life

Dreaming of Zanzibar – Jozani-Chwaka Bay and its Monkeys

Posted by Nesh on May 5, 2014

Posted in: life, myself, photography, Tanzania, travel. Tagged: blue monkeys, jozani-chwaka national park, Photography, sykes monkey, wildlife, Zanzibar. Leave a Comment

This post is the seventh in a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again.
In my last day in Zanzibar, I had the chance to choose among several available tours: from properly visiting the east side of the island to even swim with dolphins, but I decided to visit Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, a great place to see monkeys and walk in the woods.

Baby red colobus

Once I arrived at the park, I was assigned a friendly guide who introduced me to the park and the animals there. I was the only one in that time slot, so we had the freedom stop in some parts I found more interesting.
On the way to the first area, he told me that there are 2 types of monkeys at the park: the more common and friendly Zanzibar red colobus and the Zanzibar Sykes’ monkeys, more shy and harder to see.

Zanzibar (blue) Sykes’ monkey

Dreaming of Zanzibar – Bao Players

Posted by Nesh on April 25, 2014

Posted in: life, myself, photography, Tanzania, travel. Tagged: africa, bao players, Photography, travels, Zanzibar. 1 comment

This post is the sixth in a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again.
Walking around the streets of the Stone Town of Zanzibar is not unusual to see people of all ages spending the warm afternoon playing board games.
In East Africa, the game of Bao is a common form of entertainment.
Before starting to write this blog, I wanted to research on this game to know something more and I found out that in Zanzibar there are actually two version of this game: one is called Bao la kiswahili (“Swahili Board Game”) and the other, a simplified version, is called Bao la kujifunza (“Bao for beginners”).

Other than seeing the locals playing a new game, I was interested in the skill they showed. Some of them could, with a single hand movement, consistently put three kete‘s (the stones) into three different pits!
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Dreaming of Zanzibar – Visiting the Town

Posted by Nesh on April 15, 2014

Posted in: life, myself, photography, Tanzania, travel. Tagged: East Africa, Fruits, Markets, people, Photography, Tropical, Zanzibar. Leave a Comment

This post is the forth in a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again.
Zanzibar, despite being part of the United Republic of Tanzania, is really different from any other place I have visited in East Africa. It has a mix of cultures which at times makes you wonder whether you are in Africa, the Middle East or India. Different religions are professed here and their influences can be seen in the architecture, the clothing and the food.
In my opinion, the true beauty of Zanzibar lies in its streets, its markets and the people. Even after getting used to East African markets, Zanzibar managed to surprise me: the variety of spices, aromas, vegetables, fruits, objects and pieces of art was astonishing. Before heading back home, I had stockpiled a quite remarkable array of spices and massage oils, including 2 coconuts (yeah, I am crazy).

In Zanzibar, as in the rest of East Africa, you get to meet a lot of people. It’s very easy, especially if you don’t mind talking to strangers.
In fact, being a white (a mzungu, as they say) gives you a lot of chances to talk to people; of course, many might see it as an economical opportunity but, given a bit of effort, it often turns into a quite interesting conversation. By showing to people that you actually want to get to know them and learn about their culture makes a huge difference from being the common exploitable tourist.
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Dreaming of Zanzibar – Tanzania and Kilimanjaro

Posted by Nesh on March 18, 2014

Posted in: life, myself, photography, Tanzania, travel. Tagged: Alle falde del Kilimanjaro, Arusha, border, D5000, Dar Es Salaam, Digital Photography, East Africa, Kenia, Kilimanjaro, landscapes, Masai, Nikon, Nikon D5000, Photography, travels. Leave a Comment

This post is the second in a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again. Read the first post here.
After a good nights sleep, I was ready to catch the bus to Dar Es Salaam.
The bus leaves every day at 6.45am and arrives at around 8pm, quite a long journey.
The beginning of the trip wasn’t too exciting, the view was very similar and rather dull, I took this time to sleep a bit more (I am not a morning person).
After the short nap, I woke up to a very different landscape: dry lands with light brown hills. The land of the Masai.
Not long after, we had to get off the bus as we had reached the border Kenya-Tanzania (I find border checkpoints in East Africa very unsettling, so I searched for a picture to give you an idea: border checkpoint in Namanga). After all the paperwork has been completed, we returned to the bus heading to Arusha.
Arusha, capital of the Arusha region, is a mandatory stop for hikers, mainly for being very close to the Arusha National Park, the Mt. Meru Forest Reserve and, more importantly, to the Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park, home of the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The Mt. Kilimanjaro

A Lyon!

Posted by Nesh on September 8, 2013

Posted in: life, myself, photography. Tagged: blog, city tour, France, French language, gallo-romain, International student, Lyon, Natural, Nikon, Nikon D5000, Photography, traboule, travels. Leave a Comment

Hello everyone,
after few weeks of being here and getting to know the people and the places, I finally settled in Lyon and now I forced myself to update the blog. Even if I have been rather busy lately, that shouldn’t be a reason for me to stop posting.
So, the first will be from the city tour the University has planned for the foreign students in the French language course.

Vue sur Lyon

Dreaming of Zanzibar – The beginning: bus from Kampala to Nairobi, Kenya.

Posted by Nesh on August 20, 2013

Posted in: Kenya, life, myself, photography, travel. Tagged: Easy Africa, kampala, Masai Market, Nairobi, Nikon D5000, Photography, Village Market, Zanzibar. 1 comment

This post is the first of a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again.
My stay in Uganda was, as expected, going to end and leaving East Africa without visiting Kenya and Tanzania was surely not an option.
The initial plan was to go to Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) first, head South to Dar Es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania) then cross the Dar Es Salaam Bay by ferry to reach Zanzibar and then return to Kampala in a similar fashion. But, as you will read, the trip, mainly the return, did not go as planned.
Once having discussed with my boss the precise dates of my trip, planned the locations and contacted my hosts, it was time for my camera, my backpack and me to start the long trip by leaving Kampala to get to the first destination: Nairobi.
The route from Kampala to Nairobi by bus is quite frequented making it rather comfortable and safe; the only exception being, as usual, the border where it is required to cross it by foot and stand in a long queue at both the emigration and immigration office, even in the middle of the night.
Left Kampala at 8pm and arrived at 8am on a rather comfortable bus helped dealing with the new busy and chaotic city. Nairobi has the look of a very East African city, with areas being extremely different from each other: from muddy slums to extremely modern malls.

Village Market in Nairobi

Rwanda – Kigali, Gisenyi, Nyanza and the DRC border

Posted by Nesh on August 8, 2013

Posted in: life, myself. Tagged: border, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, Gisenyi, Goma, Kigali, King, King's palace, Kinyarwanda, Lake Kivu, Nyanza, Rwanda, travels, Tutsi, uganda. 1 comment

This wasn’t a photographic trip, I wanted to put the photographer in me aside and just be there, talking to people and enjoying the moment; so, you won’t see many pictures in this post.
I must say I have been surprised to see how different Rwanda is compared to Uganda, mainly the development and the overall management of Kigali (the capital).
Very well-organised and clean, Kigali stands out as a very welcoming city. Busses seem to be on time, most of the transports require you to go to a proper ticket office (!!!) and buy it at a standard price; so, no bargaining and trying to get closest to the ‘fair’ price. Whenever you say no to a boda boda driver at a stage, the others will usually not harass you anymore (this, of course, depends on the situation). These things might not sound familiar if you haven’t lived in a town like Kampala for several weeks/months.

Murchison Falls – Boat ride on the Nile

Posted by Nesh on August 5, 2013

Posted in: life, myself, photography, travel, Uganda. Tagged: africa, Lake Victoria, Murchison Falls, Murchison Falls National Park, Nile, uganda. Leave a Comment

After the refreshing lunch break, it was time to finally head to the falls.
To reach the bottom of the waterfalls, we had to take a boat ride on the Nile. Truly great! There were hippos, crocodiles (some really close by!) and loads of birds. Too bad I lost most of the pictures from that tour;
Pro-Tip: Never ever delete stuff from the camera if you aren’t 100% sure you made a copy somewhere else.
I managed to save some pictures, but most of them are just present in my mind.

Red-throated Bee-eater

The boat ride brought us just right under the Murchison falls. Now just a long climb was between us and the top.
/Nesh

Murchison Falls – Lunch break on the Nile

Posted by Nesh on July 25, 2013

Posted in: life, myself, photography, travel, Uganda. Tagged: africa, bush pigs, kampala, Murchison Falls, Murchison Falls National Park, Nikon, Nikon D5000, Nile, safari, uganda, wildlife. 2 comments

And as you can understand from the pattern I use in the titles, the game drive ended without us being able to see any lion.
Our guides also went to get a ranger for tracking the felines, but luck wasn’t on our side this time. Once we got to the place where they were supposed to be staying, we just found lonely bushes and grass, without any sort of cat.
After an hour, we just gave up as it was time to catch the ferry which would bring us to the other side of the river Nile for lunch.

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Nesh around The World

Pieces of life