Liz in Tanzania: November 2012

The animals actually come in groups, then when another group

comes, the first group leaves.

I'm on likizo, vacation. In Tz we get two 6 week school vacations, in July-August and December-January. I was invited back to Ghana to visit friends, so purchased a ticket for July 6. I went into Dar to get new pages for my passport and to fix my visa for Ghana. The border guys are starting to complain there's not enough room for stamps, and it pays to keep those guys happy.I know this from personal experience, having gone the other way on a few occasions.

I usually stay at the Safari Inn, it's a dump, but it's cheap, the staff is friendly, and it's near everything I need to be near to. I didn't book far enough in advance, and they were full so I called my alternate dump, Jambo Inn, conveniently located around the corner from Safari. Full also. Hamna shida, I got online and found the New Bondeni Inn, farther from town and about twice the price.

forgot the name

When I got there it was bigger and a little cleaner, but not 23,000 ths better (about 14 USD). I got to the room and was still unimpressed, although there was a TV. It was late afternoon and there wasn't much to do, so I decided to rest and catch up on some TV, perhaps a movie. The first channel was soccer. Usually in Dar you get from 5 to 10 channels, many of which are sports or Hindu soap operas. So I switched the channel and found out why this dump was so much more expensive. Free porn.

Cheetah

I'm old enough to have seen most things by now, and I'm rarely surprised, but I have to tell you, this was a surprise. Not the porn itself, but the body parts being used . I had no idea that the human foot was so versatile. Just for research I watched for a bit, and I just don't get it. After dinner I turned on the TV again, hoping for a movie, but it must have been some kind of foot fetish marathon. I will say this, she had beautiful feet, little stars tattoed on her big toes, a great pedicure. I looked down at my village feet and decided not to quit my day job.

Outdoor coffee house. German coffee is strong enough to

straighten your hair. You should have seen the looks I got

as I doctored my coffee so I could drink it without my eyeballs

popping out.

Even less endearing than the free porn was the shower water, which I noticed smelled like sewer water. It was a short shower. The next morning as I left for the Embassy I told the receptionist about the water. I was trying to be delicate about it, she was such a sweet, polite little thing, so I just said the water smelled bad. So she looked up at me with her innocent face and asked me " It smells like sheet?" Yes, exactly like sheet. She assured me they would either fix it before I got back or switch my room.

Amazing dunes on the walk. Pictures just don't do it justice.

I went to do battle with the Embassy and came back to find they had switched my room. The water no longer smelled like sheet but the Dr Scholls Porn A Thon was still going on. They seemed to have come to the end of their repertoire though. I guess, in the end, there's only so much you can do with a foot.

Sossouvlei is a big basin of dead trees, very beautiful, but

again, you had to be there.

Trying to get to Ghana proved more difficult than I had anticipated. First they want a letter of invitation, even for a two week visit. These guys are severe. Many countries will give you a 90 day stamp on arrival. Ghana has a whole laundry list of stupid crap they want you to do. So about two days before I was to depart I got fed up and decided to go to Namibia, which will give a stamp on entry.

We took a 6 km walk to a place called Sossouvlei, probably

my favorite part of the trip.

Namibia was wonderful. First, it's the cleanest place I've ever seen. Namibia was colonized by the Germans, and it looks like pictures I've seen of the Alps. No kidding. As I had come on the spur of the moment I had no idea what to do first, so I talked to folks and got some ideas. People are usually happy to tell you the best places to go. I spent the first night in the capital city, Windhoek, and travelled the next day to Swakopmund, which is on the beach. More surprising than the cleanliness was the cold. It's winter below the Equator, and I was so cold I had to go buy warm clothes. This was easy to do as Swakopmund is a tourist town and has malls and coffee shops and German bakeries...

These trees are hundreds of years old, but because of the

climate, are not decaying.

Found a nice hotel for 380 ND. The rate is 8 to 1 in my favor so I had a great room with a shower AND a tub, plus coffee in the room, and a TV. No porn though, just movies.
So I spent a few days relaxing, taking tours, eating pastry and meat, and taking baths. Then back to Windhoek for an actual safari. All this time in Africa and I finally went on a safari. It was great. I went with this company called Wild Dog Tours and we camped and went to see the animals, and the desert. Namibia is mostly desert.

Swakopmund beach

Some differences between Namibia and Tz

Swakopmund hotel.

1. Clean streets. It's as if little elves come out at night and sweep the entire town. There's also rubbish bins, which are lacking in Tz.
2. A bus with 14 seats takes only 14 passengers. This same bus in Tz would carry 35 people, plus luggage and assorted wildlife.
3. Delicious bread, cakes, anything bakeable. I did my best to work my way through all the carbs on offer. You'd be proud.
4. Pathological punctuality, the polar opposite of Tz, which is pathologically late.
5. Drinkable water. I was told, but unable to actually drink it. I've been trained like a lab rat to steer clear of tap water and cant bring myself to use it.
6. Chewable meat, tender and juicy rather than hockey puck hard.
7. Price tags. Very little bargaining done here, and never in the stores.

Desert rock. These particular rocks have a high iron content

and clang like pots when you bang them together. They also

decay

The only problem I had was with my American bank. This is the second time the Bank of America has denied my card. The first time was when I got to Tz. I told them before I left America to expect transactions from Africa, as I would be living there, yet they denied me my own money. When I finally reached them, and it wasn't easy, they said there was suspicious activity from Africa. Where I live. I reminded them of this and they pressed a button and all was ok. So like an idiot I thought this would carry over to my vacation. Nope. Denied again, and after some tine, and about 300 ND, I got an actual person on the phone who said there was suspicious activity on my card from, you guessed it, Africa. That night at my hotel I overheard, then joined in on a conversation with other travelers about their own personal banking horror stories. From what I heard, Chase Manhattan is worse than BofA. Nothing better than my bank protecting me from myself. Time to change banks, but from what I heard in Namibia it won't be any better anywhere else. I'd be better stashing it under my mattress.