In Cape Town, we strolled through trendy neighborhoods with cute cafes and restaurants, generally relaxed, did a bit of day hiking, and drove out to Cape Point. The schedule for the safari had been intense and it was nice to just take it easy for a while.

Table Mountain at sunrise seen from our rooftop deck (Cape Town)

We first visited the wine country about an hour outside of Cape Town with my parents and loved it so much that, when they left for home, we went back for three more days. Our favorite was the town of Franschhoek (translates to “French Corner” in Afrikaans) which was like a less pretentious and much (much, much!) less expensive version of Napa Valley. We adored the view from the patio of Dieu Donne Vineyards and ended up whiling away three separate evenings there simply watching the sun slowly sink over the mountains.

View from Signal Hill in Cape Town

Our trip out to the Eastern Cape was planned as a mad dash east to the start line of the Otter Trail, a 5-day hike along a rugged coastline, and then a mad dash back to Cape Town for more relaxation. Contrary to our plans, driving rain struck our first night and when we reached a supposedly simple stream crossing the next day we were met with a treacherous river which forced us to turn back. This was actually a blessing in disguise because it gave us more time to explore the area and see the adorable towns of Storm’s River and Swellendam.

Day One of the Otter Trail

Oh, and Aileen got to do the world’s highest bungee jump off of the world’s highest single-span suspension bridge (708ft). (Instead of joining her, I decided to enjoy a large plate of crispy french fries from the comfort and safety of the cafe. Yum!)

We ended up with surprisingly mixed feelings on South Africa. We adored the stunning coastal landscapes and hiking opportunities but disliked the ubiquitous security guards and razor wire. We had categorized the people as generally OK, if slightly on the brusque and unhelpful side, but then ran into the delightful warmth of the small towns along the southern African coast where exuberant smiles were the norm.

With Apartheid ending just 16 years ago (circa O.J. Simpson and Tanya Harding), it’s impressive how far this country has come so quickly: from complete segregation to a society that seems, to us, fairly well adjusted. And, intellectually, we agree – amazing progress. Still, we found it impossible not to have a visceral reaction to the constant reminders of the extreme wealth disparity along racial lines. One example: we were astounded to observe that the black man with the three white South Africans was not their friend, but hired to carry their heavy equipment and cook their food (and, apparently, to be constantly bossed around to fetch things as well). I mean, I understand hiring Sherpas for Everest, but this was a really easy hike, people! Crime is a real problem and the nicer areas of Cape Town seem more like fortresses than they do neighborhoods. There are guards on every block and iron gates, razor wire, and electric fences on every property. If good fences make for good neighbors, then these folks sure do have things figured out.

A small sample of security measures in Cape Town

After much discussion, here’s the official wheresgrayleen one-liner*: “South Africa – it was worth a visit, but mostly because we were nearby, and we sure didn’t fall in love.” How’s that for a tourist slogan? Of course, your experience may vary!

*Caveat: It’s conceivable that our opinion is just a touch colored by the individual who broke the window on our rental van and stole my mom’s camera (with safari pictures), our rain jackets, my favored “speed skater” hoodie, and more. Grrr! Fat lot of good those security guards and cameras did for us. I knew we should have strung razor wire around the van! (We’ll be sure to write a recommendation or disrecommendation of our travel insurance company, World Nomads, based on how the claims process turns out.)

You can see all of our photos from South Africa here.

Abundant wildlife (Chobe National Park, Botswana)

Seeing these animals on safari was nothing like seeing them in the zoo. They have a grace and dignity in the wild that is somehow lost when they are confined. The protectiveness of a herd of elephants of the littlest among them; the unreal slow motion of the giraffe’s gait as it runs across the plains; even the alert and nervous way the impala drink water from the river for fear of crocodiles: they are all graceful and strong and beautiful. So many times, I was simply overwhelmed by the beauty all around me.

Giraffe running with its characteristic slow-motion stride in the evening light. (Chobe National Park, Botswana)

And it really was all around me. I think when I imagined a safari, I thought we would have to drive for hours just to see a tiny animal way off in the distance. In reality, there were so many animals that at times we had to sit still and wait as impala and elephants and baboons slowly made their way past us on the 4WD roads. Gazing to either side, we could pick out giraffe heads poking out above the sparse trees. Hippos piled up alongside the river. Warthogs dug their snouts into the ground, seemingly oblivious or at least unperturbed by us. Lions lounged on the grass airstrip we used to arrive at one camp, complete with a pair of cuddly cubs. Perhaps because I have heard so much about various endangered species, I somehow pictured these animals being a lot more sparse. In truth, their number is testament to the success of a lot of conservation programs. And their nonchalance is testament to how habituated they are to the khaki-clad safari goers!

A sweet moment between a lioness and her cub (Chief's Island, Botswana)

Of course, we never forgot that these were wild animals and not to be taken lightly. For example, each night we had to be escorted back to our 5-star cabin or perma-tent because the hippos and elephants like to graze on vegetation inside the camps. Turns out they weren’t kidding: one night we had to hide behind a neighboring cabin for five minutes with the camp manager, waiting for an elephant literally standing at our doorstep to stop munching on leaves and hurry up and mosey along. And one of our guides, Sky, told us about his vehicle being chased for miles by an angry female elephant. (Sadly, he believes her baby had been killed by illegal hunters out of a very similar vehicle, and now she becomes furious and crazy at the sight of them.)

Beyond the incredible animals, the safari was a wonderful change in pace from the rest of our travels: it was really special to spend time with the Sandridge family and Baker friends, our accommodations were gorgeous and luxurious, and we didn’t have to plan a thing– thanks Homer! And oh my goodness, the food. We must have gained fifteen pounds between us (or each?) with the copious amounts of delicious food and no exercise. We ate like hobbits: feeding a minimum of six times per day on morning coffee with pastries, a full breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, evening cocktail hour with snacks, and dinner. Because the food was all so good, we never wanted to miss a feeding. We would jokingly call out, “Back to the trough!” Needless to say, it’s now time for more disciplined eating and we have every intention of finding opportunities for some exercise!

Sundowners on the Okavango Delta, Botswana. "Pula!"

We have more photos than usual to share, so we put together two albums: one album with just our favorites (hard to choose!) and a second bigger album. Enjoy!

Shenanigans with my grandmother and aunt

Special thank yous to Tante (Aunt) Christl and Onkel (Uncle) Michl who put up with our always-last-minute planning and showed us truly incredible hospitality and to Tante Burgi and Onkel Walter for laughter-filled evenings.  You all rock!

More photos from our Austria visit here.

Gray looks like a happy camper

We aborted our plans for an all day hike in the Tatras Mountains after reaching the tree line and realizing the swarm of flies had only gotten worse.  It was awful!  And some of them were biting flies.  We pretty much sprinted back down.

Esztergom, Hungary and the Danube from Štúrovo, Slovakia

A few noteworthy tidbits about Slovakia:

• The adorable old town centers, with beautiful old castles and churches, were frequently in the shadow of huge and hideous communist-era concrete block apartment buildings. It was quite a contrast and we saw it in town after town.
• Four out of five restaurants were pizza joints. The Slovakians love them some pizza (and we thought the pizza was pretty bad, to be honest). Who knew?
• To indicate the number “one”, Slovakians use their thumb rather than their index finger. To indicate “two”, they use their thumb plus their index finger. Until we got this down, we frequently accidentally ordered two items instead of one, since seeing our index finger up clearly means two to the average Slovakian. (Gray would no doubt appreciate me mentioning here that he got this down way faster than me.)
• Slovakian is a very difficult language to understand and pronounce to our American ears and tongues, and very few people spoke English. Lots of charades!
• Slovakians eat a lot of ice cream– the most popular spot in every town was the ice cream shop. Walking around, it seemed like a quarter of the people we saw were in the middle of eating an ice cream cone. Ironically, Slovakia also had one of the thinner populations we have seen on our trip. Now, before you rush off to eat some ice cream as part of your new Slovakian diet plan, I will note that a Slovakian-size serving of ice cream is much, much smaller than an American-size serving. And, other than ice cream, Slovakians don’t seem to eat out a lot.
• In my experience, most cultures have a societal expectation that you don’t drink alcoholic beverages before noon. Sometimes there are exclusions to the rule, like our Sunday brunch classics of Mimosas and Bloody Marys. However, back home we don’t generally see people having a beer with breakfast. Not true in Slovakia! Beer and other alcoholic beverages are a stand-by breakfast choice. (For those who are wondering, no, we did not follow the “when in Rome…” advice on this one.)

View from a Hilltop in Kremnica

In other news, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in Slovakia, and to get mushy on you for just a sec, I have to say that I’m still so in love with Gray. This past year together has been so special and has really reinforced that we are great together. I feel truly fortunate that we have been able to travel together and experience such amazing things together over the past months.

More photos from Slovakia here.

Aileen checks the maps

We picked Vienna as home base because that’s where Aileen’s super-supportive extended family lives. From there we were able to acquire bikes, paniers (luggage bags), a toolkit, extra inner tubes, maps, and the like for what turned out to be a real song. Aileen, who decided long ago that the only way to bicycle across Europe was wearing a dress, was prepared with three gorgeous dresses purchased back in Turkey. With a borrowed bike from Aileen’s aunt helping tremendously, our total equipment and dress outlay was way less than expected at under $300. And our stay with family had another added bonus: we were able to fuel up big time on delicious home cooking; we’re still burning those calories off weeks later!

On our first morning we headed east from Wöllersdorf and into Burgenland, a major wine and relaxation region of Austria over by the Hungarian border. These first days were across flat, green farmland and through picturesque little towns. Austria is etched in my mind as rows of cute houses trimmed with window boxes of blooming flowers. I’m still baffled by the fact that these flowers seem to be perpetually in bloom whenever I visit the country.

In general our route took us east across Austria and then north to the Danube river which we would follow all the way to Budapest. We saw a touch of Slovakia in its capital, Bratislava, before entering the Hungarian portion of the Danube.

Each day followed a very clear and rewarding pattern: wake up and eat breakfast (smuggle leftovers for a snack), bike through beautiful scenery, eat lunch in a cute, small town, bike some more, find a place to stay in another adorable town, eat dinner, and fall early into a deep, blissful sleep. It’s been great, but it doesn’t make for a compelling play-by-play: “Aileen pedals hard and, seeing a slight incline ahead, downshifts. Her cadence jumps to around 80. Gray follows close behind…” Instead, here are some highlights:

- Riding through parks of wind turbines. These things are huge and oddly beautiful and ugly at the same time. We got to ride right beneath them and stopped to stare straight up in awe for quite some time. We did learn an important lesson: windmills mean wind and, most importantly, you never want to find yourself riding a bicycle when you’re facing the same direction as the windmills.

- Győr: We rolled straight into the main square of this Hungarian town and didn’t leave for hours. The centerpiece was the fountain that was designed to be highly interactive. We watched scores of kids running around half-naked trying to predict just where the next jets of water would emerge. In the evening we watched the Germany / Australia world cup game along with what seemed like the entire town on an immense jumbo-tron set up on the opposite side of the river from our seats amongst the temporary stadium bleachers. Too bad I picked Australia to root for, ugh.

- We happened unexpectedly upon a super-crowded water park in the tiny, tiny town of “I don’t even remember the name” in rural Hungary. Who knows where all these people came from. We couldn’t pass up such an obvious gem and ended up spending the better part of a day lounging on shaded grass, swimming in the wave pool, and relaxing in the mineral pools.

One side of the world's best town square in Vac, Hungary

- One morning we passed by a you-pick strawberry patch. Not having a set agenda is great. We turned right around and picked to our hearts’ content. No joke: these were the best strawberries I’ve ever tasted.

- The recent flooding of the Danube was really interesting. Aileen’s family spent a lot of time warning us about it before we took off and luckily it’s now back down mostly within the banks. It was amazing to see just how high the water had been so recently. At some points we could see in the leaves of the trees that the water had been something like 10 feet over our heads as we rode down a cycle path. It must have been terrible for the folks who live here.

- Vác: This little town a days ride from Budapest has the very best town square in the entire world (you heard it here first!). Complete with delicious restaurants and seemingly endless dessert cafes, the square is both beautiful and functional. It even has a skateboard park. Full disclosure: Aileen thinks this is only the second-best town square in the world because Győr’s won her heart. We say move Győr’s fountain to Vác and end the debate.

After a brilliant trip, we spent several days recuperating in Budapest, exploring the beautiful historic castles of Buda and the restaurants and clubs of lively Pest (the two towns on opposing sides of the river were joined in 1873). And then it was time to head off again! But that will have to wait for the next post.

More photos from this leg of our journey are here.

Hiking the Lycian Coast

We only hiked a short part of the 509 km (316 mile) Lycian Way, a one-day hike from Oludeniz to Kabak Valley. (We know that at some point in our lives, we will have to hike the whole thing from end to end.) The entire challenging trail hugs the Mediterranean Coast, taking you along and over jagged cliffs overlooking the sea as you hike from small town to small town. Many nights you can lodge in and eat at tiny guest houses. You can stop by some of the many beaches along the way to cool off. If you can get past the frustrating paucity of information to be found about the Lycian Way, you will be rewarded. We cannot recommend it highly enough.

Our own journey ended at a little slice of heaven, the Shambala Resort in tiny Kabak Valley. We had planned to stay only one night in order to return to Fethiye for a 3-night boat trip, but we canceled our plans when we realized that we had stumbled upon paradise.  (The screaming deal we negotiated– less than half the advertised price– didn’t hurt either.)

Shambala is a peaceful resort perched on the hillside of Kabak Valley overlooking Kabak Beach. It is very new age, billing itself as an 11:11 project. But somehow, chatting with the staff about their quests to attain a higher plane of consciousness just felt right at this place, even to these two skeptics. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is that makes it so amazing; the Lonely Planet describes it as “more than the sum of its parts”. I would say that it gets all of the details right, from the wooden sculptures to the cozy seating areas to the mind-bogglingly delicious organic food. It is also run with such attentiveness and efficiency that when we commented that the little seating area outside our bungalow could use some shade, within fifteen minutes there were five men putting a thatched roof over it. And the zen of the place and inner peace of the staff can’t help but infuse the atmosphere. A fellow guest quipped, “Peace, love, and dinner at eight,” and we couldn’t agree more.

Unfortunately, we have no pics from Kabak or our Lycian Way hike since we accidentally left our memory card behind in Fethiye… oops!  Well, that’s just one more reason why we’ll have to go back.  Pics from Fethiye and a day hike we did in the area here.

Fairy chimneys in Cappadocia have been carved by both the elements and people

Fairy chimneys are these huge rock towers that were formed when the surrounding rock eroded. Chunks of harder rock cap the towers, protecting them from the elements. They are gorgeous and strange. The huge rock structures are sometimes golden, sometimes rose colored, and they positively glow when hit by evening or morning light. Persecuted early Christians (Byzantines) carved homes and churches into these structures, and the resulting labyrinths of interconnected rooms is mind-boggling. They also carved pigeon holes into walls so they could collect the droppings, which apparently make for excellent fertilizer. Who knew?

It is a wonderful area to just set off in a random direction and wander. There are a number of marked paths through the various valleys, but they are surprisingly difficult to follow since enterprising Turks are quick to supplement the trail markings with signs pointing you to their fine establishments. No matter, as all of it was beautiful and interesting, and scrambling into and through the twisting passageways of these ancient dwellings was tremendous fun.

Old cave dwellings in Çavuşin, Cappadocia

But what we loved most of all about Cappadocia was something we loved about all of Turkey: the relaxed pace epitomized by lounging on Turkish-rug-covered cushions around a low table playing backgammon. We spent a good number of hours doing just that.

More photos from Cappadocia here.

As we often do upon arriving in a new city, Aileen and I decided to head out on a more or less aimless stroll around town to get our bearings.  With no real idea of where we were headed, we started to head downhill towards the waterfront.  A few minutes later we arrived at a beautiful boardwalk along the edge of the Bosphorus, the narrow waterway that connects the Black and Marmara Seas and cuts Istanbul straight in half.  Right as we crossed the road and stepped foot on the path, a group of four middle-aged men called out to us from the big boulders that lined the edge of the water.  They made wild beckoning motions with their hands.  One held a piece of chicken in one hand and pointed to it emphatically with the other.  This could only be interpreted as, “Get over here!  We have fresh grilled chicken and you know you want some!”  Well, sure we did! 

Grilling on the Bosphorus waterfront in Istanbul

We climbed over the rocks to where they were sitting and joined them as they greeted us with big smiles.  Among the four just one man spoke just a few broken words of English and we, of course, spoke zero Turkish.  Luckily language wasn’t needed as they proceeded to set us up with loaves of fresh bread, tomatoes and cucumbers, and chicken off of their portable grill.  I sampled the local beer, Efes, and Aileen tried out Raki, a clear anise-flavored spirit that turns white when mixed with mineral water.  Tasty stuff!

Despite the language barrier, we were all able to learn quite a lot about our new friends them about us.   It turned out that Aileen is a common Turkish name while Gray, unfortunately, is not.  They welcomed Aileen warmly and pretended to shun me as the only non-Turk. Luckily, they soon renamed me Mustafa and welcomed me back!    After a while, they called over a whole group of teenage Turks who were out enjoying the beautiful evening.  As the sun sunk lower in the sky, everyone took turns playing a guitar and singing various Turkish songs.  We continued like this for many hours and enjoyed a truly magical evening.

Nothing like a little guitar to set the mood

A few more photos from Istanbul, a city that surprised us with it’s modernness, liveliness, diversity, and beauty, can be found here.

overall impression:  What can you say about a place where the number one ranked attraction on TripAdvisor is a mall?  Dubai is a sprawling city of tall skyscrapers, expats from everywhere imaginable, and yes, shopping malls.  It’s a place where you can see women in full burqa holding ostentatious designer handbags as they browse through a lingerie store.  The general cleanliness and orderliness of everything was a soothing contrast to our time in India, but it bordered on sterile.  While we don’t regret checking the place out, we sure weren’t impressed either.  We sum it up as, “a shrine to consumerism.”  Move along folks, nothing to see here.

A day in Dubai: Morning on the Beach

what we did:  We spent three days in Dubai on a stopover between India and Turkey.  In that time, we took in the top attractions: we swam at the beach, gaped at the world’s tallest building, wandered around the two largest malls, went indoor snowboarding, and swam at our hotel pool.

And afternoon on the slopes

exchange rate: 1 USD = 3.6 UAE Dirham

the people:  Incredibly diverse.  Arab women in burqas; white women in tank tops; Indians everywhere; a gregarious Cambodian waiter who grew up in Thailand.

the food: We ate delicious Thai food twice (at our hotel) and Lebanese food once (at a mall).  We have no idea what real Dubai-ites, if there is such a thing, eat.