Kwaheri Tanzania, Jumbo Home!

That's "goodbye" and "hello" respectively in Swahili, a language we've been lavished with in our 2 weeks plus in Tanzania. It is such a cool sounding language. I'm even contemplating to buy the phrasebook for it!

Tanzania has been an amazing holiday destination, especially so, if you are an animal and nature lover. It is such a beautiful country, undisturbed by humans...almost surreal. It is such a shame that for such a beautiful country, it is not so safe for tourist to travel at wimp, especially at night. On our first night, we were quite annoyed that the hotel staff followed us around when we made our way the nearest restaurant, just about 100 meters away from our lodge's main gate. It made us really uncomfortable being followed since the staff did not mention anything to us. She had just walked behind us quietly. It doesn't really help that Africans tend to have stoic faces and doesn't smile very much, unless you initiated it first. It really felt extremely uncomfortable. We didn't like the idea of being followed and they even insisted that one of the staff accompanied us back to our lodge when we were done with our dinner. We did thought that they fussed too much over nothing as we are not used to being "served" in such a way. We later found out that it was simply due to safety reasons. In fact, our local guide mentioned a few days later that he would not even go to the nearest supermarket on foot once dusk sets in. We realized that safety cannot be taken for granted anywhere in Africa.

Another downside of Tanzania is that, it is insanely expensive. There's almost no way to get out of the tourist trap. Tips are definitely expected everywhere you go, or the service staff (mostly in hotels) will linger around you like pesky flies till you hand them their token. Again, such a shame!

Otherwise, Tanzania offers such a special and unique experience of nature and wildlife. Almost sad to leave the country (specifically the Serengeti), but boy oh boy! It does feel good to be home!