Hey friends!
So sorry for not having posted for the last couple of weeks it has been a bit hectic with travelling. Anyways I want you to know that I am fine, alive, and well. Tonight I am heading to Vic Falls, and throughout the next couple of days I will be continueing to blog on my laptop (so that when I can post stories they will be a long ways after writing them but you will get a bunch of them).
Anyways as for how my time is wrapping up here in Southern Africa (As I am in Zimbabwe) I should give people ample warning that I will be arriving in Early January! (That is as firm as you will get out of me sorry friends).
Basically it is my hope to leap back into life in a smooth and effective manner that will ensure that I don't go through culture shock really hard core. That probably sounds a bit odd but here is the dealeo. I have been away for 5.5 months learning in a different way, living in a different way, hanging out with different people, and just basically in a different culture. Also over the past 5 months each of you my friends has also changed. You have been changed by your experiences and friendships, What movies you watched, who you bumped into.
Now don't get me wrong but in essence the difference that is created between N.American Culture, and S. African culture, and my N. American Friends, and my S. African friends is going to take me time to experience well. It is my hope to do that effectively.
So since I am travelling in early January to return home, it is my hope to be able to arrive entirely at the same time to Canada. That would be ideal, but the reality is that I may arrive in Body at one moment, my luggage 3 days later, my heart a few weeks later, and my mind some where in between. Basically that makes a firm arrival date exactly Early January. So this means that I will be getting in touch with you guys for when I am keen to hangout and meet up. You may see me around London, and I may be attending classes, but There may need to be a good deal of processing time to ensure that I gather myself together. Don't worry too much about if I will do it I am setting aside ample amounts of time on both sides (of my travels) to review over my blog, my journal, and my experiences. During this time I might get in touch with you, I might want to be alone for the entire time. I will see what it is that I need.
Anyways, I will see you in Early January, but before then you will be heraing ore stories from me in the coming weeks!
Lots of Love from Zimbabwe!
Andrew
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Backpacking: the First bit of two weeks-ish
So yeah I left off with me heading off to hit the road to start travelling and I am sorry for not having posted another post since the last post I sent out. Anyways I am alive and well in Cape Town (not that there should be any doubt on the first one anyways.). And I have had a wonderful re-experiencing of backpacking here in South Africa in particular.
So Tuesday morning after I had finished my exams I hopped into a minibus and left for the downtown part of PMB to get the first of the long-distance minibuses needed to get to Coffee Bay. So that first lift was my most comfortable of the day but also the shortest. So from PMB I went to Mthatha where I rather quickly got onto another minibus heading towards Coffee Bay. After a quick transfer I was finally enroute to Coffee Bay. Yet that makes it sound rather simple and easy, like an nice simple drive to Toronto to London. The reality of it was that I was busy doing ‘minibus yoga’ all day long. Basically my body because it wouldn’t fit comfortably with my bag on my lap or with another three people in the back seat, had to be contorted to fit in properly. One leg up on the wheel well, the other somewhere close by, one arm forward around my backpack holding it in place the other arm forward grabbing onto the hand hold on the roof. (I will show you at some point it looks hilarious!). Anyways so a full days worth of travel doing one position of Minibus Yoga all day long took about 8 hours (Almost 9 but I take off the hour of waiting for buses to be filled) and cost me only: 147 ZAR which is about 20$ Just amazing how cheap transportation is. But then again you also pay for comfort which I didn’t really get around to paying for properly! (This is true about most of my time travelling through south Africa. It is physically gruelling so I tried to avoid back to back hops as much as possible unless other factors were driving me.)
So in Coffee Bay I stayed at a wonderful hostel that had amazing atmosphere and a wonderful vibe to it. It was really an organic feeling sort of place with Yoga lessons (which I took one of), vegetable juices (which I also tried), close to the beach for surfing (Which I did), and just a wonderful place. In the evenings they alternated between drumming lessons (which I got the chance to do 2 of), and their band (a drumming band). Also in the evenings there was generally a bonfire and some of the staff even did fire dancing. While I was there some evenings the party really got hopping but even with a bit of partying it still had that laid back feeling to it.
Coffee Bay itself was an interesting town. It seems like a town that is extremely reliant upon backpacker tourism and fishing but fishing much less then the backpackers. As such (I don’t know if this is a result of the backpackers or of other things prior) there is a large and open drug trade scene. I got approached more times by youth on the street asking me if I wanted marijuana or shrooms. It was just crazy how open they were about it. Other than that the town is really quiet in the day time. Most travellers hit the beach or sleep off the night’s partying (which isn’t too good for an early riser like me where I was up most mornings around 7) but I spent my time there just chilling, resting and taking good care of myself. I read, spent time meeting travellers, journalled a bit, surfed, ate vegetable curry, and had a wonderful time.
The Next stop was East London (which I was warned against and told that I should go to Chintsa instead of by the manager of Bomvu...). So another lengthy day of travelling and I arrived and it was a rather large urban center. Not the nicest looking of towns though. So I walked through town and went to the hostel on the furthest edge of town, my number one choice for my time in East London. But the problem was they were full up with people. At least they were helpful in pointing me to another backpackers. I listened to their advice hoping that I would find a backpackers with other backpackers there that was perhaps a little bit more chilled out. Little did I know that I arrived at a ‘hostel’ that really didn’t have a good atmosphere at all. I was the only backpacker there and then there was an underwater hockey team. I had to sign an indemnity form for my stay. The beds were so perfectly made that an army sergeant would have problems to be angry with the state of the rooms. They had quiet hours from 8pm until 8am. They didn’t have music in the background. It was perhaps one of the loneliest nights I have had in South Africa. (...and that is why I should have gone to Chintsa instead) Because I was so lonely I decided that I needed to leave before it became a really bad experience for me.
So I decided to get to Jeffery’s bay (Hopping past a stop in Port Elizabeth because my booking there wasn’t until Monday and this was a Saturday I was heading to J-Bay). I went to this hostel called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a very important concept. It means a sense of Community (or ‘I am the community’). This sense of community results in a responsibility to those in community with you, and as you find yourself feeling responsible to that community then you start to treat the community as yourself (hence the ‘I am the community’ (I feel that isn’t an ample descriptor of it but still one way of expressing it)). Anyways that was what the backpackers felt like; a community. Though a quiet backpackers, it was probably the ideal backpackers for me. There were people there that where open and friendly and just willing to welcome people in. There were those moving out the next day (after I arrived) yet still were willing to chat and hangout. There were those permafixtures who had been travelling on and off for either 5 years (in the case of this one Aussie) or 3 and a half (in a brit). Hearing their stories and how they travel (basically working for a couple months when their money runs out at a hostel or a bar, and then hopping on the road again) was just amazing. Needless to say that I stayed there for three days because I fell in love with that hostel.
It just was the right sort of place to be for so long. So even though I really didn’t get up to much around town. I had one of my best stays there. I went to an Anglican Church on Sunday morning, Read away the rest of that day, hung out with Joe and Sara, Monday we went into town and they showed me around to all of the surfing factory stores, I went to the beach with them and just watched the waves (it was very flat...) and contemplated going swimming (Decided not due to jelly fish), built a sand castle Taj Mahal, and yeah just an amazing weekend of good free fun.
I guess I am going to curve off my writing because I could keep on going but I should get breakfast into me and post this because there are alot of stories to put up.
Anyways the next time I will post will either be tomorrow night (in PMB) or Monday (in PMB). I am returning to meet up with John and friends to head on a Road Trip! Please be praying for us to have safe journeys!
Thanks!
So Tuesday morning after I had finished my exams I hopped into a minibus and left for the downtown part of PMB to get the first of the long-distance minibuses needed to get to Coffee Bay. So that first lift was my most comfortable of the day but also the shortest. So from PMB I went to Mthatha where I rather quickly got onto another minibus heading towards Coffee Bay. After a quick transfer I was finally enroute to Coffee Bay. Yet that makes it sound rather simple and easy, like an nice simple drive to Toronto to London. The reality of it was that I was busy doing ‘minibus yoga’ all day long. Basically my body because it wouldn’t fit comfortably with my bag on my lap or with another three people in the back seat, had to be contorted to fit in properly. One leg up on the wheel well, the other somewhere close by, one arm forward around my backpack holding it in place the other arm forward grabbing onto the hand hold on the roof. (I will show you at some point it looks hilarious!). Anyways so a full days worth of travel doing one position of Minibus Yoga all day long took about 8 hours (Almost 9 but I take off the hour of waiting for buses to be filled) and cost me only: 147 ZAR which is about 20$ Just amazing how cheap transportation is. But then again you also pay for comfort which I didn’t really get around to paying for properly! (This is true about most of my time travelling through south Africa. It is physically gruelling so I tried to avoid back to back hops as much as possible unless other factors were driving me.)
So in Coffee Bay I stayed at a wonderful hostel that had amazing atmosphere and a wonderful vibe to it. It was really an organic feeling sort of place with Yoga lessons (which I took one of), vegetable juices (which I also tried), close to the beach for surfing (Which I did), and just a wonderful place. In the evenings they alternated between drumming lessons (which I got the chance to do 2 of), and their band (a drumming band). Also in the evenings there was generally a bonfire and some of the staff even did fire dancing. While I was there some evenings the party really got hopping but even with a bit of partying it still had that laid back feeling to it.
Coffee Bay itself was an interesting town. It seems like a town that is extremely reliant upon backpacker tourism and fishing but fishing much less then the backpackers. As such (I don’t know if this is a result of the backpackers or of other things prior) there is a large and open drug trade scene. I got approached more times by youth on the street asking me if I wanted marijuana or shrooms. It was just crazy how open they were about it. Other than that the town is really quiet in the day time. Most travellers hit the beach or sleep off the night’s partying (which isn’t too good for an early riser like me where I was up most mornings around 7) but I spent my time there just chilling, resting and taking good care of myself. I read, spent time meeting travellers, journalled a bit, surfed, ate vegetable curry, and had a wonderful time.
The Next stop was East London (which I was warned against and told that I should go to Chintsa instead of by the manager of Bomvu...). So another lengthy day of travelling and I arrived and it was a rather large urban center. Not the nicest looking of towns though. So I walked through town and went to the hostel on the furthest edge of town, my number one choice for my time in East London. But the problem was they were full up with people. At least they were helpful in pointing me to another backpackers. I listened to their advice hoping that I would find a backpackers with other backpackers there that was perhaps a little bit more chilled out. Little did I know that I arrived at a ‘hostel’ that really didn’t have a good atmosphere at all. I was the only backpacker there and then there was an underwater hockey team. I had to sign an indemnity form for my stay. The beds were so perfectly made that an army sergeant would have problems to be angry with the state of the rooms. They had quiet hours from 8pm until 8am. They didn’t have music in the background. It was perhaps one of the loneliest nights I have had in South Africa. (...and that is why I should have gone to Chintsa instead) Because I was so lonely I decided that I needed to leave before it became a really bad experience for me.
So I decided to get to Jeffery’s bay (Hopping past a stop in Port Elizabeth because my booking there wasn’t until Monday and this was a Saturday I was heading to J-Bay). I went to this hostel called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a very important concept. It means a sense of Community (or ‘I am the community’). This sense of community results in a responsibility to those in community with you, and as you find yourself feeling responsible to that community then you start to treat the community as yourself (hence the ‘I am the community’ (I feel that isn’t an ample descriptor of it but still one way of expressing it)). Anyways that was what the backpackers felt like; a community. Though a quiet backpackers, it was probably the ideal backpackers for me. There were people there that where open and friendly and just willing to welcome people in. There were those moving out the next day (after I arrived) yet still were willing to chat and hangout. There were those permafixtures who had been travelling on and off for either 5 years (in the case of this one Aussie) or 3 and a half (in a brit). Hearing their stories and how they travel (basically working for a couple months when their money runs out at a hostel or a bar, and then hopping on the road again) was just amazing. Needless to say that I stayed there for three days because I fell in love with that hostel.
It just was the right sort of place to be for so long. So even though I really didn’t get up to much around town. I had one of my best stays there. I went to an Anglican Church on Sunday morning, Read away the rest of that day, hung out with Joe and Sara, Monday we went into town and they showed me around to all of the surfing factory stores, I went to the beach with them and just watched the waves (it was very flat...) and contemplated going swimming (Decided not due to jelly fish), built a sand castle Taj Mahal, and yeah just an amazing weekend of good free fun.
I guess I am going to curve off my writing because I could keep on going but I should get breakfast into me and post this because there are alot of stories to put up.
Anyways the next time I will post will either be tomorrow night (in PMB) or Monday (in PMB). I am returning to meet up with John and friends to head on a Road Trip! Please be praying for us to have safe journeys!
Thanks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)