...worth a thousand words.

More to come from, Hanoi and Sapa Vietnam. All my photos are here http://picasaweb.google.com/davidson.jc. New albums are linked below.

Jakarta in bullets

· Jakarta is extremely hot and humid – more so than Atlanta, which is hard to imagine. I've been told that the only city that competes in terms of heat index is Hong Kong. Good luck Aly and Vini!!!

· The traffic has to be experienced to be believed - also worse than Atlanta, which is hard to imagine. And motos are everywhere! It’s common to see a family of four on a 100cc motorcycle while the mother holds onto a bushel of goods from the market and the children desperately cling to any loose clothing to prevent being flung. Britney Spears would find solace in a place like this – no car seats, no problem.

· People here, especially women, wildly laugh at foreigners (me). At first, this upset me. “What the hell are they laughing at?” “Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose, is my fly unzipped?” But apparently, it is customary. Indonesians love to laugh, and generally speaking they laugh out of delight and not mockery. Although I suspect I might have had a loose boog one or two of those times.


· Decaf coffee and drinks without ice cost extra!

· Everybody with a heart beat has a mobile phone (after visiting Bangkok and Hanoi, I realize this is not at all unique to Jakarta)

· Everybody and his dog is an entrepreneur. Traffic is so bad that there are freelance traffic directors. These dudes stand at tricky intersections, waving their arms at traffic, interposing their bodies between vehicles and the oncoming traffic. Also, people double park everywhere, but they leave the car in neutral, permitting the freelance parking dudes to push the cars around to let people in and out. Of course, they expect a small tip in return for the effort.

· Firm handshakes are viewed as aggressive. Everyone shakes hands during an introduction, but in most cases their shake is so wimpy it is more of a hand touch than a shake.

· I learned I love:
Rambutan Fruit
Snake Fruit
Avocado shakes

· I learned I am not fond of:
Fried Cow Skin
Boiled Innards

Maputo

The week flew by and it is already time to move on. In summary, Africa was not what I expected (with the exception of the Kruger safari). Partly due to my naivety, and partly due to the caliber of employees STC employs here in Maputo. I was predicting food poisoning and dodgy characters. Instead, I received fantastic meals, including some of the best seafood I’ve ever had, and an extremely hospitable and charming city. One week was just not enough time to spend here.

The Big 5

After a short scare that the project schedule and site visits might be compromised, Roger and I were asked to book travel to Maputo Mozambique on the same day we were expected to leave. Following the administrative nightmare it was to book same day travel across the globe, we haphazardly packed our stuff and headed for Heathrow. We arrived in Maputo 24 hours later and immediately started searching for trips to Kruger National Park in South Africa.
So, Maputo doesn’t exactly foster a services oriented culture. Our hotel was supposed to be one of the best, and lets just say they were not exactly making it easy to check into the room, let alone plan any trip to a game park in a neighboring country. Several hours were spent negotiating with a friend of the front desk attendant. Frustrated with my relentless persistence, he suggested we take his car and navigate ourselves. Hmm, why not, that could be an adventure. Just then, a lady in the lobby suggested we call her friend if we were interested in going to Kruger. With extremely low expectations, I apprehensively gave him a call. 5 minutes later Loko Roger showed up, and, in short, Loko was the man. He drove us there, picked us up, escorted us through customs (which would have certainly been a disaster if we went by ourselves), and booked our first night stay. If Loko didn’t show up, our weekend in Kruger would not have been the same.

Kruger was a blast. We spent the weekend in great weather viewing all sorts of animals – namely the Big 5 (Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Water Buffalo and Rhino) of which the Lion we did not see until we were about 1 mile from the park exit.