Visions of Uganda

Slowly getting around to organizing some photos, so I will continue the "Visions" series as I process my photos. Here are some backlogged ones from Uganda, over 2 months ago!!! Can you believe it?!?!

Early morning border crossing into Uganda

Making the bananas look pretty in a local Kampalan market

A biker happily poses in Kampala

Family on the shores of Lake Victoria, Uganda

Corporations sponsor building paint jobs. This is a Bic House.

 I wonder if the govt. official who approved this got promoted or fired? No, you are not seeing incorrectly. That IS a big Coke bottle in the middle of a traffic circle.

They use old cars as part of their signage. Seems like a lot of work!

 1/10 of what may be the most insane public transportation gathering area I've ever seen.

Visions of the Last Wedding

 

 Henna on Sarah's arm, before the ink flakes off

Anil and his parents during one of the Hindi ceremonies

 

Sarah's father participating in a Hindi ceremony

Young girl, dressed up with food at lunch

 

Anil's nephew, wearing a turban

 

Anil and all the family members taking part in a Hindi ritual

Small boy with turban and sherwani

Anil and family members parading around the block

Evening photo sessions with family and friends

High school reunion

Backpacking in a Sherwani

Time flies when you're having fun. It's 6pm on Saturday night, and we're almost done with the wedding. It has been a lot of fun, with music, dancing, and a bunch of religious ceremonies. I think - THINK - that my friends Anil and Sarah are now officially married by Hindu standards (although I can't be sure!) The last event tonight perhaps has already started - gift giving to the new couple by all of the visitors, near and far. Many of the family members already passed along gifts and took their pictures, but I think tonight there are more pictures and gifts in the works.

As for me, I took the opportunity this morning to "Backpack in a Sherwani" although I'm moving back to the suit for the evenings festivities. The shoes that came with my outfit were death on my feet, and I'm hoping I'll be able to cut my rug a lot better in my suit shoes. :) We will see shortly. In the meantime, I thought I'd post up a couple early Sherwani pictures for all to see. Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed taking them! (The turban came during the ceremony by the way, and was put on nearly all of the men for the traditional procession around the neighborhood replete with marching band and new groom on horseback.)

Visions of South Africa

The Amphitheater, Drakensbergs, Royal Natal National Park

Fisherman and Waves, Coffee Bay, Wild Coast

Sunset along the N2 in the Eastern Cape

Surviving South Africa

I have made it through my first two days in South Africa intact. It was touch and go there the first night, as we waited for Lisa to pick us up from the Park Station bus terminal right in the center of Johannesburg around evening. The place looked sketchy, but it was really our Botswanan mini-bus driver who really confirmed our plight when he turned to us as, others got out mid-street to avoid waiting for traffic to clear up, and said “you two, DO NOT GET OFF THE BUS.” Then, even inside the station itself, we stayed on the bus – a little island of safety in the chaos and the unknown all around us – waiting for poor Lisa to risk her life and car to come get us. A little adventure with finding the corner that she was waiting for us on was also fun, but once in her car and on our way to the suburbs in Sandton that she calls home, we were good.

Outside of the ridiculous crime rate and paranoia that it generates, I have to say that Johannesburg reminds me a lot of an American city. I couldn’t actually tell you WHICH American city – there are parts that feel like Seattle, others that feel like Chicago, and even some that feel sort of LA like, with some Queens thrown in there for good measure. Everyone talks about how dangerous the place is, which is odd, because there are so many places that do not feel at all dangerous. We ate dinner with Lisa at Moya, in a new, ritzy, multi-use complex called Melrose Place that reminds me of Santana Row in San Jose or something similar. I would not believe that a car hijacking could take place at somewhere as high-scale at Melrose Place, but apparently, while safe, it is in no way immune.

 

Which is why I am happy we are driving our Hyundai Atos around. It may be a tin can outfitted with four mountain bike wheels, with less power than a couple donkeys, but it is pretty much guaranteed to not be a target for car hijackings. We picked it up the morning after we arrived in Joburg and then had to part ways with Lisa as she had some meetings to go to, and we had to get on the road. I was reluctant at first to drive this little machine around, but in the past couple days I have grown to appreciate it’s high pitched whine when we hit 100km/h or its Buddhist-inspired encouragement of patience on one-lane highways when behind a lorrie going at 90km/h that the poor car cannot muster up the power to pass.

It is true though, that I do appreciate our little red car. I feel like it has been integral to my personal growth. I now have driven on the left hand side of the road for the first time in my life. I am feeling more and more comfortable driving a manual shift, and it’s forgiving clutch means that I am stalling less than 5 times a day now. Moreover, our first night together was literally spent together – my desire to watch the Barcelona game led us to spend two good nighttime hours at a casino in Bethlehem, 50km away from our guest house. By the time we go to where we thought the guest house was, it was midnight and all the lights were off. So we decided to sleep in our car, (hopefully) safely hidden inside the gates of the guesthouse. Our little Hyundai kept us warm through the night.

Of course, we were surprised the next morning when we were woken up by an old Boer man who informed us that we had slept on his dairy farm, about 2km away from the guesthouse. Luckily for us, he was nice enough to invite us in for a cup of coffee, and completely unexpectedly, we were drawn into two hours of enlightening conversation with him. The unfortunate truth is, he is a racist through and through – but a surprisingly nice, religious, reasonable, and friendly one, however unlikely that is. A couple hours after we took leave of him, we found ourselves engaged in another conversation with a friendly Boer, this time at the Ficksburg library. It was through her that we found out that Ladybrand was full of Chinese people and that Taiwanese were in Lesotho in a big way. Where there are Chinese people, there is Chinese food, and Young and I found the best Chinese food in Ficksburg (and that I’ve had since leaving Hong Kong a couple months ago). It was at J&C Restaurant, and I had the pleasure of hearing about the Chinese and their business here in Free State and Lesotho from a Taiwanese woman who had been in the country for 11 years already.

In all, it has been an amazing first two days in South Africa, filled with unexpected experiences, interesting conversations, and quite a bit of stalling and transmission gaffes. Can you imagine? This does not even count the fact that we are actually in Lesotho as I am writing this entry. Every once in a while, I’ll think about what I’ve done and what we’re doing, and I shake my own head in disbelief. How lucky I have been.

Young's Birthday Present

Okay, so this is definitely a post from the archives, but I wanted to share some awesome pictures from Young’s birthday in Mombasa. Neema introduced us to one of her co-workers at the Mombasa Marine Park, and they arranged for us to go by boat into the Marine Park. We had no idea what we were in-store for, so we didn’t even put on our trunks (a really stupid decision on reflection, since uh, duh, what did we expect when going to a Marine Park?) However, at least we had shorts on, so jumping in the water for a couple hours of snorkeling was not a problem. The great guys from the Wildlife Service took us out, pointed out incredible fish and reefs, and provided all the gear. Young agrees – what an awesome birthday gift! Thanks KWS!!!

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!

How Hard it Is

It is nearly impossible to keep up with blogging while on the road. There is a distinct trade-off involved – stop traveling and take a day to write, or fall way-way-behind on the writing and travel instead. Then there is the problem of sorting through the thousands of photos that I’ve taken and attempting to create some sort of order out of them. For me, the end result is a constant conflict between trying to travel and gain the experiences that can inform my writing, and well, actually writing. This is compounded by the fact that I’d like my blog to be somewhat up to date and chronologically logical, so it makes it harder to post about things that happened, say, in Mombasa, when I’m already in Malawi. Finally, the internet connection has gotten progressively more rare as we’ve moved about, and it’s becoming difficult to post entries when I want them posted. That’s all just to say that – hey, this thing is much more difficult than I imagined it would be!!

 (Working in the airport lounge in Dubai)

Ex-pats and Locals

My experiences in Kampala and Nairobi could not be more different. In comparison to Nairobi, Kampala is small, quiet, relaxed. The Ugandans are also incredibly friendly and laid-back – making traveling there really quite fun. Kampala is also noticeably safer, freeing me up to move around and wander in the ways that I’m used to. In Nairobi, I’ve felt somewhat restricted, just based on all of the warnings I’ve received from local friends (it’s called Nairobery by many ex-pats for goodnessake!) Given this, I had the pleasure of exploring more, and that led to a more intimate connection with the city, not to mention finding more western foods and good restaurants to eat at.

However, more than any characteristics of the cities themselves, I think my experience in both has been different because of the people I’ve interacted with. In Kampala, we spent most of our time with ex-pats. We stayed with my friend Branimir, a classmate of mine from Hungary who is now doing environment-related work in Kampala with a large European agency. He in turn, lives in a house with 3 other ex-pats, an American, a Swede, and a Australian. Young also had ex-pat friends in Kampala, mostly from the States. Thus, most of our time was spent with ex-pats in the city, whether it was at restaurants, cafes, or bars, and the conversations we had reflected this. We talked about how hard life could be in Uganda, we heard local ex-pat gossip, we found out that being Asian was a security boon for us since everyone assumed we knew kung-fu, and we talked about how people got to Kampala in the first place.

Nairobi has been exactly the opposite, largely due to how many people we met through Neema and Leo. We’ve been lucky to get to crash with three of Leo’s good friends the entire time we’ve been here, and they’ve even been kind of enough to give up their beds for us. (In fact, they have insisted, despite protest put up by Young and myself that we would be perfectly fine on the couch.) The real benefit to staying with locals though is not free housing – it is the insight and cultural exchange that occurs in those lazy evening hours in front of the television. We were schooled on Kenyan politics, we got a chance to see local pop culture (Love ???? anyone?), and we had the pleasure of sharing dreams and aspirations.

What surprised me most was how open and willing everyone we met in Kenya was to going abroad. Some, like Leo’s brother, couldn’t wait to get to the US and spend some time there, despite the prospect of potentially having to leave his wife and kids in Nairobi. Others were excited to go abroad, to look for opportunities outside of the country, and to experience something different. Many of them would jump at the chance to go, despite having well-established lives in Kenya. While many will just chalk it up to the lure of the West, I think there’s something different at work here – namely the fact that nearly all Kenyans have relatives and friends who have settled abroad. For them, moving abroad is something that is incredibly normal, simply because it actually is very commonplace. They have, somehow, grown used to having great distances between brothers, sisters, parents, and friends - despite, as my talks with Leo and Neema have proved, the universal concern about being so far away from ones parents and family. At the end of the day, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Young < 3 Digby

We have been in the Masai Mara (the Mara for short) for the past two nights, and I have to say it has been simply amazing. I have talked to some people who claim they are disappointed by the place, but I’m not sure where they went. We have seen all manner of animals, from the plentiful impalas, drogbies, wilderbeast, and zebras to the more elusive giraffes, water buffalo, ilands, rhino, and hippos. We have even had the incredible luck to see a cheetah in the rain, a herd of thirteen elephants, and a group of three young male lions guarding their recent kill (a water buffalo) from jackals and hyenas. Some may call Yellowstone the Serengeti of America, and while Yellowstone is captivating, I am going to draw my line in the sand and say it doesn’t hold a candle in terms of wildlife to the real thing. (The Serengeti and the Mara are actually connected and part of the same overall habitat. Only the nations within which they lie are different – the Serengeti is in Tanzania, and the Mara is in Kenya.)

Even without all the big game though, I am still in love. The landscape is simply stunning. Vast grassland plains, colored a deep green after recent rains, are dotted with acacia trees. In the evening, their silhouette against the setting sun is iconic – the stuff of postcards. The foothills are bushy and rocky, more temperate jungle than savannah, and the watering holes and rivers offer yet another feel. During our three days there, vast and powerful thunderstorms would fly across the open plains, thoroughly drenching the land for a few minutes before moving on. On our second day there, we were working on our computers while waiting to go to lunch and got caught as a huge storm moved in, sending a downpour onto the camp for a good 15 minutes. Then it was gone, and the sun was once again out flirting with the remaining, and less threatening clouds.

The nighttime in the Mara was equally stunning. We cajoled our driver, Mwau, into taking us out at night to search for some hippos. The Fairmont security captain, Chacha, joined us with his high-powered rifle and flood light – apparently no cars are allowed to go on night safari without armed protection. When we got out there, we found the hippos, saw a genet cat, and saw an aardvark. The entire vehicle went silent as we watched it attack a termite mound for minutes, before disappearing into it. Truth be told, we were not even aware of how lucky we were to have seen the aardvark - both Mwau and Chacha mentioned how rare it was and said they had never before seen it in real life, but it was only in the morning when Chacha sought us out that we realized how lucky we actually were. I guess Chacha had immediately called his parents to tell them of the sighting, and they didn’t believe him, so he was intent on getting pictures from us. I think maybe my favorite part of the night safari though was when I asked Mwau to stop the truck, turn off the engines and just let us listen to the night and stare at the sky for five minutes. I felt so incredibly refreshed and recharged – it was a peace and wonder that is not often found amongst people and in cities. One thought ran through my mind - everyone should be able to experience this at one point in their lives.

There were some things that made me sad. Our safari involved us off-roading through much of the park, and there were times when Mwau deliberately drove our truck up very close to animals, obviously disturbing their activities. The tracks left behind by multitudes of off-roading vehicles turn into ruts and informal roads. The Masai have villages around most major tourist camps and sell “visits” to their camps to tourists. I’m not sure what this does for their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, but my gut tells me it can’t be good. Yet on the whole, it was a really amazing experience. I always dreamed of going on safari, but surprisingly, the safari exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. It is not one I will soon forget.

PS: Digby’s are a crazy cute, monogamous, little deer-like animals that Young and his eagle-eyes mistook for everything from a rabbit to an Impala.

(Not) Backpacking in Dubai

It has been really difficult to get wi-fi here in Dubai. It’s not because of costs or anything else – it’s because many of them require a local phone number (including the free internet at the Mall of Dubai) in order to login or pay. Argh! Luckily, we found that the Borders here at the Mall of the Emirates has free wi-fi. Not bad!

Borders you say? Yes. In fact, I have never seen so many different brands in once place than I have seen here in Dubai. It’s incredibly multi-national. They have basically every major retail store brands that I’ve seen on my travels around the world. From Europe, they have Pull and Bear, Bershka, Vero Moda. From Hong Kong they have Giordano, G2000, and Bossini. From the US they have Banana Republic, Aeropostale, and Guess. And of course, all of the major brands like Zara, H&M, Gap, Esprit, and virtually all of the luxury brands. It’s the same for restaurants – they’ve got the usual suspects like Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut. But they’ve also got Pinkberry, Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jollibee, Taco Bell, Fatburger, and Baja Fresh.

I guess one of the reasons that all of these chains are here is that Dubai – contrary to what one pictures – is likely the fact that this is the most diverse place I have ever been. It’s diverse because the local population is tiny, and the amount of growth that they have here is ridiculous. Not only do they need migrant workers for stuff like construction, they also need them for the hospitality industry, the retail industry, the food services industry – the list goes on and on. Essentially every job I have encountered is staffed by a migrant worker, and they come from near and far. Filipinos are well represented, as are Kenyans, Nigerians, and Pakistanis. The ex-pat community is likewise diverse I think, and they (along with the rich emirates) are the people who power all of this retail I guess. The biggest clue to this is that everything costs a fortune here. Food, coffee, clothes… they are all priced for people who are not jobless.

Now, who this place is built for… that is another question entirely. This may very likely be the most unreal place I have been outside of Las Vegas (and it may actually rival Las Vegas in that sense.) I have been to a ginormous mall with an aquarium built into one corner and the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in another corner, shooting up almost half a mile into the sky. I just got back from looking at an indoor ski slope that runs for half a kilometer or so, and I’m going to see an artificial palm frond land-filled in the ocean before going to the world’s only 7-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab. They’ve gone so nuts here that they’ve started painting the coastline with drops of artificial land-fill islands. There are two palm trees, some crazy tattoo design, and “the world,” which looks like a globe flattened by a giant’s foot. It’s like some kid took a map of Dubai and started doodling on the coast. The only thing that’s missing is a set of islands that spells out “United Arab Emirates” or “Sheik wuz here.” It is one of the few places in the world where the hype is outsized and unbelievable, only to prove to be almost understated when you see the reality of the place.

I think my greatest regret will be not getting to go to floor 124 of the Burj Khalifa. It’s forty bucks that I would love to spend, but won’t get to spend because it’s closed for repairs still – less than two months after it opened. What I will not regret though is getting a room at the Fairmont Dubai. We booked on a super-cheap (for this hotel and for Dubai, not for normal people standards) friends and family rate, and then got upgraded to a 1-bedroom suite when we got here. SCORE. The place is amazing, and one of the best hotels I’ve stayed in anywhere. Plus, the staff is great. I also hope I won’t be disappointed with the Skyview Bar in the Burj Al Arab. We’ll be spending 80 dollars each, minimum on drinks there, so it better be stunning.

That’s it for now. We’re off to Nairobi tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll have some more time then to process pictures and post stuff up. I’ve met a number of people in the past few days that I’d love to talk about, but I just haven’t had time to sit down and put it all on paper. Wish me luck!

In Trans(it) Pacific

Wow. What a day of travel

4:30am - Leave Young's Dad's house in Honolulu
7:15am - Flight is delayed from 7:15 to 7:50
9:00am - Flight finally takes off
9:25am - Crazy toddler who doesn't like seat belts finally stops crying
9:27am - Toddler starts crying again
9:30am - SOOOO happy I have my Able Planet noise reduction headphones; symphony of kids crying now

Fast forward 12 hours

3:00pm (Taiwan time) - Flight lands in Taipei
3:10pm - Flight to Hong Kong is delayed from 3:45 to 4:15
4:15pm - Flight to Hong Kong takes off
5:50pm - Land in Hong Kong
6:10pm - Through immigration and through customs - my third stamp in 12 months means I can get a frequent visitor card!
6:40pm - Waiting to check into Emirates flight to Bangkok

Coming up....
9:50pm - Flight to Bangkok on Emirates
11:35pm (Bangkok time) - Land in Bangkok

What a long day! Travel time - 17 hours of flying and 9 1/2 hours of waiting. Plus taxi time to my friend Brian's house in Bangkok, and we're looking at 28 to 29 hours of total travel time. Yikes!!!

Wedding in Oahu

Well, today is the big day! I arrived in Honolulu early yesterday morning, before he sun was even up, after a long 8 hour flight. I didn't do much the whole day as I was tired from both jetlag and just not enough sleep. We did take advantage of my super early arrival (5am!!!) to head out and see the sunrise. What beauty! I'm still a bit jetlagged now, but hopefully I'll be able to make it through the entire reception without crashing.

I have been really bad about giving information about the couples prior to the actual weddings, so I thought for today I'd at least try to do a quick bio before heading out to the wedding! Danny is actually my cousin. So today will be not just a wedding for the project, but also a family reunion. I am however, the only representative from my family. Danny grew up in Taipei but moved to the US in middle school. Both he and his brother, one year younger, adjusted quite well and were typical American teens by high school. They ended up at the same university as me, so we actually got a chance to hang out a bit during college.

Kath is Danny's college sweetheart you could say. She, like Danny, is an immigrant to the US although her path took her from Korea to Hawaii, where she grew up. She went to the "mainland" for university and has stayed in the Bay Area since, but her family is still here in Hawaii (thus the wedding on Oahu!) Both Kath and Danny are well educated and gainfully employed - ideal representatives of the American Dream for both them and their parents. Although different from Son and Trang, who are the immigrants themselves, Kath and Danny are still part of more than one world and rooted in more than one place. There have been countless times when I've sat in envy of Danny as he moves seamlessly between Chinese and English - a level of literacy that I've never been able to achieve.

The aftermath of the immigrant experience (and the experience itself) is something that I think a lot about, especially given my relationship with my parents. It's something I'll no doubt talk more about, but I'll save that for the future. For now, I have to toss that suit back on, grab my camera, and head out to the wedding. Pictures and more words soon. Mahalo!

Jeepneys and M16s

Two of my favorite things in the Philippines are the Jeepneys and the security guards. I love Jeepneys for how they are so representative of the Filipino culture (and they hardly cost anything to ride also!), while it never fails to amaze me how those security guards can be so friendly and approachable despite having an M16 or a shotgun pointing at your toes. Thus, I had to get these two pictures before I left Manila. :)

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. :)

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Philippines

It's been a few days since I arrived in Manila, so I figured it was about time that I put up the latest airport pictures from the trip. Settling in here and getting down to work (doing a super-short project to help re-charge the bank account for the big upcoming three-wedding push) has been hectic and busy, so it's taken me a little while. Anyway, here is me leaving Ho Chi Minh City, and then arriving in Manila. The one thing that is consistently coming across at all these airports is... how similar they all are. They are essentially the same! Maybe just like our entire world, things, places, and people are all converging. More than ever, there are less differences than there are similarities. But, at least that means I know where the toilets are going to be.