So here we go again ...
This opening blah blah blah can go so many different ways. Where do I even begin ??
Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Amman, Petra, Sinai, wandering Bedouins in a desert, the Red Sea and the Nile Delta, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, the list goes on. A few things have happened there since 3000 B.C. and it's merely the cradle of numerous civilizations, too many to list. How does this compare with my own backyard?
The First Nations stumble upon George Vancouver in the 1790's, the CPR arrives in the 1880's, the headtax, the Komagata Maru, The British Empire Games and the Miracle Mile of 1954, a few funny elections here and there, Expo 86, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, two Stanley Cup riots, the UBC engineers placing VW bugs under the Lion's Gate Bridge few times, and the living legacy of Gastown and Chinatown ... sounds pretty even to me.
That's probably a good thing though ... what other region of the world can say there's been constant conflict with irreconcilable differences for say, oh .... about 5000 years? Oh yeah, and most (not all thank goodness) of the surrounding countries want another country completely wiped off the map? Sounds relaxing to me, where do I sign up !!
I don't care anymore ... I'm not waiting anymore. I'm heading over there and I'm not going to wait until I'm older than Noah or Father Abraham. People say to me "oh it's not safe, why are you going over there?" ... I say too bad. But please don't worry. Just as long as the Syrian civil war does not spill over the Israeli borders from July 1st to 5th, then I'll be perfectly fine. There will be a bunch of gangsters around Vancouver trying to kill each other off in broad daylight anyways, scaring the crap out of innocent bystanders, so what's the difference?? Jordan? It's stable, nothing stupid happens there, a non issue .... Egypt ??, Ok maybe not as much, but anyone coming back from Egypt on a group tour says it's perfectly safe and not a problem. Any problem areas will be far away from where our group we will be, so even if something DOES happen, how is that different to violent crime here?? My assumption here is that if everyone thinks it's not safe, then no one heads over, and the few tourists who DO go over don't have to fight all the crowds. Many of the locals rely on tourists, so hopefully the people will bend over backwards to make it a pleasure for the people who ignore the inaccurate perceptions. My hope is that I can take pictures of just the pyramids at El Giza, and not the 100,000 people in front of them. Same for the Sphinx, .... and the Valley of the Kings. Hopefully you get the drift ....
It's just the heat .... the searing 40 Degree (C) heat. That's the only thing I'm really worried about. It has been awhile since I've been in the dry climate. My naive hope is that the dry desert will be better on the old bones than the ridiculous humidity of SE Asia .... just shade and water, those will be my two best friends from July 1st to July 30th.
The second half of my buggering off exercise will be a much cooler world apart, although I'll still be on the same African continent. I will be back on the Safari trail to say hello to all the animals. I'll hop onto another plane to fly into Nairobi to go west to the one place I've been thinking about for a long time: Uganda. An odyssey to see the chimpanzees, gorillas, and other primates, not to mention another chance to see the Big Five here and there. But upon further review, we won't see the Ugandan Silverback gorillas. Instead, we will get bonus passport coverage, and cross the border into Rwanda and see the Gorillas in the Parc National des Volcans. Not only will we have to hike/trek hours to see them, but we actually have to pay too!! It used to be just (yeah, right, just) $500/day for the permit, but now they've bumped the cost to $750 for only 64 lucky scattered people each day.... the silver lining being all that money goes back to the gorillas to save their numbers. Apparently, the cash has been working, and their numbers have increased by some 40% in the last 25 years, up to 880-900 in Uganda/Rwanda/and the Demo. Republic of Congo. People claim it will be the fastest hour when you finally get to see them in their natural habitat. I hope I can get decent pictures PLUS have a chance to enjoy them with my camera firmly put away in my bag. Fingers crossed.
As an added bonus, I have the chance to brush up on my really, really crappy french. Whoo hoo !! I just wonder if the gorillas will understand my accent ... or will they only respond to refined Parisians !!! I'll have to ask them in my most polite manner.
On a much more serious note, just being in Rwanda will be a bit mind numbing, even before we visit our furry friends. To think that just 15-20 years ago a genocide occurred with powerless CDN peacekeepers in the middle, it makes you wonder just how the human condition can be so cruel and indiscriminant. Death by machete and machine gun; mostly hand to hand slaughter, in cold blood. I am very eager to see how the country can turn the page and go on with life, living side by side again in Kigali, with visible scars here and there. It will be another bizarre remind that I'm one lucky guy, never having to worry about such horrors as a kid growing up in Richmond. What did we worry about ?? Were Honey Nut Cheerios on sale ?, Were our basketball shoes comfortable enough ?? Did the Phillies win the World Sereis ?? Did the Stanley Cup stay in Canada, even if we hated the Habs, the Oilers, and the Flames?? First World problems indeed ...
After the big trek in the jungle, we will cross the border back into Uganda and then slowly bump along the road back to Nairobi. But there will be nothing to be gloom about, we get to visit the source of the Nile, cross the road where it shows we've just crossed the equator, and see the Big Five again. Amazing how imaginary lines on the earth can seem equally fulfilling to seeing elephants, giraffes and the big cats. :o)
Since I first went to Kenya, I always felt bad that I skipped the Masai Mara National Park, and only saw the Tanzanian/Serengeti side of things. But now I will finally put that piece of the puzzle in. If things go really well, I'll be the region when the mass migration occurs with the wildebeest and the zerbras crossing the Mara River. That will be August 20th to 23th .... please please please be there wildebeest ... or else I'll put a mathematical hex on you all.
The major snag of this silly trip will be this .... , I don't think I'll be able to update you very often. Deserts and jungles don't usually have internet cafes, but I've been wrong before.
Instead ... I might have to write it all down on paper first, as long as the overland highways aren't too bumpy (fat chance) and I can physically write thing legibly. They don't call it a Uganda massage for nothing ... rumour has it the only thing in the region that always works well are the speedbumps. True story bro!
So, I suppose my 15,000+ pictures will have to tell the story instead. God bless the delete button ... and I'm not lion when I say that. Here are the maps ... and just a few landmarks and friends we will meet along the way. Tax deductible donations are still available ... in exchange you can help me edit and catalog maybe 900 pictures of my one hour of gazing at my relatives ... I mean the gorillas. Sorry Mom, sorry Dad.
This opening blah blah blah can go so many different ways. Where do I even begin ??
Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Amman, Petra, Sinai, wandering Bedouins in a desert, the Red Sea and the Nile Delta, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, the list goes on. A few things have happened there since 3000 B.C. and it's merely the cradle of numerous civilizations, too many to list. How does this compare with my own backyard?
The First Nations stumble upon George Vancouver in the 1790's, the CPR arrives in the 1880's, the headtax, the Komagata Maru, The British Empire Games and the Miracle Mile of 1954, a few funny elections here and there, Expo 86, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, two Stanley Cup riots, the UBC engineers placing VW bugs under the Lion's Gate Bridge few times, and the living legacy of Gastown and Chinatown ... sounds pretty even to me.
That's probably a good thing though ... what other region of the world can say there's been constant conflict with irreconcilable differences for say, oh .... about 5000 years? Oh yeah, and most (not all thank goodness) of the surrounding countries want another country completely wiped off the map? Sounds relaxing to me, where do I sign up !!
I don't care anymore ... I'm not waiting anymore. I'm heading over there and I'm not going to wait until I'm older than Noah or Father Abraham. People say to me "oh it's not safe, why are you going over there?" ... I say too bad. But please don't worry. Just as long as the Syrian civil war does not spill over the Israeli borders from July 1st to 5th, then I'll be perfectly fine. There will be a bunch of gangsters around Vancouver trying to kill each other off in broad daylight anyways, scaring the crap out of innocent bystanders, so what's the difference?? Jordan? It's stable, nothing stupid happens there, a non issue .... Egypt ??, Ok maybe not as much, but anyone coming back from Egypt on a group tour says it's perfectly safe and not a problem. Any problem areas will be far away from where our group we will be, so even if something DOES happen, how is that different to violent crime here?? My assumption here is that if everyone thinks it's not safe, then no one heads over, and the few tourists who DO go over don't have to fight all the crowds. Many of the locals rely on tourists, so hopefully the people will bend over backwards to make it a pleasure for the people who ignore the inaccurate perceptions. My hope is that I can take pictures of just the pyramids at El Giza, and not the 100,000 people in front of them. Same for the Sphinx, .... and the Valley of the Kings. Hopefully you get the drift ....
It's just the heat .... the searing 40 Degree (C) heat. That's the only thing I'm really worried about. It has been awhile since I've been in the dry climate. My naive hope is that the dry desert will be better on the old bones than the ridiculous humidity of SE Asia .... just shade and water, those will be my two best friends from July 1st to July 30th.
The second half of my buggering off exercise will be a much cooler world apart, although I'll still be on the same African continent. I will be back on the Safari trail to say hello to all the animals. I'll hop onto another plane to fly into Nairobi to go west to the one place I've been thinking about for a long time: Uganda. An odyssey to see the chimpanzees, gorillas, and other primates, not to mention another chance to see the Big Five here and there. But upon further review, we won't see the Ugandan Silverback gorillas. Instead, we will get bonus passport coverage, and cross the border into Rwanda and see the Gorillas in the Parc National des Volcans. Not only will we have to hike/trek hours to see them, but we actually have to pay too!! It used to be just (yeah, right, just) $500/day for the permit, but now they've bumped the cost to $750 for only 64 lucky scattered people each day.... the silver lining being all that money goes back to the gorillas to save their numbers. Apparently, the cash has been working, and their numbers have increased by some 40% in the last 25 years, up to 880-900 in Uganda/Rwanda/and the Demo. Republic of Congo. People claim it will be the fastest hour when you finally get to see them in their natural habitat. I hope I can get decent pictures PLUS have a chance to enjoy them with my camera firmly put away in my bag. Fingers crossed.
As an added bonus, I have the chance to brush up on my really, really crappy french. Whoo hoo !! I just wonder if the gorillas will understand my accent ... or will they only respond to refined Parisians !!! I'll have to ask them in my most polite manner.
On a much more serious note, just being in Rwanda will be a bit mind numbing, even before we visit our furry friends. To think that just 15-20 years ago a genocide occurred with powerless CDN peacekeepers in the middle, it makes you wonder just how the human condition can be so cruel and indiscriminant. Death by machete and machine gun; mostly hand to hand slaughter, in cold blood. I am very eager to see how the country can turn the page and go on with life, living side by side again in Kigali, with visible scars here and there. It will be another bizarre remind that I'm one lucky guy, never having to worry about such horrors as a kid growing up in Richmond. What did we worry about ?? Were Honey Nut Cheerios on sale ?, Were our basketball shoes comfortable enough ?? Did the Phillies win the World Sereis ?? Did the Stanley Cup stay in Canada, even if we hated the Habs, the Oilers, and the Flames?? First World problems indeed ...
After the big trek in the jungle, we will cross the border back into Uganda and then slowly bump along the road back to Nairobi. But there will be nothing to be gloom about, we get to visit the source of the Nile, cross the road where it shows we've just crossed the equator, and see the Big Five again. Amazing how imaginary lines on the earth can seem equally fulfilling to seeing elephants, giraffes and the big cats. :o)
Since I first went to Kenya, I always felt bad that I skipped the Masai Mara National Park, and only saw the Tanzanian/Serengeti side of things. But now I will finally put that piece of the puzzle in. If things go really well, I'll be the region when the mass migration occurs with the wildebeest and the zerbras crossing the Mara River. That will be August 20th to 23th .... please please please be there wildebeest ... or else I'll put a mathematical hex on you all.
The major snag of this silly trip will be this .... , I don't think I'll be able to update you very often. Deserts and jungles don't usually have internet cafes, but I've been wrong before.
Instead ... I might have to write it all down on paper first, as long as the overland highways aren't too bumpy (fat chance) and I can physically write thing legibly. They don't call it a Uganda massage for nothing ... rumour has it the only thing in the region that always works well are the speedbumps. True story bro!
So, I suppose my 15,000+ pictures will have to tell the story instead. God bless the delete button ... and I'm not lion when I say that. Here are the maps ... and just a few landmarks and friends we will meet along the way. Tax deductible donations are still available ... in exchange you can help me edit and catalog maybe 900 pictures of my one hour of gazing at my relatives ... I mean the gorillas. Sorry Mom, sorry Dad.
I wish I could go to Jerusalem and BETHLEHEM! Perhaps when I'm older than Noah :( Would you be so kind as to write my name in the sand so I can pretend like I was there? Hehehehe
ReplyDelete- Miss Diligent :)
Near the Dead Sea ?? I'll try to remember ... I won't have time to roam the groovy beaches of Tel Aviv ... not enough time. Maybe I can write your name as a hieroglyphic near the pyramids or the temples of Ramses II. I'll write Queenie Nefertiti ... I'll be a poet when I didn't even know it !!
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