After crossing the border into Rwanda in torrential downpour, we ran into some vehicle problems – things were not looking too bright for the new country we had just entered. Rwanda is even more hilly than Uganda and while climbing one of the hills the exhaust brakes on the truck locked up – we all knew we were in trouble because the fumes were over powering on board. We decided to utilize the two hour hold up and eat our lunch to save time as we only had a couple of hours in the main city of Kigali. While waiting, Glen and Jeremy made an attempt to convince Mike (aka FITZY – totally useless but harmless and loveable guy – (to give you an idea about how useless he was, he did not know how to use a can opener, opened a can of kidney beans when I had asked for tomato sauce (a member in my cooking group) and never cut a zucchini or green pepper before in his life. To him, green food is useless and he will not touch!)) to run down a hill at full speed and back. We managed to fund raise $550 dollars for him if he would and although I think he was seriously considering it, he finally decided that he was going to break several bones if he tried...and by our rules any delay was going to end in no award being granted. To fill everyone in on why Mike? Well for the first week of our trip, Mike was this quiet English kid who just slept all the time because he was sick. After a visit to the doctor not only did his problems go away but he became one of the funnies t and most likable people on the trip. That doesn't really explain why we would make him such and offer but after meeting him you would understand.
Once the truck was operating we made it into Rwanda, with our first stop being the genocide museum in Kigali. This was a very eye opening but depressing start to our journey into Rwanda. Everyone I am sure has watched the movie “Hotel Rwanda” but you really don't feel the impact until you are there, in the country, staring at the faces of the people that lived through the ordeal. The downstairs part of the museum had the history and the awful statistics (over one million people were killed, the Hutu's targeted the Tutsi woman and the children to prevent future population growth and the “healthy young girls” as they called them were raped with HIV infected men to provide a slow and painful death). What is even wore is that when this was all happening, friends turned on friends, neighbors turned on neighbors and family turned on family. The upstairs had a memorial for all of the children and this was the toughest to see. In every room there were blown up pictures of the child and a summary board below indicating their name, age, favorite food, games etc. This was followed by, “Cause of Death”. This ranged from being macheted in their mothers arms to being shot in the head (humane way to die in comparison) to bludgeoned against a wall and so on. It was a very emotional time but something I think everyone, if given the opportunity, should see. Walking out of their we all felt depressed and shocked – it is so hard to imagine that all of this happened 15 years ago and when we look around at the locals, it is hard not to look at think – were they involved somehow? And which side were they on?
At the museum we met up with our final group of recruits which brought the grand total to 27 people on our truck. This meant the end of swapping seats and putting our feet and gear anywhere we pleased. It was worse because that night the truck problems we had experienced earlier occurred again. This time it was a little more unpleasant for Robert and Kanyo because they had to work and fix the truck in the dark on the side of the highway. This was also the first time we had not made it to our campsite before nightfall. It was little scary when we first pulled over because within minutes we were surrounded by heaps of people and some of the kids were carrying machetes. Luckily they were very pleasant and just were curious to see a bus full of Mzungu 's stopped on the side of the road. This is another weird thing about traveling here in Africa - whenever we pullover, no matter where we are, middle of the jungle or a deserted highway there is almost always a crowd of people who form around the truck.
When we finally arrived in Ruhengeri my cooking team and I whipped up spaghetti – we were all hungry and this seemed like the easiest thing to make for a crowd of 27+. We were all getting pretty pumped as we were now at the site where we would be trekking the gorillas...and it was starting the next day. After dinner we determined those people who would be trekking the gorillas the following day and the day after. We unfortunately had to wait until the second day for our chance to go. I was happy to trek on the second day because it was my Mom's Birthday (and I knew that would be a great omen) but when we saw how the groups were weighted out, I was a little disappointed. 19 members trekked on Day 1 and 8 members trekked on Day 2 and of course, by chance, the remaining 6 members to trek with Jeremy and I were the new additions. I did not bother to complain as I new it was luck and there was no chance in changing as the permits had been purchased months before. So before going to bed we let everyone know that although we wanted them to have an awesome day, we did not want to hear much about it (specifically see any of their photos) until we had all seen the Gorilla's.
The next morning (Day 18) we woke two hours later than the gorilla trekkers and casually did some laundry...again...for the third time hoping to once and for all get rid of the stink. After breakfast we met our guide for our trip to the local orphanage. This would be the second and last place we would make a donation to from our fund raising money (we had made the mistake of giving some money to a guide we had hired in South Africa named JJ. He was great! He was a single parent living with his mother and his two young daughters in a small village. He told us that he could not even pay for the tuition for his girls for the year and so Jeremy and I decided to help him and his girls out and pay a years fees. He was so grateful and thankful and sincere and we felt really good! As a thank you to us, he told us he would come and take us to an abandoned air strip the following morning free of charge where we could get a great lookout of the entire town. The following morning he came to us completely drunk and claimed he was robbed. He asked us for more money and we were so hurt. We made a vow to never give money out like that again and so that is why we have sticked to the orphanages and the NGO's). The guide was extremely helpful and he took us to the market to buy food and school supplies for the kids before heading out to the orphanage. When we arrived there we were greeted by thirty plus children who came straight to the door to give us hugs and to grab our hands. The kids led us by the hand to a small classroom where we sat down with all of the kids. Each kid or group of kid had taken claim to one of the six of us and we immediately had our own place to sit. Realizing that the class was much too small for all of us we were escorted to a larger classroom. It had started raining and it was cute to see the kids run ahead of us through the rain to our new classroom. Once we got there, Jeremy was immediately taken to a chair where he was told, using hand gestures, by three kids to sit down whom immediately jumped onto his lap. We were welcomed with several dances and songs and then helped to feed the whole group with the food we had bought. The seemingly moldy buns, bananas and sweets didn't seem like a gourmet meal but the kids were happy to have it. We also donated other vital ingredients like flour, rice, sugar, shelf milk and some money.
After lunchtime and some info from one of the workers we all went into the courtyard and played games with the kids. Jeremy, the Mzungu, skipped with the kids while I showed them how to walk on their hands (my only cool trick!). The kids loved to look at the photos and as soon as we took a picture, they would squeal with excitement when they saw themselves on the screen. Right before we were leaving, a little boy asked me if I had any parents. I was shocked...I did not know how to react to this question especially considering we were in an orphanage. I informed him that I did and I told them a little about them. The young boy then said, “cool” and it broke my heart because I didn't even need to ask him the same question as I already knew the answer. These kids were so well behaved and all they wanted was a little bit of love and attention. Unfortunately, we discovered their favorite thing as we were leaving. While walking back we had grabbed one of the kids by his hands and lifted him into the air. He immediately wanted more (and more and more!) and after the other kids heard his shouts of glee we had twenty odd kids lining up for more. The kids were devastated to see us leave and we wish we only could have stayed longer. We told them we would send our friends the next day to come and play and they ran down the road trying to chase us...too cute!
We arrived back to the campsite in the early afternoon, well before we figured any of the trekker groups would return. To our dismay, two of the three groups had already returned – they were completely filthy and seemed not all that impressed. The third group had opted to do the advanced difficulty level and trek the famous family called the 'Susa's'. It wasn't until supper was prepared that they had returned. Of all the groups that had gone that day, they were the only ones that were truly excited about their day/experience. This pushed us to want to do the same hike as them. However, being the last group, we had less people to pool with and were informed that to do different hikes, we would have to pay extra money for transport (always a catch in Africa). We discussed in a group and decided to split up into a moderate and an advanced group. We figured we paid so much for the Gorilla permits that an extra $20 US per person to trek the family and difficulty you wanted would be worth it.
Before heading to sleep, we passed the bar with all 19 members celebrating. It was really hard to see because we so wanted to be part of it and revel in the moment. Despite heading to bed early (so that we could be well rested before the big day of hiking) we did not fall asleep until 1:30am – 3 hours before we were to wake up. The following morning (Day 19) even though we were exhausted the groups energy helped to lift our own enthusiasm. When we got to the park we tried to split into our two groups but for some reason the driver tried his best to persuade us that going for the longest trek (the Susa Family) was pointless. Despite his efforts we did not cave and told him flat out that no matter the additional cost and distance, we were going to see that largest family in the park.
It took us much too long to arrange a driver and another hour driving before we got to the base of our hiking spot. Although, we had awoke at 4:30 and left at six it was 9:30 before we started hiking. The hike up the mountain was by no means physically difficult but was rather painful as the trails were crowded with Stinging Nettles. One of our members named Alberto had not brought enough water and was drinking all of ours. I thought this was crazy because how do you willingly go for a full day climb with a small bottle of water? This was obviously more common then I thought because the two girls who joined in on our group had not eaten breakfast and packed a small box of biscuits and small water bottle for their entire day trek – obviously not as smart as us Canadians. After three hours of hiking we ran into the first signs of the gorilla and our excitement peaked...any tiredness disappeared. After another twenty minutes we made it to where the group the day before us had left their bags before completing the final part of the hike. After four hours we were so close and begun to spot fresh gorilla dung. When our guide finally informed us that we were to leave our bags behind and bring only our cameras we were jumping with excitement.
We treaded quietly into their nest and the first glimpse we got was of a Silverback, facing away from us, eating. Without listening we started snapping pictures but were quickly told not to continue because if we upset him our trip was over. We were led into a section of rather dense trees where two females were pulling apart the bushes. I think we were all still in awe of the sheer size of the silverback, because we had trouble hearing him when he said you could start taking pictures. It was difficult to figure out the correct light settings on the camera (no flash allowed for obvious reasons) and while we were doing so a female charged towards us. The first ten minutes were a bit tense because we were all crowded into a tight section of trees and could barely move when they told us to. And no one wanted to be the person who got their arms grabbed by these females who were capable of snapping thick branches with barely any effort.
After we had loosened up a bit (our guides had a lot of laughs at our expense) we toured around looking at all of the different members of the group. The final count was seventeen with two or three silverbacks, the adult females, plenty of juvenile males/females and the most playful - the babies. We spent time with each part of the family but most of the time we watched the females as they ripped by us to keep us farther from their babies. The silverback just sat back and watched us without a care in the world. He would alternate from getting groomed, to scratching himself to laying down and just resting himself on his chin. The favorite of the group was the baby who would constantly come nearer to us and try and show off. At one point he was swinging on the branches and hanging upside down. While hanging down on the branch he tumbled to the ground as the branch broke. He gave us a seemingly embarrassed look and sauntered away only to fall off another branch 5 minutes later. The time flew and before we knew it the guide told us our time was up. None of us wanted to leave, I am sure this is normal, but after watching the group walk away into the jungle we finally made our way. The gorillas was truly an awesome experience. Not because of their size but because of how human like they were. They love to play, to be affectionate and to just relax which seems no different than what we like to do. The walk down the mountain was more painful than the way up (and slippery too) but I think we were all so high from our hour with the gorillas that we just didn't want to complain.
The following morning (Day 20) we were to head out of Rwanda and into Tanzania. The Gorilla's, which was the only reason for traveling into the country, had come and gone. The experience was over and all that remained was our beautiful photos and our memories that will last forever.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
UGANDA!!!
The first thing we noticed when we crossed into Uganda was the greenery. Everything all around us was so lush and green and jungle like…it was so beautiful. We stopped immediately after crossing the border to exchange some money and take a quick pee break. When we got off of the truck, we were immediately surrounded by about a dozen workers who wanted to exchange our money. I was immediately caught up with a very adorable boy who was maybe 7 years old. He asked me if I would support his business – he was selling water and banana’s…none of which I wanted. I told him if he had some pineapple, I would be interested in buying some of that. He quoted me a price but I told him I wanted to see it before I bought it. With that being said, he told me to wait for 5 minutes then took off running. When he came back sweating and panting, I asked him where he went and it turns out he ran across to the Kenyan side to fetch these small pineapple cubes for me. I paid him what he was asking (although I knew it was too much…but I appreciated the effort he put in and I admired the fact that he did not just ask for the money straight up...and the pineapple was so delicious and sweet).
We drove to the main city center called Jinja, which is where the source if the White Nile originates . We were very pleased with our campsite as it 1) was directly above the river and thus had an AMAZING view; 2) had cheap beers and ciders (<$1 per bottle); and 3) had free internet.
After pitching up our tents (Jeremy and I have now gotten very good at this) we relaxed with the odd few going for a swim in the river. Christine and I went to treat ourselves to some traditional Uganda food called Chiapatti’s. They are very delicious and I would compare them to a crepe. I had ordered a banana and peanut butter Chiapati and Chrsitine had ordered an egg and veggie. My wrap was ready first so I started to munch away. On about my third bite I felt something small but hard in my mouth. I pulled out a rusted old industrialized staple – I have no idea how it got there, it must have been from the newspaper that it was wrapped in because I saw him cook the chiapitti and peel the banana right in front of me. I did not want to embarrass him so I slyly pulled the staple from my mouth, continued to eat my meal (it was so delicious) and then told Christine and the others about my experience – we all had a good chuckle. But hey, I guess when you pay less than $0.50 for a meal, you cant complain when you get a little more than you were bargaining for – right??! And, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
That same night we had numerous people come to talk to us about all of the activities we could do over the next few days – this ranged from white water rafting to horse riding to quad tours to volunteer work. Jeremy and I were very excited about the white water rafting (looking back at it now, I have no idea what I was thinking) and the volunteer work. We had talked with our guide Kanyo and he informed us that this would be a great opportunity to donate some money that we had raised back at home. So, the next day (bright and early – Day 9) we were up and ready to go Volunteer for the ‘Soft Power Education’ Program. Soft Power was started by a female Overlander Truck Driver (our version of Robert) in the late 90’s. Soft Power specializes in educational development by helping the community construct schools and getting individuals involved who are able to help with maintenance, running the program and educating others. We first were given a brief tour of the main headquarters where we got to see some of the key people in the foundation. We then also got to see and hang out with some of the local kids in the area. Jeremy was a huge hit with the boys as he taught them tops with a spare coin he had –they loved him. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit a preschool as the kids had just started their one month summer holiday.
We then all hopped in the back of a truck and drove to a nearby building which was being turned into a school for the local community. Our job for the day was to apply a second coat of paint to one room and a first coat in another. We flew on the first room but had a lot more troubles on the second one. There were cob webs galore and posters that were stuck to the walls. So, before we could paint, we had to mop the room and scrap off all of the posters (not an easy task). We had a nice lunch break where some local woman had cooked for us some noodles, spinach and potatoes. We resumed back to work and started painting the room. When we were finished and it was all said and done we were exhausted!
We headed back to our campsite and decided to cool off in the river below. We were a little hesitant to plunge right in because we had no idea if the river had any crocodiles. We saw some locals swimming so we figured we must be safe – right??? Well, although the water was very refreshing and no one got hurt, we did later find out that their was a family of crocs that leaved upstream from our camp…we were also told they were vegetarians (WTF???) A bunch of people wanted to try and swim one of the rapids nearby…I even was caught up in the moment because I was inching my way over the rocks to join in as well. Luckily, my senses got the better part of me and I knew there was no way I should be trying to swim down a rapid. Anna, Christine, Glen and Jeremy made it down safely although from my point of view there was a couple of close calls. I jumped in to catch up with them downstream but the current was too strong and I could not get to them. Jeremy came to my rescue and helped me get back to safety.
The following day (Day 10) was our White Water Rafting Day. We all had signed up for half day rafting and half day river boarding (which is essentially riding down the rapids in a boogey board). Jeremy and I ended up in Group 2, which rafted first. We had a really cool South African Guide named Kirk who seemed very knowledgeable and experienced. Before we hit our first rapid, we did a ‘practice’ roll over…I should have known I was in trouble at this point because even knowing we were going over, I was nervous and panicked under water. We started off with some grade 2 rapids and then went into some grade 3 and 4’s. By the time we approached our grade 5 rapid, I felt sick. We had successfully remained inside the boat and we made it through this rapid safe and sound. When we reached the ‘Silverback Grade 5 Rapid’, our guide told us this is the one we really needed to hang on to as swimming down it would not be fun. He then proceeded to tell us that this rapid was, “terrorizing but fun”- WTF??? I did not know those two works could be used in a sentence like that. The Silverback was different than all of the other rapids because instead of one, it had four consecutive rapids – F**K ME!!! We went into the first rapid fine, but by the time we hit the second, we had capsized. I was pushed under by our damn raft and could not grab hold of it…everything was happening too fast. Before I knew it, I had a mouthful of the Nile and was back under water. I continued to stay under water until all of the waves had broken up downstream of the rapids (I don’t know how long I was under water but it seemed like eternity). When I surfaced I remember seeing the sky and I knew I could breathe again. A kayaker picked me up and took me to the nearest raft (which just happened to be other members from my Overlander). I had cried when he was transporting me but I had managed to toughen up by the time I made it to the raft. There I found Anna, another member in my raft, and we exchanged our experiences (she also had consumed a large amount of the Nile Water). By the time we met back up with our original raft I had composed myself but when I caught my first glimpse of Jeremy, I started crying. He looked so worried and I knew he would be. When we capsized, he managed to hold on and I guess he panicked the entire time looking for me. I felt reassured when Glen told me that that was the scariest rapid he has ever gone down and he couldn’t imagine swimming it. Next was lunch and some much needed R&R. We were served delicious pineapple and biscuits and took some time to swim in the Nile. It was here that our guide informed us of the family of crocs in the water…he then proceeded to tell us that snakes too can be seen in the water. We thought he was pulling our leg but then one of the Kayakers alarmed all of the guides about a snake that was in the vicinity. Although it was small, it still made us think twice before jumping back into that water.
Our next rapid was called 'Overtime'. Our guide told us that there are two outcomes, 1) we could go down backwards on the far left or 2) we could go down a waterfall. We were told we had no choice and it was all up to the waves and the way they reacted with our raft. We were the last group to go through this and wouldn’t you know our luck…we were destined for the waterfall – F**K ME!!! The waterfall was only 10 feet high…but that didn’t matter – it was still a waterfall. When we went over and contacted the water again, the front end of our raft essentially crumpled under the pressure and I flew into the back of Glen’s helmet. I chipped a tooth in the back of my mouth, had a couple small scratches on my chin and of course had a very large poofy lip. The pics of the rafting our priceless. Countless times our raft team looked so eager and excited except for me who looked terror stricken…kind of funny now but definitely not at the time. For the next few rapids, we were lucky enough to make it out untouched. I was reluctant to jump out of the raft and try river boarding but since our group had signed up for it, I thought I better not back down. Jeremy was excited, as was the rest of the group. We started with a Grade 4 Rapid and it turned out it was my only one. I was too scared and basically wanted the whole experience to be over. Jeremy was in heaven and on his last rapid (Grade 5), he head butted a massive rapid and came out safe and sound on the other side (my crazy man).
We finished off our experience with some complimentary drinks and a BBQ back at the campsite. The best part of this was that it meant no cooking and when there is no cooking, there is no dish flapping (the method we use to dry our dishes to reduce the spread of germs).
That same day, Glen’s girlfriend Rihannan had hitched a ride into town and purchased a birthday cake for Fysh. We were all very impressed because the transport into town was via a small 2 seater bike…and of course it goes without saying that the roads were the usual narrow and bumpy African roads. That same night our group played a new game to Jeremy and I called Shit Head. It is a very popular game in England and Australia…I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on in Canada but whatever the case, we will be playing it when we get back. The great thing about this game is that you can have as little as two people or 10+ people play.
After numerous drinks and rounds of cards, Micheal decided to give Fysh an extra special birthday gift which involved him singing. Although he wasn’t gifted with his singing, we both admired the fact that he got up in front of everyone and sang his heart out. It was funny because he also attracted some local stranglers from the pub. They pounced as soon as he finished and the entertained us with some traditional Ugandan singing, dancing and rap. Everyone enjoyed themselves except for Michael who wanted to continue and sing for his new found audience.
That should have been the end of the night but of course it was not. Rihannan kept finding Ants in her tent and they were biting her…she could not figure out where they were coming from and assumed they came in from her laundry out drying earlier that day. She finally had enough of them and got up to head to the bar to get Glen when she realized that there were hundreds of them surrounding her tent. She basically had to drag Glen from the bar to come and investigate as he assumed it was just a small annoyance. Glen could not have been more surprised when he saw what he called the ‘Army’. He then proceeded to wake neighboring tents up ensuring they did not also have the same problem as he. Jeremy jumped at this chance to go out and explore with Glen and even though we had a small number of ants, Jeremy wanted to relocate uphill…closer to Glen and Rihannan’s. I unwillingly agreed because I was comfortable in bed and moments before was sleeping. When I got out to move the tent, Jeremy got caught up in the excitement with Glen and before you knew it, they were proclaiming that they had found the “motherload”. Glen was not satisfied with this and continued in search for what he called the “Queen Bee”. He said if you killed her then you killed them all – haha! I was still patiently waiting for Jeremy to help me move our tent but I knew I was going to have to find other help when I saw Glen, Jeremy and a couple of other guys spraying deet at the ‘army of ants’ and lighting them on fire – I was just relieved Jeremy wasn’t using (or should I say wasting) our precious bug spray. It was a hilarious site to see and all the girls kind of just sat back, laughed and watched in awe as the guys continued to feed off each other's energy. One of my fondest memories is of Will standing in the center an ant pile in shorts and sandals getting bitten. He was hollering to his girlfriend Grace to help him as he was being bitten (they bite pretty good too). She looked at him and very calmly told him to then “get the f**k out of the ant pile”. I got a few of the girls to help me move our tent and went back to bed. Jeremy stayed out with the guys for another fifteen minutes reveling at the events that had just transpired. When he came in I thought it was finally over but he then proceeded to talk to Glen (our neighboring tent buddy) about the ants from inside the tent. I am not sure how long they held this conversation for as I totally and completely laughed myself to sleep.
After a full day of rafting and late night birthday celebrating, we needed a day of rest and that is what we did on Day 11. We really didn’t feel like doing much of anything. In the morning we got up and washed our clothes which turned out to be a group activity because soon everyone in the camp was out washing their clothes. For any of you who have washed your clothes using a bin and cold water, you will attest to how 'unfun' this can be. I think probably one of the things you start to realize while traveling is that you take so many things for granted. You never realize even how special your washing machine and dryer are until you have to do all the work yourself. When we get home, we are going to hug them both dearly. Not only does your washing machine make life easier but your clothes love you for it to. Constantly scrubbing and wringing out your clothes does a number on the material and they end up changing sizes. They don’t shrink but rather they become about six sizes too big.
Anyways after we washed our clothes we decided that it would be nice to go down and go fishing again. The little kids that we had fished with before had been waiting for two days already for us to fish with them again. That morning they were waiting at the fence for us. We met them down at the water and Katie, Glenn, Michael and I went for a quick dip while the kids played around. After our swim Katie headed back up to the camp to catch up on some well deserved reading while we stayed to catch some minnows. The kids truly enjoyed fishing with us because we supplied a reason for constant laughter as we, the Mzungu's, could not catch any fish at all. We would throw the line in the water thirty times and the only thing that came of it was that we lost all of their bait. Each time they threw the line in they would pull out a fish within seconds.
After we, okay they, had caught thirty fish they decided that they should show me what they do with the fish. I had pestered them so much about what they were going to do with such small fish that rather than laugh at me any more they were just going to cook some for me. Without any means of fire or cooking supplies I was a little curious. I ran back to the campsite to get a lighter and by the time I arrived they had scavenged a ton of small sticks for firewood and were hard at work getting things ready. Using a fishing hook they had ripped the guts out of all of the fish. They took small sticks and made skewers and rammed them through the mouth of the fish and out the back. They got the fire going on a rock that was out in the water and we sat around while the charred the fish. They enlightened us on how to tell when a whole fish is ready. When the skin bursts then it is ready to eat??? Hey...I guess you learn something new everyday. They had to help me eat the fish because I had no idea how to d-bone a fish that is only 2 inches long. They would also not eat the fish until I had my fill. I tried to persuade them that this was a bad idea because I had lots of food in the campsite but they would not take 'no' for an answer. I couldn't believe that the kids, who were sitting there half naked and in ripped clothes, wanted me to eat their hard earned catch. The fish was amazing especially considering it had absolutely no spices or any prep work done to it.
Once we had finished our meal I went back to the campsite to grab paper and a camera. I snapped endless pictures of them jumping of the cliff. They were delighted to view the pics and figure out who it was jumping off. It was a little slow getting their address because they all had to work together to figure out how to write their address and names in English. They asked again if we would go for a village walk with them, mini tourist guides already, and so I went and collected some recruits. I was only able to get Katie, and Michael to go on village walk but everyone else just missed out. These kids filled us in on how everything in the village works. Adam, who was obviously the leader of the pack, took us from plant to plant and told us everything from how it was planted to its nurturing process and then to how it was prepared. We truly learned a lot from these boys and we were all fascinated by the magic plants that closed up once we touched them. We even bought some raw vanilla that we planned to use for tea but we didn’t because we had no idea how to use it. The tour was just over an hour long and I would have hired these guys again over many of the guides we had already had. Not only was the tour great but we could easily play with them as though we were kids to. Katie exhausted herself playing tag with them and not once could she catch any of them – they were too fast! Near the end of the tour, we found a flat section of grass and Katie showed them how to walk on their hands. This inspired them to do somersaults and flips. What impressed us the most was how independent and knowledgeable these seven to eleven year old kids were…none of the kids I know back home could even cook macaroni let alone clean and cook fish with tree branches. It seems that kids here are the most responsive to tourists and Adam, Moses, Allen, Michael (Katie's favorite) and the rest of the boys showed us true Ugandan hospitality. We tipped them a little for their hospitality and thanked them profusely for our amazing experience – one that neither of us will ever forgot.
The rest of the night was pretty chill as we were all still reeling from our escapades the night before and just headed to bed.
In the morning (Day 12) we packed up and were on our way. From Jinga we headed to Entebbe which was no where near as exciting a campsite as we had just been at. Although, it may be a bit premature, it is hard to imagine that we are going to find a campsite that compares to Jinga with its beautiful river to swim in, the spectacular view from the bar and the adorable local kdis.
At Entebbe, we picked up two newbies heading to see the gorillas in Rwanda (McGill and Hannah). After eating some of the best steak we had ever eaten in our lives (so good that Katie ate her entire portion) we headed to the local bar to catch a glimpse of the local night life. The bar was filled with locals, ex-patriots, tourists and then the working girls. Everything was very similar to any pub that I have ever visited with the exception of the pool. Not only were the rules very different to back home but the game had its own security guards. If you wanted to play the next game you would talk to the security of the pool table and put your name down. It cost about 1 dollar. But if you really wanted to play you had to bribe the security and then hope that your bribe was the highest...otherwise you didn't play. Kanyo our guide managed to jump me into the line and I had to play the guy who had been running the game for the last couple of hours. I don't know how but I managed to beat him but rather than being upset he was super nice about it. The second guy that I played should never have beat me as he was one of the worst pool players I had ever been matched against but somehow he beat me...I think he scratched on an eight ball but it doesn't work like that. The bar was quite fun and eye opening. I had been told that there are very few women who go to the bar but working girls and I found this out at the end of the night. Mike had lured some girl over to our end of the bar, well she just kind of mosied on over to us, and when he went to the washroom I was left with her. I found her aggressiveness quite amusing and I don't think she liked that. Although, I don't think she would have remembered if I was rude in the morning because she was pretty tanked.
The next morning (Day 13) we had to redo our laundry because most of it still stunk from not drying fully at Jinja. It wasn't as nice as a setup as the other place but we managed to get it done. Despite the killer heat Jeremy ventured into town to see the sights, buy a new pair of sandals (as his birks were on its last leg) and check out the internet cafe . I was a bit more ambitious and went for a thirty minute run with the pro's Billsy and Laura, who had recently just raced in a marathon. It was a nice but definitely not a refreshing run as 2 minutes into it, I was dripping from the heat. I really enjoyed myself and I thought this was a great way to see the city....and the locals were great! They would holla at us, “Way to Go Muzungu's” and cheer us on. When we got back to the campsite, I convinced Billsy and Laura to finish off the excersize with my boxing circuit. It was nice to see the tables tun and watch them sweat a bit :) The remainder of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing followed by a chill movie night with the group.
The next morning (Day 14) we awoke and headed to the truck for a long day of driving. We were heading to Mbarara campsite which is located on the University campground. Like so many of our driving days it was going to be exhausting. The truck is fairly comfortable and it is great to have the company that we do. However, sometimes it would just be nice to be alone and I think we feel this the most after a long drive. The windows on the bus allow us to view the scenery with ease but at times when we are driving extremely fast it begins to dry you out and it can even be hard to read. The Ugandan landscape is very picturesque with rolling hills and mountains that are all covered in green. But unlike Kenya, the reception in Uganda has been slightly different. We have met extremely nice people and then we meet others who are not so kind. We have had teenagers and young adults pick up stones and in a somewhat joking manner make it look like they are going to throw it at the truck. When passing one of the small towns someone actually threw a stick at the truck. In one town a group of small kids tried to steal our small lock from the door of the truck as we left the supermarket. Thankfully someone had seen them and we got it back but this was after some of the passengers gave them food. They followed this by a middle finger dance. But for the most part, the people here have been great.
On our way to the campsite we passed through the equator and stopped for some basic information and to examine some basic physics...oh ya and don't forget shopping!! The physics I speak of is how the water drains on both sides of the equator and in the middle. Literally the difference of moving two feet from the North side to the center and then to the South was that the direction of draining water went from clockwise, to standstill to counterclockwise – so cool!!! We also passed into an area where the local cows are famous for their horns. Some of the horns were so big that it seemed impossible for the cows to pick up their heads...let alone move. But of course, to no surprise, these cows would slowly graze the fields like any other ordinary cow.
The following day (Day 15) we headed to the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Again it was a fairly long drive but we made good time for once and got there with a little time to spare before heading out on our hippo boat cruise tour. We were not excited about the hippo tour as the one in St. Lucia (South Africa) had been extremely boring. Much to our surprise, this one turned out to be great! The boat we were riding in was much lower to the water which allowed us to get closer to the animals. Immediately after beginning the tour we floated near two elephants bathing in the water....nearly submerged. They didn't like us around and made some fearsome looking mock charges but none of us were scared...we just wanted pictures. We got extremely close to hippos, and tons of other wildlife relaxing along the waters edge. Despite how dangerous the buffalo are, there were local village people around the park and people just sitting around while these large animals munched on grass right next to them. Another surprising thing was the people wading in the waist deep water with crocodiles, hippos, snakes and who knows what else lurking nearby.
That evening we had our first large group bonfire at our campsite inside the national park. The fire served two purposes – to gather around as a group and to keep the animals at bay while we were outside of our tents. We did a great job of getting the fire going as we had to keep moving farther and farther back as it picked up its pace – cooking marshmallows also entailed cooking your eyebrows!!! After dinner Kenyo sat us all down and filled us in on many of the various tribes from Eastern Africa and the traditions and customs they still follow. Kanyo was great at explaining how the traditions meld into today's society and why some of the olden day traditions are not as well accepted with changes in human rights - I.e. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).
After most people went to bed Kanyo filled some of us in on what crazy things have happened on past trips. The worst was a trip several years back where one guy was so lazy and selfish that all the members on the truck hated him. So, one night they decided to get him back. A bit of extra information is needed here first – in the parks you are not to bring food into the tents or leave any out of the truck because this will draw the animals to the campsite – mainly the wild dogs and the hyena's. So after this guy had gone to bed several people in the group took the chicken bones from dinner and spread them in between the rain cover for his tent and the tent itself. In the middle of the night a pack of hyenas wandered into the camp and started munching on the bones right under his tent window. The guy woke up and got so scared that he literally shit his pants. After removing them he threw them out of his tent. In the morning everyone woke to find shreds of his pants covered in shit everywhere as the hyenas had tore them to pieces. There were more stories but this was probably one of the worst. After being on a trip like this, you have more respect for the people on Survivor or Big Brother as it is so easy to get annoyed with certain things and certain people and keeping your mouth shut is easier said than done.
I think most of the campers were a little worried about sleeping the night in the park especially after hearing lions roaring approximately 2 km away (??? Kanyo informed us that we were safe because we still had a fair distance...but how he knew we had 2kms still puzzles me)and hippos grunting while we sat around the fire. What made it worse was that we spotted a hippo near the toilet just before dinner and the wardens, who arrived as a threesome on one small motorbike, had just run into two leopards on their way to our campsite. But everyone made it alive to the next morning despite their full bladders.
We started the day (Day 16) with an early morning game drive in the park but sadly enough, we didn't see a great deal of animals. We actually probably saw more vultures and Maribu storks than any other animals - the only real meat eaters around. However, we did get a great deal of practice dodging stray cactus trees that protruded into the open truck as we passed through the park...some people just aren't that smart or lucky.
We spent our last night in Uganda in a town called Kabale. When we got there Katie and I convinced Mike that he should join us for a workout circuit rather than venture out for a run (Our climb up Mount Kili was less than 2 weeks away and we thought it would be wise to get some sort of training in). He agreed rather more easily than we thought he would but I think he regretted it after he signed up because he cursed the entire workout and could barely stand on his own two feet by the end of it.
On Day 17, we stocked up on groceries in Kabale before venturing into the small country of
Rwanda – famous for its rolling hills.
We drove to the main city center called Jinja, which is where the source if the White Nile originates . We were very pleased with our campsite as it 1) was directly above the river and thus had an AMAZING view; 2) had cheap beers and ciders (<$1 per bottle); and 3) had free internet.
After pitching up our tents (Jeremy and I have now gotten very good at this) we relaxed with the odd few going for a swim in the river. Christine and I went to treat ourselves to some traditional Uganda food called Chiapatti’s. They are very delicious and I would compare them to a crepe. I had ordered a banana and peanut butter Chiapati and Chrsitine had ordered an egg and veggie. My wrap was ready first so I started to munch away. On about my third bite I felt something small but hard in my mouth. I pulled out a rusted old industrialized staple – I have no idea how it got there, it must have been from the newspaper that it was wrapped in because I saw him cook the chiapitti and peel the banana right in front of me. I did not want to embarrass him so I slyly pulled the staple from my mouth, continued to eat my meal (it was so delicious) and then told Christine and the others about my experience – we all had a good chuckle. But hey, I guess when you pay less than $0.50 for a meal, you cant complain when you get a little more than you were bargaining for – right??! And, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
That same night we had numerous people come to talk to us about all of the activities we could do over the next few days – this ranged from white water rafting to horse riding to quad tours to volunteer work. Jeremy and I were very excited about the white water rafting (looking back at it now, I have no idea what I was thinking) and the volunteer work. We had talked with our guide Kanyo and he informed us that this would be a great opportunity to donate some money that we had raised back at home. So, the next day (bright and early – Day 9) we were up and ready to go Volunteer for the ‘Soft Power Education’ Program. Soft Power was started by a female Overlander Truck Driver (our version of Robert) in the late 90’s. Soft Power specializes in educational development by helping the community construct schools and getting individuals involved who are able to help with maintenance, running the program and educating others. We first were given a brief tour of the main headquarters where we got to see some of the key people in the foundation. We then also got to see and hang out with some of the local kids in the area. Jeremy was a huge hit with the boys as he taught them tops with a spare coin he had –they loved him. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit a preschool as the kids had just started their one month summer holiday.
We then all hopped in the back of a truck and drove to a nearby building which was being turned into a school for the local community. Our job for the day was to apply a second coat of paint to one room and a first coat in another. We flew on the first room but had a lot more troubles on the second one. There were cob webs galore and posters that were stuck to the walls. So, before we could paint, we had to mop the room and scrap off all of the posters (not an easy task). We had a nice lunch break where some local woman had cooked for us some noodles, spinach and potatoes. We resumed back to work and started painting the room. When we were finished and it was all said and done we were exhausted!
We headed back to our campsite and decided to cool off in the river below. We were a little hesitant to plunge right in because we had no idea if the river had any crocodiles. We saw some locals swimming so we figured we must be safe – right??? Well, although the water was very refreshing and no one got hurt, we did later find out that their was a family of crocs that leaved upstream from our camp…we were also told they were vegetarians (WTF???) A bunch of people wanted to try and swim one of the rapids nearby…I even was caught up in the moment because I was inching my way over the rocks to join in as well. Luckily, my senses got the better part of me and I knew there was no way I should be trying to swim down a rapid. Anna, Christine, Glen and Jeremy made it down safely although from my point of view there was a couple of close calls. I jumped in to catch up with them downstream but the current was too strong and I could not get to them. Jeremy came to my rescue and helped me get back to safety.
The following day (Day 10) was our White Water Rafting Day. We all had signed up for half day rafting and half day river boarding (which is essentially riding down the rapids in a boogey board). Jeremy and I ended up in Group 2, which rafted first. We had a really cool South African Guide named Kirk who seemed very knowledgeable and experienced. Before we hit our first rapid, we did a ‘practice’ roll over…I should have known I was in trouble at this point because even knowing we were going over, I was nervous and panicked under water. We started off with some grade 2 rapids and then went into some grade 3 and 4’s. By the time we approached our grade 5 rapid, I felt sick. We had successfully remained inside the boat and we made it through this rapid safe and sound. When we reached the ‘Silverback Grade 5 Rapid’, our guide told us this is the one we really needed to hang on to as swimming down it would not be fun. He then proceeded to tell us that this rapid was, “terrorizing but fun”- WTF??? I did not know those two works could be used in a sentence like that. The Silverback was different than all of the other rapids because instead of one, it had four consecutive rapids – F**K ME!!! We went into the first rapid fine, but by the time we hit the second, we had capsized. I was pushed under by our damn raft and could not grab hold of it…everything was happening too fast. Before I knew it, I had a mouthful of the Nile and was back under water. I continued to stay under water until all of the waves had broken up downstream of the rapids (I don’t know how long I was under water but it seemed like eternity). When I surfaced I remember seeing the sky and I knew I could breathe again. A kayaker picked me up and took me to the nearest raft (which just happened to be other members from my Overlander). I had cried when he was transporting me but I had managed to toughen up by the time I made it to the raft. There I found Anna, another member in my raft, and we exchanged our experiences (she also had consumed a large amount of the Nile Water). By the time we met back up with our original raft I had composed myself but when I caught my first glimpse of Jeremy, I started crying. He looked so worried and I knew he would be. When we capsized, he managed to hold on and I guess he panicked the entire time looking for me. I felt reassured when Glen told me that that was the scariest rapid he has ever gone down and he couldn’t imagine swimming it. Next was lunch and some much needed R&R. We were served delicious pineapple and biscuits and took some time to swim in the Nile. It was here that our guide informed us of the family of crocs in the water…he then proceeded to tell us that snakes too can be seen in the water. We thought he was pulling our leg but then one of the Kayakers alarmed all of the guides about a snake that was in the vicinity. Although it was small, it still made us think twice before jumping back into that water.
Our next rapid was called 'Overtime'. Our guide told us that there are two outcomes, 1) we could go down backwards on the far left or 2) we could go down a waterfall. We were told we had no choice and it was all up to the waves and the way they reacted with our raft. We were the last group to go through this and wouldn’t you know our luck…we were destined for the waterfall – F**K ME!!! The waterfall was only 10 feet high…but that didn’t matter – it was still a waterfall. When we went over and contacted the water again, the front end of our raft essentially crumpled under the pressure and I flew into the back of Glen’s helmet. I chipped a tooth in the back of my mouth, had a couple small scratches on my chin and of course had a very large poofy lip. The pics of the rafting our priceless. Countless times our raft team looked so eager and excited except for me who looked terror stricken…kind of funny now but definitely not at the time. For the next few rapids, we were lucky enough to make it out untouched. I was reluctant to jump out of the raft and try river boarding but since our group had signed up for it, I thought I better not back down. Jeremy was excited, as was the rest of the group. We started with a Grade 4 Rapid and it turned out it was my only one. I was too scared and basically wanted the whole experience to be over. Jeremy was in heaven and on his last rapid (Grade 5), he head butted a massive rapid and came out safe and sound on the other side (my crazy man).
We finished off our experience with some complimentary drinks and a BBQ back at the campsite. The best part of this was that it meant no cooking and when there is no cooking, there is no dish flapping (the method we use to dry our dishes to reduce the spread of germs).
That same day, Glen’s girlfriend Rihannan had hitched a ride into town and purchased a birthday cake for Fysh. We were all very impressed because the transport into town was via a small 2 seater bike…and of course it goes without saying that the roads were the usual narrow and bumpy African roads. That same night our group played a new game to Jeremy and I called Shit Head. It is a very popular game in England and Australia…I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on in Canada but whatever the case, we will be playing it when we get back. The great thing about this game is that you can have as little as two people or 10+ people play.
After numerous drinks and rounds of cards, Micheal decided to give Fysh an extra special birthday gift which involved him singing. Although he wasn’t gifted with his singing, we both admired the fact that he got up in front of everyone and sang his heart out. It was funny because he also attracted some local stranglers from the pub. They pounced as soon as he finished and the entertained us with some traditional Ugandan singing, dancing and rap. Everyone enjoyed themselves except for Michael who wanted to continue and sing for his new found audience.
That should have been the end of the night but of course it was not. Rihannan kept finding Ants in her tent and they were biting her…she could not figure out where they were coming from and assumed they came in from her laundry out drying earlier that day. She finally had enough of them and got up to head to the bar to get Glen when she realized that there were hundreds of them surrounding her tent. She basically had to drag Glen from the bar to come and investigate as he assumed it was just a small annoyance. Glen could not have been more surprised when he saw what he called the ‘Army’. He then proceeded to wake neighboring tents up ensuring they did not also have the same problem as he. Jeremy jumped at this chance to go out and explore with Glen and even though we had a small number of ants, Jeremy wanted to relocate uphill…closer to Glen and Rihannan’s. I unwillingly agreed because I was comfortable in bed and moments before was sleeping. When I got out to move the tent, Jeremy got caught up in the excitement with Glen and before you knew it, they were proclaiming that they had found the “motherload”. Glen was not satisfied with this and continued in search for what he called the “Queen Bee”. He said if you killed her then you killed them all – haha! I was still patiently waiting for Jeremy to help me move our tent but I knew I was going to have to find other help when I saw Glen, Jeremy and a couple of other guys spraying deet at the ‘army of ants’ and lighting them on fire – I was just relieved Jeremy wasn’t using (or should I say wasting) our precious bug spray. It was a hilarious site to see and all the girls kind of just sat back, laughed and watched in awe as the guys continued to feed off each other's energy. One of my fondest memories is of Will standing in the center an ant pile in shorts and sandals getting bitten. He was hollering to his girlfriend Grace to help him as he was being bitten (they bite pretty good too). She looked at him and very calmly told him to then “get the f**k out of the ant pile”. I got a few of the girls to help me move our tent and went back to bed. Jeremy stayed out with the guys for another fifteen minutes reveling at the events that had just transpired. When he came in I thought it was finally over but he then proceeded to talk to Glen (our neighboring tent buddy) about the ants from inside the tent. I am not sure how long they held this conversation for as I totally and completely laughed myself to sleep.
After a full day of rafting and late night birthday celebrating, we needed a day of rest and that is what we did on Day 11. We really didn’t feel like doing much of anything. In the morning we got up and washed our clothes which turned out to be a group activity because soon everyone in the camp was out washing their clothes. For any of you who have washed your clothes using a bin and cold water, you will attest to how 'unfun' this can be. I think probably one of the things you start to realize while traveling is that you take so many things for granted. You never realize even how special your washing machine and dryer are until you have to do all the work yourself. When we get home, we are going to hug them both dearly. Not only does your washing machine make life easier but your clothes love you for it to. Constantly scrubbing and wringing out your clothes does a number on the material and they end up changing sizes. They don’t shrink but rather they become about six sizes too big.
Anyways after we washed our clothes we decided that it would be nice to go down and go fishing again. The little kids that we had fished with before had been waiting for two days already for us to fish with them again. That morning they were waiting at the fence for us. We met them down at the water and Katie, Glenn, Michael and I went for a quick dip while the kids played around. After our swim Katie headed back up to the camp to catch up on some well deserved reading while we stayed to catch some minnows. The kids truly enjoyed fishing with us because we supplied a reason for constant laughter as we, the Mzungu's, could not catch any fish at all. We would throw the line in the water thirty times and the only thing that came of it was that we lost all of their bait. Each time they threw the line in they would pull out a fish within seconds.
After we, okay they, had caught thirty fish they decided that they should show me what they do with the fish. I had pestered them so much about what they were going to do with such small fish that rather than laugh at me any more they were just going to cook some for me. Without any means of fire or cooking supplies I was a little curious. I ran back to the campsite to get a lighter and by the time I arrived they had scavenged a ton of small sticks for firewood and were hard at work getting things ready. Using a fishing hook they had ripped the guts out of all of the fish. They took small sticks and made skewers and rammed them through the mouth of the fish and out the back. They got the fire going on a rock that was out in the water and we sat around while the charred the fish. They enlightened us on how to tell when a whole fish is ready. When the skin bursts then it is ready to eat??? Hey...I guess you learn something new everyday. They had to help me eat the fish because I had no idea how to d-bone a fish that is only 2 inches long. They would also not eat the fish until I had my fill. I tried to persuade them that this was a bad idea because I had lots of food in the campsite but they would not take 'no' for an answer. I couldn't believe that the kids, who were sitting there half naked and in ripped clothes, wanted me to eat their hard earned catch. The fish was amazing especially considering it had absolutely no spices or any prep work done to it.
Once we had finished our meal I went back to the campsite to grab paper and a camera. I snapped endless pictures of them jumping of the cliff. They were delighted to view the pics and figure out who it was jumping off. It was a little slow getting their address because they all had to work together to figure out how to write their address and names in English. They asked again if we would go for a village walk with them, mini tourist guides already, and so I went and collected some recruits. I was only able to get Katie, and Michael to go on village walk but everyone else just missed out. These kids filled us in on how everything in the village works. Adam, who was obviously the leader of the pack, took us from plant to plant and told us everything from how it was planted to its nurturing process and then to how it was prepared. We truly learned a lot from these boys and we were all fascinated by the magic plants that closed up once we touched them. We even bought some raw vanilla that we planned to use for tea but we didn’t because we had no idea how to use it. The tour was just over an hour long and I would have hired these guys again over many of the guides we had already had. Not only was the tour great but we could easily play with them as though we were kids to. Katie exhausted herself playing tag with them and not once could she catch any of them – they were too fast! Near the end of the tour, we found a flat section of grass and Katie showed them how to walk on their hands. This inspired them to do somersaults and flips. What impressed us the most was how independent and knowledgeable these seven to eleven year old kids were…none of the kids I know back home could even cook macaroni let alone clean and cook fish with tree branches. It seems that kids here are the most responsive to tourists and Adam, Moses, Allen, Michael (Katie's favorite) and the rest of the boys showed us true Ugandan hospitality. We tipped them a little for their hospitality and thanked them profusely for our amazing experience – one that neither of us will ever forgot.
The rest of the night was pretty chill as we were all still reeling from our escapades the night before and just headed to bed.
In the morning (Day 12) we packed up and were on our way. From Jinga we headed to Entebbe which was no where near as exciting a campsite as we had just been at. Although, it may be a bit premature, it is hard to imagine that we are going to find a campsite that compares to Jinga with its beautiful river to swim in, the spectacular view from the bar and the adorable local kdis.
At Entebbe, we picked up two newbies heading to see the gorillas in Rwanda (McGill and Hannah). After eating some of the best steak we had ever eaten in our lives (so good that Katie ate her entire portion) we headed to the local bar to catch a glimpse of the local night life. The bar was filled with locals, ex-patriots, tourists and then the working girls. Everything was very similar to any pub that I have ever visited with the exception of the pool. Not only were the rules very different to back home but the game had its own security guards. If you wanted to play the next game you would talk to the security of the pool table and put your name down. It cost about 1 dollar. But if you really wanted to play you had to bribe the security and then hope that your bribe was the highest...otherwise you didn't play. Kanyo our guide managed to jump me into the line and I had to play the guy who had been running the game for the last couple of hours. I don't know how but I managed to beat him but rather than being upset he was super nice about it. The second guy that I played should never have beat me as he was one of the worst pool players I had ever been matched against but somehow he beat me...I think he scratched on an eight ball but it doesn't work like that. The bar was quite fun and eye opening. I had been told that there are very few women who go to the bar but working girls and I found this out at the end of the night. Mike had lured some girl over to our end of the bar, well she just kind of mosied on over to us, and when he went to the washroom I was left with her. I found her aggressiveness quite amusing and I don't think she liked that. Although, I don't think she would have remembered if I was rude in the morning because she was pretty tanked.
The next morning (Day 13) we had to redo our laundry because most of it still stunk from not drying fully at Jinja. It wasn't as nice as a setup as the other place but we managed to get it done. Despite the killer heat Jeremy ventured into town to see the sights, buy a new pair of sandals (as his birks were on its last leg) and check out the internet cafe . I was a bit more ambitious and went for a thirty minute run with the pro's Billsy and Laura, who had recently just raced in a marathon. It was a nice but definitely not a refreshing run as 2 minutes into it, I was dripping from the heat. I really enjoyed myself and I thought this was a great way to see the city....and the locals were great! They would holla at us, “Way to Go Muzungu's” and cheer us on. When we got back to the campsite, I convinced Billsy and Laura to finish off the excersize with my boxing circuit. It was nice to see the tables tun and watch them sweat a bit :) The remainder of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing followed by a chill movie night with the group.
The next morning (Day 14) we awoke and headed to the truck for a long day of driving. We were heading to Mbarara campsite which is located on the University campground. Like so many of our driving days it was going to be exhausting. The truck is fairly comfortable and it is great to have the company that we do. However, sometimes it would just be nice to be alone and I think we feel this the most after a long drive. The windows on the bus allow us to view the scenery with ease but at times when we are driving extremely fast it begins to dry you out and it can even be hard to read. The Ugandan landscape is very picturesque with rolling hills and mountains that are all covered in green. But unlike Kenya, the reception in Uganda has been slightly different. We have met extremely nice people and then we meet others who are not so kind. We have had teenagers and young adults pick up stones and in a somewhat joking manner make it look like they are going to throw it at the truck. When passing one of the small towns someone actually threw a stick at the truck. In one town a group of small kids tried to steal our small lock from the door of the truck as we left the supermarket. Thankfully someone had seen them and we got it back but this was after some of the passengers gave them food. They followed this by a middle finger dance. But for the most part, the people here have been great.
On our way to the campsite we passed through the equator and stopped for some basic information and to examine some basic physics...oh ya and don't forget shopping!! The physics I speak of is how the water drains on both sides of the equator and in the middle. Literally the difference of moving two feet from the North side to the center and then to the South was that the direction of draining water went from clockwise, to standstill to counterclockwise – so cool!!! We also passed into an area where the local cows are famous for their horns. Some of the horns were so big that it seemed impossible for the cows to pick up their heads...let alone move. But of course, to no surprise, these cows would slowly graze the fields like any other ordinary cow.
The following day (Day 15) we headed to the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Again it was a fairly long drive but we made good time for once and got there with a little time to spare before heading out on our hippo boat cruise tour. We were not excited about the hippo tour as the one in St. Lucia (South Africa) had been extremely boring. Much to our surprise, this one turned out to be great! The boat we were riding in was much lower to the water which allowed us to get closer to the animals. Immediately after beginning the tour we floated near two elephants bathing in the water....nearly submerged. They didn't like us around and made some fearsome looking mock charges but none of us were scared...we just wanted pictures. We got extremely close to hippos, and tons of other wildlife relaxing along the waters edge. Despite how dangerous the buffalo are, there were local village people around the park and people just sitting around while these large animals munched on grass right next to them. Another surprising thing was the people wading in the waist deep water with crocodiles, hippos, snakes and who knows what else lurking nearby.
That evening we had our first large group bonfire at our campsite inside the national park. The fire served two purposes – to gather around as a group and to keep the animals at bay while we were outside of our tents. We did a great job of getting the fire going as we had to keep moving farther and farther back as it picked up its pace – cooking marshmallows also entailed cooking your eyebrows!!! After dinner Kenyo sat us all down and filled us in on many of the various tribes from Eastern Africa and the traditions and customs they still follow. Kanyo was great at explaining how the traditions meld into today's society and why some of the olden day traditions are not as well accepted with changes in human rights - I.e. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).
After most people went to bed Kanyo filled some of us in on what crazy things have happened on past trips. The worst was a trip several years back where one guy was so lazy and selfish that all the members on the truck hated him. So, one night they decided to get him back. A bit of extra information is needed here first – in the parks you are not to bring food into the tents or leave any out of the truck because this will draw the animals to the campsite – mainly the wild dogs and the hyena's. So after this guy had gone to bed several people in the group took the chicken bones from dinner and spread them in between the rain cover for his tent and the tent itself. In the middle of the night a pack of hyenas wandered into the camp and started munching on the bones right under his tent window. The guy woke up and got so scared that he literally shit his pants. After removing them he threw them out of his tent. In the morning everyone woke to find shreds of his pants covered in shit everywhere as the hyenas had tore them to pieces. There were more stories but this was probably one of the worst. After being on a trip like this, you have more respect for the people on Survivor or Big Brother as it is so easy to get annoyed with certain things and certain people and keeping your mouth shut is easier said than done.
I think most of the campers were a little worried about sleeping the night in the park especially after hearing lions roaring approximately 2 km away (??? Kanyo informed us that we were safe because we still had a fair distance...but how he knew we had 2kms still puzzles me)and hippos grunting while we sat around the fire. What made it worse was that we spotted a hippo near the toilet just before dinner and the wardens, who arrived as a threesome on one small motorbike, had just run into two leopards on their way to our campsite. But everyone made it alive to the next morning despite their full bladders.
We started the day (Day 16) with an early morning game drive in the park but sadly enough, we didn't see a great deal of animals. We actually probably saw more vultures and Maribu storks than any other animals - the only real meat eaters around. However, we did get a great deal of practice dodging stray cactus trees that protruded into the open truck as we passed through the park...some people just aren't that smart or lucky.
We spent our last night in Uganda in a town called Kabale. When we got there Katie and I convinced Mike that he should join us for a workout circuit rather than venture out for a run (Our climb up Mount Kili was less than 2 weeks away and we thought it would be wise to get some sort of training in). He agreed rather more easily than we thought he would but I think he regretted it after he signed up because he cursed the entire workout and could barely stand on his own two feet by the end of it.
On Day 17, we stocked up on groceries in Kabale before venturing into the small country of
Rwanda – famous for its rolling hills.
KENYA!!!
April 19th , 2010 – Day 1 of our 71 day Overlander.
We arrived at the Nairobi Airport at 4am and all of the sites and surroundings were all a little too familiar to us – neither Jeremy nor I had any good feelings about this place. We took a 20 minute taxi from the airport straight to our hotel – no detouring! We contemplated buying a room for the 4 hours but because the hotel would not give us any form of discount, we figured we would try and wait it out. Within an hour I got really sleepy - I went to a corner of the lobby, pulled out my sleeping mat and then proceeded to wrap myself in my sleeping bag.
At about 6 am, the manager came over and very politely asked Jeremy if I wanted to wake up. Jeremy was confused and told him that he wanted me to sleep. The manager very timidly told him that it was unprofessional to have a girl sleeping on the floor in the corner of their hotel – haha...oops!
From there we waited until the kitchen opened for breakfast. We then started to meet all of our travel buddies. We were wondering how many people would be delayed due to the volcano in Europe and soon found out that there were 5 stranded (we felt very bad for them).
After filling out some paper work and handing over our portion of the group's kitty fund (fund that pays for the groups food and gas etc.) we checked out our new home. We made the fatal mistake of calling it a bus and were quickly informed that it was not a bus but a truck...big difference! Our truck was awesome and what excited us all the more was that it had loads of books on it (Jeremy and I had killed our backs in Egypt stalking up on books for this trip).
After getting settled on the truck, we met our driver, Robert, and our guide, Kanyo, who we immediately knew would be awesome. After giving us the low down on how the truck works, we packed up and got ready for our first visit in the TRUCK.
First stop for the day was a Giraffe Sanctuary. A lot of the members on our group had never seen a giraffe so they were so excited! Although we had seen them countless times in our previous experiences, this was a little different because we got to feed the giraffes with our mouth. It might sound a little disgusting, and in truth it felt quite gross, but we were told that their saliva was like an antiseptic...not sure that really changed anything because it was still gross. To feed the giraffes we put a little piece of food in between our lips and then let the giraffe come close and pull the food out with his mouth or tongue...their preference. Each giraffe was a little different but most of the adults preferred to get a lot of tongue in there...I mean a lot of tongue!!! After everyone was kissed by the adult giraffes we had a chance to do the same with the younger giraffes which were much more delicate. We soon figured out that if you pulled slowly away from the giraffes as they came to grab the food from your mouth, they would stick out their tongue and try to get it that way. It made for some great pictures!!
After the giraffe park we headed to the Elephant and Rhino sanctuary where we got to see the cutest little elephants feeding and playing together. All of the animals had been rescued in the wild – majority of the mothers were killed because of poaching (one had fallen in a manhole and was basically left for dead). Everyone was so excited to take pictures of the little guys but we were all lucky not to get sprayed with elephant shit. One of the little ones had decided that he wanted to play a gag on everyone and came over to the viewing area for what we thought was ample picture taking. But then, he turned around and sprayed very liquidy green shit everywhere. We never did get to see any baby rhinos but plenty of cute elephants (some as young as 2 months old). From the elephant sanctuary we headed to our first campsite which was a couple of hours away in ____.
When we arrived at our campsite we helped to organize the massive amounts of groceries we had purchased from the kitty funds. There are lots of things to remember about the truck as it has so many nooks and crannies and to avoid losing things everything has to be put away in a certain place and everyone is given a job to help keep things running smoothly – we call these things CHORES! Because we were all 'newbies' and the custom in Africa is to welcome your guests and not immediately put them to work, we were given a few days grace. But...because we were such an ambitious group, we helped anyway (excluding supper) and found all of the perishables and cans a home. Next, we were given instructions as to how to set up our tents. This was followed by instructions as to how to properly sanitize our hands and dishes so as not to spread germs between everyone (something we both were very grateful over). We couldn't believe how thorough it was in comparison to our previous trips where things were either just rinsed in water or scrubbed in the sand.
That night we just chilled and got accustomed to each other. We had had a chance to talk on the drive but now we had a chance to learn a bit about what everyone was doing and what their plans were. Our group consisted of Aussies (Glenn and Rhinianon – very cool couple who were jumping off the truck after 25 days in Arusha), Kiwis (Christine – a doll who reminds me of Diana who is trekking the full 71 days to Cape Town) and Pom's (Mike, Mary, and Claire whom 2 are going all the way to Cape Town). Some had been here on volunteer work and many were here just like us to travel and see Africa.
The second day (Day 2) after packing up all of our gear, which we soon knew was going to be a royal pain in the butt, we headed to the Massai Mara National Park (famous for its annual migration which peaks in June and July). We arrived in time for an afternoon game drive. The truck (aka our home) is by far the best vehicle for game viewing compared to any others we have been in because it is so big! We tower over everything so we can just lazily sit back and watch...and to top things off, the windows roll up so it is like being at a nature movie theatre – completely unobstructed and a 360 degree view!!! We saw tons of animals and although we were not as camera happy as the others, we still admired the beauty of each animal. We stumbled upon a small pride of lions (we love our CATS!) but sadly enough, we spotted them just when mother nature felt the urge to give us a downpour – so...needless to say, we had to roll down the windows and our complete unobstructed view became a little more obstructed.
Our second night was spent at a local camp-site immediately outside the park. Because there are no fences around the perimeter of the park, there is nothing keeping the wild animals from making their way to us...especially at night when we are half out of it and are making our ways to the toilets. We were actually encouraged by Kanyo to mark our territory right next to our tent in the middle of the night so as to avoid this. But, because we were at such an awesome campsite, we had some local security guards who kept watch over us during the night (and they carried poison dipped arrows for weapons – crazy, crazy, crazy!). We were also spoiled that night as the camp-site had permanent tents with BEDS set up for us so we did not even have to pitch the tents that night which would have been in the dark.
The following morning (Day 3) we woke up at 5 am, packed up our belongings and scarfed down some breakfast. This allowed us to get an early start on our morning game drive at the Masai Mara. BUT...even with only nine people on the bus it still took us forever to get going (and keep in mind we did not have to take down our tents)...I can't imagine what it is going to be like when our group reaches its maximum capacity of 27 people on the truck.
The morning game drive was very successful. We got some beautiful sunrise pics and the thing that I really noticed about Kenya was the amazing clouds that appeared to grow from the ground and spread upwards like roots. The terrain of the Masai Mara is flat open ground...so it was really nice to have nothing blocking our 360 degree view. We were even lucky enough to not only see two lions hanging out near the road - 5 meters from us - but we got to witness these two lions having sex!!! It wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Actually it seemed more of a chore than anything pleasurable as the lions just growled and snarled at each other while they were doing it. Turns out the male lions penis is corkscrew in shape so it hurts the lioness as it goes in and out. But it didn't matter too much as it was over for both in about twenty seconds or less. We waited patiently to see if they would do it again as they supposedly have sex every fifteen minutes when they are mating, which is only for ten days of the year.
We figured the lions didn't mind us hanging around until the male started to stare at us and set up to pounce (reminded me of the Lion King when Mustafa teaches Simba to pounce and he practices on Zazu). Although, we were super high off of the ground, everyone began to get a little worried that the lion was actually going to pounce the truck and jump right in – Christine was the most scared and actually backed right up to the opposite side of the truck and got down low – lol. . We must have pissed him off, ruined the mood, or they had some stage fright because the second time the male attempted to start up again, the female told him off and they headed towards the bush (haha...damn right ladies!). It was here that Kanyo informed us that the movie starring Micheal Douglas called “The Ghost and the Darkness” was filmed inside this park. The movie is based on a true story about a pride of lions that stalked and killed a group of men working on a rail line. We were also told that when and if a lion gets a taste of human flesh, they will continue to hunt humans...so they are tracked and the entire pride is killed.
We headed down the road to see if we could spot any leopards or anything else cool but when trying to head through the swamp area we got stuck – boo! It took us nearly two hours to get our big beast of a truck out of the mud but thankfully, Robert and Kanyo saved the day. We were instructed not to help because we were after all in the middle of a national park and I think they were both worried about potential litigation issues (i.e. man eaten by lion while pushing vehicle out of mud). This was easier said then done because it was not long before some of us had to pee. Christine was the first to go and I soon followed quickly behind her. We went in front of the vehicle and told the boys not to look. When we were both squatting, I looked over at her and asked if she had some stage fright as I was just letting mine go...she was all red and laughing and it turned out that she had to do more than just number one! We both started laughing hysterically and I told her I would leave ASAP!...which I did (I mean, talk about getting close to your neighbour huh???...and on Day 3 too!) She was so embarrassed afterwards and was afraid that Robert would step right into it when he walked around the front of the vehicle to get behind the wheel (she had covered it up with some mud - haha). I came to her rescue and informed Robert to walk a healthy distance away from the front of the truck otherwise he would get some 'dirt' on him. He laughed and knew exactly what was going on. Just when he was about to pass the front, he noticed a set of lion prints in the mud...this caused quite the commotion on the truck and everyone was wanting a picture of them...which made Christine all the more uneasy. Luckily enough, no one spotted the pile of 'dirt' and she later told the whole truck and we both kept pissing ourselves with laughter.
After the game drive we were taken to a local Masai village where we were greeted with a welcome dance by both the men and the women. To give you a bit of a mental picture as to how the men dance, rent the movie “The Air Up There” with Kevin Bacon, if you haven't already seen it. The really awesome basketball player in the video is a Masai warrior and the dance they do in the movie is exactly what we were shown. They jump up and down in a circle while chanting and then break apart and continue to jump about 6 inches from your face (a little bit close at times!). They also showed us a traditional dance they use to court a women. The courting dance, or show off dance, is essentially all the boys jumping up and down. The higher they jump the more attractive they are to a women. Mike and I were invited to join in the dance but I think with my performance I was probably lucky to keep Katie. The dance performed by the women was much less dramatic and there were much fewer women dancing...I guess they don't all have to show off for their men.
Back in the day a Masai man would show their power by the amount of women each had, so this dance was important. However, now in their words “As we become educated we have realized that more than one women is just difficult, so we prefer only one”.
We also got to see some post war wounds on an older man who was attacked by a lion. Another practice from back in the day (which has since been banned by the Kenya Government) was to kill a lion before marriage (so... you can imagine how many lions would have died back in the day when one man would marry five wives...he would, with the help of his tribesmen, have to kill five lions on five separate occasions...and that was assuming he was not killed in the act).
We were taken in to their homes, learnt about their construction techniques, learnt how they kept their animals and the most strange of all their diet – meat and cow blood mixed with milk which they ate for breakfast and supper (they only have two meals a day). Luckily enough, they did not offer us any to try...phew!!!
Our next stop after the Masai village was Navaisha. When we arrived there we were all excited to ditch our tents and personally upgrade to a nice double room. After everyone agreed on the price, paid and moved their things into their rooms, we were informed that we had not paid enough - ??? We were supposed to pay the cost of the room minus the cost of camping as the camping was already covered in our kitty funds. Turns out that the woman had already deducted the camping fees without our knowledge (and without even knowing we were upgrading - ??? smells fishy to me). We have encountered this on multiple occasions on our trip where we are originally quoted with a price but later, having been judged up and down (and determined our wealth) are informed of a new and higher amount - ??? It is very frustrating but there is really not much to do about it.
But back to our story...despite the completely vacant and large amount of rooms the place had, the manager would not honor what we had paid and made us vacate our rooms. So...we were back to tenting.
The day was pretty chill and that afternoon we received another recruit of Aussie's (Bilsey, Laura, Fysh and Janelle). We were now at 13 and happy!
Our second day in Navaisha (Day 4) was spent at Hell's Gate National Park. Rather than drive the park, we were all given bicycles. It wasn't a very difficult bike ride and at times the pace was a little slow. However, we were all pretty exhausted shortly after it began due to the heat and the fact that some of the bikes were in pretty rough shape. At the end of the first leg of the bike ride, we walked down the hills and into the gorge to see the natural hot springs. It turns out this is where the Tomb Raider film was recorded.
I can't speak for everyone else but on the way back I was ready to turn in my bike and just sleep on the side of the road in some shade. I almost wished I could have walked the way back and I think I wasn't the only one who was thinking the same thing because when Christine's bike chain snapped and she had to walk back everyone kept asking if she wanted to trade and they would walk and she could ride. When she refused, Katie volunteered to walk back with her and I said I would pull her bike beside me. Glen started it out for me because he was much better at it. Once we reached what we though was flat ground he let me take over. I was able to get it around the first turn only by actually lifting the front of the bike off of the ground. At the end of the first turn I lost control and tried to jump off my bike but landed crotch first on the bike frame – Ouch! Fysh rescued me until we met back up with Katie and Christine, at which point she walked the bike home.
Overall, the whole experience was pretty cool and it is something amazing to think that we were biking along with the Gazelles, Zebra's and Giraffe's. We were informed there were no lions, buffalo or rhino's...but there were a family of leopards that we had to watch out for. We figured we were safe because there were more warthogs ('ugliness perfected' according to our tour guide) than there were humans – their fav snack! At one point, we had to stop for a Zebra crossing...only in Africa!
After the bike ride we headed back to the campsite to meet our next recruit, a Kiwi named Anna, which brought our toll to 14. That night we headed to the night club to find only two other people in the entire place. It was quite the place. You weren't allowed to take pictures or even show your camera and the walls of the entire place were covered in pillow like sound proofing...what goes on in here when it is not a nightclub??? We also laughed because only in Africa can you enter a bar with 'outside' alcohol and walk out of a bar with 'inside' alcohol.
Kanyo had also heavily warned us to steer clear of the hippos at night when they graze. Although they are fenced in and there are copious amounts of warning signs, they had a group in the previous year that had gotten drunk at the bar and thought it would be 'funny' to jump the fence and go looking for the hippos. One girl had made the fatal mistake of crossing paths of a baby hippo and the mother and was killed – the others safely made it across the fence. Hippo's actually are the number one animal killers in Africa...they beat out lions, crocodiles and even the unpredictable water buffalo.
The next day (Day 5) we headed to Lake Nakuru for another game drive!!! Just before the game drive we had stopped in the city for lunch and we desperately looked for a lens for a camera (the lens we currently had was only 5x optical zoom...not nearly adequate for the game drives). After seeing all of the other people on the trip with great zoom lenses we were supremely jealous and wanted to be able to get good close ups of all of the animals. After trying a dozen shops we realized it was a pointless search.
Kanyo informed us that we would have to eat our lunch before we entered the park because the monkeys would surely try to steal it from us. However, even though we ate our lunch before we got in, while we were waiting for fire wood the monkeys cornered our truck. We tried desperately to keep them away but someone on the truck tried to offer them chips (what a dumbass) and that just caused them to go crazy. Even despite our efforts to swat them away with broom sticks they managed to, in a split second, jump into the truck and out with a bag of our bread.
Lake Nakuru was much like Lake Manyare (in Tanzania) with towering trees and dense bush...Leopard Country but unfortunately we ended the day with no sightings of Leopards. We did get close to the water where we spotted white and black Rhino, flamingos, water buffalo and the coolest jumping birds. It was neat to look out into the distant long grass and see scattered tiny black birds jumping straight into the air and then again disappearing into the long grass.
That night we stayed in the park and when we arrived at the camp site we were greeted by what seemed like hundreds of baboons. Thankfully it was night time because shortly after we arrived they ventured off into the trees to sleep. We barely had time to set up the tent and the dinner equipment before it began to pour on us. The truck was equipped with a tarp to cover us but the last time it had had maintenance work done on it, it had been put back incorrectly and so there was a huge hole and water was coming down on us from every angle. We managed to finish dinner but we were drenched by the time we had finished dishes. Everyone figured that it would be better to just head to bed rather than stay out in the pouring rain and so we all retired early.
Jeremy was up early the next morning (Day 6) with the other wallah's to get things going for breakfast. By now we all had jobs and Jeremy's was to be a wallah – fire starter, cooking equipment prep and general truck 'bitch'. Jeremy thinks it is a pretty good job but I disagree, especially on the days when we have to get up early for game drives because he has to have the fires started by the time everyone wakes up. I rotate jobs with everyone else which includes cooking, dish washing and truck cleaning.
Our early morning game drive was much more eventful than the previous afternoon game drive and we were lucky enough to see an entire pride of lions hanging out on the side of a hill no more than 30 feet from our truck. When they finally departed we headed to the nearby resort to take Claire to the bathroom. We had already had numerous sick people on the truck. The day earlier Mike had visited the doctors because he hadn't really eaten in about a weeks time. He seemed better after his medication took hold but now Claire was getting sick and she wasn't so smart about getting her diagnosis and catching the rest she needed. That day we took her to the doctor and when she went in she didn't bother to get a blood test, as recommended, and just accepted a pile of medication for Malaria. I don't think she got actually diagnosed but rather convinced the doctor that she had Malaria and so he just agreed.
We spent the night at this really nice place in a town called Eldoret supposedly where Bill Gates has once stayed. It was a cool place with tunnels and a bar that was built down into the ground with a fire place as its focal point. The owner was a bit psychotic but we all were pretty happy to stay in warm and dry dorm beds for the night.
The next morning (Day 7) was our last day in Kenya and we began the long drive to Uganda.
One last thing to mention about Kenya are the amazing kids who would come running from the villages and nearby fields screaming at the top of their longs, “HOW ARE YOU? HOW ARE YOU?” They are taught this at a very young age and they only understand the response as “FINE”and not “GOOD”. They usually do not even wait for the response though, they keep screaming this at us and then I would say ~a decent percent of them will quickly change their smiling expressions into stern faces with their hands out begging for money. We all laugh at this because it is not every day when a truck full of Mzungu's (white people) drive by.
We arrived at the Nairobi Airport at 4am and all of the sites and surroundings were all a little too familiar to us – neither Jeremy nor I had any good feelings about this place. We took a 20 minute taxi from the airport straight to our hotel – no detouring! We contemplated buying a room for the 4 hours but because the hotel would not give us any form of discount, we figured we would try and wait it out. Within an hour I got really sleepy - I went to a corner of the lobby, pulled out my sleeping mat and then proceeded to wrap myself in my sleeping bag.
At about 6 am, the manager came over and very politely asked Jeremy if I wanted to wake up. Jeremy was confused and told him that he wanted me to sleep. The manager very timidly told him that it was unprofessional to have a girl sleeping on the floor in the corner of their hotel – haha...oops!
From there we waited until the kitchen opened for breakfast. We then started to meet all of our travel buddies. We were wondering how many people would be delayed due to the volcano in Europe and soon found out that there were 5 stranded (we felt very bad for them).
After filling out some paper work and handing over our portion of the group's kitty fund (fund that pays for the groups food and gas etc.) we checked out our new home. We made the fatal mistake of calling it a bus and were quickly informed that it was not a bus but a truck...big difference! Our truck was awesome and what excited us all the more was that it had loads of books on it (Jeremy and I had killed our backs in Egypt stalking up on books for this trip).
After getting settled on the truck, we met our driver, Robert, and our guide, Kanyo, who we immediately knew would be awesome. After giving us the low down on how the truck works, we packed up and got ready for our first visit in the TRUCK.
First stop for the day was a Giraffe Sanctuary. A lot of the members on our group had never seen a giraffe so they were so excited! Although we had seen them countless times in our previous experiences, this was a little different because we got to feed the giraffes with our mouth. It might sound a little disgusting, and in truth it felt quite gross, but we were told that their saliva was like an antiseptic...not sure that really changed anything because it was still gross. To feed the giraffes we put a little piece of food in between our lips and then let the giraffe come close and pull the food out with his mouth or tongue...their preference. Each giraffe was a little different but most of the adults preferred to get a lot of tongue in there...I mean a lot of tongue!!! After everyone was kissed by the adult giraffes we had a chance to do the same with the younger giraffes which were much more delicate. We soon figured out that if you pulled slowly away from the giraffes as they came to grab the food from your mouth, they would stick out their tongue and try to get it that way. It made for some great pictures!!
After the giraffe park we headed to the Elephant and Rhino sanctuary where we got to see the cutest little elephants feeding and playing together. All of the animals had been rescued in the wild – majority of the mothers were killed because of poaching (one had fallen in a manhole and was basically left for dead). Everyone was so excited to take pictures of the little guys but we were all lucky not to get sprayed with elephant shit. One of the little ones had decided that he wanted to play a gag on everyone and came over to the viewing area for what we thought was ample picture taking. But then, he turned around and sprayed very liquidy green shit everywhere. We never did get to see any baby rhinos but plenty of cute elephants (some as young as 2 months old). From the elephant sanctuary we headed to our first campsite which was a couple of hours away in ____.
When we arrived at our campsite we helped to organize the massive amounts of groceries we had purchased from the kitty funds. There are lots of things to remember about the truck as it has so many nooks and crannies and to avoid losing things everything has to be put away in a certain place and everyone is given a job to help keep things running smoothly – we call these things CHORES! Because we were all 'newbies' and the custom in Africa is to welcome your guests and not immediately put them to work, we were given a few days grace. But...because we were such an ambitious group, we helped anyway (excluding supper) and found all of the perishables and cans a home. Next, we were given instructions as to how to set up our tents. This was followed by instructions as to how to properly sanitize our hands and dishes so as not to spread germs between everyone (something we both were very grateful over). We couldn't believe how thorough it was in comparison to our previous trips where things were either just rinsed in water or scrubbed in the sand.
That night we just chilled and got accustomed to each other. We had had a chance to talk on the drive but now we had a chance to learn a bit about what everyone was doing and what their plans were. Our group consisted of Aussies (Glenn and Rhinianon – very cool couple who were jumping off the truck after 25 days in Arusha), Kiwis (Christine – a doll who reminds me of Diana who is trekking the full 71 days to Cape Town) and Pom's (Mike, Mary, and Claire whom 2 are going all the way to Cape Town). Some had been here on volunteer work and many were here just like us to travel and see Africa.
The second day (Day 2) after packing up all of our gear, which we soon knew was going to be a royal pain in the butt, we headed to the Massai Mara National Park (famous for its annual migration which peaks in June and July). We arrived in time for an afternoon game drive. The truck (aka our home) is by far the best vehicle for game viewing compared to any others we have been in because it is so big! We tower over everything so we can just lazily sit back and watch...and to top things off, the windows roll up so it is like being at a nature movie theatre – completely unobstructed and a 360 degree view!!! We saw tons of animals and although we were not as camera happy as the others, we still admired the beauty of each animal. We stumbled upon a small pride of lions (we love our CATS!) but sadly enough, we spotted them just when mother nature felt the urge to give us a downpour – so...needless to say, we had to roll down the windows and our complete unobstructed view became a little more obstructed.
Our second night was spent at a local camp-site immediately outside the park. Because there are no fences around the perimeter of the park, there is nothing keeping the wild animals from making their way to us...especially at night when we are half out of it and are making our ways to the toilets. We were actually encouraged by Kanyo to mark our territory right next to our tent in the middle of the night so as to avoid this. But, because we were at such an awesome campsite, we had some local security guards who kept watch over us during the night (and they carried poison dipped arrows for weapons – crazy, crazy, crazy!). We were also spoiled that night as the camp-site had permanent tents with BEDS set up for us so we did not even have to pitch the tents that night which would have been in the dark.
The following morning (Day 3) we woke up at 5 am, packed up our belongings and scarfed down some breakfast. This allowed us to get an early start on our morning game drive at the Masai Mara. BUT...even with only nine people on the bus it still took us forever to get going (and keep in mind we did not have to take down our tents)...I can't imagine what it is going to be like when our group reaches its maximum capacity of 27 people on the truck.
The morning game drive was very successful. We got some beautiful sunrise pics and the thing that I really noticed about Kenya was the amazing clouds that appeared to grow from the ground and spread upwards like roots. The terrain of the Masai Mara is flat open ground...so it was really nice to have nothing blocking our 360 degree view. We were even lucky enough to not only see two lions hanging out near the road - 5 meters from us - but we got to witness these two lions having sex!!! It wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Actually it seemed more of a chore than anything pleasurable as the lions just growled and snarled at each other while they were doing it. Turns out the male lions penis is corkscrew in shape so it hurts the lioness as it goes in and out. But it didn't matter too much as it was over for both in about twenty seconds or less. We waited patiently to see if they would do it again as they supposedly have sex every fifteen minutes when they are mating, which is only for ten days of the year.
We figured the lions didn't mind us hanging around until the male started to stare at us and set up to pounce (reminded me of the Lion King when Mustafa teaches Simba to pounce and he practices on Zazu). Although, we were super high off of the ground, everyone began to get a little worried that the lion was actually going to pounce the truck and jump right in – Christine was the most scared and actually backed right up to the opposite side of the truck and got down low – lol. . We must have pissed him off, ruined the mood, or they had some stage fright because the second time the male attempted to start up again, the female told him off and they headed towards the bush (haha...damn right ladies!). It was here that Kanyo informed us that the movie starring Micheal Douglas called “The Ghost and the Darkness” was filmed inside this park. The movie is based on a true story about a pride of lions that stalked and killed a group of men working on a rail line. We were also told that when and if a lion gets a taste of human flesh, they will continue to hunt humans...so they are tracked and the entire pride is killed.
We headed down the road to see if we could spot any leopards or anything else cool but when trying to head through the swamp area we got stuck – boo! It took us nearly two hours to get our big beast of a truck out of the mud but thankfully, Robert and Kanyo saved the day. We were instructed not to help because we were after all in the middle of a national park and I think they were both worried about potential litigation issues (i.e. man eaten by lion while pushing vehicle out of mud). This was easier said then done because it was not long before some of us had to pee. Christine was the first to go and I soon followed quickly behind her. We went in front of the vehicle and told the boys not to look. When we were both squatting, I looked over at her and asked if she had some stage fright as I was just letting mine go...she was all red and laughing and it turned out that she had to do more than just number one! We both started laughing hysterically and I told her I would leave ASAP!...which I did (I mean, talk about getting close to your neighbour huh???...and on Day 3 too!) She was so embarrassed afterwards and was afraid that Robert would step right into it when he walked around the front of the vehicle to get behind the wheel (she had covered it up with some mud - haha). I came to her rescue and informed Robert to walk a healthy distance away from the front of the truck otherwise he would get some 'dirt' on him. He laughed and knew exactly what was going on. Just when he was about to pass the front, he noticed a set of lion prints in the mud...this caused quite the commotion on the truck and everyone was wanting a picture of them...which made Christine all the more uneasy. Luckily enough, no one spotted the pile of 'dirt' and she later told the whole truck and we both kept pissing ourselves with laughter.
After the game drive we were taken to a local Masai village where we were greeted with a welcome dance by both the men and the women. To give you a bit of a mental picture as to how the men dance, rent the movie “The Air Up There” with Kevin Bacon, if you haven't already seen it. The really awesome basketball player in the video is a Masai warrior and the dance they do in the movie is exactly what we were shown. They jump up and down in a circle while chanting and then break apart and continue to jump about 6 inches from your face (a little bit close at times!). They also showed us a traditional dance they use to court a women. The courting dance, or show off dance, is essentially all the boys jumping up and down. The higher they jump the more attractive they are to a women. Mike and I were invited to join in the dance but I think with my performance I was probably lucky to keep Katie. The dance performed by the women was much less dramatic and there were much fewer women dancing...I guess they don't all have to show off for their men.
Back in the day a Masai man would show their power by the amount of women each had, so this dance was important. However, now in their words “As we become educated we have realized that more than one women is just difficult, so we prefer only one”.
We also got to see some post war wounds on an older man who was attacked by a lion. Another practice from back in the day (which has since been banned by the Kenya Government) was to kill a lion before marriage (so... you can imagine how many lions would have died back in the day when one man would marry five wives...he would, with the help of his tribesmen, have to kill five lions on five separate occasions...and that was assuming he was not killed in the act).
We were taken in to their homes, learnt about their construction techniques, learnt how they kept their animals and the most strange of all their diet – meat and cow blood mixed with milk which they ate for breakfast and supper (they only have two meals a day). Luckily enough, they did not offer us any to try...phew!!!
Our next stop after the Masai village was Navaisha. When we arrived there we were all excited to ditch our tents and personally upgrade to a nice double room. After everyone agreed on the price, paid and moved their things into their rooms, we were informed that we had not paid enough - ??? We were supposed to pay the cost of the room minus the cost of camping as the camping was already covered in our kitty funds. Turns out that the woman had already deducted the camping fees without our knowledge (and without even knowing we were upgrading - ??? smells fishy to me). We have encountered this on multiple occasions on our trip where we are originally quoted with a price but later, having been judged up and down (and determined our wealth) are informed of a new and higher amount - ??? It is very frustrating but there is really not much to do about it.
But back to our story...despite the completely vacant and large amount of rooms the place had, the manager would not honor what we had paid and made us vacate our rooms. So...we were back to tenting.
The day was pretty chill and that afternoon we received another recruit of Aussie's (Bilsey, Laura, Fysh and Janelle). We were now at 13 and happy!
Our second day in Navaisha (Day 4) was spent at Hell's Gate National Park. Rather than drive the park, we were all given bicycles. It wasn't a very difficult bike ride and at times the pace was a little slow. However, we were all pretty exhausted shortly after it began due to the heat and the fact that some of the bikes were in pretty rough shape. At the end of the first leg of the bike ride, we walked down the hills and into the gorge to see the natural hot springs. It turns out this is where the Tomb Raider film was recorded.
I can't speak for everyone else but on the way back I was ready to turn in my bike and just sleep on the side of the road in some shade. I almost wished I could have walked the way back and I think I wasn't the only one who was thinking the same thing because when Christine's bike chain snapped and she had to walk back everyone kept asking if she wanted to trade and they would walk and she could ride. When she refused, Katie volunteered to walk back with her and I said I would pull her bike beside me. Glen started it out for me because he was much better at it. Once we reached what we though was flat ground he let me take over. I was able to get it around the first turn only by actually lifting the front of the bike off of the ground. At the end of the first turn I lost control and tried to jump off my bike but landed crotch first on the bike frame – Ouch! Fysh rescued me until we met back up with Katie and Christine, at which point she walked the bike home.
Overall, the whole experience was pretty cool and it is something amazing to think that we were biking along with the Gazelles, Zebra's and Giraffe's. We were informed there were no lions, buffalo or rhino's...but there were a family of leopards that we had to watch out for. We figured we were safe because there were more warthogs ('ugliness perfected' according to our tour guide) than there were humans – their fav snack! At one point, we had to stop for a Zebra crossing...only in Africa!
After the bike ride we headed back to the campsite to meet our next recruit, a Kiwi named Anna, which brought our toll to 14. That night we headed to the night club to find only two other people in the entire place. It was quite the place. You weren't allowed to take pictures or even show your camera and the walls of the entire place were covered in pillow like sound proofing...what goes on in here when it is not a nightclub??? We also laughed because only in Africa can you enter a bar with 'outside' alcohol and walk out of a bar with 'inside' alcohol.
Kanyo had also heavily warned us to steer clear of the hippos at night when they graze. Although they are fenced in and there are copious amounts of warning signs, they had a group in the previous year that had gotten drunk at the bar and thought it would be 'funny' to jump the fence and go looking for the hippos. One girl had made the fatal mistake of crossing paths of a baby hippo and the mother and was killed – the others safely made it across the fence. Hippo's actually are the number one animal killers in Africa...they beat out lions, crocodiles and even the unpredictable water buffalo.
The next day (Day 5) we headed to Lake Nakuru for another game drive!!! Just before the game drive we had stopped in the city for lunch and we desperately looked for a lens for a camera (the lens we currently had was only 5x optical zoom...not nearly adequate for the game drives). After seeing all of the other people on the trip with great zoom lenses we were supremely jealous and wanted to be able to get good close ups of all of the animals. After trying a dozen shops we realized it was a pointless search.
Kanyo informed us that we would have to eat our lunch before we entered the park because the monkeys would surely try to steal it from us. However, even though we ate our lunch before we got in, while we were waiting for fire wood the monkeys cornered our truck. We tried desperately to keep them away but someone on the truck tried to offer them chips (what a dumbass) and that just caused them to go crazy. Even despite our efforts to swat them away with broom sticks they managed to, in a split second, jump into the truck and out with a bag of our bread.
Lake Nakuru was much like Lake Manyare (in Tanzania) with towering trees and dense bush...Leopard Country but unfortunately we ended the day with no sightings of Leopards. We did get close to the water where we spotted white and black Rhino, flamingos, water buffalo and the coolest jumping birds. It was neat to look out into the distant long grass and see scattered tiny black birds jumping straight into the air and then again disappearing into the long grass.
That night we stayed in the park and when we arrived at the camp site we were greeted by what seemed like hundreds of baboons. Thankfully it was night time because shortly after we arrived they ventured off into the trees to sleep. We barely had time to set up the tent and the dinner equipment before it began to pour on us. The truck was equipped with a tarp to cover us but the last time it had had maintenance work done on it, it had been put back incorrectly and so there was a huge hole and water was coming down on us from every angle. We managed to finish dinner but we were drenched by the time we had finished dishes. Everyone figured that it would be better to just head to bed rather than stay out in the pouring rain and so we all retired early.
Jeremy was up early the next morning (Day 6) with the other wallah's to get things going for breakfast. By now we all had jobs and Jeremy's was to be a wallah – fire starter, cooking equipment prep and general truck 'bitch'. Jeremy thinks it is a pretty good job but I disagree, especially on the days when we have to get up early for game drives because he has to have the fires started by the time everyone wakes up. I rotate jobs with everyone else which includes cooking, dish washing and truck cleaning.
Our early morning game drive was much more eventful than the previous afternoon game drive and we were lucky enough to see an entire pride of lions hanging out on the side of a hill no more than 30 feet from our truck. When they finally departed we headed to the nearby resort to take Claire to the bathroom. We had already had numerous sick people on the truck. The day earlier Mike had visited the doctors because he hadn't really eaten in about a weeks time. He seemed better after his medication took hold but now Claire was getting sick and she wasn't so smart about getting her diagnosis and catching the rest she needed. That day we took her to the doctor and when she went in she didn't bother to get a blood test, as recommended, and just accepted a pile of medication for Malaria. I don't think she got actually diagnosed but rather convinced the doctor that she had Malaria and so he just agreed.
We spent the night at this really nice place in a town called Eldoret supposedly where Bill Gates has once stayed. It was a cool place with tunnels and a bar that was built down into the ground with a fire place as its focal point. The owner was a bit psychotic but we all were pretty happy to stay in warm and dry dorm beds for the night.
The next morning (Day 7) was our last day in Kenya and we began the long drive to Uganda.
One last thing to mention about Kenya are the amazing kids who would come running from the villages and nearby fields screaming at the top of their longs, “HOW ARE YOU? HOW ARE YOU?” They are taught this at a very young age and they only understand the response as “FINE”and not “GOOD”. They usually do not even wait for the response though, they keep screaming this at us and then I would say ~a decent percent of them will quickly change their smiling expressions into stern faces with their hands out begging for money. We all laugh at this because it is not every day when a truck full of Mzungu's (white people) drive by.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
WE ARE ENGAGED!!!
Proposal in the eyes of the asker.
I had always envisioned that on the trip I would ask Katie to marry me. I had no doubts that I wanted to ask her but I was just unsure of where I would do it. I figured that the moment would just pop out at me. After altering our plans to stay in Africa I knew where I was going to do it – Mount Kilimanjaro...that was unless something else arose and I couldn't help myself.
I had decided the previous day (as this is our last day) that this would be the place to ask the most important question of my life!!!
The previous day while we walked along the beach I had been searching for Sandstone. On our desert Safari I had fashioned a heart from sandstone that Katie had adored. Because there were no shops nearby I thought that this would be the nicest and most meaningful ring. Unfortunately, none of the rocks could be carved with what I had at my disposal. So that morning I asked Mostafa where in town I could get a ring. He said he knew of a place and would help me out. This might have been a bad idea because when we went into town he could barely contain his excitement and whenever Katie was a foot ahead of us he would make gestures and sometimes started to talk a little loud. I think I managed to keep him quiet with some gestures of my own but there was no way to sneak away from Katie to get a ring. I tried on my own at one point, feigning that I had to use the washroom, but after ten minutes of running around, I ended up empty handed.
I didn't want to give up and when we got back to the hotel I snuck away from Katie to ask about the ring. Mostapha by this point had filled in Said on what I had planned to do and now I had two very romantic people extremely excited and bursting with ideas. Although, they had a great many ideas I already knew how I wanted the night to turn out in my head. But it was hard to organize everything, even with their help, without alerting Katie as to what I was planning.
Katie ordered a simple meal and I went along with it. She had decided on spaghetti and chicken skewers. It is amazing how two people can think so alike. When I went into the kitchen I couldn't help thinking that spaghetti reminded me of the Disney's movie 'Lady and the Tramp'.
I knew that Katie did not need a ring or anything else but I did not want to be empty handed and I really wanted this to be somewhat traditional. I wanted everything to be perfect and it was making me so nervous. I knew that having Katie in my life was something I had no questions about but for some reason I was nervous. I don't think it was because I was scared but rather because I was so excited and it was really hard to contain my excitement. It was really hard to think and get everything straight...it didn't help that Mostapha and Said kept proposing things that I should do. For example, they wanted me to ask her 'my question' first and then come up for dinner, music and dessert. It took a long time to convince them of my ideas because they were just so excited...which was very touching.
I again asked Mostapha about the ring and because he was busy he sent me into town with a friend of his to look for something special. Before going into town I managed to sneak down to the beach and write M2 in the beach. I also added BFF because I think despite Katie being my girlfriend for a long time, she has also always been my best friend. She is there to listen to me when I need it, is also there for comfort when I am down but most importantly is always giving me more encouragement and love than I ever deserve.
After playing with rocks in the sand I managed to sneak away yet again from Katie and left her watching a movie in the room and headed to town. Despite driving around to every shop in town (there were so many open so late) I had to settle on something not very pretty and what seemed to be much to large (I picked out two to try and even my odds but both seemed a bit off).
Although, we rushed in to town and rushed back I was two minutes too late and Katie had come looking for me. Now she knew something was up.
Although, it was very late by the time we got to eat (Mostapha had waited for everyone to leave before preparing our food) the dinner was so nice. Katie thought exactly like I had and announced that we were rein-acting the lady and the tramp...candle light and spaghetti – great minds think alike.
All throughout supper it felt like my heart was running a mile a minute and I couldn't wait to lead Katie down to the beach. After a few hiccups in the plan and some difficulties in explaining what I wanted to do after dinner, I led Katie down to the beach.
The stones were lit up by candles but that didn't add much light making it hard to lead Katie down the stairs blindfolded. When we got to the bottom the pictures started. Mostapha had asked if he could take pictures and I agreed because it would be nice to have the evening recorded. It was a nice touch because it truly made the mood happy as Katie could not stop giggling as the flash continued to go off from every angle.
Once the boys left and Said had brought down the ring it was time to ask the question. I knew in my head what I wanted to say but it was so difficult to get the words to come out especially since I was nearly crying and tears were streaming down Katie's face. It didn't come out exactly as I had figured it would but either way Katie filled me with happiness by agreeing to spend the rest of her days with me!
We sat on the beach Katie, Rockie (our beloved German Shepard who was protector of the grounds and Katies new best friend) and I just enjoying the moment. It was very romantic until one of the previous guests had wandered down the beach and stumbled over to us. For what seemed like the next five minutes, Andrew rambled about his abilities to understand what the local dogs were saying to him. We had no idea what he was saying and couldn't wait for him to leave.
After the beach we went back up stairs...this time Katie asked to be blindfolded only at the top of the stairs so she would not trip...this seemed like a good idea. When we got up the stairs the guys had lit all of the candles and brought out the flower shaped vegetables. They were so excited when we entered the room and quickly Mostapha began shooting photos. He would shoot from one angle and then move to the next and take more pictures and even got a couple of shots through the book cases.
It was so amazing what they had done for us, especially the beautiful bouquet made of veggies. The atmosphere was very nice. They had the flowers, Christmas ornaments, dozens of candles, pastries and soft music...well some of it was love music the rest was club music. The rest of the staff and some of their friends were there to congratulate us. We sat around eating sweet after sweet, drinking coke and just talking. It would have been nice to be at home and share this moment with everyone but it was so nice that we had met some good friends to share it with and I am so glad that Katie said yes!!!
Proposal in the eye of the askee
When we arrived in Legzira, I knew we had found paradise – the 8 hour drive was so worth it! Once we were settled in and waiting for our food, Jeremy and I started talking about our future (like we always do) and how amazing it would be to bring our kids here one day. Jeremy mentioned it would be a dream to get married her…and before you knew it, we were planning our dream wedding. The only vital and key component that we were missing from this picture was the engagement. By the end of the day, I joked (haha…joked but then not really) with Jeremy that we could not leave this place without being engaged – it was THE most romantic place I have ever visited!
Day 2 was just as mesmerizing as day one only this time we ventured in the opposite direction as the massive rock monuments. Here we met numerous dogs along the way and continued to look at each other laughing and dumbfounded…we were so lucky to be here and even more lucky to have the beaches deserted.
On Day 3 I was getting a bit anxious and so in the morning I finally told Jeremy that, “screw it…I will just propose to you”. Jeremy did not like this one bit - he is a helpless romantic as I am sure you all already know. The remainder of the day I made jokes about my soon to be proposal to him and constantly alluded to the fact that I had “something really big and important to ask him”. I even at times would pretend to have tripped and fallen on one knee…I would then say, “Will you … (followed by a very long pause) help me up Jeremy?”
When the sun was starting to set, we went for our usual beach stroll. Along the way I asked Jeremy that I had to stop and write something very important in the sand. He promised me that his answer would be No. I laughed and told him he didn’t even know what I was going to write (although we both knew exactly what I had in mind). I jokingly wrote out “M2” (Marry Me – I thought it was cute seeing as we are both enginerds) and Jeremy blushed like I have never seen him before. He of course said no…but I knew he would. We made it back to the amazing stone arches and sat down to play a game of Backgammon. Unfortunately for me, I had lost the game but I made sure to point out that I was acting like a great loser (instead of the usual poor loser which is part or my Heisler genes). After this point, I figured I had pushed my case far enough and I let things be.
Jeremy I know has written about the events leading up to and after the big moment…so I won’t repeat them but all I can say is that it was amazing and I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Now, we feel like we are on cloud No. 9 – I proudly tell all of my new acquaintances of our recent engagement! Yep…life is good!
I had always envisioned that on the trip I would ask Katie to marry me. I had no doubts that I wanted to ask her but I was just unsure of where I would do it. I figured that the moment would just pop out at me. After altering our plans to stay in Africa I knew where I was going to do it – Mount Kilimanjaro...that was unless something else arose and I couldn't help myself.
I had decided the previous day (as this is our last day) that this would be the place to ask the most important question of my life!!!
The previous day while we walked along the beach I had been searching for Sandstone. On our desert Safari I had fashioned a heart from sandstone that Katie had adored. Because there were no shops nearby I thought that this would be the nicest and most meaningful ring. Unfortunately, none of the rocks could be carved with what I had at my disposal. So that morning I asked Mostafa where in town I could get a ring. He said he knew of a place and would help me out. This might have been a bad idea because when we went into town he could barely contain his excitement and whenever Katie was a foot ahead of us he would make gestures and sometimes started to talk a little loud. I think I managed to keep him quiet with some gestures of my own but there was no way to sneak away from Katie to get a ring. I tried on my own at one point, feigning that I had to use the washroom, but after ten minutes of running around, I ended up empty handed.
I didn't want to give up and when we got back to the hotel I snuck away from Katie to ask about the ring. Mostapha by this point had filled in Said on what I had planned to do and now I had two very romantic people extremely excited and bursting with ideas. Although, they had a great many ideas I already knew how I wanted the night to turn out in my head. But it was hard to organize everything, even with their help, without alerting Katie as to what I was planning.
Katie ordered a simple meal and I went along with it. She had decided on spaghetti and chicken skewers. It is amazing how two people can think so alike. When I went into the kitchen I couldn't help thinking that spaghetti reminded me of the Disney's movie 'Lady and the Tramp'.
I knew that Katie did not need a ring or anything else but I did not want to be empty handed and I really wanted this to be somewhat traditional. I wanted everything to be perfect and it was making me so nervous. I knew that having Katie in my life was something I had no questions about but for some reason I was nervous. I don't think it was because I was scared but rather because I was so excited and it was really hard to contain my excitement. It was really hard to think and get everything straight...it didn't help that Mostapha and Said kept proposing things that I should do. For example, they wanted me to ask her 'my question' first and then come up for dinner, music and dessert. It took a long time to convince them of my ideas because they were just so excited...which was very touching.
I again asked Mostapha about the ring and because he was busy he sent me into town with a friend of his to look for something special. Before going into town I managed to sneak down to the beach and write M2 in the beach. I also added BFF because I think despite Katie being my girlfriend for a long time, she has also always been my best friend. She is there to listen to me when I need it, is also there for comfort when I am down but most importantly is always giving me more encouragement and love than I ever deserve.
After playing with rocks in the sand I managed to sneak away yet again from Katie and left her watching a movie in the room and headed to town. Despite driving around to every shop in town (there were so many open so late) I had to settle on something not very pretty and what seemed to be much to large (I picked out two to try and even my odds but both seemed a bit off).
Although, we rushed in to town and rushed back I was two minutes too late and Katie had come looking for me. Now she knew something was up.
Although, it was very late by the time we got to eat (Mostapha had waited for everyone to leave before preparing our food) the dinner was so nice. Katie thought exactly like I had and announced that we were rein-acting the lady and the tramp...candle light and spaghetti – great minds think alike.
All throughout supper it felt like my heart was running a mile a minute and I couldn't wait to lead Katie down to the beach. After a few hiccups in the plan and some difficulties in explaining what I wanted to do after dinner, I led Katie down to the beach.
The stones were lit up by candles but that didn't add much light making it hard to lead Katie down the stairs blindfolded. When we got to the bottom the pictures started. Mostapha had asked if he could take pictures and I agreed because it would be nice to have the evening recorded. It was a nice touch because it truly made the mood happy as Katie could not stop giggling as the flash continued to go off from every angle.
Once the boys left and Said had brought down the ring it was time to ask the question. I knew in my head what I wanted to say but it was so difficult to get the words to come out especially since I was nearly crying and tears were streaming down Katie's face. It didn't come out exactly as I had figured it would but either way Katie filled me with happiness by agreeing to spend the rest of her days with me!
We sat on the beach Katie, Rockie (our beloved German Shepard who was protector of the grounds and Katies new best friend) and I just enjoying the moment. It was very romantic until one of the previous guests had wandered down the beach and stumbled over to us. For what seemed like the next five minutes, Andrew rambled about his abilities to understand what the local dogs were saying to him. We had no idea what he was saying and couldn't wait for him to leave.
After the beach we went back up stairs...this time Katie asked to be blindfolded only at the top of the stairs so she would not trip...this seemed like a good idea. When we got up the stairs the guys had lit all of the candles and brought out the flower shaped vegetables. They were so excited when we entered the room and quickly Mostapha began shooting photos. He would shoot from one angle and then move to the next and take more pictures and even got a couple of shots through the book cases.
It was so amazing what they had done for us, especially the beautiful bouquet made of veggies. The atmosphere was very nice. They had the flowers, Christmas ornaments, dozens of candles, pastries and soft music...well some of it was love music the rest was club music. The rest of the staff and some of their friends were there to congratulate us. We sat around eating sweet after sweet, drinking coke and just talking. It would have been nice to be at home and share this moment with everyone but it was so nice that we had met some good friends to share it with and I am so glad that Katie said yes!!!
Proposal in the eye of the askee
When we arrived in Legzira, I knew we had found paradise – the 8 hour drive was so worth it! Once we were settled in and waiting for our food, Jeremy and I started talking about our future (like we always do) and how amazing it would be to bring our kids here one day. Jeremy mentioned it would be a dream to get married her…and before you knew it, we were planning our dream wedding. The only vital and key component that we were missing from this picture was the engagement. By the end of the day, I joked (haha…joked but then not really) with Jeremy that we could not leave this place without being engaged – it was THE most romantic place I have ever visited!
Day 2 was just as mesmerizing as day one only this time we ventured in the opposite direction as the massive rock monuments. Here we met numerous dogs along the way and continued to look at each other laughing and dumbfounded…we were so lucky to be here and even more lucky to have the beaches deserted.
On Day 3 I was getting a bit anxious and so in the morning I finally told Jeremy that, “screw it…I will just propose to you”. Jeremy did not like this one bit - he is a helpless romantic as I am sure you all already know. The remainder of the day I made jokes about my soon to be proposal to him and constantly alluded to the fact that I had “something really big and important to ask him”. I even at times would pretend to have tripped and fallen on one knee…I would then say, “Will you … (followed by a very long pause) help me up Jeremy?”
When the sun was starting to set, we went for our usual beach stroll. Along the way I asked Jeremy that I had to stop and write something very important in the sand. He promised me that his answer would be No. I laughed and told him he didn’t even know what I was going to write (although we both knew exactly what I had in mind). I jokingly wrote out “M2” (Marry Me – I thought it was cute seeing as we are both enginerds) and Jeremy blushed like I have never seen him before. He of course said no…but I knew he would. We made it back to the amazing stone arches and sat down to play a game of Backgammon. Unfortunately for me, I had lost the game but I made sure to point out that I was acting like a great loser (instead of the usual poor loser which is part or my Heisler genes). After this point, I figured I had pushed my case far enough and I let things be.
Jeremy I know has written about the events leading up to and after the big moment…so I won’t repeat them but all I can say is that it was amazing and I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Now, we feel like we are on cloud No. 9 – I proudly tell all of my new acquaintances of our recent engagement! Yep…life is good!
Legzira - 100% PARADISE!!!
When we arrived in Legzira we were stunned by what we were seeing. It was by far the nicest place that we had ever seen. There was four hotels on the beach and maybe a handful of people in sight. Immediately after arriving we felt like royalty as the staff catered to us non stop. It wasn't just because there was nobody there either.
Before heading out to explore the great arches that were reported in the guide book, we stopped to eat something. We had fresh fish and unbelievable chicken skewers. This was, however, our first glimpse into how long it would take in the future before an order was delivered. But it didn't matter because we had nothing better to do than relax and stare out at the amazingly beautiful scenery.
Our first walk down the beach was eye opening and after witnessing the amazing arches we were talking about how amazing it would be so nice to get married on the beach ;). We couldn't believe how few people there were. We enjoyed playing some Shesh Besh under the massive stone arches and just revelled in the paradise. To give you a bit of a mental picture, these huge stone arches begin as part of the hillside that encompasses the bay. They jut into the water and over thousands (probably millions of years) have been eroded by the ocean into what could only be described as a mountainous half donut. They seem more like giants than rocks and seem to have a life of their own.
We had ate so much at lunch time that we had no appetite for dinner and continued our consumption of endless amounts of amazing Morrocan fresh mint tea. Now that we had our own Shesh Besh board we were like addicts and played game after game after game and as usual, I let myself be embarrassed by Katie as she kicked butt with her non stop lucky double rolls. Maybe it was the embarrassment of losing at Shesh Besh so rather than crash immediately I went to explore the staff nightlife. To my surprise, I found them jamming away together on their guitars and stopped for a listen.
The next day we spent lounging and enjoying the freedom of no plans, no major sightseeing and the company of the staff. Mostapha the manager and Said were easy to talk with and Katie for sure enjoyed that fact that Mostafa loved to call out my name, or a version of it – “Jimmy” for no reason at all. He couldn't quite get down Katie's name. Despite it seeming easy I think more people have trouble here saying Katie than compared to Jeremy.
In the evening we headed in the opposite direction to explore and had the company of one of the local beach dweller's dogs. Although, there was no arches in this direction, it was equally beautiful and the “lion's head” and the beach plateau was a photographers dream as the sun began to set. The best part was, that besides the locals who lived in the niches in the rock, there was absolutely no one on the beach.
We spent the evening discussing possible wedding plans on the beach, reading, Shesh Besh and a movie...no better life!!!
The next day the weather was not as nice as it had been and so we just sat around and read. As the day progressed we began to truly feel the romance of Legzira. During the day it is so peaceful and deserted that one can truly feel like they have the place to themselves. The incredible staff and their aim to make us so comfortable continued to add to the overwhelming romanticism. The breathtaking scenery during the day and the brightness of the stars by night were probably the most enthralling aspects of Legzira's romance. It probably didn't hurt that Mostafa kept saying romance, romance, romance when referring to anything.
Katie fell in love with the hotels dog named Rockie who was a German Shepard. He was such a snuggler and kept coming back to us and nudging us for his attention. He reminded Katie of her dogs back home and every day she would talk about how much she missed them. The cool part about Rocky was that not only was he a snuggle bug, but he was also an excellent guard dog. Whenever he heard commotion from down on the beach below, he would dart across the patio and perch himself over the ledge as if to say, “Hey...I am watching you”. We both loved him dearly and he definitely added to our experience.
By the afternoon Katie began to joke about us getting engaged before leaving Legzira. When we went into town to get money to pay for our accommodations she did not stop saying that she wanted to get back to the beach because she had to ask me something. We had offered Mostafa a lift into town and his complete contempt for time might be another reason why she had kept commenting that she wanted to return to the beach.
When we did finally manage to get back to the beach Katie proposed to me. Haha she cutely wrote in the sand “M2” as a joke to our nerd backgrounds. Although, I had informed her a hundred times that I would reject her proposal she could not help herself and I kept true to my word.
Before heading out to explore the great arches that were reported in the guide book, we stopped to eat something. We had fresh fish and unbelievable chicken skewers. This was, however, our first glimpse into how long it would take in the future before an order was delivered. But it didn't matter because we had nothing better to do than relax and stare out at the amazingly beautiful scenery.
Our first walk down the beach was eye opening and after witnessing the amazing arches we were talking about how amazing it would be so nice to get married on the beach ;). We couldn't believe how few people there were. We enjoyed playing some Shesh Besh under the massive stone arches and just revelled in the paradise. To give you a bit of a mental picture, these huge stone arches begin as part of the hillside that encompasses the bay. They jut into the water and over thousands (probably millions of years) have been eroded by the ocean into what could only be described as a mountainous half donut. They seem more like giants than rocks and seem to have a life of their own.
We had ate so much at lunch time that we had no appetite for dinner and continued our consumption of endless amounts of amazing Morrocan fresh mint tea. Now that we had our own Shesh Besh board we were like addicts and played game after game after game and as usual, I let myself be embarrassed by Katie as she kicked butt with her non stop lucky double rolls. Maybe it was the embarrassment of losing at Shesh Besh so rather than crash immediately I went to explore the staff nightlife. To my surprise, I found them jamming away together on their guitars and stopped for a listen.
The next day we spent lounging and enjoying the freedom of no plans, no major sightseeing and the company of the staff. Mostapha the manager and Said were easy to talk with and Katie for sure enjoyed that fact that Mostafa loved to call out my name, or a version of it – “Jimmy” for no reason at all. He couldn't quite get down Katie's name. Despite it seeming easy I think more people have trouble here saying Katie than compared to Jeremy.
In the evening we headed in the opposite direction to explore and had the company of one of the local beach dweller's dogs. Although, there was no arches in this direction, it was equally beautiful and the “lion's head” and the beach plateau was a photographers dream as the sun began to set. The best part was, that besides the locals who lived in the niches in the rock, there was absolutely no one on the beach.
We spent the evening discussing possible wedding plans on the beach, reading, Shesh Besh and a movie...no better life!!!
The next day the weather was not as nice as it had been and so we just sat around and read. As the day progressed we began to truly feel the romance of Legzira. During the day it is so peaceful and deserted that one can truly feel like they have the place to themselves. The incredible staff and their aim to make us so comfortable continued to add to the overwhelming romanticism. The breathtaking scenery during the day and the brightness of the stars by night were probably the most enthralling aspects of Legzira's romance. It probably didn't hurt that Mostafa kept saying romance, romance, romance when referring to anything.
Katie fell in love with the hotels dog named Rockie who was a German Shepard. He was such a snuggler and kept coming back to us and nudging us for his attention. He reminded Katie of her dogs back home and every day she would talk about how much she missed them. The cool part about Rocky was that not only was he a snuggle bug, but he was also an excellent guard dog. Whenever he heard commotion from down on the beach below, he would dart across the patio and perch himself over the ledge as if to say, “Hey...I am watching you”. We both loved him dearly and he definitely added to our experience.
By the afternoon Katie began to joke about us getting engaged before leaving Legzira. When we went into town to get money to pay for our accommodations she did not stop saying that she wanted to get back to the beach because she had to ask me something. We had offered Mostafa a lift into town and his complete contempt for time might be another reason why she had kept commenting that she wanted to return to the beach.
When we did finally manage to get back to the beach Katie proposed to me. Haha she cutely wrote in the sand “M2” as a joke to our nerd backgrounds. Although, I had informed her a hundred times that I would reject her proposal she could not help herself and I kept true to my word.
Marrakech - Shopping, Shopping and more Shopping!
When we arrived in Marrakech, after an exhaustingly hot train ride, we had no idea where we should stay because all of the hotels in the guide book within our price range were full. We decided that first we needed fuel and stopped at Mickey D's to collect our thoughts. We jumped in a cab after dinner and tried desperately to explain to the taxi driver that we were looking for a cheap but nice hotel. Despite our efforts we were not able to succeed and the driver had to stop and ask someone on the street to translate. We finally got it figured out and although the meter said the ride was 4 pounds he asked us if we would give him 50 pounds. I guess the translation was worth a lot of money??? We ended up settling on 20 pounds (less than 3 bucks).
After a good nights sleep, we headed down to the Medina where we had wanted to stay the night before...the heart of it all. The guide book had turned out to be completely correct about the hotel in that it was great and was a minute walk from Jamaa El Fna, which is the main square in the Medina where all the fun goes on.
Our first day in the Medina we decided that we should head out and see what was around for shopping (Katie's favorite thing...that being said the shops here were great). While shopping we discovered one great thing...fresh orange juice. This was not orange juice that had been prepared somewhere else but was prepared right in front of you. The oranges had not been pre peeled but were cut and juiced in front of our eyes. It was the most delicious oj either of us had ever had and even better was that it was only 40 cents per glass. The only downside was that it was served in glasses, that from what we could see, were only rinsed in water between people but that didn't stop us and we had glass after glass after glass.
By the end of the day we had purchased enough to warrant another shipment home. Because Morrocco is the leather capital of the world (the small part I have visited) we bought numerous purses and briefcases. We also got slippers and about a total of twenty kilograms of souvenirs. After fully exhausting ourselves with shopping we dined at one of the makeshift restaurants that are set up every night in the square. It is really hard to decide which restaurant to eat at because as you approach you are not given a chance to think. Immediately upon entering the food area you are crowded with menus from competing restaurants and that all claim to have the best food and will serve you a free glass of mint tea.
We settled on one where the type of food was recognizable and looked delicious. It must take a lot of effort on the part of the staff because each restaurant artistically presents its food for their customers and the aura of the glowing lights sets a romantic mood. But once seated the romanticism ends and you are a number in a huge group of people. I have never seen so many people squished into a small space and such a small table. Once we had decided on a restaurant, we figured we would have to wait until someone sat up because there was no where to sit. But sure enough, we were found a spot at the end of a table with a small gap of 20 cm between us and the table next to us. The space was to small to accommodate anyone but the smallest people and was proven on a hundred of occasions as the staff constantly bumped into us as they went to serve others.
The couple next to us added an air of excitement to the evening because when we sat down the female was in the middle of getting henna done on her hand. Kind of a weird time to get henna done...especially since you can't move the area for like twenty minutes after. The girl doing the henna was ripping through it and putting it on thicker than what seemed to be normal. When the girl was finished she asked for 150 pounds and the couple said that was ridiculous. It would seem that they should have asked for the price before hand but that is where the excitement came in. So the man would not agree to give anything more than 20 pounds which is probably even a high price for the work that this girl did. After much debating another woman came over to the table and in no time at all there was a fighting match between the two woman soliciting the henna, a man (possibly the man who owned the business) and the couple. The whole argument was broken up by the police who asked if the girl had agreed to get the henna done. It turns out that the henna girl had asked the woman if she could do it and the girl said not now I am going to eat. But whether the girl couldn't understand or just wanted to ensure business she just grabbed the girl's wrist and went to town. Needless to say there was no point saying no after half her hand was covered in henna. After hearing the woman's story the police officer ran the henna girl away and told them not to worry about paying them because what they did was wrong. This didn't stop the henna girl because she came back glaring about ten minutes later but didn't stop to say anything...just to glare!!! I felt bad for the girl because it kind of ruined her meal as she had to eat one handed and even more she was going to have the ugliest henna tattoo I have ever seen (it was dripping all down her hand).
After dinner we went and watched some of the shows. We got to see the weakest boxing I have ever seen between a girl and a guy because the man running the show just kept shouting to people to bet (I am guessing because I couldn't understand but money was constantly exchanging hands). I tried taking a picture but after the flash went off realized that was a bad idea...he stopped talking and just put out his hand toward me. I was in the spotlight of fifty spectators and had to fork over some cash - doh!! After deciding the boxing was going nowhere we went to see some acrobatics.
Hint: If you go to watch a show at square such as this one beware that a visible camera is likely going to attract a lot of attention. For example, in the morning we were watching the snake charmers and he noticed the camera. Sure it was neat to get some good pictures of the snake charming but it was not fun to have to contest that three pictures (although priceless...Katie was sure scared of the snake) was not worth three hundred pounds...he got twenty and although he didn't think so, it was way too much.
The acrobats immediately noticed that I was wearing a camera and singled me out as the potential candidate to give them money. He asked where I was from and then the other guy jumped on his back. He told me to take a picture but I knew where this was going and so I said I didn't have much money on me. “Of course, don't worry the picture will be free my Canadian friend” but after I snapped one he told me to take another picture. What a con because he knew that he had told me that one would be free but by taking pictures our agreement was no longer valid. After his partner had jumped off his back he was right in my face asking for money.
Our last stop of the evening was fishing for cokes. I was addicted to the game before I even started. Katie was a little hesitant at first but after watching me play a round she was right in there having a ton of fun. After completely failing and getting no where close to winning a coke we headed for another orange juice (about number 5 for the day) and then went back to try again. Despite getting about twenty five minutes beyond what I had paid for (he must have had a crush on me) I still had nothing to show for my efforts and headed back to the hotel. That was not before being asked by random strangers to buy hashish.
Hint: If a man walks by and whispers something that is barely audible, do not flinch or turn your headed even the slightest bit. A slight turn will indicate that you are interested in buying whatever drugs he has to offer, or so it seems. It seems worse when you are walking by yourself because when alone if you flinch they think that is good reason to follow you for five minutes and ask you the same question over and over...”do you want hashish?”. And it doesn't matter if you are walking they will even try to solicit while you have a fishing rod in your hands!!
The next morning we were super tired and got a slow start to the day just catching up on emailing and picture sorting (this is a big when you take a thousand pics a week!!). At around noon we headed out to take a walking tour guided by the lonely planet. This one was not nearly as nice as the one in Fez and halfway through, our excitement completely faded and we headed to shop. We decided that we should try a hammam (Moroccan massage and cleanse) and considered one of the many pamphlets we had been given the day before. Katie decided that the one given by Mostafa (who was the nicest) was the best and it turned out to be the bargain for the buck.
We booked our appointment, slammed back a pizza and headed to the massage parlour. It was difficult to find not only because it was down winding streets but because it was hard to find someone to ask directions who wasn't trying to peddle a different hammam parlour. Questions just led to “it's closed” or “ours is much nicer and cheaper”. This cheaper part was easy to prove as they were holding a flyer and after comparing to the one we were holding, it surely was not. Although, we got there on time we had to wait for an hour long 'twenty minutes'. When we finally got in they had a nice little bag prepared for us that consisted of slippers, a robe and disposable underwear.
When it was our turn to hit the steamer we were a bit surprised. There was a woman in the steamer who was fully clothed and dripping wet. She got us to sit down and strip of our robes. Besides the uncomfortable disposable underwear we were completely naked (looking back on it now we should have just went naked). She came over and started by getting each of us to stand up, drenched us,with hot water and then got us to lay down where she lathered us from head to toe in oil. Once finished, we were left in wood fired steam room. She returned later to rinse us, lay us again on the bed and scrub the dead skin off of our bodies...nasty! This was followed by a full shower including a shampoo and a lather of body gel followed by a good rinse. Next was our massage where we had to strip again (no problem by now) for an incredible one hour massage (or so they say it was one hour as there were no clocks in the room and it definitely did not feel like one hour). Although, we are not sure we would do it again, it was good to try. It would have been much better however, if it would have been a little better organized.
Our massage was followed by a browse of the dvd store (cheap copies), confirm and pick up our rental vehicle and lastly, a movie in bed. In regards to the rental vehicle, we had seen pictures of this really rad looking place in the lonely planet guide book and right from the get go we had been excited to see if we could make it there. The bus would be possible but because we were running short of time awe opted for the car rental.
We awoke early the next morning, so we could beat the crazy traffic in the square, and headed on our way. I am not sure if we were lucky or if the signage was better in Morocco but we were soon on the highway and headed in the right direction. We managed only to get lost twice in the major towns/cities along the way and only stopped once to take pictures of a herd of goats chilling out on tree branches...it was worth the stop!
After a good nights sleep, we headed down to the Medina where we had wanted to stay the night before...the heart of it all. The guide book had turned out to be completely correct about the hotel in that it was great and was a minute walk from Jamaa El Fna, which is the main square in the Medina where all the fun goes on.
Our first day in the Medina we decided that we should head out and see what was around for shopping (Katie's favorite thing...that being said the shops here were great). While shopping we discovered one great thing...fresh orange juice. This was not orange juice that had been prepared somewhere else but was prepared right in front of you. The oranges had not been pre peeled but were cut and juiced in front of our eyes. It was the most delicious oj either of us had ever had and even better was that it was only 40 cents per glass. The only downside was that it was served in glasses, that from what we could see, were only rinsed in water between people but that didn't stop us and we had glass after glass after glass.
By the end of the day we had purchased enough to warrant another shipment home. Because Morrocco is the leather capital of the world (the small part I have visited) we bought numerous purses and briefcases. We also got slippers and about a total of twenty kilograms of souvenirs. After fully exhausting ourselves with shopping we dined at one of the makeshift restaurants that are set up every night in the square. It is really hard to decide which restaurant to eat at because as you approach you are not given a chance to think. Immediately upon entering the food area you are crowded with menus from competing restaurants and that all claim to have the best food and will serve you a free glass of mint tea.
We settled on one where the type of food was recognizable and looked delicious. It must take a lot of effort on the part of the staff because each restaurant artistically presents its food for their customers and the aura of the glowing lights sets a romantic mood. But once seated the romanticism ends and you are a number in a huge group of people. I have never seen so many people squished into a small space and such a small table. Once we had decided on a restaurant, we figured we would have to wait until someone sat up because there was no where to sit. But sure enough, we were found a spot at the end of a table with a small gap of 20 cm between us and the table next to us. The space was to small to accommodate anyone but the smallest people and was proven on a hundred of occasions as the staff constantly bumped into us as they went to serve others.
The couple next to us added an air of excitement to the evening because when we sat down the female was in the middle of getting henna done on her hand. Kind of a weird time to get henna done...especially since you can't move the area for like twenty minutes after. The girl doing the henna was ripping through it and putting it on thicker than what seemed to be normal. When the girl was finished she asked for 150 pounds and the couple said that was ridiculous. It would seem that they should have asked for the price before hand but that is where the excitement came in. So the man would not agree to give anything more than 20 pounds which is probably even a high price for the work that this girl did. After much debating another woman came over to the table and in no time at all there was a fighting match between the two woman soliciting the henna, a man (possibly the man who owned the business) and the couple. The whole argument was broken up by the police who asked if the girl had agreed to get the henna done. It turns out that the henna girl had asked the woman if she could do it and the girl said not now I am going to eat. But whether the girl couldn't understand or just wanted to ensure business she just grabbed the girl's wrist and went to town. Needless to say there was no point saying no after half her hand was covered in henna. After hearing the woman's story the police officer ran the henna girl away and told them not to worry about paying them because what they did was wrong. This didn't stop the henna girl because she came back glaring about ten minutes later but didn't stop to say anything...just to glare!!! I felt bad for the girl because it kind of ruined her meal as she had to eat one handed and even more she was going to have the ugliest henna tattoo I have ever seen (it was dripping all down her hand).
After dinner we went and watched some of the shows. We got to see the weakest boxing I have ever seen between a girl and a guy because the man running the show just kept shouting to people to bet (I am guessing because I couldn't understand but money was constantly exchanging hands). I tried taking a picture but after the flash went off realized that was a bad idea...he stopped talking and just put out his hand toward me. I was in the spotlight of fifty spectators and had to fork over some cash - doh!! After deciding the boxing was going nowhere we went to see some acrobatics.
Hint: If you go to watch a show at square such as this one beware that a visible camera is likely going to attract a lot of attention. For example, in the morning we were watching the snake charmers and he noticed the camera. Sure it was neat to get some good pictures of the snake charming but it was not fun to have to contest that three pictures (although priceless...Katie was sure scared of the snake) was not worth three hundred pounds...he got twenty and although he didn't think so, it was way too much.
The acrobats immediately noticed that I was wearing a camera and singled me out as the potential candidate to give them money. He asked where I was from and then the other guy jumped on his back. He told me to take a picture but I knew where this was going and so I said I didn't have much money on me. “Of course, don't worry the picture will be free my Canadian friend” but after I snapped one he told me to take another picture. What a con because he knew that he had told me that one would be free but by taking pictures our agreement was no longer valid. After his partner had jumped off his back he was right in my face asking for money.
Our last stop of the evening was fishing for cokes. I was addicted to the game before I even started. Katie was a little hesitant at first but after watching me play a round she was right in there having a ton of fun. After completely failing and getting no where close to winning a coke we headed for another orange juice (about number 5 for the day) and then went back to try again. Despite getting about twenty five minutes beyond what I had paid for (he must have had a crush on me) I still had nothing to show for my efforts and headed back to the hotel. That was not before being asked by random strangers to buy hashish.
Hint: If a man walks by and whispers something that is barely audible, do not flinch or turn your headed even the slightest bit. A slight turn will indicate that you are interested in buying whatever drugs he has to offer, or so it seems. It seems worse when you are walking by yourself because when alone if you flinch they think that is good reason to follow you for five minutes and ask you the same question over and over...”do you want hashish?”. And it doesn't matter if you are walking they will even try to solicit while you have a fishing rod in your hands!!
The next morning we were super tired and got a slow start to the day just catching up on emailing and picture sorting (this is a big when you take a thousand pics a week!!). At around noon we headed out to take a walking tour guided by the lonely planet. This one was not nearly as nice as the one in Fez and halfway through, our excitement completely faded and we headed to shop. We decided that we should try a hammam (Moroccan massage and cleanse) and considered one of the many pamphlets we had been given the day before. Katie decided that the one given by Mostafa (who was the nicest) was the best and it turned out to be the bargain for the buck.
We booked our appointment, slammed back a pizza and headed to the massage parlour. It was difficult to find not only because it was down winding streets but because it was hard to find someone to ask directions who wasn't trying to peddle a different hammam parlour. Questions just led to “it's closed” or “ours is much nicer and cheaper”. This cheaper part was easy to prove as they were holding a flyer and after comparing to the one we were holding, it surely was not. Although, we got there on time we had to wait for an hour long 'twenty minutes'. When we finally got in they had a nice little bag prepared for us that consisted of slippers, a robe and disposable underwear.
When it was our turn to hit the steamer we were a bit surprised. There was a woman in the steamer who was fully clothed and dripping wet. She got us to sit down and strip of our robes. Besides the uncomfortable disposable underwear we were completely naked (looking back on it now we should have just went naked). She came over and started by getting each of us to stand up, drenched us,with hot water and then got us to lay down where she lathered us from head to toe in oil. Once finished, we were left in wood fired steam room. She returned later to rinse us, lay us again on the bed and scrub the dead skin off of our bodies...nasty! This was followed by a full shower including a shampoo and a lather of body gel followed by a good rinse. Next was our massage where we had to strip again (no problem by now) for an incredible one hour massage (or so they say it was one hour as there were no clocks in the room and it definitely did not feel like one hour). Although, we are not sure we would do it again, it was good to try. It would have been much better however, if it would have been a little better organized.
Our massage was followed by a browse of the dvd store (cheap copies), confirm and pick up our rental vehicle and lastly, a movie in bed. In regards to the rental vehicle, we had seen pictures of this really rad looking place in the lonely planet guide book and right from the get go we had been excited to see if we could make it there. The bus would be possible but because we were running short of time awe opted for the car rental.
We awoke early the next morning, so we could beat the crazy traffic in the square, and headed on our way. I am not sure if we were lucky or if the signage was better in Morocco but we were soon on the highway and headed in the right direction. We managed only to get lost twice in the major towns/cities along the way and only stopped once to take pictures of a herd of goats chilling out on tree branches...it was worth the stop!
Casablanca and FEZ!!! The wonderful world of MOROCCO
Our travels from Egypt to Morocco could not have been any worse. We had to take a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Alexandria to the Cairo Airport. Unfortunately for me, I am unable to sleep anywhere and everywhere unlike Jeremy. Needless to say, I was squished, stuffy and hot in the back of the bus while Jeremy was out like a lamb. When we arrived at the Airport, it was 1 am. We tried to check in but they would not let us do so until 3 hours before departure. This meant we were confined to the one restaurant across from the terminals. Passing the time was not too hard to do, we grabbed a bite to eat and battled each other in our new favourite game Sheshbesh. Once we cleared security, we were informed that our flight was one hour delayed – great! So now it is 8 am (7 hours since we arrived at the airport). We were both exhausted. Jeremy was able to sleep the entire plane ride (5 hours) to Casablanca while I read up on the Lonely Planet Guide, annoyed at myself for not sleeping.
Once we landed in Casablanca, we took the 1 hour train into the city (~1/10th the price of a taxi). Our cab driver had never heard of our hotel so when I showed him it on the map, he informed us that he would drop us of near one of its major landmarks...the fish market which jut happened to be half a block from our hotel. Upon entering the hotel, we asked for the price...and this is where it gets weird. He asked us what we would like the price to be. I referenced the book and said that since it is normally 220 Dirhams, I would like 200. He looked at us crazy then Jeremy said maybe 250. I quickly interrupted and said there is no way I would pay more than what the book quoted for this place. Still looking at us like we were crazy, he informed us that Jeremy would stay for free and that I would have to pay 100 Dirhams for the room (i.e. $12 Canadian Dollars). We were very confused but obviously agreed with him.
When we were in South Africa, Jeremy and I had met a couple that had toured Morocco and loved it. There only little piece of advice they had given us was to follow the Lonely Planet. So, after touring the smelly (but neat-O) fish market and scarfing down some pizza and a panini from a restaurant nearby we were ready to start our 'Walking Tour of the City'. We followed the book and thoroughly enjoyed our sights of the city which included: ancient mosques, the old police and law buildings, the post office, and abandoned cinema and an many unique and impressively architected buildings. One of our favourite sights which we just happened to stumble across while we were walking by was a little courtyard filled with people and pigeons - a neat mix!
After many hours and several kilometres of walking, we were exhausted. We headed back to the hotel where I passed out immediately. Jeremy was ready to crawl into bed and read until he glanced at the clock. It was 8pm – instead he went downstairs and made good use of the free internet in the lobby. The only catch was that it was a French keyboard and typing was a great difficulty.
Unlike Egypt where the second language is English (making it very nice for people like us to communicate), Morocco's second language is French. There has been a huge communication barrier because of this and we find that we are really counting on our gestures as a means to communicate.
The following day we hitched a cab to the Hassam II Mosque, which was built by the late King and was his best attempt to give Casablanca the landmark he thought it sorely missed. The construction started in 1987 and finished in 1993 – quite an impressive feat when you consider not only the construction footprint but also the 'Moroccan' Detail which is evident throughout the building. The building also houses a 210 meter tall minaret (largest building in the country) and a retractable roof. It is the world's third largest mosque, accommodating 250,000 worshippers inside and a further 80,000 in the courtyard and square around it. Since there are only 2 mosques that non Muslims are permitted to enter in the country, we figured this would be a good one to see and we were very pleased with both its enormity and beauty.
After walking kilometers along the Corniche, we headed back to our hotel. We checked out of our hotel (paying only the 100 Dirhams as promised) and made our way to the Train Station. We had trouble finding a cab and after walking a few blocks (backs sore and sweaty) we met a man named Shaq on the corner. He was also heading to the train station – perfect...more eyes to hail a cab! It turned out that Shaq was also heading in the same direction as us and Shaq was in the same English tour group as us at the Hassam Mosque that same morning. Ironically enough, the previous night, Jeremy remembers seeing Shaq at the courtyard with all of the Pigeons – once again we realized just how small the world really is. Shaq was great to sit with, he made our 5 hour train ride a breeze as he kept us entertained with all of his travelling experiences he has encountered all over the world (a world class traveller).
We said our goodbyes at Meknes, as this was his destination and we were heading to Fez. Once in Fez, we selected a hotel in the Nouvelle (i.e. New Fez) versus the Medina (i.e. Old Fez) as the prices were cheaper and we figured we would just utilize the cheap taxi's for transport. When we arrived at our hotel, we first looked at the room (smart thing) and after looking at the room, we opened our book, selected a hotel in the Medina, reserved the room, notified the front lobby and hailed a taxi.
We were dropped of at the main gates of the Medina and were told by our cabbie that the hotel was in, “that direction”. We made our way through the very narrow and over crowded streets. Along the way, Jeremy was approached by a man enquiring where we were staying (with our backpacks on us, we were like sitting ducks). After informing him of our place and receiving directions, Jeremy noticed a young fellow behind him run in front of us. He warned me that something fishy was about to take place. When we arrived at the steps of our hotel, the same man that Jeremy had warned me about was waiting in the doorway. He informed us that the hotel was fully booked but he had a great hotel to stay at just around the corner. We basically laughed at him and told him we had a reservation at which point he cowardly walked away.
After settling in to our hotel, we headed out to explore the Medina and all it had to offer. At first, we followed our nose. We stopped and had a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed Orange Juice (one of our favourite parts of Morocco), munched on some candy roasted peanuts, purchased the most beautiful and edible strawberries I have ever seen (unfortunately they did not taste as good as they looked) and loaded up (I mean loaded up!) on my much beloved peas. Anybody that knows me would know that I go absolutely bonkers over my peas, so for me finding them in April was like a dream come true.
After feeding our tummies, we aimlessly walked around the vegetable market and then entered the meat market. I was horrified to find camel, goat, ram and pig heads on display at every butcher station, as if they were a prized possession. Meat was hanging everywhere and chickens were everywhere. They were tied to crates on the floor, tied to crates on the counters and in cages in the butchers stall.
The craziest part (even crazier than the camel heads) was the small space in which everyone operated. The stalls were small, the roads were small and the people were EVERYWHERE. It was a blessing in disguise that the streets were too narrow to accommodate cars...but this did not stop the copious amounts of scooters ripping in and out of traffic. Add to this donkeys and mules pulling over sized and over stuffed carts and this is what the streets of the Medina looked like.
At the end of the night, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal of Tajine Poulet (which is chicken, vegetables and couscous) with Morocco's famous mint tea. The owner was a great guy who tried to lure us in earlier on in the evening. We promised him we would come back and when we did, he was so happy. Our meal came to $10 – cheap cheap cheap and so delicious!
The next day we started the 'Walking Tour' of the Fez medina. The book commented that it should take anywhere between 2 to 3 hours...for us it took the entire day. We stopped along the way and entered souqs that interested us. We bought some interesting smelling spices from an adorable old man in the spice market. He beamed with excitement as he showed us the page of his stall in the Lonely Planet FEZ edition. We stopped to watch a wood craftsmen working away amidst his wood shavings. He made us a spin 'top' and we tipped him for our gratitude. We wandered in to a carpet shop, saw multiple carpets we were interested in and successfully walked out of their alive (we were warned in our books that carpet sellers are the best of best of the best for suckering in tourists).
Although we got lost many times while on our tour, every stop was something new and interesting and in my opinion, worth getting lost over. On one of our 'lost' episodes, we wandered right into a tannery. We were given fresh mint to hold under our nose as the smell was horrific. We climbed numerous sets of narrow stairs, passing numerous sets of leather workstations (where the craftsmen were sewing anything from jackets to slippers). When we reached the roof, we had an amazing view of the entire tannery. The tannery had all different types of leather from goat to camel, sheep and cow. We watched in horror as the workers were submerged in waist deep chemicals, utilizing their own feet and legs as an instrument to soak, treat and absorb the chemicals. At the end of the tour, our own personal guide made his best attempt to sell us some of the leather as souvenirs. Although he was close to selling Jeremy a leather jacket, we walked out of the tannery empty handed.
From the tannery, we continued to walk aimlessly through the Medina. One of our favourite sightings was a giant oak tree surrounded by tiny souqs. We continued on past another meat market and this time I made the mistake of witnessing a chicken being slaughtered (again, in a very tiny butchery). I held back a few tears and basically got the heck out of there.
On our way back to our hotel, and after having yet another glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, we passed by the owner of the carpet shop. We informed him that we were going to grab a bite to eat and then head back his way. We also informed him that we were still looking and this by no means meant a 'guaranteed' sale. We made sure to eat a full meal as we knew the night ahead of us was going to be long.
When we got back the owner greeted us with a big smile and welcoming hands...I can only presume that he was thinking Suckers! Now, imagine being escorted to a room where in a matter of minutes, you had fresh mint tea and hundreds of carpets to choose from. Because Morocco's color is red, a lot of the carpets they were showing us had red in them. We informed them that although the color was beautiful, it was not our favourite. We told them instead of bright colors, we liked softer colors and loved green, blue, purple and brown. We were expecting a different set of carpets to appear in round 2 but still, to no avail, they continued to show us red! Round three was no different. We figured maybe we liked older carpets instead as the newer carpets were just too bright for us. So, we switched rooms and entered the era of 'old carpets'. Now, I am not exaggerating when I say this but the owner and his son must have shown us 90% of all the carpets in the room...and we have the picture to prove it. After hours of 'shopping' aka sitting on our butts sipping mint tea while the owner and his son unfolded carpet after carpet, we were pleased to have a selection of carpets to choose from (the Ij Ma pile (meaning to keep) versus the Khale pile (meaning to toss)).
Just when we thought there could be no more carpet viewing, the owner pulled out a beautiful brown rug (which we later bought). When he saw our excitement, he ran out of the store and came back with a pile of soft colored rugs. We laughed and told him this was exactly what we had wanted. We narrowed our carpets down to five and began the long negotiation for the price – this was where the fun began. Not to our surprise, the carpets were extremely expensive and grossly overpriced – we immediately tossed the two most expensive. We countered with a more reasonable offer for the remaining three (half of what was offered) and mentioned that it was firm. For the next twenty minutes, the owner did his best to raise our offer...but we stood firm. At one point, I got up, motioned to Jeremy and said, “sorry, we will not budge. I am glad we shared this experience and that we can still walk away as friends - thanks”. The owner jumped up and motioned for us to stand still. He ran out of the room and within seconds, brought in his brother (who was dressed up in a suit...and keep in mind that it is now 10 pm). His brother looked at the rugs that were in front of us and asked if we could increase our price any further. We thanked him for his troubles and made way for the door. Before we could take a second step, the owner had his hand stretched out and told us we had a deal.
Unfortunately, the credit card machine was not working and Jeremy and I were too tired to go to an ATM and sign off on the deal. The owner was obviously concerned at this (as I can only imagine a number of deals have fallen through in this manner) and so we left a small deposit. We exchanged numbers and agreed to pay the remaining sum and collect our carpets the following morning at which time the owners son would help us ship the carpets home.
That night we both slept like logs. The following morning, I awoke with a minuscule feeing of regret in the pit of my stomach. I asked Jeremy how he was feeling and he told me fine. We walked to our favourite restaurant for some crepes, mint tea and orange juice (freshly squeezed of course) and considered our options. We could hope for the best and assume we made a good deal and complete the transaction or we could walk away and consider the small down payment as a tip for their hard work. When Hassan showed up at our hotel an hour later with the carpets, we were still unsure what to do. We asked him for the carpets and asked for a few minutes. We unrolled each carpet on our bed in the hotel and we both immediately knew we had to buy them - they were exquisite! Jeremy was able to motion to one of the French workers to take a look and through a lot of hand gestures we were able to make out that we got a good deal. She then grabbed her Grandma (also a worker at the hotel) and her Grandma, after carefully scrutinizing both sides of the rug said, “tres bein – artisans”- tres bein”. We thanked them and felt a little more reassured. After returning to Hassan, who was patiently waiting in the street, we successfully shipped the rugs and some other small souvenirs home (lets just hope that they make it home). From there we caught a cab to the train station and we were bound for Marakesh.
The train ride was 8 hours but both Jeremy and I were in the middle of two really good books – so we didn't care to much. But that was until the train filled to over capacity and the A/C broke down. Needless to say, it was not so pleasant.
Once we landed in Casablanca, we took the 1 hour train into the city (~1/10th the price of a taxi). Our cab driver had never heard of our hotel so when I showed him it on the map, he informed us that he would drop us of near one of its major landmarks...the fish market which jut happened to be half a block from our hotel. Upon entering the hotel, we asked for the price...and this is where it gets weird. He asked us what we would like the price to be. I referenced the book and said that since it is normally 220 Dirhams, I would like 200. He looked at us crazy then Jeremy said maybe 250. I quickly interrupted and said there is no way I would pay more than what the book quoted for this place. Still looking at us like we were crazy, he informed us that Jeremy would stay for free and that I would have to pay 100 Dirhams for the room (i.e. $12 Canadian Dollars). We were very confused but obviously agreed with him.
When we were in South Africa, Jeremy and I had met a couple that had toured Morocco and loved it. There only little piece of advice they had given us was to follow the Lonely Planet. So, after touring the smelly (but neat-O) fish market and scarfing down some pizza and a panini from a restaurant nearby we were ready to start our 'Walking Tour of the City'. We followed the book and thoroughly enjoyed our sights of the city which included: ancient mosques, the old police and law buildings, the post office, and abandoned cinema and an many unique and impressively architected buildings. One of our favourite sights which we just happened to stumble across while we were walking by was a little courtyard filled with people and pigeons - a neat mix!
After many hours and several kilometres of walking, we were exhausted. We headed back to the hotel where I passed out immediately. Jeremy was ready to crawl into bed and read until he glanced at the clock. It was 8pm – instead he went downstairs and made good use of the free internet in the lobby. The only catch was that it was a French keyboard and typing was a great difficulty.
Unlike Egypt where the second language is English (making it very nice for people like us to communicate), Morocco's second language is French. There has been a huge communication barrier because of this and we find that we are really counting on our gestures as a means to communicate.
The following day we hitched a cab to the Hassam II Mosque, which was built by the late King and was his best attempt to give Casablanca the landmark he thought it sorely missed. The construction started in 1987 and finished in 1993 – quite an impressive feat when you consider not only the construction footprint but also the 'Moroccan' Detail which is evident throughout the building. The building also houses a 210 meter tall minaret (largest building in the country) and a retractable roof. It is the world's third largest mosque, accommodating 250,000 worshippers inside and a further 80,000 in the courtyard and square around it. Since there are only 2 mosques that non Muslims are permitted to enter in the country, we figured this would be a good one to see and we were very pleased with both its enormity and beauty.
After walking kilometers along the Corniche, we headed back to our hotel. We checked out of our hotel (paying only the 100 Dirhams as promised) and made our way to the Train Station. We had trouble finding a cab and after walking a few blocks (backs sore and sweaty) we met a man named Shaq on the corner. He was also heading to the train station – perfect...more eyes to hail a cab! It turned out that Shaq was also heading in the same direction as us and Shaq was in the same English tour group as us at the Hassam Mosque that same morning. Ironically enough, the previous night, Jeremy remembers seeing Shaq at the courtyard with all of the Pigeons – once again we realized just how small the world really is. Shaq was great to sit with, he made our 5 hour train ride a breeze as he kept us entertained with all of his travelling experiences he has encountered all over the world (a world class traveller).
We said our goodbyes at Meknes, as this was his destination and we were heading to Fez. Once in Fez, we selected a hotel in the Nouvelle (i.e. New Fez) versus the Medina (i.e. Old Fez) as the prices were cheaper and we figured we would just utilize the cheap taxi's for transport. When we arrived at our hotel, we first looked at the room (smart thing) and after looking at the room, we opened our book, selected a hotel in the Medina, reserved the room, notified the front lobby and hailed a taxi.
We were dropped of at the main gates of the Medina and were told by our cabbie that the hotel was in, “that direction”. We made our way through the very narrow and over crowded streets. Along the way, Jeremy was approached by a man enquiring where we were staying (with our backpacks on us, we were like sitting ducks). After informing him of our place and receiving directions, Jeremy noticed a young fellow behind him run in front of us. He warned me that something fishy was about to take place. When we arrived at the steps of our hotel, the same man that Jeremy had warned me about was waiting in the doorway. He informed us that the hotel was fully booked but he had a great hotel to stay at just around the corner. We basically laughed at him and told him we had a reservation at which point he cowardly walked away.
After settling in to our hotel, we headed out to explore the Medina and all it had to offer. At first, we followed our nose. We stopped and had a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed Orange Juice (one of our favourite parts of Morocco), munched on some candy roasted peanuts, purchased the most beautiful and edible strawberries I have ever seen (unfortunately they did not taste as good as they looked) and loaded up (I mean loaded up!) on my much beloved peas. Anybody that knows me would know that I go absolutely bonkers over my peas, so for me finding them in April was like a dream come true.
After feeding our tummies, we aimlessly walked around the vegetable market and then entered the meat market. I was horrified to find camel, goat, ram and pig heads on display at every butcher station, as if they were a prized possession. Meat was hanging everywhere and chickens were everywhere. They were tied to crates on the floor, tied to crates on the counters and in cages in the butchers stall.
The craziest part (even crazier than the camel heads) was the small space in which everyone operated. The stalls were small, the roads were small and the people were EVERYWHERE. It was a blessing in disguise that the streets were too narrow to accommodate cars...but this did not stop the copious amounts of scooters ripping in and out of traffic. Add to this donkeys and mules pulling over sized and over stuffed carts and this is what the streets of the Medina looked like.
At the end of the night, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal of Tajine Poulet (which is chicken, vegetables and couscous) with Morocco's famous mint tea. The owner was a great guy who tried to lure us in earlier on in the evening. We promised him we would come back and when we did, he was so happy. Our meal came to $10 – cheap cheap cheap and so delicious!
The next day we started the 'Walking Tour' of the Fez medina. The book commented that it should take anywhere between 2 to 3 hours...for us it took the entire day. We stopped along the way and entered souqs that interested us. We bought some interesting smelling spices from an adorable old man in the spice market. He beamed with excitement as he showed us the page of his stall in the Lonely Planet FEZ edition. We stopped to watch a wood craftsmen working away amidst his wood shavings. He made us a spin 'top' and we tipped him for our gratitude. We wandered in to a carpet shop, saw multiple carpets we were interested in and successfully walked out of their alive (we were warned in our books that carpet sellers are the best of best of the best for suckering in tourists).
Although we got lost many times while on our tour, every stop was something new and interesting and in my opinion, worth getting lost over. On one of our 'lost' episodes, we wandered right into a tannery. We were given fresh mint to hold under our nose as the smell was horrific. We climbed numerous sets of narrow stairs, passing numerous sets of leather workstations (where the craftsmen were sewing anything from jackets to slippers). When we reached the roof, we had an amazing view of the entire tannery. The tannery had all different types of leather from goat to camel, sheep and cow. We watched in horror as the workers were submerged in waist deep chemicals, utilizing their own feet and legs as an instrument to soak, treat and absorb the chemicals. At the end of the tour, our own personal guide made his best attempt to sell us some of the leather as souvenirs. Although he was close to selling Jeremy a leather jacket, we walked out of the tannery empty handed.
From the tannery, we continued to walk aimlessly through the Medina. One of our favourite sightings was a giant oak tree surrounded by tiny souqs. We continued on past another meat market and this time I made the mistake of witnessing a chicken being slaughtered (again, in a very tiny butchery). I held back a few tears and basically got the heck out of there.
On our way back to our hotel, and after having yet another glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, we passed by the owner of the carpet shop. We informed him that we were going to grab a bite to eat and then head back his way. We also informed him that we were still looking and this by no means meant a 'guaranteed' sale. We made sure to eat a full meal as we knew the night ahead of us was going to be long.
When we got back the owner greeted us with a big smile and welcoming hands...I can only presume that he was thinking Suckers! Now, imagine being escorted to a room where in a matter of minutes, you had fresh mint tea and hundreds of carpets to choose from. Because Morocco's color is red, a lot of the carpets they were showing us had red in them. We informed them that although the color was beautiful, it was not our favourite. We told them instead of bright colors, we liked softer colors and loved green, blue, purple and brown. We were expecting a different set of carpets to appear in round 2 but still, to no avail, they continued to show us red! Round three was no different. We figured maybe we liked older carpets instead as the newer carpets were just too bright for us. So, we switched rooms and entered the era of 'old carpets'. Now, I am not exaggerating when I say this but the owner and his son must have shown us 90% of all the carpets in the room...and we have the picture to prove it. After hours of 'shopping' aka sitting on our butts sipping mint tea while the owner and his son unfolded carpet after carpet, we were pleased to have a selection of carpets to choose from (the Ij Ma pile (meaning to keep) versus the Khale pile (meaning to toss)).
Just when we thought there could be no more carpet viewing, the owner pulled out a beautiful brown rug (which we later bought). When he saw our excitement, he ran out of the store and came back with a pile of soft colored rugs. We laughed and told him this was exactly what we had wanted. We narrowed our carpets down to five and began the long negotiation for the price – this was where the fun began. Not to our surprise, the carpets were extremely expensive and grossly overpriced – we immediately tossed the two most expensive. We countered with a more reasonable offer for the remaining three (half of what was offered) and mentioned that it was firm. For the next twenty minutes, the owner did his best to raise our offer...but we stood firm. At one point, I got up, motioned to Jeremy and said, “sorry, we will not budge. I am glad we shared this experience and that we can still walk away as friends - thanks”. The owner jumped up and motioned for us to stand still. He ran out of the room and within seconds, brought in his brother (who was dressed up in a suit...and keep in mind that it is now 10 pm). His brother looked at the rugs that were in front of us and asked if we could increase our price any further. We thanked him for his troubles and made way for the door. Before we could take a second step, the owner had his hand stretched out and told us we had a deal.
Unfortunately, the credit card machine was not working and Jeremy and I were too tired to go to an ATM and sign off on the deal. The owner was obviously concerned at this (as I can only imagine a number of deals have fallen through in this manner) and so we left a small deposit. We exchanged numbers and agreed to pay the remaining sum and collect our carpets the following morning at which time the owners son would help us ship the carpets home.
That night we both slept like logs. The following morning, I awoke with a minuscule feeing of regret in the pit of my stomach. I asked Jeremy how he was feeling and he told me fine. We walked to our favourite restaurant for some crepes, mint tea and orange juice (freshly squeezed of course) and considered our options. We could hope for the best and assume we made a good deal and complete the transaction or we could walk away and consider the small down payment as a tip for their hard work. When Hassan showed up at our hotel an hour later with the carpets, we were still unsure what to do. We asked him for the carpets and asked for a few minutes. We unrolled each carpet on our bed in the hotel and we both immediately knew we had to buy them - they were exquisite! Jeremy was able to motion to one of the French workers to take a look and through a lot of hand gestures we were able to make out that we got a good deal. She then grabbed her Grandma (also a worker at the hotel) and her Grandma, after carefully scrutinizing both sides of the rug said, “tres bein – artisans”- tres bein”. We thanked them and felt a little more reassured. After returning to Hassan, who was patiently waiting in the street, we successfully shipped the rugs and some other small souvenirs home (lets just hope that they make it home). From there we caught a cab to the train station and we were bound for Marakesh.
The train ride was 8 hours but both Jeremy and I were in the middle of two really good books – so we didn't care to much. But that was until the train filled to over capacity and the A/C broke down. Needless to say, it was not so pleasant.
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