Croc hunting at the stilt village

One of the girls in my group and I went to the stilt village (Nzulezo) out in Western Ghana. It was quite the trip. Quite the fiasco getting out there. We got off the first tro-tro in Takrodi, and the drivers swarmed "Where are you going? where are you going?" I couldn't say the name of the town, so I started laughing--so comical. I pulled out my guidebook, and none of the drivers could read. I was butchering the name, and they couldn't read, so we weren't getting anywhere. It actually freaked Penny out when they swarmed...she's still not broken in. Anyway, someone finally figured it out, we got on another tro, and sat by this sweet lady named Rita. She wrote down all the towns we had to pass through and change cars, then personally walked us to the right bus when we got off. She even called 3 times that night and twice the next day to make sure we were okay.

So the next tro stopped in the middle of nowhere, the driver got out, and told Penny and me to get out of the car and to go with this random taxi driver that was sitting there waiting. We were sitting in the back, so half the van had to empty...it was a mess. So then I thought the taxi driver was trying to rip us off, so I started going at it with him, until I realized he was quoting me a price with the old currency...he was being more than fair. Besides that, I had zero bargaining power at that point. Really, what was I thinking? So he took us the next 2 legs of our journey, then sent us to another tro (another story with that), but they finally dropped us at the wildlife office so we could arrange our trip in Beyin. It started POURING rain when we got there, so we had to wait it out, then canoed for about an hour through this marsh and jungle areas. At one point, it was kinda shallow, so our guide made us get out and walk. "So what are ya sayin, I'm fat?" :)

We got to the stilt village, and it was kinda cool. We saw some monkeys. The people I don't think loved having us there. I'm sure they're sick of people coming to gawk at them. We made plans to stay the night, so we were stuck. We caused a huge fight when our guide invited us into this town meeting of just men. What he was thinking, I don't know. Half of them wanted us to leave, the other half said it was fine for us to be there. We couldn't understand the words they were saying, it was out of control. We didn't stay.

We slept in a stilt hut. Kinda cool. We went on a crocodile hunt at night. We didn't see any crocs, but when we turned off the flashlight, we heard one roar. And we saw all their tracks in the grass. It wasn't 100 yards from where the village was. Interesting.

I found myself arguing hard over 5 cents last week. What has business school done to me? And I might have gone off about poor service at the guest house while at the stilt village...

Love y'all!

Santorini

So we left the amazing island of Mykonos and traveled to another beautiful Greek island of Santorini. Our hotel is right on the black sand beach of the island, so we spent most of the day yesterday working on our tan, but at the end of it we were still no competition for the professional tanners (that's what Maren and I call the people that are perfectly deep bronze all over their bodies -- and I do mean ALL over). Today we took a bus to the town of Thira where we wandered around and decided it would be a good idea to take the foot path to Oia, the next town over. 4 mountains, 3 suburbs and 10 miles later we finally made it to the town of Oia. The views were amazing and true to fashion around every corner was other miniature church. I wonder if these churches were ever all in operation. Has faith and religion around here really deteriorated that much? I'm still obsessed with them with their little blue round roofs. I think Maren will probably kill me if I make her stop one more time for a picture of a white washed church with blue roofs.

Nothing too exciting has happened, but I have felt like I have let down a number of waiters and waitresses. They all ask if we would like coffee and when we say no they are exasperated, however a few minutes later they come back thinking they have a brilliant solution that will make us happy and offer us tea, when we turn that down they really don't know what to do. Last night our waiter brought us a drink "on the house" he said. When I asked what was in it he struggled in broken English to list the ingredients. Finally I cut him off and asked "is there alcohol?" He shook his head sternly and repeated "No, no, no. No alcohol" As I was finally convinced it was safe I lifted it up and the smell of liquor was overwhelming. So we put the drinks back down. Our waiter came back and looking completely rejected asked "you don't want anything we have to offer? no coffee, no tea, no special drink?" I just smiled and asked for the 7th time for the check. We would make lousy Europeans.

And you said I couldn't marry a cowboy...

For all of you who know and, of course, love Casey here is a tribute to him. In India the cows are sacred and allowed to roam free.

Just don't get in their path or they will run you over, hence my graceful jump out of the way.

"Welcome to Egypt"

"Welcome to Egypt" is a phrase most Cairo Egyptians seem to know how to say. Walking up and down the streets you'll often hear "hello, welcome to Egypt" being called at you from street vendors, passerbys, and from those yelling out of car windows. Tourism is the 2nd largest industry for the country so you can understand why they would want to be so hospitable...

Although English speaking tourism isn't the only kind. Because of this many of the Egyptians are multi-lingual in their attempts to sell you their goods. You'll hear "hello" and when you give them no response they will say "hola" or maybe "bonjour!" After their efforts have been exhausted they say "you speak english? italiano? espanol?"

I've added a bunch of pictures from my stay in Cairo. You can see all sorts of stuff from the local restaurants to the Egyptian-style dumpster (aka apartment stairwell).

Clay's doorman thinks I can understand him when he speaks Arabic to me. Whenever I see him on the street or when I come into the building he starts having a conversation with me. I have no idea what he ever says. I just smile and nod.

This is my last post from Egypt, my plane leaves tonight and I'll meet up with my girls in Thailand. I've so enjoyed being here!! As much as I like dodging cars in the street, I'm excited to see what Thailand has to offer :) Speaking of dodging cars...let me quote something I found in my lonelyplanet travel book.

Playing chicken in Cairo: It may sound silly, but the greatest challenge most travelers face when traveling through Egypt is crossing the street in Cairo. Roads are always frantically busy and road rules are something that the average Cairene has heard of, but only in jokes. Our advice is to position yourself so that one or more locals forms a buffer between you and oncoming traffic, and then cross when they cross - they usually don't mind being used as human shields. Basically, it's a game of chicken. ever, ever hesitate once you've stepped off the sidewalk, and cross as if you own the road. But do it fast!

Pictures of Cairo

Finally Celebrity Status!!

I have officially entered the world of celebrity. I went to Lalbaugh Botantical Gardens today and was stared at by every single individual there. A group of guys asked me for "a photo". I, of course, assumed that meant they wanted me to take a picture of them. Oh no, they wanted a picture WITH me. Then they followed me for a little bit which was awkward, but not that bad. After entering the gardens, I realized that I was quite the freak show. A man came up and asked me where I am from, after telling him the US, he bobbed his said and said, "Oh yes (bob bob) America" and kept walking.

Tons of children were waving at me, especially the young girls. They were all very cute, but it was slightly awkward knowing that everyone was looking at you. I really need a pair of sunglasses so that I can pretend like I'm not seeing them stare.

I finally know what it's like to be Britney! Yes!

Karma

I haven't traveled a ton, but I've traveled to both Peru and Mexico within the last year and in both places I was lucky enough to get sick. You know the type, stuck in the bathroom, feel like you're going to die, 24-48 hours of pure misery, and then you're back on your way to enjoy the beautiful country that got you sick in the first place. If there's anything worse than being sick, it's being sick in a 3rd-world country.

Since I've arrived in Cairo I've been so worried that I would once again be plagued with this 3rd-world country delight. I've tried to be really careful about what I will and won't eat, trying to be careful about eating at "clean" places, etc. Yesterday Clay and I went to a restaurant downtown--sort of an upper-scale hole in the wall. Not as bad as they can be, but not a wonderful place either. They brought out flat bread, salads, rice, drinks, and meat. I thought all of it looked pretty good except for the meat, which looked like it would give me a one-way ticket to 24 hours in bed. Clay was wondering why I wasn't eating the meat, and saying what I knew would offend him, I told him it made me nervous and I wasn't interested in getting sick. He spent the rest of the meal making fun of me for being paranoid and trying to explain to me that anything that's "hot" can't make you sick.

This morning I woke up to Clay puking his guts out. He's been in bed ever since.

Poor guy.