Go Hurry Curry!

10/9/09: Zanzibar, Tanzania

I was just getting comfortable on our hour-long bus ride back to Stone Town this morning when all of a sudden we stopped and the driver hopped out to look underneath. The bus was stuck on a small hill, and it looked like several of us fatter riders were going to need to get out for it to continue. Then it hit me…

The paintings!

I don’t know what made me think of them – maybe it was the beautiful ocean scenery, maybe it was the shop nearby selling African art, or perhaps it was my wife sitting next to me shouting, “Kevin, we left the paintings in the room!” Whatever it was, sure enough they had managed to slip my thorough hotel checkout check (a long-standing Curry family tradition where the dominant male in the family searches every nook and cranny of a hotel room as the rest of the family is leaving). Sometimes I get so caught up in the drawers and under the bed that I forget to check the obvious places like next to the door.

We had fortunately gotten stuck just a couple hundred yards from our resort, so in my all-purpose Chaco flip flops I took off running back to the room while the rest of us on the right side of the bus piled out. Sprinting at a Usain Bolt pace (the pace he uses to walk old ladies across the street), I managed to grab the paintings, keep my flip flops on and return to the bus just as the last of everyone was getting back on the bus.

Unfortunately, one of our other travelers was not so lucky, as she realized once we stopped in Stone Town that she left her passport in the safe in her bungalow. Fortunately, she was able to catch a cab back and still get back to the town in time to catch our ferry (as we had planned two hours to eat and shop in Stone Town).

Kids, the lesson here is to not get carried away in the African souvenir markets, because if we had never bought the paintings we would have had nothing to forget. Oh, and don’t forget your passports anywhere ever.

_____________________________________________

Pictures of the Day: I just think this boat’s name is cool.

Remember Ben and Kate and Trevor and Jan? We all randomly bumped into each other at dinner tonight. (Also, in case you tried to visit Ben and Kate’s website, it got hacked into but should be up and running again in the next few weeks.)

Read Full Post »

Just Because We’re on Vacation Doesn’t Mean We’re Not Learning

10/8/09: Zanzibar, Tanzania

Before leaving on our African tour, Zhou and I had heard that we would have internet coverage every few days through the continent. Having been spoiled the last ten years on high speed connections, we immediately assumed that with all the fast internet we’d come across, we could Skype and Google Chat without any problems.

Today, nearly one month into our stay, we tried talking through the internet for the first time. We sat on the beach with “excellent” wireless connection to our PC and struggled for 15 minutes to try to reach my parents. When we finally did get through, they could hear us fairly well, but we couldn’t hear a word they said. We talked at them for a half hour before our time limit was up, although I think the connection cut out five minutes before we finished talking.

On one hand, it’s amazing to me that we can sit on a beach on a remote island off the coast of Africa and be heard by two people in their home halfway around the world. On the other, we have learned not to take our high speed connection at home for granted.

Here are some of the other things we have learned during our time here in Africa:

Cell coverage here is amazing. I can’t believe that Zhou can’t get cell coverage at her parents’ home outside of Philadelphia, but our tour guide can get coverage in the Impenetrable Forest nowhere near a big city in Uganda and our safari drivers can get coverage throughout the Serengeti.

Africa actually gets cold at night. Fortunately, we have our Lafuma Warm ‘n Light sleeping bags! They have been very good to us both on frigid nights in Uganda and Kenya and on hot nights in Tanzania.

Kenyan peanuts are better than Ugandan peanuts. They just are. They’re cheaper too.

Never wear white in Tanzania. It took a little less than a full day for the white shirt I was wearing to became tanner than David Hasselhoff. I suppose that’s ok when you change shirts at the end of the day, but unfortunately I had to wear this for the next two and a half days as well.

It’s hard being tall here. I have bumped my head on so many things here that I’m beginning to feel like Tim Taylor walking into his basement over and over and over again. A quick list, with approximate number of times in parentheses: the truck (12), trees (countless), hut roofs (5), bus roofs (1, but it was a jagged metal beam), safari jeep fold-out roofs (10), truck lockers (1, at full speed getting out of the rain), truck antennae (1, as it got snapped by a tree on a safari), doorways (3), showers (2, but as a percentage this is like 50%), etc. I really wish I would have kept a stat on this – I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

Exercise is not a right, it’s a privilege. Luckily, I probably wouldn’t get fat if all I did was eat ice cream and watch TV for two years. However, I have never felt as out of shape as I do now. An example of life here:

I’m sleeping peacefully on the bumpy bus when an abnormally large bump nearly sends me flying out of the seat. In the split second I open my eyes to catch myself, I notice my sandwich in front of me. Now that I’m awake I might as well eat lunch, so I scarf down the sandwich just in time to fall back asleep again. If I’m lucky I’ll then wake up for dinner.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to hiking in Nepal.

Tents can be more comfortable than beds. Most of the best nights I have had thus far have come while sleeping in the tent. We don’t use pillows, but the thin mattress pad has actually become quite comfortable. We slept on beds in Nkuringo and the Masai Mara, and both times I was quite excited to get back to the tent. (This is not the rule though, as the beds here in Zanzibar aren’t too shabby at all. If only our mosquito nets kept the bugs out of, and not in, the bed.)

_____________________________________________

Puzzles for Postcards

Incorrect SNL Headline Anagram when a Native Zanzibarian Died
Fey Cried Murder

_____________________________________________

Ohio Picture: Sunset over the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar seems like a logical place for a good ol’ O H I O.

_____________________________________________

Picture of the Day: It was tough, but I finally overcame my watermelophobia (fear of watermelons). Not surprisingly, it didn’t really have much taste to it.

Read Full Post »

The Picasso of Present Day Zanzibar

10/7/09: Zanzibar, Tanzania

It’s been almost a month since we left the States, and we’ve yet to buy much of anything. Zhou’s been granted a few shillings here and there to pick up earrings and a sarong, but I’ve managed to even escape buying a new shirt despite the pleas of Zhou and everyone else on the truck. So by my count before today we’ve spent exactly $6.34 on unnecessary souvenirs on our trip (or, more precisely, Zhou’s spent that much).

Today though, we let our eyes get the best of us (is that even a saying?).

Actually, it all started yesterday as we were walking around Stone Town looking for an internet café with flash so we could upload some blog posts. We allowed one of the merciless salesmen to coerce us into walking into his store, where thousands of paintings hung on the tens of square feet of wall space.

Shoot, let me back the story up one more time. Zhou always says that I’m too nice to merchants who I have no intention of buying anything from. I’ll talk to them for hours if they want, up until the point where they want to sell me something, at which point I’ll either lie (“Sure, we’ll drop by your store right after we use the internet”) or make up an excuse (“Sorry, we’re travelling for a while and don’t have room in our packs for your unbelievably gorgeous merchandise”). Either way though, I usually use the wrong lie (the merchant will wait outside the internet café the entire hour we’re in there, then hunt us down when we try to sneak out the back door) or excuse (they’re selling a bracelet which goes on Zhou’s wrist, not in our packs) and then I simply run away.

Now that we’ve got that background out of the way, I was simply appeasing this particular merchant, knowing that neither Zhou nor I wanted to buy a painting. (a) They’re too expensive and (b) we’re planning on decorating our mansion when we return with all our own photography from the trip.

Then we walked inside, and I immediately realized we would probably end up buying one painting.

One day, three merchants, and five paintings later, we left Stone Town with a much lighter wallet, a much more sheepish Kevin, and a much happier Zhou.

Up until this point I have always wondered how come everyone on our trip has seemed to buy trinkets at every store they visit, but now I realize that even I can succumb to these impulses. I was very impressed by the quality of the paintings, and even realizing that they probably look better in the store than they will at home, it just seems cool to have real African art. Through using the negotiating skills she honed at the equator and using me as the impatient husband (“C’mon dear, this isn’t working. Let’s go check out a few other shops.”), Zhou haggled us a price that even me, the Scrooge of American round-the-world travel, couldn’t pass up.

…

Shortly after this purchase, several of our friends from our tour also bought paintings from this store. Two didn’t see the exact one they wanted, so the merchant / painter sat down outside and painted to their specifications. It was really cool to watch him work, and in less than a half hour he had completed both works of art.

Siuha’s requested painting of the Big Five

He was so good, he could work in Color Accent mode!

All the happy buyers with their art and artist

_____________________________________________

Scrabble Picture: The lack of two z’s in the bag didn’t stop us from taking this awesome shot.

Update: Finally, we played a game of 99-tile Scrabble! Zhou won 412 – 338, and we each bingoed twice. Those of you holding your breath for this can now exhale.

_____________________________________________

Picture of the Day: I carried the Olympic torch all the way to Zanzibar!

Read Full Post »

Ooooh, Barracuda

10/6/09: Zanzibar, Tanzania

Zanzibar – worth 28 points in Scrabble, if only there were two z’s in the bag…

We arrived in Stone Town, Zanzibar this morning after getting up at 4:30am to catch the 7:00am ferry from Dar es Salaam. The ferry had several unexpected amenities, including air conditioning (first AC since coming to Africa) and flat screen TVs (that inexplicably played Rambo IV with hilariously wrong English subtitles even though the movie itself was also in English).

Stone Town is a beautiful place, definitely one of my favorite stops on the trip so far. It is filled with little winding alleyways, cool restaurants and lots and lots of tiny, crowded shops.

my love affair with the sky + cool Arabian-influenced architecture

After checking into our unexpectedly posh hotel (A bathroom! In our room! Who cares if it’s only separated from the “bedroom” by a shower curtain?), we spent the afternoon walking around the town and exploring before heading to the Stone Town night food market for dinner.

The night food market was set up in a park by the water. As soon as we entered the market, we were greeted by the smells of fresh seafood and shouts from nearby vendors. We quickly figured out that most of the tables sold the same foods, so we decided to stop at a friendly seller’s table to get some food. There were tons of different kinds of skewers – tuna, shark, shrimp, lobster, mussels, barracuda, etc. We sampled lots of different things (naan, samosas, a mussel skewer, “mango fruit pizza,” a GIANT crab claw) but couldn’t bring ourselves to try barracuda. I did try the local specialty drink though – sugarcane juice with a little bit of lime and a little bit of ginger. It was refreshingly delicious.

I’d love to say that a romantic stroll along the water was the perfect end to a great day, but alas, it was not to be. The last thing we were offered before leaving the night market was some weed.

_____________________________________________

Picture of the Day: Kevin plays hide and seek at the night market

Read Full Post »