The Wonderful World of LARIAM
KANSAS,
I speak a little too soon about Kansas, This place is a lot like Kansas!! Straight roads to the edge of the horizon; corn-fields on the side; dust-devils in the distance; a lot of SUV on the road, and not to mention the road kills... OK, so it is dead zebras, and hyenas.... not possums. But U get the idea.
ROAD-KILLS,
It is actually quite rare to see road kills in Tanzania, because the vultures get to them real fast. We saw a dead zebra on the road one morning, and when we passed by there again two hours later... There is nothing but bones, and a few vultures hovering over head. Thought you might want to know... U can get the rest of the stuff from PBS. :-)
LARIAM,
Arhhh... The wonderful world of LARIAM. The drug of choice for malaria prevention. I heard they works, but aside from treating malaria, they have some strange side affects. Rumors/tales from other travelers including lost of hair, and strange dreams.... One guy had such bad dreams that he rather risk malaria, than to take that stuff again.
But me, I am a good boy, I took one every week for two weeks now, just as the doctor had ordered. Got through the first dose in Tibet quietly with out much fan fare (prob. because I had a cold then, and wouldn't had woke-up if there is a earthquake).
Well.. The second dose was quite a different story.
Took one last Thurs. after dinner in the campsite where we stayed, and went to sleep in the tent. Woke up in the middle of the night at 3AM with a cold sweat. I had this dream of hundreds of hands coming though the tent and grabbed me, and was about to...
Ok...so maybe I am a little nervous, it's can't be the LARIAM.
On with the second night... this time I woke up in the middle of night with dreams of worms coming out of my palms. It is the LARIAM!! I remembered trying to squeeze my hand and forcing the worms out from my palm, one after one, and placing them on the table. Arranging them all according to type and size....It was weird!!
So, now you wonder what got into this guy's head, dreaming of worms coming out of the palm of his hand. Well... It all started with our safari drive to Lake Manyara National Park. We stopped at the gate to check-in, and we have a few minutes to check-out this one room museum at the entrance gate. Amount its collections of dead/stuffed birds, the museum had a display case of the common parasites found in the park animals. All in these little vials, arrange by size and species.... For what tourist would be interested in such a thing, I have no idea. But I think I studied it a little longer than I should.
The two Swiss girls whom went to the safari with me was also taking LARIAM at the time, and one saw snakes coming out of flowers, and one had a scared, because she had dreamt of forgotten to put the parking break on , and her car ran into the neighbor's house.
Well...Tomorrow is Thursday again. LARIAM day. I am actually a little curious of what it had in store for me. STAY TUNED....
SAFARI,
Drive...zebra....drive.....drive....hippo......drive, drive, drive....lions.....drive, lunch, drive.....drive, drive... That pretty much describe the whole safari for me (for 6 days!!). Not my cup of tea, you see.
Most of the parks in Tanzania (prob. else where in Africa as well), you can't just walk around on your own. You must be in the camp-site, or your vehicle. I think I annoyed our driver quite a bit, when I went out of the campsite for half-an-hour one afternoon. Yes...I do know there maybe a few lions out there, but I see school children walking to school inside the park! "The white men must not die." was the conclusion we had draw from this policy. Dame the Brits., ruining it for all of us. :-)
U can see a lot of this British influence everywhere in a Safari, nice cooked meals, with table cloth, tea, and coffee... Everything is so neat, and proper and safe. It annoyed the hell out of me.
SLEEPY SICKNESS,
In the entrance to the Serengeti National Park, there is a little note posted on the bulletin boards, warning tourist about its tsetse flies and the sleep-sickness it carries and the traps it had set up. At the end of the Safari, I began to wonder if all the animals in the park are infected, because they are all just taking naps and remain motionless all day.
The only exiting thing that we saw were two lions having sex, which lasted maybe ten seconds (including foreplay, which is just one chasing the other). After that, they went back to their naps. :-)
I guess I got spoiled by PBS, with all those exiting chases/hunt. The big migrations, the river crossing.... After all that TV, I think I need to see a real dinosaur to get me exited.... Hahahah....(Nah, it is because this is the dry-season, and all the big herds are up north. Sleepy sickness is only in cattle) Did saw a bunch of hippos, rolling in their own pool of feces.... Didn't smell very good, and you have to be careful about those huge crocodiles (some are like 5 meters long!!), but it makes for a good laugh.
Oh....don't wear anything black or blue to Africa, tsetse flies like that color. It just happens to be same color as the wildebeest, and buffalo, and unfortunately the same color as the only two T-shirt I had bought with me on this trip.( it was on sale what can I say). These flies really pack a bite. You figured, if they can chew through buffalo hide, they can get through your shirts. .
HONEY BADGERS,
One of my favorite movie of all time is "The Gods Must Be Crazy". It is about how a Coke bottle changed the lives of a tribe of Kalahari bushmen. In one funny scene, a honey badger took a bite of the biologist's boot and wouldn't let go for miles, while the guy was forced to drag him alone across the desert. Well, that animal had been latched to my memory for almost 20 years now. That's a honey badger for ya. The little thing (look like a skunk with a lot of small teeth) are know to attack animals far bigger than their size, and feed along side the lions without fear. Quite vicious. And I wanted to see one!!!
No luck, after six days.....saw just about everything from the rare rhinos, cheetahs, to the leopards... but no honey badgers. Our driver laughed every time when I told him I wanted to see a honey badger. He told me a story of one time when he went for a walk outside, and stumble on a honey badger that began to chase him. He got back in to the car OK, but the little buggar circled the car a couple times, and stared to attack the bumper. :-) He also try to warn me to watch for my balls, if I ever encountered one (the are know to go for that). Hahahah...... What do I have to worry about, I had my shoots.... .Hahahhaha.... .
Well good night folks....As U can see ....not much to do in Moshi at night, other than drinking Kibo Beer and watch HBO
I speak a little too soon about Kansas, This place is a lot like Kansas!! Straight roads to the edge of the horizon; corn-fields on the side; dust-devils in the distance; a lot of SUV on the road, and not to mention the road kills... OK, so it is dead zebras, and hyenas.... not possums. But U get the idea.
ROAD-KILLS,
It is actually quite rare to see road kills in Tanzania, because the vultures get to them real fast. We saw a dead zebra on the road one morning, and when we passed by there again two hours later... There is nothing but bones, and a few vultures hovering over head. Thought you might want to know... U can get the rest of the stuff from PBS. :-)
LARIAM,
Arhhh... The wonderful world of LARIAM. The drug of choice for malaria prevention. I heard they works, but aside from treating malaria, they have some strange side affects. Rumors/tales from other travelers including lost of hair, and strange dreams.... One guy had such bad dreams that he rather risk malaria, than to take that stuff again.
But me, I am a good boy, I took one every week for two weeks now, just as the doctor had ordered. Got through the first dose in Tibet quietly with out much fan fare (prob. because I had a cold then, and wouldn't had woke-up if there is a earthquake).
Well.. The second dose was quite a different story.
Took one last Thurs. after dinner in the campsite where we stayed, and went to sleep in the tent. Woke up in the middle of the night at 3AM with a cold sweat. I had this dream of hundreds of hands coming though the tent and grabbed me, and was about to...
Ok...so maybe I am a little nervous, it's can't be the LARIAM.
On with the second night... this time I woke up in the middle of night with dreams of worms coming out of my palms. It is the LARIAM!! I remembered trying to squeeze my hand and forcing the worms out from my palm, one after one, and placing them on the table. Arranging them all according to type and size....It was weird!!
So, now you wonder what got into this guy's head, dreaming of worms coming out of the palm of his hand. Well... It all started with our safari drive to Lake Manyara National Park. We stopped at the gate to check-in, and we have a few minutes to check-out this one room museum at the entrance gate. Amount its collections of dead/stuffed birds, the museum had a display case of the common parasites found in the park animals. All in these little vials, arrange by size and species.... For what tourist would be interested in such a thing, I have no idea. But I think I studied it a little longer than I should.
The two Swiss girls whom went to the safari with me was also taking LARIAM at the time, and one saw snakes coming out of flowers, and one had a scared, because she had dreamt of forgotten to put the parking break on , and her car ran into the neighbor's house.
Well...Tomorrow is Thursday again. LARIAM day. I am actually a little curious of what it had in store for me. STAY TUNED....
SAFARI,
Drive...zebra....drive.....drive....hippo......drive, drive, drive....lions.....drive, lunch, drive.....drive, drive... That pretty much describe the whole safari for me (for 6 days!!). Not my cup of tea, you see.
Most of the parks in Tanzania (prob. else where in Africa as well), you can't just walk around on your own. You must be in the camp-site, or your vehicle. I think I annoyed our driver quite a bit, when I went out of the campsite for half-an-hour one afternoon. Yes...I do know there maybe a few lions out there, but I see school children walking to school inside the park! "The white men must not die." was the conclusion we had draw from this policy. Dame the Brits., ruining it for all of us. :-)
U can see a lot of this British influence everywhere in a Safari, nice cooked meals, with table cloth, tea, and coffee... Everything is so neat, and proper and safe. It annoyed the hell out of me.
SLEEPY SICKNESS,
In the entrance to the Serengeti National Park, there is a little note posted on the bulletin boards, warning tourist about its tsetse flies and the sleep-sickness it carries and the traps it had set up. At the end of the Safari, I began to wonder if all the animals in the park are infected, because they are all just taking naps and remain motionless all day.
The only exiting thing that we saw were two lions having sex, which lasted maybe ten seconds (including foreplay, which is just one chasing the other). After that, they went back to their naps. :-)
I guess I got spoiled by PBS, with all those exiting chases/hunt. The big migrations, the river crossing.... After all that TV, I think I need to see a real dinosaur to get me exited.... Hahahah....(Nah, it is because this is the dry-season, and all the big herds are up north. Sleepy sickness is only in cattle) Did saw a bunch of hippos, rolling in their own pool of feces.... Didn't smell very good, and you have to be careful about those huge crocodiles (some are like 5 meters long!!), but it makes for a good laugh.
Oh....don't wear anything black or blue to Africa, tsetse flies like that color. It just happens to be same color as the wildebeest, and buffalo, and unfortunately the same color as the only two T-shirt I had bought with me on this trip.( it was on sale what can I say). These flies really pack a bite. You figured, if they can chew through buffalo hide, they can get through your shirts. .
HONEY BADGERS,
One of my favorite movie of all time is "The Gods Must Be Crazy". It is about how a Coke bottle changed the lives of a tribe of Kalahari bushmen. In one funny scene, a honey badger took a bite of the biologist's boot and wouldn't let go for miles, while the guy was forced to drag him alone across the desert. Well, that animal had been latched to my memory for almost 20 years now. That's a honey badger for ya. The little thing (look like a skunk with a lot of small teeth) are know to attack animals far bigger than their size, and feed along side the lions without fear. Quite vicious. And I wanted to see one!!!
No luck, after six days.....saw just about everything from the rare rhinos, cheetahs, to the leopards... but no honey badgers. Our driver laughed every time when I told him I wanted to see a honey badger. He told me a story of one time when he went for a walk outside, and stumble on a honey badger that began to chase him. He got back in to the car OK, but the little buggar circled the car a couple times, and stared to attack the bumper. :-) He also try to warn me to watch for my balls, if I ever encountered one (the are know to go for that). Hahahah...... What do I have to worry about, I had my shoots.... .Hahahhaha.... .
Well good night folks....As U can see ....not much to do in Moshi at night, other than drinking Kibo Beer and watch HBO
posted by 54 at 2:15 AM
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