Basel birthday with Andy the Human

9-12 Mar 2019

There’s nothing better than taking time off from work and traveling. Except taking time off from work and traveling with friends. And except taking time off from work and traveling with friends to visit one of your favorite people to celebrate his birthday. And of course, except taking time off from work and traveling with friends to visit one of your favorite people to celebrate his birthday, for free.

Let's go here, for free

We had planned for all of those things to happen (except the last) when we visited Andy in Basel for Fasnacht, one of the biggest festivals in Europe, filled with masks, costumes, lanterns, fire and music. I don’t really know what it celebrates but when he told us that it starts at 4am on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, we booked our flights.

Upon arrival, the first thing we had to do was make sure we exited the airport in the right direction. One exit goes to Switzerland, the other to France. After successfully navigating this part, like any good triathlete friends would do, we met Andy’s friends for an outdoor workout. This was his idea of a (2 week late) birthday party. Or at least the prerequisite. He hired a coach to make sure our asses were properly kicked. Only then could we start the celebrations.

Doing pushups to prove our manhood

Andy’s friend Katerina was amazing and let a few of us stay in her apartment, and she even stayed somewhere else we could have the place to ourselves (or she didn't like us?). We found out Żubrówka vodka so we found some in a shop and paid quadruple the price in Poland...unlike some people might think, we don’t carry Polish vodka with us everywhere we go.

Andy lives in Rhinefelden, a bit outside of Basel. It’s close enough to get to the city whenever you want, but far enough to be tempted to stay home if you’re tired. It’s a cute place and there’s a walking bridge to cross into Germany. It was fun to walk to Germany to buy some beer and chocolate because things are cheaper there. We waved to the security cameras on the way back. We had a nice party with Andy’s friends and it was great to meet all of his new crew. It seems he's in good hands there, but it was also nice to be all together, especially since it was just about one year since our trip to the US.

Crossing the bridge to Germany

Cute little town (empty in the evenings)

There was a buzz around the city even before the festival started. One of the churches we visited had a wine party inside, next to where people pray and attend service. I wasn’t sure if this was a Swiss thing or just for the festival preparation. If everyone was going to be drunk for the next 72 hours anyway, I guess it doesn’t hurt to start on Sunday.  In church. 

Getting started in church

When visiting Switzerland one thing you should do if you want to be miserable and regretful all the time is to translate the prices to your local currency. A 2 day transportation ticket was about $30 which doesn’t seem bad, but in Poland, a 3-month transportation pass is about $60. So we were thankful to Sugar Daddy Andy for gifting us a transportation ticket. And of course Zosia checked, McDonald’s combo meals were about $13 (but the trip from the airport to the city was only about $6). The thought crossed her mind to just not go to the airport, so she could have a couple burgers. 

After a big party on Saturday, we had to rest up on Sunday (well some of us anyway, as some tried to power through the night), because the festival started at 4am Monday morning. Of course most people don't work on Monday afterwards, but there are some brave souls who do. We tried to find a good spot in the Old Town for the start, along the parade route. It was packed and dark, and if you had to pee, good luck. There was so much energy and excitement and it was fun to see all of the political satire portrayed in the floats. However after a few minutes of drums, piccolos and the same song over and over, knowing this would last for another 3 days, it was time to go into a bar and start (continue) drinking.

A little night time parade action

The illuminated floats were the coolest, some were huge (not pictured)

We found a bar at 5am for some beers and breakfast. To my surprise it was packed, and not just with “young” people. Most of the bar was over 60 years old. There were kids of all ages as well. This festival is a such a big deal that everyone in the family is out. Even the waiters, who must be miserably tired, were in good moods and happy to put up with the drunkenness of the crowds. Because people were happy, not
annoying. We were in a good place.

Are we still "young" people? (Alan is sleeping)

This one is all tuckered out

Another part of the festival was the fire parade in Liestal. It was super hot and ashy if you get too close, and you’re likely to get some holes in your clothes. We wore jackets that we didn’t mind damaging, covered our mouths to limit the smoke intake, and found a good spot to enjoy the show. It was like watching firemen drag burning logs down the street. Mesmerizing is the only word I can think of. It was scary and hot, but I couldn’t stop watching.

This was my favorite part

Eventually some of us had to find some places to hide from the smoke. After a lazy day with more of Andy’s friends, and a bit of exploring, it was time to head back home. There was a nice food market near the train station where we tried Ethiopian food which was great. The Basel airport is small and fast to get through. It was hard to say goodbye to Andy and the great few days, but we were ready to go home.  The first 3 trip objectives were complete. 

Even off the main parade route, people are marching around in their gear

Which led to our last trip objective of having the trip for free. The plane took off from Basel, then suddenly turned around and went back. They didn’t say why (do they ever?), but we stayed in Basel for another 4 hours, and in the end arrived in Warsaw 5 hours after schedule. The weather was fine so we knew there was a chance we could claim some money thanks to the EU airline consumer protection rules. Sure enough, because we arrived more than 4 hours late, for a reason other than weather, we were able to get some money back; which turned out to be more than the price of the flights. Thus, the trip ended up being free. If only we could find a way to always get paid for these late flights.  In fact, a couple months later on the way back to Poland from the US, Z and I also got some money for a voluntary rebooking. Always hustling.  I think we’ve found a new career model...

Hakuna Matata: NYE on Zanzibar

Dec 31, 2018 - Jan 5, 1019

How do you respond when someone says “Hakuna Matata” to you? “Thank you”? “You too”? “What a wonderful phrase”?

As the song goes, it indeed means “no worries” (but they only say it to tourists), and though they’ve had a heavy history, the phrase definitely represents island life on Zanzibar.

“The snorkeling trip leaves at 9am, so arrive no later than 8:44” means that they’ll still be waiting for passengers until 9:45. It takes 20 minutes for someone to appear at the hotel front desk if you need something, and 20 minutes to check in and check out. The sign saying breakfast is from 7-10am, doesn’t mean anything on New Years Day. And “It’s actually at 11am today” definitely means after 11:45 when they finally served us. Even the clock in the hotel lobby changes from between 20 minutes fast and 20 minutes slow on any given day. I don’t even know how it manages to do that! So guess what? If you worry, you’ll go crazy. So just relax and Hakuna Matata!

There were a lot of unknowns about planning the trip to Zanzibar so I’ll share just in case someone else plans to go. Even picking on which side of the island to stay was a tough choice. There are many beautiful resorts all over but the neighborhoods have different quantities of nearby attractions and different levels of sandy beach access. Finally I decided on Nungwi in the north, as the tides wouldn’t change so much and it was close to sandy beaches that weren’t too dependent on the tide. Also the Tanzanite Beach Report had a nice pool and relaxing lounge areas, with on site tourist services.

Breakfast view at the hotel

I booked the flights from the Tanzania mainland myself on the local carrier, since it was cheaper than booking a package through a travel agent, and booking the taxi through the hotel was cheaper than other online services or the guys you can haggle with when you arrive. We didn’t need the ride, but simply walking away from a driver at the airport got him to reduce the price of his offer from $65 to $55 to $50, without saying a word. We paid $40 through the hotel.

It was 10pm on NYE and I was worried we’d spend midnight in the taxi. After 80 minutes of traffic and bumpy roads, passing shops and restaurants (which are all literal holes in the wall), pickup trucks full of people driving around, and crowds of locals everywhere, we arrived. Before we pulled up to the hotel an advertisement on the radio came on in Japanese and the driver asked me what it said. Lol.

After a few days of safari, when closing our eyes we still saw little pumbas everywhere. The sky was full of animal shaped clouds. But once we laid by the beach as the clock approached midnight, the sound of waves (and bad karaoke next door), took us to a different paradise. Reflecting on it, we had an amazing year - got married (twice), went

on some amazing trips with friends and family, and have a wonderful community around us. We couldn’t ask for more.

Except maybe an ATM? There aren’t any ATMs in Nungwi so we had to bring USD and use exchanges with poor exchange rates (essentially charging 5%). So the thing I’d do differently next time is bring more dollars. You can spend USD but the shops generally take about 10%, so it’s better to change USD to the local currency. Other “powerful” currencies like Euro or GBP seemed to get even worse rates. Our hotel wanted to charge 4% to pay with a credit card so we used cash to avoid this, but after having to pay a higher rate to convert more cash at the exchanges, we might have been better off paying the 4% credit card fee and using the cash for shopping and meals. It’s annoying to pay extra for stuff like this, but I guess it’s the cost of business in remote places.

Worth paying a small price for evenings like this

As the numerous resorts developed, they’ve pushed the locals away from the beach, so they could have the prime locations. Just across the street from the resorts (going more inland) there were very modest shelters made of concrete blocks, simple walls with nothing else inside, surrounded by palm and banana trees, cows and red dirt. Some shelters were covered in dried leaves or made from sticks and mud. There was a lot of trash and plastic bottles on the side of some roads, near the beach and some in the water. But people seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially the cute little kids running around. Even if they were “poor”, it seemed everyone had very bright clean clothes. And smiles.

We happened by the Mnarani aquarium to see the turtle rescue. We’re always a little skeptical of "tourist traps", especially when it comes to animal captivity, but this place at least appears to be doing something nice. They save sick or struggling turtles, or eggs with little chance of survival and help them recover. Then they have a big release every February, and start all over again. The local guides (who seemed like local teens, but were very passionate and knowledgeable about what they did) knew a lot about turtles and were very motivated to teach us something. We fed seaweed to the turtles, which the guides and volunteers pick from different beaches every day. There seems to be a lot of questionable aquariums around that have animals for display, but this place seemed legit (we hope) since they are actively trying to help them rather than just profit from showing their animals to tourists. At least we didn’t feel bad about giving them a few bucks. Other places seemed to shamelessly ask for money just to glance at their giant snake or alligator.  

The sandy beaches around Nungwi were very nice with beautiful blue water, but it was super humid. And the water is almost warm so it’s not really refreshing at first.

Learning about turtle head

I mean, the colors aren't bad

Another lesson learned was about booking excursions. Even though the taxi was cheaper through the hotel, the day excursions were not. In our case the best deals were found just by walking on the beach and letting the “salesmen” approach you with their offers. Of course you’re nervous about the reliability at first, but we took a chance. We agreed on a snorkel tour to Mnemba for the following day and half expected not to see the guy there at the designated meeting time. He had required a $5 deposit the night before, so there wasn’t a lot at stake. Luckily he was there and helped get us set up. We took a 90 minute boat ride in the hot sun, sitting in the front to get a good look at potential dolphins, but didn’t see any. Instead, Z got a little crispy. The snorkeling wasn’t anything special compared to what we have in Hawaii, but it was still fun, regardless of the small jellyfish stings. The highlight was visiting a remote beach and the crew grilling fresh fish and rice for lunch. That alone was worth the $20 tour price. From our hotel they would charge $30 for the same tour. I went back for a second helping of lunch and the guy kept piling food on my plate until I insisted he stop. After making sure everyone had their fill, I noticed the 7 workers take the small amount of leftovers, sit around some drift wood in the shade and scrape the pans and suck everything off the fish bones. I don’t know the exact word to describe the feeling I had when I watched that. They were so satisfied and happy to have just a few bites, while the rest of us greedily filled our stomachs like it was our last meal. They’d been working hard already for several hours so they must have been starving. Witnessing their generosity and selflessness makes me want to be a better person.

One thing I heard about Zanzibar is that during high tide you may not be able to walk along the beach, and during low tide you may not be able to swim due to rocks and urchins. But in Nungwi this was fine. There are a lot of restaurants and hotels along the beach. Local teens were running, working out (doing burpees and flips) or playing soccer on the beach. Z and I spent time just sitting and watching them run on rocks and shells like their feet had a layer of armor on them. We had a CCM moment when we bought our own Savanna cider in a shop and sat in a bar on a pier. We ordered one Savanna there just to be an official customer, but then pulled our own drinks from the backpack and drank them. The waiter must have wondered why it took us so long to drink one cider between the two of us. To prevent suspicion we took the empty bottles away with us.

The food was good in the resort but the highlight must have been the HUGE and buttery tasting avocado we bought from the hotel restaurant for $2 and ate it with bread on the beach. It was so big that we had leftovers and still didn’t need lunch.

A few nice guides on the front of the boat

Local kids were playing all over the beach

Look at the size of those avos

While lounging around the beach, we noticed some Italian ladies speaking to everyone in Italian (both employees and guests) and they were irritated that nobody understood them. To be fair many local businesses seemed to speak Italian for some reason. But to expect everyone in Zanzibar will speak Italian seems unrealistic. They didn’t even try in English when Italian didn’t work.

I had bought 4 different bottles of mosquito repellent, expecting swarms everywhere we went, but in the end the only bites came while sleeping in Zanzibar. The bed had a mosquito net but we didn’t use it very effectively. So we had to put spray on during the night, which is kind of annoying. But in the end, I only had a couple small bites, which is a win.

By the way, Z and I had an argument about if saying someone “looks like Michael Jackson from thriller” is a compliment! I voted no.

After a few days at the beach, we went to Stone Town for our last day, which is where Freddie Mercury lived. It was a bit chaotic, with streets filled with aggressive vendors in narrow alleys, and motorcycles cruising past constantly. It was hard to keep saying no to everyone when we window shopped. In the end it’s just luck whenever we would finally decide to buy something. Not because someone got into our face offering every trinket and treasure for a “very good price.” Bargaining is a balance between feeling like you got a good deal, but we also wanted to pay enough to support the locals. When a rain storm forced us to seek shelter next to a spice vendor, we ended up buying a lot in exchange for letting us stand there. Zosia got really good at talking to vendors and being confident about her negotiations.  The guys in the food stands were also aggressive, and we wanted to eat but were skeptical of the meat since we saw them preparing the raw meat in the hot sun earlier that day. How long has that stuff been sitting out?

City life

Hanging at Freddie's

Z's new spicy friend

Zanzibar has a history of Arabic rule (Omani) as well as a British “protectorate” until the decolonialization in the 1960s. During this time there was a revolution by the locals overthrowing the mostly Arab government. This started a bloody revolution, the results being many people fleeing the country (like Freddie Mercury’s family, who went to India). The locals were then the ruling party of an independent state, and a union was formed Tanzania.

The slave museum in Stone Town was heavy. It was one of the largest slave markets. Mostly run by the Arab elite but other powerful local tribes were involved too, and they would just grab any weak people from other tribes to sell. The ivory trade drove up demand (a lot of it going to the US), as well as local clove plantations. Eventually pressure from the British government put an official end to it, though some forms of slavery still exist today (like in many places around the world).

It stresses me out to see tiny boats next to huge barges

One of the most fascinating things we experienced was hanging out by the waterfront in the late afternoon. A group of about 20 kids took turns running and jumping off the boardwalk into the water, doing crazy acrobatic flips and playing up to the crowd. I didn’t notice them asking for money from the 100 people watching. I think they just liked doing it, like an after school activity hanging out with friends.

Speaking of kids, Zosia’s mom gave her a bunch of candy from Poland to find some kids to give it to. But on the days we walked around with it, we couldn’t find any kids who wanted it! We started following kids around, looking for the right moment, but then felt like creepers offering them candy. We ended up giving it to a hotel employee for his family.

If you need to take a taxi from Stone Town to the airport, it’s around $10 for the hotel to organize it. A random taxi on the street we saw the night before said he’d do it for $8, but we didn’t know if we could rely on him to show up on time the next day. Again, it’s not a lot of money, but we started to run out of USD and Stone Town seemed to be a terrible place to change money. ATMs were not common and the ones we found charged $7 per transaction. Ouch.

The final story relates to our last day in Nungwi when the hotel gave us the bill, and there was a water on it that we didn’t buy. It was only $2 so it wasn’t a big deal, but just to show the “no worries” attitude, the worker asked us to just pay for it and he’d give us a water. It was “already in the system” and we “needed water anyway”, according to him. He asked nicely and had been very helpful all week so we agreed, but it took some effort to not be annoyed by the principle of it. Deep breaths.  Hakuna Matata indeed.

Surprise trip to (Doha and) Tanzania

December 24-31, 2018

When we got to the Warsaw airport, Zosia still didn’t know where we were going for our honeymoon. So when we got in line for check-in at Qatar airlines, she read the sign and shouted the destination city out
loud “Dohhh-HAAA!” partly because it’s a funny word but also because she had no idea where it was. She was so sweet when she showed her excitement and said “I’ve never been to a place I never heard of!” It took me a while to realize that it actually made sense. She didn’t realize it was just for a one day layover and that the ultimate destination was still to come.

Planning a trip without her knowing the destination was somewhat difficult. I asked my new wife to get a bunch of vaccinations but didn’t tell her for what. I also had three different problems with our flight bookings (thinking I had booked something but it never got confirmed, booking for higher prices then the airline changed the dates to two days earlier (can they do that?), then another late change by the airline 3 days prior to the departure, which led to having to change the tours I had organized in Arusha, but it allowed us a layover in Doha). I lost a few hairs with all of the changes. Luckily we got some money back thanks to the EU laws protecting customers from unforced changes, which cause you to arrive later, or even EARLIER than you planned. I actually had to find the rules online and send it to the customer service agent before they were convinced I was right, so it was worth doing some research. And because of all that we got to spend some time in Doha on the way to Tanzania and Zanzibar.

I found the notes I kept from the trip, so instead of writing a full story about it (it’s been so long I don’t remember everything!), here are some semi-coherent random notes from the week. Plus this is much
easier.

+++++++++++

Doha
- Nice Christmas Eve meal in the airport again...like a couple years ago when we went to visit Tomek in Luton. 

- Had to make sure vaccinations were ok. Add a couple hundred dollars to the trip budget. In Tanzania you can buy visas at the border but bring USD.
- No visa for Doha, they have “waivers” and you still pass through like any passport check.
- Taxi driver in Doha tried to convince me to tip him a lot, wanted to keep the change from 100 for a 48 fare. 

- Hotel reception guys super casual. No maps of the city, just said that way is museum 10 minutes, that way is water 10 minutes. No problem. Ok, no problem!

- Not easy to cross busy streets. Never thought I’d be near the Persian Gulf, which was only ever in the American news due to war. 

- Boardwalk along the water very nice, they spend a lot of money on making public areas. 

- Museum of Islamic art was beautiful, good views across the water. Definitely a rich city

- Had to dress a bit conservative but about 70 degrees so perfect weather on Christmas day.
- Parades going back and forth in Souq Waqif. Wandered until we found some restaurants on Main Street. Camels and falcon hospital and outdoor pet shop. Zosia wanted to let all the animals free. Her
biggest stress was the cat and bird cages were next to each other. 

- Ate mulukhiya, some gooey soup, but nice. Z couldn’t wait to eat baklava, her mouth was watering

- Some kids ran up to us when we were eating dinner and I expected them to ask for money, but they just wanted to use one of our extra chairs

- Dark super early.
- 5am call to prayer seemed like it was coming from right outside our window, but there’s something actually calming about it.
- Doha was a quick trip but don’t think we needed much more time

- Off to the “real” honeymoon soon. Let’s see how long it will take before Z knows where we are.

Off to the honeymoon with little Andy

First stop, Do-haaaaa

Nice Old Town

Set them free!!!

Tanzania

At airport on way to Tanzania Zosia randomly and correctly guessed our destination Kilimanjaro from the flight board, just because the flight time was 9:00 something, which she knew was the case for our flight. She thinks we are “so pro” for going there for our honeymoon instead of traditional “romantic beaches”. Wonder what she thinks about Zanzibar?

Also, she thinks we’ll be climbing Kilimanjaro in our running shoes.

Long flight and small airport in Kilimanjaro. I forgot my hat on the plane so a lady walked me back to the plane across the runway after everyone got off. 

Needed $100 cash for visa for a US passport, only $50 for Polish. Bring cash!

Nobody asked for any vaccinations, since we came from “safe” countries...felt safer that we had them, but it wasn’t “required”.

Tanzania in a fairly young country. It was under German rule in the 19th century then under British after WWI. It became independent in the 60s.

Day 1 - Arusha
Day walking safari with a guide from Shemeji. Sobering to see the small villages we passed by. Different than the luxurious city of Doha. Zosia noticed that there weren’t any white people around...joked
(?) that people might dislike her cuz she’s white.

Stayed at the Green Mountain hotel, which was definitely a $40 hotel, nothing fancy. But they have a nice pool and nice staff. One worker asked if I wanted a beer, said it costs $2, then I saw him run to the shop down the street to get it. Nice kid.

Staff comes to the room to open and close the windows and spray for mosquitoes. Water pressure low and cold so a bit disappointed we couldn’t have nice hot showers. Good thing it’s hot so cold shower
doesn’t feel so bad.

Arusha national park for a walking safari and drive. Didn’t see “big” animals but a good “warm up” to see some of the more common ones which are still fun to watch. Guide Benny, has been doing safaris for 18
years. Z figured out we weren’t climbing a mountain after I gave her some photo clues of animals. Still looking forward to bigger animals after not seeing lions, elephants, rhinos or hippos. Will be with Benny the next few days. Would have been cool to see giraffes or elephants while walking in the bush, but didn’t. Super green in Arusha, slow driving up the mountain. Lakes and waterfalls. Beautiful place and worth visiting even without the expectation of seeing animals....a lot of monkeys, buffalo, wart hogs and antelope.

Moving on to Serengeti tomorrow!  

Our first animal sighting

Sunset

Hanging out with Ben

Day 2 - Masai village and Serengeti
Visit to Masai village, it’s interesting and the kids are so cute. But then you wonder how “authentic” the villages along the main road are, since every tourist is dropping $20-30 on donations and souvenirs. They were clearly business minded. They did a dance with Z, showed us their school and inside a hut. In 1959 they got moved to Ngorongoro out of the Serengeti.

Saw lots of stuff on way to Serengeti. Landscape changing. Could have spent hours watching lions sitting on a rock. The tented camp (Osupuko) in the middle of central Serengeti is awesome. No fence so
animals all around and you keep hearing their noises as night. Can’t walk around without asking for an armed escort. We were super dirty but happy. Nice food nice people, have to ask for someone to pour water into shower and keep telling them when you want more. Comfy beds and good temperature. No mosquitoes yet...haven’t put the 4 bottles of spray I bought online to good use.

Beautiful night sky, lightning then clear stars. Amazing to be glamping in the middle of the Serengeti. Use bottled water to brush teeth. Bring flashlight for inside tent. Towels and soap were provided everywhere so far. Food good and you can tell them if have allergies. Dusty in car so cover your phone and camera etc. Long pants and long sleeves for night. Flip flops for inside and showers. Most places and rest stops had proper toilets. The safari pants are definitely worth it.

Better to have a power adapter with multiple plugs, as you may find only one outlet. UK outlets. Chargers inside the car. Wet wipes a good idea. Phone signal In Serengeti!

Guides tell each other over CB radio or stopping on the side of the road if there is something interesting to see and somehow they can describe to each other where it is...how do they find their way around places and camps without maps or signs?

Zosia's got moves

We took about a million pics of these guys

Our tent in the middle of the Serengeti

Big Andy getting ready for some photos

Day 3 - All day Serengeti
Saw lions, leopard and cheetah in the first 3 hours. Saw so many lions! Wonder what Jay and Lady the degus would do with all the animals. Z’s mom taking care of them.

Visitors center about how the ecosystem works and how the animals are all related.

I wrote about surviving safaris earlier, here and we made a silly video here.

Sitting in camp at sunset, drinking wedding wine we brought, with Benny. Watching as giraffes and buffalo walk around us. 

Simba and Nala

How many hippos?

Cheers!

Day 4 - Balloon ride
Woke up super early for dad’s honeymoon present for us: a hot air balloon ride at 5am. Saw a few animals from the air but was just awesome to fly above beautiful landscape. At our landing spot we had champagne, ate breakfast, and were close enough to hear(!!) lions eating something (or someone) just next to us - why weren’t people nervous they were so close! I peed in the grass while watching wild lions eat breakfast.

Zosia loves the little hyraxes at the visitors center. 50 plus elephants appeared, just after we realized we hadn't seen many. Counted leopards (3x), lions (30+), cheetahs (2x), so we were missing elephants, and still no rhinos up close.  

3 days (48 hours) is probably enough for a Safari, but we could keep going for several days because it was so fun (and fun for me to watch Zosia's reaction to seeing everything). 

Rhino Lodge on top of Ngorongoro Crater was a nice place with good rooms and food. Every place has had good food, and it's nice that Ben likes to sit with us, but also keeps distance so we can have some private time.  

Animals walking around the camp ground like it’s normal. Opened the door to the patio and there were 10 buffalo staring at us just a few feet away.

Zosia got told not to feed birds in the Serengeti but it’s hard to be mad at her for wanting to “bring a few minutes of happiness to them”.

Great morning ride

We were a bit nervous at take-off, then it was super calm and peaceful

This was my view while peeing. One thing may have led to the other

Zosia, Andy and an unamused hyrax

These are cool

Buffalo outside our door into Z's stomach

Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater 

Amazing place.

Ngorongoro is a conservation, not a national park, so Masai people and domesticated animals can live there. Funny to see zebras and wildebeest grazing with cows and goats.

Early start. Foggy cuz 2200 meters high. Hills and trees remind me of driving around the mountains in Hawaii.

Elephants slow moving across the plains was like the mystics in the Dark Crystal (by the way the new series on Netflix is great!). Animals literally everywhere in the crater, like a zoo, but somehow you don’t notice them when looking down from the top of the crater. Hippos over here, zebras and wildebeest over here, gazelle here. Flamingos. Don’t even stop for lions anymore. Psh. But one lion got offended by that and shook his head and water from his beard got on us, which was exciting.

Benny has been great, said that during low season he doesn’t have work so he needs to make as much as he can during tourist season. Locals wear jeans and sweaters or jackets, some with beanies. Nobody

wears shorts. But it’s so hot! 

On way back, lots of action in Arusha streets, vendors selling food, or shops. Car repairs. People just sitting on curbs or buckets of old concrete block storefronts. Some people in burkas some in simple head wear some without. Half Muslim and half Christian. Women wearing beautiful colors. Balancing things on head. Motorcycle taxis everywhere. Mini buses have decorations with unique names like Queen Elizabeth or Supra or Las Vegas, or other words I don’t understand but Benny said they’re just random words, with
stickers and advertisements all over like the Pope or some dude with dreadlocks. Worth a ride through town just for people watching, but I don’t think I’d walk. They drive and sit on the British side. Traffic cops wave people down every few km in towns. 

Every hotel has a central tip box that gets shared between everyone. Nice system so you don’t have to carry cash for every time someone helps, and it seems to make everyone friendly and contribute to a nice
environment even people you wouldn’t tip normally. All employees everywhere we went were super nice.

There's something weird about seeing elephants in an open field

Playful pumba pups

More lions

That takes some skill

Next up, Zanzibar!

Exploring the Land of Fire

November 17-25, 2018

“Hey Seattle SuperSonics!” he called out to me. Our colleague from the Baku office in Azerbaijan liked to refer to me this way.  “You know I’m still heartbroken about the team leaving Seattle” I responded, referring to the horrible "robbery" of our NBA team to Oklahoma City in 2008. He made my day with the next line: “When I’m rich I’ll buy the team back and return them to Seattle. It’s the only way.” And after that, I knew I’d like this country.  

Tony, a friend of mine who used to travel all over CEE for work, would always post on Facebook “Now I’m in ______, my favourite of all!” filling in the blank with wherever he was at that moment.  Even though the way he spelled "favorite" was incorrect, I still read his posts.  And since he seemed to say the same thing for every city, I didn’t think much of it when I saw him write about Baku. But now that I’ve been there, I think it might have been true!

The land of fire, and scary little fire sorceress girls

Baku surprised me a lot. In a good way. The city had a lot of nice sites, monuments, a variety of architecture, numerous parks and the Caspian Sea. Just outside the city we saw some things I had never seen before in my life, like petroglyphs in the cliffs (if you are a rapper, feel free to borrow that lyric), cold mud spewing from “volcanoes”,  and a mountain that is literally on fire. On top of that was good food and accommodating people. Even though I spent a whole week working there, it felt like a vacation. Since Zosia stayed home “with the kids”, I couldn’t help but think how much she’d like everything I saw and ate. Especially the local sweets.

It’s hard to go more than a couple days without eating gluten, but Zosia and I had been on a month-long gluten-free period and were just getting adjusted to it when this trip came up. I had 5 more days of gluten freedom, and had to try to survive in a new country.  I checked the calendar and noticed my first day of gluten would coincidentally be Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t know if I should be excited or concerned about what some stuffing and pumpkin pie might do to my stomach after so long without any wheat or bread.  Luckily it seemed that cutting out gluten, and re-introducing it with such reckless abandon, had no effect on me.

The flight to Baku took over 7 hours, with a short layover in Istanbul. Add another 3 hours for the time change and it took all day. Azerbaijan is bordered by Russia and Iran, and has been in a state of war with Armenia. To learn more about the city and country, as I usually do when traveling to a new place, I booked a guided tour for my first day (Viator.com is becoming a go-to). Baku has a lot of big, European style buildings, generally from money from the oil industry, the biggest investor being the Nobel family.  The city sits on the Caspian Sea, and there are oil fields everywhere. Not only in the sea, but nodding iron horses can be seen all around the outskirts. Speaking of the Caspian Sea, my first fun fact learned was that it is technically a lake, since it doesn’t have any connection to an open ocean. Boom.

City breakfast with a Caspian view

Jogging on the waterfront

City hall

 Azerbaijan is officially a Muslim country, but in what seems like a common theme for countries in the former Soviet Union, where religion was suppressed for a long period of time, it’s not strictly practiced. Baku is the capital, and is the name in both Farsi and English. While in Azerbaijani, it’s called Baki. I'm just telling you that so you don't sound like an idiot like I did, when I made fun of them because nobody could spell the name of the city.  The area around Azerbaijan, including Armenia and Georgia is called the Caucasus, which back in the 18th century gave rise to the term “Caucasians”. But why people in the US refer to all "European Americans" as Caucasians is a mystery to me.

One of the highlights of the city tour was seeing 10-15,000 year old petroglyphs in the hills around the city. When you see them, they appear so simple and could have been painted by some kids with a magic marker.  Most of them are exposed and could be subject to vandalism and deterioration from the weather, which adds to the intrigue.  It’s also interesting how they interpret the simple images of a cow or a boat to understand the culture or what happened during that time. Thor Heyerdahl is a Norwegian ethnographer who even thought that the Vikings might have originated in Azerbaijan, in his "Search for Odin", due in part to the similarities in the petroglyphs.  Scandinavia and Azerbaijan are very far apart, so it makes you wonder if it's just a coincidence.

Visit to Gobustan

These are 10,000+ years old!

This rock is hollow and is used as a musical instrument

Another highlight has to do with the natural resources in the country.  With so much gas coming out of the earth, you'd think it's lactose intolerant.  Gas is constantly seeping everywhere, from the land that is always burning, to the bubbling mudflows in the mountains.  The locals said that the mud is good for your skin so I bottled some up and brought home a gift for Zosia.  Smart move by me, since it was cheaper than cosmetics at the airport duty free shop.  Since there is gas everywhere, you can even light the mud on fire.  But the most fascinating thing to me was the fire mountain Yanar Dag. The mountain literally burns all day, everyday. There have been references to burning mountains like this around Azerbaijan for centuries, though as pockets of gas run out, the locations might change.  It’s hard to understand how much gas has burned just in this spot over the last decades, but then you think of the bigger picture and it's unfathomable to think of how much oil and gas we use in the world everyday, and how much is still inside the earth.  At the same time, it’s not hard to imagine that it will run out eventually, and we need to think of more sustainable sources.

I'll take 10 bottles, please

The burning mountain

"Iron horses" are all over the city

With a country of fire also comes stories and ancient beliefs connected to said fire. We visited a fire temple (Ateshgah), which was built in the 17th century by Hindus coming from India.  Eventually it was adopted by Zoroastrians. Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and was thriving in Persia until the Muslims pushed them out.  Zoroastrians still exist today, scattered around Iran and India. In fact, there’s one famous Zoroastrian you may have heard of: Freddie Mercury.

Fire temple

Everyone there was friendly, and I felt a nice connection to the guy who used to work at the University of Washington campus in Uzbekistan (it used to exist!).  But our host at the office was especially accommodating. He made sure we were always overfed, if not by a big lunch or giant plates of snacks throughout the day, then the wonderful dinners with great company. We learned a lot about the culture and history, and all the different foods...meat, fish, and every meal finished with nuts, dried fruits, and candied young walnuts (so young that the shell is soft enough to eat).  I also learned a recipe for mangal salad (roasted eggplant, peppers and tomatoes) because we ate it almost every day and it was delicious. I also learned you should let eggplant sit in salt for a while to take out the bitterness before you cook it. Sorry to anyone who has eaten my bitter eggplant before.  That's what she said?  

A nice shell filled with rice and meat

I could eat this all day (but then I'd die)

The daily dessert spread

Daily snacks in the office (for 2 people)

Gutab, or a flatbread with some filling

Street food

Another funny thing I learned is that there is a national Spring holiday where everyone gets 5 days off in the middle of the usual busy work season, which is already amazing to me.  But they have tradition if you put your hat in someone’s house they have to fill it with sweets without seeing or talking to you. Even more impressive, one guy in his 30s spoke openly and casually about how he married his wife without seeing or meeting her, after his mom set up a few possibilities and their families met a few times to decide the best fit. I kinda wanted to be on this family committee who basically interviews family and friends of the potential partners to decide which spouse to choose. And I especially want to be part of the family “courting” parties where the families drink together all day before the engagement takes place.  Anyone need my help?

Old town Baku

Did one of these purses just wag its tail?

Speaking of feasts, they made sure I was taken care of on Thanksgiving. My big day of eating gluten again was not disappointing. We went to an international hotel restaurant which served the classics, and I was properly stuffed. The first bite of bread was delicious, the last bite of pie was perfection. Exactly like this trip to the Land of Fire.