Last leg of journey

I took the overnight train from Chiang Mai on Tuesday night. It was a nice experience. The sleeper car initially has seats before conversion to beds. The three people I was sitting next to were a girl from Taiwan who was studying Thai in Chiang Mai, an English programmer, and his Italian girlfriend. Turns out the girl is an engineer and works for FoxConn, the Chinese electronics giant that was in the news in the states recently (they make iPhones). That made for interesting conversation.

After the sun went down we turned in and I got a pretty good nights sleep. We arrived in Bangkok at around 9:30 and I made my way to a district near the center of the city to find a place to stay. Kind of being sluggish today. Have a sort of stomach bug I think (or my GI tract is just sick of spicy curry dishes) so I haven't been too ambitious. Took a nap to escape the heat, and then went to the National Museum of Thailand which happens to be located right near my hostel.

I will spend two more days here (Thursday, Friday) and fly to Hong Kong ---> New York on Saturday. Apparently there will be a full moon party tomorrow (Thursday) so that will be interesting. I should arrive in New York at 9 pm on Saturday and my sleep schedule will be completely whacked. I'm thinking the smart play is stay awake until Sunday at 3 pm and then go to bed after an early dinner. On Monday morning I start at Bridgeport Hospital in the burn ICU.

Also currently having a debate with myself. I haven't purchased a single souvenir or trinket since I've been here. There is a custom tailor near my hostel who will make you a suit with pretty nice fitting material and he can make cold-weather coats for you as well. Asking price was 10,000 Thai Baht for a full suit and a coat, which is about $ 330 USD. I bet I can talk him way down from that, in which case it will be tempting, because I don't have a dark suit other than my nice black coat that I interviewed with (and its too formal for a lot of things).

Phi Phi Island Day 2

On Saturday I joined with some Irish people and went kayaking briefly around the island. Didn't go far - went around the bend to a place called Monkey Beach, which is frequented by monkeys. Rented some snorkeling stuff there but unfortunately the equipment wasn't great. Still, the water was clear and there was some coral and impressive amounts of fish would surround me sometimes. There are tons of offers for people to take you out for scuba dives at reasonable prices. Will definitely do that in the future.

Just now I am headed back to the ferry (arrived here Friday, leaving now Sunday). I catch a flight tonight to Chiang Mai which is in northern Thailand. Will spend a couple days there, overnight train on Wednesday to Bangkok, and then back to NYC after a couple days in the capitol.

Trip at 1 week - summary thus far

The reason I post pictures randomly in groups of three is because thats the max amount that I can send through email to the blog. If I randomly come across an internet connection that my wifi picks up, I'll send out three pictures with a title but not much in the way of explanation because the formatting isn't so great. So thats part of the reason why things aren't organized so well.

Anyway, so here is a brief summary of the trip so far:

Monday - landed in Singapore, spent early morning in casino, toured city, slept from 3 pm till 8 am Tues.
Tuesday - national museum in Singapore, toured city, had oyster heart-attack omelet, went to the top of boat hotel, gentle flicks of wrist through the evening cost casino tens of thousands of dollars in payouts to me and my friends at the craps table.
Wednesday - catch bus at 6 am into Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur, find hostel, sight seeing, went to Petronas Twin towers, up the KL tower, get rained on a lot.
Thursday - toured caves / Hindu shrine on outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, saw some government buildings, more sight seeing.
Friday - to KL airport for 6 am flight, arrived in Phuket at 730, caught ferry to Phi Phi Island at 830, spent day on beach and in water, beach parties at night.
Saturday - planning to snorkel and not get burned.

I believe I haven't explained much about the last two days. I was originally going to take the train from KL north but unfortunately I delayed, and I guess the weekend gets booked, so I missed out on good train options. I decided at the last minute to just fly direct to Phuket Island (which saved me a light of transit time because even with an overnight train, there is a 6 hour bus ride otherwise). Phuket Island (which I originally pronounced "fuckit" but is actually pronounced "puke-it") is in southern Thailand (or, north of Kuala Lumpur) situated on the Indian Ocean. Just off the coast of Phuket Island is a small Island called Phi Phi where I am now (I was pronouncing "fi-fi" but is actually pronounced "pee-pee"). I had heard of Phi Phi Island before I left from a co-resident at Yale who spent some time in Singapore doing research. Phi Phi is where some of the James Bond movies were filmed, and another island by Phi Phi is where the movie "the Beach" was set.

Phi Phi is a travelers/hippies/westerners resort island. Most of the people here are from western Europe; there are disappointingly few Americans. Everyone is a backpacker I think. Its very expensive by Thai standards but pretty cheap by our standards (I have a single room with a big bed for like 20 US dollars per night; a beer is 3 bucks, meals are 5 or less and they're good). The island is very small, the center is jam-packed with hostels, restaurants/bars, small hostels / hotels. Lots of options to go scuba diving, snorkeling, sailing, etc. The water is almost too warm and the beaches are great. The music is really loud late into the night so if you are a early to bed type or can't sleep through noise probably not your place (I can sleep through anything).

I'm debating how the rest of my trip will go. There are some really neat ruins near Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia). I don't think I would have time to get there on the ground. If I could get a flight from Phuket to there I could see the capitol, the ruins, and go to Bangkok by bus. Securing a visa is the sticking point. There is a city in northern Thailand where apparently I can ride an elephant bareback, so that is tempting. I have my Vietnam visa still so I could fly to Saigon, then Bangkok, then home. Or I could just stay at Phi Phi a while longer and go to Bangkok the overland route, taking my time and seeing more of southern Thailand. Will look at train/flight options and make a decision today or tomorrow.

These first four pictures are views of Kuala Lumpur from the top of the KL tower.

A sign posted on the nature trail walk that I went on in KL.

A building in KL...I thought mosque, but may be a government building.

Mosque.

Entrance to caves / shrine.

At the top of the stairs to the cave...I thought this was funny. Two primates sitting on the rails in similar poses (small monkey on the right).

There were monkeys everywhere, because people feed them. This is an alpha male monkey who doesn't care about anything.

Cave.

Cue universal girl noise: "awwwww"

Couple shots of KL near my hostel.

Kuala Lumpur

I arrived at the capitol of Malaysia around lunchtime yesterday. Made my way to Chinatown where I had one hostel reserved, but I was having trouble finding it and another one I came across had an empty room so I took it. Kuala Lumpur is a bustling city with a ton of diversity. It is in some ways advanced yet still has a wild-west feel a little bit. Honestly, my first impression is that it was a blend of Nairobi and Hong Kong.

Yesterday I spent most of my time wandering around. I went to the Petronas twin towers but couldn't get a ticket to the top so I went up the "KL Tower" instead, which is a really tall spire w/ a rotating restaurant at the top. Got a good view of the city that way but it was foggy so pictures probably aren't fantastic. After that, I went down on a hike on the side of a hill in a sort of nature-preservie-type-area (as much as there could be one in the middle of a city).

That night I asked the taxi driver to take me to "a good authentic Malaysian restaurant". He took me to this place, the name of which I tweeted earlier, that I quickly discovered was a total tourist trap. The food was dumbed down for a Western palate, and there were some "ethnic" performances that seem somewhat contrived. I was disappointed - will hopefully do better tonight.

During the day today I did some walking and then went to some caves, pictures of which I will post soon. The caves were originally the location of a Hindu shrine, although I think its been tourist-ized to some extent now.

I was originally going to take a sleeper train into Thailand but unfortunately I delayed and the tickets are sold out. I secured a last minute flight for not too much that will go direct from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket island, which is in southern Thailand, a good resort area with some beaches and maybe snorkeling.

I figured out what was wrong with my craps game:

wrong continent.

I had two errands to do last night. First of all, my debit card got eaten by an ATM machine immediately upon arrival in Singapore. I am not quite sure why, but I was confused by the screen format and it was sending me mixed signals. In the time it took me to figure out what was going on it ate my card.

I have two other credit cards and another debit card but the backup debit card account is the one with only a token emergency reserve of money. I was thinking about alternative plans. Meanwhile, I wanted to go to the top of the boat-shaped hotel (the same one from the daytime) for night-time pictures and a drink.

Incidentally, the casino I went to on the first night is attached to the boat-hotel. I also knew that a casino can charge a credit card and return cash; the fee here was 2.3%, not an atrocious deal. So after enjoying the view at night and having a drink I headed down to the casino and took out a hunk of money for my travels. And what the hell, I didn't have anything better to do, and didn't lose (in the casino) on my first night, so I figured I'd play some craps.

There were a couple Americans at one point playing "the dark side" which in craps-speak means they were essentially betting against me. After losing few grand each they switched and started betting on me instead of against me. Earlier they insisted they were purely "dark side" players, so then they started calling me Luke Skywalker after I converted them. On an early roll, I hit the point four times; a later roll was over an hour long. (That roll was good but the statistic is a bit misleading. The casino had just opened craps 11 days ago and the dealers were VERY new. The wait between rolls was sometimes painfully long.)

I had to wake up at 6 am today to catch a bus so I *wanted* to leave the casino earlier than 3 am, but I kept winning. I suppose thats a good problem to have. Anyway, after increasing my total to 800% of my buy-in, I went home for a few hours of sleep and then woke and made my way to the bus rendevous to go to Kuala Lumpur. I made it to the meeting point 30 minutes early and I was absolutely starving. Went to this shop and they had a stack of eggs - I asked how they were cooked, and they said boiled - I was absolutely thrilled. So I sit down and they bring me a couple pieces of toast and two eggs in a mug of really hot water. I think thats odd, but in my mind the purpose of the water is to *warm* the eggs to make them taste better or something - not to cook them.

After the first egg got splattered all over my hand, I left the second one in long-enough to be what I considered sterile and then just downed it. Felt a bit like Rocky Balboa.

Singapore day 2

Singapore is an incredibly clean place, extremely efficient, great standard of living. The buildings are often built around the good weather: open malls (with coverings for rain and sun), out-door escalators, things like that. The subways are paved with marble, look brand new, and the trains are fast and smooth. Singapore reminds me a lot of Hong Kong actually. I went to the national museum today, and got a good sense of the history here. It is no surprise that it has been successful given its perfect location for Asian trade.

There is another way in which Singapore is like Hong Kong: consumerism. If there was an Olympics for places that epitomize a culture of consumption, Hong Kong and Singapore would win gold medals every year. There is SO much shopping here it is ridiculous (really). Coming from someone who has spent a lot of time in NYC, it's saying a lot that New York doesn't hold a candle to Hong Kong or Singapore as far as obsession with 'things' go.

On the flight over, I saw a documentary called "the Light-Bulb Conspiracy" which was very interesting and touches on these subjects. I guess my parting thought would be that if China's 1.3 billion people want to someday behave like the rest of us have (not to mention India's billions), and especially like the people in Hong Kong and Singapore do, we (humanity) may be in a lot of trouble unless we make some serious breakthroughs in physics.

I think our species could use a good deal of soul-searching, but its easy to preach as a Westerner who has had a lot of opportunities. Fighting against consumerism is sort of like abstinence-only education. Both are bound to fail because you are trying to combat fundamental human urges and instincts by encouraging reason and restraint. Anyway. Tomorrow am I will wake up and take the bus to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Will be a 6 hour ride or so.

End of trip log

Our friend Philip drove us to the airport from Kijabe to Nairobi.  Along the way we stopped at an authentic American restaurant in Nairobi.  I let Philip try my chocolate milk shake - he had never had one before.  His reaction was absolute gold.  I wish I had it on video.  It apparently was the most amazing thing he had ever had.

Another interesting thing on our way out:  massive fuel shortages.  Huge lines for petrol; luckily Philip had filled his tank the night before.  Rising gas prices cause a general price inflation for all Kenyans as the cost of everything (food, necessities) goes up bc of fuel increases.  The government decided it was going to hold the price of fuel down to prevent the inflation.  Obviously, shortages result every time when the gov tries to impose on the market like that.  This sort of thing happens in Venezuela under Chavez all the time.

Another interesting fact about Nairobi:  the air is awful, the cars lack catalytic converters, dust is everywhere.  BUT, they passed a smoking ban.  And Indianapolis still doesn't have one.  Congratulations Indianapolis, your public health policies are even backward by third world standards.

Last day in Africa is tomorrow

Today we had multiple cases:  a rectovaginal malformation repair, a cleft lip repair, a urethral stricture dilatation, and a circumcision.  The latter is important in Africa because the foreskin of the penis is particularly susceptible to infection by HIV.  So we can prevent many cases of AIDS by circumcising male babies.  The risks of circumcision probably don't outweigh the benefits in the developed world, though.  Lots of surgical variety today.  One surgeon in the USA would almost never have such a varied case load as the AIC docs had today.  We were in the hospital till almost six so didn't do much outside of it.

Tomorrow we have a couple of urology cases, then we leave Africa.  Our flight is at 11:30 pm or so Nairobi time, but we will start driving to the airport at 5 pm because who can predict Nairobi traffic or how the airport will go.  It should only take an hour to drive from Kijabe to the airport, though.

Our flight out of Africa is to London.  It will be dark so I guess I won't be able to spot the pyramids on the way out.  Unless I can convince American Airlines to let me stay in London for a few days, we will both connect to Chicago, and I will be taking the mega-bus home to Indy.  Priority number one is a really big salad and a juicy burger.  Priority number 2 is to shave, which I haven't done in almost three weeks.

Sat and Sunday

So Friday was our day in Nairobi @ the Coptic Hospital.  Saturday we basically did nothing, read the entire day.  I already finished one book and am halfway through another, but that one is a thousand or so page modern history book, to give an idea of how much I've been reading.  The book I finished, The House of God, is a book about residency in the 70s.  It paints what some would argue is an accurate picture of residency, although clearly an extreme, cynical, and jaded one.   Sunday, as can be seen in recent pictures (and more coming) we climbed a volcano.

There were two other people who went with us, but we didn't know them.  They are colleagues from a hospital in Seattle working at the Kijabe hospital, both doing family practice.  The guy is Michael, who is in his first year of fellowship, and the girl is Laura, a pgy-3 (ie post-graduate year 3, or third year resident).  Anyway, this volcano is Mount Longono, and it is a national park in Kenya. 

There are established trails leading up to the crater, but they can be steep.  It took us 45 minutes to get to the rim.  Once there we walked around the whole thing, again on an established trail.  But things can be dicey.  The trail is really narrow in some parts, surrounded by steep rocks in others, and often runs right along a cliff or at least a hill so steep that it is functionally a cliff. 

The rim itself was also not flat, so there was lots of trudging uphill in some areas or trying not to slide down in others.  The altitude was fairly high, which made everything more exhausting than it might have been, but it wasn't much higher (if any) than Kijabe, so its not like we weren't used to it or vulnerable to altitude sickness.

It was sunny, but also pretty windy sometimes and not too hot, so weather-wise it was perfect.  We got some awesome views of the Great Rift Valley as can be seen from pictures I've added.  Going around the rim took us about 2 hrs 45 min, so the whole hike from start to finish was almost exactly four hours.  It was the most fun I've had in a while!  A nice relatively easy day climb I'd recommend to anyone who is ever in the region.

After the hike, our driver from Kijabe took us to this local strip and we went to a butcher who was running a restaurant of sorts.  So for lunch we had some ugali (sp?) which is just white flour + water filler, and a chunk of goat.  And that description is intentional.  The guy brings a goat leg, shin and thigh all together, having been grilled already.  Then he rips it apart and cuts it up right in front of you.  It was kind of like Fogo de Chao, African-style.  Very tasty meat though.

Monday we should have an interesting pediatric surgery case.  Tuesday I have no idea what is going on.  Wednesday we will be flying to London.  It's a later flight but we will probably go to the airport four hours early, if not more, because we don't want to risk getting hosed by Nairobi traffic.

Day 9 / Friday: Coptic Hospital.

Today Colleen and I went to Nairobi with Dr Hansen, who was going to help an Egyptian doc there with a couple of pediatric surgery cases.  They were both young boys with an descended testicle.  This drastically increases the risk of testicular cancer so it is an important operation.

The Egyptian surgeon is a Coptic Christian, which apparently is very similar to Greek Orthodox (the inside of the Coptic church at the hospital looks just like my dad's church - look for pictures soon).  His name is Safwat, and he took us to lunch at an Egyptian restaurant by the hospital after the cases and told us his story.

He had been in Egypt and wanted to get married, but his in laws wouldn't let their daughter go until he had a reliable job.  So they wouldn't let him do more residency training in Britain, but they were fine when he got a contract to work in Uganda.  So he boarded a plane thirty years ago to start his career in Uganda.

But he never made it.  He got to Nairobi and his connection was canceled because of violence in Uganda.  He stayed in Nairobi while waiting for it to clear up but it never did, and anyway he got recruited to work in Kenya before even two weeks.  He was fresh out of training, but was supposed to work under the other surgeon at the hospital.  That surgeon basically retired like three days after Safwat started, so he was it, the only surgeon.

He did everything:  neurosurgery cases, ped cases, ortho cases, OB/gyn cases, even though he was barely trained for some of them.  In fact, he did even more.  Apparently the anesthesiologist was a drunk so he sometimes anesthetized the patients and then operated on them.  In fact, sometimes the hospital would not even have extra blood on hand.  So he would donate blood and then operate!

Course he has been in Kenya for thirty years or so now and the Coptic hospital seems very nice.  It has two operating rooms and decent enough equipment.  Plus they are working on a new building for the hospital, so things must be going well.

The cases went so well in fact that we were done well before rush hour and made it out of Nairobi without much difficulty.

Day 6, 7, 8?

Starting to lose track here.  The day after our safari was uneventful.  Did some internet, did some shopping, and took Saids family to dinner.  We went to the local Maasai market where the stuff is mostly hand made.  I got something very nice for my family after bargaining the guy down to the point that even Said was impressed.  China prepared me well.

Then the next day we drove to Kijabe.  It was two hours from Arusha to the border between Kenya and Tanzania.  The land in Tanzania is just stunningly beautiful.  Endless green pastures, rolling hills; looks like Microsoft Windows wallpaper. 

Then its two hours once in Kenya to Nairobi, from the border.  Kenya is much more barren and unforgiving.  Lots of quasi desert almost.  Very dusty, very hot.  Humans are the only mammals that have sweat glands over the whole body, and standing upright allows us to minimize sun exposure.  Being in Kenya makes me understand how we could be persistence hunters.  That is, early humans just relentlessly chased prey in the heat of day.  It's essentially a contest to see who succumbs to heat exhaustion first.  But the prey animals are covered in fur, can't sweat like we can, can't carry water, and have more sun exposed surface area.  But its not until you feel that sun and notice a complete absence of water when you really see why we won that contest. 

Then after two hours to Nairobi, it took probably another four to get to Kijabe when it should have taken one, because like I posted before, the traffic was just PAIN.

Today was our first full day in Kijabe.  The hospital here is part of AIC international I think, which is a Christian missionary group.  The children's hospital is under a special international designation too, but I forget exactly what.  We toured it today with a Vanderbilt and UAB-trained pediatric surgeon, Dr Hansen.  He is fresh out of training and actually moved here with his wife and four young kids, and they will be here at least two years, possibly more.  Dr Hansen and his wife had Colleen and I for dinner tonight at their house, which is all of 60 yards from the hospital.  It overlooks a gorgeous valley, and they get balloons in their back yard.  Excellent meat loaf and salad tonight.

Kijabe is very high in altitude.  It is thus cooler, esp at night, and very windy.  In fact I think Kijabe means windy in Swahili.  But that is good, because its much easier to sleep, and fewer mosquitoes.  Although today a huge cargo container arrived from the states full of stuff for the hospital.  We spent 2-3 hours moving I think, and it was more tiring than it should have been because of the thinner air.  Or maybe I'm just old and out of shape.

Tomorrow we are actually going back to Nairobi to watch Dr Hansen do a couple quick ped surg cases in the Coptic hospital there.  Hopefully we will get out before rush hour!  I don't want another 'Nairobi Headache' which is what happens when you breathe that much exhaust.

In Kijabe, Kenya

Made it to where the hospital is after a grueling drive, which included Nairobi at rush hour.  Said took us in his car which was nice, since we weren't so crowded and I had my belt on. 

Nairobi traffic at rush hour was one of the worst experiences of my life.  It was insanely slow, and we were constantly surrounded by either diesel trucks and vans, or cars without catalytic converters.  The carbon monoxide will take a week to blow off.  I might as well have ran a ventilator mask from our exhaust pipe.  Might have been better.

The other thing was, we would be at a dead stop and then finally start going, only to run into another dead spot just up the road.  This had the effect of constantly messing with your head.  You think the jam is over and its time to breathe again, and nope, stasis just around the bend.  This must have happened 10 times.

Anyway Kijabe is up in the mountains and seems nice but it was dark coming in.  It's cool tonight with a breeze.  And, good god, there are more stars in the sky than I have ever seen in my life.  I can see the Milky Way.  It's amazing.

Day 5: Lake Manyara Safari

On day 5, which was yesterday as of posting this (I'm catching up), Said took us on a safari to a local park. It was a 2.5 hour drive or so. Saw baboons, giraffe, elephant, black-faced monkeys, zebras, gazelles, wildebeest, buffalo, hippo, and antelope. Absent were lions, hyenas, cheetah, and leopard. Damn. I guess that means I'll have to come back. Was still a good trip.

Actually, one of the best parts of the safari was driving to the park. We went through Masaai land to get there. I'll post pictures of that too. The Masaai are always richly dressed in red garbs and usually herding animals. They live in small huts built in clusters. Thirty seconds left on my internet cafe time, gotta go!

We're going back to Kenya tomorrow.

Day 4: Arusha road

Our fourth day was Easter Sunday. A very relaxing day, we woke up and started walking up the road that Said's family lives on. The road went up into the hills and was flanked by dwellings and friendly people on both sides. The cool thing about the day we went up was that, since it was Easter, there were multiple tiny churches along the way packed with people singing African Easter music. We have some of that on video, but I'm not really sure how to put that on here. It was extremely hot and humid and I got the worst farmers tan. After our three hour walk I had a beer and then passed out.

Later that evening Said's wife and daughters went to a local wedding. I should have taken a picture of them. That brings me to one of the other things about Tanzania that I love. Everyone here dresses so well. Seriously, they make people in America look like scrubs by comparison. The men usually have neatly pressed pants on, rarely jeans, never shorts. They usually wear nice button-down shirts. This is even when they are doing manual labor, walking down the road in a hot day, et cetera. Women are the same way.

Day 3: St. Dymphna School (Arusha)

Our third day in Africa we went to the school that Colleen built, which is being ran by a Tanzanian woman named Mary. Colleen has told that story before, so I will just add that the school is doing very well. It has expanded amazing amounts beyond what it was when she started. Mary has volunteers from all over the world regularly coming to help. From America, from the Netherlands, Canada, Australia. It is especially vital that teachers, and particularly teachers trained in special needs education, come to help. There are forty some students at the school now and there is no way that Mary can handle it all alone.

Right now a lot of the volunteers stay at local hostels but there are a couple of rooms with bunks where people can stay at the school. Mary also plans to build an addition on the top of the school with additional rooms so that volunteers can stay there. There is also tons of room for additional infrastructure projects. For example, power is spotty and they have a couple of old computers. To get a steady power supply they have a solar panel on the roof of the school, but the battery is busted and the panel is old anyway. Definitely could use another system. I'll just leave it there and would encourage anyone interested in the school to visit Colleen's website. Be warned - there may be an impostor / fraudulent website that is attempting to solicit donations. It is using a very similar name as Colleen's foundation and claims to have built dozens of schools in Tanzania. Colleen's website is:

http://www.brickbybrickonline.org

Day three was also very exciting, for we won the game of "Iko wapi Kili", which means "where is Kili" in Swahili. On the way home from the school, it was a cloudy day everywhere, but it was clear above Mount Kilimanjaro! The thing was friggin huge. I cannot wait to climb it someday. I am very lucky to have seen it. Pictures forthcoming.

Cheers,
Nick

Day 2: Arusha

I slept well in my net-walled fortress and woke to a breakfast of eggs, bread, and coffee.  By the way, they call their butter "fat spread" in Tanzania.  That makes me laugh, given the lengths we go to assure customers in the states that our butter has little or no fat.  Not me!  I only use the finest fatty goodness - butter.

After breakfast we walked down the road and through a field to a local school and hospital / clinic.  The school was out of session for the Easter holidays.  Pictures should be within one or two posts in either direction.  It goes without saying that the facilities are limited.  Meanwhile in the background behind the school should be Mount Kilimanjaro, which I believe is the highest African peak.  But Kili is almost always covered by clouds, I guess because of the extensive glaciation at the peak.  Colleen said she has gone months without seeing Kili so I may not get to see it while I am here.

Despite being extremely high, Kilimanjaro is apparently not a technically difficult mountain to climb.  There are 5, 6, and 10 day trips that people can take up it.  Colleen did the six day climb several years ago.  I guess the toughest part is not succumbing to altitude sickness, and its really cold the last night.  We have to leave in a few days, but climbing Kilimanjaro is way high on my list of stuff to do at this point.  So anyone who wants to come with...start getting in shape.

Later our first day we drove with Said to Arusha city proper, about 15 km away, to do some errands.  The city has a lot of hotels in the very near vicinity for Westerners on safari trips so it has correspondingly a lot of things I haven't seen other places in Africa since being here.  For example, an internet cafe isn't so unheard of, but one that has an expresso machine is.  We also went to a Kroger-esque grocery store for some bulk items for Said's home, which I hadn't seen.  Some very nice restaurants, and hotels of course.  All in all the city of Arusha is the most well off that I've seen so far. 

After the grocery we went to a city market, which was a pretty crazy place.  Oddly, just outside the market was apparently a local garbage depositing area, and plenty of people sifting through it for valuables.  You walk past that and then there are all these vendors with live chickens, meats, rice, beans, fish, and a lot of really exceptional produce.  Like, hands down better produce that I can get at Marsh at any given day in Indianapolis.  Not surprising since its all locally grown with perfect weather.  But you'd think that if they put their garbage somewhere else people would have stronger appetites and buy more.  The olfactory insults still weren't as bad as some of the fish markets in China, anyway.

After our shopping and internet + expresso we had lunch at an Indian-Italian restaurant.  Sounds like an odd combo, but I ate at an Indian-Italian restaurant in Germany a couple of years ago too.  I guess Indians must have a soft spot for Italian food.  I think its a great combo.  Pizza dipped in curry is awesome.

I took some photos of the local market so check those out.  Later we walked down towards this lake, on which was built a very fancy hotel-cottage type place.  They had a setup where you'd have five cottages that all open up to the same circular area, and had 6 or so groups of these five.  There was a restaurant/bar/meeting building that was gorgeous too, on a lawn that overlooked a lake.  I have pictures of this as well which should be up soon if not already.  Colleen and I agreed it would be awesome to get a ton of friends and family over to rent them out.

At the end of the day, we did my favorite thing, which is to relax under the amazing evening weather and read, have dinner, and have a beer.

Day 1: Nairobi

Our first day in Africa was spent in Nairobi. We woke in the morning and had breakfast at the hotel, had a nice shower, and stopped by a local internet cafe. We spent a good part of the day traveling around the city by foot. We passed by multiple government offices, a tomb of Kenya's first president (where I got yelled at for taking a picture), and a memorial for the US Embassy which was bombed in 1998.

Around two oclock in the afternoon we barely made it to grand rounds at the hospital, which was being put on by Colleen's boss. He was amazed that we made it there almost on-time. The talk was about wound healing and surgery in Africa. Dr. Tarpley is apparently known for his sayings, and a few of the things he said during grand rounds I wrote a couple in my book: "Get in the habit of having good habits." and "Surgery needs to be your wife or your mistress." He spent some time expounding on the huge role that surgery can have in Africa in particular, and how severe the shortage of available surgeons is.

After grand rounds we walked (and it was a hike) back to our hotel. The hospital had been sort of on the outskirts of the city so we really got to see a ton this way. Not wanting to waste time, we decided to try to make it to Tanzania that night, even though Maggie, Dr. Tarpley's wife, insisted that we not allow ourselves to be on the road after dark. We failed in our promise.

We grabbed our bags and met at an area of the city that Said knew well (Said knew all of Nairobi well it seems and he was guiding us for most of the day). Colleen had psychologically prepared me for the coming trip. She intimated that it might be the most painful 4-5 hours of my life. It wasn't comfortable, thats for sure. We crammed into this ridiculously small and under-ventilated van and made our way to Tanzania out of Nairobi. The traffic was awful, the roads horrendous, the carbon monoxide suffocating, and the passengers unrestrained (no seat belts). Fortunately, thanks to Colleen's warning, I was prepared mentally and we made it through without any issues. I have a video of one segment of the car ride...it is absurd how bumpy it was.

When we finally made it to the border of Kenya and Tanzania it was dark, but we got a visa and crossed without much difficulty. We then switched vehicles and packed into a van. It was slightly more comfortable. The remaining two hours were less eventful; traffic was less and the road wasn't terrible for the most park. And some zebras crossed in front of us, which I thought was neat.

We arrived at the drop point and were met by Said's family in their car. A short drive later and we were at their home, where I had a pleasant bucket shower and my own bed to sleep in.

Day 0

This is the official post for day 0 of the trip.  As I mentioned, Colleen and I took a flight from Chicago to London, and then from London to Nairobi.  The second flight was very cool.  We flew over the Alps, but they were covered by clouds.  Then we went over the Mediterranean and headed south-east; that was when it got interesting.

We headed directly for Cairo and flew over the Nile River delta.  You always see the Nile on a map that ends in the north of Egypt as sort of an upside down triangle, but its from the air that I really appreciated what was going on.  The Nile splinters into dozens of smaller rivers which drain into the Mediterranean.  Each of those give off tons of small branches and streams as well.  Man-made irrigation canals top it all off.  The whole delta is this dark lush green surrounded by parched brown desert.

I mean, that is what a delta is, so it isn't surprising to say it.  But when you see it, you think Aha!  That is why this site produced one of history's first great civilizations.  And it was Egyptian grain that powered the Roman Empire.  When the Vandals took Egypt, Rome fell decades later (almost immediately when you consider how long it had been around).

The plane continued south along the Nile, and we went over Cairo.  It was also cool to see how populous and green the land immediately around the Nile is while heading south, because it is so strongly contrasted by the empty desert.  Unfortunately we did not see the pyramids at Giza from the air.  I was looking for them.  Maybe I needed to look out the windows on the other side of the plane.

Anyway, so we landed and Colleen's Tanzanian friend Said met us at the airport.  He guided our taxi to a small hotel in Nairobi.  After dropping off our bags, we went out for some drinks and food.  First we went to a local pub, then to a food stand with greasy chicken and soggy French fries (more like potatoes soaked in warm grease than fried really).  We then went to a music bar which was basically the pub plus loud music.  Soccer was playing at all of the stops, which is pretty typical for anywhere that is not the USA.

The beer is good.  One I had I thought was funny.  It was called "Pilsner" lager.  I think that is funny because a Pilsner is a type of beer just like a lager is.  Which would be odd in itself, but then consider that the beer actually tasted more like an ale, which is nothing like pilsner or lager.  At least, none that I've had.  I'm an amateur beer snob so I could be wrong.

In Nairobi

Sorry for lack of updates. Colleen and I landed safely in Nairobi last night. It was about 7 hours to London and then 9 to Kenya. We were met in the airport by her Tanzanian friend, Said, who took us to a hotel in the city. We went out for a few drinks and food and then went to bed.

Today on the agenda, we are going to go to Nairobi hospital and attending grand rounds. This is an honorary presentation that takes place weekly at most academic medical centers. The visiting speaker this time is Colleen's boss at Vanderbilt, John Tarpley.

After grand rounds we will take a bus to Tanzania where we will spend the week. I've got pictures, but haven't found any wireless access points for my phone yet (this is an internet cafe computer). HTC really crapped their pants when making the Droid Incredible. I can't believe they didn't put a sim card in it (so it works overseas). Big fail. Whatever.

Cheers,
Nick

Travel light.

Nothing like going on a two week international trip with just a carry on.  That's the same backpack I've been using for school since I was 14 (thanks mom!).  It does have a small tear on the bottom, but I bet it will hold.