Double Yang Goes Double Zed
i slept on the couch last night.
'cause my baby was playing a nose solo. like, an eddie van halen waa-waa-waa crescendo nose solo. man can she blow. she wasn't snoring (last night), she was blowing. her nose. from like four until i went to sleep on the couch.
she's sick. and tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend-long bachelorette hootenany so wish her well.
but that's not what i'm writing about today. today i'm writing about how double yang is going double zed.
at this point in our story, fair reader, you are well aware that our travel plans are be-fucked.
no longer do we think we can afford, or justify the expense of, palau. island of mantas. lakes of jellys. cups of rum. no no. no longer do we think we should more or less immediately head for the oz-trailer. it makes much more sense to head there at the end of a travel when we're much more likely to want and need the loving arms of family and their couches.
so that means we can go any where. anywheres we likes. and we likes it raw and wiggling.
that's why we're going to zanzibar.
yes. zanzibar! say it with me. aloud. zanzibar! how can you not have an adventure in a place called zanzibar?
sure, i realize you're american and you don't know where zanzibar is. it's in africa. that's the big continent below europe. zanzibar, more specifically, is off the coast of tanzania. near dar es salaam.
it is, by all accounts, a tropical island paradise. unlike palau, it is also a ferry ride from tanzania which includes the serengetti, kilamanjaro, lake victoria. tanzania is next to malawi and mozambique which is next to south africa. one could, if one wanted, travel overland from tanzania to south africa over a few months with relative security.
and perhaps see a bunch of giraffes and warthogs and maybe, if we're really lucky, some africans.
'cause we'll be in africa.
we did some initial poking around and it looks like we can fly to dar es salaam (the capital of tanzania, which is in africa) for about $1300 each -- or perhaps, if we can swing it -- $900 one way each. then we can splash out on a nice honeymoon bungalow in zanzibar for a week or so, maybe two, before slipping into traveler mode and wiggling our way around south-east africa.
it will be ramadan when we get there, which should be interesting. we figger if we spend ten days or so honeymooning, we should emerge just in time for the post-ramadan par-tay.
it sounds good, no?
repeat after me: zanzibar!
when we get to capetown, maybe we'll try to fly to morocco or turkey or the middle east. and maybe we'll be able to get to oz-trailer before we runs out of doughs.
assuming bartlebee kicks this cold in time for us to leave...
i'll have you know that you are a lucky man indeed to hear a bartlebee nose solo. not everyone has an opportunity to bathe their ears with the harmonic tones of aria de sinus in e flat.
three things:
1) i recommend puffs plus with lotion for the nose. kleenex brand with lotion=tempting due to brand recognition, yet disappointingly less effective.
2) if it is still ramadan, maybe don't tell the africans that one (only i think, right, not both? wanting to be sensitive yet correct) of you is jewish? something to consider.
3) don't you have to get a lot of shots to go there? if yes, at least make them give you the WHO "yellow card" (actually yellow in color, surprisingly) as a souvenir. i was told that the shots are far less @ kaiser than other places, and so i went there to get them, and they were pretty inexpensive, and since that's a concern for you (worrisome potential pflug shortage) i just thought i'd pass it along.
bon voyage, nisiah tova you two honeymooners-to-be! don't worry, they have rum and jellyfish in africa too from what i understand.
ramadan isn't dangerous. it's a holiday. stores will be shut during the day and people will be fasting while the sun is up.
i doubt tanzania is any more dangerous than israel. likely quite a bit safer! although we just found out that their general election is 10/30. that might be a good day to be somewhere out of the way...
right now i'm more concerned about the wet season than violence.