India

Carolyn.

It is 43 degrees today in Varanasi, India.  To say that we are hot is an understatement.  We arrived yesterday and are staying for a week - there is every reason to believe that it will only get hotter.  But we are sticking with our budget accommodation on the ghats of the holy River Ganges where the thirty-year old air conditioner is struggling to keep our room at around 32 degrees.  One unexpected thing is that the 'cold' water tap delivers scorching hot water...makes sense that all the old plumbing is getting heated too, which sadly means no cooling showers for us as an escape from the heat.

We briefly considered moving to a better hotel in the main city, to secure climate-controlled comfort, but dismissed the idea because it would be far away from the main attraction in this ancient city:  everything that happens in and around the sacred waters of the river.

Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India, they say.  There is a magical feeling here.  Vern and I spent a couple weeks here fourteen years ago, and we loved it – so we also wanted Cooper to feel what it’s like to be wrapped in the arms of Mother Ganga (what the Hindu people call the river).

Spending time in this area is an amazing experience.  The noise and chaos of cars, tuk tuks and rickshaws are all far away, too big for the narrow old alleys.  Instead, there are cows and monkeys, funeral processions and wedding drums, brahmins and beggars, garbage and more garbage, oil lamps and bells ringing, fireworks and chanting, kids and dying pilgrims, all littering the walkways (literally and figuratively)…and it’s impossible to avoid being touched by it all (literally and figuratively).

Today, I was standing still for a moment, half under an awning, when I suddenly felt warm liquid on my shoulder and arm.  I looked up to see what this might be and where it was coming from – and I realized that it must be monkey pee!!  Up on the electrical wires, I could see its red bum dripping.  Ick. This was a first for me.  While walking through these narrow alleys, I’m always aware of hazards from front & behind (motorcycles and bikes), and underfoot (cow poop), but now I know that I should also be aware of what is above!

As I type this, there is beautiful singing come into our hotel room from a temple across from us - if I open this window, I can almost reach across and open theirs.  Same singing yesterday, we guess it will happen every evening - lovely (and also nice that it ends long before bedtime!).

There is much more to write about Varanasi, but we must go find some dinner soon!  More later.

++++

Over the past few weeks, we also spent time in southern India, houseboating on the backwaters of Kerala, hiking through tea plantations high in the hills near Munnar, and tapping rubber trees in the foothills of Thodupuzha.

Then a flight north to Delhi for a couple days, followed by a train to Agra and the requisite visit to the magnificent Taj Mahal.  Another train a couple days later took us to Khajuraho where we visited temples with the most amazing and detailed carvings we have ever seen anywhere in the world - simply incredible.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

Only in Dubai - Uber Option

Vern.

Dubai has changed considerably in the fourteen years since Carolyn and I were here (living and working Oct 2001 - April 2002), with the addition of hundreds of new hotels as well as top-notch tourist attractions.   More on this in a later post, but I just had to share the image below from Uber taxi.  For those unfamiliar with Uber, it is a taxi conglomerate available in many cities worldwide.  Taxis are summoned through a smartphone app to the GPS location of the requester.  It is fast, easy, and normally cheaper than hailing a passing cab.  Passengers can also select their preferred class of car for their ride, from basic to luxury.  Available options vary by city.  In Dubai, it turns out that the basic car, “UberSELECT”, is a Lexus.  As for luxury, where else but in Dubai would you find, on the Uber menu, "UberCHOPPER":

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

The Seychelles

Vern.

We factored the Seychelles into our trip as a ‘vacation from travel’.   Thinking “Seychelles” conjured up a vision of tropical paradise, and we were not disappointed.  

The Seychelles group of islands is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, about 1500 km from mainland Africa, due east of Kenya.  Each of the three main islands, Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, has its own character and charm.   The Paradise Sun Resort on Praslin was our destination of choice, a fantastic hotel with a long white sand beach, awesome food, great pool, a dive centre and various watercraft.  We took advantage of the kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, though our main activities revolved around reading, eating, swimming and sleeping.   Carolyn and I did a “refresher” dive session, while Cooper did a Discover Scuba Diving PADI course which allowed us all to dive together at one of the smaller islands off Praslin.  Cooper’s first ocean dive!

We also spent a day on the small, picture-perfect island of La Digue, a thirty minute boat ride from our hotel.  We rented bikes and cruised along the one and only main road, stopping to take a dip at various beaches along the way.  One quaint beach, Anse Source d'Argent, is reputed to be one of the most photographed in the world.

We had the chance to speak to a number of locals and ask about life in the Seychelles.  There are interesting perks.  Health care is free.  If the patient’s condition is serious, the government will pay for the trip to and treatment at a modern off-island medical facility (e.g. India).  Post-secondary education is also free.  There is a university on Mahe; however, if a student wishes to study abroad (Australia is popular) the government will pick up both the school and travel costs, with the condition that upon graduation the student will return to the Seychelles for a minimum of two years.  Small businesses do not pay taxes.  All of this helps to explain why an order of four miniature spring rolls cost $16, and Cooper's medium pizza was $40.  Price was a consideration in limiting our stay, but six days in island paradise was worth it!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

Madagascar

Carolyn.  We've seen King Julien, and Mort.  Didn't see Maurice.  Saw lots of other lemurs too!

Madagascar is definitely the poorest of the five African countries we've traveled in (Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa) - and the people here are lovely.  Very basic mud huts with thatch roofs in most of the country side.  Lots of crowds, markets, ladies carrying water cans on their heads and babies on their backs, dirty but happy kids playing in bare feet, goats, zebu (cows), garbage, etc.

Tons of rice paddies everywhere - we didn't expect that.  Apparently the Malagasy people consume more rice per capita than the Chinese!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

South Africa

Carolyn.  We drove down to Cape Town from Namibia - about a 10 hour drive, though we took 3 days to do it, with some nice stops en route.  Then spent another week in the Cape area before boarding a train to Johannesburg (30 hours, overnight sleeper - I'll let Cooper tell you more about this).

Cape Town is a beautiful city, with the kind of variable weather that reminds us of Calgary!  And beautiful sea with city beaches that remind us of Vancouver.

We hiked up to the top of Table Mountain, spent a day in nearby wine country, admired the local penguin colony on the southern reaches of the Cape Peninsula, and photographed amazing coastline views along the way.

Importantly, while in Cape Town, we toured the former prison of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in jail (now a national historic site).  And then later in Johannesburg, we also visited Mandela's first home (now a small museum) in the ghetto-like suburb of Soweto - and later spent several hours at the Apartheid Museum (located on the other side of town).  Talk about an education for Cooper!  Even for Vern and I, we are still processing what we saw and learned...more than the media coverage of our teen and young adult years...

We are now headed to Madagascar.  Very excited to see lemurs, and a new part of Africa!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

Sand Dunes

Cooper. After a month of staying put in Windhoek, Namibia, it was nice to start moving again. The apartment that we stayed at was very nice, and we went back to it after our 10-day self-drive safari through Namibia.

We stayed in 5 campsites and 1 guesthouse, for a total of 10 nights. Between campsites, there was a lot of driving; once even eight hours between them. Each of the sites had a pool which we went in (it was so hot, so needed).

At home, we go camping very often with a normal tent for setting up on the ground, but our vehicle here was different. It had two small tents permanently attached on the roof of our 4x4 truck. You just unfold it and voila, then you only need to add the poles. It sounded simple to us, and we got a demonstration of how to set it up when we rented it, but on our first night, it took us nearly an hour!!! We got the hang of it by the end of the safari though.

While on the safari, we visited Swakopmund on the coast and stayed in a guesthouse for two nights (just to take a break from camping). The main reason we went there was to see, hike, and board down the magnificent sand dunes that were just outside of the ocean-side town. It was amazing(ly hot and tiring) to climb and board down the dunes, but is was sure fun! On my sand belly board (literally a piece of pressboard), I reached 71 km/hr!

Another place we went with grand sand dunes was Sossuslvei, the home of ‘the dune’ (the dune that’s on all the postcards here). Climbing up for sunrise was really cool… but it meant waking up at 4:30 in the morning. So it was beautiful, sleepy sunrise.

My favourite campsite was called Hoada in Damaraland. This campsite was very private, with a shaded concrete pad to set up our table and chairs, an outdoor kitchen sink and counter, personal toilet and shower, and a small pool. But the part that especially made it my favourite was that the campsite was in clumps of smooth boulders. (see pictures to understand it better).

Thank you safari (except for our fridge that never did stay cold!). It was very nice!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

Spiders and Centipedes and Scorpions, Oh My!

Vern.

We’ve spent the past week on a self-drive camping safari.  Armed with a 4x4 'bakkie' (a double cab truck with rooftop tents!  See Cooper's post above for pix) and a battery of rented camping gear, we ventured forth to explore the wilds of the Kalahari in northern and western Namibia.

We’ve added to our Botswana sightings of elephants, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe, and were hugely excited to view several rhinos, completing our set of the “Big 5” (the five most coveted animals that visitors strive to see:  elephant, lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo).   

We spent a fascinating morning with a Himba tribe at their remote village, learning their customs and daily routine. 

One of our self-drive campsites stands out in particular.  (It was Cooper's favourite, as he mentions above in his post.) The desert region southwest of Etosha National Park contains an area punctuated by outcroppings of huge, smooth boulders.  It’s as if giants used the place for a game of marbles, left them all behind, and went home (this based on the fact that we saw no giants during our stay).  The designers of Hoada camp cleverly incorporated the unique natural features into their fully-plumbed sites.  You meander through house-sized boulders to your outdoor shower.  Our private, outdoor, flush toilet was nestled between two similarly huge stones. The camp even included a small swimming pool situated – you guessed it – amongst prehistoric mounds of granite.

One unexpected feature of our site was the nighttime critters brought out by the combination of rock and desert sand.  Cleaning up from dinner one night, a massive centipede skittered across the ground of our eating area.  It was followed in short order by a large and aggressive spider, with a creepy yellow colour.  After the first quick glance, Carolyn asked Cooper if he was sure it wasn’t a scorpion, to which Coop replied: “No, it’s a spider.  That’s a scorpion over there.”  Sure enough, resting directly on the path to our tents was a giant scorpion.   We were very happy with the fact that our tents are on the roof of our 4x4.

The geography of Namibia continues to surprise and impress us.  We’ll shortly be driving south through the country and into South Africa, where we are looking forward to spending time in Cape Town.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album