Gone 'til December

Yo, in case you haven't heard, I'm on the road in Africa right now (Algeria to be exact), so internet is just a wee bit sketchy and time minimal so I won't be able to do any fun updates until at least December 1st, but trust me, I've got plenty to write about. Til then enjoy these pics of Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria....

Dubai desert traffic....

Um, mom, I've got something to tell you

Sunset on the Arabian peninsula as my co-worker Travis looks on...

Not much was picture worthy in Lagos (in fact, nothing was), but thought this sign was interesting (reads: "slow down, bridge under investigation"). Hmmm....

최강삼겅! V4!

CHWAY-KAANG-SAAM-SUNG! (Most strong, Samsung!)
V4! (Fourth Championship!)


Beefcakes, Saturday was game 5 of the Korea Series (i.e. the World Series, but they aren't that preposterous). Eight teams in the league, all sponsored by the chaebols (think LG, Daewoo, Hyundai, etc)....and who made it to the series? Samsung Lions, clearly. (and Hanhwa Eagles).

The Chairman's office gave us tickets (awesome), which by the way are first come, first sit - so you want pick your team's side and partake in the cheering festivities.

Here's a video of Hanhwa's fans.....see if you can pick up the "(some) (guy's) (name) HOME RUN!" cheer about 11 seconds in (you'll need sound, knuckleheads)....


Anyway, here's five things I learned about Korea's national pastime:

1. The count is reversed. Instead of a 3-2 count (3 balls, 2 strikes), it's 2-3 here. And the announcers say "two and three" not the Korean "DULL-HAAGO-SAAM". Goofy.

Here's a pic of Samsung's fans from the game Saturday - note the blown up Lions.


2. Two foreigners are allowed per team. The rest, obviously, are Korean. This makes cheering very convienient since all Koreans have three syllable names (Chan-Ho Park, Hee-Sop Choi, Kim Jong Il).

Samsung has two white dudes who are pitchers. Hanhwa has a black dude, named Davis - pronounced in Korean "DEH-EE-BEE-SA". The Samsung guys pull in US$300k per year - not too shabby.

I took this photo of the Samsung stand an hour before the game. Note the cheerleaders platform in the middle of the stands and sign for KFC which reads "OO-REE-JEE-NAWL CHEE-KEEN" - yes, "Koreanizing" English words is common here. What you can't see is that Samsung has it's own cheering speaker system, random fireworks, dried squid stands - and of course the half dozen beers yours truly put down. Ahhh, Cass - The Sound of Vitality!

(click on the pic for a blown up version - you can do that with any Blogger posted pic, by the way)


3. Normally after 12 innings the game is a tie. In the playoffs, it extends to 15 innings. And because they play small-ball style (bunting, tactical, rather than home runs), this happen more often than you think. Our game Saturday....a 15 inning 1-1 tie. Nuts. Samsung would have won the best of 7 series 4 games to 1 that day. (They did it the next day.)

Here's a video I shot from our stands. The song is the Pet Shop Boys "Go West" - a very common soccer cheer in Korea. Don't worry, later in the game, they busted out the Backstreet Boys "Backstreet's Back". Money.


4. "Double play" in Korean translates to “parallel killing”. Umm, yeah.

Here's an aerial shot of the stadium on the scoreboard (in the old Olympic grounds). It held about 30,000 folks, but is meant as a "neutral" site for the final three games of the series.


5. And the best of all....CHEERLEADERS! On a platform in the middle of the stands. Dallas Cowboys eat your heart out.

But seriously, they do add a lot to the game (the organized cheers are good times) other than rediculous eye candy. Generally you cheer after every out, when your team is batting, and between innings - in short, all the time! And no, there is no 7th inning stretch, but an end of 6th inning 15 minute break - who knew?


MLB has got a lot to learn, my friends.

So This is Where Turbo's Been!

Yeah. So, I'm still unpackin'. Easy, nut smack - I'm workin' on it.

Anywho, been another busy week with dinners, Korean classes, and a little bit of prep for my upcoming month in Africa - awwww yeah, Lagos, here I come!

In between, I learned Jay Z knows less Korean than me, DJ Sasha brings out the entire expat community, and radioactive material was discovered in Seoul today. Awesome.

Heading to game 5 of the Korea Series (the baseball championship) Saturday with the Hanhwa Eagles versus, who else, the Samsung Lions. Should be money, Samsung is up 3 games to 1, so it could be the clincher. I'll be flippin' over the cars on the streets of Apgujeong afterwards cause lord knows that the KFC and a little Oriental Brewery at the game is gonna lead to a beautiful sight. SAMSUNG FIGHTING!

In the meantime, enjoy this video (an ad for an apartment building here). Korea may not have invented breakdancin' but they sure have perfected it - it's pretty huge here, kinda like this white bread's mad Korean skillz....



And then....

amazing stuff....

Quickie

Yo monkies. Unfortunately, with my recent move in (yes, I finally moved in) I have little to no free time to create a quality post. Instead, I offer up this cinematic gem to tide you over until I get a chance to talk about my new diggs, Vietnam, and a number of other lil' nuggets. Ok, off to Jay Z tonight (yes, he's playing Seoul) before I hit DJ Sasha tomorrow night - all with a baby shower and mad unpackin' between. I'm audi, peeps....



FYI, this is from "For Y'ur Height Only", a 1979 Filipino film, starring the ever cuddly Weng Weng as Agent OO. Awwww, yeah! Pure genius.

You be IL-in'

That's hot.

In light of the "Dear Leader's" actions this week up north, this installment is 90% videos - 4 North Korea propaganda videos plus a little love at the end (my apologies to those who are having problems accessing these videos, but they're too good to pass up). Life is pretty much normal here - a few smaller protests, but definitely the US media is far more interested in this that the South Koreans are - seems to be a bit of a sense of denial here, but it was a bit eerie on Monday when the news broke during lunch. First check out these nuggets taken from the Wikipedia entry for Senor Kim:

"Kim Jong-il's official biography also holds that his birth at Mount Paektu was foretold by a swallow, and that his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens."

"It has been reported that Kim is an avid fan of the Friday The 13th series and Rambo among others. In 1978, on the orders of Kim, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production". Still, Kim himself has said he rarely watches movies. He reportedly enjoys following National Basketball Association games. Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by Michael Jordan."

Love the horse....


Put out by pro-North Koreans living in South Korea - damn catchy....
The "Olympic Medal" is the 2002 spreadskating scandal (Apolo Anton Ohno ain't so popular here).

The world's most disciplined fans...


"Grapes of Love"


And finally, a response....

Korea Team Fighting! Be the Reds! Reds Go Together!

[Greetings kids. This installment will be 90% video since time is running short due to a week long trip to 'Nam for vacation Saturday. Yes, I deserve vacation after only 2 weeks of work. Ok, so maybe I don't, but it's Chuseok (Chew-SAWK), the festival of the harvest moon, aka Korean Thanksgiving.]

Hangook! Woooooooehoooooo! Hangoooooook! Wooooehooooehoooo! (Hangook means "Korea" in well, Korean. Woooo has no meaning, you knucklehead). Today's entry is all about Korea's national soccer team, aka the Red Devils (see the jerseys).

Prior to the 2002 World Cup (hosted jointly by Korea and Japan), South Korea had played in 5 World Cups and never made it out of the first round. In 2002, they made the final four, losing to Germany 1-0 - but Korea's been football mad even since. One of their players, Ji-Sung Park, plays on Manchester United.

The fans....
Outside City Hall - about 1 block from my office.....
In 2002, Korea had a Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink who instantly became a mega star in Korea.....
In fact he was so popular that he was offered Korean citizenship.......

In fact, Hiddink is still popular enough, 4 years later (he was Australia's national coach in the 2006 World Cup), that he is the lead endorser of Papa John's here in Korea.....10 minutes of Red Devils highlights from the 2002 World Cup. Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers, European soccer – don’t stand a chance against Korean fans when it comes to the World Cup. Must be something about the conformity thing here. Pretty amazing. Oh, and dig the overly dramatic Korean film style. Good times.



South Korea scores against Italy in the 2002 World Cup – the city goes bonkers (yes, bonkers – my English is regressing since I’ve been here). [2:30 seconds]



In case you're curious, in the 2006 World Cup, they beat Togo, tied eventual runner up France, but then lost to Switzerland (hugely controversial refereeing) - never making it out of the opening round.

Oh, and just to make you feel better, I installed a counter on this page (thanks for reading!).....and as a result of this I can see (to some degree) who is viewing this page. Thanks Jack - glad to see you're working hard (note the Honeywell domain)....

Ten Lil’ Nuggets

10. Samsung Orientation. 7 am wake up, then a bit of Korean breakfast. Mmmm. Off to the Samsung’s security (who knew?) training center, rolling up in a bus while we pass a group of security guards practicing taekwando on the soccer pitch Uruguay practiced on for the 2002 World Cup. Step into a gym for some stretching…..and boom, out comes this instructor and some techno. That’s right kids, bust out the legwarmers, we did Jane Fonda proud. Very ugly. Only slightly less ugly were the quotes yelled out by one of our Korean staff members during a team climbing activity – “Step on me! Step on my face!”, followed closely by “I wish I could touch people in the office”. Too funny. This sign was seen on the walk between the climbing wall and the center. That about sums it up.


9. Digital Pet. Oh yeah, that’s right. My snazzy little cell phone comes with a digital pet feature. Of course I adopted a cocker spaniel. Of course I named it Ginger (my parent’s dog). And of course it’s obedience level is awful and won’t sit on command. It’s always cool when you’re in an elevator and your pocket barks. Very professional.


8. Korea + Drinking = Match Made in Heaven. You may have heard that Koreans like to drink. You have no idea. Company dinners never ever end sober cause inevitably everyone toasts each other and people yell out “one shot” (which basically means bottoms up – not so cool with a full glass of red wine!). But outside of Samsung, it’s pervasive too – Soju (Korean vodka) is dirt cheap and bars are everywhere. It’s very common to see hammered, and I mean hammered, people walking around at night. For example, we tried to grab a cab a few weeks back outside our hotel. Right next to us was a guy, in his 40s, in a business suit, passed out against a street lamp on a six lane road, basically drooling on himself. And this was only midnight! Trust me, it’s pervasive. Here’s a pic of the beloved “bomb shot” – a shot of whisky dropped in a beer. It’s dropped by shaking up a beer, aiming it at the first shot and opening carefully so the shots drop like dominos. Guaranteed to have you hugging a toilet by the night’s end.


7. Cell phone purchasing. So Korea is what is known in the cell phone industry as an "open" market – the carriers don’t subsidize the phones, so you have to pay the full price - $300-700! Ouch. On the upside, when you buy the phone you’re told to ask for a “special gift” which turned out to be…..body deodorant! What tha? Cause when you’re buying a cell phone, no promotion works better than deodorant! The choices are mind blowing – GPS phones with navigation, banking on your phone, broadcast digital TV, Korean to English dictionaries built in (very useful for this gringo), and sliders, sliders, everywhere. Although this isn’t my phone (mine’s the SPH-V9850, such a snazzy name!), I thought I’d share this nonetheless. You should recognize this girl from last week’s post:


6. Norae bang. Literally “Singing Room”, the Korean karaoke. See nuggest #8 for motivation. Yours truly has torn up about a dozen songs in the two times I’ve been, and somehow ended up with toilet paper rapped around his head like a mummy while singing “O Bla Di” that last time. Classy and professional. For an idea of what this turns into see below - courteousy of a co-worker of mine who is a pretty quiet spoken guy…..normally.


5. North Korean Protests. This city loves a good protest. In fact, it’s so common to see police in riot gear around city hall on the weekends, you don’t even notice it after awhile. What are they protesting? How the hell should I know, I only know 200 words in Korean! No, usually it’s anti-American, anti-Japanese, anti-government, and of course the biggest of all, anti-North Korean. A few weeks back, on quiet Sunday morning, we took a 10 minutes cab ride to the city hall area to go cell phone shopping. Stuck in some minor traffic outside city hall, a 10 lane road, this protestor runs out within 10 feet of our cab, and lights a North Korean flag on fire. So hot I could feel the flames with the window closed! Now that’s not something you see everyday. Unforutunately some photographer jumped in front of me to block my camera phone attempt at capturing this moment of glory. Just outside my hotel is the Japanese embassy, home to a protest every Wednesday since they left August 15, 1945!

4. Kimchi. Kimchi, Korean’s national obsession of a dish is everywhere. Fermented, pickled, spicy. It takes some serious getting used to. They are so obsessed with kimchi that in about 2/3 of the apartments I see, there's a special luxury in them – kimchi fridges!
3. Random people. The old lady that wanders the aisle of the subway yelling something while toting an icebox full of cucumbers and a knive, with 5 slices of cucumber on her face. Awesome. And then there’s the guy riding down the sidewalk by city hall with his bicycle trailer selling sets of kitchen knives. What businessman is looking for a set of knives in the middle of the work day? This one!

2. Pissayo. The Korean word for expensive. And damn this city is ‘spensive. Like $17 for a cocktail in some clubs, $19 for an imported beer like a Hoegarden, and $8-9 for a local beer. You can find plenty of “reasonable” $4-5 beers, but damn there’s some pricy places. And then there’s fruit – like $18 for a watermelon. $8 for grapes. $3 for an apple – in the megamart grocery store! On the upside are the hundreds of 20 year old girls in knee high socks hocking their company’s food. They didn’t teach us that gimmick at Kellogg. Of course there are some bargins in this city – taxis, subway, ice cream ($0.50-$1.00), and of course, soju!


1. Hines Ward. Who knew? Hines Ward, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, is half Korean and half African American. Lived in Korea until he was two, then moved to Georgia with his father. His mother, who doesn’t speak English, moved to the US, worked three jobs, eventually won custody of him and raised him. He never learned Korean so they couldn’t communicate growing up. Now that he won the super bowl, of course, Koreans have adopted him as their own, and he’s in ads all over the city. Random. Here he is with his mom this summer in Korea:

서울 (Seoul)

Dynamic Korea! Ubiquitous Dream! Sumptuous Excitement! Harmonious Vitality! Happy Sojourn! Enjoy Video Now!

Exactly.

This is my simple collection of random WTF moments of this “alien” living in Seoul. I’ll probably update this a few times each month and supplement with pictures and the occasional video. I figure the folks I sent this to would be more interested in “lost in translation” moments than the boring tidbits of a weekly journal. (BTW, if you don’t understand what WTF stands for, look it up on Wikipedia or use your imag-e-na-she-own). Today’s installment will be a little dryer than normal just because I’m still getting everyone up to speed and introducing Seoul to y’all. More fun posts to follow, so deal with boring post #1, punk-a-lopes.

With over 23 million in the metro area, Seoul (literally “capital” in Korean) is a packed city, but not that big land wise. Yes, traffic is nasty, but since it’s small, it’s really no worse than Chicago. Besides, the subway and bus system is better than anything we have in the States, including New York. There are 1,000 ft green mountains in and around Seoul, but the city itself is fairly flat - unfortunately, 75% of the time those mountains trap a smoggy haze so you can’t see the distant ones, but when it’s clear, it’s somewhat picturesque.

There is a significant lack of park area in Seoul, thanks to its rapid development, but that should change as the US Army moves a massive base out of the center of Seoul in 2008. Seoul’s 30 miles from the DRPK (er, North Korea), 30 miles from Yellow Sea (the west coast), and has a massive brown river (think Mississippi wide) running through the center of it.

The city is big enough to have multiple downtown areas and a ton of different neighborhood feels – quiet suburban hills , US college-like bars, hyper clubs open past sunrise, ultra trendy lounges, and a million vibrant areas in between.

However, the city, outside 1-2 areas, is VERY homogenous (1% of Seoul, the most diverse city in Korea is non-Koreans) – and the selection of western food is limited to Burger King, KFC, TGI Friday’s, and Outback Steakhouses . With just under 50% of Korea’s population, over 25 universities, government and all the major conglomerates (“chaebols” like Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, and LG) based in Seoul – it is the CENTER of Korean business, culture, education, and government. Oh and in case you haven’t been swept up in it - the “Korean Wave” (Hallyu) or cultural influence of music pop stars and soap opera actors, has swept up much of China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore – the stars here are hugely popular in Asia and the city is VERY trendy – clothes and appearance are probably the single most important thing for Koreans (plastic surgery is big here). You might see 1-2 of these pop stars get marketed in the US soon, since there are plans to pursue that market. Here’s a video of one the hottest female stars here, a Korean Brittney Spears – Lee Hyori – “10 Minutes” – the title of this track is the amount of time she needs to seduce you…..



Ok, that’s enough of a post for today. I’ll follow up with another post in a few. Til then, enjoy this commercial for soju (Korean vodka) – there’s a series of these running on TV now – the main girl is just getting hammered all the time:

Africa Update Number 6 (email from Africa)

Hey kids,

Sorry for such a delay since my last email. Unfortunately I only have
15 minute to pound this one out before teh internet cafe I'm in closes
for the night....so where in the world am I?????

Moshi, the land of Kilimanjaro. Shalini and I just finished our
trek.....7 days, 77 km......but we didn't make it :(

On the summit night, we trekked our way for 5 hours, 45 minutes, but at
18,000 feet, the altitude sickness really took ahold of me. Withing 5
minutes, I fell down three times from dizziness and felt like I was
going to puke at any moment, not to mention the splitting headache. I
took a quick break, was shivering severely from the 0 degree F cold,
took another 20 steps, and had to quit. Soooooooo close. Made it up
to 5625 m (18,370 feet), 60 m short of Gillman's Point, but still well
short of the peak at 5985 m (19,147 feet). Would have taken another
hour or so to reach the peak......I'm pretty disappointed, but life was
no fun at that point and I had to get down. Shalini was a great sport
and despite feeling good, she refused to go any further and follow me
down....

The experience and hike was awesome - I'd definitely recommend the
Rongai route to anyone trying this. Easy hikes, at very very slow
rates for the first 4 days, but then you make it to Kibo hut at 4,700 m
(15,600) and do the real work. A bit sore now (especially my bad knee)
at 25 miles of hiking on the summit day (2,770 feet up, 12,192 feet
down.

The Serengeti was cool visually, but there really weren't too many
animals this time of year - come in the wet season, makes a huge
difference. The Ngorongoro Crater, however, was simple awesome -
possibly the best single day in a national park yet - animals
everywhere, including cheetah, but despite serious efforts, no
leopards. Those little bastards are hard to spot.

Off to Cape Town tomorrow morning for the last week of our trip
(sad!!), but it's been an awesome experience thus far. I'll write more
when I get more time!!

Cheers,

Rob

Africa Update Numero 5? (email from Africa)

Hey Jambo Jambo (hello in Swahali)!

Greetings from Zanzibar, the exotic East African isle of spices, india,
arabia, africa, and a whole lot of filth mixed together!

This might be a longish installment since I haven't had access to
internet for a while (geez, you'd think some of the world's poorest
countries would have lightening fast WiFi everywhere!). So I think I
last updated y'all in Vic Falls, here's what's happened since....

VIC FALLS...

Bungee jumped from 111 m - awesome, freaky, but oddly calming during
the freefall - it wasn't as scary as I expected (riverboarding was more
terrifying). Proud to report that I pulled off a nice swan dive and
managed not to look down until I actaully jumped.

Loads of rainbows, but no pots of gold :( Getting poured on like a
downpour from the falls mist, breaking my digital camera in multiple
places (more on this later), experiencing my first helicopter ride
(awesome), watching Zinedine Zidane headbutt his way into world cup
history.....almost too much to describe, but perhaps best of all was
our high tea experience at the Vic Falls hotel - overlooking the gorge,
sipping in high style, then returning to our tents....

Traded in one travel group from another. Kinda sad to say goodbyes to
some of the previous folks we lost, but we're now traveling with a
better cook, in a better truck, with more space, and some super cool
people - a couple from Ireland (the guy works in the Guiness factory),
a couple from Munich, two Aussie girls, and six people holding over
from the previous group - good times, but we're getting used to a 6:30
am wake up, followed by a 10-12 nap, a few beers after dinner, and a 9
pm bedtime. Yep, that's weak, I know.

ZAMBIA...

we drove. a lot. But, it was nice to actually have access to ATMs
that dispensed money that the local people would take. And, I learned
how to fix a broken gear in my digital camera with a band aid (no
joke).

Zambia is much poorer that previous countries, endless numbers of
villages with mud huts, flat sandish land that's not the best for
farming, and just a general sense of desparation around. On the bright
side, the people were super friendly and during our 14 hour driving
days, we traveled like rock stars when so see kids sprinting from their
mud hut houses just to wave hello. This goes on all day, in EVERY
village. We spent one night in a village next to a primary school, the
kids were incredible, absolutely blown away by getting their pictures
taken and shown to them on a digital camera. Toured their village and
homes....sad, sad story.

Finally, after 5 hours to go 60 km on a pot hole ridden mud road we
reached South Luangwa National Park, the gem of Zambian national parks
(outside vic falls, of course). The park was cool, but despite
relentless attempts to spot leopards during a night game drive, we
still have yet to see one in the wild yet. We did, however, spot some
leopard kill carcass in a tree - that was solid. And, we did spot
three spotted hyenas that ran right in front of our open air safari
vehicle.....what else.....loads of elephants, hippos, baboons, vervet
monkies (males have a bright blue scrotum - sorry, that's a bit crude,
but impossible to ignore). But the real fun came at night on our first
day there....At 11 pm, awoken to the sounds of 2000 pound hippos
grunting 100 feet from our tent. At 1:30-2:30 am awoken to the sounds
of 10-15 elephants chomping on a bunch of trees all around our tents
(100 feet away, max - pretty freaky stuff, especially since we slept
with all four of our tent windows open that night!

MALAWI....

Drove. A lot. Down that same bumpy ass dirt road, for 14 hours, but
made it to Senga Bay, Malawi. This is one of the 10 poorest countries
in the world, but Zambia seemed poorer. The beach and lake is
incredible - huge, but you could still see the blue mountain of
Mozambique on the other side. Didn't want to test the disease infested
waters, so instead I just proceded to get hammered on the beach all
day, lose badly in ping pong, then redeem myself in darts later that
night, all while watching one of our travel mates from England get
absoltuly hammered to the point that he was making up insulting songs
on a bongo to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round".
Entertaining....

The next few days were slower, loads of great beach time in a tropical
setting, but still not too many mosquitos (less than 12 bites thus
far!).

TANZANIA.....

Driving. A lot (catching a theme here). 5 am departures, two days in
a row. Just in time for 5 pm traffic jar in Dar Es Salaam - horns,
dirt, open sewers, garbage everywhere, a million people in the streets,
hot and humid.....in short, typical 3rd world fun! Anyway, may I never
wish it on my worst enemies to come to Dar Es Salaam, just nothing
worth doing or seeing there.

Zanzibar (island 1.5 - 3 hour ferry) from Dar Es Salaam. Had a
frustrating travel day getting here (no thanks to our company which
decided to take a mid day long ferry to save $10, that wrecked the
whole day rather than the shorter and earlier one. Oh, and I wouldn't
recommend putting down 10 beers, doing the limbo, sand headstands, and
getting woken up after 4 hours of sleep but the morning (4 am!!!) call
to prayer for muslims!!! Ugh, nuf of that). Anyway, the town here
(Zanzibar) is very unique - kinda like the narrow alley ways of a greek
island town, but filled with Arab influece, and islam. It's more run
down than I expected with tons of population, but still authentically
African in its feel (not too touristy). Did a tour of Zanzibar's
famous spices (got to see and tastes black pepper, cinnamon, lychees,
fresh pineapple (rediculous), lemongrass, coffee, custard apples,
coconuts, mangosteens, and a dozen other fruits and spices - pretty
cool. Zanzibar is also filled with ruins from the 16th century sultans
who dominated the trade of spices and slaves here. Toured a slave
holding cell yesterday, very very sad - learned a lot that should be
taught in our schools.

And now to today, just finished two dives off the coast - including my
first wreck dive. Good times, but the visiability, coral brightness,
and size of fish has been better in other dive sites - still very very
good diving though and always fun to float among some stingrays and
nemo! Off to sundowner drinks now and nightmares about finishing Kili
and getting eaten by Lions in the Serengeti!!!

Hope all is well. Glad to see the Cubs kicking ass. Thanks for all
your emails....

Signin' off for now,

Rob

Africa - Update Numero IV (email from Africa)

Greetings from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - one of the seven wonders of
the world, twice as talls as Niagara and 1.7 km wide. Just finished
rafting the Zambezi river this morning and nearly drowning while trying
to riverboard (think boogie boarding down a class IV rapid - scary
stuff). Anyway, good day, but tomorrow should be better when I bungee
jump 111 m off the Victoria Falls bridge - why? I haven't a clue.

Anyway, since I last wrote, we hit the Okovango Delta in Botswana,
which despite being wealthier in GDP per capita than Namibia, looks far
poorer. Anyway, after a long journey, we jumped into wooden canoes to
be "poled" for 3 hours into the deep bush where we camped for a few
nights and did bush walks during the day. Let me tell you it's a
little scary when you come across elephants when you're on foot - those
suckers can charge you (which one did to a few people in our group!).
Also, saw lots lion and hyena tracks - that's pretty freaky when you're
on foot. Other than that, shared the hokey pokey with the local
Botswana people (not my idea!), listened to hippos grunt 100 m away
from our tents, and saw tons of giraffes, zebra (they're everywhere),
birds.....

After that, we heading to Chobe National Park - awesome! Really
amazing experience taking a cruise along the river - saw another wild
animal ever 3-4 minutes - elephants from 10 m, hippos, crocs, monkies,
baboons, eagles, vultures, dead elephants being eaten by crocs, impala,
elephants swiming across a river, two lions 50 feet away, cape buffalo,
and a ton more - really cool - best part of the trip hands down.

Now we're in Vic Falls, actually relaxing for a few days, decided to
get a hotel room than we're splitting four ways to break up the camping
a bit, but let me tell you, Zimbabwe is really struggling. Very 3rd
world, lots of harassment on the streets offering all matter of carved
wood, trinket, marijuana (yep, got that last night). Don't feel too
safe walking here at night, but totally fine during the day and our
campground / lodge is like a fortress. Their economy is a mess, and
their currency is laughable - 100,000 Zim dollars per US dollar (was 57
Zim dollar per US Dollar 2 years ago - you can imagine what it's like
here), and the largest bill is 100,000! But, given that, Vic Falls is
pretty touristy, and much more expensive than expected - actually cost
$15-20 for dinner and more shockingly, beers and $3-4 dollars rather
than the $1.25 I've been paying all along!

Anyway, the falls are simply stunning, really beautiful gorges all
around and the people, while poor and looking for money are really
friendly - just desparate, with something like 80% unemployment at the
moment and dictator who's been in power since 1980.

Leaving my group of 20 tomorrow morning, four continue on with Shalini
and I (two british folks in their 20s and an Aussie couple in their 50s
- really cool people). A bit sad to leave this group behind since it's
been good, but looking forward to having more space on the bus (only 8
total on my trip from Vic Falls to Kili). The journey's ahead will be
long (I've heard 14 hours some days) and the road's bad, but the
journey's been awesome so far and things are going great.

Thanks for all your emails, it's great hearing from you.

Til next time,

Rob

Checkin' In Volume III (email from Africa)

Hi folks,

Greetings from Windhoek, Namibia (on Fidel Castro street, no less)!
Not too much to report since our last check in, but just got done with
a few days in Etosha National Park - amazing - tons of animals - 30
lions (10 of them ALMOST took down a giraffe), 30 elephants, 15 rhinos,
50 giraffes, hundreds of wildebeest, thousands of zebra, springbok
(deer), and countless jackals scratching at our tents at night - hard
to sleep with that going on and they're howling! Been a bit colder
than expected at night (need a hat and gloves sometimes), but plesant
during the day (no mosquitos so far), especially my solid diet of Coke,
Doritos, and candy bars between meals. Operation six pack is a long
way off.

Anyway, I didn't end up skydiving (weather issues), but we still tore
it up on the sand dunes on some 4 wheeling ATV's - good times. Heading
to a border town in Namibia tonight to see some leopard feeding before
we cross into the Okovango Delta in Botswana tomorrow and camp in the
bush for a few nights (a "poler" has to push us in a canoe for three
hours down a river to our camp site). Don't want to swim in these
waters though - crocs and hippos are around! Anyway, everything's
going great, wish I could share some photos - the animals get so close,
the scenary is beautiful, the people are friendly, the infrastructure
is top notch (might as well be a US national park with teh hot water
showers and power), and the weather's been clear every day. CAn't wait
for what comes next....

Cheers,

Rob

Checkin' In Volume II (email from Africa)

Hi all,

Just checking in after our first week in Africa. It's been an amazing
week, seeing lots of unbelieveable desert dunes in Namibia, but little
in the way of animals thus far - we did have a few jackals wandering
our camp last night but the big game animals will come this week when
we leave the desert for the wetter areas. The group I'm in is large -
20 people: a couple in their 20s from Australia, two independent
british travelers in the 20s, a 50-something couple from Australia, a
father/daughter from Holland, a family of 5 from Minnesota (kids 17,
20, and 22), a couple in their 50s from Florida, a single girl in her
20s from Australia, a 20 something couple from Sweden, and Shalini and
I. The bus driver and tour guide/cook are from Zimbabwe - really nice
guys. Pretty diverse - in some ways good, in some ways bad. Either
way, most are leaving after Victoria Falls. Camping's been fun but a
bit cold - fun sure to some when we're in the bush camping among the
animals with no fences!

Anyway, been a lot of long bus jornies thus far, but the dunes we saw
in Namibia yesterday were amazing - truly stunning and we had a really
cool tour with an African bushman who talk us all kinds of technqiues
to survive in a 145 degree desert and how to kill an Oryx....

We're in Swakopmund, Namibia now, awaiting a big day tomorrow of ATV
riding over the dunes, sledding, and skydiving....yes, skydiving.
Internet's been really sketchy here - very very slow so if you send me
an email over 100k, I'm NOT GOING TO OPEN IT. You've been warned - no
attachments. Also, while, it's generally well developed (good roads,
flush toilets, plenty of western products, and hot water showers), I'll
probably only have internet access once per week at best. Feel totally
safe, happy, well fed, and excited about the future.

Off to Etosha NP next (big game), then a few smaller parks in the next
week before heading into Botswana. Looking forward to finally leaving
the desert and seeing from animals - so far only Oryx (look it up),
jackal, ground squirel, ostrich, gamebok (deer), and mountain zebra.
Oh and besides the freezing desert cold nights, the stars are AMAZING!

Gotta run, til next week....

Rob

P.S. I'd post some of our amazing pics, but the internet is SO sketchy here....

Africa I (email from Africa)

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give you a heads up that we made it to Cape Town safe
and sound - flights went well despite a strike from Iberian's flight
attendants. We missed a connection in Joburg, but got on a flight an
hour later - no worries. The weather is great here, sunny with a
slight chill - reminds me of northern California. Very beautiful,
dramatic coastline, and the city seems very western and clean.

Anyway, not to much to report yet. I guess we have a full group (20
people) which can be both good and bad - we'll see tomorrow when we
make it. Madrid was fun for the one day we saw it, just wandered a bit,
took some jet lag naps in the park, and saw some cool plazas and a good
art exhibit on Picasso (Guernica and Goya's famous 1808 massacre
painting were there). Had a little Sangria, little bit of Tapas,
little bit of World Cup (Spain played last night).

That's it - all is safe and sound. Hopefully I'll check in soon in the
next few days but it's up the coastline tomorrow morning (we're 7 hours
ahead of Chicago).

Take care,

Rob