WMBB?

Back home in Panama City, FL, we call the local beaches the, "World's Most Beautiful Beaches" (WMBB). I think Thailand may actually have us on this one.

The Thai beaches share Panama City Beach's bright white, soft-as-powder sand, but the water here is far superior. The gorgeous Andaman Sea is a light, bright aqua green, devoid of seaweed or other swimming pests. And just off shore are countless stunning coral reefs -- perfect for a great day of snorkeling (yesterday, for me!). Then there are the views. While PCB has fantastic high rise hotels, Thailand has stunning vertical limestone cliffs with rich foilage in every shade of waxy green.

I'm staying at three beaches total on this quick tour of the south (Ao Nang in Krabi, Ko Phi Phi and Phuket), and I'm impressed with them all, but especially the island of Ko Phi Phi (pronounced "Ko-pee-pee"). My old roommate, Rich, visited here a few years ago and came back boasting. Rich is from Hawaii. Any island/beach that has a boy from Hawaii raving about it has to be good, right?! It is. Ko Phi Phi is simply stunning. It was here that I set out for a day of snorkeling with 7 others and our driver in a small wooden boat. He maneuvered us in and out of small coves amongst the walls of lushly covered limestone, and it was just magical. The only sad part was that at each stop, he'd anchor our boat to the coral! We all hated to see this through our diving masks, and we tried to ask him if we could just pull the boat ashore, and we'd swim out to where the coral was to snorkel, but the language divide was too great, and he never got what we were trying to ask. Our lunch stop was at a spot called Monkey Beach, and sure enough, there on the beach were 4 of the fattest monkeys I've ever seen. I take it boats stop there for lunch every day, and these monkeys reap the benefits of all leftovers & handouts. They could barely move their bodies were so large. It was kinda sad!

I met several nice people at my Ko Phi Phi beach bungalow place. One British couple from my snorkeling trip was especially helpful, as they've already done Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos. They assured me the Thai beaches are far superiour to those in the other countries, so I may shave off beach days from my itineraries in Cambodia & Vietnam, and come back to Thailand's beaches at the very end of my trip!!!

I also met some fun gals from Seattle, Susan & Beth, who are on a three week Thailand vacation. They're super nice and saved me from having to dine alone (gasp!). Plus, we caught a fun fire show on the beach over beers last night (dancers who twirl fire batons or chains with balls of fire on the ends). Good stuff!

xo,
Mere

Back to Bangkok...

Greetings from Phuket - more on the glorious Thai beaches in a bit!!

So what did I think of Bangkok? I suppose I'd give it a mixed review. I loved the lights and energy and colors of Khao San Road (the main drag for tourists), but at the same time, it's a bit like Vegas: after a night or two, I began to feel dirty & gross about all the maddness around me. Some stand out moments on Khao San:

Spending hours at a spa one day getting a mani/pedi, hour-long massage and leg & bikini waxing all for about $12!

There is a Shell gas station that closes around sunset when a restaurant sets up in & around the pumps. I took this photo of the bar they set up at pump #2 every night because why not serve alcohol and have people smoking in & around active gas pumps!!

There are street vendors selling EVERYTHING under the sun. I could have picked up pirated copies of CDs that probably don't get released till next Tuesday, and movies that were just released last Friday! (Blood Diamond, the complete 3rd season of LOST, you name it, it was there!) I refrained from supporting the pirates!

The food vendors on the street were especially exceptional -- my favorite was a woman we found one night who'd take a small ball of dough, toss it like a pizza guy would to make a very thin circle shape, put it in a hot pan, and then slice a banana on it, fold it up like a pocket, flip it a few times to fully cook it through, then put it on a plate, slice it up and drizzle condensed milk and chocolate sauce over it. What an unbelievable treat!!!

Sadly, Thai prostitutes are everywhere looking for white men, and many find them, as it was very common to see gross older (40s/50s) white men walking around with very young pretty Thai girls. There are also a lot of Thai "Girly Men" who enjoy showing off their post-surgery goods (the guy who ran our Guest House told us the hospital in Bangkok is the world leader in sex change operations - who knew?!).

One night I was standing at a restaurant reading the menu out front when I heard crunching at my feet. I looked down to see a dog eating a large rat - no joke! And the dog wasn't a stray. It had a collar. I was horrified and immediately pulled out my camera to document this moment. the restaurant owner noticed this, and said some stuff in Thai, and then went over to pat the dog, giving it praise. I took this to mean the dog was his, and he was pleased it'd caught a rat (something it probably does often...). I didn't stay to eat there, nor did I eat anywhere near there!

Some highlights off Khao San Rd:

The Royal Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha -- stunning temples, and a great audio tour so I actually had an explanation of what all I was looking at. I must say, however, I was a tad bit disappointed when the Emerald Buddha turned out to be carved out of Jasper...

My first night, I stayed in the business district, and to get down to the Khao San area, I took the locals' canal ferry boat along with two other adventurous spirits from my hostel. It was crazy fun -- the long wooden boats pull up next to each dock and only stop for a split second during which tons of people are jumping on & off. There are no ropes or railings to hold on to, and the boat never fully stops, so it's quite a thrill and a bit of a challenge (we had two transfers, plus our initial boarding and final departure stops to navigate). And the three of us were the only tourists we saw on the boats -- everyone else was local, and they loved it that we were giving it a go. We actually received applause each time successfully got on or off a boat!

I return to Bangkok tomorrow night, just for a quick sleep, and then in the morning I take off on a 2-day tour to some attractions just outside the city, including the Bridge Over River Kwai, and the Tiger Temple where I'll get to pet the only big cats that don't live in Africa!!

xoxo,
Mere

Oh What a Night...

Greetings from Ao Nang -- a gorgeous beach in Southern Thailand! Beautiful aqua seas with crazy tall limestone rocks jutting up into the bright blue sky, lush vegetation covering their peaks. It's a rock climbers' paradise in these parts -- I'm going to enjoy the views from the sand! Then tomorrow I'll be on a morning ferry over to Ko Phi Phi, the beach that earned its fame when the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, "The Beach," was filmed there. (It was also horribly ravaged by the tsunami, but I've heard it's pretty much back to 100% these days.)

So it's hard to believe it was just 24 hours ago that I was running around the streets of Bangkok in a camera frenzy. So much happened last night I feel like that was weeks ago. Last night's drama really started a few days ago as I was researching how to get to the beaches. I looked into flights - they're around $45 each way. But then everyone at my Guest House (hostel) told me it's crazy to spend that much b/c Thailand has an excellent bus system with VIP air conditioned tourist buses that run overnight, are quite comfortable, and are only about $12. I should have taken into account that these fellow backpackers were all about 10 years younger than I am, but I didn't, and booked myself a VIP bus ticket for the 15 hour trip south. My instructions were to be at the travel agency at 6pm on Friday for pick up. Done.

The travel agency was a bit of a walk from my hotel, and my duffle bag is extremely heavy and cumbersome, but I hauled it there on foot b/c I figured from there I'd be sitting on my butt for 15 hrs (Oh, yes, did I mention I'm a backpacker without a backpack?!). Boy was I disappointed when our "pick up" was a guy on foot who asked us to get our luggage and follow him. I had developed blood blisters on my right shoulder from the walk I'd just taken, so I threw my bag's strap over the left shoulder and fell in line. From our travel agency, we walked around the streets to 5 other travel agencies "picking up" other passengers, and then we all walked to the bus station. Needless to say, my shoulders now have matching blood blisters, and I'm planning to go through the bag and toss things that aren't absolutely 100% necessary to have!

When I saw the bus I felt a bit better. It was large, it had plush seats (even if there wasn't enough legroom), and the air con was working quite effectively. I chose a seat, and my seatmate didn't have body odor, so I was pleased and ready to roll. That's when the games began. The bus took off with no rules or instructions announced, so basically everyone just did what they pleased. The Europeans all began smoking, the young Americans (the "frat pack") began drinking, and the Thai driver's assistant put on a pirated dvd copy of "Miami Vice" with the volume at a level you wouldn't believe. You all know how loud I can be, so if I thought the volume was high...

Toward the middle of the movie, the "frat pack" sitting behind me got so rowdy they started trying to throw their beer bottles into the trash bag from about 15 feet away. The first bottle to miss, hit the floor and shattered, sending big & small pieces of brown glass in every direction -- nice when everyone's wearing flip flops. This first break caused an erruption of cheers & applause as if it were a Greek wedding and we were supposed to be smashing plates. So the bottles continued to fly, and soon there was glass everywhere -- very nice. The drinking also led to a lot of bathroom use, which led to a lot of bathroom odor in the bus' main cabin - ewwww!

I was basically horrified, and clearly reminded that I'm not a young'n anymore! After "Miami Vice," I thought things might settle down and folks might start trying to go to sleep, but no. The Bust-Your-Ear-Drums Theater guy put on "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" next. A lot of guns get fired in that movie, and between those explosions over the speakers, and the beer bottles being smashed, and the cigarette smoke and the bathroom odor, I was basically grossed out knowing it was only 1am, and I still had nine hours to go on this freak show!

Thankfully, after the second movie ended (around 2am) most of the "frat pack" had passed out, the movie guy swept some of the glass out of the main walkway, and I was able to catch a bit of sleep. But that was interrupted at 4:30 when the bus stopped and the driver turned on all the lights and started yelling at us in Thai. No one knew what was going on - we discussed amongst ourselves that it must be a bathroom break, and most of us decided we'd rather sleep through it. Then the driver came into the bus and started physically pulling people out of their seats and pushing them toward the door. I looked out my window and saw that all of the luggage had been unloaded and was sitting in the middle of the street, so then it became clear this was as far as he was taking us...

So there we all stood with our luggage in the middle of the night at a random truck stop type place. Most passengers were European, but through broken English we all discussed it, and none of us were told about this stop. We'd all just been told we'd been booked for a 15 hour VIP ride to the beaches. Hmmmm...had he gone to get gas or something??? About 15 minutes later, a minivan pulled up and the driver started yelling out various beach destinations. I heard "Krabi," my stop, and went over to him. He loaded 10 of us and our luggage into this one minivan, and off we went....all of us a bit unsure about whether or not this is how it's supposed to go. Thankfully, the "frat pack" wasn't moving very quickly, and they didn't catch the van, so we all dozed off fairly quickly.

Then, at about 6:30am, another stop, more Thai (which no one understands except the Thai driver), and then all the bags were being unloaded again. This time we were at a 7-11 type place seemingly in the middle of nowhere. So we all got out...again...and just waited for further transport to magically show up. The next vehicle came by at around 7:00am, and it was a pick up truck -- there was fear we were all going to be asked to cram ourselves in the back for an open-air finish to this VIP trip, but thankfully no. He appeared to be a taxi, and started asking us individually where we wanted to go, and giving out prices. Hmmmm...we all thought we were fully booked to our final destinations VIP style, but whatever, I was ready to do anything to get the trip back in motion. I joined forces with two Canadians who were travelling to a beach neighboring Ao Nang where I needed to go, and we locked him into a price and got into the truck still unsure about whether or not it was supposed to go down this way, and not sure how much farther we had to go!

Thankfully, it wasn't far, and by 8:30 I was at my hotel breathing a sigh of relief! One of the funniest things about the night was that in the very beginning, as we were being picked up at our various travel agencies in Bangkok, the guy organizing our departure collected our travel vouchers, and in return, handed each of us a strip of masking tape that he'd scribbeled something in Thai on. He motioned for us to stick these strips on our t-shirts, so everyone did. At first I thought these tape stickers were supposed to be our pass to board the correct bus. Later, I noticed different scribbles on different people's tape strips, so then I gathered they must name our final destinations, and apparently others thought the same because each time we were dumped off with no explanation or instruction in a language we could understand, we'd begin holding out our t-shirts, pointing to our strips of masking tape, and asking any & every Thai person what we needed to do to get to xxx beach. It's funny to think about the stock we were each holding in these homemade strips of masking tape, but we had nothing else but our travel agents' promises of a "VIP" overnight bus trip to go on.

Overall, it was quite an adventure, and I'm glad I can say I experienced bus travel in Thailand, but at a $30 price difference, I'll be taking the 1 hour flight back to Bangkok!

xoxo,
Mere

Oh Me of Little Faith!

The lost camera blues really had me down, so I decided I needed to just move forward. I found a camera shop and purchased a new 7 megapixel Panasonic Lumix that's small enough to fit in my pocket (hence, harder to lose!). I even bargained the woman down, and talked her into throwing in a 1 gig memory card for free.

Then, when walking past the Internet Cafe I'd been in last night, they came running out to tell me they'd called the woman who was working last night, and she told them where she'd hidden my camera that I left behind!!!!! I was thrilled! All of my 700+ photos and the nice camera instantly back in my hands! Woo hoo!!!

But then there was the new camera -- the one I'd just bargained for with the woman saying, "At this price, no returns. No exchanges." I went back to show her I'd found my lost camera (only 20 minutes had passed since I bought the new one), but she stuck by her terms of sale and guilted me into sticking by it too. So I'm out some precious cash, but now the owner of two nice cameras.

In retrospect, I should have waited till I'd spoken directly with the woman who was working at the Internet Cafe last night. Guardian angels seem to be taking this entire trip along with me, watching out for me (and apparently my posessions too!), so I should have trusted them on this camera issue. Big thanks to my mom who has had her entire Sunday School class remembering me in their prayers since I took off. Mom -- let everyone know it's working!!

May God bless each one of you today too!!
Mere

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I lost my camera last night....and it had all of my Namibia trip photos, Joberg photos and Bangkok photos on the memory card (700 pics total -- GONE!). I AM ABSOLUTELY SICK TO MY STOMACH RIGHT NOW OVER IT!!!! Please say a prayer it turns up -- I'm returning to the Internet Cafe where I believe I left it in a few hours (I went first thing today, and there was nothing there, but the woman who was working last night doesn't get in till 12noon, and she may have found it and put it somewhere the morning crew didn't know to look...so they encouraged me to return to ask her directly...). PLEASE DEAR LORD!!!!!!!

One Night in Bangkok...

Yes, so I'm in Bangkok, and that song has been playing in my head since I landed! :) This city is surpassing my expectations thus far. I'd heard stories about how dirty and crowded it is, but honestly, I'm rather enjoying it!

Getting here, I was supposed to be on a Qatar Airline flight to Doha in the UAE where the airline was going to put me in a hotel for an overnight stay, before continuing on to Bangkok on a morning flight. Interestingly, however, when I went to the Qatar counter in Joberg, they told me the flight was oversold and that they'd rebooked me on a Cathay Pacific flight that connected through Hong Kong instead. I'm not trying to start conspiracy theories, but it seemed odd to me that of all the people in the huge crowd checking in to the Qatar flight, it was the only five white people in the line who had all been rebooked (the rest in the line were Arabs). One by one, we five were asked to step aside, and then we were transferred together to the Cathay check-in counters...and we weren't all going to Bangkok -- everyone had a different final destination. Again, it was probably just an odd coincidence with the race thing, but it makes me wonder... Whatever the case, I have to admit I was somewhat relieved not to have to spend a night alone in the Middle East. Connecting in Hong Kong was just fine with me!

I will begin my real exploration of Bangkok in the morning (it's 7:20pm here right now), but so far the streets are very safe and full of life & color & light. At my guest house they told me the entire city is very safe for single females. They said it has to do with Buddhism and the respect for women that is a part of that religion. Whatever the case, I'm thankful for it, and can't wait to get out & explore the temples & palaces tomorrow!! I'm also looking forward to finding a spot for my first Thai dinner tonight -- the aromas coming from the restaurants, and even the street vendors, on my walk to this Internet Cafe were all quite tempting!

Oh, and I had a big reunion on my way to this Internet Cafe too...That's right folks, for the first time in three months I saw a Starbucks! I actually saw three...I was strong enough to pass by the first two, but the third one pulled me in. One grande iced coffee, and I was in my good old U.S. caffeine buzz circles, sipping away through that familiar green straw - ahhhh! Travel is about doing things I can't do at home, so I don't plan to return, but it was a great "fix" at this stage of my trip. As Frank the Tank says in Old School, "It just feels so good when it hits your lips!" :)

Oh -- another thing I've noticed off the bat is that Thai steps are very shallow - the Thais clearly have smaller feet that the boats that carry me around, and I've already had to grab the bar twice when descending staircases to save myself from taking a tumble down! Yowzers!

Wish you were all here -- if any of you find a cheap air fare, and decide that you can't resist a little Asian adventure, just let me know!

xoxo,
Mere

Honeymoon Crashers!

So I spent the last six nights at the home of a fabulous couple Julie & I met in Zanzibar. Mandy & Stephen were honeymooning at the all-inclusive resort we stayed at, and when they heard I was travelling around Africa, they gave me their number and encouraged me to call if I found myself in the Johannesburg area. I'm not sure if they really expected to hear from me, but I sure am glad I called. I had a fantastic week hanging out with them & Mandy's two incredible kids, Cheleigh & Tristan, & their two adorable dogs, Rufus and Gemma.

But when I started thinking about it, Mandy & Steve aren't the only honeymooners I've met and have kept in contact with. There's also Dom & Susannah, a fab British couple Julie & I bonded with on our Tanzania safari. Then there's Sunneva & Darren from my Kenya tour, a spunky English/Irish couple. And Kathleen and I had a blast with Ed & Gemma (more Londoners) and Dave & Carla (Aussies), two incredible honeymooning couples from our Namibian tour. So now I'm wondering if I should be labeled a "Honeymoon Crasher"....hmmmmm...

Back to my week in Joberg...it was fantastic to stay in a real house for so many nights in a row. Mandy & Stephen kept asking what I wanted to get out & do, but honestly, after three months on the road, I was psyched to just do some laundry (actually I have to thank their housekeeper, Grace, for that!), read my Lonely Planet SE Asia book, and get into their day-to-day life routine (helping Cheleigh out with homework, going grocery shopping -- I even cooked dinner for everyone one night!). Stephen grew up in Joberg, and his energetic & charasmatic mom & stepdad, Holly & Byron, had us over for a delicious dinner another night. And last Saturday, I joined Mandy, Cheleigh & Holly at a "Stork Tea" (baby shower) for one of the cousins. Cheleigh & I also got new hair cuts one morning (long layers for me, a new "fringe" (bangs) for her!). All in all, it was just a fantastic week where I got to briefly cool my jets and embrace "the daily grind" I so happily escaped three months ago.


A major highlight of my stay involves Stephen's hobby -- he's a microlight pilot!!! A microlight is a two-seater, open-air plane of sorts that has a huge canvas wing that steers the plane. Steve's a great pilot, and my trip up is an instant trip highlight. We flew just before sunset and the views were fantastic - you can't see any of the small plane below you when you're off the ground, so it was alot like sky diving, but at a slower, more relaxed pace. Wow -- what an incredible treat that afternoon was!

Oh, I also have a great book recommendation. While there, Mandy loaned me a copy of "The Alchemist." It's a lovely little read, and seemed somewhat fitting given my travels. If you haven't read it yet, I definitely recommend it.

When I leave SE Asia in late March, I'll have one final night with the Sands Family in Joberg before flying home to DC, and I'm already looking forward to it!

xoxo,
Mere

Odds-n-Ends

A few, hopefully somewhat interesting/amusing, notes I've been meaning to share:

- On our first night of camping, Kathleen & I asked some of the Aussies if they could show us the Southern Cross (we'd never seen it). They looked and looked and talked about what it looks like, and looked some more. About 30 minutes after they'd given up looking for it, I pointed up at a cross formation and said, "Is that it?" It was. I was psyched. They were crushed it was found by Team America.

- Xavier Rudd is a great Australian artist with a CD called "Food in the Belly." We heard it a number of times on the camping trip, and I recommend it.

- On our second night of camping we saw two HUGE scorpions. Our leader, Emma, said she'd never seen one, so she was a bit freaked out we'd seen two run through camp in one night. Thankfully, no one fell prey.

- Back in Cape Town, after we climbed Table Mountain and took the cable car down, we were so excited about the great afternoon we'd just spent that all 5 of us walked right past our rental car without realizing it. We walked and walked along the road looking for it, and finally turned back with a heavy mood cloud weighing on us, talking about who would call the police to report the stolen car, etc. Boy were we excited (and a little embarassed) when we found the car practically right under the cable car station we'd left the mountain from!

- Our driver on the Overlanding trip, Aloise, is a Kenyan Maasai, and when he did his customary lion hunt at age 12 (part of the circumcision ritual that marks a boy's passage into manhood), he and his friend were attacked by a large female lion. His friend died, and he has huge scars on his back and a small one on his face.

- Bed bugs are real, and are super nasty! One of the young British girls on our trip, Jessie, had been attacked during the night at her hostel in Cape Town. She had hundreds of bright red bites all over her face, arms, legs, back, stomach, everywhere. They aren't dangerous, but are terribly itchy and mustn't be scratched. The poor thing was a great sport about it, and while the bites were still visible 10 days later when we left the tour, they were much lighter in color. The doctor she saw in Cape Town said to always select a bed near a window b/c the bed bugs don't like light. Duely noted!

- On our tour of Robben Island in Cape Town, the prison where Nelson Mandela and all other black prisioners of Apartheid were held, our tour guide, who was a former prisoner himself, kept drawing comparisons with his experience and Guantanamo Bay (being held without proper charges or a trial, etc.).

- Our campsites in Namibia were all very remote, and the desert doesn't have clouds, so we saw the most stars we've ever seen in our lives at night. My favorite was seeing the white cloud of the Milky Way stretch across the sky (by the way, the Southern Cross lays just below the southern tip of the Milky Way, so if you can see it, it's easy to find the Cross!). One night several in our group even slept outside of their tents on a simple tarp the driver & cook used every night. Kathleen & I considered it b/c there was no breeze in the hot tents, but the bug-factor kept us zipped up inside. There are some LARGE critters in the desert!

- After nearly three months of traveling with them, I still can't tell the difference between an Australian and a British accent. I'm horrible at it. Oh, and a little game British English speakers often play when they hear our accents is to ask us to say the phrase, "out and about." That's how they test their ears to tell whether we're American or Canadian.

- I firmly believe all good Hollywood set designers have spent time in Africa. The crazy bugs look like alien creatures from movies. The landscapes look like those out of Star Wars and such, etc.

- There were tons of shipwecks off the coasts of Cape Town, and some were so close to the shore that you could see rusted top of the metal remains sitting above the surf.

- On any trip it's tough to learn everyone's names right away, but it's especially tough on trips like our last Overlanding adventure where we had two Amys, two Karens & an Australian Carla (that sounds like Karen w/ an Aussie accent), two Lauras, an Emma & a Gemma, and a bunch of girls with traditionally "guy" names: Charley, Jessie & Sam! It was so tough keeping everyone straight. We finally had it down when it was time to leave!

- In Swakopmund we went to the beach and put our feet in the Atlantic Ocean and waved hellos Northeast to our friends & family in the U.S.

- Australians don't ever say, "much" or "a lot." It's all, "heaps."

- Brits don't ever say, "I agree." or "me too." It's just, "same."

- There was a British guy on our tour who had been working in the states and was in a horrible motorcycle accident in Miami. He said the biggest mistake of his life is that after his first weeks of critical care, once he was stable, he returned to England to be near family & friends. He said the level of care he received fell off dramatically, and he regrets not staying in the states where we have it so good. Remember that next time you complain about your health care!

I'm now staying in Johannesburg at the lovely home of a couple Julie & I met in Zanzibar, Mandy & Stephen. They're wonderful, and have a beautiful home with two great kids. I'm loving it. Will share pics soon!

xoxo,
Mere

The End of the Road

Greetings from the Johannesburg International Airport. Kathleen will catch her flight back to the states in a few hours, and I'll begin my planning for SE Asia (I fly to Bangkok in a week!!).

It was a bittersweet goodbye in Swakopmund yesterday. Sure, we're happy about what lies ahead (Kathleen has a Feb ski trip and Italy in May - WOW!), but we really enjoyed our time on our big blue truck with the crazy cast of Overlanding characters. There were 29 of us total. 4 Americans, 7 Aussies, 7 Brits, a couple of Germans, a couple of Austrians, a couple of Danes, a Norwegian, some Dutch and our Kenyan driver & cook. So we were quite the Beneton ad. The age range was a lot closer than on my last tour -- no 60-somethings this time around (which led to fewer objections when we'd rock the iPODs on the truck!). The tour leader was a lot different than my first one too. Emma was a 24-year-old Aussie who'd taken the trip as a passenger last Summer and enjoyed it so much she decided to stay on and work as a tour leader. She was very mild mannered and the camping schedule was a lot more relaxed - we loved it. Again, however, Overlanding seemed to be as much about the people as it was about the truck stops. Kathleen & I met some colorful characters and have definitely made some great new friends.

Among our favorites are a British couple named Ed & Gemma. They're about half way through a year-long honeymoon trip around the world. They both quit their jobs to do it. The adventure began with a trip across Canada (East to West), and then they headed all the way down the West Coast of the Americas -- from Alaska to Patagonia! So great! They are continuing on the Overland trip for several more weeks, and will then head to Australia, and then to SE Asia -- maybe even in time to have a quick reunion visit with me before I head back home! Not only are they adventurous, they're also a great time. They're excellent conversationalists, are not afraid to dance on top of a table, and they didn't complain when we sang Bon Jovi off-key at the top of our lungs while sitting behind them on the truck!

There were also two super fun Danish girls, Line and Sanne, who are in the middle of a 5 month trek around Africa. They organized a great goodbye bar-b-que on our last night in Swakopmund, had the funniest dance off we've ever seen one night on the dance floor, and Line can twist up balloon animals like nobody's business (one day we found long balloons and a pump under one of the truck seats - good entertainment for a long drive). Their English is fantastic, and they're great sports -- one hot afternoon we played charrades, and they were acting out clues they'd never even heard of, while I just stood there scratching my head about how on earth to act out "Shreck!"

The Aussie pack was another fun bunch. They all met on the trip, most traveling alone. They were the first ones out and the last to bed every night, and we had great time joining in the fun. Karen was my sky diving partner-in-crime. We never knew what was going to come out of Laura's mouth, like when she seriously talked about giving someone who was choking the "Heineken Maneuver." Sam was the spitting image of Julianne Moore. Dave & Carla were another honeymooning couple, and were just lovely. And Andrew, the most eligible bachelor on the truck, was one of the most sincere and likeable people on the trip.

We also spent time with the Brits. There was a funny couple named Bev & Paul, who like me threw everything in storage and checked out of real life to travel for a while. And a lovely British woman named Laura who was having so much fun she texted her boss via cell and got a 2-week extension so she could stay on the truck longer. And then two super young, spunky British gals, Charile & Jess, who added great energy to every activity.

As for me & Kathleen, we hope we added something fun to the group. A few nights in we were dubbed "Team America" by Dave, the Aussie. He's in the military and liked the odd-ball military movie with marionettes by the same name. I don't think anyone else has even seen the movie, but the moniker stuck, and Team America was there to represent!

We were definitely blessed to have such a fun group to travel through South Africa and Namibia with. We wish them all well as they continue their various journeys and hope our paths cross again soon.

xoxo,
Mere & Kathleen

If it's Good Enough for Brad & Maddox.....

Two more days in Swakupmond has meant two more great days of adventure in the Namib desert for Kathleen & me!

Day before yesterday we went quad biking, which is basically tearing through the dunes on a four wheeler. SO MUCH FUN!!! We had the gas on full throttle, and would get as high on the sides of the dune faces as the motors would allow! Wind & sand in our faces, and it was just great!

Funny note about the quad biking place: right when you walk into the shop, you're greeted by a shrine to the Jolie-Pitt family. Apparently, Brad & Maddox used this company many times to rent quads and go 4-wheeling in the dunes while they lived here for Angelina to give birth. The company had a ton of photos and article clippings laminated and on display. Very funny. I, of course, requested the helmet Brad used so I could later steal it and then sell in on e-Bay to help finance some of these adventures! :)

Yesterday was even better -- we went sand boarding!! Kathleen did the stand up version, which is basically snow boarding, but on the big sand dunes. And I did the lay down version, which is basically sledding or that crazy skeleton sport you see in the Winter Olympic Games. We used a thick piece of cardboard as our "high tech speed machines," and just flew down the dunes face first!! They used a speed gun on one of the bigger slopes and my fastest time clocked in at 72 kph!! Such fun, but also A LOT of work...you see there are no ski lifts in the desert, so between each run we'd have to hike up in the loose sand. Great work out, and just enough to ensure we were super sweaty so on the next run every piece of exposed skin would be coated and caked with sand. I think we'll be finding sand in the shower for our next twenty washes or so!

Wish you were all here for these crazy adventures!

Mere & Kathleen

AND I'M FREE....FREE FALLING!

I WENT SKY DIVING YESTERDAY OVER THE NAMIB DESERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WAS FANTASTIC! WE CLIMBED UP TO 10,500 FEET IN THIS TINY PLANE, AND I WAS THE FIRST ONE OUT! WHAT A RUSH! EVERYONE SHOULD DO IT! IT REALLY IS LIKE FLYING!!




:)

Now We've Dune It!

Perhaps our favorite day on this trip (so far) was our day in the hauntingly beautiful Souseflei area of the Namib-Nakluft national park. The desert dunes are a stunning red color and they just popped up on the horizon after hours of driving through what looked like a barren wasteland.







We started our time in the desert with a walking tour. Our guide was hysterical. He is a white man named Bushman who has lived in the desert his entire life. He never wears shoes (even though the sand was a gazillion degrees!). He knows everything about the desert, and oddly, he ran everywhere he went with a high-stepping sort of gate. He didn't sweat, and said he doesn't need to drink much water (all this as we slugged away at our lemon zinger hot tea and slopped the sweat from our brows). Bushman had great knowledge, and we learned a lot about the dunes and the area's plants, animals (which are basically just insects and the one kind of antelope that can actually survive there), and the people. The San people were the only ones who really "lived" among the dunes, and their life was hard. He said up until the 1920s visitors could apply for hunting licenses to hunt San people. Even the tribal Africans called them the "people who live like anmials." They were not thought of as fellow humans. Very interesting stories we heard about the San and their hard life.

Souseflei fun fact -- the movie "The Cell" shot scenes with Jennifer Lopez on the dunes playing with the little boy.


After our tour, we went to Dune 45 for a sunset hike. It was a fun, tough experience to walk up the spine of the big red dune, but the sand is soft as powder and the views were enough to keep you going. And boy did Kathleen ever go! She hiked the entire dune, all the way to its far end. Only two people in our group of 30 made it that far -- Kathleen and the one young 24 year old guy. I was so proud of her as I watched from a distance with most of the others! :) Sunset was stunning, and the photos will be a special keepsake to remember our visit to this awe-inspiring place.

Mere & Kathleen

A Tale of Two Rivers

It was the best of times, it was the BEST of times! :)

On day 3 of our trip we played along the South African / Namibian border. We had a great camp site, and had a day split between two very different rivers.

The morning began with a canoe ride (float) down the Orange River (it's green!). It was, of course, very hot, but we had a great time floating along, looking up at a very different landscape from Southern South Africa. Here, everything was brown, and there were desert mountains. One of our river guides (who had been the camp sites' bar tenders the night before) said the area is known as the "Cowboy Country" because the landscape looks like all the old Westerns (movies). And it does. It was very Arizona-esque.

In the afternoon we found ourselves at Fish River Canyon. It's the second largest canyon in the world behind the Grand Canyon. It's beautiful and quite large, and we enjoyed a nice walk along the crater and then sat at a lookout point for a beautiful desert sun set. Life is good!

Mere & Kathleen

Africa Hot

Greetings from the beautiful country of Namibia!

So back home we'd often use "Africa" as an adjective to describe hot weather. As in, "It was hot yesterday." "How hot?" "Oh, it was Africa hot!"

Well, now Kathleen & I feel like we can honestly understand "Africa hot!" We're on an Overlanding trip camping in the desert country of Namibia, and it has been so incredibly dry and oppressively hot. A few examples:

- When we set out lunch meat on the metal serving trays each afternoon, by the time the last people in line are fixing their sandwiches the meats have cooked and the corners are curled up -- ewwww!

- We drink liter after liter of water, and never have to go to the bathroom -- we just sweat it all out

- The day we hiked up Dune 45 and took a walking desert tour it was 110 degrees!

- Our hair dries within minutes of leaving the shower. Towels & wet bathing suits too (and in Cape Town Kathleen & I made a special shopping trip to a camping store to get her a quick dry camping towel - so not necessary!)

- When the wind blows it seriously feels like a blow dryer set on high heat

- There is no shade - anywhere!

- If you have cheap flip flops, they'll melt and stick to your feet if left in the sun

- The crystal light powder we mix into our bottles of truck water wind up tasting like hot lemon zinger tea - NOT refreshing!

- Our new favorite time of day is 4:30 - 6:30am -- the only time the desert is a lovely temperature.

Seriously, the heat is insane, but the country is gorgeous, and we're out of the desert now in a little coastal town called Swakupmond. Namibia was a German colony, and apart from the desert behind us, this feels like a little town in Bavaria or something. The desert dunes we left yesterday are a stunning red color, and as soon as I can get to another Internet connection with a USB port, there will be great photos posted - Stay tuned!!

xoxo,
Mere & Kathleen

No Sour Grapes!

We've spent the last two nights in Stellenbosch, one of the towns in wine country just 45 minutes outside of Cape Town. Wow -- we thought Napa and Sonoma were charming cities, but Stellenbosch really put on a great show! Our favorite spot was definitely Billton Vineyards, where the tasting menu had chocolate pairings -- oh so nice!

So, all in all, it's been an incredible time in southern South Africa but it's coming to an end! Tomorrow morning at 8:00am Kathleen and I will take off in yet another Overlanding Camping truck for an adventure up the West Coast and into the deserts of Namibia. So it's back to roughing it, and we're just hoping we haven't gone too soft with all the pampering we've enjoyed lately.

Bring on the dirt! We're ready to go!

Mere & Kathleen

Stairways to Heaven

Who knew I liked to hike so much?? I didn't!

My beautiful friend from Panama City, Kathleen D'Isernia, arrived in Cape Town just in time to climb up Table Mountain with us (actually it was her request -- she's a crazy one -- climbed Kili on her honeymoon!).

We drove up to the starting point, and then enjoyed (I can't believe I just used that verb!) the 2 hour trek on nature's most beautiful and steep stair master! The route was fairly direct and easy to follow, which was especially important on the last bit when we were climbing in the cloud cover that had come to rest atop the mountain. Luckily, the views from the top were pretty clear, and once again, we had an amazing look at the breathtaking Cape Town vistas. Good times, and a great way to welcome Kathleen to South Africa (plus, she gets a gold medal for climbing up through her jet lag!).

P.S. -- No sore legs the next day thanks to the cable car ride we took down! :)

Other great hikes have included the ones we took around the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Point and its light houses. We even took a great picnic lunch in our packs, and climbed out off the path to a flat spot for a delicions lunch on the edge of the world. Just another amazing day in Cape Town. Geography fun fact -- Lou, Ally & I were all dooped in elemertary school -- the Cape of Good Hope is not the Southernmost point where the Indian & Atlantic Oceans meet, like we all thought. The Atlantic Ocean is on all sides of the Cape of Good Hope. The Southernmost point where the two oceans meet is actually a few hours outside of Cape Town at another spot -- who knew?!

Happy Second New Year!

Here in Cape Town January 2nd is another holiday: the Second New Year. History behind it is that Januray 2nd was the one and only night of the year when slaves were permitted to walk the streets of Cape Town.

Today, this is commemorated by amazingly fun, bright, night parades. Community groups get together wearing their respective colors (lots of sequins involved), and they walk through the streets performing songs via horns (trumpets & trombones), drums & whistles. Two of the groups we walked along with most included the pink & green guys whose signature song for 2007 was none other than Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." (I suppose the sentiment is fitting??!??!) And, of course, just behind them was a blue & red group doing one of the ever popular U.S.-exported slow jams, "One, you're like a dream come true. Two, I just wanna be with you...".

Lots of fun to see, and a nice tradition to recongnize & celebrate in the steets of Cape Town!

Happy New Year

Great fun out. We proved 30-somethings can still pull allnighters, and I, for one, was greatful we just happened to select the same spot as the entire Irish Cricket Team -- GO IRISH!!!!