Safari

Back in Tanzania to continue my safari. The Kenyan leg was good, although I still need to get a better view of a lion. Also, no leopards yet.

Internet in Arusha is crazy slow (and I just found out that I have more Harvard deadlines fast approaching), so I'll keep this brief.

My tour companions for safari are CRAZY. The winner for craziest: a 72 year old Greek woman who went around braless the entire time. And she's a very perky DDD who loves tight, see-through shirts. Apparently, she was so upset that one of the other tourists went missing the first day that she took it off and couldn't bring herself to wear it again.

More later.

Unbelievable!

Despite having been informed that I'd be traveling outside of the US with no access to mail or phones until summer, it seems that American Express decided to change my card number and reissue it. How did I find out, you ask? Well, my card was declined(!) when I tried to pay for my hotel in Addis (that magical night at the Sheraton) and when on went on the website to write to them, I saw a brand new (and entirely unfamiliar) card number. Considering it is (or WAS) my primary credit card, I am NOT a happy camper. Let's just hope I can remain emergency-free. Otherwise, I may be in trouble...

Even More on Ethiopia

It strikes me that I was so busy complaining about the toilets and raving about the kids that I neglected to mention my fellow tourists. Interesting cast of characters.

My favorites: a couple in their mid-30s (wife Scottish, husband German, currently living in Amsterdam). It's dull to write about people I like, though, so let's just say that she was definitely the coolest Jehovah's Witness I ever met (not only does she drink, but she WORKS for an multinational alcohol company).

Other standouts (which is not to say that some of them weren't okay, or even better: an obnoxious faux-Canadian English woman in her 60s who lorded it over the natives and tourists alike. For someone who has traveled to 117 countries, she's surprisingly culturally insensitive. Her husband wasn't bad, but he would have gone up in my esteem if he'd done a better job of putting her in her place.

A very nice, kind of funny Dubliner who had the longest, filthiest toenails I've ever seen, a terrible nose-picking habit, an even worse farting habit, and an aversion to deodorant. Shockingly, he's single.

The token vegan, non-alcohol and non-caffeine using, heavily spiritual gay man who insists on spending every New Year's abroad and spending that evening meditating and lighting a candle. Okay, I guess he's really one of a kind, and was really sweet in a lot of ways, but so many rules (and so much gross green smoothie drinking).

Nearly everyone got the runs at least once (present company excluded), one guy so bad that he had to go back to the UK after day 6. Sad. I don't know my secret, but it may be that my digestive system knows my gross-out threshold so well that it didn't want to force me to go to the scary toilets any more often than was absolutely necessary. [Thank you, iron stomach, and I owe you one, considering I'm the only one who ate the kittfo (raw beef) and the national food from even the sketchiest of establishments, and never had any rules like no meat, or no tomatoes, or no fruit. My only rule was that if I was eating questionable stuff, I might as well have it spicy and with booze -- to kill the germs.]

Zanzibar and Photo Issues

Grateful as I am to finally have access to the blog again, I must confess that even the internet in Zanzibar isn't fast enough to actually upload photos. At least not in the beach village of Kendawa (or in the 3 internet cafes I visited in Stone Town). So photos will have to wait even longer (fingers crossed I don't have to wait until I'm in the US, because I'd thought this blog would be illustrated).

So, Stone Town was pretty and tourist-friendly and a really nice break. Kendawa is... kinda boring. The beach is really beautiful, my bed is huge, and that's kind of it. Mostly couples laying out on the beach and me sitting under an umbrella reading (I've finished 2 books in the 24 hours that I've been here). A nice break, but I won't be sorry to leave for Nairobi tomorrow. Beautiful as Zanzibar is, it strikes me as a couples/honeymoon spot.

I do have some nice photos of sunset on the Indian Ocean from the Africa House Hotel, red and blue monkeys in the Jozani Forest, and some shots from around Stone Town (plus less thrilling photos of mangroves, random trees and a spice plantation). Just FYI.

Ethiopia Post Mortem

I am now in Zanzibar. My last evening in Ethiopia was amazingly good (but not very Ethiopian). The tour of the south (which was hellish because of the camping, cold or no showers, hot beers, and some other craziness) was even harder than the north, so I treated myself to a night at the Sheraton (my happy place in Ethiopia). Lovely room, incredibly good service, very hot shower and lovely bubble bath. I think I am finally clean.

One of the perks: the VIP lounge (free cocktails). In my first meeting with Americans in nearly 4 weeks, I managed to get into a big argument with a Texan ex-Marine about politics, same-sex marriage, the second Intifada and the current situation in Gaza, the Iraq war ... it was great.

Dinner was beautiful: amazingly good Indian food, and conversation with a pretty fascinating British-raised Indian businessman currently living in Lagos but in Ethiopia to check on one of his factories (prognosis: bleak). One of the best talks I've had in ages, and we didn't even bother to exchange names (despite talking for nearly 4 hours).

Huge contrast from camping and drop toilets and camp food (whcih was good -- the chef made an amazing potato leek soup, but some were turned off by the goat slaughter that occurred whenever people were craving protein). I have never been so dirty as I was from January 3-13, and I hope never to be that dirty again.

Tomorrow, I'll upload photos, talk a bit about the craziness that was the south, and finally move on the Zanzibar (where my bathroom is larger than my bedroom and features a beautiful bath tub with antique blue tiles that looks rather like a fountain).

From Lalibela (December 23, 2008 - Day 4 of my trip)

Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to begin my journey with the hardest part first. But let me bkactrack. The blog is not getting updates in Ethiopia because -- as it turns out -- Ethiopia has the world's worst internet connections PLUS my blackberry doesn't work here. At all.

So fat, what I like most about Ethiopia is the scenery: really stunning, and I hope to post some photos from Zanzibar. Also, the people: gorgeous and very warm. What I like least: the bathrooms. How awful is it to want to see the world but not want to use the world's toilets? One of the few women on the trip (very cool, by the way) has a "pee tube" of which I am excessively covetous. [Note to self: buy pee tube in March, if not available in Nairobi.] With the exception of the cold showers and really questionable toilets, I seem to be managing.

I've found the food a tiny bit of a disappointment. I've had better Ethiopian in Boston, DC and New York, although this may be in part a function of going to some incredibly cheap places here in Ethiopia. And maybe I have no business complaining when I'm getting a two course meal and a couple of beers for under $7 with tax and tip.

One thing that has been a massive disappointment is discovering that boot camp REALLY wasn't worth it. Nothing has prepared me for the oxygen shortage at altitude, and so after turning around 5 minutes into a 5 hour optional hike, I realized there is NO WAY I can climb up to 4300 meters. So, it seems that 6 weeks of boot camp hell does not transform a casual walker into a mountain climber. And I haven't even touched on the vertigo issue. Great combo: first I hyperventillate up the mountain, then I get dizzy and fall off.

To end on a more upbeat note, I really love the kids here, from the tiny ones to the teenagers. One of my fellow tourists (she of the pee tube) and I were invited to an impromptu coffee ceremony the other day by a charming 11th grader who wants to be Lalibela's first journalist, and who is adamant about finishing college before getting married. Talking with her was one of the highlights of my week.

A final note: for such an impoverished country, the education system seems great. Even very small children have a decent grasp of spoken and written English. They are also given quite a bit of instruction in math and science (including physics) from a perrty young age. Also, unsurprisingly, they are all huge fans of Obama (will be posting some photos of the Obama cafes and restaurants soon). Good times.

Some Thoughts on Ethiopia (from January 1, 2009)

I added Ethiopia to my itinerary largely at the encouragement of a
well-traveled friend who told me that it was perhaps his favorite
country in the world. I am sorry to say that I disagree. I am also
ashamed to admit that I do not seem to be cut out for developing world
travel.

First, the good: the people here are beautiful and very warm. The
children are charming. The landscape is also beautiful, and sometimes
a bit severe. The cruciform church in Lalibella was amazingly lovely,
and I've really enjoyed some of the more horrific paintings in some of
the churches (blue devils, lepers, beheadings, etc.)

Now the bad: the toilets are often so terrifying (even in the hotel
rooms) that I've cut my water consumption by 80%. While I will not
get into details, let it suffice to say that the majority of the
toilets are squats and many of them (1) are never cleaned and (2) do
not flush. The hotel rooms themselves appear not to have been cleaned
for years (if not decades). The food is inconsistent, and for the
most part I have had far better (fresher, spicier, more varied)
Ethiopian food in the US than I have encountered here in Ethiopia.
The roads are very bad, making travel very difficult. And my first
night of camping was spent below freezing in the mountains, in what
even seasoned campers told me was the most difficult camping of their
entire lives.

There is much that is neither bad nor good, just different. As I have
mentioned, the children are lovely. That said, many are also very
poor, and view tourists as a source of money, school supplies, etc.
So, for every charming child that teaches me a few words and giggles
at my accent, there are five who either want to charge me 1 birr (10
cents) for a photo, have me contribute to a fund to replace their
damaged soccer ball (I've heard this story several times, and the
price quoted is roughly $20 USD), or give them pens and paper.
Another interesting thing: although almost every child we drive past
(especially in the rural areas) will wave and smile (I spend hours
just waving at kids, since the roads are too bumpy to do much else),
if you roll down your windows, you'll realize that they are all
shouting "Highland." This is a brand of water, and the children are
soliciting empty bottles, either to use to transport water when
herding cattle (cows, goats and sheep) or to return to the store for
the 1 Birr deposit. It's recycling and I'm totally on board, but it
does tend to make the joyous waves seem a little less genuine.

I am very fond of our guide and drivers, all of whom are Ethiopian
(although we will have a Canadian guide for the last 10 days in the
south). Apparently, western black tourists are rare here (we met 5 in
Lalibela, but other than that, I've been the only non-African black
in the places we've visited). I'm assuming that this fact (as much or
more than my natural charm) accounts for their having taken me under
their wings. As a result, I've learned more Amharric than my fellow
tourists, met many more Ethiopians (friends of the drivers, staff at
the hotels, etc.) and learned a lot more about life here. Which takes
me back to my statement that the people are lovely, and also kind. It
is for that reason that I don't regret coming to Ethiopia, although I
confess that I will be glad to go.