Archives: February 2010

Westward home

We’ve been here for one week exactly and tonight’s our last night in Israel. We planned our visit according to the Jewish Sabbath when literally everything in Jerusalem takes a rest from Friday sundown until Saturday night. Since we arrived on a Wednesday, we spent two nights in Tel Aviv and then rented a car to spend the weekend in Tiberias. By Sunday when everything was operating like a NYC Monday, we drove down to Jerusalem to spend our last three nights. Tomorrow, we begin our westward-bound segment of our …

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Out of Africa by way of Kenya

As Henry detailed earlier, our flights to Tanzania were pretty exhausting, so there was no reason to believe that leaving there would be any easier. After several days of sun and fun in some of the most beautiful beaches my privileged feet have ever walked on, we left the Zanzibar island and flew back to Arusha in mainland Tanzania. There, we drove the 1 hour to Kilimanjaro where we would fly out the next day. Truth be told, because of limited web access and using the phone to arrange this …

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Power of $22

Do you know that for $22 USD a month, you can send a child in a poor country to school? Two and a half years ago, while walking home one day in Manhattan, I was approached by a volunteer from an organization called Children International. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to children sponsorship programs. Basically, donors donate $22 each month and the money goes towards paying for an impoverished child from a poor country to go to school. This volunteer enthusiastically explained to me the background of the organization …

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Arrived in Tel Aviv today. $100 hostel. Ouch!

After 2 nights in Dubai, we arrived in Tel Aviv this afternoon after a 6-hour layover in Jordan. Tel Aviv is expensive! The only place we could find that does not have reports of bed bugs or strange characters lurking or urinating outside the building is this hostel called Hayarkon 48. Its private rooms without a bathroom cost $90 and rooms with bathroom are $100. Ouch!

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It’s like Planet Earth, only it was live

Pictures are up. Our 8-day Tanzanian safari went by in a blink of an eye. We have not even left Tanzania yet and I am already reminiscing the details of those adventure-packed days. There were so many exhilarating moments, like waking up to a group of giraffes not even 100 feet from our tent, watching a cheetah chase down a gazelle, and seeing a pride of 20 lions right in front of our jeep. I know I will be reliving those moments in my head for a long time to come.

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King Abdullah II’s Jordan

Please note: We have long left Jordan. We have since gone back to Hong Kong for Christmas and New Year and also visited Japan, India, and Tanzania. As usual, I am behind. This place was a godsend. We left Egypt in a peak state of fatigue, frustration, and defensiveness. As a result, we mounted much skepticism and very low expectations about traveling another Arab country. Despite reading up on how much easier it is to travel in Jordan, we were still bracing for disappointment. To our relief, we arrived at the …

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Fantastic safari, but stuck in Arusha tonight

We finished our 8-day safari today and it is the first time we’ve had access to internet. We were supposed to be in a beautiful resort in Zanzibar tonight, but due to “technical problems” to our plane and that the Zanzibar airport closed at 6PM, all passengers have to spend the night in this town called Arusha. We will try again tomorrow at 7AM.

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