Well, it's about that time again. I have not had an entry here for about 6 months and that usually means that I have not traveled. I have been feeling the itch lately and I am getting ready to embark on a great trip. I have spent the last 4 months in Glendale Arizona going to school at Thunderbird. I am getting my MBA in international business. My first semester was an amazing experience and it was everything I had hoped for. The best part of the school is definitely the people. Thunderbird does an amazing job at bringing in some of the most interesting people from all over the world into one place. The student population is about 60% foreign and 40% domestic. Everyone has traveled all over the world and has experienced some very cool stuff.
Thunderbird has campuses all over the world and this summer I am going to be taking classes in Prague for six weeks followed by China for 6 weeks. The teachers are Thunderbird teachers but the focus at both of these campuses will be on their respective regions. I am going to truly have a global business education upon graduation.
In Prague I have an apartment in the middle of the city and I am going to be living with Gokhan from Turkey and Mike and Patrick from the US. My second week in Prague there is a big beer festival and a few of my friends from Serbia are going to be coming in to visit me. I plan on traveling all over the region and trying to learn as much about the culture as is possible to do in 6 weeks. School is going to be very difficult but I will be able to perform a good juggling act to succeed in everything.
After Prague, Sarah my girlfriend is joining from NYC (she is a teacher and has the summer off). We are going to go on a 10 day trip through Italy where we are going to be hunting the best food and wine that Italy offers. After that we are flying to Beijing where we will find an apartment and I'll start school up there. Sarah is going to be teaching English.
China is going to be more of a culture shock than Prague but it will be very interesting. I studied a fair amount of Chinese history in my undergraduate and I am excited to see the things I studied first hand. I should have decent access to internet while traveling and I hope to be able to post lots of interesting stories. Until then, wish me luck...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Derby
On my first Saturday in Serbia my friends took me to see "The Derby". It is the rivalry between the top two soccer teams in Serbia (both of who are from Belgrade). It is Partisan aka gravediggers and red star aka heros. The teams were both formed after the second world war and have always carried a vague political connection. The fans have always been devoted. Since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the many wars throughout the Balkans the fans have become more violent. The hooligans are mostly in their late teens and early twenties. A group of people who's parents lived well and who are now prisoners in their own country unable to make enough money to do the things they want to do. The soccer games have provided an outlet for this frustration over the last 15 years, however a very dangerous and often deadly outlet. In recent years there have been a few deaths. There are often fights of 50 people vs 50 people before games (all can be seen on youtube), people have been shot, and recently a hooligan got 10 years in jail for stuffing a burning flair down a police officer's throat.
One of my friends, Ivan, was at a game a few years earlier. He apparently was not cheering loud enough so a group of people started punching him and chasing him through the stands. I was told this story on our way down to the game and, to say the least, it did not put me at ease. Four of us went to the game Edin, Ivan, Vladi, and me. Vladi and Ivan bought seats on the sides where the neutral fans go to watch the game in peace. Edin however wanted me to really experience The Derby how it should be experienced and he took me into the heart of the Gravediggers (his team). We were in the southern end zone bleachers with about 10,000 wild and crazy fans. We pushed our way through to be in the absolute middle.
I would not go so far as to say I was scared but a little nervous yes, cautious yes. I was in the middle of a group of 10,000 angry young people. People who were angry for not having the opportunities that they deserve. People who have seen their politicians pull them into war after war. People who are furious at the west for recognizing Kosovo's recent independence (Kosovo is historically the heartland of Serbia. Most of the Serbian history, masques, etc is in Kosovo) and who burned the United States Embassy in Belgrade in February (). Well, with all of this in mind I planned on making sure I cheered the loudest and jumped the highest.
No alcohol is allowed within 1 mile of the stadium. Starting from about a mile away from the stadium there were cops in riot gear stationed in pairs every 20 feet (head to toe armor with batons, guns, shields, helmets, and masks). As we got closer to the the field the cops were stationed every three feet. There were over 2500 cops in riot gear in total. The games have recently turned more violent and the country was determined to not allow this game to turn deadly.
As soon as the game began the fans erupted. A banner showing their allegiance to their team was passed over our heads. The banner was like nothing I have ever seen before. It was 75 yards wide and 50 yards long. It stretched over all of our heads and almost the whole end zone. On the sides people lit colored flares and everyone chanted the Gravedigger songs. After about ten minutes the banner was taken down and we watched the game. The whole time all the fans were on their feet cheering loudly. The cheers were directed not towards their team but towards the fans of Red Star. Calling them every insult that one could think of. I chanted right along with them all. Following along in Serbian yelling loud but not loud enough that people could tell I had no idea what I was saying. I was hoping for a Gravedigger victory, not so much because I was a fan but because I did not want to be amongst this crowd if they lost.
The Gravediggers did indeed win, 2-0. After the second goal was scored the fans went crazy. They lit flares on fire and threw them at the cops that were surrounding the field. In between the stands and the field were bushes where fans had put flags. These flags and bushes caught fire from the flares. The cops rushed forward to put out the fires and the fans in return pulled the seats out of the ground and threw them on top of the police.
When the game ended everyone filed out of the stadium. The riot police were everywhere making sure the fans of the two opposing sides could not go near each other. We made our way to the car and headed back home. The game was a fun time and I felt I learned a great deal.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Hiking in Bulgaria
In people's lives there are great decades, great years, and great months. These however are all made up of great days. Today was a great day. I had one of the best days of my life today hiking through the mountains at 7500 feet among pristine lakes and patches of snow on Pirin mountain in south west Bulgaria.
The weather was a perfect fall day: crisp air, clear sky, and plenty of sunshine. Pirin mountain is a group of sharp peaks, granite rocks, green valleys, and many beautiful lakes. I was with my Bulgarian friend Miro and a friend of his. I arrived in Bulgaria a few days ago and was staying at Miro's house in a college town in the mountains. Today he was going to show me his backyard: Pirin mountain. I feel most at home and most at peace when I am walking the mountains with no one talking to me except for the rivers whispering their song in the distance and the wind blowing through the trees. The mountains are my church.
We followed the trail for an hour or so and saw some beautiful lakes nestled in among the peaks. The path was getting steeper but I still wanted more physical exhaustion. I could see the peak we were headed to in the distance and I left the trail to hike straight up the face of the mountain hand over foot leaping among the granite rocks. I reached the peak 2 hours later and could see the Bulgarian mountain chain stretch on in all directions. The valleys below were scattered with lakes of a color I had never seen before. It must have been a combination of my physical exhaustion and the beauty of the mountains but I felt a peace come over me that I have rarely felt. It made me feel totally at ease and happy with my life. Standing on that peak I began to think about all the everyday things that people worry about and how we spend so much time worrying about the things we cannot control.
As I stood on that peak the economy of my country and many other countries was collapsing. People's lives savings are disappearing, students are losing their student loans (something that has caused me some consternation). Standing on that peak it made me realize that things are going to happen the way things are going to happen. Things will either get worse or they will get better but all the worrying in the world cannot change things. It is like the mountains I was looking at: they were there before and they will be there long to come. It does us no good worrying about the things we cannot control. Life is short and we need to make the most out of every minute we have on this planet. Today I had a great day. When I am on my deathbed I want to be able to say that I lived a great life. In order for me to do that I know I need to pack in as many great days as possible.
****************************
Miro and Boris joined me shortly after on the peak and we all looked at each other with the knowledge that we were experiencing something amazing. On the opposite side of the peak from where we came from there were two small lakes surrounded by soft green fields. We decided to hike down to them and eat our lunch. At this point I had been in Bulgaria about 4 days and all the food I had eaten was grown within a 10 mile radius of my friends house. Our lunch was one of the best meals I have ever had. After 3.5 hours of hiking anything would have been great but this lunch was amazing indeed. We had fresh feta cheese, homemade bread, delicious tomatoes and cucumbers, Bulgarian sausage, and letanica (best described as Bulgarian bruceta). We washed it all down with spring water from a nearby stream. After we ate I lied down on the grass and dozed off under the afternoon sun.
When I awoke it was time to head down the mountain. On the walk down I had more time to take in the views surrounding me. Today was a day I will not soon forget
The weather was a perfect fall day: crisp air, clear sky, and plenty of sunshine. Pirin mountain is a group of sharp peaks, granite rocks, green valleys, and many beautiful lakes. I was with my Bulgarian friend Miro and a friend of his. I arrived in Bulgaria a few days ago and was staying at Miro's house in a college town in the mountains. Today he was going to show me his backyard: Pirin mountain. I feel most at home and most at peace when I am walking the mountains with no one talking to me except for the rivers whispering their song in the distance and the wind blowing through the trees. The mountains are my church.
We followed the trail for an hour or so and saw some beautiful lakes nestled in among the peaks. The path was getting steeper but I still wanted more physical exhaustion. I could see the peak we were headed to in the distance and I left the trail to hike straight up the face of the mountain hand over foot leaping among the granite rocks. I reached the peak 2 hours later and could see the Bulgarian mountain chain stretch on in all directions. The valleys below were scattered with lakes of a color I had never seen before. It must have been a combination of my physical exhaustion and the beauty of the mountains but I felt a peace come over me that I have rarely felt. It made me feel totally at ease and happy with my life. Standing on that peak I began to think about all the everyday things that people worry about and how we spend so much time worrying about the things we cannot control.
As I stood on that peak the economy of my country and many other countries was collapsing. People's lives savings are disappearing, students are losing their student loans (something that has caused me some consternation). Standing on that peak it made me realize that things are going to happen the way things are going to happen. Things will either get worse or they will get better but all the worrying in the world cannot change things. It is like the mountains I was looking at: they were there before and they will be there long to come. It does us no good worrying about the things we cannot control. Life is short and we need to make the most out of every minute we have on this planet. Today I had a great day. When I am on my deathbed I want to be able to say that I lived a great life. In order for me to do that I know I need to pack in as many great days as possible.
****************************
Miro and Boris joined me shortly after on the peak and we all looked at each other with the knowledge that we were experiencing something amazing. On the opposite side of the peak from where we came from there were two small lakes surrounded by soft green fields. We decided to hike down to them and eat our lunch. At this point I had been in Bulgaria about 4 days and all the food I had eaten was grown within a 10 mile radius of my friends house. Our lunch was one of the best meals I have ever had. After 3.5 hours of hiking anything would have been great but this lunch was amazing indeed. We had fresh feta cheese, homemade bread, delicious tomatoes and cucumbers, Bulgarian sausage, and letanica (best described as Bulgarian bruceta). We washed it all down with spring water from a nearby stream. After we ate I lied down on the grass and dozed off under the afternoon sun.
When I awoke it was time to head down the mountain. On the walk down I had more time to take in the views surrounding me. Today was a day I will not soon forget
Off the the Balkans
So I have embarked on my last exploration before I head back to school to get my MBA in international business at Thunderbird ( www.thunderbird.edu). I've decided to go to Eastern Europe. It is a part of the world I have never seen before and a place I can learn a lot. Traveling is my biggest passion and I love to travel for many reasons. I have always been fascinated by history (my college major) and by traveling you can get a feel for history first hand. I think it is very important to learn about different cultures. The more we learn about the world and the people living in it the better understanding we can have with each other. This understanding is vital for the world to avoid war upon war that accomplishes nothing except to create more hatred and animosity.
From my summers working in Nantucket I have made close friends scattered throughout the Balkans. I arrived in Serbia in the end of September and my friends Edin, Vladi, and Ivan picked me up in Belgrade. We drove to their hometown of Novi Sad, the 2nd largest city in Serbia, about 2 hours north. In Serbia, much like many places throughout the world, people live with their parents until they get married. In many catholic countries people do this out of custom. Here in Serbia people do it because they have no other option. The average salary is 400 USD per month. To rent an apartment it would cost more than half of that. You add in food and other necessities and it becomes impossible.
My friends found an apartment for me to rent in downtown Novi Sad. It is on the main Boulevard on the 17th floor and overlooks the whole city. Behind the city the mighty Danube roars by. All of the bridges over the river are less than 7 years old. They were built to replace the older bridges that were bombed by the US military in 1999.
Serbia has gone through a rough time in the last 20 years since the break up of the former Yugoslavia. They have had wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. They have had despotic rulers, Foreign super powers bombing them, and their country has been fragmented. Their economy has collapsed and shows no signs of improvement.
In spite of all of this the people are resilient. My friends grew up playing basketball while bombs were dropping all around them. Now everyone seems to just want to forget the past, forget the fighting, and move forward. Everywhere I go everyone is friendly to me. People go out of their way to show me around and to answer my many questions about their country and their history. Serbia is indeed a gorgeous country.
My goal of this trip is to learn as much about this region as I possibly can... and of course to have some fun while I'm doing it.
From my summers working in Nantucket I have made close friends scattered throughout the Balkans. I arrived in Serbia in the end of September and my friends Edin, Vladi, and Ivan picked me up in Belgrade. We drove to their hometown of Novi Sad, the 2nd largest city in Serbia, about 2 hours north. In Serbia, much like many places throughout the world, people live with their parents until they get married. In many catholic countries people do this out of custom. Here in Serbia people do it because they have no other option. The average salary is 400 USD per month. To rent an apartment it would cost more than half of that. You add in food and other necessities and it becomes impossible.
My friends found an apartment for me to rent in downtown Novi Sad. It is on the main Boulevard on the 17th floor and overlooks the whole city. Behind the city the mighty Danube roars by. All of the bridges over the river are less than 7 years old. They were built to replace the older bridges that were bombed by the US military in 1999.
Serbia has gone through a rough time in the last 20 years since the break up of the former Yugoslavia. They have had wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. They have had despotic rulers, Foreign super powers bombing them, and their country has been fragmented. Their economy has collapsed and shows no signs of improvement.
In spite of all of this the people are resilient. My friends grew up playing basketball while bombs were dropping all around them. Now everyone seems to just want to forget the past, forget the fighting, and move forward. Everywhere I go everyone is friendly to me. People go out of their way to show me around and to answer my many questions about their country and their history. Serbia is indeed a gorgeous country.
My goal of this trip is to learn as much about this region as I possibly can... and of course to have some fun while I'm doing it.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hair
About a month before I was ready to get on the plane and head to Africa I shaved my head and stopped shaving my face. I did this for a few reasons but I think the main reason was more simple than the reason I told everyone: I did it because I could. I knew that for the next few months it would not matter how I looked. I was going to have no boss, no professors, no girlfriends, no need to keep my hair and beard neat. So, I let it grow.
About two weeks into the trip after a lot of talk Caroline and I decided to give ourselves a haircut. We were in a small beach village where hippos wandered the streets at night. Sitting around listening to music with about 10 other people we decided bring out the buzzers we had bought earlier in the day. I ran to the car in a torrential down pour to retrieve them from the trunk (3 hours later when we returned to the car we saw I had left the trunk wide open). We asked for volunteers to cut our hair and an English bloke named Mike who was working behind the bar stepped up to the plate.
I did not really know what I wanted to do with my hair or beard but I said I wanted it to look ¨crazy¨. Everyone sitting around wrote down their ideas on a piece of paper and we drew from a hat. It was to be a mohawk for my head and a fu-man-chew for the beard. Caroline started off with a mohawk as well and then shaved it all off.
I fell instantly in love with my new style. It was fun. It was something wild and outrageous and it did not matter. Well, in Africa it did not matter, and that brings me to the purpose of this entry. We had two weeks left in South Africa (including a short trip to Lesotho) before we headed up to Namibia. During those two weeks I did not get one comment nor one weird look. And for those of you who saw me upon my return... I looked awfully strange (see pictures below). The first comment I received was when we were crossing the border from South Africa to Namibia. The South African border guard asked me for my drivers license and passport which I handed over gracefully. She studied my picture and my face for a while and then she broke into a huge smile. She returned my documents and told me she loved my new style.
The next two weeks we traveled through Namibia and did not receive another comment nor sidewards glance - not too surprising however, we were traversing dirt roads through the most uninhabited country in all of Africa. After Namibia the road brought us to Botswana where things started to get interesting. In order to reach Botswana we had to drive south from the Caprivi strip through a Nature Reserve full of wild animals. It seems now that in the people´s minds, for the rest of the trip, I was one of those wild animals.
After crossing the border our first stop was a grocery store to put some kind of food in our bellies. It just so happened that we arrived on the grand opening of the grocery store. It was the first of its kind for, at the least, 100 kilometers. People had come from all over to see the newest addition. As we walked into the store everyone s eyes shifted to me. Unlike Thailand, where Thai people will never stare at another person, everyone stared and laughed. It was not so much that they were laughing at me... well, actually they probably were. But not in a malicious way. Little kids would stare and point, teenagers would slap me five, or pat me on the back, and girls would giggle and pass me furtive glances. -at this point my mohawk was about 3 inches long in the middle and shaved on the side. Each of the 3 parts of my fu-man-chew was extended from my chin about 2 inches.- The grocery store was interesting. When we got back to the car we laughed, empty handed because the grocery store was barely stocked, and marvelled about how things had changed since the first month.
We continued our journey to Maun which is the staging point for heading into the magical Okavango Delta. As in most of the rest of our travels through Africa, when we arrived in Maun we were the only white people around. The -tourist town- as it was described was nothing more than a reasonably large village that was falling apart- or had already fallen apart. The houses were made of beer cans and mud. You could tell that at one point someone had attempted to put pavement on the streets but were not too successful. We pulled in to a parking lot, parked the car, and got out to walk around. As we walked through the parking lot we could see people from far away looking at us. It became comical when we got to the crowded sidewalk. I walked ahead of Caroline and weaved through the people. Everyone, literally everyone, was staring at me with a huge smile on their face. People were laughing and poking their friends who were already staring. Girls in buses were yelling out of the window. Caroline had the best view of all walking a few steps behind me. She described it as if my hair and beard were a magnet pulling everyones eyes to my hair. As she walked behind me it was like a wave of people following me through the town.
This general reaction occurred throughout Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. While crossing back into Zimbabwe from Zambia I had an interesting interaction with the border guard. After trying for 20 minutes to get the border guard to let us into his country for free he asked me the name of my haircut. He said he wanted to have the barber give him the same haircut and beard. He gave me a piece of paper and had me write it down.
My nickname among most people we met in these three countries turned into -Mr. T-. I would be walking down the street and people would yell, -hey Mr. T- It was pretty amusing. People would tell me how much I looked like Mr T and I would usually respond, -yeah but he is more tan than I am-. No one ever seemed to get the joke.
As soon as we crossed back into South Africa people stopped commenting on my hair style. The different reactions to my hair style say something about the different cultures. I still had one more country to go to and that was my native country, the USA.
After being back in the US for a week or so I had a wedding to go to. After the wedding we were at a bar having a drink. I was sitting down outside by myself when a guy came and sat down next to me. He started talking to me and then he said to me -
Im a skinhead, do you know what that is.
I was blindsided by his comment and did not know what to say so I responded with a grunt that I did not know.
Do you know who the Nazis were
Yes I responded
Well, I am a current day Nazi
I could not believe what had just happened. I was ashamed that someone would mistake me for a Nazi. I have not really told anyone abut that conversation because I was too embarrassed. Needless to say, the next day I shaved my mohawk and my fu-man-chu. It is interesting, I traveled all throughout Africa and was greeted with smiles by my hairstyle and then when I get back to my own country it was seen has a symbol of hatred. Reactions to my hairstyle definitely say something about different cultures.
About two weeks into the trip after a lot of talk Caroline and I decided to give ourselves a haircut. We were in a small beach village where hippos wandered the streets at night. Sitting around listening to music with about 10 other people we decided bring out the buzzers we had bought earlier in the day. I ran to the car in a torrential down pour to retrieve them from the trunk (3 hours later when we returned to the car we saw I had left the trunk wide open). We asked for volunteers to cut our hair and an English bloke named Mike who was working behind the bar stepped up to the plate.
I did not really know what I wanted to do with my hair or beard but I said I wanted it to look ¨crazy¨. Everyone sitting around wrote down their ideas on a piece of paper and we drew from a hat. It was to be a mohawk for my head and a fu-man-chew for the beard. Caroline started off with a mohawk as well and then shaved it all off.
I fell instantly in love with my new style. It was fun. It was something wild and outrageous and it did not matter. Well, in Africa it did not matter, and that brings me to the purpose of this entry. We had two weeks left in South Africa (including a short trip to Lesotho) before we headed up to Namibia. During those two weeks I did not get one comment nor one weird look. And for those of you who saw me upon my return... I looked awfully strange (see pictures below). The first comment I received was when we were crossing the border from South Africa to Namibia. The South African border guard asked me for my drivers license and passport which I handed over gracefully. She studied my picture and my face for a while and then she broke into a huge smile. She returned my documents and told me she loved my new style.
The next two weeks we traveled through Namibia and did not receive another comment nor sidewards glance - not too surprising however, we were traversing dirt roads through the most uninhabited country in all of Africa. After Namibia the road brought us to Botswana where things started to get interesting. In order to reach Botswana we had to drive south from the Caprivi strip through a Nature Reserve full of wild animals. It seems now that in the people´s minds, for the rest of the trip, I was one of those wild animals.
After crossing the border our first stop was a grocery store to put some kind of food in our bellies. It just so happened that we arrived on the grand opening of the grocery store. It was the first of its kind for, at the least, 100 kilometers. People had come from all over to see the newest addition. As we walked into the store everyone s eyes shifted to me. Unlike Thailand, where Thai people will never stare at another person, everyone stared and laughed. It was not so much that they were laughing at me... well, actually they probably were. But not in a malicious way. Little kids would stare and point, teenagers would slap me five, or pat me on the back, and girls would giggle and pass me furtive glances. -at this point my mohawk was about 3 inches long in the middle and shaved on the side. Each of the 3 parts of my fu-man-chew was extended from my chin about 2 inches.- The grocery store was interesting. When we got back to the car we laughed, empty handed because the grocery store was barely stocked, and marvelled about how things had changed since the first month.
We continued our journey to Maun which is the staging point for heading into the magical Okavango Delta. As in most of the rest of our travels through Africa, when we arrived in Maun we were the only white people around. The -tourist town- as it was described was nothing more than a reasonably large village that was falling apart- or had already fallen apart. The houses were made of beer cans and mud. You could tell that at one point someone had attempted to put pavement on the streets but were not too successful. We pulled in to a parking lot, parked the car, and got out to walk around. As we walked through the parking lot we could see people from far away looking at us. It became comical when we got to the crowded sidewalk. I walked ahead of Caroline and weaved through the people. Everyone, literally everyone, was staring at me with a huge smile on their face. People were laughing and poking their friends who were already staring. Girls in buses were yelling out of the window. Caroline had the best view of all walking a few steps behind me. She described it as if my hair and beard were a magnet pulling everyones eyes to my hair. As she walked behind me it was like a wave of people following me through the town.
This general reaction occurred throughout Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. While crossing back into Zimbabwe from Zambia I had an interesting interaction with the border guard. After trying for 20 minutes to get the border guard to let us into his country for free he asked me the name of my haircut. He said he wanted to have the barber give him the same haircut and beard. He gave me a piece of paper and had me write it down.
My nickname among most people we met in these three countries turned into -Mr. T-. I would be walking down the street and people would yell, -hey Mr. T- It was pretty amusing. People would tell me how much I looked like Mr T and I would usually respond, -yeah but he is more tan than I am-. No one ever seemed to get the joke.
As soon as we crossed back into South Africa people stopped commenting on my hair style. The different reactions to my hair style say something about the different cultures. I still had one more country to go to and that was my native country, the USA.
After being back in the US for a week or so I had a wedding to go to. After the wedding we were at a bar having a drink. I was sitting down outside by myself when a guy came and sat down next to me. He started talking to me and then he said to me -
Im a skinhead, do you know what that is.
I was blindsided by his comment and did not know what to say so I responded with a grunt that I did not know.
Do you know who the Nazis were
Yes I responded
Well, I am a current day Nazi
I could not believe what had just happened. I was ashamed that someone would mistake me for a Nazi. I have not really told anyone abut that conversation because I was too embarrassed. Needless to say, the next day I shaved my mohawk and my fu-man-chu. It is interesting, I traveled all throughout Africa and was greeted with smiles by my hairstyle and then when I get back to my own country it was seen has a symbol of hatred. Reactions to my hairstyle definitely say something about different cultures.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Zimbabwe
For the first 7 weeks of the trip I was trying to decide what to do about Zimbabwe. It is a country that I have wanted to see (there are not many that I don't want to see actually) but their political situation is far from stable. Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, is one of the most corrupt leaders in the world. He has illegal diamond minds in the southern parts of the D.R.C., he uses terror to rule his country, he drove has driven his country into poverty yet he continues to grow richer.
In the 1990s he started a policy of land reform to appease the veterans of the war for independence who were threatening to revolt. Before the controversial land reform Zimbabwe had promises to be the "the bread basket of Africa". It has fertile lands and good weather to grow a variety of crops. All the the farms however were owned by the white population. Mugabe started taking the land from the white people (who had stolen it in the first place) and redistributing it to the blacks. This became controversial because he was giving huge farms the country depended upon to veterans who had no education about farming. Long story short the new land owners were unable to farm the land, foreign investment pulled out of the country and inflation started at an alarming rate. Inflation got so out of hand that in the mid to late 90s Mugabe started a policy of price fixing. He told shop owners and manufacturers the price that they had to sell goods.
This in turn momentarily fixed the inflation for the consumers because their money could now buy products but the shop owners were often times selling at a loss. At this point any remaining foreign investment in the country pulled out. The situation today is scary. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation in the history of the modern world. There is no petrol in the country; if you want to drive through Zimbabwe you have to bring petrol with you because you will be unable to find it in country. The country is at a point where it needs a major change. Unfortunately change African style usually (but not always) comes with massive bloodshed and civil war.
Knowing all this beforehand throughout my entire trip I was going back and forth on whether or not I was going to go to Zimbabwe. I asked anyone who knew much about the situation their thoughts and they almost all said they would not go anywhere near the country right now. I am a very safe and cautious traveler constantly aware of my surroundings. For most of the trip I was sure I would not go to Zimbabwe but when we got close something inside me said it was OK. We were only going to go 75 km into the country to a town which used to be a big tourist center. We had heard that Victoria Falls was most amazing from the Zimbabwe side (the falls borders both Zambia and Zimbabwe) and we were eager to see first hand the state the country was in.
We filled up our gas tank, hid all of our valuables (we did not have many), and headed into Zimbabwe. We only saw a small strip of the country but it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a country full of baboon, baboons, and more baboons. There are literally baboons everywhere. At one point we had to walk through a group of about 30 baboons and some so close we could reach out and touch them.
We stayed in Victoria Falls which is a town bordering the waterfall it took its name from. The desperation in the city was rampant. People were friendly but it was obvious that they had nothing. We went into the grocery store only to find empty shelf after empty shelf. There was barely anything to eat. There is no ketchup in the country neither is there Coca-Cola.
Inside of Victoria Falls you have to pay for everything with US money yet you cannot get US money inside the country. There are two different exchange rates: the official and the unofficial. The official rate ( that which you will get at the banks, ATMs, and other government regulated places) is $1:30,000 Zimbabwean dollars. The unofficial rate is $1:2,000,000 Zim Dollars. The inflation rises everyday. It is a strange thing, you have to pay in US dollars but there are no US dollars to be found. You will never get change in green backs.
Between Caroline and myself we had about $200 USD which we had been traveling with for emergencies. Once inside of Zimbabwe we quickly found out we needed to be spending the USD. We spent about 5 days altogether in Zimbabwe and went through our USDs. We also had a couple hundred dollars in travelers checks. When we attempted to leave Zimbabwe to head to Zambia we ran into our first problem. We needed to pay $100 USD each for the visa to enter Zambia. We had no more USDs but we had our travelers checks. The problem however is that we could not cash our travelers checks inside of Zimbabwe. Long story short we convinced the Zambian border guards to let us enter their country illegally so we could go to a bank, get us money, and return to pay for our visas. Three hours later (and a couple of gallons of sweat) we returned to the border and paid for our visas.
We spent about a week inside of Zambia visiting Caroline´s cousin and his family. Upon return into Zimbabwe we had to buy another visa. We however spent about 15 minutes negotiating with the border guard to allow us to only have to pay half price. Eventually he gave in and we returned to Zimbabwe to retrieve our car and head back to Jo-burg.
Crossing from Zimbabwe to Zambia you have to go through a place called ¨no man´s land¨. It is a strip of land 2 kilometers long between the two countries that does not belong to either country (hence the name). Along this road (we were traversing it on foot) there was a long line of trucks carrying goods into the country. The truckers were outside of their trucks guarding their goods. As mentioned before the country was full of baboons and in no man´s land they seemed to migrate. The baboons were taking advantage of the truckers situation and were raiding the trucks to get to the precious food cargo. The truckers were in groups throwing rocks at the baboons. It was a comical situation to say the least.
In the 1990s he started a policy of land reform to appease the veterans of the war for independence who were threatening to revolt. Before the controversial land reform Zimbabwe had promises to be the "the bread basket of Africa". It has fertile lands and good weather to grow a variety of crops. All the the farms however were owned by the white population. Mugabe started taking the land from the white people (who had stolen it in the first place) and redistributing it to the blacks. This became controversial because he was giving huge farms the country depended upon to veterans who had no education about farming. Long story short the new land owners were unable to farm the land, foreign investment pulled out of the country and inflation started at an alarming rate. Inflation got so out of hand that in the mid to late 90s Mugabe started a policy of price fixing. He told shop owners and manufacturers the price that they had to sell goods.
This in turn momentarily fixed the inflation for the consumers because their money could now buy products but the shop owners were often times selling at a loss. At this point any remaining foreign investment in the country pulled out. The situation today is scary. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation in the history of the modern world. There is no petrol in the country; if you want to drive through Zimbabwe you have to bring petrol with you because you will be unable to find it in country. The country is at a point where it needs a major change. Unfortunately change African style usually (but not always) comes with massive bloodshed and civil war.
Knowing all this beforehand throughout my entire trip I was going back and forth on whether or not I was going to go to Zimbabwe. I asked anyone who knew much about the situation their thoughts and they almost all said they would not go anywhere near the country right now. I am a very safe and cautious traveler constantly aware of my surroundings. For most of the trip I was sure I would not go to Zimbabwe but when we got close something inside me said it was OK. We were only going to go 75 km into the country to a town which used to be a big tourist center. We had heard that Victoria Falls was most amazing from the Zimbabwe side (the falls borders both Zambia and Zimbabwe) and we were eager to see first hand the state the country was in.
We filled up our gas tank, hid all of our valuables (we did not have many), and headed into Zimbabwe. We only saw a small strip of the country but it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a country full of baboon, baboons, and more baboons. There are literally baboons everywhere. At one point we had to walk through a group of about 30 baboons and some so close we could reach out and touch them.
We stayed in Victoria Falls which is a town bordering the waterfall it took its name from. The desperation in the city was rampant. People were friendly but it was obvious that they had nothing. We went into the grocery store only to find empty shelf after empty shelf. There was barely anything to eat. There is no ketchup in the country neither is there Coca-Cola.
Inside of Victoria Falls you have to pay for everything with US money yet you cannot get US money inside the country. There are two different exchange rates: the official and the unofficial. The official rate ( that which you will get at the banks, ATMs, and other government regulated places) is $1:30,000 Zimbabwean dollars. The unofficial rate is $1:2,000,000 Zim Dollars. The inflation rises everyday. It is a strange thing, you have to pay in US dollars but there are no US dollars to be found. You will never get change in green backs.
Between Caroline and myself we had about $200 USD which we had been traveling with for emergencies. Once inside of Zimbabwe we quickly found out we needed to be spending the USD. We spent about 5 days altogether in Zimbabwe and went through our USDs. We also had a couple hundred dollars in travelers checks. When we attempted to leave Zimbabwe to head to Zambia we ran into our first problem. We needed to pay $100 USD each for the visa to enter Zambia. We had no more USDs but we had our travelers checks. The problem however is that we could not cash our travelers checks inside of Zimbabwe. Long story short we convinced the Zambian border guards to let us enter their country illegally so we could go to a bank, get us money, and return to pay for our visas. Three hours later (and a couple of gallons of sweat) we returned to the border and paid for our visas.
We spent about a week inside of Zambia visiting Caroline´s cousin and his family. Upon return into Zimbabwe we had to buy another visa. We however spent about 15 minutes negotiating with the border guard to allow us to only have to pay half price. Eventually he gave in and we returned to Zimbabwe to retrieve our car and head back to Jo-burg.
Crossing from Zimbabwe to Zambia you have to go through a place called ¨no man´s land¨. It is a strip of land 2 kilometers long between the two countries that does not belong to either country (hence the name). Along this road (we were traversing it on foot) there was a long line of trucks carrying goods into the country. The truckers were outside of their trucks guarding their goods. As mentioned before the country was full of baboons and in no man´s land they seemed to migrate. The baboons were taking advantage of the truckers situation and were raiding the trucks to get to the precious food cargo. The truckers were in groups throwing rocks at the baboons. It was a comical situation to say the least.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Year in review
I have gone through many changes in my life over the last year and have seen and learned many things. I have lived with some of the richest people in the world and some of the poorest. I have lived aboard a sail boat, paid rent on two islands and two countries on two different continents. I have traveled through 12 countries and am now in the airport headed to Costa Rica where I will spend the next few months. I have seen some amazing things and have been through some difficult situations.
I started 2007 with a good career in a successful business in Hawaii. Decided I was cheating myself and my dreams so I quite my job and to travel the world. A few weeks after I left my job I jumped on a sail boat and set sail for California. After many mishaps we had to throw in the towel and return to Hawaii. Once back on the paradise island I bought a one way ticket for Thailand, rented an apartment in Bangkok and quickly settled into life in the capital.
While in Thailand I dined on frogs, squirrels, and bee larva while trekking through the remote northern Thailand jungles. I commuted on long tail boats in the canals of Bangkok, practiced yoga daily with my big brother (actually smaller but he looks much older), and snorkeled the waters of the Thai islands.
I have ridden on motorcycles through the congested streets of Kathmandu dodging cars, people, buses, and cows. I have trekked the spectacular Himalayan mountains led by Sherpas I bunji jumped the worlds 2nd highest bunji jump 4 kilometers south of Tibetan border (little did I know at the time that 5 months later I would be seeing the worlds largest bunji jump in Africa).
I spent 4 months bar tending in Nantucket one of the most exclusive islands in the world. With the money I made there I jumped on a plane and headed to Africa. Once in Africa I rented a car, bought a map, and put the rubber to the road. I traversed 8,000 miles of this massive and awe inspiring continent. I walked among Zebras, listened to wild lions drinking water 15 feet from me, drove through packs of African wild dogs (one of the rarest and most endangered animals in the world), watched Hippos walk past my campsite at night, fought off jackals trying to raid my campsite, ate wildebeest, warthog, springbok and much more. I saw herds of thousands of animals migrating to watering holes in Northern Namibia. Jumped on a piece of cardboard and rode 70 KPH down the worlds largest sand dunes in the world. I tracked a 15 ft long boa constrictor in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. I drove through the barren Kalahari desert, visited one of the most unstable countries in the world (Zimbabwe), saw the massive division between the rich and poor in South Africa and attempted to get treatment at a bullet ridden hospital in Namibia.
I returned home for Christmas where I spent an amazing month relaxing with my mom, dad, brother, and step father. I then shredded the largest ski resort in North America (Vail) with one of my best friends and my cousin and am now headed down to the tropical paradise of Costa Rica.
I have learned some invaluable lessons on these trips. Some of which I am sure I won't realize for years to come. I've learned not be judgemental. Everyone comes from a different background and holds different values. I have learned that I have no right to judge anyone based upon my values and my experiences. I have learned to be more relaxed and to not demand so much information. What I mean by this is in the culture I was raised in we always need to know the minute details regardless of their importance. We need to know things that really have no effect upon us. We worry about things that we have no control over and we try to control things which cannot be controlled.
After traveling for 2 months in Africa with only a small 'carry on' bag I learned that the less I own the better. There is nothing that I really need in life in regards to material possessions. In the culture of America we are taught that the more we have, the bigger things we own, the happier we will be. What happens however is the things we own end up owning us (Tyler Durden). We spend our lives thinking about all the material possessions that we need in order to make us happy when all we truly need can be found within ourselves. I spent three years in Hawaii spending money on things I did not need.
On my travels this year some of the happiest people I have seen have been some of the poorest. Most importantly however, I have reinforced the fact that this world is huge and the differences among the people even bigger. In order for us to really understand who we are we need to know who everyone else is. I think it is important but once again that is only my opinion which comes from my experiences. My thoughts are no better nor no worse than anyone else out there.
I started 2007 with a good career in a successful business in Hawaii. Decided I was cheating myself and my dreams so I quite my job and to travel the world. A few weeks after I left my job I jumped on a sail boat and set sail for California. After many mishaps we had to throw in the towel and return to Hawaii. Once back on the paradise island I bought a one way ticket for Thailand, rented an apartment in Bangkok and quickly settled into life in the capital.
While in Thailand I dined on frogs, squirrels, and bee larva while trekking through the remote northern Thailand jungles. I commuted on long tail boats in the canals of Bangkok, practiced yoga daily with my big brother (actually smaller but he looks much older), and snorkeled the waters of the Thai islands.
I have ridden on motorcycles through the congested streets of Kathmandu dodging cars, people, buses, and cows. I have trekked the spectacular Himalayan mountains led by Sherpas I bunji jumped the worlds 2nd highest bunji jump 4 kilometers south of Tibetan border (little did I know at the time that 5 months later I would be seeing the worlds largest bunji jump in Africa).
I spent 4 months bar tending in Nantucket one of the most exclusive islands in the world. With the money I made there I jumped on a plane and headed to Africa. Once in Africa I rented a car, bought a map, and put the rubber to the road. I traversed 8,000 miles of this massive and awe inspiring continent. I walked among Zebras, listened to wild lions drinking water 15 feet from me, drove through packs of African wild dogs (one of the rarest and most endangered animals in the world), watched Hippos walk past my campsite at night, fought off jackals trying to raid my campsite, ate wildebeest, warthog, springbok and much more. I saw herds of thousands of animals migrating to watering holes in Northern Namibia. Jumped on a piece of cardboard and rode 70 KPH down the worlds largest sand dunes in the world. I tracked a 15 ft long boa constrictor in the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. I drove through the barren Kalahari desert, visited one of the most unstable countries in the world (Zimbabwe), saw the massive division between the rich and poor in South Africa and attempted to get treatment at a bullet ridden hospital in Namibia.
I returned home for Christmas where I spent an amazing month relaxing with my mom, dad, brother, and step father. I then shredded the largest ski resort in North America (Vail) with one of my best friends and my cousin and am now headed down to the tropical paradise of Costa Rica.
I have learned some invaluable lessons on these trips. Some of which I am sure I won't realize for years to come. I've learned not be judgemental. Everyone comes from a different background and holds different values. I have learned that I have no right to judge anyone based upon my values and my experiences. I have learned to be more relaxed and to not demand so much information. What I mean by this is in the culture I was raised in we always need to know the minute details regardless of their importance. We need to know things that really have no effect upon us. We worry about things that we have no control over and we try to control things which cannot be controlled.
After traveling for 2 months in Africa with only a small 'carry on' bag I learned that the less I own the better. There is nothing that I really need in life in regards to material possessions. In the culture of America we are taught that the more we have, the bigger things we own, the happier we will be. What happens however is the things we own end up owning us (Tyler Durden). We spend our lives thinking about all the material possessions that we need in order to make us happy when all we truly need can be found within ourselves. I spent three years in Hawaii spending money on things I did not need.
On my travels this year some of the happiest people I have seen have been some of the poorest. Most importantly however, I have reinforced the fact that this world is huge and the differences among the people even bigger. In order for us to really understand who we are we need to know who everyone else is. I think it is important but once again that is only my opinion which comes from my experiences. My thoughts are no better nor no worse than anyone else out there.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
African Odyssey
This is a compilation of a few of the videos we took in Africa. Sign me up for the short film of the year award. Don't be afraid to leave a comment after you view this masterpiece. Turn the volume up and enjoy
Friday, January 4, 2008
Benny's village
One of the biggest differences I have noticed in my travels over the years between American culture and the developing world is our dealing in exacts: our need for information. What I mean by this is that in the US if you are asked why you do something you generally know the answer and you give it. We need explanations for everything. Traveling in other countries this need for answers can sometimes be very frustrating: they don't always exist. Simple questions such as, how long do we need to wait here? or What time are we going get back to camp? How long will it take us to walk to the top of the mountain?
These are all questions that really do not need to be asked because the answer will not change anything at all. What I have also noticed in certain places is that often times the answer you get will be a blatant lie. People will tell you what they think you want to hear. For instance if they think that you want it to take all day to reach the top of the mountain they will tell you exactly that. It does not matter that they know you will realize in an hour they were not telling the truth.
What I now try to do when I am about to ask a question is I think about if I really need to know the answer. For instance if I need to wait for someone it really does not matter if I know how long I need to wait or not. The fact of the matter is I need to wait and so it does not matter if I know for how long. Also when you don't always know all the minute details it adds a extra sense of adventure.
Well, when we got to Benny's village this was one of the times I did not ask any of the questions that were going through my mind. I just went along for the ride. What we saw at the village was very sad and upsetting for me.
These are all questions that really do not need to be asked because the answer will not change anything at all. What I have also noticed in certain places is that often times the answer you get will be a blatant lie. People will tell you what they think you want to hear. For instance if they think that you want it to take all day to reach the top of the mountain they will tell you exactly that. It does not matter that they know you will realize in an hour they were not telling the truth.
What I now try to do when I am about to ask a question is I think about if I really need to know the answer. For instance if I need to wait for someone it really does not matter if I know how long I need to wait or not. The fact of the matter is I need to wait and so it does not matter if I know for how long. Also when you don't always know all the minute details it adds a extra sense of adventure.
Well, when we got to Benny's village this was one of the times I did not ask any of the questions that were going through my mind. I just went along for the ride. What we saw at the village was very sad and upsetting for me.
Benny took us around the village introducing us to people and showing us how they lived. He wanted us to try some of the local beer. There were 3 or 4 types of beer that they made in the village and we went around and tasted them all. The beers were brewed in big barrels and then scooped out with a cup and passed around in this manner. The beer is made from nuts from the jungle, water, and sugar. It is served warm with the taste being varying degrees of gross. Nevertheless, it was fun to try the beer.
The houses were interesting to see. First they make a circular wooden structure with only a few pieces of thin saplings. The space between the saplings was filled with beer cans (for added stability) and mud. The houses were circular and ten feet in diameter. There was a dirt floor and families of anywhere between 4 and 8 people would live inside the one room adobe. There were a few makeshift stores in the village where the polers lucky enough to receive a good tip the day before could buy cigarettes, small candies, and cold black label beer (a beer popular throughout southern and central Africa). There were two or three bathrooms for the whole village and no electricity.
As we walked around the village I started to realize something. Everybody was drunk. It was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and everyone was just sitting around drinking beer and booze. What happens is this: there are 170 polers in the village. They get work on a rotating basis. In the winter time (slow season) once they get a job going into the delta they have to wait about 10 days before they will have the chance to work again. All the polers go down to the water in the morning hoping that tourists will come by looking for a guide. If there is no work by 10:00 am they toss in the towel. They go back to the village and sit around getting drunk on cheap booze. When the polers receive a big tip they don't save the money but instead spend it on expensive alcohol (bottled beer and whiskey) and drugs. The children growing up in the village have these men as role models. This is the education they are given on how to be a man. There was no school in the village that I saw and if there was one I could only imagine who the teachers could have been.
I began to think about the polers and how they lived their lives. It seemed to me like they had no motivation, no desire, no urge to better themselves, to make more of their life. I thought about what I would do if I was in their situation. How I would be saving the money to start my own business. Instead of drinking my life away I would be reading and studying to make myself more knowledgeable about the world. At first it baffled me how they could not see the opportunities they could make for themselves but I quickly realized the faults of my thinking. I cannot compare how I would react in a similar situation to how they deal with it. Our backgrounds are completely different. I was raised by parents who valued education. Both my father and step father have their PhDs, my mother has her masters, I was encouraged (and often forced) to study daily while I was growing up. I was surrounded by positive role models and parents encouraging me to make the most out of my life. I was given a great education at a good University. I was taught from a young age that I could do anything I put my mind to.
The polers on the other hand had a very different upbringing in a very different part of the world. They had little education and the role models they had you have just heard me talk about. The life expectancy in Botswana is 32 by 2010 it is going to be 27 (mostly due to HIV). Children are raised by their grandparents or friends of their grandparents. Southern Africa is raising a generation of people with no parents. The education in rural Africa is a joke. The children see people dieing all around them. Why would the young polers have anymore desire than they had? They probably don't expect to live much longer seeing how no one else they know does.
Realizing this was sad for me. I had given Benny a big tip and I knew now that he was only going to spend it on drugs and alcohol (I later found out that is exactly what he did). The children I met growing up in the village had little chance to make something different of their lives. The only way they could do so was with education. I had been thinking about education being the way to help rural communities for sometime now on this trip. I often thought of the old saying "you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or you can teach a man to fish and he will eat for life." Without education people cannot know all their is out there in life. They cannot know they can do anything they want.
This entry did not go exactly as I wanted it to but it was the same message. We went to a wedding the following day with Benny and it was a pretty bad experience. There is no reason to tell about it because after reading the above you can pretty much guess what happened. After leaving the Okavango Delta I often think about the dire need for education of the poor and poverty stricken in this world. People need to make changes themselves and education is the key to the door of change.
The houses were interesting to see. First they make a circular wooden structure with only a few pieces of thin saplings. The space between the saplings was filled with beer cans (for added stability) and mud. The houses were circular and ten feet in diameter. There was a dirt floor and families of anywhere between 4 and 8 people would live inside the one room adobe. There were a few makeshift stores in the village where the polers lucky enough to receive a good tip the day before could buy cigarettes, small candies, and cold black label beer (a beer popular throughout southern and central Africa). There were two or three bathrooms for the whole village and no electricity.
As we walked around the village I started to realize something. Everybody was drunk. It was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and everyone was just sitting around drinking beer and booze. What happens is this: there are 170 polers in the village. They get work on a rotating basis. In the winter time (slow season) once they get a job going into the delta they have to wait about 10 days before they will have the chance to work again. All the polers go down to the water in the morning hoping that tourists will come by looking for a guide. If there is no work by 10:00 am they toss in the towel. They go back to the village and sit around getting drunk on cheap booze. When the polers receive a big tip they don't save the money but instead spend it on expensive alcohol (bottled beer and whiskey) and drugs. The children growing up in the village have these men as role models. This is the education they are given on how to be a man. There was no school in the village that I saw and if there was one I could only imagine who the teachers could have been.
I began to think about the polers and how they lived their lives. It seemed to me like they had no motivation, no desire, no urge to better themselves, to make more of their life. I thought about what I would do if I was in their situation. How I would be saving the money to start my own business. Instead of drinking my life away I would be reading and studying to make myself more knowledgeable about the world. At first it baffled me how they could not see the opportunities they could make for themselves but I quickly realized the faults of my thinking. I cannot compare how I would react in a similar situation to how they deal with it. Our backgrounds are completely different. I was raised by parents who valued education. Both my father and step father have their PhDs, my mother has her masters, I was encouraged (and often forced) to study daily while I was growing up. I was surrounded by positive role models and parents encouraging me to make the most out of my life. I was given a great education at a good University. I was taught from a young age that I could do anything I put my mind to.
The polers on the other hand had a very different upbringing in a very different part of the world. They had little education and the role models they had you have just heard me talk about. The life expectancy in Botswana is 32 by 2010 it is going to be 27 (mostly due to HIV). Children are raised by their grandparents or friends of their grandparents. Southern Africa is raising a generation of people with no parents. The education in rural Africa is a joke. The children see people dieing all around them. Why would the young polers have anymore desire than they had? They probably don't expect to live much longer seeing how no one else they know does.
Realizing this was sad for me. I had given Benny a big tip and I knew now that he was only going to spend it on drugs and alcohol (I later found out that is exactly what he did). The children I met growing up in the village had little chance to make something different of their lives. The only way they could do so was with education. I had been thinking about education being the way to help rural communities for sometime now on this trip. I often thought of the old saying "you can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or you can teach a man to fish and he will eat for life." Without education people cannot know all their is out there in life. They cannot know they can do anything they want.
This entry did not go exactly as I wanted it to but it was the same message. We went to a wedding the following day with Benny and it was a pretty bad experience. There is no reason to tell about it because after reading the above you can pretty much guess what happened. After leaving the Okavango Delta I often think about the dire need for education of the poor and poverty stricken in this world. People need to make changes themselves and education is the key to the door of change.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Sand Surfing
Here is a video of me sand surfing in Namibia. I hurt my back so bad that I could not walk very well for a few weeks. It was a whole lot of fun though. I made a blog entry about the surfing and here is the video. Just click play below
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Okavango Delta
A place like no other I've seen on earth. Its tranquillity, beauty, and abundance of flora and fauna can surely be matched by few other places. We had packed all of our provisions for 3 days into our two backpacks and headed into the delta on a motor boat. We traveled for about two hours with motor until the channels became too narrow. At this point we met our guide Benny who was going to show us the many wonders of the Delta over the next few days from a wooden dugout mekoro (canoe like boat). Benny was our poler which means he stood in the back of the mekoro with a ten foot pole to propel us forward at a relaxing pace.
As we traveled deeper and deeper into the Okavango Delta the only sounds were the mekoro slicing through the water and the tropical birds swooping overhead. After three hours, with the sun hot and high overhead, we glided through the reeds onto shore to set up camp for the night. We had a bight to eat, through up the hammock, and swung in the wind waiting for the intensity of the sun to abate. For the previous 6 weeks Caroline and I had done very little sitting. We were always on the move trying to balance seeing as much as we could while still being able to soak it in. The forced relaxation of the Delta was a nice change.
With 2 hours of sunlight remaining we headed out on foot for a walking safari to find animals and watch the sun set from the bush over the Delta. Benny seemed to know everything about the Delta. Every bush , tree, bird, animal, and noise we saw or heard he told us all about it origin and uses. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, and many other animals. More than once I was nervous by our proximity to these wild animals. Benny would spot packs of animals from a distance and we would thne stalk them using trees and bushes to mask our advance. When we would emerge from our cover to have a closer look the animals would be quit anxious. They would sometimes run to safety of the thick bush. Other times however they would advance towards us making warning noises. During one of these such times I looked around and realized that we were utterly defenseless. There was no place we could run, no place we could hide, and there sure was not anything with which we could fight off a heard of wild animals with. This provided just a glimpse into the life that people have been living on this continent for thousands of years. I could not help to make the comparison to how millions of people In Africa and throughout the world must feel living in a war zone (obviously the feelings of living in a war zone are drastically more intense). The whole incident with the animals provided a wonderful glimpse into the behavior of the animals.
On the morning of the third day we awoke early and watched the sun rise over the delta. We headed out on our last walking safari and we saw similiar things to the previous times with one exception. We came across a long track about 8 inches wide in the sand. It was the track of a 12-14 foot boa constrictor which had just passed by minutes before. We followed the track for a few minutes until we found the hole the snake had slithered in to. It was a peculiar feeling standing above the hole knowing that a few inches bellow my feet there was a massive snake which could feel the vibrations of our footsteps.
The snake never emerged which was just fine with me. My only other run in with a boa was a few years before. I was living in the jungles of Central America and I found a 6 foot boa behind my fridge. That run in was enough to last me a lifetime.
We had planned on spending the rest of the day swimming in the delta and relaxing at camp before we headed back to civilization. Instead of this however we asked Benny if we could leave early so he could show us his village. Benny lived just inside the Delta in a village of 500 people. the Village was there to provide polers for people desirering to go into the delta. We wanted to see how Benny lived and to meet some of the poeple with whom he lived. Benny was pleased we watned to see where he lived and around mid day we packed up camp, loaded the mekoro, and slowly made our way down the delta.
As we traveled deeper and deeper into the Okavango Delta the only sounds were the mekoro slicing through the water and the tropical birds swooping overhead. After three hours, with the sun hot and high overhead, we glided through the reeds onto shore to set up camp for the night. We had a bight to eat, through up the hammock, and swung in the wind waiting for the intensity of the sun to abate. For the previous 6 weeks Caroline and I had done very little sitting. We were always on the move trying to balance seeing as much as we could while still being able to soak it in. The forced relaxation of the Delta was a nice change.
With 2 hours of sunlight remaining we headed out on foot for a walking safari to find animals and watch the sun set from the bush over the Delta. Benny seemed to know everything about the Delta. Every bush , tree, bird, animal, and noise we saw or heard he told us all about it origin and uses. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, and many other animals. More than once I was nervous by our proximity to these wild animals. Benny would spot packs of animals from a distance and we would thne stalk them using trees and bushes to mask our advance. When we would emerge from our cover to have a closer look the animals would be quit anxious. They would sometimes run to safety of the thick bush. Other times however they would advance towards us making warning noises. During one of these such times I looked around and realized that we were utterly defenseless. There was no place we could run, no place we could hide, and there sure was not anything with which we could fight off a heard of wild animals with. This provided just a glimpse into the life that people have been living on this continent for thousands of years. I could not help to make the comparison to how millions of people In Africa and throughout the world must feel living in a war zone (obviously the feelings of living in a war zone are drastically more intense). The whole incident with the animals provided a wonderful glimpse into the behavior of the animals.
On the morning of the third day we awoke early and watched the sun rise over the delta. We headed out on our last walking safari and we saw similiar things to the previous times with one exception. We came across a long track about 8 inches wide in the sand. It was the track of a 12-14 foot boa constrictor which had just passed by minutes before. We followed the track for a few minutes until we found the hole the snake had slithered in to. It was a peculiar feeling standing above the hole knowing that a few inches bellow my feet there was a massive snake which could feel the vibrations of our footsteps.
The snake never emerged which was just fine with me. My only other run in with a boa was a few years before. I was living in the jungles of Central America and I found a 6 foot boa behind my fridge. That run in was enough to last me a lifetime.
We had planned on spending the rest of the day swimming in the delta and relaxing at camp before we headed back to civilization. Instead of this however we asked Benny if we could leave early so he could show us his village. Benny lived just inside the Delta in a village of 500 people. the Village was there to provide polers for people desirering to go into the delta. We wanted to see how Benny lived and to meet some of the poeple with whom he lived. Benny was pleased we watned to see where he lived and around mid day we packed up camp, loaded the mekoro, and slowly made our way down the delta.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Etosha day 3 and Botswana
The last two days (day 3 and 4) we continued to see amazing things. I would love to write about them all now but I leave for the morning on a makuro (small wooden boat) to go deep into the Okavango delta in Northern Botswana for 3 days. I still need to finish the food shoping and prepare our camping equipment. One of the highlights I can't keep out though was our last nigh. We set up camp about 8pm after the sun had already set. I started to make a fire but for the first time on this trip had trouble. It was not due to me neccesarily but an outside force. While I was starting the fire I kept having to throw the logs at jackals that were trying to come and steel our food. At night time we were awoken by lions roaring from what seemed like 50 feet away. IN the morning time we saw many wart hogs running around eating the grass close to our tent. it was very cool to be so close to all the animals but I was a little annoyed with the jackals.
The drive from Etosha to Maun in Botswana took two days to complete and our scenery has changed drasticaly. The first day we got to within 14 kilometers of the border. We stayed at a small place 4 kilometers down a dirt road right on the rver. We fell asleep to the sound of hippos splashing in the river below us. We awoke in the morning and headed south to the Okavango Delta. The largest inland delta in all of Africa. It is just north of the Kalahari desert in Norther Botswana. When we first entered the country we saw something that could have been taken directly from the movie "birds" by Alfred Hitchcock. For the first 20 miles we drove there were thousands upon thousands of eagels soaring in the sky. They went on for as far as the eye could see. There could have been over a quarter of a million of these birds. Most of them were flying low and many times I got scared they were going to fly into our car. It was bizarre to say the least. We got a good video of it and when I get back to the US I will upload it.
That is it for now. As I mentioned I am heading deep into the delta in the morning. I am sure I will have plenty of stories once I reamerge. Until then...
The drive from Etosha to Maun in Botswana took two days to complete and our scenery has changed drasticaly. The first day we got to within 14 kilometers of the border. We stayed at a small place 4 kilometers down a dirt road right on the rver. We fell asleep to the sound of hippos splashing in the river below us. We awoke in the morning and headed south to the Okavango Delta. The largest inland delta in all of Africa. It is just north of the Kalahari desert in Norther Botswana. When we first entered the country we saw something that could have been taken directly from the movie "birds" by Alfred Hitchcock. For the first 20 miles we drove there were thousands upon thousands of eagels soaring in the sky. They went on for as far as the eye could see. There could have been over a quarter of a million of these birds. Most of them were flying low and many times I got scared they were going to fly into our car. It was bizarre to say the least. We got a good video of it and when I get back to the US I will upload it.
That is it for now. As I mentioned I am heading deep into the delta in the morning. I am sure I will have plenty of stories once I reamerge. Until then...
Etosh day 2
We woke up at sunrise to head to a watering hole named Salvadora. We had heard there had been a lot of lion sightings there early in the morning. The lions often go to the water holes in thmorning to drink after their hunt in the night. We stayed there fo two hours and saw lots of zebras but no lions.
We decided to move on and went to a water hole named rietfontein. Here we saw 80 impala or so and we saw 7 giraffes. We stayed here for about 45 minues and watched a very interesting interaction among two giraffe. They were evidently two mals showing each other who was more masculine. They were leaning against each other very hard and taking turns swinging their necks and wacking the other one. We were about 50 feet away and we could hear the sound when they would hit. It was truly amazing. We got tired of watching however after 45 minutes and drove around in search of anything else we could find. Everywhere you go there are animals of different sizes and shapes. If I were to talk about everything I would be writing for days.
We went back to our camp in mid afternoon, relaxed, read, and got ready for the sunset animal viewing. The sun sets around 7 so at 5 we headed back to Salvadora in hopes of seeing some lions up close and in the light. When we arrived there were about 40 springbuck and over 200 zebras. Some so close I oculd reach out and touch them. It is amazing how they just pay no attention to you. All of the animals were much more sketish than usual. It was very clear they were quite nervous. After about 45 mintues of watching them all the Zebras ran about 20 feet away and were watching the woodline infront of them. At this point we knew a predator was comingbut neither of us wanted to say anything. I think I held my breath in anticipation for 5 minutes. All of a sudden about 25 feet from us a full grown male lion came sauntering from behind a small hill full of confidence. It was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. He was absolutely gorgeous. He strutted up to the water hole with not a care in the world. As he did so all the other animals ran for cover. The lion bent down ten feet from us and started to drink, I could almost count the whiskers on his face. With out a doubt he was the most beautiful animal I have ever seen.
He drank for a while and then headed to the other side of the watering hole to rest up for the night. No other animals came within sight of us for the next hour that we stayed there. We shared an amazing African sky sunset with the king of the jungle.
We decided to move on and went to a water hole named rietfontein. Here we saw 80 impala or so and we saw 7 giraffes. We stayed here for about 45 minues and watched a very interesting interaction among two giraffe. They were evidently two mals showing each other who was more masculine. They were leaning against each other very hard and taking turns swinging their necks and wacking the other one. We were about 50 feet away and we could hear the sound when they would hit. It was truly amazing. We got tired of watching however after 45 minutes and drove around in search of anything else we could find. Everywhere you go there are animals of different sizes and shapes. If I were to talk about everything I would be writing for days.
We went back to our camp in mid afternoon, relaxed, read, and got ready for the sunset animal viewing. The sun sets around 7 so at 5 we headed back to Salvadora in hopes of seeing some lions up close and in the light. When we arrived there were about 40 springbuck and over 200 zebras. Some so close I oculd reach out and touch them. It is amazing how they just pay no attention to you. All of the animals were much more sketish than usual. It was very clear they were quite nervous. After about 45 mintues of watching them all the Zebras ran about 20 feet away and were watching the woodline infront of them. At this point we knew a predator was comingbut neither of us wanted to say anything. I think I held my breath in anticipation for 5 minutes. All of a sudden about 25 feet from us a full grown male lion came sauntering from behind a small hill full of confidence. It was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. He was absolutely gorgeous. He strutted up to the water hole with not a care in the world. As he did so all the other animals ran for cover. The lion bent down ten feet from us and started to drink, I could almost count the whiskers on his face. With out a doubt he was the most beautiful animal I have ever seen.
He drank for a while and then headed to the other side of the watering hole to rest up for the night. No other animals came within sight of us for the next hour that we stayed there. We shared an amazing African sky sunset with the king of the jungle.
Etosha national park
My entire life my number one dream for a place to see has been an African Safari. Since we have been in Africa we have gone on a few safaris but this most recent one has topped them all. It was everything I have ever hoped and dreamed of. I will attempt to put it into words in this entry but I know I will not be able to encompass the true amazement, beauty, and magnifecence of Etosha National park. Nevertheless I will attempt.
Etosha Natioanal Park is in Northern Namibia. It is 22,000 kilometers square (cut down from its original size of 88,000). The park is in the desert and the temperatures during the late afternoon reach of 115 degrees farenheit. Unlike Kruger national park in South Africa which has rivers running through it Etosha is very dry. There are watering holes through out the park where the animals congegate. In the following few paragraphs I will talk about my experiences at the different wateringholes. December is the very end of the dry season which means there are fewer waterholes. This results in the animals being more concentrated around teh few waterholes that are left. There are three camps within Etosha where people can camp and they are all 75 kilometers from eachother. Each camp is set up at a watering hole that is lit by a floodlight at night. All the roads are dirt roads which you cannot drive more than 30 MPH on due to their conditions.
On the night of the 27th we slept just outside of the park. We had a BBQ, or as they call it a brie in south African. After we ate and the fire died down we looked up and the sky seemed to glow from all of the stars. We we amazed at the absolute beauty of it. I had heard Namibia had amazing stars but nothing could have prepared me for what we saw. A few shooting stars flew through the sky for what seemed like minutes at a time. We eventually tore ourselves from star gazing because we ha d abig day ahead of us. We were going into Etosha, one of the best places in all of Africa to see what I have always dreamt of, LIONS!!!
We awoke at sunrise, packed the tent, and headed into the park. Within minutes of being in the park we saw thousands of animals migrating to and from someplace in the distance. We assumed it was a watering hole and so we drove as close as we could. This watering hole was at the first camp and so we coul dget out of the car and get within 25 feet of it. There was one elephant, hundreds of zebra, springbuck, oryx and a myriad of other buck. New animals were in a constant line coming and going to drink their full.
We stayed here for an hour or so and then headed out to explore the park. We soon learned that from about 12-5 in the afternoon there is not much to see. It is just too hot for the animals to move around. We took this opportunity in the height of the heat to go to the camp to read and relax (I just finished Nelson Mandela's autobigraphy... probably the best book I have ever read).
That night we went to the watering hole at our camp around 9:30 and it was like a play. In the first act we saw 3 elephants drinking and spraying themselves with water. the elephant left and shortly thereafter a rhino came to drink. After about 15 minutes the Rhino left. The watering hole was abandoned for 30 minutes or so and then we saw movement. I instantly recognized the animal as the animal I have dreamt about seeing for so long. Six female lions stroled confidently out of the shadows to have a drink. We were so close that we could hear their tongues lapping up the water. After they drank their full they lied down to rest up before the night time hunt. The lighting was not great but nonetheless it was amazing to see the lions.
As a young boy I used to think I was a lion in my previous life. I slept with a picture of a lion over my bed and we used to exchange roars. Byt the age of 6 I had perfected my lions roar and in my mind it was as life like as it could be.
The next day we awoke at sunrise to head out and see as much as we could. we spent a total of 4 days in the park and each day seemed to get better than the previous.
I will hopefully be able to write about the next three days later today but I need to get going for the time being. I am in Botswana which borders Namibia but seems like a different world.
Etosha Natioanal Park is in Northern Namibia. It is 22,000 kilometers square (cut down from its original size of 88,000). The park is in the desert and the temperatures during the late afternoon reach of 115 degrees farenheit. Unlike Kruger national park in South Africa which has rivers running through it Etosha is very dry. There are watering holes through out the park where the animals congegate. In the following few paragraphs I will talk about my experiences at the different wateringholes. December is the very end of the dry season which means there are fewer waterholes. This results in the animals being more concentrated around teh few waterholes that are left. There are three camps within Etosha where people can camp and they are all 75 kilometers from eachother. Each camp is set up at a watering hole that is lit by a floodlight at night. All the roads are dirt roads which you cannot drive more than 30 MPH on due to their conditions.
On the night of the 27th we slept just outside of the park. We had a BBQ, or as they call it a brie in south African. After we ate and the fire died down we looked up and the sky seemed to glow from all of the stars. We we amazed at the absolute beauty of it. I had heard Namibia had amazing stars but nothing could have prepared me for what we saw. A few shooting stars flew through the sky for what seemed like minutes at a time. We eventually tore ourselves from star gazing because we ha d abig day ahead of us. We were going into Etosha, one of the best places in all of Africa to see what I have always dreamt of, LIONS!!!
We awoke at sunrise, packed the tent, and headed into the park. Within minutes of being in the park we saw thousands of animals migrating to and from someplace in the distance. We assumed it was a watering hole and so we drove as close as we could. This watering hole was at the first camp and so we coul dget out of the car and get within 25 feet of it. There was one elephant, hundreds of zebra, springbuck, oryx and a myriad of other buck. New animals were in a constant line coming and going to drink their full.
We stayed here for an hour or so and then headed out to explore the park. We soon learned that from about 12-5 in the afternoon there is not much to see. It is just too hot for the animals to move around. We took this opportunity in the height of the heat to go to the camp to read and relax (I just finished Nelson Mandela's autobigraphy... probably the best book I have ever read).
That night we went to the watering hole at our camp around 9:30 and it was like a play. In the first act we saw 3 elephants drinking and spraying themselves with water. the elephant left and shortly thereafter a rhino came to drink. After about 15 minutes the Rhino left. The watering hole was abandoned for 30 minutes or so and then we saw movement. I instantly recognized the animal as the animal I have dreamt about seeing for so long. Six female lions stroled confidently out of the shadows to have a drink. We were so close that we could hear their tongues lapping up the water. After they drank their full they lied down to rest up before the night time hunt. The lighting was not great but nonetheless it was amazing to see the lions.
As a young boy I used to think I was a lion in my previous life. I slept with a picture of a lion over my bed and we used to exchange roars. Byt the age of 6 I had perfected my lions roar and in my mind it was as life like as it could be.
The next day we awoke at sunrise to head out and see as much as we could. we spent a total of 4 days in the park and each day seemed to get better than the previous.
I will hopefully be able to write about the next three days later today but I need to get going for the time being. I am in Botswana which borders Namibia but seems like a different world.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Great couple of days
Well as the title might suggest we have had a fantastic few days packed with fun, gorgeous mountains, and massive sand dunes. Since the start of our trip we have gone through 2 cars and have travelled a total of 4,500 miles. We have just under 4 weeks left and have already scene things I have dreamt about my entire life.
Saturday morning we left Windoak early and headed south west to Sousuvle near the coast. That is where the worlds highest sand dunes are. The drive was only 300 kilometers but we were driving through mountain passes and on dirt roads the whole way so it took a little over 8 hours. As we traversed the mountain passes heading deep into the Namibian desert we were accompanied by gorgeous views of the African Veld.
The roads in Namibia are very interesting indeed. There are 4 or 5 main roads in the country and they are pretty much the only tarred roads. All the other roads are a mixture of dirt, gravel, rocks, and sand. Some are decent others are horrendous. The quality often changes in the blink of an eye. It is a big country with a small population. For the majority of our drive yesterday we were the only car we saw.
We arrived to the place we were going to camp around 4 o-clock with a thick film of dust all over our bodies. I was too tired to shower so I lied down and read my book ina hammock looking up at the mountains. The sun started to set around 715 and so we headed up into the mountains to get a better view. The sun melted in open veld in front of us turning the entire sky orange. We headed back to our camp and started a fire. As we sat back with our feet up we just happened to be facing east the dirrectino the moon was to rise. the sky was completely black and then we watched as a full moon,as bright as I have ever seen in my life, seemed to rise from inside the moutnains we were looking at. It was by far one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life. Without trying to sound corny it literally took my breath away with how beautiful it was.
We went to bed early that night because the following morning we were going to get up at 430 to drive to the highest sand dunes int he world to watch the sunrise. We awoke and started driving west. We could have driven without our lights and only with the light from the moon (I would have done this if I was not nervous about hitting one of the many animals along the way).
If you have ever seen a picture of Namibia it is sure to have a shot of the sussuvle sand dunes in it. They are bright red and over 300 meters high (about 1000 feet). When the sun rose over the dunes the colors changed hughs before our eyes (I will put pictures up when I get back to the US the Internet is too slow here). We hiked to the top of the dunes and ran down, or rather ran/tumbled down. We then went to a place called dead vle. it was nearby and as we walked over the dunes to see what they call dead vle. This was a place of erie beauty. It is a dried up pond which is an off white. The trees have all been dead for thousands of years and they are still standing. It is completely surrounded with towering red sand dunes and that led into the cloudless blue sky. the entire place reminded me of a children's book. None of it seemed real, it was just too massive, too gorgeous, too amazing.
Yesterday we drove to sacomond in the north west. The drive only took about 5 hours and when we arrived we went in search of the flamencos we had heard about. Well, we did not have to search far. as soon as we got to the coast we could see them. In fact it was hard to see the water. There were thousands upon thousands of flamencos all various sizes and colors. We hung out with them for a little while and then found the place where we were going to camp. This morning we woke up for a day I have been waiting for for a long time. The day of sand dune surfing!!! We got picked up at 930 and headed out to the dunes. The city is surrounded by miles and miles of sand. The sand looks similar to the ocean except frozen and yellow. We were issued our sand boards and we hiked to the top of the dunes. I strapped in and point my board south. It was amazing flying down the sand trapped a board. My next run I thought I was professional enough to launch myself off the huge jump built into the sand. Well I launched myself for sure but there was nothing professional about it. I landed on my face to the shouts and cheers of everyone watching. I got it caught on video so that helped take some of the sting away.
We sand boarded the rest of the day but I kept clear of the suicidal jump. They also had sand sleds which I think I liked even better. It is a piece of thick card board and you down and slide face first. My first run I made it up to 61 kph but my second run I blew that speed away when I clocked in at 70 KPH. I was sweet indeed. We are headed off to Etsosha national park tomorrow to find the elusive cheetah, leopard, and LIONS!!! Not sure if I am going to have internet for the next few weeks but we will see...
Saturday morning we left Windoak early and headed south west to Sousuvle near the coast. That is where the worlds highest sand dunes are. The drive was only 300 kilometers but we were driving through mountain passes and on dirt roads the whole way so it took a little over 8 hours. As we traversed the mountain passes heading deep into the Namibian desert we were accompanied by gorgeous views of the African Veld.
The roads in Namibia are very interesting indeed. There are 4 or 5 main roads in the country and they are pretty much the only tarred roads. All the other roads are a mixture of dirt, gravel, rocks, and sand. Some are decent others are horrendous. The quality often changes in the blink of an eye. It is a big country with a small population. For the majority of our drive yesterday we were the only car we saw.
We arrived to the place we were going to camp around 4 o-clock with a thick film of dust all over our bodies. I was too tired to shower so I lied down and read my book ina hammock looking up at the mountains. The sun started to set around 715 and so we headed up into the mountains to get a better view. The sun melted in open veld in front of us turning the entire sky orange. We headed back to our camp and started a fire. As we sat back with our feet up we just happened to be facing east the dirrectino the moon was to rise. the sky was completely black and then we watched as a full moon,as bright as I have ever seen in my life, seemed to rise from inside the moutnains we were looking at. It was by far one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life. Without trying to sound corny it literally took my breath away with how beautiful it was.
We went to bed early that night because the following morning we were going to get up at 430 to drive to the highest sand dunes int he world to watch the sunrise. We awoke and started driving west. We could have driven without our lights and only with the light from the moon (I would have done this if I was not nervous about hitting one of the many animals along the way).
If you have ever seen a picture of Namibia it is sure to have a shot of the sussuvle sand dunes in it. They are bright red and over 300 meters high (about 1000 feet). When the sun rose over the dunes the colors changed hughs before our eyes (I will put pictures up when I get back to the US the Internet is too slow here). We hiked to the top of the dunes and ran down, or rather ran/tumbled down. We then went to a place called dead vle. it was nearby and as we walked over the dunes to see what they call dead vle. This was a place of erie beauty. It is a dried up pond which is an off white. The trees have all been dead for thousands of years and they are still standing. It is completely surrounded with towering red sand dunes and that led into the cloudless blue sky. the entire place reminded me of a children's book. None of it seemed real, it was just too massive, too gorgeous, too amazing.
Yesterday we drove to sacomond in the north west. The drive only took about 5 hours and when we arrived we went in search of the flamencos we had heard about. Well, we did not have to search far. as soon as we got to the coast we could see them. In fact it was hard to see the water. There were thousands upon thousands of flamencos all various sizes and colors. We hung out with them for a little while and then found the place where we were going to camp. This morning we woke up for a day I have been waiting for for a long time. The day of sand dune surfing!!! We got picked up at 930 and headed out to the dunes. The city is surrounded by miles and miles of sand. The sand looks similar to the ocean except frozen and yellow. We were issued our sand boards and we hiked to the top of the dunes. I strapped in and point my board south. It was amazing flying down the sand trapped a board. My next run I thought I was professional enough to launch myself off the huge jump built into the sand. Well I launched myself for sure but there was nothing professional about it. I landed on my face to the shouts and cheers of everyone watching. I got it caught on video so that helped take some of the sting away.
We sand boarded the rest of the day but I kept clear of the suicidal jump. They also had sand sleds which I think I liked even better. It is a piece of thick card board and you down and slide face first. My first run I made it up to 61 kph but my second run I blew that speed away when I clocked in at 70 KPH. I was sweet indeed. We are headed off to Etsosha national park tomorrow to find the elusive cheetah, leopard, and LIONS!!! Not sure if I am going to have internet for the next few weeks but we will see...
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Cape town to Namibia
So shortly after my last entry we hit the road and headed north. We are now in Windhoek which is the capital of Namibia (about in the center of the country). Windhoek is approximately 1700 kilometers from Cape Town. The road between these two places is straight and there is absolutely nothing. except for to gorgeous canyons there is nothing but open flat land. The road goes straight and flat. It is impossible to know where the land ends and the sky begins. Even out there in the middle of nowhere we saw a pack of ostriches running across the road and drove through a group of baboons.
It took us about two and half days to get to where we are now. Yesterday morning we were in Springbock which is in northern South Africa. When I woke up I had a minor sore throat. I did not think too much of it but nonetheless I took good care of it. After driving all day and finding all the places we wanted to go either closed or abandoned we went to a small town and found a place to set up our tent. At night I only slept about 15 minutes at a time. I could feel my throat getting worse be the minute. When I woke up I took my temperature, saw that I had a fever, and realized I needed to go to the hospital. Now one thing I was hoping to avoid while in Africa was an African hospital. I however had no choice. We looked at our map and saw there was a hospital about 10 minutes away. When we were pulling up to it I was relived because it was a rather large building. As we got closer however my feelings and perceptions changed. The security gates to the hospital were closed and it was apparent someone had tired to force them open. I could see the windows of the hospital broken and there were bullet holes in the guard tower. It was pretty easy to surmise the hospital was no longer functioning and I needed to find another one.
The closest hospital or medical treatment was a 5 hour drive to the north. For me that was no problem at all because I had the transportation, the time and the money to make the trip. If I was one of the people living here there would have been nothing I could have done.
We are going to plan out our next couple of weeks tomorrow as I rest up an give the antibiotics time to kick in (I have tonsillitis) and then we are off exploring again.
It took us about two and half days to get to where we are now. Yesterday morning we were in Springbock which is in northern South Africa. When I woke up I had a minor sore throat. I did not think too much of it but nonetheless I took good care of it. After driving all day and finding all the places we wanted to go either closed or abandoned we went to a small town and found a place to set up our tent. At night I only slept about 15 minutes at a time. I could feel my throat getting worse be the minute. When I woke up I took my temperature, saw that I had a fever, and realized I needed to go to the hospital. Now one thing I was hoping to avoid while in Africa was an African hospital. I however had no choice. We looked at our map and saw there was a hospital about 10 minutes away. When we were pulling up to it I was relived because it was a rather large building. As we got closer however my feelings and perceptions changed. The security gates to the hospital were closed and it was apparent someone had tired to force them open. I could see the windows of the hospital broken and there were bullet holes in the guard tower. It was pretty easy to surmise the hospital was no longer functioning and I needed to find another one.
The closest hospital or medical treatment was a 5 hour drive to the north. For me that was no problem at all because I had the transportation, the time and the money to make the trip. If I was one of the people living here there would have been nothing I could have done.
We are going to plan out our next couple of weeks tomorrow as I rest up an give the antibiotics time to kick in (I have tonsillitis) and then we are off exploring again.
Monday, November 19, 2007
cape town
We have been in Cape Town now for about 3 days and it is a very cool place. The best way I can describe it is a mix between Madrid and Bourbon street in New Orleans. It has a very European and cosmopolitan feel to it. Our first night here we went to a flaminco show which was quite good. We drove along the coast which looks very tropical and hung out at the beach for a while. Yesterday we went to a day spa which was amazing. I got an hour swedish massage and then we hung out and used all of their facilities. There was a salt pool that was fashioned after the black sea. You lie on your back and you float without any trouble. The whole spa was on a bluff overlooking the ocean.
Cape Town is definetly a city that I could live in however, I am ready to get out of here. I did not come to Africa to see the cities but rather to see the wilds. I am ready to get back out in nature and listen to the birds instead of the cars. We are taking off in a few minutes for Namibia which everyone we talk to says is amazing. In Namibia they have the highest sand dunes in the world and I can't wait to get there and sand surf down them. THey also say you have to wear your sunglasses at night because the stars are so bright!!!
Cape Town is definetly a city that I could live in however, I am ready to get out of here. I did not come to Africa to see the cities but rather to see the wilds. I am ready to get back out in nature and listen to the birds instead of the cars. We are taking off in a few minutes for Namibia which everyone we talk to says is amazing. In Namibia they have the highest sand dunes in the world and I can't wait to get there and sand surf down them. THey also say you have to wear your sunglasses at night because the stars are so bright!!!
Friday, November 16, 2007
hair don't
guest author today .... luke
our mom was complaining about zak's new hair and beard style, so i decided the brotherly thing to do was take some heat off him .... zak, make sure to let me know when you get a new tattoo. just don't get that one on your nectk, not sure i can one-up that ...
our mom was complaining about zak's new hair and beard style, so i decided the brotherly thing to do was take some heat off him .... zak, make sure to let me know when you get a new tattoo. just don't get that one on your nectk, not sure i can one-up that ...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Losutho, the mountain kingdom
A few days ago we went to the mighty Drakensburgh mountains that border Losutho. Losutho is one of the smallest countries in the world and it is completely surrounded by South Africa. It is truly a mountain kingdom and their #1 export is Marijuana. On the eastern border of Losutho is the fore mentioned Drakensburgh mountains. It literally means Dragon mountains. The whole region is dirt roads and many of these roads you need a 4X4 to traverse. We went to the Sani Pass in the Lower Berg. Our goal was to cross the pass into Losutho early in the morning and return before the border closes at 4pm. On the day we were supposed to embark on our trip a massive thunderstorm blocked our way. This ended up being an omen because we spent the day lieing in hammocks, reading, relaxing, and watching the storm. It was a well needed rest as we have not stopped moving since we flew into the country.
The following day the weather behaved much better. We set out a little after daybreak to attempt the pass. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. The jagged mountains were covered in mist high on the horizon. We had been camping at 4,500 feet and the border crossing was at 6,000 feet. The road twisted through the mountains and was probably one of the scariest roads I have ever been on. When we reached the top the weather must have dropped to about 35 degrees. We went to a local village and ate some fresh made bread. The views had changed dramatically and the mountains gave way to open valleys with grazing sheep.
We headed back down to our camp site and passed through the border with South Africa with 10 minutes to spare. The next day we woke up early and headed back to the shore to get the chill out of our bones.
The following day the weather behaved much better. We set out a little after daybreak to attempt the pass. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. The jagged mountains were covered in mist high on the horizon. We had been camping at 4,500 feet and the border crossing was at 6,000 feet. The road twisted through the mountains and was probably one of the scariest roads I have ever been on. When we reached the top the weather must have dropped to about 35 degrees. We went to a local village and ate some fresh made bread. The views had changed dramatically and the mountains gave way to open valleys with grazing sheep.
We headed back down to our camp site and passed through the border with South Africa with 10 minutes to spare. The next day we woke up early and headed back to the shore to get the chill out of our bones.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Poverty
the coutnry has a facade of being in good shape but it is really a complete disaster. today after almost three weeks of being here I saw the first affluent house. I have seen medium sized homes and they are always surrounded by shanty towns, cow dung houses, houses constructed out of metal tins or anything the poeple could find. The HIV rate of the people ages 15-30 is something like 60%. Parents are dieing off from AIDS and the country is raising a generation of children without parents. Many people do not believe that the anti retral drugs work at all; they instead prefer to go to their local healers. The man who is most likely to be the next president is notorious for having sex with HIV infected women because he believes that if you shower afterwards you can't become infected. If a man of education, money, and fame thinks this way the millions of people who have zero education must believe it as well.
About five years ago there was a rumor going around in this country that if you had sex with a virgin you would be cured of HIV. This led to thousands of men raping girls as young as 5 years old.
I went hiking with a guy I met the other day to a water fall out in the jungle. When we got there we went straight to the top and jumped the 30 feet or so into the pool underneath. When he took his shirt off I noticed a massive scar on his side. It was 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. I asked him what happened and he told a story that I am sure is an everyday occurance here. Seven years ago he was in his township and got into a fight with another guy over a girl. He won the fight but the guy he was fighting had been circumsized whereas he had not been. In the xhosa tradition (same tribe as Nelson Mandela) you are not a man until you have been circumsized. The guy then went to get a knife and stabbed my buddy to try to save some face. I asked him why he did not go a hospital and he said he had already lost so much blood he did not want to lose his money as well. It would have been too expensive for him to take transportation to the hospital to get treatment. He then went on to say that he wanted to press charges but it would have cost him too much money as well. He would have had to pay to get to town, pay for court fees, and pay for lunch while he was in town. He did not have the money so the guy did not get into trouble.
Driving along the highway you pass through villages of postage stamp sized houses. I have been in bathrooms bigger than these houses where 10 people could be living. Many people seem happy despite the poverty but sometimes you can see the desperation in peoples faces. A look of helplessness, misery, and fear. Some people look as if they reached the end of their limit and have given up.
I have seen poverty before traveling but it has never had this type of effect on me. It could be that it has been building inside of me or it could be that here it is just everywhere.
I would not change the privelages I have had my entire life. Having said that it does not seem fair that one person can have so much and millions of others have nothing. There are millions of people living with no electricity, water, food, work, safety, or education. Without education these people will have no weapon to better themselves.
These are just some of my thoughts that have been going through my head on my travels. My next entry will have some of the adventrues I have been going on.
About five years ago there was a rumor going around in this country that if you had sex with a virgin you would be cured of HIV. This led to thousands of men raping girls as young as 5 years old.
I went hiking with a guy I met the other day to a water fall out in the jungle. When we got there we went straight to the top and jumped the 30 feet or so into the pool underneath. When he took his shirt off I noticed a massive scar on his side. It was 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. I asked him what happened and he told a story that I am sure is an everyday occurance here. Seven years ago he was in his township and got into a fight with another guy over a girl. He won the fight but the guy he was fighting had been circumsized whereas he had not been. In the xhosa tradition (same tribe as Nelson Mandela) you are not a man until you have been circumsized. The guy then went to get a knife and stabbed my buddy to try to save some face. I asked him why he did not go a hospital and he said he had already lost so much blood he did not want to lose his money as well. It would have been too expensive for him to take transportation to the hospital to get treatment. He then went on to say that he wanted to press charges but it would have cost him too much money as well. He would have had to pay to get to town, pay for court fees, and pay for lunch while he was in town. He did not have the money so the guy did not get into trouble.
Driving along the highway you pass through villages of postage stamp sized houses. I have been in bathrooms bigger than these houses where 10 people could be living. Many people seem happy despite the poverty but sometimes you can see the desperation in peoples faces. A look of helplessness, misery, and fear. Some people look as if they reached the end of their limit and have given up.
I have seen poverty before traveling but it has never had this type of effect on me. It could be that it has been building inside of me or it could be that here it is just everywhere.
I would not change the privelages I have had my entire life. Having said that it does not seem fair that one person can have so much and millions of others have nothing. There are millions of people living with no electricity, water, food, work, safety, or education. Without education these people will have no weapon to better themselves.
These are just some of my thoughts that have been going through my head on my travels. My next entry will have some of the adventrues I have been going on.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Zulu Land
So we decided not to go scuba diving. Too much money and too many other things to see. We went to Zululand 3 days ago. When we first got there we set up camp in a small town called eshawe. After we pitched our tent we went to the local brewery to plan out our time there and see who we could meet. We were having a beer and a local guy came up and sat down next to us. I started talking to him and asking questions about the area. We hit it off and he invited us to go to a coming of age ceremony (similar to an engagement party) the next day. The following day we went for a walk in the forest and then around 12 headed out into the village. It was about 30 miles on dirt mountain roads to get to where we were going. Our car barely made it up some passes and we bottomed out many times. We Finlay arrived and the scenery was amazing. I know understand why Hemingway always talked about the green hills of Africa; The mountains were dramatically green spotted with mud house villages. When we first got there (we were the only white people) they brought us Zulu beer in black pottery for us to drink. It did not taste like any other beer I have ever had. you had to kneel down and blow off the top before drinking. After that they brought us a delicacy. I knew exactly what it was but I did not want to ask (plus there was an enormous language barrier; they spoke a few words of English but mainly just Zulu which is a clicking language). They cut us up some meet and we took a few bites. they then cut up the testicle and liquid spurted everywhere. What we ate was the scrotum. I can't really say that it was tasty but it was interesting.
After we ate the ceremony started and we went outside and sat down on a hill. Below us were all the women aged 8-22 dancing, chanting and singing. The available women danced bare breasted and the taken women (or the women that were too young) had tops on. The men and women were in separate groups and there was almost no interaction between the two groups. the men had spears and shields and they were chanting and singing. There were a lot of rituals going on that we did not understand but it was fascinating nonetheless. Groups of men, sometimes 100-200 at a time, would come out of no where chanting and banging their shields with their spears. They would then donate money to the wife to be. She would get on her hands and knees and they would pin it to her head. This money would then be given to her husband to be so he could pay her dowry. The dowry is 11 cows which costs about $6,600.
The whole experience was amazing. The houses these people lived in were made out of mud with dirt floors. Children had to walk to the one school for sometimes 2 hours. There were no pens, no paper, no materials for these kids to do any work with. Seeing the way people live here and other places I have been really makes me realize how blessed I have been in my life to have all the things that I have.
I am in Durban now which is a beach town and am headed up to drakensbugh tomorrow to do some hiking. That could all change in the morning but I think the plan will stay in place. I have taken a lot of photos and will put them up online as soon as I can. I shaved a Mohawk into my head the other day and a fu-man-chew into my beard. It looks hilarious and I love it.
I need to get going but a quick note on a driving hear.
We have done about 1700 miles at this point and it is very interesting indeed. I have to drive on the left side of the road and on the left side of the car. While driving down the highway there will sometimes be 12 inch deep pot holes that take up the entire lane. I have to dodge all sorts of animals, everything from cows, goats, to zebras, and giraffes all while driving sometimes 50 miles an hour. The people also walk down the side of the highway. This next bit is going to sound a little scary but keep in mind that I am in another part of the world. and am driving how they drive here. With that said... the other day I was driving down the highway and passing a vehicle with oncoming traffic over a double yellow line speeding into a military road block. I got pulled over and the soldier (or cop or whatever he was wielding his ak-47) told me that I should not be doing that and sent me on my way. Then 3 days later I got pulled over in Swaziland and the cop came over to me and talked for about 5 minutes about where I was from and how to have as much fun as possible while in Africa. He then told me I had been speeding and gave me the maximum fine of $8.
More stories to come soon.
By the way it is too expensive for me to proof read these entries so I am sure there are plenty of mistakes.
After we ate the ceremony started and we went outside and sat down on a hill. Below us were all the women aged 8-22 dancing, chanting and singing. The available women danced bare breasted and the taken women (or the women that were too young) had tops on. The men and women were in separate groups and there was almost no interaction between the two groups. the men had spears and shields and they were chanting and singing. There were a lot of rituals going on that we did not understand but it was fascinating nonetheless. Groups of men, sometimes 100-200 at a time, would come out of no where chanting and banging their shields with their spears. They would then donate money to the wife to be. She would get on her hands and knees and they would pin it to her head. This money would then be given to her husband to be so he could pay her dowry. The dowry is 11 cows which costs about $6,600.
The whole experience was amazing. The houses these people lived in were made out of mud with dirt floors. Children had to walk to the one school for sometimes 2 hours. There were no pens, no paper, no materials for these kids to do any work with. Seeing the way people live here and other places I have been really makes me realize how blessed I have been in my life to have all the things that I have.
I am in Durban now which is a beach town and am headed up to drakensbugh tomorrow to do some hiking. That could all change in the morning but I think the plan will stay in place. I have taken a lot of photos and will put them up online as soon as I can. I shaved a Mohawk into my head the other day and a fu-man-chew into my beard. It looks hilarious and I love it.
I need to get going but a quick note on a driving hear.
We have done about 1700 miles at this point and it is very interesting indeed. I have to drive on the left side of the road and on the left side of the car. While driving down the highway there will sometimes be 12 inch deep pot holes that take up the entire lane. I have to dodge all sorts of animals, everything from cows, goats, to zebras, and giraffes all while driving sometimes 50 miles an hour. The people also walk down the side of the highway. This next bit is going to sound a little scary but keep in mind that I am in another part of the world. and am driving how they drive here. With that said... the other day I was driving down the highway and passing a vehicle with oncoming traffic over a double yellow line speeding into a military road block. I got pulled over and the soldier (or cop or whatever he was wielding his ak-47) told me that I should not be doing that and sent me on my way. Then 3 days later I got pulled over in Swaziland and the cop came over to me and talked for about 5 minutes about where I was from and how to have as much fun as possible while in Africa. He then told me I had been speeding and gave me the maximum fine of $8.
More stories to come soon.
By the way it is too expensive for me to proof read these entries so I am sure there are plenty of mistakes.
Sorry this is the right number
send text messages if you want or call. finally this is the right number 011 27 76 739 5211
Friday, November 2, 2007
Swaziland, a Mountain Kingdom
We have been on a few different safaris in a few different places. There is an absolute plethora of animals on this continent. Here is a list of some of the things we have seen:
monkeys
impalas fighting
baboons mating (10 ft from us)
herds of elephants
herds of giraffes
herds of Zebras
huge herd of African wild dogs (5 ft from us)
Dung beadle rolling a ball of dung
water buck
wildebeest
warthog
white rhinos
hyenas and babies
Guinea fowl
sable
hippos
crocs
We have not seen any cats yet but we will be on many more safaris before this trip is out. We are headed up to Namibia in about 3 weeks where they have the largest concentration of cheetahs.
Three days ago we were in Swaziland camping in the mwilani wild life sanctuary. When we woke we saw Zebras grazing in the valley. IN the morning we went on a 3 hour self guided safari around the park. It was probably one of the most amazing walks I have ever done. The scenery was stunning and we were surround by everything from Zebras to Warthogs to wildebeest. At one point we had to pick up sticks to fend off a bird that was dive bombing us.
We are now in St lucia south africa. Two nights ago when we were walking back to our tent we herd a noise on the other side of the tree line. We went over to investigate and there was a pod of hippos walking no more than 15 ft away. This and everything else has been surreal.
South Africa has amazing scenery. The crazy thing about it is that it can change within a couple miles into something completely different from what you had been seeing. We have rented a car for 2 months and have already put 1500 miles on it. It is not the cheapest way to travel but it gives us the flexibility to see and do what we want to. Today we are headed to sodwana bay where we will be scuba diving for 5 days. They supposedly have some of the best diving in the world. We'll see....
I'll write more soon
monkeys
impalas fighting
baboons mating (10 ft from us)
herds of elephants
herds of giraffes
herds of Zebras
huge herd of African wild dogs (5 ft from us)
Dung beadle rolling a ball of dung
water buck
wildebeest
warthog
white rhinos
hyenas and babies
Guinea fowl
sable
hippos
crocs
We have not seen any cats yet but we will be on many more safaris before this trip is out. We are headed up to Namibia in about 3 weeks where they have the largest concentration of cheetahs.
Three days ago we were in Swaziland camping in the mwilani wild life sanctuary. When we woke we saw Zebras grazing in the valley. IN the morning we went on a 3 hour self guided safari around the park. It was probably one of the most amazing walks I have ever done. The scenery was stunning and we were surround by everything from Zebras to Warthogs to wildebeest. At one point we had to pick up sticks to fend off a bird that was dive bombing us.
We are now in St lucia south africa. Two nights ago when we were walking back to our tent we herd a noise on the other side of the tree line. We went over to investigate and there was a pod of hippos walking no more than 15 ft away. This and everything else has been surreal.
South Africa has amazing scenery. The crazy thing about it is that it can change within a couple miles into something completely different from what you had been seeing. We have rented a car for 2 months and have already put 1500 miles on it. It is not the cheapest way to travel but it gives us the flexibility to see and do what we want to. Today we are headed to sodwana bay where we will be scuba diving for 5 days. They supposedly have some of the best diving in the world. We'll see....
I'll write more soon
Monday, October 29, 2007
Phone number in South Africa
Well we have been in South Africa for about 7 days and it is an amazing country. We are actually in Swaziland now but will be returning to south africa tomorrow night. We have already gone on a couple of safaris and seen some amazing animals. The most amazing so far has been in Kruger national park. We were going along the trail and all of a sudden we were surounded by a herd of giraffes and a herd of Zebras. they were no farther than ten feet away. Absolutely magical. The internet is really expensive here in Swaziland but hopefully in St. Lucia (or next destination back in South Africa) it will be cheaper. If anyone would like to call our number is (0027) 76 739 5211.
Back out to look for Zebras
Back out to look for Zebras
Monday, October 22, 2007
Africa bound
Well I just finished 4 months in Nantucket and I am now off on a new adventure. Tomorrow morning I head off to jo-berg South Africa. I am going to be traveling in southern and eastern Africa for 2 months. My only itinerary is no itinerary. That is my favorite type of travel. I am going with a good friend of mine Caroline. She is from Australia and likes to do the same type of travel. When we land in Jo-berg we are going to go to the bus station and pick out a city to go to. The countries we are planning on hitting are as follows: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, The Seychelles, and Madagascar. We want to go on a couple safaris and see how many animals we can see. Kruger national park in South Africa has 2,500 lions and 30,000 Zebra. We're hoping we can see some of those lions eat some of those Zebras!!!
We are also planning on going sand surfing in Namibia. Namibia has the highest sand dunes in the world. Sand surfing is where you are taken to the top of a sand dune put on a surfboard/snowboard and surf down.
We are also planning on spending a few weeks on the coast and on the islands scuba diving. Zanzibar and The Seychelles have some of the best scuba diving in the world (so I hear). We are going to see if we can get on a boat of some sort and travel from the mainland of Africa to Madagascar.
It should be pretty wild indeed.
I have always wanted to go to Africa and this trip is going to be fantastic. I plan on being excited, scared, astounded, amazed, and many other things. I am going to have the opportunity to learn a great deal about many different cultures and see some amazing things.
I hope that I can be updating my blog often from Africa but I have no idea how the internet access is going to be. I assume that in the cities it should be ok but when we are out playing with the giraffes and chetahs it might not be the best.
We are also planning on going sand surfing in Namibia. Namibia has the highest sand dunes in the world. Sand surfing is where you are taken to the top of a sand dune put on a surfboard/snowboard and surf down.
We are also planning on spending a few weeks on the coast and on the islands scuba diving. Zanzibar and The Seychelles have some of the best scuba diving in the world (so I hear). We are going to see if we can get on a boat of some sort and travel from the mainland of Africa to Madagascar.
It should be pretty wild indeed.
I have always wanted to go to Africa and this trip is going to be fantastic. I plan on being excited, scared, astounded, amazed, and many other things. I am going to have the opportunity to learn a great deal about many different cultures and see some amazing things.
I hope that I can be updating my blog often from Africa but I have no idea how the internet access is going to be. I assume that in the cities it should be ok but when we are out playing with the giraffes and chetahs it might not be the best.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Day 3, Sat February 24 2007
Day 3 of sailing trip
We woke at first light and started preparing the boat for departure. We had one more stop in Maui'i, one more dose of civilization, and then we set off for 2-3 weeks of the open ocean. I climbed to the top of the boat, dove in, and un-tied the mooring ball. The cool water knocked any sleep quickly from my body. I was starting to fall in love living on the boat and with the sailing life style. It had only been a couple of days but there is a freedom in living aboard a sail boat. I have always loved the ocean for the absolute freedom that it represents. You can get on a boat, go into the ocean, and literally go anywhere you want. The ocean is so massive that if you don't want to be found no one can find you. You do what you like when you like. There is something liberating about living aboard the Nomad (I'll talk more about this later).
We waved goodbye to the Molokai locals, raised our sail and pulled out of the channel. As we headed out an endangered Hawaiian monk seal jumped out of the water directly in front of us. It came to the side of the boat and seemed to escort us out of the channel. As soon as we reached the open water in dove down and disappeared.
The water was relatively smooth (3-4 foot waves) and I went to the very front of the boat. Only our main sail was up so I grabbed onto the head sail mast and bounced up and down with the boat. It was a gorgeous Hawaiian morning (almost all mornings are in Hawaii) and we were sailing directly into the path where the sun was rising. It seemed as if the sun was lighting a path for us to follow. While I was standing at the front of the boat all I could hear was the sound of the boat slicing through the waves.
Directly from my journal
"This is it man, this is the life. Complete freedom sailing the great blue sea going wherever the wind takes us. Life is truly wonderful. We go where we want when we want and we arrive when Mother Nature allows us."
I stayed at the bow of the boat for an hour or so but as we got farther out from Molokai and closer to the Maui'i Channel the waves and wind started to pick up. Before we knew it we were in the same nasty weather we had been dealing with for the last few days. The waves were not quite as big but they were coming from all directions. The wind was having gusts up to 40 knots (about 40 MPHs). As we slammed into waves the water would fly up into the air, get caught by the wind and slice into our skin. The temperature must have been 85 degrees or so but I was wearing my ski equipment that has kept me warm in negative 15 degrees. The closer we were to the channel the rougher the weather grew. The channel is narrow so the wind and waves pick up as you enter it. I was trying to shield myself from the weather and track our course from points on land. After a few hours of doing this I could not tell if we had gained ground or lost ground. Not knowing what else to do with myself at this point I headed below deck scrounge something to eat.
I am always hungry and the fight against nature was making me even more so. I decided to make some PB & J sandwiches for everyone. This however was much easier in thought than in deed (I have not spent anytime talking about what it is like below deck in 25 foot waves yet so I will spend sometime on that now.) When you are on deck you have to hold on to something at all times. You never know where the waves are coming from and can be caught off guard and thrown overboard at anytime. Below deck it is even worse. There were objects flying all around the cabin. When you walk you have to take 2 steps at a time and grab onto something with both your arms to wait until the boat rights itself again. Using the head is an experience all in itself. Both hands need to be used to hold yourself up and your head needs to be used to keep the towel cabinet from flying open and knocking you down. It is a constant struggle to keep yourself on foot and safe from flying objects.
So, my decision to make sandwiches in this weather might not have been the best choice. A few times through out the preparation the jars of jelly and peanut butter went flying across the cabin. A task that would have normally taken me 2 minutes took well over 20 minutes to complete: they sure did taste good though.
After I made the sandwiches I decided to try to read. I was below deck and sat down on one of the bunks. I put my feet against the wall to keep my body from flying across the cabin (the boat is constantly tilted). I read a few pages and then gave up. It was too difficult to stay on the same line with you eyes. Not wanting to go above deck and freeze anymore I decided to try and sleep. Amazingly I fell into a deep sleep (filled with bizarre dreams). I slept for a few hours only waking from time to time when I would be launched off of my bunk onto the ground.
When I finally awoke I made my way topside to see that we had actually made some ground. We were in between Molokai and Lanai'i and making our way closer to Maui'i. We could see up ahead that the weather was taming some. As we approached Maui'i we could see the coastal city lights on a back drop of large green mountains. We were surrounded by whales and were inching our way closer to land.
Sometime around this time Kevin went below deck to discover a rather large problem. Our computer (which is our main navigational system and contact for weather and email) was attached to a desk. Sometime throughout the voyage the board the computer was attached to had ripped off and flew across the cabin. It had smashed into a wall and landed on the floor. It was beyond salvage. We were not sure if it was the flight of the computer in the air which ruined it or the pool of salt water it landed in that finished it off (the hatches of the boat had been leaking all day long leaving pools of water in various places). This was a big problem; without an electronic navigational system it would be hard to make the journey.
As we approached Maui'i we called the harbor master and requested a slip to dock at. Lucky for us there was one slip left, slip #99. As we were approaching the harbor our engine died. We got the engine started again but this posed yet another problem. The engine was brand new and should not be dieing out on us. We were about to head into an unknown marina filled with boats. If the engine died while we were making port it was possible that we would float into another boat or worse yet, float onto the reef and slice open the bottom of the boat. The captain ordered Rocky and me to the bow of the boat: "stand by on the anchor. If the engine dies drop it at once."
Luckily for us the engine held out and we docked up safely. We docked up, cleaned down the boat, and head into Lahina to have a cold drink and some warm food. With the new problem of the navigational system being down and not knowing what was going on with the engine the length of our stay was unknown. We had made it safe to Maui'i and that was good news. Also we had been blessed in a way. If we would have had good weather our first few days and then had bad weather once we were 1000 miles from land in any direction it could have been much more disastrous. We would be able to get everything fixed here and head out to LA shortly. For the meantime I was going to enjoy Maui'i.
We woke at first light and started preparing the boat for departure. We had one more stop in Maui'i, one more dose of civilization, and then we set off for 2-3 weeks of the open ocean. I climbed to the top of the boat, dove in, and un-tied the mooring ball. The cool water knocked any sleep quickly from my body. I was starting to fall in love living on the boat and with the sailing life style. It had only been a couple of days but there is a freedom in living aboard a sail boat. I have always loved the ocean for the absolute freedom that it represents. You can get on a boat, go into the ocean, and literally go anywhere you want. The ocean is so massive that if you don't want to be found no one can find you. You do what you like when you like. There is something liberating about living aboard the Nomad (I'll talk more about this later).
We waved goodbye to the Molokai locals, raised our sail and pulled out of the channel. As we headed out an endangered Hawaiian monk seal jumped out of the water directly in front of us. It came to the side of the boat and seemed to escort us out of the channel. As soon as we reached the open water in dove down and disappeared.
The water was relatively smooth (3-4 foot waves) and I went to the very front of the boat. Only our main sail was up so I grabbed onto the head sail mast and bounced up and down with the boat. It was a gorgeous Hawaiian morning (almost all mornings are in Hawaii) and we were sailing directly into the path where the sun was rising. It seemed as if the sun was lighting a path for us to follow. While I was standing at the front of the boat all I could hear was the sound of the boat slicing through the waves.
Directly from my journal
"This is it man, this is the life. Complete freedom sailing the great blue sea going wherever the wind takes us. Life is truly wonderful. We go where we want when we want and we arrive when Mother Nature allows us."
I stayed at the bow of the boat for an hour or so but as we got farther out from Molokai and closer to the Maui'i Channel the waves and wind started to pick up. Before we knew it we were in the same nasty weather we had been dealing with for the last few days. The waves were not quite as big but they were coming from all directions. The wind was having gusts up to 40 knots (about 40 MPHs). As we slammed into waves the water would fly up into the air, get caught by the wind and slice into our skin. The temperature must have been 85 degrees or so but I was wearing my ski equipment that has kept me warm in negative 15 degrees. The closer we were to the channel the rougher the weather grew. The channel is narrow so the wind and waves pick up as you enter it. I was trying to shield myself from the weather and track our course from points on land. After a few hours of doing this I could not tell if we had gained ground or lost ground. Not knowing what else to do with myself at this point I headed below deck scrounge something to eat.
I am always hungry and the fight against nature was making me even more so. I decided to make some PB & J sandwiches for everyone. This however was much easier in thought than in deed (I have not spent anytime talking about what it is like below deck in 25 foot waves yet so I will spend sometime on that now.) When you are on deck you have to hold on to something at all times. You never know where the waves are coming from and can be caught off guard and thrown overboard at anytime. Below deck it is even worse. There were objects flying all around the cabin. When you walk you have to take 2 steps at a time and grab onto something with both your arms to wait until the boat rights itself again. Using the head is an experience all in itself. Both hands need to be used to hold yourself up and your head needs to be used to keep the towel cabinet from flying open and knocking you down. It is a constant struggle to keep yourself on foot and safe from flying objects.
So, my decision to make sandwiches in this weather might not have been the best choice. A few times through out the preparation the jars of jelly and peanut butter went flying across the cabin. A task that would have normally taken me 2 minutes took well over 20 minutes to complete: they sure did taste good though.
After I made the sandwiches I decided to try to read. I was below deck and sat down on one of the bunks. I put my feet against the wall to keep my body from flying across the cabin (the boat is constantly tilted). I read a few pages and then gave up. It was too difficult to stay on the same line with you eyes. Not wanting to go above deck and freeze anymore I decided to try and sleep. Amazingly I fell into a deep sleep (filled with bizarre dreams). I slept for a few hours only waking from time to time when I would be launched off of my bunk onto the ground.
When I finally awoke I made my way topside to see that we had actually made some ground. We were in between Molokai and Lanai'i and making our way closer to Maui'i. We could see up ahead that the weather was taming some. As we approached Maui'i we could see the coastal city lights on a back drop of large green mountains. We were surrounded by whales and were inching our way closer to land.
Sometime around this time Kevin went below deck to discover a rather large problem. Our computer (which is our main navigational system and contact for weather and email) was attached to a desk. Sometime throughout the voyage the board the computer was attached to had ripped off and flew across the cabin. It had smashed into a wall and landed on the floor. It was beyond salvage. We were not sure if it was the flight of the computer in the air which ruined it or the pool of salt water it landed in that finished it off (the hatches of the boat had been leaking all day long leaving pools of water in various places). This was a big problem; without an electronic navigational system it would be hard to make the journey.
As we approached Maui'i we called the harbor master and requested a slip to dock at. Lucky for us there was one slip left, slip #99. As we were approaching the harbor our engine died. We got the engine started again but this posed yet another problem. The engine was brand new and should not be dieing out on us. We were about to head into an unknown marina filled with boats. If the engine died while we were making port it was possible that we would float into another boat or worse yet, float onto the reef and slice open the bottom of the boat. The captain ordered Rocky and me to the bow of the boat: "stand by on the anchor. If the engine dies drop it at once."
Luckily for us the engine held out and we docked up safely. We docked up, cleaned down the boat, and head into Lahina to have a cold drink and some warm food. With the new problem of the navigational system being down and not knowing what was going on with the engine the length of our stay was unknown. We had made it safe to Maui'i and that was good news. Also we had been blessed in a way. If we would have had good weather our first few days and then had bad weather once we were 1000 miles from land in any direction it could have been much more disastrous. We would be able to get everything fixed here and head out to LA shortly. For the meantime I was going to enjoy Maui'i.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Day 2 of sailing
I am sorry for those of you who were waiting for the finish of my boat trip. I got distracted by Thailand. I will finish it now.
This is day 2 of the sail from Hawaii to California This next entry is taken directly from my journal. It was a little hard to read because I wrote it while we were under way and sailing through 20-25 foot waves.
‘We headed out early in the morning and set sail for LA. Once again we had big seas like yesterday. We were going 6 knots (MPHs) but between 11 and 1 we noticed we actually lost ground. We were stuck in a current that was moving faster than us. The wind and waves were coming from the northeast which is the exact direction that we need to be going in order to get to LA. We decided it best to change course and head to Molokai for the night. We would get another good night of rest and hopefully the weather would clear up for a smooth sail out of the Hawaiian waters tomorrow.’
Now that we are heading to Molokai we were getting excited for dinner. We have to cross over a submerged island (actually part of the Molokai island which never rose out of the water) where there is always an abundance of fish. As we are approaching the island about 15 miles out the seas pick up a bit. The swell is 20 ft with rouge 25 footers and we sail into a rain storm. I am at the helm of the boat and it is an exhausting job to keep a 40 ton boat on course in the type of weather we are dealing with. Already today we had buried the bow of the boat 2-3 times into the ocean. The 97 foot mass had almost been dipped into the water a handful of times as well. Needless to say every muscle in our bodies had been tensed for the last 10 hours. This made any movement more difficult to complete.
“FISH ON” yells the captain as a wave hits us from the side. I turn and see one of the fishing poles dipping into the water. Kevin reacts first and grabs the pole and starts to real in our dinner. Rocky runs over and unleashes the gaff. Twenty minutes later the fish was close by the side of the boat. It was a gorgeous Ahi (yellow fin tuna). I could almost taste its soft meat in my mouth. I took the gaff, handing the controls of the boat to the captain, and as the boat rolled left and down to the water I reached in and grabbed our dinner on the end of the hook and pulled it in. Rocky passed the rod to Kevin and finished off the fish once it was aboard. It was a gorgeous fish and we were all excited to slice it up and start feasting.
After bring in the Ahi the sky clears some and we have a gorgeous view of the approach to Molokai. Molokai has the world’s largest sea walls. They extend from the ocean straight up 4,000 feet into the sky. Only about 2,000 people live on the island and half of Molokai’s population has never stepped foot off of it. As we are getting close to land I start reeling in the fishing lines to prepare to dock up in the harbor. As I am reeling in the line the end of the pole dips down “FISH ON” I yell and start to bring in the fish. At about 40 yards out it surfaces. The fish is a long skinny fish and is riding on top of the water as I reel it in. Rocky has the gaff and pulls in our second catch of the day (we later found out it is a blue bone fish).
We sailed into Manalua Bay on Molokai surrounded by breaching humpbacks and giant sea turtles. As we pulled into the Harbor we see a group of locals standing around their pickup trucks listening to music and drinking Heinekens. Two stroll over and grab our ropes as we sail in. We tie up to the pier but due to the waves we need to tie off to a floating mooring ball. Being covered in sweat and salt water I quickly volunteer for the job. I climb on top of the boat with rope in hand and dive in. Swimming out to tie us up I marvel in how good the Hawaiian water feels. It is going to be one of the things I miss most about Hawaii.
We clean up the boat and the captain and Rocky start cleaning the fish. As the meat is sliced off the Ahi our fingers quickly slide it into our mouths. Ahi does not get fresher than that and it tasted marvelous. After a small snack of sashimi Rocky and I walk off to go body surfing at a nearby beach with the last rays of sunlight. We stroll back to the boat as the sun is melting into the ocean. The locals have started BBQing some Molokai venison from earlier in the week. They bring us over a plate and we trade fresh Ahi sashimi and sautéed blue bone fish. With a bottle of Spanish red we dined like kings.
After dinner we pulled up the weather report and it did not look too good. We had, at the least, one more day of 20 foot waves and 35 knot winds (40 knots is a gale force storm). The good news was that we were slowly making our way towards LA. By island hopping through Hawaii we were inching our way to our final destination. The next island over was Lanai’i and after that was Maui’i. All we needed from the weather was a window of 3-4 days so we could get away from the Hawaiian waters. That would be the toughest part of the journey and after that the ocean should calm down some and be more predictable. We decided to sail to Maui’i the following day at sunrise. It was going to be a 10-12 hour sail and would inch our way closer to LA. I was excited to see Maui’i but at the same time I was getting anxious to get to LA. I was going to be visiting my Uncle and a couple of good friends there. I was excited to see them all. My last trip to LA was only a 24 hour stay over near the Christmas holiday. It was a fun trip but I hoped to spend some more time there now. Also, after LA I was flying to Thailand for a few months. Another adventure I was excited for.
I was learning however that when you are living on a sail boat you leave all expectations for what is going to happen on land. Mother Nature has complete control over your destiny and all you can do is put your sail up and hope for the best. A good friend of mine had moved to Maui’i and I had not seen him for sometime. This visit would give me the chance to say hello to him before I sailed off.
As we got ready for bed we cut holes in paper plates and put them on the ropes from the boat to the dock. They were supposed to keep any unwanted creatures (rats) from entering the boat during the night. I grabbed a blanket and made my bed on the main deck under the Hawaiian sky. As I closed my eyes I could not think of any place on earth that I would rather be. Tomorrow we were headed to Maui’i. The roughest channel in the Hawaiian waters is the channel between Molokai and Maui’i (this is also the largest breeding ground in the world for humpback whales). After all we had already been through however I believed we were prepared for anything; with that thought I slipped into a deep sleep.
This is day 2 of the sail from Hawaii to California This next entry is taken directly from my journal. It was a little hard to read because I wrote it while we were under way and sailing through 20-25 foot waves.
‘We headed out early in the morning and set sail for LA. Once again we had big seas like yesterday. We were going 6 knots (MPHs) but between 11 and 1 we noticed we actually lost ground. We were stuck in a current that was moving faster than us. The wind and waves were coming from the northeast which is the exact direction that we need to be going in order to get to LA. We decided it best to change course and head to Molokai for the night. We would get another good night of rest and hopefully the weather would clear up for a smooth sail out of the Hawaiian waters tomorrow.’
Now that we are heading to Molokai we were getting excited for dinner. We have to cross over a submerged island (actually part of the Molokai island which never rose out of the water) where there is always an abundance of fish. As we are approaching the island about 15 miles out the seas pick up a bit. The swell is 20 ft with rouge 25 footers and we sail into a rain storm. I am at the helm of the boat and it is an exhausting job to keep a 40 ton boat on course in the type of weather we are dealing with. Already today we had buried the bow of the boat 2-3 times into the ocean. The 97 foot mass had almost been dipped into the water a handful of times as well. Needless to say every muscle in our bodies had been tensed for the last 10 hours. This made any movement more difficult to complete.
“FISH ON” yells the captain as a wave hits us from the side. I turn and see one of the fishing poles dipping into the water. Kevin reacts first and grabs the pole and starts to real in our dinner. Rocky runs over and unleashes the gaff. Twenty minutes later the fish was close by the side of the boat. It was a gorgeous Ahi (yellow fin tuna). I could almost taste its soft meat in my mouth. I took the gaff, handing the controls of the boat to the captain, and as the boat rolled left and down to the water I reached in and grabbed our dinner on the end of the hook and pulled it in. Rocky passed the rod to Kevin and finished off the fish once it was aboard. It was a gorgeous fish and we were all excited to slice it up and start feasting.
After bring in the Ahi the sky clears some and we have a gorgeous view of the approach to Molokai. Molokai has the world’s largest sea walls. They extend from the ocean straight up 4,000 feet into the sky. Only about 2,000 people live on the island and half of Molokai’s population has never stepped foot off of it. As we are getting close to land I start reeling in the fishing lines to prepare to dock up in the harbor. As I am reeling in the line the end of the pole dips down “FISH ON” I yell and start to bring in the fish. At about 40 yards out it surfaces. The fish is a long skinny fish and is riding on top of the water as I reel it in. Rocky has the gaff and pulls in our second catch of the day (we later found out it is a blue bone fish).
We sailed into Manalua Bay on Molokai surrounded by breaching humpbacks and giant sea turtles. As we pulled into the Harbor we see a group of locals standing around their pickup trucks listening to music and drinking Heinekens. Two stroll over and grab our ropes as we sail in. We tie up to the pier but due to the waves we need to tie off to a floating mooring ball. Being covered in sweat and salt water I quickly volunteer for the job. I climb on top of the boat with rope in hand and dive in. Swimming out to tie us up I marvel in how good the Hawaiian water feels. It is going to be one of the things I miss most about Hawaii.
We clean up the boat and the captain and Rocky start cleaning the fish. As the meat is sliced off the Ahi our fingers quickly slide it into our mouths. Ahi does not get fresher than that and it tasted marvelous. After a small snack of sashimi Rocky and I walk off to go body surfing at a nearby beach with the last rays of sunlight. We stroll back to the boat as the sun is melting into the ocean. The locals have started BBQing some Molokai venison from earlier in the week. They bring us over a plate and we trade fresh Ahi sashimi and sautéed blue bone fish. With a bottle of Spanish red we dined like kings.
After dinner we pulled up the weather report and it did not look too good. We had, at the least, one more day of 20 foot waves and 35 knot winds (40 knots is a gale force storm). The good news was that we were slowly making our way towards LA. By island hopping through Hawaii we were inching our way to our final destination. The next island over was Lanai’i and after that was Maui’i. All we needed from the weather was a window of 3-4 days so we could get away from the Hawaiian waters. That would be the toughest part of the journey and after that the ocean should calm down some and be more predictable. We decided to sail to Maui’i the following day at sunrise. It was going to be a 10-12 hour sail and would inch our way closer to LA. I was excited to see Maui’i but at the same time I was getting anxious to get to LA. I was going to be visiting my Uncle and a couple of good friends there. I was excited to see them all. My last trip to LA was only a 24 hour stay over near the Christmas holiday. It was a fun trip but I hoped to spend some more time there now. Also, after LA I was flying to Thailand for a few months. Another adventure I was excited for.
I was learning however that when you are living on a sail boat you leave all expectations for what is going to happen on land. Mother Nature has complete control over your destiny and all you can do is put your sail up and hope for the best. A good friend of mine had moved to Maui’i and I had not seen him for sometime. This visit would give me the chance to say hello to him before I sailed off.
As we got ready for bed we cut holes in paper plates and put them on the ropes from the boat to the dock. They were supposed to keep any unwanted creatures (rats) from entering the boat during the night. I grabbed a blanket and made my bed on the main deck under the Hawaiian sky. As I closed my eyes I could not think of any place on earth that I would rather be. Tomorrow we were headed to Maui’i. The roughest channel in the Hawaiian waters is the channel between Molokai and Maui’i (this is also the largest breeding ground in the world for humpback whales). After all we had already been through however I believed we were prepared for anything; with that thought I slipped into a deep sleep.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
We arrived in Kathmandu about 10 days ago and I fell instantly in love. The city has a great vibe to it. The streets are narrow and hectic with a 100 things going on at any one time. Walking down the streets at night time you can here music playing from the windows of many different bars. The first night here my brother and I walked around looking for some good tunes. We heard Jazz playing from an upstairs window and decided to check it out. We walked down and long dark alley and up a narrow staircase hoping we were going in the right direction. The staircase led to the music. The bar was painted in pastels and people were sitting on the floor jamming to a local jazz band. The scene could have been taken out of a Kathmandu bar from the '60s. Long haired expats and locals mingling together to enjoy a night in the infamous Himalayan city.
Luke and I grabbed a seat on some cushions and fell under the trance of Kathmandu. When the music ended we tried to make our way back home. We knew we were not more than 5 minutes from our guest house yet the confusion of the streets turned it into a 45 minute trip. When the city was built there was no such thing as city planning. The streets were laid in every which way and everything looks the same. Needless to say our first night in the city was a little confusing.
At night time the city took on a different feel. The vibe seemed to change. The Maoist from the country side have recently all come down into the city (not all but a lot). Once everything closed down for the night the city had a not so safe feeling. Nepal has been in relative peace for the last 2 weeks but the tensions lie just under the surface. At night time this was much more apparent.
After my first night here I decided 10 days was not near enough time to experience this amazing place. I have some good friends with whom I worked with in Nantucket who are from Nepal. With a little prodding from them ('zak why don't you stay longer, we'll show you around our country?' "OK") I have extended my ticket 7-14 days. I am not sure when I am going back to Thailand because there were no available seats. I was put on the waiting list however and I'm sure I'll get back sometime. In the meantime I am going to experience Nepal. I kept a journal from my tr eking in the mountains which I will post soon. Once I get back to Thailand I will upload some pictures. Until then...
Luke and I grabbed a seat on some cushions and fell under the trance of Kathmandu. When the music ended we tried to make our way back home. We knew we were not more than 5 minutes from our guest house yet the confusion of the streets turned it into a 45 minute trip. When the city was built there was no such thing as city planning. The streets were laid in every which way and everything looks the same. Needless to say our first night in the city was a little confusing.
At night time the city took on a different feel. The vibe seemed to change. The Maoist from the country side have recently all come down into the city (not all but a lot). Once everything closed down for the night the city had a not so safe feeling. Nepal has been in relative peace for the last 2 weeks but the tensions lie just under the surface. At night time this was much more apparent.
After my first night here I decided 10 days was not near enough time to experience this amazing place. I have some good friends with whom I worked with in Nantucket who are from Nepal. With a little prodding from them ('zak why don't you stay longer, we'll show you around our country?' "OK") I have extended my ticket 7-14 days. I am not sure when I am going back to Thailand because there were no available seats. I was put on the waiting list however and I'm sure I'll get back sometime. In the meantime I am going to experience Nepal. I kept a journal from my tr eking in the mountains which I will post soon. Once I get back to Thailand I will upload some pictures. Until then...
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Day 5
Thirty minutes after we left yesterday the guides stop. They are pointing up to a bees nest in the crack of a tree 15 feet up. The older guide (not quite sure of his name) starts to make a bundle of sliced bamboo. He then lashes it to a long bamboo pole. A torch. They tell me we have found lunch. Naturally I think of the honey. They torch the bees nest and take it down. They open it up and point to the bee larva: “lunch”.
For the 1st time on this trip I found something I did not want to eat. I spent the rest of the morning trying to put it out of my mind with varied success. Luckily when lunch came around there was another plate of food. I got lucky
We camped at a water fall and swam with all the kinds playing in the river. I have been thinking a lot about when I go back to NY. I am getting excited to be there for the summer and fall. I have missed the change of seasons living in the tropics. I have lots of ideas for what I’m going to do for work. After this 3-4 month vacation traveling around I will be ready to work hard until at the least January when the cold weather comes. At that point I’ll probably head to Latin America for a few months. I miss speaking Spanish and the Latin culture.
Well that’s about it. We are going to trek out today and then I fly back to Bangkok tonight. I have 1 day to get ready and then it is off to Nepal for 10 days. I should be able to take some amazing pictures there.
Waiting for the truck to take me back to Chiang Mai. All I can think about is how good it is going to feel to sink into my bathtub and soak. One of my favorite things about hiking or working out is getting clean, watching the mud and dirt run off me and down the drain.
2:40 PM
It is the beginning of the Thai New Year. This week they have a huge festival everywhere in Thailand. Usually it is the hottest week of the year and because of that water is very popular. So popular that they throw it by the bucket loads on everyone and there is nothing you can do about it. Riding in the back of the pick up truck we were doused all along the highway. No napping on that trip.
Thirty minutes after we left yesterday the guides stop. They are pointing up to a bees nest in the crack of a tree 15 feet up. The older guide (not quite sure of his name) starts to make a bundle of sliced bamboo. He then lashes it to a long bamboo pole. A torch. They tell me we have found lunch. Naturally I think of the honey. They torch the bees nest and take it down. They open it up and point to the bee larva: “lunch”.
For the 1st time on this trip I found something I did not want to eat. I spent the rest of the morning trying to put it out of my mind with varied success. Luckily when lunch came around there was another plate of food. I got lucky
We camped at a water fall and swam with all the kinds playing in the river. I have been thinking a lot about when I go back to NY. I am getting excited to be there for the summer and fall. I have missed the change of seasons living in the tropics. I have lots of ideas for what I’m going to do for work. After this 3-4 month vacation traveling around I will be ready to work hard until at the least January when the cold weather comes. At that point I’ll probably head to Latin America for a few months. I miss speaking Spanish and the Latin culture.
Well that’s about it. We are going to trek out today and then I fly back to Bangkok tonight. I have 1 day to get ready and then it is off to Nepal for 10 days. I should be able to take some amazing pictures there.
Waiting for the truck to take me back to Chiang Mai. All I can think about is how good it is going to feel to sink into my bathtub and soak. One of my favorite things about hiking or working out is getting clean, watching the mud and dirt run off me and down the drain.
2:40 PM
It is the beginning of the Thai New Year. This week they have a huge festival everywhere in Thailand. Usually it is the hottest week of the year and because of that water is very popular. So popular that they throw it by the bucket loads on everyone and there is nothing you can do about it. Riding in the back of the pick up truck we were doused all along the highway. No napping on that trip.
Day 4
Sunrise (see pic)
We went frog hunting last night after dark. We caught about 20-25 frogs and this morning we are making frog, pumpkin, and bird soup for breakfast. We went looking for frogs in the rice fields and along the river. I could not help but be a little nervous about stepping on a cobra. Living in Hawaii you never have to think about snakes or any poisonous animal, insect, or reptile. It gives an extra sense of safety in the woods. You never have to think about what you are going to step on.
I do remember many close encounters with fur-de-lance (terciopelo) snakes (Central and South America’s most deadly snake). Living in the rainforest of Costa Rica it would be a rare sight if my clothing was anything more than a pair of board shorts and sunglasses. Walking barefoot in the rainforest I came within inches of stepping on the fur-de-lance while hiking along the water. This is an experience that puts your heart into your throat.
As I hunted frogs I hoped we would not come along any snakes. Snakes however love frogs as much as the Carway people. They also know where to find them.
Other than my toothpaste and brush I have not seen any other type of cleaning product. At meals they grab food with their and hands and serve it. When we are done we dump our plates on the floor (inside their home) and the dogs come to eat the scraps. Before coming on this trek I wanted to experience something as different from what I am used to as possible. Doing this gives me a better perspective on everything. I wanted to really challenge myself. Having no idea what to expect I open myself up to whatever comes. Also I have an uncanny ability to shut things out of my thoughts. It comes in handy when I find myself thinking about things I can do nothing about. When holding a bird brain in my fingers getting ready to bite I can either think about how mushy and slimy it looks or I can just shut my mind off and enjoy it. I’ve been good at the latter on this trip.
One of the guides has brought his 10 year old son along on the hike. It is nice having him along. He has a constant smile on his face and his laughter is filled with absolute joy. Even though we do not have any verbal communication we are having a lot of fun together.
I think we can learn a lot from little kids. They don’t worry about the future, they don’t have regret, they don’t have past heartache. They have not been let down so they allow themselves to soar. Everything is new to them and their brains are sponges soaking it all in. They live in the present moment and try to fit as much fun, joy and laughter in to each minute of each day. As far as I can tell there is nothing more important than that.
It’s nice being on this trek alone. I feel I can experience much more this way. If I could talk with someone, share this experience with them it would make it different; somehow less foreign. Combined my guides speak less than 50 words of English. Those fifty words they use sparingly. Having someone else there would give me an escape option and take me away from where I am.
Last night for dessert we ate BBQ’d cow skin. It was strange. No real flavor and about as tough as a thick piece of leather.
I can think much better as I walk. When I am just sitting my brain jumps around a lot. When I am hiking it is much easier for me to stay on one topic. It is the same when I go running. It gives my restless energy an outlet.
One of my favorite things to do is make plans for the future. When I am on one adventure I like to scheme about the next. All of these plans don’t need to come to fruition, in fact most do not. I just like to play with many different adventures in my head. What I’ve found happens is when the time comes for me to go on a new adventure the idea I had been playing with the most recently is the one I do.
Sunrise (see pic)
We went frog hunting last night after dark. We caught about 20-25 frogs and this morning we are making frog, pumpkin, and bird soup for breakfast. We went looking for frogs in the rice fields and along the river. I could not help but be a little nervous about stepping on a cobra. Living in Hawaii you never have to think about snakes or any poisonous animal, insect, or reptile. It gives an extra sense of safety in the woods. You never have to think about what you are going to step on.
I do remember many close encounters with fur-de-lance (terciopelo) snakes (Central and South America’s most deadly snake). Living in the rainforest of Costa Rica it would be a rare sight if my clothing was anything more than a pair of board shorts and sunglasses. Walking barefoot in the rainforest I came within inches of stepping on the fur-de-lance while hiking along the water. This is an experience that puts your heart into your throat.
As I hunted frogs I hoped we would not come along any snakes. Snakes however love frogs as much as the Carway people. They also know where to find them.
Other than my toothpaste and brush I have not seen any other type of cleaning product. At meals they grab food with their and hands and serve it. When we are done we dump our plates on the floor (inside their home) and the dogs come to eat the scraps. Before coming on this trek I wanted to experience something as different from what I am used to as possible. Doing this gives me a better perspective on everything. I wanted to really challenge myself. Having no idea what to expect I open myself up to whatever comes. Also I have an uncanny ability to shut things out of my thoughts. It comes in handy when I find myself thinking about things I can do nothing about. When holding a bird brain in my fingers getting ready to bite I can either think about how mushy and slimy it looks or I can just shut my mind off and enjoy it. I’ve been good at the latter on this trip.
One of the guides has brought his 10 year old son along on the hike. It is nice having him along. He has a constant smile on his face and his laughter is filled with absolute joy. Even though we do not have any verbal communication we are having a lot of fun together.
I think we can learn a lot from little kids. They don’t worry about the future, they don’t have regret, they don’t have past heartache. They have not been let down so they allow themselves to soar. Everything is new to them and their brains are sponges soaking it all in. They live in the present moment and try to fit as much fun, joy and laughter in to each minute of each day. As far as I can tell there is nothing more important than that.
It’s nice being on this trek alone. I feel I can experience much more this way. If I could talk with someone, share this experience with them it would make it different; somehow less foreign. Combined my guides speak less than 50 words of English. Those fifty words they use sparingly. Having someone else there would give me an escape option and take me away from where I am.
Last night for dessert we ate BBQ’d cow skin. It was strange. No real flavor and about as tough as a thick piece of leather.
I can think much better as I walk. When I am just sitting my brain jumps around a lot. When I am hiking it is much easier for me to stay on one topic. It is the same when I go running. It gives my restless energy an outlet.
One of my favorite things to do is make plans for the future. When I am on one adventure I like to scheme about the next. All of these plans don’t need to come to fruition, in fact most do not. I just like to play with many different adventures in my head. What I’ve found happens is when the time comes for me to go on a new adventure the idea I had been playing with the most recently is the one I do.
Day 3
7:30 AM
Last night we stayed in another village of the Carway people (no idea at all if I am spelling that correctly. I found out that the government gives all the hill tribe people solar panels for free. During the hot season they have electricity all day long. During the rainy season they only have it for an hour or so per day. This makes it easy for the government to control what the people see/hear. They also control much of the television channels.
The houses are normally 2 different buildings with 1 room each. The first building is for the kitchen: where the stove is. The second is for everything else. There is no furniture what so ever. You sit, eat, and sleep on the floor.
My guides told me I was the first tourist to go to the village where we slept last night. If that is true it’s pretty wild!!
I found out today that the leaf roofs on all the houses last only two years. That means that ever two years they need to completely change their roofs… interesting.
The people all seem to be very allusive. I never get a clear answer on anything. Sometimes they tell me things which I later find out were not true at all. It’s like they told me something because they did not want me to be upset even though I would find out the truth eventually.
-I love learning about different cultures. This is one of the reasons I love traveling so much!!!
1:30 PM
Today we went hunting early in the morning. We got 4 birds, two frogs, a chipmunk and a crab. It was a tasty lunch.
For the 1st few days I would always have left over bones, heads, intestines, etc on the side of my bowl when I finished my meal. Everyone else would have clean plates. I thought I was missing seeing them throw them on the ground. I realized at lunch today that was not the case at all. They eat everything. I was a little embarrassed at first because they must have seen me throw away good food.
As if Nook, my guide, could read my mind he puts a bird head, beak and all, onto my plate; “aroy mak” which means ‘very good’. He was right after I got past being stared at by my food. My first time eating bird brain… “I wonder what’s next.”
Growing up my father used to always tease my brother and I about frog legs. If we were miss-behaving he would threaten to feed us frog legs and nothing else. Twenty years later in the jungle of northern Thailand I have eaten frog for the first time. Surprisingly it is pretty tasty. The meat is the consistency of fish and has a similar taste. The brain is similar to a bird’s brain just smaller.
While eating the frog my mind drifted to the hallucinogenic frogs they had in Costa Rica. “I wonder if the poison is killed when it’s cooked?” I guess there is only one way to find out. Normally I would say that if I started seeing elephants something is funny with what I ate. Being where I am I think it would be more appropriate to say that if I start seeing skyscrapers I should stay away from the frogs next time.
As I write this entry I am sitting in the woods and we are hunting birds for dinner. The guns we are using are from a different world. Except for the barrel, trigger, and spring everything comes from the forest. They are bamboo muzzle loaders. Guns more primitive than we had during the American Revolutionary War. The gun powder is ignited by a cap. The same exact type of cap I had in my cap guns as a kid. These guns however are much more powerful than my old cap guns. I have not hit anything yet but Chai and Nook have gotten a hand full of birds each.
I’ve noticed a similar tattoo on many of the men above 40 years old. I thought it was a religious tattoo. Apparently it is much more than that. The Carway people believe these tattoos, given in special ways with bamboo, give them great powers. Some keep you safe from tigers Nook explains to me, “and this one here, if a cobra bites me I will be OK. It cannot hurt me.”
Fifteen years ago bandits from Laos or Cambodia (I’m not sure which one) came into the area we are now trekking through. The Carway people got tattoos to protect them from knives and guns:
“See Zak, I’ll show you” Nook says making the farmer, whose land we are passing over, lift up his shirt.
“This scar is from knife and this is from gun. Because he had tattoo they did not hurt him. Good tattoos better than bad bandit.”
I am getting an amazing view into the life of these people. It is absolutely fascinating. They have shown or taught me how to make many things. Most tools and food comes from the jungle. One interesting thing was the making of rice whisky or ‘special water’ as they like to call it. Whiskey made from rice in a big barrel. They bottle it in left over water bottles. It is the same color as water but the taste is much different. In Spain it would be called agua adiente de arroz. Here in the jungle of Thailand it is called a good time.
7:30 AM
Last night we stayed in another village of the Carway people (no idea at all if I am spelling that correctly. I found out that the government gives all the hill tribe people solar panels for free. During the hot season they have electricity all day long. During the rainy season they only have it for an hour or so per day. This makes it easy for the government to control what the people see/hear. They also control much of the television channels.
The houses are normally 2 different buildings with 1 room each. The first building is for the kitchen: where the stove is. The second is for everything else. There is no furniture what so ever. You sit, eat, and sleep on the floor.
My guides told me I was the first tourist to go to the village where we slept last night. If that is true it’s pretty wild!!
I found out today that the leaf roofs on all the houses last only two years. That means that ever two years they need to completely change their roofs… interesting.
The people all seem to be very allusive. I never get a clear answer on anything. Sometimes they tell me things which I later find out were not true at all. It’s like they told me something because they did not want me to be upset even though I would find out the truth eventually.
-I love learning about different cultures. This is one of the reasons I love traveling so much!!!
1:30 PM
Today we went hunting early in the morning. We got 4 birds, two frogs, a chipmunk and a crab. It was a tasty lunch.
For the 1st few days I would always have left over bones, heads, intestines, etc on the side of my bowl when I finished my meal. Everyone else would have clean plates. I thought I was missing seeing them throw them on the ground. I realized at lunch today that was not the case at all. They eat everything. I was a little embarrassed at first because they must have seen me throw away good food.
As if Nook, my guide, could read my mind he puts a bird head, beak and all, onto my plate; “aroy mak” which means ‘very good’. He was right after I got past being stared at by my food. My first time eating bird brain… “I wonder what’s next.”
Growing up my father used to always tease my brother and I about frog legs. If we were miss-behaving he would threaten to feed us frog legs and nothing else. Twenty years later in the jungle of northern Thailand I have eaten frog for the first time. Surprisingly it is pretty tasty. The meat is the consistency of fish and has a similar taste. The brain is similar to a bird’s brain just smaller.
While eating the frog my mind drifted to the hallucinogenic frogs they had in Costa Rica. “I wonder if the poison is killed when it’s cooked?” I guess there is only one way to find out. Normally I would say that if I started seeing elephants something is funny with what I ate. Being where I am I think it would be more appropriate to say that if I start seeing skyscrapers I should stay away from the frogs next time.
As I write this entry I am sitting in the woods and we are hunting birds for dinner. The guns we are using are from a different world. Except for the barrel, trigger, and spring everything comes from the forest. They are bamboo muzzle loaders. Guns more primitive than we had during the American Revolutionary War. The gun powder is ignited by a cap. The same exact type of cap I had in my cap guns as a kid. These guns however are much more powerful than my old cap guns. I have not hit anything yet but Chai and Nook have gotten a hand full of birds each.
I’ve noticed a similar tattoo on many of the men above 40 years old. I thought it was a religious tattoo. Apparently it is much more than that. The Carway people believe these tattoos, given in special ways with bamboo, give them great powers. Some keep you safe from tigers Nook explains to me, “and this one here, if a cobra bites me I will be OK. It cannot hurt me.”
Fifteen years ago bandits from Laos or Cambodia (I’m not sure which one) came into the area we are now trekking through. The Carway people got tattoos to protect them from knives and guns:
“See Zak, I’ll show you” Nook says making the farmer, whose land we are passing over, lift up his shirt.
“This scar is from knife and this is from gun. Because he had tattoo they did not hurt him. Good tattoos better than bad bandit.”
I am getting an amazing view into the life of these people. It is absolutely fascinating. They have shown or taught me how to make many things. Most tools and food comes from the jungle. One interesting thing was the making of rice whisky or ‘special water’ as they like to call it. Whiskey made from rice in a big barrel. They bottle it in left over water bottles. It is the same color as water but the taste is much different. In Spain it would be called agua adiente de arroz. Here in the jungle of Thailand it is called a good time.
Day 2 of trek
Date: Still unknown
7:00 AM
Great day yesterday. We hiked only about 4 hours but we passed by some amazing waterfalls. Hiking in 100 degree heat you sweat a little bit. The cool mountain water feels amazing when you bathe underneath its falls.
We hiked through rice fields, by buffalo & cows. We camped at a small village with about 8 guys living there. There was a river running by the village with a small waterfall that we swam in at sunset. When we arrived the men were building a tin roof on one of the shelters. All the other roofs were made out of leaves and bamboo.
I napped by the river while my 2 guides went off to get dinner. It is funny here in Thailand, I never know what is going on. It has a big part to do with the language (that I don’t speak yet) but it is more than just that. I never get a straight answer on anything. Also they will say one thing and then another thing happens. For instance today before I napped here is what happened:
“stay here we’ll be back in 30 minutes” and then 1 minute later “stay here we will be back in 10 minutes.” The guides disappeared for 1.5 hours and showed back up with chickens in hand.
I played a sort of volleyball with the men who lived in the village and it was a lot of fun. The ball was made of bamboo and it was the size of a softball. Unlike volleyball you could not use your hands or arms, only your head and legs. I did pretty well for my first time.
At night time I walked down the rice fields with one of my guides and then we hiked back up the river in the dark. We were hunting for frogs. You can see the frog’s reflection with the flashlight at night time. We caught a few and BBQ'd them up. My first time eating frog but they were tasty.
We are leaving around 9am and hiking for 3 hours. We will have lunch and hike for 3 more hours. They said it is going to be a tough hike… we will see
LUNCH TIME
This is pretty cool. We are hiking along paths that have been used for centuries by the Thai people for trading and traveling between villages. We are in the middle of the jungle yet there are villages and small farms all over the place. I have done a fair amount of hiking all over the world and this is far different that anything I have ever done before.
At one point during the morning we stopped to take a break. I had a splinter in my foot from the night before so I sat to dig it out with my pocket knife and one of the guides walked off into the woods (I have given up asking what is going on. I either do not understand or get told something that is not true. More fun this way anyhow). Ten minutes later he calls for us. He has a thin bamboo stick and is jamming it into the crack of a tree talking frantically. The other guide gets excited and grabs a stick himself. I think to myself, “oh boy they are digging out some kind of insect for us to eat.” A couple minutes later, after seeing many many different insects run out of the crack I realize that it is not insects they are after. “Flying Rat” my guide tells me as he pulls a rodent out of the tree by its hind legs. We caught two ‘flying rats’ from the tree in total (after looking at the creatures I was grateful to realize they were flying squirrel not rats).
At lunch time we passed a small village of maybe 15 people. They cooked the squirrels up for us with noodles and rice. They tasted quite good.
Life is much different here (obviously) than I am used to. In the villages people are always napping. At first I thought this was weird: “Shouldn’t they be working??? Doing chores??? Etc???” I realize however that there probably is not too much to do. They have the things that must get done and other than that they can fill their day how they like.
It seems like they put more emphasis on just being in the moment. There is no rushing around, no deadlines, no real rules or laws at all.
********************************
I wonder how people see me as I walk through their villages, what their thoughts are. We live in two entirely different worlds. I can go to theirs or any other place in this world I want to whenever I want. Less than 99.9% of the people I encounter on this trek will never be able to come to my world. It doesn’t seem fair. I’m not assuming they would want to come to my world but I’m sure they would like the option. I know I don’t like it when someone tells me I cannot do something.
The houses are made out of bamboo walls and the floors are elevated 3-7 feet. So the wind cools the inside. The roofs are made out of dried leafs lashed to bamboo rods. One village we passed through had a large satellite and solar panel outside. It was funny to see: they have the same exact house their ancestors lived in thousands of years ago and then they had a slice of technology out of the 21st century.
Date: Still unknown
7:00 AM
Great day yesterday. We hiked only about 4 hours but we passed by some amazing waterfalls. Hiking in 100 degree heat you sweat a little bit. The cool mountain water feels amazing when you bathe underneath its falls.
We hiked through rice fields, by buffalo & cows. We camped at a small village with about 8 guys living there. There was a river running by the village with a small waterfall that we swam in at sunset. When we arrived the men were building a tin roof on one of the shelters. All the other roofs were made out of leaves and bamboo.
I napped by the river while my 2 guides went off to get dinner. It is funny here in Thailand, I never know what is going on. It has a big part to do with the language (that I don’t speak yet) but it is more than just that. I never get a straight answer on anything. Also they will say one thing and then another thing happens. For instance today before I napped here is what happened:
“stay here we’ll be back in 30 minutes” and then 1 minute later “stay here we will be back in 10 minutes.” The guides disappeared for 1.5 hours and showed back up with chickens in hand.
I played a sort of volleyball with the men who lived in the village and it was a lot of fun. The ball was made of bamboo and it was the size of a softball. Unlike volleyball you could not use your hands or arms, only your head and legs. I did pretty well for my first time.
At night time I walked down the rice fields with one of my guides and then we hiked back up the river in the dark. We were hunting for frogs. You can see the frog’s reflection with the flashlight at night time. We caught a few and BBQ'd them up. My first time eating frog but they were tasty.
We are leaving around 9am and hiking for 3 hours. We will have lunch and hike for 3 more hours. They said it is going to be a tough hike… we will see
LUNCH TIME
This is pretty cool. We are hiking along paths that have been used for centuries by the Thai people for trading and traveling between villages. We are in the middle of the jungle yet there are villages and small farms all over the place. I have done a fair amount of hiking all over the world and this is far different that anything I have ever done before.
At one point during the morning we stopped to take a break. I had a splinter in my foot from the night before so I sat to dig it out with my pocket knife and one of the guides walked off into the woods (I have given up asking what is going on. I either do not understand or get told something that is not true. More fun this way anyhow). Ten minutes later he calls for us. He has a thin bamboo stick and is jamming it into the crack of a tree talking frantically. The other guide gets excited and grabs a stick himself. I think to myself, “oh boy they are digging out some kind of insect for us to eat.” A couple minutes later, after seeing many many different insects run out of the crack I realize that it is not insects they are after. “Flying Rat” my guide tells me as he pulls a rodent out of the tree by its hind legs. We caught two ‘flying rats’ from the tree in total (after looking at the creatures I was grateful to realize they were flying squirrel not rats).
At lunch time we passed a small village of maybe 15 people. They cooked the squirrels up for us with noodles and rice. They tasted quite good.
Life is much different here (obviously) than I am used to. In the villages people are always napping. At first I thought this was weird: “Shouldn’t they be working??? Doing chores??? Etc???” I realize however that there probably is not too much to do. They have the things that must get done and other than that they can fill their day how they like.
It seems like they put more emphasis on just being in the moment. There is no rushing around, no deadlines, no real rules or laws at all.
********************************
I wonder how people see me as I walk through their villages, what their thoughts are. We live in two entirely different worlds. I can go to theirs or any other place in this world I want to whenever I want. Less than 99.9% of the people I encounter on this trek will never be able to come to my world. It doesn’t seem fair. I’m not assuming they would want to come to my world but I’m sure they would like the option. I know I don’t like it when someone tells me I cannot do something.
The houses are made out of bamboo walls and the floors are elevated 3-7 feet. So the wind cools the inside. The roofs are made out of dried leafs lashed to bamboo rods. One village we passed through had a large satellite and solar panel outside. It was funny to see: they have the same exact house their ancestors lived in thousands of years ago and then they had a slice of technology out of the 21st century.
So, I went to Chiang Mai, which is in northern Thailand, with my brother for a wedding. A friend of ours was getting married up there. I have been in Thailand now for about a month and am spending most of my time in Bangkok. I was ready to get out of the big city and go see some different parts of the country. The girl’s dad who was getting married owns a tour company. I decided one night when we were at dinner that I wanted to go treking with a guide from his company. I did not want to do the normal treking that most people do but rather something completely out there. I told her dad I wanted to go on an intense trek for 5 days through the jungle. One thing led to another and the next day he told me he had arranged a special trek for me that had never been done before. He asked me such questions as “are you OK eating only rice for breakfast? Are you OK with eating snakes? Are you OK with only taking clothes, rice, and a gun into the jungle for 5 days?” The answer to all of those questions was obviously a big YES!! I wanted to experience the jungle of Thailand and in my mind you can’t do that with western comforts such as running water and clean clothes.
I kept a journal for the 5 day trek and I am going to transcribe it here in the blog. I would spend more time on editing it but I need to get on a plane for Nepal in 24 hours. If it is too ‘rough’ for you or if it jumps around too much feel free to stop reading at anytime. If you make it through it I hope you enjoy it.
Here are my unedited thoughts and experiences (some of them) of five days in the south east Asian jungle:
Day 1 of Trek
Location: somewhere in the Northern Thailand Jungle
Date: Unknown
1:30 pm
I’m headed out to an unknown adventure. I just had my last meal in civilization for about 5 days. I am way up in the mountains a few hours outside of Chiang Mai. I am heading into the jungle with 2 guides and one of their sons age 10.
I am sitting at a small café outside at a bench. There is a gas station of sorts across the way. Just 2 50 gallon drums with a hand pump in a cylinder block shed. Pretty wild indeed (see pic).
All we are taking on the trip is clothes, a sleeping bag, and a gun made out of bamboo.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Day 1
Our plan was to head for California. If the weather was too rough this first day we were going to sail to Molakai (the next island over about 45 miles) anchor and stay there for the night. We were all excited and ready to go. Before pushing off for good we stopped by the fuel dock and topped off all our fuel including the 250 gallon diesel bladder inside the hot tub. We were then good to go.
We got about 1 mile away from land going south and turned north east towards California. The farther we got from the coast the bigger the waves grew. I have had very little experience on sail boats. I had no idea what to expect and was ready for anything. As we sailed past Diamond Head the seas grew even larger. Because we were still so close to the island there were waves coming from many different directions. It was creating 15 ft chop. The weather was easily 85 degrees but I had on my winter ski coat and long pants. As the boat would smash into the waves water would fly up into the air and the 30 MPH wind would grab the water and whip it at us. It was wild to say the least.
The boat's controls was telling us we were going anywhere from 2-6 MPH. It was fluctuating greatly depending on where we would get hit from the waves. At around 4:30 a huge coast guard cutter flew past us engines roaring. It was an ominous sight. We were heading out on a 2,200 mile journey and the last boat we were to see was a coast guard boat. Not being sure if that was a good sign or bad I put it out of my mind.
The waves were bouncing us around so much that my surf board, which was lashed to the bow (front) of the boat, was coming loose. The skipper called for me to go and tighten the board. I put on my safety harness and inched my way forward. As I made my way up the boat a rouge 20 ft wave comes head on and the bow goes under the water. Oh boy, I think, I'm glad I wasn't up there. I continue on my way and secure the board.
Shortly after I get back from the bow of the boat the captain yells "what the hell just happened." Followed by him running below deck to the engine room. The boat had lost all steering and we were a rag doll in the middle of the ocean. As we are spinning around getting trounced by waves in all directions I think back to the coast guard ship and wonder if it is near by. A big waves hits us broad side and the mast (all 92 ft of it) almost goes into the water (something that will happen a handful of times over the next week). When this happens you literally grab on to whatever you can and wait for the boat to level back off.
The captain figures out what went wrong after about 5 minutes and everything is fixed. It turns out is was something very easy to correct. Better those things happen to us now while we are close to land than in a week when we are 1,000 miles out to sea.
As 6:30 approached we realized we had only gone about 4 miles in the last 4 hours. The weather was not getting any better but the sun was dropping down. We are passing port lock near china walls (still on island of Oahu) and we decide to go into the channel, anchor up, and stay the night. We got in just before sunset, dropped the anchor and the skipper cooked us up a great meal as the sun was setting. It was a gorgeous night. Once inside the channel the water was smooth. Looking out at the ocean it seemed strange how the ocean can change so much is so little a distance. After this first day I was half expecting to have 18 more days of this in a row. I truly did not know what to expect. Only time would tell and tomorrow we were going to head to California at sunrise.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
the blog begins
I've had quite a few adventures these last few weeks. Many people have asked me to tell the story of my sail boat voyage and mishaps. After telling the story a few times I thought it would be best if I let people read my journal from the 10 day adventure aboard the vessel Nomad. I am going to write it in story format using my journal and my memory as my guide and then continue the blog with my adventures in Thailand and whatever else may follow.
I moved to Hawaii a little over 2.5 years ago with my great friend Nick Nass. Falling to pressures of society I decided it was time to settle down and hold a "real" job. I rose fast in the industry I chose and was very successful. I was selling vacations to people encouraging them to follow their dreams. The whole time in the back of my head there was a voice telling me that I should list to my own advice and should be following my dreams, pursuing my passions. I ignored this voice for as long as I could and then in early February (just over a month ago) I could ignore that voice no longer. I resigned from my job (to the surprise of everyone) and decided to live my passion once again. To travel, learn different cultures, have new adventures, to live a life of freedom. Some people may think I was crazy for leaving my job however I think I would be crazy to have stayed. We only have one life to live, we only get one shot at this world. We need to do the tings our heart tells us to do, follow our passions, turn our dreams into reality. The big job, with the big salary, the big shed of toys is nice but it is no match for passions being fulfilled.
I was talking to a friend of mine, Ali, on the day I resigned and I told him that I was leaving. He asked what I was going to do. Not quite sure myself I said "I'm not sure man, I'm just going to put up my sails and see where the wind takes me." Two days later I was on the north shore at Banzai Pipeline watching a surf competition and I get a phone call from Ali.
"Zak I have an opportunity you might be interested in. I was telling my dad what you said about putting your sails up and letting the wind take you away. Zak, my dad is the wind."
Ali's dad Nash was leaving in 10 days to sail his 55 ft sailboat, the Nomad, halfway around the world to Greece. He needed one extra crew and was offering it to me. The next day we went sailing around Diamond Head and my mind was made up. I was all in. I have a rather large list of things I want to do before I die. Crossing an ocean in a boat has always been one of them. I had seen myself doing it in a large ship but hey, why not do it in a sail boat with 3 other people. Let the adventure begin.
The day before we were to take off we had the christening of the boat ceremony and bon voyage party (see pics). I had close to no experience on sail boats but I am a hard worker and fast learner so I was never worried. I really had no idea what to expect from the trip but I new it would be a trip of a lifetime. I like to do the things people write books about and I am sure people have written a few about traveling the world on a boat with the wind at your back and the wide open ocean in front of you.
I must side track here for a moment and talk a little about the boat and the crew. The skipper has owned many restaurants over the years. He is a chef who enjoys his luxuries. He built the nomad exactly how he wanted it. The stern of the boat has a 6 person hot tub. The skipper designed it so if the water was calm you could actually steer the boat while sitting in the Jacuzzi. Below deck there is a forward cabin and an aft cabin. There are around 16 speakers above deck and below. Three flat screen TVs, 3 heads, an air conditioner and heater. The boat is stylin’. As the skipper says, “just because you are living on a boat it does not mean you can’t be comfortable. Well, when we were in port we were very comfortable indeed.
Most people make this voyage in the summer time because the weather is much better, the seas much smoother, and the wind is at your back instead of in your face as it is in the winter. Because of the wind we needed our engine to make the crossing. We were going to keep the motors running with the sails up. We were going to motor to LA and if we got good wind we would sail. The boat was loaded with 700 gallons of diesel. The hot tub was emptied and filled with a bladder which held 250 gallons of diesel.
The skipper sold his last two restaurants in the past 2 years and decided it was time for him to follow his dreams. He has a very loose itinerary with one main goal: to live life by his rules, by his design. The skipper has 25,000 miles on the open ocean.
The first mate was Rocky. Rocky is a DJ hailing from the island of Oahu. Rocky is a great cook as well. Between the skipper, Rocky, and all the fish we were about to catch we were guaranteed to eat like kings. Rocky has never done a crossing but has a lot of sailing experience. Rocky does the announcing for the pro-bowl and many other large events.
Our Aussie crew member was Kevin. He started sailing a year ago. He wanted a new adventure in his life and chose sailing. He had been taking classes and decided to try an ocean crossing. He found the Nomad online, emailed Nash, and flew to Oahu to make the trip.
And then there is me. Being 26 I am half the age of everyone else on the boat. I never noticed any difference in age but I am sure they all saw me as the young buck on board (no negative connotation).
On February 22 at 2:30pm we set sail for LA. We were about to cross the most isolated ocean in the world; 2,200 miles of open ocean and no land until California. The trip was going to take anywhere from 14-21 days depending on the weather. At best we hoped to average 6 MPHs.
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