Southern Africa (namely, South Africa and to a lesser extent Namibia) has a certain “edginess” to it which I don’t really like. It seems wherever I go there are private security companies advertising ARMED RESPONSE for any attempted break-ins. It seems that almost every property owner has hired these security companies. They probably have little choice due to the high crime. Electric fences are also popular decor.

The crime rate aside, Cape Town is a pretty nice place. I actually stayed in what Tim Brown would call a “right-wing suburb” known as Camps Bay. It has an excellent beach although the weather was a bit cold, with some periods of rain. Here are some pictures.

This mound is known as “Lion’s Head”

Some Camps Bay sunsets (it was rather cloudy):

I am now in Namibia – in the capital Windhoek. I like the name of this city because it sounds like “Ren Hoek” from Ren & Stimpy. I’ll be spending a few days here relaxing, and then a few days on safari, and then I finally fly home.

This city isn’t really that interesting. It’s Southern Africa with a German flavor (lots of German speakers and German street names). Speaking of street names, one funny thing I did find was some of the streets that are named after dictators:

(You may need to click on the pic to enlarge it in order to read the sign)

I’ll try to blog while on safari if I get a good signal. Otherwise, I’ll blog when I return!

My checked luggage, which survived intact hopping flights between Rwanda and Ethiopia, and between Ethiopia and Johannesburg, South Africa, mysteriously vanished while in the custody of South African discount airline Kulula.com. It was supposed to be in Cape Town, where I am now, but it has yet to appear.

Luckily it was mostly clothes, I still have the most important stuff. Everything else can be replaced if worst case happens and the luggage is gone forever. Still a damn inconvenience having to buy some additional stuff.

Oh well. Only thing I can do wait and see if the stuff shows up.

Update: my lost luggage just showed up at 11pm. Now I can rest easy!

As I get ready to leave for South Africa tomorrow, I wanted to post some final thoughts and pics from Rwanda. After the gorilla trekking, I’ve mostly just been sitting here drinking beer and eating at nice restaurants. But I did visit the Rwanda Genocide Museum, which is a truly disturbing memorial to the hundreds of thousands that died during the 1994 genocide.

The first part of the museum was dedicated to other genocides that have occured around the world – such as the Holocaust, Armenia, Bosnia, and Cambodia (I visited a genocide memorial there as well, too many of these throughout the world).

The second part consists of profiles of some of the children that died during the genocide. The descriptions are very short and to the point, reading something like this:

Name: Francine Murengezi Ingabire
Age: 12
Favorite sport: Swimming
Favorite food: Eggs and chips
Favorite drink: Milk and Fanta Tropical
Best friend: Her elder sister Claudette
Last Words: “Help Mom’ma”
Cause of Death: Hacked by Machete

The third part of the museum is the memorial garden, where hundreds of thousands of people have been buried in a mass grave.

Here, as well as in Cambodia I have wondered how people who are seemingly nice and friendly now could have committed mass murder so recently. The only answer I have is that perhaps clues could be found in the famous Milgram Experiment, which seemed to show that ordinary people are capable of doing terrible things given the right [wrong] circumstances. I have no other explanation as to what would drive neighbors to kill neighbors, doctors to kill patients (and vise versa).

Here is a picture of the Hotel Milles Collines, in which the events depicted in the movie “Hotel Rwanda” took place:

A picture of Kigali (taken from the Genocide Memorial):

I may not have much more to write about this week because I’ll likely just be sitting on a beach in Cape Town. But if something noteworthy happens I’ll blog about it!

Hey all. I’m still in Rwanda. Not much going on for me right now, just pretty much relaxing.

I’ve told you I would post some Kili pics, and here they are. When I get home I will post all of the pics I’ve taken on my photo album (http://photos.ruin.net). Enjoy these in the meantime.

Day 1

Kibo Peak (the tallest of Kilimanjaro’s three peaks) is still very distant.

A shot of Kili in the moonlight:

Day 2

Things got a bit cloudier

But we journey onwards…

Another nice shot of the mountain:

And the sun has set:

Day 3

I think this is where the moon landing was filmed

Into the mist:

We encountered some elephant bones on a mound

Another nice shot of Kibo:

We began walking in the clouds

Day 4

This is the Lava Tower at the Day 4 camp

Another shot of Kilimanjaro during dusk:

Day 5

This part of Kili is known as the Western Breach – a valley inside of a mountain.

Day 6

We woke up to discover we were above the clouds!

Kibo is very close now

Also, a shot of Mawenzi, Kilimanjaro’s second highest peak

Day 7

After over 5 hours of steep walking, we reached an area known as Stella Point at sunrise. Uhuru peak, the summit, is very close now.

And we made it. Extra credit if you can identify Yours Truly

The glaciers near the top are pretty spectacular as well

That is all I have for now. I hope you enjoy!

Today, I, along with 7 others, visited the Hirwa group of mountain Gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. The Volcanoes National Park is part of the Virunga region, which stradles three countries: Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Diane Fossey spent her research on the Rwanda side, in Volcanoes National Park.

The Hirwa group (the name means “lucky”) is a relatively new family, formed only within the past 2 years as its leader and sole silverback (or alpha male), Munyinya, broke away from the larger Susa group with several females, and formed his own clan. Now, the Hirwa group has grown to 12 members – 6 females, 5 children, and, of course Munyinya himself, the undisputed leader of the group.

The gorillas live on the slopes of the volcano known as Sabinyo. The summit of Sabinyo is in 3 different countires, due to ill-defined borders. Here is a picture of us walking towards Sabinyo:

To make our way to the group we had to work our way through farmland, woods, and then thick brush which required a machete to navigate. But the trackers quickly found the gorillas, and the first ones we encountered were a mother and her child:

Afterwards, we saw a couple of the other children playing:

Then we decided to go find the the leader himself, Munyinya. While he was quickly found, he reacted a bit coolly to us. As we were taking his picture he stared at us with a hint of disdain and contempt, as if seeing us was one of those boring courtly duties he had to perform.

But he quickly had enough of us and decided to get some beauty rest:

Munyinya has good reason to relax. As the only Silverback, or adult male, in the group, he is the undisputed leader, and has mating rights to all of the females. However, this will likely change as the children grow up and as the group grows.

After leaving Munyinya, we only had 10 minutes left so we decided to try finding the rest of the gorillas. They seemed to be scattered around as the trackers took awhile to find them. But we were able to see more of the children, including this little guy, who decided to get real close to us:

And then, sadly, it was time to leave. After we walked back to the park office, I got a certificate saying I visited the gorillas. Yay! I think I’ll continue to follow the progress of this group, as they seem to be one of the up-and-coming families in the VIrungas.

I haven’t posted any Kili pics yet because things have been pretty hectic for me the past few days. But don’t worry, they will come!

Well I am happy to report that I summited Kilimanjaro. Not much to say except it was a VERY difficult and long day. But I am glad it’s almost over (we still have a 3 hour walk to the final camp, ugh).

When I get a chance I will post some pictures.

Written on 9/14/08 at 2:05pm local time (7 hours ahead of EDT)

Altitude: 15247 feet

I have made it to the sprawling Barafu camp, which is the last camp before the summit. We start for the summit at around midnight tonight. Not much to say about today except the rest of the day is for resting.

Hopefully when you next hear from me I will be at the summit.

Written at 7:15pm on 9/13/08 local time (7 hours ahead of EDT)

Altitude: 12840 feet

Today was a long day of walking. But thankfully I am feeling better, since I have caught up on some much needed sleep. The camp I’m at now is called Kuranga, which is a bit lower than yesterday’s. But the summit is close, in fact, we start ascending to the summit tomorrow night at around midnight.

Today while walking we ran into an annoying group of lesbians. I think the reason they’re suspected to be lesbians is because there isn’t an attractive one among them. They were so loud the entire group sped up just to get away from them.

Well, it is late (7:15pm, haha) so I am going to bed soon. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Written at 5:24pm on 9/12/08

Altitude: 15195 feet

Today was another hard day of steep walking. Even though I finally got some decent sleep last night, I still struggled a bit climbing to a place called Arrow Glacier. This has made me question again if I will make it to the summit, which is supposed to be much worse. I will have to hold out as long as I can.

I am going to try to offload some of my carryon items which I probably won’t need (camera bag, tripod).

Anyway, I guess we’ll see how it works out.

Written on 9/11/08 at 2:15pm local time (7 hours ahead of EDT)

Altitude: 13676 feet

I admit that day 3 started out on a real negative note. I did not get much sleep the night before (I think about 4 hours total), and my stomach felt like it was tied in a knot and I had a loss of appetite (but no nausea). Sleeplessness and loss of appetite are both symthoms of altitude sickness, so I began to doubt that I would make it to the summit.

However both these sympthoms subsided soon after I began walking again, giving me some hope. We ascended to about 4800m today, before going back down to camp which is about 4100m. I did some of the hardest climbing of the trek today, ascending a place called Lent Hills. And I feel perfectly fine now (though sleepy), and my confidence that I’ll summit has been greatly restored.

I am going to take a nap now to catch up on some sleep. Please wish me the best.

Written at 5:40pm local time (7 hours ahead of EDT)

Altitude: 12750 feet

I am now at day 2′s camp (Shira camp). Today’s walk lasted about 6 hours and was very pleasant, despite some steep climbing at times. The weather was also sunny and nice, and it only started raining once we reached camp.

I’ll now tell everyone about the group I’m treking with. There are 11 of us, not including the staff. Since I booked this with a UK company, most of the group are British, the only exceptions being myself and a fellow from Singapore. Horribly, I find that I’m starting to pick up the accent.

Our guide has the unusual name “Happyson”, which I have decided to change to Happy-san (Mr Happy in Japanese). Although I don’t think he’s picked up the distinction.

I also had my first altitude headache today, but it was mild and has now subsided.

At each camp we are required to sign in and fill in info about ourselves, including occupation. Today, I decided to list “Vagabond” as my occupation. I may decide to be a Pirate tomorrow.

This is turning out to me a really fun trip, and I’m having a blast. I hope everyone back home is doing ok!

Cheers! (oh..no)

Written at 2:40pm 9/9/2008 (7 hours ahead EDT)

Altitude: 11545 feet

I obviously have no Internet access here at camp 1, but I’m writing these now and will publish all of them the next time I have net access.

The walking for day 1 is done. We only walked a couple hours but it got cold fast. then the rain started which continued until it got so cold it turned into sleet. they gave all of us a boxed lunch before we left, which consisted of something which resembled a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, though it was somewhat lacking in both. it had a candy bar, angel food cake, and an egg.

I slipped while climbing up some of the wet rocks, luckily I was caught by the person behind me. I need to avoid doing that in the future.

I am settling in my tent now, sleet is still coming down pretty hard.

That’s all I have for day 1, day 2 follows.

After about 30 hours of exhausting travel, I finally made it to Arusha, Tanzania. The scenery is pretty here, all the plants seem to have a brighter colors to them (especially the greens). I saw Kilimanjaro dominate the horizon while flying here, I just can’t believe I’m going to try climbing that!

I also found out that I forgot to pack any gloves whatsoever. Shit! Luckily I can borrow a pair.

Today is the last day of “rest” before the climb starts. I’m busily organizing my pack and figuring out what to take and what to leave behind.

The organizer says the success rate on this route (Shira) is about 85%, so that’s encoraging.

It is dinner time now. Hopefully I will be able to post further reports on the mountain.

Went to the Lourve. Pretty large building and cool museum (though that pyramid has to go). It’s too bad I only have eight hours here but I did see the cool Egyptian artifacts. Now I’m getting some food to eat before I go back to the airport for the next long flight.

Waiting at the airport for my flight to Paris. I have to spend 9 hours there, and then fly to Kenya.

I decided to wear the same clothing I’ll be wearing on Kilimanjaro just in case my bags get lost. Which seems to be a higher probability these days.

I’m hungry so I’m going to find some food before being subjected to the airline’s lack of service.

Well it definitely seems like Hanuman, the monkey god, is conspiring against me:

• Two weeks before the start of my vacation, I suffer a bicycle accident, just barely escaping serious injury but hurting both my wrists.
• This morning, I woke up with that “stiff neck” that sometimes happens to me. It’s painful to turn my head now. This usually lasts 1-2 weeks. It had better go away soon. Maybe I should try hiring a massage therapist.

I am crossing my fingers, hoping I suffer no more injuries between now and Saturday.