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Blogs from Africa - page 2704
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April 8th 2006
Welcome to Egypt We have made it to the bustling streets of Cairo. All the horror stories of Cairo that I have heard in my research of this place have been so very, very wrong. This is a wonderful city. Even before landing the flight steward on our flight in (on a brand new plane that was nearly empty, which made it very cushy) offered to give us lift into town. We landed after 5:00 and were at our hotel at 6:00. Not a single hassle except for the guy who wanted money for giving me a paper towel in the bathroom. The Ishmalia House Hotel is amazing. We have a birds eye view over the heart of the city, a busy circle know as Tahir Square. The room is huge with wood floors and ... read more
April 8th 2006
random thoughts: i'm moving out to the "country" on monday. right now i living at a nice hostel type place with around 12 danish/swedish people. i'm going to move near to where i volunteer and stay with an african family (there is a dane staying there as well). the "mama" of the house cooks dinner so my diet will improve. i also eat a lot of bananas and mangoes. both are very good and quite cheap here. not much happening this week. making decent progress with the kids on their english so thats good. also giving them alots of attention and kindiness which is a lot more important. i'm planning a trip to zanzibar near the end of my stay with a danish girl so that should be fun. i'll probably go to the beach this ... read more
April 8th 2006
Friday we all got up bright and early so we could be out the door at 8am. It ended up being closer to 9am in the end, for all those reasons that sneak up on you when you least expect it. Nick came over, we picked up Morne, and the five of us were off on a car trip. First stop: McDonalds. This by request of Susie, but of course I didn’t object. There is no McDonalds in Plettenberg Bay, nor any closer than the one we ate at, so it was a special treat. (Weird to think that food I never eat at home for a reason becomes a special treat abroad). We had lunch there at 11am and we all ordered exactly the same enormous meal and proceeded onwards to Oudtshoorn, about an hour ... read more
April 7th 2006
Bangkok to Nairobi The task of getting to Kenya has been nothing less than difficult. My flight from Bangkok to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was a trip within itself. The aircraft was jam-packed and not your usual trip as in the United States. I found myself captured within a fuselage of ethnicities from all points of Africa. Next to me sat a rotund gentleman from Tanzania, a lawyer and businessman. The flight left Bangkok just after midnight, but you wouldn't believe the activity during flight. There were those wandering up and down the aisles chatting with other passengers, and in the distance I could hear the music from MPG and CD players. Some even had their mini DVD players blasting movies with no regard to the comfort of others near them. I'll call it an airborne social ... read more
April 7th 2006
I'm in Zanzibar, Tanzania now! We left Mombasa on Mon. at 8 in the morning and had about an 11 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam. The ride really wasn't that bad and for the most part the roads were pretty good. We had been planing to go clubbing our one night in Dar, but nothing was open Mon. night, so we just ended up sleeping. The following morning we had to just explore the city. It was pretty fun just walking around Dar. The city is so much cleaner than Mombasa. It's definetely a city that if I get the chance I want to come back to and spend some time here. People are very nice. Although one of us did have a bad run in with some guys: Of course the story is ... read more
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April 7th 2006
Unfortunately this is where our African journey ends. For our final blog we decided to throw together a bit of Hellotrain miscellany. From the buoyant waters of the Dead Sea to the baboon-blanketed slopes of the Simien Mountains; from Jenny getting attacked by a monkey on a leash to Randy getting attacked by a sewer grate; from awful falafel in Egypt to mouth-watering matoke in Uganda…We saw a lot of places and did a lot of stuff. Countries Visited: Turkey - Egypt - Jordan - Ethiopia - Kenya - Tanzania - Uganda - Rwanda - DR Congo Days Traveled: 170 (just shy of 6 months) Dollars Spent: about $5000 each, including plane tickets # of Times Jenny Locked Herself in the Bathroom: 4 # of Times Randy Bumped His Head: too many to remember Confrontations with ... read more
April 7th 2006
It's rumoured that JRR Tolkien took alot of his inspiration for the Lord of the Rings from this mountainous area and everything about Hogsback was indeed magical. After racing to get the shuttle we left E.L. and slowly gained altitude whilst the temperature plummeted. After an hour the blue sky was non existant and the fog was so thick visibility was down to a few feet. The driver wasn't fazed and handled the conditions like a rally driver. We were thankful not to be able to see over the cliffs! We arrived late arvo in the pouring rain and the only thing really to do was sit in front of the fire and play board games. We did set our yet un named new tent up, but all our stuff stayed by the fire and that's ... read more
April 7th 2006
My first day in Cape Town some kid tried to rob me at knife point. So I looked at him straight in the eyes and I said, "Do you have any idea who I am?" To which he replied, "No." So then I said, "I'm Chuck Norris". The name alone put the fear of God in his eyes and he ran away. No, in actuality I just ran across the street and ducked into the first restaurant that I found. Not a very good start to a new city. Things got better after that though. I spent most of the first day just walking around the city and getting a feel for things. It's an awesome city with lots to do. There's lots of hip young people sitting outside at cafes. But what really makes the ... read more
April 7th 2006
Hello from Zimbabwe! It's been awhile since our last blog because finding good internet has been difficult and besides, we have been busy walking with lions and rhinos! We left Malawi and headed across the top of Mozambique to Zimbabwe. We only spent one night in Mozambique, bush camping, but it was a nice stamp in our passport! Mozambique Driving through Mozambique we starting noticing a change in the scenery. It was becoming a lot less tripical and arid and we were now seeing more grasslands and woodlands with large granite boulders. We bush camped for the night and you still have to be very careful not to stray too far off the road because Mozambique still has a land mine problem. Border Crossing We hadn't really followed the situation in Zimbabwe in the newspapers before ... read more
