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Africa Insight: Customer multitasking
Posted by daveb on July 11th, 2008
Compared to The West, one of the many cultural differences that we’ve noticed in Tanzania is the acceptance of ‘customer multitasking’. Whilst we recognise that organised queuing is a uniquely British pastime, in my opinion it is far preferable to the African equivalent in which the server invites everyone who approaches their counter to make their request, which are then processed in whatever order the server chooses.
I presume that the server believes his ‘customer multitasking’ to be a very efficient way of working; after all, no-one is queuing, thus everyone is being dealt with. Except that no-one is really being dealt with at all.
All I want to do is buy a stamp for this stupid postcard. I’m first in-line at the counter, but the clerk is proof-reading a form for the guy three-back in the pseudo-queue behind me…
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Ngorongoro Crater: Safari, so far (e)
Posted by daveb on July 10th, 2008
After another exciting night camping under the stars amongst the lion poo, this time on the misty rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, we descended over six hundred metres to the volcanic floor. The Crater is the usually reserved for the final day of a short safari; even if you hadn’t seen any wildlife in the other parks, you’re be certain to see some here. Quite a few, to be precise.
Particularly memorable:
- Migrating wildebeest — clearly of British descent, given their penchant for queuing
- Flamingo density — from afar, they look like a wall of pink
It was a long drive home from The Crater back to Moshi, and I must say that we were glad to get back to the Kilimanjaro Backpackers Hotel for a hot shower and something that resembled a bed (albeit made of foam, as is customary here).
Really big thanks to Rama, our excellent driver-guide, who was both enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the animals and put-in some really long drives (eleven hours today). Thanks to Happy, our cook, who produced some remarkable dishes on only a camping stove. And thanks to Mark at Tanzania Journeys for being helpful and easy to deal with.
As we travel south-west to Cape Town, I’m really looking forward to visiting other, less famous, game parks and reserves. If you’ve not been on safari, then I can heartily recommend that you do so. For me, this has been one of my life’s top ten experiences — even today’s filthy, filthy toilet block wouldn’t put me off going again. (Note: Those with money can stay in lodges…)
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Serengeti: A very close encounter
Posted by Squiffy on July 9th, 2008
Our day in the Serengeti was my favourite of the safari. The plains are endless, the wildlife varied and the sunsets beautiful. My highlight of the day was spotting a cheetah under a tree in the distance and waiting patiently to see if it moved, only to discover there was actually a group of three cheetahs which walked towards us and passed directly behind our vehicle. We saw them again later in the day and got some close up photos before they went off hunting together. We also spotted a leopard in the tree (no pun intended) plus a male and female lion on ‘honeymoon’ (apparently they mate every 15 mins, but believe me, blink and you’ll miss it!).
Whilst having lunch, we got closer to one particular creature than we would have liked. Rama (our guide), Dave and I were sat around the table in the caged enclosure designated for meals at the campsite, happily drinking coffee when Dave spotted what he thought was a lizard on Rama’s shoulder. He pointed it out, just as Rama noticed the reptile himself. Our guide did a double take before leaping from his chair and knocking it to the ground. It became immediately clear that the ‘lizard’ was actually a snake, and from the way Rama shouted ‘get back’ repeatedly and wildly, we guessed it wasn’t a harmless one. The guides identified it as a green mamba, and if bitten, you’d probably die within a few hours. From the photos, we think it might have been a tree snake, but the same fate applies. It was quite fascinating to watch all the guides leap in to action, shouting in Swahili and no-one knowing quite what to do. One grabbed the closest thing to hand – a cup of hot coffee, and this was succeeded by a thermos of hot water. Scolded, the snake was unable to move, and one of the braver guides collected it using a stick, before removing it to be disposed of. Funnily enough, some people were screaming ‘kill it!’ whilst others argued ‘don’t kill it’. After being half a metre from me at lunch, I wasn’t unhappy to see it gone, I can tell you.
Later in the afternoon we drove to a quiet spot and watched an amazing sunset over the Serengeti, a big ball of fire sinking quickly into the horizon. That night, I had trouble sleeping in our tent after the snake incident, but the only visitors we had were hyenas who emptied the bins and fought amongst themselves.
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Mosquito River: A village visit
Posted by Squiffy on July 8th, 2008
Mosquito River, just outside Lake Manyara National Park, should win an award for the’ least-appealing-village-name-ever’. Fortunately, there weren’t too many mossies in sight when we visited the village on our second morning of safari. We took the tour both to give us an insight into village life and to support the community, as the tour fee is used to provide education, clean water on tap and health facilities.
Freddie, our guide and massive Manchester United fan, took us through the rice fields and up to the homes of the villagers. As we passed the mud huts, kids ran out shouting “mzungu” and raced to stroke our white skin and hold our hands. One little girl took both mine and Dave’s hand and started swinging between us. It was so lovely to see their big smiles, enthusiasm and amusement. We were given the opportunity to watch the wood carvers, immigrants from Mozambique during the civil war, crafting their wares, and of course there was a chance for us to make a purchase. I succumbed and bought a pair of figures carrying their luggage as they reminded me of Dave and I on our travels. Hopefully they are on their way home to the UK right now, but the rigmarole of posting them is another story.
We passed one lady outside her home holding a baby and she asked if I would hold the baby. I don’t know whether white people are seen as some good luck charm or if some other strange beliefs were at play but I clarified it wasn’t a ploy to extort money out of me before agreeing to hold the child — ever the cynic! Anyway, he (Emmanuel) was very cute and unfazed by the whole thing.
Another group of kids ran to meet us and giggled as we took pictures of them. They were highly amused (bemused?) when Dave showed them the pictures on the camera screen as they huddled around him. We let some of them take pictures of us. The results were definitely better than my first ever photo — I chopped my mum’s head off. We have had some of the photos printed to send to the kids; something for them to keep.
Next we went to visit the doctor at the health centre. He was an interesting man, somewhat of an oversized guy, he had studied in Leeds and loved Europe. He had a large poster of Switzerland on his wall and told us that he thought it was better to have positive and relaxing pictures on the wall, rather than medical leaflets or images of sick people. I rather agree. After signing his visitors’ book (a popular phenomenon over here) we promised to send more posters of Europe. Our last stop was to sample the home-made banana beer. It’s as thick as a milkshake, lumpy and not really to my taste. I’m sticking to the local Tusker beer for now.
Following our visit, we hopped back into the Landcruiser and drove through the Ngorongoro National Park and into the amazing Serengeti, the ‘land without end’ according to the Maasai tribesmen. We pitched our tents right in the centre of the Serengeti at a public campsite without fences. This makes for a rather nerve-wracking night, when there’s plenty of mysterious sounds and only 3mm of canvas between you and the wilderness. It turns out that during the night, we did have lions very close by.
The campsite of course didn’t have showers, but after our incredibly dusty day I really did want to have a wash to feel clean and comfortable. Our cook took pity on me, heated up a big bucket full of water on her stove and cut a water bottle in half, so that I was able to stand in the showerless bathroom (typical Africa) and pour water over my head. For that, I was very grateful!
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Lake Manyara: Safari
Posted by daveb on July 7th, 2008
Now that I’ve seen my mountain, we’re headed north-west to complete the core-loop of the Tanzanian tourist trail by means of a safari. Safari means ‘journey’ in Swahili. We chose to organise our trip with Tanzania Journeys, a well-regarded tour operator that features in our Ethical Travel Guide and is recommended by the worthy Kilimanjaro Porters Association Project. As a bonus, the firm is based in Moshi, rather than the more usual location of Arusha. This was good news for us because (a) were already in Moshi and (b) we’ve heard of too many recent incidents in Arusha to be completely comfortable in visiting the town. Shame.
After handing Mark, the British-born proprietor, what was for us an inordinately large sum of money–worsened by the fact that the largest printed note in Tanzania is equivalent to only about four quid–we set off in our modified Toyota Landcruiser 4×4 with our driver-guide, Rama, our cook, Happy, a boot full of camping gear and two spare tyres.
Our five day circuit takes us through Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and into the Ngorongoro Crater. We started with Lake Manyara, which has neither the size nor the international status of the Serengeti. Nevertheless, I particularly enjoyed this park as it was the first time that I had ever seen animals of this nature in the wild. Rather than harp-on about what we saw, I’ll leave you to flick through the photos below, although our guide would want me point out how rare it is to see a tree-climbing lion; in fact, we saw three in one tree! (Apparently tree-climbing lions do not exist outside of Lake Manyara.)
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Kilimanjaro: Where’s my mountain?
Posted by daveb on July 4th, 2008
We’ve been in Moshi for nearly three days now and have still not caught a glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro. I had hoped to climb the highest mountain in Africa but my ear’s still not right. Instead, I’d settle for the opportunity to take a good photograph of it. Alas, it’s an elusive bugger and hasn’t shown its face yet.
We’re leaving tomorrow to go see some lions and stuff (we’re really excited about this), so we’ll return to Moshi in a few days time to see if the weather has cleared-up enough to allow us a view.
UPDATE: With unbelievable luck, the clouds have parted and I am dining atop a hotel, with surely one of the best views in the world.
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Thanks to you, dear reader for your comments
Posted by daveb on July 3rd, 2008
In case you don’t know, the posts on our blog lag behind reality somewhat. Instead of chaining ourselves to cybercafes as we travel–in fact, Internet doesn’t even exist in many of the places we go–we upload a batch of blog posts and pictures every week or two from our laptop to the software running this Website. Rather than flood you with a load of posts straight away, the software staggers the publication of our posts to one, maybe two, a day.
Why am I telling you this? I wanted to explain to you why it takes us a long time to read and respond to your comments, e-mails and facebook messages so that you don’t get frustrated and think that because we haven’t replied to you within a couple of days, that we don’t care for your feedback. On the contrary, we read (and cherish) all of the comments that you take the time to leave!
Case in point: A little while ago, we posted the ‘What are YOU doing?‘ entry. We really want to thank you for leaving your comments and sharing with us what was going on in your sphere. If you’ve not have a chance to leave your ‘quick life update’, please do so now! We’ve had a few days of fairly rough travel–which you’ll read about in about a week’s time–and were feeling a bit homesick. Certainly missing the way that things, which we completely took for granted in the Western world, just worked. As good luck would have it, we just connected to the Internet to upload a new batch of posts and were met with eleven comments (at time of writing) from our friends and family — which has made or day, if not, week.
Sincerely, thanks very much.
@Naomi Hunt: Ha ha, glad we can provide some light relief from work, although we wouldn’t want you getting sacked on our behalf :o) Wedding ring shopping and house hunting, how exciting! You must send me pictures of your ring when you finally decide on one. Can’t wait to start some remote wedding planning with you x (Claire)
@martin: So glad you’ve finally upgraded yourself to Martian2.0 using our RSS feed now. Previously you’ve been checking back each day to see if there’s anything new and been feeling grossly disappointed if and update has not appeared? Now you know how most of our old team at CSFB must have felt in 2004 as we travelled America! :-) (daveb)
@Tadders: I trust that you three pushed-the-envelope during your touch-base to drive-forward the corporate strategy? please post pictures of your trailer so that we can compare the luxury against that of our 25 year-old VW Camper! Good luck catching fish and love to your family. Can’t remember whether it’s north AZ, or actually whether it’s in AZ at all, but Martin (above) and I really enjoyed Flagstaff town (for bars) and the nearby Meteor Crater park, which hosts a big, erm, meteor crater…! Ironic that you love being without the Wi-Fi — I’d chop-off my arm to have constant, reliable and inexpensive Internet connectivity. Funny how we mortals always want what we don’t have, isn’t it? Ear is about 96% better now, thanks. (daveb)
@Sista: Shame, we just stayed on a campsite with a limping kitten that had been run-over on the nearby road. They don’t have vets here. I nearly popped it in an airmail jiffy-bag and posted it over to you. The Bartlett cats have a great life, compared with some of the animals we’ve seen on our travels. Like the monkey on a six-inch string, tethered to a tree. :-( I suspect that having fun with Sallyanne won’t be much of a problem, rather managing partying vs. work commitments will be the issue! (daveb)
@Chloe: I’m so please that family life is working out so well for you. Gosh, is it really nine months already…?! I hear that, for the first time in a long time, there were actually Glastonbury tickets left-over at the start of the festival this year. Something to do with Jay-Z (or similar American rap artist) making an appearance and the fickle public outcrying that Glasto is supposed to be a rock festival…? (daveb)
@Naomi C: Please tell me you decided to take the ‘go home’ option. Animals organs?! And I thought the food here was bad. I’m looking forward to visiting your crazy city at some point. Hope all is well with uni and work x (Claire)
@H: [Belated] good luck for your interview! (Hope it went well?) The ‘tarot lady’ (is that her name?) mentioned that you’ll have a life-changing trip [to Cape Town]? You’ve seen the [link]budget hotels[link] over here — they’ll change your life, I promise! Next time you see the tarot lady, would you mind asking her for a list of half-decent accommodation in southern Africa please? My ear is 96.00001% better, thanks. (It’s improved 0.00001% since I wrote the reply to Tadders, above.) (daveb)
Hi H. I hope you get the promotion, you deserve it with your dedication. And you’ll get a lovely pay rise which you can spend on treating your big sis to a nice hotel in Cape Town! Just kidding, but I promise we won’t stay in our usual grot if you join us (it will be a good excuse to stay somewhere more decent). Thanks for using our site for Amazon. Look up the Garden Route too. Where was your ring by the way (Dave is being skeptical and bets that it was under the bed, where you find everything). Have emailed Sarah about accommodation in AD. (Claire)
@Scott: I’d be so interested to have an update on your home front — both house and family. Send me an e-mail, if you get a chance? Actually, I really think ‘Mini White’ is a cool name, for a girl. Yes of course we planned the coffee to arrive on your birthday! (When was your birthday?) (Happy Birthday!) Thanks to Lee for his facebook message; glad he enjoyed it too! (daveb)
@Mum N.: Hello mummy N. It’s a blooming good job that giraffe is on the mend, we still haven’t found one here. Glad to hear the most recent shipment of wood carvings arrived safely though. Dave wants to know how many lettuce you have left?! We haven’t eaten any here after the Philippines killer lettuce incident. Hope the France planning is going well.
@Bartie Family: Really hope that your holiday in our <plug>luxury rental apartment in Los Alcazares, Spain</plug> is going well? And, as a family, well done for leaving your first blog comment! Ear is nearly completely better, certainly well enough to hear the hawkers trying to sell me canvas paintings from the other side of the street! Say ‘Hi’ to Angele (lovely Dutch bar lady) from Claire and I. Highly recommend Andrew hoofs-it down to Leon and Oktay for a chicken kebab in the Urb. Oasis area. Mum & Dad need not apply — let’s just say that it’s young peoples’ food… :-) (<– Mum: That’s a smiley, indicating that I’ve just made a joke; tilt your head left.) (daveb)
And to all those who sent us birthday greetings on facebook and e-mail: Thanks very much for your messages, we miss you all! (daveb and squiffy)
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Moshi: Tanzanian Domali
Posted by Squiffy on July 3rd, 2008
Domali in Crystal Palace is one of my favourite cafes to go for a cuppa or bite to eat. It’s particularly good for brunch, and in the summer I like sitting in their secret garden out the back.
Today I discovered the Tanzanian equivalent: The Coffee Shop in Moshi. It too has a sunny garden at the rear and serves a great range of lunch food, cakes and coffees. It’s run by the local church and is very good value for money. I’ve been craving cereal for a while (it’s always fruit, bread and eggs for brekkie here) and was very happy to find Breakfast Number 2 on their menu included museli, yoghurt, banana and a frothy hot chocoloate, all for less than a quid.
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Deaf, giraffes
Posted by daveb on July 2nd, 2008
(Ed: Oops, this should have been published a couple of days ago.)
It’s been a disappointing day for both of us — Claire didn’t manage to buy a hand-carved wooden giraffe to replace the one her dad broke and I’m still wholly deaf in my left ear.
With high hopes, we caught a bus to Tanzania’s biggest wood carving market in search of a giraffe. As is quite normal in all of the developing countries that we’ve visited, all the stalls in the tourist markets sell exactly the same products and exactly the same prices. Whilst every stall had giraffes, they were all made of ‘ebony’, rather than the lighter wood for which Claire was looking. I say ‘ebony’ because we suspect it was actually another (cheaper) type of wood as the vendors were all polishing/darkening their wares which black shoe polish out the back of their shop!
Right next door to the tourist market was a ‘proper’ market, where the locals come to do their weekly shop. For lunch we ate fruit from one of the stalls. I attracted quite an inquisitive crowd who watched me prepare a mango into little cubes (still attached to the skin, to avoid getting our hands messy as we ate the fruit). Clearly the locals do it differently here as, for five minutes, I was talk of the town! A man had turned his bicycle into a knife-sharpening machine and I offered him a little money to take his photograph. Neither he nor his customers could understand why I wanted to take a photo of him sharpening knives!
In the afternoon, we headed back to the hospital of the doctor to ‘fix’ my left ear which has been blocked since diving in Zanzibar. Last time I saw him, he was convinced that by now the inflammation would have subsided and I would be hearing again. After another–this time very painful–ear-hoovering, he prescribed me some boric acid and told me to continue travelling and visit another doctor at our next location for another treatment. I was really disappointed as it’s been over a week since I’ve been able to hear normally and I had hoped that a breakthrough would happen today.
We queued for half-an-hour at the hospital’s own pharmacy to collect the boric acid, only to be told that the only place to buy boric acid in Dar Es Salaam was at another hospital. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying–unsuccessfully–to get some sense, and boric acid, out of the staff at the other hospital.
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Africa Insight: Chewing gum change
Posted by Squiffy on July 2nd, 2008
We’ve been blogging about the things that we do as we travel. Here in Tanzania, as well as the things that we plan to do everyday, lots of things just seem to happen to us. Amusing little things that seem funny becuase they wouldn’t happen at home. They don’t warrant a full blog in themselvs, but I’d like to document them, mainly to remember them myself, and will call them ‘African Insights’. Here’s the first:
I purchased a bottle of water from a stall at the side of the road. I gave the lady a 500 shilling note and she gave me my change in sticks of chewing gum, with no explanation or indication that this was unusual behaviour. Transaction complete.
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