South Africa Tour: Days 1 & 2 (Johannesburg to Balule)

We spent 2 nights in Johannesburg (or Jo'Burg as the locals call it) and the night before our trek began we met some other people in the lodge bar who would be on the trip with us. It turns out there are 8 of us total - a father (Andy) and 2 sons (Johann and Seb) from the U.K., a Spanish gal (Alex), a German-Swiss mother (Brigitte) & daughter (Sonja) and us. We would be led by Lize and Pietrie (who was on his last tour as a guide). We got our instructions for the 6:00 am breakfast call and went to bed.

Everyone was excited getting up and we started chatting about where we were from, etc. We had a long drive that day (12+ hours) so we got right to it. I was excited to see animals, but for the first 3/4 of the day we didn't see anything except cows on the highway. We stopped for lunch in Pilgrim's Rest, a former gold rush town - and immediately I went for the postcard stand. AJ told me to relax but I wouldn't listen. I act the same when I go to Disneyland. After lunch we headed to Bourke's Luck Potholes where TONS of school children were visiting this natural wonder. They were messing around and thought it was hilarious when one of their schoolmates fell into the water.

After walking around we headed back for the truck and almost all of the school children we passed on the trail said "hello" to us. And not in the "hello (I want money)" way we had become so used to on the trip. But just "hello (I'm being friendly)"! We also had our first monkey sighting there!!

From there it was on to Blyde River Canyon, the third largest Canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. A quick stop to take in the beautiful view and take some pictures. At about 7 p.m. we finally made it Balule at our first campsite, the Bushveldt Camp. We would be spending two nights here in suped-up tents with a deck. It as completely in a wild game reserve with no fences - so that meant no walking around in the middle of the night. Apparantly a few days before we arrived an elephant came to drink out of the pool during the night! There was a watering hole that had a light on it for night viewing, and we saw some Kudu drinking from it. After a meaty bbq of lamb and beef we chatted around the campfire and commented on how many stars there were before heading to bed.

Day 2 started with a breakfast show by some local monkeys who had been chased out of the outdoor kitchen and were eagerly awaiting our leave so they could check for scraps. We were heading on a game walk into the bush where we could at any moment come upon animals, including the Big Five (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino). We asked why they were called the Big Five and Lize said that they are the deadliest animals if you don't kill them with your first shot. Great, and we're not carrying a gun? I wanted to stay the middle of the group. Well, we lucked out (or did we?) and didn't see anything larger than a bird, although a game driver came by to say there were lions nearby. But we learned all about dung, the different types, how to tell between male and female giraffe dung, how you can squeeze water out of fresh elephant dung if you are about to die of dehydration (that's the only way I would do it), and also how elephant dung was smoked by bushmen to get high. The elephants ate marijuana that grew naturally and I guess they didn't realize you could just smoke the plant and not the poop!! We also learned about termites, ant lions and even tried to coax a Baboon Spider out of its nest (think Tarantual on steroids - thank GOD it didn't come out).

After our walk we took a nap and met up for our afternoon/evening game drive - this is where the real fun would begin. The guides would report sightings through a central PA system so it would allow everyone to get the best chance of a sighting. Our guide tried to keep it real by saying that while all Big Five were in the reserve you never know what you're going to see. Sometimes you'll see all five in a day, other times you'll be there weeks and never see all five. But you know we all were expecting the best. The first thing we saw was a herd of elephants. We weren't too close, we were actually across a dry river bed but it was still amazing. There's just something that stirs inside you when you see something in its wild habitat that you don't get when you're in a zoo. We watched in silence for about 10-15 minutes. The only sound you could hear was them eating. We kept driving and came across giraffe, impala, zebra, and pheasant. We would be heading for a break at another camp for "sundowners" (African Happy Hour) before driving back in the dark to see if we could find some nocturnal dwellers. On the way we came across the herd of elephants again, although this time they were all around us. Including the road we were on and there wasn't anything to do but watch. Which was awesome until one of the males was getting a little ancy. Our guide starts telling us about charging, and mock-charging, and how the elephant could turn our truck over and easily stomp us all to death. Meanwhile this male is about 15 feet away from me not looking very pleased. I keep looking in front to see when the young female is going to get her butt off the road and she's busy taking her time eating. Finally the male decides to walk away - apparantly we only received a mock-charge (he was wiggling his ears so apparantly that means, "I'm kidding"). All our hearts were racing a bit but it was cool because we lived.

Now it was time for a beer. After sundowners we worked our way back to camp with the strong hope of seeing a leopard, lion, or cheetah making a kill but managed only some more impala trying to avoid being dinner and a rabbit that kept running on the road in front of us for about 5 minutes instead of just running into the bush. Just before camp we came across a Civet Cat. At camp we were still reeling from our elephant experience while we enjoyed dinner.

Dubai

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to write about Dubai. Looking back, we came at the totally wrong time. The wrong season (many things were closed because it's the low tourist season due to the heat) and the wrong year altogether.

As we've all seen on The Discovery Channel, there is a lot of development going on in Dubai. But essentially nothing is finished. The Palm Islands are not accessible, many of the huge buildings are just getting started. So there is really nothing to do except hang out at hotels and shop. Since our backpacks already runneth over, there simply isn't room to pick up anything else.

The highlight was going to the indoor skiing area in one of the malls. Neither of us ski, but it was so fun being surrounded by people who had never seen snow in their entire lives. They were losing their minds!

Anyone who's thinking about it - feel free to skip it for now.

Beijing Olympics

Of all the places we were excited about on our trip, we were so pumped to attend the Olympics in Beijing!

Although I had been there before, the city was transformed for this event. I was accustomed to terrible air quality, dirty streets and lots of hassling in tourist areas -- they were all gone. The traffic was terrific (no one was allowed to drive) and everywhere we went was clean and hassle-free! I don't know if the government killed all the trouble makers or just temporarily relocated them, but it was terrific.

It was a poor time, however, to sightsee in the city. We were able to catch The Great Wall before the games, but found that most other places of importance were closed or severely restricted (or closed for private viewings for dignitaries).

But it was the games we were there for after all, so we didn't mind! We originally had tickets to gymnastics, archery and handball. We ended up selling the archery and handball and buying weightlifting instead. Gymnastics was great to watch, if not a little difficult. Watching on TV spoils you -- you miss all the crappy people and get a nice close-up shot of the good stuff. Watching live takes some getting used to. Everything happens simultaneously and you really have to pick what you watch and what to sacrifice. We were constantly going "floor," "look at beam!" and "holy cow that guy has big muscles!" ... sorry, but it's true.

We also watched the US women's team totally melt down during the team prelims, but not without a lot of screaming and cheering on our part (some news articles even mentioned our rowdy section.) That coupled with China's cheating lead to a silver. :(

Weightlifting was very fun to watch - women's no less. You get to sit very close and it's very intense. The gold wasn't decided until the very last lift and the crowd went nuts. We also get to see the medal ceremony which was neat.

The bad side -- the food! I guess McDonald's has an exclusive contract to provide food in the Olympic villiage so there was one, and only one place to eat -- Mc'Ds. Having nothing but fast food while watching the best athletics in the world is an odd experience.

In the future, we'd like to attend more Olympics, but Beijing will always be our first.

Allah says, take two steps forward ...

Islam is a topic that I (or maybe all of us from the US) try to avoid. I will admit I have only a basic understanding of their beliefs and history, most of which I find interesting and disturbing. I am no fan of any organized religion, but my heart really breaks for the women of Islam.

We were intrigued by the various levels of covering required for women. Most at least covered their heads and wore loose fitting robes to hide their figures. The next group wore all black (I'm sure that is delightful in the hot sun) and only had a slit for their eyes. The last group bothered me the most - absolutely nothing was shown. Their eyes were guarded by a mesh screen and also wore long black gloves.

The only time I almost lost my cool was while we were staying by the pool at the hotel. We had some free time our last day, and decided to actually enjoy the sun for a change. Other families joined us, an interesting mix of locals and Westerners. One particular woman emerged through the hotel doors loaded down with all her family's pool supplies (I have no idea how she saw where she was going). Her husband promptly stripped down to a speedo and lounged in a chair barking orders at his black-clad wife as she ran to fetch food, drinks, take care of their child and essentially act like a servant. All the while she ran around the pool in 100+ degree heat wearing all black and not a inch of skin showing.

I later read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, which fictionally details the lives of women in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, which was simply heart wrenching. I find it so interesting that in most major religions, "God" (be it Christ, Allah or Tom Cruise) sure seems to have it out for the ladies. They either have to honor and obey, or cover their whole bodies or maybe have their genitals mutilated -- all because God commands it. Too bad all the Gods are dudes, huh? If there were chick Gods, you know guys would be the ones dealing with periods, childbirth and menopause ...

Cairo

Nothing in life is for free - and this lesson is constantly by spending time in Egypt. Our first day out, we were simply amazed at how friendly the people were. As we waited for our guide to pick up our tickets, one of the was waving to us and posing for pictures - pretending to mow down a group of people with his machine gun no less (oddly, AC didn't actually get the picture). When we tried to leave, then came the outstretched hand asking for his "fee" for voluntarily posing for the picture we never really asked for. We obliged, and it was the first of many.

This made taking pictures anywhere very difficult in Cairo. You can try to pose and the next thing you know you have a smelly stranger with their arm wrapped around your shoulders gumming for the camera. Do you still take the picture? Do you shoo him away and try again (likely only to be attacked by yet another "friend")? Maybe you're just taking a picture of the Spynx. No no, that place is a terrible place to take your picture, they'll say. Take one here, it's much better (outstretched hand).



One poor tourist was having difficulty with the heat in one of the temples. His family made a quick exit to prevent him from vomiting on an ancient treasure, when they were swarmed with people offering water, a cool rag, some hard candy and a cool place in the shade. "I hope she brought a lot of money with her," commented our tour guide. It's a rough world, I tell ya.

The pyramids and Sphinx are amazing when you can get past all the hassling. Our guide insisted they weren't built by slaves, but by a happy group of volunteers who loved the king so much they took several decades from their everyday lives and lugged around multiple-ton stones in the hot sun. I mean, who wouldn't volunteer for a gig like that?

We later went to a huge Islamic mosque. I must admit while an American in the Middle East, hanging out at a mosque is a little unnerving. We had just gotten used to the five-times daily call to prayer that is broadcast over loudspeakers to be heard throughout the entire city. In the days before speakers and microphones, our guide explained they would only employ blind people for the prayer announcements. Because they were done from a very high tower in the mosque, they had to be blind so they didn't see any "naked ladies." I'm sure by 'naked,' he meant they might see a sexy ankle or maybe a forbidden kneecap and spontaneously explode due to lust. He also tried to explain the difference between Sunnis and Shiahs, saying that one group was crazy and the other was peaceful (I wonder which group he was a part of?). We smiled meekly and tried to change the subject.

Another fun fact - you may notice from the pictures that most the buildings in the city are the same, drab grayish brown color. That's because you only pay property taxes if your home is painted. I'll send that idea over to George W and see what he thinks.

New Pictures

I am working furiously on getting our blog caught up from here in Delhi. For those of you who are more visual, I have uploaded a bunch of pictures of the rest of Europe trip. See the 'photo' link at the top!

Not Dead

Hi All-

We're not dead, just finishing up in South Africa. The opportunities to connect to the Internet have been few and far between, but we hope to catch everyone up soon!

Stay Tuned!