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Published: July 26th 2008
Caving
Tight section of the Amboni Caves. Not good for chlostrophobic people.Hello everyone. Well we're finishing off the last days in Africa. Currently we're in Tanga, a few hours north of Dar Es Salaam on the East Coast of Tanzania....and there is nothing to do here.
Fortunately, we were able to employ the local rasta man/tour guide to show us the truly memorable parts of Tanga. This includes three "attactractions" that did turn out to be a highlight of our trip.
First was our visit to the Amboni Caves, which is a network of caves covering 247 square kilometers. There are a total of 12 separate caves of which only 2 were open to public visiting. The first cave we visited took over 45 minutes to tour through, with one of the sections requiring a tight squeeze to get through. Laurel really enjoyed the thousands of bats that inhabited the caves that squeeked and flew around the top of the caves, just above our heads.
After the Amboni caves we rode bikes through some local villages, and portaged across a river, with the bikes, to reach a coconut palm forest. The "ferry" man was an old man named Ambari who told us stories and carried us and the bikes
Biking through the village
If you listen closely, you can hear the kids yelling Mzungo Goodbye. across on a dow, a tiny dug out canoe. The trail continued after the river to a sulphur spring. The real highlight of the journey was riding through the local villages with literally all the children yelling "Mzungo Goodbye" at us (Mzungo means whitey) and riding through the coconut palm forest.
We're heading to the aptly named Toten island this afternoon. The big highlight on the island is the German cemetary which we'll tour. Interestingly enough the word tot, in german, means dead. Toten would be "the dead". Can't wait.
Before we end our stay in Africa, we wanted to share a few interesting things we've learned about and experienced here.
1. 4:30 AM Mosque music. Depending on the city, a large portion of the population is muslim. Muslim's observe daily prayers in the morning (4:30 AM!) and evening (7:30, not bad) accompanied with music, blasted at full volume from the roof top of the local mosque. Thank god for ear plugs.
2. Vendors - In Africa, goods are not generally sold through shops. They are sold from bikes, carts, cars, street peddlers and anything else you can think of thats mobile...and they carry a
Bikes on a Dhow
Ambari portaging our bikes across the river wide selction of goods. After all, it's much more effecient if the store comes to you. see the picture.
3. Hot water and showers - When asking at the reception desk ,before checking in, if the hotel has hot water, the answer is ALWAYS yes. Just don't expect there to be hot water when you actually reach your room and want to take a hot shower. Also, the showers are integrated directly in the same space as the toilet. Makes cleaning the bathroom easier.
4. Money- Be prepared to carry around thick wads of cash. The currencies tend to be very devalued, mainly in Malawi. The biggest bill in Malawi was 500 Kwacha, which is the equivalent of roghly $2.50. The stacks of money on the bed totaled $200.
5. Obama - Everyone loves Obama here.
6. Safari - Safari is awesome.
...this 1988 computer is frusteratingly slow so I'll end it here. We'll share more when we get back. Check out the pics.
We're leaving for Bali in a few days!
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