Welcome to the Jungle......er Delhi!

I'm here to tell you that everything you read about India is true. It's such a shock on the senses that it truly does take a day or two or three to get used to it all. On arriving into Delhi and clearing immigration and customs, I caught a prepaid taxi to the Paharganj area of town near the New Delhi train station. The Paharganj area tends to be the backpacking area in Delhi. The road was so small that my taxi couldn't make it all the way to the hotel, so I ended up taking a cycle rickshaw to my final destination. With my hotel room intact, I decided to venture out and explore the city.......

The attack on the senses was amazing. The colors, the noise, the smells of urine, feces, and thalis all at once were almost too much. And of course, who can forget about all of the people. People in front, behind, to the side, people just everywhere! It was enough to make your head spin. I just never imagined, especially after some of my earlier travels, that I would be taken so by surprise, but I was. Part of it could have been attributed to the minor cold I picked up on the flight from Addis, but certainly, there was a bit of a culture shock for me.

And in case you are wondering......yeah, there are cows in the oddest of places. I've had to walk around them on the streets, walking into stores, and walking through open air markets. They seem to live on the trash on the streets!

After settling down and exploring Delhi for a few days, I'm off to Rajasthan state to explore Jodphur, the Blue City, Jaipur, the Pink City, and then on to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, before heading south to Chennai to explore southern India.

More from the road.......

Love, peace, and soul.

A quick look at Addis Ababa

My next stop on the world tour was a bit unplanned and looking back, I probably didn't have the best experience given several factors. I arrived into Addis Ababa late on a Thursday night and was flying out to India on Sunday. So, I had a short time frame to see all that Addis had to offer. Little did I know that August is not the time to visit Ethiopia as it's right in the middle of the heavy part of rainy season. So, I ended up spending a lot of time at my guesthouse, run by Mr. Martin.

When it wasn't raining I did get out and explore Addis and found it to be an odd mix of first world and third world......all on the same street. I would walk down Bole Road and see nice, first world shops, but then turn and look down a side street and see row after row of metal shacks that were reminiscent of the townships in South Africa. On the streets, I saw everything from men dressed in suits, to poor kids sleeping on the streets, their feet with tremendous infections causing extreme swelling of the feet and lower legs. Just an extremely odd mixture.

On my final day in Addis, I spent most of it talking travel, Ethiopian politics, and life with Mr. Martin. He was kind enough to take me to one of his other businesses, which was a wonderful European style spa tucked in quiet area just off Bole Road. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon before my overnight flight to Delhi......and being relaxed made me fall asleep that much easier.

Until later.......

Love, peace, and soul.

Ostriches, Crocodiles.....and diving?

After seeing most of the Garden Route, Enid decided to take me inland a bit and check out Oudsthoorn and all this truly Afrikaans town had to offer. Our first stop was a place called Safari, which was an Ostrich farm on the outskirts of town. Oudsthoorn is a bit of an Ostrich town as it sits in a dry area that's perfect for raising Ostriches. On the drive into town you pass a multitude of ostrich farms. We were hoping to get to ride one....or at best sit on one.

We took the tour and learned all about Ostriches and how they are farmed and learned that they are the only bird to produce red meat, which tastes pretty damn good! We also learned that their eggs are extremely strong! Unfortunately, all that beer on the road did me know good and I was going to be too much for sitting or riding on the ostrich, but Enid got a chance and she commented that the birds are stronger then they look.

After our ostrich extravaganza, we headed for our next adventure.......croc diving! Enid had told me that she was going to take me and I had my reservations. I imagined being lowered in a cage in the middle of some swampy river with 15 or so hungry crocodiles! In actuality it was a lot more tame. I was lowered into a fairly clean, temperature controlled pool of water with two languid crocodiles who were interested in catching some sun and not at all interested in me. Still, I was so close that I could actually reach out and touch them, but decided against it.

Until later.

Love, peace, and soul.

The Garden Route beckons....

With Carolyn headed back to the States, I hopped in the car with my friend Enid to see 'her South Africa.' Little did I know that her South Africa would be so beautiful. We left Cape Town and headed east towards the Garden Route.....our destination, Dana Bay, a tiny town on the outskirts of Mossel Bay, the founding point of South Africa and the start of the Garden Route.

We spent a day or two exploring all the towns on the Garden Route, including Wilderness, Knysna, and even heading out to Storms River to see the world's tallest bungee jump at 216 meters. Let me just tell you that the people jumping off that bridge are missing a few screws!

The coast was something truly unique and the scenery was just amazing. It reminded me a lot of the California coast line from San Diego up to San Francisco......ever changing, yet strikingly beautiful.

More later.

Love, peace, and soul.

A dream come true.....and a wild ending

The day had finally come.....ever since my childhood, I had dreamed of cage diving with Great White Sharks, the most feared and misunderstood creatures in the sea. We were both on the top of our games as we made the long drive down to Gansbaai. After a small breakfast, we went out to the boat and loaded up for, what hoped to be, a memorable day.

The boat ride out to Dyer Island, aka Shark Alley, was a rough and fun one. Once there, we grabbed our cage from it's anchor and started preparations. We dropped anchor and got into our wetsuits. I was initially fine, but suddenly found myself with a bit of a headache and motion sickness. I was determined not to let it get the best of me. Although having the boat anchored meant that every wave that hit us was tossing the boat around. Not even 5 minutes into it and one guy lost his breakfast over the edge of the boat. Soon, more than 2/3rds of the boat would be sick from the waves and the smell of the seals, as we were downwind of about 30,000 seals.

"Shark in the water!" was the call that snapped me back. No way was I going to let this pass by. I finally got ready and jumped into the cage with 3 other people. It wasn't as cold as what I thought it was going to be and there was decent space in the cage. We waited as the shark circled the boat and went after the bait. Carolyn joined the cage and it got a bit tighter. Finally, with both of us in the cage, the shark went for the bait, but missed. As he went under the boat, I got a great view and watched him circle the boat ready for his next try. He came and missed and then gave up. So did I. The waves were tossing both Carolyn and I around like dirty clothes in a Maytag washing machine!

Back on the boat, my sea sickness got the best of me, but Carolyn was still game for a few more dives. This time with a lot less participants. She enjoyed each dive she took because there was a lot more room and she didn't feel like she was getting tossed around. I, on the other hand, was reduced to the fetal position to keep from losing my lunch.

On the last round, right before heading in to port, Carolyn got the experience of the day as a Great White went straight for the bait right in front of the cage and rattled the cage as he took his prize! What an experience and Carolyn let out quite the shriek of joy. Too bad I was still in the fetal position.

More later.......

Love, peace, and soul.

Cape Point......truly amazing views

With morning coming early and every one's favorite tambourine nursing quite the hangover, we ventured out on the Cape Point tour with the Baz Bus. The day promised to be a beautiful one as the famous Cape Town weather finally turned good for us. Clear skies and low winds.....what a wonderful combination.

We went out from Cape Town and went down through Camps Bay and Clifton....which reminded me of the drive from Santa Monica to Malibu. We then stopped off at Houts Bay in time to check out the ferry out to the seal colony. The winds picked up and the waves were not good for Carolyn and her hangover, but she powered through. We then tried to go to Champman's peak, but the road was closed due to some debris blocking the road. So, over the mountains we went and stopped off at Muizenburg to check out the town at the heart of False Bay. Then we finally made it to Simon's Town for a quick check on the penguins.

After hanging out with the penguins, we finally made it to Cape Point National Park and got out to stretch the legs with a nice bike ride through some of the park to build up our appetite. After the bike ride and lunch, it was off to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, the most southwestern point of Africa, whatever that means?

The views were amazing and we got to do a bit of climbing around both Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. The views were truly outstanding and sometimes the camera just can't capture all that the eye can take in........truly amazing.

Until later........

Love, peace, and soul.

South African Wines and the Tambourine player!

After getting Carolyn acquainted to South African time, and getting her introduced to that famous Cape Town weather, we ventured out to check out some of the local wineries in the Western Cape. Our guide Robbie, was wonderful in getting us from winery to winery and giving us plenty of information on wine and wine growing in the Cape. The wines were really tasty and typically South African.

All in all, we went to 4 different wineries and tasted about 6 or 7 wines at each winery. So, we were feeling no pain that afternoon when we got dropped off on Long Street. We killed an hour or so and then found our way to Cafe Mojito for the 5-6pm R13.50 (aka <$2) cocktail special. That, of course, led to dinner and more drinks and then out to The Dubliner for more......wait for it........more drinks!

Before I knew it, I had a full blown tambourine player on my hands! Rockin out, dancin up a storm, and generally 'owning the crowd.' Our little tambourine player had quite the night and everyone enjoyed her 'mad skillz,' but she paid the price in the morning.

More later.....

Love, peace, and soul.

Shocker!

I know this post is kind of pointless, but I just wanted to say that I had a shockingly good time at Helen's birthday celebration!

More later......

Love, peace, and soul.

Cape Town!

Well, after a long and arduous journey, we finally made it to Cape Town! And what a day to come into a beautiful city! The skies were clear and the city was absolutely stunning when we drove in from the north. We got the "post card pictures" of Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background and Table Bay in the foreground. It was an amazing way to see the city and good to finally get to our destination.

After arriving in the northern Cape Town suburbs, which were quite posh, we hoped on smaller mini buses to head off for a township tour of Langa Township and to have lunch in Guguleta Township. The townships are a nice word for the black slums where most of the blacks were displaced to during the apartheid era. The tour was pretty interesting, but I couldn't help but think that I was literally walking through a human zoo. I mean, here we are, very privellaged, walking through a township and staring and learning about the underprivelaged. It was very humbling for sure.

After the township tour, we all went back into town and the group started to split up. In retrospect, I wish I would have taken the cable car up to Table Mountain as it was a beautiful day and it was the last day the cable car was working before shutting down for annual maintenance. I didn't realize that the weather was going to change and pretty much just be crappy for the next couple of weeks.

Oh well! The lessons we learn, but it was okay as the whole next week was spent waiting for Carolyn to arrive anyway! I will definitely be back to Cape Town in the future as it's a great town with a lot to do and a lot to see.

More updates later.

Love, peace, and soul.

How to kill time on a truck

So, with all of these longs days on a truck traveling in Africa, how you do pass the time? Well, there's lots of things to do; you can:

a) Sleep- which is tough when you are bouncing around on gravelly roads.
b) Read- there again, it takes a trained eye to keep steady while you bounce around.
c) Eat- which we all did with quite a bit of frequency, stopping off at every truck stop and filling up with chips (crisps for the Europeans), cookies (biscuits for the Euros), drinks, and other assortment of crap.
d) Listen to music- This all depended on if you had a MP3 player or not and if it was fully charged, as sometimes the charging fairy would visit the Ipod's while they were charging and mysteriously unplug them in favor of his/her own electronic device.
e) Stare aimlessly out into the African country side- which we all did on multiple occasions.

Barring all of those things, you could do something fun when you got your chance to sit with the tables..........play cards! Fortunately, Paula, my truck mate, and I had Michael and Krys with us to show us the wonderful game of Euchre. Things got quite heated, especially when things started to go sour on Michael, but a fun time was had by all involved.

More later......

Love, peace, and soul.