Log> Sights> Kruger National Park and Jane Goodall Chimp Sanctuary

The minibus for the 4-day safari departed at 6 am sharp from Johannesburg after a night at Shoestrings Lodge. We got to Kruger, largest African reserve after the Serengeti, about 6 hours later and were greeted by a herd of giraffe even before we made it to our lodge and luxurious campground. In addition to being in one of the topmost attractions in Souther Africa, we were lucky to have a great group of travelers from the UK, US, NZ, Oz and Canada. And Finland, undersigned inclusive.

We were both lucky and out of luck in terms of animal sightings - out of the Big Five, I saw the ones I wanted to, the rarest ones: lions (and here), rhinos and a leopard. The latter was a huge win, since we tracked him down in the middle of the night, our guide Tim working his whereabouts by an earlier sighting an hour ago and the tracks he found on the sand. The photos of the leopard (and here) are hazy, taken in complete darkness with nothing but a yellowish light pointed at the cat, but better that way, since it might have been hungry. Our group, incredibly, didn't see elephants, the most prevalent of the Big Five in Kruger, but I'd seen them before up close and didn't mind much. It was fun all the way.

The safari drives took place the first and the second day, with the third day dedicated to an educational bushwalk with the guides and an afternoon panorama drive, which was certainly worth it, in no small amount thanks to Bill, an Australian geologist who enlightened us continuously with his interpretation of the landscape, the rocks and the different scenic features, such as these cool potholes. I'm sure I'd been taught a lot of that in high school, but it's not learning until you experience or put it in practice.

The last night was spent at a 5-star lodge in connection with Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Sanctuary. We played tennis, enjoyed a massive snooker lounge and had a brilliant dinner - as if the safari would've been too taxing. The next day we got up close and personal with the chimps (cute one here) and heard their stories (interpreted by the guide, yes). Many had been pets or mistreated tourist attractions in countries like Angola and Kongo, and had been brought to ZA for rehabilitation which takes many years for most of the older ones. Due to the rehab keeping them away from humans on purpose, so they'd learn to live their own lives, we only had to observe them in the enclosures, but it was delightful nonetheless, and highly recommended.

We're sharing photos with the group, so there'll be more once everyone gets theirs uploaded. I just wanted to make sure I was the first. :) Of course, there's loads more photos here.

And this I'm typing from Johannesburg, again, getting ready to fly into the thunderstorms of Hong Kong in style with Cathay Pacific. Lovely.

Just how good was that Shiraz?

A friend took this photo after we'd devoured the red bubbly I was raving about in the last post. I haven't seen myself looking quite like that over a wine before, and it was just that good. Oh, and the second photo is about another 'accidental wine' ingenuity: a bottle from a small batch of Pinot Noir, just at the peak of it's maturity, which the winery deemed didn't fit their range and style of wines.

And they were right - Bellevue has great, accessible wines, including the first Pinotage I've liked and bought - the Pinot Noir having been a complex character, but better than any I'd had from California.

Sights> Sharks and Shiraz with a fizz

Back in adventure gear. Yesterday I climbed Table Mountain from the Atlantic Ocean side and am working on a little videologue of it. Two days ago I went diving with sharks in Gaansbai, and here's a little video of it. I concentrated on experiencing rather than documenting, but some animals got caught on the memory card, too.



This was after a day's wine tour in Stellenbosch - a beautiful wine route indeed that has more to offer than Napa and Sonoma combined. We found a couple of small wineries, Camberley, which is very highly recommended for their sparkling red, a 100% Shiraz done with the champagne method, and an "accidental" Cab Sav Reserve - they told me they forgot 3 barrels that were meant to be used for a Cab Sav/Merlot blend for 30 months, and the result was gorgeous.

I found out something cool to do in China, and am sorting out a visa for myself. I'll have that on Monday, fly to Jo'burg, head over to Kruger for some days to see big animals and hike, and then fly straight to Hong Kong. Sweet.

Thoughts> The global 4-hour workweek

There's a new fad gaining traction, another self-management-help book, this time from a young success story by the name of Timothy Ferris. And mind you, I started writing this before I learned about the Google AdWords co-marketing deal my former colleague Trevor Clairborne (yes yes, this is all public, see the link) seems to have cut with Tim. I wouldn't have realized that's a good audience fit, but when supply is abundant, you grab the fruit that hangs the lowest. Good work there. Tim's blog post on the deal, titled "Publishing 2.0: Google and The 4-Hour Workweek Special Arrangement Foreshadows the Future of Books" echoes grandeur a bit too much for my liking - but if you get to rub some of Google's clout on you, go for it. I'm as guilty of that as anyone. But Trevor, seriously, how does this represent "a glimpse into the future of book publishing"? I think there have been quite a few books, especially in the self-help field, where "it’s the communities of readers who individualize the idea" - what is different about this one? I've seen the endless Ning-communities sprouting up for all flavours of 4HWW, but this certainly isn't a disruption in the force.

(By the way, I love how all the statements from Google announcing something new begin with "We're excited", or, if it comes from higher up in the ranks, "We're very excited" :) )

The 4HWW (because every fad must have an acronym) is at its core a selection of productivity tips, spiced up with ideas from Tim's nomadic life of what to do with the free time that increased productivity potentially provides you with. An appealing picture.

An important part of the 'program' is "outsoucing your life" as Tim puts it - employing a small army of remote assistants to do menial web-, email- and paper-based tasks for you, the people employed most likely located in India (cheap labour combined with language skill, in case you'd missed). I'm all for this, for two reasons.

Firstly, it encourages telecommuting. There are millions and millions of people too many in offices everyday all over the world. Too many because they lose time commuting, pollute unnecessarily, take up urban real estate and - most importantly, like it was far me - they don't like it. If you have a laptop, broadband and a phone at "home", too - you really shouldn't need to go to the office. Sitting in those meeting rooms is unproductive anyway, isn't it? Don't go to the office. You'll save in commuting, sparing both the environment and your wallet. Both you and your assistant (and your boss!) can work from anywhere in the world. Now that's a win-win.

Secondly, it accelerates the globalization of services (just a drop in the ocean, but bear with me). You won't be paying $5 an hour for a remote assistant in India for long - the price levels within such a sector can equalize much faster than price levels in other sectors between countries, India and the US being the examples here. Technology and innovation only accelerate globalization, and in the long run, for the same product or service, you should pay the same price anywhere in the world (barring logistics costs, taxes (forced to equalize in the long run, too) and other overhead, but in the ballpark the same). I'm resisting throwing out my long-term view on globalization in this vein following some much-sought-after insights I've been exposed to this far down here - that's for tomorrow.

Don't get my tone wrong. I love self-help books. Their existence tells something about our world that would be hard to notice otherwise, everyone so busy hiding their (perceived) flaws, insecurities and problems. The all-of-us-can-be-rich subset of these books has a lot of bull, but sometimes there are ideas that are suitably opportunistic to be implemented by a lot of people - in 4HWW standing out since Tim doesn't disregard people who are employed and don't necessarily want to change that, at least immediately. Too many books assume that the listless reader has some great business idea or that they are a private consultant, which is normally easier said than done. I mean, sure you want to Fire Your Boss and Move some Cheese, but until you have a better alternative, you can't. Here, even the baby steps can make a difference.

Incidentally, since I'm in Cape Town, there's more Google-related stuff coming up in the next post. I'm working with more stuff to do with Google than I ever was at Belgrave House, jeez.

Thoughts> Two small rants in A-minor

A small rant about generalizing geography

I meet a fellow traveller from Germany. They ask me where I'm from, and I tell them, Finland.

"Oh, Finland, cool. I actually went to Sweden two years ago."
"Uh. Alright. So, you're from Germany, right?"
"Yes."
"Oh, cool. Yeah, I went to France last year."
"But..."
"Yes, not even close the same thing, huh?"

And that's happened to me a lot, actually, in more or less that pattern. I'm not surprised nobody's been to Finland, good for them, but when they tell me they've been to a neighbouring country that happens to be in the same general direction and maybe shares some border, I just need to retort with an analogy.


A small rant about the meaninglessness of weekdays

I'm in Port St. Johns, in front of the computer since many days, and I get an IM from a friend, our short discussion paraphrased (with consent) below.

"hey dude... what are you doing at your computer?"
"hey buddy. just checking emails and stuff."
"it's friday night.... you should be out drinking and having fun and enjoying your trip"
"yeah.. well, i'm enjoying my trip for sure, just needed to get some stuff done"
"go out and party!"
"sure thing. gimme a sec"

I closed the computer and felt awkward and uneasy for a while, at first not realizing why, but soon seeing what my reply should've been:

"Oh, it's Friday for you? Fascinating. Actually, I don't have weeks and weekends. For all I care weekdays don't exist. Why should they, anyway? What is this tyranny of a biblical seven-day week that forces us to muddle through our life in small chunks that mirror each other, squashing this squared time through a particle accelerator that makes us look back every once in a while and wonder 'where did all the time go'? Months and dates have some meaning, they help in understanding the shifts of the moon, the tides, the right times to sow and reap the land - but weekdays? You made them up, you built them with thin steel walls around them and boxed yourself in. I denounce your week entirely, discredit it for being ugly, arbitrary and without merit. So don't you come to me with your petty excuse of a weekday and tell me what to do."

EDIT: I realized after posting that it's Friday today. Sorry. Enjoy it nonetheless. You're obliged to, really.

Log> The day in numbers

My first day in Cape Town. After 20 hours on a bus, it's far but worth it. Today, I read out my favorite passage in Hamlet (from Act 2, Scene 2) to a girl from a book she'd found under her bed the day before. The book is Tragedies I, and the volume is over 130 years old - based on the inscription, a gift from a father to a son on June 10th in the latter part of the 19th century. And the coffeeshop I had breakfast in only played songs I've given 5 stars in my own iTunes Library. Scrambled catharsis on toast, please.

I haven't updated in a while because I was in Port St. Johns on the Wild Coast, the hippiest place I've been to in a long while - just a truck-load of love, really. Like many there, I ended up staying a bit longer than I intended and it was the best of times. I even got out to the waves, only to fall off my board on the reefs cutting my toes. That meant I had to spend a day being pampered in a hammock overhanging a ravine of monkeys with views out to the surf.

Right now I'm reading Justin Cartwright's Not Yet Home, a travelogue of South Africa in the years 1994-1996; and listening to Black Uhuru (Guess who's coming to dinner? -Natty Dreadlock).

Log> Thoughts> Dunes of Durban

In today's entry, good thoughts and bad thoughts, time dedicated for more of s.c. chilling out, more good books, more time to think and talk and look and learn.

As far as backpacker's hostels go, I'm staying in a palace. To me, the name Happy Hippo doesn't convey at all the loft-like converted warehouse with massive communal spaces, excellent rooms, brand new kitchen and a roof terrace with a bar. It's on the docks right next to surfing and the city centre. If coming to Durban, stay here, even if you're normally looking for a higher grade of accommodation. I'm here two nights and spent two nights before this at a more traditional, rustic and messy hostel a bit farther from the city, so I can compare. I just love these loft-style spaces.

But what comes to the city, I have not wished to photograph Durban. Something puts me off it. It's a strange city: potentially very appealing with the long stretch of a beach washed with the perennially warm currents of the Indian Ocean. Most of it is clean, orderly and developed, yet it gives off an impression of everything having been abandoned just a few months ago. It's as if a slow decay had just started, colours fading, paint flaking, an abandoned blanket flapping in a street corner. The central parts are bustling with people, but just a few blocks out an eerie stillness pervades.

Maybe I'm looking at the city, and the country, with too much of a Western (or Nothern) eye. Though the framework looks Western, it holds a highly unemployed population with multiple issues of development, health and adaptation. Crime is ridiculously high - it must be, with every single local that I've exhanged more than four sentences with warning me about it. I've dutifully avoided the idle groups of young men, the number one source of trouble in the world.

In spite of a fever that's been creeping along, I went out with a surfboard today and almost drowned myself with it (or below it, rather). For the fever, I got a malaria self-test kit that I haven't used yet, but will go and prick the skin right after this post. The buggers did bite me in Madagascar and Mauritius quite liberally, despite the toxins.

Right now I'm reading Lord of the Flies (last read in 1994), and listening to Kalas.

Log> Entire Itinerary

Ok, now the real trip starts. It's just been practice with live ammo the last two weeks. I'm back in Mauritius for a couple of days, waiting for the BA flight to Johannesburg. That's the first leg of the 20-segment D-class fare I have. From Mauritius, the price difference with A-class (First class) was quite small, but since only 3 of the 20 segments on my ticket have actual First-class cabins, it didn't make sense to purchase that fare. The months are approximations.

(June)
Mauritius - Johannesburg
Cape Town - Johannesburg
Johannesburg - Hong Kong

(July)
(here, likely a Visit Asia pass to get me to SE Asia - some segments from that to be used later)

Hong Kong - Tokyo
Tokyo - Delhi

(August)
Mumbai - Bangkok
Singapore - Sydney

(from Australia, to Fiji and back for Vorovoro Island)

(September)
Melbourne - Brisbane
Brisbane - Sydney

(October)
Sydney - Auckland

(November)
Auckland - Sydney
Sydney - Santiago
Santiago - Easter Island
Easter Island - Santiago

(December)

(possible LAN Pass here to add segments for other Latin American countries, or just lots of ground transport)

(January)
Buenos Aires - Lima

(February)
Lima - Caracas

(March)
Caracas - Miami
Miami - New York

(April)
New York - Helsinki
London - Johannesburg (Not sure if I'll use this segment. Unless I'll start all over again.)

Or, in flyer talk: MRU-JNB // CPT-JNB-HKG-NRT-DEL // BOM-BKK // SIN-SYD // MEL-BNE-SYD-AKL-SYD-SCL-IPC-SCL // EZE-LIM-CCS-MIA-JFK-HEL // LON-JNB

How sensible is my rather blind loyalty to purchasing oneWorld products? Well, I did some research on ticket prices, sure, and I'm quite confident these are good deals I'm getting, with the added class upgrade and racking up the miles tips the scale easily.

Want to join me somewhere along the way? Drop me a line. Drop me a comment. Anything, just come on already. The water is nice.

Since all the segments are open, and I can re-ticket them quite easily (allegedly) with BA, the caveat is that if I get an offer to do something interesting, or some place is too good to leave, the above schedule goes out the Business Class cabin window.