Arusha, Tanzania

Arusha was our last stop on the tour. As well as being the jump off point for our Serengeti tours. While there we did a walk with a local from the town near by Maasai village, who are an indigenous group occupying northern Tanzania and southern Kenya.

At the end of the walk, we were treated to a traditional ceremony of song and dance.

These guys have got ups...

And on the way home T and Mark found a guy who offered a camel ride....can I say yes!

And the whole group together on the last night of the tour..

If you happened to notice our ridiculous facial hair, but need a closer look, please see the next blog entry.

Mumbai, India

After our three days in Dubai, we headed to our first stop in India Mumbai (Bombay). Mumbai is a city of nearly 17 million people, with about 55% of the population living in slums. The city itself is an actual madhouse with cars and mopeds everywhere.



Things started off pretty well for myself meeting a new friend right off the bat. In India being a western tourist is a bit of a novelty for some of the locals which sometimes translates into them taking pictures of you for no reason whatsoever. I think i made his day.






We decided to rent a cab driver for the day and have him show us all the major sites to see. It is a great way to see the city especially considering the cabs are dirt cheap and absolutely everywhere.







We have visited so many temples already that it is tough to keep tract of them all. The architecture is extremely unique and is like nothing we have witnessed for hand before.






In Mumbai we met back up with a couple of Irish buddies that we had traveled with in South Africa Hugh and Peter. Our cabbie Bablu is helping Hugh light up his beedie (Indian cigarette), he was a very helpful man.







This one area in Mumbai is where a huge amount of the cities laundry gets hand washed. Unfortunately we weren't there when the madness was going on but apparently it is pretty ridiculous in full swing.



Most of the cabs are still the old model vehicle that you see on the right but it is slowly starting to change like allot of other things in the city.



There's our boy Bablu. I like India this place makes me feel tall.

Eating in a restaurant in Colaba we were approached to be extras in a Bollywood movie. Apparently they are constantly looking for white extras and are willing to pay 500 rupees (approximatley 13 dollars) for a days work. Our seen was supposed to be a club in Europe somewhere.



Look at our costumes they can't get much more western than that.



Just another night on the town in our funky western clothing. I have a vest just like this at home I use for special occasions.



This costume fit Hugh's personality to a tee. What are the odds.

We weren't allowed to take pictures on set unfortunately, however for all those that are wondering it included allot of dancing. Paul and myself stole the show.

We decided to leave without getting paid half way through the day as the novelty had worn off. The industry wasn't to happy about this at all. "You'll never work in this town again", which is fine with us.

Dubai, UAE

After a few days taking it easy in our campsite in Nairobi, we said goodbye to Africa and departed for India. On our way we had a 2 day layover in Dubai, which is about as long as you need to see the city. After that the only way to entertain yourself is to spend lots of money.

The Dubai of today needs no introduction, as it's turned into an amusement park of a city over past decade. We stayed in the old part of Dubai, which is still heavily market based and very cheap, which was a nice surprise. This old city used to be surrounded by white sand, which has now been replaced by skyscrapers.

The city is fairly spread out, which makes it next to impossible to see anything on foot. We opted for "Big Bus", which is the same company that does the open top bus tours in London. Hop on hop off service all over the city every half hour. Not too shabby.

This is the view of downtown (new) Dubai from the old part of town. Apparently they have smog in here.

Dubai's economy was built on oil, but it now accounts for less that 6% of their GDP. They have however managed to continue their financial success in tourism and trade. If you're of Arabian decent, you're taken good care of. Not a word of lie, this beachfront mansion is their low income housing, given to families who earn less than $10,000 a year. There was blocks of these sitting on the beach.

And for the rich and famous, the world's only 7 star hotel.

Even their shopping malls are ridiculous.

And no middle eastern city is complete without...a ski hill.?

You can go shopping in the mall, eat lunch, and ski, all in the same building.

The tour guide on our bus told us that over half the worlds tall cranes are in Dubai due to the extremely rapid expansion going on right now. I still find that hard to believe, but there certainly were an excessive amount.

And here is the world's tallest building. Apparently it's been designed so that additional floors can be added if another country tries to top it.

And the view driving through the downtown.

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

The Ngorongoro Convervation Area used to be part of the Serengeti National Park, but was separated after disputes of ownership. It's apparently the only wildlife reserve in the world that also has indigenous peoples who still live off the land (the Maasai). The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km², and is home to approximately 25,000 large animals, and the highest density of predators in Africa.

And in case you get stressed..just remember.. (we all know the lion king song)

No shortage of wildebeest and zebras. We saw the largest herds here.


4 male lions ended up right in the middle of road and were walking around the trucks.



Finally got to see a hippo out of the water. They move surprisingly well.



A female lion having some buffalo head. There was a whole pack off the right as well keeping an eye out as she ate.


Team Jeff (our guide) minus Hannah.

After an awesome day down in the crater we camped up on the crater rim. It was a really cool campsite. We even got zebras who visited at night and grazed outside our tents.