Jo'burg

This is our third day in Jo'burg and as you can tell, we are already getting hip to the lingo. We will be here for another 2 days. The good news is that we have finally figured out how we are getting up to Kili. The bad news is that we won't be going through Botswana and Zambia. Instead, we got a flight to Nairobi, Kenya that leaves Monday morning and will find our way four hours south to Arusha. We are hoping to be on the mountain by the end of next week.

So, we are getting to know Jo'burg a bit. After staying one night in a more expensive motel the first night, we found a much more affordable hostel: Eastgate Backpackers (53A Van Der Linde Road, Bedfordview/ tel: 011-616-2741, cell:082-936-2396. ZAR 80 per person for dorm beds). This place is located in a safer suburban neighborhood 10 minutes walk from Eastgate, supposedly the largest mall in Africa. We did not exactly come to Africa to visit a gargantuan consumer mecca. Mall rats are the same everywhere. But, this is a safe place in a city where safety is a big issue. We've heard that Jo'burg is the murder capital of the world. Apparently, all business has moved away from the city center and the Eastgate mall near us is more like the city center. The downtown has been described as a ghost town where only the very poor and criminals dwell. Many skyscrapers can be seen from a distance, but you won't see any people in business suites walk in with their lattes. We've been told that these buildings have been abandoned except for squatters paying rent to Mafia organizations. We don't particularly feel like testing that limit so we are keeping our distance.

So, we've hung out at the mall for food, money change, travel arrangements and Lattes. We've had two Lattes here and they were gourmet to the core. Perfect taste, artistic froth and your own maitre'd all for less than $2. Most other goods have been comparable in price here, but high quality coffee is way too cheap. Bad for our caffeine habit.

Some coffee sipping observations. Our lattes were served in clear glasses and were segregated, espresso floating over the milk. Ironic. All of the waiters were black. Most of the clientele was white. Economic apartheid?

Paris

We are currently in Johannesburg staying in a motel like compound surrounded by concrete walls and electric and barbwire fences. But first a bit about Paris...

We landed in Paris in the morning and had the whole day to play until our 11pm flight. With our backpacks strapped on, we hopped onto the train and headed to down town Paris. Paris is quite walkable. The city was sunny but a bit nippy.

First stop: The Notre Dame Cathedral. Didn't see the hunchback, but gargoyles were reminiscent of the awful disney movie. A grumpy Frenchman made Najam take his Chapeau off. I think we sneaked in the backdoor. Beautiful stained glass, dark gothic atmosphere. Oldest place Susan has been in. Got out of the church and into a cafe for a quick drink of a tiny cup thick, dark, crunchy coffee with three morsels of various desserts. Good stuff.

Next: The Eiffel tower. Overrated. At least Susan thinks so. The lines to get up there by elevator were long. There were no lines for the stairs, but we had backpacks which weren't allowed up there. So we appreciated the tower from the ground floor only. Both here and at the cathedral we were approached several times by women who would first ask "speak English?" and then show a card with a story of their being Bosnians, poor and stuck in Paris.

Finally we walked over to the Grand Arche, but didn't actually cross the road to it. Couldn't figure out how to get there actually. Besides, we were getting hungry. So, another over rated Paris attraction bypassed. Oh well. We ate at a little cafe no too far from the Arche. We had Salmon Crepes and Beef Bourguignon. Salmon consumption should be saved for our little corner of the North West and mom makes way better BB. Beautiful christmas lights visible from the cafe windows. We "people watched" as we ate.

The French like their cigarettes and smoking is still permitted in restaurants. The city was relatively clean except for the butts strewn about. It seems there is a direct correlation between the size of vehicles and the size of people. The US has some rather large vehicles and people to match. The only people of size that we saw in Paris spoke some sort of English. Even their little street crossing light stick figure looked skinny. We saw SUVs rarely and no hummers. Their larger cars were the size of our Honda civic. Maybe they don't eat as many freedom fries here.

The Stuff

If the first hallmark of humanity is our intelligence, then the need and want for stuff is definitely a close runner up. Much of the preparation that has gone into this trip has revolved around stuff. We need stuff to sleep in, stuff to wear, stuff to ingest, stuff to protect us from what we ingest, stuff to help us find where we're going and stuff to help us remember where we've been. And of course, we need stuff to put stuff in.

I joke about stuff, but we really are incredibly fragile beings without our stuff. We will be gone for a month. The weather conditions will range from the upper 90s to many degrees below freezing. Among the concerning things are the bugs, viruses and bacteria O MY!

Here's a list of the stuff we are bringing:

• Clothing: Includes 3 trekking pants, 2 tanks, 2 sports bras, 4 underwear, 2 shirts, 1 base layer, 2 pair of thick socks, 3 pair of thin socks, 1 hat, 1 balaclava, 2 pair of gloves (one thick on thin), a fleece (maybe 2), a rain jacket, a down jacket and a partridge in a pair tree. We plan on getting woolly hats while we are there. Najam's clothing is basically the same without the bras. We also each have a pair of pre-broke in hiking boots.
• hand sanitizer
• sleeping bags
• head lamps
• duct tape
• extra ziplocks
• trowel
• 1 mobile phone
• walking poles
• limited toiletries including lip balm and moisturizer
• 1 platypus, 1 water bottle and water insulators each
• water pump purifier (big stuff), ultraviolet water purifier (viruses), and water tablets
• sunscreen, bug spray, sunglasses
• camera, lots of SD cards, lots of batteries, outlet converters, SD card backup
• pocket all in one including knife and can opener
• compass, whistle, maps and travel books
• energy bars and chocolate
• utensils, we will get aluminum dishes when we get there
• friend if they fit
  

Our HMO's travel clinic was incredibly helpful on the internal protection front. We got:

• Yellow fever vaccination (with yellow card documentation for the borders)
  
• Polio booster
  
• Hep A vaccination
• Typhoid vacination
• anti-malarial medicine
  
• imodium, hydration salts and antibiotics for when it gets really bad

The post trip list would probably look quite different. I will be sure to make a posting about what stuff was missed and what stuff could have been left behind when we get back. One thing is for sure, we need to be very selective about what to bring since all of it will be on our back. Although porters are going to lug most of this stuff up the mountain, we will have to lug this stuff for 3 weeks across Africa.

The travel book we have said that we would need both a backpack and a day pack. The porters carry the backpack up and the trekkers carry their day pack with a few essentials. Najam and I don't really want the weight of an extra back pack during our entire trip. Instead, we are going to put all of our stuff into large nylon sacks and use our back packs. The nylon sacks we have are the same ones that we are stuffing our backpacks into in order to check them onto the flights. Hopefully they will be durable enough for the trek up the mountain.

It's funny that one would climb a mountain and hire other people to carry their stuff for them while they do so. At first look, it seems like the wimpy way to go. However, climbing to that altitude is difficult enough without the extra weight and porters are likely more acclimatized. I still can't help but feel a twinge of guilt even though I know that it would probably be impossible for me to make this trip without porters. Porters have a rough job and from what I have read, they are not always treated fairly and working conditions aren't as good as they could be (i.e., better equipment, better nutrition). We are going to attempt to choose a trekking company that is known for treating it's workers well and will also donate some of our equipment to the porters when we leave.