One full day of travel yesterday. We left Addis by the 1.00 pm flight. As a parting shot, Sheraton Addis sent us to the airport in a black stretch limo, so we got down there feeling like Clinton and Gore!
We had a 5-hour stopover at Nairobi, Kenya, although we could not get out of the airport. Fairly large in number, these shops -- seemd like private contract and not govt-owned. On the way back as well, we have a 3-4 hour stop at Nairobi, so may pick up some souvenir knick-knacks at the time.
We landed at Dar at 10.00 pm and discovered that one of our customers was the pilot flying the plane! We reached the Sheraton at 11.00 pm, quite tired with the sitting around. This Sheraton, owned by a local minister, is not as luxurious as the Addis Sheraton, which is a 7-star. Getting quite snooty, aren't we?!
Today we visited customers in the morning. Here the shops (ie, our customers) close at 4.30 pm, so it's a short working day. While taking a break for lunch, we walked around the city, but essentially, by 5.00 pm, we were free, except for a dinner appointment.
Dar-es-Salaam is a very comfortable city to live in and to visit. Tanzania is a well governed country and quite developed in infrastructure. The city is quite safe to walk around in and the people quite friendly. The general layout, buildings, condition of roads, the general demeanour of people is very very reminiscent of an Indian city. My colleague, Easwar, kept on saying:"Just like Madras, no?" at regular inetervals. There are many Indians living here for ages; there are Indian streets (eg, Indira Gandhi street), and Swahili, the African national language, has a strong Gujrati content, I'm told. But most of the people here speak English, so communication is absolutely no problem. We used to catch taxis to go around in...........
Both Kenya and Tanzania have a fair amount of industrialisation, apart from safari tourism of course, which seems to be becoming more and more popular in Tanzania nowadays.
In the evening, we took a walk down to the port-side. The Arabian Sea is fairly blue here. We also went to a sea-side restaurant called 'Slipaway' located on a sort of pier and watched the sunset while sipping beer ('Tusker' beer from Kenya, winner of 15 gold medals and the best beer I have tasted yet). The area in which the restaurant is located is on a sort of land strip with a bay on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. With a few restaurants and a couple of hotels scattered around the place, it seems to be a popular getaway.
One of our customers were supposed to take us out for dinner, but he phoned at 7.00 pm and said that he and his family had to attend a funeral! I don't know how such a thing could come upon them suddenly, sort of. Anyway, he was sending his son's close friend, Mr Kenil, to take us out for dinner. Mr Kenil arrived at 8.00 pm and we drove out of the Sheraton. We asked what he does for a living and he said he was the manager in an Indian restaurant called 'The Alcove', where he was taking us for dinner. We had had lunch there a few hours ago! We said no scene, we wanted to go to Hotel Sea Cliff (which is on the same peninsula where Slipaway is located). He was taken aback but promptly agreed. This hotel has a restaurant right on the sea with the wind blowing like anything (I had my new jacket on thank God!). The whole gathering of guests (jam-packed mind you) seemed to be totally white, except for us pore blacks. There was a Mr Mark belting out old numbers like 'Fernando' and people were generally freaking out. I saw quite a few thin-strap-gown-clad ladies wishing they had worn their fur-coats instead! It was practically like a gora club. We had fish-and-chips and beer. In spite of the crowd, quite a nice environ.
Talking to Kenil, we learnt that Tanganaika was a German colony at one time. Cannot make out much German (or Dutch) influence yet.
Dar es Salaam: 25.08.2000
Another working day. After lunch at the Alcove, where we found Kenil presiding, I bought some T-shirts and knick-knacks from the pavement outside. For the T-shirts, two vendors bargained between themselves and reduced prices to half!.
One of our major customers took us out in the evening, first to Slipaway again for a beer, then to Barbecue Village, an outdoor Indian joint, for dinner. Being Friday, it was fairly crowded -- almost like a wedding feast -- with children running around the paths and and slides, generally raising hell. It took us around 45 mins to get served, but food was excellent. I had a 'lobster thermidor' with chips. The lobster, shelled and deep in sauce, was served in a large oyster-shell! Mr Naushad's family had lived there for over 100 years, when Dar was just a small port with deep jungle all around, infested with wildlife. Now wildlife is found only in national parks.
Arusha: 26.08.2000
We had an early-morning flight from Dar to Kilimanjaro and landed at 7.30 am. Arusha was a 30 min drive. We had managed to obtain bookings in New Arusha Hotel (with the help of our customer Mr Ashiq Nanabhai) for only one day and night. Because of the Burundi peace agreement meeting on 28/8 to which many African heads of state including Mandela as well as Clinton were coming, availability of rooms was next to impossible. Tomorrow, being Sunday, we will go to visit the Tarangire National Park and spend the night at a lodge and come back on 28/8 to catch our afternoon flight.
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The reason why an international event, to broker a peace agreement between the warring factions of the tribes Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi, is being held in Arusha in Tanzania is that Arusha has been appointed an international peace court for this region (The Hague is the original place). But it seems whatever are the peace terms they are going to impose on Burundi, they are not going to be happy about it and more violence will follow the meeting.
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Arusha is the safari centre of Tanzania. Some of the parks like Serengeti can, of course, be accessed from Kenya as well. Basically there are five parks that people visit in Tanzania -- Arusha, Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti (Serengeti is called Masi Mara as it crosses into Kenya). Arusha park is the smallest and closest. The most impressive are Ngorongo and Serengeti. Ngorongoro is actually an extinct volcanic crater which is a natural wildlife sanctuary including tribes living there. At first we thought we will go there, but it is a 5-hour drive over very rough roads -- very difficult to visit and return the same day. Serengeti, the other famous park, with mile after mile of rolling grasslands, is even farther away. So Mr Ashiq made arrangements for visiting Tarangire, where a lot of wildlife migration is going on right now and viewing animals will be easy..
Today evening he took us to the Gymkhana Club for drinks followed by dinner in an Indian restaurant. The Gymkhana Club seems to be majorly hung up on golf with the names of members who have won in championships put up on plaques. We had the local "Kilimajaro" beer, which is also quite good. The Indian restaurant was an open-air one, and they put ovens near us to help us keep warm!
Arusha: 27.08.2000
Today's highlight was our visit to Tarangire Park.
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As I said earlier, our customer Mr Ashiq had suggested Tarangire as it was easier to reach. The other parks Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti have to be reached after travelling on rough roads for more than 3 hours (in case of Ngorongoro). Tarangire is easier to reach from Arusha and this Aug-Oct is said to be season time since the animals migrate to Tarangire in order to drink from the Tarangire river which runs through the park.
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Mr Ashiq and his friend Mr Rajesh picked us up in a safari Land Rover (driven by a safari guide) around 10.30 am from the New Arusha Hotel, from where we checked out at that time itself. We will spend the night at a lodge outside town. We drove there first and dropped our luggage. Mr Ashiq had packed a picnic lunch but -- we still had to buy beer!
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We spent the next 45 mins in Arusha itself hunting for beer. Finally we headed out and bought beer along the way at a small 'snake park'.
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Yesterday, incidentally, we had visited a few places that I forgot to mention. One was this 'snake park' that had around 20 varieties of snakes and alligators/crocs found in Africa. We had also visited two very big souvenir/artefact shops. One of them, called the 'Cultural Heritage', had an especially good collection of wood-carved figures in ebony as well as other knick-knacks, but the pricing was clearly aimed at the rich-rich gora tourist! But definitely a place worth seeing. The owner had even put up artificial masai village models with clay figures doing various activities.........
We reached the entrance to the park around 12.30 pm. Our hosts purchased the entry tickets, telling us to strictly remain out of sight and not to open our mouths. This was because tickets for local Tanzanians (like them) were only $1.50, whereas for foreign tourists (like us), they were $20.00. We entered the park and drove along the narrow winding safari paths beaten out of so many wheels. The vegetation inside is typically African of course, this being a natural ecology -- wide plains, either bare or covered with foot-high yellow grass, dotted with shrubs. In places a few tall trees and an occasional baobab (the famous tree of Africa) would pop out of the landscape. Visibility was very good.
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On entering the park, the driver had raised a portion of the roof, which swings up as a horizontal section supported by pipes. We're supposed to stand inside with our heads sticking out, look around and take pictures. I'd just stood up and taken a look out when the piece of roof above suddenly crashed down onto my head! Possibly it was not fixed properly. It felt like an elephant had dropped on me from a baobab tree! Luckily the piece was padded and didn't hurt my head, but my neck and back had caught the strain terribly. During the day, the pain gradually went down, but I'm sure I'll not be able to turn my head tomorrow morning.
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On entering the park, the driver had raised a portion of the roof, which swings up as a horizontal section supported by pipes. We're supposed to stand inside with our heads sticking out, look around and take pictures. I'd just stood up and taken a look out when the piece of roof above suddenly crashed down onto my head! Possibly it was not fixed properly. It felt like an elephant had dropped on me from a baobab tree! Luckily the piece was padded and didn't hurt my head, but my neck and back had caught the strain terribly. During the day, the pain gradually went down, but I'm sure I'll not be able to turn my head tomorrow morning.
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However, the action started immediately. One wart-hog crossed our path and stood looking at us. A hundred yards down, we saw a large herd of wildebeeste, with a few zebras as well, walking across. Seeing our vehicle, they jumped away in both directions, raising a cloud of dust. Some distance down the slope, by the Tarangire river, we saw a few elephants, but they were too far away. We drove along some distance and saw a herd of zebras crossing our path. A group of antelopes were gambolling about. Suddenly one aggressive male started chasing away all the other males, wanting to keep the whole female herd to itself. We were able to take photos of all these. We had just about seen giraffes and elephants far away when we reached the picnic spot, which is actually at the edge of a high cliff that overlooks a large stretch of riverbank below. A large number of safari vehicles had already parked there, having lunch and taking pictures of the scene below. We also took out our lunch-basket and finished our picnic lunch. There were a large number of monkeys and baboons around and one of them actually came up to us and snatched food from one of our plates.
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In the sceneray below we could see two herds of elephants, perhaps ten in number, resting and feeding. The safari trail passes close to them and a couple of vehicles had reached there and parked close to them, photographing the animals. A couple of tuskers suddenly started a mild fight between them and started moving towards the jeep, which backed away slowly. After one of the elephants gave up, the other one turned its attention to the jeep, flapping its ears and trumpeting. Luckily, after some time it got bored of the fun and moved off.
In the sceneray below we could see two herds of elephants, perhaps ten in number, resting and feeding. The safari trail passes close to them and a couple of vehicles had reached there and parked close to them, photographing the animals. A couple of tuskers suddenly started a mild fight between them and started moving towards the jeep, which backed away slowly. After one of the elephants gave up, the other one turned its attention to the jeep, flapping its ears and trumpeting. Luckily, after some time it got bored of the fun and moved off.
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We finished our picnic lunch and carried on down the winding safari trail. We came down to the thin river snaking through the valley, which was very green at the bottom (Incidentally, the Tarangire Park is located in the Rift Valley and the same valley apparently carries on through Africa and finally becomes the Red Sea). This Tarangire river is never dry, which is why, as dry season starts (which is now), animals migrate into Tarangire and it is full season time for visitors as well..
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As we crossed the river on to the other bank, we came upon the herd of elephants we had seen from above. There were tuskers, females and baby elephants generally standing around. We also found a couple of lone ones feeding (Later in the trail, we found more elephants that crossed the path very close to us). We carried on further, looking out over the top of the vehicle and jolting and swinging with the trail's undulations, when we almost ran into three giraffes feeding. They halted and literally looked down their noses at us. One of them had very dark patches instead of the normal brown ones and we were told by the guide that this was a 'masai giraffe', only found in Tarangire..
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We travelled in the park for another hour and saw more herds of zebras and antelopes, as well as three water bucks. We also saw a very small deer, said to be fully-grown, with some local name I forgot. We also saw birds like the guiniea-fowl and hornbills, plus a number of bright blue birds I couldn't recognise. We also saw an ostrich grazing.
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In the last half hour, we were driving slowly along a portion of the park where, we had been told when entering the park, a lioness had been seen today -- that too on a tree! As it is lions and lionesses are a rare sight in Tarangire apparently. They are found in much larger numbers in Serengeti, and to a ceratin extent Ngorongoro. But only in Tarangire could the rare climbing lioness be found. Over half-an-hour we had no luck, and had all but given up hope when our guide stopped the car and simply said: "Simba." To the right, around 30 yards away, a lioness sat on a rock. It took us some time to spot her, so well did she blend with the bushes. We anyway took a long-shot photograph and moved on, planning to come back in ten minutes to see if she came any closer. Around 100 yards down the trail, Ashiq pointed out a tree with a sloping tree-trunk just beside the trail and said that a lioness will find it easy to climb such a tree. However, the tree was empty and we drove on for ten more minutes, took a turn and came back. When we were passing the tree again, our guide once again said:"Simba." And there, standing on a branch at a distance of only 20 ft from us, was her royal majesty!
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She looked at us gravely for some time, then changed branches and lay down with two hind legs and her tail hanging in mid-air. She gave us a photo-session for around 10 mins, after which we said goodbye to her and drove off. Ashiq and Rajesh said this was the first time they had seen a lion or a lioness in Tarangire, let alone on a tree! Beginner's luck for us, I'm sure.
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We left the park after this, having seen everything except the jaguar (there are no rhinos in Tarangire). It was an exceptionally fruitful safari for Tarangire and I'd used up two rolls of film! Back in Arusha, we had tea at Ashiq's house, caught up on e-mail (Panna's father had suffered a stroke. He was a bit better, but she must be in tension), took a bath at the lodge and went out for some beer. We went to a place which was a small room with a bar and a Dev Anand film was running on Sony TV. Only Asian crowd in the place and people seemed to be determined drinkers on a Sunday. We met a few gemstone dealers (Tanzania is a major exporter of precious and semi-precious stones; a blue Tanzanite stone is found only near Arusha). Everyone seemed to know everybody and our Ashiq seemed to be quite the local dada. At around 11.00 pm, we went for dinner at 'chicken-on-a-bonnet' -- nothing but Mumbai's 'Bare Miya', ie half-chickens on open grills by the roadside with naan and salad. It was quite cold and the ovens were a welcome relief!.
We were dropped at the 'Moviara Coffee Plantation and Lodge' at midnight and groped our way to Cottage 12. The premises were so deadly quiet that it took me over an hour to fall asleep. Easwar's snoring didn't help.
Mwanza: 28.08.2000
Today is Panna's birthday. I had tried calling her from Arusha with no luck. In the morning, the lodge premises looked very beautiful, ideal for European holiday-makers (the bathings stalls had only curtains!).
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We were picked up at 9.30 and went to our customer's office. On the way we could see roads thronged by security people and schoolchildren in uniform, all waiting to say "Karibu" to Clinton and Mandela in particular. In one more hour, road blocks would start.
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We were picked up at 9.30 and went to our customer's office. On the way we could see roads thronged by security people and schoolchildren in uniform, all waiting to say "Karibu" to Clinton and Mandela in particular. In one more hour, road blocks would start.
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From Ashiq's office we discovered that our Mwanza flight has been preponed to 12.30 pm instead of 4.00 pm and we had to leave almost immediately. On the way, we had to stop 3-4 times to allow arriving heads of state to pass by to the city. We caught our flight with only minutes to spare.
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Mwanza, where we landed around 1.30 pm, lies just beside Lake Victoria, said to be the second-largest lake in the world and lying in the countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. To reach Mwanza from Arusha, we in fact flew over Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Serengeti is just 2 hours from Mwanza. Our customer Bakir said only yesterday he had been hunting in Serengeti and bagged some nine animals (antelopes, waterbucks and wildebeeste). Tomorrow some friends were going hunting on a full-day trip. Did we want to join them? We were sorely tempted, but tomorrow being the only proper working day available to us in Mwanza, regetfully declined. Conscience can be a terrible thing!
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Mwanza is a mining town, not a tourist town at all. It is quite dusty, since apart from a few streets in the centre of the town, all the other roads are ungraded rough roads. A small town with very few places to go to or see, most of which we managed to see in the afternoon. Took a few shots of the sunset on the lake as well. Bakir treated me to a roadside preparation 'mishkake' prepared by Africans that are beef meatballs and fatballs in a super-tasty gravy which is very low on masala. Poor fellow Bakir was practically at a loss as to how to entertain guys who refused to go hunting deer!......
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I asked him whether Mwanza was a safe city so he related how one morning he opened his roadside window and found blacks beating up an Asian on the opposite footpath. Nobody was coming to help - "So I took out my gun and went bang, bang at them and they ran away." Bakir owns two hunting rifles and a pistol ("for safety at night") and is going to buy a Magnum 375 for buffalo. He's only 28, mind you!
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I asked him whether Mwanza was a safe city so he related how one morning he opened his roadside window and found blacks beating up an Asian on the opposite footpath. Nobody was coming to help - "So I took out my gun and went bang, bang at them and they ran away." Bakir owns two hunting rifles and a pistol ("for safety at night") and is going to buy a Magnum 375 for buffalo. He's only 28, mind you!
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We had dinner at a lakeside restaurant. We had returned to the hotel for an hour or so in the interim. Bakir is a staunch Muslim and in a roundabout way he had told us that he cannot even sit at a table with drinkers. We had taken the hint and before going out for dinner, had polished off a couple of pegs of Bacardi rum that I had been lugging around since Dubai. Consequently, the magical atmosphere of the seaside restaurant Sea Rock had been infinitely enhanced! Bakir diffidently suggested that we can try 'ogale' and curry, which is the standard afternoon meal for Africans in Tanzania. Ogale is made out of millet, heavily boiled and drained, so that it becomes a solid lump like supertight halwa without oil. It can be pinched or cut into small pieces, dipped in curry, which is a tasty gravy with or without solid meat inside, and eaten. The Africans roll a small ball, make a hole with their thumb, dip it in curry and eat it one morsel at a time. It was quite palatable with a tasty chicken curry, actually. Bakir said that when in the bush, he prefers this ogale, whereas his African friends prefer rice!......
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Bakir's family is very rich and he personally is very fond of hunting. He had bought one Land Cruiser pick-up and converted it to an open hunting car, which he says is the only one in Mwanza. Otherwise they normally shoot through windows which is difficult, he says, because you can view only one side. In a chase, especially, an open car is the only way. He buys permits for hunting only soft game, i.e. antelopes, deer etc. He has not hunted a buffalo since he doesn't have a gun yet. But buffalo is dangerous, he says, since, if you do not kill him with the first shot, "his blood becomes hot and he cannot feel any other shot. He will charge like a blind man." But even hunting deer can be thrilling if, like in the earlier days, you chase the deer. Nowadays, "too much deer". You can park close by and pow, pow -- two are down. There is one mad friend of his with a Nissan Patrol, who still chases antelopes at 120 kmph over rough grounds of Serengeti and will not shoot till he is at 10 ft distance. If the game turns, he will also take that turn at 120 speed, almost throwing everyone out.
Bakir's family is very rich and he personally is very fond of hunting. He had bought one Land Cruiser pick-up and converted it to an open hunting car, which he says is the only one in Mwanza. Otherwise they normally shoot through windows which is difficult, he says, because you can view only one side. In a chase, especially, an open car is the only way. He buys permits for hunting only soft game, i.e. antelopes, deer etc. He has not hunted a buffalo since he doesn't have a gun yet. But buffalo is dangerous, he says, since, if you do not kill him with the first shot, "his blood becomes hot and he cannot feel any other shot. He will charge like a blind man." But even hunting deer can be thrilling if, like in the earlier days, you chase the deer. Nowadays, "too much deer". You can park close by and pow, pow -- two are down. There is one mad friend of his with a Nissan Patrol, who still chases antelopes at 120 kmph over rough grounds of Serengeti and will not shoot till he is at 10 ft distance. If the game turns, he will also take that turn at 120 speed, almost throwing everyone out.
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What do you do with the killed animals, I asked him. He said they strip the carcass on the ground, throw away the intestines and cut the body into 5 pieces -- four legs and chest. Then they put it into a gunny-bag ("your Toyota gunny-bag!"), and stow it at the back and go for the next animal. The Africans also take the heart and the tongue ("which they say is very sweet -- I don't know."). If they are staying overnight in the open, they cook some of the game meat, although they always carry some food in case no game is shot that day. "It's great fun," he said. "We don't sleep the whole night. Just sit and joke and come back in the morning at 10.00 am." This time, that is after the hunting two days ago, he'd asked one of his friends working in a fishery factory to pack the game meat into insulated packets. We found him distributing them to friends all over town. He offered us as well, but since we had a flight route with two changes and long breaks, we declined, being sure they will spoil.
What do you do with the killed animals, I asked him. He said they strip the carcass on the ground, throw away the intestines and cut the body into 5 pieces -- four legs and chest. Then they put it into a gunny-bag ("your Toyota gunny-bag!"), and stow it at the back and go for the next animal. The Africans also take the heart and the tongue ("which they say is very sweet -- I don't know."). If they are staying overnight in the open, they cook some of the game meat, although they always carry some food in case no game is shot that day. "It's great fun," he said. "We don't sleep the whole night. Just sit and joke and come back in the morning at 10.00 am." This time, that is after the hunting two days ago, he'd asked one of his friends working in a fishery factory to pack the game meat into insulated packets. We found him distributing them to friends all over town. He offered us as well, but since we had a flight route with two changes and long breaks, we declined, being sure they will spoil.
Mwanza: 29.08.2000
Today was mostly a working day. The hotel where we are staying has a restaurant where the Indian cooking is very good. In fact, in Mwanza there are a lot of Indians.
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I had asked Bakir, when he was talking of his hunting trips, how much does it cost for a safari into Serengati. He said that the fuel itself is around $100 per day, if hunting, so a normal drive, including car charges, will be around the same. Entry is $25 per head per day. If a lodge room for two is taken, it costs $100 in season, maybe $50 off-season. People who undertake a week's safari through Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Manyara into Arusha, end up spending around $1000 per head.
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We went to view the sunset from a plot of land Bakir has bought. The path up was very rough, but as we climbed to the top of the small hill, we saw beautiful houses with gorgeous views of the lake. There were huge boulders all around and we were told that they have to break a lot of boulders to get a flat foundation for a house. One unique villa has a boulder in the middle of the living room! The location is so good that the builder asks which room needs the lake sunrise view and which needs the lake sunset view!........
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Bakir took us to Hotel Tilapia for dinner (incidentally, 'tilapia' is a very typical sea-fish here, which we tried yesterday as fish-and-chips, but it did not seem like the Indian tilapia). This hotel has a Japanese restaurant and we were treated to a full ten-course meal! It was great cooking and was done right in front of us. In fact, the table is actually a massive hot-plate with 2-foot wooden extrusions on two sides on which diners are served food, course by course, with the chef telling with which of the sauces it is supposed to be eaten. In fact, we took a break after 5 courses then continued again, ending after one hour of eating. Bakir said usually they eat for over two hours, with 3-4 breaks and so there is no overloading. The dishes were as follows and they are charged to you whether you eat them or not:.
- Salad
- Potato pancake (with onion sauce please)
- Fried prawn (with soya sauce please)
- Fish fillet (with peanut sauce please)
- Diced chicken (--do--)
- Fried beef (--do--)
- Fried rice
- Fried vegetables (we didn't take)
- Sweets (we didn't take)
- Fruit salad
Since they are all cooked with very little oil they are not heavy at all. After dinner, Bakir took us on a ride over very rough roads, which settled our stomachs excellently.
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Tomorrow noon we fly off to Nairobi where we have to wait till midnight to catch our connection to Dubai. At Dubai, we sleep on chairs till 8.00 am on 31st to catch our Muscat flight. No further exciting things are in the offing, I suppose, so here I end my diary for this tour.
