Lovely Lamu

December 31, 2009

Happy New Years Eve! Here I am on the island of Lamu, which is absolutely beautiful. I flew here on a prop plane from Nairobi on Monday and I have been staying at Fatuma's Towers, a Swahili style compound in the fishing village of Shela. This is what my days have been like:

6:00a Wake up to birds singing in the trees.
7:00a Run on the beach
8:00a Coffee by the plunge pool
9:00a Breakfast in the Garden
10:00a Lounge on the white sand beach
12:00p Lunch at a shoreside restaurant
1:30p Sea kayaking excursion to nearby island or other excursion
5:00p Yoga class at Fatuma's Towers
7:00p Dinner of fish prepared Swahili-style, rice, vegetables and a salad served by lamplight in the garden. Dessert is a filled caramel cake served with ginger tea.

And then of course there are massage to be had! Here is my kayak.


And here is my room, which is open on the sides to let the sea breezes in.


And here is my shower. It has only a beaded curtain, which you can cover with a sarong as you shower.It's really lovely being alone here because next week I meet my overland group in Nairobi, and it will be noisy & crowded from then on!

Touching Down in Nairobi

December 27, 2009

After a long flight and a terrible transfer in London, I'm in Nairobi, which is a great big bustling African city. It is great to be back in Africa, and despite all the scare stories, I love Nairobi! It's so much more integrated than a South African city--white people and black people and Indian residents and Chinese residents all mingle together.

On my only full day here, I visited the Giraffe Center, where you can feed the giraffes, who have sandpaper tongues and terrible breath, and Karen Blixen's house.

Merry Christmas!

I fly to Nairobi tomorrow via London and I'm anticipating delays because of the rain / wind. In the meantime, here's a shot of cats under the tree.


And here is Kusa (means "cat" in Ilocano) and I.

Goodbye, New York!

Here's a nice little send off with Amy and Elle at Xai Xai. Bye guys! Don't have too much fun without me!

The Things I'll Carry With Me

Here it is: everything I will need on my journey of three months.




It all come out about 25 pounds, meaning that I can add a few more pounds and still be under the 15 kg (33 lb) cutoff on my charter flight to Lamu. Any suggestions? I might add a set of "smart" clothes for nights out on the town, and I could bring my yoga strap. I could even add a (real) book or two, or even a few issues of Vogue that I've haven't read yet. Vogue: perfect for the beach at Lamu! Is there anything else I need? To date, I have:

Clothes

Beige shorts (2)

Skirt

Linen shorts

Travel pants

White linen pants (2)

Running shorts

2 Bikinis

Beachwear

Sarong

Towel (small)

Sleeping bag

Silk sleeping bag liner

Mosquito net

7 T shirts

7 Tank tops

1 Long sleeved T shirt

1 dress

Puffy jacket

Fleece

Safari shirt (long beige linen, with belt)

White linen shirt (to wear over said tank tops in towns)

Socks and underwear

Shoes

Sneakers

Tevas

Pool sandals

Brown summer sandals

Ecco sport sandals

Toiletries etc.

Sunscreen (high factor, broad spectrum, lots of it)

Shampoo

Conditioner

Various hair stuff

Soap

Mosquito repellent

Toiletry bag

Malaria meds

General antibiotics

Claritin

Imodium

First aid kit

Neosporin

Blister kit

Rehydration salts

Acetaminophen

Hydrocortisone cream

Eye drops

Ear drops

Dayquil / Niquil

Other stuff

Nail clippers

Nail file

Tweezers

Hair bands

Ear plugs

Laundry detergent

Hand sanitizer

Wet Wipes (for bush camping in the Okavanga Delta)

Compass

Sun hat

Head lamp with extra batteries

Power Adapter (SA)

Power Adapter (Kenya)

Combination lock (retractable)

Combination lock for truck locker

Swiss army knife

Sunglasses

Sewing kit

Duct tape

Kleenex in small pouches

Ziplock bags

Nalgene bottles (for sand collection at deserts / beaches)

Labels (for sand)

Laundry bag

Water bottle

Diary

Pen

Bird books

Luggage

Pack

Day Pack

Camera bag

Money belt

Stuff sacks

Passport

STA

card

2000 USD cash (It's way too much cash to carry, I know! But I have to pay a portion of the overland trip cost in USD. It pays for food, camping, park fees, safaris, etc. I will be able to hand it off to my group leader

upon departure in Kenya.)

Vaccination card

Letters from doctors about OTC medication (to avoid an African jail, as these poor sops did not. Can you imagine being arrested for possession of Benadyl?)

Travel insurance information

Camera (Nik

on D3000)

Zoom Lens

3 Batteries

Battery charger

3 16G SD cards

Photo Safe hard drive

Power

cord

Ipod extender

Extra AAA batteries

Ipod Touch with lots of books!

Last but not least I have the Bodum French Press travel mug. I'll be traveling with a bunch of Brits who cannot be counted on for provision of decent coffee.

So tell me, what would you bring if you had a bit of extra space and a few extra pounds?

Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York!

The things that I will miss in New York while I am away are:

1. Chinese New Year. There will tasty dishes, crab and sticky rice, and red envelopes!

2. Jackie's Annual Dumpling Party. Dumplings and much merriment!

3. Bimbim bap at Seoul Garden with J.

4. J. himself, of course.

5. Drinks at Xai Xai with Elle & co.

6. Snow! I hate the cold in general, but I am sure that when I am wilting in 104 degree weather in a truck full of sweaty overlanders in Botswana, I will think enviously of those New Yorkers playing in Prospect Park in the snow.

7. The New Yorker. Anyone read the short story in the latest issue, "Diary of an Interesting Year"? Fascinating and disturbing! Sometimes the New Yorker comes up with truly weird little pieces.

8. Coffee, a croissant and the New York Times on leisurely Sunday mornings.

9. Operas. While I am away, J. will have to find an opera buddy to attend a couple of operas with him, including La Fille du Regiment, starring Juan Diego Flórez, the fetching Argentine tenor.

10. Movies at the Angelika, Lincoln Plaza Cinema and BAM with my movie-going buddies.

11. The Hot Chocolate Festival at City Bakery. Hot chocolate to knock your socks off! Arabian Nights Hot Chocolate anyone?

You know you're an American when...

I admit it. I like gadgets. Although I don't like gadgets as much as my gadgety husband and I've turned down a few of his suggested gadgets to take with me, I'm still lugging a few with me.

They include:
The Nikon D3000. It was a choice between the D3000 and the older, more sophisticated D90. In the end, it came down to weight and size. I can take picture with any SLR--all I need is MASP and maybe a few ISO options--and the D3000 was comparatively nice and light.




Because J. claims that SD cards are not secure for a long, dusty trip like the one I am embarking on, I purchased this ugly, heavy throwback to the 80's for photo storage. This Digital Foci PST-251 Photo Safe II has 160GB of space to store pictures, and it will grab information directly from your SD cards.





Ipod touch, best little device on earth. I have music, tons of books, courtesy of Kindle and Eucalyptus, and travel documents and guides (including electronic chapters of Lonely Planet's Africa on a Shoestring) stored here.






And with the Ipod Touch, you need, of course, a battery extender for those long driving days in the truck. This takes AAA batteries and last 20+ hours.









In addition, I have a nifty little cell phone (thanks, Jackie!) that I can use with country specific SIM cards everywhere I go.

My list of gadgets is more spare that I thought when I started this post. They all come with lots of fun cables and adapters and lenses and other accouterments, of course, but looking at this list, I think I'm packing light!

It's Christmas time in the city

My finals are almost finished, our Christmas tree is trimmed and decorated, and I'm leaving for Kenya the day after Christmas. It's going to be a toasty New Years Eve--in the 90's--on the island of Lamu. Not to mention a dry New Years: Lamu is teetotaling destination! (Teetotaling--does that mean you totally drink tea?)

And here's M, keeping an eye on the street. He's originally from South Africa, and oh how he suffers during New York winters! He begged me to take him with me, but there isn't enough room in my backpack. Sorry, kitty.

There's something about Africa

I took this picture at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in 2007. There's something about the vistas and the landscape in southern Africa that gets under your skin! The northwest corner of South Africa is one of my favorite places in the world.

Drought, Famine and Cholera in Kenya, Fuel Shortages in Malawi: Did I Choose a Bad Time to Visit?

The drought in northern Kenya has been devastating and may be the worst in a decade. People, including little kids, are dying of hunger. Also, the drought has led to a scarcity of water, which has in turn exacerbated a cholera epidemic. Lamu, the island in the Indian Ocean that I'm slated to visit my first week in Kenya, reported some of the first cholera cases. When there is insufficient water, people use dirty water, which spreads Vibrio cholerea from person to person. 119 people have already died. In addition, in Malawi there is a mysterious shortage of fuel. All of this makes me wonder whether I have chosen a bad time to visit eastern and southern Africa.

It raises moral questions: should I be traveling, for pleasure, for adventure, to a place where people are suffering? My inclination is to say no, I should not be taking in the sights in a country in the midst of a crisis. On the other hand, Kenya's tourist economy was devastated after the fighting following the 2007 presidential election; won't my dollars go a distance, however small, towards, uplifting the country, particularly if I purchase goods from local residents?

Another concern is clearly, my wellbeing. I have my rehydration therapy packets and a few courses of antibiotics. The accommodations where I will be staying will have boiled / filtered / treated water. Nonetheless, infectious disease is a concern. So are motor vehicle accidents, which are relatively common. Car accident fatalities on the route I will be traveling are high. Obviously, travelers are not immune to injury.

I'm interested to hear what you think: should one travel to a place where people are suffering? Is it callous?

Me as Kutlwano

Here I am as Kutlwano Stuurman back in the day when I was a Peace Corps School and Community Resource Volunteer in South Africa. Now, I live in New York, I've finished grad school and I'm returning to Africa for some travel and a stint in my old village, Tsineng.

This is my itinerary. It's going to be long trek overland from Nairobi to Cape Town, camping all the way. In between, I'm going to see great game parks and sights, including Masai Mara, the Serengeti, Victoria Falls and the Okavanga Delta.


View Kenya to Cape Town - 43 Days - KTC43 in a larger map