zak's travels

summer plans

2009-05-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

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...

Video of the Derby

2008-10-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Derby

2008-10-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

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.

pics of pirin

2008-10-17T08:04:00.001-07:00

Hiking in Bulgaria

2008-10-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

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

View from my apartment in Novi Sad Serbia

2008-10-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Off the the Balkans

2008-10-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Hair

2008-02-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Zimbabwe

2008-02-01T09:04:00.001-08:00

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.

A couple photos from the year

2008-01-23T08:55:00.001-08:00

Year in review

2008-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

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.

African Odyssey

2008-01-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

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

The new generation

2008-01-04T08:56:00.001-08:00

Benny's village

2008-01-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

Sand Surfing

2008-01-03T11:07:00.001-08:00

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

namibia

2007-12-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

Okavango Delta Pictures

2007-12-27T05:00:00.001-08:00

Okavango Delta

2007-12-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Etosha day 3 and Botswana

2007-12-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

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...

Etosha day 3

2007-12-03T07:03:00.001-08:00

Etosh day 2

2007-12-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

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.

Etosha national park

2007-12-03T00:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Great couple of days

2007-11-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

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...

Cape town to Namibia

2007-11-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

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.

cape town

2007-11-19T22:45:00.001-08:00

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!!!