Cheetah Kill

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Flattop

Day 15-18

 Hakuna Matata (No worries) as we all know from The Lion King. However I’ve fallen in love with the saying Hakuna Matete (pronouced ma tea tea) meaning Nice Tits!

While relaxing in Nairobi for a couple days I was able to catch up on posting to the blog and getting the first proper laundry finished. While here we visited an elephant orphanage to see up close a couple dozen baby elephants being cared and rehabilitated to eventually be freed into the wild. Not overly exciting however pretty neat experience

We dropped off a few passengers at the end of their trip and picked up 14 new people to max out our truck with 24 passengers. Things are going to be different from this point forward with a full truck. I’m still learning everyone’s name and finding out about their backgrounds. While there is a core group of 10 having traveled together for a couple weeks thus far it looks like the new additions are going to fit in with us quite well.

We made it to Masai Mara National Park and stayed at a wonderful permanent tent camp made up of dorm size tents permanently setup with cots, toilets, and showers inside. A nice change to sleep in a bed for a couple nights. Masai Mara is a game park in a valley on the Kenya/Tanzania border. On the Kenya side the park is Masai Mara and the Tanzania side is known as Serengeti.

We spent the past two days game driving in the park searching for as much wildlife possible. Think national geographic safari. We were standing in minivans with no tops to get good close up views of all the animals as we get within a foot or less of most animals.

As we head out our first afternoon at the gate to our camp is an enormous elephant grazing on local plants a mere 15 feet away. Less than 50 yards further we come across a pack of baboons and we are still a few miles away from the park entrance. There are several Masai tribes people dressed in a traditional red rob/blanket type apparel herding cows through the trees in search of grass for their heard.

Entering the park we immediately come across herds of elephants, gazelles, impalas, buffalo, zebras water buck, and dozens of giraffe only an arm reach away from our vehicle. It’s exceptionally dusty in the arid environment driving across dirt paths with dozens of similar vehicles toting around tourist to get up close and personal views of the wondrous creatures. There is nonstop chatter on the CB radio between all the drivers in Swahili telling each other where game is located so our driver can make it to where the best sightings are. It’s shocking, a dozen or more vehicles show up where a leopard

has recently killed and eaten a zebra. It lays in the tree snoozing like none of the dozen or more vehicles are there surrounding the tree. This makes it official, I’ve seen the big 5 and it’s only the second day of game driving on this trip. Yeahhh hawwww!

Our next full day of game driving proves to be spectacular. We start out with a very similar experience seeing an enormous amount of wildlife. I can’t wait to be able to share the incredible shots. Mid morning driving across dried yellow grassy plains we happen upon two cheetahs sitting in the open. We’re not sure if they are mother and cub or male and female. They sit serenely looking almost regale as dozens of vans line up to view them. It’s obvious we are oblivious to them and they could care less. They are on a hunting mission for one of the gazelles several hundred yards away. For a half hour they lazily and sneakily make there way closer towards the gazelles. They’ll lay down for a bit blending in with the surrounding grass, get up and slowing walk closer, then lay back down or turn around and walk further away to turn back and lolly gag toward them again. The gazelles notice them on a couple occasions and move farther away maintaining the distance they have gained. I’m shocked they know to move away and don’t just high tail it as far as they can. A baby gazelle oblivious to the cheetahs comes bouncing along 75 yards away and the cheetahs attention immediately changes. The smaller cheetah leaps to speed capable of running at over 60 mph in less than 4 seconds for up to a couple minutes. The fastest land animal in the world is in action before our eyes. Goose bumps run down my arms and legs. The scene is exhilarating as the the gazelle scampers in a zig zag stop and go pattern which slows the cheetah down as it can only run full bore in a straight line. For approximately 30 seconds the cheetah cuts in and out slowing gaining ground while it appears this young one is getting away. The cheetah all of a sudden stops having exerted all its energy and with synchronous harmony the larger cheetah which had stayed back bolts to warp speed in a straight line for it’s target. A few seconds later it has lunch hanging from its mouth by the neck. They cheetahs pull up under a shade tree chest heaving from the exertion. I think I’m exhausted as they are from just watching. What an incredible site to experience. We find the driver who works in the park daily hasn’t seen a kill in 3 years. Only one in every 2-300,000 visitors is fortunate enough to experience a kill.

The rest of the day seems anticlimactic as we’ve all witnessed a bone chilling sight of the survival of the fittest. Later in the day we come across a pod of a hundred or more hippos grunting and snorting. We get to see the tail end of the the great migration of wildebeest making their way across the plains. A dozen or more lions snoozing trees next to a small creek. All amazing sights in themselves yet they seem to be less due to our incredible earlier sighting.

Posted in Africa, Kenya | 3 Comments

Gorilla Treking

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Flattop

Internet access in Uganda stinks. What would one expect. At least I’ve had it. It can take upwards of 20-30 minutes to load one page.

Day 6

We made it to Kampala a large city of a little more than a million to replenish food stock and stage for our drive towards a gorilla trek. We pull into a supermarket complex and I find myself wandering through the isles of a very modern store larger than any super Walmart or Sam’s Club I’ve ever seen. For a moment I felt like I was back in the states and not in Africa. A nice surprise.

Since we are in a somewhat civilized city I take the time to find a Chiropractor and end up at local hospital. On the taxi ride to the hospital numerous impressions ran through my head of what weird scenario I might be entering. The experience turned out to be quite pleasant though. Luckily the hospital was clean neat and appeared very modern from the outside, lobby, and rooms I saw. The admission process was fast and efficient. The doctor turns out is the first chiropractor to practice in Uganda and there are only three in the entire country. He’s a native but was educated in the UK. Maybe it’s because I was a foreigner or maybe he’s that slow, I’m not sure. He spent an hour chatting with me exchanging information about a varied array of topics and it felt more like I was having a conversation with a buddy than at a hospital waiting for an adjustment. Anyway, it’s been a huge blessing to get adjusted and my back has been thanking me for days.

Day 7 – 8

We drove for 12 hours over bumpy teeth chattering roads to reach Lake Buyoni in the southwestern area of Uganda near the Rwanda and Congo borders.

Lake Buyoni is stunning to take in. The mountainous area is covered by lush tropical green plants. The lake is fairly narrow with a snaky coastline creating numerous picturesque views with a dozen or more small islands scattered throughout the lake. At 6500 ft deep it’s hard to image the underwater terrain when it appears at it’s widest it’s probably only a quarter mile.

Sam and I rent a Mokoro to explore the lake further. A Mokoro is a large tree trunk hallowed out to make a canoe. We quickly find out sitting in a log refines ones balance as it’s extremely tippy still. Paddling straight proves to be just as challenging as the bottom of the canoe is whatever shape the log is and the water flow makes us go in left hand circles. While others in our group give up trying, Sam and I figure out a balancing paddling act which produces a reasonably straight line and head for one of the nearby islands with the highest peak.

The island is green mostly with a variety of crops farmed by locals living on the island. It’s astonishing we are in an extremely remote area with limited facilities to begin with and there are people even more isolated living in mud huts completely self sufficient. As we hike towards the peak cutting through terraced fields three kids approach cautiously. It’s cute and endearing as they appear to be excited yet somewhat scared. They’re giggling and speaking in hushed whispering hiding behind bushes sneaking peaks at us. Waving and saying hi returns laughter and waves. We’re as much an attraction for them as they are to us. Sam has a chocolate bar and offers them some. They step out from their hiding spot and cautiously creep toward us and I feel like we are trying to coax a wild animal with food to come closer. Once close enough they snatch a piece of candy and immediately retreat. It’s obvious they are not sure what it is as they place a square in the palm of there hands and lick it with delight disappearing quickly. We summit the island peak a few minutes later to absorb a wondrous vista and a few minutes later more kids show up. Uh oh, the words out and we end up divvying the last of the candy to the half dozen kids far more courageous than the initial three.

The group splits up and goes to two different locations so that we might all be able to go on a gorilla trek in the next couple days. Myself and four others head to Nkuringo an exceptionally remote village another three hours from Lake Buyoni. To get here we pile into a small mini van and drive over boulder filled roads covered in a powdery dust as fine as flour. By the time we arrive so much dust has seeped into the van there is a half inch covering our bags and I’m covered from head to toe and look like I’ve crawled out of a vat of brown flour.

Day 9 -10

Our itinerary since the start has been laid out so that we can make it to the remote Biwindi National Park, known as the Impenetrable Forest. This forest is home to half the worlds population of mountain gorillas. There are around 700 gorillas world wide and around 320 live here.

Gorillas live in family packs with one dominate male and move through the forest with their leader. There are 30 different families within Biwindi 8 of which are tracked daily. The other 22 are tracked with a census every 5 years by the Ugandan government. The government sells permits to tourist allowing small groups each day to go along with the trackers to visit the gorillas. Hence why our group was split up so that everyone could do a trek to a different family. Gorillas have been heavily hunted and poached and the program is a conservation effort funded by the likes of me and other tourist willing to shell over the hefty price of $500, by far the most expensive activity I’ll be doing all year. The program was started in the early 2000’s and they have documented a 17% increase in population since that time.

They send a couple trackers into the forest ahead of us to locate where the gorillas where sited the day before. Their job is to track the gorillas movement through footprints, droppings, left over food, and broken branches and report back to our guides so we can cut through the forest more direct to get to them. A half hour into our hike we quickly discover why it’s called the impenetrable forest. We’re climbing, not hiking, nearly vertical slopes with 80-90 degree inclines covered in dense jungle foliage. Branches, head high weeds, vines, and other foliage are interlaced creating a cobweb like barrier everywhere you turn. It’s so thick there isn’t a sign of the sky. Fortunately, our guides have machetes and hack a slow arduous path so we can climb, pull, crawl, and or wiggle our way through.

Two hours into the hike/climb we’re exhausted, dripping sweat, and I can feel my heartbeat racing from all the excursion. We’ve located the Nshongi gorilla family, a pack of 34 gorillas, the largest family in the forest. At first we can hear some of them grunting and rustling bushes. They’re only a few feet away yet the forest is so thick we can’t see them. As we move closer my first sighting is a baby gorilla sliding down a tree like a fireman sliding down a fire pole. We continue to move closer as the guides chop pull and do whatever they can to remove some of the forest cover from where one of the gorillas is sitting picking and eating leaves. We spend the next hour and half crawling around pulling back branches and foliage to get a good view of any of the gorillas. While we’re only sometimes a couple feet away there are branches and vines interlaced through every view making it very difficult for any of us to get good photographs. (fortunately between all of us we ended up with a few good ones). On a couple occasions we get too close and the gorillas charge. The silverback leader roars nashing it’s teeth pounding the ground with its fist only a few feet in front of us while Jarrod who was in front ducks and runs back several feet, just what he’s not supposed to do. We laugh and make fun of him as our guides had instructed us if they charge to stand still and not look them in the eye. A few moments later another of the larger ones stands up pounds it chest with a thunderous scream and a chilling fear runs down your spine

The second day in Nkuringo the other part of our group goes on the gorilla trek and has a completely different experience. The wonders of nature. They only have to trek about 20 minutes and find the gorillas in an open field and not covered by vines, no charging or large roars, just the family sitting around doing nothing for an hour, however it provided them with wonderful photo ops. Thus when I’m able to post I’ll probably use some of theirs.

While the other group was off trekking we go for a drive and randomly stop in a small remote village looking for something to eat. We order cokes and some bread like balls available at the ram-shackled store here. While sitting outside we become the attraction of this village and every local stands a few feet away looking at us strangely in a standoffish way. We notice one guy is working carrying rocks on a his head from a pile down the hill and is dropping them into a trench dug next to the store building placing the foundation for an expansion to the building. We jump in to help and start carrying rocks on our heads and the mood changes to laughter and fun. Next thing you know the other dozen or so men standing around watching us and one guy work join in as we’ve shamed the village into helping and it becomes a competition to see who can carry the biggest heaviest rock on their head. An hour later what would have taken the guy all day to do by himself the foundation trenches are filled. We’re the hit of a lifetime for this village and get pictures with everyone. Having gotten their address, I wish I could be there when they receive the pictures I’m going to mail to them. I’m pretty sure they’ll be the only photographs anyone in the village has.

Day 11-13

Now that our gorilla treks are complete it’s a long haul of hundreds of miles of driving to backtrack and get back to Nairobi to drop off some folks and pick up others to set off again. The past couple days have been filled with 12 hours in the truck and it’s given me the chance to catch up with writing. We stopped briefly at the equator to get pics standing in two hemispheres and moved on to spend the night in Kampala and in a beautiful campsite in Eldoret, Kenya. We’re now on our way to Lake Naivasha for the night and tomorrow will be back in Nairobi.

Day 14

Lake Naivasha is filled with over a thousand hippos and we took a boat ride to explore the lake and I had the wonderful opportunity to see dozens of hippos up close and personal from singles hanging alone to packs of a dozen or more.

I’m now back in Nairobi for a couple down days to do luandry and wait for new folks to show up before we take off on safari to Masi Mari

Posted in Africa, Kenya, Uganda | 1 Comment

Kenya Safari-Uganda

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Flattop

Day 1-3

Jambo! Hello in Swahili

I successfully made it to Nairobi for a couple days of down time before starting a 58 day safari across southeastern Africa. My post will probably be infrequent as internet access here is limited and speeds are exceptionally slow.

My trip through Africa is with Acacia Africa www.acacia-africa.com Attached here is on overview of the itinerary. This is an overland trip, meaning it’s camping and participation trip. All participants on the tour are expected to participate on a rotational basis from cooking, cleaning, setting up, and taking down camp.

At the pre-departure meeting I met the tour leader, Michelle, a small petite Australian lady (I doubt she’s even 80 lbs) which has been leading tours for seven years through Africa. She’s a small petite package and a spit fire full of energy and passion for the wild. In two days time I can tell we’re gonna have the time of our lives with her as a guide. Letaloi, our driver is Kenyan from the Masi tribe. He looks more like a Jamaican with dreadlocks. While reserved and quite he is a trove of information about local customs etc.

At this stage there are 10 travelers in addition to myself on tour. Only two others, a couple, Lachy and Amanda from Australia are doing the entire tour with me. Sam, a Brit, is my tent mate and he has been on tour for 6 weeks doing my itinerary in reverse and is on his last two weeks of travel. It’s exciting and fun to chat with him as he’s just completed what we’ll be doing and his foaming excitement is quite contagious. Neil and Leslie, from New Zealand are along for two weeks and they had so much fun traveling with Acacia a few years ago this is their second time on tour. Jerrod and Evelyn are Australian however they live in the UAE and are here for a couple weeks as well. Patricia, from Holland, is along for two weeks, more interesting we find she works as a chimpanzee care taker in a refuge facility. David and Emma are Australian but live in London and are along for three weeks. They’re both cardiac technicians and we should be good if anyone has heart problems from our adventures.

Our first day goes straight into the bush in what is considered a small African Park. Lake Nakuru is spread across a valley floor for dozens of miles with the coastline of the lake populated by two million pink flamingos creating a pink fringe as far as the eye can see down the valley. A pungent stench fills the air from all the guano created by eating 50 tons of algae a day. We witness a kill as a stork like looking bird swoops in and stomps on a Flamingo. Nature at it’s rawest form. I wish it where a lion taking something down though. Flocks of Pink Pelicans fly over landing near by. I never knew there was such a think as a pink pelican. Pelicans at home are quite ugly in caparison.

Our campsite lunch stop brings dozens of monkeys lurking jumping from tree to tree surrounding us onlooking like a pack of begging dogs looking for a handout. Everyone is on hi alert as these mischievous cute buggers won’t think twice about sneakily stealing our food.

We continue for a full day of safari driving through Lake Nakuru park where we encounter countless amounts of wildlife. Gazelle’s, Giraffe, Antelope, Buffalo, Warthogs, Jackel’s, Black Rhino’s, White Rhino’s, Monkey’s, Baboons, and Zebras. Topping out the day as we are about finished with Safari we come across a rocky cliff face with three female lions sunning themselves perched just above us in a picturesque scene reminding me of The Lion King.

We bush camp for the first night setting up our tent camp next to a small hill on one side and a river nearby on the other. There are no facilities here and we are in the open with the wild. We sit around a campfire drinking Kenya’s most popular beer, Tusker, exchanging stories and backgrounds getting to know each other. What a rewarding and magical experience I get to enjoy several more times. I can only imagine what friendships will be bound by collectively sharing this time together.

I’m going to have a hard time adjusting as I love sleeping in, however it’s up early at or before the crack of dawn to discover baboons sitting in and around our campsite with buffalo on the hillside just above us. Wow what great photo ops I’m not going to be able to share for some time due to lack of quality internet.

We’re on the truck for a long day of bumpy driving over partially finished roads filled with potholes heading for Uganda for the next week of adventure before returning to Kenya. In the hundreds of miles we’ve already driven looking over fields and small local hut communities excitement from children is apparent. There isn’t a busload of schools kids or kids along the road that don’t grin, wiggle, run along, and wave excitedly as we pass. What’s their overflowing excitement? Is it because we’re white or are they just this energetic? Letaloi, our driver, shares how he remembers seeing a white person for the first time as a child and the awe it brought. Are we the first any of these kids has seen? I’ve never waved so much.

My back is killing me as my thoracic spine is out and I’m wondering if I’ll be able to find a chiropractor for a quick adjustment anytime in the near future. Of more concern however is my camera. Smoke puffs out the cracks of the camera with a scent of electrical burning if I use the flash. I love Cannon, but if this one goes it’ll be the second Cannon to implode on me while traveling. There’s not much I can do at this stage, so I’m going to do my best of avoiding taking pictures in darker environments.

Day 4

We crossed the border of Uganda yesterday and very quickly the topography changes to lush tropical green and the dirt is a deep red. There is limited traffic or cars on the road and most people are either walking or riding bikes. A local offered Patricia 4 cows and a goat to have her for 4 years while we where crossing the border. Letaloi says women are expensive and thus he is single. It will take at least 10 cows for him to secure a wife.

Our stop is at a camp grounds (Nile River Explorers) in Jinja, the city where the Nile river begins. Most of the group choose to go white water rafting on the Nile, me included. I’ve been rafting numerous times in my life and have loved it each time. The Nile however is the best to date I’ve ever traversed. We went through a dozen class five rapids capsizing the raft on most of them and another dozen class 3 and 4’s. Words cannot describe the rush of being pummeled wave after wave having the raft flip end over end.

Day 5

We spent today volunteering for Soft Power Education, a British non profit group setup by a former tour group leader of overland safari trips through Africa. www.softpowereducation.com In the ten or so years the organization has been around they have established 27 schools in the Jinja area. Uganda is primarily an agricultural country where the average women has 7 children and mortality is in ones 50’s. Most people live in tin roofed homes, some grass thatched, built with sticks and red mud. The established education system is very basis and most children go with no schooling. Soft Power is now teaching 3000 kids and turns down ten times that due to capacity. One teacher has about 120 kids, and we worry about classroom size. In general, it’s a very poor country and the exchange rate is 2200 shillings to the dollar. It’s odd to take a quarter million out of an ATM and it only be just over a hundred bucks.

Our job at one of the schools was painting one of the buildings and with 11 of us we finished the inside and out in record time. What an education to see how basic lives these people have. Most children have no shoes. All the girls shave their heads like the boys because they do not have the means to take care of longer hair. The kids are amazing. They have nothing yet they beam with joy to see us. They run into the yard screaming, yelling, waving, and surround us. Pick one up to toss them in the air and you have a dozen lined up right behind them waiting for the same ride. It’s shocking to see that while they have virtually nothing they are exceptionally happy. Such a basic life and they are fulfilled. Why do kids that have so much in America lack the same level of enthusiasm that oozes through the pours of these kids?

The kids drag all of us into one of the classes where we each have two or three kids sitting on our laps while we sit at bench style seating with a blackboard and teacher at the front. There are no books, paper, or pencils. Soft Power is teaching different than I would have expected. They are teaching some of the basics I would expect but mostly life skills to these kids as they will not get it anywhere else. They are teaching the use of talking over violence, basic hygiene from such things as washing ones hands to making and using pads for menstruation, agriculture and how to plant in a way to produce better and larger quantity of crops, ways to make natural pesticides from locally obtained items, arts and crafts such as sowing, basket weaving etc so some might be able to use that as a profession, and pregnancy along with STD’s and how to avoid them. They teach equally to girls and boys in the hopes that these young minds will share the knowledge with brothers, sisters, parents etc. Very few children will make it past a 5th or 6th year education as they will then be working to farm land for their family.

The school prepared us lunch today and we had our first real local meal. Stewed goat with potatoes, beans, and something called pop. Pop is made from maiz some sort of corn type product. It’s mashed and fried and makes a pancake type texture but taste more like plain rice. We get plates but no silverware and eat with our hands. If anyone is getting sick we all are. However it’s well cooked and hot so we think we are safe.

At the end of the school day kids are let out and a football (soccer) game of the kids against us is organized. What a hoot for us to run around with the best players at the school on the field and the other hundred or so lined up around the field cheering on their classmates as they pretty much run circles around us.

We leave the school and it’s satisfying to know we helped in a minor way, yet there is so much more need. The emotions are almost overpowering. It’s been an exceptionally rewarding experience and I’m sooo glad this is part of the trip. Some of the kids faces and eyes I interacted with will forever be imprinted on my memory.

We make it back to camp before sunset and all of us feeling renewed and fortunate we set out for some adventure and bungee jump over the Nile river to top off a wonderful day. While the experience of steeping off a platform plunging 120 feet to have your head and neck dip into the water was exhilarating my mind keeps going back to the day spent with the kids. I’m a self proclaimed non-kid person and I find myself enamored by these kids and my heart goes out to them.

I hope anyone reading this takes the time to look into Soft Power and considers helping them out. From what I’ve seen they need all the volunteers and financial assistance they can get as the need is vastly greater than their current resources.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in as we only have a short drive to our next stop, Kampala.

Posted in Africa, Kenya, Uganda | 2 Comments

Back to Istanbul

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Flattop

I left Marmaris and made my way back up the coast towards Istanbul with a few stops along the way. My first was to the ancient Roman ruins of Miletus set in a valley surrounded by cotton fields. This site is enormous covering dozens of square miles with only a fraction of it unearthed. Driving and walking into the place one is on top of most of the city. The main site here is a large Amphitheater. Seems like all the ancient cities have a theater of some sort. I wonder what type of shows where played here? Who spoke to the people? What about? Why did people gather here? What class of people where in attendance? All sorts of questions flood the mind in amazement at such construction thousands of years old and yet I can see the same basic structure that we have today in modern day stadiums.

About 10 miles away across the valley is the Greek ruin city of Priene, set on a mountain side cliff. Built slightly before Miletus they overlapped in history by several hundred years, something I find fascinating. While both are built of stone there is a definite difference in the architectural style of columns and structures. I could spent weeks in Turkey visiting the hundreds of different sites. I feel free and can play like a child letting my imagination go with how life must have been.

My last night along the coast is spent in Kusadasi, a very modern hip western town with very little tourist wise to see. I picked it based on location for me to make it back to Istanbul. While here I had the great fortune of making new friends with Scott and Amanda, a couple from Austin, TX on an around the world journey as well. Only they are 4 months ahead of me and started in South East Asia. What great fun to share stories and exchange information on what and where to go with like minding people. If anyone’s interested there photo blog is www.amandaandscott.us

Ah back in Istanbul for a couple days to hit all the tourist sites. I make it to the Blue Mosque and watch as worshipers ritually wash their feet before entering for prayer. I roam through the Ayasofia, another mosque, and am amazed that in most places in the world one of the top tourist sites are places of worship. It’s incredible to me how ornate these buildings are and how much money must have been spent to build such lavish structures for the purpose of worshiping a higher power. In one sense it seems like a waste. Did the individuals, kings, pharaohs, emperors etc have egos so big they had a need to build one bigger or better than the last? Or is there some other meaningful reason to use such vast resources on these structures.

The Istanbul Museum of Antiquities is a collection of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts. It’s a much neater cleaner layout than the museum in Cairo, however the artifacts are just as amazing. Camera’s allowed and I’m elated to be able to capture pictures of such amazing craftsmanship. As I stare at a mummy of some Pharaoh, I wonder, if they had known several thousands years after passing they would become tourist attractions, have their grave sites invaded, stripped, and put on display for the public, would they have went to so great extent to preserve themselves? Would they have planned such ornate tombs?

I’m ashamed to admit I got hustled while walking around town and partially fell for it. In a crowd a kid with a shoe shine kit was walking in front of me when a shoe brush fell off the stand he was carrying with a clunk. I picked it up caught up to him and handed it back. He seemed grateful bowing in thanks and offered to buff my shoes for free. Not caring about getting my shoes buffed he insisted and I relented as it’s his way of saying thanks. One shoe into it he’s giving me a story about his mother in the hospital and I roll my eyes thinking this ain’t gonna be free. Sure enough when he’s finished with the sloppy quick job, he demands 8 lira (5 bucks). I’m incensed, this dirty little bastard begged me saying it’s free and now he wants money. I offer him a lira (75 cents) and he gets mad it ain’t enough. Pissed I toss the coin at him and walk off thinking he said it was free, so really I shouldn’t have given him anything. But hey I’ve got spiffy shiny waterproofed shoes. Later in the day roaming in a completely different section of town I discover how I got hoodwinked. Another guy with a shoe shine kit cuts in front of me and wouldn’t you know, with a small shake the brush falls off the kit and drops in front of me. The instant realization the falling brush was rigged to play on peoples helpful spirit, brings an enormous grin and laughter as I realize I fell for the little stinkers setup. He probably does this several hundred times a day and does pretty well with it. Wised up to it, I step on the guys brush and stroll past. It doesn’t take this guy long to turn around and notice I’ve blown past and he yells something, I’m sure some sort of insult. I walk ahead pull over and wait strategically to watch this guy play his trick. A second guy from a distance starts waiving his hands yelling in my direction as the guy with the shoe kit takes off in the other direction blatantly aware I’m on to their sham. I’m shocked he had a lookout and decide I’ll get the heck outta here. I wish I’d picked up the brush and thrown it over the bridge I was crossing. I wonder what kind of response that would have gotten. Probably better I don’t know.

My time in Turkey is drawing to a close. This is a wonderfully modern country on the outside with a mass amount of things to do and see for a tourist. As long as one doesn’t have to deal with the bureaucracy of government it’s an amazing place. I think in general it is a looked over destination by most American’s. In-spite of the shoe shine scam, the people here are very friendly, helpful, and genuinely polite. One will notice when riding a bus, subway, or tram if a women boards and there are no seats men will immediately stand and offer their seat to the lady. A gesture not seen elsewhere in the world. So simple yet it exemplifies the average quality of people in this land.

The Turkey pictures are posted as well as several videos from my time here. Also, I’ve went back through all the pictures and geo-coded them. Meaning if when on a picture page if you click on the slide show it will open a window of pictures where if you select a picture a Google map will show where it was taken. They are not coded to the exact location but rather to a general area. Ie the picture was someplace in “Tampa” etc. I hope this gives everyone an idea where I’ve been.

And now I’m off to the airport to catch my flight to Nairobi, for an African safari of a lifetime…

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Aegean Coast

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Flattop

Since rescuing the Kindle I’ve departed ways with Servet and have spent the past week making my way down the Aegean Sea Coast of Turkey by car and arrived at the Mediterranean coast town of Marmaris . I’ve stopped in numerous little villages and towns along the way as their beauty attracted me. Driving the coast here reminds me of zipping around hairpin turns on mountainous roads along California’s coast. The scenery is breathtaking, town after town, bay after bay, is filled with sailboats, yachts, and beach-side cafes, many of them overlooking Greek islands a stones skip away over the deep blue waters. I find interesting no matter how small a village or town there is a Mosque in each one. Even towns as small as 60 people. More intriguing while it’s obviously a Muslim country there are not many other outward signs of it. The bigger beach towns are thumping with nightclubs, discos, and girls dancing on bar tops. It seems odd to see an occasional Muslim wearing a headscarf, particularly on the beach when most are in bikinis and while in Morocco or Egypt it seemed the norm. It’s somewhat amusing to see such a contrast in people who believe the same religion.

A couple of the highlights thus far have been a stop in Ephesus a city of Roman ruins. Turkey I find has more Roman ruins than all of Italy and it also has more Greek ruins than all of Greece. The grand size of Ephesus is amazing to take in and to think a city covering hundreds of square miles could be abandoned like so many others of that time and become extinct staggers the mind. A people that where quite advanced and ruled the world no longer do. Makes me wonder, as an American we are the only remaining super power, are we that different than thousands of years ago. Will we remain a super power for generations to come, or with the wrong circumstances could we too become extinct? I hope not.

I made my way to Bodrum a highly touristic city on the Aegean Coast. What I’ve come to discover in three weeks of travel and three countries thus far is tourism in general seems to be down globally and the economic crunch back home is effecting the globe. The benefit is reservations are not required anywhere. I can pull into anyplace and easily find a bed. Even nicer is the hotels are so desperate I’ve got huge bargaining power. Walk in ask what the rate is and ask for a discount. If they don’t cooperate head for the door and that’s been producing 50% discounts. Not huge in terms of dollars as I’m still selecting budget accommodations. Ever dollar counts though. The downside is a town that can handle hundreds of thousands of tourist while there are thousands of vacationers seems dead. The bars, nightclubs, and restaurants lining the coast all seem to have just a few people. Traveling alone makes it hard to meet folks. I’d recommend anyone looking for a vacation to plan one now as prices are reasonable and if you’re with a group the slow pace would be a blessing.

I took a day to go scuba diving in the Aegean Sea. The underwater topography is barren and rocky with no corrals and limited fish life. It’s like swimming over rocky mountains and much different than most of my Caribbean experience. As I cruise over the bottom weightless in liquid suspensions, there is a large cargo plane intentionally placed by locals for me to explore. I see a huge cargo door and I’m thinking, dang, that would be nice to jump out of. For those that don’t know, my other love is sky diving. While I considered the dive only average, dive two proved to make the barren landscape well worth the experience. We encounter an octopus, many of which I’ve seen before, unique however is we were able to lure it out of it’s rocky hiding place and have a personal encounter to play touch and let it wrap it’s tentacles around my hands. Better yet, I have video to prove it. 2000 plus dives under my belt and that was a wondrous experience to see a creature which typically hides up close and personal.

Another highlight is my stop in Pammukale. Pammukale while remote and not close to anything else was well worth the 6 hours plus of driving to spend an hour walking around a one of a kind geological formation. The cliff-side in this village appears like melting snowbanks as water gently cascades down the side creating pools of mineral rich water. Standing on the hardened salt deposits I have the urge to pack a snowball and throw it at one of the many bikini clad women posing for pictures. Dang, hard salt won’t work and I guess my thoughts of an intro to a hot chick isn’t gonna work.

The area surrounding Marmaris my favorite so far, while touristy, is a picturesque enclosed bay surrounded by tropical green mountains on the Mediterranean. The bay is lined with hundreds of charter boats, yachts, fishing vessels, tall ships and more. The beach and beach-side walkway goes on for miles with bars, cafes, hotels, lined one after the other. Maybe I wouldn’t like this place if it where packed. I’m glad it’s slow so I get to see all of it and don’t have to deal with crowds.

I’m sitting at a remote beach bungalow a couple bays away with gentle breezes, lapping cool water on a pebbled beach cove, enjoying the last bites of a local caught fish, and dreaming wouldn’t it be great to one day return via sailboat. The coast and the terrain here is ideal for cruising and it would be easy to spend a few months here hopping from bay to bay.

Only a few days left in Turkey and I need to begin my journey back up the coast toward Istanbul to spend my last few days catching the tourist sites I missed before I head for an African Safari.

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