Happy 2010

We made our last trek up the mountain of stairs for breakfast today. We leave at 5am tomorrow morning for Mombasa, Kenya. Zanzibar was nice, but we overstayed. Seven nights is too long. As romantic as the name sounds, there is not a lot to do and those who come expecting beautiful beaches are gravely disappointed. Add in the electric and banking issues and it can make it extremely challenging.

Honestly, over two weeks into this trip, we planned it the way we usually plan trips, but we goofed this time around. Normally, what we do is pick the time we want to be away and then fill in what we want to do, where we want to stay, and what we want to see within that range. Up to this trip, this method has worked well for us. As I said, in retrospect, 7 days on Zanzibar is too long. Four days would have been plenty. We could have done the turtle tour to spend another day doing something, but we had the feeling there were would be as many turtles as there were dolphins, making it a waste of money. 

The beaches in Stonetown are not swimming beaches, they are for the fishing boats and tourist dhows, though there is not much of a beach anyway. The better beaches are a taxi ride away. We are not beach people anyway, but those we know who have come for the beaches swore they made a mistake. The sights on the island are limited. Today, we did go to the old palace of the Sultan. It was interesting, but in dire need of repair in every inch of the place. 

We saw the fort last night when we went to dinner, we did the spice, dolphin, and monkey tour. We toured every touristy souvenir shop innumerable times and they all have basically the same merchandise.

We have seen more of the hotel room here than we ever have on any vacation. Part of this is that the heat and humidity wipes us out, but there really is not much to persuade us to stay out for. Been there, done that. We could have cut it short, but live and learn. According to the owner of the 236 Hurumzi Hotel, Stonetown is the largest city on the island and there is not much else on the rest of the island. Even if there were, we would need to taxi there, the public transportation consists of trucks with lengthwise benches in the back. When they are filled up, they go to the destination. After arriving someone, we may never be seen again, not knowing how to return again.

A stop at Mercury's for a drink took some time today. Later, we went to another restaurant we had drinks at previously, but this time Ron had a pizza. One last trip through the shops was just to waste some time until the fan and air conditioning at the hotel were turned on again. For dinner, we went to Monsoon Restaurant, but almost didn't. We wanted to have a drink on the terrace and dinner inside. They refused to allow us a drink outside, but would serve us dinner inside. Not understanding their reasoning, we questioned it again when the manager, a German woman overheard us. She came to the rescue and said it was fine. Inside, you leave your shoes at the door and sit on mats on the floor. Dinner was good, but my chicken curry was a leg and thigh only. Ron had prawns and a healthy serving of them too.

We did our last stop at Kilude Cafe, said good-bye to Esther, our favorite waitress and went to bed for a 4:30 am wake-up call.

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Year of the Rat

We will be entering the Chinese New Year just days after we leave. It starts on January 18th. It is the Year of the Rat.

The Rat (鼠) was welcomed in ancient times as a protector and bringer of material prosperity. It is an animal associated with aggression, wealth, charm, and order, yet also associated with death, war, the occult, pestilence, and atrocities. In the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Rat is associated with the earthly branch symbol 子

Persons born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "year of the Rat," while also bearing the following elemental sign:

• 31 January 1900 - 18 February 1901: Metal Rat
• 18 February 1912 - 5 February 1913: Water Rat
• 5 February 1924 - 24 January 1925: Wood Rat
• 24 January 1936 - 10 February 1937: Fire Rat
• 10 February 1948 - 28 January 1949: Earth Rat
• 28 January 1960 - 14 February 1961: Metal Rat
• 15 February 1972 - 2 February 1973: Water Rat
• 2 February 1984 - 19 February 1985: Wood Rat
• 19 February 1996 - 6 February 1997: Fire Rat
• 7 February 2008 - 25 January 2009: Earth Rat
• 2020 - 2021: Metal Rat

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Happy New Year

As is my habit, I could not sleep and was up at 6:00 am, showered, and out writing and reading by 6:45, leaving Ron to sleep in. No one but the staff was up at that hour. I had breakfast alone in the breakfast room after playing with the owner’s two bulldogs and dachshund. I found out she also breeds Persian cats and African parrots besides. The dachshund decided to join me for breakfast hoping for something to fall from the table. We were never introduced, so I am not aware of his name, but it was definitely a ‘he’.

The breakfast buffet was full of choices of breads, cheeses, yogurts, juices, and a hot corn dish similar to Crème of Wheat in texture. When I was offered eggs and unidentified meat, I settled for a plain omelet that was cooked perfectly. The corn meal was too interesting not to try and was told to add hot milk and sugar to it. Mr. Dachshund never left my side, deciding I was his new best friend, the little beggar. He finally conned me out of my last bites of the omelet.

Shortly after 10:00 am, we were in the truck and on our way again. With Dirk and Harm gone, we claimed the front seats, which is considerably more comfortable for my leg. When we were all on the truck, Bruce told us that Anna and Rikard Rasmusson had written us a letter and read it to us. They told of their adventures since they left our group and how much they missed us. It really made many of us teary-eyed that these two children would take the time and effort to write us a letter and get it to our pension before we arrived. We asked if they were still in Windhoek this morning, but they had already left.

It felt like we drove for days, but it was only noon when we pulled into a B and B parking lot for a potty break. However, this was also the occasion our fifth flat tire. The break was much longer than expected. We never did find out for sure if they fixed it or not, but we drove the next hour to our next accommodation, where Bruce was going to call the company to have the tire repaired for sure. The truck only has two spares on the back; we have gone through them and had others repaired. This is Bruce’s record for flat tires on a trip.

Arriving at Zelda’s Guest Farm (www.zelda-game-and-guestfarm.com) we received our rooms keys and again we were out in the suburbs of the cottages. The only ones farther away were Bruce and John. Although the room was spacious, it was hideously decorated with gaudy murals on every wall, including the bathroom. Alongside the toilet was a sign laminated with “A Message from Mr. Toilet”. This was really over the top. The sign bordered on gross. Even for a third world country, this place was 30 years out of date with the décor.

We had until 7:30 free when we would meet for dinner. This place has a cat rescue, so there was an opportunity to watch them feed the cats if we chose to. They have cheetahs, a leopard, and a lynx who are in captivity since farmers have complained about their killing livestock. The choice was to keep them here or the farmers would shoot them. They go through a retraining program and at some point will be released into Etosha National Park.

Tonight I had dish cleaning duty with Wilfred and we finished it in short order. Bruce had a fish dinner and vegetables, but had a vegetarian version for those four of us who did not eat fish. Ron was going to try to get a card game going, but the lounge was closed, so there was no where to congregate with light.

It is interesting how inhospitable many of these larger places are for guests. Omo and Jean wanted to watch the news, but could not because the owner’s wife was watching her soap opera. This is a good size place with lots of rooms, yet they close the public meeting areas when the owners go to bed and the guests are left hanging.

Our mileage today was 250 km, racking up 3990 so far.

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