Day 71: London Calling

And we've made it to London, now safely ensconced in the American Airlines lounge, sipping on bloody marys and looking out on the gray morning skies.  The first leg of the trip home -- 10hrs from Johannesburg to Heathrow -- got off to something of a hectic start (lost reservations, confusion about charges, etc) that took about two hours to unravel but the rest of the trip went smoothly.

Bunny Chow, Etc. (Day 65)

This delicious feast you see in front of you is called "bunny chow" -- the exquisite street-food-of-choice for discerning South Africans who want both flaming hot curry and a meal that will keep them full for the rest of today and, in all likelihood, a good chunk of tomorrow as well.  It's wildly popular in Durban, and perhaps my only disappointment from that trip was having missed out.  Created long ago by Durban's sizable Indian population, the meal consists of (1) a loaf of white bread sans innards, (2) the hottest curry the proprietor will give you with a straight face, and (3) topped with the original bread that had been scooped out.  Fortunately, I found a stand at Arts on Main, one of my favorite weekend markets that we try to visit whenever we're not traveling.  And it was fantastic.

Zambia, Days 3 & 4: On (and In) The Mighty Zambezi

It’s a hard life spending a day white-water rafting through the world-class rapids of the lower Zambezi and then getting up the following morning at dawn to canoe by stunning flora and fauna along the upper Zambezi. (Although you might actually feel sorry for us if you saw our resulting sunburns.)

Your Guide Made WHAT Type of Pit-Stop?

Tuesday started off at dawn, with the requisite early deadlines and long wait times that come with any large group activity.  Nearly 35 “guests” and a dozen guides met at the neighboring African Queen Hotel to learn the all-important rules of the river. Luckily we paid attention to the “what to do in case your raft flips” portion…  (dun dun DUN)

"You strike a woman, you strike a rock."

Today, August 9th, is National Women's Day here in South Africa, a national holiday and a great opportunity for a four-day weekend.  Folks in the office dismissed it as "just a day for women" (which is a bit odd in phrasing, but we'll come to that later).  A quick check on the source of all knowledge Wikipedia told a more interesting story, worth quoting in length:

Zambia, Day 2 - Victoria Falls

TJ: We launched our first full day in Zambia by plunging straight into the reason for our visit: an outing to Victoria Falls.  Although only half the height of Niagra Falls, Victoria Falls are over twice as wide.  The curtain of water spreads across for roughly two kilometers and sends a pillar of mist nearly 500 meters into the air.  This may be the beginning of the dry season here, but we still got drenched while crossing the razor bridge at the edge of the cliffs opposite the Falls.

Zambia, Day 1

Johannesburg to Livingstone, BYO Vodka

We managed to catch our flight, one of the three weekly ones we’d found from Johannesburg to Zambia, despite a number of last-minute delays. (“Should I have packed my passport?”, “Are we sure the hotel knows to pick us up at the airport?”, “Who has the malaria pills”, and my favorite, “Where’s the train station again?”) Given scarcity of flights the plane was surprisingly empty, although a group of Russian mothers and daughters did their best to make up for this lack by loudly calling back and forth to one another while hopping from seat to seat and row to row, particularly during landing. But at long last we landed in Zambia at the smallest airport I’ve ever seen!

It's Pirate Day (Hip-Hip, Hooray!)

Our arrival in South Africa has come at the same time as many important cultural shifts. Mandela’s 94^th birthday, the ANC party congress (which prepares the country for its upcoming election), and most importantly, the arrival of theme days at our current employer.