grilled cow tongue

grilled cow tongue, originally uploaded by suddenly.

we found this street vendor tucked into a little alleyway in entebbe (uganda) serving up grilled cow tongue. he sprinkles it with salt, cuts it up into bite-size pieces, then presents the meaty morsels in a newspaper cone.

the meat was pleasantly chewy and extremely flavorful. and super cheap!

green bananas

green bananas, originally uploaded by suddenly.

after a couple of days we got out of kampala. we were on our way to bwindi which is in the west towards the D.R. congo and rwanda borders. our driver picked us up at 6:30 in the morning and i slept most of the way but when i was awake i managed to take a few photos. here’s one of the many trucks carrying green bananas or “matoke,” the staple food of uganda. they eat them boiled, mashed, served with peanut sauce, roasted, etc.

kampala, uganda

fruit and the city, originally uploaded by suddenly.

next, we moved on to kampala; a city more congested and more polluted than nairobi but at least you don’t have to worry (too much) about getting mugged.

usually when we arrive in a new city we like to explore the area on foot, you know, get the lay of the land. big mistake in kampala. it’s right on the equator which means searing heat all year round. i spent the first part of our walk lathering myself in sweat; the second part coating myself in black exhaust from old cars manufactured in the 1970s; and the third part crumbing myself in the dust kicked up from the dirt roads. yup, it was like an unintentional recipe for chicken-fried suddenly susan.

getting around in a taxi is also out of the question because the traffic simply does not move. instead, we opted to take the motorbike cabs they call “boda boda.” they zip you around town at breakneck speeds weaving in between vehicles. they’re supposedly not safe but they do get you where you want to go and you can feel the wind on your face.

view some scenes from kampala here.

buffalo: before and after

buffalo: before and after, originally uploaded by suddenly.

zebra at lake nakuru

zebra at lake nakuru, originally uploaded by suddenly.

zebras are cool. i love their stripes and sweet faces. do you see how bloated the zebra is? a ranger told me that zebras eat so much they’re full of gas and they fart when they run.

on the way to lake nakuru

on the way to lake nakuru, originally uploaded by suddenly.

in cape town and nairobi, the cabbies are always angling for a bigger fare. shuttling you from your hotel to a restaurant then back to your hotel is just chump change for them. instead, they’ll ask, “so…ms. susan, what ELSE do you plan to do in nairobi?.” hoping that you’ll hire them to drive you someplace far and unload some of the shillings in your fat tourist pockets.

the driver who picked us up at jomo kenyatta airport in nairobi who’d been pretty sullen and taciturn the whole trip, all of a sudden became mr. chattypants when we mentioned we’d like to go to lake nakuru, a national park that’s a 2-hour drive from nairobi. his initial quote was 150,000 khs for the roundtrip. that’s almost $US 200. holy cannoli! (did i mention that they usually expect a tip on top of the fee?) is this why they call the city nairobbery??

we eventually talked him down to 110,000 khs and set off at 7 a.m. the next day, leaving behind the thick black clouds of exhaust in exchange for thick gray clouds of rain. along the highway, we saw swarms of kenyans walking into the nairobi city center. apparently, most people in nairobi start their workday at 8 a.m. to avoid the intensifying heat as they walk to work. according to the travel agent at our hotel, the locals must make a choice: (a) either walk to work so they can eat lunch or (b) take the bus and skip lunch; they don’t have enough money for both meals and transportation. hearing things like this makes me feel like an a$$hole. i begin to examine all the dough i’ve spent on non-essential items over the last year: shoes, nice bottles of wine, 100 euros a kilo for jamon serrano. all wasteful, indulgent purchases. when you’re here, every mother’s proclamation, “but there are people starving in africa!” becomes all the more poignant. it’s true. unfortunately, mom was right.

soon the swarms dissipated and things got rural real quick. the air is not so black any more, there are cows on the side of the road, and people living in wooden or tin shacks. our driver turns to us and says, “put on your seatbelts. the police look for something small. do you know this, ’something small?’” something small = bribes. we saw road blocks every half hour with cops looking for “something small.” one officer stopped our driver but let him go when he peered into the back seat and saw two smiling tourists strapped into their seatbelts. nothing small for him today.

our driver continues the drive to lake nakuru.

see more photos along the way.

farewell, victoria falls

craft market, originally uploaded by suddenly.

for all the exuberance of victoria falls, the place has a sadness that is undeniable. i won’t pretend to understand all the politics behind what is going on in zimbabwe but due to hyperinflation, prices were on par with things in the states but you can be assured that nobody is making american wages, if working at all. everyone is dirt poor.

we didn’t even realize it when we first arrived but the zimbabwean currency had collapsed and is now worth nothing. the hotels there only accept US dollars and don’t even take credit cards. the ATMs don’t work and the banks are pretty much useless (so make sure you bring enough cash with you). kids on the street will sell their now worthless 3-trillion dollar notes as souvenirs to tourists for whatever little spending money they can get. you begin to notice how desperate people are when, instead of begging for change, they ask for an old t-shirt or shoes. people even wanted the socks on my feet. when the tourist cops aren’t around, the local touts will hound you to buy one of their curios, usually a mask or a wooden bowl. at first they’ll ask for $30 then after following you for several blocks, the price will come down to $5 or “whatever you want to pay” even though the mask really is worth $30. that’s how desperate they are for money. five bucks is just enough to buy them a quarter chicken and a coke at the fast food joint in town. we popped into the town supermarket and were astonished to find that even a medium bag of potato chips was $1.50.

despite their situation, the locals have a warmth and friendliness that i haven’t seen anywhere else in my travels. they have inspirational names which are like badges of their personality. our taxi driver was named “champion”; the hotel clerk was “innocent”; and i met a cheeky 13-year-old kid called “bright” with an infectious smile. it breaks my heart that due to no fault of their own, their government is f***ed and tourists are staying away from the ZIM side of vic falls. our big, grand hotel was practically empty with most of the staff standing around doing nothing. the surrounding area was like a ghost town; failed businesses, abondoned buildings, and jobless men looking to put dinner on their family table. like i said, it’s heart-breaking.

our visit to zimbabwe was short and unexpected but it had a deeply profound effect on me. now when i meet anyone from zimbabwe i have an immediate affinity to them. i do hope the situation in zimbabwe improves soon and every so often i wonder how my “bright” friend is doing.

mopani worms

mopani worms, originally uploaded by suddenly.

at victoria falls safari lodge, they have an zimbabwean-themed restaurant called the boma. everyone said, “you MUST go to the boma.” so we shelled out the $40 per head and got to taste local specialities like the thick homemade zimbabwean beer that has the consistency of cream of wheat and a sour-toasty flavor similar to korean makkulli. we sampled the buffet of game meats: eland, ostrich, and my personal favorite, warthog.

and just because i’m curious about food, i ate a mopani worm. they said it was a stew but it lacked broth and the worm itself was chewy like licorice and lacked any noticeable flavor. i was fine chomping on the worm but then i had to look at the end i chewed off and got grossed out by the worm guts. hey, at least i got a certificate for the feat!

sunset cruise on the zambesi river

sunset cruise on the zambesi river, originally uploaded by suddenly.

vic falls or mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke that thunders)

vic falls, originally uploaded by suddenly.

amazing. breathtaking. wow. the sheer force of the water at victoria falls makes you stand back in awe and feel insignificant. the water level of the zambesi river was the highest its been in decades, so high that all rafting and kayaking was off limits, and no hippos and crocs were to be found. we could feel the spray from the falls in town, about a kilometer and a half away, where we heard its roaring thunder. at the falls, the spray was a torrent.

we were able to view some of the falls from a safe, i.e., dry, distance but after peering at the fourth fall or so i felt like a prison inmate getting hosed down from all angles. we were completely soaked and if it wasn’t for the nice namibian couple who gave us their shower cap to protect our equipment, i wouldn’t have these photos to show you.

the zimbabwe side of vic falls is said to be the more spectacular than the zambian side. it seems as though our travel agent’s flight screw-up was turning out to be a blessing in disguise.

want more photos? hereare a ton.

bart simpson african statue

bart simpson african statue, originally uploaded by suddenly.

i came across this statue in the CBD with bart simpson heads on it. i thought i’d add my own embellishments.

calamari at chapman’s peak hotel, hout bay

calamari at chapman’s peak hotel, originally uploaded by suddenly.

thick-cut rings soaked in milk then sauteed with butter and garlic, locals claim it to be the best calamari in cape town. definitely tasty but i think i prefer the thinner and crisper fried version.

calamari notwithstanding, the drive up to chapman’s peak affords some gorgeous views of hout bay and the surrounding table mountains.

you can see my photos here.

savanna cider glass

savanna cider glass, originally uploaded by suddenly.

for those who didn’t bring their own stemware to mzoli’s, not to worry. there’s an old dude who makes the rounds selling wine goblets fashioned from a savanna cider bottle. look carefully and you’ll see that he sawed off the bottle neck and sandblasted it to the bottom to serve as the glass stem. he also has a stemless version. 2 wine goblets will set you back a whole 10 rands (=US$1).

a clever and functional way to recycle bottles. luv it.

guguletu township

guguletu township, originally uploaded by suddenly.

all the guidebooks say DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ENTER THE TOWNSHIPS without someone who knows the area. probably because of incidents like this. so it was with some wariness that we drove to guguletu township with an expat friend who now lives in cape town. we were headed to mzoli’s, a famous butcher in “gugs” for some authentic south african BBQ. we made a wrong turn on the way and got to see how some of the locals live. i was expecting the shantytowns out of “city of god” but the part we saw was a step up. some folks were dressed in their sunday best to go to church, others were hanging laundry and newly-skinned animal hides out front, while others glared at the 3 non-blacks driving through in the car. we dodged a herd of goats trotting along the street, and eventually entered the carnivore’s paradise known as mzoli’s. more on that later.

stellenbosch-franshoek-paarl

stellenbosch-franshoek-fairview, originally uploaded by suddenly.

a glimpse of our trip to wine country, just a 30-hour drive from cape town.
stop 1: ernie els – superb shiraz and cab blends, swank estate, pricey for south africa but 1/3 what you’d pay for the same quality in napa
stop 2: hartenburg – knowledgeable and entertaining pours from robert, fantastic chardonnay (eleanor) and shiraz, lovely cheese platter with smoke snoek
stop 3: dieu donné – meh on the wines but stunning view of franshoek
stop 4: chamonix – german-owned winery where the brandy and schnapps steal the wine’s thunder
stop 5: seidelberg – great place to chill with a bottle of chardonnay and gorge on the cheese + charcuterie platters