holding pattern...

hello my friends,

reporting from jo-burg still.

good news! i'm still in one piece.

i slept in this morning and missed the time period in which to apply for a mozambican visa. so, i'm going to have to wait till tomorrow morning. in the meantime, i might be thrown out of my hostel.

yesterday, me and ahmed managed to fit in a tour of the Apartheid Museum and Soweto.

the apartheid museum was really good. i could have spent 4 or 5 hours there but managed 2.5. exhibits were depressing though. at the beginning of the tour i was given an honourary white person's card. i felt quite powerful for some odd reason. in reality, dennis, our tour guide, said that chinese people were classified as blecks in that time. turned out that, the classifications (white, coloured, blecks) were quite arbitrary. some families were split along racial qualifications. approx. 100 chinese people in 1985 changed colours from bleck to white.

anyway, the story of apartheid was quite chilling. they had video clips of government officials in the day defending apartheid. initially, apartheid was enforced because of labour shortages. but, clearly, it turned out to be a racist policy.

afterwards, dennis took us to soweto (stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnships), the area where alot of the bleck brothers were segregated from the white folks. we saw the mandela's little brick house, winnie mandela's house and desmond tutu's house. we then went to seen the po part of soweto. then we went to the very rich part of soweto (where millionaire bleck people live).

overall, i don't think a trip to SA is complete without a tour of soweto or any other townships.

update: i was walking along the road today when i spotted a newspaper with the headline reading "chinese fighting to be black". i thought apartheid was in the past. i believe dennis' observation that, even though there are tough anti-discrimination laws, there is a still a strong undercurrent of racism here. can't fix rome in a day, eh...

wait, this is like work!!

okavango delta: finished.

i liken a mokoro trip into the okavango to spending some time on "the rock", except this rock has a bunch of animals.

finished the tour and hi-tailed it out of there.

started the long journey "home" to johannesburg (that's where i am as i write), at 5 AM. Tried to pick up a wheel cover for the poor rental along the way in Gabarone (Gabs for short). not possible. we've traveled over 8000 km and still could not find a hubcap. we even checked out the hubcap stock of this guy standing by the roadside selling his lost and found collection. nodda. we must have rented the most obscure model of car in the history of rental cars.

like i said i'm in johannesburg now. it's the most violent urban area on the face of the planet. however, as with most outrageous descriptions, jo'burg has not lived up to expectations. we even drove around after dark. we were car-jacked at all.

things i've noticed so far about JNB:

damn it's expensive here.
i've never seen so many bmw's, mercedes, lotus' (loti), ferraris in my life.
affluence is not restricted to da man. a lot of the bros are loaded as well.
the gap between rich and poor is out of control and i mean between the brothers, eh.
people try to emulate the american way of life. if you can see the consumerism here you'd think could be the other way around.

my friend, ahmed, leaves tomorrow for colder climes... i'll be all alone. yikes. i'm feeling a bit scared.

note: who's ed stelnack?

later.

speed of light

hello my friends.

another short post. i'm traveling at the speed of light right now. things should slow down dramatically after the 10th of december.

i have to get my butt over to maun, botswana before sundown today. maun is the gateway to the okavango delta (the largest inland delta on the face of the planet)

UPDATE: my mama seems to be on the fast track to recovery.

back from the wild...

well, i'm back. i'm in the capital city of namibia, Windhoek. etosha was really exciting. lot's o animals.

however, to put a damper on things, i'm rifling through stack of emails only to find out my mum underwent surgery to have her gall bladder removed or gall stones removed. i'm not sure what the exact situation is but she seems to be ok. good thing my brother is at home.

i don't feel like traveling anymore.

out again...

just came back from the Cape Cross Fur Seal Reserve.

i smell like seal urine.

got some great pix of seals, seal pups, and alot of seal fights. i wish you could see them.

i'll be gone for the next few days. i'm going to the great game reserve of Etosha National Park. Hopefully, i'll smell like elephant, lion, rhino, or if i'm lucky maybe cheetah/leopard.

talk again soon.

hello from here...

hello my friends:

long time no write. i've been traveling for a long time now.

the internet is not as efficient in africa.

briefly, i was in the kalahari desert for the first 5 days in a huge park in north west S. Africa. lots of interesting animals. hot as hell. temperatures hovered around 38 C during the day.

from the kalahari, we sped straight to the namib desert in Namibia. it was even hotter there. the last day the temperature hovered around 41 C. damn that's hot. it was worth it though. the sand dunes were outstanding. we went to a place called dead vlei. surreal. it's a dry lake bed with scattered dead creepy trees.

finally, i'm writing from the atlantic coast in the town of swakopmund, namibia. how can i describe it? it's sort of like the banff of namibia but like germany. it's freezing here at 20 C. kind of a tourist trap. good german food though...

many many german tourists here in namibia. not surprising, since it was a german colony in WWI. but, hell, that was way back in WWI! there's more germans here than in germany. nice folks though. did i mention i had a really swell time in frankfurt on the way to Jo'burg?

continuing on the "journey of bleakness" tomorrow. this time it's to Cape Cross, home beach of a bazillion sea lions.

will try to download a pic someday. the internet speed is just 128 kbps...

upington, SA

news:

here in upington, SA. renting a 4X4 to find meerkats in kgalagadi national park.

no floaty pens yet.

big electrical storm last nite.

no luggage.

slept in car last nite.

fun, fun, fun.

hello from south afrika

well, i'm here.

quickie notes;

there are many more blek folks here than in canada.

it must be 31 C. hot.

i'm fulfilling my dream of traveling lite. they lost all my luggage.

i'm looking for a floaty pen.

bye...

just use your imagination...or, i have a plan...

a quickie note.

by popular demand, here's the plan that will take me around the world.

caddyshack 3.

here's your youtube moment of the week.

re: gainer the gopher...

i think this kerfuffle over "Gainer" (or is it "Gaynor"?) the gopher, mascot of the saskatchewan roughriders of the canadian football league (info for my abundant overseas readers), being banned from the green (yet fake) acreages of mcmahon stadium for the playoff game between the said 'riders and my beloved calgary stampeders, is ridiculous.

it's a party for gad sakes!!! bring it on!! the people, calgary or saskatchewan fans, have paid big bucks for pretty mediocre football this year. they demand entertainment.

for the luv of god, this is not the NFL (No Fun League)!!

if perchance gainer starts digging holes in the turf, i will personally rush onto the field and fill them in.

i will not apply the garden hose though... i'm a closet buddhist.

FREE GAINER THE GOPHER.

my predictions for the first round of the 2006 Grey Cup playoffs.

the west.

1. Gainer will make an appearance ON the field. This was just a publicity stunt.

2. Gainer will be triumphant in all this. there's no such thing as bad publicity.

3. Calgary by 3 (low scoring game) without Gainer.

4. Saskatchewan by 2 (with Gainer). last second tie breaking safety when a stampeder player is taken down by an asian guy who appears to be filling in a gopher hole in the endzone.

the east.

i'd like to say the winnipeg blue bombers. it's difficult to win if you don't have a quarterback though.

i'll say the toronto argos by 7 but hope for an upset.