We’re arrived safe and sound in NAIROBI, sometimes known as “Nairobbery” but the volunteer organizer, Jamie-lee, this peppy blond New Zealander, said it is all media hype (though I’m still wary). After a long haul flight to Addis Ababa via Rome (where nobody got on or off except some loud Italian cleaning crews who came on board to take our trash) and then onto Nairobi, we met up with some other people volunteering with us, and all piled into an old-school van with some serious shock-absorbers as we bounced down the pothole-filled dirt road to our temporary homestays until our volunteering starts on Monday. So far Nairobi’s outskirts strike me as a mix of the Caribbean, of India, of Beijing, of Thailand, and of Costa Rica. I haven’t shot any pictures yet because I don’t want to be SO touristy to be taking pictures of their fruit and traffic and the sign-maker because I wouldn’t do that at home, either. I guess the point is I’m not at home right now. We’re going to check out this giant Target-like shop after we log off the Internet. Check back!

All of this… fits into below.

We jet off Friday for NAIROBI via Rome and Addis Ababa, where we’ll start with a week of volunteering at an elementary school with a Maasai village. We’ve managed to raise nearly $1,500 to donate to the school and we’ll be stopping at a Barnes & Noble before we leave to pick up a lot of educational children’s books and some school supplies.

Afterwards, we’ll be headed to TANZANIA for a safari, followed by a quick visit in DAR ES SALAAM with some of Jon’s friends and then to enjoy the beach and maze of Stone Town in ZANZIBAR. I have to capitalize all these cities and countries because they just sound so exotic.

I’ll try to post updates and some pictures, but we may be in areas that don’t even have electricity, let alone internet (although when we visited the “remote villages” of Chiang Mai in Thailand, they lived in open-air bamboo huts and sifted rice by hand, but managed to sell us some framed photos of us taken only moments ago with a digital camera and printed and framed automatically). Keep checking!

Hark. We’re driving to Chicago. In a car. From Baltimore. I don’t know why this is such news, considering I did this route many times between St. Louis – New York during college, and Chicago- New York during graduate school, and even Los Angeles- New York when I moved out west. But perhaps now that I’m no longer 19 years old, the concept of driving all night (“ROADTRIP!!!”) is no longer as exciting. I mean, what’s wrong with an airplane? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with an airplane: it would have cost us more than $700 total to jet to Chicago for the weekend for Jon’s friend’s wedding, thanks to airline mergers, fewer seats, higher prices, overbooking, summer vacation and the recession.

So we’re driving. (Also because the in-laws really want us to take things from the basement to our house.) The trip is slightly shorter than if we left from New York (12 hours), which is good, and cuts down the time winding through Pennsylvania significantly, which is also good, but we’ll still have to contend with the long stretch of Ohio, which is bad and boring. I’m contemplating making a few stops in Amish country, and maybe even in Cleveland after seeing the hilarious video about the city which was so funny, I’ve had to post it here.

However, I have learned quite a bit about driving long distances, which I’m happy to share here.

1. Check your oil, tire pressure, windshield wiper fluid, brakes, battery, etc. It helps to have your car in good shape before you head out.

2. Use RainX on your windshield. Especially in winter. The directions say to “squeeze a small amount on a cloth and wipe” but the actual directions should be “squeeze large amount all over windshield, then use a lot of paper towels to rub it until no more streaks show.”

3. If you’re packing a full trunk, make sure you can access your spare easily. My friend was stuck unloading her truck in the middle of an Arizona desert and putting her laundry, fax machine, bedding and pillows on the highway after a flat.

4. Keep a phone charger in your car.

5. Don’t play the see-how-far-your-car-can-drive after the gas light goes on. Fill up before it reaches the E.

6. Have kids in the car? Read this blog entry I wrote a couple weeks ago.

7. Keep Wet-Ones and napkins/ paper towels within reach. And a plastic bag to act as a trash collector.

8.  Switch drivers often. Drink coffee. Eat beef jerky and carrots. Sing songs together. Contemplate short-term and long-term life plans. Listen to weird religious talk radio in other states. It’s an educational and cultural way to learn about our country.

More importantly, we’re headed to KENYA and TANZANIA the weekend after, so stayed tuned for the more exciting updates on that (I assure you, they will be more interesting than the blog entry about the cheese we try in Dutch Pennsylvania).

trekkertime.com

It’s official: we booked tickets to Africa! Believe me, it was NOT cheap, though it was significantly cheaper than other flights (thank Kayak.com for a great find, and cheaptickets.com for carrying the same itinerary because not all engines do, and for $10 less, and upromise.com for allowing me to earn 1% of the ticket price towards my student loans with this). I hovered the mouse over the “Book now!” button before clicking; of course, our credit card company sounded an alarm and blocked the hefty purchase, but after soothing its feathers and thanking the fraud department, we secured ourselves two tickets on Ethiopian Airlines to Nairobi (we are not staying in Nairobi) and a return trip from Zanzibar that would take us on a 15-hour layover in Addis Ababa (plus a 45-minute layover in Rome).

Why shell out nearly two months of mortgage payments for this trip? I partly blame my dad, who has always dreamed of traveling through these parts of Africa before they became huge tourist traps. Already, Tanzania has turned in that direction, serving the Kilimanjaro and safari circuits of foreigners. But outside those areas, there isn’t much for tourists to do but observe, which is the purpose of our visit to southern Kenya as volunteers, helping the Masai people assimilate to modern Africa. It’s also sort of a taking-advantage-of-a-life situation: we still don’t have kids, we’re willing to not shower for several days, and we don’t spend much money on anything else except trips. Plus, it was time to cover a new continent.

My friend Jenny just told me about her similar hesitation to click the “book now” button earlier this week, when she bought tickets to Botswana and South Africa to catch the World Cup this June.

Our plan over 18 days: two days of flying, a week volunteering at a primary school with the Masai in southern Kenya, followed by a camping safari in Northern Tanzania and then relaxing (and a shower!) on Zanzibar. On the way back, we’ll get to explore the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

I’m excited and incredibly nervous. We’re strictly heeding the state department warnings to avoid the streets of Nairobi (where we are being met, at the airport, by our volunteer organization and then after an orientation session, driven to southern Kenya). Addis Ababa, considered the safest of all African cities, is apparently under watch through June as it undergoes national elections (the watch expires July 1).

We’re due for immunizations, a supply of maladrome to prevent malaria, acidopholous pills to strengthen our stomachs, paperwork for visas to Tanzania, Kenya and a transit visa for Ethiopia, good trip insurance; modest clothing so people don’t trouble me for showing my shoulders and thighs; light packing and good shoes and memory cards and books and Swahili basics. For example, did you know that a Swahili day starts at our 6am, but they consider it “1:00″? Some places work by regular time, others like to go by Swahili time, so it will be interesting trying to catch a train or plane or setting a wake-up call. 

I am still in disbelief that we’re really going, but we are.  Stay tuned for updates as we plan!

The reason for my fascination with Kilimanjaro is not because I have anything to prove to myself – since I like hiking and I’m in good shape, I’m pretty positive I’ll be able to handle it. And I’m sure I could get to the top, but even if I don’t, my life will go on without my feeling like some giant failure. I’ve also recently re-read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air  about the Mt. Everest disaster, and for some reason reading about people dying on Everest is making me want to go climbing Kilimanjaro. Not because I’m looking to die, because Kilimanjaro is actually an easy, safe climb as long as you’re in good shape (and as long as climate changes doesn’t keep melting the ice caps and send falling boulders onto tourists like it did a few years back) – and I do miss hiking, and it would be cool to stand on top of Africa for a few minutes before descending back down.

The other hesitation, besides short amount of time and the $1,200+ to climb Kilimanjaro is we have to pack – a lot. Apparently, people just stop changing their shirts after a while (but they do change their socks and underwear, thankfully), but we would have to pack basically all our ski clothing. Thermals, wool socks, fleece, winter jacket, some kind of warm active pants, hiking boots, etc. This sort of packing does not fly with my desire to carry-on only, especially when changing at least two planes.

In reality, I wish we had an entire month, but that is highly frowned upon in American corporate society to abandon your job as such just so you can go see the rest of the world (How dare we be open minded!). That way, we could do all three activities and spend even more time lounging around Zanzibar and even venture towards the seaside of Mozambique, which piqued my interest initially. I will keep you all updated on our planning!

As a result, I spent much time surfing for ski deals for myself because I am just as much an avid snow-player, and I am looking forward to some decent conditions on the East Coast this winter, thanks to unseasonal cool temperatures this summer and early snowfall this December (the one that caused our accident).

The key to finding a good ski deal really depends on a few things: 1. the amount of snowfall at that mountain so far, 2. current weather conditions, 3. the road conditions, 4. whether your flight will make it to the destination without being cancelled or you spending the night in O’Hare airport, and 5. if the only time you have available is a holiday or not.

Now I’m not a mountain expert, but I’ve visited my small share of them. Here are some tips I’ve learned:

1. If you’ve got your own wheels, take advantage. In snow country, sometimes the smaller mountains are less expensive and less crowded than the major ones – and therefore, more snow. In Calgary, I went to the slopes used by the Olympics for a warm-up day trip before heading out to Banff and Lake Louise (which are marvelous mounds of powder, too). Similarly, I often like visiting Stratton over Mt. Snow or Killington in Vermont. In Colorado, which I’m aiming to visit for the first time this winter, lift tickets are often less expensive and also available on discount site liftopia.com at Crested Butte or similar mountains that are more difficult to reach.

2. Many hotels will provide a stay-and-ski package complete with lift tickets, and in lots of cases, free breakfast. Some will also come with kitchennettes so you don’t have to eat out every night and wait for a table when you’re starving after a day of skiing. Check hotel Web sites for deals.

3. If you’re with a big group, a condo makes things very inexpensive. Look on Craigslist for vacation homes in the area and contact the owners. Book early for holidays and weekends.

4. If you have vacation time to kill, mid-week skiing is a great option. No lift lines, cheaper tickets, and lots of hotel deals.

5. REI and local supermarkets sometimes participate in area mountain discounts, but you have to go to specific outlets to purchase. For example, REI and Albertsons supermarket will sell discounted tickets in Tahoe, but you have to either go to the REI in San Francisco or northern California or to an Albertsons nearby. We used to pass both on the way up to Tahoe, so stopping in for a few minutes will knock off about $12-$15 off your ticket.

6. Be prepared if you get snowed in. I’ve been stuck halfway up mountains due to heavy snowfall and trapped in a ski house for an extra night because 12 feet fell – and couldn’t even enjoy the fresh powder because the mountain had closed.  (I’ve also driven most of the way home, only to turn around and head back because it had been blizzarding the whole way, meaning fresh powder and a Monday with nobody on the slopes).  Fortunately both times we took cars, but if you had a flight scheduled, you – and hundreds others – will be scrambling to leave on the next available flight.

See you on the slopes!

Los Angeles gets a bad rap from Northeasterners, many of whom actually have never even set foot there. For a while, I, too, didn’t have much interest in L.A.  Until one day, while listening to the wintry winds of Boston rattle my living room windows as the record-breaking Blizzard of 2003 blew through, and my thermostat trying desperately to make me broke from heating bills, I decided I had enough. It’s not that the weather really bothered me – I liked snow and natural disasters made of snow that caused the streets to be filled with piles of white powder and work to be closed. Hurrah! But I was tired of working all the time and being among friends – all along the Eastern seaboard – who worked all the time, and then went back to huddle in the cold of their apartments through very long, very gray winters. I wanted to work, then go home to play in the sunshine, year-round.

In comes my California dream. Within two months, I had a new car and was driving across our great country towards the Land of Perpetual Sun. It was truly like being on perpetual vacation. You go to work and sit in front of your computer all day – but your lunch break includes sunshine and palm trees! I found an apartment four blocks from the beach, cooled by ocean air; my best friend from high school lived seven blocks over, and we went running along the beach every evening after work. On Saturdays, we’d head to the farmers’ market in Santa Monica for fresh avocados, figs, candy-like strawberries and persimmons. Palm trees lined my street and the view from my living room. I met a boy with a convertible (not Jon – which goes to show a convertible isn’t everything). I discovered $39 full-body massages at The Massage Company.  I ate a lot meals al fresco and went to oyster happy hours at Ocean Avenue Seafood. I bought a surfboard, which I never mastered, wore sandals year-round, and stayed tan even though I became very liberal with the 45 SPF sunscreen.  We would drive from sea to mountains in 4 hours to go skiing at Mammoth, whose slopes beat any ski resorts back east. My sister came to visit often and we shopped at It’s a Wrap!, a store of lightly-used or never-used clothing from movie and TV sets sold at ridiculously low prices.

So why did I ever leave? You know, the regular: job, family, need for people to appreciate my haughty cynicism, desire to see fall colors and first snowfalls, etc. But that doesn’t mean we can’t return for mini-vacations as it always was in sunny L.A. involving oyster happy hours, $39 massages, runs by the beach, avocados at the farmers’ market, the works. California, here I come!

Last two times in LA, I found a great deal on a PT Cruiser convertible with Deluxe Rent-a-Car, which is a small LA-based company that has slow, but very good, customer service, even post-rental. It was ridiculously, self-consciously fun for all. Jon stayed in LA longer once and refused to drive it by himself, so he traded it in for a regular car with a sturdy roof.

This time, we’re going to be practical and rent a standard economy car. Whatever car we end up with will not rise us high in LA society (and not that the PT Cruiser did, either), but it will get us around. A quick search on any travel engine leads me to find great low deals: $15 a day! $18 a day! However, renting a car can get about as complex as buying a house.

Like the airlines, the companies get you with their sneaky extras, particularly in the insurance sector. Then there’s equipment: GPS, ski rack, bike rack, baby seat, etc. Then there’s the option of pre-paying your gas for a nice lower price than what’s on the market or you fill it up – but they charge you for an entire tank. Last, but not least, there’s taxes. Here’s how to catch these extra costs and put them back in your pocket.

1. Insurance. Check your own car insurance policy for coverage. If rental cars are included, you’re in good shape. Liability and Personal Accident is usually covered by your current car or health insurance. Personal Effects coverage is another option at the counter, covering whatever might get stolen out of your car. But read the fine print: lost items may not be covered if it’s your fault. Also, your homeowners’ or renters’ insurance would cover that. Then there’s Collision Waiver damage, which transfers responsibility for damage from you to the car rental company – unless you drove illegally or on unpaved roads. In cities like LA where it’s not an ordinary commute without rubbernecking to see at least one accident – it might be a good idea to pay for this portion.

Always bring a copy of your insurance policy, as I’ve witnessed many a fight go down at the rental counter. Some credit cards, like Capital One, may also cover insurance on car rentals. Bring a copy of that as well.

Note about foreign rentals. Many will include insurance automatically in the price of the car rental. This can be undone. Check that your coverage extends overseas. Again, some credit cards list which countries they cover. Bring phone numbers. You can save yourself a few hundred bucks that way.

2. Equipment. This can be difficult to negotiate, since the reason you need the equipment is because you couldn’t bring your own. Just budget it into your price ahead of time. If you own a stand-alone GPS, bring it! But if you’re traveling overseas, it’s not really worth spending $100 to download new maps… just rent one. Check that everything works before you leave the lot.

3. Gas. So there’s this new thing going around where the friendly person behind the counter says, “you can pre-pay your gas with us and it will be less per gallon than on the street.” Well, doesn’t that sound nice? But if you’ve only used 1/4 tank, which would have cost maybe $10 at the gas station, you’ll receive a second bill for about $40 after returning your car because they’ve charged you for an entire tank.

It’s about as good as people who can’t find a gas station near the rental place and return the car half-full, and the company charges them $7 a gallon to refuel.

My tip: just re-gas it yourself. It’s okay if you drive another 15 miles afterwards. Make sure the little needle stays near the “Full” mark and you’ll save yourself a bundle.

4. Tickets. I didn’t mention this before, but just because you got a parking ticket on a rental car does not mean you will get away with it. The car rental company knows who rented the car when the ticket arrived. Usually the company will pay it, and then contact you about it and charge it to your credit card. I learned this when I once got a ticket, but didn’t actually know about it because it fell off my windshield or something – and then the company called me up.

5. Extra driver. I was supposed to be the only driver in Costa Rica because Jon couldn’t drive stick. But then we were upgraded to an automatic car, and then Jon ended up driving the entire time with an exception of one hour that I drove. Still, it cost us another $10 a day. Don’t be high-maintenanced: just stick with one driver. Or else be really careful if the other person is driving.

Happy cruising!

Above: Old Rag Mountain Summit at sunrise.

For my upcoming birthday this weekend, as I stumble well into my 30′s, we’ll be proving that I can still be as awesome as I was in my 20′s and hiking up one of the most popular climbs in the mid-Atlantic region. Otherwise known as Old Rag, which I will prove that I am not, it’s a 5.5 hour, steep 2,000 feet ascent with a lot of boulder scrambling, so this is no walk in the woods. I’ve been forewarned by many that it’s not a beginner’s hike and I need to be in some shape, which fortunately my half-marathon training has been put to good use. Not so sure how I’ll fare on upper body strength, hauling myself over rocks. I am also not sure how this compares to Half Dome in Yosemite, which was mostly walking uphill and then downhill for 12 hours with some rocks that were conveniently shaped like stairs, followed by the scary cable-climb at the last 500 feet.

So we’ll be heading down to the Shenandoah Valley on Friday for a little car-camping within the national park and then up early on Saturday to beat the crowds and start our ascent as the sun comes up. There are apparently crazies who start at 3 in the morning to catch the sunrise at the summit, but doing after a couple of adventure races that began in the middle of the night and hiking through the dark – well, in my 30′s I’ve also developed a surprising sense of let’s-not-be-stupid-anymore. Apparently the views on Old Rag are phenomenal, and it will be mid-October, just as leaves start to turn. Of course, I’ll post pictures and an update afterwards!