Tanzania : Part 11 - Safari Drive (Day 2) : Ngorongoro Crater

130916 : We woke up to a bright and sunny morning. Unfortunately, I am not too sure of the name of this place. Shame on me. This place is spacious, and has a very nice swimming pool with clean toilets but there were a lot of locals using the pool the day before. I did not see any tourists using the facilities. Breakfast (toasted bread, pancake, fried egg and papaya) starts at 8am. 

Tanzania : Part 10 - Safari Drive (Day 1) : Tarangire National Park

After Kilimanjaro trek, both of us will go on a safari drive for 2 days. I went with Trekking Hero for the price of USD549 per person. The places we are going - Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. Why did I not go to Serengeti? I know, Serengeti is a must-go place for a safari drive and it is also a Unesco World Heritage, but that needs 4 days. I only had 2 days to spare and I continue to my next destination.

My take on the safari drive with Trekking Hero - unfortunately, I cannot share the same sentiment I had for them for my Kilimanjaro Trek. The trekking team was awesome and took care of us so well that I will not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. But because the safari drive was outsourced to another agent, we got a very bad experience with their driver. I emailed both David Urmann and Jackson Lyimo, the co-founders of Trekking Hero about how unsatisfactory this agent was. I hope they don't use this agent anymore. I will share it here and you can take precautionary steps before you choose a safari drive agent. Do not repeat my mistake. I would say I feel cheated having to pay such a huge sum for this service. It is my own mistake, because I chose Trekking Hero out of convenience since I went with them for Kilimanjaro. They had good reviews for Kilimanjaro and I assumed (BAD) that the safari drive would not be a problem.

Update as at 12 December 2016: In Kilimanjaro trek, David refunded us the amount of tip we paid for the extra 2 porters (we had 8 instead of the arranged 6) as he was equally puzzled how we had 8. I was very surprised on his kind gesture but I know for sure, this is one honest agent. 

For the safari drive, David refunded us a portion of the amount we paid. I wrote to him a detailed feedback on how the safari drive was as I have illustrated below and in my next post. He suggested to refund me and I was so surprised he did that because I did not think any agents would be bothered. He asked the amount to be refunded and I did my own research on the Web. I found a post dated 2010 in Lonely Planet on the price and multiplied by the inflation rate. He agreed to the amount. He also thanked me for my feedback and will take it into account. I hope you will have a more improved safari drive experience with Trekking Hero. 

Despite the distance, he took the extra step to transfer the monies back to me after reading on my detailed feedback. I am pretty sure there is no agents out there who will be bothered to wire transfer the monies to you to compensate you. So readers, you can take Trekking Hero as one of the reliable and honest agents in Tanzania. 

120916 : Today, we were scheduled to meet our safari driver at 6.30am. Before that, we put our bags which we were not going to bring to the safari drive, in Keys Hotel. We got 4 paper tags for our bags but did not do much help because I went to the store room to collect my own bags as the receptionist did not know which was mine.

Ibrahim from Jay Adventures came into the hotel lobby introduced himself as our driver for the 2-day safari drive. This is our vehicle for the next 2 days. The roof of the vehicle can be pushed up and we can stand up to see a better view. According to Jackson, the Trekking Hero agent, there will be 5 people in the vehicle. 

Jackson advised us on the tip arrangement : 

1) USD15 per day for the driver shared with the 5 other clients hence the tip to be paid by us = USD15 x 2 persons x 2 days / 5 person = USD12 for both me and my sister. 

2) USD10 per day for the cook (there is a cook in the lodge where we will stay for the night) to be shared among 5 of us = USD10 x 2 persons x 2 days / 5 persons = USD8 for both me and my sister. 

However, the driver Ibrahim disputed on his tip which I will share in my next post. 

6.30am. Off we go to Arusha. It will take us about an hour to get there. We have 1 client who joined us in Keys Hotel. This was a free trip for him because the previous day, his drive was cut short as someone from his group had to go to the airport. So, Jackson offered him this as a compensation. I thought that was a good deal. 

Along the way, we picked 3 more clients. Now we have 6 people in the vehicle. 

Tanzania : Part 9 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 7) : Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate (3 hours)

110916 : Today, I overslept. Actually, both of us overslept. We were suppose to leave by 8am but we woke up by 7.30am. Haha. Gosh, we must have been very tired. We hurriedly pack our stuff and had our breakfast - pancakes, toasted bread, egg and fried egg. 

We had a group photo in front of Mweka Camp signboard. In the below photo, you can see my sister's scribble of each person's role. She was illustrating it to our eldest sister. I was amazed that my sister is that free to do it. Haha. After the group photo, we gave the tips (in red packets) to everyone, as the porters would be going back to their respective villages upon reaching the end of the trail. 

Today, we are headed to Mweka Gate. 1,640m. 10km. We started our walk back at 8.20am. We walked inside a forest with a proper trail. No hard rocks. My shoes and feet are saved.

Tanzania : Part 8 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 6) : Barafu Camp to Uhuru Peak (8.5 hours) to Mweka Camp (3.5 hours)

090916 : I was awake before 10.30pm. I went back to sleep waiting for the alarm to ring. I did not know how long I slept back. Then, the alarm rang! It is 10.30pm. I woke my sister up. Roman, the waiter greeted us from outside the tent and he passed to us some biscuits to eat. We also got our snacks for the trek - juice, apple and muffin. 

Tonight, we are headed to Uhuru Peak. 5,895m. 5km. Only Eden and Joseph followed us. The others will stay back and watch our stuff. Eden carried my daypack and Joseph carried my sister's. I did not bring my hydration pack. I will be using my water bottles and hot flask. 

How I dressed : 

Bottom : Ski pants (I bought it online), thermal pants. 

Top : Fleece jacket, windbreaker, dry-fit t-shirt, thermal top, another thermal top that supposedly converts my sweat to heat. Note that I did not wear any downjacket because Eden says a fleece jacket was sufficient and that was my biggest mistake. I forgot that Eden is a guide and so used to the temperature that he only wears a fleece jacket. 

Head : A buff

Neck : 2 buffs, shawl

Hands : Waterproof gloves, mittens and hand warmers in each hand but I was still freezing inside.

Feet : 2 pairs of socks

How my sister dressed :

Bottom : Fleece pants (which she borrowed from Trekking Hero), thermal pants

Top : Down jacket, soft shell jacket, cotton shirt, thermal top

Hands : Inner gloves, fleece gloves

Head : Monkey mask

Neck : Buff

Feet : Cotton socks (she birdwatch very frequent and hence, she has appropriate trekking socks)

I was very apprehensive. My mucous was flowing before I started the trek. I read that the temperature is -18 degrees because of the strong wind. I wondered if I could do this. I told myself - Listen to your body.

11pm. Let's go.

Tanzania : Part 7 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 5) : Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp (4 hours)

090916 : Today morning, I woke up to see ice formed in one of our water bottles. That is very cold. When I went to Everest Base Camp in September 2013, there was no ice formed in our bottles. Same month we went. Different locations. But ice at Kilimanjaro Trek. 

A photo of me and my sister in our tent. It is actually a small tent. Can you see the solar light hanging? On the right of the photo is the the exit of the tent. I zip and unzip the tent frequently because of my need to pee, and doing it in the cold night does not help, resulting in both of my thumbs' skin became coarse, peeled skin and took 2 weeks to heal. 

Breakfast time - pancake, bread and egg. The pancakes really stuff us up. The light blue thermos was really a life saver. It contains hot water to warm us up every morning and night. 

Tanzania : Part 6 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 4) : Baranco Camp to Karanga Camp (4.5 hour)

080916 - Day 4 of the trek. It was freezing cold when we woke up. As you can see in my photos, I put the buff over my nose and mouth, and have to put another buff over my ears. I was waiting very badly for the sun to appear. In the below photo, I am actually posing next to the toilet and holding tightly to a warm flask as I waited for my sister to use the toilet. 

Today, my mucous and phlegm have turned green. It was gross as I spit them out. Thick stuff. And it rolled away in the cold. It did not soak into the ground.

Tanzania : Part 5 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 3) : Shira Cave Camp to Baranco Camp (8 hours)

070916 - Third day of the trek. My flu and cough was starting to worsen. I remembered it was this day, I had to stop many times along the way and blow out my thick mucous into the ground because I did not have any cloth with me, and my mucous was seeping into my buff or flowing into my mouth. It was so bad.

Today morning, I woke up at 5am as usual. We saw the pale sunlight appearing from the horizon and have to walk to the toilet to pee. Even walking to the toilet was a task to me. I was huffing and puffing to walk from the toilet to my tent although it was just 100 metres away. I could not breathe properly because of my thick mucous.

On the other side of the tent, the sun rays were strong and glaring from Mount Kilimanjaro. My sister told me not to look at the sun. It was a sight seeing Mount Kilimanjaro. 

For breakfast, we have hot Tanzanian porridge made from red kidney beans, pancakes, bread, scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs. Carbo to fuel the body. Protein to repair all the muscles from the walk. So stuffed. We had to send a long message after our breakfast. Haha.

Tanzania : Part 4 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 2) : Machame Camp to Shira Cave Camp (6 hours)

060916 - I was awake by 5am and was undecided on what to do. I went to pee. Climbed back into my sleeping bag. Lie awake until 6am. Woke my sister up and told her we needed to start packing. Haha. So, we changed into our trekking attire for the day. Packed our stuff. Climbed out from the tent to brush our teeth and wash our face which froze our fingers (when in contact with water) for a while because it was chilly. 

I went to the kitchen tent to see what our cook was cooking. He was warm inside his tent. How nice. Meet Erick, our lovely cook whose food is yummy! 

Breakfast was at 7.30am. The first dish is the local porridge which is made from red kidney beans and it is really thick. It is plain and hence need to be added with sugar or honey to sweeten it. Our first dish is usually hot liquid to warm ourselves up. 

Tanzania : Part 3 - Kilimanjaro Trek (Day 1) : Machame Gate to Machame Camp (6 hours)

050916 - Today, our trek to Mount Kilimanjaro starts. 7 days. We start the morning with a good breakfast. This time, we were ready for breakfast by 7am. I had two helpings of breakfast to give myself an energy boost - banana and cereal and papaya (do you know their papayas are yellow in colour unlike the orange ones in Malaysia), and scrambled eggs with the stir fried potatoes and baked beans. I had watermelon juice and tea while the sister had pineapple juice and coffee. 

After breakfast, it was time to have Diamox, the acclimatisation pill. We took one every morning for 6 days. On the 7th day, we did not take any because we were descending. The side effects of Diamox includes an increased frequency to pee (which happened to me every night which is so annoying because I get into my tent and 3 minutes later, I need to pee. It is bothersome to unzip the tent, zip the tent, face the chill, pee and unzip the tent again, zip the tent back. Happened 4 times each night.), and the tingles in the fingers and toes (which happened to my sister. She is lucky she did not experience the frequency to pee).

We went back to our room, and prepared our items. The guide brought the items that we borrowed from the agent and we packed into our bags. Since we did not want to buy mineral water from the restaurant (1.5liter costs TZS2000 / USD1 / RM4), we opt to take water from the tap in the bathroom and sterilise it. Good investment in a Steripen. My sister bought it in 2013 for our Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal where drinking water was expensive. 

We have 3 bags to be left in the hotel. The receptionist gave us a numbered paper to record our bags, which did not serve much of a purpose because when we got back, the receptionist gave us the wrong bags. I had to go to the store room to look for my bags. The bags were not properly arranged in the store room.

Tanzania : Part 2 - Arrival in Moshi, Kilimanjaro

030916 - After the free city tour by Turkish Airlines, we were driven back to the airport. Time to board the plane to Kilimanjaro. The flight is at 6.20pm and estimated time of arrival is 1am. I was a bit worried arriving at such an odd hour in a foreign country. Of course, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snap myself next to the boarding screen that states Kilimanjaro. I saw many passengers in their trekking shoes and I knew we were on the same mission. I spoke to one Irish lady - You are going to trek Kilimanjaro. She said yes, and I commented that I know it from your shoes. She laughed and looked at my shoes. She said - You are also going to trek Kilimanjaro. I laughed back and affirmed it.

That is the caterer's truck that supplies such delicious food in the airplane.