En Route

Upgrade #1 complete.

I am currently sitting in the Business Class Lounge in Heathrow after my well-deserved upgrade to business en route to Maputo.

Maputo?  Where the effff is that?  You aren't alone if that name hasn't hit the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego games.  So far, every airline staff I have spoken with have no idea what MPM stands for.

I just hope it exists.

2 more flights to go.  A 13 hour leg to Joburg leaving in an hour then a quick jaunt over to a-possibly-non-existent city.

My sister has decided to join me on this little directionless jaunt.  I have given her the Lonely Planet so that I have an excuse to have not read a page before arriving.  Randomness is part of the fun right?  It's all about exploring not planning?

I sure hope so

Mozam-where?

It's official. I have booked a 6 week trip to Mozambique for June and July 2012. An incredibly quick trip for me but it will have to do.

Where is Mozambique? South-east coast of Africa, north of South Africa and south of Tanzania. What's there? Not sure yet but hopefully some azure waters and oceanside villages to explore, a bit of jungle so I can swing in the vines and learn how to pound my chest, maybe a few wildlife sightings but most of all - adventure.



I have received the 'bible', or Lonely Planet for the country and I plan on reading that a bit before I go...or just on the plane on the way there. Not sure what there is to do, see or experience, but I'll be bound to brag about it when I get back.

Choices

Deciding where you want to go, when you want to go everywhere, is absolutely heart-wrenchingly impossible.

I have 6 weeks next summer, that's it. In between commitments to my family, loved ones and something I like to call a career has limited my summer to a very short 40 days. Which for most of you sounds like a travelers dream. But for me, someone who is used to 4 months or more to go off galavanting and exploring, 6 weeks feels like a week in Mexico.

So, where to go?

It's Africa. It's always Africa with me.

Africa has my heart. I don't know why, but there is something there that I don't understand, a way of carrying on, a way of interacting and a way of being that is so unlike me and yet so similar. I don't understand it, but I will spend my life trying to figure it out. I am drawn back to my heart's magnet - the dark continent.

Africa is huge, I have been to the North, East and West so it's time to hit the south. Pick a country, any country and I want to go. I'm severely torn right now between Botswana with the wildlife, the Okavango and the classic safari; Mozambique with its azure waters, off-the-beaten track wilderness and it's remoteness and Rwanda for its gorillas, the evidence of redemption and the cleanliness of a country that has outlawed plastic bags.

It depends, as always, on time and money. And availability of flights on points.

Desperation

Yesterday, a Tibetan monk in a predominately Tibetan province of Gansu of China drank gasoline, set himself on fire and chanted “Free Tibet”.

This is the second such suicide of defiance in the past 6 months. The last one resulted in 300 monks being illegally detained and put into re-education programs (ie. indoctrination of propaganda). I'm in Tibet right now and I am concerned about the fallout of the actions of this poor and desperate monk on the rest of the 500,000 Tibetans within the reach of the strong arm of the Chinese government.

No one who knows me will say I lack opinions – but I'm usually not a hardcore activist or political town crier. But in this case, I want to scream from the rooftop of Jokhang temple in central Lhasa – "Free Tibet, Free Tibet, Free Tibet". Of course I also don't want to go to Chinese prison so I will abstain.

It is not just some hippie bullshit to jump on the political bandwagon because the Dalai Lama seems like a cool dude. It is the overt colonization of the Tibetan territory and blatant Chinese propaganda that fills the streets that saddens and angers me. The Chinese say they are modernizing a rural backwater. I say they are polluting a beautiful city with hideous flashing neon lights and pointless consumerism.

And yet, the Tibetans live on. They spin their prayer wheels, prostrate themselves in front of Potala Palace and emit a deep-rooted spirit like nothing I have seen anywhere in the world. They have the confidence and the knowledge that their culture has and will survive, despite everything the Chinese can throw at them. As I join in the kora around Jokhang temple, I am swept up in their peaceful energy and quiet confidence. That is until the pimple faced Chinese soldiers armed with machine guns march counter clockwise and demand everyone moves out of their way.

I want to have hope for the Tibetan people, but the Chinese have nuclear weapons, an army of millions and all the money in the world. All the Tibetans have to fight with is compassion.

What 7 months?

I have finally made it to a country where I don't have to do the "point-and-pray" in restaurants and can even find shoes that fit me. I'm in the Land Down Under to visit Jordan and Dave for 2 weeks and it feels like we've never been apart. It's the mark of true friends to be apart for 7 months and have experienced as much as we have and yet feel like we haven't skipped a beat.

And the wine is fabulous.

Guilt

I have 8 months off to travel the world and I have already been to Ethiopia, Argentina, Chile, Mongolia and Indonesia. The two months in Ethiopia allowed me to see one of the most magical and beautiful countries on the planet. And now they are suffering.

Of course Ethiopia is no stranger to drought and devastation, the famous drought of the 1980's resulted in millions dead and starving but these massive casualties were mostly the result of intentional mismanagement by the government. In 1984 an Amharic president was in power, Mengistu, who was also a dictator and a tyrant with a complete and sheer hatred for the two other major tribes making up Ethiopia - the Tigrinyans and Oromo. A long-standing separatist movement by both the Tigrinya in the North and Oromo in the South fuelled his tribe-centered views. When a massive drought hit the Tigrinya regions the government had already spent 46% of its GDP on military spending and government officers turned a blind eye to the suffering of their 'enemies' and countrymen.

The result? 1 million dead. Bob Geldof hitting the scene with LiveAid. Ethiopians becoming synonymous with bug-eyed, loose limbed children.

(Image courtesy of AFP)

And now it is happening again. In a country where I just ate injera every day with shiro or tibs or beiyanatu and enjoyed every single mouthfull. I didn't enjoy the food because it represented freedom from famine or the first meal I had had in weeks, I just really liked it. I spent thousands of dollars in a country where $300 is a yearly income. And now the worst meterological drought in 60 years threatens these beautiful people again.

Perhaps the political situation in Ethiopia proper will prevent the major disaster seen in the 1980s but the worst hit region is Somalia - a country in anarchy and 'run' by our 'enemy' - Fundamental Islamists.

Humans deserve food, water, shelter and access to medical care. Humans include fundamental islamists, Africans and those that live differently than 'us'....just in case you needed a reminder. But politics run the world and starving humans are chess pieces to governments and NGOs alike. We need money and food and water to get through the corrupt officials and the game-players to those that need it. An almost impossible task.

I wish my travels to the region gave me some insight on how to help or what to do to ease my traveler's guilt. But I have no ideas....short of jumping on a plane and getting back to a country I love so much and buying all the rice I can find and walking it to the camps and feeding children by hand. One small step? Maybe, but I feel as helpless as everyone else, maybe moreso because of my affection for the region. Should we all give a day's wage to the multitude of red-tape filled aid agencies with a religious or political motive?

Helping is one of the simplest things to want to do. And yet it's the most complicated to actually complete. I have no answers. Does anyone?

(Market in Lalibela, Northern Ethiopia, January 2011)

Amed, my Love

I have fallen in love with Bali. Not the Bali of drunk Aussies but the Bali of Amed, on the north-eastern coast. It is a place of scalloped black-sand beaches, lapping waves, tranquil breezes and mountain villages in the distance. It is paradise.

All for $12 a night (including breakfast) in a hotel with a private beachside pool, semi-private beach and wifi. Take that Hilton Waikiki.

I'm working on my tan lines, getting $7 poolside massages and going on walks in the lush mountainside behind the beach that is full of happy locals proudly displaying their fighting roosters and inviting me in for tea.

I'm happy.