Tanzania Kilimanjaro Road Trip

At one weekend in July, my friend and I spontaneously went for a road trip around Kilimanjaro. 

From Moshi to Simba Farm where we camped, it was around 3-4 hours. Engare Nairobi to Moshi was another 7 hours. Can't remember the exact time we spent since we both love photography and stopped pretty often for shooting. 

This was my second time to Simba Farm. Check out my first adventure here. Camping here at night was really nice - way too nice for us tbh. It was also very cold... thanks my friend got a sleeping bag for me or I would not survive....

When we left at the second day, my friend found out we got flat tire. The only spare tire in the car was much smaller than it should be. The worker in Simba Farm helped us to install the spare tire. We were planning driving slowly back to town call it a day. Then we found some workers were welding the rims in Engare Nairobi - where my friend described it as wildwest in 50'.

2USD and my very limited Swahili - we got our tires fixed and well-fed by mama and continued our road trip.

The trip was amazing! Along the way we saw deserted area, prairie, artificial pine forest, Masai people, kids playing soccer... we were waving and greeting to everyone we saw. Most of them happily greeted us with their big smile. Of course sometimes we got "mzungu!!" in greetings too. (mzungu = white people)

Well then we found out no gas in tank. Had no idea when we would reach the next gas station. All we could do was keeping driving and finger crossed. 

Found a dukani (store) selling petro by litters. We added 2L and kept searching for gas station. Luckily we didn't need to push our car in the middle of the road in this journey.

Adventure, unexpected events, beautiful view, glamping, nice local people and great mzungu traveling buddy - couldn't ask for more.

Tanzania Maasai Tribe

At the end of Jun, a local invited me to a safari trip to Lake Manyara. It was exciting to see wild animals wandering freely in forest and prairie. The lake is breathtakingly beautiful - in my opinion it's more like an attraction than wildlife. If you're interested in migration, you might consider Serengeti or Ngorongoron National Park. 

The next day, we rented bikes and rode to a Masai tribe around Mto Wa Mbu, Arusha. It was a bumpy journey that I felt my full body jiggling the whole time. 

I'm glad he took me to this Maasai family that I was finally able to witness Maasai lifestyle. This was not a tourist trip so no one would wrap me around the Maasai blanket and ask me to jump with them. (I hate tourist scheme- a cheesy and unauthentic play) 

Maasai is one of the few tribes that still keeps their own lifestyle. However, it's gradually changing now- some conservative Maasai live in the inland still insisted their nomadic lifestyle, custom (circumcision- it's still a common practice even though it has been banned by the government), traditional thinking (they don't value the education that much), the way of sustaining (they sell livestocks for money and then purchase commodities); other Maasai are looking for a better life and try to find a job in city (such as Arusha or Dar es Salaam).

This 6-year-old girl was smearing cow dung on the hut to strengthen the wall. He dress was messed up with cow dung. I asked if she used the soap washing her hands afterwards. "Only water" her sister replied. "Are people here educated to use soap?" "Yes but we have no soap." she shrugged.

Most Masaai girls are not considered to be educated- some of them will be arranged getting married around 12 years old so the family can get livestocks as dowry. The 17-year-old girl in the picture was lucky enough to go to secondary school since her father valued education.

They were constructing a toilet - from digging a big hold then will cover a canvas on the top with a small hole. The idea of toilet was probably absurd for traditional Maasai - they usually go pee or poo anywhere. To control the spread of disease, the government has been trying to introduce toilet to Maasai.

**Currently I'm doing volunteer project about design education in Tanzania. For project details, please visit: liatanzania.com

Mlima Kilimanjaro - Machame 7 days

I was never a big hiker: had no experience hiking mountain higher than 2000m; I even didn't have a hiking pants- cotton pants 7 days (if it was raining I would be screwed); had no mountaineering socks and the ones I borrowed from the company were just "longer socks"...(so I wore two layers of socks everyday and washed them at camp); I sort of trained myself for a month- working out 1 hr with BoHo Beautiful and walked 2 hrs (commute) everyday. 
Obviously I was underprepared for this hiking trip. I'm glad I survived hahaha... I highly recommend to be well-prepared for climbing Kili in terms of equipment, physical and mental. 

Everyone can do Kilimanjaro as long as you don't give up! (There's exception: if your body reacts strongly to high altitude). I've heard all range of people have successfully reached to the top: 12-year-old kid or 65 year-old man; tourists who were out of shape (Marangu route is your choice if you consider yourself in this category) or athletic hikers (only spent 3 days through difficult route).

Climbing Kilimanjaro is very expensive! The government increased the fee at July, 2016 and that's why I decided to go at the end of Jun. (I just went to the tourist company office and they said there would be a group at the next day. I said ok let's go.) As far as I know, Marangu is $50 per night for staying at huts; Machame is $60 for camping (before the price raised). Porter's entrance fee is around $2 per day. (I've been thinking about being a porter but I gave up after this climbing trip.) The reasonable price for Marangu / Machame route 6-7 days is around $1500 for group trip. Some companies provide luxury trip which includes private toilet. I joined a budget group and I was really satisfied by the service and even felt like a princess. (imo the whole trip was designed for tourists not hardcore climbers)

The first day I went really fast and that was the only day I could go fast- low altitude and not much ascending. Only spent 3 hrs to Machame camp- 2835m.  We had a dining tent and the "waiter" would arrange the table before our meal and serve the food to the table. I was surprised by this kind service. (Thought we would just sit and ate around the stove.)

That night was cold and damp. My clothes kept wet all the time. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough clothes to change in the following days. Luckily there was no rain during the trip and it became dry once we reached above the cloud.

Second day was also a piece of cake (compared to the following days) - 3-4 hrs hike to Shira Cave Camp - 3750m. We were amazed by the vegetation change during the first two days- rain forest, needle-leave trees, bushes... We walked pole pole (slowly) because it's getting higher altitude (I did feel it). In the afternoon, the porter and assistant guide took us to a walk to another camp for acclimatization. The scene was so beautiful. It was like walking in the dream (except the fact that I was panting).

For maintaining the best physical state, I did yoga stretching everytime I reached the camp. I learned the benefit of yoga since I was crazy about snowboarding. I've practiced yoga constantly for more than 6 months - more like core-muscle training than meditation. (Once again, I like BoHo Beautiful and I highly recommend it to you.)

3rd day seemed intimidating: 6-7 hours hike to Baranco camp, 3900m. Actually it was not too bad since mild ascending and 2-hrs downhill. (Make sure to bring your poles if you don't like going downhill. Personally I don't walk well with poles so I just ran down with Alex the guide. But it was not a sustainable solution.)

I would suggest you bringing two pairs of gloves- one for cool weather, daily use and another one for snow, summit day. Although I borrowed some clothes and gears from the company, I didn't have gloves for daily use. My fingers were bleeding sometimes due to the dryness and coldness. (This might be a common sense for hikers. Well...lesson learned.)

We were getting so close to Kilimanjaro and the view was amazing! I would never get tired of looking at the mountains! The sunlight in different time made the color change on Kili. I was sitting there, appreciated it and thought why would I want to climb this gigantic mountain.

The next day is the real climbing - cha asubuhi ("breakfast" is the nickname of this wall).

I usually didn't sleep well at night because it was so cold. I hated to wake up and feel like peeing... But this night I woke up and felt like vomiting. I didn't throw up but I had no appetite at the 4th day. This day was really challenging for me-  I needed to stop for breathing after climbing up few steps. High-altitude definitely played its role; not sure if my low blood pressure problem made things worse. 

Luckily it was only 4-hrs hike this day. I didn't want to eat my sandwich so I asked for exchange the lunch - I had ugali daga (white dough and small fishes) instead! Ugali is Tanzanian traditional food and also porters/ guides' main meal everyday. Try it if you haven't tried it yet!

We had so much free time on the mountain but I didn't bring any book or entertainment. (Highly recommend to bring a thin book or something you can kill time) I chatted with porters, guides and learned some Swahili since I'm volunteering here for 3 months. It would be a practical skill for me.  

Alpine desert. No vegetation. Dry and cold @base camp- Barafu camp, 4673m. We all got a little nervous before the big day- summit day.

We had delicious dinner early and went to sleep around 6pm. We had to wake up around midnight (for me, 11:30pm since I walked slower than Canadian teammates) and climbed for 7 hours to uhuru peak. Alex the guide came to my tent and checked if I had enough clothes for the summit. I came to Tanzania with no warm clothes since I didn't plan climbing Kili at that time. I was wrapped by the clothes from myself, borrowed from the company, and Alex the guide. I felt like a bear while walking. 

Lots of people mentioned this night would be the most physically and mentally challenging in your life. I didn't think it would be that HARD until I experienced it. The first hour I just felt extremely sleepy. Sometimes I looked at the fabulous star sky to keep myself up. The second hour I had hallucination. I think I was the only one who had this experience - I was really happy! (I'm pretty sure it's not the side effect of diamox) I looked at the rocks and thought that was really beautiful and they were happy! I thought I was going up to a farm and there would be a fence at my left side so I felt quite safe. OF COURSE THERE WAS NO FENCE! Anyway I had more weird imagination at that time and I didn't want to talk more about it... 

After having an energy bar, I came back to the reality- infinite torture.

"I can't breathe..." I had to ask for stop to breathe after climbing up three rocks. We went really really slow but steadily forward. Alex the guide told me so many times that we almost reached to Stellar Point and there would be no ascending afterwards. It was so close, and so far. It was there. I saw the silhouette of the top of the mountain. I wanted to get there but it was so hard... There's no way I would give up tho. Clenched my teeth, kept moving and finally reached to the Stellar Point. (You won't go to Stellar Point if you go Marangu route)

There was another hour to Uhuru Point - 5895m. For me that was the time when real high-altitude sick started to kick in- I felt like throwing up and diarhea at the same time. I still managed to reach to Uhuru peak before sunrise. Almost cried when I got there and my Canadian teammates hugged me. The top of Kili was absolutely beautiful - glacier, cloud and sunrise. The view was totally worth the suffering.

But I got serious stomachache when I was heading back. I used to have serious stomach problem and would crawl on the ground when it happened. (But I had no problem for more than a year until then) Swallowed two pills and still felt terrible - vomit, diarhea and stomachache. Alex the guide pulled me up saying I needed to get down asap. 

I finally saw how the slopes looked like after sunrise- it was terrifying to get down! It was covered by small stones. I don't know how I even walked up...Thanks Alex the guide unique skiing style we only spent 3 hrs to get down. (I asked for more breaks or he could spend only 2 hrs.) I would suffer more if he didn’t carry me down.

After reaching base camp, we had a short break and a lunch, and then kept going down. That day was a LONG day- 15 hours hike in total. My knees were burnt out when I reached Mweka camp, 3100m. My stomach problem got a little improved while going down but I had serious diarhea afterwards...

I was the only one who had stomach problem. Everyone reacted to high-altitude differently - my Canadian teammate had serious headache when we reached base camp. Luckily we had problems after reaching summit and felt better after descending.

Lovely last day of the hiking trip. The team sang Kilimanjaro song for us. I really love this crew especially our porters. I have so much respect to them! It was crazy that they carried all sorts of things while climbing the wall and walked faster than us!

The maximum of goods that porters carry is 20 kg- the government is pretty strict on this so you can see them weight bags at the entrance gate. Their minimum salary was raised from $15,000 shillings to $22,000 shillings per day (like USD $10). Some companies paid better like $40,000 shillings. 

There was something bizarre about the tip.

We got a secret message from our porter that asking us to give them tips one by one instead of giving to the guide. We did it. However, the guide said there were extra 3 porters we needed to pay whom we never saw during the 7-day trip. The number of porters was shown on the park registration paper so we decided to tip them (gave to the guide) eventually. But he was mad about the amount we tipped ghost porters was slightly less than other porters. I didn't know how he knew how much we gave to other porters and how dare he vented to us. It was not cool.

I want to write this down because I hope you will also do the same - tip them one by one. They work really hard and they deserve the right amount of tip.

*Contacted to Kilimanjaro porters assistance project, read through their website and report, and then I realized the thing happened to us is not a news:

"Climbers, as well as porters, can be cheated out of tip money by guides claiming that there are extra porters on the climb – a cultural practice know as kirunje."

**Currently I'm doing volunteer project about design education in Tanzania. For project details, please visit: liatanzania.com

Tanzania Simba Farm

Last weekend my host’s friends, an American and Japanese couples who volunteered in my host’s NGO ten years ago and now came back with their kids, mentioned Simba Farm was one of their favorite places in Tanzania. It’s not far from Boma, the town I live so I decided to check it out. 

Based on Google map, I can get there by car in an hour, if I had a car. Since I’m here volunteering, have very low budget on everything and sincerely prefer living in the local way, walking, taking dala-dala and boda-boda was the way to go.

It was an adventure. That day was a movie.

I walked to Boma standy (“station” in Swahili) for about 30 min and took a dala-dala to Sanyajuu which my host, John, suggested. 8AM it was chilly; may be cold in Tanzanian’s pov. Squeezed in dala-dala - not so surprised since it’s how it is in T- 12 people in supposed-to-be-7-seated van. I enjoyed the breeze from the slightly-opened window blowing on my face. My face resembled the facial expression that a dog has when it sticks out of the car window.  The dala-dala slowed down and the sound of turning key and the reluctant crying from engine repeated. People hustled out and kept babbling. Despite knowing nothing about what they were talking, I got the hint that I should move out and wait along the side of the road. Another dala-dala came with full, some people got in and sat at the back of the van. Before that moment I didn’t realise the space was enough for human being. Luckily the waiting was not long- our dala-dala somehow worked again. But the number of passenger somehow remained the same even though some of them were already shipped away. 

Anyway, I got to Sanyajuu. Then another dala-dala.

Second time I got off, I arrived Engare Nairobi, a sandy town.

Negotiated with the rider of boda-boda with gesture, got on the motorcycle and started the bumpy journey. My nose bump on his helmet once. It started to drizzle. I got my raincoat in the courtesy of John’s suggestion. Finally it turned left to the small road where the Simba Farm sign stood. After few minutes of riding uphill, we stopped at a gate. A guy led me into the farm, then another woman led me into the house. 

What the…. This place is not Tanzania!!

Westernized lush garden decorated with numerous different kinds of blossoms created a stark contrast to the places I just went through. Two big dogs welcomed me full-heartedly. I ordered a coffee only because I was shocked by how nice the place was and afraid that I would also be shocked how high the price is. 

Surprisingly, coffee with cookies was only 2000 shilling (1 USD). 

I couldn’t help imagine myself a princess in my own private garden. I was the only visitor since it was Jumanne (Tuesday). That was the only day I could read more than 20 pages of Infinite Jest, a book more than 1000 pages. Lying on the chair, I figured out why this was the American couple’s favorite. This place is perfect for mzungu honeymoon. If your gf was crying, bring her here.

After chilling 3 hours, I had to head back for class. Dogs accompanied me going down the road and happily ran into vegetable farm. A woman called me when I almost arrived at the main road. She just wanted to find the dogs. 

Kept walking down the road, a boda-boda stopped and asked where I was going. “Engare Nairobi.” He gestured 5 (5000 shilling). I shook my head and gestured 3. He insisted and I decided to keep walking. Walked not too long then found a dala-dala going to Engare, 500 shilling. Driver opened the back of the van, there were already three people. I crammed into and pulled my foot when the door was shut. My face was only few centimeters to the door. Breathing the stagnant air, riding on the bumpy road, sweating in the raincoat, seeing the dust blew out at the rear of the car.

Got back to the dusty Engare. Couldn’t see any other dala-dala. People stared at me and a girl laughed and yelled “mzungu!”. 

Feeling extremely hungry, I squatted at the side of the road waiting. Dust kept coming up when boda-boda passing by. 

A big truck was loaded with some people and big bags of vegetables. Some people standing on the ground were asking for something. Somehow I got the hint that the truck probably could take me somewhere. I approached one guy and asked “Sanyajuu? Boma?” “Boma!” 

YES!!! It will go to Boma!

He took me to the front seat of the truck. Based on the German spec and dark green paint, I assumed it was an old German military truck. It was another bumpy and strenuous journey since I had to hold the bar on the door to support half of my weight while half of my butt was out of the seat. 

Truck stopped and some people dropped off. Some people got on from the middle of semi-desert. My right arm got a little relived whenever the truck stopped.

Finally it dropped me at Boma. Jumped down the truck and found myself exhausted. Walked for a while until I found a share tuk-tuk. Got home and went to the neighbour where my host asked to keep the key. They said the kid, who was also my student, had the key and he was gone. 

He was GONE.

I almost fainted by low blood sugar. After calling my host, who promised to come back asap, I desperately looked for food. Directed by some local people, I found a doorway with curtain where they said the food was. It was like part of a family house but also served other people. Rice and beef they asked for 2000 shilling. I felt it was overpriced based on what they served but at that moment I wouldn’t care!! 

7:30pm I finally got home. Long day.

I would love to go back to Simba Farm if I'm ready for an adventure again.

*I'm currently doing volunteer project about design education in Tanzania. For project details: liatanzania.com

Tanzania Chemka hot spring

Chemka is 1-hr away from Boma by car. The water is lukewarm since it flows from the mountain and mixes the hot spring from the cracks of the stone. Along the way there were Maasai people living in semi-desert area which created a strong contrast to the lush oasis. 

Local said we could find crocodiles 7km down the river. Luckily I didn’t see them in the pool. We did see a turtle and lizard show up shyly and fade into the background.

＊What am I doing in Tanzania?
I'm volunteering in a local NGO and executing my individual project- teaching creative problem solving skill (product development process) for 3 months. For more details: liatanzania.com