Korea Preview...

... I just got back from Korea and am still a little jet-lagged, so I will make my next Africa post next week. But to tide you over, here is a preview from my journey to the motherland.

First and foremost, I would like to plug the blog of our gracious host, and new friend for life, Mary, Seoul Searching. It's being picked up by 10 Magazine Korea, so to say that the literary content is of the finest interest and quality is not hyperbole.

On to the good stuff. Eric did his best Andrew Zimmerman impression.

This is me at Panmunjom in the DMZ (the most heavily armed border in the world), with literally one foot in South Korea and the other foot in North Korea. The fat guy is completely in North Korea. Sucka.

We tried to do Homer's "now I'm in Australia, now I'm in America" impression, but ran out of time. I suppose it's fitting that the only versions of it I could find on Youtube were in Spanish and French.

This is where the King used to fish in the Secret Garden of Changdeok Palace. Just to prove we did something cultural.

And last but not least, Korean baseball and those cursed Thundersticks.

A frothy beverage goes to the first person to comment who the chant is for (HINT: it's like dodging cubs).

Day 4.1: The Little Serengeti...

... and the Leopard.

This is a weekly blog of a journey I took to Tanzania and Dubai in November of 2010. I will usually post updates on Monday or Tuesday of a given week.

But first, shout outs to my fellow bloggers Sergey and Ginger. Sergey recently updated his blog with pictures from Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. And Ginger's blog is responsible for 99% of my referral traffic, so thanks Ginger! Back to the main event...


... one of the most frequent questions I get is "how was the Serengeti?" Well, we actually didn't go to the Serengeti. "Waaaaaah! How could you go to East Africa and not visit the Serengeti?" I am glad you asked. The reason we didn't visit the Serengeti had to do with Tanzanian weather patterns. Even in Africa, there are enormous temperature variations, mostly due to altitude. Simply put, the eastern coastal regions along the Indian Ocean are hot and humid (23 degrees Celsius), while the interior of the country, and particularly the northern portion, are on a plateau several thousand feet in altitude, and thus much more moderate (10 degrees Celsius). More importantly, however, even Africa has seasons, mostly having to do with the rains. Tanzania has four seasons:

• the long rains, or masika, from mid-March to mid-May;
• the long dry season from mid-May to early-November;
• the short rains, or mvuli, from early-November to late-December; and
• the short dry season from late-December to mid-March.

Objectively, the best time to visit Tanzania is after the rains. That is when all the plants are lush and green, and the dust is low. The lack of dust is important, because otherwise, you get a ubiquitous thin layer of red dust on everything. My Redskins hat still hasn't recovered. And since the short dry season coincides with the European holiday season, that is by far the busiest and most expensive time to visit Tanzania. So, to get the best of all worlds, the best time to visit is probably late June to early August. That way, you get the green but avoid the mud (this is why you don't want to go immediately after the rains), and also avoid the peak crowds. Unless, of course, you want to see the famed wildebeest migration on the Serengeti. While the herd migrates all year, they cover the most ground during the rainy seasons. The most spectacular time to view them, however, is in September when they chaotically cross the Mara River into Kenya. And where the food goes, the predators follow...

(Hattip to the Africa Foundation for this map)

... which is why we skipped the Serengeti. As you can see, at the time of year we were in Tanzania, all the animals were in the northern part of the park. And you remember what I said about the roads; paved roads end at Karatu. Accordingly, just to get to the southern part of the Serengeti takes half a day, and to drive across it to reach the animals at the northern border takes an additional full day. Sure, we could have just driven around the southern part of the Serengeti, but more than one tour operator likened it to a "desert" at this time of year, yellow, barren, and devoid of life. So, because we weren't willing to waste three days of our four day safari in transit just to see the Serengeti, we settled on the next best thing: Tarangire or the "Little Serengeti."


Fortunately for us, Tarangire behaves counter-cyclically from the Serengeti due to the presence of the Tarangire river. Specifically, because we were in Tanzania at the end of the long dry season, water in other parts of Tanzania were now scarce, and so the animals converged on the river at this time of year. Sweet.


Now THIS is what I pictured the Serengeti as looking like with loads of wildebeests... and gazelles (a herd with one adult male leading females and kids)... and giraffes... and zebras... and ostriches (ostrichi?).


This anthill, yes an anthill, was more of a surprise, however. Or maybe it was termites?


Tarangire is filled with these awesome Baobab trees, which are important to life in East Africa, primarily water storage during the dry seasons. One of the most entertaining things we saw in Tarangire was these huge elephants beat the crap out of these trees looking for water and salt. You could hear the elephants from far away as they pried off the bark.


This is what it looks like when multiple elephants have had their way with a particular tree.


What was more sobering was to see these hollowed out Baobab trees. David said they were used by poachers as they waited for big game. In a bit of turnabout, however, they were later used by rangers to flush out poachers.


The Baobab tree is also known for this "fruit." David bought it for us from a kid selling it on our way out of the park for 1,100 shillings, or about 70 cents. The shell looks like a large sweet potato and has the feel of tree bark. Even though it is thin, it is pretty tough, however, as David had to beat it against the side of the car a few times before it cracked open. Inside are dozens of little rocks that I can only describe as looking like crack cocaine, with a chalky exterior. They are extremely sour and have a stringy pit in the middle. I kind of liked them, while Resha and William did not.


This monkey is hanging out in a "sausage" tree. David said, however, that the "sausages" were poisonous, and for that reason, tribesmen used to meet under these trees because the more predatory animals wouldn't go near them and thus the trees are considered good luck.


Our first view of the "mighty" Tarangire. As you can see, the long dry season has taken its toll.


A vulture, waiting for some pick'ins.


This crane (national bird of Tanzania) was also pretty cool.


Duck, duck... duck?


Other cool birds. The colorful one on the right of the bottom photo (the same bird is also in the two photos above it) is particularly impressive.


Which brings us to the leopard. So, you will recall that we were behind a Leopard Tour vehicle in Ngorongoro when we met Charles the Lion(hearted). Well, in Tarangire, the Leopard Tour vehicle apparently cloned itself, because they were freaking all over the place. Some of them were stopped on a small bridge over the river, and the driver said there was a leopard in the tree above. So, we sat there for a good 30 minutes trying to look for it. Supposedly it is in that thick portion in the middle of the tree, but darned if I can see it.


We came back later, and this time, another Leopard Tour vehicle's driver said it was hiding in the rocks after having dragged a small antelope to eat. Well, we kind of caught view of some of the dead antelope, but still no leopard after yet another 30 minutes.


We came back to the bridge the day after to, once again, see if we could spot the leopard, and the best we could get was this thick branch on the tree that could possibly be a leopard if you squinted real hard and tilted your head to the side.


Basically, at that point we decided we hated the leopard, and by extension, Leopard Tours. A pox on all their houses!

I leave you today with a view of elephants in the river digging for water. David said that they don't drink directly from the river, but instead dig a hole in the ground and drink from that hole because the ground has filtered out any impurities. But what caught our attention wasn't any of the above, but the ridiculously cute baby elephant alternating between playing with dirt, drinking water from holes that its mother had dug, and digging holes of its own.


I'm actually going to be in the motherland (Korea) for the next week, so the next post will be two weeks from now. Until then...

Day 3.3: Just the animals ma'am...

... just the animals.

This is a weekly blog of a journey I took to Tanzania and Dubai in November of 2010. I will usually post updates on Monday or Tuesday of a given week.

So, without further ado...

... pictured above are panoramas of the smaller hippo pool on a side of the crater.

Here are a closer view of the hippos with grey herons...

... and here is a closer view of the location of the hippo pool in relation to everything else. The pictures above are from the smaller pool on the middle left of the crater just above and to the left of the big pool.

You can just make out an ascending road behind the hippo pool. David said that was a route that used to be used by poachers.

Hyena crossing...

... and a hyena waiting for prey.

This is a black rhino. It was pretty awesome we saw this rhino, because David said there are only four total in the crater. Of all of the animals that were poached, the black rhino was one of the ones that came closest to being extinct. They were hunted for their horn, which is used in the Middle East as an aphrodisiac. Now, "the picture is blurry" you say. Why yes, yes it is. It is, however, the best of about 30 photos we took of the rhino. How is this possible?

That little dark spot you see in the brush behind the gnomes and Brutus (and me) is the black rhino. So, considering that, the pictures didn't turn out that bad...

... which is why when we saw this pride of lions, we thought that may be as close as we would get to the lions as well.

Luckily, we saw this group of cars in the distance, which meant that excitement was nearby! And excitement it was.

Lions! This particular lion is a female. Contrary to what we thought before, David said lions are extremely lazy on a whole host of horizons. In a pride, the females do all the hunting, so this female is looking for prey...

... which she spotted at this moment...

... a family of warthogs. Okay, this wasn't the exact family of warthogs, as the brush was too tall to get a good picture of them, but it was pretty close, with what looked like a mom, dad, and baby warthog trotting on by to our left.

At that point, the female lion started moving toward the warthogs. At first, I was a bit curious why because the warthog family was moving away from the lion, but then they suddenly turned around and started coming back to the right. So obviously, the lion had sensed something. Sixth sense indeed.

At this point, David got very excited, because the awesomest thing to see on a safari is a kill, and he thought the lion had taken a good angle to intercept the warthog family. So we got excited as well.

Unfortunately, it was not to be, as the warthog family's geometry skills were superior to both ours and the lion's. So they trotted past the lion with only ten feet separating them, in a seeming taunt. While we were disappointed in not seeing a kill, inside, I was kind of happy to see the little guy win for once in the animal kingdom. I asked David why the lion didn't accelerate at the end to cover the gap, and he again said that lions are lazy, particularly during the day when the sun is up and it is hot.

The lion realizes the jig is up, and ends pursuit...

... and looks back to the pride, seemingly saying "sorry I lost dinner guys. My bad." And to who was she reporting exactly?

This guy.

Back to the laziness of lions, in an observation that should hearten feminists everywhere, David says that as lazy as female lions are, male lions are even worse. But it's a laziness in knowing that you are the man, because you had to battle off other male lions in order to take charge of the pride. It's kind of like the male lion is a jock, and the female lions are the cheerleaders catering to his every need. He is clearly the alpha... just a most-of-the-time lazy alpha. David said he is looking for shade, and he seems to have found it.

Please note the Leopard Tour vehicle. It will make future appearances.

The lion was sleeping on the footstep of a vehicle carrying what I think was a Swedish family. The driver was very annoyed, while the kids in the family were scared s***less, as they tried to climb as high up on the vehicle as possible to get away from the lion.

Eventually, he got up, probably when the female lion roared back that she had lost dinner.

He looks at the safari driver, who is yelling (yes, YELLING) at the lion to go away...

... and so he apparently thinks to himself "I don't need this crap," and gets up to leave. At this point, the kids in the vehicle are going bananas with fright, and then the vehicle drives away. Which is when...

... he wanders...

... over to me....

... and sits below my window in the front seat. The above pictures are taken without any zoom, and yes, he is as close as he appears. Now, at this point, my window is rolled down because I had been taking pictures. Well, David starts to get a little nervous, so he asks me to roll it up. Unfortunately, some combination of the engine being off and the car being at the wrong angle prevents this, so David suggest I move to one of the back seats. I agree.

After taking some pictures with the mascots, David decides we should go, but obviously we can't go with the lion next to us. So, he begins to play some music to get the lion's attention. But not just any music. You see, David had purchased a Swahili CD back in the town of Mto Wa Mbu before we entered Lake Manyara National Park with what he termed "safari" music. On the cover is a Swahili man dressed in lion skin clothes sitting on a water-starved grassy plain, and the music is heavy on drums. What one of the songs also has is a lion roaring. So, David turns up the volume and blasts the sounds of a FREAKING LION ROARING through the car's speakers.

Unsurprisingly, this piques his interest, and the lion begins to turn around...

... until he is nows settled in the opposite direction with his ears directly next to the speakers, presumably so he can hear his "brethern" better. And to boot, he is now actually sitting against the vehicle. Great plan David.

At this point, we don't really know what to do. So, after taking some more pictures of Charles (because he is in CHARGE... get it? Get it? Har har har! I kill me) we do what any normal person would do. We eat lunch. Which is when we took this video.

I asked David if lions like chickens, as that was one of the things in our lunch. Luckily, he said they did not. But I guess it probably would have been too late by then anyways.

Anyways, apparently Charles got bored with us after awhile, about the time when this bus full of kids rolled up. So he wandered over there. The kids were really excited to see the lion... the lady bus driver not as much.

Charles seemed to sense this, so he set up on the side of the road.

And so ended the saga of Charles.

I like to think he was holding back tears because he couldn't bear to watch us go.

We ran into the bus and kids at our only pit stop on the banks of the main crater lake. They were sitting under this awesome tree eating lunch.

Yes, it's the big blue spot in the middle.

The lake was pristine and serene. It was definitely a lot deeper than the hippo pools, as you can make out a few hippos on the left, but none on the right

Cornholio, a new hairdo, and Resha playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo.

Our wheels.

Views from other sides of the lake.

A arse-load of wildebeests.

A noble steed.

Animals on the floodplain.

This is an elephant graveyard. David said that, for some reason, elephants come to this area to die.

Indeed, he thinks one of these "loser" males (as they are in a male-only herd), who are very, very big, and very, very old, are next.

Wildebeest unplugged.

David said European settlers used to live in this area because it afford some shade and shelter, but that they kept dying due to malaria.

Hey, hey, we're the monkees...

... and some final views and a final panorama as we ascended the crater wall.

Ngorongoro, we hardly knew ya...