Micronomicon Abroad II: November 2009

670 nights
250 places slept
2.68 nights per place average

Dorms...................................148 nights..........22%

Transport................................52 nights...........8%

Private Rm w/ bath................146 nights..........22%
Private Rm w/ shared bath.....251 nights..........37%

Shared Rm w/ bath................39 nights............6%
Shared Rm w/ shared bath.....34 nights............5%

Free Nights: 146
-- hosted in Peace Corps Regional homes, Peace Corps
volunteer's residences, with families I met on the street,
with friends of friends, in a dozen countries

Nights with Television............47 nights............7%

Most different places in one month: 18

Longest stretch in one place: 26 nights

Most transport nights in one month: 6
-- buses, trains, airports, trucks, train station floors!

Most places slept in one weeks time: 7

Longest stretch of one night per place: 6

Most dorm nights in one month: 25

Cheapest paid accommodation: $1.60 Private Room with bath; India

Most expensive paid accommodation: $215; Namibia (not paid by me)

Nights Camping: 4 (Botswana and Tanzania; classified as shared rooms

It has been strange, new, tiring. Alternately, I feel invigorated and disenchanted. Like nowhere else I see wasted resources, corruption and suffering without recourse. The beauty of travel is becoming connected to places on maps. When they become alive in 11 dimensions, multiple senses and emotions, they become difficult to ignore.

Landing in Johannesburg in April was a shock. It had been over a year since I regularly saw white people! Everyone spoke Afrikaans to me, and I usually nodded in ignorant agreement. Warming to the country proved impossible for me. I felt near-constant stress. Many of the white South Africans I met made statements that were outright racist. I'm under no impression that race relations in my own country, the United States, are healthy and happy, but I feel that people usually think about the company they are in before making such remarks. Whites that I met told me how dangerous it was, that blacks would stab you for a phone or wallet, reach into a car window with a club, knife or gun. My fear became palpable and a source of shame. I felt nervous much of the time, and found myself at places with almost no black people. I wondered if I was in Africa.

The goal is making it from Cape Town to Cairo. This is a view of Cape Town:

South African Train:

Hitchhiking to Lesotho:

I spent a couple weeks in Lesotho, which is entirely surrounded by South Africa. It was breathtaking. The country has the world's highest low point, at 1400 meters.

I also spent a short while in Swaziland which was more similar to SA and quite developed.

Since I was so close I decided to go to Botswana. I visited the capital of Gaberone and then heading north to Maun, the base for visiting the Okavango Delta. I took a speed boad trip into the Delta which included a traditional mokoro (dugout canoe) tour and also a walking safari:

From Botswana I headed to Namibia. Near the Tropic of Capricorn on the Atlantic Ocean I saw these flamingos. I also saw the hospital where Angelina Jolie gave birth. An inordinate number of locals I met told me about her visit and how much Namibians don't care about celebrities...

From Namibia I headed to Zambia and Zimbabwe, where I saw Victoria Falls. I made three visits, one during the day on each side and one full moon visit on the Zambian side.

In Zimbabwe I took an elephant Safari:

Zambia:

On of the highlights of Livingstone, Zambia, is the adventure activities. These are all me:

I spent some time in Malawi, which I loved, and I finally started to really feel like I was in AFRICA! I'm not sure why I don't have any photos! Here are some from Mozambique... It was an odd place: fully African, Portugese-speaking, and predominantly Muslim.