Chapters 4,5 of 8

Victoria Falls Part 1

travb — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:58:00 GMT

Victoria Falls

We are in the town Livingstone, Zambia.

We are officially in "proper Africa".

The road conditions, the infrastructure, the buildings, the people, all very very poor. But everyone here is so friendly, it's almost scary. You think they want to scam you, but they are just that friendly.

Our first day when we arrived by plane was mid afternoon. We got to the hostel and immediately starting booking activities.

Activity 1- Boose Cruise/Sunset Cruise and white water rafting.

We did the boose cruise the first night. We met a really nice guy from Chicago our age, and a couple from Joburg slightly older. All enjoyed the drink on boats while watching the sunset, we got lucky. The cruise was filled with an older crowd, but as we hung out on the second level of the boat, near the bar, we didn't even notice. The sun set was incredible- See the pictures. They served a chicken and sausage dinner on the boat as well which was very good. As we got all juiced and fed, we returned to dock and headed back to town. We then found a friendly local who took Mark and I to a local bar in town. He told us how the country was very poor, but friendly, but many sufferings as we could tell. We enjoyed our evening, returned the hostel to finish the night with our friends from the cruise.

The second day we visited the falls. We had heard its like entering a giant rain cloud. That's exactly how to describe it. We were soaking wet 2 minutes into our visit. You get to go on a bridge right in front of the falls which was incredible. As it was the end of the rainy season the river was full and that meant the falls were loud and roaring, but with all the water came the mist. It was tough to see the falls at times, but the times you could see it was amazing. As well walked around, you could see people bungy jumping from the near by bridge. You can also visit a place through the gorge called the 'boiling pot'. Only pictures can describe its beauty. The view from the boiling pot was incredible.

The third day was white water rafting. We went with the same guy and couple as the booze cruise as well as a fellow German (it seems 90% of people who travel are Germans, they must hate their country or have lots of money, ill go with the latter). The instructor was very nice and ended his command instruction with, we will hit a cat 5 rapdi, we may flip we may not. Right as we entered the fist rapid, it was just like the movies we were up and down up and down, getting drenched along the way. Finally we got to the cat 5 rapid. We hit it, and IMMEDIATELY FLIPPED THE RAFT. All I remember is falling backwards, opening my eyes and seeing darkness, I kicked as hard as I could to the surface and the 5 seconds it took me to reach the top seemed forever. I about went into panic mode, like the panic mode as a kid when you dove into the deep end and were fight for air at the bottom and come up on the kid on the float and you immediately think your trapped and drowning. As I surfaced, I saw our flipped raft and everyone swimming towards it. We were flowing very fast through the current, but our helmets and life vests worked just like they should. The instructor and I jumped on top of the raft, he pulled a road, we both grabbed it, fell backwards and the raft flipped onto its right side. We all jumped back in, but Jared of the Joburg couple was floating seamlessly down the river. We did have to guides in Kayaks following us along the way and the man in the Kayak grabbed Jared and awaited for us to grab him. The rush was incredible and I can't wait to white water raft again.

Stay Classy America

JoBurg and Kruger Park

travb — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:56:00 GMT

JoBurg and Kruger-

We arrived to Joburg at 1pm after a 20 hour bus ride through the night. I am the guy who can not sleep on busses, cars, and planes, but this bus, the seats reclined almost to 180 degrees and I slept like a champ on the bus. We were the only western travelers on the bus, but were treated like we were a regular on the bus.

Once we arrived in JoBurg, we read several different places that outside the bus/train station was very dangerous, and as we arrived, these stories appeared to be correct. We made sure we had a ride from our Hostel and the guy picked us up right on time.

We stayed outside the town near the airport as we needed to rent a car for Kruger and for a bit of safety. The hostel we stayed at outside of town was basically an older couples house with some bunk beds and an outside bar. The couple were incredibly friendly and helpful. There was only an italian couple staying there which were very nice. We went out to get Chinese food the first night which was incredibly cheap and good. We departed dinner about 8:15 at night to find every store closed down the main road. As we were looking for a bottle of wine to enjoy the rest of the night, we did not find it.

The next morning we picked up our rental from the airport. SA Drives on the other side of the road (damn brits). Mark drove and was use to the driving from our Cape Town bikes. On our way we hit a huge traffic jam. It was a complete police shut down of the road pulling over every driver. There were about 12 spots where cars pulled in where you were basically interrogated by the police. They saw we had just a Texas drivers license (which is perfectly fine internationally as long as its not for an extended period of time). The cop said otherwise, saying it was illegal and we had to pay a R500 'fine' (aka bribe). This made SA put a bit of a sour taste in our mouths which is unfortunate because as Mark said later, SA was a 99 now its a 96.

We arrived to Kruger Park backpackers and set up in our bunks and went into town to a local grocery store and got supplies. As we came back we were again one of the only people there. The workers told us as it was Easter weekend we should get to the gate of Kruger by 5:15am, because the park opened at 6am. We got there at 5:20 and were about 10th in line.

We entered the park and right away we saw four or five giraffes eating. As we drove through the park for two days, the roads were nice, plenty empty, and plenty of animals. So many Impalas it was ridiculous. We did not see any Lions though. We did see plenty of elephants, zebras, hogs, hippos, rhinos, impalas, giraffes, etc. We also saw three cheetahs eating which was awesome.

As our first day was coming to a close with only a little day light left we stopped along the side of the road and in a quick instance we saw 3 different groups of animals all take off in a sprint in the same directions. We could not see the animal chasing them, but seeing them all take off was quite the awesome site.

As we returned back to JoBurg, we had our flight ready to go to Livingstone/Victoria Falls.

Stay tuned-

Stay Classy America.

Cape Town Part 2

travb — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:47:00 GMT

The things I have achieved/more or less done during the dates between - March 26 - April 2 are enough to grant it top weeks of my life.

Things discussed-

1. Dived with Sharks

2. Saw the most beautiful sunset (twice)

3. Took an amazing wine tour with 4 other incredible folks.
4. Sky Dived.
5. Rented motor bikes and drove to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope.
6. Climbed Table Mountain/Repelling and Lion's Head.

1. Diving with Sharks-

This was something I wanted to do before I even showed up to Cape Town. It started with booking the event through the Hostel which was set up perfectly. They arranged for us to be picked up at 9 am, which was done smoothly. Once picked up we met the others we were diving with, manly Germans and Swiss (continuing theme of Cape Town, all lovely people though).

It was a two hour journey outside of cape town where the views just seemed to get better and better, of mountains crashing into the seas and wine gardens all around. Once arrived, they served us a small breakfast, and as seeing how I get horribly motion sickness I was wondering to myself how good this was going to taste once it comes back up on the boat.

Once breakfast was done, they took about 20 of us out on a large boat with no cage, and didn't explain much. We rode 15 minutes out into the ocean to find the cage floating in the sea. The guide then instructed us to get into our wet suites, due to the water being just around 50 degrees F. He told us, as they were throwing chum and blood into the water, to be thinking good thoughts and the "sharkeys" will come.

As soon as he was midway through his speech, he point into the distance where you could see the fin and the shadow of a giant sharking coming in the distance. It took a good ten minutes for a shark to appear with in the a 10 foot radius but at this time we were all primed and ready with out wet suits. The first group got into the cage ( 5 people ), Mark and I were to wait for the next. Two sharks circled the boat and jousted after the bait which was very exciting.

As the first group exited and we entered the frigid water (Mark opted out of the wet suit) the wet suit actually performed better than expected and kept us quite warm. With in minutes of us in the cage, three sharks were radiating our boat. One came straight towards the bait which was between the boat and the shark. As they pulled the bait up and the shark missed it (people arn't legally allowed to feed the sharks), the shark became disoriented and rammed the cage, literally inches away from my fingers inside the cage. I was eye to eye with a great white shark, something the size of a suburban. The thrill was amazing. As we exited, a total of seven great white sharks were surrounding our boat. As you will see in the pictures, these guys were massive. All in all the trip was very safe and we were well taken care of. I recommend this to anyone in cape town.

2. The most amazing sunset occurred two separate occasions. The first one, Deama, our new German friend at the Hostel, asked if this person with her car wanted to go see the sunset on Signal Hill just up the road, and then asked if Mark and I wanted to join. We soon jumped up, grabbed a few roadie beers, and headed off. Once on top of the hill you could see the cliffs in the back ground with the clouds rolling off, the sun sinking into the ocean, and the nightlife of Cape Town brewing up. Only pictures can accurately describe this.

3. The wine tour, haha, what can be said? Mark, Kate, Max, John, and Aaron, if you're reading this you are probably chuckling a bit as well. The tour started out at 8am. Aaron was still hungover from the night before, a champ you are my friend for making it. We were joined by two Germans, a mom and daughter. We had a small group which was really nice. We started off at the first tour which was about 45 minutes away outside of Cape Town, and tried around 5 wines. And was given a wine tour, and was told how to taste wine, what to look for, and the ever important question, WHY DO PEOPLE SWIRL THEIR WINE BEFORE THEY TASTE IT. We got a decent buzz, which wore off before the 2nd stop. At this point in time our tour guide also told us that South Africa has won the best award from Brandi/Cognac in the world years running. This meant we must try of course. All the wine was free here, but the glass of cognac was R10 ($1.25) we were loving it. Except Kate, but she drank it like a champ. This is when things got good, and we went on to the third and fourth different wineries.

At the fourth winery, Mark and I looked to buy a case of Wine to send back, we got the order form and of course the bottom says, " We do not deliver to Montana, Iowa, and Texas ".
Perfect. That night we watched a rugby match between Cape Town and Pretoria (a match that was described to us as best as- 'yanks vs sox'). Rugby is awesome, always has, always will. Very exciting Saturday to say the least.

4. Sky Dived. AMAZING. Simple story told quickly- (Remember this is Africa, pretty much anything goes) - Guy picks us up in a van, drives us 45 minutes, and picking up two swiss people on the way. Very friendly people, our conversations with them kept our hearts at ease as we approached the air field. As we arrived and exited the bus, we get to the airport hangar, and a guy walks out says hurry up we need to get you guys in the air. In no time we signed our death forms and were being hooked up in our harnesses. Our tandem professionals told us as hooking us up, "We'll fly for 20 minutes, I'll hook onto you with about a minute left, we'll throw open the doors, you'll tuck your feet under the plane as you sit on the edge, I'll push us out do all the work, you just have fun." With in five minutes of arrival we were in the plane. I mean shoe box with wings. There was one seat, the pilots. We fit 6 people inside, 3 jumpers, 3 tandems. I set on basically my guides lap, mark sat on my feet, and the other guy sat in his tandems lap. The engine was so loud, we didn't talk we just looked out at the amazing ocean, beaches, and table mountain from a far.

The events went off just like he said. My tandem signaled to everyone that it was time to get going, he then attached to me, two at the shoulders, two on my sides. The door slid open and Mark was first to go. He did it seamlessly. Put his legs out and they jumped out. The next guy went no problems and I was last. He told me to slide my feet under the plane, so I was basically sitting on the ledge of the plane waiting for the guy to push us out. This was absolutely the longest 4-5 seconds of my life. Then we basically barrel rolled out and managed to do a few flips on the way as well, just so we could see the plane we jumped out of. Once level, I flew my arms out and just looked all around in complete free fall and gazed at the pure awesomeness of Cape Town. We free falled for ab 35 seconds, and in that free fall the air was so loud I could barely hear my tandem. And with out notice he pulled the cord and it was as if someone put a concert on mute. Everyone was silent, and we just drifted to the ground. With the parachute open, he had to circle around the landing spot a few times which made me quite dizzy. Once we landed I sat on the ground for a good two minutes while Mark and I discussed how amazing it was.

5. Renting scooters in Cape Town is highly recommended and a blast. We set off to get the bikes early in the morning in an effort to drive to a few towns along the way but ultimately to Cape Point. The owner down at Dr. Scooter was a great guy and set us up well and told us all we needed to know. And just like that we were off. It didn't take long for us to figure out how to drive the scooters and the drive was pretty much just one road. The scenery on the way is amazing. Camp's Bay, Hout's Bay, and a couple other beaches are out of this world. My pictures can not do justice of how beautiful these beaches are. The majority of the ride was similar to Highway 1 in California. Steep cliffs on skinny roads, falling into the ocean. We stopped into Simon's Town and saw the penguins on the way as well. Once we got into Cape Point (R85- must have been a UNESCO site) we road our scooters through deserted roads down to natural beaches with no one in site. The mountains in the distance were incredible and seemed to be untouched, and everything around seemed to be as if no one had ever discovered it and how amazing it would be to be a sailor and just pop up onto this site. The pictures again a must see, but will not do justice.

The way home was a bit different. The hour and a half drive we made on scooters was through what can only be described as a Category 2 Hurricane. Easily the most dangerous thing we've ever done, and hind-site being 20/20, I'd never do that again. We survived though.

6. Table Mountain and Lion's head are amazing and two totally different climbs. Table Mountain is a whole day affair. There is a cable car going up, but we chose to climb it both times. The climb takes about an hour and a half, but is pretty grueling, but rewarding. The view going up is incredible, but the view once on top makes you speechless. I could spend hours up there just looking at the view. The second time we climbed, we decided to repell off the side of the mountain. Mark having done this before was a champ, myself a little different. I started out well but once we got half way there was a ledge on the rock that I stood on for a good 5 minutes because I could not bring myself to just free fall with no rocks to guide me. I manned up and did it. I think I'm good for a while on repelling. And not to mention, Kate totally nailed it and made me look like a wuss.

On our last night, Mark, Kate, Max, and John climbed Lion's head to watch the sunset. This climb is pretty easy for the first 3/4ths and the last fourth there is actual climbing which gets tough but is fun. I hope to get the pictures from John and Kate from the sunset view, they were amazing.

The next day we hopped on a bus to JoBurg, which took 20 hours over night. Stay tuned for JoBurg/Kruger Park.

Stay Classy America.

Vic Falls and off to Malawi

travb — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:30:00 GMT

We finished Vic Falls with a an amazing day which included repelling,zip lines, and the infamous Gorge Swing.

After Youtubing Gorge swing, this was a leading factor as to why I wanted to come to Africa. I knew it was a must, just watching the video made my adrenaline rush.

Mark and I paid for a full day at the gorge swing with the other activities, and low and behold we were the only ones there. It was like being at Astroworld with no one else.

We started with repelling/abseiling. It was a straight drop and we got hooked up and since we had just done it 2 weeks back we felt like pros/swat team members.

Next was the zip line, which was basically a wire from canyon side to canyon side and you basically just run and jump off the cliffs edge and fly to the other side. They did have to pull you back by a rope while youre hovering over the canyon, this was the scariest part.

Next was repelling frontwards down the mountain, this was awful scary. I chickened out at first but manned up and did it. The first 20 feet was terrifying then it became fun.

We then went to the gorge swing. It was crazy looking. I went first. They hook you up to two harnessed as you walk up to the cliffs edge. There's three ways to go off the edge, the first one is you do it backwards and basically the guide pushes you off. It's a 5 second free fall before the swing catches in. I walked to the edge turned around and the guide counted from three. I was then pushed off. It was the longest 5 seconds and thrill of my life. You look like youre about to hit the canyon bottom when the swing catches and you fly through the canyon. Once the swing caught, both Mark and I just started screaming and cursing in the thrill the 1 we were still alive and 2 how amazing it was. We did it two more times- 1 frontwards which was very scary and the last time stepping off backwards.Ill never get over the thrill or the feeling. It was close to if not better than sky diving.

We were off on 36 straight hours of bus rides to Blantyre Malawi. Luckily as so many problems occured, horrible bus smells, and break downs, we had 3 others with us, two Israeli women and a girl from Holland to share the experience with.

Dubai

travb — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Dubai

I wrote up a very elaborate story about my times in Dubai, sadly when I hit submit, our internet (which is sometimes very spotty here in Cape Town) went out and I lost it all therefore I will only provide highlights.

Our trip started off with a two hour delay on top of an already 15 hour direct flight as well as a very early arrival and only 4 people actually going through Term D security in Houston. It was amazing; we didn’t have to sit through the long and awful security process that is terminal C and E in Houston.

One note worthy thing about Emirates flights, the planes first and second classes are incredible, if you’ve ever seen Soul Plane it was similar and Mark and I were Tom Arnold walking into third class out from first. None the less there was 75 people maybe on a 500 person flight. Mark and I each got our own row, through up the arm rests and got horizontal quick which was good for sleeping on the plane but just awful in our attempts to combat jet lag.

We arrive around 9pm Dubai time and got a cab straight to the hotel which was in a non hustle bustle part of the city. As I mentioned earlier our jetlag/ sleep problems were just beginning and we both were asleep by midnight and awake by 3am. I bet our bodies thought it was a mid afternoon nap.

We left the hotel in pursuit of the tallest building in the world at around 7am. The train into the city was about a 15 minute walk, and once we arrived to get on the train, half of the city of Dubai was on this train ready to go to work in the morning. We were the only westerners around and lack for a better term literally just ‘boss hogged’ our way into the train. It was very similar to the videos if you’ve seen them of the Chinese being squished onto trains. None the less after being tightly squeezed and unable to move for two ladies, they both missed their stops. We got off one stop premature just to walk around the city.

The whole city is 80% under construction and there’s several full and complete buildings 100% empty. The whole city has to be 85% empty its nuts. Upon arrival to the tallest building, which you could see anywhere in the city, it was amazing to see how this thing towered above everything, it’s literally only something out of a Sci Fi futuristic film.

Next door to the tallest building is the Dubai mall which is absolutely ridiculous. At least 3x larger than the Houston Galleria, but weirdly has every single shop from Houston in this mall and more. There’s even every Houston restaurant there- Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, and even TEXAS ROAD HOUSE. The outside of the mall in front of the tallest building is a very cut and paste but on a more amazing scale is the fountains from the Bellagio in Vegas as well as all the Italian buildings surrounding. Only way to see it and understand it is the pictures.

We did go to the top of the building, over 200+ stories, but one can only go to the 124^th story, because the rest are residential floors. The view was great, although there was a sand storm blowing in the region that reduced visibility pretty good. But again just see the pictures.

Once leaving there, we headed for the Palm. As the outer rim of the palm is in itself its own island you had to take a tram out there. I believe Trump owns the majority as his name is spread all over the place. We both had no idea they had developed any of the ‘branches’ of the palm and once we saw the houses on these branches we were stunned. They were brilliant and their beach front property was stupid. There are literally no waves in Dubai that we found. Upon exiting the tram at the Atlantis Dubai, it appeared to be very private and secluded and members only type deal and when you see the pictures you’ll understand why. Well Mark and I just walked in like we lived there and set up shop on the beach. And for any of you that know one of my ultimate goals in life, which is to find a beach with pool water, i.e. the exact 180 degree from Galveston, I’ve finally found it. The water was crystal clear and you could literally get a pool float and drift out with out a worry in the world.

Once it began to get dark we headed to the “old town” which is where the natives have their markets/bazaars. We walked around being damn near the only westerns/tourists around which was great. There wasn’t too much crowding us and bothering us to go into their shops like I imagined there would be like I experienced in East Asia. We sampled the local food and even bought some spices- ( coming your way gma hall).

Day 2-

Mark had the great idea of taking a 2 hour bus to Abu Dabi with no research, and hell I don’t blame him one bit. Abu Dabi is just as rich as Dubai, but upon arrival we found there is almost zero public transportation and anything worth seeing is outside the city and only by an expensive cab ride, therefore we ate lunch in a mall where there was a Fuddruckers, seriously. We walked around a bit but headed back to Dubai in which from the road you can see the grand mosque. It was incredible to see. Once back we headed to the Sail Boat hotel, and its inclusiveness really sucked so you couldn’t get anywhere close, and at $1500USD to stay there a night, I wouldn’t want me around there either. We then headed to the Indoor ski place which was really neat, but we did not ski. Just take a look at the photo gallery once I have it all up and you’ll see some good stuff.

All in all the people were incredibly friendly and all my preconceived notions have been erased. We both felt that three days was perfect amount of timing in Dubai for us, as the shopping malls are not much more than something to walk through once for us. But the beaches were amazing and again everyone was so friendly and helpful it was incredible.

Stay tuned for Cape Town posts-

Until next time…

Cape Town Part 1

travb — Fri, 6 Apr 2012 04:56:00 GMT

Cape Town Part I-

I’m almost speechless and can not write on how amazing this place is. It’s day four and we’ve already extended our leaving date twice.

The pictures you will see or have seen do not do justice for this city. It literally has everything with in a 5 mile walking radius from where we stay. 5 minutes south is the downtown business area, .5 miles walk is Long street where all the bars and shop are, 2 miles uphill in Table mountain, 2 miles past that over the mountain and beaches that are breath taking.

We did not meet anyone really to hang out with in Dubai, but Cape Town Backpackers is incredibly different. It’s like a family here; there are around 10 of us that do a lot of our activities together. For example last night about 9 of us went out for pizza and spiked milk shakes and the night before that there was close to 12-14 that went to a huge parade. During the mornings we all conversate, revealing our plans for the day and as the length of everyone’s stay and the amount of time in which they arrived restricts us a bit of doing daily activities together but the night time is always a place to reconvene and share of the days tales. For example, our buddy we’ve met who’s from Germany has been here for a month, so has done a lot of the hikes, shark dives, sky dives, and wine tours already, so Mark and I are gathering all of the new arrivals to join us on Shark dives tomorrow, sky dive on Friday, and wine tour Saturday (which will be part two of cape town posts).

To begin- we came in around 5pm from Dubai on Friday, and once arrived at the hostel we were treated great and were shown to our rooms. We are staying a 10 bed dorm, which is better than a 16 which I stayed in Amsterdam. The majority of the people here are our age plus and minus a few years and when we tell everyone about what we think is an incredible journey (which they can’t take away from us) tell us their travel plans and make ours look weak. For example, one but hich hiked through Sudan, another has been gone since September and has been from Iceland to Ireland, to Thailand, to Morocco and down to Cape Town and sees no end in site. Another guy whose from Melbourne Australia hasn’t been home since 2006 and has been a straight nomad ever since!

But none the less we all got along great and everyone was very welcoming. We even got in the group which all went out to Long Street and had an amazing times out at all the bars. For the past 3 days we have had our own little group, Mark, myself, two Italian women, and a girl from Buenos Aires. We have gone out to breakfast and dinner together both Saturday and Sunday, but have now left.

For our daily activities, day 1 started out early afternoon with a hike to the top of table mountain. I can’t describe in words about the hike, it is too amazing to describe you will just have to see the pictures to believe me. The climb was tough but so rewarding. Sunday we went to the beach and again only pictures can do justice. Monday was a chill and relax day for Mark and I as we booked all of our weekly activities and just hung out till 6 when we were going to 2-1 pizza special with $3USD spiked milk shakes (which are absolutely incredible). In the mean time while waiting for 6 to arrive I set off by myself to hike the 2^nd leg of the mountain which is Lions Head. Took about an hour and a half to get where I wanted to be, I sat and watched people paraglide. INCREDIBLE. Please see pictures and videos of this!

As I am writing this, Mark is off Seal Diving, and for me I am heading off the hike the third leg which is Devil’s peak which will be an all day affair.

Part two will consist of all the noteworthy activities such as shark diving, sky diving, motor bikes, and wine tours.

Until then, you stay classy.