1. Matatus and dalla dallas don't leave until they are full. Most of them also try to cram as many people as they can into them. I guess it's due to the cost of fuel, but can get very uncomfortable especially on bad roads.
2. Eating in a restaurant takes even longer than in Europe. I think they really wait until your order comes in to start from scratch.
3. Not all the places have napkins. Instead, they have somewhere for you to wash your hands before and after the meal or a woman comes to you with a basin and pitcher of water.
4. For a malarial area they are pretty lax when it comes to mosquitoes. Yes, there are mosquito nets but no screens on the windows or doors.
5. Very few cash registers. I think I've only been to 4 places that had them and they were large supermarkets. One coffee shop had one, but it wasn't plugged in. Everything is handwritten in a book with carbon paper.
6. Cash only! No credit cards!!
7. If you buy something and need change it could take another 10-15 min waiting for someone to go "next door" to make change.
8. All babies are bundled up in hats, jackets, and blankets even though it's over 75F and sunny.
9. No one has any washing machines. We've seen many immaculate white shirts around. Even the guy who sold charcoal buy the dusty road was wearing a spotless white shirt! This means that at all the hotels we've been in, someone had to hand-wash our sheets and towels. (I think there's some washing machines in Nairobi.)
10. All the big buildings are hand made out of cement, sticks, mud brick, rocks. The scaffolding around a construction site is made up of a bunch of sticks. Sometimes you can see this in the slightly uneven doorway and stairs.
11. Some male travel writer said something about the elegant simplicity of a squat toilet: just a hole in the ground. I don't feel the same way as my aim isn't as good a his. :-(
Showing posts with label Tanzania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tanzania. Show all posts
Friday, September 19, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Caves, Coconut Wine, and Kenya
After 5 cool days in Lushoto, a village in the Usambara Mountains, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and head into Kenya. I say "bite the bullet" because the guidebook, US travel security site, and a few locals all say that while Kenya is amazing you really need to watch out as muggings are quite common. :-( But, before arriving to our doom we spent a day in Tanga, a quiet but not so little town on the Tanzanian coast and just south of the border. We signed up with the local tourism office for a full day touring the nearby caves and Tongoni ruins.
My favorite part was the caves, mainly because we (Froody, our guide Emelius, and me) got to ride bikes the whole way (8km). It was a chance to actually see some of the area- mangrove trees, Ziggi River (main source of drinking water for Tanga), and villages. It's amazing to me how many people live by subsistance farming and in wood and mud homes with coconut frond roofs. (We learned in Lushoto that most people in Tanzania don't have money but they aren't starving because they are able to farm corn, beans, potato, yams, bananas. Whatever is extra is sold at the market for enough money to buy kerosene, firewood, rice, cooking oil, and clothing.)
Anyway, we made our way to the caves and Emelius shared with us, along with a trio of school boys, some of the interesting structures in the limestone caves. These caves are oceanic in origin, formed over 2 million years ago when Eastern Africa was under water. So, the structures are very old as they aren't really growing anymore. I've never been in such dry caves! Froody thought it was interesting how many structures looked like elephants and lions and the continent of Africa. :-) There was one that "looked like" the statue of liberty and a natural chair. There were also a lot of bats!! I don't think I've ever seen so many bats before! And in the walls were fossil molluscs, so that was neato for me. After the main caves he lead us to a smaller cave to show a stalagtite with a lot of sparkle and structures in the ceiling that looked like a penis ("a big one" to quote Emelius) and a vagina which, he said, when they come together will form a baby 95% of the time. ???? Maybe this was to warn the school boys about s-e-x??
Anyway, we washed up a bit afterwards and got to check out a small group of black and white colobus monkeys eating just across the stream from us. Then back on our bikes and on our way, stopping long enough to sample some fresh coconut wine. The three of us split a liter in what looked like a family's backyard. Emelius said that the wine was fresh that day. To make it you cut off the tip of a branch on a coconut tree and place a bucket under it to collect the liquid. You climb it and collect it twice a day, recutting the edge each time. You serve it right away, but if you let it sit for one day then it gets very strong with a high alcohol content. You can only keep it for about 3 days, as there is no refridgeration and it goes bad. Emelius asked the woman to bring a bottle of banana beer (which we tried while touring the coffee farm in the foothills of Kilimanjaro among the Chagga people; was good even with the millet "texture" and had an after taste that reminded me of sake) and wanted to know if we wanted to try it. The label said it contained 10% alcohol! So we said no and while he went to settle the bill, Froody and I admitted to each other that after drinking about 330ml of fresh coconut wine we were feeling it a bit. Not drunk, but enough to make you go "whoa".
We had a nice bike ride back and, with an hour and a half before our afternoon tour, Emilius suggested a local pub for lunch and we gladly joined him. Yup, we were the only mzungu ("tourists") there and the "menu" was the owner telling us in kiswahili what was cooking- rice and beans and greens with fish or chicken. We opted for fish and had a tasty lunch. BTW-we are eating really well here! Breakfast is a bit light, mainly bread with jam and butter, coffee or tea, and an egg and/or fruit. Or just the bread and tea. But lunch and dinner we definitely make up for it!
That afternoon we waited a bit while Emilius grumbled about the lateness of the hired car and swahili time. But, eventually the car and driver arrived and we got into the sedan and drove out of town to the ruins about 20km away. It was a bumpy ride and I remembered reading how in TZ only about 20% of the roads are paved. (In fact, our guide said that when we take the bus to Kenya we'll know when we're there because the road will be nice tarmac). Again, drove through some villages and I got to see a couple of men putting the finishing touches on a mudhouse. Don't get me wrong- some are very simple but others look really nice, with separate rooms and a smooth exterior and paint.
The ruins were made in the 14th-15th centuries when the arabs arrived in East Africa to trade, bringing Islam. We saw what was left of a mosque built out of coral. Then we went to a "newer" mosque built by the locals in the 19th century. The interior was probably very nice once, but now it was all in ruins. It did give us a look at how the roof was made, supported by mangrove timber. At the end of the tour we got to eat baobob fruit. I didn't even know the fruit was edible!! It was rather tangy and not bad, but I was still full from lunch so didn't eat as much as our guide would have liked.
Travel Day
I'll say this: traveling has been a bit more stressful than I thought. We just arrived in Kenya yesterday via bus from Tanzania and there was a little snafu at the border. Seems we didn't fill out the correct paperwork so had to fill it in and go to the end of the long line. Fortunately, the man on the bus (who seems to be in charge of the border crossings), dragged us right into the office! However, the customs officer was not going to let that bother him, and he continued to help people at the window for about 5 minutes, all the time the bus-guy is trying to push our passports right under his nose. Of course, he had a schedule to keep and a bus full of people who were done and sitting in a bus w/o air-con. Anyway, we finally got done and found a hotel in Mombasa, right on the coast. Today's agenda is to do some interneting, see Fort Jesus, and get a room in Tiwi. Some of the stress comes from not knowing the language (and we'll "not know the language" for about 9 more months!), not being able to walk around at night (sun sets at 7 here and everyone says it's unsafe after 8), and having to re-learn how much everything costs! 2,000 was an awesome price in TZ (less than $2) but not so much in Kenya (almost $30).
Froody and I seem to get grumpy on travel days for one reason or another. For me, I know I'm tired and being unsure of my new surroundings doesn't help. Also we didn't eat lunch yesterday and had to change money at the border which meant giving our Tanzanian shillings to a guy with a handful of Kenyan shillings and hoping we get a fair rate.
But, now we're here and this part of Mombasa is just like any other big city. We're hoping to get in on a group safari out of Nairobi, do some snorkeling among coral reefs, and bike around Hell's Gate before heading to Egypt.
My favorite part was the caves, mainly because we (Froody, our guide Emelius, and me) got to ride bikes the whole way (8km). It was a chance to actually see some of the area- mangrove trees, Ziggi River (main source of drinking water for Tanga), and villages. It's amazing to me how many people live by subsistance farming and in wood and mud homes with coconut frond roofs. (We learned in Lushoto that most people in Tanzania don't have money but they aren't starving because they are able to farm corn, beans, potato, yams, bananas. Whatever is extra is sold at the market for enough money to buy kerosene, firewood, rice, cooking oil, and clothing.)
Anyway, we made our way to the caves and Emelius shared with us, along with a trio of school boys, some of the interesting structures in the limestone caves. These caves are oceanic in origin, formed over 2 million years ago when Eastern Africa was under water. So, the structures are very old as they aren't really growing anymore. I've never been in such dry caves! Froody thought it was interesting how many structures looked like elephants and lions and the continent of Africa. :-) There was one that "looked like" the statue of liberty and a natural chair. There were also a lot of bats!! I don't think I've ever seen so many bats before! And in the walls were fossil molluscs, so that was neato for me. After the main caves he lead us to a smaller cave to show a stalagtite with a lot of sparkle and structures in the ceiling that looked like a penis ("a big one" to quote Emelius) and a vagina which, he said, when they come together will form a baby 95% of the time. ???? Maybe this was to warn the school boys about s-e-x??
Anyway, we washed up a bit afterwards and got to check out a small group of black and white colobus monkeys eating just across the stream from us. Then back on our bikes and on our way, stopping long enough to sample some fresh coconut wine. The three of us split a liter in what looked like a family's backyard. Emelius said that the wine was fresh that day. To make it you cut off the tip of a branch on a coconut tree and place a bucket under it to collect the liquid. You climb it and collect it twice a day, recutting the edge each time. You serve it right away, but if you let it sit for one day then it gets very strong with a high alcohol content. You can only keep it for about 3 days, as there is no refridgeration and it goes bad. Emelius asked the woman to bring a bottle of banana beer (which we tried while touring the coffee farm in the foothills of Kilimanjaro among the Chagga people; was good even with the millet "texture" and had an after taste that reminded me of sake) and wanted to know if we wanted to try it. The label said it contained 10% alcohol! So we said no and while he went to settle the bill, Froody and I admitted to each other that after drinking about 330ml of fresh coconut wine we were feeling it a bit. Not drunk, but enough to make you go "whoa".
We had a nice bike ride back and, with an hour and a half before our afternoon tour, Emilius suggested a local pub for lunch and we gladly joined him. Yup, we were the only mzungu ("tourists") there and the "menu" was the owner telling us in kiswahili what was cooking- rice and beans and greens with fish or chicken. We opted for fish and had a tasty lunch. BTW-we are eating really well here! Breakfast is a bit light, mainly bread with jam and butter, coffee or tea, and an egg and/or fruit. Or just the bread and tea. But lunch and dinner we definitely make up for it!
That afternoon we waited a bit while Emilius grumbled about the lateness of the hired car and swahili time. But, eventually the car and driver arrived and we got into the sedan and drove out of town to the ruins about 20km away. It was a bumpy ride and I remembered reading how in TZ only about 20% of the roads are paved. (In fact, our guide said that when we take the bus to Kenya we'll know when we're there because the road will be nice tarmac). Again, drove through some villages and I got to see a couple of men putting the finishing touches on a mudhouse. Don't get me wrong- some are very simple but others look really nice, with separate rooms and a smooth exterior and paint.
The ruins were made in the 14th-15th centuries when the arabs arrived in East Africa to trade, bringing Islam. We saw what was left of a mosque built out of coral. Then we went to a "newer" mosque built by the locals in the 19th century. The interior was probably very nice once, but now it was all in ruins. It did give us a look at how the roof was made, supported by mangrove timber. At the end of the tour we got to eat baobob fruit. I didn't even know the fruit was edible!! It was rather tangy and not bad, but I was still full from lunch so didn't eat as much as our guide would have liked.
Travel Day
I'll say this: traveling has been a bit more stressful than I thought. We just arrived in Kenya yesterday via bus from Tanzania and there was a little snafu at the border. Seems we didn't fill out the correct paperwork so had to fill it in and go to the end of the long line. Fortunately, the man on the bus (who seems to be in charge of the border crossings), dragged us right into the office! However, the customs officer was not going to let that bother him, and he continued to help people at the window for about 5 minutes, all the time the bus-guy is trying to push our passports right under his nose. Of course, he had a schedule to keep and a bus full of people who were done and sitting in a bus w/o air-con. Anyway, we finally got done and found a hotel in Mombasa, right on the coast. Today's agenda is to do some interneting, see Fort Jesus, and get a room in Tiwi. Some of the stress comes from not knowing the language (and we'll "not know the language" for about 9 more months!), not being able to walk around at night (sun sets at 7 here and everyone says it's unsafe after 8), and having to re-learn how much everything costs! 2,000 was an awesome price in TZ (less than $2) but not so much in Kenya (almost $30).
Froody and I seem to get grumpy on travel days for one reason or another. For me, I know I'm tired and being unsure of my new surroundings doesn't help. Also we didn't eat lunch yesterday and had to change money at the border which meant giving our Tanzanian shillings to a guy with a handful of Kenyan shillings and hoping we get a fair rate.
But, now we're here and this part of Mombasa is just like any other big city. We're hoping to get in on a group safari out of Nairobi, do some snorkeling among coral reefs, and bike around Hell's Gate before heading to Egypt.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Dar to Arusha
From Dar to Arusha
According to the guidebook and bus office, the ride from Dar es Salaam to Arusha is about 10 hours, so e left Sunday mornng at 8:30, expecting to arrive around 7pm in Arusha here we ould someho fnd a taxi to take us to our hotel- Sakina Camp. Then, our safari guide ould pick us up at our hotel. Sounds easy enough, right?
ell, about two hours outside of Dar the bus broke don. Somethiing as up ith the gears and the bus driver sad t ould be at least 2 hours for the part to get there from town and another half hour to fx it. At least he managed to limp into a gas station that was next to a restaurant and toilets! Froody and had drnks and food at the restaurant, used the toilets a couple of tmes, and had no choice but to ait patiently as the 2 hours turned nto 3 hours turned into 5 hours before the bus as fixed! So, it was about midnight when e arrived in Arusha (arrgh! Don't walk around town after dark!!) and not only us but every tourist as a bit concerned about gettng taxs and places to sleep. Fortunaqtely a oman from Maryland as returnng to Arusha to visitr some famly and she and her brothers (some big men!) got Froody and I and a couple of Brits a taxi to take us to a hotel. Sadly, not our cheap hostel/campsite but a really nice hotel here one of the Brits had a reservation and he had managed to call ahead and tell them about hs late arrival (something we tred to do but failed, as the phone numbers we had ddn't ork). So, e got a private double but paid about 3x more money than e had planned, but didn't care b/c no we could sleep! And, breakfast was included!
Only problem was that now we had to alert the safar company that e eren't at Sakina CAmp but at the Arusha Cron! Man, this trip, especially now, has made it clear that we could really use a cell phone. :-( Luckly, Monday morning, the receptionst let us use his phone, after e alked don a block to buy a phone card, to call the emergency number to our safari company and let them kno where we were.
*sorry for bad typing, but still on same compy. Also, no pix as Froody is still uploading them. Try checking his site for a ton of pix!
According to the guidebook and bus office, the ride from Dar es Salaam to Arusha is about 10 hours, so e left Sunday mornng at 8:30, expecting to arrive around 7pm in Arusha here we ould someho fnd a taxi to take us to our hotel- Sakina Camp. Then, our safari guide ould pick us up at our hotel. Sounds easy enough, right?
ell, about two hours outside of Dar the bus broke don. Somethiing as up ith the gears and the bus driver sad t ould be at least 2 hours for the part to get there from town and another half hour to fx it. At least he managed to limp into a gas station that was next to a restaurant and toilets! Froody and had drnks and food at the restaurant, used the toilets a couple of tmes, and had no choice but to ait patiently as the 2 hours turned nto 3 hours turned into 5 hours before the bus as fixed! So, it was about midnight when e arrived in Arusha (arrgh! Don't walk around town after dark!!) and not only us but every tourist as a bit concerned about gettng taxs and places to sleep. Fortunaqtely a oman from Maryland as returnng to Arusha to visitr some famly and she and her brothers (some big men!) got Froody and I and a couple of Brits a taxi to take us to a hotel. Sadly, not our cheap hostel/campsite but a really nice hotel here one of the Brits had a reservation and he had managed to call ahead and tell them about hs late arrival (something we tred to do but failed, as the phone numbers we had ddn't ork). So, e got a private double but paid about 3x more money than e had planned, but didn't care b/c no we could sleep! And, breakfast was included!
Only problem was that now we had to alert the safar company that e eren't at Sakina CAmp but at the Arusha Cron! Man, this trip, especially now, has made it clear that we could really use a cell phone. :-( Luckly, Monday morning, the receptionst let us use his phone, after e alked don a block to buy a phone card, to call the emergency number to our safari company and let them kno where we were.
*sorry for bad typing, but still on same compy. Also, no pix as Froody is still uploading them. Try checking his site for a ton of pix!
Dar es Salaam
*there will be typos in this post, as am using publc compy wth bad keyboard*:-)
Arrved n Dar es Salaam on a Friday afternoon. We sat next to a young man ho, of course, lves in Tanzania. He was very nice and taught us a few phrases in Swahili- ho are you? and I am fine. And,just like he said, very one e've sad ths to has been very happy to see that e aer trying to learn their language. Predictably, ther englsh is ay better than our Swahili, and I think t6hat Tanzanian people are very friendly naturally,k but they really appreciated our efforts to speak Swalhil.
Had no problem fndng a taxi. In fact, the taxi driver found us! He even let us stop at an ATM b/c we had no Tanzanian shillngs ith whch to pay him. Found out later he overcharged us (Tsh25,000! ~ US$20) by about Tsh10,000, but was nothing compared to hat another tourist was charged for the same distance- Tsh 60,000 so I gtuess we ere lucky.
Our hotel as just what the tripadvisor sais: no frills but clean and ith AC. AFter settlng in we alked about town, down our dirt alley, said 'no' poltely to many "touts" selling us taxi rdes, safais, and foods. Got out more money as the hotel anted us to pay in cash only and bought water. E got 6L for 1000 (our best deal yet), but we only had 10,000 bills, so the guy behind the counter had to leave the store to break the bill and give us our change. Then, exhausted from our red-eye flght and all the strangeness of a third orld country, e took a nap.
Woke up and decded to try a nearby restaurant for dinner. Luckily, not only was it recommended by the guidebook but it as on the hotel map as ell. It as very close so Froody and I decided to walk it, agan tellng all ho asked that we didn't need a taxi. When e got in and the waiter asked us for our order, I just said, basically, that "I'll hjave hat he's havng," hich turned out to be hole grilled fsh and chapati bread (did not eat the small garnish/salad of fresh veg, as every ebsite advises not to eat any produce if you didn't peel it or if it's uncooked). Froody ordered chcken masala hch arrved about 20min after my fish and was good but not as tasty as my fish. I messily told the aiter that the food as good, and he smled for the first time and sad "thank you" in Swahili.
Dinner over, e hurried back to the hotel, literally, as everyone from the guidebook, internet, young man, and taxi driver all told us that hile Dar is very safe durng the day DO NOT WALK ABOUT AT NIGHT. I will admt to you all that when e ere n bed that nght, lights off, Froody next to me, I broke down and started crying. I as so tired and Tanzania is so very different from everything I've ever experienced, even more so than Mexico, that I was overhelmed. In fact, for the frst couple of days e both had the "What-the-heck-did-we-get-ourselves-into?" syndrome. Luckily, the cure as fast approaching- our safari on MOnday.
Arrved n Dar es Salaam on a Friday afternoon. We sat next to a young man ho, of course, lves in Tanzania. He was very nice and taught us a few phrases in Swahili- ho are you? and I am fine. And,just like he said, very one e've sad ths to has been very happy to see that e aer trying to learn their language. Predictably, ther englsh is ay better than our Swahili, and I think t6hat Tanzanian people are very friendly naturally,k but they really appreciated our efforts to speak Swalhil.
Had no problem fndng a taxi. In fact, the taxi driver found us! He even let us stop at an ATM b/c we had no Tanzanian shillngs ith whch to pay him. Found out later he overcharged us (Tsh25,000! ~ US$20) by about Tsh10,000, but was nothing compared to hat another tourist was charged for the same distance- Tsh 60,000 so I gtuess we ere lucky.
Our hotel as just what the tripadvisor sais: no frills but clean and ith AC. AFter settlng in we alked about town, down our dirt alley, said 'no' poltely to many "touts" selling us taxi rdes, safais, and foods. Got out more money as the hotel anted us to pay in cash only and bought water. E got 6L for 1000 (our best deal yet), but we only had 10,000 bills, so the guy behind the counter had to leave the store to break the bill and give us our change. Then, exhausted from our red-eye flght and all the strangeness of a third orld country, e took a nap.
Woke up and decded to try a nearby restaurant for dinner. Luckily, not only was it recommended by the guidebook but it as on the hotel map as ell. It as very close so Froody and I decided to walk it, agan tellng all ho asked that we didn't need a taxi. When e got in and the waiter asked us for our order, I just said, basically, that "I'll hjave hat he's havng," hich turned out to be hole grilled fsh and chapati bread (did not eat the small garnish/salad of fresh veg, as every ebsite advises not to eat any produce if you didn't peel it or if it's uncooked). Froody ordered chcken masala hch arrved about 20min after my fish and was good but not as tasty as my fish. I messily told the aiter that the food as good, and he smled for the first time and sad "thank you" in Swahili.
Dinner over, e hurried back to the hotel, literally, as everyone from the guidebook, internet, young man, and taxi driver all told us that hile Dar is very safe durng the day DO NOT WALK ABOUT AT NIGHT. I will admt to you all that when e ere n bed that nght, lights off, Froody next to me, I broke down and started crying. I as so tired and Tanzania is so very different from everything I've ever experienced, even more so than Mexico, that I was overhelmed. In fact, for the frst couple of days e both had the "What-the-heck-did-we-get-ourselves-into?" syndrome. Luckily, the cure as fast approaching- our safari on MOnday.
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