Please turn your phone 90 degrees.
It really is our last day. The official tour is over. Today in Victory Falls, there are optional actives one can take for an additional charge. I signed up for a helicopter tour. It was pricey, but I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity in the future.
Read More...
It's time to leave the bush. There was just one game drive left whilst going to the airstrip. On our way, we found another cheetah, this one perched atop a termite mound, as if to bid us adieu.
Since people are not allowed to homestead in the national park, we had a long drive. On the way to the border, we spotted a cheetah and five cubs in the bush. I'm not sure if I got a good shot or not. It was very difficult to spot them.
This morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I'll never know. -Groucho Marx
We rose early and headed to the airstrip. We haven't seen elephant here in Zambia. A large bull decided to block our way. We eventually convinced Jumbo to make way, but he wasn't happy about it, and made a mock-charge after we passed. His way of saving face.
The day started foggy. I was unable to see the Kafue river, just twenty meters away.
One thing about life. Everything eats, and everything is eaten. Apparently, to the insects, I taste just like chicken!
Today was a travel day. After breakfast, we said our good byes and loaded into the Land Rovers. We were surprised to find plane seats sitting on the compressed sand at the airstrip. When the planes arrived, the Load Master bolted them into the larger of the two. The plane had been used to haul cargo.
Sleeping in this swampy area has a great advantage. The local bell frogs and crickets serenade you with their song. The bell frog is tiny, and its croak sounds like bamboo wind chimes. When there are several dozen, it's a pleasant sound.
We are staying at Bonuka Adventure Camp which is in a private game reserve. This one hundred and eighty thousand hectare area is owned by the local tribe. They allow the safari company to run tourists through here as a means of income. To ensure the safari company follows the rules, there is one tribal observer in each Land Rover.
I hope you'll indulge me today. It's a sad anniversary I never forget. 27 years ago today, I was scuba diving in the half-sunk Molokini crater off the coast of Maui. When I got back to my hotel, I learned my father had passed away.
I must admit, I was a little concerned today was going to be a dud. But the giraffe and elephants came to my rescue.
The day started early, with the beating of a drum. The drum kept beating until you somehow acknowledged it. It was 5:30. Breakfast would be in 30 minutes. Then we were in the Land Rovers for the first game drive.
It's time to leave South Africa. (Hey, we just got here!) We're headed to Botswana, but to get there, we must fly to Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe, then we will drive.
This was our last day of the Costa Rican adventures. Before breakfast, My Lovely Wife and I did an early morning walk and found a troop of White Faced Monkeys traversing the trees. A little further down the walk, we ran into the local Macaws. After breakfast, there was time for just one more chance to see the wild life.
It's beach day! We drove south to Manuel Antonio National Park. There was a short walk down a wide dirt path. Pricilla had her telescope and pointed out several animals including Two and Three-Toed Sloths. There were also a lot of black-faced monkeys.
This was a huge travel day. We moved from the mountains in the north west down to the Pacific coast.
I was awakened by Howler Monkeys and a collection of birds. Since we stayed in "rustic" accommodations, we slept with the windows open to keep the room cool.
Today was a major travel day. Five hours on the bus. We needed to navigate around lake Arenal towards the north-west of the country. There was a rest stop on the way. There were several souvenir stands along the road, selling inferior items at high prices. Luckily, there would be better shops later in the trip.
Today was my dear departed sister's birthday. I though of her. We took the bus two hours north to Los Chilis and boarded a boat to cruise up and down the Rio Frios. My sister's degree was in Natural Science. We saw plenty of Caiman, birds, turtles, White-Faced Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, and the Jesus Christ Lizard which can walk on water. This was The Jungle Cruise come to life. She would have loved it.
The morning started with a short hike. The resort was poked up into a box canyon. Behind the resort was rainforest and a short trail. A small waterfall was promised, but what was fun was watching the Leaf Cutter Ants using a cyclone fence as a highway, and we're very much in Toucan country.
Today was the "A Day in the Life" day. This tour company supports a foundation which, in the countries the tour company operates, helps local communities with funds for schools, and other needs to help the communities prosper. Since the tour company is really supporting a foundation, they're keen to get the tourists to see the good works of the foundation, because, who knows, you might become a contributor. To that end, there's always one day where we visit a school. But for some reason, this always ends up on a Saturday and kids have to come in on their day off.
We came to Costa Rica mostly to see the rain forest. This morning was our introduction. We did a two-hour hike through the forest. At one point, we crossed a 900 foot long hanging bridge which was made of steel, and would swing if people didn't walk right down the middle.
The fun has officially started. The morning was dominated by white water rafting. It was exciting enough to be fun, but not crazy enough to be dangerous. Parts of the safety lecture reminded me of a rafting trip I took down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon in 1979.
Breakfast came early. Luckily, we were only two timezones away from home. No jet lag to deal with. We went down to the buffet, and met the rest of our group informally, and then there was a meeting where Pricilla told us about her country and asked each of us what we wanted to get out of the trip. This lady was smart. If she could hit the majority of these wants, she'd score big on the post-trip survey (which determines whether she stays employed with this tour company), and her tip would be bigger.
Before Godliving took the rest of the group to the airport last night, I ran our plan for today past him. We would take a taxi to the Impala Hotel in the center of Arusha and buy tickets for their airport shuttle. We'd check our bags and go to the central market, and later the Tanzanian National Museum.
On the way back to Arusha we stopped for t-shirts and African art. For the rest of our fellow travelers, this was bug-out day, and it was time to buy everything the heart desired but had never found. The t-shirt everyone was looking for said, "Mazunga" which is what many Africans originally called caucasian Europeans. The guides assure us it's not derogatory.
Tanzania puts a high priority on education, and sees it as the linchpin for individual prosperity. Since the Tanzanian point of view says the purpose of tourism is to boost the local economy, it also includes schools, and local people. To that end, the tour included meeting several groups of people. We had already met the Maasai, today we started with 7th grade school children.
It was time to leave. From here on, we were always headed towards home. We had our last breakfast. After we left, the camp crew would start breaking everything down. In 6-7 weeks a new camp would be built somewhere else. There are no permanent human settlements allowed in Serengeti National Park.
Today was our last full day on the Serengeti. The rains really started today. The roads have become very muddy this morning. The plan had been to visit an old (1940's) Maasai site. There was a cave where the circumcision ceremony was performed, and a "gong rock" from where meetings were called. A park ranger said to not head into the area. It was flooded and even the Land Cruisers would be in danger of being stranded.
I wanted to come to the Serengeti based on a story I saw on 60 Minutes. The very wide shots of the thundering herd was enough to sell me. I really wanted to see this. It is, as I mentioned in the Prologue, the last migration of large land mammals.
It's been a day that makes the heat, the dust, and the insects seem not that bad. As we were stepping in for breakfast, a balloon with some of our fellow travelers floated by. To go on the balloon ride, you needed to sign up 24 hours in advance, sign a waiver, get up very early, and pay 500 dollars. It was the 500 dollars that stopped me. I might have gone for 200, or maybe even 250, but 500 just seemed like gouging. When we caught up to our friends later in the day, they said it was a spectacular view. I have no doubt that it was a great ride. I just didn't think it was worth 500 dollars.
The rain and lightning were spectacular last night. As I've mentioned, we were on the shoulder of the rain season. This could have made for a miserable tour. But so far, we have experienced rain only at night. It has woken me up in the middle of the night, but it has not ruined any of our days.
We took a break from the animals today. This wasn't just a safari. There were many days where the culture and history of Tanzania were explored. We spent the morning in a Maasai village. We were really visiting a family, but there were many homes with a fence (called a boma) surrounding the area.
Much can be inferred about a person from the company they keep, and who they dine with. This morning we had breakfast with the monkeys in the park overlooking the Taranguire river. We were up before dawn and on the road for an hour-long drive. Before we reached the breakfast location, we had already seen impala, warthog, a giraffe carcass, and the ever-present elephant. The monkeys must have gotten up earlier because they were already there, and didn't have Land Cruisers. They were happy to see us, but not because we took many pictures of them. They were here for breakfast as well. Monkeys would steal food when we were not attentive. We did not invite them to dinner.
The day started out rocky. At 1 AM, two of our group started vomiting. The tour company never said the words food poisoning, but this started seven hours after dinner. There were three retired nurses in our group. They concurred on the food poisoning diagnosis. One of the victims was one of the nurses.
I woke up at 5 AM. It wasn't a rooster that woke me, it was the local mosque calling people to prayers. I prefer this over the rooster that did wake me up in Vietnam one morning at 3 AM. During breakfast, a christian church, which was just next door was filled with people singing. The typical Tanzanian seems to be very family-oriented, and very religious.
Today was a 100% transportation day. We had breakfast, and walked to the train station. Once in the airport we checked in with the airline. Hey, where's the security line? It's at the individual gates. This means you stand in a much smaller line. It also means they need more scanning equipment.
It appears that the only thing square in Amsterdam is Dam Square. Today on a canal cruise, we discovered buildings tend to lean forward to allow a gable hook to clear the building when hoisting furniture. The stairs and doors are so narrow everything needs to go through the front windows. The buildings are narrow because width was the manner for determining the property tax. (Vietnam used to do this as well.) The narrowest house in Amsterdam is 1 meter wide. It's now a coffee house.
We were still plagued with jet lag today. I've never had it this bad before. I worked in London for two weeks in 2004, but the only problem I had then was always waking up at 4 AM. This jet lag has been not being able to sleep at all during the night.
Today was jet lag day. Neither of us were tuned to the right timezone. We were awake all night and wanted to go to bed right after breakfast.
It was raining when we left home. A friend of mine says that if the weather is so bad, you have a hard time getting to the airport, you shouldn't fly that day. Not to worry, it wasn't raining that hard.
One day in 2001, I was riding a train through Tokyo headed to the Ginza District. I had met a Japanese woman in Vietnam who had drawn a train map from memory. I needed to get onto a certain train, go a specific number of stations, and get off. The trouble was, I had lost count of the stations.
I had a lazy last day of shopping and packing. First, we walked to the largest market in Saigon to buy coffee. The booth I normally buy from is still not open this new year. I walked around the market smelling everyone's coffees to decide who had the freshest. Not surprisingly, it was the most expensive. On the way out, I found the coconut candy I like. Finally, we found the soft drink. Shopping now over, the question was, what would fit into the bags?
Supposedly, Vietnam is a socialist country. It's in the country's name. You see the hammer and sickle in all towns and villages. What you don't see is socialism, or communism. Vietnam is a free market country. Capitalism is alive and well here. You see it in the markets, and in the streets. Today, I finally saw some communism.
We just had the morning in Mui Ne. The bus would take us back to Saigon at 1 PM. I wanted another stroll on the beach, tide permitting. If it was high tide, the surf would come up to the hotel's sea wall, and there would be no beach.
You can't have great days without having a few mediocre days. Today was one of those days where much of it just didn't hit.
Mui Ne has the classic tropical beach with coconut trees almost down to the high tide line. It is covered with broken sea shells, pottery, and other ceramics. It's a good idea to stroll on this beach in your flip-flops. After an hour and a half stroll, we decided to try to extend our stay in Mui Ne. There's an extra day in Saigon, but it's much nicer here.
It was the last day of the lunar year. We spent a great deal of it going to Mui Ne on the coast.
Da Lat is trying to convert itself into a tourist destination. This being a mountainous region, there are waterfalls. And where there are waterfalls, there are opportunities to sell tickets.
Today was another bus day. We moved from Saigon to Da Lat, and we were surprised. Da Lat was cold for Vietnam. To go out in the evening I needed sweatpants and two layers of t-shirt. We were in the highlands, which explains the temperature. It also means there were no coconut trees. The wild trees were conifers.
After yesterday's great time winging it, today was a smaller copy, with one exception. We were in the same type of boat, but this boatman didn't say towards the edge of the floating market, This boatman drove us straight through the center of it. We went slow, and people from all boats took steps to nudge each other out of major collisions. If anything was missing yesterday, perhaps this is it.
If yesterday was a bit of a disappointment, today was the best I could imagine. One shouldn't expect all to go to plan when traveling, but when you get close to it, it's like magic.
Truth be told, today was disappointing. There was too much bus and not enough boat.
There were vendors at the bus stop selling sunglasses and whatever else you might want. I later figured out that a group of seemingly un-related sellers were really a family trying to hit everyone's needs.
We arrived at midnight. The full 24 hours of driving, flying, connecting, and being sent through the Nude-O-Scope was over. It was midnight and hot.
It's our last day on Maui. Today we packed, and will try to give the car back with no gas in it. I wonder if anyone has ever pushed a car back. Last day always has best weather. I'm glad we're flying at night.
Today is the relaxing, not too much driving, day. We headed back into Lahaina for shopping. Some one parked in my spot!
We've eaten a lot of pig over the past two days, so we're going to have a change of diet today. No luau. Since we don't have to keep to a schedule, we're going to drive the road to Hana. But first, another stop at Safeway for breakfast.
Another day, another search for coconuts. We headed back to Kahului to the Queen Kaahumanu Shopping Center. This is an outdoor mall with a large awning. In the center, locals sell fruit and prepared foods. We spent several hours here, and I took several coconuts back to the car.
Whenever you travel with someone, you have to realized that each person has at least a slightly different agenda. If planning was not discussed, the agendas of each person can be very different, which can lead to conflict. I've travelled with My Lovely Wife enough in the tropics to know that the number one item on her agenda is the purchase and drinking of coconuts. Before leaving the mainland, I had printed out a webpage which listed the many farmer's markets in Hawaii.
Today was the first day of the rest of our vacation. But the fun seems to always be at the end of a long day of travel. Funny, when I was a kid, the vacation was almost all travel. Plane rides were expensive, so we always did the driving vacation, but not today. We're waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the airport.
You may have noticed that I have written nothing about the past two days. That's because we just sat around the pool. You've probably sat around a pool and know what it's like. So there's no point in spending any more time on the subject.
Today was much more like our typical tour. We were off to learn about, and admire what the ancients did without hydraulics. This is amongst my favorite things to do when on tour. When My Lovely Wife said "Mexico", Chichen Itza was the reason I wanted to come.
I had never SCUBA dived outside The States. Even in the US I've been careful about where I dive and with who. If I was in Hawaii or Florida I wanted a well-established dive shop who appeared to know what they're talking about in casual conversation.
It was time to pay for the free pyramid trip and low-cost SCUBA. The hard-sell time-share lecture started at breakfast. The food took a long time to arrive. This gave a sales guy plenty of time to try his magic on us. What he didn't know, is we've been to a lot of these. They don't work on us because we want the freedom to go to places on this planet were time-shares don't exist. You can't use a time-share in Cambodia, or in Tanzania. Time-shares just aren't for us. Even though we told people this, they still wanted to give us free stuff just for sitting through their sales pitch.
Every morning on a travel day I play "What did I forget to pack?" I went down my check list. I just bought 4 shirts light enough for the tropics and a new Speedo. I figured If anyone asked, I'd say I was German. I also learned we could change the name of my house to Casa del Reloj Quebrado because all but one of my dive watches had dead batteries. The airplane food I packed was baloney and mustard sandwiches, and granola bars.
It's our last full day in Vietnam. Tomorrow, we get back into the big aluminum tube and go back to our lives. It's time to make those last minute purchases.
It's the beginning of the raining season. The weather is on the same schedule everyday. The morning is overcast until about 11. Then the rain starts, and goes on and off. The best thing we've found to do when it rains is to go swimming. If you're going to get wet, why not get really wet?
After breakfast, we headed to the beach. It's about 40 meters from the table. I've not been one to lounge about on beaches. My first trip to Hawaii I paced the beach. But I'm much more laid back than I was.
We went on more of those "tours" today. The highlight was visiting a fishing village. I would have thought we should go in the morning when the boats are coming back in. Our tour guides decided that going in the late afternoon was better. We when got there, all the boats were tied up, and no off-loading was happening. Well, except for a cargo ship that came in.
We're winding up our trip, and headed out to a resort to rest for a few days. We took at a car to the west-most coast of Vietnam. There we boarded a high-speed hydro-foil boat to Phu Quoc Island. The trip took about two hours and fifteen minutes, so I figure it was going about 30 miles per hour on the open ocean. That's fast for a boat, but is more impressive because the ride was so smooth. No bobbing up and down, slamming the water and counting your vertebrae.
We got up very early to see the local floating market. Turns out today is a special holiday on the Lunar calendar, so there were very few boats out for the market. We have so much bad luck seeing floating markets. The one we tried to visit in Bangkok had moved out of the water and onto the street.
We are now in Can Tho, about four hours into the delta from Saigon. We've scored a room in a four-star hotel for a change, and are spending much of today in the swimming pool to beat the heat.
Today, we headed back to Vietnam. A minivan picked us up at the hotel to shuttle us to the bus. The van was late, and caused us to call a few times only to be told it was coming. When it arrived, it was almost full. Just a few fold-down suicide seats left.
Today we saw the darker side of Cambodia. Until now, it's been temples and admiring a great ancient empire. But today we saw some of the more recent history at the Killing Fields.
It's hot in Cambodia. I mean real hot with humidity. Today we decided to get an early start and see the sun rise at Angkor Wat. This meant arriving there about 5 AM. The wake up call was 3:40!
And we're off! Whizzing across the Cambodian landscape in the back of Bun's Tuk Tuk! We're getting a later start than most. It's already 9 AM and quite a lot of the herd has already moved out.
The border between Vietnam and Cambodia is like any other land crossing. There's a building on either side, From one, you will officially exit, and in the other your entry will be documented. So why is the leader from the bus acting all pissed off?
I think the Mekong Delta is my favorite part of Vietnam. You leave the crowds of the major cities behind and spend most of your day on various boats. There always seems to be a breeze to keep the heat down. It's slow-paced, relaxing, and different than anything you're going to see back home.
Today I am relieved of arm candy duty. I'm on a short trip to the Mekong Delta.
As normally happens when we come to Vietnam, the first day was spent arranging tours. We're camped in a section of Saigon where there are many tour companies. One can walk from company to company, comparing features and rates.
It's our last full day in Thailand. Just a few items to cram in before we leave. We started with the Vimanmek mansion which was a royal residence for six years, a hundred years ago. Not bad for temporary housing! Like the Maharajah Palace I visited in Mysore, Vimanmek does not allow pictures. Damned shame because it really is a grand building.
Thailand is full of wonders, and things that will make you wonder. There's a zoo where you can find a tiger, pig, and golden retriever in the same cage, and all of them are alive!
We seem to be doing a lot of touristy things. I don't think that is horrible. Touristy things are fun. But we're not seeing Thailand the way we normally try to see other countries. We're going to throw the tour company a curve ball in the afternoon.
We've transferred to Pattaya, a resort town on the coast. At the break, the van stopped at a jewelry showroom. Thailand is famous for rubies, and this is where the car salesmen work in this country.
After a long flight, you want a cookie. Something to give you the feeling the 20 hours in the aluminum can was worth it. In Bangkok the cookie is the Royal Palace and Temples.
Ok, there's no putting it off. It's time to go home for real. The front desk at the hotel had a better route for us to use to get back to the airport via the train.
People say you can't see The Louvre in a day. Au Contre! You just need to keep moving and not dawdle at the tourist trap art.
We're not near the Mediterranean anymore! Paris is chilly at the end of October. We prepped for this and brought jackets and warmer clothing.
It's time to leave Venice. Today's travel is what inspired the tour's name. Technically, we're headed home. But it will take us four days to get back to San Francisco.
We had another of those navigational misunderstandings again today. We decided to visit the fishing village on Burano, another island in the Venetian archipelago. From my reckoning, we needed to rake the vaporetto to Lido (which is on the other side of Venice, and then transfer to another boat. We got to Lido, we got on the other boat. After an hour, it turned around. Back in Lido, we found the right boat.
We hoofed it back to San Marco for a dry day in the Piazza. Our first stop was Rialto to see the open market while it was bustling. It's a short walk from Rialto to San Marco. There was a little early drizzle, but today we could appreciate how ornate the outside of the basilica was without scuba gear.
The weather promised to behave itself today. The Hotel Mary served up a good freshly prepared breakfast. I ordered the ham, salami and cheese plate, and found some dinner rolls. We made up tiny sandwiches which would be our lunch. We also supplemented this with supplies we bought from the local Co-Op grocery.
Venice was wet. Even the bits that were not canal. It rained... a lot. Piazza San Marco was flooded. The man who sells seed to feed the pigeons found the highest point in the Piazza and was considering breaking out his snorkel.
It's time to leave Rome. We had breakfast once more on the roof of Hotel Canova. Then we pulled our bags back to termini, where we entered Rome. I had bought our tickets on the internet before leaving The States. I didn't know what the demand would be and wanted to have tickets in hand, guaranteeing seats.
We decided to hoof it across town to the Vatican again. We found a few markets, and at Campo de Fiori I found the spice stand I mentioned on the 17th. I was impressed by how the spices were displayed. A large quantity was put into a plastic bag, and the open end rolled up. But the spice was mostly shoved into one of the corners of the bag. The bulk was made round near the open end. So the spice was displayed as a cone, pointy-end up. When many were put in rows, the shape and many colors naturally drew you in.
We're back in Rome for two more days. We're been giving the town one more go before leaving on the 25th.
Tour buses are not my idea of a vacation. I would never sign up for a tour bus to Yellowstone National Park. I'd drive myself, and make lots of stops along the way. I'd linger at the interesting places. Here's the problem. Buses don't linger. But when you're in another country and you don't drive. It might be either the tour bus, or go without. I wasn't interested in going without, because today was volcano day. We went to Pompei.
My original plan was to see the Roman Forum yesterday. But after the Colosseum, and the palace complex, we were ready to call it a day. Luckily, I've planned a few days in Rome with no agenda. This gives us the freedom to not be so rushed.
After yesterday's death-defying march through the Vatican, we needed an easy day. Hotel Canova is in what I refer to as Beautiful Downtown Empire. Just a 10 minute walk and we were at the Colosseum.
Moo! The crowd is thick, it is herded like cattle, and there's no Fire Marshal. Welcome to the Vatican Museums!
Today we took the underground train, called the Metro, to Vatican City. St. Peter's Square maybe the biggest outdoor space I've ever been to. Its grandness serves two purposes. First, it's intimidating to a new comer. This is important symbology. Big means important, and wealthy. It's a great home field advantage. But St. Peter's also hosts many outdoor masses and even this space is not big enough for the crowds that want to come.
Today is truly day 1 of this trip. All the horrible traveling is over. We woke in our hotel in Rome, ready for the adventure. Because of jet lag concerns, I only scheduled a couple items for today, Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon. Jet lag always seems to be worse when you travel east. Traveling west is not a big deal.
Finally, our stay in Hotel Heathrow is over. The flight was announced and we moved on to Rome. Once there, we needed transportation from the airport to the hotel Canova.
Copyright © 2007 - 2013 Amalgamated Bits and ZitsAll Rights Reserved
