i'm taking a mental picture ~

Monday, August 08, 2011 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , Edit This
Good Life

by OneRepublic
Woke up in London yesterday Found myself in the city near Piccadilly Don't really know how I got here I got some pictures on my phone New names and numbers that I don't know Address to places like Abbey Road Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want We're young enough to say Oh this has gotta be the good life This has gotta be the good life This could really be a good life, good life Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight Like this city is on fire tonight This could really be a good life A good, good life To my friends in New York, I say hello My friends in L.A. they don't know Where I've been for the past few years or so Paris to China to Col-or-ado Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now We are god of stories but please tell me-e-e-e What there is to complain about When you're happy like a fool Let it take you over When everything is out You gotta take it in Oh this has gotta be the good life This has gotta be the good life This could really be a good life, good life Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight Like this city is on fire tonight This could really be a good life A good, good life Hopelessly I feel like there might be something that I'll miss Hopelessly I feel like the window closes oh so quick Hopelessly I'm taking a mental picture of you now 'Cuz hopelessly The hope is we have so much to feel good about Oh this has gotta be the good life This has gotta be the good life This could really be a good life, good life Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight Like this city is on fire tonight This could really be a good life A good, good life Oh yeah Good, good life Good life Ooh Listen My friends in New York, I say hello My friends in L.A. they don't know Where I've been for the past few years or so Paris to China to Col-or-ado Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now We are god of stories but please tell me-e-e-e What there is to complain about
…………………………………………
So after being home for a month and a bit and pottering about seeing my friends before they all depart for the summer and then uni etc. we had a family vay-cay to Tanzania (and Zanzibar, with a stop in Dubai as well). I don't think we've properly travelled and explored new territory in a few years so this trip was nice and welcome. One of the best aspects was the fact that my parents didn't argue nearly as much as they do when at home so yayy. S and I did fight a lot more than usual but I would put that down to the fact that we were living in really close proximity (sharing rooms etc) and without other distractions and it hadn't been that way with us since we were kids back in the old house. Anyhow as I am not feeling particularly vocal this shall be in list form.
Places we went in Tanzania (this list shall include Zanzibar but not Dubai as that's boring):
1. Dar es Salaam (literally a stopover)
2. Arusha (abundant with coffee, not so animalish) We stayed at Arusha Coffee Lodge.
3. Lake Manyara
4. Ngorongoro Crater (the lodge was on the crater and at a high altitude and thus cold. there were animals within the crater itself) Here, we stayed at Crater Lodge, which was insanely fancy and awesome.
5. The Serengeti (both the more southern part, near ngorongoro and the northern parts called the Serengeti Mara which boreder with Kenya's Masai Mara, which we had visited several years ago and enjoyed. this was a vast expanse of plains towards the south, and to the nortth there was the river Mara and more grasslands) In the more southern part we stayed at Bilila Lodge Kempinski, and in the more nothern part we stayed at Nomad Lamai Serengeti, which was more terrifying as it was not a proper lodge per say, but rather a permanent tented camp. And let's not try and pretend that I'm brave enough to face insects.
6. Tarangire (This was a slightly more wooded area) Here we stayed at another permanent type tented camp, Oliver's Camp.
7. Zanzibar, where we stayed at Breezes. It's oddly like being at home. People wear thoubs and speak Arabic. There are also cats randomly wandering the streets, like in Breezes there was this cute one that we played with and as well as that people sell random birds on the street. Like there were some men selling this Hedwig-like Snowy Owl. Admittedly it probably wasn't a snowy owl in Zanzibar, but it was a white owl all the same. Cutie pie. I wanted to buy it and free it, but it seemed hopeless as they'd just catch it again. I also acquired a really huge contrasting shorts tan.
Below, I have outlined some of the most memorable moments on our trip. The more positive ones. Or if not positive, stories I shall tell my grandchildren/ great nieces and nephews, whatever the case may be.
1. Seeing all the Big 5. That is to say Rhinos (black rhinos, as the white are no longer found in Tanzania- of which there are VERY few remaining in the wild, and they are very highly protected), Lions, Elephants, Buffalo and most fantastically, the elusive Leopard (pronounced lee-oh-pahd)
2. Watching a leopard cub chase guinea fowl, like a cat among the pidgeons, causing them to squawk and fly about.
3. Being charged at by a VERY angry male elephant who really did not appreciate the noise of our jeep starting up. Apparantly in Tarangire, where this happened, there are a number of game reserves where big shots (quite literally as well) go and hunt elephants. This leaves the elephants rather disgruntled (imagine someone shooting at you and your family) and leaves an emotional scar.
4. Seeing the aftermath of a Lions vs. Leopard cat fight. As I said leopards are rare, and so this trip, being particularly inundated with leopard moments, was awesome. Please note the plural use of lions. They ganged up on a poor leopard and chased her up a tree. Her belly was injured in the process. When she escaped, she was so close to our vehicle we had to be silent.
5. Seeing a sexless wildebeest. Poor thing didn't have an udder or a pair of balls.
6. Watching a wildebeest migration. This involves thousands of wildebeest crossing a river, and in the process some dying. Here is the video I recorded of this momentous occasion, which many wait days to see.
7. Watching a falcon swoop in and kill a guinea fowl.
8. Having our camp's ice cooler filled with refreshments stolen by a pack of hyenas while the residents were having dinner. This was at Oliver's.
9. Discovering a buffalo under our balcony. Twice. And once it had brought along it's Zebra friends. This was in Crater Lodge.
10. Having a butler. Who would fill up a bath for you. SERIOUSLY REGENCY TIMES. This was in Crater Lodge too. I am a brat. Our butler was Peter and he was awesome.
11. Discussing Achebe's Thing's Fall Apart with our Masai guide, Masaa. That guy was something else. Seriously. He was one of those interesting, charismatic people who just has a wealth of random facts to keep you entertained. That was at Serengeti Lamai.
12. Meeting an Austrian family who had literally conquered all the continents. Except maybe Antarctica. But I'm not sure about that. They'd been to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Ethiopia and idk where else. I found them so cool. And the dad was super friendly. And the daughter was seriously scared of bugs like me, in fact one night at dinner she just took off her shirt because she thought there was a bug in it. I can totally empathise.
13. The following conversation between my sister and our guide for most of the trip, Jackson.

 Ali (looking at an animal): "Oooh are these the ones in Madagascar 2?"
Jackson (our guide): "Actually I am not sure, maybe they have them in Madagascar also, but these are found in Kenya and Tanzania"
Ali (highly discombobulated that he is not aware of the movie, and very indgnant): "NOO.... I mean like the movie?!"

 My sister and Jackson bumped heads a couple of times, especially when Jackson told us about the common giraffe, gazelle and zebra and Als went : why is everything COMMON?!
14. Seeing a pink and purple lizard and realising I wish I was that colour.
15. Watching a heard of elephants cross the road. A huge herd. Of maybe 30 individuals, with really old ones and really tiny month old baby ones as well.
16. Feeding breakfast bread to a Marabou Stork from the window of the lodge's restaurant at Farmhouse, one of the lodges I forgot to mention above in Arusha. Please not Marabou Storks are huge. They are properly 5ft tall. I think these may have been my favourite birds of the trip, although the lizards and snake -eating , red-eyed secretary birds were pretty cool. As were the falcons and eagles. And the Kori Bustard just because of it's name. And the Hornbills (zazu is a type of hornbill. the red ones we saw were the coolest though). the guinea fowl were slightly annoying though. The flamingos, pelicans and the little white birds that picked on buffalo backs were cool as well.
17. Elephants trudging into the pond by the hotel pool at Bilila and drinking from it, whilst we watched from the restaurant window.
18. Going on a glass-bottom kayak in Zanzibar.
19. Seeing Freddy Mercury's, (or as he is known there Farouk Bulsara) house in Zanzibar by the stone town.
20. Having competitions in the car to see who knew the most Swahili (Ali always one as she cheated and has seen the Lion King most recently- also you couldn't repeat other people's words so she used ours up first.) and trying to name the Big 5, Small 5, Green 5 etc.
My least favourite aspects of the trip.
1. Bugs. These I find terrifying. They were everywhere and oh god not just little moths properly HUGE spiders. When I took a shower (outdoors this is) there was a bee that really liked the soap. And wouldn't leave me alone. This was AWFUL and probably the fastest shower ever. Also I made my dad tuck the mosquito nets underneath the mattress of my bed in Nomad so that I was trapped and bugs were trapped out. In Oliver's we also found a MASSIVE dung beetle under my bed. Yuck. In Tarangire, oh my god the number of times I was bitten by Tsetse flies was insane. Please note that whereas mosquito bites are painless, Tsetse bites hurt like a bitch. it's like being stabbed with a tiny needle. I also got bitten by a wasp again on the neck, thanks to Ali trying to shoo it when I told her to leave it be.
2. Taking a dump in the bush. This is known as a bush stop. This is embarrassing and uncomfortable under normal circumstances but even more so if you've eaten something which has disagreed with you, which in Africa is fairly likely.
3. The smell of hippo shit. We went to a hippo bathing pool and good grief all they do is fart and shit and lounge around in their own shit. WHICH SMELLS AWFUL.
Finally, here is a list of cute animals I now covet as a pet if I am not allowed a kitten.
1. Kirk's Dikdiks. They ARE SO CUTE. They are these tiny little deer type creatures with the biggest eyes you have ever seen. They also mate for life and travel in pairs along with their offspring.
2. Thompson's Gazelle. They have these cute little tails that continuously wag and they are adorable. Sorry other forms of antelope, you were not cool enough to make the list- Grant's Gazelle (the McDonalds of the serenget- there's even a big M on their bums), Topis, Kudus and Hart Beasts, you were too big to be cute.
3. Servals. One walked RIGHT past our car. SO CUTE.
4. Cheetahs. We saw one just sat there by the side of the road.
5. Crocodiles. Idk why, bit their conniving grins are just too cool.
6. Zebras. I want to ride one as a form of transport. They're so cool and stripy.
7. Giraffes. Ever since we fed them in Kenya I have loved them and their purple tongues.
8. Hyraxes. These funny rodent like creatures that are somehow the closest relative of the elephant. No joke.
9. Baboons. I know, I know. Awful vicious creatures found in Taif no less. But it's so cute how the mamas carry these tiny babes around. We also saw blue monkeys and red colobus monkeys in Zanzibar and another type the name of which escapes me at the moment, all of which were pretty cool.
10. A marabou stork to feed bread to. Sadly they don't mate for life. I like animals that mate for life, like fishing Eagles. They make me feel better about my prospects. Especially if they're ugly animals.
Anyway, this I have to say was one of the coolest family holidays ranked up there with our malaysia/spore trip, our malaysia/hk trip and our kenya trip. Next I would like to see Australia, Sweden, Japan or really anywhere new and not boring :P
-[n][a][d][a][&][♥]
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