It actually looked better than I thought they were.

This I agree with, USA#!!!!

This stuff I don't. I can think we're the best without thinking the others don't matter. And by "best" meaning the overall system, freedom, standard of living, etc. I know some countries have a better standard of living but they give up some freedoms for it.

Great stuff Chop. Love the random doggy mates you're meeting along the way. I think Africa would be an amazing place to visit. I'm like you though that I have no interest in doing the whole guided tour thing whereas my bf would probably only be willing to do it that way as he's concerned about the safety aspect.

I liked your reflection on the "how can we make this work?" attitude held by the people as it's one you see a lot in Indigenous Australian communities, particularly in remote areas. The ingenuity people display in regards to fixing stuff and problem solving is incredible.

Just caught up, awesome stuff ass usual. Doing my part to keep page load times down too.

Finally left Dar es Salaam yesterday. In Arusha now. It's the staging town for Serengeti safaris and some Kilimanjaro stuff that doesn't stage out of Moshi.

But whatever that stuff. This conversation from last night is where it's at:

Me: May I please have the chicken tikka and..
Server: (interrupts) The chicken tikka is dry.
Me: That's fine. And the garlic naan.
Server: The garlic naan is dry.
Me: That's fine.
Server: They are both dry.
Me: Yes, that's OK.
Server: (Looks at me) They are both dry.
Me: OK.
Server: You should have pepper steak.
Me: Nah, I'd like Indian.
Server: You should have Chinese chicken.
Me: No thanks. Chicken tikka and garlic naan.
Server: (calls over chef) He wants chicken tikka and garlic naan.
Chef: They are both dry.
Me: ...
Server: ...
Chef: ...?
Me: So.. I can't have them?
Server: You can't have them.
Me: Because they are too dry.
Server: Yes.
Me: OK, I will wait until breakfast to eat.
Server: OK.


....



And no, dry does not mean that they ran out. Both were confirmed available by the chef. They were just certain I wouldn't like them because they were too dry. lol

I absolutely admire your attitude. I would have jumped in triangles there and they would have made me this chicken. But at cost of so much of my energy, that it would be so not worth it. Your approach is much better.

Dang, I like dry chicken.

Watched three lions eat a cape buffalo alive this afternoon from about 12m/40ft away. The buffalo kept trying to get up and each time, the lions immediately brought it down again and just kept on chewing. It let out some pretty heart-rending moos. Damn, nature.

Currently in a tent somewhere in north Tanzania but somehow have cell signal so here's a bad low res photo. Serengeti tomorrow.



Thoughts & prayers.

LFS would have stepped in and broken it up.

LOL, I know people that would have tried to pet the lions.

Lucky they didn't crave a chopstick for dessert.

Yeah meat popsicles for dessert

This is an amazing thread and I am so happy that you are continuing to update us with all of your adventures, Chopstick. I really appreciate you being being able to introduce us to so many interesting people and places. Thank you.

Haha I probably would have told them, "Perfect! I love both my chicken and my naan dry. The drier the better. I'm really looking forward to seeing if you can make it drier than they make it in the US."

Just out of morbid curiosity, it seem like they genuinely were concerned with their reputation and/or your enjoyment? Or do you think it was more a laziness factor given that that sauce/marinade and seasoning combo might not be the easiest thing to make on their menu?

Yes well said and it echoes

Lol wp

I just hope I'm still alive when he posts pics of the dark side of the moon.

When he does that, I'll be ticked Pink (Floyd.)

Glad you guys are still enjoying the thread. Thanks for helping keep the page load times down as well. I'm in Arusha, Tanzania right now and when I try to load the page I can't see most of the images because the internet here is lol. Heading to Nairobi in a day or two and hopefully the connection there will be good enough to post some more photos and put a dent into the never-ending struggle to catching up to present day.

Rapini - it was because they were convinced I wouldn't like it. Have run into this a few times before. Usually it's food-related, but sometimes it's other stuff like being told there are no rooms available somewhere because they ran out of rooms with "Western" style toilets and only have rooms with squat toilets available. The assumption is that I won't want a room with a squat toilet, so they just say there aren't any left. It's very common with transportation - if I ask about how to get from A->B, it's always a taxi that gets recommended, never a tuk-tuk or a dala dala (minibus) or anything used by locals. The unifying theme is a stereotype that is so engrained that it causes people to not consider the possibility of deviation from the stereotype.

Just got back from a 4 days safari in the Serengeti and surrounding areas. Saw a ton of animals, visited a Maasai village, etc. Up to Nairobi from Arusha tomorrow or the next day via bus. 7-10 days there, most likely including a trip to the Maasai Mara, then on to Kampala in Uganda on another bus. Kigali, Rwanda after that.

Still learning more Swahili and also picked up some Maa (the Maasai language) as well. The difference in how people treat you when you can greet them and manage a short back and forth in their own language is usually meaningful, but here it is amazing. Seems like not many mzungu take the time to learn anything other than "thank you", if they even bother learning that. My favorite is when someone yells "mzungu!" at me and I reply with something like "How are you this afternoon? Doing OK?" in Swahili. That is always met with widened eyes and laughing approval. Then sometimes something in Swahili that I understand about 20% of the time.

Slang is also something I always try to pick up a little of. When someone asks me in Swahili "how are you?" I can now reply with a Swahili rhyme that translates to "crazy cool like a banana" which is about as ultra casual slangy as it gets. There is an extended version of the rhyme that appends "in the fridge" which people will often reply with to complete the phrase, so I make sure to only say the first part to allow for that. Then you both nod and laugh and everyone is relaxed and chill. Absolutely one of my favorite ice-breakers ever.

LOL white privilege.

Thanks for responding. That makes me sad, but it's good to know that it exists.

Just wanted to emphasize this for anyone who reads chopstick's adventures and hasn't had the chance to travel much. Even little connections make for a much richer experience.

I cannot recommend strongly enough taking this approach, and making sure you try to get away from the resort people a little bit and meet with the "real" people.

Go to a local bar and have a beer with them watching the football match. Go down the side street and see what's down there. et cetera. You'll thank me later.

Holy **** that's insane. I'm glad they spotted the buffalo before they spotted you.

Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, nutcrackers, and... me.

However, while most of this family is attracted to shiny metal objects, I am instead drawn to colorful paper objects. Preferably depicting animals:

That is a crazy collection. I like it.

Love this thread every time I open it up.

Eventually it was time to leave Monkey Bay, so I bid farewell to Lake Malawi and after catching a ride down to the next town of Mangochi from one of the staff, found myself running #minibuslife:




yet again. The bus was almost full when I got there so I only had to wait about 45 minutes before it left. The dude sitting on my left was not in the best shape, and vomited a few times but I managed to dodge the stuff that didn't make it out the window.

From there it was down to Liwonde, where I tried and failed to get into the park. Not a big deal as I was heading to Blantyre and that was more of a pit stop than anything else. Stayed at this guy's small hotel:



and I'm pretty sure I was the first mzungu he'd seen in a while. The water worked but there was no electricity except for a couple of hours in the early evening when dude turned the generator on. No internet, obv. Even tho the hotel was on the main road that the bus passed along, the driver made me get off at the fuel station beforehand so I got to trudge a bit down the highway. Good thing my tent is super light.

My rungood continued when I found out that the staff of the Monkey Bay hotel was making a provisioning run to Blantyre, so I dodged chicken bus to there by waiting on the side of the road the next day for the staff to come by in the tiny used ford fiesta sized vehicle that the owner had just bought for these runs. I jumped in the back and on to Blantyre we went.

Blantyre is the cosmopolitan city of Malawi. And by that, I mean that it's just a city that is more expensive than Lilongwe and has no government buildings.

It did have a Chicken Cottage:




which I think I wrote a report on in the OOT fast food thread. I've been putting my foreign fast food reports in there off and on.

You are probably wondering if that chicken in the logo is wearing sunglasses.

Yes.

Yes, he is.



and here's the goods:



and yes, I totally saved the "chicken bites" container and mailed it back to myself as a souvenir.