My Birthday Wish

For my birthday (today for me, tomorrow for those viewing) I have asked Jason for the following:
1 – the new Jack Johnson album via iTunes
2 – a summer dress, which here in Thailand should cost about $3.
3 – a manicure and pedicure…PLEASE!!!!
4 – a Charlie hug

What I wouldn’t give for a Charlie hug. Please, if someone could take care of this for me, I would be indebted to you forever. Wrap her up and ship her here. I miss her so much and all I would love to do for my birthday is give Charlie a HUGE hug!!!
Since I understand this most likely not possible I wish the following:
If you happen to be out for dinner, or a happy hour (maybe Taco Tuesday) or something, or even at home and feeling a little festive, please have a margarita for me. Or Two. ;) They just aren't the same here. Mom – no cheating, virgin margaritas don’t count!

That’s all!! Love and miss you all!

Days Traveled: 71
Days Left: 39
Distance Traveled: 47,665km/29,784mi
Hours ahead by: 14 for California, 11 for East Coast
Countries Visited: 17
Getting: older

I Hate Mosquitos

Someone please, PLEASE tell me the secret to keeping the mosquitos off!!! They only way I know that worked from when I was little is when my mom and grandma would wrap me in a quilt in the heat of the summer nights. That is the only thing that worked! A quilt!! Does anyone have any ideas???? I am constantly applying bug repellant, with and without 98% DEET and still getting bitten. There has to be a secret somewhere. A thousand Baht to the person that can successfully help me out. ;)
Thanks, Becca

Ahhhhh Beach

One thing to definitely get your mind off missing home are the turquoise-emerald green waters of Thailand. We decided to get off Phuket and head toward Ko Phi Phi Don, abbreviated by all locals as Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee). Phi Phi is beautiful and would have some good hikes for us. Phi Phi Island was also one of the islands which saw much of the devastation from the Tsunami, but they have rebuilt so quickly that there isn’t much residue from the tsunami, unless you took a good look. A lot of the beaches in Thailand have a lot of trash, despite their beauty, and in Phi Phi it was hard to tell if all the trash around was debris or really trash. We hiked up to the viewpoint which gives you an amazing panoramic view of the bays of Ao Loh Dalum and Ao Ton Sai. These bays are separated by thin strand of island (called the Deer’s Neck) and most remarkably have two very different colors of water.
After our sweaty, steep hike we rented a longtail boat and headed toward Ko Phi Phi Leh (Ko Phi Phi Don’s little sister island) that has the infamous Maya Bay, where they filmed the Leonardo DiCapio film The Beach. Pee Pee Leh is a little, baby island so the only transport available is by boat. The boat drops you off about 100 feet from the cliff side where there is a manmade bamboo ladder you have to climb over in order to hike to the bay. I wonder if they did this swim/hike everyday for filming or just camped there. Anyway, you can easily see what the appeal is of this clear, turquoise water and white, soft-sanded bay, but unfortunately for us all the daytrippers were there hanging our in their docked their speed boats. You can access the bay directly by speedboat without having to swim it, however, the longtail boats (little rickety things made of wood and a lawnmower like motor) can’t handle the wind from that side. So we swam back and did a little snorkeling. Traveling at this point is starting to feel like vacation…thank goodness. From Ko Phi Phi Don we will travel by ferry to Railay Beach. Railay is a tiny bay area just barely off the coast of Krabi Province, which is back on the mainland of Thailand. See you there. ;)

Days Traveled: not sure
Distance Traveled: not sure
What do I know? I wish you could all see this. I hope my photos will do it justice, as I am sure my writing wont.

Phuket About It

Our way down from Chiang Mai to the coast and islands would be a flight into Phuket.
There are only a couple of ways to describe Phuket, dirty and crowded.
Jason and I decided to take the word from our guidebook and head towards Kata Beach since Kata is supposed to have, I am going to emphasize supposed, a surf vibe. I guess maybe only if you are living in Kansas, because we didn’t get a surf vibe at all. The only thing that resembled any type of surf were the quickie surf board rentals dotted along the beach. Needless to say, we didn’t care for Phuket much so we are going to move on….forget about Phuket. ;)


Sorry, No Pictures.

Big Hike

At 8:00am NOT sharp, we were picked up and squished into a van with 10 other people from around the world. Our drive to the beginning of our hike is an hour’s drive, so get comfortable.
When we arrived at the head of the hike we got to meet our elephant. Two persons to an elephant and each with a guide sitting on its head – well, except for the last elephant which was behind us and tied to the ear of our elephant (loosely tied). We boarded our elephant and of course what happens in the middle of the summer in the jungle??? It starts to pour! Raining so hard that the elephants have quite a difficult trek in the mud. For as large as the elephants are we were quite surprised just how elegant they can move through sketchy, muddy, trails. Towards the end of the trail we had to cross through the river. We had no idea how deep the river ran at this point but our elephant (and guide) seemed to think it was just fine – and it was. It was so cool to be on top of an elephant, cross the river, and back up the muddy, steep, embankment. I thanked our elephant for making it hike safely with a good head stretch and pat. He didn’t seem to notice. What he did notice was the pile of bananas waiting for him on the other side. For 20Baht (about 60cents) we could feed him ourselves. Boy, our elephant had a one tracked mind! All he wanted was all the bananas, but we were told specifically to feed them one by one!! Then I found myself being cornered by two other elephants whose riders didn’t buy the bananas!!! At one point I had three huge elephant trunks grabbing for the bananas I was trying to hide under my arm. I started feeding all three elephants one banana at a time but the middle elephant was becoming inpatient and he blew his trunk right in my face!! I got a bunch of hot air enough to make my hair fly around! It was pretty cool. Afterward we hiked through the jungle for a few hours to a few villages and a waterfall. It was a nice day of exertion in which afterwards our guide starts looking at all of our legs saying “leashes? Leashes??” What are leashes??? Oh….Leeches. Gross!! No! No leeches here, thank goodness. The end of our Day of Trekking would end with a bamboo raft ride down the river. Normally this would involve a raft for rapids, but there wasn’t enough water, so instead we stood on rafts made of bamboo sticks tied together with strips of tire. Sketchy. More sketchy was even though there wasn’t enough water for rafts, there was enough water for rapids!! We ended up hitting a tree and sending our guide flying forward into the water. Kind of funny actually!! But, alas, we all landed back safely on land and we beared the hour drive back soaking wet. Yuck.
Tonight we meet up with our Dutch friends for some more market shopping and eating. The Sunday market should be interesting and if it doesn’t rain anymore, they should be open ALL night!

Wat's Up?

We arrived at the train station around 7:30am, which allowed us to take our time to walk into the main parts of town. Only, we got turned around and walked about 30 minutes in the wrong direction. A tuk-tuk drove by and we had him take us into town, he laughed at us a bit.
The main thing that inspired our choice to visit Chiang Mai was a huge enormous gold wat called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep which is situated deep in the jungle filled mountains of the Chiang Mai Province.
Since we had arrived so early we had a chance to grab some breakfast and figure out how long we thought we would be here. We decided a couple of things:
1) today we are going to go to the Wat Doi Suthep 2) we are going to take a Thai cooking class 3) we want to go hiking in the jungle and ride elephants
This was all actually pretty easy to accomplish, but one thing had to be done first. The trekking through the jungle was actually a full-day’s hike and so we would have to stay an extra day. The trouble with that is that we figured for one night and had a flight booked for Phuket Island the next day. So we hired a tuk-tuk to take us up the mountain to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (in the rain) and walked around the temple for a little while taking pictures. I knew from our reading that I was not dressed appropriately since I was wearing shorts, but no trouble, I would just rent a sarong. The women wrapped me in the sarong properly and we went barefoot through the gold and marble-floored temple in the pouring rain. We decided NOT to bring our rain gear (even though we knew it would be raining most the time we were there) but I did have a rain poncho. You know, the kind you buy last minute at football games because you forgot to check the weather?? Anyhow, we used the poncho to cover my backpack that was housing both our cameras…so there we were getting soaked and the backpack and cameras staying nice and dry. The hike up to the temple was really neat and the walk down was a little wrenching since all the stairs are angled down so the rain doesn’t accumulate. Makes all stairs really slick.
After our fun trip to the wat we decided to walk around town to find the Thai Airways office. We changed our flight for a small fee and now had one extra day in Chiang Mai.
It ended up being a busy day because as soon as we got back from changing our ticket, we booked our all-day hike for tomorrow and then were picked up for our afternoon cooking class.
The cooking class we had arranged first started a tour of the large market where most Thais will pick up the ingredients they need for the day. It is a very aromatic and colorful scene – even though sometimes the smells aren’t always that nice. Fishy…ewww.
The cooking class was a lot of fun and we met a lot of others traveling the world. Some were traveling for a year, some seven months, to all these really obscure and interesting places. For a second, it makes our trip seem so small, but then I think of home, and I know it’s not. In our class we met up with a couple our age from Amsterdam (well, just outside Amsterdam). Educated and good English speakers we ended up spending the rest of the night hanging out with them. After the cooking class (we brought home the book with recipes!!) we were all dropped of at the center of the night markets. We walked around for a few hours sharing some traveling stories, talking about places we have been (well, maybe mostly where they had been) about what we did, where we’re from, etc. We had a really nice time walking and talking and taking small breaks to negotiate a good deal for wanted items. When we were all shopped out we sat for a few beers and made arrangements to meet for dinner the next night. By the time our night was over it felt like we had been in Chiang Mai for days. Tomorrow is Sunday and we go off trekking in the jungle and meet our new friends for dinner. Tomorrow is also the day when Chaing Mai puts on their Sunday Market – so the town is to be filled with craft vendors, food vendors, and anything else I think I can imagine at this point.

Days Traveled: 58
Distance Traveled: 45,974km/28,733mi
Countries Visited: 17

Spicy Noodles

Well, I am sitting here on a 3-hour bus ride from Krabi to Ko Samui and figured it was a good time to get caught up with blogging about Thailand. Sorry I have been so far behind. (And for the typos and poor grammar.)
Our flight landed in Bangkok during rush hour and we arranged a deal to hire a taxi to our hotel. In traffic, the ride to our hotel should be about 30-45 minutes; yet an hour and a half later, our taxi was still lost. Seemed, like Dubai, there are a lot of new taxi cab drivers in Bangkok due to failing rice crops. Our driver kept pulling over to the side of the road to ask a tuk-tuk driver or another cab driver where to go. Should have taken a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a mini carriage/tricycle, if you will, that is pushed by a tiny, loud, motor – its risky business and a lot of fun. I think it is like riding around on a lawnmower, but through the busy streets of downtown Bangkok than on a pretty green lawn.
We would get to our hotel ready to explore and absolutely starving. Tonight is the only night we have booked in Bangkok so we want to see as much as possible.
We ventured around the city’s markets and stopped at a street-side vendor for some spicy noodles. They were so good. More please!! I have been craving Thai food since being in Europe and have held out for the real thing, finally! We explored a little more and went walking around the night markets of Bangkok. This is where I would polish up on my negotiation skills. We bought a few items (at good prices I hope) and absorbed what we could of the hectic nightlife of colorful Bangkok. After a few hours we decided it was time to figure our what we were doing for the next few days and so headed back to our hotel, in the rain - by foot.
I booked the hotel we were at on my hotel points, so we had the luxury of checking out at 4pm. The next morning we explored the town a little more and checked out all of the Thai temples, called Wats. They are usually very colorful and have a lot of red, green, and gold paint. Often times you can see Monks walking around in a bright orange wrap. It adds a cool colorful dimension to the city. We decided to buy overnight train tickets to Chiang Mai, wichi is a smaller city than Bangkok a 14-hour train ride north of Bangkok. We visited the same street vendor as we did last night for the same exact noodles. They are so good, I love Thai food.
So we had a plan and now needed to head back to the hotel to check out and get ourselves ready to explore Thailand.
Our hotel had informed us that we would be allowed to leave our luggage there while we were gone since we had reservations to stay there on our last night. What a deal!! You don’t know how lucky we were to hear that. Our bags are big enough that if we wanted to take a tuk-tuk anywhere, we would have to hire two. One for us and one for our luggage. How funny would it be to see our luggage strapped into the two seats of a tuk-tuk??! Ha!
Anyway, we didn’t get a chance to find out. While in South Africa we picked up an extra smallish duffel to carry around a some clothes and necessities for the next two weeks. Our luggage would stay in Bangkok and we will pick it up in two weeks. Sweet deal.
We made our way to the train station and hopped on our overnight train. The train looked like it came from the 70’s, but a closer look revealed a 1996 train made by Hyundai. You would never have guessed it. Thank goodness, too, that we didn’t bring our luggage, our car wasn’t even big enough for our backpacks! When we ate diner, we actually had to eat from our laps and place our drinks on the floor while the train bounced along the way.
Around 10pm we decided to go to sleep and when we woke we would be in beautiful (and rainy wet) Chiang Mai.

Days Traveled: 57
Distance Traveled: 45,236km/28,272mi
So happy: that I finally got some Thai food

UAE

So, I think this blog will make my sister proud. I know I always make her grimace with my frugalness at times and she tries to tell me that there things worth spending money on. I hope I succeeded.
The airline had moved our flight up three hours so we arrived in Dubai it was 5am. We had contacted our hotel to ask if we could check in super early and they said it would be ok if there were clean rooms available.
Well, due to the number of new taxi drivers in Dubai, it would take over an hour for our driver to find our hotel. Not to mention that with the mass amount of construction going on, all buildings have blocked driveways, detours, and signs covered so it isn’t the easiest or prettiest place to navigate. We would arrive at our hotel around 7am and were able to check in to get a few hours sleep. We woke around noon and started to plan out the rest of the 20 hours we had left in Dubai. The hotel offered free shuttle service to the Mall of the Emirates and to the nearby beach resort. Happy Hour on the 52nd floor of our hotel would start at 5pm and we weren’t going to miss it considering how expensive everything would be. So the mall and the beach for today sounded great. The Mall of the Emirates is supposed to be the largest in the world. But we couldn’t figure out why...was it the number of shops? Or square footage? Can someone look this up for us? It was a beautiful mall with fancy atriums and upscale seating for the food court. Not to mention the indoor ski resort at the very end. We didn’t ski, but watched others and realized that for a mall in Dubai the ski resort was just like having a small ice skating rink at home – only we were in the middle of the desert in a land far, far away. We walked around the mall which wasn’t too exciting since they had mostly all the shops we have at home. It was cool though to see all the signs in Arabic.
Our shuttle picked us up and we changed and headed toward the beach. We ended up having passes for the Le Meridien Resort; gorgeous place with a beautiful beach and swimming pool. It was hot!! The water was almost hot too so we didn’t spend too much time it. I collected a few shells and we hit the pool. We decided to have a few drinks at the swim up bar (I think my dad would have like it) and had four beers for the whopping total of $45USD. Ouch. We have budgeted a good amount of money for Dubai, now we were wondering if we had budgeted enough.
Jason had booked us a hotel that was right on the new marina over looking one of the palm islands. Our hotel room was a two bedroom apartment that was probably about 2,000 square feet. It was huge. On the bar at the top on the 52nd floor we watched the sunset and contemplated making reservations at the Burj Al Arab, the world’s only 7-star hotel. Of course we would want to check it out but reservations were obligating. If you wanted to go to passed the security gate of the hotel, you had to have a reservation. If you wanted reservations, you had to commit to consuming a minimum of 275Durhams a person (which calculates to $75 US Dollars). So the question was whether to spend $150 dollars of our budget to go have what would probably end up being 4 cocktails at the Sky Bar….the answer: absolutely. We headed down from happy hour to the concierge to make the reservation. They needed a credit card to hold the reservation in addition to our concierge’s opinion of whether we were dressed well enough. We didn’t bring any fancy clothes, but my reliable black dress and Jason’s “elegant” jeans would suit just fine.
The Burj Al Arab was an impressive building with a huge atrium in the lobby that goes straight through to the ceiling. It is very colorful, they use the rainbow colors to decorate almost everything, tastefully.
Jason and I enjoyed exactly 1 cocktail and one beer each to meet the minimum dollar amount. We couldn't afford anymore than that!!
It had been a pretty fun day and being that we had as many drinks during Happy Hour as we could, we decided to call it a night and hang out in our cool penthouse apartment.
Dubai was fun and interesting. I think it would be a much prettier city without so much construction obstruction the views.
In the morning we hailed a cab to the airport. Emirates Air has its own terminal in Dubai. So much so that First and Business Class has their own entrance! It was pretty cool.
Well, on the way to Thailand. We should be there in about 6 hours. First time in Asia for both of us.

Days Traveled: 56
Distance Traveled: 40,306km/25,191mi
Craving since Europe: Thai noodles!!
Missing Everyday: Charlie

Good Hope

We awoke to rain, once again, but considering it was winter here, it wasn’t surprising. Two activities that we want to do involve having good weather: going up the tram to the top of Table Mountain and going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his prison years. We read the weather forecast called for clear skies on Monday, so we decided to wait and head out for some exploring. My sister had sent us a book about the ten best things to do in Cape Town. Turns out the book had a section on the ten best things to do on a rainy day, so we looked to tick a few of these off. We walked around all the craft markets, picked up a few things, had some lunch and decided (being Sunday) that if the weather was really going to be great on Monday that today would be our last chance to visit the Cape of Good Hope.
I was on a work trip out to St. Louis a few months back and picked up their in-flight magazine. It had a 4-page spread on the Cape of Good Hope, which I took home, and have ever since wanted to visit. It being winter meant that I wouldn’t be able to see the amazing wildflowers of spring, but there should still be some magnificent views, baboons, and penguins. Which we saw! It is a beautiful drive in the cape. We stopped to see the penguins with their chicks, went all the way out to Cape Point where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean clash, and saw plenty of baboons with their babies all in the road. Our experience wasn’t as picturesque as the magazine, but it was still amazing.
We decided to drive back to Cape Town the long way and up the west coast so that we could head towards Hout Bay for dinner, where there is a place Leon and his wife highly recommended. However, the mountain pass to get there was closed due to weather and we would never make it. It was pretty dark and a little rainy so Jason and I decided best to head back to our hotel, warm up, and eat some dinner.
The next day we again woke to rain, but by the time breakfast was over it had started t clear. It was Monday morning and we went downstairs to check email, but no response from the camera guy. We had also put in a call to a boat cruise to Seal Island where you can see the Great Whites fly for food like in the Discovery Channel, but still no answer if seas would be calm enough. Ok, so what to do, what to do…and it seemed in all this waiting and getting ready the clouds were clearing at Table Mountain and the trams started running. Sweet! On the way over we called the camera people and they were open and gave us directions. I told them the urgency of getting my camera fixed by the end of today and the gentleman said he would clear his desk off and wait my arrival. Turns out cameras are just like people and once you take them to the doctor everything is just fine. My camera started working again, taking pictures without error messages…errrrr! It still needed a good cleaning and perhaps a tune up at this point, so we dropped it off anyway. We decided to wait a wee bit longer for more of the clouds to clear Table Mountain, so we headed for the District Six Museum and by the time we were done, the camera was ready. What a great deal. We picked up the camera and headed for the base of the mountain.
Now, I am not a fan of gondolas, especially huge massive ones that spin. I just don’t understand the engineering. But a five minute ride to the top ascending 400 meters high was pretty spectacular. When we bought our expensive ticket for the tram we noticed you can do one-way trips. You can actually hike up and down the mountain, but when you look around, you don’t necessarily see how. We decided to tram up and hike down, with just enough time left before sunset. By the time we got up to the top we had about 2 hours of light left, so Jason and I decided on the shortest route down, which of course was not the easiest. The shortest route takes one and a half hours to get all the way down a very, very steep, wet, rocky, technical hike. Going up would have been easier even if a bit more tiring. About half way down both of our legs were stripped of stamina and started to shake if we stopped. Towards the bottom, the trail started leveling out a bit and we got to hike behind waterfalls and back under the tram. It was all pretty neat and we finished in time to watch a beautiful sunset. Jason and I headed back to the hotel for dinner and started our routine of packing things up once again.
In the morning it was business as usual, checking every surface and area to make sure we don’t forget anything. Our hotel in Cape Town, I forgot to mention, ended up being a two bedroom apartment, so our stuff was spread out everywhere. When we were packing, we think, “Gosh, I packed pretty well, my bag has tons of space left”, then you find the rest of your stuff in the other bedroom.
We headed to the airport and dropped off the rental car, without even a scratch! All tires were in piece and the windshield was in tact. Good.
Our trip in South Africa was quite amazing. We have seen so much, learned a lot, and had a wonderful time. We have already named the places we would like to go back to and the new places we didn’t get a chance to see. When we checked in for our flight back to Johannesburg, the agent asked where we would like to sit. We ask what kind of plane it was he laughed and said “the same kind you flew here in!” We laughed and told him that had driven from Johannesburg and he got so excited. He stood up and shook our hands and told us how we had really seen his country. We all agreed on how beautiful it was and he was very proud. It was a nice ending for our story.


Days Traveled: 55
Distance Traveled: 33,343km/20,839km
Total distance driven: 4,200km/2,625mi
Countries Visited: 15

Failing Whales

We arrived in Cape Town with plenty of time to run our errands so we spent our arrival roaming a bit around town and checking out Internet. Online I was able to find a camera repair shop down just a five-minute drive from where we were staying but couldn’t find it on our map, so we decided to give them a call first. No answer. I let the phone ring about a dozen times and realized it being Saturday, they might not be open until Monday, and we were leaving Tuesday. We went back to the internet shop and left an urgent message for their help. Hopefully we will hear something first thing Monday morning and they can work a little magic for my sake.
Walking around town we found a few surf shops but none would take Jason’s board. They did however help us out and told us which beach to go to that had numerous shops that should definitely take our board. With nothing else going on and some drab weather stumping any outdoor activities we decided to head to the beach. The other folks were right that there would be numerous shops around and one took Jason’s board for 20Rands less than we paid, ultimately making Jason’s “rental” about $10 US dollars for two weeks! He struck an awesome deal. The other surf shops we found were oddly closed early and a closer look told us why. Apparently there was a beached whale on the other side of the cape and surf shops and people with wetsuits go out to help. Jason and I weren’t sure what the deal was but thought to check it out.
When we arrive at Kommetjies Beach it was closed off by crime scene tape, but you just walk right under it, by a few police officers and you see so many other people, some police, and marine rescuers. Must be a big whale – we thought. But unfortunately, no, that was not the case. It ended up that around 7am this morning a pod 55 pilot whales found themselves beached. When we got there around 3pm, there were people with the whales trying to get them back in the water, but if they did, the whale would be too tired and disoriented it would turn back towards the beach. It was really sad to watch being as helpless as we were. Jason and I both agreed that had we had wetsuits, we would be trying to help. We truly tired not to gawk at this situation, but it isn’t something you see everyday and somehow we couldn’t look away. The area of beach we were on had 4 whales right in front of us, a few to the left and the rest where about 50 meters to the right. Of all the whales, we would see people get two whales successfully past the break. The waves were big and strong and the poor whales were so tired and exhausted, getting past the break would be their biggest hurdle. The third whale we watched just barely past the break and once passed it he just floated there in the water. He was too tired to move and we all watched, biting our nails, hoping hoping, hoping he would make it free. “Come on little whale, you can do it” was all anyone was thinking and saying. But alas, his efforts were in vain and the whale was beached once again; and as we would find out, for the last time. We had heard some weird sounding “clacks” off to the right beach where all the other whales were and couldn’t figure out what it was, until it got closer. The clack we heard was that of a rifle and it seemed the marine rescue people decided it was best to put the whales down, all of them. By the time the gunman got closer, our whale number three was partially back in the water with a little human help. The fourth whale that was in front of us was alive, but so embedded in the sand that it there was no hope. There were people with him, stroking his side and fins, trying to keep him wet and calm, but he would never be back in the water and he was put down. The echo of the rifle when it goes off twenty feet from where you are standing is a very eerie feeling. The vibration of the echo is so loud and strong it goes through you, shakes your insides, and makes your bones ache, especially because you just saw a whale being shot. What makes it worse is that the marine rescue was now calling for the people with our whale number three to bring him in from the water to be shot. What??? It seemed the was decision made and it had to be done quickly. The whales had been beached for 8 hours now and the sun was starting to set. There were many more whales to be put down along the beach, there wasn’t much time left and with sharks starting to feed, it was probable that the whale wouldn’t make it on his own and now the rescue people in the water would be in danger as well. Jason and I didn’t wait around at this point. We were so much hoping that our whale would make it that we couldn’t bare to watch or hear the rifle that would end his life.
It was a really quiet drive back to Cape Town. Jason and I didn’t have much to say considering what we had just seen. We were both sad and a little shocked by what we had just seen, but both agreed that weren’t sorry that we saw it. We had a few comments to each other about why we were allowed to see it, questioned whether if we had been at home if we would have seen it or if it would have the same outcome. A lot of our answers seemed to go back to the ability of the police units to regulate the beach and the available people and equipment for the marine rescuers. Maybe if we were at home it could have had the same outcome but we certainly wouldn’t have been able to watch. We realized that the few policemen who had closed the beach had very little power to stop the hundreds of people who flocked there to see the whales. They desperately tried to tell everyone to go home over the loud speaker, but had no power to enforce it. They were outnumbered. I remember the man saying desperately on the microphone, “The beach has been closed, please get off the beach, please, for the sake of your children, please go home.” He was right, but it didn’t change anything. Jason and I had to come again to the realization that the country, despite its efforts, was still strides behind in their law/enforcement departments, amongst many other things.
We would arrive back at our hotel at 5:20, with just 10 minutes to find a place to sit and watch the rugby match, but in all honesty, we weren’t quite in the mood. We dropped the car off at the hotel and walked around a bit to find a place. The first place we found, we found ourselves out of place in a place not playing rugby, only soccer. So we wandered around a bit more and finally found an Irish Pub to watch the match. It would be standing room only with all TVs on rugby. South Africa beat to shame the New Zealand team, but it was all fun to watch (especially now since I actually understand rugby). We felt a little easier and enjoyed the rest of our night at the pub. Maybe with some sleep we will be able to come to terms with our day and move on.

Days Traveled: 54
Distance Traveled:
Realized: that the right decision may be the hardest.