A dhow is a small sailing vessel that is traditionally found along the coasts stretching from India to Eastern Africa. They have their origins in Arabia, and were once trading vessels that ran far and wide, delivering precious goods far and wide, and while they have been replaced by modern freight ships, the tradition of the dhow still lives on in many countries.
Kevin Gould, travel writer for the The Guardian, found his own dhow experience in the Lamu archipelago, a series of small islands stretching along the northern coast of Kenya and the Somalian border. The archipelago is a place that still holds tightly to its roots, with simple villages with huts fashioned from palms. It is a place where the inhabitants still catch fish using a spear and relax in the shade of mangrove trees hundreds of years old.
Gould describes a place that few outsiders visit. He notes that the locals are friendly and open to visitors from abroad, welcoming them warmly. The crystal clear waters of the archipelago give way to pristine beaches, under cloudless skies, and traveling by dhow grants access to some prime snorkeling locations.
For adventurous travelers on the look out for unique travel experiences, this looks like another amazing experience. The chance to visit a place that few others have the opportunity to see, and to travel there in such a unique fashion, makes this a tempting journey.
Luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent is getting ready to surprise you. On February 19, 2009, it will celebrate its newly redesigned website with an unusual discount program. Starting at 9 AM (CST), a savings of 5 percent will be offered on each of five itineraries. Every half hour, another 5 percent will be cut from the price. By 3 PM, the discount will reach its final level of 60 percent off. Of course, departures are limited and on a first-come, first served basis.
So, this is your chance to spend for an A&K experience what conventional travel would normally cost.
For example, the “Once in a Lifetime Egypt” trip could sell for as little as $3,328 (a savings of close to $5,000). You’ll get 10 days that include the Four Seasons Cairo, not to mention a Nile cruise on Sun Boat IV. “Once in a Lifetime Kenya” consists of eight days for possibly as little as $2,118 (with a stay at the Fairmont Norfolk Hotel, among others), and the experience in Spain could cost $6,000 less than usual. The other destinations are Botswana and Zambia and a voyage to Melanesia aboard “Clipper Odyssey.”
Remember: the sale begins at 9 AM (CST) on February 19. Put a reminder in your calendar and be ready to click fast!
Anyone who’s ever ridden in a matatu in Kenya knows why traffic accidents are responsible for twice as many deaths in that country per year as malaria. While the drivers of these shared vans understandably want to collect as many fares as possible, this often leads them to zip around town utterly heedless of pedestrians or other cars. Traffic accidents involving matatus make up a full one-fifth of all crashes in Kenya.
But two economists think they’ve found a simple solution to this problem: encouraging passengers to become “back-seat drivers.” The economists, James Habyarimana and Billy Jack, recently performed an experiment in which posters were placed in random matatus which asked the passengers to “heckle or chide” the driver if he was driving too recklessly. After a twelve-month experiment, the economists found that those vans with the posters were only one-quarter as likely to be involved in a traffic accident as those without.
The 2009 edition of the Tour d’Afrique got underway last Sunday, with cyclists setting out from Cairo, Egypt on a 7317 mile long race to Cape Town, South Africa. In between they’ll pass through the Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, fostering international goodwill along the way, while raising funds for environmental protection and promoting cycling in Africa.
The race is broken down into 96 stages of various lengths, with a typical day getting underway at 7:30 AM, when the top riders start out on the course. They are soon followed by another group who may not be contending for the top spot, but still want to complete every mile, while the “Back Pack” is made up of a group of riders who just want to enjoy the adventure and soak up some of the culture of the countries they are passing through.
This is the seventh year that the race has been run, and the web coverage seems to be the best ever. For instance, there are photos from each stage, videos from the various countries and introductions for some of the riders, and a daily blog with results and news from the course.
With six stages done, the riders have more than three months of riding ahead of them through a variety of climates and terrains before reaching their final destination on May 9th. They’ll struggle through the Sahara Desert, roll across the Equator, and race across an endless savannah, and they each payed more than $10,000 for the privledge. Seems like it’s an adventure worth every penny.
When I watched the trailer of One Day in Africa, the latest documentary of Brook Silva-Braga, the resonance of village and city life in most African countries was immediately evident. It’s a resonance that often doesn’t make headline news. It resides in the pattern of each day that starts before the sun comes up when Africans, in particular women, get busy.
The shot of women pounding grain comes to mind. When I lived in a Gambian village for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, the thwack of a wooden pestle against a mortar as it removed husks from grain was like a heartbeat.
What Silva-Braga shows about African life is that it has rhythm and cadence and is not totally embroiled with AIDS and poverty. There is another theme to explore, one that involves the complex melding of African traditions with the modern world.
Sure AIDS, poverty and violence do exist, but they are not what Brook Silva-Braga set out to show in his second film project. His first film, A Map for Saturday, was a documentary about around the world travel–his and others. That film included every continent except Africa.
One Day in Africa is a companion project in a way, but the focus is different. In this latest project, Silva-Braga got up close and personal with his subjects– six Africans, both men and women, whose stories are typical of the stories of others who live in this vast continent. [For the trailer, keep reading.]
These six could be like any other six, but in their typicality, their uniqueness also comes through. Athough their lives may not look anything like ours, the essence of what they are after is recognizable. How they resonate in their own lives is an alluring tale.
Titus, a store owner in Kisumu, Kenya has just reopened his store after it was ransacked during the presidential election. For him, life is about moving forward.
Howa, a young woman in Farge-Fundu, Niger starts her household chores at dawn in a place where it’s hard to imagine that anything could grow in the dry landscape.
Bridgete, a pregnant woman in Lilongwe, Malawi is hoping for a son and is unsure how she will get to the hospital since her husband is a bit lackluster about the idea of driving her to the hospital in his taxi.
Sali, a university educated woman in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, has high expectations despite living in a mostly male dominated culture
Osman, a merchant in Fez, Morocco, has many “brothers” who help him sell his goods to tourists.
Brahim, a farmer in N-8, Mali, feeds a family of fourteen from his efforts
From the snippet I saw, part of the film’s charm and interest lies with Silva-Braga’s questioning of the subjects. As they go about their day, his voice is heard asking them questions about how they see their lives. Through the interactions, the viewer is led into the intimacy of conversations that are similar to the swirl of dialogue that happens around us every day. Conversations about life, hairstyles, work and the mundane.
Look for the film’s screening schedule on March 1 at the One Day in Africa website. It will be making the rounds at various film festivals.
Brook Silva-Braga graced Gadling with a stint as a guest blogger in 2007. His posts, grouped together as the series “Across Northern Europe,” are a thinking person’s missives about aspects of travel. Reading them is also a look into Silva-Braga’s head, not a bad place from which to view the world.