The Knife Edge Bridge

Some World Heritage Sites are over-hyped and under-whelm. Others are everything you imagine them to be. Victoria Falls is firmly in the latter, even though it was nothing like what I expected. No doubt it had to do with water levels and weather conditions, but the mists were huge and the view of the whole falls was obstructed. Not sure why, but I expected to see the entire falls in all of their magnificent glory from some convenient viewing platform. I was mistaken. Instead, as you can see in this video, I "saw" something wildly different and got completely drenched in the process. Trust me when I say - if you go, and there is mist, and you see people walking back up the path completely drenched, it is not their bad luck, it is not something that you can avoid, and it is not something where your special powers of decision making can help you. Rent the poncho, rent the crocs, and get ready for a world of wet hurt. :) Worth every penny!

Surviving the near-malaria experience

Well, I've survived my first near-malaria scare. I still am not sure what it was, but I got some sort of stomach bug right as I got off the bus in Mombasa - it could have been the slightly clumpy yogurt I finished the night before, the lack of sleep on the overnight bus, or the horrid weather change from cool and breezy in Nairobi to stinkin' hot and humid in Mombasa. Whatever it was, it knocked me out for at least 24 hours as I spent the first day party on Neema's friend's couch and party curled up in a fetal position at our hotel. I was afraid I had malaria, and it didn't help that everyone who saw me asked "you don't have malaria do you?" Luckily, no chills - outside of the humidity induced ones - and no severe fever beyond normal stomach bug issues, so I think I'm safe. Young escaped my fate and had a much better time, although he was a trooper and kept me company for most of the second day.

I've recovered mostly now, although I'm still having a bit of trouble with bigger meals. I was good enough though, to go out to the Mombasa National Marine Park here to meet up with a friend of Neema's who works for the Kenyan Wildlife Service. He took us out on a KWS boat for a couple hours, right off the coast, where Young and I snorkled and swam with the zebra fish. Awesome!

Anyway, things, as expected, have gone against expectations, and especially against schedules. We have decided to ditch our backup plan of going to Lamu (itself a plan arrived at after we decided we didn't have enough money for Kilimanjaro) and head directly down to Dar es Salaam tomorrow. So, we're finally leaving Kenya, after a few really nice weeks with old friends and new friends.

I don't have anything new and substantive and introspective to post - stomach bugs tend to take away any time for introspection, let along time to write! - so instead, I'll share this video from Kampala, Uganda of a conversation we had with a couple of boda-boda drivers there. Hope ya'll like it!

Hangin' Tough

I'm part of this website called "Couchsurfing" whose aim is to match travelers together with potential couch hosts. It's a neat idea, and although there are some problems with it, I generally still use it. I have all but given up on getting someone to host me, but I still use it to invite people out to lunch or coffee so I can get a local's perspective on the country. Another benefit is that many cities will have active CS communities that do regular social events. Manila is one such country, and last weekend they planned a fun "roadtrip" event in Manila that was designed to take people on four or five different forms of transportation in Metro Manila. One of my favorite forms is the Jeepney - a vehicle unique to the Philippines, but more than that, it's just a unique village period. On the "roadtrip" we had a ton of people going to the same places so we always had to take multiple of things like jeepneys or subway cars, and even then we were super crowded. So, lucky me, I actually got to hang out the back of a jeepney like some of the locals do. Below is the video of that craziness!

Wakeboarding Wayne

It's not entirely related to the project, but I'm so surprised that I'm enjoying a water sport that I thought I'd throw up my first time wake-boarding on here. Don't get too excited, and don't blink. There's not much to it. :)