Holiday report: Part One.
Eleven of us flew out Monday evening from Memphis. Before I even left Tennessee I had already spent a ton of money. heh The bar at the Int'l check in had doubles for 9$. I had three. So I was feeling pretty good by the time we actually got to boarding! Had I known they were 9$ a pop I'd not have bought any though. I couldn't sleep on the plane. I was uncomfortable and any time I actually drifted off an attendant would roll her cart by.
Finally we arrived at Schiphol. I can't remember what time maybe around 11 or so. We rented lockers for our carry-ons and headed out to Central Station. We took a walking tour of the Redlight District. The architecture is beautiful there, but as far as it being all exciting, it didn't do much for me. We WERE to visit Rijksmuseum, but we didn't. Nor did we get to see a live sex show. There was a prude in our group who wanted nothing to do with it. It'd have been fine with me to leave her behind, but noooo. Actually, before we found out she was totally opposed to it, I asked a guy standing outside how much (it was to enter). He replied, "About 14"." Ha in his dreams!
Basically, Amsterdam sucked. I bought a penis salt shaker that has pot leaves all over it and says "With Love, From Amsterdam'. Jeff doesn't like it. I'd have bought the pecker err, pepper shaker too, but they were like 8€ ea. and I didn't want the first one that badly. We saw the -outside- of Madame Tussaud's. Although that's fine with me too, because I'd have been pissed if we'd gone to see a bunch of wax people and not gone to see Rembrandts or Caravaggios.
There was a whino that kept following us around, especially at the currency exchange asking us for change. I was like, eff that, I work hard for the little money I had, he's not getting a dime from me for his booze. Dawood gave him some money though. After spending about 30 minutes with Lisa in security because she purchased a pipe made out of a bullet for her boyfriend and the dick security guard was giving her a hard time about it and called every single higher-up at the airport to investigate, we were cleared to fly out. We boarded Kenya Airlines to fly to Nairobi. That flight was worse than the first. The plane was smaller as well as the seats and overhead compartments. My backpack was nearly too big to stuff in my overhead. The attendant suggested I have it checked. I asked her if Kenya Airlines wanted to be liable for 8 grand of equipment. She relented, and finally one of the boys that traveled with us was able to stuff it in.
From Nairobi we flew to Dar Es Salaam. We were well prepared for the stench of BO-- so we thought. When we stepped off the tarmac into the airport it hit us like a ton of bricks. Fortunately, save when we were in the Doladola's the smell wasn't nearly as bad as it was there. The people in Kenya (at least at the airport) were the least friendly folk we met on the trip.
We made it through customs fairly okay. A couple of our minority friends were given a bit harder time than us honkeys, but eventually we all had our stamps and we were ready to go. At the airport we were met by Dawood's "friend" Ceasar as well as a driver from our hotel. Our drive from Dar to Bagamoyo was one of fear and shock. Dar has, I think, a population of about 3 million people-- TZ has a population of about 7 million. And everybody and their momma is on the streets; in either a vehicle not meeting emission standards or walking. They drove any which way that suit them and walked about the same, but with a bit more caution for fear of being run over. We thought we were going to die about 20 times on the way.
Once we got to the hotel in Bagamoyo things got better. We checked in, unpacked, showered (cold showers with little water pressure) and then had dinner. African food, I must say, is not to my liking. After dinner we walked down the beach to an old German fort and slave trading area. It was dark, so I only got a few photos early in the walk, of the sunset. Dawood's friend, Ceasar, whom we later renamed "Bru-Bru" dicked us out of a bunch of money because we were newbs and had no idea how much things were worth. I paid about 50,000TSH for a sugar bowl, a set of ebony candle sticks, and a few cheezy ass beaded necklaces. Although, I think I faired better than Lisa (my roomie), who paid about 21$ for a bangle bracelet, one that matches three I later bought for 5,000TSH (about 4$) each. We had dinner with the woman from the orphanless orphanage and a few missionary-type girls, and the woman's adopted African sons and her own son. One of the girls in our group, Alana, had a siezure at dinner. It was weird, she'd never had one before. I'd have taken photos, but I thought better of it. She's a tool anyhow, but that's a whole 'nother Geraldo. A few nights Ceasar and his friend (whom I can't remember his name) had brought the whole gang to try to dick us out of more money. They wanted to sell me a set of candle sticks for 15,000TSH, I said I only had 10. I really wanted them though. So I put them on the dinning table while I was trying to get the other 5. The owner eventually ran them off-- without my candle sticks. hehe I felt bad at first, but everyone was like, "You really paid for them already, take them!" So, I did. They're pretty ebony, with little Africans on them.
One day Haji, our driver from the resort, took us to the orphan-less orphanage. That was cool though, we saw a ton of children and they sang and danced for us. It was fun. Later that day Haji drove us through town and we saw the birthplace of the TZ president and he took us to his own home, where we met his wife and lovely daughters. They were very kind and hospitable. Haji was cool and had a lead foot. We loved him. That night Haji drove us back close to town where we went to a party with Africans. They were more westernized that the others we'd met. They sang and danced and served us hot tea. They were cool. The first guy that sang was especially wonderful. He played acustic guitar and had a lovely voice. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me until after he was finished to record him. =/
Another day we went back to Hell, err, I mean Dar. Dar's actually not all that bad, but the traffic is frightening. We went to this TingaTinga place to buy art. I was not much of a haggler when I went, so Marqueta helped me score some booty for cheap. For which I am ever grateful. I don't care much for tingatinga paintings, but I did find some paintings that weren't so shabby and bought those. We had lunch at this Palm somethingorother hotel in Dar. IT was good! We could have ice even! It was expensive though, for the 11 of us it was 200$-something!
I think our second day there, we walked down the beach and then past the German fort to a mission that was built during the slave trade. It was beautiful there. We also got to check our email on fairly fast internet, although we didn't have much time. Dawood treated us to a round of FANTA. ha Fanta's the biggest thing in Africa.
One day we drove to this Islamic Cemetary ruin site (it was past the crocodile farm) in doladolas. Doladolas are those little Toyota vans that are everywhere. They serve as private transportation. They have no shocks. And most smell pretty badly. Our doladola broke down at the cemetary and we had to call for another doladola, this one was ghetto-fab, equipt with even a mirror on the ceiling and leopard print seat covers! But we made it back to the hotel in one piece. So all is good.
Another day, we spent walking through town. They played Shania Twain and Tupac for us. heh We saw lots of beautiful people. One guy danced for us to take his photo. heh And then we walked into the sunset. We stopped at this little village thing where they were having a tribal dance/sing thing. We watched them dance and then it got scary. This one guy brought out his snake. It was v. poisonus, apparently. It was spitting everywhere. We were all scared, both the mzungus and the locals. Finally we all ran out and went back to the hotel. The first two days there I'd gotten about 6 hours sleep, total. That plus the sleep I didn't get on the plane, so it was about 4 days, with 6 hours. I was pooped.
Lots of interesting stuff happened at dinner. Alana's siezure, Jimmy fell out of his chair and broke it. A pregnant cat kept coming up to us, and Lisa kept feeding her. I told her not to. I didn't want to bring some freaky African feline disease home to my kitties. But she wouldn't listen.
I'm sure there's lots of other stuff I'm forgetting, so when I update this entry with photos I'll go back over it and see if I need to add important stuff.
Next up... Zanzibar!