TravelStream™ news feed for member gilbertenstein on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gilbertenstein en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:37:09 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215325800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215325800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215325800/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:37:09 -0400 Scuba Diving South China Sea (Seven Skies and Anambas Islands)

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Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

The next morning Chris wanted us to get up and into it early so that we could get home quickly because it is about 8hrs boat trip back to Singapore. We were up at about 6:30am and in the water before 7:30am. We were supposed to dive a pinnacle a short distance from where we did our night dive but it looked like a strong current was running so we decided to dive next to the granite wall again and drift a little from one end to the other.

Again it was only about 10-15m for the dive from "Frog Rock" to "Nudi Rock". The fish were not so different from the previous dive. Nudis, parrot fish, bat fish, jacks, sea slugs and some great soft and hard corals.

The seas picked up a little after the first dive so we basically dove the same spot for our 6th and final dive for the weekend but there is plenty of room to look for new things. There were a few small swim throughs, rock overhangs with fish and crabs hiding underneath and on the last dive it was time to take stupid photos so we had a bit of fun with the YMCA, etc....

Back on board and time for the trip home. We got back to Tanah Merah by about 8:30pm and home by 9:30pm. I was exhausted and the ground was moving once I got home for a full day before I got my land legs back...

Great trip and pretty good value..not as cheap as diving in a Philippino resort where you can walk off the beach, but still not bad for 6 dives and all food and accomodation (about US$450 all up excluding gear rental)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215496740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215496740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215496740/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:25:27 -0400 Scuba Diving South China Sea (Seven Skies and Anambas Islands)

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Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

We had a pretty early rise after a pretty rough night's sailing to our first dive site. The boat was rocking all night long and the deisel engines were purring away. I stopped feeling dizzy as soon as I stopped reading so I wasn't sea sick anymore but it was rough enough over night for me to be worried about falling out of bed most of the night. Therefore we didn't get too much sleep....but we were ready to dive.

The first dive was to be about 25m/80ft and was my first enriched air dive. I was keen to get out into the water. A quick piece of toast and briefing from the Dive Master (Chris Hutton) and we were ready to go in two waves. There were about 20 divers on board and we were split into two waves so we didn't crowd the dive deck.

We were in the first wave and I was diving with Dan C and Dan P (a couple of mates I went on a 9 day live aboard with about a year earlier). These boys have gone headlong into their diving and within 3yrs of first learning how to dive they are now qualified Dive Masters...good for me really. I am happy in the water and grew up surfing, etc but its always nice to know you're with someone that knows more than you do!

We didnn't manage to get in the water first and that was to be the worst choice of the day. There was a strong current running and the boat was tied on a bow line with a drift line tied off at about 15m. The idea was to get in and under ASAP and pull ourselves down the drift line to the anchor rope and then down to the bottom where the current would not be as strong.

There were about 6 divers out before us and they were all weak swimmers and very paranoid about the current. Instead of going under ASAP they all sat on the surface thus brining the drift line to the surface. That meant it was running right down the side of the boat and anyone holding on to it on the surface was being bashed against the side of the boat.

One of the local divers started to panic and let go of the rope - only to be taken by the current of course and then he grabbed my hand wich happened to have my reg in it as I was talking to my buddies about what we should do. I now had no air should I go under and this plonker pulled me under. I thought the best thing for both of us was for him to drift and me to get my air back so I ripped my arm out of his hand. I managed to shove the rope in his hand so he didn't drift off. But then he decided he had to get back to the boat so he pulled himself back up the rope and pushed all three of us out of the way without so much as an "excuse me". Not a great start to the dive.

Anyway, once this guy and his three dive buddies were out of the water we pulled ourselves along the rope and down to the anchor line only to be met by 4 divers sitting at about 15m going nowhere and blocking the way down the rope. There was no way to swim down without holding the rope because of the current so we politely pulled ourselves past them and proceeded to the bottom.

Once on the bottom we could swim without holding the rope and if needed we could hold a rock and watch the world go by.

With all that pushing and barging we had powered through our air and the dive was over in about 35mins - we headed up for our safety stop after about 30mins. Because of the current the vis was not great and the fish life was also a little lite on. Overall a pretty boring dive but I got my first Enriched Air Dive out of the way and I was almost qualified - one more dive and I was done.

Back on board everyone complained about the current but only the three of us made it to the bottom where it was a pretty easy dive. We had our breakfast (our second breakfast) and rested for a bit and then got ready for our next dive. This was the deep one - 7 Skies. Its a container ship that sank some time in the 60's and the top of the smoke stack is at about 25m, the bridge is at about 30-35m and then the fly deck is at about 40m. We were diving on nitrox so we had to watch our depth but we would have good bottom time and shorter surface time (mainly giving us more bottom time on the next dive)

Again there was a bit of current but we got out a bit quicker and did a negative entry so we were down quickly. We got down to 35m in less than 3mins which meant we had plenty of air and about 20min of bottom time. Its an interesting wreck and plenty of exploring to do for qualified wreck divers but because its so deep you can't stay for too long.

Back on deck and we were fed again - lunch! Another break of about 90mins and we were ready to head back down for our second dive on the wreck. All about the same as the first one but now I was a qualified EANx diver...

After the third dive for the day we were to up anchor and head for an island (Pulau Pinang) where we would have our night dive. The trip took a few hours and we weren't ready to dive again until about 9pm. I think it took about 5hours or more to get to the third dive site, but there's plenty to do on board...eat, sleep and read....oh yeah, they have a DVD player and good TV too so we watched some movie to keep us occupied.

We tied off the boat in a quiet little bay next to a big granite wall in about 10m of water and we were off for our night dive. It was only about 10-15m for the entire dive so we had plenty of bottom time. Dan P and I flapped about for 50mins before we headed up. Plenty of bat fish, a lone barra, parrot fish sleeping, crabs, nudibranks, etc. I ended the dive with 100bar (half a tank) and would have loved to have stayed down for another 30mins or so.

Back to the boat, eat something, talk rubbish for an hour or so and then off to bed. This time the boat was pretty calm over night but he did move three or four times for some reason...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213182000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213182000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213182000/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:20:39 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Ishasha, Uganda

Queen Elizabeth National Park, Ishasha, Uganda (Day 1)

Wednesday June 11th, 2008. Queen Elizabeth National Park, Ishasha, Uganda

We have been on 3 game drives in the past on a trip to Madikwe, South Africa so we had some idea of what was in store for us but I woke up at about 5am in anticipation and struggled to get back to sleep. The biggest draw card here is the lions that climb trees (sic) but frankly I would be happy seeing anything I don't see at home (and we live in Singapore so that would be just about anything other than macaques and monitor lizards).

The tents may be classed as "luxury" but they didn't get full plumbing - a good thing really as the camp affects the local environment in a very minimal way - but it does mean cold showers or walking up to the main tent to ask for some hot water for your camp shower. We opted for no shower in the AM probably because I was too keen to get out in the car looking for animals.

The setting for the restaurant is a landing under trees overlooking the river. We were told this river had good views of hippos and elephants feeding at the river. What more could we ask for? A full hot breakfast was served and we started to meet some of the other guests of the camp.

Breakfast over with (as quick as we could), we jumped in the car and Martin popped the roof to give us an open topped 4WD that we could stand in whilst having a fully shaded cabin to sit in when we were tired. A fantastic set up. Off we drove and within about 5 mins we found our first antelope - kob, then another 5mins and we found our next antelope - topi, another 5mins and we found the last of the common ones here - water buck. It was all very exciting to see them for the first time but it doesn't take long to realise they are everywhere. You almost feel bad for getting bored with them because they are so common here but by the end of the trip I was looking for the lame or stranded young ones in the hope that a lion or leopard had spotted them too.

Game Drive Tip: when you organise your game drive ask some details about the car that will be used. 4WD is obvious, but a pop top roof is brilliant and if that roof acts as a shade cover as well then you have the perfect combination IMHO. Photography Tip: Just check with your driver/guide that he knows how the light needs to be in order to get good shots. The majority of good shots will come with the light at your back but of course there are plenty of good ones to be had the other way around. Plus there's the dusk/dawn light to aim for as well. What ever it is you are looking for, let your driver know and he will always make sure he gets you in the best spot to take the shot you want.

The first drive lasted about 4hrs and it took a little while to get past the antelope. We did get to see one of our favourites - the warthog - but apart from that there was a dry patch in the middle when we literally saw nothing of note. Then we followed a lead that took us to a new campsite where they had not started letting campers in but had built a little banda (cabana type building) and it turns out this is now a favourite of the lions for resting. The camp site is perched on a hillside overlooking a large savannah so its a perfect place for the lions to work out when to start prowling their next meal, and its shady with a cool concrete floor. This is exactly the sort of behaviour that lead the local lions to climb trees - they know what's good for them even if they haven't done it before.

Inside the banda were three adolescent males (brothers most likely) and their little sister (less than 18mths old). These four were just lazing around in the shade with the odd minor shove to get a good position. One thing I noticed was that they seemed very unhappy with any attention they got from the local tsetse fly. Its a mongrel of a fly that needs a solid whack just to get rid of it - and forget about killing it! Not to mention the nasty bite it gives. The lions hate these flies as well and as such they didn't look like they were sleeping much at all. They were constantly twitching to get rid of the flies. Apparently lions spend over 90% of their time lying around and sleeping but it really didn't look like they were getting any sleep.


On the way back we noticed a lot of the acacia trees were knocked down and the branches stripped bare. Apparently the elephants knock them down to get to the sweet leaves at the top and to give the young ones a chance to eat the good stuff. If you haven't seen these acacias they have thorns about 3-4" long and apparently the elephants pass these things whole. This gives them a very itchy backside which leads to one of their most peculiar behaviours. They rub their bums on the tops of termite mounds to relieve the itching. So if you see a dirt mound they looks like it has been scuffed around on the top, you know an elephant has been their scratching his bum.

We were back for lunch and a shower by about 1pm and felt a million bucks after the steaming hot shower. I ended up fiddling with the photos and video on the laptop for a while and Rina headed off for a nap....and that was to be the end of her for the day. both of us were suffering a little from too much to do and too little time to do it (plus we both had a bit of a cold we'd collected somewhere on our travels). I walked back to the tent to get Rina for our 2nd drive but she wasn't having any of it. She was ready for a rest - and frankly so was I but I wasn't going to miss anything whilst here so I headed out with Martin while Rina caught up on some Vogue and Marie Claire.

On our way out Martin asked what I wanted to see and the list was almost endless but I settled on the hippos and elephants. I couldn't go looking for the lions up the trees without Rina so I decided to leave them for tomorrow. So off we headed to the Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) range camp where Martin first tired to find the hippos on a bank near an old camp site but we could only get glimpses of a couple of them up and down river.. So we headed over to the rangers themselves and Martin linked me up with Robin who took us on a guided (read armed) walk to the river bank. I heard the hippos as we got closer and as I spotted some through an opening in a trees I got a little excited and snapped off a couple of shots. Robin told me not to bother but to come around the corner - and boy was he right! There in front of me were at least 40 hippos of all ages and sizes. The closest was about 10 feet away and the furthest was probably 100 feet away. They were all lying together in a "school" in what looked like 5ft deep water. Then one would get restless and stand up and walk to a new spot - then showing the water was only about 2 feet deep.

These boys (and girls and babies) are BIG! They weight in at 2-3tonnes (metric or imperial it doesn't matter, they are heavier than two small cars!). The were quite active and gave me all sorts of grunts and snorts. A few opened their huge mouths and it was all as I expected it to be. They are huge animals that would scare the crap out of you if you bumped into them in the wrong place, but they still had these dainty little eyes that just kept looking at us.
The hippos were so mesmerising I almost didn't pay attention to the troupe of about 30 olive baboons on the bank behind the hippos. They were making fools of themselves all over the place and all keeping a very keen eye on us. as soon as we started walking towards them they were off...all but the big male who sat around and pretended he didn't care about us until it was obvious we were headed his way then he slowly got up and walked up. Once back at the car we met David and Rochelle from Manhattan who were on a month long break (I wish!!!) most of which was in Africa and while we had a sweet trip planned, there's sounded even sweeter - not to mention the stop in Amsterdam on their way home. One thing I recall was Rochelle said they had just seen Harriet and Gertrude again (the two lionesses) and they were up a tree. I was leaving that for tomorrow with Rina so I didn't ask where they were...

Tipping Tip: a guided walk usually costs about US$10 tip. It doesn't really matter how long you go for, its seems to be a universal US$10 for the job. The gorilla trekking may take all day - US$10. A 30min walk around a river bank - US$10. Just plan to give a guide US$10 per person per trip and a porter about the same per bag. Its not a lot of money for most travellers and its a good salary for these guys and it keeps them away from the bad side (poaching/bush meat) and gets more people interested in working for the good side (conservation/eco-tourism)

We left the hippos and baboons to stumble on a huge herd of buffalo which were hard to find in Madikwe in South Africa but they were everywhere here. There are actually three kinds and they all intermingle. The savannah buffalo (big and black), the forest buffalo (not so big and brown) and a cross breed between these two sub-species (in between the two in size and chocolate in colour). They're not overly interesting unless you have been somewhere before and told they were hard to find...like us...but in Ishasha they are easy to find so after your first visit you are likely to be drawn to find something else. Until you get close to them and a bull (usually a solitary one that has been rejected by the herd) gives you a nasty look and even charges. Apparently these guys give cars a lot of trouble because they can be really aggressive so if you are driving yourself, be careful of buffalo that are on their own - don't get too close.

Next we spotted a massive herd of elephant walking up a hill away from us. It turns out they head out of the park at night and raid the crops of the nearby corn farmers at night (when they are less likely to be caught). Then they come back via the same route in the morning. Martin knew exactly where he was headed and we had found the herd within minutes. We spotted a few big bulls and checked them out for a while then headed towards the main group when we were cut off by a big female. She was angry about something because her ears flared out and her trumpet sounded. Next thing she is taking a few brisk steps towards us. Martin very calmly announces "She's charging". Talk about stating the bleeding obvious but it was reassuring to know my heart rate was a little high for good reason. We slowly backed away and she moved forward a little more then stopped and let us go. We decided it was not a good time to follow her so we moved a little closer to the rest of the group - but not too close.

We left the elephant as the sun started to go down and thought we would check in on the four lions we found earlier in the day. They were still in the same spot but they were moving around a little. One was slowly moving down the hill towards the savannah below and the others were slowly joining him. It seemed they were lining themselves up for a kill that night but we were not going to hang around and watch it - that could take hours and we would probably get in the way anyway. So it was time to head for home as the snu was well past its bed time. One last interaction on the way back was a very close call with a black spitting cobra that was spread across the track trying to keep warm until we so rudely interrupted him.

The game driving was over for the day but there was another day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213092000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213092000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213092000/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:04:00 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Kinigi, Uganda

Kinigi, Rwanda to Ishasha, Uganda by Road

Tuesday June 10th, 2008. Kinigi, Rwanda to Ishasha, Uganda by road

We knew this was going to be the longest day in the car for the entire trip and we knew it had been raining so the roads would not be good but Martin (our guide) didn't tell us it would be sooooo long. It was supposed to be about 6hrs of driving with stops making it about 8hrs for the day. It ended up much longer than that.

So we set off from the Gorilla Nest Lodge at about 7am after having a truly crap breakfast. Funny thing is they cater for gorilla trekkers only at the Gorilla Nest Lodge so if you are not up and out by 6am then you get what ever is left over. No milk, the worst bread they have, no eggs, you get the point. Anyway its just a tip for anyone else heading there - be prepared for a crap breakfast if you are not up at the crack of dawn.

Enough bitching...overall I thought the Gorilla's Nest Lodge was pretty good. The location is awesome with the volcanoes as a backdrop and it seemed to be the closest decent hotel to the park offices (trekking start point). The food was pretty bad and the room itself was OK. I would go back there for lack of any decent alternative but if there was another decent hotel in the area I would probably try it out before returning to the Gorilla's Nest (PS: a group from Dubai has bought the hotel and has plans for renovations but they need to do more than fix the rooms to get this hotel up to scratch IMHO).

We headed from the Lodge directly to the Ugandan border and the roads were nice but there were plenty of people up early going about their business. Kids on the way to school, people taking things to market, builders rolling huge planks or piles of bricks up or down the long hill on bikes or wheelbarrows. It all looked too energetic for us so we just lay back in the car and watched the world go by. It was around now that we realised we were being tailed by another couple on a trip with the same company as us. The guides drove in convoy to reduce the risk of any problems. I think it was mainly mechanical that they were worried about, but it was reassuring none the less to know there was another car behind us ready to help - and vice versa. On board was a mother and daughter couple from Melbourne. We never got their names even though we were literally with each other all day long but at the border crossing I got their family name as Heath (Rose and ?)

After about an hour we arrived at the border (a very small border control station to say the least) to find that the immigration officer was having his breakfast and we would have to wait until he was good and ready to do his job. In the mean time I got pushed and shoved by any number of locals looking for the right card to fill in while waiting. Then when said immigration officer did return, the locals that were there after me didn't even bat an eyelid and ask if I wanted to go in first, they just charged in and didn't really care about who was there first - especially not the stupid white guy dressed like Steve Irwin (that would be me). Come to think of it, they probably don't know who Steve Irwin is, that's why they didn't let me in first I guess. It didn't take too long but it was amusing to see how urgency was the last thing on anyone's mind apart from the two Congolese women on their way to market across the Ugandan border into Rwanda.

Next stop Uganda and although we had already set foot on Ugandan soil as we transited in Entebbe a few days earlier, this would be our first official visit and we have the passport stamps to prove it now. One thing about this border is that the cars swap sides - Rwanda was a Belgian/French (left hand drive) colony and Uganda was a British colony (right hand drive) - so the border crossing is one lane and as soon as you pass the Rwandan gate the sealed road stops and the bumps begin - and I mean straight away. There is no pretty road for the border and then it turns to crap around the corner. This road is crap the second the Rwandans are rid of you. No man's land has small pot holes, but they were nothing compared to the beasts we would find a few miles down the road in Uganda proper.

A quick note about the border crossing in Uganda. For full employment you have to first visit the local policeman and he takes some notes in his old ledger, asks where you are headed and then sends you on the immigration official. I have no idea what value the police man adds, but at least he is being paid for something. The immigration official on the Ugandan side was also out for breakfast - actually he was just out for a cup of tea because in his words "its very cold this morning". Now I don't know if it was the Ugandan state of mind or if he really was as I thought but this guy was a dead ringer for Idi Amin - and I mean the real Idi Amin, not Forest Whitaker playing Idi Amin. I know it sounds ridiculous but if he had let me take a photo then you would see what I mean. If this guy had shouted at me I think I would have soiled myself remembering scenes from "The Last King of Scotland".
He actually turned out to the possibly the nicest immigration official I had ever come across which frankly wouldn't be too hard because I think that have to take a "being an arsehole" course when training to stamp passports all over the world, but this guy was truly nice and interested in us and where we were headed. He took Rina's passport first and immediately opened with "selamat pagi" (good morning in Malay in perfect accent). We were both taken aback and then he followed with "apa kabhar" (how are you?). It turned out he had spent one month in Malaysia earlier this year for a government training course and he loved it there. He loved it so much he told Rina that as a Malaysian she didn't need a visa (US$50 each and officially she did need one, but he was going to ignore the rules for her). He wasn't as nice to me but still pleasant enough and pretty quick about it too. A few minutes later we were on our way to Ishasha Tented River Camp (minutes from the Congolese border) and some hours drive away.

Apart from the state of the roads, the human flotsam was much the same. People working on the road, moving things from one place to another and kids everywhere. We were constantly amazed by the number of children. It seemed there were 5 kids to every one adult and they were almost all willing to wave and say hello. Many of them would also bark out either "give me money" or "give me food" or my favourite "give me plastic bottle" (they use it to carry water for school and/or recycle them for money). It was a constant flow of these kids with none of them having anything really interesting until we found four boys blocking the road singing us a song. It sounded like traditional music until we listened closely and realised they were singing "we are happy to be singing you this song...". While it was extremely tempting to give them something, we were not going to be broken by their pure audacity and cuteness alone. Giving them anything would only encourage it and within days there would be troupes of singers blocking the roads to tourist cars every km or so.

We stopped at a road side hotel called the Travellers Rest Hotel. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but it turned out that had plenty of things to do there which usually involved a bush walk or hike. You could stay there for about 5 days and not do the same thing twice. They also had a number of Congolese arts and crafts all over the hotel that were all for sale. We had fluked our way out of $50 with Ugandan Immigration so we decided to spend a little on a really nice Congolese mask (I love masks and this was the first time Rina had agreed to let me buy one - in fact she was the one that wanted to get it!). This would have been a perfect stop for an overnighter as it was a little over 1/3rd of the total time to Ishasha and the hotel was nice and there were plenty of things to do there. Instead we drove on over mountain passes, up and down dodgy roads with 1,500ft drops on one side and nut bag truck drivers coming round the next corner. Not to mention the crazy mini van taxis that were belting up and down the road who were driving their cars to a very early grave (mostly due to wear and tear, not from falling off the edge).

Only just soon enough we were at the entrance to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where we stopped for our glorious (read with sarcastic tone) packed lunch. The location was amazing at the entrance to the park with views that can't be matched. The idea was that we would see plenty of wildlife while driving through the park but we saw 2 monkeys and then nothing else for the entire hour or so that we were in the park. While there is now a road through the Impenetrable Forest it is pretty clear where the name came from as the under growth was serious and exploring this would have been a complete nightmare - not to mention very slow going. I did spend the entire drive through the park in eager anticipation of which animal would confront us around every single corner - but we saw almost nothing.

At the exit gate we heard that they had recently opened up another group of gorillas for tourist tracking which made a total of 5 for the Impenetrable Forest and 7 for Kinigi. Apparently the global mountain gorilla count is now approaching 700 - where it was down around 450 only a decade ago. The last case of poaching around Kinigi was 5 years ago and the last in Bwindi/Impenetrable Forest was about 4 years ago. Things are still hanging very precariously but at least they are improving.

From here it was a long drive to a small town called Kihihi where we refuelled and headed into the Ishasha Game Reserve in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The town was fun with people all around and a really cool mix of local music with a reggae/dance hall beat coming from the barber shops. I was tempted to go in for a hair cut just for the fun of it but we were about 10hours into the 7 hours drive and every one was ready for dinner and a bed.

From Kihihi it was about another hour and half with the last 20mins or so in the park itself. Not far past the gates we found a large compound for an oil exploration company which is obviously disturbing - Martin was probably more worried than us because he knows how important Ishasha is for the tourist trade because this is where they have the famed Tree Climbing Lions (a misnomer because they are not a specific species, they have just learned how to climb over generations and passed it on to their young so they should be called lions that climb trees according to Martin).

5 minutes into the park we spotted some buffalo which were hard for us to find in Madikwe when we were there 3 years ago so I was quite excited but I would find out in the next few days that they were everywhere here so it wasn't a big deal except that they were our first sighting. The next one was better....2mins further down the road were 2 lions strolling along the road. They didn't really care about us and took some time to move off into the grass where they joined another lion and sat and watched us for a minute or so. It was getting pretty dark so we could only see dark blobs off in the grass.

Arrival at Ishasha Tented Camp was hampered only by our state of mind. We were exhausted after 12 1/2 hours on the road. It was 8:30pm local time and we wanted to go to bed, but we were starving too so off to the room (tent) for a quick refresher and then back to the main tent for dinner. It was all a blur but the tents are really nice and only about 20ft from the river's edge. One problem is they all have 2 x super single beds, no doubles/ So you have to push the beds together with a really comfortable wooden edge in the middle (not). We were too tired to complain and Rina was not in the talking or doing mood so I pushed them together and off to bed...

A very long day that will test many people so I would suggest breaking that journey into two with stop at the Traveller's Rest Hotel (and get there early on your arrival day so you can do one of the long guided walks from the hotel). The scenery and people watching is amazing though so its a drive that most will soldier through with good memories.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213959600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213959600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213959600/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:51:54 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Ngamba Island, Uganda

Entebbe to Ngamba Island

A slow start out of "Hotel Lybia" and we were off to get the briefing and checks done at the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) office near the Pier in Entebbe. Lilly in the office there was super friendly and that was a sign of things to come. The folks that work at CSWCT are all very happy in their work and love to talk about the chimps to anyone willing to listen.

After the briefing with Lilly we were taken down to the boat ramp by Martin where we jumped on a small sped boat to be taken out to Ngamba Island for our 2 nights there. The boat trip out was pretty uneventful but looking at the size of this lake and the state of the water I decided to read up a little on it once I got to the other side. It turns out this lake (the second largest body of fresh water in the world!) is slowly dying. Its so sad the way this lake is being destroyed and the challenges to reverse the problems are incredible - not least of which is the fact that the lake is in three countries so if you fix the problems of pollution in one country, how could you fix it in the others? Anyway, I digress....

The speed boat trip is about 45mins and the view is beautiful. Its especially nice to see all the water when we have been in the bush for 2 weeks.

Once we got to the other end we were greeted by Gerard - one of the local guides/care givers and then handed over to the camp staff to "check-in" to our tent - home for the next two nights. The tents here are basically the same as all the others we had stayed in but they are perched on the banks of the lake shore with views that would sell for millions anywhere else in the world.

Once we were settled we walked up the hill to see the chimps at their mid-morning feeding. The chimps here are all rescued chimps except for one that was born on the island (Surprise). As such these chimps do not all behave exactly like a wild chimp would. They all come back into the cages at night and then out to roam the forest again each morning. As the island is not big enough to be self sustaining for the chimps they have to be fed by the care givers four times a day.

With such a routine the chimps know when the feeding times are and they know how to get the caregivers' attention to give them each some food. The arms go up, the noises are many and varied and the running around and banging on trees and the ground are great fun to watch. Part of the trip was had planned was the "Caregiver for a Day" option (US$150 per person). This meant you would help prepare the food and then help feed the chimps, as well as clean the cages and even help transcribe some of the notes taken on to the PCs they have near the cages. We had just arrived so we were not up to the feeding yet but it was obviously going to be fun feeding these guys. They are so much fun to watch.

Once the feeding session was over we walked down to the cages to check it all out and we were shown to the new arrivals - Mack and Afrika. These are two young chimps that have just come out of quarantine and were being slowly introduced to the rest of the chimps before being released with them in a few weeks or months. These guys were to prove to be the absolute highlight of the trip and it was pure luck that they were to arrive on the island two days before us. They do not have new chimps on the island very often and they are fast reaching their limit so we felt very privileged indeed to be there when the young ones were being introduced.

At around 6pm the chimps are called into the cages for the night and we were then to go for what I thought would be the highlight of the trip and was only just beaten out of the top spot by the playing with Mack and Afrika. This is when we went for what they call the "Forest Walk". They re-release a handful of adult females to the forest section of the island and you are there to meet them and take them for a walk in the forest.

The best part is when you are standing at the entrance to the tunnel and the chimps come out and look at the people waiting for them (no more than 6 people go at a time). After a few seconds they will usually decide which person they want to go walking with. Rina was gobsmacked when the first chimp out came straight up to her and flopped at her feet. This was Nako and she wanted to be groomed by Rina so Rina had to oblige of course.

Next out of the cage was Billi. An older female and the biggest of the group. Apparently she likes big males so she walked straight up to me and raised her hand to my shoulder height. I grabbed her hand and she slowly climbed up my leg and on to my back. The other chimps came out of the enclosure and Nake climbed on to Rina's back and we were off. We went walking in the forest for the next 15 mins or so and then stopped for a session of grooming.

As soon as we stopped the chimps got off or back and we sat on the ground with them. The chimps then showed us their back meaning they wanted us to groom them. So groom we did. It wasn't long before the chimps then started to groom us as well and then lay all over us, lifting their arms asking to be groomed under there, etc, etc. It was a truly amazing experience.

We then walked around the forest a little more and as it was quite dark we headed for home. All in all it was about 45-50mins and an almost religious experience. These chimps are so tactile and friendly and soooooo amazingly similar to us. Looking them in the eye is like looking at yourself - its a cliche but its true. One thing that surprised me a little is that the chimps don't smell. They don't bathe - in fact they dont like water - yet they don't smell at all.

A truly brilliant experience and I can recommend it to anyone!

After this was all done we were back to the tent for a shower and then to the main hut for dinner. It was another set menu but with a little twist - all the hotel guests sat at the same table. At first we weren't too sure but it turned out to be a great idea. We had a great chat with the other guests and two biologists from Germany that were on the island to run some experiments on animal behaviour. A really entertaining dinner and another amazing day.

One slight negative: the forest walk is only offered first thing in the morning or just before dusk. I would not do the dusk walk again because you will run out of daylight.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215423000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215423000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/5/1215423000/tpod.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:01:39 -0400 Scuba Diving South China Sea (Seven Skies and Anambas Islands)

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Singapore, Singapore

Left work as early as possible to get to TMFT to board by around 6pm. Met with the boys at the terminal, filled up on chips and chocolate and headed for the boat pretty much on time.
Once on board we headed out to see ASAP and the weather showed its claws straight away. It wasn't outrageously rough but it was rough enough to make for a long, long night's sailing to the first dives sites. I should have taken the sea sickness pill at first chance but opted out and jumped into my studying for my Enriched Air Diver course. That was a mistake. I have never had a problem with motion sickness but reading and concentrating on charts and numbers when I was already tired made me sick almost straight away. I had to get the exam done that night in order to finish the course in time for the dives the next morning so I had to push on. I had them done by about 11pm and then off to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212919200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212919200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212919200/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:23:17 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Kinigi, Rwanda

Gorilla Trekking, Kinigi, Rwanda (Day 1)

Sunday June 8th, 2008. Kinigi, Rwanda.

After our briefing last night on what to wear and what to prepare and our apprehension about the first day with the gorillas both of us had an eventful night's sleep. I woke up at midnight panicked by the light outside because one of the guards had turned our porch light on and it looked like it was well past our wake up time - so I figured we had missed the alarm and were running late. The I woke about 2hrs later worried that we had not packed the insect spray when we sorted out our day packs the night before. I woke another couple of hours later panicking that we had forgotten to organise the packed lunch for the gorilla trek. Each time I woke I checked the alarm still worked and recited the growing list of things I had to remember to do when I did wake up and get up at 5:30am. It turned out Rina did the same through the night and woke a few times panicking about the same things as me. And through all that we still woke up feeling well rested for some reason - albeit a little cold.

The day with the gorillas starts early with a 5:30am wake up, a quick shower and jump into the prescribed trekking gear. Water proof everything: jacket, pants and shoes if we had them. We had the water proof jackets (or so I thought - more on that later) but no water proof pants or shoes (neither these are suggested in any of the books we read read before packing for the trip). My cheapo motorbike rain suit would have been perfect and was in fact what our guide wore as soon as it started to rain. Not to mention the fact that he wore blue when everything says wear muted colours.

Gorilla Trekking Tip: Make sure you get a water proof jacket. Water resistant wont cut the mustard in the jungles of Rwanda. Preferably breathable like Goretex because you will be hiking in it and it can get warm.

Gorilla Trekking Tip: Don't worry about buying green or khaki jackets for the trip if you already have a perfectly good blue one. You don't need special colours, just nice and comfortable, light weight, durable and water proof (and breathable if possible). If you have this but its blue or red or whatever (maybe not flouro) then just bring that and save your self a couple of hundred bucks.

Once all the bags are sorted, breakfast is eaten and the truck is packed we head to the national park entrance where will meet our guide for the day (Eke was his name I think) and get the first briefing on what is going to happen and how to behave. At the meeting place we notice a few people in shorts (its not warm by any stretch of the imagination and its raining) and even complete novices know that there are thorns and stinging nettles to contend with so I can't imagine what their legs looked like at the end of the day. At the other end of the scale were a few people with the brand new, top-o-the-range trekking boots but i can't imagine how much of a pain it must be to carry them around on a trip like this. I only had my super comfy, non-water proof, well worn Timberland trekkers. Oh and I forgot to mention, it rained ALL night. By the end of the day I probably would have preferred the massive water proof numbers the all-the-gear-but-no-idea crowd had, but a pair of gum boots (Wellingtons) would have done the job just as well.

I asked if we could join a group that were tracking Beatsme's group where we hoped to see the baby adopted for us by Mum (named Segasira) but found out that this was a research group and tourists were not taken there. This was news to us and not what the travel agent told us :( This was the only reason we came to Rwanda instead of making the whole trip in Uganda and trekking for gorillas in Bwindi but stuff happens I guess.

We met the couple we would be trekking with and then Eke took us through the plan for the day. We would be tracking "Group 13" and it should be a relatively short round trip. Most of the groups are named after of the first tracked Silver Back in the group, but "Group 13" used to be based in Congo and then relocated to this side of the mountain in Rwanda and in all of this a solitary silver back joined this group and beat out the old silver back thus making a name hard to work out so the original name stuck - Group 13. Made up of 1 silver back, plenty of females of all ages, some juvenile males and some babies - 22 in total. The biggest group is one of the research groups with 56 gorillas!

Gorilla Trekking Tip: if you can get in a small group DO IT! Maximum group size is 8 but 8 people crammed into the jungle trying to get the perfect shot of the gorillas is a pain in the butt!

Gorilla Trekking Tip: if they ask if you would like a "hard" or "moderate" trek, go for the easiest one possible. There is almost nothing to be gained by going on a hard trek, esp. if this is your first time. Seeing a gorilla is the main aim, not spending 6-7 hours trekking each way to see the same animals.
We all then jumped in our respective cars and drove up the mountain to our start point. The road was really rough and people were walking up the hill faster than us so it was a bit embarrassing to be sitting in this big 4WD while all the locals are strolling up the hills and looking at the stupid, fat, lazy tourists in there monster truck. Still it was a fun drive as all the kids ran beside the car and slowly got up the nerve to start talking to us. At one point the car behind got bogged so I got out and did the old digital photo trick of taking a sneaky shot of a kid then showing him the photo. Within seconds every kid within 500m wants his or her photo taken so they can see what it looks like. I got a bunch of great shots but then realised my car had started to drive off (I'm not even sure Rina told them I wasn't in the car yet!)

After almost an hour of very slow going we got to our final drop off point, jumped out and started up the hill on foot. The walk starts with about 20mins of pastoral land so while it is climbing a hill its a pretty easy walk. Then we reach the stone wall the represents the boundary of the park. Apparently the main purpose of the wall is to keep the cows on one side and the buffalo on the other. Here we get our second briefing from Eke about what will happen in the park section. We will radio to the trackers that follow the gorillas all day until they guide us to where the group is currently feeding. Then once within a hundred metres or so we will put our bags down and take only our cameras for the final stretch. The porters will take our bags and we will spend an hour with the gorillas. I asked how far away were the gorillas. The answer was extremely pleasing to all of us - 10mins! I was ready for 3-4hrs of trekking and we were going to be with them in less than 30mins!

We scramble over this wall and immediately you recognise the jungle under growth from any documentary or movie you may have seen about this place. It was instantly recognisable to me anyway. A little bit of scrambling through dense under growth and muddy paths and you can see old nests and gorilla dropping and you know you are getting close. Then suddenly three trackers appear out of the bush and tell us to put our bags down here and get ready to approach the group. As they are telling us this, the juvenile male comes out of the bush towards us and with almost no warning whatsoever we are in the presence of our first mountain gorilla. While I am messing around with my bag I look up and see this guy coming down the hill towards me and I know that feeling people talk about when they first see the gorillas. Its hard to describe but these animals are so similar to humans its not really the same as the first time you see a big cat or elephant, etc. This is different. Its like you are discovering the missing link and no one else has seen this before.

Anyway, the male came down the hill at a pretty brisk walk and straight towards me. Rina had the video running so I have this all on disc now. We were told we should not approach closer than 7m to them where we find them but this guy came straight towards me and so quickly that even if I wanted to I would not have been able to get away from him. He ends up walking past me less than a metre away from me and gives me a look in the eyes as he passes me (its all on video so I aint lying!)

After we settle down from this we get our stuff organised and we walk a few feet further into the jungle to find a mother and juvenile feeding and within another few steps we are right in front of the silver back. He has his back to us, as he does for most of the time we are with them, but this guy is big. Standing up he is probably about 5ft tall, but his back is enormous and he is 100% muscle.

For the next hour we follow them as they move from plant to plant and while the guides tell us this is them moving from one plant to another naturally I really cant help but think that we are pissing them off somewhat and they move to get away from us. But still its just amazing to be anywhere near these guys. A few times we are within a metre of them as they approach us or we are back into a bush, but most of the time we keep a respectful distance.

At one point it seems the silver back is getting a little agitated and he starts approaching us. This is the first time he has walked towards us. he has always been walking away from us. The tracker told us to move back and that he looked like he was ready to charge. Rina was right next to the tracker and the silver back was heading for the tracker so she was in the firing line. The tracker grabbed Rina by the arm and told her to be calm and move back then suddenly the silver back rushed the tracker and shoved him in the shoulder. Rina was holding on the the tracker's other shoulder! She was no more than 2 feet away from a charging silver back! What an experience....and guess which idiot didn't record it on video!?!?! But Rina did manage to peel off this shot as the silver back was approaching her. (Next stop National Geographic - after she calms down again)

(stop press: this idiot did record it as he thought he just couldn't find the file. Watch for the video to be posted here soon)

The rest of our prescribed hour with the group is spent following the main players - the silver back and the older females - as they find food and beat their chests at each other. We finish with three of them climbing bamboo looking for some tasty morsel and it made me think of the scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as the hero and villain run up and down the bamboo. Its hard to imagine these 100-150kg animals climbing up a stalk of bamboo but they did it and all three of them were about 10ft off the ground reaching out for something to eat.

Eke then calls times up and we have to turn around and head back down the hill. I could have spent the whole day with them and it wasn't until Eke called time that I realised my supposed water proof jacket was not water proof at all and my sleeves were wet, my feet were soaked and my pants were pretty damp too. All this in a damp, misty, chilly mountain environment of about 2800m above sea level and I suddenly realised I was pretty uncomfortable. Funny, I had no idea I was uncomfortable or wet for the last hour, but now I wanted a warm jumper....

It took another 30mins to walk back to the car and 30mins back down the hill to the park entrance and all of a sudden the most amazing wildlife experience of my life was over. The good news is we have booked two days of this!

Gorilla Trekking Tip: Book two days of trekking if time and money permit. The first one is amazing but I am sure the second will be a even better and we will be a little wiser about where to stand and how to take photos, etc. Three days would be even better!

Tipping Tip: The guides are happy with a US$10 tip from each person. Don't be concerned if you are only a small group, just tip $10 per person. So a couple should tip $20 total and so on.

Tipping Tip: The porters generally get US$10 per bag they carry so if you share a bag then its $10 total. Even if you don't need a porter its nice to use one and give them some income as they are ex-poachers so this keeps them on the good side.

Gorilla Trekking Tip: when you are being briefed you will be told that you are not to approach within 7m of the gorillas, the reality is you will get much closer than this for two main reasons - the gorillas will approach you and you may not be able to make a graceful retreat when they do. If however your guide offers to let you touch the gorillas or get even closer than you already are (for a fee of course) do the world a favour and kindly decline and report him after your trip. These gorillas are EXTREMELY rare and touching them puts them at risk of getting simple human diseases for which they have no immunity so a cold or flu can kill and entire family. They can also become too habituated to humans and then the encroachment on humans that live in the mountains could become an issue. Just keep a respectful distance no matter how much you want to cuddle them.

Wildlife Photography Tip: if you have a small video camera - take that as the #1 choice. Next would be a good quality non-SLR digital camera (7mp or more) last would be the full SLR kit. Unless you are a serious photographer it is unlikely you will get any photos with the SLR that you would not be able to get with the non-SLR camera. Gorillas are dark animals with very dark faces who like to hide their face from you and tend to spend their time in thick bush so they are not too easy to photograph. Not to mention - in my opinion - there are plenty of photos of gorillas but not many photos of me with a gorilla so I found the photos of us with gorillas in the same frame to be much more interesting than the good shots of just a gorilla and these shots usually come out best with a point a shoot camera in the hands of someone else nearby

Wildlife Photography Tip: if you decide to take an SLR then the lens to take is relatively wide angle and fast. I would suggest the best possible 24/28/30mm prime lens you have or can afford. You don't need to zoom as you are close to these guys the whole time and with 10mp or more you can crop anything to a good shot now anyway. My perfect lens would be a 24 or 28mm f1.4. ISO set to 200, 400 or 800 depending on the light available where the gorillas are and use your camera's multiple exposure mode to get three different exposures in three shots all at once. Gorillas don't often move very fast but it is dark so be prepared for some blurry shots.

We got back to the hotel and sorted our stuff out, had a shower and some lunch then fell asleep in the room. Apparently I started talking in my sleep telling someone about the gorilla trekking. I had only finished it a few hours earlier and I was already reminiscing - albeit in my sleep!
What a day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212836400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212836400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212836400/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:14:48 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Kinigi, Rwanda

Around Kigali, Rwanda and then to Kinigi, Rwanda

Saturday June 7th, 2008. Around Kigali, Rwanda and then to Kinigi, Rwanda.

Today's entry may be a little more serious than most primarily due to the genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath. Lest anyone forget.

I woke up early but while I was working out if I wanted to go back to sleep or not we heard a bunch of people singing in unison. It turned out to be locals (maybe 30 or more) running together and singing like you see soldiers doing in the movies but this time it was traditional Rwandan songs. Our first morning. Very cool. Welcome to Africa! Then the Serena Inn, Kigali surprised us somewhat with its breakfast buffet. The food was great. It was all fresh. And there were plenty of options. All in all a perfect start to the day.

Overall I thought the Serena Inn, Kigali was excellent. Great food, great room (including wifi), great value and a perfect start to trip like this.

After breakfast the plan was to meet Martin in the foyer and head to the Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda from the movie), then spend time at the Genocide Museum and then head out of Kigali en route to the lodge where we would spend the next three nights whilst trekking for the gorillas during the day time.

The first thing we noticed about Kigali was how clean and orderly everything looked. Martin was telling us that when cars and trucks come over the border into Rwanda they have all their plastic bags confiscated. There simply aren't any of those useless, wasted plastic bags lying around everywhere like in Asia. Once you work out why things look a little different you then realise how amazingly clean the streets really are. Sure there's dirt and dust around the place but no man made mess at all, not even food scraps. I would actually say its even cleaner than Singapore!

Hotel des Milles Collines was a short drive away but when we arrived I didn't recognise it at all from the movie. I didn't want to say something and possibly offend any of the staff but I am sure I was told the movie was filmed at the actual hotel. I will have to go back and watch it again to double check but I am pretty sure its not the same place. Regardless what happened in the movie, this is the place where it all happened.

(stop press: a quick check showed that the movie was filmed in South Africa so this isn't the hotel in the movie, but it is the actual place where it all happened)

Anyway, the guards told Martin the only place that was open for us check out was the 4th floor so up we went. The lift itself was one of those classic lifts where you manually open and close a hinged door. The difference was that it had no inside door which meant as you stepped in and closed the outside door, the walls and doors flashed by as the lift made its way to the desired location....watch your fingers! On top of this, the lift also had a mind of its own. We pressed 4 and were dropped off on 3. And then as we were heading down from the 4th floor (the top) we opened the doors to find a guy standing there waiting to go down. He got in on the 3rd and the lift took him up before he could go down to reception as was his first plan.

Side Note: apparently some do not believe that the General Manager did what is claimed in the Hollywood movie and that he was not the hero portrayed in the movie. Therefore he is not mentioned anywhere in the genocide museum nor does he seem to be revered as some sort of hero within Rwanda. Apparently he now lives in Belgium (don't quote me on that though).

We got a few snaps at the Milles des Colline and then headed to the Genocide Museum - actually its official name is a little confusing. The road signs and books call it the Genocide Museum but when you arrive there are signs that say the Rwanda Memorial Museum and then when you get the intro from the guide inside it is called the Rwandan Genocide Memorial Museum. Confused? Don't worry, no one really cares what you call it. They are not sensitive to the whole event in a way they you might expect. Of course they are concerned about what happened but they want to talk about it, they want to get it all out in the open. And most importantly, they want to let bygones be bygones.

The national consciousness has been turned from hatred to forgiveness. Even the ones that perpetrated the most horrific crimes against innocent children are slowly being forgiven. The guilty are being given light sentences in return for confessing their sins and actions in front of an audience of the affected. A quick history lesson on what made this all happen; the Europeans created an artificial racial definition of Hutu and Tutsi - something the Hutu and Tutsi had never done before in their centuries old history. The Europeans told the population that the minority Tutsi (defined by some arbitrary head and eye measurements) were smarter than the Hutu and therefore the Tutsi were given better jobs and prospects in return for their support of the colonial government. People were issued cards where it had to state if they were Hutu or Tutsi - none of them had ever considered themselves either Hutu or Tutsi before the Europeans made them put it down on paper. If they didn't know, they were told after some ridiculous measurements of their head shape and eye colour.

After decades of this nonsense hate groups began to form within the so-called Hutu population and over time that lead to the attempted ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi by the Hutu. In the end well over 1million people were killed, ten's of thousands were severely injured and many thousands of children were orphaned. The Genocide Museum is actually built on the site of a mass grave and it apparently has around 250,000 buried underneath it.

One very strange thing that comes from this visit is the bizarre sensation that any person you see walking down the street could easily have been part of the murdering mobs and could have easily been involved in the killing of innocent people. I guess this is part of the reason why the nation is so forgiving. So many people were involved in some way or another that if the guilty were ostracised there would be few left behind. It seems everyone in the country was directly and severely affected by the genocide so it is clear that everyone has to get it all out in the open and it seems that they are.

Next we were off for about a three hour road trip to the Gorilla Nest Lodge (and Golf Resort?!) on the outskirts of Kinigi, Rwanda. This is the home base from which Dian Fossey started researching the mountain gorillas. About 130km of winding mountain road but the main thing you notice is that there are no flat sections. Rwanda is not called "The Land of a Thousand Hills" for nothing. It is relentless. There are people walking all over the place along this drive. You could be 50kms from the nearest town or junction and there will be a steady stream of people walking to and from all sorts of places. But then its like that all over Africa.

Every now and then we spot local mass graves. They are highlighted and painted in bright colours and very close to the road so that the tourists can see them, but I suspect it is to make sure the dead are remembered as well.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful but plenty to see and ask questions about as we drive along. We arrive at the Lodge in the mid-afternoon and get the briefing on what to prepare for the early start the next day when we go trekking for gorillas!!! It looks pretty wet so we're expecting some mud and wet forest. Rina is very nervous and I am very anxious. Both of us have wanted to do this for many years and now we are less than 12hrs away!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212732000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212732000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1212732000/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:12:06 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Kigali, Rwanda

Let the Vagabonding Begin

Singapore to Johannesburg Flight SQ478, June 6th, 2am Singapore time (11hrs)
Johannesburg to Entebbe Flight SA160, June 6th, 2pm Jo'burg time (4hrs)
Entebbe to Kigali Flight WB106, June 6th, 9:30pm Entebbe time (1hr)

It about 10hrs flying time to Johannesburg but I was lucky enough to be able to have enough points and book far enough in advance for us to fly business class. I would never pay for business class, but with frequent flyer miles it makes all the difference. Rina had never flown Business Class before (except for a domestic flight in Malaysia) so it was particularly nice to treat her to her first long flight up the front of the bus. One crappy thing about the flight though - 2am kick off! That's a killer to wait around for, but you do end up sleeping as soon as you get on board and settled.

Flying, movies, talking, sleeping, eating, bla, bla.

About an hour before we landed in Jo'burg Rina realised she had forgotten the little yellow book you get when you get all your injections for travel to these places. The only part that really mattered was the Yellow Fever certificate because it was the only place we had a record of it and without that record we may have problems getting back into Singapore. Of course Rina spent the rest of the flight and most of the day worrying about it - but more on that a little later.

We landed in Jo'burg at 7am and got through immigration, etc without a hitch. As we walked out to the meeting hall, there was our guide/driver for the day - John Tennant, a really nice septuagenarian of Pretorian origins with the obligatory love for rugby. Of course I broke the ice with talk of the Super 14 and the upcoming tests with the Northern Hemisphere teams.

The day was supposed to be pretty full and long but due to a pretty late change in flight schedules from SAA it turned out we now had to fly to Entebbe to get to Kigali, which also meant departing almost 3hrs earlier from Jo'burg. Which basically left us with about 4 hours to do anything in Sth Africa. Top of the list for us was the Apartheid Museum so off we headed with the plan of spending most of our short time in Sth Africa there. We got to the car park at 8:30am to find it basically deserted....something was not right. John was sure everything would be open at the crack of dawn, but I wondered how much of that was the septuagenarian talking who gets up before dawn every day and thinks the rest of the world does too (he had already told me peak hour is 6:30-8am in Jo'burg which sounded bloody early to me). Turns out the museum would not be open until 10am which meant sitting around for an hour waiting for it to open, then rushing through a museum that should be savoured and then rushing back out the airport (almost an hour away) by midday. Not ideal.

Add to this cock up the back ground and deepening sense of panic from Rina as she played out every possible disaster in her head due to her lack of a Yellow Fever certificate. By the time we worked it all out I am sure she thought she had Yellow Fever and had to work out how to sneak through border controls without them knowing.
We thought we could fill in some time at the Mine Tour in the same compound as the Apartheid Museum, then head back out to the airport by about 11am and call Jo'burg a day. Of course the Mine Tour was not open for another 30mins so we skipped that and decided to head to the nearest Harley Davidson dealership to buy the Harley equivalent of the Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt and then just pack it in and head to the airport where there was a full clinic that offered the relevant injection and could hopefully help us out with our Yellow Fever dilemma.

Once at the airport we settled Rina's nerves in a heartbeat as the clinic boss told us to get the Singapore Dr to fax the certificate to them and if we had any problems coming back into Sth Africa they would be able to vouch for us now that they had a true copy of the certificate, etc, etc. I doubt Rina has any idea what we did for the day as she spent the whole day worrying herself closer to an early grave but I was laughing on the inside all day long :)
So with the change in flight schedules, mess up with museum opening hours and Rina's Yellow Fever Dilemma it was a surprisingly unproductive yet entertaining day in Sth Africa. Now on to East Africa.

From the clinic it was time for flight #2 of the day (and country #2 of the day) - Jo'burg to Entebbe, Uganda. Transit for a bit over an hour and then on to country #3 of the day via a Rwanda Air Express flight from Entebbe to Kigali, Rwanda. I hope you spotted that the flight was with Rwanda Air Express, or Plummet Air as one of my encouraging friends decided to call them. I actually researched them before accepting this re-route but the airline is only 5 years old so they don't have enough track record to go by. At least they haven't had any major issues in those 5 years so as I write this on the SAA flight to Entebbe and think about the Plummet Air flight to come I still have my doubts.

One positive outcome to Rina's Yellow Fever Dilemma - she hasn't been panicking about the Rwanda Air Express flight to finish the day's vagabonding.

A nice added stress for the roughly 30hour journey to our hotel bed in Kigali was that during the nearly 3 hour transit in Entebbe Rina was allocated a seat on the Plummet Air flight while I was told I was on stand-by (with no real explanation given). Rina started stressing again but was too tired to be overly concerned. Just in time for the first boarding call came the airport steward with my passport and boa rding pass. I got a seat but its nowhere near Rina. I still don't know why we got checked-in separately but This Is Africa.

Walking out on the tarmac to the plane and we were in for a bit of a surprise. The plane was tiny - well compared to the passenger jets we are used to. As you walk on board the steward tells you its free seating so the allocated seat problem went away but then everyone else started haggling over seats. We just sat down next to each other and pretended these were our seats. The flights wasn't terribly eventful but because it was Plummet Air and a very small plane both of us were on a knife's edge anyway. Rina's hands were the hottest and sweatiest I have ever felt them when we landed - but they have been her Yellow Fever playing up.

We did the old queue here then queue there then back to the original queue then back to the other queue to get through immigration. Its a tiny airport and there were only about 20 of us on the plane but it still took us 45mins to get through immigration. And to top it all off the Rwandan stamp in the passport is so small you have to look hard to find it. Travel Nazis that spend years collecting passport stamps be warned, the reward for this trip is not so great.

African Travellers Tip #7346: One thing I noticed when checking in in Jo'burg was that all the locals (all races and fiscal backgrounds) were using the local service to wrap their bags in glad wrap. I knew there must be something to it but I really couldn't be bothered with it. It turns out we would broke even if we did it. The baggage handlers broke the zip on one of our bags and stuck their hands in and stole 3 Cliff Bars (about US$3ea). The cost of wrapping the bags would have been about US$10 total so in fact we came out $1 up! But now I have to work out a way to lock the bag...so the tip is, make sure the valuable stuff in your bag is hard to get at and stick in a couple of unsheathed knives just to mess with the baggage handlers with sticky fingers.

The day was drawing to an end but we were both over this day hours ago. I was in a daze and Rina was still troubled with her psychosomatic-Yellow Fever so meeting Martin (or guide for the next 2 weeks) and the really confusing drive to the Serena Inn Hotel was all too confusing. We arrived at a hotel that looked like it was in the middle of a big European city...but this was Rwanda. Checked-in, got a beautiful room, ordered room service, watched rubbish TV and collapsed in a pile of exhaustion.

Day One finished.....the next 18 day's entries couldn't possibly be this long because I worked it out from the time I got up on Thursday until the time I got to bed in Rwanda was 48hrs in total. What a day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213872420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213872420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gilbertenstein/4/1213872420/tpod.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:49:50 -0400 East African Gorillas and Chimps

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Entebbe, Uganda

Budongo Forest to Entebbe

Thursday June 19th, 2008. Drive from Budongo to Entebbe
Today's travel wasn't going to be too arduous. The plan was to drive to Entebbe and stay there overnight and then head out to Ngamba Island the following morning. It should have been a 5-6hr drive but of course we got side tracked and ended up taking well over 12hrs. But it was an enjoyable drive - not least because it was a sealed road for most of the journey.
The road out of Budongo was dirt but it was all good, undamaged dirt road. We got into Masindi and stopped for petrol, etc and found a little bustling junction town. There's probably not much there except hotels to break up the journey to Paraa and Murchison Falls from Entebbe/Kampala but I love people watching and seeing how people live so this was a great little stop.
Next was on to Hoima. We had sealed road then dirt then sealed but it was all good road. This was clearly the major road for the country where the rest we had been travelling on along the western border were not as well travelled. Again Hoima doesn't have much to offer the traveller but its got plenty to look at if you like seeing things you've never seen before Its another junction town and doesn't look too inviting but could walk the streets of this place and find plenty to keep myself occupied.
We had lunch at an old Christian missionary stop that is now a hotel and restaurant - I can't think of the name of it but I am sure anyone would know it. They have a great lunch every day for a great price. We finally convinced Martin to let us eat local. Coming from Asia, we are used to eating our way through every new place we get to but in Uganda they can be quite reserved about their food (ie: they are not too proud of it). There's no reason for this really. It really nice. Maybe its not as varied as some others but its tasty. Lunch probably cost us less than US$10 for three of us and it was one of the best meals we had had for days.
In Hoima they have the palace of the locally renowned Bunyoro king. The Bunyoro king had numerous run-ins with the British and was eventually exiled to the Seychelles around the turn of the 20th century. He finally returned some years later and died on his way back to his palace. The palace itself is not very exciting but the throne room is pretty cool with animals skins from many years gone by as well as spears, crowns, drums and stools used by the king. This is not an official tourist thing and Martin had to gently persuade his way past the guards at the gate and then got the number of the Permanent Secretary. He came back from lunch to show us around and sign the guest book (one previous guest in the book was named Robert Mugabe but he assured me it was not THE Mugabe). We gave the Permanent Secretary a tip of Ush10,000 (about US$6) and he seemed pretty happy.
Out of Hoima we found the sealed road and were on tar for the rest of our trip. YAHOOOOO! Well almost, every now and then the road would turn to crap and we would be driving around holes again but there was no more "African Massage" as Martin put it. Soon enough we were approaching the capital - Kampala where we had asked if we could visit the Bugandan Kasubi Tombs and the craft markets in Bugand Road.
The Kasubi Tombs are where a number of the Bugandan kings have been buried and where the old palace is. This is a world heritage site as it is the world's largest thatched hut - which present quite a site as you go through the gates. It cost Ush15,000 per person and then you get the compulsory guide who of course will be tipped at the end of the tour. Our guide - Nicholas - had a great sense of humour but the whole tour was over very quickly and then they usher you into the room where they have their art for sale. Its OK stuff and not too expensive but we didn't need or want anything he had so we tipped him and headed to Entebbe. The whole visit cost about US$25 for two people and lasted about 45mins. Frankly I thought it was a little pricey but its still worth a visit if not just to see inside the thatched hut (I'll leave that as a surprise for you all).
Of course we had left our shopping of big stuff until the end of the trip so that we wouldn't have to lug things around with us but we could have bought anything along the way and left it in the car really. We hadn't been looking for anything so this was the first time we went to a decent sized craft market. They have plenty of stuff at these places - unlike some I have seen around where 99% of what they have is ugly and badly made and often completely unrelated to the place your in. This market was different where they had the cheap touristy stuff (beer mats, hats, t-shirts, etc) but they also had really nice old masks, spears, etc etc. It doesn't really matter if this stuff is dusty because it has just come off a truck and was actually made last week - its all very reasonably priced. We got a great mask for about US$20 and a set of the crazy horns from the Ankole cows for US$10. We really didn't need to get anything else to have our mementos for the house.
It was getting dark and the traffic was pretty heavy but it actually flowed pretty well. People had warned us of bad traffic in Kampala and Martin was worried about getting caught in it but honestly it is nothing compared to a good traffic jam in Asia. Here the traffic may be heavy but at least it moves. It took us about 50mins to get from Kampala to Entebbe and to the wondrous Hotel Lybia (nee Lake Victoria Hotel Windsor). I just have to tell you all about this place.....
It has recently been bought by some Lybian businessmen and all the old world English/Colonial charm has been stripped out with mechanical precision. The nice 4ft high terra cotta pots at the entrance have been spray painted silver. The red brick columns have been painted a dark maroon/pink. And then you get to the foyer...absolutely no character whatsoever. This hotel has been upgraded with all the latest Uganda has to offer and in the process turned into one of the most depressing hotels I have every been in. It is clean and nice and new but it is so sad.
Then when you check in you get the piece de resistance. There is the obligatory photo of President Musevini and then to his right is a photo of Colonel Gadhaffi. Gadhaffi's photo is very strategically hung 2inches higher than Musevini and is looking over his right shoulder down at his "friend" from the south. It is almost comical and should be one of Entebbe's off beat tourist attractions.
Check-in, shower, room service, colapse and sleep.
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