04.01.08
Back from Africa
off a dhow, into the indian ocean
(samarth)
We arrived at home late yesterday evening, relieved to be home but missing our twenty wonderful MIT Sloan traveling companions and reliving our favorite memories from the past two weeks. The trip was amazing - it was a visit to an entirely new and fascinating world. I’m hoping to make my way through my travel journal and thousands of pictures to generate a series of blog posts.
To summarize: We spent one day in London, four days on safari in northeast Tanzania, three days in Rwanda, one day in Dar es Salaam (on the east coast of mainland Tanzania), two and a half days in Zanzibar (off the coast of mainland Tanzania), and several days in between traveling by jeep, ferry, and small airplane.
It was not a very relaxing vacation. Never slept past 8am. Applied multiple layers of sunscreen and DEET every single day. Sweat constantly. Never really felt clean. Worried about getting malaria. Got doused by pouring rain and beaten down by the unrelenting sun. Repacked our huge backpacks every day or two because we were on the move (Zanzibar was the only place where we stayed in one place for three nights, and that required a modification to the itinerary). But it was all a small price to pay to see such a wide variety of natural environments and cities. We covered a lot of ground, met a lot of welcoming hosts, and shared a lot of great experiences.
at our resort in zanzibar
Our fellow travelers were great. We looked out for each other in crowded markets, gave each other wake-up calls, backed up each other’s photos, shared food and medication, entertained each other with card games and conversation, borrowed each other’s phones and laptops. This is a trip that I wouldn’t have felt comfortable taking on our own, so I’m thankful for having a good-natured group to go along with.
Jetlag and 22 hours of traveling are catching up to me. More to come…
Cy said,
April 2, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Sounds awesome! Glad you had a great trip and that you’re back safely.