Dubai

Quick summary of Dubai. First, its hot as hell. Humid, and sweltering
hot. Second, its like being in star wars. When you arrive, you feel
like you are on the sand planet where they just landed and decided to
built a city. You can't see anywhere on account of all tv dust and
building pollution. Technologically its way ahead of everyplace else
municipally speaking, aside from the lack of public transport. Unlike
other cities with rapid development where they are catering to demand
with a goal in mind, Dubai just builds under the expectation of a
field of dreams type scenario that if you build it, they will come.
After visiting so many crumbled empires and seeing the ruins leftover
and imagining the past excesses of cultures, I couldn't help feeling
that in hundreds of years people will look back on something like the
Burj Al Arab and saying- "this place was the most luxurious place on
earth one day, but now all that's left is the swimming pool and the
skeleton... Look that used to be a helipad!" or something like that.
It could be a paradise, objectively its got great coastline, etc. But
the backward concept of its development is tough to wrap your head
around, particularly when you see it in person. The idea is basically
they'll provide all you could ever want, so leave the inadequacies of
your home and head to Dubai. It will be fascinating to see what the
future holds, especially since they are already nervous about their
proximity to Iran, should war break out there. Seems a bit risky.

USA

I'm back. I am no longer a refugee.

Adiós Africa

Boarding a flight to Dubai on my way back to NYC so I can check out
fantasy land for a day.

Africa was amazing. Spent today up in wine country outside Cape Town
- pretty nice way to wrap things up here. Looking forward to gettng
home very much though. We'll see what the middle east has to offer
though...

Africa Pics

From beginning to present

The skinny on Zimbabwe

So we ended up spending 4 days in Zimbabwe, unexpectedly, and it was
really an amazing experience learning about the current situation
here. We were in a horrible lodge in Nabibia, our incredible travel
company, CC Africa, literally had us out of there in 20 minutes (which
is unbelievable when you understand Africa a little) and back to one
of their lodges which have proven to be absolutely outstanding in
every way possible. Can't even begin to tell you. Here is how I
understand things in Zim though, given the conversations we had with a
bunch of people here, unverified by any other sources:

Zimbabwe used to be Rhodesia and after 15 years of fighting for
independence they gained independence in 1980 and became Zimbabwe.
Mugabe took over and for 20 years the country prospered ad was maybe
the most stable and prosperous economy in all of Africa. In or around
2000 though all the veterans of the war for independence started
griping (20 years later mind you) demanding the land they had been
promised for fighting for the independence. Mugabe and the rest of the
government were under pressure and what ensued me to the current
situation.

Most of the farms at the time were large commercial farms run by white
Zimbabweans, producing vast exports and carrying the entire national
economy through agriculture and the use of all of the country's
infinite natural resources. Unfortunately, these commercial farms came
under siege during a massive and violent land grab. It's unclear how
directly the government participated in actually taking control of the
land and granting it to certain people, but its very clear that they
took no steps to protect the farmers who were forced out. These huge
sources of commerce all of a sudden became idle lands, since the
people who took over the land were just either squatters or high up
government connected people who made no use of their resources and
simply looked for ways to exploit it through allowing hunting and
things like that or by simply producing agriculture to be self
sufficient rather than the commercial lands they had been. With no
products or anything at all being exported or even created, the entire
economy literally collapsed. Not to mention the widespread famine due
to the sudden halt in agricultural production. That's why you hear now
about inflation at 5million percent... The inflation makes the
currency totally worthless. Ten years ago the Zim Dollar was on par
with the U.S. Dollar, now it is literally impossible to convert it
since it changes exponentially by the day but its somehere around 2
billion to one, but tomorrow it will be much worse. You can't pay by
credit card since on the time it takes to process the transaction the
ammount you paid will literally be a fraction of the price you were
supposed to pay (a charge of 100 billion Zim Dollars today - ~$50 -
tomorrow would be worth maybe half that and by the time the receiver
collects it will be probably worthless).

Currently the people are amazingly hopeful and just generally among
the most likeable a friendly people you will ever meet. I've
obviously been a lot of places on this trip and they stood out as
maybe my favorite. Thy are ubiquew in that they come from such a
prosperous place historically and they are all well educated and proud
of their land but just not their government. The country is also
totally peaceful (aside from the ongoing issues with the land grabs)
in the towns and cities in most of the land. However, for the country
to ever stabilize it will almost necessitate some sort of violence to
overthrow the government or else the economy cannot reform. There is
more potential in Zimbabwe than maybe anyplace on earth, proven by the
past, but until someone comes in and capitalizes on the resources to
spur agriculture and commerce, they're screwed. Its very sad.

The time here is yet another example of how important visions places
like this is. Had we known the plans, there is no chance we would have
come to Zimbabwe just because of the way the nation is viewed back
home and the well documented instability here. Having been, I think it
will probably go down as the most important place to see during the
whole trip.

Namibia

I take back my comments from yesterday. Namibia is pretty brutal. The
scenery is pretty but there is absolutely nothing to do outside of a
short boat cruise, which actually was great to see herds of elephants
right up close. But after a totally awkward and strange village tour,
including a totally uncomfortable dance show that felt like being at a
bad strip club, we're ready to get the hell out of here. The dirt was
littered with condom wrappers and beer bottles and there was just a
strange vibe to the place this morning...

The longer you're in Africa, the more you understand just how messed
up it is. Nothing is done easily, and we were spoiled when we first
arrived by the amazing welcome and amazing hospitality and treatment
at our first lodges. The difference in having fully qualified and
experienced people leading you around, not for the luxury of it but
the ammount you learn from them, is pretty remarkable.

Trying to figure out a revised plan at this point...

Africa intense

So we sent the past 2 days in Zimbabwe, unexpectedly... There to see
Victoria Falls, which incidentally was very very cool, our hotel was
on the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezie river. Zim is, as I'm sure anyone
is well aware, not the most stable of places and we didn't take notice
of the hotels location when booking. The hotel itself was really cool,
like a step back in time to the days of British colonial rule with all
types of old photos, game trophys and other British historical
paraphenalia. However, it was very clear that they are experiencing a
downturn in tourism. It seemed to be a place on the brink, teetering
between luxury and just enough to get by. They are still going out of
their way to be a fine hotel, but little things made you aware that
they are struggling under the political instability. It will be very
interesting to see what happens in Zimbabwe over the next months and
years, because this place of such historical significance might just
disappear if the country doesn't right itself. I wish I could make
these comments with more relevance to the people living in Zimbabwe,
rather than through the description of a 4 star hotel, but we didn't
(and couldn't) really see much evidence of the hardship directly
traveling as we are. I'd like to come back to Africa on my own without
the worries associated with traveling as a family and have a chance to
see what life is really like outside the tourist destinations.

With that said, however, we did experience a bit of real Africa today
en route to our next lodge. Traveling by van from our hotel in
Zimbabwe, we passed through the border into Botswana and then
Namibia... Border crossing in Africa is interesting to say the least.
Crossing into Botswana meant a standard entry form, followed by a
"disease stop" which required us to step on a wet dirty towel with our
shoes while the van drove through some kind of dirty puddle to make
sure we didn't carry foot and mouth disease with us... It was like a
joke. Then a few minutes later we got t the riverside where we loaded
into an aluminum boat with all our bags and headed to the Nambian
border checkpost, which was a small room on a random island on the
river then back onto the boat to get to our lodge on another island 45
minutes away. My country tally is now at 9 since leaving the US,
flight tally is at 16...

I think this lodge will be cool and we'll be seeing a whole different
type of wildlife, mostly hippos, crocs, buffalo and elephants, versus
the more land oriented creatures of Phinda.

I am getting excited to be a week away from home, if for no other
reason than having a new set of clothes to change into. An opportunity
to get some exercise (not possible in Africa unless hotel has a gym)
and a real slice of pizza... Solo travel was also SO much easier than
traveling with our whole family. When I was alone there was just one
person to please with everything, and I think I'm pretty easy to
please, versus 5 people with varying levels of adventure tolerance and
desire for real exploration rather than just pampering in exotic
locales.

Into the lions den

I'm over my antisocial phase and back to normal in that sense. Safari/
Africa continue to be beyond all expectations. The extravagance of our
lodge experience and the incredible guides we had for our game drives,
being able to wake up in the morning, go out into the bush and come
across black rhinos 10 feet from the vehicle and then cruise over to
see lionesses eating a freshly killed zebra fully in their element is
just about the coolest thing of all time. Last night we had drinks by
sunset, watched 3 female lions absolutely stalk and in formation track
prey through a flatland for about an hour then on the way back to the
lodge race to catch a leopard on the move was among the most fun
things of all time. We keep waking up exhausted and not wanting to go
out, then totally awakened and excited by all that surrounds you.
Start to finish, if this isn't the trip of a lifetime then I've got
some good stuff to look forward to in my life because its been about
the most incredible trip I could have imagined, beyond my own high
expectations going in.