a most beautiful sight

On the road towards the dunes, Namibia.

“I think having land & not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.” 

- Andy Warhol

Tangier, morocco

T h e  c o l o r s .

Souks, olives, fresh vegetables, spices.

 

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T h e  f a c e s .

Mr Chokri, who owns a third-generation bread shop in the ancient medina. He still uses the same wood fire oven like his grandfather did.

This little boy peeped thru his window n gave me a shy smile. When i smiled back & pointed to my camera, he popped out & gave me a big toothy grin.

Curious traveller... & a curious group of young girls who were excited to use the spanish learnt in school with a foreigner aka my sister.

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T h e  p l a c e s .

Outside a mosque.. i felt bad after taking this picture because i meant to do it secretly but realised only later that the little girl had her hand over her face. It is true that when you are down & out, the last thing u want is to be captured in that state. :(

Women going about their business in one of the big plazas while below, a labyrinth of little winding streets make up the old medina.

a traditional bakery selling sweets & diabetes-inducing pastries... & a walk to the ancient high walls of the Kasbah leads to a view over the Mediterranean & neighbouring Spain.

my only souvenir.. a pair of handmade leather shoes from the souk... which i'm wearing to death everyday.

My only impression of Tangier came from the films Inception & The Bourne ultimatum - messy, colorful, dangerous.

Happy to report that it is true. Men would pester us the whole day, wanting to bring us around (for a fee of course). The men were mostly rough in their demeanour, women wary & inconspicuous. Didnt help that being Asian means u stick out like a sore thumb during calltimes to prayer when men would SURGE to the mosques while we tried not to get in their way.

The old town was in ruins, many young men sewing clothes in hole-in-the-wall shops. (If u realise, alot of clothes we wear from high street labels like Zara are made in Morocco.) Despite that, Tangier is a city on the cusp of rapid economic development & modernization; you could feel in the air, a sense of anticipation & optimism among the younger Moroccans. Would love to go to Marrakech next time, who knows, maybe they will shoot a part of The Bourne Legacy there.. xxx

nature

Two moments in Namibia we will never forget ::

Before lunchtime, off the road, a lioness devouring her dead prey. She was closing her eyes and panting hard.

We realised when she stood up... she was pregnant & the hunt plus pigging out must have tired her out.

We reversed the car & were shocked. The skin of the zebra were flapping desolately in the wind. The rangers we spoke to back at our camp said the kill happened around daybreak & they had been there the whole morning.

We came across this scene just after daybreak on the third day in Etosha National Park. I was so affected by it that I couldnt stomach breakfast after that.

First we saw a herd of impala scuttle across the road at great speed. Another car was opposite us along the road so we both stopped. I turned & saw a lone impala lying on the ground, then he got up & limped across the road, with a herd of 10 jackals nipping at his hind legs. They bit the bloody legs and circled him while he continued limping slowly, trying to escape. The 2 cars were just facing them & we couldnt do anything.

I was screaming at F who insisted we couldnt interfere with nature. "Please horn! Frighten the jackals away!" Finally he pressed but the jackals stopped for a moment, then continued at the impala's heels. Eventually he collapsed in the grass, while the jackals surrounded him and probably ate him alive.

That's nature for us i guess.. I just wish it could be easier?

This is a part of the world we live in, something which happens everyday, as sure as the sun rises. It made me realise once again, how insignificant our battles & gripes can be, compared to the vastness of our earth and its inhabitants.

Namibia part III

flight over the Skeleton coast, so named because of the high sand dunes which clash with the Benguela current to form a very short coast & foggy conditions, thus grounding many ships in the past.

The Shaunee wreck, from 1976.

smug & satisfied cos his photos were better than mine.

relaxing at the lodge before our morning hike up Vingerklip.

called the rock finger because this piece of rock juts out above the rest of the landcape.

View from Vingerklip... beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Yay! 

Driving thru Etosha National Park... animals everywhere, going about their day while we watched. 

Two hours after driving thru the muddy clay roads of the park. In fact, we had to wipe or wash the front of the car very often... except that water is so precious in most areas of Namibia that we felt bad.

Giraffes are so peace-loving... just meandering along & eating leaves. They remind us of dinosaurs, with their prehistoric-looking necks & majestic gait. In the mornings, we often see them at the horizon, their long necks bobbing up & down.

Accompanying us on our slow drive mid-morning.

Sunset over Etosha

Goodbye Namibia, we will miss you.... Looking at the skies, I nearly teared... However, the people who were so kind to us, even though they had so little, will always remind me how lucky we are. And together with improving government infrastructure, i am optimistic about Namibia's future. xx

Namibia part II

On our way to the famous sand dunes in the Namib desert. Some of them have grass at the top because Namibia has been getting alot of rain this year.

Amazing landscape. We were all alone & the wind was blowing sand off everywhere... it was very surreal.

We decided to follow some footsteps in the sand to see where it led to.

We climbed for 2 hours & were completely exhausted. Have you ever tried to climb a dune? It's physically frustrating, you hoist yrself up 30cm, only to sink into the sand with each step.

The reward. A great view of the dunes & Sossuvlei - a clay pan which is normally dry, but fills up with water during the rains to become a lake. The bubbling of the water made me want to jump in but F told me it was the biggest mistake in the desert to give in to thirst. We had to ration our water & got sunburnt.

A herd of impala at the foot of another sand dune during sunset.

A lonely ostrich.. they're a funny lot of birds. All giggly & awkward.

And we happened to pass the Tropic of Capricorn!

So we got off to take pictures & relieve ourselves in the grass.. isolation means no toilets for a few hundred kilometres :(

Gaub Pass, another breathtaking moment along the road.

Down in the pass & across the river... Love it!

Kuiseb Pass.. the most picturesque, though I feared we would bump off the road from the turns & slopes.

Finally reached Swakopmund on the coast & enjoying some modern comforts ♥

Namibia part I

Before I stepped foot in Namibia, the only thing I knew about it was that it was in the western part of the African continent, it meets the Atlantic ocean and it has the world's oldest desert. Oh, and that Angelina Jolie gave birth to her child there.

But of course, nothing prepared me for the emotions I would feel during my stay there. The first thing i realised? I brought all the wrong clothes... The rainy season decided to come to an early end & the sun beat down mercilessly everyday. So i survived in 3 white t-shirts, light pants & a pair of jeans.

No words or pictures can describe the landscapes we saw everyday while driving. This one was taken when we drove from the capital, Windhoek to the Namib-Naukluft Park on the second day.

Namibia is so vast that it is the second least densely populated country in the world, the first is Mongolia. It has 880 000 sq km of land and only 2.4million people.

It is necessary to have a 4x4 vehicle while travelling around as the roads are uneven & have lots of potholes which will fill up with water & mud when it rains. There are only asphalt roads linking the big towns. F drove nearly 3000km during our stay, while I became an expert at using the GPS & reading the huge map. (which I also clipped to the window as a curtain cos it was so damn hot)

Spreetshoogte Pass. Isolated & wild. You can see 2 separate storms in the distance. I dont know why but this is the first time I've ever seen rain occur like that.

We stayed in lodges like this around the country. They have varying degrees of comfort but in some areas, even the most expensive lodge has no aircon & limited water & electricity, which means no charging of mobiles/cams & no long showers. I stupidly asked them if they had Wifi.

The first eco lodge we stayed at was the most memorable.. because it was the moment the vastness of the country really hit home. I stared at the view from our terrace for a long time & tried to remember that sometime somewhere, I was but a small person caught up in petty things. The world is so big and us, minuscule.

Enjoying a sunset dip in the pool. Best view ever. We stayed till the evening winds turned chilly & the many unidentifiable insects & spiders & geckos were too much to handle.

We slept with mosquito nets every night but the sounds of the insects gave me insomnia often. Guess I am too much of a city girl. Even though F reminded me that they lived there while WE were the guests of this country.

The sun casting a red glow over the Namib plains.

A herd of oryx crossing the plains.

Another sunny day, another isolated road, another amazing sky of the most beautiful clouds in the world. xxx