Happy 4th of july-

Arrived in Dubai late last night...staying at a pretty nice hotel...but from what I discovered today, not nearly high end.  I took a taxi out to the infamous Burj Al arab hotel...the worlds only 7 star hotel...it was amazing.  Just hanging out before my flight tomorrow...taking in the culture...Dubai is quite modern and they predict it to be the next london/new york in 10 years or so.  You certainly can tell there is a lot of expansion going on with all of the construction...its everwhere.  Went swimming in the Gulf...it was bath water.  Temp here seems to be 95ish or so.  I heard from Hunt Talmage, Circumnavigator Member...we are going to dinner in Bangkok in a couple of nights...i was happy to hear he would be around.  Thats about it for now.

well my time in africa has expired...it has been a great time, with lots of adventure.  I enjoyed commencing my trip in morogoro...it was nice to see theo and learn about much of what he has going on with the orphanage in dodoma.  It was amazing to see the type of establishment they have in the middle of nowhere...great facility/labs all funded by the catholic church.  Next, my safari/kili hike was the most intense week Ive had in awhile.  Throughout the safari saw all the animals one could ever hope to see.  The highlight, by far, took place the moment we drove into the ngorongoro crater.  Dee and I saw a lion munching on a noon-time snack (a wildabeast!)  We also were able to see some of the only black rhinos in the world on the 2nd day of our crater visit.  In between the safari, my new found friend Dee and I stayed at the Ngorongoro Farm House.  This place was simply amazing.  For five minutes all I could spit out was "wow".  We were treated like rock stars and were given the wild african dance by the fire pit....and the whole nine yards.  As I mentioned in a previous entry, my Kili Hike was crazy.  Looking back, I am certainly glad I did it....however I am very lucky I even made it to the top.  So cold So Cold SO COLD!  Kinda funny/DUMB that I decided to do it on a mere whim...with no training whatsoever...oh well at least I was in decent shape and that I MADE IT.  To anyone interested in such an adventure in the future...i have loads of advice...and I certainly encourage the voyage...shoot the glaciers are only going to be around for another 20 years or so....grrr global warming...

I have spent the last week or so on the island of zanzibar aka paradise.   I have definately scoped out numerous hammocks and am still finding sand in my hair...I met lots of cool people, stayed at a place called Kendwa rocks for a few days...then spent a couple in the "capital" of sorts, StoneTown.  The other day met some local americans, one who is a firefighter in Iraq....yikes...he had an interesting take on the whole war/American involvement in Iraq.  Yesterday I ended up taking a ferry back over to Dar.  Oh boy, I wish i wouldve spent the extry 5 bucks and taken a plane ha....I knew I was in for it when they started passing out the puke bags halfway through the 2 hour voyage.  Oh well, it certainly wasnt pleasant...but i made it...and happy that I got to see this side of Dar.  (when i first arrived early june i experienced the slums of Dar)  Stayed at the New African Hotel, was nice to stay at a decent place for once...laid by the pool most of the afternoon...had a thai dish for dinner....and now I am waiting for my taxi to the airport...complimentary I might add.  Next stop, Dubai for a couple of nights...then bangkok!  peace

Ok....bad news=pistons lost.  Good news=I just climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey,

well i made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wouldnt put so much emphasis behind that if i didnt mean it..it was so hard...we turned the 6 day trip into only 5 days...it was a blessing tho, because we pretty much were a step ahead of everyone on the mountain..they say only 40 percent of the people that attempt to climb kili actually make it ot the summit..im happy to report that my group, which comprised myself and 3 ladies, all made it!  100 percent!  it was so hard,, you cant imagine how it feels 20,000 feet up in the air...well you basically feel like crap....just wanna go to sleep.  The 3 ladies i was with...dee, tayo, and laurie...were awesome..dee was the lady from wisconsin that i did the safari with.  the other two are from colorado....(they live at 10,000 ft) so that helped them.  The ladies..and pretty much everyone that does the climb has been training for months for the 5/6 day tenting trek.  I am happy that i could just show up with no equipment and complete the trek.  The first few days of the journey were not that hard...The last day, the summit day...well we were on zero sleep...and had to get up at 12 midnight to start the 6 day hike to the top...at the top of the mountain..it was 20 below with a 50 mph wind...so cold so cold so cold so cold.  I would say this was one of the toughest things ive ever done..the altitude sickness part is horrible...especially for a boy like me from michigan, alt. 300 ft. or whatever....The ladies i was with were on anti alt. sickness drug and they said that helped a lot. So yeah, in 5 days we hiked 62 miles.  ahhh so much...but like i said the summit day was the worst...in a matter of 36 hours we slept for 1hr and hiked to the top of kili and back down...you can imagine how that added to the severity of the climb.  Looking back im super happy i did it....but you couldnt pay me enough shillings, US dollars, gold, or beer to do it again.  I have some great pictures and video of us doing the climb...i took a pic with my MSU shirt at the summit point...got a tee shirt and whatnot too...as far as how it worked with the guides and the porters...we had one head guide, deo, and he had an assistant...each day we started hikiing we would take exactly what we needed (ie rain jacket, extra socks, lots of water) and then start hiking..we left behind all the rest that we didnt need for the day hike with the porters.  There were 4 of us ("clients) and we had 14 porters (sad b/c they only make 5 bucks a day, but we tipped well) ....so we hiked up with deo and his assisant and usually hiked 4-5 hours a day...eventually summitting at 6:40 am on wednesday morning.  I give good earth tours Five stars/Five stars...if i could give them six stars i would..thats how great they were. i mean i showed up with basically nothing for hiking except my bag...and they rented me all the best stuff....all basically north face and H/H gear. oh and food...really good...we got breakfast lunch and dinner on the mountain every day in our lil dinner tent...our cook was awesome...you wouldnt believe how good food can be some thousands of ft up a mountain.