Best laid plans

Well it was all pretty simple on paper. The car arrives on the 1^st, as do we. We run down to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority (TRA) office get our Tax Identification Number (TIN.) After getting a TIN and being on the books we just let our booking agent do his magic and we would have our new Hilux Surf imported from Japan in 5 days at the worst 7 days!!!

Today is the 14^th and we just got the car last night at 10:00pm. GREAT we have a car! Wait a minute yes the TRA and port have been on holiday for 5 days straight and our paperwork was submitted on the 1^st, and our vessel sat off shore for 5 days, But we still can’t drive the car! Apparently the TRA is updating “their system” and no one knows when they will be printing registration cards again! Bloody Hell, updating a system. No warning, no backup plan, no alternate method… Well we hope an alternate method is still available.  We have approached a few people to ask if they could point us in the right direction to bribe someone. Apparently our paperwork is too far into the straightforward process to be retrieved. So here we wait for the TRA. (Update, our broker is going into work today trying to "persuade" someone to get us our registration.)

Funny thing about doing business here is that the government agencies and services are small, and the good thing is the agencies are small. I called the TRA which is equivalent to our IRS. I got a human to answer the phone, who not only politely took my call, but when he didn’t have the answer about when the “update” would be completed he offered to call me back with the answer. Guess what? He called me back and had an answer! The answer of “we hope Friday”, I think is a complete stab in the dark answer, but I am still blown away that he called me back.

You may notice that I use quotation around update. I am skeptical and intrigued on what system they have in place to update or what new functions this update will have. Carbon copies and pen and paper are still King here. When I got my TIN from the TRA office they had a dozen people and nearly as many lines to stand in but only one computer. My TIN certificate did come from a computer and the last line I stood in was the line with the computer, so I assume my information did make it to some database, but I wouldn’t be surprised if an extra copy was printed and some guy with a big ledger book was writing the information.

We have a brutal case of Cabin fever and want out of the city big time. Today I had a driver take me to the intersection of Libya Street and Mosque to shop for our kit of the car. Today’s outing helped break some of the ground hog day feeling and gave me some more confidence in navigating the city. I bought a Hi-lift jack, new spanner wrench, jumper cables, fuses, oil filter, jerry can and tow rope. There are no Shucks or O’Reilly’s in Dar, but they have Libya Street. The entire street was automotive part dealers. Every shop was a specialty shop, and had only about 10’ of street front. Want an oil filter?  Go to the guy with oil filters.  Don’t expect to find anything but oil filters. You need a jack? Maybe see the guy with tires? Nope only tires. You need to find the guy with tools. Actually the guy with the jack also carried Land Rover parts, but no wrenches.

 playing age of mythology

Entrance to the Tanzanian National Museum

Despite the wait, we are very excited about the Surf. My first look at the car was in the dark, but it looked like we picked out a good a car. I drove the car 100 meters and was excited by the performance. Ah just joking, but eminent failure didn’t seem too likely. When I got back in the room, Kelly was so excited that she said she wanted to get to sleep quickly like on Christmas Eve.

In the morning before breakfast the whole fam damily got a good look at the new rig. Name is still pending till we hit the road. The entertainment system looks real impressive but since everything is written in Japanese we are a bit clueless. We had a user manual for a dvd/cd/TV player, but we couldn’t figure out where and how to put in a disc. We thought maybe it was stolen, but it looked like everything was in place. George found the one button that is actually in English “open.” Years ago when Sean was learning computers faster than me he gave me great advice or maybe it was a critique. He said “you don’t push enough buttons”. George is gutsy about most things including electronics. We can’t get the DVD to play yet, but we know where to put the disc. When the car starts up we get a nice greeting in Japanese from the automated toll paying system. I assume it is nice, because it is a more pleasant thought than someone reminding you that you owe the toll company, and besides she sounds real nice. I am going to need to remove that, I see down the road in a moment of frustration the Japanese voice gets stuck on a loop, or as we are trying to sneak away from Zombies she will perk up and blow our cover. You never know about these things.

Original Museum building built in 1940 and dedicated King George V.

Concerning the car! It is immaculate and pristine. The jack and spanner look like they have never been used. The engine and underneath the car is spotless and looks like it has never been off the tarmac. At 90,000 km, it is still a 2001 baby. The interior is SPOTLESS. Our boys will foul this car in no time, but it feels good to know someone took such good care of the vehicle.

My driver today Jumani was a very nice guy who was proud of his city and very helpful. He was blown away that a place existed where the winter days are short and the temperature may not get above 5 centigrade about 40 F. I didn’t think I could convince him that much of the country doesn’t get above 0 C for many months, besides I was talking about Seattle. He also asked if we had “fly overs” which after some conversation I determined he was talking about Highways. He was really excited to hear that we have roads bigger than 4 lanes and we can drive 110 km/hr.

The people here love children and go out of their way to say “mambo” (local hello) or “jambo” (tourist hello) or “hello.” Our boys, not used to the attention, stare blankly and freeze up. Henry is actually coming out of his shell and actually just mature enough to handle the attention and reply nicely. Just think about going to a restaurant at the states. How often does the wait staff stop what they are doing come over get down at the kids level with a big smile and say hello. Me and Kelly love and appreciate it, but it is a bit odd for the boys.  Side note: Henry got up the courage today to get a room key from the front desk by himself.  Later the lady who helped him said how polite he was and that he looked just like the kid from Home Alone.  Now it’s official.

We saw monkeys today at the botanical garden next to our hotel. The garden was started by the Germans at the beginning of the 20^th century. The park overall at first glance is a little under whelming, but some of the specimens especially the Madagascar Palm are amazing. We hit the National Museum which was very nice, but only took about an hour to go through the entire museum.  Incredibly, nothing is protected in the museum and George made a point of touching every bit of history he could.

Mysterious bite that Benadryl solved. It was big enough that I circled it to see if it was growing.

So here’s to hoping we have a registered vehicle come Friday.  But as we’re learning it will probably be Monday, or Tuesday....at midnight.

Proper, good and proper

Bye bye beach

 

Oliva, a helpful host at Kipepeo

In the states you don’t hear the word “proper” too much unless you are talking with a Brit. Well we have taken to using the word proper often. It really started during our research for the trip. We read many blogs by Brits, Aussies and the like who used Proper and Kit often. We started incorporating proper in our vocabulary, but until this weekend, we never truly understood proper.

So, we had some security concerns out on the beach which is notorious for banditry and what not. We decided to come back into Dar and get a proper place. But in order to feel very secure, we decided to splurge and stay at a proper hotel. Okay, we had a bed, shower, and toilet at the beach and they were adequate, however they were definitely not proper. At the beach the hot water was “on demand.” I use quotation because we demanded a lot and got very little in return. The hot water should really be called “on begging and pleading you may get 5 minutes.” The bed was all very adequate, but hardly a thing you look forward to at night. The food at the beach while safe was unoriginal and expensive.

Now we are in Dar and getting gouged, and I must say that this place is proper. The food is expensive but great, the room is expensive but very secure and has a proper shower and has the life sustaining TV. The boys were so excited to have TV again, that they watched a French cartoon for 20 minutes before they would even dare allow me to check for an English channel. I guess they were concerned if they left the channel they may never again get back to cartoons. In short, proper is a great descriptive word, I also think it is a word very directly linked with money.

We found a local Super Market, but I am not sure why they use the word super. We decided we need to make some hotel room meals to save money. I know back in the day people made bath tub gin, which seems a little too complicated and dangerous. However I did do some bath tub laundry. My running gear doesn’t “go” as many times as our other clothes.

Local dates and cashews are heavenly

In the higher latitudes I think I have a good internal furnace. Running with the temperature around freezing with a thin long sleeve shirt and shorts is no problem…Snowboarding, the colder the better. Running back home on a day in the 70’s I sweat buckets. Or so I thought. Here I have discovered what sweating buckets can be like. For example, I was helping a guy at the hotel push our bags in a cart through some deep sand. The sweat was literally dripping off my nose and hat in 3 minutes. The guy from the hotel did not break a sweat. Maybe he was letting me do all the work? Anyway my running gear needs some frequent attention and at $2 an item for laundering I will do some bath tub washing. Our place in Kenya comes with a house maid that charges $3 A DAY!

We knew that the coast of Tanzania and Kenya, had a heavy Arabic influence, but we had no idea to what extent. At our first hotel, the neighborhood was primarily Arabs, and Indians. Our hotel had a ban on alcohol and the gym had separate use times for men and women. The architecture is also very dominated by Islam and Arabic culture. Actually most of the packaged food items are labeled in Arabic and English and very little Swahili. We had a candy bar today that had writing in Arabic, Russian, and English and was produced in Turkey? One thing we have really come to appreciate is the Islamic call to prayer that starts before sunrise.  We heard it the first time we were in Kenya and were enchanted by the melodic sounds being broadcast over the city.  As we struggled with jet lag in the first few days we were easily woken by it but today we all slept through it.  It seems we've finally switched time zones.   If you've never heard it: call to prayer recording

I bring up the Islamic influence because this weekend is the end of Ramadan and is a national holiday in TZ. I bring this up to help explain why our car is still sitting at the port. We got all the paper work done Wednesday last week, but the Holiday started Thursday and goes until mid-day Monday. I am told mid-day Monday because even though the holiday ends Friday, business doesn't snap back to work when the vacation is over.  We all hope it happens sooner than later.  Hotel living is fun for a few days but not what were here for.  We're all anxious to hit the road and get up to Kenya where a cottage awaits our arrival.

Chris

note the finger

poolside blogging

Waiting...........for this road trip to start already.

Henry loves the gym and is getting good at the treadmill

Karibu everyone, welcome to our blog or at least the first Chris McBride contribution. I am writing to you from the beaches of the Indian Ocean on the Tanzanian coast. The heat of the day is in full effect, but up on the second floor porch in the shade with a breeze it is very pleasant. We are taking a break from playing in the surf to rest and re-charge. The boys got up and at em, they barely made it through breakfast without running into the water. Being winter here it has only been in the 80’s, but it doesn't cool down much under 80 at night so it is swimming weather as soon as the sun comes up.

We love the beach much more than big city of Dar es Salaam where we spent our first few days. But we wish we had the independence of our car. The freighter with the car is sitting in the harbor and our paperwork has started processing. We are not sure which will happen faster the car being unloaded or the paperwork being completed. In either case we are looking at several more days at the beach. With the German’s playing techno a couple cottages down, we are looking forward to leaving the beach tourist circuit. Although, taking a Taxi through Dar and loading on a ferry where the volume and weight of the pedestrians far exceeded the vehicles I am a bit concerned about getting out of Dar with the car reasonably intact. Not to mention, with 85% consistency I have tried to get in the driver’s side of the taxi. Still got to figure that opposite side of the road deal.

Ferry from Dar Es Salaam to the Southern beaches

We have been planning and planning and researching and fretting over the trip yet we have still managed to skip some important preparations. Flying into to Dar for example, we very carefully filled out the immigration documents and prepared our story in order to get a multiple entry Visa. Getting a Multi entry will allow us to enter and leave for the next 90 days without paying each time. Sounds serious right! Well actually not so much. The gal looking at Visa application spent 10 seconds looking at the paper and asked one question. So while we prepped to get the Visa we failed to recognize that we needed $400 USD CASH! Actually, we knew we needed $400, but failed to carry $400 USD. We had $100...which was good enough for me to get my visa and leave the family behind in search of the remaining cash. Exactly 10 minutes into Africa and the family was splitting up! Anyway the immigration folks were very kind and understanding and safe.

A 20 hour layover in Amsterdam only allowed us a glimpse of this beautiful city but we walked a few canals and had a delicious tapas dinner.

In contrast here is Dar es Salaam. This is actually the city business and embassy district!

Simple plan, run outside pull out all the Tanzania Shillings my card would allow and all the cash Kelly’s card would allow, run to an exchange for USD at the airport and back to rescue the family. The entire airport had only 2 ATM’s which an official kindly showed me. Guess what? both machines out of cash, not going to be so simple. So grabbed a taxi, here is where the money comes in. Tough to negotiate to save 5 or 10 dollars when you just want to get out and back as soon as possible. Anyway I got the cash and got the family into the country. Victory! The next day the same cabbie helped us get to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority office and secure a Tax Identification Number and then got us over to our car’s broker’s office. Luckily we negotiated a half day price for his services before we left the hotel. Actually very lucky… For him that is. All our stops occurred within 4 blocks of the hotel.

Anyway, we are finding our way and having an adventure, rolling with the punches and making friends. We tend to meet Swedish families on these African adventures. We made fast friends with a couple Swedes who have a daughter and will be living in TZ for the next year. We have been invited to stay with them in Southern Tanzania during our Trek south later this year.

Cute Swede Agnes and folks Andreas (note the Sonics cap) and Sara

Mongoose.  Not just a brand of bikes.

Here's where we watch the mongoose

Update:

Just tried to upload this blog and we ran out of pre-paid data. Everything is pre-paid vouchers and nothing can be topped-up over the internet. We need to physically find a vender and buy more minutes and only option is 250MB for 24 hours. My phone ran out of minutes during a very important call to Chase bank! Tough luck, have someone from the hotel on the next trip into the village to pick up a voucher.

I want to make our blog entries quick to read with lots of photos. Well Sorry internet is no go, and I am in a writing mood.

As we know George has some life preservation or injury avoidance issues. Heavy surf causes absolutely no fear in George. At one point he jumps up after a pummeling, stands his ground and yells “you can’t stop Georgie” the next wave knocks him ass over tea kettle, and all I see is his butt bobbing in the surf like a cork. He stands up after he gets his bearing and is laughing hard and screaming “is that all you got!” Kelly and I haven’t had much chance to play in the surf because we are afraid to get more than 10’ away from George.

Henry, showing a more reasoned approach with the waves, has really gotten good at body surfing. On one wave he actually rode it up high enough to be left high and dry on the sand. Henry the trapper extraordinaire has actually caught three Gecko’s with his hands. He is not only not afraid of reptiles, but he is good at sneaking up, and fast enough to grab them. He has a journal started in which he is drawing all the animals he finds (Great idea proposed by his buddy Christian).

Kelly is a rock star traveler and has now become a photographer which unfortunately means our blog may appear as if Kelly was lost in Dar. I will make it a point to get some photos of Kelly.

Okay Kelly has returned with 250mb voucher, so I am going to stop hogging the blog and computer.

Chris

Mzungu Runner