As the bus sputtered into Nairobi in the early hours of Monday evening while our last glorious African sunset was fading from view, it seemed we had conquered our 3000+ km of African soil just in time to make it for our return flight to Paris.
After seven-and-a-bit weeks, it was now time to swap from our beloved Swahili time (a very flexible form of measuring the hours and one that I found an uncanny attraction to!) and return to the precision of GMT. As we had been told on our travels – “In Europe, they have the clock. In Africa, they have the time.” Now, after many, many hours of waiting for our various forms of transport to get moving, we had certainly gotten used to the languid, and rather elastic quality of African time. Continue reading ‘Out of Africa’
Filed under Kenya. |
As we progressively discover Tanzania, there is one thing that we cannot help notice: the colours of houses seem to have changed. In Mozambique, houses and businesses were mostly yellow or blue reflecting the colours of the two main mobile phone carriers in the Mozambique. In Tanzania, there is a lot more red or green, also the colours of the main Tanzanian mobile phone operators. It seems that one of the main ways that mobile phone operators have found to advertise in countries were very few people have television – let alone electricity – or are even to able to read is to use colour, generally bright and distinctive, for brand recognition and to increase their visibility. They offer the paint that people can use for their house. When I inquired about this in Mozambique, I was told that people were not receiving any money for this; the mobile phone companies would simply provide the paints and logos. Continue reading ‘Mobile phones in Africa’
Filed under Tanzania. |
We are in the land of the baobabs.
Following our Asian adventure, an all-too brief foray into the Middle East and quick European pit-stop to indulge in some cheese, we have finally made it to Africa.
All we have so far is a plane ticket that flies us into Johannesburg and out of Nairobi, and the vague intention to head north by whatever means we can. Apparently, if you were to draw a line between these two cities, you would need to cover a distance of 2923km. Of course, travelling overland, we shall be taking a much more… how you say – “scenic route”!
So, with just under two months to cover this sizable territory, it looks like a bit of an African road trip will be in order.
Filed under South Africa. |
Yesterday in Damascus, after checking my emails I realised that I had some messages on FaceBook so I tried to log into the popular social network website only to be greeted by a very unfriendly error message… FaceBook it seems is not welcome in Syria and the authorities have banned it, apparently after an anti-goverment group became too popular. Continue reading ‘Internet in Syria’
Filed under Syria. |
Back to Bangkok from Cambodia, we are now bidding farewell to the Mekong region and getting ready for our middle-eastern experience. Both of us had visited the region a few times before so we were in familiar territory. We were both a little acquainted with the culture, the customs, the cuisine and we both knew how to avoid tourist traps – at least most of them. It is so pleasant and easy to travel here. People are so friendly. But we had not planned to stay here for this long. Continue reading ‘Last stop in Asia’
Filed under Thailand. |
As the bus sputtered into Nairobi in the early hours of Monday evening while our last glorious African sunset was fading from view, it seemed we had conquered our 3000+ km of African soil just in time to make it for our return flight to Paris.
