Walkabout - The long way home

Be sure to check out my updated route map . The red route is obviously the one I've actually followed so far (more or less). Anyway after the first night in Mbita I decided would've liked to switch accommodation to something a little better, but stingy as I am, I'd already paid the 250 bob (about 25 sek) for both nights, so I stayed. The reasons for wanting to move were many - it was located directly underneath a noisy bar, the shared shower was a filthy bucket, the shared toilet was a really nasty hole in the ground with a gaping hole in the side of the wall facing onto the main street, and finally, the cats. A bunch of cats were screaming all night long right outside my room. When the cries woke me up at 0400 I at first thought it was a baby. Eventually after almost an hour of lying there listening to this racket there was a scuffle, a shout, a crash, then the most blood curdling scream of death I've ever heard. Then silence. As heartless as it sounds now that I...

I'm slowly building up a bank of stories from trip by writing a diary everyday but as you can probably imagine, spending that amount of time everyday blogging would kind of defeat the purpose of the trip! So anyway, since my last post, I'll just quickly run through some the highlights: After a long day walking around Nairobi with Ieuen and one of the guys who tried to sell me a safari on the first day - turned out to be a pretty ok guy, and good guide! That evening I got the overnight bus to a small town called Homa Bay - the most terrifying trip of my life!! I don't know if the fact that we left an hour late made the driver feel he had to compensate by going twice as fast, but I didn't sleep at all. Adding to the threat of death and general discomfort of the journey were the facts that: I had no seatbelt, the guy next to me was slightly obese and drooling on me, I only had a shirt and pair of shorts which made it very cold, I was suffering from spontaneous, chro...

Well this is my second full day in Nairobi and so far so good. I've actually made more money than I've spent (more about that later!).  The flight was pretty bad - didn't sleep at all really except for the leg from arlanda to rome, that was pretty empty so i got 20mins or something. In Addis I realised that, in Arlanda they hadn't given me all the bording passes I needed. Just for the first leg, which would have been fine - they were ready to write one out for me at the check-in desk, but aparenty the booking number/ticket number on my printout from sta travel had been 'refunded'!? Anyway I had to sit on the side, while she let everyone else through, then she searched on her db for my name and eventually found it! anyway, not going to use those chaps again! I was picked up at the airport by a friend of the family's who made me feel much safer by giving me tips like:    - Don't wear a watch on the street - ever!    - Don't answer a call on the str...

I just thought I'd write a quick post to say I'm off in a couple of hours! Barely got any sleep last night I was so excited! Btw I decided (after careful consideration) to let my brother sheer my winter coat - more practical: Maybe I should have left it with just the sides shaved? Heheh It was the biggest size on the clippers :S  Anyway, better get to packing. Will write again from Nairobi!

With the departure date looming and paperwork piling I've been quite busy lately (hence the lack of blog posts). Not to mention the fact that I'm trying to earn some cash on the side by building some websites. Now, with 10 days to go (supposed to be 7 days left but the guy at the travel agency who's name I won't mention *Mikael from STA Travel* messed up the booking!), I might just have enough to make it to Zambia but I'm becoming increasingly aware that I have no idea of what I'm actually gonna be doing once I get there. Sure I've got the route I drew up, but if I just hitch-hiked that, I'd be in Zambia in a week! I've gotta come up with things to do along the way to keep me occupied for about one month in each country!! My mum's brain wave - write a blog post asking people to send in suggestions of cheap and fun things to do in each country... hmmm put myself at the mercy of the internets?! Sounds dodgy, I mean these are the kind of people th...