Monkeying Around in East Africa

Well, it was entirely by accident that our first weeks in Africa were dominated by exploration of the Nile River, but it has certainly made for a great trip. Right after landing in Uganda, we made our way out to the small town of Bujagali Falls. Our accomodation was a "luxury" tent that overlooked the White Nile only about five miles from where it empties out of Lake Victoria - an absolutely beautiful spot. (Thanks to Yve Heit & Adam Saville for telling us about it!)

As we hinted before, we had a fantastic whitewater rafting trip through tons of Class 4 & 5 rapids - much more extreme than any of our previous outdoor endeavors on this trip. We had a great crew paddling with us - a Lithuanian, his German wife, and a hilarious Irishman who recently quit his job as director of "fem care" marketing for Proctor & Gamble in Great Britain. Our guide was a very competent but slightly crazy Ugandan named Peter who liked to say things like, "In this rapid, it is 50% that we will go upside down." It turned out that his figures were surprisingly accurate, as we did do a lot of swimming on our trip down the river. Sadly, no pictures to share from this adventure, as the camera would have been a bit too waterlogged. But we do have a video to prove that we really did conquer the Nile by raft.

While in Bujagali Falls, we were excited about spending some time doing volunteer work with a local education organization. But, as often happens with short-term volunteer work, the organization couldn't put us to as much use as we had hoped. Still, it was great to see an organization at work and meet some of the students participating in their program. And, in the end, we did paint enough walls and haul enough woodchips to call it a good day's workout.

We spent a day in Kampala before undertaking a journey to Cyanika, a remote Rwanda-Uganda border crossing. This turned out to be our most 'Amazing Race'-esque adventure of the trip. We needed to cross the border by 5 pm and thought things would go smoothly when we set out from Kampala at 6 am. However, a broken fuel pump, an uncomfortable wait in a crowded mechanics lot, an argument about bus fares, and a speedy drive in a Toyota Corolla over 80 kilometers of nearly impassable dirt road found us running across the border at 4:58. And, in true 'Amazing Race' fashion, we arrived breathless on the Rwandan side of the border only to learn that there was an hour time difference. We could have stopped to use the bathroom after all...

Safely in Rwanda, we spent the next two days tracking the very cute golden monkeys and the utterly amazing mountain gorillas. It is impossible to explain what it was like to stand amidst the gorillas, but suffice to say that it was a magical experience. And, of course, we were relieved that they were too busy eating to recognize Sarah as one of their own and drag her off into the forest as we had feared. Phew, another primate kidnapping narrowly averted...

The rest of our time in Rwanda was spent touring Kigali and the incredibly well-done Genocide Memorial Museum. Obviously, the memories of the genocide are still very fresh for nearly all Rwandans, but they appear to be making a great effort to come to grips with what happened and to look toward the future with optimism. The Rwandans that we met were incredibly friendly and open, and it is hard to believe that such a terrible thing could have happened in such a beautiful country. The conclusion of the museum's exhibits put forth a hopeful message, and we can only share in the hope that Rwandans can truly make it work.

We must give a another shout-out to our friend Yve for putting us in contact with her wonderful friend Julie, who is living and working in Kigali. Julie kindly invited us to stay a night in her house and took us to the neighborhood bar where we were greeted with hugs and kisses and participated in an impromptu English lesson. It was a great end to that leg of our trip.

Now we are just wrapping up our first day of safari in Tanzania. We canoed in Arusha National Park, and Sarah successfully overcame her greatest fear of the whole trip - death by hippo.

We're having a tough time with pictures right now, but we have managed to add a few to some of our earlier posts, so scroll down for shots from Beijing & Egypt.


Sarah and Gus with gorillas. We have about ten thousand more photos of them. Some are eating, some are climbing trees, some are sleeping, some are picking their noses... Pretty much par for the course with mountain gorillas and we loved every minute of it.

Rock Like An Egyptian

We can sum up our week in Egypt in a few words: best old stuff ever! We were so lucky that Gus' parents, Nancy & Tom, were able to join us for the week. As a Christmas present (to us & to themselves), they set up a full-fledged tour that included a Nile cruise and, best of all, our very own Egyptologist. Hesham, who insisted on us calling him "H" (he apparently had little confidence in our ability to pronounce Arabic names), had vast knowledge of ancient Egypt... and plenty of opinions about modern day politics, all equally interesting to us. He also correctly identified us early on as an audience open to salacious tales of pharoahs and gods, as well as a plethora of off-color camel-centered jokes.

Speaking of camels, we did do the obligatory Egypt camel ride near the Giza pyramids and at least one "Walk Like An Egyption" pose for a photo. The Nile cruise was fantastic - a perfect mix of lounging on the sundeck and exploring lots of really, really, really old stuff. And since Gus and I have been traveling for a while (and trying our best to have at least some semblance of a budget), the buffet food was a true godsend (thank you, pharoahs, aka Nancy & Tom).

It's hard to put into words the size and complexity of all the different ruins and monuments that we saw. We marveled at all that civilizations 5,000 years ago were able to accomplish, although the things we marveled at were a little different. Gus constantly asked 'H,' "Now how exactly was this constructed?" while Sarah was primarily obsessed with putting together a detailed pharonic timeline and intricate chart of Egyptian gods. (Definitely stories fit for 'US Weekly!')

We knew before we got to Egypt that we would see pyramids and tombs. But what we hadn't thought about were all the cultures that had passed through since. We were so surprised - pleasantly so - to see that many of the most famous Egyptian ruins had gone from pharonic temple to Christian church to mosque and back to a tourist-attracting Egyptian temple. This was the first predominently Islamic country that either of us had visited. We never got tired of hearing calls to prayer, and Hesham was happy to fill us in on the practicalities of being a Muslim in a relatively liberal country. For two people whose main prior knowledge of Islam had come from books and CNN, it was a really good experience to see the religion and culture firsthand.

We're now in Uganda, typing from a bug-covered computer screen (don't worry, we took our malaria pills!). The connection isn't so fast, so there are no photos for now. As a consolation, you might someday get to see a video of us flipping upside down (multiple times) while rafting the Ugandan White Nile. This was today's adventure, and definitely one of the best of our trip. But more on that later...


Of course we rode on a camel!


Mom lunges for the prize during a cruise-sponsored cutthroat game of "Spoon Pickup" that was alot like musical chairs. Competition was tough, but she took home the gold against a tenacious Spaniard and a plucky Canadian using a diving-slide technique that could not be matched by her adversaries.


Some of the Moore family at Ramses' Abu Simbel temple. This was going to be covered by water in the 60s when they built the Aswan High Dam. It was cut up and built into a concrete mountain above where it had been before.

The Much Awaited Asia's Bests!

With such an amazing continent & so many fantastic stops, this one was tough. But here we go...

Best Transportation: We've traveled by planes, trains & automobiles...and boats...and bikes...and cyclos...and tuk-tuks. But the ride that will stick in our memories was our very first trip in Asia - our moto ride from the Phnom Penh airport to our hotel. It was the one form of transport we had been told to avoid, but it was amazing.

Best Meal: This one was a tie between Shanghai's Bellagio with Jesse & Christy and Beijing's Source with Thaddeus & Kris. We discovered dragon beans and a wonderful concoction of beer and beef...and that, when in China, we get the best food when someone else orders for us!

Best Hotel: Phu Thien II in Hoi An. $30/night for a huge room, a balcony view of rice paddies, a 5 minute bike ride to a 60-mile beach, and free breakfast to boot!

Best Thing We Witnessed Carried on a Moto: Being in Vietnam for Tet, we saw some truly giant kumquat trees strapped precariously to some not-so-giant motos. So they win. However, runners-up include a 3x8 pane of glass, a brand-new 36 inch tv (not strapped on & with only the driver to hold it on), and a 7 foot tall curio cabinet.

Best Biking Adventure: For those of you keeping track, we rode bikes in many of the places we stopped. But our best had to be the ride around the entire city of Xi'an on top of the wall. Where else could you do this?

Best Random Encounter with a Local: A young Vietnamese university student who screeched to a halt on his moto on a crowded street in Hanoi to practice his English with us. However, his English wasn't great and the encounter consisted mostly of him jumping on Gus to bear-hug him while exclaiming, "I idolize America!" Oohh-kay...

Beijing: More Old Stuff

Beijing was a great end to our time in Asia. Thaddeus & his girlfriend Kris were outstanding hosts. Kris is actually a PhD candidate in Chinese Art History, and so we really lucked out when she offered to give us a tour of the Forbidden City. She enthusiastically pointed out some of the quirkier things that we never would have seen on our own, making our visit all that much better. We also visited Tianamen Square and shuffled past a very pickled-looking Chairman Mao.

Of course we made the obligatory journey out to the Great Wall. We went to a less popular part of the Wall and enjoyed whole sections to ourselves at times. We also had our first (and last, since we're headed for the desert) snow while hiking on the wall. It was beautiful, but it really made us glad that we weren't the ones stuck there for years at a time watching for Mongol invaders.

And now we're in the Dubai Airport on our way to Cairo. Yesterday, when we were heading out to the Great Wall, we passed by a billboard displaying the Pyramids. Our cab driver, making conversation, asked, "Have you ever been to Egypt?" Gus responded matter-of-factly, "No, but we're going there tomorrow." He looked pretty skeptical, but it reinforced for us how lucky we are to be seeing both the Great Wall & the Pyramids in the same week.

We're racing the internet rental clock, so watch out for Beijing photos later.



Sarah and Kris at the Forbidden City.



Who is this guy? We have no idea. Everywhere we went in China, random people would come up, put their arms around us, smile hugely, and have their friend take our photo. We have no idea why. This was the only time that we thought quickly enough to hand our camera to the photographer so we could get our own photo.