Malawi: To the Lake

The main attraction on Malawi is Lake Malawi, the giant lake that stretches along its eastern coast, bordering Mozambique and Tanzania. When I got to the bus station in Mzuzu it was pouring, but I was able to snag the last available seat in a minibus, piling up all my stuff on top of me in my lap.  Of course there was a backup thanks to another overturned truck, but our minibus was able to skirt around it offroad. The bigger trucks were not so lucky. 2 hours later they dumped me off in town on the side of the road and I wandered around a bit. At some point a man told me there was a free taxi to get to Mayoka Village, which is one of the guesthouses recommended to me, so sure, lets go! Winding up the hills for a kilometre or and we were there. I took a dorm room and resisted to the urge to buy a reggae CD sold by a very drunk rastaman at the bar. The set up of the place was really nice though, with views overlooking the lake, and a variety of standup paddleboards, kayaks, and traditional dugout canoes waiting near the lake, free to use. I liked this place already. 

I ended up inviting myself into a group of people, two Italian girls, a South African guy and a British guy. The guys were working as teachers in Tanzania, one of the girls was an NGO worker in Kenya, and the other girl was traveling on here way up to Morocco. She was one of only three or four people I met in Malawi purely traveling!

It turns out the weather was not in our favor, as it rained for almost all of the first few days. Sometimes it would clear up a bit in the afternoon, enough time to take out the paddleboards or walk into town, but basically every night and morning, rain rain and more rain! So it was a lot of lounging around, reading, photo editing and playing bawo, which is like a more complex game of Mancala, very popular in East Africa. One night we even had a team Tanzanian acrobats come and perform for us, which was interesting!

They got off to rough start, as they were trying to dive through a hoop and do a sumersault, but they kept knocking over the hoop. But it got better after that! Not exactly the best acrobating, but entertaining enough. We also had a fun drinking night in town, where you get lots of attention at the bar! But in a big group its fine, if I was alone I wouldn’t like it so much. And finally we had one sunny day to enjoy before everyone parted ways. The teachers were heading north back towards Tanzania, the one Italian was sticking around, and the other one, Camilla came with me to Kande Beach, where I was going to meet up with Ben and Alex, the two guys I had met in South Luangwa. 

It was a fairly straightforward minibus (and somewhat comfortable!) trip to Kande Beach, 60 kilometers south of Nhkata Bay. We even met a man proclaiming to be Jehovah, and almost as powerful as god, and that he could perform miracles. This wasn’t the first time I’d met someone telling me they had Godly powers in Africa. Weird! But we were dropped off soon enough, but the downside was we had to walk two kilometers from the road to get to the lodge.  Fortunately some friendly locals showed us the way.

The Kande beach resort also had a nice layout, with lots of nice seating and hammocks out front to enjoy the beach, as well as an attached scuba dive shop. The lake in Malawi is famous for is multicolored cichlid fish, the freshwater fish that populate many aquariums! Right upon arriving we ran into Alex and Ben who were hanging out in the restaurant. So it was fun seeing them again, only a week later from when we first met. It turned out Alex knew the couple who were currently running the place, so we got lots of firsthand accounts of some of the difficulties of running a lodge in Africa. 

As usual, there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the lake. Swimming of course, and the scuba diving, but the storms had hurt the visibility in the last few days. There was still one of my favorite activities, wandering around! A fishing village was located about a kilometer away, so it was cool to see them fish off the beach and pulling in their catches. Unfortunately almost any walk down the beach was accompanied by some guy trying to sell you stuff, mostly weed. Or the most annoying ones just walk with you and talk about random bs the whole time, like their legitimately interested in you, and then finally bring up weed at the end, and you should buy it now because you’re their best friend! Agh!  And they all have stupid names like Gift and Innocent! Who told them names like this were a good idea?! I’ve met so many ‘Gifts’ and ‘Innoncents’ that it makes my head explode! 

Sadly Camilla had to move on to meet some friends further south in Cape Maclear, so it was now just the three of us. Ben and I decided to a dive one of the days. We loaded up our gear, threw it in a rubber dinghy, and headed out with the divemaster. The waves hitting the beach were big, so we had to push to dinghy out past them, which was actually very difficult, getting blasted by the surf the whole time. But we finally got by it all, started the motor and made our way over the nearby island. It would be my first ever freshwater dive! With the fresh water you sink a lot easier, so no weight belts would be needed. We hopped off the dinghy and down we went. And the visibility was terrible! I mean you could see maybe a few feet and that was it. There were some fish, but not many, and we saw a sunken jeep at one point, but it certainly was not one of my favorite dives. Oh well!

I stayed for one more night, mostly just relaxing, and then decided to keep on moving. I said goodbye to Ben and Alex and then prepared myself for a solid day of dreaded minibus travel, to a place called Nkhotakota, maybe 5 hours away. 

Malawi: Lilongwe and Mzuzu

After South Luangwa it was time to head to the country of Malawi, which is also English speaking and supposedly one of the more backpacker friendly countries in Africa. I took the 5am bus from the village in South Luangwa to Chipata, and then took a taxi to the border after some extensive negotiations. I also had an interesting time in the bus station as I was leaving the bus and walking through the station, a car of a bunch of young Malawians basically drove their car into me, forcing my legs out from under me and I landed on the hood of their car. Everyone in the bus station was staring. I gave a wtf?! gesture to the guys in the car and they just laughed. Seeing as they didn’t give a shit, I got up and just kept walking. Weird. Well that was my first time getting hit by a car. But anyway, a taxi ride, the Malawian immigration, $75,  and another taxi + minibus and I was at the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe. 

Initially I liked Lilongwe. It had all of the hustle and bustle that was lacking from the previous few capital cities I’d been to. People everywhere. Walking on the streets, in the bus station, in the market, just a whole lot of people! I found a taxi driver who wasn’t horribly ripping me off and we went to the most recommended backpacker place, a bit outside of town. As I’d learn, there are lots of muzungus in Malawi, but almost none of them are tourists, they’re volunteers, hospital workers, NGO workers, peace corps, or whatever. It’s a popular place for westerners to provide help to poor poor Africa. Most of the people I talked to say is a rewarding experience, but very frustrating at times, especially in the hospitals. Funding is tight, there are recurring shortages of necessary drugs, and workers do many things that would never fly/get you fired in a western hospital. Lots of sick people really can’t be helped much and die. That’s Africa. 

But anyway, I spend the remainder of my day wandering around the markets in Lilongwe. There were two markets, the commercial services market and the food market, connected by many wooded planked bridges, over the river. I liked these markets, interesting, and very photogenic. Of course I got yelled at a few times for taking photos of extremely generic things, which is mildly infuriating. At one point I took a photo of some sun rays coming through wooden planks with the smoke in the air, where there were some guys sitting underneath. One of them got really mad and came over yelling at me, demanding money, and just making a scene. I apologized, told him I’d delete the photo and just walked off. I’m pretty sure he was doing the whole act so I would pay him a bunch of money for nothing. Who knows. 

I was having just about enough of this market, so I crossed over one of the bridges to leave. Some guy was telling me it cost 30 kwacha to cross, because it’s a private bridge. Of course this is bullshit, even if 30kw is only 5 cents to cross. So I ignored him, and he came running after me, telling me that I owed him 30 kw. I shook him off, not realizing what had happened. Maybe 20 minutes later I realized that my phone was no longer in my pocket anymore! Damn. I had read not to keep anything in your pocket at the market… well that’s why. Time to buy a burner phone I guess. 

Well I didn’t want to stay in Lilongwe any longer, so I booked a bus to Mzuzu the next morning. It was about 5 hours and the hopping off point to my next desired location, Nkhata Bay. I arrived in the late afternoon and it was pouring rain, so I didn’t get a chance to see much of the city. I did meet some guys at my guesthouse who said they’d give a bit of village tour the next morning, which I stupidly agreed to, not realizing it was just so they could sell me drugs or their artwork or whatever.

Well it was 7am, and pouring rain, and to even the most casual observer, this village tour was off. It was miserable outside. But they showed up anyway, knocking on my door. After I told them no way I'm going on a village tour they wanted me to go to the bar or to their compound to smoke weed (and of course rip me off). I wouldn’t do this anyway, but right now it was 7am and I was getting increasingly grumpy. I politely told them that I wasn’t interested and eventually they still didn’t take the hint. I finally told them they would literally be the last people on earth I would ever buy weed from, and they finally left. Thank god. 

South Luangwa National Park

Our next destination was South Luangwa, which is supposed to be Zambia's best game park, and it's accessible by public transportation, good for backpackers like us! So from Lower Zambezi we had a taxi pick us up at the lodge at bright and early 6 am. From there they brought us to the Zimbabwe border crossing, where there are big coach buses coming through. We were able to ask the drivers if they had open seats on their way to Lusaka, and sure enough one of the buses did! So we had a nice smooth ride all the way to Lusaka. We arrived around 9:45am. We wanted to get to a place called Chipata, 9 hours away on the Zambia/Malawi border. As soon as we got off the bus a man was very eager to show us to a booth with a bus that was departing at 10:30. OK fine.  It said so right there on the sign: 10:30am to Chipata. Looks good. We bought our tickets and one of the guys showed us over to the bus. We loaded our big bags in the storage underneath, bought some food, and hopped on at 10:25 or so. And waited.

the scene in front of our bus. Don't take Madoda!

And waited and waited and waited! After an hour of with no sign of movement, no driver, nothing, we started asking the guys out front. They said it was no problem, they just needed a few more people. At this point we realized we’d been had. This bus wasn’t going anywhere until it was completely full. Bastards! The whole 10:30 departure time was just one blatant lie! Later on we would ask around and we found out that this was the worst bus company around. I mean at least we’re dumb tourists and didn’t know any better, but I couldn’t help but wonder about all the locals already inside the bus, waiting forever. Did they not know?! 

banana woman

Even then, we assumed it would fill up relatively quickly, as Chipata is a pretty popular route, but no no no. We milled around the bus station for hours, waiting, talking to locals, Carmen even got a few marriage proposals. But you couldn’t stay waiting in the bus too long because it was hot as hell in there. So it was pick your poison, stew in the oven/bus in private, or wait outside and have the same conversations over and over with the locals. Finally at about 4:30pm, a mere 6 hours after we thought we were going to leave, we finally drove out of that god forsaken bus station. But only to the gas station where we sat for another 20 minutes. FFFFFF!

more scenes from around the bus station

Stop at some night market. I don't know what these are... dried eels?!

And of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without a breakdown, where we sat on the side of the road for an hour while the bus guys took off the whole front interior compartment and played around with the wiring. We finally got into Chipata at a ridiculous time, 3am, but fortunately there were taxis still around. So we took one to our accommodation, of course no one was awake and we had to pound on windows and doors until finally someone showed up. A young guy who was shockingly cheerful and energetic given the time of night, who showed us to the dorms. We got a few hours of sleep, bought some groceries, and hit the bus to the village outside of South Luangwa NP.

Once we arrived we met the muzungus who were seated at the front of the bus, an Aussie named Alex and an American named Ben, who were also headed to the Marula lodge. We shared a taxi over and made it to the reception without any reservations. The woman working at the lodge told us the dorms were full but she would let us have a 4 person cottage at the same price as the dorms, sounds good! We booked ourselves two game drives the next day. At the camp it was also kind of cool because at night hippos would come up out of the river to eat, so they don't let you walk anywhere alone at night, even if its 20 feet, you always need to flag down the night watchman to escort you and make sure you don't get eaten by a hippo!

hippos wandering around camp

I’ve got to say, South Luangwa did not disappoint! Out of all the game drives that I’d been on so far, South Luangwa was the best. We saw all the usual stuff of course, but also so many lions! We started our day following a small group of female lions hanging out on tree lying flat. At one point we had a male lion walk right in front of our jeep, only a few feet away from us. That was a bit scary, but also really fricken cool! And the scenery was green and lush with weirdly bent trees, just a really nice place for a safari. So here's a bunch of animal photos!

I ended up taking the next day off, which proved to be a mistake as that evening the group saw a pack of wild dogs take down an impala, as well as a crocodile chomping another impala as it fled towards the river bank from the dogs. But this is how things work on safaris… you never know what you’re going to get! I did a game drive the following evening, which turned out to be awful. It was raining, we saw almost no animals for about 2 hours, and there was some sort of rock stuck in the brake pad which made and awful creaking/groaning noise the whole time! Ugh. But after we left the park driving back home at night, we totally unexpectedly spotted a leopard maybe 2 minutes away from the lodge! My first leopard spotting! So that alone almost made it worth it! 

on the prowl

The next day it was sadly time for Carmen and I to say goodbye. Actually there would be no formal goodbyes, as she was leaving at 4am, and we agreed that she shouldn’t wake me up, ha. She had to take the bus back to Lusaka and fly to Zanzibar (in Tanzania) to meet a friend, whereas I would be taking the bus east to more backpacker friendly country of Malawi. So overall, I wouldn’t recommend Zambia for independent travel, but it was still fun with a travel partner. South Luangwa was definitely the highlight!

Me, Carmen and Ben. 

Zambia: To Lusaka and Beyond!

We took the 8 am bus from Livingstone to Lusaka. It was a big coach bus and I had bought the front row seats, which are nice because you get some extra legroom plus a good view out the front windshield. It the road was in good condition and pretty straight, yet during the trip we saw two semi-trucks flipped over the side the road. This would the first of many flipped over truck sightings! I can understand on steep, windy roads how something like would happen, but on a straight, flat road?! I still have no clue!

We got into the Lusaka bus station around 3pm and were immediately swarmed by minibus drivers asking us where we were going and taxi drivers trying to take our bags and put them in their vehicle. After swatting away these guys like fleas we headed out to the street and walked the 15 or 20 minutes to our guesthouse. It was pretty dead, something we’d be getting used to, but we had the whole dorm room to ourselves at least. 

city market in Lusaka

After having a beer by the pool we decided we’d go out an see what’s around Lusaka. We walked past the bus station and onwards to the city markets. At this point Carmen was getting A LOT of attention, partially due the fact she was a dress that only went maybe halfway down her thighs. Zambians are pretty religious (well most Africans are) and tend to dress pretty conservatively. And of course the market areas aren’t known the have the classiest crowd, so Carmen got plenty of suggestive ‘compliments’, which was fairly amusing to me, but not so much for her. Cleavage is totally fine in Africa, but a little leg… no no no! So we headed to one of the stalls and she picked up some fabric to tie into a sarong, which what most Africans women wear, and decided we’d had enough fun for one evening. 

Carmen getting some attention

We couldn’t really decide what we wanted to do yet… Zambia isn’t very well set up for travellers without their own vehicles, so we decided to stick around for the day, it was Easter after all, and we thought maybe there would be some sort of festivities. We contemplated going to church, but I really didn’t have anything remotely resembling church clothes, so we decided not to. We ended up walking around the city again, hoping to find something remotely interesting, but alas, we found nothing but the mall. Such a boring city! I guess I expected something more from a capital city. 

church in Lusaka

Later that night we met another Dutch guy at the guesthouse and he was working in a place called Siovango, which was right on a nice lake, and mentioned in our guidebook. He said he could drive us there tomorrow and there was an extra room in his company sponsored housing unit. So sure… why not?!  We left the following morning and it was interesting listening to his work stories, managing 140 Zambians on a fish farm. The gist of it was that they are hard workers when you watch them, but as soon as you don’t, everybody stops working! It sounded like a job that wouldn’t like to have.

they had some adorable kittens running around

So it turns out there really isn’t much to do in Siovango! The first afternoon we walked around and checked out the fishing boats and then wandered our way into the villages. We came across a group of people having a party of sorts, with some music and lots of Chibuku, Zambian beer, which is disgusting. They invited us to join in the festivities and poured us some drinks. Chibuku is like a weird brown liquid, with little chunks of something floating in there, and its got an off-putting sour taste. The bigger gulps of this stuff you can take the better! After I finished one cup, I had to try the homemade beer (Chibuku is store bought), which was also terrible, but not as bad as the Chibuku, as it at least had a sweeter finish. They tried to sell me 5L for like $3! No thanks! After staying far longer than we felt comfortable, we finally excused ourselves and had the whole lot of the village children follow us back out the road. It was pretty cute! 

fisherman in Siovango getting his nets ready

mmm Chibuku

scaring some kids

That night we went out to dinner at the only restaurant in town with the Dutch guy and his Portguese roommate. They had to work early the next day, so we’d have the house all to ourselves. Fine by us! Well of course there wasn’t really anything to in this town, so we went to the market to make eggs for breakfast and hung around the house. Carmen isn’t so good at doing nothing, so eventually she convinced me to do her 12 minute workout routine that’s on her phone, which was the first workout I’ve done in months! We ended up spending the afternoon at the nice hotel, which has a weightroom and a pool, so it was something to do. We went make to the market and made dinner to thank our hosts, Dutch meatballs (the butteriest meatballs you’ll ever have!) garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans. Frozen mangoes and ice cream topped with Amarula (similar to Bailey’s) for dessert. Not Bad! 

fishing boats on out Lake Kariba

We left the next morning and took a minibus/back of truck/taxi combination to a lodge on the lower Zambezi river, maybe 2 hours away. In the minibus I had the fattest African woman I think I’ve seen, basically sit right on top of me. In the minibuses if there isn’t enough room to get both your asscheeks in the seat you just sit down anyway and eventually people make room. These minibuses are basically like jigsaw puzzles, the one guy has to figure out how to jam as many bodies, backpacks, bags of maize, chickens etc, all into the one bus. But we got to the lodge easy enough and we were hoping to do a canoe trip. But canoe guys were actually on the Zimbabwe side and it would take a day for them to get organized. Well we didn’t feel like waiting, so we opted for a speed boat trip instead up the river. It wasn’t high season for animals, but we had a nice time spotting all the birds, hippos, and crocs that were scattered around the river! The next day we would head back to Lusaka and begin a hellish trip to South Luangwa National Park!

hippos in the lower Zambezi river

and crocs

and birds

sitting on the front of the boat for the ride back in

Here I go again on my own!

So after the overland crew broke up, I was back to my own devices. Solo backpacking. My usual modus operandi. I crossed over the bridge overlooking the falls (that’s if it wasn’t so misty that you could actually see the falls) from Zimbabwe to Zambia, cold shouldering arts and craft vendors left and right. It was a bit of a longer walk than I expected with all my luggage, maybe 25 minutes or so before I finally reached the Zambian immigration. Lucky I was able to creep in front of a massive Mexican tour group and avoid waiting too long. Visa damage: $50. Although in one of the more weird visa procedures I’ve experienced, the guy behind the counter literally took over 5 minutes too peel off the visa sticker thing from the sticker book and apply it to my passport. I had about 8 Mexicans craning their heads around me to see what the hell was going on. It’s lots of little things like this that make Africa interesting! And occasionally frustrating. 

I hopped in a taxi and headed the 10 kilometers or so to Livingstone, the main city near the falls. My taxi driver was very curious as to my religion (I’m a good Christian in Africa!) as most Africans are pretty religious. Turns out he was also the conductor for his church choir! But he also had some questions about some of the less common English words in some of his songs. So he handed me his song book and we went through a couple of the songs where I needed to explain the words… stuff like ‘bequeath’, ‘provenance’, ‘resolution’, and I can’t remember what else. But you have to remember English is like a 3rd or 4th language to most Africans! And after the vocab session was over he sang a few of the songs for me! Stuff like this is exactly the kind of thing I like that you really miss out on the overland truck type tours!

stations of the cross in Livingstone

So I arrived at jollyboys hostel, which was mostly dead. To my surprise there were a few families with small kids. In most places around the world 'hostel' and 'children' should not be in the same sentence. But Africa is a bit different, these are more like large compounds with a wide range of accommodation, with safety being a big factor. I was shown to a dorm room and I was the only person in it, but was told that the next day was fully booked (which is normally pretty odd when you have an 8 bed dorm to yourself). Well it was Easter weekend and turns out there was some sort of large tour group of 18 year olds doing some sort of Africa experience, I don’t know, I didn’t talk to them because they were all annoying, and kept talking about how amazing all the stupid touristy stuff in Livingstone is. They filled up all the rooms and dorms and relinquished me to my tent. Good thing I brought it!

And speaking of Livingstone, it really is the biggest tourist trap of city that exists. Normally prices in Africa for tourist things are more than you would expect, but Livingstone takes the cake. Game drives that you would normally pay $25-40 for elsewhere are $100. Stuff like a half day hike and lunch in a ‘traditional’ village: $80. Prices that are just silly. But people pay them I guess! I was actually hoping to do the white water rafting, which I’d heard was legitimately awesome, but turns out the water was too high and they were only able to raft about 1/3 of the rapids… but it was still full price… wtf?! So I opted out of that. The other thing I was hoping to do was the devil’s pool, which is a natural pool of water right next to the falls, basically overhanging the falls, which makes for an awesome photo. But turns out it was only available in November when the water is low enough. And they charge $100 for it. To sit in a natural pool of water and take some photos for a few minutes. That’s Livingstone. 

photo stolen from the internet of Devil's Pool

But there was one redeeming quality in my timing! It was a full moon and for about 3 days you can see a lunar rainbow over the falls because of how bright the full moon reflects on the mist. So I bought a special ticket for that, which is nice because it also allows you to be at the falls for sunset, which ordinarily they’re closed down before then. So I showed up around 5:30, but couldn’t get in until 6, so I bought some roasted corn from a street vendor and wandered down the street a little bit. Turns out a family of baboons had spotted me and my corn and were getting dangerously close. The head male came up very close to me and he had that look in his eye that he was going after my delicious snack, so rather than feel the wrath of a hungry baboon I chucked my corn away into the bush and he went scurrying after it. Don’t mess with the baboons!

At 6:00 I headed into the park and managed to get a few shots off before sunset. There’s one point called the knife’s edge where you walk across a narrow bridge where the water is absolutely pouring down on you. Just smashing you! It’s kind of fun. Like the good cub scout I am, I had my poncho ready. After it got dark I was wandering around not sure where to go for the viewpoint and ran into a German girl who also had no idea where to go for this lunar rainbow. So after maybe 30 minutes of walking with my almost dead headlamp we finally found the cluster of people who we assumed knew where to go. We sat there for maybe 45 minutes before finally seeing the first bit of rainbow. It was kind of cool. Well you could hardly see it. It was actually pretty disappointing. We just assumed that was it! We tried to find a better viewing area for a while, but couldn’t find one, and after another hour we were back at the same spot, but this time is way brighter! It was full rainbow over the falls! At night! So all in all, it was worth it. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be seeing another lunar rainbow anytime soon!

bridge over the Zambezi connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia

the one spot where you could actually take a photo without getting soaked

the lunar rainbow

The next day was a relax day. After so many days on the truck and constantly moving around, it was time for an absolutely nothing day. Plus I hardly did any photo editing on truck, so I was wayyy behind. I needed to catch up a little. It was time for a photo editing binge! I spent all afternoon playing around with the photos on my computer, like a turd, sitting there on the nice comfy pillowpad for hours on end. After it got dark and I was still plopped in my exact same spot. A blonde girl who I had noticed earlier came up and wanted to know what I was doing on my computer for so long. This was kind of embarrassing, as when you stay at hostel you’re normally expected to be friendly, outgoing, meeting new people etc. Whereas I had been sitting in front of my computer for 6 hours not talking to anyone. Well most people at this hostel were families or the 18 year olds, so I had an excuse! But obviously it was nice to meet another traveller, who was about my age (and a girl). Plus I got to show off my photos, which drive all the women wild. Not.

Well it turns out this girl, well her name is Carmen and she’s Dutch, preferred to go to the supermarket and cook her own food (I like to cook too!) so we decided we’d make something together. We ended up making pasta with veggies and sausages in the dark, as the kitchen light was no longer working. Also without olive oil or any type of seasoning. It was not a well stocked kitchen! It was still decent though. It turned out we were both heading in the same direction, so we figured we might as well travel together! The next day we bought our bus tickets to our next destination: Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. 

livingstone bus station

Overland Truck Part 5: The Final Stretch

After a relatively short drive we found ourselves inside of Chobe National Park in northeast Botswana, a park famed for its sheer number of elephants. At some point driving in there was an elephant that crossed the road in front of us. As we slowly drove by, it walked up close to the truck, and then started to charge! It got pretty close to the back of the truck before the driver sped off, the elephant still running down the street after us! So that was some excitement to start our time in the park. Our driver said that was the first time in all his years that he’d seen an elephant charge like that!

After setting up tents it already time for a midday game drive, not in our truck, but in the park’s 4x4 jeeps. The park itself is very picturesque, lots of lush green trees with the backdrop of the …. River. There was no shortage of animals. Impalas, baboons, wildebeasts, buffaloes, giraffes, elephants, mongooses (mongeese?) and warthogs. Our only complaint that it was the middle of the day, when we could be doing a game drive early in the morning the next day, which is usually the better time to spot animals (and take photos of them, due to the softer lighting) . 

After that we hopped on a big boat and cruised around the waterways for the next few hours, spotting crocs, hippos, herds of buffalo, and the elephants coming down to drink and have a bath. There were elephants everywhere! We had a fantastic sunset to boot, so it really was a splendid boat trip. 

Due to the unanimous complaints about the lack of a morning game drive, we were able to organize one ourselves for an extra $40 a person, starting at 5am the next day. Doing only 1 game drive in Chobe is an injustice to the park, and of course another annoying part of overland truck itineraries. But anyway, early morning is the best time to spot big cats, ie lions and leopards. And we were not disappointed. A pack of lions had been spotted in the first few minutes of entering the park. The jeep driving one half of our group found it first and was able to get up really close to the cats, but by the time we got there many other jeeps had already beaten us, and we were relegated to a spot that required some serious body adjusting and head craning to get a decent view past the other safari goers. The rest of the trip was mostly business as usual, plus a hyena, that the other truck got up close to, while we waited in the background. It’s nice having a more aggressive driver! 

Once the game drive was over we packed up our tents and drove the last leg of the trip to Victoria Falls. It was weird to think that it was so close to ending already! It took a bit longer than usual to get our visas for Zimbabwe, which cost $30. Zimbabwe uses US dollars across the country, as the former currency was subject to some crazy % of hyperinflation after their president, Robert Mugabe, took away ownership of all of the white owned farms in the late 90's leaving people with no farming experience to run them, with disastrous results.  According to Wikipedia in November 2008 the inflation reached 79.6 billion percent! Now you can see street vendors selling 50 billion Zim dollar notes, quite an amusing, but sad part of Zimbabwe's recent history.

So we loaded up on some dollars and headed over to the falls. The water level was high, so it was difficult to get a good photo without being covered by the mist. And the word mist is an understatement. But it did create a nice rainbow effect at some of the further viewpoints. We did some final group photos and headed back to the truck. For our last night (at least for those of us not continuing on back to South Africa) they put us up in the rainbow hotel, which was by far the best accommodation we’d had on the trip. We all rounded up for one last group dinner and farewell. We headed over to Mama Africa, one of the more popular (and surprisingly expensive) restaurants in town.

Only one or two people would actually be leaving the next day, so it wasn’t a true farewell, but we did collect tips for our driver and cook, as well as short speech in gratitude for putting up with us the whole time. We tried to find a bar afterwards, but Vic Falls was surprisingly dead! So some of drank in the hotel, and that was about it.

The next day everyone did their own thing, and then we went out to dinner again as a group. But once again, nothing to do after dinner! Such a boring town! The next morning was the real farewell as that’s when everyone had booked their flights home, or continued on with the truck, or started backpacking independently (me). So it was a somber affair. People were crying. I was not one of them, but it did suck to see all the friends you’d made over the past 3 weeks suddenly disappear. But I suppose that’s the way it goes. As much as I enjoyed the truck, I was also very ready to start my own journey without such a rigid itinerary. And that’s where the next post will start off!

Overland Truck Part 4: Botswana and the Okavango Delta

Botswana, like Namibia is another very sparsely populated country, with a large chunk of the country being taken up by the Kalahari desert. We wouldn’t have very much time in Botswana, but enough to see it’s two main attractions: the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park. Driving from Etosha it’s probably a one long day to the Delta, but because the truck the needed to drop people off in the capital, Windhoek, we went far out the way and it was almost 3 days of straight driving in between Etosha and Okavonga. It’s things like this that make these overland trips frustrating sometimes. 

not our actual route, but here's to give you an idea

Our crew was down to 15 or so at this point, losing 7 people at Windhoek and picking up one Kiwi for the final leg to Victoria Falls. At this point I can’t even remember where we camped for our first night in Botswana, but the second night we made it to the edge of the delta, camping right along the river that would take us into the delta itself. The first thing you notice is that the mosquitoes are fierce here. For most of Namibia they had not been too big of a problem, but now in the low lying marshland, they were relentless, constantly biting right through my hiking pants. I can see now why many people by shirts and pants with repellent already soaked into the fabric in Africa, but even here they still couldn’t stop the onslaught.

We got a rainstorm that night, making packing up our tents a very muddy affair. We would be spending 2 nights in the delta, so we packed our small backpacks, set them in garbage bags, and threw them in the back of our boat that would be taking us down the river. Almost right away the boat was having some sort of engine problems, so we spent an hour or so trying to figure out what was going before eventually ignoring it and continuing. We cruised down the river at a very leisurely space, spotting lots of birds and eagles. It took us 3 hours (double the time it was supposed to take) to reach our dropping off point, where we took some jeeps for another hour before finally being disposed at our lodge. 

bats hanging out on the ceiling of our lodge. Who says they aren't cute!

We were shown to our tents. My new tentmate, Frank, who was German and hated mosquitos more than most people, had some a special bedroom mosquito spray that we coated our tent with for extra protection against the swarms. He used so much that I think he must have killed any mosquitos in a 20 foot radius. If we were found dead the morning the rest of the group could safely assume that the fumes had gotten us.

Soon enough we headed down to the water to meet our polers, who would be our boat drivers and as well as knowledgeable guides. The water throughout the delta is very shallow, so the boatsmen get around just by pushing their boat along with a large wooden pole. I ended up with Gisela, a friendly older Swedish woman, whose accent was at times amusing to our group. The boats we were seated in were called makoros, and at first they seem very unstable and likely to flip over, but you get used to them eventually. The polers took us out to see the hippos, which is a little unnerving, as they are the type of animals you don’t really want to be around with tiny little boats! You stare at them and they stare at you, occasionally grunting or showing their teeth to make their presence known, but ultimately doing nothing. Sometimes when they go under it makes you think their going to re-emerge right next your boat, but thankfully that never happened! 

Gisela at the helm

some hungry hungry hippos

After another night of drinking games I awoke to about 50 mosquito bites on my feet, from some mosquitos that must have gotten into the tent at some point of the night and threw a party on feet. Ahh, Africa. All the spraying in the world couldn’t save me. But I had no time to itch them because we had to be on the boats early for a boat ride and walking safari. Personally I wasn’t a big fan of the walking safari  compared with the jeep safari, as the animals are quite used to the jeeps, but with humans on foot they run off long before you get a chance to get close to them. We still saw some impalas, baboons, wildebeasts, and some elephants way off in the distance. 

walking safari

impala bounding

elephants lurking

That afternoon we got to try out steering the boats ourselves, which is much more difficult than you’d think! Getting the balance down isn’t too bad, but just keeping the boat straight without turning it was shockingly hard. After a bit of practice the Worlds Cup of Makoro racing was hosted sporting 3 teams, the Germans, the Dutch, and the US/NZ combo. The Anglophones would ended up winning two out of the three races and taking home the cup! USA #1!

After that was a sundowner cruise, basically where you take a lot of beer and pick a spot to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the weather turned and that event had to be cancelled after half an hour or so. Back to drinking games! Then we were off early the next morning, but of course of the boat had not been fixed. Fighting the current this time around the trip took a miserable 4.5 hours in the pouring rain. Not one of the highlights of the trip! Due to the delay we didn’t reach our campsite until 10pm. Being that our tents were still wet, it was dark and late, and because it had been such a long day, most people splurged for bedroom accommodation that night, but not me and Frank and two others. We’d tough it out! So it was a good sleep that night. And that’s it for this post, onwards to Chobe National Park tomorrow!

the makoros before the storms came

not much sun, but some cool clouds

Overland Truck Part 3: Etosha National Park

From Swakopmund it would be a 2 day drive to get to Etosha, Namibia’s best game park. It was only a partial day driving, and stopped to visit the Himba tribe, which is traditional tribe in Namibia. It was kind of silly, they just sat around while we took photos of them. They became much more friendly at the end when they were trying to sell us their crafts! Not many people really enjoyed this very inauthentic experience. 

Himba woman selling stuff

We got into came a bit earlier in the afternoon than usual, which gave us some time to go hiking around the campsite, which was surrounded by masses of rocky outcroppings. There was one in particular that I wanted to climb, so rather than doing some sort of guided bush walk, I opted to just start hiking to try and get to the top. Well the hiking was a bit harder than I expected! From afar it looked like a pretty clear route to the top, but it was mostly scrambling between massive boulders, rather than hiking. I was able to go up steadily for about an hour and half before running into a really tricky spot. It was a type of rock climbing move that I would make 90% of the time, but if I fell it would very likely be a broken ankle, so I decided to go back, which was disappointing. The mountain wins.

cool rocks

The next day was another driving day that brought us to a camp right outside of Etosha, another fantastic campsite with a pool, bar, and restaurant. The guy who owned the camp site was a South African guy in a wheelchair who basically was an asshole to everyone, but then would buy a round of shots on the house to make up for it. I liked him. At 3 in the morning we heard him calling for help because he was too drunk and fell out of his wheelchair! So it was an interesting campsite. The next morning we drove into Etosha and did a game drive in the morning and afternoon with our truck. It was cool for me seeing giraffes in the wild for the first time. Looking back, the game drive wasn’t anything special compared to the other parks I’ve been to though. In the afternoon it started to downpour, so it was tough to spot many animals, although we did see a rhino in the distance. And then as we got into camp the rain stopped and the sun came out, leaving behind an absolutely spectacular double rainbow, possibly the brightest one I’ve ever seen! That combined with watching the sunset over the watering hole was really amazing. The skies in Africa are really great sometimes. 

rainbow over the watering hole

It was an early wake the next day so we could look for animals around sunrise. We spotted a lone hyena right away, which came pretty close to truck. But after that it got boring quick. A lot of Etosha is set up around watering holes, but if it’s still the wet season, the animals don’t need to go to the watering holes to drink, so it wasn’t really the best time for animal viewing. Then we drove around for a few hours in the afternoon and once again saw almost nothing. Bad game drives get real boring real quick! We had the choice to do one more game drive in the late afternoon, but so many people were discouraged by the previous two game drives that only half of us went on this last one.

And what a game drive it was! First we saw a family of bat eared foxes, which arenormally pretty tough to spot. Then we saw a momma cheetah and her two cubs, who were constantly playing with each other. When we reached the watering hole there was a rhino there, plus a bunch of giraffes and impalas, and a glowing rainbow in the background. Then there was another rhino on the way back home. And then when we thought we’d seen everything we wanted a female lion came walking out of the bush and walked in frontand then across the road. And all of this while the sun was just setting and leaving behind very nice purples and oranges in the sky.  And then we were about to go and the male lion came out too! It said down in the grass and gave us a nice big yawn before we headed to the camp gates, as to not get a late fine. So that game drive definitely made the whole park worth it! 

giraffes marching past a Rhino at the watering hole

more rainbows

Cheetah in the distance

first came the female lion

the male yawning at sunset. 

We did another ‘game drive’ the next morning, which was us just driving out of the park, and then headed on to the capital of Namibia, Windhoek. It’s kind of a weird city. The capital building looks like an old communist building. There’s a street called Fidel Castro Ave, which I guess is from when he helped the Namibians out against South Africa. Or was it Angola? I can’t remember. Then there’s also a street dedicated to Robert Mugabe, the man who drove Zimbabwe’s economy into the ground. But there were many modern buildings and people dressed well, although it just seemed very quiet. There were not so many people around.

After walking around for a bit we checked into our rooms on the outskirts of town and got ready to go the city most popular restaurant, the brauhaus. It was to be a bit of a sad night as there were 7 people or so leaving the truck at this point, having only signed up for the Namibia portion, so this was the end of the line for them. After dinner some of headed to one of the few bars open on a weekday night for some last drinks and goodbyes. For the rest of us it was onto Botswana and solid 2 days of driving to get to a place called the Okavango delta. 

a real Namibian hero!

Overland Truck Part 2: Namibia

On the truck we would spend something like 10 days in Namibia, but first we had to cross the border, which can be a bit of a hassle with 20 something odd people. And the heat was absolutely stifling. It was probably 110 and no wind, so when you were outside waiting for everyone else to go through immigration it was pretty miserable. But we made it through with no problems and continued onward through Namibia’s dusty two lane highways. There wasn’t really much to see along the road except for a zebra or ostrich here and there, and for me it was my first time seeing either a zebra or ostrich in the wild, so I thought it was pretty cool! For sunset we stopped at the Fish River Canyon overlook, which was really nice, even though we had to stop and watch out for some scorpions underfoot! 

The canyon at sunset

found this guy lurking in the rocks

That night we set up camp in the dark and got out first taste of the Namibian night sky. We had to wait until the generator and all the electricity at the camp went out at 11 to really get the full effect, but it was magnificent. Sipping wine and watching the stars, pretty awesome. Out of all things we did in Namibia I think the brightness of those stars will remain with me the most

hard to capture how bright the stars were, but you could see the milky way so clearly

The next day it was an early start (as usual) and basically another full day of driving. After we set up camp we got a guided tour through some of the desert and the bushman who was our guide told us all the ways his people would survive nomadically in the desert, which was kind of cool. That night we got a little lesson on the constellations and learned how to find south using the Southern Cross, which I promptly forgot. There was also a watering hole near the camp, so I assuming you sit quietly still in the darkness you can watch the oryx’s and the zebras skiddishly approaching the water. For the zebras I think it took half an hour of creeping a little closer, going backwards, and then creeping up again until they finally made it. Interesting, but also frustrating to watch!

That morning we were up at 4 am to go hike the sand dudes. Well just one sand dune in particular: the cleverly named Dune 45. Obviously a much better dune than dune 44 and 46! It wasn’t a difficult hike, maybe 25 minutes to the top, just in time for sunrise, which was spectacular. The dark shadows in contrast the sunlit sides of dunes makes for very nice photos. From the top of our dune we were led to a big sand crater, which didn’t look too difficult to run around the rim, so me and a German guy had a race all the way around, starting in opposite directions, first one to get back to original spot wins! As you might have guessed we had underestimated exactly how difficult this would be, and less than half way through we were both exhausted. But we dragged ourselves all the way around and finished the circuit. Technically I lost, but I don’t think anyone was actually racing at that point. But it was good exercise! Something you don’t get enough of on the truck. 

this depression was what we ran around

my desert look

After that we had breakfast and boarded some jeeps that took us through a desert track and towards another set of dunes. 20 minutes by walking later we reached an area with white, flat, cracked earth, a former lake bed I think, surrounded by dunes. Scattered throughout were gnarled dead trees that looked very cool and erie at the same time. I would have loved to have been there at night with the stars overhead. But needless to say it was a great place to take photos! 

So after an action packed morning it was back on the truck to the adventure capital of Namibia, Swakopmund, which interestingly enough is a little German enclave in the middle of the country. Well Namibia was a German colony after all. They took us to this big tour office where they showed us some super lame videos of people skydiving, sandboarding, and ATVing, all at super inflated prices. I guess our group wasn’t exactly the adventure activity crowd, so only a handful of people signed up for the sandboarding. Some of us decided to rent 4x4 trucks and check out the area around Swakopmund. Apparently there was a seal colony with over 100,000 seal maybe an hour or two up the coastal road, which we wanted to check out.

It was easy enough to rent two trucks and we headed off the next morning. Sadly I couldn’t drive as I still don’t know how to drive manual, although I did get a lesson that day, which I probably did not pass! A couple hours of driving later we were at the seal colony. There was one wooden walkway that you’re allowed to walk on, and everywhere you look, seals everywhere! Breeding season had just been underway, so we could see baby seals flapping around everywhere looking for their mommies. And it was smelly! And noisy! The damn seals never shut up. They’re always yapping at each other. When one gets in another’s space they’re quick to bark and bite at each other. At one point there was a baby seal who had found its way onto the boardwalk, but couldn’t get out, so we tried scaring it off in the direction of the exit, but rather than seeing me and turning towards the exit it came lunging at me instead, which left me running off and shrieking like a little girl. So that was my excitement for the day.

seals as far as you can see

Don't let the cuteness fool you!

After that we had a little picnic down the road, on what turned out to be dead seal beach, as the ones who didn’t make it found their way washed up on this part of the beach. Next we wanted to find some sort of shipwreck. After asking directions we meandered our way through some sandy bumpy roads near the coastline, finding nothing. We hopped back on the highway and then of course we found the sign for it, right off the road! Apparently the Namibian coast is famous for being easy to get shipwrecked and this stretch was nicknamed the skeleton coast. You can even see some wrecks in the sand dunes (normally by air) as they are impossible to drive to. So that was it for Swakopmund. We all went out to dinner and said a sort of goodbye to the small group of people (the older ones) that were doing the accommodated tour (as opposed to camping). They would be doing the same route, but on a different truck, and we’d still see them at campsites that also had real rooms for accommodation. Now our truck was down to 21, so a bit more space for us! Next stop, driving safari in Etosha National Park. 

everyone eating the brownies I picked out for desert. They were awful

the dirt roads on the coast looking for the sunken ship

finally found it!

Overland Truck: 20 Days from Cape Town to Victoria Falls

So I was in Cape Town and not really sure how I wanted to travel around Africa yet, and when I was looking around the internet a lot people mentioned these overland trucks. They take a bunch of travellers from point A to point B, stopping at all the highlights, and camping along the way. I was a bit torn because I knew that I probably wouldn’t like the pace of travel (too fast) and the lack of any type of cultural interaction, because you’re only hanging out with people on the truck and usually staying at campsites, away from the towns and people. On the other hand they sounded like a lot fun! You get to meet tons of new people, and not just for a few days at a time. Plus it sounded like public transportation in Namibia and Botswana wasn’t very good, as they are very sparsely populated countries and the best way to see them is to rent a car. So seeing that I didn’t have people to rent a car with at the time, I decided on booking the truck at the last minute.  

What the inside of the truck looks like, with not so many people

So we all met at the office at 7am, March 3, to fill out paperwork and make payments and get ready to go. There were 24 of us altogether. It’s a bit awkward at first because you’ve got so many people who have never met before and you’re learning so many names all at once, which just go in through one in ear and out the other. But everyone seemed friendly and most people were around my age, mostly late 20’s to late 30’s. And Even one couple who looked well into their 60’s. We were all assigned lockers, which is where we’d put our big backpacks, did the introductions with our driver and cook, and headed off!

First stop: The Mall! Time to stock up on snacks and especially water. The 5 liter jugs would be bought many times over on this trip. I attempted to buy some anti-malaria pills but they wouldn’t let me without a doctors prescription, so that would have to wait. But we wouldn’t be getting into any malarial areas until northern Namibia, so I had some time. I think I was the only person on the whole truck who hadn’t gotten these in advance. But I already knew ahead of time which pills I wanted because I’ve taken them before, so it seemed silly to waste a day in Cape Town going to the doctor. I just had to find a pharmacy that would let me buy them!

After the mall we got one last photo of the city from across the bay, and then it was a full day of driving. Later that afternoon we  learned what the term bushy-bushy was, which would be our side of the road bathroom stops, where you have to hide behind the bushes. Definitely helps being a guy in this regard! We reached our campsite around 5pm and learned how to put up our tents, which was pretty straightforward. They were big, sturdy canvas tents with thick metal poles, probably weighing 30 pounds?! Not exactly like the tents I’m used to camping. It was two to a tent, so I teamed up with Daniel, a Spanish guy, to be tent-mates. And as for the campsite, I was kind of expecting the camp sites to be just a large patch of dirt with just the truck, the tents and maybe a fire. But the campsites in general would be much much nicer than I had expected, this one having an enclosed area with a stocked fridge and toilets, wifi (crappy), a pool, and a little banquet room. So about half of us bought some beers and headed off to the pool. Not surprisingly this group of people would be the ones I’d be spending the better chunk of my time of the trip with!

After the pool it was time for some South African wine tasting and dinner, which gave us another chance to attempt and learn everyone’s names and nationalities. We had a good mix: A sprinkling of Canadians, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, Singaporean, British, and then six Dutch and six Germans. And one American! And out the crew, almost half were solo travellers and no group was larger than 3, which is a good set up for mingling and hanging out together as a group. It looked like it was going to be a good trip! We’d head up to the border of Namibia the next day, to do some canoeing (which was insanely hot), and then cross over the border into the dry nothingingness that is most of Namibia!

Around the Cape

I decided that I wanted to check out some of the places around Cape Town, and I found a scooter rental company online, so I decided that would be the easiest way. The company didn't seem to have an actual office, which was a bit strange, but we met up in front of a big hotel, did some paperwork and I was on my way. The weather was sunny and 70's, very nice driving weather. My plan was to work my way all the way around the coast for about 200 miles total and end up in a town called Hermanus, where they have the great white shark diving. The roads along the cape are in great shape and the views (as you can see from above) are fantastic of course. Passing all the cyclists on the road I became jealous of all the Cape Towners who have scenery like just out their back door. 

Along the coast I passed by beaches for sunbathing, beaches for surfing, and more remote beaches with rolling sand dunes and windsurfers out in the distance. I have never seen such drop dead gorgeous scenery located so close to a major metropolitan area! I stopped for a bit to check out the dunes for a bit and had a bite to eat in a trendly little restaurant before continuing on. Further on along the coastal rode I stopped to check out some sort of commotion with hundreds of birds flocking overhead. There was a truck parked on the beach and people were hauling in tons of fishes with big nets, pouring them into a basket, and dumping them into the back of truck. There seemed to be one surly man in charge barking orders, all the while little black kids would be running up to the nets and trying to steal a few fishes before get chased off by this one very angry man. It was entertaining to say the least!

fishermen along the coast

filling the truck up with fish

Continuing on the beach road the winds were really howling off the cape, and I was beginning to regret being on the scooter as the winds were ripping sand off the dunes and whipping it across the road, which was really stinging my bare skin. I put on a long sleeve shirt, but I didn't pack any pants, so I would just have to endure it. Plus some of the wind gusts were so strong that it felt l was going to get pushed off the road at some points. I just got as low and aerodynamic as I could and pressed onward. Finally I got away from the beach road and back on to the main road. On the interior I passed some of the townships, which appeared to be tin shacks stretching for miles and miles. Eventually the road went back to the coast and I rode through another scenic beach town and back on to another amazing road that wound its way along the rocky outcroppings overlooking the ocean. Such good driving! Well at least until the winds picked up again! After two hours of battling a crazy strong wind I finally arrived in the sleepy beach town of Hermanus and checked into the backpackers as it was getting dark. Long day!

more coastal road towards hermanus

I was hoping to do the shark diving the next day but apparently the waters were too choppy, so it would have to wait until the next day. I was told there was a penguin colony some 30 miles away so I decided to check that out instead. It was a good place to spend a few hours watching the penguins do their thing.

the penguins at Queensbai

The next day the shark diving was on! Now it's not really diving, but that's what they call. Basically you drive out in a pretty big boat and they find the shark and chum the waters to get the sharks around the boat. There is a cage on the side of the boat that you go in wearing a wetsuit and dive mask. When the shark gets close everyone puts their head under the water to see the shark coming up to the cage and going by. The visibility isn't very good so you need the shark to be very close. But It's a pretty big rush seeing the great white swimming only a few feet away from you!

Sometimes the shark will even smash into the cage as it is trying to get the bait that is set out for it. Or sometimes they pull the bait out of the water at just the right time and you can see the shark come out of the water with its jaws ablazing, trying get the bait. Really cool to see! Although you can only stay in the water for so long, because it's freezing in there, even with the thick wetsuits. Then you can warm up on the top deck of the boat and watch the sharks circling the boat from a higher vantage point. So it was a fun way to spend the afternoon! It never really felt dangerous at any point, but maybe a bit startling when the crash hit the cage when you weren't expecting it to! It was something that was worth doing, but now that I've done it, it's not something I would do again I think.

Great white getting close to the cage

breaking the surface!

That afternoon I rode back around the coast to a quaint little coastal village called Simonstown. I was hoping to do some scuba diving with the 7 gilled cowsharks and check out the sea lion colony. Sadly the water was too choppy for the sea lions, but the cowsharks would still be okay. And it turned out to be an awesome dive! It was first cold water dive, so it was a little strange getting used to such a thick wetsuit, and the vest, and the hood, and all the extra weight, but after a minute or two it was fine. The diving itself is in a kelp forest, and its kind of dark, so it gives a kind of eery feeling. And then there's sharks cruising through! The cowsharks are about 10-12 feet long and will swim very close to you! It almost looks like they're eyeing you down. We saw about 20 of these sharks in our dive. It's one of my favorite dives so far! 

The next day I took by time driving back along the coast and checked back into the hostel that afternoon. The next morning I would hop on an overland bus with 22 other people that would take us up through Namibia and Botswana, ending in Victoria Falls!

Last second decision: Cape Town!

In Bali I decided that although I still love Asia, I really wanted to experience a place that I wasn't used to at all.  So I switched up my plans for the following 3 months and bought a ticket to Cape Town. Time to get a taste of Africa! Nine hours to Dubai (and sadly not a long enough layover to get out of the airport and take a look at the city) and another nine hours to Cape Town. As we approached the city on the plane I was craning my neck hard to look through the window because the glimpses of the city nestled in the mountains looked absolutely gorgeous!

At the airport I had no problem at the ATM, which is always a bit of a worry whenever you fly to a new continent. So I was all loaded up on South African Rands. The only public transportation into the city was a bus, which had surprisingly few people waiting for it and took almost 30 minutes to arrive at the stop. But once on the bus everything was straightforward. Just like in the States most of the people riding it were either black or foreigners. I got dropped off a few blocks away from the hostel, dropped off my stuff, and started hiking up the nearby hill to catch a glimpse of the sun setting over the city, and it was a damn good one! The city itself really is beautiful.

After a few days I wrote down some of my first impressions:

The city doesn’t really seem to have much of a downtown, the main bar restaurant strip (Long Street) was a bit sketchy. But seems to have little pockets of nice bar/restaurant areas.

Even though the city seemed pretty safe to me, the locals warn you not to walk places at night, so you just cab it around everywhere at night.

The dollar is strong against the rand! For the quality of food you were getting in restaurants, the price was very good value. A dollar now gets you twice as much as did in 2008. So it’s a good time to travel to South Africa!

Burgers are big! There seemed to be quite a lot of burger places, and all of them packed at night.

No white people seem to work in the service industry, at almost every restaurant I went to the servers are almost always black. It was also weird seeing Chinese/Mexican/Indian restaurants not being staffed by people of that respective ethnic group.

Racial Divide. All the whites seem to live in fairly posh houses near the downtown or overlooking the ocean, where the blacks almost invariably live in shanty towns called townships on the outskirts. The townships feel like a completely different world. America obviously has its fair share of racial inequality, but hey, at least its not as bad as South Africa!

Lovely weather. 70’s and sunny when I was there, and always a nice breeze blowing. Gorgeous beaches closeby. Really reminded me of Perth. 

People seemed pretty outdoorsy. Lots of hikers and bikers around.

Extremely annoying you can’t buy a bus ticket on the bus. They make you go into the city center to buy a special bus card. Its supposedly to be a deterrent to hijacking, but for a tourist it’s a pain in the ass.

Tons of activities for tourists. When you take into account all the things you can do in the city and the surrounding area, it is probably the best city for tourists that I have ever been to! It’s definitely not a city you can do in two or three days!

Hiking Trails. You've got both Lion's Head and the even taller Table Mountain. I did the Lion's head hike around dusk to watch the sunset and it was really nice. 

Very friendly taxi drivers. They're all from Zimbabwe for the most part and happy to chat. 

White! Cape Towners love the color white. Beautiful white houses and white luxury cars, driven by white people of course. I think a white cream colored Mercedes was the unofficial car of Cape Town.

Overall a very enjoyable city! And really one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities I’ve ever been to. Between the beaches, hiking, wineries, and the coastline, Cape Town really has a lot going for it! 

The island of Kri

Kri: The most popular island on Raja Empat! The main part of the island has like five bungalows in a row, plus an eco resort and an upscale dive resort. It’s a pretty small overall, but it gets more people than most because it’s the best spot to base your diving. I went without reservations but I was still able to find an open bungalow quite easily at a place called Koranu Fyak. The homestay also ran a small-scale dive shop as well, with western, English speaking guides, which is really convenient, as most of the Papuans really don’t speak much English. My plan was to do the vast majority of my diving here. Kri also has a really nice house reef, so if you’re ever bored, you can always get the snorkel out and try to find some cool marine life. 

I snorkelled that first evening and as I was walking down the beach I ran into Harjeet, who was staying a few bungalows down. We went down to the jetty, which is where everyone goes to watch the sunset and have beer if you'd like. And the sunsets in Raja are spectacular! So many nights the sky would be lit up with amazing oranges, pinks, and purples in the clouds. It really is a great place. So Harjeet and Suk filled me in with all the cool places to go around the island, which boat trips to do, and the basic information I would need. 

My bungalow on Kri

I headed back to my bungalow to eat dinner and meet the other people staying there. There was an American, two Germans guys, and a French/Filipina couple couple, all of whom I'd be hanging out with a lot over the next few days. And to my surprise they served fried chicken! I was liking this place already. 

Where we at our dinner every night at Koranu Fyak homestay

The next day was Sunday, so they weren't doing any diving, so we had a chance to get some quality snorkelling time in. We walked to the neighboring island nearby, which we could because of the low tide, and then snorkelled all the way back. And what tremendous snorkeling it was. Lots of huge pufferfish and porcupine fish, batfish, some a few black tip reef sharks darting around, blue spotted rays, and turtles. So many turtles! We saw at least 10 or 11 in that one trip. A pretty good first day! 

Now it was time to really start diving! The dive shop's equipment wasn't exactly the best, but it would do. It was about $40 a dive, which was also a little less than I was expecting to pay. I did two dives every morning and then took it easy during the afternoon. Normally in beachy locations I get bored after a while, but not in Raja Empat! The dives were really nice, tons of fish, lots of small stuff too, but not so great visibility. Kind of a shame, but what can you do. We saw all the usual big stuff, sharks, eels, rays, turtles, etc. The combination of the untouched beaches, the scenery, the diving, the snorkeling, the atmosphere really makes Raja an awesome place. 

This night was probably one of the top 5 sunsets I have ever seen, amazing

Our Papuan hosts also enjoying it

all bundled up in the 90 degree weather!

I stayed on Kri for a week, and I wasn't ready to leave after my time was, but my visa was running out and I wanted at least a night or two on Bali to party it up a little bit. And it was in Bali that I decided on a new course of action, a whole nother continent, Africa!

To the next homestay

We arrived at the Yangyakenes homestay in the early afternoon, and Dylan and Stephanie’s friends (Curtis and Lyndsey) were waiting for them. It had been a very difficult process finding each other, so everyone was glad that was over. We were showed our rooms, met some of the family (very little English at this one!) and they served us a nice lunch of rice, fish and veggies, the usual! We were told there was a dive resort nearby and they had beer (!!) so that was our plan for the afternoon. And they had nice lounge chairs and western music! This was about as luxurious as it gets in Raja Empat. After 3 large bintangs each we headed back and enjoyed the sunset from Dillon and Stephanie’s and Curtis and Lindsey’s shared bungalow, which sat over the water. They also had a bottle of vodka conveniently waiting. So it was a pretty rowdy night and everyone was a bit toasted by the time dinner came around. The original plan for the next day was to wake up at 3:30am to hiking in the jungle to look for the Wilson’s bird of paradise, which to my surprise, people still wanted to do. I was having no part of this expedition!

The view from bungalows

And as you might have guessed it failed pretty miserably. Dylan was still passed out, Lindsey threw up and had to turn back. The two that made it all the way waited around and didn’t see one. I was happily in bed, sleeping in. Later that after we were fully recovered and went to check out a bat cave. It had two bats in it, and they tried to catch one, but were unsuccessful. I also checked out the local village, which is quite nice with all the fishermen coming and going and lots of kids playing about. 

kids on the pier

At this point I was getting pretty anxious to start doing some diving, so I hopped on the boat with the dive shop next door. It worked out pretty well, as I could enjoy all their amenities while only paying for the diving. They let me eat both breakfast and lunch there, which both had a much better selection than what I was used to at the homestays. Unfortunately for the diving, I had arrived during a time of unusually bad visibility. Of course there are tons of fish everywhere, as Raja Empat is known for having the highest amount of marine biodiversity in the world, but you can’t really see out into the deep and the corals kind of look dull and muted when the water isn’t so clear. But in the first few dives we still saw some wobbegong sharks, moray eels, a giant monster stingray, some mantas off in the distance, along with big schools of barracudas. But conditions were far from being ideal.

I also had my first underwater freakout! Because the current was strong we were doing a negative entry (meaning you don’t stop and group up at the top, you just go straight down), but I still had some air in my BCD so it took me a bit longer to get down. This meant that the current pushed us further from the reef than we wanted, so we had to battle it to get back to the reef. And this current wasstrong! The divemaster was ahead of me and after a few minutes of kicking I felt like I couldn’t outkick the current anymore and I was going to get blown away. Then I felt like I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs and before I knew it I was hyperventilating underwater. It was a really frightening, my heart was beating a million times a minute; it was the first time anything like this had happened to me before. I didn’t know what to do at first, my initial thought was to go up to the real air at the surface, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea. As I was huffing and puffing huge amounts of air the divemaster came over, attached a reef hook, and we stayed in place while I eventually calmed down. I guess in the end it wasn’t that serious, just wasted a lot of air, but it was certainly my scariest diving moment to date. But then the next dive was fine, and it was back to diving as usual. Sorry no underwater photos though :(

The next day I got some sort of stomach bug where I threw up twice and basically slept for like 20 hours, so that day was a wash. But after that I was feeling much better and then I headed off to Kri to catch up with the Canadians while the rest of the group went back to Gam, where they already had reservations booked.

Next stop: Raja Empat

Two years ago when I went diving at Komodo in Indonesia (which has fantastic diving), I was told that I really should try and make it up to Raja Empat, because the diving is supposed to spectacular. Raja Empat is a cluster of islands located off the coast of West Papua, which is a large area that shares the same island as Papua New Guineau. To get there from Bali you first fly to the island of Sulawesi, and then to port city of Sorong in Papua. From there you take a ferry to main island of Waigeo, and then from there you take a small boat to the island you want to go to! Easy!

The more I read about Raja Empat, the more interested I became. The area is still extremely undeveloped and the vast majority of accommodations are family run homestays. The homestays consist of thatched bungalows with a mattress and mosquito net. Toilets are communal. A generator normally runs for a few hours at night to provide electricity. No wifi anywhere. Three meals a day are provided, included in the cost of the bungalow, which is normally like $25 a night. It seems a bit pricey by Indonesian standards for the extremely spartan living set up, but apparently the prices have been going down in the last few years as the competition has increased. 

Homestay built out over the water

Pretty basic, mattress and mosquito net

All the bungalows are right on the beach, and some are even built out over the water. There are also a handful of dive resorts, but comparatively, they're much more expensive. You also have the option of a diving live-aboard, which is certainly the best way to get to all of the dive sites, as they can be spread far apart. I enjoy diving, but I prefer to do something like 2 dives in the morning and have the rest of the afternoon to lay around or explore the island or snorkel, so I decided to go with the homestays. Plus live-aboards are $2,000 a week minimum :p

After 2 rain filled days in Bali I was off. Despite the fact that I bought a ticket involving 1 layover, it inexplicably turned into two. So after stops in Surabaya and Manado I arrived in Sorong in the late afternoon. The ferry wouldn’t leave until the next morning, so I would be spending the night. There’s not really much to see in the city. It does have a nice string of seafood restaurants on the waterfront, which made for a nice meal. I paid about $5 for a massive fish and rice. I hadn’t really done as much research as I should have, but I had read you should really book your first homestay so that they can pick you up from the ferry terminal, but the hotel wifi was down, so I would be flying blind. Oh and I didn’t get to email my parents that I would be out of touch for the next 2 weeks or more, oops!

the port in Sorong

the sea food restaurants

I loaded up on cash with about 15 consecutive atm withdrawals because Indonesia has stupidly low max withdrawal amounts (good thing my bank account has no atm fees!) and caught the 2pm ferry. It got in at 4, I bought my marine park permit for about 70 USD, and then figured out where I wanted to go. Solo boat travel is very expensive in Raja, so I found some fellow North Americans to tag along with to a place called the Nudibranch homestay. All of them had made reservations ahead of time and were expecting the owner to come pick them up. Before long everyone else on the ferry had gone off to their various homestays and we were the only ones left. We tried calling, but no answer. Two hours later he finally showed up (which was the level of service we would come to expect from this guy) and we piled into the boat, towards the island of Gam.

We were able to watch a beautiful sunset on the boat, and by the time we arrived at the homestay it was dark. We were shown to our various bungalows, equipped with a mattress and mosquito net. Soon a simple meal of rice, veggies, and potatoes was prepared for us. Our group was two Indian Canadian girls, one of which was Suk, who was taking a break from her job, and the other, Harjeet, was working as a teacher in Hong Kong. And there was never a dull moment with Harjeet around! There was also a couple that was an American/Canadian couple, Dylan and Stephanie, who were bat biologists on the East Coast. Their jobs sounded quite fascinating and they only worked 4 months out of the year! They were supposed to be meeting friends, but had a miscommunication and now they had to locate them in Raja Empat, a formidable task! After dinner everyone was pretty exhausted from the travel day, so it was an early night. 

not a bad boat ride

Our bungalows straddling the mangrove forest

The next day was a Sunday, which is the day of rest for the Papuans, so you’re not really supposed to plan any activities. So we had the day to explore our little section of the island. It consisted of some mangrove forests, sections of beach, maybe four or five homestays, and little village. We ended up spending most of the afternoon at the pier, jumping off and swimming with all the local kids. They have their own little wooden boats that they paddle around in. They were all very cute and we had a really nice time!

Later that night we went back to the pier when it got dark and the setting was truly spectacular! Once they turned off the generators it was pitch black and the stars were amazingly bright, with the milky way being easily visible. There were also fish that had a blue bioluminescent light swimming through the dark waters. The tide was low so when we shined our lights into the coral filled water below up we were able to see all sorts of marine life. We spotted eels, snake-eels, squid, cuttlefish, two types of sharks (wobbegongs and walking sharks) and lots of other fish. It was really an awesome spot. 

Besides laying around the beach we did a lagoon tour, did a hike to see the red birds of paradise, as well as snorkelling the house reef and the mangrove forest. We learned later on that a 5 meter crocodile had been caught somewhere near there a month ago, which was a bit disconcerting, but we were blissfully ignorant at the time! But I really enjoyed it there, it was a nice combination of relaxation, great scenery and light activity. Oh and we got daily visits from our weird marsupial friend, the cuscus, which is quite scary looking! But we fed him so he was nice. But I could have stayed another day or two, but Dylan and Steph finally found their other biologist friends (after many frustrating days of trying) and we decided to all go together to meet up with, as it made sense to save on the boat costs. So it was off to the Yangyakenes homestay on Waigeo!

glimpse of the red bird of paradise

jump rope at sunset

The cuscus!

He's a greedy one!

The next volcanic crater: Ijen

The Ijen crater is famous for its sulphur mines as well as its blue flame, which is lava that actually burns blue! It's further east on Java towards Bali, separated from Bromo by a few towns and many winding mountain roads. You can buy a package deal from Bromo to Bali via Ijen, which is more expensive, but saves time, or you could take the local buses. You probably already know which option we were going with.

First we had to get down from Bromo, and it was the damn minibus again! We were told it would leave at 9 am. So we showed up and there was only 1 person in the bus. The price is supposed to be 35,000 rupiah ($2.50) assuming the bus is full, but its low season and that would never happen. After an hour of waiting, we now had 6 people, but it was looking like that would be it. Hanny and this Russian girl had been arguing with the driver over the last hour trying to get the 35,000 price, but he wouldn’t agree with so few people. I was fine with paying more, but these girls were not budging. Finally the older couple had enough and volunteered to pay the extra money to get the hell outta there. In the end the girls gave up and we all paid 50,000 ($3.50!) One more whole dollar than they were hoping to pay! So ridiculous.

From there we hopped on a local bus to another town and Hanny got into full on shouting match when they tried to charge us double the actual price of ticket ($3 instead of 1.50) and I just sat there and kept out of it. To be fair, this was basically a scam and that should kind of piss you off, but I think I would have gave in and paid the $3. She would have rather gotten off the bus and waited hours for the next one rather than knowingly get ripped off! In the end she won and we paid the normal price. This bus took longer than expected and by the time we got into the next town we had missed our bus connection to get up to Ijen. A man recommended us a hotel, a kilometre away, so we decided to go there.

At this point our options were to take the bicycle cart transportation straight to the hotel for 10,000 rp (70 cents) or walk around with all of our stuff, to a hotel we didn’t have directions to, in a drizzle. She wanted to walk!! Honestly mind blowing. A decision like this seems like the biggest no brainer in the world to me. But not to Hanny. It’s like she’s physically incapable of paying a cent more than she knows she absolutely has to. I told her that I’m taking the bicycle, she can walk if she wants. She caved and spent the 10,000. The hotel wasn’t easy to find. But I’m certain if I wasn’t there she would have wandered around town for god knows how long to find this hotel instead of paying the bicycle guy. To be fair to her though, this is only one part of her personality, that I've been focusing on because it's kind of fascinating to me. But otherwise she was nice, funny, easy going and we got along well!

kids riding bikes through the rain in the small town of Sempol

Man smoking a cigarette at the bus station

Hanny and I riding becaks in Sempol

Our hotel was about as basic as you can get. Two beds with thin mattresses, no fan or furniture, a squat toilet and water bucket for flushing, and that was about it. But considering we were paying $2 each, we couldn’t complain. And it had working wifi! The next morning we found the bus to the little village near Ijen that we wanted to go to. It took four or five hours to get there and we settled in at the tourist-oriented guesthouse. We had time to kill, so we checked out the waterfall (which was pretty damn good!) and the hot springs before arranging a tour to the crater. We originally were hoping to get there independently, but it was looking to be very difficult, so after much deliberation (well at least for her) we agreed to pay for tour. Even though we had negotiated a rate that was cheaper than anyone else we talked to, for her it was like forcing medicine down a child’s mouth. I paid up and let her attempt to haggle even further with the driver.

the waterfall in the distance

It took a considerable amount of work to get to this spot!

Hanny hiking up the trail from the waterfall

We left for the crater at 1:30am with 2 Germans and 2 Japanese guys. The hiking was unexpectedly moderate, 45 minutes uphill and then maybe another 45 minutes descending into the crater. We had rented gas masks, as we heard the fumes can be really strong at times. The reason we had to get there while it was still dark was to see the blue flame, lava that actually burns blue. I thought it was pretty cool, but most of the people in our group had more grandiose expectations for this blue flame, and seemed underwhelmed. After doing enough group tour activities in Asia, I pretty much going in expecting for whatever we’re supposed to be seeing to be really lame, and if it isn’t than it’s a nice surprise.

hikers in the darkness with blue flame in the background

it was hard to get a good shot of the blue flame, but this is what I got

Ijen is also home to sulphur pits, which miners hike down to once or twice a day, loading their packs with 60-80 kg(130-175 lbs) of the big yellow rocks. It looks absolutely miserable. Plus they have to content with all the gases and fumes, and hardly any of them wear any type of protective mask. You can take photos of them, but they appreciate a cigarette or some sort of small food item in return. I made sure to come prepared.

The mines are also right next to a very scenic crater lake, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise (as usual). This is what happens when you travel in rainy season! But overall I really enjoyed the place, it has such a unique, almost surreal feel to it with all the miners and the flumes of yellow smoke billowing out of the Earth. It was a bit more interesting than Bromo in my opinion, and I’d recommend anyone in the area to check it out!

Sulphur miner stacking his baskets

This guys is probably carrying at least 160 pounds

moving the sulphur to wheeled carts to get down the mountain

After Ijen we hopped in the bus and prepared for the day long journey that would get us to Bali, where we definitely needed some rest!

BROMO

On to Bromo!  But first I had to get to the bus station. I opted with a taxi this time around and got there without a hitch. I just had to stop at the atm beforehand. 1st card doesn’t work. 2nd card doesn’t work. I went to the other atm… shit. Both cards are getting declined. I’m hoping its because these atms are from smaller banks, so I hopped on an ojek to take me to the atms of a bigger bank. Still nothing! I already used one of the cards at the airport in Surabaya and it worked fine, so now I’m really confused. Now I have no choice but to go back to the guesthouse and figure out what is going on. Fortunately this ojek knew exactly where my place was. I called my banks emergency number and sure enough, they put a hold on it. Thailand is fine, Malaysia is fine, but apparently they don't like Indonesia so much! I walked over to the nearest ATM and after putting in the amount I heard that sweet sweet mechanical whirring noise of money being counted. Whew. Minor crisis averted. 

street scene in surabaya

Round 2! I took another taxi back to the bus station and boarded the bus to Probolingo. From Probolingo it would be another hour or more up the mountain to a little village at the foot of Bromo. There is no regular bus up to this village, its normally just tourists and they wait for a minibus to fill up before going. Unfortunately its low (rainy) season and its later in the afternoon. I was told there was another person also waiting to get up to Bromo. It turned out to be a girl from Austria who was also traveling by herself. Her name was Hanny. She was athletic looking, very white, looked to be about my age, and spoke in a fairly thick German accent. As I would soon find out, she was an intense bargainer, which was necessary as she was also intensely frugal!

Normally when you travel in Asia you have to accept the fact that as person with white skin they are going to charge you more than they would a local, even with the haggling. In Indonesia its called the bule (foreigner) tax. The vast majority of people are willing to accept this, as it only amounts to a few cents or a few dollars here and there. Of course you should still bargain as much as you can, but usually you’re still going to pay a bit more than what a local would pay. There is a small subset of travellers who get very annoyed by this and are constantly fighting the battle to get the absolute lowest possible price, even if it is for nonsensically small amounts of USD or Euros. I normally do not travel with these people because they are normally a colossal pain in the ass. Hanny was one of those travelers.

passerbys at the bus station

They told us the bus costs 500,000 rupiah ($35) in total, split by however many passengers, which in our case was 2. We waited about an hour and nobody else showed up. We tried to talk them down from 500,000, which is pretty steep for only two people. After a while we got them down to 400. Still too much. It was a standoff for a while, but eventually they agreed to 300,000, a little over $10 a person. This was fine with me, but Hanny was not having it. She threatened to hitchhike. I wasn’t sure if she was using it as a bluff, but sure enough there she goes down the street asking random people if they’re heading to cemoro lawang. They went down to 250. She still wanted to hitchhike!

Now I’ve hitchhiked before in certain scenarios when there is no public transportation available, but she wanted to hitchhike as it was getting dark, to a small ass village up in the mountains that few people would be driving to, rather than pay less than $10 to share this minibus. I told her that I’m pretty sure they’re as low as they’re gonna go, as they only finally caved on the 300 after we walked down the street trying to hitchhike! She still wasn’t sure. She explained that is so much money for the Javanese locals here, as she would repeat many many times. “120,000 OK?!” She tried pitifully to shave off another 5,000 rupiah (35 cents) off the price. They laughed and said 120,000 for you but 130,000 for the man. I was like OK fine, lets go! She reluctantly agreed, looking absolutely crushed. You might have thought someone shot her dog. In the end we both paid 125,000. We put in our bags and headed up.

We checked into the Lava Guesthouse, expecting to find dorms, but they only had normal bedrooms, so we decided to share one, naturally, as that would be the cheaper option! We said we wanted two beds, but when we opened up the door, lo and behold, just one bed. “I’m ok with it if you’re okay with it” she said. It was fine by me. Now you might think sharing a bed with a girl you just met was a giant green light, but she then proceeded to tell me about her boyfriend back home, who she plans on marrying. So yeah. We were saving money though! $6 a night!

Nice countryside near Bromo

We got to bed early that night, with our alarms set for 3:30 to start hiking up to catch the sunrise over Bromo. As far as I could tell, we were the only people walking. Jeeps full of people were passing us occasionally. After a while the road turned to rocky steps and upward into the darkness we went. Eventually we got to first viewpoint, which was where we waited (and waited and waited) for the sun to rise. The sky got lighter, but it was becoming more and more apparent that there would not be any sunrise. Or even any view of Bromo! Too everyone’s dismay, it was a total whiteout. We even waited for an extra hour or two, and at some points the clouds would clear for just a few seconds and you could catch a glimpse of the volcano, but that was it, just those flew fleeting seconds. Kind of a bummer.

Sunrise at Mt. Bromo!!

Got some ok photos of the horse guys though

We headed down and the views got a bit better, as the clouds only seemed to cling to the mountaintops. We decided we  would try to do the sunrise again tomorrow. We went and took naps and then had some time to explore the village. It had a nice countryside, with healthy looking crops growing everywhere. We decided to head down to the sea of sands, which has cool Game of Thrones-esque name, but it’s basically just the flatlands around the volcanic crater. We had heard that tourists aren’t allowed down there, but there were no guards at the gate, so we proceeded down.

Our goal was to get to the Hindu temple at the base of Bromo. The scenery down there was quite unique. Sand flats gave way to the smoldering crater in the distance. The colors were all quite gray and lifeless, giving it an eerie post-apocalyptic feel. About 20 minutes into our journey we heard a siren coming from the direction of town. The park police! Crap! They caught us. “Get in the truck!” they ordered. “Too dangerous” Hanny tried to protest, but by the tones of their voices they meant business. So we reluctantly got in and they drove us back up into town and made us promise not to go down again. We did get a free lift out of deal…

The sea of sands, with bromo erupting in the background

Later on at the hotel we had our usual Indonesian dinner and got ready for another 3:30 am start. When we woke we could see the stars up in the sky, which was a good sign. Unfortunately the higher we got the foggier the air became. We were able to see the sun come up through the mist, but a line of clouds seemed to constantly obscure the view of Bromo. The visibility everywhere else was good though! We waited another hour to see if it would clear up, and it did for maybe 2 seconds! We waited a bit longer than decided it was time to get back down. 0/2 on the sunrises, pretty weak! But what can you do? Maybe the next volcanic crater would be better...

the road up to Bromo, day 2

the fleeting view of Mt. Batok (Bromo is the smoking crater in the back left)

A woman gets ready for some wedding photos

Next up the volcanic crater at Mt. Ijen

Back to Indonesia! Surabaya and onwards to Mt. Bromo

I had decided that I would like to spend a little bit of time on East Java and check out one of Indonesia's most famous volcanoes, Mt. Bromo. It's a constantly smoldering crater that draws in hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, foreign and local alike. It’s relatively easy to reach by Indonesian standards, being only a few hours away from the sprawling city of Surabaya and connected by good roads. 

I flew into Surabaya from Kuala Lumpur, then took a bus to the bus station and from there I took an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to my guesthouse. Normally I love ojeks because they're cheap, and its more fun being on the back of bike! But I didn't like one so much. Of course he told me he knew where my guesthouse was and then 15 minutes later we’re stopping random people in the street to ask for directions. I even had the address and a map with its location saved on my phone and he still couldn’t figure out where it was! It was humorous at first, but after almost an hour of driving around I was about ready to strangle this guy. Eventually after combing through half the streets in the town we stumble upon it, and surprise surprise, he wants extra money for all the extra driving time. Pretty standard for Asia. Somehow its not his fault for telling me he knows where the place is when he actually has no clue. Being the softie that I am I ended up tossing him a some more rupiah (so it cost $4 instead of 2.50), ate some fried rice + duck (cost well under a dollar) and crashed hard. 

typical food stall

I didn’t really want to wake up early that morning and catch the bus to Bromo, so I decided to sleep in and see what there was to do in Surabaya. As it turns out, not a lot! I told the lady running the place that I wanted to go to the submarine museum. She called a cab for me, but she must have misheard me as I got dropped off halfway across town at the cigarette museum, possibly the most boring museum I’ve ever been to! They only had photos to look at, with no captions, half of which were of people in the family that own the place. The only interesting thing is the viewing room where you can watch the people making the cigarettes from up above, but they don’t let you take photos, and there is still nowhere explaining how the cigarette made! So I left after 15 minutes having learned absolutely nothing. But before I could leave I was asked to do a survey wondering how I felt about the cigarette museum and Surabaya as a city in general. Ha! I felt too bad to put straight 1’s down the board (out of 5), so I settled for mostly 3’s and got the hell out of there.

3 wheeled bicycle taxi, called a becak, drives by a mural in Surabaya

I didn’t really know where I was, but I also had nowhere to be, so I decided I’d just wander around this part of town. This area certainly does not see white people very often. Lots of young people waving and shouting "Hey Mister!" which sounds kind of funny and outdated, but that's the greeting they learn around here! Then there's also the whispering and pointing in the background, bule, bule (boo lay), which means white foreigner. It reminded me of China without the full on staring. But I had fun meandering through the narrow alleyways and surprising people here and there with my presence. Plus I was quite popular with little kids, with my big camera and all.

some kids showing me where the good food is at

After a while I got too hot and took a taxi to the big mall to grab a drink and relish in the air conditioning. After that I tried heading to the arab market, but it was already shutting down when I arrived. Back to wandering. I attempting to walk the 3 or 4 km home with no map, only with the knowledge that I needed to go south and east. This ended up as one might have expected, with me considerably lost somewhere in Surabaya. At this point it was dark, but I was not giving up just yet. Plus along the way I did get invited to join groups of people having coffee no less than three times, which was kind of nice. Indonesians love their instant coffee! All you need is some hot water, coffee packets, and a table and chairs and boom! You have a coffee shop! None of them knew if I was anywhere near my guesthouse though.

They're well prepared for the rain

I kept walking and soon enough it started raining, and now I was the only person in the streets, cruising around in my shiny new heavy duty poncho. It was a full length black poncho and I like to think it makes me look like some sort of ninja. People were probably suspecting I had some sort of mental deficiency. A girl who could speak English came up to me and asked me if I was lost. I told her that I was completely lost, but I was enjoying being lost. She gave me a weird look, then ran back inside and quickly dead-bolted her door. Hmm. Eventually the rain got harder and I was ready to give up but there were no taxis anymore! Finally a man took pity on me and told me to hop on the back of his motorbike where he dropped me off at the nearest taxi stand. As suspected I was nowhere even close to where I lived!

But I made it back safe and sound, went to town on some nasi goreng, and got ready to get to Bromo the next day.

Penang and the Thaipusam Festival

My main motivation for leaving Langkawi after only three days was to get to festival which I heard was supposed to be pretty amazing. 

Renato and I checked into the Tipsy Tiger Party Hostel in the evening, a hostel which  gave you two free beers a night (booze is expensive in Malaysia!), I suppose to offset the fact that the hostel rooms had a whopping 20 bunks. These are the types of places I stay when I travel with young-ins! We wandered around, got some Indian food and drank at the hostel bar for a bit, but I headed to bed early, as I’d be waking up at 5am to catch the beginning of the Thaipusam festival.

Once a year in Malaysia the Thaipusam festival takes place. I should have learned the backstory more, but its in honor of Murugan, the Tamil God of War and the celebration involves sacrifices to him by fasting for 48 days beforehand and ridding the body of all impurities, physical and mental. The sacrifice concludes on Thaipusam where devotees will carry a physical burden, called a kavadi, which is sometimes as small as pot, but is usually much more elaborate. On Thaipusam the simple kavadis are metal rods piercing through the skin of the cheeks! Some wear portable altars on their shoulders, some have ornaments pierced all over their upper body, some have hooks through their backs, and the most elaborate is an altar attached to the body by nothing but skin piercings! 

At 5:15 I managed to find a taxi to take me to where the festival started. It was still pitch black but you could see groups of Indians gathered around a few small fires, offering sacrifices. There were also men being fitted with large altars on their shoulders. Soon the piercings would begin. One man was fitting small bells all around his upper body, attached to the skin by little metal hooks. Another was getting large metal hooks attached through his back. Another was inserting a metal rod between his cheeks. And the most interesting part was that there was no blood and the men looked like almost trancelike, not showing any signs of pain.

After their body had been fully decorated they would head into the adjacent temple for a while, and then begin the five kilometer pilgrimage to the huge temple up in the hills, with an entourage of chanting people in tow. Certainly one of the crazier festivals I’ve seen. This would go on all day and all night. And I would not want to be making this trip in the middle of the day, it was almost 100 degrees in Penang!

Eventually I found the man who was supporting the vel kavadi, an altar supported by nothing but hooks and and pins. He had them everywhere, his face, chest, stomach, back, legs. It took well over an hour to rig up his body for this. Pretty wild! If there’s one thing about Hindus, there’s no shortage of religious fervor!

This guy is a badass

some of the women looking on

lots of work!

I went back home and slept for a bit, met up with Renato to check out the infamous street art around the city, which I thought was pretty lame. Then we headed to the Hill Temple, where all the Indians were heading to see what was happening. Basically it was big, crowded party along the pilgrimage route, with music blasting and Indian men energetically dancing with each, as they’re known to do, while women looked on from the sidelines. Yes, there is nothing that looks gayer than an Indian party. We hiked up to the top of the temple, where we watched the men get their piercings removed, both of us hoping they can at least get some action from the ladies after this feat of devotion and endurance, and then dined on a free meal of dhal, vegetables, and rice.

The next day I woke up early to try and find a place to watch the Cardinals/Seahawks game, but to my dismay there was not a single sports bar that I could find anywhere! There’s just not enough Americans around here to generate any interest in NFL playoff games I suppose. Oh well, the game sucked anyway. Then it was off to the capital, Kuala Lumpur for me and Renato was off the Cameron Highlands (which I’ve already been to), so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. So sad! As for Kuala Lumpur I didn’t really do anything interesting, just checked out the downtown and the Petronas Towers, so next up will be Indonesia, a country I’m quite fond of!

Into Malaysia: Langkawi

After leaving Koh Lipe in Thailand it was an hour and a half ferry to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. They give you a tourist map of the island on arrival, which is nice. It’s a cute map with little drawing and diagrams, and then in the corner it says “Smuggling drugs is punishable by death” Duly noted! So I took a taxi to the main beach area and found a 4 bed hostel with a Canadian, another American, and a Malaysian. Three North Americans in one room is quite the rare occurrence. We all had jobs pretty conducive to traveling, the Canadian was some sort of big machine operator in the Yukon (and always had 3 months off during the coldest part of winter) and the American owned a hostel in Austin, and had his manager running things in the slowest part of the year. Owning a hostel is definitely something I would be interested in!

So we went out for some Indian foods (one of the biggest differences in Malaysia is the diversity of the food options: Chinese, middle eastern, Indian, etc), some beers and hookah on the beach. Before we went back to bed someone asked if any of use were snorers. We all said no, so we should be all good…

As soon as we get near the door we hear some very loud guttural noises coming from inside the room. We walk in and this big shirtless Malaysian dude is lying on his back snoring like a congested walrus. He looks like he’s been shot with a horse tranquilizer. I mean he didn’t even bat an eye when we walked in and turned on the lights. We’re all looking at each other like ‘are you serious?’ I’ve heard bad snoring before (Ed) but this guy takes the cake. He truly did sound like a buzz saw. After maybe half an hour of lying wide awake in our beds the guy closest to him trying to wake him up by clapping next to his face. Nothing. After shaking his leg he kind mumbled something and stopped snoring… for like 3 minutes and then it was on again. Aghghgh.

I might have slept for 2 hours, dreaming I was in some sort of hellish sawmill. All of us rolled out of bed around 9:00 and he was still in the exact same position, snoring as loudly and consistently as ever. Pretty impressive! We headed to breakfast to bitch about our predicament. Dorm rooms can really suck. Which I'll complain about later.

But anyway, that morning the American guy bought an $18 (!!) flight to Kuala Lumpur, so me and Dustin decided to rent bikes and cruise around the island, which always the best way! We stopped at a waterfall, a really nice beach, a mangrove forest filled with weird looking mudfish, and then watched the planes fly right over our head as we passed the airport. A good day!

nice place for a golf course

weird looking mud fish/tadpole thing

neon box fishes

the not so pleasant backdrop!

lush countryside

When we got back, my friend from Koh Lipe, Renato, had joined our room, while the two girls stayed at the hostel next door. To our dismay the Malaysian guy's stuff was still there, so when we were figuring out what to do, we decided alcohol would certainly be in the plan. Renato hopped on my bike and we headed to the duty free store down the road. Being a muslim country, hard alcohol is not exactly readily available. On our way home a team of police officers shined their flash lights at us and motioned for us for to pull over. Uh oh. No helmets :0. I had worn it all day, but didn't think to put it on for our quick trip down the street. Unlike Thailand and pretty much everywhere else in SE Asia, Malaysia has strict helmut rules. And it was true, we looked at all the bikes going by and every single rider wore a helmet! So we got binged for $35 or something, which is certainly more than a Malay would pay, but oh well, lesson learned. 

We ended up going out to the island's only club that night, which was an interesting mix of local tourists, Asian tourists, and Western tourists. Expensive, but fun. And we didn't have worry about the snoring keeping us awake because we all crashed hard! So the next day was pretty chill, just lying on the beach an doing nothing. We had one more night at the beach hookah place and then Renato and I were off to the next island, Pengang.