Celebrating My 40th in Greece

 

Let me set the stage first: we are not peak-season travelers. The thought of waiting in a two-hour line at the Acropolis while being elbowed by a selfie stick is not something I enjoy. So when we decided Greece would be the destination for my 40th birthday, we went in January. No crowds, some closed restaurants, intermittent rain, and—as it turns out—more feral cats wanting cuddles than I have ever encountered in my life. I am allergic to cats. This becomes relevant.

We started with a brief layover in Munich, which I want to flag because I was genuinely surprised by how much the city's administrative center looks... Soviet? The blocky, imposing architecture caught me off guard. I should have known better (I did not know better). 

What I did know better was to eat at Augustiner, a traditional German pub that's been around forever, where I had the best vegan sausage of my entire life. I also had a vegan curry that was so good I'm still thinking about it. Munich: would recommend for the sausage alone.

CRETE

Here is why I chose Crete as our first stop: it has a 6,000-year-old toilet at Knossos Palace, home of the ancient Minoan civilization, and I wanted to see it.

I did not see it. It was closed for preservation purposes. But, I understand. If I had a 6,000-year-old toilet, I'd want to protect it too. That is a reasonable and correct decision by the archeological preservation community. It was still a big bummer.

What we did get to see at Knossos was genuinely spectacular. The Minoans were building sophisticated structures and drainage systems millennia ago, and walking through the ruins—even partially reconstructed after centuries of earthquake and fire damage—made me stop and think about just how long humans have been trying to figure out how to live well. The frescoes on the walls were beautiful in a way that made me wonder why we stopped doing that. My walls have paint and a few framed things. The Minoans had elaborate, colorful painted murals that came out at you in a kind of 3D effect. Are we regressing?

The next day at the Museum of Heraklion cemented this opinion. The Minoan pottery alone—including one piece with a gloriously chaotic squiggly octopus on it—was more impressive to Alex and me than the later Hellenistic Greek work. I know that's maybe a controversial take. I stand by it.

We also toured an olive and dragon fruit farm, which but was actually one of my favorite parts of Crete. It was just us, wandering through ancient olive orchards with a sweeping view of the island, learning about sustainable farming practices amid water limitations, and how Crete is one of the world's main olive producers! We brought home olive oil and dragon fruit jam. 

Food in Crete was quiet—it being off-season meant a lot of restaurants were closed, and we had a few nights of hunting around in the near-dark for somewhere to eat. We found a good spot by the pier in Heraklion that hit the spot. The food didn't blow us away overall, but Crete won on vibes. It felt like Puerto Rico: a little chaotic, island energy, deeply beautiful.

MILOS

Milos is a small island in the Cyclades, and we were almost certainly the only tourists there. We stayed in a fisherman's house right on the water. It was picturesque and rainy and covered in cats.

The cats of Milos do not care about your allergies. They are grieving the loss of the tourist season, and they are looking for affection wherever they can find it. Multiple times, Alex had to gently but firmly remove a cat from my person before I started sneezing. One cat found us in the airport while we were waiting for our flight out and immediately started making biscuits on my lap. Greece is simply a country that has decided cats are everyone's problem now.

Despite the cat situation, Milos was wonderful. We had one full day where a water surge warning kept us inside—the water levels around our house were expected to get dangerously high, so we were essentially storm-locked—and we read, napped, and ate groceries we'd walked up a long hill to buy the day before. It was deeply restorative. I didn't realize how much I needed a full day of doing nothing until I had it.

When the rain calmed, we tried to visit the Byzantine-era catacombs on the island, only to find them closed. (A theme emerged on this trip.) However—and this is one of those travel moments you can't plan for—the person who managed the site happened to walk by while we were standing there processing our disappointment. They let us in anyway. It was just us three wandering quietly through these ancient burial chambers, taking in the carved walls in near-silence. Absolutely worth the wet walk uphill.

We also hiked up to see the ruins of an old amphitheater and the hillside where Venus de Milo was originally found. It was a bit treacherous—soggy and steep—and I was genuinely concerned about both of us sliding down at some point. We did not slide down.

ATHENS

We flew from Milos to Athens on my actual birthday. I turned 40. Athens greeted me, reminding me very much of San Francisco: hilly, dense, hard to park in, full of scrappy energy and beautiful chaos. We drove around trying to find parking for what felt like a significant portion of my birthday. We found it.

My bff Marion joined us that night, and we went out for a spectacular birthday dinner. Too much food. Plates that were too big. Every bite is perfect. That is exactly how a 40th birthday dinner should go.

The next morning, we took a mythology tour of Athens, which started with a climb to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. Every friend who'd been to Greece warned me about the tourist crowds at the Acropolis. Reader, we did not wait in a single line. January in Greece is something else. We walked right up that hill—and as San Franciscans, we did it without complaint while watching the rest of the tour group struggle—and stood in front of columns that have been standing for thousands of years.

It was a genuinely spiritual experience. The views of Athens from the top are sprawling. You can see the port from up there. Alex, who has spent years reading about ancient Greece, got quietly emotional about finally being there, which I found very moving to watch.

Worth noting: the carvings and reliefs you see on the Parthenon are replicas. All the original artwork has been moved to museums for preservation. So anything you see in situ is an exact copy. I found this both a little deflating and also completely correct from a preservation standpoint. A recurring theme.

After the Acropolis, the tour ended at the Athenian Agora, an old Greek market-turned-public park that I could have stayed in for hours. On our walk afterward, we stumbled into a tiny, ancient Byzantine church sitting improbably in the middle of a city square—just plopped there, quietly protected, surrounded by the modern city. We walked in. The interior was covered floor-to-ceiling in colorful artwork. I loved it.

I also found a figurine in the flea market that has nothing to do with Greece, but it made me very happy.

Our tour guide rolled her eyes when we asked about Patisserie Artemis and their baklava gelato. She called it a tourist trap. I went anyway, because I am a person who makes her own mistakes. Friends - it was not a tourist trap. It was just us alone in a quiet patisserie, eating the most satisfying combination of flaky, creamy, crunchy things I've had in recent memory. I brought some back for Marion. I would go back to Athens specifically for this ice cream, and I am not embarrassed about that.

The Acropolis Museum was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Underneath the building are the ruins of a second-century BC community—visible through glass floors throughout the museum—and I found that more compelling than almost anything upstairs. (The pipes! The infrastructure! I cannot help myself.) The museum itself is airy and impressively curated, and they had an exhibit showing the original color of the marble sculptures. Turns out, ancient Greek statues were brightly painted—vivid colors, not the white marble we associate with classical antiquity. Seeing reconstructions of how they actually looked was a genuine revelation.

We also took a marble-carving workshop with an old craftsman who barely spoke English and, for the first part of the session, seemed mostly to be messing with our heads through cryptic commentary on creativity. I was suspicious. But then he handed each of us a three-pound slab of marble and told us to carve something. Carving marble is hard. Alex took to it surprisingly well. I was overambitious. Marion, who insisted she wasn't creative, made something beautiful. Two hours of feeling connected to thousands of years of craft.

DELPHI

For our final adventure, Alex and I drove out to Delphi for the Temple of Apollo. On the way, we stopped in a small, nearly empty roadside coffee shop where the owner had an enormous painting of San Francisco's Painted Ladies on his wall. We took it as a sign.

I had absolutely no idea there was skiing in Greece. And yet: near Delphi, there is a mountain ski resort town where, apparently, all of Greece had gathered. We'd expected to be alone again. We were not alone. The town was full of alpine energy, meats and cheeses, and a notable absence of the salads and oils that had been the backbone of our diet everywhere else. The mountain views were breathtaking.

The next morning, we visited Delphi itself—empty, as expected—including the archeological museum (griffin statues, very well preserved, highly recommend) and the walk up to the Temple of Apollo. In the rain and snow. The stadium at the top is closed due to the weather. Still absolutely worth it. Jagged columns reaching into a cloudy sky, cliffs all around, no crowds. It was the right way to end the trip.

One more observation about Greece: the street dogs. They are everywhere, clearly being fed by their communities, and extremely good at demanding affection. At one point, a dog caused an actual traffic jam by sitting in the road to be petted by tourists on a passing bus. Alex and I spent the entire drive back to Athens joking about which dogs we would steal and bring home. We did not steal any dogs. We thought about it.

The Verdict

Greece in January is good. We ate incredible things (the dolmas! the salads! the lukumades! the baklava ice cream!), saw thousands of years of history with almost no one else around, got into closed catacombs through sheer luck, carved marble, got sneezed on by cats, and I turned 40 in a city that's been doing this whole civilization thing for a very, very long time.

Both Alex and I came home genuinely recharged. I was ready to go back to work. That almost never happens.

We'd go back to Milos, to more of the Cyclades, maybe to Athens when it's warm and alive. And I would absolutely go back to Knossos to try again for that toilet. They can't close it forever.

A Fascinating Uzbekistan Trek

Hey friends! I just got back from an epic adventure through Uzbekistan, and I have some stories to share. The first thing that struck me about Uzbekistan isn't just its rich history or stunning architecture – it's how the country seems to exist in multiple periods at once.

Let's start with some wild observations: EVERYONE here drives a Chevy. I'm not exaggerating – it's like General Motors won a monopoly game in real life. All Uzbeks we talked to were more than willing to tell us, with groans and eyes rolled, that the government owned half a stake in the Chevy plant in the country, which encouraged the government to levy extra taxes on any other brand of imported car. That said, there was also a shocking number of electric cars in the country (apparently, they are free of extra taxes). I wasn't expecting so many electric cars, but it makes sense - the country struggles with having enough gas that people can afford.

The journey took us from Nukus to Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand. The drives between cities were wild - particularly in the western area. Our driver from the Aral Sea deserved a standing ovation for navigating what I can only loosely describe as "roads." At one point, we saw Turkmenistan on the other side of the Amu Darya River. The drivers told us how a lot of people come to Uzbekistan from Turkmenistan to have more freedoms from their oppressive leadership, and Uzbeks have to steathfully travel in the country to get their cheaper rugs. Border countries are complicated, huh?

Speaking of which, there's something remarkable about how Soviet influence lingers here. The older generation's nostalgia for Soviet times reflects this. However, anyone under 35 years was strongly against Russia/Putin/Soviet interests. Cultural rift, I guess.

Here's something else that'll blow your mind: we saw FLAMINGOES. In Central Asia! In some reedy area! And, because of who I am, I must mention that seated toilets were considered for the handicapped, and TP was for purchase only at public restrooms. At least they had public restrooms, though some were just holes. Beggars-choosers, right?

Random but important observation: everything was SO blue. I loved it. And speaking of love, the older folks here have this interesting nostalgia for Soviet days, while the whole place is simultaneously racing toward rapid development. It's like seeing multiple centuries existing at once.

The cultural experiences here are rich, though sometimes challenging for Western palates. The food situation was... interesting. While incorporating interesting ingredients like green noodles and various yogurt-based dishes, the food was subtle in flavor – perhaps too subtle for those used to more aggressive seasoning. What surprised me most was finding vinegar spicy by local standards, which put the local palette into perspective. I think we'll be avoiding dill for a while.

The "plov experience" (which is their way of saying rice pilaf) everyone talked about was underwhelming. Though I have to say, the bread-making process was cool – I got to check out their traditional ovens and everything.

Another wild observation: Every "lemonade" here was a lie. I tried something called Tarhun (tarragon soda) that was labeled as lemonade, and let me tell you, my taste buds are still filing complaints. On the other end of beverage surprises, we tried fermented camel's milk while in the Nukus desert, and it was fizzier than I had expected and super tangy.

Okay, now that we got the weird stuff out of the way, let's talk about the journey.

We started in Tashkent for a day, where I took a vegan food tour in the city's oldest bazaar. I saw how clearly traditional customs remain strong, particularly around tea rituals, and the people maintain their historically peaceful nature. This feels especially meaningful given the region's complex history and equally complex present-day border situations. Unbeknownst to me, the food in the bazaar would be the tastiest food on the trip. I also ambled around a little bit to see how much the architecture is still very Soviet but punctured with Persian influence.

NUKUS - ARAL SEA

Moving through the country from west to east, each city reveals a different facet of Uzbekistan's identity. 

We took a small plane to Nukus the next day to start our journey. The city served better as a gateway to other destinations than a destination itself. The drive from there offered my first real glimpse into the country's landscape. This scene remarkably resembled parts of Africa, with its colorful dresses dotting the dusty roads, women walking in groups and sweeping with sticks, and half-built homes standing testament to rapid development.

We were there to see the remnants of the old Aral Sea. It was the most sobering part of the trip. It's heartbreaking. For those who don't know the history, the Aral Sea was the second-largest inland freshwater lake in the world. In the 1960s, the Soviets decided to drain the lake to start growing cotton, and the lake started to disappear (as did its bustling fish canning industry and tourism).

Standing there, you can almost feel the wind searching for the waters that once were. It's a stark reminder of the environmental impact of the old Soviet era, made even more poignant by the visible effects of drought and desertification across the region. We drove on the old, empty seabed for hours to get to a cozy yurt camp at the little remnants of sea north of the country. It was dry and quiet, and we felt like we were on the edge of the earth. 

It was clear on our trip that the country didn't have the same reverence for archeological preservation and conservation as others. There were several instances where they brought us to ancient sites that were neat, but we shouldn't have been there. Such as a hauntingly beautiful 14th-century Kazakh burial ground, where ancient tombstones tell stories through their shapes – circles for women, forks for men. And an old Mongol fortress. We really, really shouldn't have been there, traipsing around. But we were. It was also uncomfortable to drive around in the middle of nowhere on an old seabed- which clearly had never been made for cars to drive around on. I swear, several times in our 2-day drive, it looked like the car was going to give up a tire, and we would die in the open with our driver and no one else in sight. Not even a camel.

In the end, we could still see the cotton fields that people were still picking from because they were, I guess, stuck in a capitalistic loop. The drivers offered us to go outside and take pictures with some cotton pickers, which Alex and I vehemently declined....for multiple reasons.

XIVA

The cities grew more magnificent as you head east. Khiva was a gorgeous preserved piece of history, its ancient walls hiding an ingenious architectural trick. The city remains wonderfully quiet despite the growing number of European tourists (particularly Italians - so many retired Italians) discovering its charms. Way back in the day when there was conflict, the residents cleverly built fake tombs outside the walls to trick enemies, which I thought was very cool.

We got pulled into a small fledgling silk museum with very persuasive ladies. There, they let us try our hand at silk processing and weaving (which we weren't good at) before they coaxed us to buy some silk.

We stayed inside the walled city and saw so much beautiful blue architecture. It was lovely to walk around at dusk, with fewer tourists, and enjoy the quiet echoes of the streets while seeing ancient mosques and towers that loomed overhead.

After a few days in Khiva, we hired a car to drive us to Bukhara on some empty, straight roads.

BUXARA

Bukhara - a major stop on the Silk Road - presented itself as more commercialized yet maintains authentic pockets of daily life. The lovely, quiet mosques there were still being used, and they were more strict with people entering with modesty (and many tourists protested needlessly). We often walked around to see tombs, go to museums, and look at the artwork plastered throughout the city. We even bought two beautiful carpets there because we are adults. We also wandered around old water storage areas (an active construction site no one was at) and admired the old buildings. We also walked through a very nice park that was large and green.

Though small, the city's Jewish quarter adds another layer to the region's rich cultural tapestry. The city's non-touristy areas offer a glimpse into real Uzbek life, where the past and present coexist in fascinating ways. Perhaps Uzbekistan is like the United States but a thousand years ahead in its development. It's a place where ancient wisdom meets modern challenges, cultural preservation battles with progress, and the future remains as uncertain as it is promising.

There, I did have what may have been the most disgusting soup I've ever tried. It was intentionally cold and felt like a five-year-old put things into a pot and called it soup - potatoes, cream, vinegar, dill, and seltzer. I didn't eat it after a few bites. It's called okroshka, and apparently, it's an acquired taste I didn't have.

We then took another train to Samarkand, further east.

SAMARKAND & SHAHRISABZ

Samarkand, Central Asia's crown jewel and oldest town, felt more like Paris than Central Asia. The Russian influence is stronger here, with imposing buildings and grandiose architecture that commands attention. The city's monuments are now enhanced by modern light shows, creating an interesting juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary that somehow works perfectly. 

Samarkand was more used to tourists and had some ornate and beautiful tourist sites. At night, they lit up the old college with a fun light show for an hour. We saw a fun old observatory on a hill. We also went to see some old and breathtaking tombs, but I found it strange that so many people were posing for pictures in front of them. 

We took a day tour to Shihrisabz, a once-important city where Timur was born that was razed by a leader in recent history. It was a kind of desolate area, but impressive. Apparently, the palace was ginormous - like, toweringly huge - but most of the palace materials were repurposed when they pulled the city down. What remained was the lower fortress gates, which were still astonishing even if dwarfed by the original gate height. We also went to see the empty tomb of Amor Timur there, which was underground and very simple, and finished th small visit in an enormous bazaar.

We stopped at a site with some pretty stone outcroppings on our way back. Apparently, it was a popular tourist site among Europeans. We discovered this because the Germans filmed a US Western film called Apache in the 1970s. If that doesn't hurt your brain, nothing will.

Afterward, we took our final train ride back to Tashkent to catch our flight home. Our last meal was a NYC-style pizza at a place called "Little Italy" in Tashkent during a power outage. It was a nice way to close the trip - a mixture of cultures and oddities.

Final thoughts: This place is fascinating—it's peaceful and historic. However, I could have used more flavorful food and, you know, a functioning stomach (yes, we got food poisoning at some point). I also wish I had prepared better for intense sun and minimal shade.

New Zealand Road Trip

This is 6 months late, but...better late than never!

In August and September 2023, I spent time with my partner in New Zealand (also called more commonly there as Aotearea). In the first week, I worked with a client in Auckland, and we extended my trip by 11 days to explore the North and South Islands. We moved around for this trip - we were practically in a new town daily! Overall, we had a nice time on this trip! New Zealand is beautiful and full of lush rolling hills and rocky mountains that can be dramatic. But it wasn't our favorite trip to date, partly because we overcommitted ourselves and planned on driving a lot, and it wasn't as whimsical as our previous trips because we had a lot of distance to cover.

Overall Reflections

We had some impressions of things worth sharing before getting into some details.

• A Mix of Aussie and Brit: When experiencing the culture in New Zealand, we determined that the country was between the laid-back vibes of Australians and the pressure for proper systems of Brits. This is not surprising, as it is part of the Commonwealth and has a Pacific Island culture similar to that of Australian Aboriginals. What this also meant was that there were a lot of meal pies, slow speeds, and quiet places.
• Sparsely Populated: It seemed to us that the country was largely not populated even though some cities exist. There's just a lot of land and people living remotely in the country. Partly this was due to many farms with lambs and cattle, but there was also a lot of quiet land otherwise.
• Seasons Matter: We came in its off-season, which was a bit out of our control because I was there primarily for work, but it made our trip very cold, wet, and windy. We were either always cold or hot, which made us come down with some colds. We have agreed that we should come back sometime in the summer, which is also peak tourist season - we now understand why.
• Driving Wasn't Fun: We were also in the car a lot because New Zealand is larger than we expected, and the roads are much windier than anticipated! Much of our driving was for hours weaving around mountains and hilly terrain, making it not terribly relaxing to have a road trip across the country. It also meant we had to forgo places we were interested in seeing because we needed more time. For example, we wish we had seen more of the northeast of the South Island. Ultimately, we agree we should have planned to see less and probably focus on one island for our trip.
• Animals Everywhere: We saw a lot of animals on our travels, from keas harassing us for food on the South Island to other birds everywhere. New Zealand's native animals are all birds, many of which are flightless, like the little endangered kiwis. We also saw a lot of roadkill on our trip.
• Quirky Accommodations: On our drive, we stayed at many different kinds of lodging - all of them slightly quirky! From a trout lodge to a shipping container and a BnB in a Slavic-cum-American-cum-Kiwi household.
• Beautiful Public Toilets: The country seems to pride itself on having good, reliable access to public toilets. Even in less-populated areas, we can always find a clean, functioning, and nice-smelling toilet building. Many are decorated with whacky art and designs, which appeal to toilet nerds like me.

Travel Notes

Auckland

During the first five days in the country, I was bound to Auckland, facilitating workshops. I really liked it - the weather was pleasant there, and we enjoyed a quiet lake outside the city in Mount Wellington. We went into the city for a night and enjoyed a lovely meal at the pier. The pier in Auckland is peaceful and has a fun park that includes an installation of old silos that are now art. I was surprised to see a public swimming area in the heart of the city, as well.

Queenstown & Milford Sound

We then flew to Queenstown, marveling at the snowy mountains below us. We then drove down to the Milford Sound for a few nights. The drive showed us just how winding the roads are...and how dramatic the South Island's landscape really is. We enjoyed the Sound in the lodge there, though it was constantly raining while we were there. We took a treacherous boat tour of the sound's fjords - it was windy and rainy - and while the visibility wasn't all that great, we saw many waterfalls pummelling water down the fjord cliffs. We also saw a few penguins from far off, enjoying some rocky shelter. At the lodge, a baby kea kept coming over to us to look (and sound) pathetic and hungry, but we followed directions and didn't give the poor guy anything to eat.

On the day we were going to leave, the weather cleared up in the morning for a few hours so we could walk to the port and see the fjords in all their majesty. It didn't last long, though, and we had to leave early because they announced they were shutting down the area for a few days due to an incoming snowstorm. We drove out a few hours before the full closure started, and the snow started falling on us slightly. The idea of driving on snow on those winding roads terrified me.

We returned to Queenstown and stayed at an old dairy warehouse before continuing our drive north. We enjoyed hopping around the downtown area and strolling through its parks, even with the chilly breeze getting to my bones a bit. We also spent some time in the Kiwi Park to see some kiwis in person, but they shouted at our tour group when we entered the dark room. I could have spent more time there, though I'm not big on skiing or heights, including the other major tourist attraction - a funicular.

Lake Tekapo

We drove towards the central part of the South Island, and it was surprising how much the landscape changed from craggy mountains to a browner range of large hills covered in brush and distant mountains. We then paused at the badlands - Putangirua Pinnacles - and looked at the surreal structures. I felt a bit nervous, and my gut warned me of something I didn't like, so we bounced. We also saw beautiful blue reservoirs along our drive.

Once we got to Lake Tekapo, we were hit with a brutal cold wind that made us feel freezing! And the town looked half unmade. It was as if the town had been built a week before we arrived - our hotel was made of shipping containers. We had three restaurants to get into for dinner with a slew of confused-looking foreigners from tourist bus groups. Fortunately, we accomplished our goal of visiting the lake - we took a late-night stargazing tour and looked up at a really incredible starscape that almost seemed impossible. This area held many of the country's observatories because of its clear skies and limited light pollution.

Christchurch

We drove to Christchurch for our final visit to the South Island. It was an interesting city but not a place we felt like staying. It hasn't fully recovered from the 2011 earthquake, and the city felt silent and empty...and tired compared to the other areas we had visited. It almost felt like a Kiwi version of Cleveland. It was pleasant enough, though, and we saw some pretty waterways. The old university was rebuilt after the earthquake to become a town recreational area.

Wellington

The next day, we flew to Wellington, the bottom of the North Island. Our flight got delayed, and we learned it would be a bumpy hour. A Kiwi from the area told us to gear up to be jostled around like never before, and we all started talking about things. His name was Justin, and he invited us (after a windy landing) to lunch at his favorite spot near the airport. It was pretty tasty! He then gave us a quick tour of Wellington in our rental car before we dropped him off. We also dropped off our luggage at the hotel so we could start cleaning our laundry.

Our trip north changed slightly, as we found disappointing news that our big planned adventure—visiting Kapiti Island to have a night tour of kiwis in their natural habitat—had been canceled due to the weather. We're sad about this but made the best of it and toured Wellington more than planned. That town is really windy, and that's normal!

We walked around a lot, and saw some fun things like the lobster toilets that Lonely Planet made famous years ago. We also visited Te Papa, the national museum that shared the country's history and interactive areas about its nature that had Maori influence. It was lovely - probably one of the best museums I've visited - and we stayed warm there for a bit. After, I ate some delicious fish pie and pavlova at an old local restaurant, and we ate dinner with a colleague friend who lived in the area.

Before we continued our journey north, we also visited the nature reserve - Zealandia - but had to cut it short because the sky opened up on us in the middle of our visit.

Turangi & Rotarua

We first drove to Turangi, which didn't have much there. It was a trout fishing mecca popular with octogenarians, and I ran into them while walking around town and past the river. And our lodge was covered in trout art. But the river was peaceful, and the quiet was a nice break.

The next day, we continued our drive north towards Rotorua. Our first stop was Wairitomo Glowworm Caves to see the glowworm caves. We really enjoyed this! The first part of the tour included a visit to the stalagmites that resembled a cathedral, and then the guides cornered us into the back, turned off the lights, and showed us all of the blue, glowing worms hanging in the back of the cavern! We then got into a boat and floated around the glowworm caves in darkness for a few minutes before heading back out - all very pleasing to the eyes.

In Rotarua, we stayed at an odd little BnB that was more like a guestroom in a heavily populated family house—not our favorite, but it was just for a night. At night, we agreed to go to Te Pa Tu, a Maori village that they transformed into a dining experience. There, we learned about Maori games, snacks, and old house setups. They performed songs before bringing us to dinner in a pretty dining hall.

The next day, we also visited Te Puia, where we saw active geysers in a park with Maori artists building big pieces of art before heading out again.

Driving to Auckland

We stopped at the Big Dog/Big Sheep buildings on our trip back to Auckland. I was so pleased to see that they were public toilets! These buildings on the side of the street were shaped with corrugated metal like a dog and sheep. They have since added another building that looks like a ram. This stop was right before we headed to a farming town for dinner.

Our dinner was at Hobbiton. I know, people complain about how over-commercialized it is there, but we were really pleasantly surprised!! We started with a slow walk through the Hobbit movie set area, with the tour guides sharing detailed and interesting stories. We ended up in the tavern, where they fitted the tables with a hobbit's food feast for all of us. Honestly? It was really delicious! Probably one of the best meals we had while in New Zealand.

They also apologized to us for some construction work they were doing and gave us free hobbit mugs, but honestly, I barely noticed it because they do such a good job keeping the magic there, even with the construction.

Afterward, we drove for a few hours, and we stayed in an apartment complex that perplexed me tremendously for about an hour before we found the entrance.

Beyond Auckland

For our last night in the country, we drove up from Auckland to Ruakaka for my sake. There are a lot of cool public toilets further north around there, and I was determined to see them. The first one was in a small town with beautiful, artistic toilets that looked like the hulls of fishing boats. The next stop was at Ruakaka, where we could see the Hundertwasser toilets. These toilets were some of the first famous public toilets in the country, and apparently, the government used them as inspiration to make other pretty toilets, like the others we saw along our road trip. The town had also put in a newer model of the toilets nearby to house a library, art center, and RV showers for the transitory guests they see regularly.

We stayed in a community halfway between there and Auckland, at a quiet couple's house that wasn't near much but had a lovely sunset view next to the water. Once we woke up, we returned to Auckland to grab some curry pies and visit the Botanic Gardens before our evening flight home.

Short Stay in South Korea

A few weeks ago, I ended up in South Korea to support a water conference. Yes, it was during the never-ending COVID pandemic. Let's walk through the process to get past immigration, and the week I was in the country.

With all of the COVID-related restrictions and requirements, getting into South Korea was....hard. The conference had managed to file for attendees to have guarantee exemption waivers, which was where most efforts went. I filled out tons of forms (multiple times). I had to rearrange my schedule for the trip to make sure I was compliant with the quarantine rules since I was only allowed to stay up to 2 days before and after the conference. Major bummer. Had we not had the quarantine exemption forms, I could have stayed much longer....but I would have had to be quarantined in a government-run COVID hotel for about 2 weeks (that I'd have to pay for) before the conference. Which wasn't really an option for me. I still had to isolate for a day with the quarantine exemption to make sure I wasn't sick. I only got this form a week before the trip, though, so I hadn't planned much for the trip.

On the plane, I was oddly surprised to see that the Korean Air plane had to make a large detour around the borders of North Korea. I wasn't surprised that it happened - I am well aware of the tensions between these countries - but I was surprised just how real the tensions were. We had to add another hour of flying to ensure we didn't bother anyone up north.

Once we landed in Incheon Airport, there was a 3-hour process of waiting in lines and going through several immigration checks (I think I counted 5?) to ensure our COVID paperwork was in order and our regular immigration forms. Those who weren't quarantine exempt were shepherded to a blocked-off area to wait for the quarantine bus. Luckily, I was allowed to continue my travels. Unfortunately, I wasn't done traveling to get to my destination.

I had to take a 90-minute subway ride to Seoul Station from the airport, where I would grab a 2-hour KTX train. The conference was in Daegu, a large southern town coined as the country's water hub. I grabbed a gimbap surprisingly loaded with wasabi and got on the night train south. After the train ride to Daegu, I immediately got my PCR test that would confirm my quarantine exemption in 24 hours and shuttled off to my hotel. To wait.

I like to stay in hotels that are not big traditional chains like Marriott and Hilton because I feel like I lose some of the experience of immersing into a culture. I had chosen to stay downtown at the Toyoko Inn. It felt like a hotel geared towards Koreans, which I enjoyed experiencing. It wasn't super fancy, but I wasn't looking for that - I just wanted a bed and a toilet. The hotel had an electric bidet seat (to my delight!), and breakfast was a bunch of Korean items like kimchi, seaweed soup, and rice. People wore the hotel's slippers in the lobby and canteen area (I also observed a lot of slipper wearing on the plane). They also had a lobby locker that offered hotel-owned pajamas, though I didn't use them.

Once I got the PCR all-clear, I went out on my second night to walk around downtown Daegu. Daegu has about 2.5 million people, so downtown was full of people shopping in stores and walking the chilly winter streets. Daegu is a traditional herbal medicine center, and I walked around the city and saw a mix of flashy shops and humbler herbal stores. 

While I was walking around, I stupidly realized how much Korean script would be everywhere, which meant I really had little idea where I was, what I was doing, or what urgent instructional signs wanted me to do. The Koreans with whom I interacted mostly struggled with English (fair enough, I was in their country, after all), which often meant I was on my own to figure out if (and pray that) I was complying with rules and customs.

I was cloistered off at their large conference venue for much of my time in Daegu, supporting the conference. Frankly, the conference was kind of sucky for many reasons I don't want to get into. I questioned why I was in Korea a lot during the conference. What I will share from the conference I'll share was their struggles with food. On the first day, they had forgotten to provide vegetarian lunches - a lot of us international people were vegetarian, so this became a problem. My food restrictions are medical, though (I'm intolerant to land meat now). When they found out mine wasn't a choice, the conference team began to panic to figure out how to feed me. Coming up mostly short for over an hour, they came back to me with a bowl of canned tuna on rice. They also gifted me a surprisingly heavy brass goblet to apologize for the flub, which they explained was a traditional point of pride for Koreans. So now I have a brass goblet.

I ended up hanging out with many Africans during the conference - most of them are studying in Korea for their PhDs, so they were used to the seemingly confusing and complicated systems and protocols. I had mentioned my surprise with how confusing things felt in Korea. One Tanzanian guy (who wasn't studying in Korea) lamented that he felt he was basically dumped in the country and left to figure it all out. The students acknowledged that, sadly, that is a Korean feature - there seems to be some unspoken assumption that everyone will just figure out how to get by in Korea, alone. Much of the conference's downtime included comparing notes about what worked, what didn't work, and what not to do from our experiences. I suspect this could be cultural, which means Koreans also have to learn to fend for themselves. This could explain why Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the OECD nations, since young people may be left to their own devices and struggle.

I did get to escape the conference for a day to attend a Christmas Fair in the conference center. It was fun to walk around the stalls and see what kinds of things Koreans were buying for the holidays. They had bidet seats (yessss), dog outfits, gadgety toys, and lots of dried fish. My favorite find was an orange sweater that said "Montana - Pinot Noir". I don't associate those words together ever, but sure!

On the last day of the conference, we went on social tours of the region. I picked the temple food cooking class at Donghwasa Buddhist Temple. It was fun! The temple has been around for over 1500 years, and we got to see a very old Buddha carved into a rock wall. The place was very peaceful, and though there were more stairs to climb than we had expected, the location is surrounded by beautiful natural sights.

On the same day, I returned to Seoul and went to bed early at the hotel. I had things to do!

On my only free day in the country, I hired a car to drive me around. The first stop was Suwon, a 40-minute drive out of Seoul. As we drove to Suwon, I realized how densely packed the country is. I saw clusters of high-rise apartment campuses everywhere, especially outside the city. Korea is one of the most densely-populated countries globally, but I hadn't realized it meant that people even living in the suburbs had to live 30-40 floor complexes.

In Suwon, I visited the Mr. Toilet House (read the blog about that here). It was a really neat family museum about toilets, and I enjoyed walking around in a quiet area of the country before getting back into the thick of people. While I was in Suwon, I also visited the UNESCO heritage site that is the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. Suwon was a big fortress in the 18th century, and the wall around the original city was huge. I enjoyed walking along the wall, seeing dogs playing around on the old steps, and peaking into old fortress huts with elaborate green-pink floral designs. I also visited the Temporary Palace for the king in Suwon, which was neat; instead of European fortresses all inside heavy stone walls, this palace was a bunch of modular wooden rooms connected by large outdoor walkways.

I returned to Seoul for the rest of the day after that. I did some shopping before walking through the old Bukcheon Hanok Village (a traditional Korean village pre-Japanese occupation) and visiting the Changdeokgung Palace during golden hour. The palace grounds were similar to the temporary palace I saw earlier in the day, but it was much grander (unsurprisingly). The shopping was ample; I had to remind myself that I didn’t have the luggage space, though Korea is a very affordable place and has ample handcrafted and beautiful things.

Before I left Korea the next afternoon, I also visited the Cheonggyecheon area, which is a revived stream that they made into an artistic walkway for people to enjoy. It was really beautiful - I highly recommend visiting it if it's not too cold near the water. I wish I had had more time (and energy) to see more before I left, but I feel like I got a good crash course in Korean culture and sightseeing before I left.

Some of my other general observations when walking around Daegu and Seoul:

• MASKS: Everyone wears masks in public spaces, even when walking outside. Korea's mask mandate seemed pretty strict and likely enforced, and people dutifully wore their masks properly and without fuss. Honestly, it made me feel very safe while in the country, and I was happy to oblige with wearing a mask all day. 
• MEAT: People gush about Korean food, and I can see that it probably is heaven for people who can eat meat. For me, the food was tasty and fine, but I wasn't super enthralled by everything I ate. Temple food is vegetarian, of course, but I found there weren't many temple food restaurants available during my visit. Those were booked up weeks in advance.
  For example, I went to one restaurant and requested several times to make a cheese bibimbap with "NO MEAT." They happily confirmed "no meat" on the dish I ordered. Once the hot pot came out, I saw a pile of ground beef on the top. When I asked them why they included meat when I said no meat, they said, "Oohhh we thought you meant no raw meat!" They held a bowl  for me while I scooped the meat off of the dish. 
• FERMENTED: Most of what I noticed with the food I could eat was that the vegetables were mostly served pickled or fermented with chili pepper (hello, kimchi for every meal!). It makes sense, considering Korea has a history of sandy soil that isn't always the most nutrient-rich. I suspect the vegetables they do have they need to ensure are preserved - hence, fermentation. Still, I really missed fresh veggies by the end of the trip.
• SENSORY OVERLOAD: When I walked around in the commercial areas, Korea felt overwhelming to my sense. The shopping areas were full of flashing lights from different storefronts. Different shops blasted music or audible welcomes on the streets, competing for sound space. This was compounded by the additional Christmas displays shining and singing everywhere. A lot of the big displays I saw around shopping areas contained cartoon teddy bears, too.
• SUGAR: I also smelled sugary baked goods everywhere, which makes sense considering Korea may have one of the higher diabetes rates out there. Being a celiac, I couldn't try any of these sugary treats, but they smelled really decadent.
• UNDERGROUND: I was surprised to see that, while there was a lot of shopping happening outside on the streets, a lot of the shopping was available underground in subway terminals. This ranged from bakeries to electronics shops, fashion shops, and bookstores. I like the idea, especially as the weather continued to get colder over the days of my visit.

Would I go back to Korea? I wouldn't mind it if there were other conferences there I needed to attend. However, I would rather see other places again before seeking out Korea.

Chilling in Zanzibar

Zanzibar really does look like the pictures.

On Boxing Day, Mr. CT Lawyer and I took a 1.5-hour flight in a prop plane from Nairobi to Zanzibar, circling Kilimanjaro en route. When we landed and exited the plane, we found ourselves in a hot and humid tropical environment in Zanzibar, different from the crisp and warm temperature of Nairobi.

We went through customs in a one-room, lo-fi airport – the type of stereotypical developing country airport I used to encounter before they all started upgrading.  Afterward, we drove to our resort at the bottom western coast of the main island, zig-zagging through more potholes along the way.

Our resort was in a quiet southern fishing and beach town called Kizimkazi, and we were floored by how beautiful the beach was there. Everyone talks about how pristine and blue the waters are in Zanzibar, but I wasn’t convinced that it was going to be that impressive. I was wrong. During low tide, the beach seems to go on for a mile, and the shallow depths spot the coast with different blues and greens, depending on where you are. Dhows speckle the beach’s bay and stick to the compacted sand until the tide comes back in.

We later learned that our beach remained somewhat hidden and not quite touristy compared to a lot of the other beaches across the island. For example, we heard the northern beaches are for partying, and the southeast side of the island was riddled with resorts and activities on the beach. Having learned that, I feel that we really lucked out with our quiet and peaceful (if short) beach that was only shared with one other resort.

We lazed around the resort for the first day, relishing the quiet breeze of a small bay with little else but boats and trees along the beach.

On our second day in Zanzibar, we went on a famous spice tour. We drove an hour north and found ourselves in a spice farm called Maganga, which looked more like a forest. We were greeted by a community member who walked us through their spice farm for a few hours, tasting and learning about the different spices they grow in the mess of forest plants – cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, lemongrass, and vanilla. We also got to sample some fresh coconut from a guy who crawled up a coconut tree and dropped us a nut. While we walked around another guy wove for us beautiful, but sorta silly looking (on us) hats and necklaces out of the flowers and palms that we walked by in our tour. We finished the tour with an amazingly spiced pilau.

For our third day, we drove up to the main port on the island and UNESCO World Heritage Site – Stone Town. Our driver got pulled over by a cop along the way for some unknown infraction, which Mr. CT Lawyer was thrilled about because he had a fantasy about getting a driving-related story while in Africa.

Once in Stone Town, we hopped on a small boat that pulled us through choppy waves to get to Chengu Island – aka Prison Island (though the prison was only ever used for yellow fever quarantines). We wanted to get to this island not to view the prison ruins, but to feed tortoises at the island’s tortoise sanctuary. There were dozens of tortoises crawling through the sanctuary, some as old as 190 years…and hundreds of tourists chasing them down, waving cabbage leaves at them. We joined the masses and stepped around tortoise manure to hope a tortoise would accept our meager cabbage offering. They would skeptically eye the cabbage leaves before quickly grabbing and crunching away on them. It was a real treat.

Once through the choppy waters and back to Stone Town, we walked through the labyrinthine streets of the town to get to Emerson’s Tea House for a lunch reservation. We climbed up about 5 flights of stairs, breathlessly, to get to the airy rooftop restaurant. The view of the city below was really awesome, and we enjoyed the soft hum of mosque singing nearby while sitting cross-legged on thick carpets and plush pillows, waiting for our lunch. We ordered the fancy seafood meal and were blown away by it. The seafood was super fresh and perfectly spiced. I’m still thinking about the calamari.

Afterward, we meandered around the town, checking out the spice market, walking past Freddie Mercury’s childhood house, and quietly visiting the sobering Slave Chambers exhibit. We got lost while walking around a lot, appreciating the ornate doors that are quintessential to the town’s identity.
We stuck around Stone Town until sundown. While exhausted, I was keen for us to see the Night Market at the Forodhani Food Stalls by the port. Once we arrived after the sunset, the place was teeming with people – locals and tourists. I got a tasty and local sour soup called urojo, and we both sipped on refreshing sugar cane juice as we contemplated the Zanzibar Pizza (much like a crepe sandwich).

We wanted to see the fuss about other local beaches on our last full day, so we went to Jambiani on the southeast side of the island. There, we saw all of the tourism and hawking that happens on the beaches outside of where we were staying, and we quietly hid from much of the beach hustling in a quiet restaurant.

Our final dinner reservation was at The Rock Restaurant. It was a neat place – the restaurant is perched on top of an outcropping of rock and corral. That meant that when we arrived for dinner when the tide was out, we walked up to the restaurant’s staircase; when we left, the tide was in and we had to take a boat to get back to the beach. The food was fine, but we were really there for the views and the uniqueness of the location.

We decided to leave Zanzibar a few hours earlier than initially planned – it’s a gorgeous place, but we felt we had our fill and wanted to get back to Kenya before it was too late.

After leaving, I reflected on the island and its country a little bit. For one, I was fascinated with the Arabic influences felt in Zanzibar’s world. You can clearly tell – especially in Stone Town – that the culture is at the crossroads of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and I think it has given it a unique flavor. I’ve heard there are similar vibes on the Kenyan coast. Additionally, if Zanzibar is a fair representative of Tanzania as a country despite its semi-autonomy, then it’s clear that Tanzania is a bit further behind Kenya in terms of development (infrastructure, capacity, etc.). I find it interesting that, despite being such close neighbors, their development rates don’t seem to be in lockstep with each other. But I’m sure I need to see mainland/Tanganyika to make a better assessment of the country.

Kenyan Xmas Adventures

If given the chance, giraffes will headbutt you.

I was so pleased when Mr. CT Lawyer agreed to visit me in East Africa for the Xmas holidays – this meant I would be able to avoid being cold over the holidays as well as introduce him to Africa (as an entire continent, of course), all while exploring some of the extremely beautiful places of the area I hadn’t yet seen.

We ended up having a fancy trip through East Africa, and it was magical and luxurious. We had an absolute blast together.

*We ended up spending time in Kenya and Tanzania. For the sake of organizing my thoughts, I have separated the countries in two blog posts.*

Our Kenya adventures revolved around animal safaris; so, once he arrived, we rented a giant SUV. I was anxious about him driving while here, as I’ve found driving around in Kenya to be frustrating and harrowing – and I’m just an Uber passenger! Drivers here appear to be a bit erratic in their following of road rules, in particular, the matatus (who may be suicidal, based on their crazy driving). What’s more, the roads are covered in potholes! Roads that aren’t riddled with holes probably have random speed bumps every hundred meters or so - roads and highways alike – and may or may not have street lights to illuminate where exactly the roads are at night. This means that there is a lot of swerving, near misses, knuckle-whitening, and ample swearing (from me the passenger). Luckily, though we encountered these things on our road trips, he is a great driver and the car (and humans) came out fine.

But I’m ahead of myself a bit.

Our first adventure included a four-hour drive north to a nature conservancy called Ol Pejeta, known for holding the last two Northern White Rhinos in the world. We fought off matatus and slow-going trucks up and down windy roads until we got there.

On our drive, we noticed that each roadside town seemed to each specializes in particular products that the community would sell at stalls to ongoing traffic. We started to name the towns based on their products: MangoTown, ChairTown, MaizeTown, BananaTown, PotatoTown, FlourTown…you get the point.

Once we registered our vehicle with the conservancy and got our accommodations sorted, we started meandering through the park….and almost immediately started running into animals while we drove around! About a few minutes into the conservancy we had to pause for a herd of zebras to cross the road, and an elephant was munching on a tree 150 meters away from us. It was magical – we didn’t need to look for animals at all; we only had to ride a few minutes past one animal before we approached another group of animals. We didn’t see leopards or cheetahs on our trip, but we saw most the other animals available in the conservancy: buffalo, antelope, gazelle, elephant, giraffe, zebra, bush pig, rhino, baboon, chimpanzee, warthog, and loads of cool birds. Ol Pejeta was quiet, too; we didn’t see many people, which was more than fine for us.

We met a lot of helmeted guineafowl on the park roads who would stupidly panic and stumble in front of our car on the road for a few minutes instead of getting out of our way, causing a lot of abrupt stops on our end. I, stupidly, couldn’t think of the appropriate bird type and started to call them bush turkeys, singing a bastardized version Roy Orbison’s famous song: “Bush turkey, walking down the street….”

We went on a Night Game Drive with the conservancy, where we ran into a bachelor group of lions lounging on our path, and a little way off a pride of female lions who resented their need to share the road. We also ran into some jackals, hyenas, and a herd of elephants with babies.

The next morning, we met the two last Northern White Rhinos one-on-one with a ranger, feeding them while safely stowed in the SUV. The first one (Najin) used our SUV as a scratching post for a few minutes, aggressively rocking the car (and us) back and forth; the second one (Fatu) happily took carrots out of our hands from the car windows.

We also drove around the outskirts of the conservancy and got quite lost (there are no street signs in nature). We eventually hightailed it back to the main area of the conservancy after escaping an angry elephant threatened to trample us if we didn’t leave her family alone.

Our last morning at Ol Pejeta, on Xmas day, started early with a bushwalk. We drove to the starting place right when the sun was coming up. We drove slowly through thick fog and eventually saw a spectacular view of Mount Kenya painted with a rainbow of sorbet colors in the sunrise. Once we met the ranger, we walked through the boggy bush to see some animals up close. We had to silently (and quickly) retreat from our walk once we got too close to a lone buffalo and rhino.

While at Ol Pejeta, we stayed at their Stables. It was simple, friendly, and quiet accommodations for us, and we ended up staying in a roundhouse like a yurt with its own bathroom. The Stables had “lights out” at 11pm quite literally, as the generator shut off until the morning.

We nearly hit a lamb on the road just outside of the conservancy when we were returning to Nairobi. It baa’ed resentfully at us.

The next day we flew to Zanzibar to beach bum for a while, but that’s a different story.

When we returned to Nairobi on New Year’s Eve, at the end of his visit, we continued our animal adventures.

We visited the Sheldrick Trust, where a group rehabilitates baby elephant orphans and releases them back into the wild. They currently have 15 elephant orphans under 5 years old. We went in the morning to watch the little elephants flop around and feed on giant bottles full of baby formula. Unfortunately, it was a cramped spectacle full of tourists and screaming children, and I felt stressed out for the elephants. I proposed we leave early and surprised my Mr. CT Lawyer with his Xmas present – I adopted an elephant orphan for him, who he was to meet more personally in the evening.

We then visited the nearby Giraffe Center. Each visitor got a coconut shell of pellets to feed the goofy giraffes, who greedily stuck out their blue tongues for more food over and over again, headbutting clueless visitors not fast enough with their treats. We also got to feed a few baby giraffes – 3 months old! –timidly sticking out and wiggling their tongues for treats and wobbling their furry head cones between gulps. There were some curious baby warthogs behind the giraffes, as well – they didn’t get very close, but watched while the giraffes poked around tourists for pellets.

In the evening, we went back to the Sheldrick Trust for an hour to meet his adopted elephant, Nabulu. Though there were still quite a few people there who wanted to meet their adopted elephants, it was a much quieter and intimate experience than the morning visit. We got to watch the elephants run past to their pens with dinner waiting there. We also followed the elephants to their rooms to watch them chew on a few leafy tree branches. Nabulu used her trunk to get some water from her trough in front of us and blew bubbles into it before sucking up some water. The water sounded like a toilet flushing when it emptied out of her trunk and into her mouth.  We also met the other elephants there, petting a few and admiring the rest as they went through their evening rituals of eating, farting, and chilling.

We took it easy and spent the rest our Nairobi jaunts included fancy restaurants in the upscale suburb of Karen and malls in the nice eastern parts of the city. In my defense, I couldn’t think of city-specific adventures for us while he visited, and we were tired from the rest of the adventures. Some of the places we went to made us both feel more like we were in Europe than Africa, but we still had a lovely time. Some fast notes about those places (in case you need some ideas for future trips to Kenya).

• Dusit2 is an amazing and fancy 5-star hotel that will pamper you in the heart of Nairobi. But a heads up – it’s a resort, and it’s easy to feel like staying put there forever, with its food and pool and phenomenal service. Also, their PB&J Sundae is really addictive.
• Boho Eatery is an outdoor restaurant in Karen, and we had really tasty bowls of not-regional foods while the restaurant’s cat cuddled with us.
• We had our NYE dinner at Talisman in Karen. We had a really delicious meal with gluten-free bread and divine fish curry. He got a snapper bao bun that he is still talking about.
• We visited Cultiva Farms in Karen for a meal at some point. The ride getting there was wild and bumpy, but the food was really fresh and delightful to eat.

An African Xmas Venting

I just need to get this off of my chest before it's too late.

In the office, I've heard some of my non-Kenyan colleagues complain that it just doesn't feel like Christmas here in Nairobi/Kenya. Even though the many malls here are decked out with fairy lights and Christmas trees and local school groups carol regularly in front of stores (very western, indeed), they just don't feel the holiday spirit. The only time that they say they felt the holidays were coming was when I recently baked sugar cookies.

I think I know why this is the case.

Even here in Kenya we listen to popular western holiday songs. With sleigh bells jingling in the background and words like "snow" sprinkled through all of the songs' lyrics. This can be really confusing to the mind while in Africa - even though I'm hearing snowy vocabulary being sung in songs, I'm surrounded by tropical plants on warm and sunny days. What's more - Kenya is extremely close to the equator, which means it doesn't boast the normal four seasons you find in the west. No snow, here. And for places south of the equator, its summertime right now anyway; case in point is Australia scorching in heat while the US is piled in layers and shivering.

Therefore, of course it wouldn't feel like the holidays to someone if they're relying on wintry music to fill their holiday playlist.

In response to this, I started looking for weather-neutral music (or even tropical music) that is Christmas focused for a new playlist. I've found a few songs that are neutral to weather for the holidays, like Wham's "Last Christmas" and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". The only popular non-snowy song with a tropical twist (and was written by a band in a region outside of the west, sorry Tim Mitchen) I could find was (my mom's favorite) Boney M's song "Mary's Boy Child". It's a great example of something I can happily listen to in Kenya and start feeling festive. The only problem (for our African-situated and minded folks, here) is that they're a Caribbean band. I have struggled to find African holiday music.

I did go to a holiday festival last week that helped me somewhat scratch my itch for a tropical holiday vibe. A group of popular Kenyan singers sang regular Christmas Carols and wove fun local Kenyan songs into them, which gave the songs a cheeky flair. It was wonderful and brimming with holiday joy....but I haven't found much else that gives the holidays its own local feel to it.

I hope that African artists can start creating and popularizing their own holiday songs soon - it would help improve the tropical holiday vibe and increase the diversity of songs to listen to over the holidays that aren't rehashes of old classics that we keep hearing re-sung by new people.

Last note to share: I really resent the 1980s holiday hit "Do they know it's Christmas" nowadays, while I'm at it. Though extremely catchy, its lyrics are ignorant and pretty much underline all of the foolish things western folk say about "the rest of the world". The phrases "and there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime" infuriates me every time - of course not because it's summer, you idiot!

An Indian Week

Please stop honking. Why are you honking?

I ended up going to India last week for a conference in Pune on the Sanitation Economy (aka nerdy toilet folks talking about how to make toilets more profitable). I had decided to pad my trip to Pune with a day at both ends with a stay in Mumbai since I had never been before and had heard so much about it (and since that's where I'd land).

I landed in Mumbai on Saturday and was reminded that India is hot. Very hot. I foolishly thought that Mumbai was going to be balmy and spring-like during the winter months. I was wrong. Mumbai was hot and humid like any other time I've been to India. I felt like it was jarring transitioning from the dry 78F/26C sunny days in Nairobi to the 97F/36C and humid heat of Mumbai.

Also, the air quality was pretty awful; while Nairobi at the time had an AQI of 9 (which is pretty good), Mumbai's was at 170 (which is really bad). And don't even get me started on the noise pollution in India (though this article is about Delhi) - it's honking all of the time, all day, every day, no matter where you are, and music is played in arbitrary places everywhere. It can give you a pretty big headache if you're stuck in the constant traffic on every street.

I was staying in the shopping street called Lamington Road and walked around Southern Mumbai for my day in the city. I walked to the beach area and strolled about 10 minutes before I relented and got a cab to drive me to India Gate...but in those few minutes of walking I saw run-down buildings  with humidity taking tolls on their external structures and dirty corners with questionable smells that I have come to associate with most major cities in the country.

I took a 1.5-hour boat ride to the Elephanta Cave, which is a UNESCO Heritage Site on an island off of Mumbai. While on the boat, I was dismayed watching the other riders; many of the people on the boat were eating bagged snacks and were (1) throwing pieces of food into the water to the seagulls then (2) discarding the bags and wrappers right into the water like it was a giant rubbish bin. I think if we're going to talk about saving our oceans and changing behaviors to manage climate change, we have a long way to go yet.

On the island, I hired a young tour guide to show me around the famous caves for an hour under the bleaching sun. We walked in the sweltering heat and climbed slowly up the 100+ steps to get to the caves at the top of the hill. It was pretty great once we got up there - there are several scenes of giant Lord Shiva's life carved into the cave walls, all intricately detailed. My guide explained that the cave carvings were around 1500 years old. Unfortunately, the Portuguese once stationed on the island 500 years ago and took to shooting at the carvings for target practice. The good news is that they're still amazing to see, even with a few bullet marks in Shiva's thighs.

After about four hours of touring, I gave up on braving the heat and sought refuge in a beautiful coffee shop nearby with WiFi and worked for a few hours before grabbing some Persian food en route to the hotel for bed.

The next day a colleague and I shared a car for the 4-hour drive to Pune. I slept for this drive, so there's nothing for me to share.

Pune is different than Mumbai. For one, it's much cooler - about 10F/6C degrees less than Mumbai. Pune is also much cleaner and better planned than Mumbai, as Pune has a strong campaign to clean the city with the government's Swachh Bharat mission and use smart technology to keep the city running. They have clean public toilets on the sides of the street, as well!

Someone on my trip explained to me that much of Pune's residents are the wealthier people from Mumbai who tire of the city and want to move somewhere cleaner/nicer than Mumbai. They may still do their business in Mumbai, but they live and breathe in Pune. Honestly? I can't blame them.

I didn't see too much of Pune since I was at a conference most of the time, but I liked what I saw.

The conference was also lovely and went well. I was busy with networking and talking about new projects with sector partners. We also visited the Pune Smart City Control Center, which was neat.

A few conference attendees and I shared a ride back to Mumbai afterward. The hotel one of my riding partners stayed at managed to lose her bag for three hours. After the chaos, they sent us to Mumbai in one of their cars and with bags of food - all complimentary.

The next day before I went to the airport, I tried out a pleasant coworking space near the terminal for a few hours. I left in a rickshaw to get to the airport, meaningless waiting in the airport for 3.5 hours for my flight.

And now I'm back in Nairobi.

This trip helped me realize what I have loved about India in the past, and it's not been the cities. I love the natural beauty in much of India, and the rural areas are peaceful. The cities in India, though? I could do without them right now. Pune is better than many I've been to, but I'm still not that wild about urban India if I'm honest.