looking for, so we expressed that other then the recent history of the genocide, we haven't gotten to know the true Rwandan culture, and that's what we wanted. Along our walk, we didn't talk to a single local person. Just walked through their town to get to the fields behind it, walked through beautiful greenery and nature, visited a power plant from the river waters, and that's about it... We actually really enjoyed it, we got to ask the guide a bunch of questions about their education system, their politics, they have quite a few women in the government, on coming elections in Uganda, their alcoholism problems, etc. We got followed by quite a few kids on our way back. I had asked to milk the cows because they had mentioned it as an option yesterday. It's a very odd, intimate thing to milk a cow... As you get wacked in the face by its tail...

    Get back, sweaty and hot, take a classic cold bucket shower, eat, and learn to make some banana beer! It's a local classic in Rwanda. You basically crush a bunch of bananas into a log with the help of long grass. Eventually you get quite an impressive amount of liquid out. This almost clear liquid taste really sweet, and obviously quite banana-y. Mix in some freshly crushed sorghum, and voilà! In 5 days, you get beer. Really sweet, strong (13%) beer. Not a fan, but meh. Like Uganda, Rwanda has its fair share of drinking men... They like their banana beer. Our guide from this morning was saying, as an example, the women work all day long and make 1000RFr. They spend 300 at the market to feed their family. They save 700. Their husband take 500 to go drinking. Only 200RFr left at the end of the day. Men. Pft.

    Once all is done and drank, what else does a girl due but cross a border the day before elections! This is, believe it or not, a different yet smaller boarder then our first border crossing. Quick minibus ride drops you at the gate separating Uganda and Rwanda. You walk across to the Uganda side where the "exit Rwanda" stamp office is right next to the "entry Uganda" stamp office. 5 minutes and we successfully walked across. There's a funny car gate with Rwanda written on one side and Uganda on the other. There was one armed security guy standing at the "gate" (rope across the dirt road) asking to see your passport. Then one armed army guy on the Uganda side once you get to the other rope across the dirt road. Very official business people!

    Kisoro is the closest town to the border and yet already we see so much more life and excitement. The difference is striking. Ugandans are all smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves. We hear music coming from the shops, street food being sold (it was illegal to have street shops in Rwanda, only legit store fronts). We went for a beer, and elections were being talked about all around. We'll keep our heads low and political opinions to ourselves for the next few days until the winner is announced and we see what that brings. If anything, we'll avoid Kampala. Easy. I for one am quite happy to be in Uganda again.

    We didn't know if we would spend the night in Kisoro or make our way to Kabale tonight, from where we could head to our next destination easier. By the time we were done exploring the town, and eating diner, it was 5.30pm, sun going down, so we decide Kisoro for the night, and Lake Bunyonyi for the morning via Kabale. It's been super easy to find accommodation during our trip - so it being 530pm, easy peasy. There's tons of options, our waiter gave us a suggestion which turned out perfect. Every second door seemed to be a bar and hotel. How they make money, no one knows.

    FYI : we're half way! If you make the quick count, we left on January 7th and are coming back for March 29th... We're half way! I feel a mix of excitement for what's to come, pride for what I've done, wanting to continue for ever and yet missing my people and wanting to see them... A whole mix!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Rwanda impressions

    18 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    As I sit here along the shores of Lake Bunyonyi, I will attempt to sum up my thoughts on Rwanda. Here are a few points on the country :

    In physical appearance, it ranks among the nicest, prettiest countries I've seen! Everything is so green, thick beautiful vegetation. It's all so well kept also, trimmed lawns, clean... They even have a national cleaning day - last Saturday of the month - where everyone apparently willingly and excitedly cleans...

    Kigali, being their capital , is huge and developed with tons of high buildings and offices and everything you would need with its own bunch of subburbs. They say it's the country of a thousand hills and I believe it! Even the capital is spread between hills and valleys. Most of the other towns consist of one, maybe 2 main roads, never much more then 1-2 kilometres long.

    They have no street food. No street stalls at all. Apparently it's illegal to sell things on the street, you must have a shop. Which makes sense, because we once bought fruit from the first gang of women we saw sitting on the street, and yet 20 minutes later they were all packed up and gone, with a military man roaming around... I guess that's how they stay clean, no one there to dirty the streets.

    Their national park (at least the one we did) was gorgeous and again - clean. Seems silly to say but in Ethiopia, all along our hikes and street sides there were water bottles on the ground. Even our guides would throw their water bottle to the ground during our hikes in national parks. In Rwanda - not a single piece of anything on our hike... I even had a banana peel which I asked if I could throw in the nature (animals will eat it, no?) and I was told to hold onto it until the end for a garbage.

    The people try to be very helpful. Unfortunately language is very limited, be it French or English. They like to give directions when they have no clue where something is, but they try! They ask where do we want to go when we barely hesitate in our step.

    I've actually gotten even more stares in this country compared to all the other ones I've done. Thing is, I really don't think they mean any judgement from it... They just don't see it as a social faux pas. One lady even turned herself over in the bus to have a better view of us, looking without breaking eye contact for about an hour. Kids like to follow, but their lack of English means they follow in silence, or laughing amongst their friends. (I'll attempt to get some videos of this onto Facebook...)

    Many people blame the French and the Belgians for their genocide, basically saying they brought in the thoughts of racism when imposing the Hutu and Tutsi identity cards and then chosing one group as the educated leaders... They are now rebelling against those roots and learning English in school instead of French. The older generation we could communicate with in French, and the younger in English.

    The general feel of Rwandans are, as mentions, very restrained, a certain somber feel for the people... A lack of liveliness. Not as willing to chat or not as many smiles. Serious people.

    That's Rwanda in a nutshell!

    ------

    The lake itself here is absolutely gorgeous. We sat around the dock, soaked our feet, enjoying an outdoor shower with a view, and went for a walk to "town" where someone served us fries in what seemed like their living room. Beautiful, relaxing, and yet we've got ants in our pants so we're probably going to move on tomorrow to something more activity oriented. Unfortunately, a tour we were looking forward to doing on and by the Batwa people is too expensive. Our lovely lonely planet said it was 30$ per person. Turns out it's 60$ per person plus at 45$ transportation fee. Quite the price different. LP failed us again...

    FYI that last picture is of the many voting booths set up outside in Uganda. Line ups at all of them. I wish my voting booth had those views! Also, the government blocked Facebook and what'sapp for the day. Lol yep, it can do that! Apparently a bunch of people were already arrested for trying to buy votes at voting stations. Our shared taxi driver guy stopped in every little town along the way to yell out from his window his support for Museveni's re-election. All the stores and restaurants were closed. Streets are dead. Elections day is a big thing here!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    A record!

    20 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ 🌙 -5 °C

    We hit a record! 24 people in a minibus that seats 14. Booya! I had my left cheek oh so uncomfortably sitting against the door and the right half on a seat, half in the air.

    The last couple days haven't been too much to write about... Elections day - the 18th - everything seemed closed. It continued on into Kasese where yesterday and this morning it seemed like nothing was open... We had difficulty finding a tour agency to help plan for Jack's hike on the Rwenzori mountains, which was our only true reason to stop in this town. Had ourselves a local diner while we watched the news about the elections with provisional results being reported.

    Sorry for the lack of excitement, not much has been going on. Still exploring everywhere, still enjoying the socialness of Ugandans. Made it to Fort Portal today for a better chance at finding a tour agency. Found out the pricing is absolutely ridiculous as usual... Uganda and Kenya, as we were warned, have very expensive package tours. Example - they were offering a combination package of a trek in the Kibale National Park and a lunch around the crater lakes. Their advertised price for the two of us was 550$US. As we continued to talk and made it clear we didn't have that kind of money, he offered it to us for 390$US. 160$ price drop in a heart beat, how much profit do they get!? You basically pay a ton of money for them to drive you around the different places that are accessible by local transport. It's basically just for convenience of being able to do it all in a shorter amount of time. Luckily for us, we have time! So we'll attempt this on our own.

    The most exciting part of Fort Portal is a restaurant called Duchesse. I had a club sandwich with fantastic homemade multi grain bread (they fry all their breads here so everything is so greasy!). Jack had herself an open faced sandwich with grilled eggplant, cheese and pesto. Fresh, non greasy foods are so so welcomed at this point. Who would have thought, I, the Queen of fast food, would be looking for fresh!

    Pictures are of the Tooro Palace and the Royal Tombs we visited. The King of the Tooro district was crowned at 3 years old... Must have been quite the responsibility! Lol. They are burried with their most important possessions such as spears, drums and serving jugs. When the president reviewed the Kings' involvement in the country, it was said he would take everything away from the Kings and remove their power all together, but decided to make them in charge of culture...

    The funny part was the caretaker for the tombs (guy in white shirt) looked like he was woken from a nap to bring us over. He was shirtless when he came out of his house, his daughters got him up. He was groggy. Hardly spoke English so his daughter who spoke ever so slightly more English accompanied us. They explained that just like being King, being the keeper of the burial grounds is past down from father to son and is an important role.

    If all goes well, I'll be making one of my dreams come true in 2 days... So stay tuned. Until then, I'll try to contain my excitement...    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    It's tomorrow!

    21 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ 🌙 -5 °C

    Tomorrow, tomorrow! I had a great day today but it's tomorrow! You'll have to wait and see!

    Today we walked from 9am until 415pm around the crater lakes next to Kibale national park. There's about 10 lakes you can hike through. Jack had spotted a map that was pretty detailed, so of course we took pictures of it instead of buying it... Lol! So on my phone we managed to do a heck of a lot of ground on our own today, from lake to lake.

    The hike wasn't too challenging. For all the incline there was decline. Hot and sweaty by the end anyway. The views were absolutely incredible. The people all say hi. Some kids follow, some ask for money, but for the most part really friendly and simple people. We had a great satisfaction in being able to do it ourselves. So many people say you should take a guide everywhere, mostly so they can get paid. But with decent team work and confidence, we did it ourselves! Asking people for directions along the way was actually rare, and we were mostly right with our gut!

    We attempted to make our way to a waterfall but some guy showed up saying we had to pay 15000 each to go, with no signage anywhere saying so and no signage indicating that we were even on the correct route so we refused of course and made our way to the river that feeds the waterfall instead. We got to soak our feet and refresh ourselves from the super hot day. It was perfect! Until the crowd of children and teen boys around us got overwhelming... Asking for our mango, our orange our water, wanting my camera. Randomly laughing. They were brewing banana beer at the water so it was clear those teens were drunk and so so obnoxious.

    Drinking is an issue, especially in the rural towns... Every man we crossed at least smelled of alcohol. It was impressive. Old men, middle age men, walking crooked at 1pm and yelling random things to us... I'd walk into a shop and be followed super close by someone who reeks alcohol and doesn't understand a personal bubble... The only times I've ever felt more aware of my surroundings for safety purposes is with clearly drunk men. It's an issue. I guess when you have nothing else to do all day...

    Anywho, it's tomorrow! It's tomorrow!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    1

    It happened.

    22 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Yep. Amazing morning. I'm overwhelmed with random emotions that are kind of funny... All brought on because I've done something today I never thought I would... I saw chimpanzees! Lots of them! Like 20! For those who have known me for a while, I've been absolutely head over heels in love with chimps since my childhood, reading everything I can about them whenever I could. I remember I would rotate through renting out the chimp books at my primary school library over and over again...

    I was in a world of my own all morning. And now I'm emotional. It's making me wonder where did I go right in life? How did I deserve all this? I'm even getting as philosophical as going all the way back to how did I land such amazing parents? They gave me a sense of responsibility, they made sure we knew how important school was, and I made something of myself because of the values they taught me. I have an amazing job, great schooling, I'm incredibly happy in life, I have an amazing partner who encourages me to be confident and partake in making decisions... I've always been a follower and now I know I can make decisions and reach for goals of mine and be selfish sometimes... I say selfish because I just spent my morning running in front of the group of people on the hike to be the first one in line to see the chimps. Lol. Selfish because I asked Jack to carry everything including the camera so that I could be free to enjoy the experience.

    Yes, seeing chimps has made me rethink of my life and be incredibly proud of where I am. Best of all, and those who know me well will understand, I'm at a point in my life where I can actually say that I deserve all this. I deserve a good, supportive partner. I deserve to treat myself to these crazy adventures and expensive day trips. I worked for it. And I'm loving it.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    1

    Red beans and a pickup truck

    22 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Considering my excitement for the chimps themselves, I didn't elaborate on how this all came about. We knew that Kibale National Park was the place for chimp tracking. We also knew it was expensive. It's 150$ for the permit, entrance fee to the park, and they supply the guide. So kind of a package deal for chimp tracking. There's other parks in the country who offer "primate walks" for about 60-70$ on which you have roughly a 30% chance of seeing chimps. Jack and I discussed and decided I would be way too disappointed if I was to try another park and not see chimps, so we decided to bite the bullet and go big! A lot of tour companies offer something with the chimp tracking and crater lakes in a day, but those tours were 550$US for the two of us. One company did offer this crater lakes and chimp tour to us for 390$US, but that basically means you're paying 90$ for transportation there and around the lakes. We decided to do the crater lakes ourselves.

    We took a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) out to where we thought we needed to go buy the tracking permit. This was at 630am, because since I'm a nervous wreck about making sure this happens and I'm convinced something will go wrong, I wanted to be at the park office as soon as it opened at 730am to reserve for the next morning. That's right, we were planning on doing the hike the next day, but I was determined to make it there before yesterday's group started, in case it was full today or something and I had to go another time. Who knows.

    The boda ride is an hour long in red dirt roads with speed bumps and potholes. We were covered, along with our bags, in a full layer of red dust once we arrived at the park's head office, only to be told the permits are sold at the headquarters, not the office, 10km back up the same road. I panicked. What if someone had woken up just as early and was at the right place just in time to buy out all the permits? Exhausted from the bike ride, we decided to go check in to our hotel before going back to the headquarters with this boda-boda.

    We chose the Primate Safari Lodge simply because it was the only lodge walking distance to the head office, which is where the chimp tracking walk starts from. It's actually right next door, but there isn't another option close enough to walk from. And of course, the idea of missing the hike simply because of ill planned transportation would make me cry.

    Turns out, the lodge was 14$US per PERSON to camp, not per tent like we thought. Picture this : super nice, fancy lodge, advertising private cottages with stone showers and hers and hers bathrobes, and a "full board" option or meals of 19$US each... EACH. That's more then our camp site price. And here we are, two girls hanging up a hammock tent under the not so well kept shelter because we don't have a rain cover. Granted, why would they upkeep their camp ground site, I don't think they've ever had campers... They didn't really know what to do with us. Of course we attempted to argue the price, but we weren't getting anywhere. So we made sure to get our 28 dollars' worth. Keep in mind - this is the most we've ever paid for a room in Uganda, and this wasn't a room! This was simply the permission to put our tent up. Getting back from our crater lakes walk yesterday, they let us use the empty room's shower. The cottage was gorgeous! I didn't want to leave. Part of me was angry we were sleeping two girls in one hammock when this cottage was going to be empty!

    Having seen the prices of the meals in the morning when we dropped our bags off, we knew groceries needed to be done. So after "checking into" our hotel (dropping our bags off in the office), our lovely boda-boda driver took us to the headquarters to buy our park permits which acted as reservations. The man must not have known about my anxiety, because we expressed what we want, 2 permits for tomorrow morning, and he looks down at his computer and starts typing... Something... And not saying anything... A good 5 minutes of torture later I break the silence and ask "is there still permits available? Are we good for tomorrow?" to which he replies ever so casually "oh yes yes, that's OK long time ago". Damn him! Making me sweat! So it's confirmed! I hike tomorrow! (well today).

    All that to say we managed to do it on our own! Insert blog from yesterday - we walked the lakes on our own. Then boda back to the Primate Lodge before dark to set up our luxurious accommodation for the night. I've never drank so many hot drinks in my life! Like I said, we wanted our 28 dollars worth... And hot drinks were included, buffet style. That night, I had a hot chocolate (my first since I've left) and 2 teas. Today, I had 2 coffees and 3 teas. Why not! We had bought a bunch of fruit and mini breads from the little towns along the lake, so we got them to supply us with bowls and cutlery to make a fruit salad. We bought Rolex from the town to have for diner (eggs rolled into chapati). We didn't order a thing from them for the 3 meals we were there, and I was never hungry! This wonderful American older couple took pitty on us I guess, they bought us lunch today! Never say no to free. They wanted to buy us each lunch, but the kitchen prepares the food ahead of time, so they only had the one plate, so we shared. Super appreciated.

    It was clear that the people who stay in this lodge have money. Most of them had their own guide following them in the country. Mostly an older crowd. I guess with the price of the permits, not very many backpackers do this... After our briefing at the park office, our chimp tracking guide goes "OK, everybody in your vehicles and we meet you at the trial". Jack and I look at her and respond "what vehicles?" so the lovely American couple who had their own guide for a week gave us a ride... Apparently tours are a big thing here... Lol.

    All that to say, we did it! We relaxed at the lodge after returning around 1130am (left at 8am), and hung up the hammock in the front lawn for Jack to read from. I don't think they've ever had guest quite like us, they didn't really know what to do with us... I asked to lay my clothes on a chair to dry, and they offered to put it in the dryer for me. I didn't think dryers existed here... We asked for a knife, they would bring a whole place setting. We made our way back to town today riding in the back of a pickup truck full of bags of red beans... Covered in dirt again on arrival. Jack was facing forward so had the outline of her sunglasses marked in dirt. Sexy.

    I get to sleep in a bed tonight. I don't have to calculate if my hip bone is digging into Jack's leg, or if I want to move my leg I have to ask Jack to roll over, or contemplating if it's really that important for me to have sensation and circulation in my right leg since I'll wake Jack up if I move... Two people in a hammock is not recommended... FYI.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    1

    Sand Monsters

    24 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Murchinson Falls National Park, you have challenged us. After noticing that we weren't spending as much time in Fort Portal as we thought, we had extra days to work with for Uganda. We decided to go up north a little, outside your typical tourist trail, and see if we could get to the falls.

    A rocky minibus half way to Hoima and then a shared taxi the rest of the way was a warning sign for what was coming - challenges. We reached our record of 24 people in a minibus, going through unpaved red sand roads. The kinds where if a truck is passing in the opposite direction, you close all the windows and breath through your shirt as to not aspirate a ton of sand. The shared taxi broke the record - 10 people in a car that reminded me of my mom's old '85ish Honda accord. The last hour of that 2.5 hour car ride was one of the most painful things I've had to endure... And I have a decent amount of tattoos... My left buttock was screaming for blood that I could not provide...

    Hoima was... I don't know. It was dusty since all the roads were that red sand. Everytime any vehicle passed by, you took cover. We would have loved to shower since we felt like we were covered head to toe with either dry sand or mud, but we had made the decision not to find accommodation right away in the hopes to make our way to Masindi this same day. Turns out, the town really isn't that interesting. And carrying our backpacks in a dusty hot town made us a little low energy. Our highlight of the town was finally finding ice cream after searching for a bit. Ice cream has been a rare yet so, so welcomed treat.

    A little background on minibuses, or matatu's as they're called around here: it's a really old, yet rough an tough, 14 passenger minivan. There's the driver of course. There's also what they call a conductor. The conductor is the one yelling out the destination from the window, finding passengers, charging everyone while we're rolling and remembering where everyone is getting off. So as a client, you simply listen for the direction you're looking for, wave it down if you're on the street or approach it in a bus station. And you make space for yourself in the fullest one. I say fullest because it doesn't leave until it's satisfied with its number of customers. So you squeeze into the fullest, hoping it leaves soon.

    When we wanted to go to Masindi from Hoima, the conductor said his bus was full and pointed to the empty bus behind him. We counted and saw there were 3 people in the back which is usually 4 and no one was sitting on the conductor. Yes that's a legit seat. So we argued but they left us there, in an empty bus. We waited an hour and 10 minutes before leaving, finally full. The only positive there was that we got the front seats, which usually has a max of 2 plus the driver for visibility, which means you don't get piled on. We arrived in the dark, which I hate, but these things happen. Turns out litterally next door to where they dropped us, was a guest house offering "self contained" rooms (private washroom) with hot water for a reasonable price. I haven't had my own washroom with hot shower in a long time and considering the layer of sand we were dragging around, I was quite happy!

    Today we set out to find this map of a walking tour of Masindi, written by this volunteer group years ago. We had heard the sites weren't much to see, but the stories made it interesting. We were just looking for a good way to tour the town, so why not. The map took us to these really old schools, some still running, some abandoned, it took us by a hospital, an old European cemetery, a big fancy presidential Lodge and even a monument commemorating the first white guy to meet with the local King and to see Lake Albert in the 1800's. I really wanted to visit inside the hospital but felt a little awkward asking... The white nurse from Canada want to see how you do your work... Here, hospitals and schools aren't tall, no second stories, they are all individual buildings. One building, one class room. Or one building, one ward. There was a men's ward, female ward, children's ward, maternity and orthopaedics. It made for an interesting and different way of seeing the town as I'm sure we went places most white people never go... The people were smiling and friendly, a few welcomed and nice hellos from the locals.

    Mixed in with this fascinating walk was our attempt at planning to see the falls in the National Park. Uganda really isn't meant for independent travellers, at least not their parks. Just like in Kibale, they're clearly used to having people with their own drivers. There's no public transportation taking you to the park gates, and if you do make it there, there's no transportation inside the park, nor is there anything accessible without transportation. We looked into staying at a camp site inside the park, but their tours leave from Kampala, they don't offer transportation to their camp site, even though there's no other options, and they don't offer 1 day tours in the park... Every option of public transport or getting a ride was leading us no where. We had hoped to run into a group of fellow travellers going and to hitch a ride, but there's no other traveller that we've seen staying in this town, even though it's the closest to the park. They all leave from Kampala. So that left us with one option, and one option only, hiring a private driver. So for 330 000 shillings, we get someone picking us up at 630am, we get to the park entrance around 9am, do a game drive, then do the boat trip at 2pm, with a hike up the falls where he picks us up, and we return to town. This 330 000 includes the driver, the car, and the fuel. All other fees are on us, like the 40$ entrance to the park (crazy!), 32$ boat ride, 15$ hike... Ouch. This day will have coast around 130$US when all is said and done. And yes, it's the cheapest option. Obviously, we just grocery shopped at the market to pack a lunch. They won't get a single other penny from us! Lol.

    Tomorrow is the day we might see hippos, crocodiles, girafes, elephants... Pretty darn exciting! And we get to act like royals, private transportation. I feel like the rich!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Perfect day

    25 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    What a day! Private driver, a 3 hour "game drive" as they call it, a 2.5 hour boat ride and an hour hike up the side of a powerful waterfall.

    We weren't thinking of doing a safari game drive in Uganda, but since the Murchison Falls NP entrance fees were 40$us, we decided to take advantage of a full day in the park. On this drive, we saw Jackson Heartbeats, waterbucks and a hippopotamus out of water - all in the first 10 minutes! The drive was absolutely beautiful, Savannah type landscapes, beautiful shining sun. By the end, we had seen waterbucks, African buffalo's, hippos, Jackson Heartbeats, elephants, Rothschild giraffes, Ugandan kobs (antilopes), warthogs (Gen! Pumba!) and a few gorgeous birds.

    As if that wasn't enough, we had a quick packed lunch and off we went on a boat tour along the Nile! 2.5 hours of wind blowing, cooling us down, drinks being served, and again all along the shores incredible animal watching! More hippos, one girafe, tons of elephants, birds and crocodiles! Beautifully sunny day. Incredibly warm.

    The boat stoped at a dock somewhat far from the falls themselves, but you could definitely appreciate their power and beauty! Jack and I were the only ones to get off as we planned to do the hike up to the falls, and the boat turned back around. Our hiking guide was waiting for us when we got there, arranged by our wonderful private driver Moses. The hike was super easy and it gave us a closer look at these falls. To be honest, they weren't very high, not the prettiest falls I've ever seen, but definitely powerful. I wouldn't want to fall in... Honestly the world's easiest walk, and I managed to fall. Yep, my first true reason to open my massive first aid kit! A bandaid and polysporin... Considering the size of my medical kit, it's kind of sad. I scraped my knee when my foot slid forward in a dry sandy downhill part. Honestly the lamest story ever. I'll be going with lion's bite from now on. This lion's bite was just deep enough to have people concerned about the bleeding, but just superficial enough to make me feel like an idiot. Meh.

    This is probably the most luxurious day we've had to this day, yet with our skills we are paying the same amount as advertised on a poster for a group of 8 people. We found a driver willing to take us for a good price. And by calculating all the fees along the way we paid the exact same amount as groups do, but we had a private driver doing exactly what we wanted... We want to stop for a photo, we ask. We want to go, we go. Easy.

    Fantastic day. Worth the pretty penny it cost. And now onto the capital! Kampala tomorrow should be quite the change of pace.    Читать далее

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    Finally the Capital

    27 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We made it to Kampala! Busy, tons of people, impossible to walk effectively Kampala!

    I'm a small town kind of gal when it comes to travelling. I like peaceful, simple places. Big cities are sometimes overwhelming. But there's a certain character in Kampala that really needs to be experienced first hand. The streets are lined with street vendors everywhere, and that's on top of the multiple markets. As much as I'd like to say you can find anything you need around every corner, most of these vendors just repeat themselves. Fruits, second hand clothing, snacks, and a bunch of handkerchiefs.

    There's people everywhere. Again, we haven't seen that many tourist though. Maybe that's because of the size of the city. Who knows. But the vendors will grab onto you, they'll use pitty tactics like buy from me, help me. You basically have to ignore everyone talking to you because responding to everyone would take too much time.

    Jack has an incredible sense of direction, so she managed to get us to the hotel and get us to a mosque and Hindu temple we wanted to see... It was impressive. Because of the size of the city, I'm afraid we will have to take boda-bodas to get from site to site. We're currently in a very central hotel, 6 floors up, broken elevator of course. According to lonely planet, it's the best deal you'll find in town. Whether or not that's true, who knows, but the location is fantastic. The fan wasn't working, and in this room you need a fan! So when we returned from our walk around 7pm they came to replace it. 10 minutes and we had a new fan. Then the TV, which is wall mounted, had no electrical plug around it. Whoever thought that through should be fired. So we asked for an extension cord and eventually got it, only to realize there's 2 channels - one with really boring news, mostly a list of statistics, and one with football highlights. Hm. Then the hot water never made its way up. Good thing the location is great... And there's Wi-Fi!    Читать далее

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    More of Kampala

    28 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We've been taking it easy in this big ol' capital. We walked over to a place called 1000 cups of coffee yesterday since both Jack and I have been itching for a good latte. So, so rewarding. Along the way was a little craft village with all your typical and repetitive tourist aimed crafts like wooden giraffes, drums and bags. We've decided to keep our shopping for our last stop - Nairobi. Thats hoping we'll find what we want there... You find yourself weighing the pros and cons of having to carry things for another month or not finding them again later.

    Visiting the Mengo Palace and Bulange Royal building gave us a good bit of new knowledge of Ugandan history and their attachement to their tribal history. The monarchs reign over social and cultural issues here, and are incredibly respected by the people. As our guide from yesterday put it, in newspapers here you will find many caricatures of the president, mocking him, but you will never find anyone saying something negative or mocking the kings in Uganda. The Buganda King, based in Kampala, has the largest Kingdom, was given the crown at 16 years old. It is passed on to the son of the Royal families chosing, and can not be given to the first son, unlike your usual royal line.

    Each Ugandan identifies to a tribe and a clan. The clans are all represented by animals or insects and such. It's interesting to hear them introduce themselves - I'm from the Buganda tribe, and the elephant clan. To this day, even the youth, are proud of their clans and follow the tradition (mostly) of never marrying someone from your clan, yet marrying within your tribe. They ask about Canadian clans and tribes. It's hard to justify that I know so little about our First Nations that I can't really contribute to that conversation.

    The visit at Mengo Palace also led us to this old underground torture chamber used by Idi Amin during his time as general commander. They say in the 6 years he used it, over 15000 people were killed here, mostly by the use of electricity run through the body of water kept along the corridor... It was marking.

    We made our afternoon into an art gallery one, quite like in Kigali. Free art galleries, why not. Again, having the money and space for these things, my apartment would look so eclectic and wonderful...

    Topped the night off with a movie - DeadPool! I was so excited! I've been talking about seeing a movie for a while, it's a way of letting go and really relaxing. My mind, which never usually stops working throughout that day, can finally stop and enjoy the movie. I laughed the entire time, loved it. I was probably in an extra good mood since I got to chat my sister thanks to the great Wi-Fi in the mall. It's was therapy of its own to get to hear her voice.

    Last day in Kampala before heading to Jinja for some River rafting... Wish me luck!

    FYI - I didn't elaborate yesterday, but the national mosque was beautiful! It had contributors from around the world, chandeliers from Egypt, carvings from Marrocco, stained glass from Italy... We even got to climb the minaret and had incredible views of the city. Only down side is the coverings they give - made me feel incredibly awkward to have to cover up into a hijjab and skirt... Like Halloween.    Читать далее

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    Museums 101

    28 февраля 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Apparently Jack needs more sleep then I do! We've been going to sleep at the same time, yet every morning I wake up around 7-730am and she's still sounds asleep. Around 8am I usually end up waking her to start our day. She made the request last night to sleep in today so I obliged. She finally got out of bed around 910am when I told I was going to breakfast (free with our hotel) without her. We took our time, read the news, brushed up on some Facebook time... By the time we actually stepped out of the hotel, it was 11am. Talk about a lazy morning. But after 2 months of travelling (there's a big difference between vacation and travelling), it feels nice and relaxing.

    We decided to walk to the National Museum of Uganda today, taking an hour to do so. By the time we arrived, 12pm, hot and sweaty, we did lunch instead. Lol. Lazy day. We went to a more "white people" filled place for lunch, a coffee shop with again - great coffees and fresh salads. Being in a big city allows you to treat yourself to the more westerner luxuries. Latte! I'm surprised at the limited amount of tourist we have come across in Uganda. Yet this coffee shop was probably half white, half black, the most whites I've seen yet. There were about 5 white folks at the movies yesterday and both Jack and I felt surrounded by them. We are so used to being the only white folk around, this shows how much expats and NGO workers only stay in the capital. It's quite nice to feel like we're surrounded by the people we are here to get to know, and that's the feeling you get in the rest of Uganda. Kampala is so big, so busy, there's no in between city. It makes everything else we've seen so rural and so real.

    Back to the museum we go. It's absolutely hilarious. This is the order in which things were presented : an old Ford car, next to a manually pulled 2-wheeled cart, then presentation of wood from different types of forests in Uganda, then medicinal plants, then the new petrol and oil digging going on in Uganda, expected to start expecting oil in the next few years, then a presentation on malaria with a really interesting "severe malaria algorythm" for us nurses, then of course - Ugandan participation in Olympics. Yep, that's that for the first section. Posters on the ground leaning against the wall, boards covered by furniture pilled in front, dust everywhere... And this is their biggest museum. And of course Justin Bieber's "Sorry" playing on repeat. That songs has been EVERYWHERE.

    There were 2 other sections slightly better presented, showing your typical archaeological findings, tribal history and traditions. Outside was a "cultural village" with representations of huts according to different geographical areas. If anything, this museum has been a good laugh. We spent almost 2 hours here, knowing that we needed to stay around this area all day.

    Since we got out just before 4pm, and we wanted to see a show (diner and theatre of sorts) in this area of town, we now have 2 hours to waste... Beer! Beer garden with micro brewery short walk away it is. They give you a shot glass of their different brews to taste. Unfortunate thing is, most of the beer is quite bland in Uganda, and this was no exception. They all tasted similar or bad. Lol. But ah well, the place looks nice.

    Finally time to make our way to Ndere Centre, a cultural dance show and food! After a little price negotiation (we thought food was included, it wasn't, so we paid the local price which was almost half off!), we got to sit back and enjoy an absolutely incredible show! To think we almost missed it because of the price... There were at points maybe 30 people on stage, either dancing or playing an instrument, with a pretty funny host telling which region they were representing. They even did an Intore dance from the people of Rwanda, a dance Jack was so disappointed we didn't get to witness in Rwanda. It was absolutely fantastic. I also enjoy the idea of paying a dance group to do a representation of their traditional dances and music instead of paying a tour guide to bring me to a village where they mascarade around as if they still live in the days where these costumes were worn. Much less of a "human safari" as they're called around here. It was fantastic and we loved it.    Читать далее

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    Rafting!

    1 марта 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I guess 140$ goes a long way here... At least considering prices elsewhere. Confirmed via email the day before, Nile River explorers picked us up at our hotel, brought to their rafting headquarters/hostel in Jinja, fed us breakfast after a briefing (I asked for a second breakfast and got it!), followed by 3.5ish amazing hours on the river, a snack along the way, and a BBQ to end it all with free unlimited drinks. Yep, free beer. That never happens here. Usually they know it's their opportunity to make money so they charge even more then regular price because you're isolated. But here, free! We even arranged for our night in their dorm to be free! They used to do it but stopped in July last year apparently. But because we "asked nicely" according to our emails, we got a night for free!

    Their camp side hostel is absolutely beautiful. Restaurant and deck overlooking the river from on top on the hill, outdoor themed showers, there's a slide and zipline at the water... Just beautiful. Complete with a view of monkeys.

    The rafting was great! 8 grade 3-5 rapids, we fell out once and the boat flipped once... Good times! Bright sunny day, of course our legs got burnt despite sunscreen... They aren't used to being exposed! There was a lot of "dead" river between the rapids, so lots of rowing... Arms kind of tired... My workout of the week! Working out is easy when you just think back on your week!

    This morning we're off to our last stop in Uganda... I'm sad to leave but I feel quite satisfied with our time here. I feel I have a good idea of what Uganda is, and who Ugandans are... Almost time to move on.    Читать далее

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    Top Minibus ride

    1 марта 2016 г., Уганда ⋅ ☁️ -4 °C

    We've been taking minibuses (aka matatus or taxibus) mostly since we've arrived, as the locals do. Often when we ask our hotel or other travellers how to get places, they'll tell us the voyager or big bus options, which are often more expensive, and/or mostly taken by foreigners or higher class locals. We like the personal approach and challenge to minibuses.

    Today was a decision I think both Jack and I wished we could take back. We were instructed by our hostel on where to go for the big buses going to Mbale, but we chose to go to the taxi park where the minibuses leave from. I was in the back row against the window, with the usual 3 people to my right (4 per row), for which I thought I scored since they were small girls. Jack, the row in front of me, also had a small (maybe 10 years old) girl to her left. All good so far.

    It's should be a 2 hour bus ride, but I never checked the time, so who knows. About 10 minutes in, the 10 year old starts puking. At first in a handkerchief. Then someone gave her a bag. This was on and off throughout. Maybe an hour in Jack notices her thigh is wet. Unknown origins. Every once in a while, as we hit speed bumps or the breaks, there's a chicken, half of its body tied inside a plastic bag, the other half fighting to get out, which comes from underneath my seat to rub up against my leg. I got scared everytime, kicked my legs up everytime, only to get a dirty look from the women in front of me who's seat I'm kicking. The little girl in the middle of her two sisters to my right then pukes all over herself. That was a lot of fun since she was just eating a muffin and drinking an orange fizzy drink. My nursing friends won't mind reading this next part, but for the rest of you, if you've got a weaker stomach, skip ahead. Someone gave her a bag and she proceeded to wipe the puke bits off of herself and push them onto the ground using this bag as a glove. She then left the bag on the ground. So I supplied her a new bag that she can hopefully aim for next time. We eventually dropped off the lady that was sitting next to Jack's puker. As she got off, I noticed her bum area of her dress had a wet ring around it. And to further clarify what we were dealing with, I got an unmistakable whiff of urine. Remember, Jack has a wet thigh. I won't lie, I laughed a little on the inside. Few minutes later, we drop off Jack's puker and she's also wet, leaving behind a wet seat.

    As much as I'd like to say this is entirely out of the norm, it's not really. We've witnessed plenty of people being sick in buses. Sometimes in bags. Sometimes on the ground. People tend to ignore it. We were once behind a baby that projectile vomited against the seat, the window, the works. When they got off, people sat in that seat, no problem. And I've actually seen the peeing before also! I swear! I just can't remember where. The wet seat, the person looking awkward... I've seen it! I remember it being a long bus ride. But today! 2, maybe 3 hour bus ride, max! How bad can you have to go...

    Anywho, that's my input for today. To end on a good note, we made it to Sipi Falls. Found a place to stay where they gave us this cute little straw, round "bandas". We've got our hike for the morning booked nice and early so we can make it across to Kenya by tomorrow evening. Wait until you see the views!    Читать далее

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    Waterfalls and a Border

    3 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ☀️ 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!    Читать далее

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    Uganda - Final Impressions

    3 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ☀️ 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!    Читать далее

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    Made it! Sort of.

    4 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    The Big Town

    5 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ 🌙 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.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    3

    Water front bliss

    6 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ 🌬 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...    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Tea Time

    8 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ⛅ 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!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    My Birthday was better then Yours!

    9 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ 🌧 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.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    The Big City

    10 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ⛅ 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!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L
    1

    Still Nairobi.

    11 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    The famous Masai Mara

    12 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ☀️ 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!    Читать далее

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  • Vee LEast AfricaVee L

    Worth the Wait

    13 марта 2016 г., Кения ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Читать далее

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