Goodbye Africa, Hello Asia...

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After 3 months on the African continent, it was finally time to say goodbye and head to Asia. We first had two days stop-over in Cairo. It was remarkably freezing! Only one month prior, we had been boiling hot, searching in vain for an air-conditioned restaurant. This time, we were frozen even wearing a fleece and scarf! The only thing of note we did was see a belly dancing show at the Sheraton. Not wanting to pay the big bucks for the famous one, we opted instead to see the B-rate one in their Lebanese restaurant. We figured that, not exactly being belly-dancing connoisseur, we'd never be able to tell the difference...we were mistaken! The poor girl was terrible! It was obvious that she felt very uncomfortable in her skimpy outfit, and it didn't help matters that there was only one other table in the restaurant besides ours. It was quite a cringeworthy night, but at least the food was good!

So, as we leave Africa and make our way to Asia, it leads me to make some comparisons:

Goodbye Africa. Hello Asia.
Goodbye soggy, greasy food. Hello tasty and (relatively) healthy food.
Goodbye $30 a night rooms with shared bathroom. Hello $5 a night en-suite rooms.
Goodbye hot showers. Hello cold showers (boo hoo).
Goodbye 3 hour waits for buses to fill before setting off. Hello general efficiency (comparatively, you understand!)
Goodbye feeling scared to walk the streets. Hello complete safety.
Goodbye never-being-able-to-get-change-anywhere. Hello being given change no problem (floats are not rocket science!)
Goodbye cheetahs, lions, giraffes, and warthogs. Hello water buffaloes and cows.
Goodbye cheap and tasty beer! Hello cheaper and tasty beer!

Yes, there are some things about travel in Africa that we will definitely not miss, but in the end, they all make it part of the fun. Our second time in Africa and still everything was new and exciting. The only problem is that we still feel we have holes: beaches not snorkelled, lakes not traversed, and game parks not explored. Every time you leave somewhere, you realize all the places you didn't get to. Africa has so much, but travel takes so long. Maybe we will be back some day... For now, we are excited to go back to our second home (Bangkok, Thailand) and catch up on chores that we couldn't face doing in Africa - long email sessions, hair cuts, teeth cleaning, and some general pampering which doesn't involve getting out of bed at 5am - hooray for Bangkok!

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Comments

[Mum]

Always some new place to discover
Yes I know what you mean about leaving a country having the feeling you've not quite covered it all. That's how we felt when we left you behind in Malaysia and you 'discovered' Kapas. Oh well there's always next year. Mum xx