Safari in South Africa

Safari in South Africa, something that is on almost everyone’s bucket list and I can mark mine complete.  It started with me getting on a small airplane that held about 10 people and a pilot that looked like he was 12 (okay I am exaggerating a little, but he was very young).  I sat right behind him and could watch all the gauges on the dash, it actually was kind of interesting and I did okay.  We arrived on a very little landing strip in the middle of the African Bush in the Medikwe Animal Reserve and were taken to the Mateya lodge. The lodge is wonderful, it was originally built as a personal residence and only has 5 suites; we were greeted by a very nice young lady with cool towels and a very nice lunch and were informed that Bert and I were the only guest in the lodge. We were treated like royalty, candlelit dinner for 2 on the balcony, and even dinner in a beautiful wine cellar.  I never expected to ever have the luxury to have an entire resort and staff to ourselves. The food was wonderful except Bert ate Pumba (warthog). I couldn’t do it. One thing I had to get use to was no television; it is a place where you totally interact with nature. Our first evening there we began our first outing into the wild.  I never in my life have been so close to amazing animals.  There were Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Wildebeest, black and white Rhinos, Lions, Kadu, Leopards, cheetahs, jackals, African wild dogs and other animal I can’t name them all.  Over the next 2 days we went out 4 times, 2 evenings and 2 early mornings. Our guide and tracker said that we were so lucky we witnessed more in 2 days than some people see in 2 or 3 trips.  He had clients that are on their 5^th trip and still haven’t seen as much.  Our biggest surprise was, we witnessed a lion kill.  We came upon a watering hole and there was a Kadu trapped in the water and being attached by the wild dogs and the rest of the pack were around the parameter of the watering hole. As we were watching this, a Lioness came, the dogs ran the lioness spotted the Kadu and it was over from there.  We watched as the lioness killed the Kadu and carried it into the bush for her cubs.  A true act of nature at its worst and best, as after the kill the cubs curled up with mom and I witnessed a tenderness that after seeing the kill would never have imagined could happen.  I would say to you if this is something on your bucket list it is well worth it. Let me help you create a trip of a lifetime. at the amazing Medikwe Reserve and Mataya Lodge.

See more pictures on my face book page.

Happy and Safe travels, God Bless.

Mauritius, a tropical paradise. The Oberoi is made for romance. 2 days is not enough time to spend on this beautiful island. There are so many things to see and do. We Kayaked in the Ocean and went on a Glass bottom boat ride, went into Port Louis for a couple hours (you should spend an entire day there). It only takes about an hour to drive from one end of the Island to theother, next time we rent a car and explore. (they do drive on the opposite side, so that may be a problem) and then we watched the sunset on the Indian Ocean. This island is perfect for a little relaxation and romance and apparently is used mostly by the Europeans; it is very unusual to have people there from the US.  
We were picked up from our hotel to be taken to the airport.  Our driver pulls up to this little building away from the terminal.  We ask him if this is was the right place and he said yes.  We were greeted by several people given our choice of champagne, wine or beer.  We were brought inside to a wonderful waiting area with snacks.  Now we had no idea what was going on we hadn't checked in and it was only about and an hour and half until we left.  They asked us for our passports and tickets and Bert and I were like what is going on.  I finally asked and a lady came out and explained that this is a special service that is offered by this company on Maritaus and soon on St Kitts.  They treated us like royalty, checked us in took our bags right to plane and at time of boarding put us in a wonderful car and drove us to the gate, took our carryons and walked us on the plane.  It was simply amazing to learn that this service exists.  No other way to fly and one note we were economy fliers you don't have to be first class.
Now on to Safari in South Africa.

God Bless, Happy and Safe Travels.

 

Dubai Wonderful

Dubia loved it, Actually the United Arab Emerites as a whole.  I wasn’t sure about visiting this country either, I thought I would feel like a second class person being a women and not being Muslim, and the not showing affection and having to wear more clothes was giving me second thoughts, but it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated.  The people there were very nice. The architecture there was so amazing.  They have not only the world highest tower, of which our hotel was in.  They have the world biggest shopping mall, (now you know I am not a shopper but one level entirely of shoes, even made me swoon.  Every color and kind you could imagine and really not bad prices. It also held an indoor ice rink and an aquarium.  The décor was amazing; they have a beautiful waterfall and a gorgeous starry sky inside the building. Yes they are a little indulgent, but the government really takes care of you if you are an emirate. Yes their price of gas is cheap but the cost of Water is outrageous.  I think I would rather have water.  The Armani hotel is fabulous.  Every detail was perfect and right out our window was a fountain like at the Bellagio in Vegas designed by the same guy but 3 times larger.  It was beautiful.  I learned a lot about this country.  The head of the country drives himself around in a jeep, He has no security and mingles with the people.  He seems to be a very nice man. We went to his Palace and although you couldn’t go in you could walk around the grounds without a guard in site.  Women’s rights have come along lately which is a good thing, actually there are 7 women on their government board not sure what it is called and many women didn’t wear the traditional outfits, some were even a little daring in their dressing.  That was a surprise.  We visited the Gold and Spice Souks.  It is surprising to me was the number of people buying and selling gold from every country in the world.  One thing that impressed me most was how clean it was. Overall Dubai is a destination I would visit again.

We went from Dubai to another province of the UAE and stayed 2 nights at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi Resort.  A very interesting place in the middle of the desert.  We had a villa with a private pool.  The first night we sat in the Moon bar a rooftop bar where you can watch the sun go down, have a good drink and listen to music, and then the second night we went on a sunset camel ride, there was a lot to do there 2 days wasn’t enough.  During the day they have a beach resort that they shuttled us to.  Now this is the place I would go to when I go back, beautiful sand beaches, warm clear water in the Arabian See, beautiful Golf courses absolutely someplace to put on your bucket list. 

Will be posting more pictures soon face book.  Internet a little slow.

Next stop Mauritius.God bless and Happy Travel

 

The Mekong Delta

The MeKong Delta was very much an eye opener to the fact that even though I may think I understand the word poverty, I had no idea.  This was an excursion that I am very glad I took.  There are parts of it that is beautiful and then there are parts that will tear your heart out. It began with on a normal little boat and we were lucky enough to have 7 other people with us.  5 of them were a family from Canada with 3 children who were traveling the world for 3 months.  They took their children out of school to give them some world experience and to see this through their eyes was enlightening.  As we proceeded past the city we came upon a lot of I guess you could call them homes, they were big sticks in the ground on which these people had placed floors and walls made out of tin and metal.  They did this because they could not afford a home and since no one owned the river banks they could stake their claim and have someplace to live.  They used the river as their bathroom, and trash bin for what they couldn’t burn.  So it was very polluted.  As we proceeded further we were served sandwiches, fresh fruit and beverages, there were plenty of leftovers and as we moved down the river the children on the banks would wave to us, they are charged for schooling, which made educating these children impossible.  A couple of times the captain would blow his horn and pull over to the side and the children would come some carrying their baby siblings to get our leftovers.  It caused my heart to ache, but these children were smiling and happy because they knew nothing else.  We stopped in one village in Mekong and a family kindly invited us into their home.  There were no doors, there was 1 bed and 2 hammocks, a dining room table a picture of Jesus on the cupboard.  This 2 room home housed a family of 7.  Grandparents of 90 or so, of which the grandfather still worked every day cutting fire wood.  There was a measuring cup hanging off the gutter to collect water, which they would boil for drinking.  The all do have a TV, because that is the only way they get there news. The good thing was the government was now spraying for mosquitos so Malaria is not very prevalent anymore.  There is definitely a age gap on the Delta you are either very young or very old.  The majority of the young men go to live in city and the young girls are usually sold to older men from other countries for brides.  If these young people are lucky enough to make it in the city, they don’t come back.  We visited an orphanage which I was hesitant to visit but actually these children were well taken care of, received education, had physical activity we watched them play soccer and were fed well.  It is sad to think you are better off as an orphan than a child with a family.  The women of the village prepared the food that we brought and it was a little unusual but really very good, and when we were finished the orphanage children cleared the tables.  They were very happy to see us. One thing that really made me think is we watched a 70 year old woman that had a boat and that she paddled across the river as a makeshift ferry.  She did this about 100 times a day, I have never worked so hard. We returned to Saigon feeling very unsettled as witnessing those conditions and then walking into this amazing hotel and see such economic differences was hard to swallow.  This was a trip that anyone visiting Saigon should take as it shows the real Vietnam. We also learned that our tour guide who was about 24 was one of the lucky children that was able to leave MeKong where his family still lived.

Next article a complete turnaround the city of Dubia.

Our journey to Vietnam part 1

Just the word Vietnam conjures up so many emotions, many of them unsettling and this was one place I was very anxious about visiting.  We arrived at the airport and were met by an airport assistant to walk us through the immigration and visa process.  I would suggest this, as the only way to go as we skipped all the lines and confusion and had our visas and luggage in less than a half an hour.  As we drove to the hotel, we found out that this city is called the city of motorbikes.  There are 8 million people living in Saigon and 6 million registered motor bikes and that doesn’t count the regular bicycles.  They are like ants, they are everywhere and very few street lights or traffic direction.  We were told if you need to cross the street just be confident and start walking and the bikes and cars will go around you.  I will never complain about my husband or sons driving again.  I witnessed every type of person on these, business men and women wearing 6 inch heels, an entire family on one bike, a water delivery guy carrying 10, 5  gallon jugs, a man with boxes of copy paper and even a man and women nursing her child.  It was very frightening for me.  When we got to our hotel it was beautiful and our guide made us dinner reservations at a local Vietnamese restaurant across the street.  It was down an alley that opened up into about 3 restaurants and a very lively bar.  We walked over to the restaurant and they actually grabbed a table and stuck it behind a bush in the walkway of the patio area, I didn’t really know what to expect but it wasn’t bad.  I did have a really good drink. The next evening we went to the night market, the thing that stuck out the most here were the children selling the goods. I had little girls about 8 coming up to me to sell me items. I was also approached by young girls holding sleeping babies; this was very hard for me to understand.  We went on a little walking tour we visited a beautiful little church, a replicas of Notre Dame in Paris, it was beautiful.  Then on  to the Vietnam War Museum, I was a little young to remember this conflict but It really affected Bert and made me understand a little more about the part of history.  Then we found a little gem.  There was a new shopping mall down the block from out hotel so we decided to go through it, we entered the doors and found 6 levels, the main level was the high end level but every other level was everything you would ever need from a grocery store, to furniture stores, and one level was a food court with a wonderful French bakery.  Everything was very reasonably priced and someplace you would just pass on the street if you didn’t know about it.  I will write about our MeKong Delta experience in its own blog as it was very emotional.   I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I have posted and if you would like to see more visit my facebook page.

God Bless and Happy and safe travels.

Hong Kong quite the city.

Well the second leg of our trip is almost complete.  Three days ago we arrived in Hong Kong and we were greeted by a wonderful young lady named Rosita.  Yes that’s right Rosita.  Apparently most children are given a western name in addition to their formal name and because she was smaller than the girl in school that was named Rose she was called Rosita.  After we were greeted by her and a driver we were taken to an exquisite hotel The Peninsula, if you ever have a chance to splurge a little, everyone should experience this kind of treatment at least once in their life.   The hotel is 85 years old but the rooms are very modern and full of technology and the service an attention to detail is so far unsurpassed. We are on the 25^th floor the hotel only has 27 floors so we are nearly at the top and we look out at the Victoria Harbor.  A bustling harbor during the day and a beautiful sight of lights at night, almost all the buildings in the harbor join in this light show every night.  We did a 45 minute cruise on a Chinese Junket and watched the light show from the center of the harbor it was amazing.  On Sunday Rosita took us on a tour of the real Hong Kong.  When we arrived and walked around the town ourselves we just noticed the extreme amount of people, traffic, and congestion and thought oh my God this place is crazy, You could not go ten feet without someone trying to sell you a watch, handbag or wanting you to come to their tailor shop to be measured for a suit they would make for you in a few hours.  Yes Bert did follow one of them down a little alley to see what they had to offer and I’m thinking really we just got to Hong Kong and my husband is going to disappear in an alley?  It was quite the experience. But then we were introduced to the local side of Hong Kong.  Went to the local markets, ate Wonton Noodle soup, (yes I did step out of my box a little.) and had what they call milk tea.  We saw all their special herbs and some parts if animals I really never want to see again. She also brought us to a very special temple that was beautiful and serene.  I learned a lot about Hong Kong and its history that I never knew and it reinforced by decision to always have at least one day of a destination specialist when I travel.  On Monday Bert and I ventured out on our own, used the subway system which is clean, efficient and you would never know that there is really a city below city here.  It was very easy to use and we traveled to a Zen Garden and Nunnery.  The Garden was so peaceful and the nunnery (like a monastery), felt surreal.  You could feel the presence of a higher being surrounding you.  Now being the good Catholics that we are we had to find the Catholic Church and visit there a very quaint little church but that same serenity was there.  Hong Kong is a thriving City not a truly relaxing place to visit but for culture and business and shopping it is a destination that I am very glad I was able to see.  Today we venture on to Saigon, Vietnam, Ho chi Min City, whatever you want to call it.  I’m a little anxious about this destination as I have a feeling it is going to be very emotional.  I will write again in a couple of days until then God Bless. You can see more pictures on my facebook page.

New Zealand a wonderful start.

 

So today is Thursday March 6, 2013,   I got on the plane in LA on Sunday and after about 5 hours it became reality I was traveling to the other side of the world.  The flight was good kind of like sitting in a theater, watched Good movies and the food was very good for airplane food.  As we landing in Auckland my anticipation grew.  What should I expect; what if there was no one there to pick us up.  What if it was a dream, but we got off the plane customs was a breeze and standing there when we got our bags was a delightful man holding a sign saying Gina and Norbert Kemper.  I have never been greeted like that.  He was our chauffer and led us to a beautiful BMW to a half hour ride to the Sofitel Hotel on the Harbor.  The hotel was beautiful and the people here are amazingly friendly.  I have never seen so many sailing boats and racing Catamarans in my life.  The town itself is a lot like downtown Denver but not as rushed.  Something like 90% of the population on the north Island live here, so there is a lot of people and so many cultures, this is really a melting pot.  If you are a sailing fan, the American’s cup is held here and the ships are fantastic.  We got on a ferry and road over to Devonport.  A very cute little town went back to Auckland and enjoyed a gelato (love it) with my husband as we watched the sunset on the harbor.  It started to mist and we went back to the hotel wondering what tomorrow would bring. The next day began being greeted by our same driver and taken to the airport for our 40 min plane ride to Napier.  Anxiety kicked in as I am not a fan of little planes, but Gina is learning to come out of her box.  The plane ride wasn’t as bad as imagined and when we landed, again there was a driver holding up our names.  We drove about 45 minutes to one of the most beautiful spots I have seen.  The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, we were personally greeted and given a tour, we were told to treat this as our home.  (Ya like my home has a beautiful golf course. With views looking out to a bay that will take your breath away), we were shown to our own private cottage, stocked fridge, heated bathroom floor a shower bigger than my bathroom at home and a balcony that is looked out to serenity.  As we were to be a dinner at 7:00 we had some time, so we walked they have many beautiful trails here and so off we went.  I need to thank my son Nick for getting me in shape, after an 8 kilometer walk I was exhausted but we witnessed breathtaking views and stood with a colony of gannets.  We return and dressed for dinner.  (Who new Bert would need a jacket for dinner; thank god they have them in all sizes for their guests.) We were greeted by a sommelier and enjoyed a wonderful glass of wine, a sampling of appetizers and then were served a wonderful dinner as we looked out to the golf course and the bay.  We enjoyed the Sunset as they played some soft jazz and big band music.  I sat and tears actually came to my eyes as I never thought a regular person like me would be able to experience this kind of service and attention.  I knew it was out there but I felt it was always reserved for someone else.  I thought I would always be on the giving end not the receiving end of this type of lifestyle .We returned to our cottage and fell into bed.  The blankets enveloped us like a giant marshmallow.  I slept like a baby.  Today we are going to hike to the lavender fields and enjoy a day by the pool.  Tomorrow we head to Hong Kong.  I hope you are all safe at home and I will right more from Hong Kong

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God Bless and safe travels.