Road to Kampala/Rail to Mombasa

Oooowwweeeee! Been a crazy few weeks! We thought it'd be cool to go to Uganda, just to say we did and see the equator. We expected Kampala to be a real shithole, but it was actually super cool. Kampala is the capital of Uganda, and there's all kinds of UN stuff going on there. We booked a bus through Akamba, which is supposedly the best line in terms of comfort and reliability. About 1am, I had a splitting headache, with no idea why. I smelled a faint scent of what reminded me of when somebody doesn't know how to drive stick and there burning the clutch. It was pitch black in the bus. We were driving through a section of Kenya that has no elctricity. When the bus pulled over and turned the inside lights on, we then saw that the bus was full of smoke! That explains my headache! Silly Africans! The bus broke down, so we had to wait on the side of the pitch black highway for another bus, which had about half as much legroom. Waa waa. We left Nairobi at 7pm. It was supposed to be about twelve hours to Kampala, but it somehow turned into TWENTY! As soon as we left the bus station in Uganda, we found that there's some ridiculously huge stork/vulture/pelican that hangs out on trees smack in the middle of downtown all around the Parliament buildings. Crazy shit! Kristin------->so that was our awesome adventure there but it turns out uganda is super cool. we went to the equator in a matatu and took some pictures. then we stayed in galaxy hotel for a few nights where we saw how crazy the city gets at night. the streets are filled with people and it feels like mardi gras. brooke you asked about the food. hmm there is coke everywhere they are making a fortune off of kenya. everything comes in a glass bottle which you have to return because they reuse them. everything comes with chapati its like a flour pancake bread thing. ugali is what looks like a white brick that is made of maize... its a corn type concoction we havent felt the need to try yet. the passion fruit is kick ass best juice ever. o yea and the main course is usually BBQ goat, havent tried it yet but will let you know how it is. Sean ------> The matatus here are CRAZY! It's more or less East Africa's version of public transportation. If you're white (which myself and Kristin happen to be), you wanna try to agree on some kind of price for the ride when you get in, otherwise, they'll charge you quadruple. What exactly is a matatu, you ask? Picture this: It's like a Nissan version of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine/Volkswagon rectangle bus/van that has fourteen seats and normally about twenty people crammed inside (not counting the driver or the "conductor" who is basically sitting on someone's lap hanging fully out the window screaming at people on the street in Swahili trying to get more people in.) Tha's a matatu. So far we've spent some two and three hour rides on those. FUN! The equator was super cool. In a little town called Kayabwe. Long story short, Uganda was surprisingly badass. We super considered going to Congo, because I want that passport stamp so bad, but everything we read and heard said it was a super bad idea. Oh well. In Kampala, there's shitloads of little kids that surround you if you're white and they beg you for money. It's crazy. They say God bless you a lot too. Don't think about giving one money unless you have the same amount to give to the other five. Kristin's teacher suggested an awesome idea which worked great. We carried a lot of pens with cool designs on them, and the kids were super happy with them. Some tried to get more! They're even at the border. I've got a feeling we'll see a lot more once we go South into Mozambique and Malawi. Doesn't seem to be too many in Kenya though. When we got back to Nairobi, we were exhausted, because the overnight bus we took was almost entirely on a bumpy dirt road. We slept a few hours in a hotel, and then we went to go see the Jopmo Kenyatta mausoleum. He's a former President with every other street named after him and on almost all of their currency. The guards wouldn't let us to the grave (which is in the Parliamnet grounds), but as we left to cross the street, a guy told us that we had to wait because the President was coming! We saw the whole motorcade! Mwai Kibeki and his whole entourage passed right in fromt of us. Super cool. Then we took a BADASS overnight train to Mombasa which is on the coast. Mombasa turned out to be the exact opposite of Kampala. It used to be the capital before Nairobi, it supposedly has some cool history, and it's right on the beach. We were excited to see it, but it actually turned out to be a real shithole. We took a ferry over the harbor, walked forever in the blistering sun, and caught a matatu to Tiwi Beach. Our hotel was right on the beach and we spent all day in the Indian Ocean! Badass! The water was piss warm! It was great! Just like swimming in an entire ocean of beautiful blue, crystal clear warm urine! There's a phenomenom here called beach boys. Local guys that walk up and down the beach offering to sell you stuff, open coconuts for you, sell you weed, etc... Some were cool, others shady. Yesterday we left, and headed north. Now we're in Malindi. About the middle of the Kenyan coast (halfway between Tanzania and Somalia). Vasco de Gama put a pillar here, I guess. We were thinking about continuing north to Lamu, but we got a great deal on a hotel. For just over twelve bucks a night, we got a double bed, with a balcony right SMACK on the Indian Ocean! Our balcony overlooks the beach. The bar downstairs is open twenty-four hours, and the beer is cheaper than anywhere we've seen in Africa so far. It's cheaper than a bottle of water! There's no hot water or a/c, which is normal. But it definitely works. We chewed on miraa on the way to this internet cafe. It's like an African version of chewing on coca leaves. When low tide is out, the water goes out so far. We walked out today about a mile onto this coral reef, where we saw zebrafish, starfish, and lots of shells. Blah blah blah. Kristin says I rambled! We're gonna go eat something dirt cheap. Hopefully goat or fried monkey brains. Woo hoo!

Kenya, Tanzania, & Obamamania!

Whew! What a crazy place! This is by far the most unorganized/laid back/impossible place to accomplish anything that would normally be easy in the States. Obama here is an even huger deal than back home! Don't ask me how, but we made it up that mountain, and summitted on my 10,000th Day, just as planned! By far thye most difficult thing I've ever done. I wouldn't trade it for a million dollars, but you couldn't pay me a billion dollars to consider doing it again. More than half of the people we were on the way up with didn't make it (some not even halfway). Lots of altitude sickness, splitting headaches, vomiting, etc. etc. They teamed us up with this supercool couple, Karl and Marketa. He's from UK, she's from Czech. They were about the only two other people that made it besides us. Tanzania was badass. As soon as we left Kenya, on the way there, Kristin saw two giraffes on the side of the road! Whenever you're in a super poor place here, every random person is super helpful, usually to the point where it's annoying, to assist you to a bathroom, or walk you to the counter to buy a candy bar, so then they can ask you for a tip. It's crazy. The coffee here is awesome. Oh! And don't ask me how, but I somehow managed to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day the whole way up the mountain. Woo hoo! Kristin------> not only did he smoke a pack a day up the mountain but he also scared the shit out of me once we made it to uhuru peak by telling me my lips were purple and proceeding to ask our guide if this was normal. thank god i was already in a state of delirium and altitude sickness to think about anything but getting back down. never have i ever been so close to something that i could literally see the end of and still so willing to turn right back around... its was definitly quite an accomplishment. since then we have just been trying to get typical daily things done in this country but it always turns out to be a mission that lasts hours because nothing here is up to standards, and this is nairobi! its awesome though and the pictures will make it even better once we find a computer with the memory big enough to upload them in this decade. watched obama's amazing speech! its crazy being somewhere that allows you to actually see what a huge impact america has on the rest of the world. animals seen so far: monkeys (with pics for brooke), impalas, giraffes, and zebras. -------> sean The fireworks shot off at The University of Nairobi for Obama's speech were comparable to 4th of July in America! When we were trying to sleep in the hotel last night, (none of which usually have hot water) we thought we heard a riot! It was actually super happy people rallying down the street chanting Obama. In his speech, when he mentioned Kigolo, the little town where his father is from (about 200 kilometers from here{yes kilometers}) the whole bar we were in was in an uproar. The energy was crazy. OH SHIT! I found out the point of the fly in the toilets in Holland! Karl, the British chap we hiked up the mountain with, explained to me that it's to keep people from pissing on the floor. When I told him about it, he said, "You pissed on it didn't you? You couldn't help yourself, could you?" He was right. When I saw it, I had to piss directly onto it the entire time! It's like a Jedi mind trick. Those dutch are geniuses! No wonder they conquered so much! Flies in toilets! We went to Carnivore the day wot back from the mountain to celebrate. Karl and Marketa came with us. It's rated in the top fifty best restaurants in the world. Like a Brazilian all-you-can-eat churrascaria. Only difference is, in addition to beef, chicken, blah blah, that stuff: They also have ostrich, crocodile, stuff like that! They used to have zebra and giraffe, but then a bunch of whiney animal rights activists put an end to it. It took me two days and a million glares from strangers to realize that smoking cigarettes in public is illegal in Nairobi. It's so weird. You walk into any random hotel, tell them you want to smoke, and they direct you upstairs or to the pool, even if you're not buying anything! Oh God! We finally rid ourself of our giant bag. We paid a local to take us all around the city centre until we actually found someone to buy our sleeping bag and sleeping mat! Even better: We sold it USED for more than we bought it for NEW IN THE US! Funny shit. I didn't feel bad about it. These Kenyans ripped us off on laundry. They charge by the piece. So stupid. So now we're super mobile and down to just our backpacks. We're about to jump on a bus and go fourteen hours to Kampala, Uganda. That only cost us about twenty one dollars each. We should be there in the morning. We're about eight hours ahead of the East Coast US. OH! Before we go. I've got my next tattoo figgered out. Alhamisi, Mwezi wa Kwanza, juna na tano elfu mbili tisa. Something like that. It's Thursday, Januray 15, 2009 spelled out in Swahili. It's my 10,000th day. Kristin says bye. Hopefully we'll have pictures soon. Peace

Days 1-10 (What in the Travel Mania is going on here?!)

Ezus Jesus! True story: In our first conscious/sober hours of 2009 (which began at 9pm New Year's Day), we rented a car in Miami, hauled ass to Jacksonville, almost missed our flight, almost forgot the cell phone in the rental, DID forget the laptop at security, flew to New York, took three trains and two trams to New Jersey, rented another car, and drove to Cleveland. Took it easy a few days in Ohio in the freezing cold, and then jumped in the rental car (which we weren't supposed to take past the Pennsylvania border), and drove back to Jersey to drop it off. Stayed the night in New York and flew out on the 7th. Landed in Amsterdam, and within a half hour of walking out of the train station into the city center, I was so fucked up I wasn't physically able to stand up. I'm not a weed smoker, so the itty bit that I did smoke put me over the edge. I scared the shit out of Kristin. <-------Sean. Kristin-------> now i have to take over and tell all of you what happened in amsterdam because sean probably can not recall the 6 hours after he hit that joint. we were stuck in the first coffee shop for hours because he didnt think, as he specifically stated, that he was capable of putting one foot in front of the other if he could get up at all. so we hung out watching tennis on a t.v. that made everything purple and lime green. finally when he got the courage to face the outside world we left the first coffeeshop and went out into the most intense cold i have felt outside of ohio. gay. so we are wandering the streets of the central part of the city drinking shit loads of coffee, enjoying the high, and wondering what we are going to do next... Sean----->So I finally had my shit together, and it was ridiculously cold, and we found the weirdest section of any town I'd ever been to in my life- The Red Light District. There's prostitutes in windows just waiting for guys to knock on the doors and go bang 'em. Some buildings, you'd walk by, and it was all fat black girls! Take your pick! They were probably the cheaper ones. Ha ha. Just kidding. Then we went into a peep show. 2 Two Euros for two minutes. What a deal! Then we went into theater and watched a sex show. Super weird. This super ugly Asian lady picks a member out of the audience to wear a strap-on on his head and .... Gross. I ate a lamburger! A hamburger made from lamb! I didn't even order it that way. We ate some mushrooms, but Kristin was super hesitant due to my reaction to the weed earlier. Then we drank a Heineken about a block from where it was brewed. Oh. And I don't know if it's a Dutch thing or what, but in a bunch of the urinals, there's a picture fly (yes, a housefly) printed on the inside of the bowl into which you are pissing into. At first, I thought it was a real fly. Then I saw it on every toilet in the bathroom. Even at the airport!
Kristin----> anyways, back to the tripping part. we didnt just drink a heineken, it was my first legal beer! and we were tripping with a hash joint in my pocket and i was falling in love with this city more every minute. its the weirdest feeling walking into a cafe and seeing a menu with all kinds of weed from N.Y. diesel to white widow to afghan shit. its like a stoners paradise. and not only are you surrounded by millions of things that we could never do or even think of seeing back home, but the actual people living here are super laid back... and constantly riding bikes! its the coolest vibe ever and by far one of the prettiest places i have seen. we just wandered around until like 3 in the morning noticing every little thing we could about the place.
Sean-------> Whew. So that was Amsterdam. As you can imagine, we were super-exhausted at ten o'clock the next morning after the already long week we'd had and then twenty something hours of this city. We boarded the next flight (third in a week) to Nairobi. The overall theme of the past seventy-two hours has been more or less, "I can't believe we're here!" I think that's been said a hundred times. People were trying to hustle us the minute we got off the plane for rides to the city. We found an honest dude and he gave us a good price and knew all about the city. Our hotel is badass! We even have a balcony. They kept the whole retsaurant open a few extra minutes for us. They're super nice. Everybody here is super polite and friendly, except the ones trying to hustle you. These two guys who run this little market talked us into buying a few souveniers. They were big Obama fans. When I asked how much it would cost, he told me in Kenyan Schillings the equivelant of 175 bucks! I talked him down to eight dollars. It was ridiculous! The city center here is CRAZY! Aside from the cars driving on the wrong side of the road, there's people everywhere! I figured there would be a few tourists here and there, but we were the only white people for most of the day in downtown. When we ordered a beer at this super cool balcony cafe, he asked if we wanted it hot or cold. Oh SNAP! The coolest thing ever! We were just walking back to the hotel about an hour ago, and we looked down at the sewer and a MONKEY came out! Like a block from the hotel! Smack in the middle of a huge city! He was eating something. I think it was bread. Hmm. What else. Kristin is asleep on my lap. We're in the internet cafe. There's a gecko on the wall right in front of me inside the cafe! He has no tail and he's really good at sneaking up on mosquitos and eating them. Speaking of mosquitos: Malaria pills were super expensive when I was looking at buying them back home. I figured they'd be easier to find here, which they were and cheaper! We found a place that sells them. A month's supply for about four bucks each! Good deal. We're about to get something to eat and pass out, because super early tomorrow morning, we jump in a bus down to Tanzania to the foot of Kilimanjaro, where we'll spend the next week climbing. I'm gonna try to figure out how to put pictures on this thing. Bye.
Kristin------->so perks of being in kenya the computers are irritatebly slow and downloading pictures is a nightmare...coming attraction!