Sunday 13/4
Plane left on time 11.45pm Boeing 777. Brisbane to Singapore – Go team. Fare welled by families and GSE chair Darryl.
Monday 14/4
Arrive at Singapore Airport. We are all very tired and most of us did not sleep well. After dumping our hand luggage with the “left baggage” desk (s$12), off we go into the centre of Singapore on the MRT (rail system). It is packed (by Australian standards) but clean and very fast. On arrival we all have a little walk around and something to eat (I am sooo the unhealthy eater, I have toast with cheese and a coke, most others have yoghurt and tea or similar). We visit the world’s largest fountain and arrange some day tours. While it is not extremely hot, it is humid.
First tour is the Heritage tour. The bus is opened topped so we all take the opportunity to enjoy some fresh? Singapore air. We jump off at little India and I went on my mission to find a Sari for my daughter Annabelle. We all note the difference between the Indian part and Singapore proper. How can they let their buildings determinate when Singapore is moving ahead in leaps and bounds? After some success finding a Sari we rejoin the tour running past many of the major cultural areas in Singapore including the cultural centre, mosks, temples, china town and a lot of new tall and impressive buildings. IT is a shame we were all so tired as we are really not able to make the most of the chance to look at everything proper, but we all try to make the most of it. Jodie falls asleep and most of us have a little nod.
After this tour we stop for lunch, with most of us enjoying different Asian culinary delights (which all smell and look good. I’m felling off colour I so miss out on lunch at that stage (which I had later) and take a nap while the rest of the team go an enjoy a second tour.
After the second tour The City Tour, the team (with me a lot a fresher after an hours rest), get together to enjoy a drink coffee etc and a relax. While we know there is so much more to do there, we decide that the exchange is with Africa, so we will have to leave Asia for later. So back to the air port. While we get there very early (over 8 hours) for our flight, we all enjoy the many facilities at the airport, the gym (Jodie and Ryan), the free movies (Chris) and the comfortable??? Seats in the waiting lounges (Fran and Greg) at the departure lounges.
After this, we all enjoy a shower S$8 (separately of course) and enjoy our last Asian dinner (all very chilly hot. (All except Jodie who after taking some malaria medication too early is feeling sick). After dinner we all try (successfully) to get some shut eye around the terminal (Fran and I both set alarms, after trying to stay awake, so that we don’t miss our flights).
Tuesday 15/4
Leave Singapore at 2.20am Boeing 777. All sleep a lot better on the plane after Ryan and I scoot into some other spare seats on the plane, and everyone enjoys having a spare seat to stretch out on. A very long flight, but with longer stretches of sleep the flight feels some what shorter) Across the two flights we all have enjoyed some of the on flight entertainment (I ended up seeing I am Legend, National Treasure II, and all bar the last 15 minutes of American Gangster)
On arrival in J’burg we finally reestablish contact we out baggage (over a day an half since we last saw it), to basically shove it on another plane (1time) We enjoy a US$2 porter fee just because we are not thinking about the whole tip thing. We enjoy a good breakfast and then off to our flight. Our flight to Durban is on a McDonnell Douglas 80 – didn’t think I ever ride on one of these again. It leaves late because we are waiting for a plane tug on the ground and a huge line up on the tarmac. (I don’t think they are run as efficiently as Brisbane because from what I can see the planes are only leaving every 10 minutes or so (and they have 2 runways).
We arrive in Durban and meet a man (arranged by Jenny) who we borrow a car from. It is a mixture of a corolla station wagon top that sits a lot higher with a Yaris engine. Seems to work well on the 120km + speeds on the N2 that we drive along (150km form the airport) to get to Andy and Jenny’s farm (Friends of Chris’s family) who we are staying with for two nights. When we get there we are all very warmly welcomed, and allocated our rooms Fran and Jodie in one, Ryan and Greg a second and Chris the final room. While it is late afternoon, we take the opportunity to have a short tour of the local town ship around the farm and the house hold. We then all take the opportunity to have a shower, some of us snooze and just hang out until “suppertime”. We are then joined by Mike and Penny form the local Rotary club, and sit around a Boma (a open fire outside), and then dinner and a fairly long chat.
With all of the team very sleepy we are off to bed at 10am.
Wednesday 16/4
Up at 5am – Leave at 5.30am. Off to the Game Park. After an Hour and a half drive we arrive with hopes of knocking off some all of the Big Five (Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Cheetah and Rhino)
All up we only got to see two of these, but there were lots of other animals along the way.
After staying in the park until just after lunch, we headed back. (Fran Jenny and I just about ran about ran out of petrol). We had a little rest and then we had supper on a barge. The highlight for me, sticking my feet in the Indian Ocean which was at the end of the river. We were joined by some other members of the local Rotary while we were on the barge.
Thursday 17/4
Early Morning. I’m up at 3am after having some chat time with Andy and Jenny the night before. Everyone else is up at 3.30am and after packing the car, and some teary good byes it is off to Durban Airport. We drop off the car and it is back to check in. We discover that we have all extra weight in our suitcases and less in our carry on. Fortunately after some sympathic looks we are able to get our very overweight bags on. After that pretty much on to the place (MD87) and off we fly to J’burg. We arrive and after transferring from Domestic to International, we check in and through we go (both Fran and Ryan are frisked.) We then have something to eat look around the terminal and then on to Lilongwe. (B737).
We arrive and after a fair amount of time through customs, a 3 wheeled trolley, and Greg and Ryan’s bags being checked (a BAC cap helped) we meet at least 10 of the Rotarians from Lilongwe. We are then taken to Ash’s lake holiday house by Ash and Alex (about 100+km). The countryside is in many ways similar to Australia, but there are lots of people walking along the side of the road, (down to very small children), at their markets, bikes, motor bikes (with large loads – house doors, calves and a massive assortment of things), goats, cows and dogs with us flying past at 130 km/h. We are also stopped by a road block. All very usual.
The house is great, right on the lake (which is massive). There are a lot of children looking over the fence at us. We have dinner in the back yard, some curry, veggies and rice which is served by the servants and after some chatting we all hit bed, boys in one room (with Alex) and girls in the other.
Friday 18/4
After a slowish morning (Greg was up to watch the sunrise but the rest of us stayed in bed), we have a breakfast of corn flakes, eggs, fried potato, onion and juice, we decide to go for a walk up the beach.
Before that we have a number of locals showing us their wares (paintings, bangles, necklaces and key rings). They are very polite as these types of vendors go. After some haggling (but nothing is sold at ridiculous prices) we all end up buying something and off we go. We then go off on our walk (with Alex leading). These vendors walk along with us and explain a lot to us about their lives and what is ok to take pictures of and what isn’t. We later discover that the vendors are trained by the government on how to deal with tourists, thus their politeness. We cause a bit of a stir as our skin colour and size is very different.
It is interesting to view the luxury of the houses along the fore shore and compare it to the life styles. However the local seem fairly settled in their lot, and are generally friendly. One of the big thing that we all notice is how hard the women work, clothes washing and washing themselves and their many children in the lake, carrying all sorts of things on heir heads, cooking, (and occasionally offering themselves). The fishing village is very cramped, with people everywhere, lots of boats and small fish drying on tables.
We walk past the local tech college – they teach things like bricklaying, typing etc. About US$4,000 a year, for 4 years but that includes lodging and board. Still that is a fortune to these people.
At the end of the beach is the 5 star hotel. What a difference. When we get there there are a lot of people in suits (obviously at a conference). It is strange that a wall can make such a difference! While we a re very casually dressed, we are welcomed in (white people must have money it seems!) If they only knew!!
We walk back along the road, and through a different village. We pass a lot of children on the road, on the way home form school. Again they are mostly friendly. I buy a sim card for my phone (which I later discover only works in Ryan’s phone) and at we wind our way back to the house. After some more sales with the vendors, (the some ones waited for us at the front of the resort) we have lunch and hang out for a while. (All up we walked about 7kms). In the afternoon Alex takes go for a drive. When we get back we do some language training with Alex (I’m awful at it, but Fran, Jodie and Ryan seem to have a knack for it)
Ash and his family join us for dinner and we say farewell to Alex.
Dinner is massive, chicken, T Bones, veggies, salad and some little pastries. All very yummy. After some chatting we all go off to bed. Big day tomorrow.
19 April
We start out at the lake house watching the sun rising, with the reflection over the water. It is strange to think that the mountains on the other side are a different country (Mozambique). Most of us go back to bed, while I catch up with the log.
After a hearty breakfast, (Eggs, snags, baked beans, cereal, toast, onions, potatoes, juice, tea, coffee) we all pack up and head toward Lilongwe. On the way we stop off at a fish “farm”. Really it is more just a huge fish storage facility for pet and research fish; they are not fish for eating. The business sends divers into the lake to catch what ever fish they need and bring them back to the facility. After that they are then held and shipped off wherever they are needed around the world. It seems that the original owner (originally from the UK) passed away 6 months ago and his family have taken over running it. As a result locally it is felt that the facility is detracting.
After that Ash stops at a shop and treats us all to ice cream. When we have finished we give the cups to the locals who lick them clean and then use the cups for other uses. It has been the same with our water bottles. Two children get very lucky as there is still a fair bit of ice cream left.
We then visit Ash’s house which is beautiful.
As an overall comment, one thing we are all aware of is that building quality is a fair bit lower than what we would find acceptable in Australia. Not bad quality, but a lot of things look like they have been done by a handy man rather than trade professionals.
Lunch is at Nando’s which is great. We then go to the shop to get some munchies for our 3.5 hour bus ride to Blantyre. It is then off to the bus station, and fair well to Lilongwe and on to the bus.
5 hours later we arrive at Blantyre. The trip is fairly good, but lots of beeping from the bus driver and slow trucks, cars, wagons, bikes and people. Every time we stop traders try to get our attention to sell things.
When we arrive we are met by local Rotarians and whisked off to our hosts. I know that Fran and Jodie are together and Ryan and Greg have gone off in different directions. The plan is a day with our hosts and then a vocational day on Monday, so we may not see each other until Tuesday possibly?
I am staying with the Dean of Social Sciences (Menno Welling) at the local catholic University (300 students very small and only opened in 2006) and his wife Lillian who is a Lawyer. Had Internet access for the first time (the beauty of Unis)
The Trip -20/4 (End of week one)
Today was a day with our hosts and is the first day since we met at Brisbane airport that we have not seen each other.
I had a short tour of the Uni and then we went on a drive around the local area. The most imposing thing was the local mountain chair, Mt Mylanje which was huge!! We had lunch close to it. To get to the top is a day hike. You can stay in cabins on the top and then return the next day.
After lunch we looked at some of the tea plantations and Menno showed me a couple of the local sites. One was the rock, Mwalewanthunz, which is sacred. The story with it was that when the road was being built it was moved, but yet the next day it had returned to its original place. As a result the road changed alignment. Some people say that it was a sign of local resistance, but I like the thought of it moving itself.
After some more exploring we went to a baby shower of one of the local Dutch families, yet another language. Fortunately all spoke English, so I wasn’t left out. So here I am drinking champagne and Carlsberg beer, in Africa. All very amazing
Plane left on time 11.45pm Boeing 777. Brisbane to Singapore – Go team. Fare welled by families and GSE chair Darryl.
Monday 14/4
Arrive at Singapore Airport. We are all very tired and most of us did not sleep well. After dumping our hand luggage with the “left baggage” desk (s$12), off we go into the centre of Singapore on the MRT (rail system). It is packed (by Australian standards) but clean and very fast. On arrival we all have a little walk around and something to eat (I am sooo the unhealthy eater, I have toast with cheese and a coke, most others have yoghurt and tea or similar). We visit the world’s largest fountain and arrange some day tours. While it is not extremely hot, it is humid.
First tour is the Heritage tour. The bus is opened topped so we all take the opportunity to enjoy some fresh? Singapore air. We jump off at little India and I went on my mission to find a Sari for my daughter Annabelle. We all note the difference between the Indian part and Singapore proper. How can they let their buildings determinate when Singapore is moving ahead in leaps and bounds? After some success finding a Sari we rejoin the tour running past many of the major cultural areas in Singapore including the cultural centre, mosks, temples, china town and a lot of new tall and impressive buildings. IT is a shame we were all so tired as we are really not able to make the most of the chance to look at everything proper, but we all try to make the most of it. Jodie falls asleep and most of us have a little nod.
After this tour we stop for lunch, with most of us enjoying different Asian culinary delights (which all smell and look good. I’m felling off colour I so miss out on lunch at that stage (which I had later) and take a nap while the rest of the team go an enjoy a second tour.
After the second tour The City Tour, the team (with me a lot a fresher after an hours rest), get together to enjoy a drink coffee etc and a relax. While we know there is so much more to do there, we decide that the exchange is with Africa, so we will have to leave Asia for later. So back to the air port. While we get there very early (over 8 hours) for our flight, we all enjoy the many facilities at the airport, the gym (Jodie and Ryan), the free movies (Chris) and the comfortable??? Seats in the waiting lounges (Fran and Greg) at the departure lounges.
After this, we all enjoy a shower S$8 (separately of course) and enjoy our last Asian dinner (all very chilly hot. (All except Jodie who after taking some malaria medication too early is feeling sick). After dinner we all try (successfully) to get some shut eye around the terminal (Fran and I both set alarms, after trying to stay awake, so that we don’t miss our flights).
Tuesday 15/4
Leave Singapore at 2.20am Boeing 777. All sleep a lot better on the plane after Ryan and I scoot into some other spare seats on the plane, and everyone enjoys having a spare seat to stretch out on. A very long flight, but with longer stretches of sleep the flight feels some what shorter) Across the two flights we all have enjoyed some of the on flight entertainment (I ended up seeing I am Legend, National Treasure II, and all bar the last 15 minutes of American Gangster)
On arrival in J’burg we finally reestablish contact we out baggage (over a day an half since we last saw it), to basically shove it on another plane (1time) We enjoy a US$2 porter fee just because we are not thinking about the whole tip thing. We enjoy a good breakfast and then off to our flight. Our flight to Durban is on a McDonnell Douglas 80 – didn’t think I ever ride on one of these again. It leaves late because we are waiting for a plane tug on the ground and a huge line up on the tarmac. (I don’t think they are run as efficiently as Brisbane because from what I can see the planes are only leaving every 10 minutes or so (and they have 2 runways).
We arrive in Durban and meet a man (arranged by Jenny) who we borrow a car from. It is a mixture of a corolla station wagon top that sits a lot higher with a Yaris engine. Seems to work well on the 120km + speeds on the N2 that we drive along (150km form the airport) to get to Andy and Jenny’s farm (Friends of Chris’s family) who we are staying with for two nights. When we get there we are all very warmly welcomed, and allocated our rooms Fran and Jodie in one, Ryan and Greg a second and Chris the final room. While it is late afternoon, we take the opportunity to have a short tour of the local town ship around the farm and the house hold. We then all take the opportunity to have a shower, some of us snooze and just hang out until “suppertime”. We are then joined by Mike and Penny form the local Rotary club, and sit around a Boma (a open fire outside), and then dinner and a fairly long chat.
With all of the team very sleepy we are off to bed at 10am.
Wednesday 16/4
Up at 5am – Leave at 5.30am. Off to the Game Park. After an Hour and a half drive we arrive with hopes of knocking off some all of the Big Five (Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Cheetah and Rhino)
All up we only got to see two of these, but there were lots of other animals along the way.
After staying in the park until just after lunch, we headed back. (Fran Jenny and I just about ran about ran out of petrol). We had a little rest and then we had supper on a barge. The highlight for me, sticking my feet in the Indian Ocean which was at the end of the river. We were joined by some other members of the local Rotary while we were on the barge.
Thursday 17/4
Early Morning. I’m up at 3am after having some chat time with Andy and Jenny the night before. Everyone else is up at 3.30am and after packing the car, and some teary good byes it is off to Durban Airport. We drop off the car and it is back to check in. We discover that we have all extra weight in our suitcases and less in our carry on. Fortunately after some sympathic looks we are able to get our very overweight bags on. After that pretty much on to the place (MD87) and off we fly to J’burg. We arrive and after transferring from Domestic to International, we check in and through we go (both Fran and Ryan are frisked.) We then have something to eat look around the terminal and then on to Lilongwe. (B737).
We arrive and after a fair amount of time through customs, a 3 wheeled trolley, and Greg and Ryan’s bags being checked (a BAC cap helped) we meet at least 10 of the Rotarians from Lilongwe. We are then taken to Ash’s lake holiday house by Ash and Alex (about 100+km). The countryside is in many ways similar to Australia, but there are lots of people walking along the side of the road, (down to very small children), at their markets, bikes, motor bikes (with large loads – house doors, calves and a massive assortment of things), goats, cows and dogs with us flying past at 130 km/h. We are also stopped by a road block. All very usual.
The house is great, right on the lake (which is massive). There are a lot of children looking over the fence at us. We have dinner in the back yard, some curry, veggies and rice which is served by the servants and after some chatting we all hit bed, boys in one room (with Alex) and girls in the other.
Friday 18/4
After a slowish morning (Greg was up to watch the sunrise but the rest of us stayed in bed), we have a breakfast of corn flakes, eggs, fried potato, onion and juice, we decide to go for a walk up the beach.
Before that we have a number of locals showing us their wares (paintings, bangles, necklaces and key rings). They are very polite as these types of vendors go. After some haggling (but nothing is sold at ridiculous prices) we all end up buying something and off we go. We then go off on our walk (with Alex leading). These vendors walk along with us and explain a lot to us about their lives and what is ok to take pictures of and what isn’t. We later discover that the vendors are trained by the government on how to deal with tourists, thus their politeness. We cause a bit of a stir as our skin colour and size is very different.
It is interesting to view the luxury of the houses along the fore shore and compare it to the life styles. However the local seem fairly settled in their lot, and are generally friendly. One of the big thing that we all notice is how hard the women work, clothes washing and washing themselves and their many children in the lake, carrying all sorts of things on heir heads, cooking, (and occasionally offering themselves). The fishing village is very cramped, with people everywhere, lots of boats and small fish drying on tables.
We walk past the local tech college – they teach things like bricklaying, typing etc. About US$4,000 a year, for 4 years but that includes lodging and board. Still that is a fortune to these people.
At the end of the beach is the 5 star hotel. What a difference. When we get there there are a lot of people in suits (obviously at a conference). It is strange that a wall can make such a difference! While we a re very casually dressed, we are welcomed in (white people must have money it seems!) If they only knew!!
We walk back along the road, and through a different village. We pass a lot of children on the road, on the way home form school. Again they are mostly friendly. I buy a sim card for my phone (which I later discover only works in Ryan’s phone) and at we wind our way back to the house. After some more sales with the vendors, (the some ones waited for us at the front of the resort) we have lunch and hang out for a while. (All up we walked about 7kms). In the afternoon Alex takes go for a drive. When we get back we do some language training with Alex (I’m awful at it, but Fran, Jodie and Ryan seem to have a knack for it)
Ash and his family join us for dinner and we say farewell to Alex.
Dinner is massive, chicken, T Bones, veggies, salad and some little pastries. All very yummy. After some chatting we all go off to bed. Big day tomorrow.
19 April
We start out at the lake house watching the sun rising, with the reflection over the water. It is strange to think that the mountains on the other side are a different country (Mozambique). Most of us go back to bed, while I catch up with the log.
After a hearty breakfast, (Eggs, snags, baked beans, cereal, toast, onions, potatoes, juice, tea, coffee) we all pack up and head toward Lilongwe. On the way we stop off at a fish “farm”. Really it is more just a huge fish storage facility for pet and research fish; they are not fish for eating. The business sends divers into the lake to catch what ever fish they need and bring them back to the facility. After that they are then held and shipped off wherever they are needed around the world. It seems that the original owner (originally from the UK) passed away 6 months ago and his family have taken over running it. As a result locally it is felt that the facility is detracting.
After that Ash stops at a shop and treats us all to ice cream. When we have finished we give the cups to the locals who lick them clean and then use the cups for other uses. It has been the same with our water bottles. Two children get very lucky as there is still a fair bit of ice cream left.
We then visit Ash’s house which is beautiful.
As an overall comment, one thing we are all aware of is that building quality is a fair bit lower than what we would find acceptable in Australia. Not bad quality, but a lot of things look like they have been done by a handy man rather than trade professionals.
Lunch is at Nando’s which is great. We then go to the shop to get some munchies for our 3.5 hour bus ride to Blantyre. It is then off to the bus station, and fair well to Lilongwe and on to the bus.
5 hours later we arrive at Blantyre. The trip is fairly good, but lots of beeping from the bus driver and slow trucks, cars, wagons, bikes and people. Every time we stop traders try to get our attention to sell things.
When we arrive we are met by local Rotarians and whisked off to our hosts. I know that Fran and Jodie are together and Ryan and Greg have gone off in different directions. The plan is a day with our hosts and then a vocational day on Monday, so we may not see each other until Tuesday possibly?
I am staying with the Dean of Social Sciences (Menno Welling) at the local catholic University (300 students very small and only opened in 2006) and his wife Lillian who is a Lawyer. Had Internet access for the first time (the beauty of Unis)
The Trip -20/4 (End of week one)
Today was a day with our hosts and is the first day since we met at Brisbane airport that we have not seen each other.
I had a short tour of the Uni and then we went on a drive around the local area. The most imposing thing was the local mountain chair, Mt Mylanje which was huge!! We had lunch close to it. To get to the top is a day hike. You can stay in cabins on the top and then return the next day.
After lunch we looked at some of the tea plantations and Menno showed me a couple of the local sites. One was the rock, Mwalewanthunz, which is sacred. The story with it was that when the road was being built it was moved, but yet the next day it had returned to its original place. As a result the road changed alignment. Some people say that it was a sign of local resistance, but I like the thought of it moving itself.
After some more exploring we went to a baby shower of one of the local Dutch families, yet another language. Fortunately all spoke English, so I wasn’t left out. So here I am drinking champagne and Carlsberg beer, in Africa. All very amazing
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