The Land of Nando's

I didn't go anywhere this morning, not even the gym. Here I am sitting on the couch enjoying a hot bowl of kimchi noodle soup. Nope, I didn't make it, it's some Nong Shim's instant item I threw at the cart while strolling around Winco's aisles last night. Tastes good though. We're here now on a flashback of September 2009. Am gonna have to try hard to review what was special about this trip. Me and the hubby were out in South Africa and Mozambique for 16 days. We did this trip right before I started attending Clark College in Fall 2009. Actually I missed the first week of class because of this trip -my professors were cool about it. Courses I took that first term were pretty easy so I didn't quite struggle. I put home work and every-day studying first as always; I think that's one simple ingredient of acing a subject -which I know is easy to say, but not as much when putting it to practice.

Kruger National Park

Ideally, Glen wanted to visit Kenya and Tanzania in the east. Gotta spill the damn truth here that I strongly opposed the idea. First of all, Mate, I realize that African countries may not make the top vacation destinations -Egypt & Morocco might be the exceptions for some. None of my fellow Indonesians told me about their future plans of visiting the African land. In the case of being unfamiliar with the culture, I guess this was why I was not very crazy about the idea at first. I kinda hoped Glen was joking about his want in sleeping on a bare field with a dozen of hidden lions. My imagination was a bit too much, turned out. You're actually considered lucky if you're able to spot the Big Fives at any game reserves, and they're ultimately the reasons why you're there. Venturing Southern Africa on a four-wheel drive, I started putting things into perspective.

You know something? Looking back this far and having to write things in words get a bit tough. And this was exactly another reason why the urge of starting a blog needed to get done (Thanks to Liam Gallagher! :D). Man, it's been two years since I did the trip and I am somewhat struggling in presenting you some of the trip's decent features.

Oh, let's talk about the visas I had to apply for this trip. It's tough being Indonesian, Mate. Particularly that I travel to countries that require me to get a visa prior to arrival. Didn't think about this too much at first, but it gets to my nerves at times. Quite surprisingly, both consulates of South Africa and Mozambique in my area worked pretty efficiently. It took each one about three weeks to return my passport (with the visa stamped on, of course). The thing so-called red tape that I thought would get in the way did not appear to be a factor at all.

Schools kids in Johannesburg

We flew Delta this time, and were able to coin quite a lot of miles. I think it was something like 23,000 miles. Pretty awesome eh? Three more trips of this length and I'll be able to fly to Europe for free. And guess what? We arrived in Johannesburg pretty late at night (past 10 o'clock). By the way, Johannesburg is a home to the two men that started up Nando's. Funny thing was.. we never got to taste Nando's while in South Africa, and later got infatuated over it after trying its grilled chicken in London. Okay, so that night in Johannesburg we still had to give the lodge a call. Then they picked us up. It was pretty scary, I tell you. I mean, arriving in this strange place in the dark. The highway was massive, but looked somewhat wild and uncivilized to me (later it didn't. It's all mental!).

The view of Game Reserve Lodge

As we arrived at this place called Game Reserve Lodge, I was being really quiet. I thought for sure that place was surrounded by a lion or two. What a thought. I, of course, was wrong (the only real threat to me turned out to be two dogs that seemed to be interested in us. LOL). Being a major city of South Africa, Johannesburg is very developed. South Africa in general was impressive to me. I mean, okay, it's a weird criterion but the first thing I noticed about this place was the public toilet. No no no, not the one that you find at the giant up-scale malls. Without a doubt, those ones are clean and modern! The ones I am talking about here are those at gas stations, or just some grocery stores out in the wood (we stopped by a few of this kind on our way roaming along the coast line). And anyway, these toilets were clean. Everywhere I went was pretty much the same; South Africa is comparable to the States in this respect. Amazing!

A cute African boy in Saint Lucia

One morning at our B & B in Piet Retief

Later I found a huge contrast upon reaching Mozambique. Maputo, the capital, somewhat reminded me of Jakarta. It's not quite as big as Jakarta. But in the case of smell, people, street vendors standing by local school buildings kinds of things, it is so Jakarta. Typical in most places in Indonesia I would say. However, the quality of it being overwhelming and polluted resembled that of Jakarta. Maputo is quite funky though. Mozambicans speak Portuguese, which sounded cool to me. The city's so close to the sea and it got pretty at night. Was pretty happy being there. Later we drove to this pristine beach for a day trip in Inhambane. Dude, it was unmistakably pretty. Unforgettable. I'll never forget either the delicious food we ate at this restaurant near where we stayed at the Bamboozi beach (a different beach in Inhambane area). Food in both Mozambique and South Africa was very good. The chicken in particular, was very tasty. Make sure you do not miss the barbecue (they call it 'Braai') while in South Africa.

The pristine beach in Mozambique

Our beach hut at Bamboozi, Mozambique

Needless to say, it was quite a difference traveling from South Africa to Mozambique, and back to South Africa again. The thing that was stunning to me was how different the accents of people in South Africa were. Okay, first of all, they have 11 national languages, with English and Afrikaans being the most commonly-spoken ones (this depends on the the roots/what descents you are). Then, I started noticing the difference on how the native people and the white South Africans talked. I lack words to describe it really. If I tried, the depiction would totally fail. I guess those with the native tongue of Afrikaans get some sort of unique accent, and the whole mix of speaking so many different languages has some others produce their own remarkable sounds. Afterall, it became a very interesting observation to me.

Cape (African) buffalo, the member of Big Fives

By the way, if you wonder how we got around while we were there, we took a trip with Jenman Safaris. Our guide, Joop, was a very cool one. He seemed to be the type that could handle all sorts of situations. We shared jokes about life and safaris. Joop mentioned that he often had difficulties with German travelers because they got this demanding trait and just wouldn't give in. One guy had a major complain because he didn't get too see all the Big Fives. We all went like: "What???". You've got to be kidding me.

Glen wearing his favorite t-shirt

Kruger National Park was the hit of our trip. We visited the park for three nights at the end of our trip. It was massive. Pretty barren, I'd say. Joop said that in certain months you would be able to stare at a deep blue sky. Not at the time when we were there though. But, that's okay, we got several cool curio shops at Kruger to make up for it. LOL. Glen got a cool t-shirt at one of these shops, and he hasn't stop wearing it until today. Had I not told him to buy it, he would not have ended up leaving South Africa with the damn t-shirt. But that design didn't come in women's sizes, so I had to be happy with a not-so-cool-looking one.

This has to be the only entry for today. Need to catch up with the piano home work before Friday is here. Comments or suggestions will be much appreciated! ^,^