Harried in Hanoi

Yesterday we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam - and while I'm backlogged on blogging (South Africa, Hong Kong, and Safari still on the list...), I just wanted to share some pictures from this crazy place.

We took a mini bus from the airport into town yesterday and were instantly amazed by the traffic on the main roads - seemingly lawless, and full of fascinating sights, like people riding scooters with tens of dozens of eggs on the back among other oddities (we later saw a coffee table book featuring scooters and their bizarre cargo).  

We were the only westerners on the bus, and so naturally we were dropped off last (even though about a 2 minute detour could have put us out first). When we did get dropped off, we were still about a mile from our accommodations, so we had our first experience as pedestrians in this city. There are simply no clear opportunities to cross the street, and getting from here to there requires a sort of kamikaze Frogger approach. As Jason pointed out, it's not 'look both ways', it's 'look four ways' - but the challenge with even this is by the time you've looked 360, something has changed again.  So far, we're unscathed, tho sometimes by inches it seems.

Some daring pedestrians step out into the chaos

Things get pretty jammed up with cars in the mix

She seems to know what she's doing

A very unusual opportunity

After we arrived at our hotel, we were told we had to go stay at one of their partner hotels in the neighborhood (some story about our room's current occupants having a flight delay).  We were carted off one by one on the back of a scooter - complete with our backpacks - to the next hotel.  It was surprisingly not too scary an experience although I think I might have broken the ribs of the poor driver by holding on too tightly. That said, we really feel like we've had a truly local experience.

In other truly local experiences, we opted for this place for dinner:

We sat at the blue table at left.

The kitchen & the cooks 

We waited for a spot to clear and sat down, again the only westerners around.  We were shortly brought 2 bowls of pork, noodle, and vegetable soup, which was delicious. We ordered ourselves some beers.  The total came to about $4 US.

If you look closely next to my right hand, you can see where the dishes were being washed.

The table is not Jason-sized

 Now we're feeling like experts and ready to face Day 2 ... I think!

Chilly Willey

Along the False Bay coast line in South Africa, heading north from the Cape of Good Hope, there is a stretch of beach called Boulders, which is famous for its African penguin colony.  

Thanks to a good tip, we did not pay the R40 ($6) admission fee to hang with the penguins.  Rather we found the back way onto the beach, where we got up close and personal with the penguins.

Jason even gave one penguin a thumbs-up... 

... in obvious defiance of park rules. :-) 

Entertaining people the world over

In Cape Town, we spent 3 nights at a B&B called David's, run by David and his partner Hannes, who is the main guy we dealt with during our stay.  On the last morning, as he was running my credit card through, Hannes asked me, "Why do you have such a strange name, 'Willey'?  Really! How odd." After we had a nice chuckle over that, he proceeded to call ahead to another B&B on the Garden Route to let them know we might be coming to stay.  The one-sided conversation went something like: "Yes... yes, a very nice couple...  You won't forget the name: Willey.... that's right... yes, a big room for Big Willey."  

We gave B&B number two a pass, you might not be surprised to learn.

Anyway, we just posted a small album from our 3 days in & around Cape Town.  Our big activity from our stay in Cape Town was our hike up Table Mountain, but we also made it out to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners of apartheid were held.  It seemed good to go and visit, but unfortunately we didn't find the tour all that worthwhile - more entertainment than information, oddly enough!

Is Cape Town a Safe Town?

I have been a little anxious about visiting Cape Town, not because of the warnings in the guide books, but because one evening, after a few drinks, I was lectured at length by my South African friend, Natasha, on the mortal perils of visiting this dangerous city.  Essentially, the message went, I was risking life & limb if I decided to walk in, drive through, or think about Cape Town.  I was terrified. Keep in mind, we have lived in West Philadelphia.

You will be glad to know that we escaped unscathed, and while we practiced CONSTANT VIGILANCE, we never really felt in too much danger.  (However, after a wrong turn into a township around 10am one morning, I can understand why we were advised not to drive around at night without 100% certainty of where we were headed).  But on foot, we felt pretty secure, especially due to the presence of these: 

There was no one in here.

I'm pretty sure these "Mobile Crime Prevention Units" weren't around during the time Natasha lived in South Africa, or her opinion of the Cape Town's security would certainly be more positive.  Clearly they've made a difference! 

First Attempt at Strenuous Activity

After two weeks of easy going travel, being driven around to look at animals and chilling out on the beach, our arrival in Cape Town presented the first real opportunity for us to stretch our traveling legs. While we undertook a nice walk around the neighborhood where we stayed (Green Point/Sea Point) and the V&A Waterfront after our arrival. On day two we set out to conquer Table Mountain, the ever present landmark looming over Cape Town.

Table Mountain view from V&A Waterfront

Based on advice from a couple of people we decided to begin our hike/climb from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, southeast of the city center, via the Skeleton Gorge route. The mountain peak is 1087m and offered by far the most ambitious climb either of us had undertaken, which doesn't speak too proudly for our mountaineering - especially after meeting so many Kilimanjaro climbers in Tanzania.

Fair warning

The ascent took us a little over three hours, with a good number of photo breaks, and included some periods of seriously steep up hill walking, ladders and even some climbing up  and over rocks in part of the gorge. 

A little help on the way up

The views and scenery were unbelievable even on a somewhat hazy day, and the energy exerted made for a real sense of accomplishment when we finally reached the top where we enjoyed our lunch of leftover snacks from our safari lunches as we didn't bring any real food with us (whoops). 

Success!

Unfortunately the descent did not provide any relief to our now aching legs and feet. Most people take the cable car back down so we should get some points for walking back, even if the pace was slow and there was a lot of groaning. 

Carefully down

After almost another three hours we emerged back in the botanical gardens, although not exactly where we expected to. Thankfully we waited till the very end to get a little lost. We treated ourselves to a well deserved beer and cookies on the grass in the gardens while hoping the ascent for our Inca Trail hike in April will at least be a little more spread and also come with a real lunch.

We climbed all the way up there!

Reflections on Zanzibar

So... how's this for some excitement?  Our first pictures are up!  We are still working on narrowing down our safari pictures from about 867 to something more manageable, but meanwhile we have shared our Zanzibar pictures (click here for the album). As long as we've got pix up, we thought we'd share some reflections on our time there.

Like most people, we ventured to Zanzibar for the sun and sea, which we found in abundance in Jambiani, on the east coast of the island.  We were very happy with our accomodations - a quiet resort run by and frequented by Germans - and we really appreciated kicking back and enjoying the beautiful weather, walking in the unusual spongy sand, and sleeping by sea breeze - especially, as some of you know, my 'beach vacation' has been a long time coming!

Ahhhh....

However, more interesting than resort living was discovering a bit about real island living. In front of our hotel was the beach, but behind it was the town of Jambiani - a poor village with livestock roaming the streets along side sand-covered, barefooted children. Clusters of dilapidated houses filled the area, with seemingly little to close one family off from another for privacy or security. But what struck me most was the friendliness of people - we were constantly being greeted by young & old as we took our stroll through town.

Jambiani Town

We were reflecting too on how, despite conditions that to our minds are unfathomable, people seem contented - and we supposed this was partially due to the seeming equality in means between the villagers. However, in talking to one local restaurant owner after dinner one night, we discovered that there can be great resentment when a local person tries to achieve and make a better life for himself. He told us about how, given his apparent success, he often has local men coming to him with their hands out - and he is trying to impart on them that he has worked for his money, and to get them to do the same by earning what they're asking for through odd jobs. But this requires a change in mindset... and is why, as he also told us, he has encountered local people who are so resentful of him that they deliberately try to sabotage his business, for example by calling the authorities in to check on his licenses to operate, etc. So in case you needed more proof - all the cliches about money are true.

On a lighter note, one "benefit" of visiting a poorer country is that the transportation can be a fun experience with the right mindset. When we left Jambiani for a night in Stone Town on the west side of the island, we decided to take a dala-dala for the 20+ mile journey. Dala-dalas are a form of public transport - a covered u-shaped bench on the back of a pick-up truck, more or less. We waited about 90 minutes for the 'hourly' service. All cargo (including our backpacks) goes on the roof, and there is always room for one more inside. If the seating were comfortable to begin with, it would comfortably seat 9, but for most of the ride, there were 20 adults (including the 'conductor' who usually hangs off the back), 1 baby, and a 10 year old boy... with a chicken. It was our first experience traveling with farm animals - probably a better initiation than, say, a goat.

Not our dala-dala, but you get the idea!

Jambo!

Greetings from sunny Zanzibar, where we find ourselves a couple shades darker (brown and/or pink) and a couple pounds lighter (travel as weightloss program okay for a day or 2, but this is getting ridiculous).

We hope too many people haven't lost faith in reading our blog, since it's been over a week since inviting many of you to read and we haven't put anything up.  But for context, there are roughly 40 million people in Tanzania, and about 1% of them are online. So it's a little tough finding a connection here!  (We ended up paying $3/30min from our hotel for this one.)

So far we have taken a rickety minibus ride from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania, and can personally attest to the fact that the road improvement works seem to be plentiful, though not by any means hurried.  We have spent a night on either side of our safari in Arusha near the central market, and were surprised at how safe and comfortable we felt in a city we had been amply warned against.  We safari-ed with a Canadian couple - Michael & Melanie - and thought that for a 5-day / 4-night blind date, we would have been hard pressed to hope for a better match.  And in the taxi on the way to catch our flight to Zanzibar, we learned the term 'celebration bumps'*.

We will write more on this when we are in a place with a better connection, and share pictures.

Overall, we have found the people in Tanzania laid-back, friendly, and welcoming - even more so when they learn we are from "Obama country".  And unlike many other places we've traveled, a simple 'No, thank you!' seems to put the scarf sellers and henna artists off the hunt in the first instance.

We'll be in Zanizbar til Friday, when we will take a middle-of-the-night flight down to South Africa to start the next leg of our journey.  Hopefully the connections there will be more readily available, and we'll share more then.  Until then - back to the beach!

*Celebration bumps: A series of 3 mini speed bumps.  Named as such "because they make you shake!"

Off we go!

Welcome, and Happy New Year!

It's coming up on midnight on New Year's Day, 2011.  It's been a curious start to the New Year, spent in preparation of our departure tomorrow morning.  And for all the effort that has gone into the planning for this trip, we have these 2 sacks to show for it.

With the year only a day old, we can already say with certainty that this will be unlike any other for us.  We'll be headed for Heathrow around 7am tomorrow morning for the first of 20(+?) flights we'll be on as we make our voyage around the world.  It's nothing short of an ambitious, bizarre fantasy come true.  We started dreaming this up at least a year ago, and when we got to a critical mass of people who knew we had this crazy idea, we decided we needed to do it.  Better that than be repeatedly asked 'hey, weren't you guys supposed to be going on some big trip? what happened to that?'

Here's the plan as of today:

And so we bid London farewell and we're off - to explore new (to us) lands, do a bit of self-discovery, and put our marriage to the test.  Wish us luck, patience, good humour, and strong stomachs.  We can't wait to share our stories!