Typed up: at Coral Cove Cottages in Tiwi Beach
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa

Mombasa is Kenya’s second largest city, with about 2 million people. It’s on the coast, and the city center is on a peninsula. We spend all our time on this peninsula. When we were coming here we were a bit worried, because all the guide books etc. warn about crime (from scams to mugging). When we were there, we felt perfectly safe. Like anywhere, if you stick to the busy streets things seem to be fine. But not like anywhere in Africa we’ve been, people left us pretty much alone. We were not constantly hassled to buy art, tours, etc. This alone made us enjoy Mombasa. We spent our days wandering around on foot, taking naps, and visiting the Internet cafe.

We stayed at the New Palm Tree Hotel. It was a little pricier than we would have liked, but we got a double room, private facilities, a TV that wasn’t plugged in, a refrigerator we didn’t use, and a fan. We did not have hot water. All the rooms in the hotel are on the second floor, surrounding a large courtyard. The center of the courtyard is taken up by a huge skylight down to the main lobby. The other guests seemed to be about half Africans and half other tourists. We didn’t talk to any of them, except for Shakir, our neighbor. He’s visited Mombasa many times and keeps coming back. With his bug spray we killed all the bugs in our room one night, but I felt it involved a slightly scary amount of chemicals.

The main tourist attraction in Mombasa is Fort Jesus, and we visited it. The fort was build 1593-1596 by the Portuguese, who held onto it for 200 years before Omani Arabs kicked them out after a 33-month siege. Entry into the fort includes a personal tour, and our tour guide cleverly sold us an extra tour of the surrounding old town and a few other sites. The fort is quite cool, with some nice old architecture in pretty good shape. We also got our first real glimpse of the Indian Ocean. We’d seen the water in the bay in Tanga, but it’s not the same without waves which we saw now.

There were quite a few interesting lizards in the fort as well. And there was a collection of old artifacts, several kinds of cannons used by different people, and Dunga, our guide, explained to us the history of the fort and a bit of the history of Kenya. Then we toured old town with him, which consists of narrow streets, and mostly falling apart buildings from a really long time ago. There is still some of the old architecture left, mostly in the elaborate doors. Old town borders a market area, and then we crossed into new town.

There’s not much to say about new town. It’s a bustling area. We stopped at a Hindu (I think) temple, which had some really cool painting/sculpture combinations. We also visited the giant elephant tusks, whose construction somehow relates to saving of the elephants. The part of the tour after the market mostly felt like a lot of walking, though. Then time came to pay he thought we’d agreed on 2500 per person, and we thought it was 2500 total. (I still don’t quite understand why small group guides charge per person.) Anyway, we compromised and that was the end of official sight seeing for us.

We’ve been a lot more adventurous regarding the restaurants we ate at, except for the first night. That night we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant that our guidebook said was good. It was good, but also expensive. Just coming from Tanzania 2000 shillings sounded pretty good, but while 1 USD is 1170 Tanzanian shillings, it’s only 67 Kenyan shillings. Since then, we’ve eaten almost exclusively at places which didn’t have any tourists. The most adventurous was a place down a dirt aisle off a main road. It was actually a lot like a restaurant at home. The main difference were that we didn’t have a private table and there was only a verbal menu. But it was cheap, and the food was good, traditional African food. We ate at the hotel restaurant once, which wasn’t as good. And we ate at several other small “eateries.”

Mombasa, and presumably most of Kenya, has fast Internet so I managed to upload all the pictures taken so far (small size only). But even Kenya-Internet was not good enough to book a flight with Egypt Air. Out of desperation we decided to go to a travel agent, Dial-A-Tour, which were half a block from our hotel. That was a great move. Not only could they book the same Egypt Air flight we wanted, for the same price, they even suggested we try a round trip ticket because it might be cheaper. That trick saved us another $20 per ticket or so. We might have to use travel agents more often. I do like sending money into a small local business instead of faceless online services.

Workouts: I’m going to get back on this horse, once every other day this time. 8/25 I started 15 min AMRAP of: 20 squats, 10 push ups, 15 lunges, 5 pull ups. After 5 rounds and 15 lunges, 1:20 left, I gave up because I’d ripped up my pinky on the rusty stairs I’d been doing pull ups on. Then Danielle put some tea tree oil on my rip to sterilize it. There was at least another round worth of pain in those few drops.

Typed up: at New Palm Tree Hotel in Mombasa, at Coral Cove Cottages in Tiwi Beach
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa

From Lushoto we had bought some bus tickets for a 9am bus to Tanga, which is in the north east of Tanzania on the coast. Relatively speaking, this would be a nice fast bus. Relative to a dalla-dalla, that is. It was a medium sized bus, and it didn’t leave until it was completely full. That means so full that the folding seats cannot be used, because you can cram in more people if they stand. Lucky for us most of the seats are not folding, and we had secured a pair early on. Our packs were on our laps all the way to Tanga.

Every once in a while we would stop, and I would hope that enough people could get off so at least it wouldn’t be so crowded. I silently cheered when the fold down seat next to me was folded down, but then two people sat down on it which squeezed is even more than we already had been. BTW, no chivalry in Tanzania. I don’t think I ever saw anybody give up their seat, and husbands sit before their wives do.

The bus ride was only about 4 hours, and we got off in Tanga with a good idea of which way to walk to our hotel. That didn’t deter somebody from following us all the way there, pointing out the way while we tried to ignore him. We checked into the Ocean Breeze hotel. For 10,000 shillings ($8.34) we got a room with private facilities, TV, and a balcony with a bay view. The tank on the toilet wasn’t hooked up, but there was a tap and a bucket, so that wasn’t too much of a problem.

That afternoon we stopped at a local tourist office, and signed up for a budget busting tour of the caves and the ruins nearby. At night we paid for a 1-day membership to the local yacht club. The sunset was beautiful, and a nice crowd gathered for a pool tournament at night. Being the old fuddy-duddies that we are, we dutifully called for a cab at 9 to get our sleep in. Sadly we did not sleep well. Loud hotel guests, a cat fight, and a few mosquitoes kept us more awake than we cared for. Lesson: use a mosquito net if it’s there, even if you don’t see any mosquitoes during the day. But in the morning we woke up bright and early to meet our tour guide at 9am.

Our tour guide turned out to be the same person who sold us the tour because, he said, no other qualified guides were available. His name is Emilias Sylvester, and like everybody involved in the tourism industry here, has an impressive resume. We started off by riding rented bicycles to the Amboni Caves. The bicycles were nothing fancy, but the terrain was mostly flat so they worked well. The first part of the ride was on a busy paved road. We were passed by cars and buses, but most of all there were a lot of bicycles on the road. Many people shared a bicycle, and lots of people transported goods. The most common thing we saw were piles of firewood on the bike rack so high that you could just barely see a cyclist’s head out from over it. We also saw bales of hay, pots and pans, and just about anything else.

Then we turned off the main road onto a dirt road/trail that took us a through a few villages. Emilias took the time to tell us a little bit about the local crops (cassava is a big one), and explained that all the children said “Bye” because recently some mzungu had built a school and there’d been a nice going-away party for them, and that is what the children remember they had to say. The whole ride was about 8km, and we got to the caves feeling not at all tired from the bike ride.

We entered the cave with 3 school boys, who tagged along our tour. There were just 2 flashlights in the group, but Danielle and I had head lights too. We never were too far away from an entrance, but we did experience the cave total darkness at one point. This cave is not created by a river, but instead had been made by the ocean about 2 million years ago. Then it was lifted up out of the water so that we could now walk in it. This made it a very different kind of cave than what we’d been in before. It was large, but had no really fancy formations. There were some nice ones, but nothing like eg. Carlsbad Caverns has. It did have marine invertebrate fossils clearly visible in the walls, which Danielle really liked.

But most of the tour centered on the various features and their names. It shouldn’t be surprising that many of these features were named after local wildlife, but I thought that was interesting anyway. There were also a few Muslim and Christian features, as well as an explicitly sexual one. We also got to see a lot of bats. Most of them just hung around the ceiling, but occasionally something would happen and maybe 100 or so would all fly overhead to a different part of the cave. Local farmers still come into the cave to collect guano for their fields. Outside the cave, we watched some Colobus monkeys forage.

After the cave tour was over we biked back to Tanga, but not without stopping to sample coconut wine. Making it is so amazingly simple that it might make one religious. You climb up a palm tree, cut off a leave, and hang a bucket over the wound. Then 12 hours later you go to collect the bucket, and you have a legitimate, pretty tasty alcoholic beverage. That’s the entire process. And it keeps on giving, too, just cut the leaf back a little bit further and you can do it again. I would say that anybody in California who has a problem getting their own brew to taste good, should just plant some palm trees and use this method.

Back in Tanga, Emilias took us to a locals restaurant for lunch. I think this is the first place we’d eaten where we didn’t see any other tourists, and it was a good experience. The menu was simple (fish or chicken, ugali or rice, …) and the food was good. It was all cooked right on the other side of the partition next to our table. It was really cheap, too. Tsh. 12,000 ($1.67) per person, including a soft drink. Then we got a little break before the afternoon portion of the tour.

Apparently the first choice vehicle did not come through, so we rode to the Tongoni ruins in a nice 4-door sedan. It was not the ideal car, because most of the road was dirt and in questionable condition. On the way we listened to Bob Marley tapes. I hadn’t heard any reggae in Africa yet. So far it’s been a lot of what I’d call club music. Lots of beat, with a little melody.

The Tongoni ruins are the remains of a harbor town. The centerpiece is an old mosque that was built around 14-something. Not much is left aside from some walls and a few pillars. The most interesting part is how coral was used in the place of rocks for a lot of its construction. We also saw a more recent mosque which, despite its more modern construction, wasn’t in any better shape. Next to that mosque were a bunch of wooden boats belonging to the local villagers. They were dry at the current tide, but at the high tide looked like they’d be used to fish. There were quite a few nets sitting on a wall next to the boats.

Then we got to taste baobab fruit. The ruins are surrounded by baobab trees, and they have a large, green, hairy fruit. It has a hard shell which you open by repeatedly hitting it against a rock. Then you find a dry substance which is a bit like styrofoam, and buried in there are seeds. You eat the white stuff, and it tastes nice and bitter/tangy. It also sticks to your teeth very hard. It’s not something you can eat in quantity, but it does have a very nice flavor.

On the way back to Emilias’ office we stopped to buy bus tickets to Mombasa, and then our tour was over. Emilias wants you to know he’ll be happy to arrange whatever tour (around Tanga, up Kilimanjaro, through Serengeti, etc.) to anybody who comes to Tanzania. You can reach him at emilias03@yahoo.com. We certainly enjoyed our guided tour with him.

That night we spent some time talking to Jeller, yet another Dutch traveler, as we ate dinner at Patwas. The food was nice, but the chicken had a ton of little bones in it, and I’m still not quite used to that. We turned in for another early night, and were only disturbed by loud guests.

In the morning we had plenty of time to make our noon bus, but I was feeling pretty unprepared to venture into Kenya. We didn’t have any guide book info printed out (although we had some on the laptop) and printing in Tanga is prohibitively expensive (Tsh 500 / USD 0.42 per page). We didn’t have any Kenyan shillings either, and because it was Sunday everything was closed. So we killed some time eating a second breakfast. A real omelette is much better than a complimentary 1-egg omelette. At the bus station I also tried a local cookie type thing. It appeared to be made with just flour, sugar, and some spices which tasted a little bit like a ginger bread cookie. 1 was nice, but the 2nd one felt like a little much.

Then the bus came (late), and we piled in. The bus didn’t leave for another 20 minutes or so, so we shouldn’t've hurried. Just a little ways out of Tanga the road became unpaved, and the next 40 kilometers were a very bumpy ride. The bus didn’t really slow down unless there was a major ditch to cross. Eventually the bus stopped, and we all got out to hand over our exit forms to the Tanzanian government. We also changed money at some guy holding a big wad of bills. The exchange rate was highly unfavorable, but we only changed about 18 dollars so at least we had something to use in Kenya. This slowed us down enough to be the last people back on the bus, and in fact the bus was already moving when we got back on it. The bus drove a little further where we got off again to formally get into Kenya.

First we got in a police line where they wrote down our names in a big book. Then we stood in line for immigration. The bus operators had given us a Kenya entry form, which we’d dutifully filled out. However, that wasn’t good enough. When we got to immigration officer (close to the end of our bus line, because we were seated almost at the back of the bus) he gave us another form to fill out. We hastily filled it out, worried that the bus might leave without us, or at least that we were annoying all the passengers who had to wait for us. We queued back up, but one of the bus conductors pulled us right into the immigration officer’s office, and put our passports under his nose. The officer continued processing the queue outside the window for a while before he dealt with us. It was very straightforward. We gave him the form and the USD 50 per person, and we got some pretty stickers in our passports. We hurried back to the bus, which did not in fact leave right when we got back on so perhaps they weren’t waiting for us after all.

Not surprisingly, the Kenyan landscape is much the same as the Tanzanian. The biggest difference is that in Kenya the road is paved, while in Tanzania it is not. Eventually we entered the outskirts of Mombasa, which had many dirt roads going off the main road, stone buildings with 2 stories, and finally a ferry. We drove onto the ferry after the conductor had come by to close all the curtains. I have no idea why. Then after the ferry it was just a short trip to our bus company’s office in downtown Mombasa. Downtown appeared to be all paved, the buildings were taller, there were side walks, and lots of taxis and tuk-tuks on the road. Our bags were unloaded from the belly of the bus and returned to us absolutely covered in dust. I think they sat near a wheel well with some holes or something, but we took it all in stride. We hailed a tuk-tuk to take us to our hotel, and were charged a fair price. There was no negotiating or foreigner price to be upset about. Danielle tipped the guy 50%. We walked into the New Palm Tree Hotel, where a 1-bed double room was available.

Typed up: at Ocean Breeze Hotel in Tanga
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa, Kenya

Right as we got off the bus in Lushoto, we were hounded by 3 guys trying to sell us various services. Luckily we’d seen the Tumaini Hotel from the bus, and we just walked the short distance there. We checked in, and were given a suite with a double bed and a sitting room, as well as bathroom. This was more than I’d wanted, and all in all I was pretty fed up with people trying to overcharge us, sell us stuff, not mention cheaper options, etc. When it took half an hour to get a cup of soup at the restaurant that didn’t make things any better.

But eventually I mellowed out. There are actually very few people in Lushoto who bug you on the street. The next night we changed to a smaller, cheaper room. And the restaurant is only slow because they make everything from scratch. The food is both cheap and good. I guess it’s true what they say: fast, cheap, good, pick 2. The hotel has a nice garden courtyard, an adjoining Internet cafe, it’s close to the market, and we met several people in the restaurant.

Lushoto has been the most relaxing place we’ve been to, and we stayed for 5 nights. It is a major town in the Usambara Mountains. The mountains themselves are like an island in the surrounding plains, which means there are a lot of endemic species here. Like 7 different species of chameleon. It’s the mountains, so it’s a lot cooler than on the plains. The days were usually overcast and around 70. The nights got quite cold, and Danielle actually used the blanket we bought in Arusha.

The main advertised activity for the Usambara Mountains is hiking. I wouldn’t say we hiked much, but we did some kind of walk every day. The first day we were joined by Jennifer from NYC on self-guided walk to Irente viewpoint. We just stuck to the road, and made it up without any difficulty. It was a very relaxing day, not being hounded by touts, and not having any kind of schedule to worry about. Many pictures were taken, and many “jambos” were exchanged with the locals. A few of the kids asked for pens or money, but by and large we were treated like anybody else. (The toddlers yelling jambo repeatedly and at the top of their lungs were very cute, though.) We also got to see some more of local dwellings, which seem to be about half sticks-and-mud, and half home-made brick. I get the impression that everybody builds there own house, regardless of which technique they use.

The viewpoint itself is very impressive. I didn’t crawl right to the edge, but it does go down very steep for maybe 2000 feet. Down below you can see some small farms, and further away you can see Mombo and some more industrial farm fields. To the side there are even taller sheer faces, lots of green. Some day you’ll be able to see the pictures (and even later, you’ll be able to see the movie I took).

The next day we went on a guided tour to a waterfall. It was great to walk on smaller paths but Bacardi, our guide from the Friends of Usambara, did not make it a relaxing experience. Some of the time he really was a great guide, answering all our questions about the local flora and fauna, and pointing out things. But for a lot of the walk, it felt like we were just tagging along on his personally walk. He’d be 20 yards ahead, keeping a faster pace than we’d like. He also sent us ahead a few times; once when he was giving the local kids our left-over lunch, and once when he was waiting for another kid to get him an ear of corn for dinner. And then we stopped at somebody’s house, where he had a 5-minute conversation in Swahili while we stood around waiting. But we did see a few chameleons. The waterfall was in a pretty spot, and we did learn quite a bit about local life. Overall though we decided it was too expensive for what we got, and we did not do another tour with this company.

Instead we walked south on the road one day, joined once again by Jennifer. Then on our last full day we walked up to Irente farm for a great lunch there. We feasted on whole wheat bread, quark, jam, butter, and cheese, all of which were made right there at the farm. On the way back we even tried a slightly different path which (as we’d assumed) also brought us back to Lushoto.

We’ve been getting a bit braver with food. The books say to only eat produce if it’s cooked or you peeled it yourself. We now always eat the little bits of vegetables that are routinely served with a meal. Often they’re thinly sliced bell pepper and tomato. On our guided tour we ate vegetables that were, before our very eyes, washed in the same stream that further up we’d seen people doing laundry in and, probably worse, had livestock grazing in the area. Then we’d also bought kumquats from the market and ate a pair without any washing at all. (The remaining ones we did wash pretty well.) They tasted very nice and tart, and were probably the best food deal we’ve had. In my stay there I also ate quite a few of the little fried things, which reminded me a lot of poffertjes but not nearly as sweet. All this is sold by women at the market in small stalls. Often they’ll only sell one or two different things. Another popular item they sell is charcoal, but I didn’t taste any of that.

You’ll notice I took a lot of pictures of bricks. Partly they’re quite common, but more importantly Danielle and I are reading a “brick book” she bought before we left on our trip. It describes how the curator of a museum of ancient brick travels the world to collect specimens for the museum. But it has me a lot more interested in brick, and everywhere you look in Tanzania, somebody is making them. On some buildings you can even see that each brick is marked with the maker’s initials. On our last day I saw a few smoke stacks where I believe they’re firing their bricks. I haven’t seen a brick tour yet, but if I do I’ll be jumping on it.

Another thing I enjoyed seeing is the local farm animals. Free range chickens are everywhere, and the corresponding roosters make themselves heard every morning (and throughout the day). You’ll even see the occasional chick here and there. It’s definitely neat to see chickens foraging for insects, like they were meant to. Most cows, on the other hand, are kept in very small pens and are fed elephant grass daily. You do see the occasional herd, but it appears to be not the rule. Goats are free range, and quite common. Our best goat moment came when a goat ran across the street, and scrambled under the barbed wire fence (the kind you use to keep goats in/out) to join the other goats. There are some dogs as well, although you never see anybody playing with them or taking them for walks. Apparently the main reason to keep a dog is that it keeps the monkeys (which we only saw a few of in one place) away.

We even saw some interesting wildlife at our hotel. One day, walking to breakfast, one of the gardeners was sweeping up a huge pile of dead bees. We never quite figured out what the story was, but we assume that overnight a whole colony of bees needed to move, and had decided some hole in our hotel was a good place. Unfortunately not all the bees were dead, and for days a few stragglers remained. One morning I even got bit by one on my ankle. It hurt pretty bad, but after about an hour and some home remedies based on our 1st aid book, it had pretty much gone away. We also saw half a dozen sun birds right outside our private patio on the clothes lines. They’re small birds with a big mohawk and an even bigger tail. They’re quite chatty, and at least sometimes feed by hanging off a plant and eating its flowers. At night we got to listen to a chorus of large frogs and crickets.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay in Lushoto. It was nice to see life in a small village. It was great to have a daily routine, which really helped us relax a bit. It definitely gave us some needed energy for the next leg of our trip, which is to Mombasa, Kenya.

So, I’m blogging. What’s going on at home? Andy had a baby, Crossfit Ventura is having a grand opening soon, and I got some news from my parents. Please leave me a comment or an e-mail and let me know what’s happening. How’s cheap/slacklining lunch? What is everybody up to?

Typed up: at Tumaini Hostel in Lushoto
Posted from: Internet cafe in Lushoto

The bus ride from Arusha to Moshi was only about 1 hour and pretty smooth. We arrived at a much smaller bus stand in Moshi, which is the town that people go to when they want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We just wanted to see the mountain, as well as relax in a smaller town than Arusha. Moshi feels about Carpinteria-sized, but with more hotels. We walked to our hostel, although we passed it at first because it has a different name (Kilimanjaro Backpackers Hostel) than what our book says (Da Costa Hotel), and I did not get this from the phone conversation.

The room was nice, and conveniently next to the shared restroom and showers. It was noisy, though. Combined with a sagging bed, we did not sleep as well as we would have hoped. We ate at the restaurant for lunch and the food wasn’t good. But we stayed the 2 nights we had booked. After our second night there, there wasn’t space for us to stay another night so we moved to the Kindoroko Hotel one block down. It cost twice as much, and was much nicer to stay at.

In Moshi we got some of our energy back to do touristy stuff, but both of us were basically out of commission for a day due to a head cold. We did make it up to the Kindoroko’s roof top bar every night to see how much we could see of the mountain that day (it’s often hidden by clouds), and to watch birds come into roost. We were pretty lucky to be able to see the mountain top most days, although we never got the postcard view with barely any clouds at all. There were always tons of swallows at dusk, while in a slightly far tree a lot of egrets settled for the night. In a different tree further away, a large group of ibises would rest. There were also lots of crows, plenty of hawks, a pair of horn bills once, and several unidentified flying animals. Oh, and bats once it gets really dark. It’s a nice and relaxing place. Even with a cold, you can ask for tea and they’ll happily bring it out.

Moshi has a very nice little market. It’s very stereotypical, with big piles of various legumes, spices, meat, fish, etc. I’m still getting comfortable with pictures, so you won’t be able to see much of it. I did get some more street scenes, as well as bus pictures. The few people I’ve asked for a picture declined. Also in these few days, we managed to mail home the tinga tinga painting I purchased in Arusha. It was pretty easy, but pretty pricey. $20 to send home a medium box that weighed a little over a pound. We also sent home my first notebook, and our mp3 players which we’ve never used. There’s just too much to see to need them.

As I said, we had some energy for touristy stuff. Specifically we took a tour to a coffee farm. We found a flyer at a coffee shop, called the number (go cell phone), and arranged to go “tomorrow.” Helpfully, the organizer texted us the name of the place we were supposed because I had written it down totally wrong. It was a bit interesting to show up at the bus stand, and say the name of a place which we had no idea where it was. But as always, we were pointed to the right bus (which was actually medium-sized) and we got on. We went out of town on the north end, on a dirt road which led through what appeared to be banana plantations. At one point we also passed a “real” church. It was made of brick, had a nice tower, stained glass windows and everything. We were a bit concerned that we did not know where to get off. Then the bus turned around, everybody got off, and people confirmed that this was indeed Timbirini.

We were met by Mike, who walked us through a small village over to the coffee farmer’s campsite called Kahawa Shamba. There Josephat told us a bit about the cultural program, and we had coffee. That marked the first cup of coffee I’d had in my life. It tasted fine. The program is a community tourism program. Farmers volunteer their time. People like us come and take tours. The money goes into a community pot, and the community decides what to do with it. In the 3 years the program has been running they’ve built a school, improved the road, and built a restaurant area for tourists.

Our actual tour was led by Felician, an old (56, above life expectancy) but spry coffee farmer. He led the two of us through another small village to a coffee farm. We just enjoyed walking, and seeing the small village side of Tanzania. It’s just a bunch of interconnected trails, with small plot farms scattered throughout. At the coffee farm we got to see all stages of coffee production. It’s a very small operation, where one family just manages a single plot. On this plot they plant coffee fairly spread out. The extra space is first used for banana trees. They provide shade for the coffee, and bananas. Then extra space is filled with beans and corn, for the farmer to eat. Around the edges, or in separate plots they plant elephant grass, which is used to feed the cattle they keep in a pen.

We got to pick a little coffee. Then we pulped it in the hand-operated pulping machine. That’s actually how it is done. Not some tourist gimmick. Then the beans are soaked in water for 2 days to remove the slimy covering. Then they’re dried until they’re good and hard. They did a here’s-one-we-prepared-earlier for us, and gave us what is the product that they actual sell to coffee buyers. But if the farmer wants coffee, he uses a big mortar and pestle to take the skin of the dried beans. These are then roasted in a ceramic pot on a cooking fire. Then they go back to the mortar and pestle to grind. Filter them. Grind the remains. Then toss it all in a pot of boiling water (over the same cooking fire). Cook for a few minutes, filter, and serve. So I had my second cup of coffee ever, still pretty good.

On the way back we got to taste banana beer, which is pretty good. I also attracted a lot of school children when I took a picture, which was fun (but only because we had a guide with us). We had a tasty lunch, and then we took the bus back to Moshi. We both had a great day.

We’d intended to leave Moshi on Saturday, but when the alarm rang early in the morning, we both rolled over and decided to stay another day. That was the day I was the most sick, and I spent a lot of time in bed. We did go out to buy a bus ticket for the 9am bus the next day. So the next day we were up bright and early to pack, eat, and make it to the bus. We got there at 8:50, but we were told we were too late. A little confusion later somebody told us there is no 9am bus to Lushoto. Luckily, all kinds of buses run all the time. So they shuffled some money, and we got a little bit of money back and ended up on a bus to Mombo.

This was a regular tour bus, but somebody had done a seat job on it so that instead of 2 seats to the left and 2 seats to the right of the aisle, there were 2 seats to the left and 3 seats to the right. But the ride was pleasant enough, and one of the attendants loudly announced Mombo when we got there. We were unsure of where exactly to get a bus to Lushoto, but a samosa salesman showed us to where the dala dalas were a few blocks away. There were two buses waiting, and people from each bus approached us trying to convince us to take their bus. One bus was larger, so we went for that one. It also had Barack Obama written on the back of it, and was loudly advertised as “Barack Obama bus.” While walking to that bus, the other (smaller) dala dala was trying to block our path by going back and forth on the road.

In the middle of all this, the samosa salesman was getting some money out of us. Danielle bought a way overpriced samosa by way of tipping, and independently I tipped the guy too much because I didn’t have any small bills. Then on the Obama bus we were charged 2.5 times the going rate. I didn’t know what it was supposed to cost, but I did know we were being asked for too much money. But once you’re on the bus, what are you going to do? Always check the price before getting on.

Typed up: at Kindoroko Hotel in Moshi
Posted from: Internet cafe in Lushoto

Our safari was really over when Walter and Peter dropped us off on Sunday, August 10, at Sakina Campsite. No vehicle breakdown could avoid that. The campsite is more of a hotel which allows camping on the lawn. It’s a clean, nice looking building with a small restaurant and comfy seating area. When we got there, and indeed for our entire stay until the 13th, we were the only guests.

We spent a fair amount of time talking to the staff, which was fun to get some local perspective on the world, as well as some more local info. Specifically, the Masai are allowed to live in Ngorongoro because they don’t farm, and thus don’t really modify the landscape much. We also learned a bit about local farm life, as well as of the history of the Iraqw people. Thanks, Elli! Zapporah, the owner of the hotel, also gave us some good information about travelling through Kenya. Our short term plan was now to visit the Usambara mountain region in Tanzania, go north to Mombasa in Kenya, then head west to Nairobi, and hopefully catch a bit of the wildebeest migration before flying to Egypt.

While a safari is physically pretty easy (sleep, eat, sit, eat, sit, eat, repeat) it does take quite a bit out of you just processing all the new stuff you see. So we’d decided to relax for a few days in Arusha before continuing on. In addition, we had some more things to buy. And of course we wanted to upload pictures and keep you guys informed about what we’ve been up to.

The first thing we had to do is to figure out how to use the dala-dala minibus that went from our hotel, which is a bit outside of Arusha, to the town itself. It’s actually really easy. Just wave at one as it passes by, get in, and then get out at the main bus stop. We paid 300 shillings each. Dala-dala rates are set by the government or something, so there’s no special foreigner-price. A dala-dala is basically a minivan with 5 rows of cramped seating. 4 people can fit on each of the back 2 rows, and 3 on each of the front ones. So you can seat 17 people, plus the driver. In addition there’s a guy standing in the doorway, looking out for more people who could get in. The fullest dala-dala we travelled in had 21 people, with 4 people (including us) standing.

Each dala-dala is brightly decorated. They all have some slogan on the front. Many are religious, either Christian or Muslim. Some seem totally random, like the Kobe (with basketballs instead of the o) one we saw. My favorite is the one that read “100% pure pain.” We did not get on that one. In general there are is a lot of western cultural imagery around, and I don’t know if the Africans know what it means. Like the guy wearing a Brian Urlacher jersey, or a random man wearing a Curves shirt. Similarly, some common phrases pop up but don’t seem used the way you’d expect. “House of Lubrications” stores are common, and I also saw a “House of Bikini.” You also see a lot of “Bolts and Nuts” stores.

I still don’t feel sure about taking pictures of all this, so there are very few. I’m worried about accidentally upsetting somebody, although this has not happened so far. Maybe by the end of this trip I’ll get over this, but for now this is the way it is. Generally people tell me that pictures of large scenes are fine, and pictures of individuals are fine as long as you ask. Some refuse, some ask for money, and some accept.

Over the course of a few days we learned our way around Arusha. We had a good map from the tourist information office, but unfortunately most streets do not have street names posted. Most of our navigation was based on which hotels we could see. One day we bought a blanket, in hindsight for no really good reason. It just felt like we might need one again, so now we’re lugging around this heavy blanket in a separate container. It’s not coming with us to Egypt, if it even makes it to Nairobi. We also purchased a cell phone for about $70, a sim card for $1.70 (we’re +255-787-543-992), and $8.50 worth of minutes. This is the way cell phones ought to work. No monthly plans with limits and overage charges. Just buy some scratch cards for minutes (available at several places every block) and fill up your phone. Changing carriers is cheap and easy, although you do lose your phone number.

We also revisited the Shoprite to get toilet paper, shampoo, and conditioner. A short while later we had all that stolen from us when we were at a touristy bakery with wireless Internet. Danielle had gone to use the rest rooms, and I was not paying attention to the bags that were hanging on her chair. When she got back, our shopping bag was gone. Luckily that’s all it was, and her purse was still there. Usually we’ve been more careful with our bags, but this place felt very safe. Now we’re properly paranoid. Bags go between the legs, and not on the backs of chairs. It was a cheap lesson. We replaced the stuff at a corner store for less money than it cost at Shoprite.

I did my first haggling in Arusha when I bought a tinga-tinga painting. The asking price was $50, and I mentioned that $30 might be more appropriate, and this was accepted. (Maybe I should’ve tried for $20, but baby steps…) At produce stands where we buy fruit, we still pretty much pay the mzungu (foreigner) price. It seems silly to complain that your 3 oranges cost 42 cents when you know they should cost less than half that because, after all, it’s just 42 cents.

When walking through the touristy part of Arusha (a few blocks around down town) we were constantly harassed by people trying to sell us safaris, tanzanite, tinga-tinga paintings, batik, taxis, and anything else people thing we might have bought. But as soon as we got outside that zone, the problem was virtually non-existent. We generally stayed away from the tourist area.

Another general observation, is that most people have their work shops on the street. Cell phone repair, sewing, painting, welding, it all happens in front of the store on the street. If you need to buy a stock item, you can walk into the store (or just talk to the person doing the work). At night everything is packed up inside the store when it is closed.

On our final night in Arusha we used our new cell phone to book 2 nights stay in Moshi. The next day we took the dala-dala to town, and walked to the main bus station. Finding the bus you need is easy. You just walk up to anybody (or they walk up to you) and you tell them where you’re going: “Moshi.” They’ll then walk you to the bus, or point you in the right direction. On our way to our bus we saw several soldiers (I think) carry a subconscious man off a bus and onto a pick up truck whose bed was already full of people. Apparently the crowd of onlookers got too close, because somebody got kicked in the legs, which created a lot of space for the soldiers. I have no idea what happened, but I was not unhappy when our temporary guide led us on to our bus.

We finally squeezed in a workout. AMRAP in 12 minutes of:
5 pull ups (on the bar holding up the clothes lines)
10 push ups
run to concrete pad and front gate and back (300m?)
Wow I’m out of shape. Did 5 rounds plus 7 push ups, and the last 2 rounds I had to go really slow on the pull ups to not throw up.

Typed up: at Sakina Campsite in Arusha, at Kilimanjaro Backpackers Hotel in Moshi
Posted from: random Internet place in Moshi

So after going to bed late at the Arusha Crown Hotel, we got up early so that we could hopefully notify the safari company that we were in a different place than they were going to pick us up from. We talk to the receptionist, and he said that if we went around the corner to buy him some minutes, we could use his phone. A porter went with us and it was all very smooth, except that nobody answered the phone number we called. Luckily the hotel was fancy enough to have Internet, so we found on the web page an after-hours phone number. That worked.

At ease that we would be picked up as planned, we went over to the breakfast buffet which was better than we’d had in a long time. There are some advantages to staying at a nice hotel. Anyway, 8:30 came and went, and no pick-up. I spent my time uploading one picture (Tanzanian Internet is not all that), and posting the Munich blog in the wrong part of the website. A little late, our guide and cook showed up to get us going on our safari. They had gotten word of our change of hotel pretty late, so they’d been looking for us at Sakina Campsite, where we had originally planned to stay.

We made a quick stop at Roy’s Safaris office to fill out some paperwork, which led to a good time because we still only have our health insurance info as a pair of scanned JPGs (thanks, Andy!) on our computer. That all out of the way, we stopped by the Shoprite (grocery store chain here, I don’t know if it’s related to the US one). There we bought 20L of water (since we would only get 1L per person per day on the safari). We also looked for a blanket without any luck. They sold mosquito nets, but our guide had said that we would not be needing them. We also quickly stopped into Woolworth’s to see if they sold blankets, but all they had was an expensive comforter.

So we drove off to safari. In the car we had the chance to get to know our hosts a little bit better. Walter was our guide. He’s been a guide for 7 years, 5 years with Roy’s. He likes the company because they have good vehicles. Peter was our cook. The car, like almost all safari vehicles, was a Toyota Land Cruiser. It was white, had 2 spare tires, plenty of clearance, and good tread on the tires. Some of the other companies ran tires that are nearly bald. The baldest tires I saw were being put on a regular bus that had broken down in the Serengeti. Our car also had a pop up top, which allowed us to stand up and get a clear 360 degree view of the surroundings.

Every day followed pretty much the following pattern. After waking up, we would eat breakfast that Peter prepared. This was typically some fruit, toast, an egg. Then some days we’d get pancakes (more like crepes than American pancakes), some others porridge. We also had hot beverages at every meal (tea, hot chocolate, or coffee). Then we’d hit the road for a game drive, which Peter usually did not get to go along. It was just Walter and us in the car. Then either a box lunch (sandwiches, fruit, something fried like samosa, cookies) or a hot lunch (pasta bolognese, curry, or something like that). Then we’d go on another game drive, and finally we would have dinner that Peter had spent the afternoon slaving away on. Dinner started off with soup, then a main dish which varied, and some fruit for dessert. (One day we got some kind of fried pastry for dessert, which was very nice too.) Then we’d pretty much go straight to bed. As you can see we did not starve. I think just about all the food was made fresh every day.

At night we slept in a tent that Walter and Peter would set up for us. The tent was a sturdy dome tent, with steel poles and real canvas. Inside we got to sleep on foam mattresses. Sadly we did not have sleeping bags, and without a blanket it could get pretty cold. After the first night we purchased a pair of Masai blankets to keep us warm, and they helped a lot. Still, at Ngorongoro crater it got cold at night. I slept wearing long underwear, pants, shirt, fleece, jacket, hat, hand warmers. Then I was in my silk sleeping sack, underneath my Masai blanket and towel. Danielle was similarly dressed.

Interestingly the campsites we stayed at had showers and flush toilets (no TP) by having a big water tank on the roof of the toilet building. The showers were cold, so we usually took them at our lunch break. At the campsite in Serengeti the water ran out while we were there, which didn’t make for a pretty site. But they had new water less than a day later.

So with all the boring stuff out of the way, I think I can now tell you about the actual game drives.

Oh, one more boring thing. We drove exclusively on dirt roads. And not just unpaved hardened roads. There were places where Walter decided to drive next to the road for a bit because that was better. This was mainly an issue in the Serengeti, which is a great plain criss crossed with unmarked dirt roads. It was fine while we were actually looking for animals because we’d go slow, but if we were going somewhere then the ride could get pretty bumpy.

We went to 3 different parks. On our first day we were in Lake Manyara National Park. It’s relatively small, going from thick forest to plains at the lake. Then we spent 4 days in the Serengeti, which is mostly plains with (at this time of year) brown grass. We did spend most of our time in the more interesting parts of the Serengeti, namely kopjes (rock formations), areas with trees, and water. Finally we spent a day at Ngorongoro crater, which is a giant crater of a volcano that erupted 2.5 million years ago. It is mostly plains, has a few salt lakes,

So, game drives. The first thing we saw were blue monkeys (maybe 20 inches of body) at Manyara. We saw more monkeys in that day than any other. We saw many baboons, in large troops. There were also vervet monkeys, and some other kind I don’t remember (but I think there is 1 picture). It’s really cool to see monkeys do actual foraging, and that’s really true for all the animals we saw. It’s great to see the actual natural behaviors and group sizes. In the zoo you can see what the animal looks like, but you get pretty much nothing of any food gathering behavior which is, after all, what takes up most of an animal’s time. (BTW, I nominate the picture on the left as the official baby Mackay picture, since it was taken on her birth day.)

We were lucky to see a lion sleeping in a tree in Manyara. This is something the local lions are known for, but don’t do much anymore. The lake used to be bigger than it is today, and the surrounding countryside was swampy. In that environment, the lions would often climb the trees to be dry. Anyway, we were lucky to see that. In the Serengeti we found some cubs just hiding in the tall grass, waiting for mom to come back. At zoos baby animals seem to be a rarity; something to be treasured. In the wild you see them everywhere. For just about every animal we’ve seen, there were many babies. We never saw the “traditional” lion view of a pride of lions hanging out under a few trees. The prides we saw were much more spread out. Also, they like to hang out in tall grass so while you might see one animal, there could be 5 others asleep, invisible.

We saw several lions stalking, but managed to miss the actual hunt. We were watching a lion stalking maybe 3 meters from the car. It went along a ditch a bit away from us when we heard the lions half a mile away had made a kill. So we went to check it out, but it wasn’t very visible from the road. Then we heard that one of the lions we had been watching had caught a warthog, so we went back there. The male came over for that kill, and just carried the whole pig in his mouth. Several cubs pestered him for a bite, but he rebuffed them several times. Walter says warthog is the sweetest tasting animal, and the lions really like it.

Another time we were driving along, and saw a female lion with two cubs walking across the plain, and then breaking into a run. They stopped just a couple meters from a road, where we saw them again. They were behind a bush so we couldn’t see much, but we could definitely hear them tear a carcass apart. Presumably the mom had made a kill, and then went to fetch her two cubs so they could eat.

We saw a lot of elephants, which have become my favorite animal. Even more than most animals, they ignore the cars, and it’s awesome to see a family group amble on by, or just listen to them crunching up trees as they strip off the bark. Early on a big bull elephant blocked the road for quite a while. Eventually several of the safari drivers decide to “chase” it off by getting the cars 3 in a row, inching towards the elephant, and revving the engine. The elephant did leave, but I did not get the impression it was because of the cars. Then later we saw larger groups of elephants, including several calves. I am amazed at how many of these large animals we saw. From TV you really don’t get a feeling for how frequently you see them (and most other animals).

We saw many other grazers as well, even though the majority of them have migrated north. (We are contemplating trying to catch the migration in Kenya. We’ll see if that pans out.) We saw many gazelle, who don’t migrate. They’re everywhere. Then on the Serengeti we saw some small groups of zebra and wildebeest that had missed the migration. Apparently they’re all going to be lion food before the migration returns. In Ngorongoro crater we did see large herds of those 2 animals, because there is enough food/water available there year round.

We managed to see a few rare animals. Walter got a cell phone call, and just said that somebody had seen “something.” By the way he was driving we figured it must be something pretty special. It was a leopard in a tree, but it was so far away that I couldn’t even make it out in the binoculars. (There’s a picture, but I doubt you can see it there either.) Then we got a better view point where you can just make out a cat silhouette sitting in a tree. But we were lucky, and later that same day we saw another leopard. This one was much closer, so that with the help of binoculars we were able to recognize it as a leopard, spots on yellow coat and all.

At one point we saw two cheetahs sitting under a tree. They were also pretty far away. Watching cats relax isn’t very exciting, so we did not spend much time there. Finally we saw a black rhino in Ngorongoro park. To give you an idea of how rare that is, there are 30 of these shy animals in the crater, which is about 250 square kilometers in size. Being shy, the rhino was really far away, though. There is a somewhat high res movie of the beast where maybe you can make out that the little black line is a rhino. I don’t feel like I saw a rhino at all, and only barely that I saw a leopard, but now we have at least technically seen the “big 5.”

We saw several animals that we weren’t expecting to see. That’s probably down to us not doing a lot of research, but they were welcome surprises. The biggest surprise was the amount of hippos we saw. They are cool to watch, cooling down in the pools. The first night at Manyara they were even making their deep, laughing calls to one another. I didn’t know we were going to see ostriches, but we saw quite a few of them. Fun fact: males, who are black, sit on the eggs at night while females, who are gray-brown, sit on the eggs during the day. I also really enjoyed watching the secretary birds high step through the grass looking for various reptiles.

There were a ton of birds in general. Danielle is much better with those than me, but I enjoyed watching their pretty colors, as well as the raptors. In one place we saw a nest with 2 eagles and 2 chicks. Then one eagle took off and it was great to watch it gain altitude without flapping its wings once. We also saw shrikes, which are the birds that pin baby birds to acacia trees and then later eat them. (We did not see that actually happening, though.) There was the bastard bird, which is the largest flying bird (30 lbs). Several kinds of vultures up in trees, of course.

We saw some smaller critters, like large groups of hyrax climbing acacia trees. There were 3 kinds of mongoose, including one huge group of banded mongoose. I always thought dik dik lived in South American rain forest, but apparently they’re right here in Africa. We certainly saw several. We saw one mouse. In the Serengeti there’s a very colorful Agawa (?) lizard. The few lizards we’ve seen here are much more active (and bigger) than the ones we have at home.

On our way from Serengeti to Ngorongoro we stop by Olduvai Gorge. There is a small museum with an interesting exhibit about the place, along with a nice collection of bones and early human tools to look at. A docent then explains it all to you, pointing out various features of the canyon. This is where they’ve found remains of Homo Australiensis, Homo Habilis, and Homo Sapiens. Just 25km away is the site where they found the famous footprints made by humans 3.6 million years ago.

To all of you at home, sitting on a pile of money, let me tell you, come to Africa and do a safari. And if you are, here are my safari tips:
1. Bring plenty of extra water.
2. Bring your own toilet paper.
3. Bring 1 pair of binoculars per person, they’re not that expensive if you consider your plain ticket and safari cost.
4. If you want pictures, bring a telephoto lens.

We were very happy with Roy’s Safaris. Peter was always friendly and a great cook. Walter was a great guide, and could answer just about every question we had about the animals. Only sometimes did he have to refer to his bird book to ID a bird.

Equipment rave, our binoculars are great. The only thing better would be to have 2 pairs. We’ve used them to look at foxes at home, church towers in Europe, and now at animals in Africa. They’re light weight, compact, and sturdy. They are Nikon ProStaff 10×25. I think we paid about $150.

No workouts this week. Safari is only marginally healthier than being a couch potato. You sit on your butt and get fed good food.

Pictures are still uploading (not in order), but most of them are there now.

Just a quick note about pictures. Safari pictures are uploading as we speak. Because Internet is slow here, they’ll be low quality for now. Hopefully when we get some fast Internet I’ll be able to upload higher resolution versions. And with some luck we won’t run out of flash cards before then.

Typed up: on the bus from Dar es Salaam to Arusha, at Sakina Campsite in Arusha
Posted from: Cybernet Internet Cafe in Arusha

Thursday evening (July 31) we took the U-bahn to the S-bahn to Munich’s international airport. The airport is great. It’s only 5 years old, so doesn’t have any of the shops-are-on-the-other-side-of-security problems that some US airports have. Also, because Lufthansa is on strike, it was pretty quiet and we breezed through security.

We did stand in line for a bit at Qatar Airways to get our boarding passes. When we told them we did not have a departing flight from Tanzania that caused another slight fuss and a manager had to be called over. But they agreed to take us on anyway. Technically Tanzania requires proof of onward travel before they let you into the country. From what I’ve read, if they ask about it, you can just buy a refundable plane ticket on the spot and then get your refund once you’re inside. However, I didn’t want to do that unless we had to. Qatar Airways did make us check our bags, which were just a few kg over the 7kg weight limit.

Since we had been up all day in Munich (where it was pretty hot), we were feeling pretty stinky. So we spent some euros on baby wipes and freshened up. I even washed the shirt I was wearing, and with fancy quick dry fabric it was all dry (except for the collar) by the time we got on the airplane a few hours later. We also used this time to acquire two $50 bills, which the guidebook says we would need for Tanzanian visas.

The plane flight was as good as we could hope for. We had personal video screens, more flight attendants than on other flights, and tasty Hindu food. If you have the dough, Qatar Airways is the way to go. I’m not sure why they were the cheapest airline when I was looking for flights. Presumably all the really cheap flights had filled up already. Anyway, they got us to Doha in good time. We arrived in Doha at 6am, and it was already over 90F. No wonder nobody lives there.

We spent a little over an hour in the airport there. Enough to take a look at the expensive wares the stores sold and not buy anything. There were lots of expensive European brands represented: Mont Blanc, Swarovski, Gucci, … We also saw separate doors for men’s and women’s prayer rooms. The crowd wasn’t as colorful as you might imagine. The majority appeared to be western tourists, although there certainly was no shortage of Arabs in full gear. (I’m not trying to be flip here, I really don’t know what the Arab dress is called.)

From Doha we flew into Dar Es Salaam. Herberth, who sat next to us on the plane, taught us a little bit more Swahili. The sounds are very foreign which makes it hard to remember words, but the pronunciation is fairly straightforward. And as always, I don’t spend enough time studying. Anyway, we landed in Dar and took a bus to the main terminal. To our surprise it didn’t feel very hot, just warm and a bit humid.

At the terminal we filled out Visa papers, and then made the unhappy discovery that the visa for US citizens costs $100 and not $50. All we had is $100 and some euros. We explained this to the immigration officer, and it was no problem. She called somebody over to escort me to the money changing place in “real” Tanzania. I changed my euros, and everything is fine. (We do actually have some emergency money hidden in various places, but I hope never to have to use that.) On the form we just said that we’re planning to travel to Malawi by train/bus, and nobody complained about lack of onward travel plans. As expected, Tanzania is happy to have rich American tourists come visit them.

Once we picked up our luggage we went in search of an ATM, because we have just a few shillings which might not be enough for a cab right. The ATM outside the airport was broken, though. We looked for another one, and ran into a taxi driver who said he’d help us. This reeked of rip off, but we were tired and went along with it. His car was parked in the official taxis-only section of the car park, so we assumed it was safe.

He drove us to an ATM at a nearby gas station, where my card didn’t work but Danielle’s did. Afterwards he drove us to the hotel, and we paid 27,000 shillings ($25) for the privilege. Apparently the going rate after you haggle a little is more like 10k. Driving through Dar, it was clear the people here are poor. There are lots of shacks, and lots of people on the street. Traffic is relatively light. There are quite a few very full carts that are pushed by one or two people. Lots of people carry stuff on their heads. It is hard to describe the scene, since everything is so different from what we’re used to at home.

Our hotel was the Econolodge, a little bit outside the center of the city. It’s down a dirt alley where people work on cars. There are no jacks or lifts or anything. Just some people working on cars along the side of the ally. Inside is a dark but clean lobby, and we had no problem checking in in English. They even let us in our room without paying first. When went to our room, a small army of housekeepers was cleaning every floor with a mop and broom. No vacuums or any power tools were used at all.

We then walked to a near-by (1 block) ATM to get the required money, which was pretty straightforward. (In Tanzanian shillings, we were millionaires.) Afterwards we returned to the hotel for a nap. We woke up early enough for an early dinner. This was important to us because the guidebook told us not to walk around after dark in Dar es Salaam. It also said not to take out your camera, and in general to leave all your valuables in your hotel room. This was reinforced by signs inside the hotel which said to leave your valuables at the front desk, and to lock your clothes in the closets. The locks on the closets, however, were broken.

For dinner we went to Chef’s, a restaurant mentioned in the guide book. It was pretty busy, reasonably priced, and the food was decent. We did not eat anything too exotic, but my chicken masala did have chicken parts in them that you wouldn’t usually find in such a dish in the US.

The next day was a day for errands. First on the list was to buy bus tickets that would take us to Arusha. We took a cab to the Scandinavian bus terminal, where you can buy tickets for the “fancy” bus. Fancy means it has air conditioning, and there’s one ticket sold per seat. Luckily the bus was not full, and buying tickets was easy. The cab waited for us and we returned to the hotel, and he also offered to drive us again to make it to the bus the following morning. (Another thing the guidebook says is not to take just any cab. Ask your hotel to arrange one; which we did, so the porter’s friend was our cabbie.) I think we only over-paid a little bit for this cab ride.

Next we went to organize a place to stay for the night in Arusha. We decided to call some places, which entailed going to the post office to buy a phone card. We must have tried at least half an hour to make a call using that card, and we had help from a few people, but we were unsuccessful. We decided to ask our hotel concierge because their English is better. They also didn’t know how to make it work, despite some help from friendly strangers there as well. They did let us make a call from their office phone. We called a hotel that was sadly full for the night. We didn’t want to impose anymore, so we went to an Internet cafe associated with a different hotel in Dar es Salaam. There it was no problem to plug my laptop into an Ethernet cable. Internet was quite intermittent and slow, though. However, we managed to make a reservation through hostelz with Sakina Campsite.

We declared victory and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant we passed. The food was very nice. Afterwards we bought some oranges and small bananas from a street vendor so we would have something to eat on the 10-hour bus ride tomorrow. Our final chores were to buy a nice blanket and a mosquito net for our safari. However, the hotel staff informed us that on Saturday afternoon all the stores were closed. We were very concerned about not having a mosquito net, but all we could think to do was to e-mail our safari company and ask them if they could help us get one. Internet was down, but after about 10 minutes of waiting it came back.

After another nap, we returned to the Chinese place for dinner. It got dark while we were there, and inside we strategized on how to get back to our hotel. Taking a cab seemed excessive because it’s only a couple of blocks, plus the book says not to take a random cab. But it also says not to walk around at night. In the end we decided that walking would be fine. We stuck to the busy streets, and felt perfectly safe.

Still, we were both feeling very overwhelmed on our second day in Africa. For me the constant worry about security was really draining. On top of that we also had to think about water (since you cannot drink the tap water here), deal with most people speaking a foreign language (although almost everybody can speak passable English). And we were still tired from the red-eye flight.

We slept soundly and got up too early. Right at 7 we were at the hotel breakfast room for the free breakfast. This consisted of some fruit, tea, and toast. The cab driver showed up at 7:30 as promised, so we were early at the bus station for our 8:30 bus to Arusha. The bus left a little late, but it was pretty nice. It was pretty much a standard tour bus. We had assigned seating, and Danielle and I sat across the aisle from each other. My window person never showed up, though, so Danielle took that seat. This worked out especially well because the woman sitting next to Danielle had a child on her lap which could now have Danielle’s seat.

Because the guidebook says not to take out your camera in Dar, I hadn’t taken any pictures of the city so far. The first pictures of Africans you will see are taken from the bus as we drove through the city. Driving we got to see what I suppose is the Dar es Salaam suburbs. Really it looked like a lot of people live within half a mile of the main road in small shacks (some made out of cement bricks, others out of less sturdy material). A lot of stuff is transported by man-power, either on heads, bicycles, or hand carts. There was still no shortage of trucks presumably carrying goods as well.

As we left Dar the scenery changed to include small farm plots and roaming cattle. Meanwhile the dwellings started to look more like sticks-and-mud huts than the cement block structures closer to the center of the city. Then a little bit later we started to see distinct tiny villages, separated by a mile or two of countryside. The countryside consisted of slightly rolling hills, brown grass, and many trees.

Then the bus broke down.

People were commenting on how slow the bus was going, when we pulled into the dirt next to a gas station. (Throughout the ride, the road was paved but driveways weren’t.) We were told a transmission cable broke and that it would take 2 hours for a replacement to come here. It was a nice place to break down. Next to the gas station was a large out-doors but covered restaurant. There were rest rooms, and I got to see my first real wildlife. Above the path to the rest rooms were 3 large spiders, each in their own web. The body was about an inch long, and including the legs each spider was 3 or 4 inches in size. I didn’t even notice them until Danielle pointed them out to me. On a happier note, I saw a gecko clinging to the tile inside the toilet.

Anyway, we ate and drank some at the adjoining restaurant. Our waiter was Chevi (Chebi?) who also owns the place. He was very friendly, taught us some more Swahili, and served up some really excellent lemonade. He called it lemon juice, but it was nice and tart. Much better than the sweet stuff we get at home. To pass the time, I also played a bit of harmonica for the first time in a while. Nobody told me to be quiet so it must have been alright, and it was quite fun.

After about 4 hours the part arrived from Dar es Salaam, and the fixing of the bus could begin. This took about another hour, so 5 hours delayed, we continued. The 5 hours were actually really pleasant, relaxing in the Tanzania countryside. We drove on, and even though this bus did come equipped with a toilet, we took a timely rest room break somewhere later. While Danielle and I were admiring a tree full of weaver birds and their nests, the bus honked indicating it was ready to leave. Even with that warning, some people didn’t quite make it, and the passengers had to shout a bit to prevent the bus from leaving without everybody on board.

The in-bus movies were Ong Bak, and a drama in Swahili about a pastor who is possessed, and somehow black magic came into it too. While on the bus we met several people. The first was Josh, who sat behind us and is travelling from England. At the same time we met Sheila, who sat next to Josh and spends a lot of time in Africa. She answered some questions about local customs, especially related to money. It seems Josh paid even more than we did for the cab from the airport, and Sheila told us firmly to never get in a cab without establishing a price first. She asked us what we’d paid for several things, and told us to haggle for just about everything. She had stayed at the Econolodge as well, and showed us a receipt where she paid much less than the posted rate. The lady who was sitting next to Danielle was Nema, who we also talked to a little bit.

Sakina Camp is a way outside of the center of Arusha, and as it was getting later, we were trying to figure out how to get there. Arusha is as dangerous or more so than Dar, so we wanted to make sure to have a plan as soon as we got off the bus. We borrowed Nema’s cell phone to try and call Sakina, but for some reason the call did not go through. Not knowing the local area, we decided to just go to the hotel that Josh had a reservation at, and see what happened. That hotel looked really close to the bus station on the map, so getting there didn’t seem so daunting. Clive didn’t have a place to stay either, so he planned to do the same.

Around 12:30am we arrived at the bus stop in Arusha. Nema organized for a cab for the 4 of us to follow her car (which was full). She also negotiated a locals-price for the service. I think the cabbie didn’t like that, because instead of following Nema’s car he just took off and raced to the designated hotel. At the hotel, after some confusion with the receptionist, Clive got a private room while Danielle and I got a double, and Josh got the private room he had booked. During the check-in process Nema’s brother stopped by to make sure everything was OK. Tanzanian people are very friendly.

That’s how we ended up at the Arusha Crown Hotel, which is certainly out of our budget ($75 for the night), but was worth it for the safety and peace of mind. The stairway had cool ironwork and the railing was made out of very nice wood. We had a private bathroom with a clean, western toilet (with tp), and even a TV in our room. The beds were good, but neither of us slept very well. There was just too much going through our minds.

Somehow this got posted as a “page” before. Here it is where it is supposed to be:

Typed up: on the bus from Dar es Salaam to Arusha
Posted from: Arusha Crown Hotel, Arusha, Dar es Salaam

We didn’t have nearly enough time in Munich. After the bus ride and busy weekend, we were still quite tired when we arrived on Sunday night. So most of our days we decided to just take it easy. We didn’t do a very good job at it, though. Monday was OK, with just a little wandering around the Marienplatz, climbing the church, and heading back. While heading back we stopped to get my hair cut. This was very easy. (12mm on the top, 9mm on the sides, and 6mm for the beard. I can say numbers, “millimeter,” and point.)

Earlier that day we had some language fun when I attempted to get a pill to help my digestive system a bit. Our travel medicine book says I needed stool softener, which Google told me is “Hocker Weichspueler.” Apparently not, because when I asked for that at the pharmacy the lady asked if it was for laundry. So I did a little mime and she figured it out. She presented several options, and we picked one and got a little bottle of pills for less than 3 euros. That night I took one of the pills, and ever since I’ve been better. I still don’t feel quite as good as I do at home, though.

On Tuesday we went to visit castle Neuschwanstein. This castle was built in the late 1800s by Ludwig II, who was later removed from power because he spent money too quickly. It is also a long way from Munich. We took a guided tour because we were tired and didn’t feel like figuring out the train and bus dance ourselves. Also, I’d just checked our balance and we somehow still have money. (As an aside, we’re so over budget in Europe that I’m afraid to see how much we’ve actually spent. Luckily we still have some last paycheck money to buffer it.)

So we took the 2 hour train ride, followed by 10 minutes on the bus. Then we wandered around just the minimum to see the lake and the “yellow castle” only to get in line for another bus. (Our guide strongly recommended taking the bus up instead of walking. It was hot and sunny, we were tired, it was probably the right thing for us to do.) Waiting involved standing in the sun for about 20 minutes, but then the bus brought us to the top fairly quickly. Quick view of the bridge. Walk down to the castle with a quick stop at another view point.

Then we waited a little bit until it was our appointed time to go inside. So far, the views and area here had been nice, but so overrun with tourists that I hadn’t been enjoying it. It mostly felt like we’d been travelling since the tour started in Munich at 5 hours ago. Because there are so many tourists, every 5 minutes they let in exactly 50 into the castle.

As 1 of those 50, the buzzer sounded and we went in. The outside of the castle is pretty nice, but fairly plain. There is not a lot to look at. The inside on the other hand is as decorated as can be. Just about every wall surface is painted with very nice murals. The ceilings are similarly painted. There are (of course) paintings on the wall too. And there is a lot of nicely carved wood. Some of it is panelling, other parts are furniture. The castle guide (who is not the guide who took us down here) made a few quick comments in each of the 5 or so rooms we stopped in, and then herded us along to the next one.

It’s really too bad we had to go at such a hurried pace, because you could easily spend an hour in each room and not see it all. The throne room has a gorgeous chandelier made to look like a crown, as well as a gold plated dome. Note that gold was not used that much in this castle, which makes it feel somehow understated but no less ornate. In the floor is a beautiful mosaic. The bedroom has a super fancy bed in it, with tiny churches and castles carved on the top of it. The interior is awesome.

Having said that, it was not worth the all day trip. We only spent about 35 minutes in the “good bit” of the castle. And then we were at the exit, which forces you to force through two different souvenir shops before you actually get out of the castle. There are some nice bathrooms, though. Afterwards, we walked down the hill with a long stop at what seems to be the only water fountain in Germany.

Then on Wednesday we saw the glockenspiel at the Marienplatz, as well as some of the buildings around Odeonsplatz. Especially the church in the latter is gorgeous. The outside looks fairly plain, but the inside has tons of fine detail. There are great sculptures, it is very light, and the alcoves are individually wonderful to see. I think this church is the prettiest we’ve seen yet, although it is not as imposing as the one in Rheims because it isn’t as high inside.

On Thursday all we managed to see was a quick run through the English Garden, which does look like a very nice place. Lots of Germans hanging out, some street musicians, sun bathers, frisbee, and so forth.

Most of the week we stayed at the Easy Palace hostel. The first 2 nights in a 6-person mixed room. It was a nice place. There was cheap wifi available (2 euro per day), everything was clean, and it was pretty quiet. On Tuesday night, after our visit to Neuschwanstein, we attempted to hook up with our couchsurfing host Max. However, due to him being very busy, and us not calling him exactly when we said we would, that didn’t quite happen. We didn’t get hold of him until after dinner, when he gave us directions to his friend’s dorm room which he had left unlocked for us.

Unfortunately, like he warned us, the bed was tiny. It’s just a 1-person college bed, and we barely fit on it. What he had not mentioned was how dirty the room was. This room hadn’t been swept or vacuumed in months. Given all that, we slept surprisingly well. In the morning, however, we decided that we needed more restful sleep. After some Internet research, we just returned to Easy Palace where we splurged on a 2-person private room and promptly took a nap. And went to bed early, too. Note that Max later fully redeemed himself when we met him. He’s a great guy and in the 30 minutes he could fit us in he taught us more local history than we have otherwise learned in our entire stay in Munich.

A lot of our time in Munich was spent doing errands, uploading pictures, and writing blog posts. We had to buy some random things (like sunscreen, and inflatable neck pillows). One of the more important things we did was go to the post office. Andy had kindly mailed us our stimulus check and insurance cards to the main post office in Munich, “postlagernd”. The idea is the post office holds onto the package and you come and pick it up. But apparently USPS now lets FedEx do the overseas delivery, and FedEx doesn’t know about the German mail system, or something. At any rate, even though we paid extra money to have the package be there on Tuesday, it was not there on Thursday when we left Munich.

A more interesting errand was to download and print out some Lonely Planet information about Tanzania. You can go to their website and download (for a couple of dollars each) chapters from their guidebooks, which you can then copy to a flash card, which in turn you take to your friendly neighborhood copy ship where they will print it for you, double-sided in black and white, for a few more euros. So without going to the ends of the earth to find the books that we wanted, we ended up with a lot of good information about the parts of Tanzania that we’re going to first, as well as a small Swahili phrase book.

I want to rave a little bit about my little laptop. It’s really very useful to write blogs where there’s no Internet and later upload them. Ditto for e-mail. And pictures. Also, using Skype when there is Internet we have made a few calls to the US with pretty good success.

As for working out, we have totally fallen off the wagon. I’m not sure when our previous workout was, but we finally did one on Thursday morning (July 31):
8 rounds of:
20s move pack to top bunk (1), move pack to bottom bunk (1), 10s rest
20s squat, 10s rest
20s push up, 10s rest
20s sit up, 10s rest
My total score was 375.

Final verdict about Munich: there is soo much to see and do here. We didn’t even scratch the surface, but everywhere we look there are more things we’d like to check out. Some examples are the Residence, the zoo, some music events, Dachau, and so on. If Munich was in the US I would really consider moving there.