Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Day 67 - 68, Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe
We had more plans for Botswana, which is arguably the destination in South Africa for wildlife viewing. Before we were to dive down into the wilderness in search of game, we had another must-see stop on the agenda though: Victoria Falls. The Zambezi thunders down 100m on a lenght of more than 2km, rivaling the Iguazu and Niagara falls for its size and splendour. It also shares the fact that its waters are bordered by at least two countries, in this case Zambia and Zimbabwe. As the avid reader will have recognised, we were in neither of these. Luckily, the Northeastern corner of Bostwana has border crossings with both though, so our genius plan was to cross into Zambia, then go over to Zimbabwe at the falls and come back from there to Botswana. There were a few inherent flaws with this plan, but we couldn't have known beforehand.
We started out with a short 20 minute drive to the border in the morning. The Botswana post is on the south side of the river (5 minutes), then you need to cross the Zambezi on a rickety ferry that leaves the second the single truck that fits on it has stopped its engine. In fact, it left that fast that Yeya had to jump across half a meter of water to make it as she had to travel as a passenger (only driver in car). The Zambia side then resembled what our story-book expectations of an African border had been. Various ramshackle buildings with hand-written signs on it, half a dozen "helpful" friends showing us the way and us - clearly unprepared - not having a clue what the current exchange rate for Zambian kwatchas was. That said, after a bit of negotiation with the street money-changer, a 60 minute treasure hunt between immigration, customs, the police, the tax office and some third party car insurance brokers and the payment of US$50 and roughly 300.000 kwatchas (check Google for the rate) we - and more importantly our car! - were officially and legally in Zambia. One interesting learning: Irish nationals don't have to pay for a visa in Zambia (all others pay US$50).
We had to briefly recover from this experience with a nice lunch in Livingston, before making our way to the falls. Another US$45 changed ownership from our pockets into Zambian state coffers, but it was fully worth it. We walked every meter of available path on the Zambian side of the falls, got soaked by the "mist that thunders", saw a big family of baboons close up and had some great views on the very, very impressive falls themselves. We both have seen Iguazu, and Victoria Falls certainly can hold its own against that. At the height of the wet season, up to 7 million liters of water flow over the edge every second(!), which in layman's terms, is a whole lot of water! To give some things away, we saw the falls from the Zimbabwe side the next day and liked that one as well, but our vote goes to the Zambia side both for the views and the diversity of things to see and do. All in all it took us nearly three hours to see everything.
After all the excitement, we had to relax and since our wallet was taking a beating anyway, we decided on a decadent sunset cocktail at the Royal Livingston. This posh, colonial style hotel sits directly on the Zambezi river about 300m away from the edge of the falls and you can both see the sunset and see and hear the thunder of the water going over the edge. We both laughed when we saw a group of monkeys swiping cucumber slices from an empty table right next to us by the riverfront (we had seen something similar in Kruger at breakfast), but sure thing we were next in line. Not three minutes later the same monkey jumped on our table and grabbed my (full!) cocktail glass. In a reflex motion I grabbed it as well and for a split second things were undecided as we both held on to the glass. The monkey then accepted my considerable weight advantage and decided to retreat - without my cocktail. This kept us talking for a while and hadn't the majority of backpackers in our lodge that evening been drunk and unpleasant, we might well have shared the story over a drink. Given their state, we preferred to keep to ourselves, though.
The next day saw our next border crossing. The Zam/Zim border (as it is lovingly called) across the bridge over the Zambezi at Victoria Falls is quite a common one for tourists, so organisation was much better than at the ferry. Extortionism was alive and kicking here as well though. Road tax, carbon tax, car insurance and a "commercial vehicle fee" for our rental car were due and this time the Irish visa was nearly twice as much as the German one (which came at US$30). All in all, we supported the struggling Zimbabwe government with nearly US$250 for an 8 hour visit to their country. We had learned by then that doing the trip the other way around would have been much easier (and considerably cheaper!), but in hindsight that was easy to conclude and since we already had done half the trip there wasn't much we could do.
The main activity of the Zimbabwe part of the trip was the aforementioned visit to the falls (which was not as good, but even more expensive than on the Zambia side). We added a short drive through the city, during which we bought a couple of trillion Zimbabwe $ for substantially less Botswanian Pula. For those not quite fluent in currencies, Zimbabwe had hyperinflation until 2009, when he government decided to introduce the US$ as legal tender. Before that, the largest bill that still got printed was a staggering 100 trillion Zim $. Really! Speaking of money, we had hoped to do some activities at the falls such as rafting, but the pricing was prohibitive given our substantial border expenses, so we decided to take it easy and head back to Botswana (or Bots, as the locals call it). On our return we drove through the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe, but either chose a bad time or a bad road, since we saw nothing of interest at all. Our third border crossing in two days went very smooth and once again, the efficient, friendly - and cheap! - Botswana border procedures delighted us.
We started out with a short 20 minute drive to the border in the morning. The Botswana post is on the south side of the river (5 minutes), then you need to cross the Zambezi on a rickety ferry that leaves the second the single truck that fits on it has stopped its engine. In fact, it left that fast that Yeya had to jump across half a meter of water to make it as she had to travel as a passenger (only driver in car). The Zambia side then resembled what our story-book expectations of an African border had been. Various ramshackle buildings with hand-written signs on it, half a dozen "helpful" friends showing us the way and us - clearly unprepared - not having a clue what the current exchange rate for Zambian kwatchas was. That said, after a bit of negotiation with the street money-changer, a 60 minute treasure hunt between immigration, customs, the police, the tax office and some third party car insurance brokers and the payment of US$50 and roughly 300.000 kwatchas (check Google for the rate) we - and more importantly our car! - were officially and legally in Zambia. One interesting learning: Irish nationals don't have to pay for a visa in Zambia (all others pay US$50).
We had to briefly recover from this experience with a nice lunch in Livingston, before making our way to the falls. Another US$45 changed ownership from our pockets into Zambian state coffers, but it was fully worth it. We walked every meter of available path on the Zambian side of the falls, got soaked by the "mist that thunders", saw a big family of baboons close up and had some great views on the very, very impressive falls themselves. We both have seen Iguazu, and Victoria Falls certainly can hold its own against that. At the height of the wet season, up to 7 million liters of water flow over the edge every second(!), which in layman's terms, is a whole lot of water! To give some things away, we saw the falls from the Zimbabwe side the next day and liked that one as well, but our vote goes to the Zambia side both for the views and the diversity of things to see and do. All in all it took us nearly three hours to see everything.
After all the excitement, we had to relax and since our wallet was taking a beating anyway, we decided on a decadent sunset cocktail at the Royal Livingston. This posh, colonial style hotel sits directly on the Zambezi river about 300m away from the edge of the falls and you can both see the sunset and see and hear the thunder of the water going over the edge. We both laughed when we saw a group of monkeys swiping cucumber slices from an empty table right next to us by the riverfront (we had seen something similar in Kruger at breakfast), but sure thing we were next in line. Not three minutes later the same monkey jumped on our table and grabbed my (full!) cocktail glass. In a reflex motion I grabbed it as well and for a split second things were undecided as we both held on to the glass. The monkey then accepted my considerable weight advantage and decided to retreat - without my cocktail. This kept us talking for a while and hadn't the majority of backpackers in our lodge that evening been drunk and unpleasant, we might well have shared the story over a drink. Given their state, we preferred to keep to ourselves, though.
The next day saw our next border crossing. The Zam/Zim border (as it is lovingly called) across the bridge over the Zambezi at Victoria Falls is quite a common one for tourists, so organisation was much better than at the ferry. Extortionism was alive and kicking here as well though. Road tax, carbon tax, car insurance and a "commercial vehicle fee" for our rental car were due and this time the Irish visa was nearly twice as much as the German one (which came at US$30). All in all, we supported the struggling Zimbabwe government with nearly US$250 for an 8 hour visit to their country. We had learned by then that doing the trip the other way around would have been much easier (and considerably cheaper!), but in hindsight that was easy to conclude and since we already had done half the trip there wasn't much we could do.
The main activity of the Zimbabwe part of the trip was the aforementioned visit to the falls (which was not as good, but even more expensive than on the Zambia side). We added a short drive through the city, during which we bought a couple of trillion Zimbabwe $ for substantially less Botswanian Pula. For those not quite fluent in currencies, Zimbabwe had hyperinflation until 2009, when he government decided to introduce the US$ as legal tender. Before that, the largest bill that still got printed was a staggering 100 trillion Zim $. Really! Speaking of money, we had hoped to do some activities at the falls such as rafting, but the pricing was prohibitive given our substantial border expenses, so we decided to take it easy and head back to Botswana (or Bots, as the locals call it). On our return we drove through the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe, but either chose a bad time or a bad road, since we saw nothing of interest at all. Our third border crossing in two days went very smooth and once again, the efficient, friendly - and cheap! - Botswana border procedures delighted us.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Day 65 - 66, Limpopo, South Africa and Eastern Botswana
After a quick good-bye from Liliana (who had even given us a breakfast-to-go!) we were off to the car rental station. If you think renting a regular car takes time, try getting a 4x4 with a boatload of equipment for a month. It took 90(!) minutes for everything to be finalised, but we learned a ton about the car, from deflating tires for off-road driving to how to set up our rooftop tent and use the built-in fridge. 10am finally saw us on the road and to my big delight our first stop proved to be very fruitful. My hat had been handed in by the taxi driver overnight and we were able to pick it up at the airport!
Finally on the road for good, we were both quite eager to start this part of our trip, so despite a comparitively boring stretch of road we were excitedly planning distances, calculating driving times and getting acquainted with our moving home. We also soaked up the atmosphere outside the car, especially as we got further and further north into Limpopo province. About half-way to the Botswana border we passed through the town of Mokopane, where we got a good view at the non-Johannesburg part of South Africa (and were the only white people in the whole area). We also got used to various things venturing onto the road, humans as well as domestic animals of all types.
Two hours later we crossed our first African border from South Africa into Botswana, something that took much less hassle than we expected and only set us back 14€ (or 140 Botswanian Pula) in fees. Go Botswana border police! The road in Botswana didn't get any more interesting, but setting darkness caused some unwanted excitement, as cattle and goats kept crossing the road and people suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The fact that we didn't know where out camp site was didn't help, but we ended up pulling into a nice, but somewhat deserted bush lodge at about 8pm. After our first 500km, we were happy to give tent, cooking equipment and everything else its first official workout.
The music from the nearby bar had been going until about 5am, but we slept decently enough to be up by 7.30am, but only managed to leave the camp site by about 9.30am. Packing needed to be optimized, we concluded. Our first fuel stop followed (diesel = 0.75€) and then we were off to travel the lenght of Botswana along its Eastern border. This stretch didn't have many highlights, but a group of elephants casually crossing the road about 100m in front of us sure had us excited! After a short trip to the town of Kasane for cash and food, we concluded the day at our second campsite, further practicing packing and unpacking, as well as cooking in the dark. All in all, we thought we were getting better.
Finally on the road for good, we were both quite eager to start this part of our trip, so despite a comparitively boring stretch of road we were excitedly planning distances, calculating driving times and getting acquainted with our moving home. We also soaked up the atmosphere outside the car, especially as we got further and further north into Limpopo province. About half-way to the Botswana border we passed through the town of Mokopane, where we got a good view at the non-Johannesburg part of South Africa (and were the only white people in the whole area). We also got used to various things venturing onto the road, humans as well as domestic animals of all types.
Two hours later we crossed our first African border from South Africa into Botswana, something that took much less hassle than we expected and only set us back 14€ (or 140 Botswanian Pula) in fees. Go Botswana border police! The road in Botswana didn't get any more interesting, but setting darkness caused some unwanted excitement, as cattle and goats kept crossing the road and people suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The fact that we didn't know where out camp site was didn't help, but we ended up pulling into a nice, but somewhat deserted bush lodge at about 8pm. After our first 500km, we were happy to give tent, cooking equipment and everything else its first official workout.
The music from the nearby bar had been going until about 5am, but we slept decently enough to be up by 7.30am, but only managed to leave the camp site by about 9.30am. Packing needed to be optimized, we concluded. Our first fuel stop followed (diesel = 0.75€) and then we were off to travel the lenght of Botswana along its Eastern border. This stretch didn't have many highlights, but a group of elephants casually crossing the road about 100m in front of us sure had us excited! After a short trip to the town of Kasane for cash and food, we concluded the day at our second campsite, further practicing packing and unpacking, as well as cooking in the dark. All in all, we thought we were getting better.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Day 60 - 64, Johannesburg & Kruger National Park, South Africa
Our stopover on the way to Jo'Burg was Dubai, where we arrived at 1am local time. Nonetheless, the pilot happily announced 35°C when we touched down and we could certainly feel it coming down the gangway. A rather uneventful stopover was made little more exciting due to a late gate change, but besides me making key signings on the football simulator nothing much happened otherwise. 4.45am saw us boarding the second leg of the journey.
On touchdown in Jo'Burg, Yeya's Colombian friend Liliana waited for us at the airport and we drove to the apartment complex she lives in. Helpfully, it's situated on top of a shopping mall, which proved useful for running all sorts of errands. Most importantly though, we had to reconfirm our plans for the next day. It took a fair bit of convincing to the travel agent that our flight and camp reservations for Kruger Park still came through (we had convieniently forgotten to confirm anything over the last weeks). Thankfully, we could use Liliana's local Blackberry for the calls we had to make and also were able to use various office equipment for last minute scanning and faxing. Well worth noting here that everyone in SA seems to have a Blackberry - very unusual to see after the iPhone and Android craze in Europe and the US. After meeting Liliana's family and having a quick bite to eat in one of the ubiquitous shopping malls, we went up to see the lodging for the night, which Liliana had organised. It turned out to be an empty corporate apartment of the highest standard, with a standout shower. Before heading to the very comfy bed we went out to meet some friends of Liliana's though, a lovely Chilean family who made sure we were well fed and watered (or wined) by the end of the night.
The next day started quite early as we were picked up by a taxi transport to the airport at 8am. The distance to Kruger Park is drivable from Johannesburg, but the flight saves a good few hours which helped us to maximise our time in the park itself. On arrival in Nelspruit, we made our way to the most Southeastern corner of Kruger Park. It took us about 30 seconds inside the park to see the first wild animals (Impala) and within 10 minutes we had seen an elephant crossing the road in front of us. Good start! Thirty minutes and numerous animals later we arrived at our home for the next few days, a beautifully positioned and very well done safari lodge with the name of Sheshangeni. In a sign of things to come, we started off with a sizeable lunch, followed directly by our first afternoon/evening game drive of the visit. Our guide Simon proved to be a very knowledgable guy, pointing out various animals, plants and features of the landscape to us. We continued to see a good few animals, most importantly some rivaling male Impala, Giraffe and our first Zebras. The Singaporean family that shared the car with us was hoping for a Leopard viewing, but despite all efforts we couldn't spot the elusive cat. An oppulent dinner concluded the day, before we crawled into bed around 9pm.
Despite the early night, we didn't get that much sleep. Most animals are more active in the mornings and evenings, so that's when the game outings are scheduled and in the bush 6am counts as morning. We had the car to ourselves and managed to add some buffalos and hippos to the list of sightings. Most importantly though, we saw our first big cats, as two male lions were lazying around in the grass right next to the main road. We spent a good amount of time next to them, but they didn't really get up from their bed of grass. Back home, we had an enormous breakfast, so enormous that we had to follow it up with a nice snooze in the sunshine on our veranda. Falling into a repeating pattern not unlike Turkey, the snooze was directly followed by lunch, which we - now in the know - ate only selectively (we knew what was to follow at dinnertime). The afternoon drive was shared with a few very nice and excited South Africans, who were quite talkative and we learned a few things along the way. It was great to see other people who were as excited about seeing animals as we were. As a highlight we sat by the river for a while and added crocodiles, hippos and rhinos to the list of animals sighted. We should also note that there was a really nice picnic set up during sunset, which (obviously) was only a prelude to what was to come at dinner. It featured some nice wine though and also introduced us to biltong, the ZA version of beef jerky. Very tasty!!
Dinner and breakfast came and went, as did our (comparably quiet) morning drive with Simon. Large parts of the area had actually been burned by the park management three weeks before we arrived, so we think that this might have pushed some animals further out into other areas of the park. On the positive side, the view on the remaining animals was very good, as there was less vegetation for them to hide in. To mix things up a little, we changed location mid-day and transfered to a bush camp a little further into the park, where we traded our little chalet for a luxury safari tent, also with a nice little veranda. Not much else changed in our routine though, as lunch was followed by another afternoon drive. Our new guide was called Dixon, who was a really interesting guy. His grandfather had been part of the group of rangers who had created much of the Kruger infrastructure and he had quite a few stories to tell and some strong opinions on poaching and animal conservation in general. We spent much of the drive chatting and learning. We also managed to see a rhino family with a little baby rhino and a huge herd of buffalos lying around in the grass after dark, probably upwards of 100 animals. The day ended - as you may guess - with a lovely dinner, where we met a German couple who was traveling South Africa for three weeks.
Our last day brought us mixed emotions. The last drive proved fairly uneventful, but we really enjoyed seeing the landscape one more time and saying goodbye to Kruger Park. Our travel back to Jo'Burg was a little difficult though, and we lost both a little bit of money (inexplicably, although we suspect somebody got themselves an extra tip) and a much loved hat on the way. We also struggled with some of the car rental logistics, leading to a slighly sour mood. Yeya took the motivating part and successfully got me to go for our first big shopping in the supermarket underneath the apartment, which proved to be a super useful decision and helped to lighten the mood again. A really nice Italian dinner with Liliana and some of her friends also helped and in the end we went to bed with positive thinking.
On touchdown in Jo'Burg, Yeya's Colombian friend Liliana waited for us at the airport and we drove to the apartment complex she lives in. Helpfully, it's situated on top of a shopping mall, which proved useful for running all sorts of errands. Most importantly though, we had to reconfirm our plans for the next day. It took a fair bit of convincing to the travel agent that our flight and camp reservations for Kruger Park still came through (we had convieniently forgotten to confirm anything over the last weeks). Thankfully, we could use Liliana's local Blackberry for the calls we had to make and also were able to use various office equipment for last minute scanning and faxing. Well worth noting here that everyone in SA seems to have a Blackberry - very unusual to see after the iPhone and Android craze in Europe and the US. After meeting Liliana's family and having a quick bite to eat in one of the ubiquitous shopping malls, we went up to see the lodging for the night, which Liliana had organised. It turned out to be an empty corporate apartment of the highest standard, with a standout shower. Before heading to the very comfy bed we went out to meet some friends of Liliana's though, a lovely Chilean family who made sure we were well fed and watered (or wined) by the end of the night.
The next day started quite early as we were picked up by a taxi transport to the airport at 8am. The distance to Kruger Park is drivable from Johannesburg, but the flight saves a good few hours which helped us to maximise our time in the park itself. On arrival in Nelspruit, we made our way to the most Southeastern corner of Kruger Park. It took us about 30 seconds inside the park to see the first wild animals (Impala) and within 10 minutes we had seen an elephant crossing the road in front of us. Good start! Thirty minutes and numerous animals later we arrived at our home for the next few days, a beautifully positioned and very well done safari lodge with the name of Sheshangeni. In a sign of things to come, we started off with a sizeable lunch, followed directly by our first afternoon/evening game drive of the visit. Our guide Simon proved to be a very knowledgable guy, pointing out various animals, plants and features of the landscape to us. We continued to see a good few animals, most importantly some rivaling male Impala, Giraffe and our first Zebras. The Singaporean family that shared the car with us was hoping for a Leopard viewing, but despite all efforts we couldn't spot the elusive cat. An oppulent dinner concluded the day, before we crawled into bed around 9pm.
Despite the early night, we didn't get that much sleep. Most animals are more active in the mornings and evenings, so that's when the game outings are scheduled and in the bush 6am counts as morning. We had the car to ourselves and managed to add some buffalos and hippos to the list of sightings. Most importantly though, we saw our first big cats, as two male lions were lazying around in the grass right next to the main road. We spent a good amount of time next to them, but they didn't really get up from their bed of grass. Back home, we had an enormous breakfast, so enormous that we had to follow it up with a nice snooze in the sunshine on our veranda. Falling into a repeating pattern not unlike Turkey, the snooze was directly followed by lunch, which we - now in the know - ate only selectively (we knew what was to follow at dinnertime). The afternoon drive was shared with a few very nice and excited South Africans, who were quite talkative and we learned a few things along the way. It was great to see other people who were as excited about seeing animals as we were. As a highlight we sat by the river for a while and added crocodiles, hippos and rhinos to the list of animals sighted. We should also note that there was a really nice picnic set up during sunset, which (obviously) was only a prelude to what was to come at dinner. It featured some nice wine though and also introduced us to biltong, the ZA version of beef jerky. Very tasty!!
Dinner and breakfast came and went, as did our (comparably quiet) morning drive with Simon. Large parts of the area had actually been burned by the park management three weeks before we arrived, so we think that this might have pushed some animals further out into other areas of the park. On the positive side, the view on the remaining animals was very good, as there was less vegetation for them to hide in. To mix things up a little, we changed location mid-day and transfered to a bush camp a little further into the park, where we traded our little chalet for a luxury safari tent, also with a nice little veranda. Not much else changed in our routine though, as lunch was followed by another afternoon drive. Our new guide was called Dixon, who was a really interesting guy. His grandfather had been part of the group of rangers who had created much of the Kruger infrastructure and he had quite a few stories to tell and some strong opinions on poaching and animal conservation in general. We spent much of the drive chatting and learning. We also managed to see a rhino family with a little baby rhino and a huge herd of buffalos lying around in the grass after dark, probably upwards of 100 animals. The day ended - as you may guess - with a lovely dinner, where we met a German couple who was traveling South Africa for three weeks.
Our last day brought us mixed emotions. The last drive proved fairly uneventful, but we really enjoyed seeing the landscape one more time and saying goodbye to Kruger Park. Our travel back to Jo'Burg was a little difficult though, and we lost both a little bit of money (inexplicably, although we suspect somebody got themselves an extra tip) and a much loved hat on the way. We also struggled with some of the car rental logistics, leading to a slighly sour mood. Yeya took the motivating part and successfully got me to go for our first big shopping in the supermarket underneath the apartment, which proved to be a super useful decision and helped to lighten the mood again. A really nice Italian dinner with Liliana and some of her friends also helped and in the end we went to bed with positive thinking.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Day 53 - 59, Bodrum, Turkey
On Monday we started part two of our stay in Turkey, heading down to the southern coast, more specifically the city of Bodrum. We had planned to spend some more time with Thomas and Gökce after the wedding and had all agreed on a four day boat trip, aka honeymoon with friends.
Our travels brought us to the world's best airport (according to them)for our short flight to Bodrum. Our hotel, booked the day before was nice and simple, but we didn't spend much time there anyway and headed out for dinner to the much posher Doria hotel, where the others were staying. A georgous pool terrace, a gentle, warm wind and a fantastic view onto the bay and city made a great setting for the conclusion of the day.
The next day started out hot, only to get very hot. As we arrived at our meeting point, I sweated my heart out and it didn't get better when I had to walk to the ATM to get the remaining money needed to pay for the boat trip. Only a substantial amount of water and ice tea was able to cool us down again. Gökhan and Vural had arrived before us, so we chatted while the others navigated hotel issues and other hurdles. Finally, everybody had arrived and we boarded the boat, only to then send out a delegation to buy the required liquids. 1.5 hours and 500TL later, we were all set to sail. Once we left the marina, the wind picked up and in combination with the water, temperatures on board started to become acceptable, if not quite reasonable. The first stop that day led to the first (but certainly not last) jump into the Mediterranean Sea. It was a delight to wash off the sweat worked up throughout the day and we all felt majorly refreshed afterwards.
After our swim, we started to fall into what would become a repeating pattern for the next three days. A period of sailing was followed by a stop in a protected bay. Swimming and jumping from the boat ensued, followed by a short drying period. Next up was normally a very tasty (and healthy) meal, skillfully prepared by the crew. Most people would then take a rest either reading or sleeping, while the crew would get the boat ready for the next leg of sailing. Rinse, lather, repeat. Rinse, lather, repeat. As a result, we literally didn't do anything for the four days of the trip. The activity highlight was a brief land excursion, which ended in more or less artistically performed football kicks off a swimming platform in the harbour. Nonetheless there were achievements, including three books and plenty magazines read, various games of skat played and pülnüdel experiments conducted. I also celebrated my birthday on the last day of the cruise, complete with singing, presents and a birthday cake! Combine that with the nicest company imaginable, 33°C, a light breeze, four swims during the day, three meals and some cocktails in the evening - and you have pretty much a perfect birthday.
Saturday saw us return to Bodrum in the morning. Packing everything didn't take too long and soon we were back on the trip to Istanbul, having said good-bye to our Turkish travel companions and Thomas, who were going back to Izmit. After a slightly hazardous taxi drive we checked into our very posh hotel for the last night in Turkey and gathered one last time for a nice dinner, this time on top of the roof terrace next to the Aya Sofia. Jens took over some of our luggage as did Max the next day, not without a last roof terrace lunch and a visit to the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmed. And who knew that the Grand Bazaar was closed on Sundays! Throughout the day anticipation started to build for the next leg of the trip and by 8pm we were on the way to Johannesburg.
Our travels brought us to the world's best airport (according to them)for our short flight to Bodrum. Our hotel, booked the day before was nice and simple, but we didn't spend much time there anyway and headed out for dinner to the much posher Doria hotel, where the others were staying. A georgous pool terrace, a gentle, warm wind and a fantastic view onto the bay and city made a great setting for the conclusion of the day.
The next day started out hot, only to get very hot. As we arrived at our meeting point, I sweated my heart out and it didn't get better when I had to walk to the ATM to get the remaining money needed to pay for the boat trip. Only a substantial amount of water and ice tea was able to cool us down again. Gökhan and Vural had arrived before us, so we chatted while the others navigated hotel issues and other hurdles. Finally, everybody had arrived and we boarded the boat, only to then send out a delegation to buy the required liquids. 1.5 hours and 500TL later, we were all set to sail. Once we left the marina, the wind picked up and in combination with the water, temperatures on board started to become acceptable, if not quite reasonable. The first stop that day led to the first (but certainly not last) jump into the Mediterranean Sea. It was a delight to wash off the sweat worked up throughout the day and we all felt majorly refreshed afterwards.
After our swim, we started to fall into what would become a repeating pattern for the next three days. A period of sailing was followed by a stop in a protected bay. Swimming and jumping from the boat ensued, followed by a short drying period. Next up was normally a very tasty (and healthy) meal, skillfully prepared by the crew. Most people would then take a rest either reading or sleeping, while the crew would get the boat ready for the next leg of sailing. Rinse, lather, repeat. Rinse, lather, repeat. As a result, we literally didn't do anything for the four days of the trip. The activity highlight was a brief land excursion, which ended in more or less artistically performed football kicks off a swimming platform in the harbour. Nonetheless there were achievements, including three books and plenty magazines read, various games of skat played and pülnüdel experiments conducted. I also celebrated my birthday on the last day of the cruise, complete with singing, presents and a birthday cake! Combine that with the nicest company imaginable, 33°C, a light breeze, four swims during the day, three meals and some cocktails in the evening - and you have pretty much a perfect birthday.
Saturday saw us return to Bodrum in the morning. Packing everything didn't take too long and soon we were back on the trip to Istanbul, having said good-bye to our Turkish travel companions and Thomas, who were going back to Izmit. After a slightly hazardous taxi drive we checked into our very posh hotel for the last night in Turkey and gathered one last time for a nice dinner, this time on top of the roof terrace next to the Aya Sofia. Jens took over some of our luggage as did Max the next day, not without a last roof terrace lunch and a visit to the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmed. And who knew that the Grand Bazaar was closed on Sundays! Throughout the day anticipation started to build for the next leg of the trip and by 8pm we were on the way to Johannesburg.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Day 49 - 53, Istanbul/Izmit, Turkey
We arrived in Istanbul on time after a rather uneventful flight (excluding some substantial confusion in Madrid airport) and our apartment shuttle already waited for us. First impression: It was very warm, despite being midnight. The friendly driver navigated the roads quickly, but had some issues with the apartment door. A few minutes later everything was sorted though and we could adore the fantastic view from the window across the Bosporus. The gang (Max, Kathi, Patrick, Chris and Alex) dropped by a few minutes later and a "quick drink" ended up with going to bed at 5am, since it was great to see everybody again and we had tons of things to catch up on.
The next morning was mainly dedicated to sleeping in, but we managed to squeeze a buffet breakfast, Aya Sofia visit and a bus sightseeing trip into the - again scorching - afternoon part of the day. The previous night showed their impact though and we were quite sleepy throughout the day. This changed a little when Thomas and the rest of the group arrived in the evening and we went out for dinner on an amazing roof terrace in one of the trendy bar areas of Istanbul. More important than the food itself proved to be the musical entertainment in the place, as a three person traditional band went all out for the full three hours we were there, playing right next to our ears at near-deafening volume. Conscious of the still present jetlag, we opted out of follow-up drinks, but ended up lying awake for a few hours nonetheless, falling asleep at around 4am.
Saturday was Thomas' and Gökce's big day, so the whole group made their way to Izmit in the morning. A short train ride ("tünel") was followed up by a boat ride across the Bosporus and a bus ride to our hotel just outside of Izmit. The hotel was very nice, but before we were able to lounge around at the pool we went on a shopping trip to the nearby mall. Suffice to say, we were sweating afterwards and the pool looked enormously inviting, but all in all we were quite relaxed by the time the wedding started at 8pm. The wedding itself was very nice and tastefully done, Gökce's dress was very beautiful and everybody was in a great mood. Things happened outside, including the food and a really nice fireworks show. Jan had a "Dancing with the Stars" performance that received standing ovation from the crowd, everyone joined in on the dancing and the European crew closed down the venue at about 3am in the morning. Not that this stopped the party though, which only ended after sunrise on the rooftop of the hotel. The next day we continued festivities by driving out to the countryside for a fantastic brunch, all organised by Gökce's family. After taking transportation back to Istanbul in the afternoon we were all pretty knackered and only managed to hang out in the apartment for the evening, ordering in food and chatting until about midnight.
The next morning was mainly dedicated to sleeping in, but we managed to squeeze a buffet breakfast, Aya Sofia visit and a bus sightseeing trip into the - again scorching - afternoon part of the day. The previous night showed their impact though and we were quite sleepy throughout the day. This changed a little when Thomas and the rest of the group arrived in the evening and we went out for dinner on an amazing roof terrace in one of the trendy bar areas of Istanbul. More important than the food itself proved to be the musical entertainment in the place, as a three person traditional band went all out for the full three hours we were there, playing right next to our ears at near-deafening volume. Conscious of the still present jetlag, we opted out of follow-up drinks, but ended up lying awake for a few hours nonetheless, falling asleep at around 4am.
Saturday was Thomas' and Gökce's big day, so the whole group made their way to Izmit in the morning. A short train ride ("tünel") was followed up by a boat ride across the Bosporus and a bus ride to our hotel just outside of Izmit. The hotel was very nice, but before we were able to lounge around at the pool we went on a shopping trip to the nearby mall. Suffice to say, we were sweating afterwards and the pool looked enormously inviting, but all in all we were quite relaxed by the time the wedding started at 8pm. The wedding itself was very nice and tastefully done, Gökce's dress was very beautiful and everybody was in a great mood. Things happened outside, including the food and a really nice fireworks show. Jan had a "Dancing with the Stars" performance that received standing ovation from the crowd, everyone joined in on the dancing and the European crew closed down the venue at about 3am in the morning. Not that this stopped the party though, which only ended after sunrise on the rooftop of the hotel. The next day we continued festivities by driving out to the countryside for a fantastic brunch, all organised by Gökce's family. After taking transportation back to Istanbul in the afternoon we were all pretty knackered and only managed to hang out in the apartment for the evening, ordering in food and chatting until about midnight.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Day 46 - 48, Lima
Having friends in many places can be difficult, but it has its clear benefits. In this case, we were picked up at the airport by a private driver, courtesy of Mirko, a friend of Yeya from high school. We also got to stay at his great apartment with view over the golf course in the centre of city. Nice!
After salivating over the lunch menu at Segundo Muelle for about 20 minutes and eating for two hours, we savoured the wide selection of seafood available. By evening we were again good to go out with Mirko into one of the in-neighbourhoods in Lima for some food and cocktails.
Sleeping in a super-comfortable bed was really nice, but unfortunately we had picked up some nasty bug the day before, so neither of us felt like doing much throughout the day. We mainly hung out in bed, used the web, slept some more and watched TV. When Mirko came back home later, we still weren't up for much unfortunately, although we made it up for some tea and soup in the evening and Yeya and Mirko shared some extensive memories and caught up the whereabouts and developments of common friends.
We were quite disappointed that we didn't get to sample the food in Lima more, since we had had excellent food in Peru so far and Lima is supposed to be by far the best city (food-wise) in the country. At least we recovered enough to head out for lunch the next day to meet Deb, a friend of Yeya from her stay in Argentina. We got to see the Lima Google office (which is tiny for now) and also got a feel for the business district of Lima, walking through the area littered with shopping malls and office buildings. After lunch the main thing left to do was to catch up with Mirko one more time to say bye and then grab a taxi to the airport for our long flight back to Europe. We had thoroughly enjoyed our time in South America, but were excited for seeing everyone again on the next part of trip: Turkey.
After salivating over the lunch menu at Segundo Muelle for about 20 minutes and eating for two hours, we savoured the wide selection of seafood available. By evening we were again good to go out with Mirko into one of the in-neighbourhoods in Lima for some food and cocktails.
Sleeping in a super-comfortable bed was really nice, but unfortunately we had picked up some nasty bug the day before, so neither of us felt like doing much throughout the day. We mainly hung out in bed, used the web, slept some more and watched TV. When Mirko came back home later, we still weren't up for much unfortunately, although we made it up for some tea and soup in the evening and Yeya and Mirko shared some extensive memories and caught up the whereabouts and developments of common friends.
We were quite disappointed that we didn't get to sample the food in Lima more, since we had had excellent food in Peru so far and Lima is supposed to be by far the best city (food-wise) in the country. At least we recovered enough to head out for lunch the next day to meet Deb, a friend of Yeya from her stay in Argentina. We got to see the Lima Google office (which is tiny for now) and also got a feel for the business district of Lima, walking through the area littered with shopping malls and office buildings. After lunch the main thing left to do was to catch up with Mirko one more time to say bye and then grab a taxi to the airport for our long flight back to Europe. We had thoroughly enjoyed our time in South America, but were excited for seeing everyone again on the next part of trip: Turkey.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Day 41 - 46, Inca Jungle Trail, Machu Picchu and Sacred Valley
The jewel of South America is how the LP titles Machu Picchu and we fully intended to make the most out of our visit to one of the "Seven New Wonders of the World". Therefore we decided to give ourselves four days to move towards our destination in every imaginable form of transport. Always on our side was to be our trusty guide Rolando, who did a fantastic job in giving us plenty of information on the area and details on flora and fauna as well.
We started with a bus ride to a 4300m high pass on the eastern side of the Andes, followed by a 50km mountain bike ride down said pass on the other side. Despite the downhill part it was quite chalinging to cycle, but the views were simply spectacular and passing multiple climate zones within a few hours was super interesting. We ended up in Santa Maria, at 1200m the lowest point of our journey and we learned that even in tiny towns, Peruvians can cook very well. We walked around the village through nightfall but since not much happened, we went to bed early.
Good that we did as well, because the day began early with breakfast at 7.30 and a transfer bus to our next transport option: boat. More precisely, two rubber rafts waited on our little group and we rafted down the Urubamba river for about 1.5 hours, including a capsizing (of the other boat) and some voluntary overboarding (on both boats). We got soaking wet, but had loads of fun during the trip, definitely something to repeat! After riding, driving and boating the time then came for walking. We dried up pretty quickly as we made our way up the path through the valley. Throughout the trip Rolando pointed out plants, animals and history of the area, so we never got bored. The path itself helped as well, as the original Inca trail that was part of it clung to the mountainside in a highly precarious way. In the afternoon it got easier and we ended the path with a cable bridge ride and a bath in thermal pools that had nearly been destroyed by a giant landslide earlier in the year. A final hard walk brought us to our overnight destination Santa Theresa at 1700m above sea.
Throughout the night it became clear why this part of the country is considered "rain forest": It rained without interruption - our feeble attempt at drying some clothes was thoroughly doomed. We actually delayed our departure by an hour to wait for the rain to stop, and so arrived fairly late at our next mode of transportation, flying. Well, it wasn't really flying, although it looks like it from about 50m away. We had decided to do some zip-lining or, as normal people would say: Hoping that the steel rope on the top of our heads won't give away before we reached the other side of the 150m deep valley underneath. Despite the vertigo-induction, the whole thing proved to be quite fun and we criss-crossed two valleys on six cables with a total lenght of 3.2km. Accompanying us was a group of Irish gap year students, who constantly complained about the missing "thrill" component and that the ride was to slow. I had no idea what they were talking about... The rest of the day we spent walking again, this time by the train tracks, arriving in the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the de-facto base camp for Machu Picchu. Civilization welcomed us back and laundry, internet, pizza and the opening game of the Copa America were the result. We also said good-bye to our trusty guide Rolando in the evening, not without him assuring us that he would get us a place in the queue for the buses in the morning - we were "only" to show up at 5.15am.
We realized in the morning why he had said "only". When we arrived, the queue was a good 250m long, but kindly enough he had started queueing earlier and we skipped ahead a few dozen people to be in one of the first five buses to go up. In terms of practicalities, the story of the day is quickly told. It rained a lot, we should have bought rain ponchos right away, we spent the whole day on the mountain and took a funky train in the evening to the village of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. The real story about this day is Machu Picchu itself though. That anybody can build a city 600m really steep above the valley ground is stunning in the first place, but he sheer, breathtaking location has to be seen to be believed. Terracing is everywhere, going down the mountainside at slopes of 70° and more. The city itself sits perched on a ridge between two mountain tops and is surrounded by cloud-covered peaks on every side, while you can see the river 600m further down snaking around the mountain. All of this comes in lush green with orderly rows of grey stones and if you have a tiny bit of imagination, it's really easy to imagine how life must have been here about 500 years ago. It was an item at the very top of our list of places to visit and it didn't disappoint the slightest, despite or even because of the rainy conditions.
The last day of our trip was spent "wrapping up" the Inca period. We first visited some nice ruins in Ollantaytambo before grabbing a street lunch of anticucho (beef heart skewers) and grabbing public transport up to the village of Maras. From there we visited the agricultural laboratory of the Incas at Moray, where they experimented with various microclimates to identify ideal climate conditions for their various crops. This area now looks like a alien landing strip. We continued to the visually truly stunning site of Salinas, an age old salt "factory". A stream of salty waters coming right out of the mountain is being diverted into hundreds of shallow pools, in which evaporation occurs and salt can be scraped of the bottom of the pool afterwards. Many of the pools go back to Inca times and according to public lore, the Inca built pools are actually much more stable and need less maintenance than anything that has been built since. A packed public bus ride brought us back to Cuzco afterwards, where we concluded the day with yet another splendid dinner.
We started with a bus ride to a 4300m high pass on the eastern side of the Andes, followed by a 50km mountain bike ride down said pass on the other side. Despite the downhill part it was quite chalinging to cycle, but the views were simply spectacular and passing multiple climate zones within a few hours was super interesting. We ended up in Santa Maria, at 1200m the lowest point of our journey and we learned that even in tiny towns, Peruvians can cook very well. We walked around the village through nightfall but since not much happened, we went to bed early.
Good that we did as well, because the day began early with breakfast at 7.30 and a transfer bus to our next transport option: boat. More precisely, two rubber rafts waited on our little group and we rafted down the Urubamba river for about 1.5 hours, including a capsizing (of the other boat) and some voluntary overboarding (on both boats). We got soaking wet, but had loads of fun during the trip, definitely something to repeat! After riding, driving and boating the time then came for walking. We dried up pretty quickly as we made our way up the path through the valley. Throughout the trip Rolando pointed out plants, animals and history of the area, so we never got bored. The path itself helped as well, as the original Inca trail that was part of it clung to the mountainside in a highly precarious way. In the afternoon it got easier and we ended the path with a cable bridge ride and a bath in thermal pools that had nearly been destroyed by a giant landslide earlier in the year. A final hard walk brought us to our overnight destination Santa Theresa at 1700m above sea.
Throughout the night it became clear why this part of the country is considered "rain forest": It rained without interruption - our feeble attempt at drying some clothes was thoroughly doomed. We actually delayed our departure by an hour to wait for the rain to stop, and so arrived fairly late at our next mode of transportation, flying. Well, it wasn't really flying, although it looks like it from about 50m away. We had decided to do some zip-lining or, as normal people would say: Hoping that the steel rope on the top of our heads won't give away before we reached the other side of the 150m deep valley underneath. Despite the vertigo-induction, the whole thing proved to be quite fun and we criss-crossed two valleys on six cables with a total lenght of 3.2km. Accompanying us was a group of Irish gap year students, who constantly complained about the missing "thrill" component and that the ride was to slow. I had no idea what they were talking about... The rest of the day we spent walking again, this time by the train tracks, arriving in the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the de-facto base camp for Machu Picchu. Civilization welcomed us back and laundry, internet, pizza and the opening game of the Copa America were the result. We also said good-bye to our trusty guide Rolando in the evening, not without him assuring us that he would get us a place in the queue for the buses in the morning - we were "only" to show up at 5.15am.
We realized in the morning why he had said "only". When we arrived, the queue was a good 250m long, but kindly enough he had started queueing earlier and we skipped ahead a few dozen people to be in one of the first five buses to go up. In terms of practicalities, the story of the day is quickly told. It rained a lot, we should have bought rain ponchos right away, we spent the whole day on the mountain and took a funky train in the evening to the village of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. The real story about this day is Machu Picchu itself though. That anybody can build a city 600m really steep above the valley ground is stunning in the first place, but he sheer, breathtaking location has to be seen to be believed. Terracing is everywhere, going down the mountainside at slopes of 70° and more. The city itself sits perched on a ridge between two mountain tops and is surrounded by cloud-covered peaks on every side, while you can see the river 600m further down snaking around the mountain. All of this comes in lush green with orderly rows of grey stones and if you have a tiny bit of imagination, it's really easy to imagine how life must have been here about 500 years ago. It was an item at the very top of our list of places to visit and it didn't disappoint the slightest, despite or even because of the rainy conditions.
The last day of our trip was spent "wrapping up" the Inca period. We first visited some nice ruins in Ollantaytambo before grabbing a street lunch of anticucho (beef heart skewers) and grabbing public transport up to the village of Maras. From there we visited the agricultural laboratory of the Incas at Moray, where they experimented with various microclimates to identify ideal climate conditions for their various crops. This area now looks like a alien landing strip. We continued to the visually truly stunning site of Salinas, an age old salt "factory". A stream of salty waters coming right out of the mountain is being diverted into hundreds of shallow pools, in which evaporation occurs and salt can be scraped of the bottom of the pool afterwards. Many of the pools go back to Inca times and according to public lore, the Inca built pools are actually much more stable and need less maintenance than anything that has been built since. A packed public bus ride brought us back to Cuzco afterwards, where we concluded the day with yet another splendid dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)