Meritzburg, South Africa

Yesterday morning, May 30th, we took Baz Bus from Joburg to Maritzburg. We thought it would be a better option than the greyhound since they pick you up from your hostel and it has less stops. We were told the bus would pick us up between 630 and 730. So, we were ready to go at 630 and thats when the bus came. We picked up some other people though and didn't end up actually leaving until 9:30. The bus ride wasn't too bad though because it was only people around our age who were traveling on it and it wasn't full at all. We arrived in PMB around 4:30. We immediately went and stated a load of laundry at a launder mat and then went to see if the hotel had any rooms available. Luckily, it had 1 room available, but only for 1 night because there is a big marathon this weekend that we didn't know about. So we checked into that room and then went to rotate our laundry and get dinner. We got something called Bunny Chow which was Indian food in a bread bowl. It was only 75 cents and really good. We then picked up our laundry and headed back to the hotel. After not having a washer/dryer or fabric softener for months, my clothes smelt so clean and felt so soft. It was amazing! Sarah's friend, Likando, came and met us at our room and luckily he said we could actually start staying with him earlier so not to worry about the hotel being booked. We ended up going to sleep pretty early since we were tired from the long day on the bus. So far, South Africa is a lot different than Tanzania and Kenya. There are a lot more white people and it is more developed. People are also a lot less friendly. Not everybody you pass on the street says hi to you. Although different, so fat I am really liking it. Being in PMB, I am seeing just how different of a study abroad experience Sarah and I had.

Diani Beach, Kenya

On Monday, May 26th we decided to spend our last 2 nights on the south coast of Mombasa at Diani Beach. Getting there however, turned out to be quite the trek. We first took a tuk-tuk to the ferry. The ferry was actually pretty cool. You just walk on and it's free. It's also literally just a 2 minute journey across the bay. Once there, we had to get on a Matatu to a city called Ukunda and then get on another Matatu that would take us to the street that the hostel was on. The hostel we stayed at was called South Coast Backpackers. It was actually a really nice place! They had an awesome pool that was zebra striped. There were also some fun people staying there. Although we only had 2 days there, we were able to pack in some fun adventures.

One thing we did while we were there was snorkel. We just paid some random guys at the beach to take us out. It was really cheap and they just took us out on their dhow made out of a mango tree and we went snorkeling. The snorkeling was alright. I think after scuba diving in Pemba though it's going to be hard to pass that up because Sarah said it was some of the best snorkeling she's ever done and she was very amazed by it.

Although I said I'd never do it, we also rode on a pikipiki (motorcycle.) We needed to go to the ATM and that was the cheapest way to do it. So, we both piled onto the back of one. It ended up breaking down before we got to the ATM, but we walked to find one. Our driver was supposed to come back and get us, but we couldn't find him so we got on another one to go back and that was really scary. But, on the way back I rode in the middle and that wasn't nearly as bad.

Another thing we did while we were there was go to a monkey rehabilitation place. Sarah had read that there were 6 different kinds of monkeys around Diani. We had seen 3 of them in the short amount of time that we were there. The rehabilitation place was pretty cool. We went there with 2 other girls that stayed at our our hostel, Heather and Sophie, and got a tour.

We also briefly got to go to this really cool bar called 40 Thieves. It was right on the beach and the floor inside was even all sand. We were the only people there though so we ended up just ordering pizza, eating, and then left.

Overall, Kenya was a really awesome country. Although similar to Tanzania in terms of culture, it was also very different. The English skills in Kenya were much better than in Tanzania and people didn't expect you to really know Swahili. In Tanzania, people will start of speaking to you in Swahili, expecting you to know it, whereas in Kenya they would speak to you in English and be shocked if you knew Swahili. In Kenya, they also used more of the stereotypical "Jambo" greeting as where in Tanzania people actually used to grammatically correct form of "Hujambo."