Short posts
And we’re off on our 24-day safari thru South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania!
Here’s our vehicle for the journey! -S 🇿🇦🇧🇼🇿🇼🇿🇲🇲🇼🇹🇿
We decided to spend more to have the hotel do our laundry for us today, so that opened up some extra time that we spent—magnificently, I’ll say—getting (quite excellent, yet cheap) 90-minute in-room massages. A rare treat, for sure, but also a great move after weeks of flights + long drives! -S 🇿🇦
Amarula is a great South African liqueur that my friend, Theresa, introduced me to when I visited her in Cameroon. So naturally I wanted some when we got to South Africa, but haven’t been able to find until tonight. Cheers, Theresa! -J 🇿🇦
Marking off South Africa on our quest to drink a Guinness in an Irish Pub in 32 countries. This makes 17/32 -S 🇿🇦 🍀🍻
Edit: So…this Guinness is terrible. We weren’t sure if it was just a keg gone bad, icky lines, or just how it tastes down here.
The answer: “Instead of barley, it’s typically brewed with maize or sorghum, which produces a more bitter taste compared to barley.”
Enjoying a local Lesotho beer from the Highest Pub in Africa - 9439 feet above sea level🍻
Not a bad view, eh? -S 🇱🇸
One of the first experiences we had in Pilanesberg National Park was these two subadult rhinos fighting one another. -J 🇿🇦
Prayer time in the UAE -S 🇦🇪
During our day tour around 5 of the 7 Emirates of the UAE, saw some camels on the side of the road in the Ras Al Khaimah Emirate. Then stopped at a place where they were penned-up in the Fujairah Emirate. -J 🇦🇪
Our first day in Dubai was a scheduled zero day (nothing planned; time for rest/“chores”). But we did check out the Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest structure since 2009. It’s 2,722 feet surpasses the 2nd tallest building (Taipei 101, which we also saw earlier this week in Taipei). -J 🇦🇪
Spent our night watching ASU clobber ISU to win the B12 Championship and a spot in the playoffs in our Dubai hotel room. What an incredible season! Go Devils! -S 🇦🇪
HALFWAY DONE!
✅ Country 16/32 in our quest to drink a Guinness at an Irish Pub in 32 Countries. -S 🇦🇪
It’s haircut day—one of those things you rarely need a strategy for while traveling. Instead of my normal one, we had to buy a cheap AA-battery trimmer that we could keep in our checked luggage, as our carry-on backpacks are already far too heavy with our bevy of lithium batteries + devices. -S 🇦🇪
We’re heading to Dubai, United Arab Emirates today.
Don’t expect as many posts the next few days, as the UAE has some prohibitions that will cramp our normal style. Tomorrow we’ll explore on our own a bit during our “rest & laundry” day, then do a day tour of five of the Emirates on Sun. -S 🇦🇪
Senado Square in Macau is the main town square. The buildings that surround it and the design of the pavement are definitely Portuguese-influenced. It’s part of the UNESCO Historic Center of Macau World Heritage Site and the old pedestrian zones were pack with people. -J 🇲🇴
Took the turbojet over to Macau today, another SAR of China and our fourth TCC Country. Definitely the Vegas of China and there are Portuguese influences all over. Here are a few street scenes. -J 🇲🇴
Back in Hong Kong after spending the day in Macau. Marking off our requisite brewery here in HK while reviewing today’s photos. No Irish pub here, sadly.
We’ll get dinner at Brewdog down the street, as we have a mini quest to visit in each country in which this Scottish brewery has a location -S 🇭🇰
We also did a water tour around Victoria Harbor to get a better view of the high rise buildings that line the Harbor. It was hard to capture on camera how many building there really are. Although in some respects, the feel/vibe is that of New York Harbor looking at Manhattan. -J 🇭🇰
A tale of three boats… -S 🇭🇰
More city scenes from Hong Kong -S 🇭🇰
We got #LostNeededDirections 😉 and stopped into a local taproom to plot out the rest of our night. We sat at the bar at the edge of the sidewalk for some people-watching—improbably next to a fellow Phoenician, a pilot who is constantly bouncing around the globe. We swapped stories for hours. -S 🇭🇰
