Jill and Bow's Travels

Local life in Malawi

Well, there were no game drives in Malawi but there were an awful lot of truly wonderful experiences none the less with the locals. We went on many village walks, met witch doctors, toured a local school and attended a local church service. Malawi was very interesting.

Some of the campsites where we camped along Lake Malawi and their beaches!

Our visit to the local witch doctor... he danced for us, showed us his potions (love potion #9 and viagra were both mentioned) and then we posed with his family.

Scenes from our village walk at Kande beach. Women cutting up casaba root, our visit to the local school, women and children dancing (getting ready for x-mas), Pierrette (a friend from our overland trek) dancing with the kids, some cute kids posing for us and when we attended a local church service!

More beautiful skies of Africa! (We just couldn't believe how wonderful the skies were each and every day... Amazing!)

Bargaining at the craft markets, what fun!! We bought a hand carved nativity scene.

Tanzania

We spent a lot of time in Tanzania and there was much to see... The Serengetti, Ngorongoro Crater, Zanzibar and our off-roading trek to Mahenge, were just the high lights!

Serengetti.... giraffes eyeing each other up and then fighting...

Lions

Ngorongoro Crater... wow!

Hyena's

Elephants

Hippos

Wildebeast

At snakepark, two tortoises caught in the act! plus some crocs!

Walk to Masai village at snake park.

Sunset at Stonetown

Zanzibar During the spice tour we had a local climb the palm tree and then cut up the coconut so we were able to drink from it!

Mountain view campsite... What a view! This was also the place where we played the locals in a game of soccer... sorry no pics, I was too into the game to think of it!

Rough campsite in the middle of no-where near Mahenge (offroading).

These are a few of the shots we took during the day we got stuck. As you can see the locals were having some fun laughing at the Mzungu (white people)!

What unusual things you come across while driving in the middle of Tanzania... what a beautiful chameleon!

The event we spoke about when Jill and the others showered in the rain while we were 'roughing it' for a few days.

Some other shots we included of Tanzania.

Kenya

We weren't in Kenya very long but here are a few photos. Most, if not all, of the wildlife shots are mostly from Lake Nakuru National Park! It was fantastic and was the beginning of our unbelievable African experience...

Jilly and I with our friend Jamshed whom Cailin set us up with. We had a great time here relaxing for the day in Nairobi.

Some of the views from the back of the truck while we were driving to meet up with the rest of our group. Leaving Nairobi on the left, sheep skins hanging out to dry and the beautiful Rift Valley on the right.

Life on the truck begins... entering Lake Nakuru at the crack of dawn!

Bring on the game!! Can you tell the difference between a white and a black rhino? Look carefully...

Giraffe Zebra Babboons

Birdlife (storks, flamingoes, cranes...) on Lake Nakuru.

Birds eye view of Lake Nakuru.

Waterfall.

Photos of Thailand!

As you will see from the pictures, Thailand has much to offer! And this is only Bangkok and the islands! We can't wait to see all of the natural wonders of the north!

Pictures from our 'Floating Market Tour'.

Beautiful carvings!

Our taxi driver! Little man, this guy puts you to shame with the decorations... but don't ask me how he sees through the windshield!

Sites of the countryside as we drove back to Bangkok. The photo on the right is a contraption the farmers use to create a current in the ponds.

Jill standing on Khao San Road in Bangkok. This area is very popular for tourists and especially backpackers! Quite a busy area as you can see.

The tallest standing Buddha in Bangkok (if not the world!) Check out the size of those feet!

The island of Ko Phi Phi Don. We had to take a long-tailed speedboat over to Long Beach, where our guest house was located. You can sort of see the development in the background on the main beach, so that was the main reason we left. Less touristy on Long Beach.

Jilly enjoying the food and the scenery!

The island of Ko Phi Phi Lei. This is the island where the movie, 'The Beach' starring Leo DeCaprio was filmed... Beautiful island and great snorkelling!

A little R&R before we watched the sunset on Ko Lanta!

Nice sunset. Doesn't Jill have beautiful toes!

Eating breakfast on the beach in Ko Lanta. As you can see when the tide is out, you have to be careful swimming, a lot of rock.

We had a nice fruit shake here while waiting for the ferry to Rai Lay Beach. Interesting how all of the buildings are up on stilts!

One of the many 'climbing walls' located right on the beach. As I sat there watching the sunset on Tonsai Beach, we could watch the rock climbers slithering up and down the rocks.

Another beautiful sunset, this time on Tonsai beach.

Jill standing on the porch of our 'mountain view' get away. It was very quaint and quite cutie, cutie as Jill would say.

The view of both Rai Lay West and East beaches from the mountain I climbed up. Kind of tricky on the way down considering the strap broke off of my sandle when I was at the top.

A couple of shots while kayaking through the caves and under the out crops of the rocks! We had a great time paddling around these wonders of nature and I know what you are all thinking... how does Bow get such a dark tan when he was only on the beach for 3 days? Contain your jealousy! ;)

Two, of many, fruit shakes that we inhaled throughout our stay in Thailand! They were amazing, but these two just happened to be the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye! And quite delicious I might add!

Pics of Cambodia

Here are a few photos of our time in Cambodia.

This is the outside of Angkor Wat!

Nice bike eh! I'm all dudded up in my temple wear, quite fashionable I might add.

This is Jill on the inside of Angkor Wat, in front of the temple.

This is the view from inside the temple looking out.

One of the many carvings on the walls inside the temple.

Another carving (only this one was taken in 'Sepia', to give a more ancient look).

'Elephant Terrace' that Jill mentioned in the previous posting.

It took a lot of time and effort for Jilly to get down, but it was worth the climb up! The views were amazing.

A candid shot of one of the local monks at Angkor Wat.

This is the archway leading into Angkor Thom. As well, this is a common form of transportation used by the local Cambodian people.

The wall sculptures along the road leading to the archway of Angkor Thom.

Bayon, found inside of Angkor Thom, was our favourite of all of the temples. If you look closely you will see a 'face' on each of the towers. When it was built, there were 612 faces within the whole complex. Stunning!

This is an up close shot of two of the faces.

This is one of the many strange and unique sites we came across while biking back to our guest house. We initially wanted to get back before the sun went down, but after experiencing the night traffic and all its wonders we were glad we miscalculated on the time it would take!

Up close and personal! On our way to watch the sunrise.

After going to bed at one and waking up at 5, we were rewarded with a wonderful sunrise behind the temple of Angkor Wat! Initially we thought, is it really worth it... you be the judge.

After the sun finally came up above Angkor Wat.

Our tuk tuk driver! He looks a lot more innocent than what he was... ;)

This was our view of the local traffic taken from our Tuk Tuk... as you can see, anything goes! Yes that is an elephant ahead of us. We both thought we would never get on another tuk uk but in Cambodia they drive much slower and it is a lot safer!

One of the temples, Ta Prohm, has not been restored and as you can tell, Mother Nature is trying to redecorate!

A 'bird's eye view' of the Angkor Wat complex from our hot air balloon.

One of the many unique sites we saw as we travelled by boat from Siem Reap down to Phnom Penh. That's a store on the left and the houses on the right.

Students buying a snack before they go in for school. That is the school house behind them.

Can you say 'polution'?!? Our tuk tuk driver actually bought us these while we went on our tour of Phnom Penh.

These are the skulls we saw at the 'Killing Fields' of the many genocide victims. Over 40 000 victims were killed.

These two photos were taken on the grounds of the Royal Palace.

One of the many Buddha's we saw along the way. Sorry it is sideways, but couldn't figure out how to rotate it before uploading.

The Temples of Angkor

We've spent the past few days exploring the temple complex of Angkor by bicycle and tuk tuk. It is difficult to describe how wonderful they were. We recommend checking them out for yourself!

One of my favourite things about travelling is waking up in the morning and not having any idea of what the day ahead of you will bring. Last Wednesday morning we took the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia on route to see the temples. We left at 6am and were told that it would only take 8 hours, so we had planned at arriving around 4pm. We didn't end up arriving until 10:30pm that night. The adventure included stopping three times to eat - two hours for lunch, one hour for dinner, and about 40 minutes for drinks. We also had to cross the border, which took another two hours or so. At the border it took them at least a half hour to figure out how to transport 40 of us who were on the big air con bus to Siem Reap. They finally figured it out and sent two lots of us in a minibus and the other lot in a taxi.

It was only 150 kms to Siem Reap from the border but with the road conditions, it took five hours. When we finally arrived, they convienently dropped us off at their friend's guest house, where we all booked in. It ended up to be alright for $4 a night for a room. Naturally in all of the confusion throughout the day we got to know several people on the bus. We met a really nice Canadian couple from Caledon (near TO), Susanne and Bob, and another guy from Saskatoon.

Angkor is considered to be one of the great man made wonders of the world. The temples started being built in the 9th century and the building process lasted over the next 600 years. Angkor in its time was the capital city of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia and was home to over one million people. It has really only been opened to foreign tourists over the past five years since travel to Cambodia opened up after their civil war ended in 1997. The temple complex is huge and the only way to get around to explore is by bicycle, tuk tuk (motorcycle taxi with a cart), or by motorcycle.

Thursday was one of the top days of the trip. We started the day off by watching some of the Australian Open while having breakfast. It is such a treat to be in a relatively similar time zone to watch the tennis. We then rented bicycles and biked out to see the temples, which were 10 km from Siem Reap. We were in awe right away as we came upon the famous Angkor Wat. We spent a couple of hours exploring the temple grounds (one square km) before moving onto the next temples, Bayon, Terrace of the Elephants, and Preah Khan. Bayon was my favourite with 37 standing stone towers with faces on them. Throughout all of the temples there are carvings everywhere which show stories and characters from Hindu mythology, historical wars, and scenes of everyday life. It is so difficult to explain what the temples looked like without pictures to show and even they wouldn't do justice. The only way to enjoy their true beauty is to check them out yourself - they're a must see!

Outside each temple, there were little stalls set up by the locals to sell food, drinks, and souvenirs. There were always children around wanting to look after your bike while you were in the temple. They would do it for free as long as you would buy postcards, bracelets, books, or drinks from them when you came out. We didn't have locks for our bikes so we thought it was a good deal. After the first two temples we were filled up with 10 postcards, two books, 10 bracelets, and three drinks. We then realized that there wasn't a worry of anyone stealing our bikes so no more bike-sitting was needed for the rest of the day.

Our bike ride home was one of the highlights of the day. It was a two and a half hour bike ride from where we were in the temples. We were peddling as hard as we could to beat the sun setting. We ended up hitting Siem Reap right at rush hour and this is where it got fun. The streets were absolutely packed with motorbikes, tuk tuks, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, minibuses, cars, trucks - you name it - and we were in the middle of all of the madness. Families don't usually have cars in Cambodia but rather motorcycles; therefore, the entire family goes on the bike or anything else they want to transport (dead pigs, flocks of ducks, bicycles, etc). People drive very slowly compared to Thailand so it felt very safe, but still there were people going in all directions. Stop signs and lines on the road meant nothing. We just biked along and took it all in - it was unbelievable. We spent the evening enjoying the quaint downtown of Siem Reap. There were quite a few interesting restaurants to choose from and stores to wander through.

The following day we had organized a tuk tuk driver to take us around the temples we had missed including getting to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The tuk tuk drivers in Cambodia are extremely slow and safe compared to those in Thailand. The sunrise was spectacular with it's pink glow - well worth the early morning wake up call. We spent the rest of the morning going temple to temple. We finished our time at Angkor with a hot air balloon 10 minute ride overlooking the temples below.

On our way home, our driver had recommended the war museum, so we checked it out. It was good to learn more about the 25 year civil war, which ended in 1997. It was also good to learn more about the land mine situation, since Cambodia is known to be one of the worst in the world for land mines. Our guide was a land mine victim and had lost a leg and partial sight. He had also lost his entire family in the genocide, so he had some very emotional tales to tell. One in 236 Cambodians have lost a limb to a land mine explosion and there are still about five people a day who are injured across the country. It is quite sad since they not only lose a limb, but they are then often rejected from society and usually have to sell their homes and beg on the streets. Our guide told us that if he goes totally blind his boss had already told him that he would no longer have a job and his brother told him that he might as well hang himself then.

That evening, we went to see traditional Khmer dancing with Bob and Susanne. There was a huge international buffet dinner served before the dancing began. The dancing was really good but you know me, I love to talk, and ended up chatting most of the time with Bob and Susanne, who were great fun.

The next day we took the fast boat down the Tonle Sap River to Phnom Penh. It was a scenic ride with the many water villages to see along the way. We took a day off from sight seeing to completely unwind and watch tennis in our hotel room. It was nice to have a bit of a break.

Today we went out to see the sights of Phnom Penh. A very pokey tuk tuk driver took us to see the Killing Fields, the Royal Palace, and Wat Phnom, which were all great to see. But I still think what amazed me most was the city streets completely buzzing with people on motorbikes absolutely everywhere.

Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam.

Until next time!
Jill

Thailand So Far

We're really enjoying Thailand so far, but it would be difficult not to get excited about the beautiful islands, gorgeous weather, and even the busy streets of Bangkok.

We landed in Bangkok on the 10th of January. We spent the first few days mesmerized by all going on around us in the busy streets. We stayed around the Khaosan Road area of the city, which is known as a backpacker haven. The area never sleeps. The streets are lined with guesthouses, bars, restaurants, street vendors, food stalls, internet cafes, and thai massage parlours. From the moment you wake up in the morning until the minute you go to bed, the streets are alive with people, animals, and tuk tuk drivers. We spent the first few days catching up on email, laundry, eating and organizing our trips ahead. We had to get visas for Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and India, which took some time to arrange.

We did manage to get to a few temples but we haven't made it to the Grand Palace or the Reclining Budda yet, which we plan to do. We were on our way, but then a local convinced us to go to less touristy temples around the city first. He then set us up with a tuk tuk driver (three wheeled motorcycle taxi - scary!) to take us around to his favourite spots. For a cheap price of 20 baht (60 cents) we knew that it would include a few stops along the way to his friends' stores, which it did, but nevertheless all part of the true tuk tuk experience.

Anyone who has been to Bangkok before knows that a tuk tuk ride is tempting death. I know I vowed never to get in one again after our first ride, but then they get you with their cheap price and convenience when no taxis are in sight. I don't plan to get into another one anytime soon.

During our first few days in Bangkok we also managed to go out to Damnoen Saduak where there was a floating market, one of three left in Thailand. Although quite touristy, it was worth the visit. You could buy anything from your daily groceries to every touristy item imaginable. We arrived early and our morning float with another Canadian family of four was quite peaceful. By noon, the canal became a game of long tailed bumper boats, which was actually quite entertaining.

We also took in a thai massage which was 140 baht or just over $4 for the hour. We didn't really know what to expect. They brought us to a room filled with others lying on mattresses on the floor, all fully clothed. They spent the next hour stretching, lightly punching, and massaging our entire bodies. They would use their legs and full body weight to stretch us out. It was almost like going to yoga but without having to do any of the work.

While in Bangkok we also went to visit my Aunt Margaret's friend, Christine. She moved from Toronto to Bangkok 25 years ago and is working for the Canada Fund (under CIDA), which is an organization that gives money to several villages across Thailand for development projects. She took us out for a delicious north eastern thai dinner. She was very interesting to spend an evening with since she had lots of great tips on places to go around Thailand and the rest of South East Asia.

Just over a week ago, we headed south from Bangkok to the Krabi area, known for its beautiful beaches and limestone cliffs, which attract many rock climbers. We started our island hopping adventure on Ko Phi Phi Don. It was absolutely stunning as we pulled into the main port. We had booked a bungalow on long beach so we immediately took a long tailed boat over to our spot, which wasn't as busy as the main beach. We spent the afternoon exploring and snorkelling around the next island called Ko Phi Phi Ley. This island became famous when the movie "The Beach" was filmed there a few years ago. It's only a spot to day trip since there aren't any hotels or restaurants on it. Bow and I had organized our own long tailed boat to the island which meant that when we were done with one snorkelling spot, our driver would take us to the next spot. It was like swimming in an aquarium for the afternoon as the fish were so bright and colourful.

After Ko Phi Phi, we headed over to Ko Lanta for a couple of days, which was a bigger island so all of us tourists seemed to absorb into the heaps of bungalows. We stayed at a beautiful spot right on the beach. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, swimming, eating, walking, and again we went on another snorkelling trip to four different islands around the area. We met a really nice Australian couple, Korina and Adam, who we spent some time with there and then again at the next beach, Tonsai.

From Ko Lanta we took the ferry over to Tonsai beach (beside Rai Lay beach), which is world famous for its rock climbing. This was a very social beach with everyone either rock climbing or watching the rock climbers. The minute we stepped out of our long tailed boat we had two different Canadians approach us right away to chat. They guided us to a great set of bungalows to stay at, which were more like quaint cottages. We stayed in that area for two days exploring the surrounding beaches, sea kayaking, and watching the hoards of rock climbers slither across the cliffs.

We are now back in Bangkok a little more relaxed and tanned than we were when we first arrived on the 10th. We are heading off to see the temples of Ankor Wat tomorrow in Cambodia. They are considered to be one of the great man made wonders of the world. After Cambodia, we'll head onto Vietnam and then Laos before returning to northern Thailand.

We hope everyone is enjoying the winter at home ... skating on the canal, skiing, snowshoeing!

Jill

Goodbye Cape Town, Hello Bangkok

We had a very relaxing week in Cape Town. It was also very nice to speak with friends and family after our six week hiatus of cheap phone cards!

We landed in Cape Town on Saturday evening witnessng a tremendous sunset over Table Mountain from the window of the plane. We were also unsure whether or not our airport pick-up would be waiting for us because our initial flight was cancelled and we were booked onto a later one. But as we walked out customs there was our driver awaiting our arrival and on the drive in he gave us a very informative tour. Both Jill and I were amazed at how sub-human the Townships actually were, very dilapidated sheds with no running water or electricity, not to mention the unsafe and unhealthy living conditions. Very sad.

We arrived at our hostel called the Big Blue Backpackers and we were very impressed. Dave, our soon to be Welsh friend, who was working the front desk was very helpful and led us to our room... we must admit, after living off a truck for five weeks we thought we were in paradise! It turned out that it was also very centrally located. It only took us 10 minutes to walk to the waterfront which was very, very commercialized, but still quite nice. It had a huge mall with two theatres, lots of craft stores and all of this was situated along the harbour where you could catch the ferry over to Robben Island (more info. to come later). All in all, we spent a couple of days just hanging out down at the waterfront and taking full advantage of the two theatres. For movie buffs like Jill and I we were in heaven considering we haven't seen a movie in over two months. As well, one theatre was similar to the Bytowne in Ottawa in the sense that it only showed the international films, not the Hollywood blockbusters, which we enjoyed (though, Jill was nice enough to attend the Lord of the Rings III with me! Great flic by the way if you enjoyed the first two). If any of you are interested, when "In America", "Whale Rider" or "I'll Be There" comes to town, definitely check them out, they were excellent!

We only had five days in Cape Town so we couldn't do everything we wanted but luckily my buddies Trevor and John have both been there so they gave us some hints on what the main attractions were. Jill and I also made a deal with one another that after the five weeks on the truck with very little exercise, that we would try and walk as much as possible for our remaining four months of travel. Well, for those of you that know Cape Town, we definitely did that. One day we walked along the waterfront from Greenpoint, down through Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton Beaches and then finally to Camps Bay. All in all it took us two and a half hours one way but we were able to justify eating a huge meal so that we could walk it off on our way back to the hostel. The walk was truly amazing though with all of the beaches and just open ocean as far as the eye could see with the magnificent shoreline carved out by Mother Nature... really breath taking.

Another day we decided to hike up Table Mountain. What a beautiful spectacle this is erected slap dab in the middle of a 'bursting at the seams' city of Cape Town. To our disappointment we weren't able to climb up to the top because once we hit the mouth of the gorge the one huge lingering cloud that just hung overtop of Table Mountain, it just kept seeping into the valley. For safety reasons we decided to turn back. But, we still decided to take another trail down that went across the face of the mountain down to where the 'lazy' tourist, hee hee, caught the cable car up (which wasn't working on that day because it was too windy). From there, we decided to walk over to Lion's Head and we climbed two thirds of the way up and enjoyed the views of Robben Island and the city below. From there, we had hoped to catch a cab as we walked back into town, but our efforts weren't rewarded... until we came across this little bakery where we decided to have lunch, and the food was unbelievable! There were so many choices on what to eat but once the sandwiches that we chose came, our tongues were dancing! Then, to justify once again, we thought after all of this walking we earned a dessert, or two... ok three (Dad you would have been so proud)! By the time we got back to the backpackers (seven hours later) we were exhausted. But not that tired that we decided to walk to the cheap internet place we found which was another 45 minutes away from our hostel (one way). I guess you could say we slept well that night!

Thursday morning we caught our ferry out to Robben Island. This is famous because this is where all of the political prisoners were sent when Apartheid began in South Africa, not to mention that this is the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. The tour was fascinating and to top it all off, the two tour guides we had were actual inmates at one point so they told us their own personal stories as well. It was quite a powerful and emotional tour but well worth it. We took a bus all around the island first, visiting the original prison, the lime stone quarry where they bashed rocks into littler rocks all day for 30 years, the new prison and the cemetery where the lepers were buried (they were sent to the island as well as mentally challenged people because they were outcasts of society). Then we took a walking tour of the new prison where Nelson Mandela actually helped build during his tenure... I say tenure because listening to the accolades of what went on during the years on Robben Isand, the blacks put education first. Those that were already educated taught those who weren't. One story about Nelson Mandella was actually quite funny. Our guide told us that the book "A Long Walk To Freedom" in which Nelson Mandella wrote while he was in prison, was smuggled out by one of Nelson's friends at the time. Once Nelson was freed from prison and became President in 1994, he appointed this same friend to become the Minister of Transportation, because he was good at transporting information! I kid you not.

That afternoon we finally were able to get in contact with Trevor's gran. Trev, what a woman! Did we ever have a lot of fun with her. She is such a sharp woman at the age of 89, and she tries to keep up with what's all going on in the world. Jill and I were very shocked when she started telling us how she was reading this story about Ipods and how technology has changed! We had so much fun. We talked and laughed and ate and laughed some more and then decided to walk back home. Which was quite interesting because it was yet another part of Cape Town that we didn't get to see earlier in the week. If anyone is ever contemplating whether or not to visit Cape Town, we definitely recommend it. We are very happy that John and Trevor talked us into it.

Now we are in Bangkok, after 12 hours of total flying and four movies! By the way, has anyone ever travelled on Malaysia Airlines? We must admit, it was the best flight we have had so far in all of our travels. The service was efficient, the food was great (we actually got menus and a choice of what to eat) and we had our TV monitors which we could choose to watch movies, play the radio or play computer games! Hence, the four movies I watched. Even Jill was able to stay up for at least three of them.

Bangkok is a very interesting city, at least what we have seen so far. We had no accommodation booked so once we landed we caught the airport bus into the hub of the city called the "Khaosan Road" area and found a cute little guest house, called the Wild Orchid. We just started to roam the city and check out some of the sites near our guest house so I will sign off now and one of us will write about Bangkok once we see more.

Until then...
Bow

New Year's On The Zambezi

We spent our New Year's breezing down the upper Zambezi river on houseboats. It was a great way to end our five week African safari.

We arrived in Livingstone just in time to celebrate New Year's. Livingstone is the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, which are the world's largest falls. We had a bit of excitement when we arrived because we found out that one of the girl's (Alli) boyfriend was waiting for her in town. We were all a bit shocked because she had just spent the last seven weeks on the safari with Paul, who we all thought was her boyfriend. Paul and Alli quickly headed straight for the Zimbabwe border to get away from seeing him, but we later found out that they ran into him and there was a big blow out on the lawn of one of the nice lodges in town. Lucky for them, they were all booked on the same flight back to the UK on the 1st. That's the last we've heard.

We enjoyed the small and friendly town of Livingstone for a day before getting on the houseboat on the upper Zambezi river for three days. Early on the 30th before we boarded the boat, a few of us went on an early morning Rhino walk in the small local game park. We had heard that we would get close to the white rhinos, but had no idea that we would be about two feet away from them. These three rhinos are the last rhinos left in Zambia. Over the past 100 years, a herd of 60,000 rhinos have been poached in Zambia. They now have armed guards tracking and protecting these three rhinos 24/7. We spent a good hour with the rhinos. We watched them snooze and get up to move one or twice into shadier spots. Ian, our guide, enjoyed giving us the full skinny on their mating patterns and the full dimensions of the males' penises ... 15 kgs. I think he was proud for them! After the rhinos, we went on a walking safari around the park where we came quite close with a group of giraffes. They served us a wonderful picnic lunch on the banks of the Zambezi where we watched hippos and crocs enjoying the cool water on a very hot day.

After the rhino walk we headed straight for the houseboat. We were in heaven on the boat. It had very cute sleeping cabins on the bottom deck and a bar, hot tub, lounge chairs, and tables on the top deck. We were spoiled with gourmet cooking for three days - no dishes to clean and flap (flapping is how we dried the dishes while camping). We travelled slowly up the Zambezi seeing hippos and local fishermen paddling along.

On the second day, we got off at one of the remote fishing villages that was only accessible by water. We were welcomed on shore by the entire village. As we walked through the village to see them cooking fish, making home made beer, and socializing with one another, we had every child hanging off of us. As you would look behind you to talk to the others in our group, you would see four or five children hanging onto them leading them through the village. The children still amazed us even after so many village walks.

Our New Year's Eve party started out quite mellow but around 11pm the party finally kicked in. Our driver, Vanessa, had warned us earlier in the night that when she drinks she likes to do gymnastics. We didn't think much of it until she started hanging from the top bar on the houseboat and then continued to a hand stand on three people who were some how piled up on the lounge chairs. We all welcomed in the New Year and then more gymnastics and crazy dancing continued. That led to a huge water fight with the bar tender and Vanessa and Kirsty. Good times had by all - many, many laughs.

We left the boat on New Year's day after brunch and we headed for Victoria Falls for the afternoon. We had a bit of a shock when we got there because Pierette didn't wake up when we stopped the truck at the falls. We couldn't wake her and thought that she might have had a stroke or heart attack. We were all so worried and scared as they quickly hurried off to the hospital. We were relieved later on to find out that she just had malaria ... if you can say "just" malaria. After spending a night in the hospital she was released and is being treated properly.

It was pouring down buckets when we were let off at Victoria Falls. We still managed to see the falls through the mist and rain and they were spectacular. And at least the rain scared all of the other tourists away so we felt like we had the place to ourselves, which was rare.

We finished our part of the safari on January 2nd. Bow, Susan and I headed over to Zimbabwe for the night since we all had to catch our flights on the 3rd from Victoria Falls, Zim. It was an interesting experience being in Zimbabwe because of the political situation there at the moment. Their President, Mugabe, was elected in 2002 by bribing and torturing people leading to many problems nationally. Other nations do not recognize him as a proper leader and have banned any trading with Zimbabwe because of this. Therefore, there is a serious lack of money available. It was such a challenge to get our hands on any Zimbabwe Dollars to even go out for dinner or to pay for our room at the hostel. If we had changed our money at the banks for one US dollar we would have received 800 Zim dollars, but if we changed it on the black market we could get 4000 Zim dollars for one US dollar, which is what everyone tries to do.

We flew out of Zimbabwe yesterday, Jan 3rd, and arrived in Cape Town last night. We have a week here before we head off to South East Asia on Friday. We plan to hike Table Mountain, go to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandella was in prison), hit the beaches, and visit some familyand friends of friends.

Happy New Year to everyone at home!
Jill