Last night, after a wonderful seafood pasta, I got myself into a little trouble at the hotel. You see, I had gone back to my room, got into my equivalent of jammies (remember, I’m traveling light), and pulled apart the bed so that I could get in and watch me some CNN. I say pull apart the bed because they had everything tucked in so tight that I couldn’t so much as lift the sheet an inch. I have no idea why hotels do that, but it’s a pain in the ass when you want to get into bed. After a bit, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, there was a guy there saying that he was the bed turn down service guy. I told him that there was no need, but he insisted on coming in and making everything just so. He was a bit disgusted by the way that I had pulled down the bedspread and untucked the sheet, so he remade the entire bed. Yes, you heard me right – remade it. I kept telling him that it was not necessary because I was just getting back into bed again when he left. But no, he remade it and then took the bedspread and decorative pillows back off, folding and stacking them neatly, and then turned down the sheet on one side ever just so. And then he retucked the sides in really tight. Of course, then the mosquito netting was pulled down around the bed and he used mosquito spray over the whole thing. Then I was ordered out of the room for 5 minutes. He wouldn’t even give me a chance to grab better clothes or shoes, so I stood in the hall (within plain view of the lobby) in the robe that was hanging on the bathroom door. Lovely.
This morning, I flew from Zanzibar to Arusha. I realized a couple of things: 1) the Indian Ocean is so clear that you can see the bottom all the way to the mainland – pretty impresive; 2) there are so many dried up rivers and lakes across Tanzania that it must be pretty impressive during the rainy season. You could also see many little villages with a circular fence around them and several round huts with thatched huts within the fence. I was later told that these were Masai villages. I didn’t realize that there were so many!
I’m now at the Mountain Village Lodge outside of Arusha. There is a beautiful lake below, but I’m not allowed down unless I take a guard ($23). I’m not sure why because they swear that there are no dangerous animals anywhere near here, but that’s the way it is. There is no way I am paying $23 to go take a few pictures. Also, I found out part of the reason why my safari is so expensive: the safari company (Savannah Tours) that the travel agent booked through subcontracted out various parts of my safari to other companies. Apparently, Savannah specializes in trips through the southern part of the country and my trip is through the north. Zanzibar was subbed out to Fisherman Tours and the rest is subbed out to Ranger Tours. The only thing that Savannah did was pick me up outside the international terminal in Dar Es Salaam and drive me about 3 minutes to the domestic terminal. As a result, I’m paying a lot of extra money to Savannah that I wouldn’t if this had been booked through Ranger.
Fisherman and Ranger didn’t communicate too well. I arrived around 12:30 at the airport in Arusha and no one was there to meet me. After getting the taxi drivers to leave me alone and finding a phone, my driver showed up. At the lodge, they had been told that I wouldn’t be arriving until 9pm, so I wasn’t on the list to get lunch or dinner (everything’s buffet and you have to be on the list or pay $25-30). This place is no where near any source of food – way outside of town. My driver (who will be with me for the entire safari) was livid and is now in town trying to fix everything with his company. In the meantime, he talked to one of the waiters who asked me if I’d like a sandwich from the snack menu at the bar and brought me a sandwich, fries, a huge salad, and pineapple juice and wouldn’t take my money. I love the guy!
Tomorrow 3 other people arrive for the safari and we drive to Ngorongoro Crater. Our first drive will be the next day, but we should see some critters of some sort along the way. Stay tuned.
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