Had another good breakfast at Lodge du Chateau and caught their airport shuttle for our flight at 9:15am to Gondar. The flight was full, as it flew via Lalibela where everyone except us and one other passenger disembarked.
In Axum, our hotel sent a driver for airport pickup, which made it 3-for-3 for airport pickups this trip. Seeing as we had never had a hotel pickup actually show up at the airport in our lifetime prior to this trip, we were pleasantly surprised.
The weather was very comfortable in Axum - a high of 22C and sunny.
We checked into the Consolar Hotel (that's how they spell it), we were the only guests in the hotel, which always feels weird to us.
Took a bajaj to an LP recommended restaurant for lunch. It was good, but again weird being the only people.
We walked into the centre to buy our entrance ticket to the ruins, except the ticket office was under construction. So we walked towards the ruins
stopping for a coffee ceremony which I suppose we needed to do once as tourists on this trip. The coffee wasn't particularly good - it's much better in the local restaurants.
Turns out you can buy the entrance ticket at the gate, unlike what the guide books said. So we explored around the Northern Stelae field. It was pretty cool to see, the stelae are 33m + tall, one of the tallest single pieces of stone erected in the world.
There's also many more stelae laying buried on the site, waiting discovery by archeologists. It reminded us a bit of Jordan - there's lots of history but not much money.
We then visited the St Mary of Zion Churches. The churches are nice on the outside (not very photogenic inside). In between the churches is a building that Ethiopians believe houses the Ark of the Covenant. It's heavily guarded and tourists are warned if you accidentally walk towards it (as happened to me).
On the way back home we souvenir shopped - Axum is one of the better places for souvenirs in northern Ethiopia. Bought a couple large-ish items that we'll have to lug around back to Addis.
We had dinner at our hotel, supposedly one of the better places to eat in Axum, but it was nothing special.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Simien Mountain NP trek, Ethiopia
Another great breakfast at Lodge du Chateau, left some luggage and passports etc for the safe, checked out, and we were off on our three-day trek in the Simien Mountains.
There were three other people on the trek - Alain (a retired teacher in Addis for a few months), his son Mathieu, and Brice, traveling through Ethiopia as a pre-trip before his big round-the-world trip next year. All three happened to be from France, with Mathieu and Brice around our age.
First was a 90 minute drive to Debark to pick up our permits. The ETT agent introduced us to our guide (Chago) and scout (who carried an AK47 at all times). I think the scout was more for local employment than anything else, but he did keep a watch on our bags and tent the entire trek. Our scout spoke Amharic and just a few words of english but seemed like a very nice man. We also picked up our cook and food supplies.
Another hour drive took us to the trekking start point, just past the Simien Lodge. We were now on dusty dirt roads. The roads in and around Gonder (including to the airport) are all paved, however the local villagers use the roads to move their livestock (cows, sheep, goats, horses) so it can be slow going, but at least it's not dusty.
At our starting point there was a large group of gelada baboons, which was one of the main attractions for me on this trek. Check. And I didn't even need to get out of the car :)
We took some pics, and then realized our guide had taken off for a lunch. Alain tracked him down, gave him a bit of a lecture, and then we started trekking.
The first day follows the ridge to Sankabar. It's a great view of the lowlands 1000m below, except it didn't change much all day. The horizon is a brown smog-like blur with all the dust. The dirt road also follows the ridge and in some places the path was on the road. This sort of took away from the trekking / national park experience.
We arrived at the Sankabar campsite around 5pm, although we only walked for about three hours. We had stops for pics, and lunch (an egg sandwich which was excellent and gave us misguided hope for the food on the rest of the trek).
Our tents were all set up. ETT also provided a 1-inch thick foam mattress and a warm sleeping bag (at 3250m, it gets to about -2C at night).
There were signs that said "cold shower" so we walked down to them. It was just a thin water stream with some rocks built up to allow it to drop as a "shower". They got the cold part right though. We decided to not shower.
The temperature dropped quickly as the sun set. We bundled up in all our layers - base, mid and windbreaker, toques, gloves and neck gator. We crowded into the kitchen hut for warmth and a small fire.
Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce, and two mixed vegetable sides. No protein. The vegetables were tasty but the lack of protein was a problem the next day while trekking.
It was cold and dark and the fire was smoky so we were in bed by 8pm.
We had doubled up our sleeping bags inside the ETT ones, and wore our base layers and toques to sleep so we were fine temperature-wise. The ground was hard though and so we slept only so-so.
...
We were up at 6:45am before the sun came up over the mountains on the horizon. It was freezing (literally, it was below 0C).
Our three trekking companions were also up and we all warmed up in the little patch of sun at the top of the sloped campsite. We had breakfast - baguettes and honey, and then porridge. No protein.
The 2nd day of trekking was a little more interesting. We walked to a point overlooking the Jinbar waterfall - a 1000m total drop, which was now just a trickle but in rainy season would be cooler.
Then we descended into the valley and had lunch beside a stream. The water pooled in places and Alain actually went for a swim! - it was way too cold for the rest of us. Saw more groups of baboons feeding and grooming each other. They're quite fascinating to watch, and for the most part ignore humans, passing within feet of us.
After lunch we started a long ascent, through Geech village and then to our campsite at 3600m. The walk through the village and surrounding fields was cool to see. Our path followed where the animals walk everyday, and so has eroded from the animals and rain into foot-deep ditches, with lots of animal poop. Not so comfortable for walking.
With the lack of protein we were all getting tired. Finally we reached the crest just past the village, and could see the campsite off in the distance. That gave us a little boost of energy, as did the tea and snacks served after we freshened up in camp.
Alain (who had done the trek before) suggested climbing the Kedadit summit (3750m) overlooking the campsite (3600m) for the views. It was still early, about 3pm, and we felt energized enough to make it so off the five of us went.
The views were great at the top, it was also much more peaceful than in camp (there were about 20 other people with different tour groups doing the trek at the same time as us).
Heather led us in some stretching at the request of Alain; and then we chatted away the remaining sunlight.
We walked back down to camp before the sunset completely because the walk was tricky with the ruts. We were just in time for dinner - sitting on stone benches warmed by the sun, watching the sky slowly change to dark blue.
The chef put on a show for our last dinner - battered eggplant, vegetables, rice, potatoes, and a boiled egg each at our request (we went off-menu to get some protein). Dessert was pineapple served in its juices; and a spiced ginger tea. Mmm good.
It was a colder night at the higher altitude - it went down to -5C.
...
We had chosen to start earlier for a better chance to see animals (high on our list was the ibex), so we were up before the sun rose.
Breakfast was pancakes (!), and a boiled egg on request. And then we were off to Imet Gogo, at 3900m. The scenery today was spectacular, it reminded me of Torres del Paines in Patagonia in some places, with baboons.
We crossed the valley, had our lunch overlooking the mountains, and then to the road for our pickup back to Gondar.
ETT didn't do a good job of coordinating our pickup and so we waited over 90 minutes for the vehicle.
We got back to Gondar around 6:30pm, showered for the first time in three days, and then had dinner at the Master Chef.
Overall we were glad we did the trek for trekking's sake; the 3rd was cool scenery. Alain said it got even better the 4th day if we had booked the 4 day trek. I wouldn't say it rivaled the W-trek in Patagonia as we had read in some travel blogs before we came here.
There were three other people on the trek - Alain (a retired teacher in Addis for a few months), his son Mathieu, and Brice, traveling through Ethiopia as a pre-trip before his big round-the-world trip next year. All three happened to be from France, with Mathieu and Brice around our age.
First was a 90 minute drive to Debark to pick up our permits. The ETT agent introduced us to our guide (Chago) and scout (who carried an AK47 at all times). I think the scout was more for local employment than anything else, but he did keep a watch on our bags and tent the entire trek. Our scout spoke Amharic and just a few words of english but seemed like a very nice man. We also picked up our cook and food supplies.
Another hour drive took us to the trekking start point, just past the Simien Lodge. We were now on dusty dirt roads. The roads in and around Gonder (including to the airport) are all paved, however the local villagers use the roads to move their livestock (cows, sheep, goats, horses) so it can be slow going, but at least it's not dusty.
At our starting point there was a large group of gelada baboons, which was one of the main attractions for me on this trek. Check. And I didn't even need to get out of the car :)
We took some pics, and then realized our guide had taken off for a lunch. Alain tracked him down, gave him a bit of a lecture, and then we started trekking.
The first day follows the ridge to Sankabar. It's a great view of the lowlands 1000m below, except it didn't change much all day. The horizon is a brown smog-like blur with all the dust. The dirt road also follows the ridge and in some places the path was on the road. This sort of took away from the trekking / national park experience.
We arrived at the Sankabar campsite around 5pm, although we only walked for about three hours. We had stops for pics, and lunch (an egg sandwich which was excellent and gave us misguided hope for the food on the rest of the trek).
Our tents were all set up. ETT also provided a 1-inch thick foam mattress and a warm sleeping bag (at 3250m, it gets to about -2C at night).
There were signs that said "cold shower" so we walked down to them. It was just a thin water stream with some rocks built up to allow it to drop as a "shower". They got the cold part right though. We decided to not shower.
The temperature dropped quickly as the sun set. We bundled up in all our layers - base, mid and windbreaker, toques, gloves and neck gator. We crowded into the kitchen hut for warmth and a small fire.
Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce, and two mixed vegetable sides. No protein. The vegetables were tasty but the lack of protein was a problem the next day while trekking.
It was cold and dark and the fire was smoky so we were in bed by 8pm.
We had doubled up our sleeping bags inside the ETT ones, and wore our base layers and toques to sleep so we were fine temperature-wise. The ground was hard though and so we slept only so-so.
...
We were up at 6:45am before the sun came up over the mountains on the horizon. It was freezing (literally, it was below 0C).
Our three trekking companions were also up and we all warmed up in the little patch of sun at the top of the sloped campsite. We had breakfast - baguettes and honey, and then porridge. No protein.
The 2nd day of trekking was a little more interesting. We walked to a point overlooking the Jinbar waterfall - a 1000m total drop, which was now just a trickle but in rainy season would be cooler.
Then we descended into the valley and had lunch beside a stream. The water pooled in places and Alain actually went for a swim! - it was way too cold for the rest of us. Saw more groups of baboons feeding and grooming each other. They're quite fascinating to watch, and for the most part ignore humans, passing within feet of us.
After lunch we started a long ascent, through Geech village and then to our campsite at 3600m. The walk through the village and surrounding fields was cool to see. Our path followed where the animals walk everyday, and so has eroded from the animals and rain into foot-deep ditches, with lots of animal poop. Not so comfortable for walking.
With the lack of protein we were all getting tired. Finally we reached the crest just past the village, and could see the campsite off in the distance. That gave us a little boost of energy, as did the tea and snacks served after we freshened up in camp.
Alain (who had done the trek before) suggested climbing the Kedadit summit (3750m) overlooking the campsite (3600m) for the views. It was still early, about 3pm, and we felt energized enough to make it so off the five of us went.
The views were great at the top, it was also much more peaceful than in camp (there were about 20 other people with different tour groups doing the trek at the same time as us).
Heather led us in some stretching at the request of Alain; and then we chatted away the remaining sunlight.
We walked back down to camp before the sunset completely because the walk was tricky with the ruts. We were just in time for dinner - sitting on stone benches warmed by the sun, watching the sky slowly change to dark blue.
The chef put on a show for our last dinner - battered eggplant, vegetables, rice, potatoes, and a boiled egg each at our request (we went off-menu to get some protein). Dessert was pineapple served in its juices; and a spiced ginger tea. Mmm good.
It was a colder night at the higher altitude - it went down to -5C.
...
We had chosen to start earlier for a better chance to see animals (high on our list was the ibex), so we were up before the sun rose.
Breakfast was pancakes (!), and a boiled egg on request. And then we were off to Imet Gogo, at 3900m. The scenery today was spectacular, it reminded me of Torres del Paines in Patagonia in some places, with baboons.
We crossed the valley, had our lunch overlooking the mountains, and then to the road for our pickup back to Gondar.
ETT didn't do a good job of coordinating our pickup and so we waited over 90 minutes for the vehicle.
We got back to Gondar around 6:30pm, showered for the first time in three days, and then had dinner at the Master Chef.
Overall we were glad we did the trek for trekking's sake; the 3rd was cool scenery. Alain said it got even better the 4th day if we had booked the 4 day trek. I wouldn't say it rivaled the W-trek in Patagonia as we had read in some travel blogs before we came here.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Gondar, Ethiopia
Our hotel (Lodge du Chateau) served the best breakfast. Freshly baked baguettes with warmed honey, fresh Ethiopian coffee, and then a choice of eggs, french toast or pancakes. It's served on the 2nd floor terrace overlooking the valley. Mmm good. It's right beside the wifi so we had three bars and excellent speed (this may seem trivial but it's a big deal when traveling).
After our leisurely breakfast we walked to the Royal Enclosure, a UNESCO world heritage site filled with castles and other medieval-like ruins. It's a nice little activity for a morning. The ticket is valid for the day and our hotel is right beside the ruins so we planned to come back in late afternoon for pics with the sun in the other direction.
You can get a guide for about 100 Birr but there's really no need - we just wandered about with the Lonely Planet.
We then hopped in a bajaj (the three-wheeled transport, also called tuktuks in other places) for 50 Birr (about $2.50) for the 10 minute drive through town to Fasiladas' Bath. They were starting to fill it with water for Timkat. Timkat celebrates the Epiphany and is the largest annual celebration in Ethiopia. The baths were in a nice calm setting surrounded by large trees with birds chirping away.
We took a bajaj back to the piazza, joining another passenger for only 10 Birr.
We still had our hankering for pizza and the hotel recommended the Quara hotel so we walked over. The pizza was pretty good - thin crust and tasty. Had a coffee after. I felt very European sipping my coffee on the terrace.
We looked at some souvenirs but the quality was a bit cheap so we didn't get anything. They had some cool-looking cowhide stuffed footstools that we liked, maybe we'll find them in Addis.
Back at the hotel we rearranged our packs for the Simien trek (we were leaving some of our stuff at the hotel).
We had booked the trek through Ethiopian Tour and Travel (ETT) and the agent was supposed to meet us at our hotel at 4pm. He was an hour late, which didn't bode well. I had had good experiences dealing with the ETT booking office but the Gondar agent was pretty poor.
We then went back to the Royal Enclosure for the different sun angle pics.
Dinner was back at the Master Chef. We both had the grilled fish, which was pretty much what we had the day before but extra fish instead of beef. Also had a couple Walias. We asked for dessert but haven't found desserts in any restaurants here in Gondar.
After our leisurely breakfast we walked to the Royal Enclosure, a UNESCO world heritage site filled with castles and other medieval-like ruins. It's a nice little activity for a morning. The ticket is valid for the day and our hotel is right beside the ruins so we planned to come back in late afternoon for pics with the sun in the other direction.
You can get a guide for about 100 Birr but there's really no need - we just wandered about with the Lonely Planet.
We then hopped in a bajaj (the three-wheeled transport, also called tuktuks in other places) for 50 Birr (about $2.50) for the 10 minute drive through town to Fasiladas' Bath. They were starting to fill it with water for Timkat. Timkat celebrates the Epiphany and is the largest annual celebration in Ethiopia. The baths were in a nice calm setting surrounded by large trees with birds chirping away.
We took a bajaj back to the piazza, joining another passenger for only 10 Birr.
We still had our hankering for pizza and the hotel recommended the Quara hotel so we walked over. The pizza was pretty good - thin crust and tasty. Had a coffee after. I felt very European sipping my coffee on the terrace.
We looked at some souvenirs but the quality was a bit cheap so we didn't get anything. They had some cool-looking cowhide stuffed footstools that we liked, maybe we'll find them in Addis.
Back at the hotel we rearranged our packs for the Simien trek (we were leaving some of our stuff at the hotel).
We had booked the trek through Ethiopian Tour and Travel (ETT) and the agent was supposed to meet us at our hotel at 4pm. He was an hour late, which didn't bode well. I had had good experiences dealing with the ETT booking office but the Gondar agent was pretty poor.
We then went back to the Royal Enclosure for the different sun angle pics.
Dinner was back at the Master Chef. We both had the grilled fish, which was pretty much what we had the day before but extra fish instead of beef. Also had a couple Walias. We asked for dessert but haven't found desserts in any restaurants here in Gondar.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Gondar, Ethiopia
It was a short 30 minute flight from Lalibela to Gondar. We had learnt from the previous flight that bottled water is okay through security on domestic flights so we landed not thirsty.
The hotel met us at the airport, and we drove to the repetitively named Lodge du Chateau. The Lonely Planet had written about the firm beds and I think that's the reason we had chosen it back in July. It's a nice cosy place with very friendly staff. The washrooms are a bit basic, but the beds are definitely firm!
The hotel manager gave us a cheat sheet for Gondar with restaurant recommendations and the like. We wandered out for lunch, the first time that we had really travelled on this trip. In Uganda we went from resort to resort (that's sort of the nature of lodges in national parks - you don't really wander down the street for lunch :) ) and in Lalibela we were guided around everywhere. In Gondar it was the first time we were walking about a town. Gondar has a really nice vibe. It's at 2100m so the climate is very comfortable - it was about 22C during the day. Gondar is also a town on its own and not dependent on tourism, and there was very little hassling as we walked about.
We spent the afternoon exploring around the town centre. Had our shoes cleaned in the Piazza while watching the town go about. The shoe cleaning guy did a really good job - our shoes weren't looking that great after the dust in Lalibela. Stocked up on toiletries that were running low at the Best Supermarket.
Around dusk the power went and so we showered by flashlight and then walked over to the Master Chef for dinner. We had a hankering for pizza but the oven was electric and so we had the mixed grill instead, which was excellent. It was really nice in the restaurant lit by candlelight. The power came back on just before our food arrived, which was almost disappointing :). Food was excellent at the Master Chef, one of the best meals we've had so far in Ethiopia. All in all it was a nice relaxing day in Gondar.
The hotel met us at the airport, and we drove to the repetitively named Lodge du Chateau. The Lonely Planet had written about the firm beds and I think that's the reason we had chosen it back in July. It's a nice cosy place with very friendly staff. The washrooms are a bit basic, but the beds are definitely firm!
The hotel manager gave us a cheat sheet for Gondar with restaurant recommendations and the like. We wandered out for lunch, the first time that we had really travelled on this trip. In Uganda we went from resort to resort (that's sort of the nature of lodges in national parks - you don't really wander down the street for lunch :) ) and in Lalibela we were guided around everywhere. In Gondar it was the first time we were walking about a town. Gondar has a really nice vibe. It's at 2100m so the climate is very comfortable - it was about 22C during the day. Gondar is also a town on its own and not dependent on tourism, and there was very little hassling as we walked about.
We spent the afternoon exploring around the town centre. Had our shoes cleaned in the Piazza while watching the town go about. The shoe cleaning guy did a really good job - our shoes weren't looking that great after the dust in Lalibela. Stocked up on toiletries that were running low at the Best Supermarket.
Around dusk the power went and so we showered by flashlight and then walked over to the Master Chef for dinner. We had a hankering for pizza but the oven was electric and so we had the mixed grill instead, which was excellent. It was really nice in the restaurant lit by candlelight. The power came back on just before our food arrived, which was almost disappointing :). Food was excellent at the Master Chef, one of the best meals we've had so far in Ethiopia. All in all it was a nice relaxing day in Gondar.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Lalibela, Ethiopia
We slept in until 8am, almost 11 hours. With all the early-morning safari drives we hadn't been getting much sleep at the start of the trip and we were finally able to do some catching up.
Breakfast was good at the Maribela. In particular their coffee was excellent. Ethiopia's the birthplace of coffee and they do it really well. I'm not a coffee drinker but in countries where it's good (e.g. Indonesia or here) I like it.
In the morning we visited the southeastern cluster of churches in Lalibela. We found this more interesting than the northwestern cluster, but still nothing that blew us away.
After lunch we drove out to the Monastery of Yemrehanna Kristos, about 40km outside Lalibela. The views of the farming villages along the way were amazing.
It's a 15-minute walk uphill to finally get to the monastery. We could feel the altitude as we climbed (Lalibela is at 2800m), although all the sitting around in safari vehicles the past two weeks probably contributed to us being out of breath as we walked.
The monastery is built into a cave. It's cool to see but only as a side trip. I enjoyed to views on the drive a bit more.
We got back to the hotel around 5pm, completely covered in dust from the drive. My hair looked gray. We showered and washed the clothes we were wearing. With the cool dry air they easily dried overnight on the balcony.
We had dinner at the Mountain View Hotel, which we realized as we were eating was our Christmas dinner. The food was okay. We had eaten dinner at the top two restaurants in Lalibela but neither was particularly inspiring. I'm sure this will change in a few years as tourism grows.
Breakfast was good at the Maribela. In particular their coffee was excellent. Ethiopia's the birthplace of coffee and they do it really well. I'm not a coffee drinker but in countries where it's good (e.g. Indonesia or here) I like it.
In the morning we visited the southeastern cluster of churches in Lalibela. We found this more interesting than the northwestern cluster, but still nothing that blew us away.
After lunch we drove out to the Monastery of Yemrehanna Kristos, about 40km outside Lalibela. The views of the farming villages along the way were amazing.
It's a 15-minute walk uphill to finally get to the monastery. We could feel the altitude as we climbed (Lalibela is at 2800m), although all the sitting around in safari vehicles the past two weeks probably contributed to us being out of breath as we walked.
The monastery is built into a cave. It's cool to see but only as a side trip. I enjoyed to views on the drive a bit more.
We got back to the hotel around 5pm, completely covered in dust from the drive. My hair looked gray. We showered and washed the clothes we were wearing. With the cool dry air they easily dried overnight on the balcony.
We had dinner at the Mountain View Hotel, which we realized as we were eating was our Christmas dinner. The food was okay. We had eaten dinner at the top two restaurants in Lalibela but neither was particularly inspiring. I'm sure this will change in a few years as tourism grows.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Lalibela, Ethiopia
We had an 8:10am flight to Lalibela on Dec 24, so were up before 5am, a very short stay at our hotel in Addis. We had our Ugandan souvenirs to leave at the hotel, otherwise it might have been better to book a connecting flight from Entebbe-Addis-Lalibela.
There were more tourists on the Dash 8 to Lalibela than we had seen in all of Uganda. It's the main attraction in Ethiopia and we were now into busy season so I guess that's not too surprising.
It was an hour flight to Bahar Dar, a 30 minute wait for more passengers and then a 30 minute flight to Lalibela. This was a way better option than the two day drive from Addis, and for only $40 because we had booked our international flight on Ethiopian Airlines. We even got served a lunch!
The hotel and tour touts were all lined up in Arrivals at the airport in Lalibela. First we had to go back out to the tarmac to pick up our luggage (the little luggage train just stopped outside the terminal, they didn't unload it inside). We had booked a guide and transportation through our hotel (Hotel Maribela) and they were there to pick us up.
Tourism is growing fast in Lalibela but it's not yet quite there. They're paving new roads from the airport to town and to the ruins out of town, but in the meantime it's pretty dusty getting about. There's lots of new hotels under construction, and the staff are still figuring out how to run them.
Anyways, we were there to see the ruins and got right into it. Our guide took us to the Seven Olives for lunch - a nice setting outdoors under olive trees. The food was really good too.
After lunch we bought our tickets ($100 USD each) and then starting our guided tour at the northwestern cluster. The churches are all dug down into the rock, with the tops of the churches at ground level. There's tunnels interconnecting them. It all looks and sounds amazing, but for some reason we were both underwhelmed. Maybe we had read too much about how amazing they were and had really high expectations, especially after seeing Petra a couple years ago. I think also the underfunded attempts at conservation - corrugated metal jammed over doorways to prevent erosion, wires strung about with dangling neon light bulbs in the interior, rusty old garbage cans at entrances to the churches -- none of it were really 'wow' sights for us.
We finished the day at St George's (Bet Giyorgis), which is the most famous of the churches. It was pretty cool, but not amazingly cool.
Back at the hotel we cleaned up, and then went to Ben Abeba for dinner, with a great view overlooking the valley. We were both pretty tired (me in particular) so called it an early night. I think we were asleep by 9pm.
There were more tourists on the Dash 8 to Lalibela than we had seen in all of Uganda. It's the main attraction in Ethiopia and we were now into busy season so I guess that's not too surprising.
It was an hour flight to Bahar Dar, a 30 minute wait for more passengers and then a 30 minute flight to Lalibela. This was a way better option than the two day drive from Addis, and for only $40 because we had booked our international flight on Ethiopian Airlines. We even got served a lunch!
The hotel and tour touts were all lined up in Arrivals at the airport in Lalibela. First we had to go back out to the tarmac to pick up our luggage (the little luggage train just stopped outside the terminal, they didn't unload it inside). We had booked a guide and transportation through our hotel (Hotel Maribela) and they were there to pick us up.
Tourism is growing fast in Lalibela but it's not yet quite there. They're paving new roads from the airport to town and to the ruins out of town, but in the meantime it's pretty dusty getting about. There's lots of new hotels under construction, and the staff are still figuring out how to run them.
Anyways, we were there to see the ruins and got right into it. Our guide took us to the Seven Olives for lunch - a nice setting outdoors under olive trees. The food was really good too.
After lunch we bought our tickets ($100 USD each) and then starting our guided tour at the northwestern cluster. The churches are all dug down into the rock, with the tops of the churches at ground level. There's tunnels interconnecting them. It all looks and sounds amazing, but for some reason we were both underwhelmed. Maybe we had read too much about how amazing they were and had really high expectations, especially after seeing Petra a couple years ago. I think also the underfunded attempts at conservation - corrugated metal jammed over doorways to prevent erosion, wires strung about with dangling neon light bulbs in the interior, rusty old garbage cans at entrances to the churches -- none of it were really 'wow' sights for us.
We finished the day at St George's (Bet Giyorgis), which is the most famous of the churches. It was pretty cool, but not amazingly cool.
Back at the hotel we cleaned up, and then went to Ben Abeba for dinner, with a great view overlooking the valley. We were both pretty tired (me in particular) so called it an early night. I think we were asleep by 9pm.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
We drove back from QENP to Entebbe, about an eight hour drive. We stopped at the equator again for a pic. The roads were paved and in good condition for most of the way, and there was only traffic when we passed through Kampala.
Marissa's flight was at 11:50pm so we had dinner at the hotel and then Marissa left for the airport to fly back to Toronto.
The next day Heather and I flew to Addis at 6pm to start our Ethiopia part of the trip, so we had the day to relax at Karibu Guest House.
We had bought some masks at Mweya, two of which Marissa took back for us. The 3rd is large and didn't fit into her suitcase. We just tried taking it as carry on, which worked - so now we just have to get it on the flight from Addis to Toronto (we left it at the hotel in Addis while we tour around Ethiopia).
Bole International Airport in Addis is pretty efficient, almost as good as Singapore. Most people on our flight were in transit so it was easy to pick up our luggage. We had arranged a driver from the hotel and he was there waiting with an "Eric D'Souza" sign. Got some birr from the ATM, drove to the Addis Regency, and we were checked into our hotel room less than 90 minutes after touching down.
Marissa's flight was at 11:50pm so we had dinner at the hotel and then Marissa left for the airport to fly back to Toronto.
The next day Heather and I flew to Addis at 6pm to start our Ethiopia part of the trip, so we had the day to relax at Karibu Guest House.
We had bought some masks at Mweya, two of which Marissa took back for us. The 3rd is large and didn't fit into her suitcase. We just tried taking it as carry on, which worked - so now we just have to get it on the flight from Addis to Toronto (we left it at the hotel in Addis while we tour around Ethiopia).
Bole International Airport in Addis is pretty efficient, almost as good as Singapore. Most people on our flight were in transit so it was easy to pick up our luggage. We had arranged a driver from the hotel and he was there waiting with an "Eric D'Souza" sign. Got some birr from the ATM, drove to the Addis Regency, and we were checked into our hotel room less than 90 minutes after touching down.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 4
Today was the first day we slept in on our vacation. It was a sunny day which boded well to see more animals on the boat cruise this evening.
We relaxed around the lodge, bought some souvenirs from the gift shop, wrote our postcards, and looked at our pictures.
Finally 4pm rolled around and we took a short five minute drive down to the docks. It turned out our driver for the past days, Patrick, also piloted the boat and was our guide for the Kazinga Channel cruise. He knew everything about the birds and animals in the channel.
From the deck of our room we had a view across the channel where we had watched the buffalo and hippos. However there was way more to see further down the channel.
There's lots of interesting birds in the channel as well. Marissa and I missed a few pics of the hippos with their mouths open because we were to busy focusing on the birds.
We saw dozens of hippos and buffaloes, a handful of crocodiles and hundreds of birds. The hippos tended to submerge as we approached (they can stay underwater for 5-6 minutes), so I'm sure there were far more hippos than what we saw. They are huge - you don't appreciate the size until you see them beside a buffalo.
The boat cruise was a great way to end our safaris in Uganda. We were back onshore by 6:30, cleaned up and went for dinner. We were still pretty tired from all the early mornings. Heather went back to our room to start packing while Marissa and I finished off our beers.
Our room is far enough from the main lodge that they have a golf cart to shuttle guests back-and-forth from their rooms. There's also signs posted about the risk of the animals around the lodge - it is in the middle of QENP.
So after we finished our beers, Marissa and I were being driven back to the room when a very large hippo burst out of the bushes and trotted alongside the golf cart, less than a foot away. I think we startled it, as the golf cart is electrical and runs pretty quietly. The hippo was longer, taller and wider than the golf cart, weigh on average 1,500 kg and can run up to 30 km/h on land. Being a foot beside a startled hippo is not the place you want to be.
The hotel staff driving the cart hit the brakes, and the went into reverse. The top speed of the average golf cart is around 24km/h so we weren't going to win a race if there was one. Fortunately the hippo turned back into the bushes and I could hear it moving away from us. Our driver quickly took us to our room (we were only about 25m away). And so we survived yet another brush with wildlife, this one probably the most dangerous.
We relaxed around the lodge, bought some souvenirs from the gift shop, wrote our postcards, and looked at our pictures.
Finally 4pm rolled around and we took a short five minute drive down to the docks. It turned out our driver for the past days, Patrick, also piloted the boat and was our guide for the Kazinga Channel cruise. He knew everything about the birds and animals in the channel.
From the deck of our room we had a view across the channel where we had watched the buffalo and hippos. However there was way more to see further down the channel.
There's lots of interesting birds in the channel as well. Marissa and I missed a few pics of the hippos with their mouths open because we were to busy focusing on the birds.
We saw dozens of hippos and buffaloes, a handful of crocodiles and hundreds of birds. The hippos tended to submerge as we approached (they can stay underwater for 5-6 minutes), so I'm sure there were far more hippos than what we saw. They are huge - you don't appreciate the size until you see them beside a buffalo.
The boat cruise was a great way to end our safaris in Uganda. We were back onshore by 6:30, cleaned up and went for dinner. We were still pretty tired from all the early mornings. Heather went back to our room to start packing while Marissa and I finished off our beers.
Our room is far enough from the main lodge that they have a golf cart to shuttle guests back-and-forth from their rooms. There's also signs posted about the risk of the animals around the lodge - it is in the middle of QENP.
So after we finished our beers, Marissa and I were being driven back to the room when a very large hippo burst out of the bushes and trotted alongside the golf cart, less than a foot away. I think we startled it, as the golf cart is electrical and runs pretty quietly. The hippo was longer, taller and wider than the golf cart, weigh on average 1,500 kg and can run up to 30 km/h on land. Being a foot beside a startled hippo is not the place you want to be.
The hotel staff driving the cart hit the brakes, and the went into reverse. The top speed of the average golf cart is around 24km/h so we weren't going to win a race if there was one. Fortunately the hippo turned back into the bushes and I could hear it moving away from us. Our driver quickly took us to our room (we were only about 25m away). And so we survived yet another brush with wildlife, this one probably the most dangerous.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 3
Today was our big lion day. We had booked the GPS lion safari through the lodge for our morning game drive. The lion families are fitted with GPS collars, which makes them easy to find. A researcher joined us in the vehicle to direct our driver. I had imagined the researcher with a fancy iPad app with the locations of all the lions plotted on a map. Instead he had a three-foot long antenna that he pointed around through the sunroof until he heard beeps. The closer we were the faster the beeps, just like in the movies.
Just inside the gate we came across our first group of seven lions, eating from a fresh kill! Then we found out the best part of doing the GPS lion excursion - having a researcher in the vehicle allows you to off-road. While a half-dozen other safari vehicles parked on the dirt road with a limited and obstructed view of the lions and the dead buffalo (they were behind a large bush), we drove around to where the lighting and viewing was best, within 60 feet of the lions. It was really cool. The lions were still in tall grass so the pictures aren't that great, but it was really cool to watch. You could hear the bones crunching as they ate.
We didn't think anything could top that, but we were wrong. We came across another group of six lions also eating from a kill (it was too deep in grasses for us to see which animal). Something disturbed them when we arrived, and they scattered around and started playing! One of them climbed a large anthill which was perfect for pictures. It was almost like a photo shoot - okay Mr Lion, you climb that anthill over there, turn your face towards the sun, chin up, perfect!
We watched this group for about 30 minutes and then carried on. We saw a couple more solitary lions before stopping for breakfast overlooking a salt lake.
In all we saw 14 lions in the morning safari. The weird part about the GPS lion trek is that it's the same cost as a regular safari from the lodge, but you get to off-road. There were two other groups from our lodge who had just booked a regular safari and they were stuck on the road with the limited views.
We had lunch overlooking the channel. We noticed that there were fewer hippos because it was an overcast and cooler day. (The hippos are more likely to come down to the water to cool down on hot sunny days).
So we decided to switch the leopard safari which we had booked tomorrow with the Kazinga Channel boat ride.
Leopards are solitary animals and very shy, which makes them tough to spot. They also don't wear GPS collars. We toured around from 4:30 - 8:00pm looking for leopards but no luck. We did see dozens of kobs, eight lions, some elephants, and an owl, but no leopard. By this time in our trip the other animals weren't as exciting to us, but it was still a cool drive.
All the early morning wake ups for game drives, along with dusty and bumpy roads finally caught up with Heather and she was a little under the weather, so just Marissa and I went down for dinner. Tomorrow was the first day we didn't have to wake up early so we had big plans to party it up, except I was really tired so went to bed early anyways.
Just inside the gate we came across our first group of seven lions, eating from a fresh kill! Then we found out the best part of doing the GPS lion excursion - having a researcher in the vehicle allows you to off-road. While a half-dozen other safari vehicles parked on the dirt road with a limited and obstructed view of the lions and the dead buffalo (they were behind a large bush), we drove around to where the lighting and viewing was best, within 60 feet of the lions. It was really cool. The lions were still in tall grass so the pictures aren't that great, but it was really cool to watch. You could hear the bones crunching as they ate.
We didn't think anything could top that, but we were wrong. We came across another group of six lions also eating from a kill (it was too deep in grasses for us to see which animal). Something disturbed them when we arrived, and they scattered around and started playing! One of them climbed a large anthill which was perfect for pictures. It was almost like a photo shoot - okay Mr Lion, you climb that anthill over there, turn your face towards the sun, chin up, perfect!
We watched this group for about 30 minutes and then carried on. We saw a couple more solitary lions before stopping for breakfast overlooking a salt lake.
In all we saw 14 lions in the morning safari. The weird part about the GPS lion trek is that it's the same cost as a regular safari from the lodge, but you get to off-road. There were two other groups from our lodge who had just booked a regular safari and they were stuck on the road with the limited views.
We had lunch overlooking the channel. We noticed that there were fewer hippos because it was an overcast and cooler day. (The hippos are more likely to come down to the water to cool down on hot sunny days).
So we decided to switch the leopard safari which we had booked tomorrow with the Kazinga Channel boat ride.
Leopards are solitary animals and very shy, which makes them tough to spot. They also don't wear GPS collars. We toured around from 4:30 - 8:00pm looking for leopards but no luck. We did see dozens of kobs, eight lions, some elephants, and an owl, but no leopard. By this time in our trip the other animals weren't as exciting to us, but it was still a cool drive.
All the early morning wake ups for game drives, along with dusty and bumpy roads finally caught up with Heather and she was a little under the weather, so just Marissa and I went down for dinner. Tomorrow was the first day we didn't have to wake up early so we had big plans to party it up, except I was really tired so went to bed early anyways.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 2
We were at the main lodge by 6:15 for tea and muffins and headed out for our chimp trekking at Kyambura Gorge at 6:30am. We had pre-booked the permits, but likely didn't need to as it doesn't look like it's a popular excursion, although it should be on people's lists.
There was an Australian couple that joined us for the trek. After registering, we drove to about midway parallel to the gorge. The guide got out, listened for the chimps talking, and then we drive a short distance further before starting the trek.
Our guide gave us a quick briefing - most importantly, stay together to avoid being killed by lions, chimpanzees, elephants or hippos.
It was an easy five minute walk down to the river that bisects the gorge. The guide pointed out chimp droppings, half-eaten figs and footprints that he used to locate the chimps. There's also a fermented fruit that makes the chimps drunk and disorderly, and more dangerous.
We crossed a bridge over the river and then walked a few minutes south, at which point we had our first spotting of chimps. Unfortunately they were in the treetops crossing over to the opposite side of the river. Our guide said we could try to backtrack to the bridge, but then the chances were that the chimps would then just cross over again. He thought the bridge was our bet so we hurried back and then walked south to the chimps.
We were in luck as the chimps stayed on the same side of the river as us. We almost immediately spotted the dominant male on the ground, on the path in front of us! Then there was a big commotion and chimps making loud noises to figure out where they were going to feed today. They burst right past us on the path - we stepped aside and stood still and they ignored us - but it was very cool and a little scary for some to have the chimps so close! They are much bigger than I had imagined - upright they would be about as tall as me, with more weight. In the trees they look small and cute, but when they're whipping past you and talking to each other at a high volume, they look much bigger.
We tracked them to a fig tree where we observed about 6 - 10 chimps in the tree branches above us over the next 90 minutes. There's no time limit - it was based more on our arms getting tired from holding a camera up for that long :)
The pictures were just as challenging as taking pictures of gorillas. It's low light, with a bright sky in the background, and manual focus is a necessity.
On the way back out of the gorge we saw a red-tailed monkey and some olive baboons. It was a much easier trek than the gorilla trek - I'd rate today's as easy.
It's an hour drive back to Mweya and along the drive we saw elephants and other game, but no leopards or lions. Also got some cool pics of fishermen as we crossed the Kazinga Channel.
We had no other excursions today, and spent the afternoon relaxing, our first down time in a while. Saw some hippos and crocodiles across the channel, and some pretty birds (Heather may become an ornithologist yet).
There was an Australian couple that joined us for the trek. After registering, we drove to about midway parallel to the gorge. The guide got out, listened for the chimps talking, and then we drive a short distance further before starting the trek.
Our guide gave us a quick briefing - most importantly, stay together to avoid being killed by lions, chimpanzees, elephants or hippos.
It was an easy five minute walk down to the river that bisects the gorge. The guide pointed out chimp droppings, half-eaten figs and footprints that he used to locate the chimps. There's also a fermented fruit that makes the chimps drunk and disorderly, and more dangerous.
We crossed a bridge over the river and then walked a few minutes south, at which point we had our first spotting of chimps. Unfortunately they were in the treetops crossing over to the opposite side of the river. Our guide said we could try to backtrack to the bridge, but then the chances were that the chimps would then just cross over again. He thought the bridge was our bet so we hurried back and then walked south to the chimps.
We were in luck as the chimps stayed on the same side of the river as us. We almost immediately spotted the dominant male on the ground, on the path in front of us! Then there was a big commotion and chimps making loud noises to figure out where they were going to feed today. They burst right past us on the path - we stepped aside and stood still and they ignored us - but it was very cool and a little scary for some to have the chimps so close! They are much bigger than I had imagined - upright they would be about as tall as me, with more weight. In the trees they look small and cute, but when they're whipping past you and talking to each other at a high volume, they look much bigger.
We tracked them to a fig tree where we observed about 6 - 10 chimps in the tree branches above us over the next 90 minutes. There's no time limit - it was based more on our arms getting tired from holding a camera up for that long :)
The pictures were just as challenging as taking pictures of gorillas. It's low light, with a bright sky in the background, and manual focus is a necessity.
On the way back out of the gorge we saw a red-tailed monkey and some olive baboons. It was a much easier trek than the gorilla trek - I'd rate today's as easy.
It's an hour drive back to Mweya and along the drive we saw elephants and other game, but no leopards or lions. Also got some cool pics of fishermen as we crossed the Kazinga Channel.
We had no other excursions today, and spent the afternoon relaxing, our first down time in a while. Saw some hippos and crocodiles across the channel, and some pretty birds (Heather may become an ornithologist yet).
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 1
We had a quick breakfast and were on the road by 7:30am, headed for QENP. Our driver had a mix up and had gone to the Gorilla Safari Lodge in Buhoma, a five hour drive at the other side of the park. He had planned to get in the night before and rest, but instead spent half of it driving to our lodge in Rushaga.
It was a long bumpy and dusty six hour drive to Isasha, en route to QENP. In Isasha we picked up a ranger and drove to see the tree-climbing lions. They're GPS'd so easy to find, but also seemed to be cheating. The collar also takes away from the pics.
Another bumpy and dusty four hours brought us to QENP and Mweya Safari Lodge. It's on the tip of The Kazinga Channel, with great views of the hippos, crocodiles and buffaloes on the opposite shore. They're further away than we had thought, but with our binoculars and fancy cameras we were able to see them.
The Bradt guide refers to Mweya as the Sheraton of safari. We're here for four nights and it's a nice place to relax after being on the go for the past week.
It was a long bumpy and dusty six hour drive to Isasha, en route to QENP. In Isasha we picked up a ranger and drove to see the tree-climbing lions. They're GPS'd so easy to find, but also seemed to be cheating. The collar also takes away from the pics.
Another bumpy and dusty four hours brought us to QENP and Mweya Safari Lodge. It's on the tip of The Kazinga Channel, with great views of the hippos, crocodiles and buffaloes on the opposite shore. They're further away than we had thought, but with our binoculars and fancy cameras we were able to see them.
The Bradt guide refers to Mweya as the Sheraton of safari. We're here for four nights and it's a nice place to relax after being on the go for the past week.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
We were up for breakfast at 7:00 and on the way to the park entrance by 7:30. The lodge manager walked with us to the gate and helped us register with our permits. You need your passport to sign in (the limited permits are sold in advance), and the manager took them back to the lodge so we didn't have to lug them around on the trek.
We each hired a porter to carry our daypacks. It helps contribute to the local economy and at $15 USD a pretty good deal, what with 2L of water in addition to other gear in our packs.
Our guide gave us an intro briefing, and then we were off. It was pretty warm even at 8am -- about 18C. We wore our base layers and rain jackets - we had to prepare for both a downpour in the undergrowth, and the hot sun in open areas. There was a ranger at the front and back with AK47s (to protect us from unhabituated gorillas and other game), the guide, our porters and us. There were trackers out in the field to search for the gorilla family that our guide was in contact with so we knew where to head.
The trek started off easy enough, along a path used by villagers. Then it became more difficult, single file with the forest growth twice our height in both sides. Then we started going up and down inclines, sometimes with the guide hacking the path with his machete.
About an hour in, our guide got word from the trackers on the gorillas' location. It was about 90 minutes from us. The path became even more challenging. It was an uphill climb for 45 minutes and then along a ledge, with the path cut into a 60* slope. The path encouraged you to slip or step in the wrong place and send you falling down through the undergrowth.
We reached the trackers and then our guide gave us another briefing on how to behave around the gorillas. There's no food or drink allowed and so we had some water and then left our porters and carried on with guide and trackers.
We then pretty much crawled over top of the undergrowth for five minutes to reach an area to view the gorillas. It was the most challenging portion I've ever done.
Finally we could see the gorillas! Although, we were on a steep slope with lots of undergrowth between us and the gorillas. It was a family of ten, and we think we saw about six or seven of them. At first they were moving about in the low light, which didn't make for good pictures. The silverback had climbed up a tree with the bright sky in the background which made even worse pictures.
The gorilla visits are limited to one hour and our guide gave us updates as the visit proceeded. After 30 minutes the gorillas became accustomed to us and came down from the trees which made for better pictures. Then a year-old gorilla scampered over to Heather, touched her knees and then held her hand! It looked like the gorilla might hug her too, but then it went over to Marissa, touched her knees, and then did the same with me. It was almost like the baby gorilla was greeting the newcomers, because it only touched us and not the guide and trackers that it would see frequently. It was really cool.
We sat precariously perched on the slope for the remainder of the hour taking pictures and watching the gorillas. Finally the hour was up and we made our way back to the porters, had our packed lunches, and then started the trek back out.
We walked a different route on the way out. At points there wasn't even a path - we were walking through undergrowth twice our height and so thick I could barely see the person in front of me.
It took us over two hours to walk out. In all, we were trekking for 4 1/2 hours plus the hour with the gorillas. On a scale, I'd rate the trek as difficult, but it just depends on where the gorillas are that day. When Marissa and I saw the gorillas in Rwanda in 2005, it was a trek through a bamboo forest which I'd rate as easy to medium. I'm glad I had my new camera with manual focus, because the auto-focus picked up branches and leaves instead of the gorillas. The low light also needed a longer exposure and for the gorillas to stay motionless.
It was nice that our lodge was just a ten minute walk - we were tired and dirty and in need of a shower and food.
We had an early start the next day for our drive to Queen Elizabeth NP so we were in bed pretty early at 9pm.
We each hired a porter to carry our daypacks. It helps contribute to the local economy and at $15 USD a pretty good deal, what with 2L of water in addition to other gear in our packs.
Our guide gave us an intro briefing, and then we were off. It was pretty warm even at 8am -- about 18C. We wore our base layers and rain jackets - we had to prepare for both a downpour in the undergrowth, and the hot sun in open areas. There was a ranger at the front and back with AK47s (to protect us from unhabituated gorillas and other game), the guide, our porters and us. There were trackers out in the field to search for the gorilla family that our guide was in contact with so we knew where to head.
The trek started off easy enough, along a path used by villagers. Then it became more difficult, single file with the forest growth twice our height in both sides. Then we started going up and down inclines, sometimes with the guide hacking the path with his machete.
About an hour in, our guide got word from the trackers on the gorillas' location. It was about 90 minutes from us. The path became even more challenging. It was an uphill climb for 45 minutes and then along a ledge, with the path cut into a 60* slope. The path encouraged you to slip or step in the wrong place and send you falling down through the undergrowth.
We reached the trackers and then our guide gave us another briefing on how to behave around the gorillas. There's no food or drink allowed and so we had some water and then left our porters and carried on with guide and trackers.
We then pretty much crawled over top of the undergrowth for five minutes to reach an area to view the gorillas. It was the most challenging portion I've ever done.
Finally we could see the gorillas! Although, we were on a steep slope with lots of undergrowth between us and the gorillas. It was a family of ten, and we think we saw about six or seven of them. At first they were moving about in the low light, which didn't make for good pictures. The silverback had climbed up a tree with the bright sky in the background which made even worse pictures.
The gorilla visits are limited to one hour and our guide gave us updates as the visit proceeded. After 30 minutes the gorillas became accustomed to us and came down from the trees which made for better pictures. Then a year-old gorilla scampered over to Heather, touched her knees and then held her hand! It looked like the gorilla might hug her too, but then it went over to Marissa, touched her knees, and then did the same with me. It was almost like the baby gorilla was greeting the newcomers, because it only touched us and not the guide and trackers that it would see frequently. It was really cool.
We sat precariously perched on the slope for the remainder of the hour taking pictures and watching the gorillas. Finally the hour was up and we made our way back to the porters, had our packed lunches, and then started the trek back out.
We walked a different route on the way out. At points there wasn't even a path - we were walking through undergrowth twice our height and so thick I could barely see the person in front of me.
It took us over two hours to walk out. In all, we were trekking for 4 1/2 hours plus the hour with the gorillas. On a scale, I'd rate the trek as difficult, but it just depends on where the gorillas are that day. When Marissa and I saw the gorillas in Rwanda in 2005, it was a trek through a bamboo forest which I'd rate as easy to medium. I'm glad I had my new camera with manual focus, because the auto-focus picked up branches and leaves instead of the gorillas. The low light also needed a longer exposure and for the gorillas to stay motionless.
It was nice that our lodge was just a ten minute walk - we were tired and dirty and in need of a shower and food.
We had an early start the next day for our drive to Queen Elizabeth NP so we were in bed pretty early at 9pm.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
We were up and ready for our driver at 9:00am as planned. He was still a no-show at 9:30 and we were planning when we should start to panic. The receptionist came by concerned and asked how she could help. We didn't have the driver's number but he was booked through the previous hotel, so the receptionist called the Karibu and in her telephone voice asked if they could contact the driver. It turns out he had a flat tire in the morning and showed up a few minutes after we called.
And so we were off for Rushaga, our entry point to Bwindi to see the mountain gorillas. It was market day in a few towns we passed through and they were bustling. There was even a livestock market at one. We did some drive-by touristing, taking pictures through rolled-down windows from the moving car.
Closer to Rushaga, the road was signposted with the hotels and lodges. There were a couple forks that weren't marked and unfortunately we chose poorly both times.
We arrived at the Gorilla Safari Lodge around 1pm. Once again we were the only guests. The lodge was okay - not as nice as Apoka, but prices are inflated around Bwindi. The whole area is very hilly and it's at least a 50m vertical down the path from the main lodge area to our cabins.
Electrical outlets are only in the main lodge and so first on the agenda was recharging phones, iPad and camera batteries. Good thing we were the only guests!
We took a walk along the road to warm up for the next day's trek, as we had been very inactive since we arrived, sitting in safari vehicles for most of the day. We saw the locals farming in 45* slopes, school kids playing soccer and goats and sheep herded along the road.
We cleaned up and then met up in the main lodge for a few Clubs (a pilsener that's our favourite local beer). We had dinner around 7:30pm and then went to bed early, with our big adventure tomorrow to see the mountain gorillas!
And so we were off for Rushaga, our entry point to Bwindi to see the mountain gorillas. It was market day in a few towns we passed through and they were bustling. There was even a livestock market at one. We did some drive-by touristing, taking pictures through rolled-down windows from the moving car.
Closer to Rushaga, the road was signposted with the hotels and lodges. There were a couple forks that weren't marked and unfortunately we chose poorly both times.
We arrived at the Gorilla Safari Lodge around 1pm. Once again we were the only guests. The lodge was okay - not as nice as Apoka, but prices are inflated around Bwindi. The whole area is very hilly and it's at least a 50m vertical down the path from the main lodge area to our cabins.
Electrical outlets are only in the main lodge and so first on the agenda was recharging phones, iPad and camera batteries. Good thing we were the only guests!
We took a walk along the road to warm up for the next day's trek, as we had been very inactive since we arrived, sitting in safari vehicles for most of the day. We saw the locals farming in 45* slopes, school kids playing soccer and goats and sheep herded along the road.
We cleaned up and then met up in the main lodge for a few Clubs (a pilsener that's our favourite local beer). We had dinner around 7:30pm and then went to bed early, with our big adventure tomorrow to see the mountain gorillas!
Monday, December 15, 2014
Kabale, Uganda
We took a special hire (a long-distance taxi) to Kabale. The road is newly paved and was quite comfortable. Our driver has said it was a five-hour drive but it took us nine hours, including a stop for lunch. The countryside was lush and green, and there were little produce stalls on the side of the road selling potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and fresh fish from Lake Bunyonyi.
We stopped at the equator for a touristy pic. There's a restaurant that sits right on the equator, and you can get a table with people sitting in different hemispheres.
Kabale has limited tourist options. We had booked into Cepha's Inn, a mid-range place rated highly in the guide books but not so great on tripadvisor. We debated on the drive about upgrading to a nicer (more expensive) hotel in the nearby Lake Bunyonyi but decided to stay at Cepha's because it was just a transit stop and more convenient to get to Bwindi.
We liked our driver so arranged with him to drive us the next day to Bwindi.
We found out we've been mispronouncing 'Bwindi' - we've been saying b-win-di but it's actually bwin-di with a consonant blend on the 'bw' similar to 'tw' in twin.
Cepha's was okay, but there are two wings - the newer wing is what was reviewed in the guide books, and the older wing got the bad reviews on tripadvisor. We were in the older wing. It was clean and had hot water, a mosquito net and a comfortable bed so it was good enough.
Dinner was pretty good again. We've been surprised at the great meals we've had so far in Uganda. Marissa's vegetarian and there's been good options for her too. At Cepha's I had the 'fish allachef' which tasted great. We finished up our beers and called it a night.
We stopped at the equator for a touristy pic. There's a restaurant that sits right on the equator, and you can get a table with people sitting in different hemispheres.
Kabale has limited tourist options. We had booked into Cepha's Inn, a mid-range place rated highly in the guide books but not so great on tripadvisor. We debated on the drive about upgrading to a nicer (more expensive) hotel in the nearby Lake Bunyonyi but decided to stay at Cepha's because it was just a transit stop and more convenient to get to Bwindi.
We liked our driver so arranged with him to drive us the next day to Bwindi.
We found out we've been mispronouncing 'Bwindi' - we've been saying b-win-di but it's actually bwin-di with a consonant blend on the 'bw' similar to 'tw' in twin.
Cepha's was okay, but there are two wings - the newer wing is what was reviewed in the guide books, and the older wing got the bad reviews on tripadvisor. We were in the older wing. It was clean and had hot water, a mosquito net and a comfortable bed so it was good enough.
Dinner was pretty good again. We've been surprised at the great meals we've had so far in Uganda. Marissa's vegetarian and there's been good options for her too. At Cepha's I had the 'fish allachef' which tasted great. We finished up our beers and called it a night.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 4
For our last game activity we tried out the game walk. We drove out to an area that giraffes frequently graze, and then started the game walk, joined by an armed ranger.
Our guide went through some pointers: walk in single file, some hand signals, and what to do if an animal charged us (hide between the guide and ranger).
We saw the usual animals, but the giraffes were in a distant field and so we didn't get close. Apparently the giraffes just ignore people and you can get within a few feet. A selfie with a giraffe would have been cool.
On the drive back we saw a large group of 35 elephants.
For the record, over our time at Kidepo we saw:
Reeboks, Cape buffalo, vultures, waterbucks, Patas monkeys, jackals, Jackson hartebeest, absent brown hornbills, Rothschild giraffe, oribi, lion, warthogs, Marshall eagles, Abyssinian rollers, storks, kobs, leopard and Abyssinian ground hornbill.
At the lodge we packed up, had lunch, and then departed for the airstrip. Zac took us on a fly-by of the lodge and then flew low over the park so we could see the game from the air. It was really cool.
We were whisked immigration and security by the Aerolink staff, continuing the VIP experience. We had had a private plane to Apoka, and then the lodge and national park to pretty much ourselves for three days.
Back in Entebbe we watched another beautiful sunset and had dinner. We were all tired (probably catching up from the lack of sleep) so had an early night.
Our guide went through some pointers: walk in single file, some hand signals, and what to do if an animal charged us (hide between the guide and ranger).
We saw the usual animals, but the giraffes were in a distant field and so we didn't get close. Apparently the giraffes just ignore people and you can get within a few feet. A selfie with a giraffe would have been cool.
On the drive back we saw a large group of 35 elephants.
For the record, over our time at Kidepo we saw:
Reeboks, Cape buffalo, vultures, waterbucks, Patas monkeys, jackals, Jackson hartebeest, absent brown hornbills, Rothschild giraffe, oribi, lion, warthogs, Marshall eagles, Abyssinian rollers, storks, kobs, leopard and Abyssinian ground hornbill.
At the lodge we packed up, had lunch, and then departed for the airstrip. Zac took us on a fly-by of the lodge and then flew low over the park so we could see the game from the air. It was really cool.
We were whisked immigration and security by the Aerolink staff, continuing the VIP experience. We had had a private plane to Apoka, and then the lodge and national park to pretty much ourselves for three days.
Back in Entebbe we watched another beautiful sunset and had dinner. We were all tired (probably catching up from the lack of sleep) so had an early night.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 3
I was finally able to sleep through the night, but then it seemed like more effort to get up at 5:45am for the morning game drive.
Day 3 was similar to The previous day - a morning game drive from 6.30-10:00am, an evening game drive from 4:30-7:00pm and in between watch the game from the main lounge.
For the morning game drive we were joined by the pilots, Zak and Roman, (we had started hanging out together at the lodge), and a new guest, Tamden, who arrived the previous night.
The guide said that a lion had been through the lodge grounds overnight and had let out a big roar at 5am. We tried to track it but no luck. We saw a lot of zebra, buffalo, waterbucks and hartebeests, and towards the end saw a giraffe.
Marissa jumped in the pool after brunch, along with Zak and Tamden. It's built into a
natural rock basin beside the main lounge. The waterbucks will sometimes drink from the pool (I guess because they're last in the queue for the watering hole) and don't mind people lounging on the other side.
It was hotter today - about 33C, but it was nice in the lounge with a breeze going through.
Had our high tea and then went for the evening game drive. Saw another group of 20 elephants. Then our guide tracked a leopard! They are shy animals, so we took some pics from afar and then slowly approached. The leopard detected us when we were still 200m away and disappeared into the underbrush. Oh well.
The staff had a special dinner as it was our last night, with tables set up on the rocks under the stars. We even saw a couple of shooting stars!
We stayed up and had a few beers after dinner, making it to bed around 1am.
Day 3 was similar to The previous day - a morning game drive from 6.30-10:00am, an evening game drive from 4:30-7:00pm and in between watch the game from the main lounge.
For the morning game drive we were joined by the pilots, Zak and Roman, (we had started hanging out together at the lodge), and a new guest, Tamden, who arrived the previous night.
The guide said that a lion had been through the lodge grounds overnight and had let out a big roar at 5am. We tried to track it but no luck. We saw a lot of zebra, buffalo, waterbucks and hartebeests, and towards the end saw a giraffe.
Marissa jumped in the pool after brunch, along with Zak and Tamden. It's built into a
natural rock basin beside the main lounge. The waterbucks will sometimes drink from the pool (I guess because they're last in the queue for the watering hole) and don't mind people lounging on the other side.
It was hotter today - about 33C, but it was nice in the lounge with a breeze going through.
Had our high tea and then went for the evening game drive. Saw another group of 20 elephants. Then our guide tracked a leopard! They are shy animals, so we took some pics from afar and then slowly approached. The leopard detected us when we were still 200m away and disappeared into the underbrush. Oh well.
The staff had a special dinner as it was our last night, with tables set up on the rocks under the stars. We even saw a couple of shooting stars!
We stayed up and had a few beers after dinner, making it to bed around 1am.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 2
I was still jet lagged and was awake at 2am, so I just lazed in bed until our alarm went off at 5:45am. It was much quieter at night in the savannah than the Borneo rainforest, just the occasional grunts.
It's chilly in the mornings so we layered with our mid layers for the morning game drive. First a quick snack of freshly baked muffins and tea, and then we were off on the game drive at 6:30am.
We saw three giraffes and hundreds of zebras, Cape buffalo and Jackson hartebeest. We spent a couple hours looking for lions and elephants. There are anthills dotting the savannah which look very similar to sitting animals at a distance, which make it harder to spot game. After a few false alarms from us (our guide didn't have any issues recognizing anthills), we saw an anthill beside the dirt road, which turned out to be a lion! Spartacus (the staff name the lions) walked a few metres and then settled into the shade of a bush. We offroaded to get a good angle for pictures and then watched the lion for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the lodge about 10:00, and had a big brunch. Then there was free time until high tea at 3pm and the afternoon game drive at 4:30pm. We spent most of the time in the main lounge area watching the animals taking turns at the watering hole. There's a pecking order - the buffaloes are at the top, followed by zebras and then waterbucks. The warthogs jump in whenever they can.
It was still quite warm when we headed out for the evening game drive (about 30C). First we tracked some elephants -two groups of 10, and then a smaller group of 5. We waited about 100m downwind and let the elephants walk past. It was pretty cool. Next we slowly drove through a herd of over 2,000 buffalo.
For the sundowner we drove to a rock promontory overlooking the park and watched the sunset while having our drinks.
Back at the lodge, cleaned up and had a yummy dinner. Another great day at Apoka!
It's chilly in the mornings so we layered with our mid layers for the morning game drive. First a quick snack of freshly baked muffins and tea, and then we were off on the game drive at 6:30am.
We saw three giraffes and hundreds of zebras, Cape buffalo and Jackson hartebeest. We spent a couple hours looking for lions and elephants. There are anthills dotting the savannah which look very similar to sitting animals at a distance, which make it harder to spot game. After a few false alarms from us (our guide didn't have any issues recognizing anthills), we saw an anthill beside the dirt road, which turned out to be a lion! Spartacus (the staff name the lions) walked a few metres and then settled into the shade of a bush. We offroaded to get a good angle for pictures and then watched the lion for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the lodge about 10:00, and had a big brunch. Then there was free time until high tea at 3pm and the afternoon game drive at 4:30pm. We spent most of the time in the main lounge area watching the animals taking turns at the watering hole. There's a pecking order - the buffaloes are at the top, followed by zebras and then waterbucks. The warthogs jump in whenever they can.
It was still quite warm when we headed out for the evening game drive (about 30C). First we tracked some elephants -two groups of 10, and then a smaller group of 5. We waited about 100m downwind and let the elephants walk past. It was pretty cool. Next we slowly drove through a herd of over 2,000 buffalo.
For the sundowner we drove to a rock promontory overlooking the park and watched the sunset while having our drinks.
Back at the lodge, cleaned up and had a yummy dinner. Another great day at Apoka!
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 1
Our friend Marissa arrived in Entebbe later the same night as us. She's joining us for the Uganda part of our trip, to see the gorillas and all the other animals.
Breakfast at the Karibu Guest House was pretty good. At first we thought we had a choice of fruit salad and pancakes, or an English breakfast, but it turned out that it was a listing of the courses - it was a big breakfast.
We took a taxi to the airport for our charter Aerolink flight to Kidepo at 12:30pm. We arrived just before 11am, and the lady at the Aerolink counter asked us to wait as she had to announce that the counter was open for check-in. So she made the announcement and then checked us in. It turned out we were the only three passengers on the flight; but I guess she had to follow procedure. The whole rest of the process was the same, with everything announced over the PA before she did anything. We half-expected her to open boarding to business class passengers first.
So Marissa, Heather and I boarded the 11-seater single prop Cessna. The pilot made the safety announcements over his shoulder from the cockpit; and then we were off.
The 90-minute flight was pretty smooth. The fields below gave way to unfenced national parkland, and then the airstrip was visible. We signed the guest registration book at the airport and then boarded the safari vehicle that came to pick us up. The pilots joined us - there are no other passengers until we leave, so they're staying at the lodge until then.
We saw a lot of animals on the five minute drive to Apoka Safari Lodge - zebras, waterbucks, warthogs. Apoka is the only lodge in Kidepo National Park, and we were the only guests at the lodge - an entire national park to ourselves!
Apoka was ranked by CNN as the 2nd best safari lodge in the world - it's very nice. We had a lemon and ginger drink on arrival which helped to calm stomachs upset from the flight. Then we were shown our rooms - they blend right into the landscape and have screens but no glass windows - so you feel like you're sleeping out in the savannah.
We had a high tea and then were off for our first game drive. It's amazing that 36 hours after leaving Toronto, Marissa was on a game drive. We saw dozens of zebras, waterbucks and Cape buffalo up close, and some elephants off in the distance. The drivers are allowed to off-road so you can get the right lighting for pictures. At 6pm we stopped in the middle of the savannah for the "sundowner" - a drink while we watched the sunset. They make a big deal at the lodge about having your favourite drink for sundowner, but we all went with a local pilsener, Club, which was great. A Rotchschild giraffe wandered by as the sunset. It was an excellent day, one of Heather's favourite vacation days yet.
We drove back to the lodge and cleaned up before dinner, for which we had selected our menu options prior to the game drive. Dinner was great, served in the open air main hall overlooking the savannah. Surprisingly there were no bugs either.
Breakfast at the Karibu Guest House was pretty good. At first we thought we had a choice of fruit salad and pancakes, or an English breakfast, but it turned out that it was a listing of the courses - it was a big breakfast.
We took a taxi to the airport for our charter Aerolink flight to Kidepo at 12:30pm. We arrived just before 11am, and the lady at the Aerolink counter asked us to wait as she had to announce that the counter was open for check-in. So she made the announcement and then checked us in. It turned out we were the only three passengers on the flight; but I guess she had to follow procedure. The whole rest of the process was the same, with everything announced over the PA before she did anything. We half-expected her to open boarding to business class passengers first.
So Marissa, Heather and I boarded the 11-seater single prop Cessna. The pilot made the safety announcements over his shoulder from the cockpit; and then we were off.
The 90-minute flight was pretty smooth. The fields below gave way to unfenced national parkland, and then the airstrip was visible. We signed the guest registration book at the airport and then boarded the safari vehicle that came to pick us up. The pilots joined us - there are no other passengers until we leave, so they're staying at the lodge until then.
We saw a lot of animals on the five minute drive to Apoka Safari Lodge - zebras, waterbucks, warthogs. Apoka is the only lodge in Kidepo National Park, and we were the only guests at the lodge - an entire national park to ourselves!
Apoka was ranked by CNN as the 2nd best safari lodge in the world - it's very nice. We had a lemon and ginger drink on arrival which helped to calm stomachs upset from the flight. Then we were shown our rooms - they blend right into the landscape and have screens but no glass windows - so you feel like you're sleeping out in the savannah.
We had a high tea and then were off for our first game drive. It's amazing that 36 hours after leaving Toronto, Marissa was on a game drive. We saw dozens of zebras, waterbucks and Cape buffalo up close, and some elephants off in the distance. The drivers are allowed to off-road so you can get the right lighting for pictures. At 6pm we stopped in the middle of the savannah for the "sundowner" - a drink while we watched the sunset. They make a big deal at the lodge about having your favourite drink for sundowner, but we all went with a local pilsener, Club, which was great. A Rotchschild giraffe wandered by as the sunset. It was an excellent day, one of Heather's favourite vacation days yet.
We drove back to the lodge and cleaned up before dinner, for which we had selected our menu options prior to the game drive. Dinner was great, served in the open air main hall overlooking the savannah. Surprisingly there were no bugs either.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Entebbe, Uganda
We arrived in Entebbe a couple hours ago, 12 hours from Toronto to Addis, and then two hours to Entebbe. It was our first time flying with Ethiopian Airlines and we were suitably impressed.
There was screening for Ebola in the airports at both Addis and Entebbe. In Addis, there was a body temperature scanner; in Entebbe there was a separate form to fill out, and then a temperature scan. We also had our hands sprayed with something as we entered the Entebbe airport which I suppose is good for overall hygiene but is probably not very effective at stopping Ebola.
Although as I like to point out, it's just about the same distance from Monrovia to St. John's Newfoundland as it is from Monrovia to Djibouti (6060km vs 5844km).
We are staying at the Karibu Guest House near the airport, as we fly out tomorrow morning to Kidepo National Park. Right now we're enjoying a Ugandan chai tea with fresh banana bread, sitting on the veranda, watching the sun slowly set over Lake Victoria. So far a good start to the trip!
There was screening for Ebola in the airports at both Addis and Entebbe. In Addis, there was a body temperature scanner; in Entebbe there was a separate form to fill out, and then a temperature scan. We also had our hands sprayed with something as we entered the Entebbe airport which I suppose is good for overall hygiene but is probably not very effective at stopping Ebola.
Although as I like to point out, it's just about the same distance from Monrovia to St. John's Newfoundland as it is from Monrovia to Djibouti (6060km vs 5844km).
We are staying at the Karibu Guest House near the airport, as we fly out tomorrow morning to Kidepo National Park. Right now we're enjoying a Ugandan chai tea with fresh banana bread, sitting on the veranda, watching the sun slowly set over Lake Victoria. So far a good start to the trip!
Monday, December 01, 2014
Toronto, Canada
This trip is to Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Heather's been suggesting Ethiopia for a trip for the past couple years, primarily to see the churches in Lalibela. Once we started googling we realized there is a lot of really cool stuff to see in Ethiopia. There's more rock hewn churches 200m up the side of cliffs in Tigray, a lava lake at Erta Ale, the Danakil Depression, and bands of gelada baboons while trekking in the Semien Mountains. Ethiopia is where coffee originates. It's a fairly mountainous country -- most of the time we'll be above 2,000m, and the highest camp of the trek is over 3,600m.
We added Uganda to the trip when I was looking at our world map in the basement, and realized Uganda was relatively close to Ethiopia. The mountain gorillas are high on Heather's list of things to see. Our friend Marissa, who introduced Heather and me way back when, is joining us for the Uganda part of the trip.
We have a short side trip to Djibouti to snorkel with the whale sharks.
Similar to our last trip, we've pre-booked most of the hotels and excursions. Ethiopia has really cheap domestic flights, available to foreign non-residents if you book your international flight with Ethiopian Airlines. We replaced a lot of 10 hour bus rides through winding mountain roads with 45 minute flights for about $40.
Unusual for this trip is the number of highlights. On most trips there's two or three highlights, and the rest of the sights are more "while you're there" types of places. On this trip they're almost all highlights.
We have a bit more planning to do and then we take off on December 9th!
Heather's been suggesting Ethiopia for a trip for the past couple years, primarily to see the churches in Lalibela. Once we started googling we realized there is a lot of really cool stuff to see in Ethiopia. There's more rock hewn churches 200m up the side of cliffs in Tigray, a lava lake at Erta Ale, the Danakil Depression, and bands of gelada baboons while trekking in the Semien Mountains. Ethiopia is where coffee originates. It's a fairly mountainous country -- most of the time we'll be above 2,000m, and the highest camp of the trek is over 3,600m.
We added Uganda to the trip when I was looking at our world map in the basement, and realized Uganda was relatively close to Ethiopia. The mountain gorillas are high on Heather's list of things to see. Our friend Marissa, who introduced Heather and me way back when, is joining us for the Uganda part of the trip.
We have a short side trip to Djibouti to snorkel with the whale sharks.
Similar to our last trip, we've pre-booked most of the hotels and excursions. Ethiopia has really cheap domestic flights, available to foreign non-residents if you book your international flight with Ethiopian Airlines. We replaced a lot of 10 hour bus rides through winding mountain roads with 45 minute flights for about $40.
Unusual for this trip is the number of highlights. On most trips there's two or three highlights, and the rest of the sights are more "while you're there" types of places. On this trip they're almost all highlights.
We have a bit more planning to do and then we take off on December 9th!
Saturday, January 04, 2014
Toronto, Canada
We arrived back home in Toronto on one of the nicest days so far this winter -- it was 1C and clear skies. The days before and after it was -20C with a lot of flight cancellations so we were lucky.
It was an 8 hour flight from Singapore to Beijing. Even in winter, the air in Beijing was really polluted. We couldn't see the control tower from the airport, it was so bad. We had a 5 hour layover between the flights. We looked around at the lunch options. The wait staff were surprisingly active in their sales pitch, with menus thrust into our faces as we walked by. I've seen that in streetside restaurants, but never in an airport!
Then it was a 13 hour flight to Toronto. After the efficiency of Singapore's airport, Toronto's Pearson looked downright bad. In Singapore, it took us 20 minutes from landing to being in a taxi. In Toronto, it was a 20 minute walk from the plane to the arrivals terminal! Then a bottleneck going through immigration and customs. And then it took 90 minutes for the first bag to appear on the conveyor! (this was in good weather too). It might almost be faster to fly into Buffalo and drive to Toronto.
Overall our trip was great. We really enjoyed the adventure stuff in Borneo: trekking through the rainforest in Danum Valley, diving in Sipadan, and exploring the caves at Mulu Park. The wildlife was more difficult to spot in the rainforest (say compared to a safari in Africa), and while we did see proboscis monkeys and orangutans, it was from a distance. It was still really cool though. The food wasn't as great as the hype we had read - maybe because in Toronto it's pretty easy to get the same variety of food and so we weren't easily impressed. In the smaller towns (Ipoh, Penang) we had some really great food, using food bloggers for suggestions. In the big cities (KL, Singapore) it was more hit-and-miss.
The big cities also weren't as photogenic as I had thought. On the other hand, Penang was great for pictures - I have a separate album just with the street art in Penang.
It was an 8 hour flight from Singapore to Beijing. Even in winter, the air in Beijing was really polluted. We couldn't see the control tower from the airport, it was so bad. We had a 5 hour layover between the flights. We looked around at the lunch options. The wait staff were surprisingly active in their sales pitch, with menus thrust into our faces as we walked by. I've seen that in streetside restaurants, but never in an airport!
Then it was a 13 hour flight to Toronto. After the efficiency of Singapore's airport, Toronto's Pearson looked downright bad. In Singapore, it took us 20 minutes from landing to being in a taxi. In Toronto, it was a 20 minute walk from the plane to the arrivals terminal! Then a bottleneck going through immigration and customs. And then it took 90 minutes for the first bag to appear on the conveyor! (this was in good weather too). It might almost be faster to fly into Buffalo and drive to Toronto.
Overall our trip was great. We really enjoyed the adventure stuff in Borneo: trekking through the rainforest in Danum Valley, diving in Sipadan, and exploring the caves at Mulu Park. The wildlife was more difficult to spot in the rainforest (say compared to a safari in Africa), and while we did see proboscis monkeys and orangutans, it was from a distance. It was still really cool though. The food wasn't as great as the hype we had read - maybe because in Toronto it's pretty easy to get the same variety of food and so we weren't easily impressed. In the smaller towns (Ipoh, Penang) we had some really great food, using food bloggers for suggestions. In the big cities (KL, Singapore) it was more hit-and-miss.
The big cities also weren't as photogenic as I had thought. On the other hand, Penang was great for pictures - I have a separate album just with the street art in Penang.
Friday, January 03, 2014
Singapore, Singapore
We flew from Ipoh to Singapore on Firefly. We had wanted to take the train but it's a 11 hour journey that arrived just before midnight, and that didn't sound like a good time to arrive on New Year's Eve. So we booked online for the flight.
The Ipoh airport was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. The airport was new and very clean. On all the internal Malaysian flights we were able to take water through security but this was an international flight and so we had to toss our waters. They also gave more scrutiny to the wooden souvenirs that we had taken as carry-on on previous flights without problems.
The flight actually took off 5 minutes early! We arrived in Singapore 90 minutes later around 11am. The Singapore airport was very efficient - we were in a taxi about 20 minutes after landing, which included taxiing to the gate, disembarking, retrieving our luggage, going through immigration and customs, changing ringgit to dollars, and getting through the taxi queue.
We thought about taking the MRT, but it wasn't too much more ($18 for a taxi, $5 for MRT) and more convenient with a taxi.
We're staying at Wanderlust in Little India. The room was bigger than we expected - Singapore hotel rooms are generally on the smaller side. (They actually list the square footage on hotel websites when you browse for hotels).
The hotel had given us a little map with restaurant recommendations in the area. We tried one out for lunch. It was very busy. The food was okay.
We had an unexciting NYE dinner in Bugis Market just outside Little India. Went for beers at a small café near our hotel. They had 85 bottles on hand from around the world - including Moosehead. We just had Tiger, as we were in Singapore after all.
We made it to about 10pm and then called it a night, and year.
...
I had a bit of a slow start the next day. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent - pancakes with real bacon and real maple syrup! Most places in Malaysia had served beef bacon or other non-pork substitutes, and honey or jam. We also ordered the fruit salad (it was a choice, so we paid extra to have the fruit too) which was really good.
Started the day at the Singapore Art Museum. We really like the art exhibits. Then we walked over to Gardens by the Bay. Walking there was a bit off a challenge as they hadn't yet taken down the barricades to control the NYE crowds that came to watch the fireworks. We finally made it down there, stopping for lunch at one of the many malls along the way.
Gardens by the Bay is pretty cool. The highlights are the supertrees that you've likely seen pictures - they look like metal frames of trees. It was really hazy so I didn't bother taking pictures - night time is better for pics I think.
The Gardens are representative of the various landscapes around Malaysia - the rainforest, caves with rock formations etc. It was well done, but we were fortunate enough to be able to see the real thing so didn't bother to pay to enter any of the ticketed attractions.
Walked all the way home, about 5km. Singapore has nice big wide walkways under building overhangs on all the major streets, so it's easy as a pedestrian. The only part I didn't like is that the pedestrian crossings aren't synchronized, so it can take two full light cycles to cross an intersection.
We wanted to have dinner at our hotel restaurant but it was closed, and so instead went to Mustard, a little Indian restaurant that Heather found on the web. They were full with reservations but took us in. Dinner was okay.
...
The next day we started at another museum, the National Museum of Singapore. It was well done and is a good historical account of Singapore. It tries to be more interactive (I suppose it's what the kids want) but we found it a bit too much.
The museum is close to the east end of Orchard Rd which was our next stop. Orchard Rd is the main shopping street in Singapore. It's lined with malls full of high-end stores. They're all interconnected with escalators running all over, inside and out. There's no doors at the entrances, just open space, so air conditioning is pouring out all the time. The whole street reminded me of those futuristic cities where you can't tell where "ground" level is, and in fact inside and outside lose all meaning. There was one intersection that pedestrians had to use an underpass. Normally these are straight forward. However this one routed through a mall and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to get out on the other side.
We had lunch at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison in Mandarin Gallery, based on the recommendation of our favourite Ipoh blogger. Fans of Japanese food will know the food - it's panko crusted pork served with shredded cabbage, miso soup and rice. The food was most excellent.
Continued walking down the length of Orchard Rd, to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This was very well done, and the paths well-marked. However, again, as we'd just come back from the real rainforest it wasn't as exciting. It was nice for a walk, and a nice break from museums and malls.
Took the MRT back home. It was one of the cleanest subways I've been on.
We had made reservations for dinner at our hotel. The breakfasts were quite good and we thought French food would be a nice for a change. The food was pretty good (we shared the pork collar) but nothing I couldn't cook at home. But it was conveniently located, and after another big day of walking (about 12km today) we didn't feel like going too far.
...
Started off our last day in Singapore at yet another museum, the Asian Civilizations Museum. This museum gets our vote as the best in Singapore. It really does require a couple visits to do it justice.
Had lunch at an arts centre of some sort just near the museum. It was a $15 set lunch and it was really good, Vietnamese inspired.
We were travelled-out by this time and so just walked back to our hotel.
Grabbed our books (meaning, iPad and iPhone) and went to a nearby restaurant to read. We're sitting at a sidewalk table catching up with our reading and me with our blog.
The call to prayers just started. I forgot to mention in Ipoh, because the room wasn't too sound proof, and with the mosque very nearby, it was the loudest call to prayers we've heard. They also had a pretty decent sound system, with no clipping. Most sound like a high school PA speaker, but the one in Ipoh sounded really good.
We've been checking the weather forecast in Toronto and when we return, it will be -20C, and feel like -30C with the wind chill. The temperature today in Singapore was 31C and with humidity it felt like 40C. That's a 70C swing in temperatures for us. I just turned off vacation mode on our thermostat, which gives our house 36 hours to heat up. Hope that's enough time!
The Ipoh airport was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. The airport was new and very clean. On all the internal Malaysian flights we were able to take water through security but this was an international flight and so we had to toss our waters. They also gave more scrutiny to the wooden souvenirs that we had taken as carry-on on previous flights without problems.
The flight actually took off 5 minutes early! We arrived in Singapore 90 minutes later around 11am. The Singapore airport was very efficient - we were in a taxi about 20 minutes after landing, which included taxiing to the gate, disembarking, retrieving our luggage, going through immigration and customs, changing ringgit to dollars, and getting through the taxi queue.
We thought about taking the MRT, but it wasn't too much more ($18 for a taxi, $5 for MRT) and more convenient with a taxi.
We're staying at Wanderlust in Little India. The room was bigger than we expected - Singapore hotel rooms are generally on the smaller side. (They actually list the square footage on hotel websites when you browse for hotels).
The hotel had given us a little map with restaurant recommendations in the area. We tried one out for lunch. It was very busy. The food was okay.
We had an unexciting NYE dinner in Bugis Market just outside Little India. Went for beers at a small café near our hotel. They had 85 bottles on hand from around the world - including Moosehead. We just had Tiger, as we were in Singapore after all.
We made it to about 10pm and then called it a night, and year.
...
I had a bit of a slow start the next day. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent - pancakes with real bacon and real maple syrup! Most places in Malaysia had served beef bacon or other non-pork substitutes, and honey or jam. We also ordered the fruit salad (it was a choice, so we paid extra to have the fruit too) which was really good.
Started the day at the Singapore Art Museum. We really like the art exhibits. Then we walked over to Gardens by the Bay. Walking there was a bit off a challenge as they hadn't yet taken down the barricades to control the NYE crowds that came to watch the fireworks. We finally made it down there, stopping for lunch at one of the many malls along the way.
Gardens by the Bay is pretty cool. The highlights are the supertrees that you've likely seen pictures - they look like metal frames of trees. It was really hazy so I didn't bother taking pictures - night time is better for pics I think.
The Gardens are representative of the various landscapes around Malaysia - the rainforest, caves with rock formations etc. It was well done, but we were fortunate enough to be able to see the real thing so didn't bother to pay to enter any of the ticketed attractions.
Walked all the way home, about 5km. Singapore has nice big wide walkways under building overhangs on all the major streets, so it's easy as a pedestrian. The only part I didn't like is that the pedestrian crossings aren't synchronized, so it can take two full light cycles to cross an intersection.
We wanted to have dinner at our hotel restaurant but it was closed, and so instead went to Mustard, a little Indian restaurant that Heather found on the web. They were full with reservations but took us in. Dinner was okay.
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The next day we started at another museum, the National Museum of Singapore. It was well done and is a good historical account of Singapore. It tries to be more interactive (I suppose it's what the kids want) but we found it a bit too much.
The museum is close to the east end of Orchard Rd which was our next stop. Orchard Rd is the main shopping street in Singapore. It's lined with malls full of high-end stores. They're all interconnected with escalators running all over, inside and out. There's no doors at the entrances, just open space, so air conditioning is pouring out all the time. The whole street reminded me of those futuristic cities where you can't tell where "ground" level is, and in fact inside and outside lose all meaning. There was one intersection that pedestrians had to use an underpass. Normally these are straight forward. However this one routed through a mall and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to get out on the other side.
We had lunch at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison in Mandarin Gallery, based on the recommendation of our favourite Ipoh blogger. Fans of Japanese food will know the food - it's panko crusted pork served with shredded cabbage, miso soup and rice. The food was most excellent.
Continued walking down the length of Orchard Rd, to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This was very well done, and the paths well-marked. However, again, as we'd just come back from the real rainforest it wasn't as exciting. It was nice for a walk, and a nice break from museums and malls.
Took the MRT back home. It was one of the cleanest subways I've been on.
We had made reservations for dinner at our hotel. The breakfasts were quite good and we thought French food would be a nice for a change. The food was pretty good (we shared the pork collar) but nothing I couldn't cook at home. But it was conveniently located, and after another big day of walking (about 12km today) we didn't feel like going too far.
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Started off our last day in Singapore at yet another museum, the Asian Civilizations Museum. This museum gets our vote as the best in Singapore. It really does require a couple visits to do it justice.
Had lunch at an arts centre of some sort just near the museum. It was a $15 set lunch and it was really good, Vietnamese inspired.
We were travelled-out by this time and so just walked back to our hotel.
Grabbed our books (meaning, iPad and iPhone) and went to a nearby restaurant to read. We're sitting at a sidewalk table catching up with our reading and me with our blog.
The call to prayers just started. I forgot to mention in Ipoh, because the room wasn't too sound proof, and with the mosque very nearby, it was the loudest call to prayers we've heard. They also had a pretty decent sound system, with no clipping. Most sound like a high school PA speaker, but the one in Ipoh sounded really good.
We've been checking the weather forecast in Toronto and when we return, it will be -20C, and feel like -30C with the wind chill. The temperature today in Singapore was 31C and with humidity it felt like 40C. That's a 70C swing in temperatures for us. I just turned off vacation mode on our thermostat, which gives our house 36 hours to heat up. Hope that's enough time!
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Ipoh, Malaysia
We had the day to tour around Ipoh. There's a couple walking tours of historical buildings published by the tourist board, and we figured that would take up most of the day.
Tour 1 starts off pretty nicely, with the train station, city hall and post office, all built around the early 1900's. Then we went off-tour to visit the museum, but it was closed for renovations. Back to the tour.
The buildings became less impressive (although historically cool) and it was very hot and humid, and so we gave up on Tour 1 about 75% of the way through. Looked quickly at the map for Tour 2 and it continued the downwards trend in importance of buildings. We were very close to our hotel, and so that was the end of our touring of Ipoh.
The food blogger we followed in Ipoh recommended Thean Chun which is right beside our hotel, so we went there for lunch. We got help from how to order from the couple that were seated at the same table. I walked to the stall up front to order the chicken kuey teow soup, ordered the caramel egg custard from the lady who took drink orders, and the satays were placed on the table and you eat what you want, and then they count your skewers at the end to see what you owe. These were the three items that locals come here for, according to the couple. They actually pulled up the same blogger to refer us to a coffee place. At least we were reading the right blogs! They asked us where else we had eaten in Ipoh and they gave nods of approval for each, in particular for yesterday's dim sum place.
All the food was excellent. The satays were really moist and tender. The soup broth was amazing, and the noodles perfectly silky. The bean sprouts fat and tasty. And the custard was really yummy, one of the best I've had.
Fortunately the hotel was next door because the most we could do after all the food was roll into the room and crash. Got up enough energy to walk down the street for the best white coffee in Ipoh, at Sin Yoon Loong. The couple from lunch had told us we had to order it with toast, so we did, not sure what we'd get. Turns out it is toast. Two pieces of wonderbread equivalent, toasted, with margarine and something sweet and jam-like. We were still stuffed from lunch so just nibbled it to try it out. The coffee was very smooth and slightly muddy, with no bitterness. I'm a tea drinker but could drink coffee like this.
Later in the afternoon went to Burps and Giggles (around the block from our hotel) to read and have a beer. We were still full from lunch and so just stayed there for dinner and split a fish burger - it was pretty good.
Tour 1 starts off pretty nicely, with the train station, city hall and post office, all built around the early 1900's. Then we went off-tour to visit the museum, but it was closed for renovations. Back to the tour.
The buildings became less impressive (although historically cool) and it was very hot and humid, and so we gave up on Tour 1 about 75% of the way through. Looked quickly at the map for Tour 2 and it continued the downwards trend in importance of buildings. We were very close to our hotel, and so that was the end of our touring of Ipoh.
The food blogger we followed in Ipoh recommended Thean Chun which is right beside our hotel, so we went there for lunch. We got help from how to order from the couple that were seated at the same table. I walked to the stall up front to order the chicken kuey teow soup, ordered the caramel egg custard from the lady who took drink orders, and the satays were placed on the table and you eat what you want, and then they count your skewers at the end to see what you owe. These were the three items that locals come here for, according to the couple. They actually pulled up the same blogger to refer us to a coffee place. At least we were reading the right blogs! They asked us where else we had eaten in Ipoh and they gave nods of approval for each, in particular for yesterday's dim sum place.
All the food was excellent. The satays were really moist and tender. The soup broth was amazing, and the noodles perfectly silky. The bean sprouts fat and tasty. And the custard was really yummy, one of the best I've had.
Fortunately the hotel was next door because the most we could do after all the food was roll into the room and crash. Got up enough energy to walk down the street for the best white coffee in Ipoh, at Sin Yoon Loong. The couple from lunch had told us we had to order it with toast, so we did, not sure what we'd get. Turns out it is toast. Two pieces of wonderbread equivalent, toasted, with margarine and something sweet and jam-like. We were still stuffed from lunch so just nibbled it to try it out. The coffee was very smooth and slightly muddy, with no bitterness. I'm a tea drinker but could drink coffee like this.
Later in the afternoon went to Burps and Giggles (around the block from our hotel) to read and have a beer. We were still full from lunch and so just stayed there for dinner and split a fish burger - it was pretty good.
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