In January, after a snowstorm in Philly that cancelled my flight and a 6-hour wait at 30th Street Station for a train to DC, where I was finally re-routed after hours on the phone with American Airlines, I returned to Seoul. All that waiting ate up the 24 hours that I was supposed to have to sleep in my own bed, do laundry, and re-pack before leaving for Tanzania. My friend Michelle saved the day; she took the list I e-mailed to her, went to my apartment to gather what I needed for Tanzania, and met me at the airport, where I had just over two hours to unpack/re-pack my bags and take off on my next flight.
Then that flight was late getting to Doha, Qatar, which meant I missed the once-a-day flight from Doha to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This time it was my friends Crystal and Michael who saved the day; they live in Doha and picked me up and hosted me at their apartment that night.
Once I finally got to Dar and then caught my domestic flight to Moshi, there was one more hitch. Paul, the guy who had arranged our Kilimanjaro trek and safari, did not meet me at the airport as planned. I had written down the name of the hotel and just took a taxi there, so that didn't seem to be such a big issue. My cousin Kirsten and our friend Eric were supposed to arrive later that night; I waited and waited and waited and began to worry about what had happened to them, unable to check flight status as the Internet was down. When we finally did connect the next morning, I found out that Paul had also failed to meet them; the guy who claimed he was there for Paul took them to a different hotel, and they had no idea where I was. As there were two of them and I was alone, they were even more worried than I had been!
Anyway, all's well that ends well, right? It did end well - we all made it safely to the summit of Kilimanjaro, and then met up with our cousin Nathaniel for an amazing safari and a few relaxing days on Zanzibar. Here's the photo story:
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| Tanzania |
In February, Michelle (the one who saved me at the airport in January) and I flew to Jakarta, where our friend Nancy is teaching. My friend Leslie flew in from the States the next day, and Michelle, Leslie and I spent a few days with the orangutans in Borneo (or Kalimantan, as they say in Indonesia). From there we flew to Bali; Nancy, who was then off for the Chinese New Year, met us there for several days of fun and relaxation - and lots of good food and shopping and spa-ing! Michelle and Nancy each returned home from there, and Leslie and I hopped on a ferry to Lombok, where we hiked to a waterfall and did some amazing snorkeling around the Gili Islands. Here's that trip in pictures:
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| Indonesia |
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