Noops Moves

Restday with a Hangover

anoop — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Today is my Cousin sister(Remya’s )Wedding in India. I really wanted to be there as a brother. I really wish her the best and a part of me is very sad that im not there on her big day.Love you sis! Well I always hate next day after a big day/night..well who doesn’t? oh yeah the one’s who don’t drink they always seem smart to me the next day. Today is supposed to be the lazy rest day were we supposed to get over jet lag and be ready to start our hike the next day.My plan on killing the virus with alcohol didn’t work.I seem to have flu and congestion and bad throat infection too. Oh well no big deal I hope. Oh by the way I think out of the BIG 5 my favourite is TUSKER!! All 4 of us tried to get out of the hotel and go for a little walk across the road. And they we got told off by a guy that we should go out only with a guide and not by ourself. Its so annoying cause you know he is just trying to get you to pay for a guide. Also he was just one of the porters there not even an official staff. But cause we couldn’t be bothered we just stayed in and had a lazy afternoon. We had out briefing and introduction to our guide in the evening around 7. We were introduced to our guide BRUCE. I already read lot of reviews about him and they all been good and lot of people who have hiked with him recommends him. He seem to be a very nice guy and after the intro he kind of went through with what we will be doing and what we need to have. About our route,gear,medicines,snacks,different camp sites,porters,maybe a bribe to rangers . We Leave tomorrow for 10 day hike….Mt.KILIMANJARO…….. HAKUNA MATATA!!!!

Melaine and Kelly

anoop — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:25:00 GMT

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About 10ish in the morning we had a knock on our door and so we met Mel and Kelly for the first time and it was as if we just clicked with just switch of a button. I knew straightaway we are going to be a great group and the next 2 weeks are going to be the best. I have spoken to Mel over the phone last year when we were in India at same time,but we couldn’t catch up cause of time constraints.

For anyone giving reasons as towhy they are not doing things they want to (especially the work reason),take a look at these girls both are successful cooperate lawyers and its amazing to see them things they want to.

So all 4 of us visited Moshi just to laze around and check out the town. We got harrased by the locals to buy stuff and some of them wanted us to come have a look at their shops,bear in mind not buy but just look so later they can force you to buy J.

Here is one conversation I had with a young guy.hmmm lets call him Mr.young!

Mr.Young: Jambo

Me: hello

Young: were are you from? are you from Canada? People from canada are very good

Me: No I live in Australia.

Young: Oh land of kangaroo’s. Australia is a nice place too. But I don’t like Germans

Me: (Laughs) I don’t think German’s are bad.

Young: you should come have a look in my shop. I have paintings and lot of good stuff.

Me: No thanks we are just looking around.

Young: just look don’t have to buy

Me: No thanks maybe another time

(so he shows me few beaded bracelets he has)

Young: buy one of these because only if you buy this I can buy a book and if I don’t have a book I cant go to school tomorrow.

Me: No thanks

Young: why you don’t want me to study? Why don’t you buy one and I can go to school tomorrow.

Me: I want you to study but I don’t want to buy anything.

Young: Are you from Germany too? I think you are German!

And this is when Mel saved me. Thank you so much Mel J.

After this I was stressed out as you can imagine so what do we do???

We had out first KILIMANJARO BEER!!!!!

As we were sitting around having a beer a guy showed us a T-shirt with the BIG 5 on it. Wondering what the BIG 5 are? Kilimanjaro,Serengeti,Tusker,Safari and Konyagi. The first 4 are the famous local beers and Konyagi is another alcholic drink which surely is not my favorite.

So Mel,Kelly and I bought a Big 5 T-Shirt each and for the rest of the night we went through the list and had few rounds of each by the end of the night except Konyagi. We had a shot of Konyagi and didn’t like the taste at all. Maybe it needs to be mixed with some sweet flavored soft drink. I don’t know Im not going to try it again. I had decided to stick with only beer while im in Africa. It’s my safety plan after my drink was spiked about 2 months ago J.

Well as usual plans change. The when they told us the bar was going to close soon at the Springlands hotel,Kelly decided to buy a bottle of VODKA. They told her the price and Tanzanian Shillings and poor kells had just finished conquering the BIG 5 so she miscalculated the conversion. Cant blame her,imagine you been drinking and relaxing and all of a sudden you have to do Math in your head? Oh well the simple mistake was she thought its about USD 16 but it turned out to be USD 68 for a bottle of VODKA. But the good part is we didn’t know it until we checked out. Remember we only sign our name and room number to use or buy and service in the hotel.

I was really sick in the morning but here I was getting smashed on local beers. Hmmm im theory of counterattacking the virus..haha maybe it might work. Maybe the virus will get totally drunk and die. Well what can I say the day started with me being a non smoker and here I was finishing off a ciggi Mel had given me to hold.

Im not sure what time I got to bed but it was an awesome first day with the girls and they are great. Lots and lots of fun.

The only sane person in our group that night was Christine. She doesn’t drink and a I think when the smoking got overboard she left to her room for the night J.

Melaine and Kelly friends for life!!!!!

Springlands Hotel,Moshi

anoop — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:00:00 GMT

About an hour’s drive (very bumpy and dusty) from the Kilimanjaro Airport is Springland’s hotel in Moshi were we party before and after Killi hikeJ.

Ok here is how things work in this hotel. For everything you buy or use you just sign in a receipt with your name and room number. It’s easy and really awesome when you had few drinks but can be annoying sometimes.

So Christine and I got checked in sharing a room with 3 beds and Pvt bathroom. I was glad to see mosquito nets hanging on top of each bedJ. It’s been ages since I slept inside one of those.

The hotel has Gym, swimming pool, Massage service, bar with a garden and lots more. I went for a swim in the evening not realizing how cold the water would be(think it would’ve been better if I visited the bar and had few drinks before I jumped in the pool). I was expecting a heated pool ..yeah right I guess I have to get into the cold shower habit for next 3 months J.

Had a quiet day just relaxing and I was also coming down with cold and was getting nervous that it might hinder my Killi hike. Mel and Kelly (2 friends from USA) would be joining us tomorrow and would be very interesting to see how we get along cause for next 2 weeks 4 of us will be stuck in a mountain and I have heard a tough hike can really make or break good friends.

The food is buffet style and I’m not sure if it’s the tradition here but there is soup always before dinner J. Soup oh gosh little did I know in 2 weeks I will be sick of any kind of soup. Too much of anything is no good and I totally understand the saying now.

Ethiopia-Kilimanjaro

anoop — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:30:00 GMT

The flight to Killi was great. Christine was next to a guy who was Tanzanian and they got along well. I was seated next to a grumpy African lady. I said hello and smiled and got a F.O reaction from her. So my brain started going dude get the hell out of there if you could and escape I did. I asked this really hot air hostess if she could find me another seat and she got me a 3 seater.Oh by the way Ethiopian Airlines do have some beautiful Air hostess. So I stretched out on my 3 seater ordered few drinks and relaxed. I wasn’t really planning to drink till I get to Kilimanjaro.Oh wait when I left Melbourne my plan was not to drink till I finish Mt.Kili.But my theory is the only reason you make plans are so you can change it and some of my close friends know I like the “There is no plan and that is the plan “theory too. So plans changed, I had few drink saw the top of Killi through the clouds from the plane and thought wow what we are going to do is great. Landed in Killi and got through the Airport with no issues and then I got introduced to the Jambo (Hello) word. .Got some Tanzanian shillings (1 USD converts to 1290 Tanzanian Shillings).

Jo'berg to Kilimanjaro via Ethiopia

anoop — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:00:00 GMT

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Writing the first half of this while waiting for our flight to Kilimanjaro from Addis Ababa via Nairobi. Feeling a bit sick, think I might end up with a sore throat. The last 12 hrs hasn’t been the best. Think I really kind of got to know TIA (this is Africa).Everything just went wrong yesterday i.e. from the time we got to Jo'berg airport to fly out to Ethiopia. I kind of misplaced my passport pouch(another old habit). It was in was in my laptop bag, but I just didn’t look in the right pocket. So here we were at the airport going through my whole baggage(1 big and a hand luggage and laptop bag) .As usual Christine tried to calm me down she kept saying it should be here. Oh well after a few calls back to the lodge to see if I left it back there and few minutes of stressful search Christine found it. That was the good news and the bad news was I had to repack :).Got through check in pretty quick. Our baggage's were going directly to Kilimanjaro means we wont have it during our 12 hr break in Addis Ababa. we are kind of stressed about this cause all our hiking gear is in there and fingers crossed it will turn up when we land in Kilimanjaro.

The flight to Addis Ababa oh gosh what can I say was a night mare. The seats were too small and it had like a common screen for entertainment. I was in the middle seat and Chris at the Aisle, deal was if a hot guy turns up at the window seat Chris gets to sit in the middle and if it a pretty girl it will be me.Well it wasn’t a lucky day for me so guess what? An old African lady turned up and Chris had a smile in a face saying all yours buddy :). Just when we thought oh well it can only get better from here, what can be worse than flying for 6 hrs in a very uncomfortable flight with not the best entertainment and food?

Well the worse was waiting for us…Addis Ababa Immigration for transit!!!

I don’t want to go too much in detail but we had to wait about 2.5 hrs to get out….TIA buddy TIA!!

Got to Melkn International Hotel and guess what another long Queue to get keys to the room..TIA!

So had dinner first because the rooms were not ready. It was a buffet so guess what another big queue.

I didn’t even know what I had, was some kind of meat :) and rice. I was like what is that taste in my mouth :D.

So after dinner and about 15 min wait finally got our room. Had a very warm shower and tried fixing my 32 GB SD card(the stupid thing is faulty). So ended up staying up till about 2.30 AM.

Got up 6.30 AM cause we had a 7 Am pick up. Finished Breakfast(bread, scrabbled eggs, tea) and jumped on the bus to the Airport. Got through immigration with no issues this time, took us only about 15 min to get all the way in. Only irritating thing is the scanning, had to pretty much take even my shoes off and that too twice..ANNOYING!!!! So then its 9.15Am in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and our flight is in a5 min. Will be flying to Kilimanjaro via Nairobi getting into Tanzania 1.50 PM local time. So that is another 4hr 50 min flying. I'm so tired of flying just want to be on ground for more than few hrs :).

Wel will update how the flight to killi was when I get there.

Mufasa Backpackers,Benoni,South Africa

anoop — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:46:00 GMT

Landed in South Africa 4PM yesterday and the flight wasn't the most pleasant one. Its the closest i have come to throwing up on board.But we survived that and got out and didn't have too many issues coming out.

Our connecting flight to Kilimanjaro is about 22 hrs later so we decided to stay in Mufasa Backpackers were Christine stayed the last time and she loved it.

Mufasa Backpackers is in Benoni about 20 min from the airport.Run by Toinibr and Juan,its a beautiful and very homely place to stay.The best part for me about the place were the dogs(4 in total):).

www.mufasabackpackers.com

Got picked up by Juan outside B3 which is the domestic arrival terminal.I couldnt just wait to get to the hostel and just sleep,I was soo tired with the jet lag and everything.Once we got to the lodge Toinibr showed us around. I hit the bed after playing with the dogs and updating facebook status. Didnt really feel hungry or couldnt be bothered.

It was pretty cold night and i wouldve loved a heater :).

And then i heard it!!! a ROOSTER waking me up with its cuck doo koo's. wow that hasnt happened for such a long time. I got a feeling Im going to love this trip.Hang on im supposed to be pissed off cause i couldnt sleep longer. But i wasnt i slept for about 10 hrs and feeling good againSO went for a walk about 5.30AM. It was damn cold and i just ended up playing with the dogs.

We flying out of Jo'berg via Ethiopia to Kilimanjaro @2 pm.

If you in Jo'berg do stay in Mufasa its a very nice place and the you will have a great host in Juan and Toinibr.

Upnext..KILIMANJARO!!!!

Gallery: Africa

anoop — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:22:00 GMT

Day 1- 15hrs 35 min of Flying

anoop — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:13:00 GMT

Day 1 and a very early start. The itenary was Melbourne to Sydney @ 6.30 Am and then from Syd to Jo'berg @ 10 Am reaching Jo'berg at 4.10 pm. Havent slept for about 24 hrs now so hoping to catch up on sleep on the way to Jo'berg.I always have a habit of getting to the airport at the last minute and as usual almost missed my flight from Melbourne to Sydney.But hey as usual luck favours the brave and here im waiting for my flight to Africa. So a bit about who im travelling with? Chrisitne who i met about a year and half ago.We had a common interest (Hike Kilimanjaro) and over the past year we have become very good friends hking few mountains in Australia.She is the organised one and it kind of helps me cause im anything but organised :). well right now she isnt near me cause she took a flight 30 min earlier to Syd and Im just waiting for her to turn up. Am i excited hmmmm noooo i need sleeeeeeeepppp!!! well i cant be bothered typing anymore so wait till I type from African time zone :)