The most amazing place I've ever been...
Yesterday was really cool and I'm excited to update about it. During the day, we didn't do much... we went to the post office to send out some postcards that I've been meaning to send out since we left Namibia. Then later in the afternoon, we went to Spier, which is the place I mentioned in the last entry. The first thing we did was go straight to the cheetah area, where we got to go into a pen with a cheetah and pet it. The cheetahs there are born and raised in captivity to increase public awareness about them as an endangered species in Africa. So they're very accustomed to being around people, but there was still a trainer in the pen and whenever the cheetah decided to roll over we had to stand up and back away. The cheetahs didn't like laying still for very long so it took a while to get done with that, but we finally all got a turn. After that, we walked over to the little craft market they had there, and I got a really pretty hand-beaded handbag that I'm very excited about. It's bright green and black so it probably won't go with very many outfits but it was too pretty to pass up. Then we looked around the giftshop for a little while until the others arrived for dinner. There's a restaurant on the same property called Moya, and I am absolutely positive that it is and will remain my highlight of the entire trip. This was the absolute most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life... just amazing. The grounds are all decorated with lights and fountains everywhere, and the fountains look like they were hand-made out of scrap metal, each one being very individual. Some looked like miniature water slides, others like bird baths, others like scales. They were just beautiful and make me wish I knew how to work with metal because I would definitely design my backyard with something like that someday. Anyway, then they have several platforms built up in the trees, kind of like little treehouses, with tables and chairs so you can eat dinner up in the treetops. Our table wasn't in one of them because we had a huge group, but it was just a really cool concept.
Dinner took place under what looked like a gigantic tent, and in the center of the room there was a small stage and at the front of the room there was a bigger stage. Throughout the dinner, drummers, dancers, and singers performed on the small stage, and after dinner, our group was lucky enough to finish eating just in time for all the good seats to be open by the big stage... They have these HUGE couches that basically were like the size of King Size beds, and at each place setting at our tables, there was a blanket draped over the back of our chairs to keep warm with, so our whole group took our blankets up to the couches and cozied up in front of the stage and watched an African band for a couple hours. The band was quite interesting... it was very calm relaxing acoustic music, but then the guy would randomly shout out something or make goat noises in the middle of the songs... it was very amusing. But the whole concert-by-couch thing was really cool. It was like having live entertainment in your living room. Amazing. Even the bathroom of this place was awe-inspiring! I can't even put it to words, but I think a few of my group members got pictures of it, so that will definitely make its way into my photo slideshow after the trip :) Because of course no trip is complete without pictures of gorgeous bathroom stalls, hahah. Anyway, before dinner, a woman came around and painted each of our faces with the white dot art that is well known in some African cultures. Each of us had a different individual design, and it was really fun. Then our server came around behind me unexpectedly and put her great big headdress thing on my head and told my friends to take pictures. The dinner itself was amazing. It was kind of buffet style but there were people at each station serving the food. They had probably 10 different kinds of meat, 3 or 4 kinds of fish, tons of side dishes and vegetables, and two huge stations for just dessert. I don't even know what all I ate, but I had lampchops, springbok (a small antelope that is extremely common here), chicken, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a couple bites of 3 different fish, and about 4 different kinds of dessert. Granted I ate very small portions of each of these things, but I just didn't know where to begin, there was so much food. It was all you can eat, so some of the people really filled up well! Then after dinner when we were watching the music performances, my allergies suddenly went crazy and my eyes were so red and watery I could barely see anymore, so that was a disappointing end to an otherwise amazing experience. I would 100% honestly fly halfway around the world again just to come back to that restaurant. The atmosphere is just indescribable and I want to take everyone I know back to see it.
Today was very low-key. I walked into town with Tara and Eric this morning, but they went with the whole group wine-tasting, and Katie, Dan, Jake and I stayed in town. The boys left to go occupy themselves somewhere, so Katie and I went shopping at a few little shops in town and got lunch at a little cafe called Sosati where I got some really good fish-kabobs and she got a springbok and cream cheese sandwich, and the two of us ate on less than $10 total. It was incredible. Then we went back to her host family's house because we were supposed to meet up with Jake and Dan to play tennis somewhere, but they weren't home when we got there, so we just sat around talking and admiring some of the great finds we'd gotten earlier at the stores. Now I've just been sitting downtown in the internet cafe, and Tara and Eric just returned, so we'll probably head "home" to dinner soon. Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow yet, so I'll have to keep you all posted on that later. Since it will be the weekend, I might be able to make some phone calls finally. Haven't actually "talked" to anyone back home in a month, so I think I'm overdue to make a phone call or two.
Until next time, love,
Meg
Dinner took place under what looked like a gigantic tent, and in the center of the room there was a small stage and at the front of the room there was a bigger stage. Throughout the dinner, drummers, dancers, and singers performed on the small stage, and after dinner, our group was lucky enough to finish eating just in time for all the good seats to be open by the big stage... They have these HUGE couches that basically were like the size of King Size beds, and at each place setting at our tables, there was a blanket draped over the back of our chairs to keep warm with, so our whole group took our blankets up to the couches and cozied up in front of the stage and watched an African band for a couple hours. The band was quite interesting... it was very calm relaxing acoustic music, but then the guy would randomly shout out something or make goat noises in the middle of the songs... it was very amusing. But the whole concert-by-couch thing was really cool. It was like having live entertainment in your living room. Amazing. Even the bathroom of this place was awe-inspiring! I can't even put it to words, but I think a few of my group members got pictures of it, so that will definitely make its way into my photo slideshow after the trip :) Because of course no trip is complete without pictures of gorgeous bathroom stalls, hahah. Anyway, before dinner, a woman came around and painted each of our faces with the white dot art that is well known in some African cultures. Each of us had a different individual design, and it was really fun. Then our server came around behind me unexpectedly and put her great big headdress thing on my head and told my friends to take pictures. The dinner itself was amazing. It was kind of buffet style but there were people at each station serving the food. They had probably 10 different kinds of meat, 3 or 4 kinds of fish, tons of side dishes and vegetables, and two huge stations for just dessert. I don't even know what all I ate, but I had lampchops, springbok (a small antelope that is extremely common here), chicken, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a couple bites of 3 different fish, and about 4 different kinds of dessert. Granted I ate very small portions of each of these things, but I just didn't know where to begin, there was so much food. It was all you can eat, so some of the people really filled up well! Then after dinner when we were watching the music performances, my allergies suddenly went crazy and my eyes were so red and watery I could barely see anymore, so that was a disappointing end to an otherwise amazing experience. I would 100% honestly fly halfway around the world again just to come back to that restaurant. The atmosphere is just indescribable and I want to take everyone I know back to see it.
Today was very low-key. I walked into town with Tara and Eric this morning, but they went with the whole group wine-tasting, and Katie, Dan, Jake and I stayed in town. The boys left to go occupy themselves somewhere, so Katie and I went shopping at a few little shops in town and got lunch at a little cafe called Sosati where I got some really good fish-kabobs and she got a springbok and cream cheese sandwich, and the two of us ate on less than $10 total. It was incredible. Then we went back to her host family's house because we were supposed to meet up with Jake and Dan to play tennis somewhere, but they weren't home when we got there, so we just sat around talking and admiring some of the great finds we'd gotten earlier at the stores. Now I've just been sitting downtown in the internet cafe, and Tara and Eric just returned, so we'll probably head "home" to dinner soon. Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow yet, so I'll have to keep you all posted on that later. Since it will be the weekend, I might be able to make some phone calls finally. Haven't actually "talked" to anyone back home in a month, so I think I'm overdue to make a phone call or two.
Until next time, love,
Meg