mount kilimanjaro

Friday, March 21, 2008

Singapore - Dubai - Dar Es Salaam [13/12/07]

Training Sessions

The preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb was an arduous one in which our training has included weekly hikes at Bukit Timah Hill, cardio workout few times a week, stairs training at Toa Payoh, as well as a hiking trip to Mount Kinabalu, Sabah. It was really sad that Jiahui could not join us for the Kilimanjaro trip due to some personal reasons so i kind of dedicated this long post entry of the trip to her. Some videos and photos during some of the trainings.

One of those routines at Toa Payoh

2nd last Sunday before trip... training at Bukit Timah Hill

Last training before the trip

13/12/07 - SINGAPORE CHANGI AIRPORT TO DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

As i was sitting in the plane waiting for take-off, it dawned on me that i would be on the African Continent in a few hours time. Frankly speaking, i was not exactly very excited. It was pretty weird in a way that normally i would be feeling ecstatic over any kind of departure to an exotic country but this time round, it seemed different. After much pondering over ths issue, i came out with two conclusions:
1)My lack of geographical imagination of Tanzania
This is due to the fact that i have never heard of or done any research on the country of Tanzania prior to the trip. If the word "Tanzania" is conjured in my mind, i would not be able to come out with any sort of images in linkage to the word. In a funny way, its this 'unexpected-ness' which kind of dampened the excitement level.

2)My student exchange in Kings College London
Prior to the trip, i have been busy settling the adminstrative issues for my student exchange in London. It was probably this 'over-excitement' over both trips at the same period of time that the excitement has waned off somehow.
The plane took off before having a short stopover at Kuala Lumpur. I really have to give 2 thumbs up for Emirates. I would think its one of the best flight i had so far among so many airlines. Watched 4 movies in all: Hairspray (i think its not bad), High School Musical 2 (i think its very corny), Transformers (real cool) and Stardust (airie-faerie). And finally, we arrived at Dubai International Airport.

I was indeed very excited to come to Dubai (despite only being in the airport) and it was indeed a cosmopolitan city. Just looking at the airport you would find a cosmopolitan mix of people from everywhere in the world. At first, we intended to find a space in the airport to prop ourselves before the next flight which would be 7 hours later. However, the whole airport seemed to be a gi-mongous refugee camp with people of all colours sleeping on the floor or on their mats. It was pretty amusing to find DUBAI, a world-renowned developed place having such sight in its airport. Moreover, i felt really uncomfortable and 'out of place' as the airport was dominated by the presence of the Arab people. In the end, we settled for the airport hotel all thanks to tien and her father's credit card. =P The hotel room was really cool, with a toilet bowl for washing your butt as well as a massage chair beside the bed.

Dubai International Airport

The 2 toilet bowls found in the toilet. One for big business, one for washing up after big business.

Our room in Dubai International Airport Hotel. Can you spot the massage chair?

It was a super long flight to Dar Es Salaam and when we touched down at the airport, we were greeted by the super long queue at the Visa section. And quite disgustingly (cos its really stuffy and hot in there), the queue didn't seem to move one bit. After what seemed to be like hours, we finally passed our passports to the guard before the counter. Guess what? Singaporeans do not have to apply or pay for Visas to enter Tanzania. WOW!! Great discovery! I was pretty surprised at the fact that Singapore is exempted from visa application to Tanzania. Unfortunately, Tien is a British citizen so we had to wait for her to clear her Visa application before we could get out of the airport.

Ireland: USD 100

Pakistan: USD 200

Singapore: Priceless aka Free

Welcome to Land of Mount Kilimanjaro in sweat and long queue.

We took a cab to Holiday Inn to deposit our bags. Along the way, i felt very 'out-of-place' in a way that there were many Africans around. I am not trying to be racist here but its just that i'm too used to being in a multi-racial and cosmopolitan environment that to be an ethnic minority seemed too weird an experience for me. The cab took us for a tour after we have deposited our bags in our respective rooms. First stop was the local fish market. When i stepped out of the cab, immediately i was greeted by a sense of fear. We were the only Asians in the vicinity and i personally felt like an exhibit being scrutinised by the majority of Africans. I did try to rationalize within me why i would have that kind of 'Orientalist' notion but i just could not help it. Anyway, we did entered the fish market and were pleasantly surprised to see the rich variety of produce from the Indian Oceans. There were cockles the size of your fist...imagine that being in your plate of char kuay teow. Yum...

After the fishmarket tour, we passed by a 'White area' where the residences of the caucasians were built. Through some personal observation, the area was like a gated community with high security. We did stopped by the Shoprich Supermart and the goods were very expensive for the locals. The average income for the locals was only US$50 a month. It seemed that the social polarisation of the Tanzanian society was pretty large.

The main transportation of the local Tanzanians is car. I don't mean the automobile car, but the 'kar' aka legs. It was a common sight to see them walking or running on the streets. The city bus (vans) wre normally sardine-packed with people. It was interesting to see the buses adopting names like "God is One", Ebenezer etc.

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Holiday Inn Dar Es Salaam

At the local fish market

A streetscape along the way

Selling produce on the streets

How do these people do that?

The 'rich' side of Dar Es Salaam

A bar that doesn't seem to a place where the locals will go

After the tour, we settled down to have our dinner at the restaurant in Holiday Inn. Aik and I had a whole chicken each to ourselves and it was a sumptuous meal. After that was rest for the night. =)

Dar Es Salaam - Arusha [14/12/07]

A thought came to my mind on the way to the domestic airport. Looking at the large population of Africans on the streets, it just got me thinking that these people has never been part of my knowledge before. It's just amazing how there are so many places and people out there in the world that never kind of 'existed' in the consciousness of our knowledge. Taking this experience in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania as an example, I never knew this place exist at all. There's just a kind of surreal feeling that these people here could be doing the same things at the same time while i am at the other side of the globe and yet i never knew about their existence. Sorry if this part seems a bit confusing but i just find it hard to put my thoughts down in words.

Looking at the influx of Whites in the domestic airport made me ponder about the polarisation of the society in Tanzania. It's only the Whites who are taking the flights while Africans hardly uses the airport. From a previous conversation i had with the cab-driver, he said that the Africans usually take trains rather than planes as they are much cheaper. It seemed that the only Africans in sight were those working as porters in the airport.

photos of the domestic airport in Dar Es Salaam

I have never taken such a small plane in my life. Frankly speaking, i was pretty worried about the instability of the aircraft. My fear was unfounded of cos [or else i wouldn't be here blogging this post] The aerial view of Tanzania was indeed spectacular. I was marvelling over the intricate complex network of meanders at one moment, and ooh-ing at the gradual change of the colour of the land from green to reddish brown. When we finally arrived in Arusha, i got a scare in that i could not find my baggage. But thank God it was found in the end and we continued on our journey to our lodge.

That's the plane we took to Arusha.

In the plane

Aik keong got to sit right next to the pilot

Aerial shot of the urban settlement

Aerial shots of the meander

Aerial shots of the plain

Arrival at Arusha airport

Love the designs on the tail of the planes

A drive towards our lodge

After 10 minutes of 'treacherous' road drive, we finally arrived at the lodge which was located in a plantation. It was pretty obvious that the lodge was a gated community with security system to keep the locals out. I have to admit that the lodge was beautiful beyond words. The route leading to the main building of the lodge resembled the scene in qiu1 tian1 de4 tong2 hua4. The huts in which we stayed in were pretty nice and cool too. I really adored the flower petals that were scattered over my bed. After lunch, there was a debrief by the person-in-charge and basically the conclusion of the briefing were 1)drink lots of water 2)walk pole pole (slowly) 3)Listen to the guide.

Our little chalet

Number 14

Can you spot the flower petals on our beds?

Sunbathing at the poolside (a simulation)

We took a cab down to town to buy some cough syrup for aik. Along the way, we passed by the UN tribunal for Rwanda genocide and the Arusha Clocktower.

When we returned from town, we decided to take a short hike around the plantation. It was like a teeny warm-up for the big thing the next day.

The donkey oblivious to the presence of human beings

A beautiful road

Resting at a shelter

A big milipede

The entrace to our lodge

Aik keong's arty shot of the sky

Ok...i'm not exactly into flowers but i think the flowers in the garden were really nice

The chimney of our chalet overlooking to Mt Meru

Turning in for the night zzZZzz

Mt Kilimanjaro [15/12/07]

In the morning, we took a Landrover to Kilimanjaro National Park to begin our hike. The road was bumpy beyond description. We stopped at the Ranger Station to register before continuing our journey to the starting point of our hike. Halfway during our journey, the Landrover got stuck in the mud (result of a heavy downpour the day before). So aik keong and I got down with our guides to help push the vehicle out of the mud. And as the Landrover freed itself from the mud, the rotating wheels sent huge chunks of mud raining down on us. Bummer… what a muddy start.

That's Tien acting studious early in the morning. =P

Our Land-rover

View of Mt Kilimanjaro from the highway

Not exactly a very comfy ride i would say

After what seemed like ages, we finally arrived at the Ranger Station to register our hike and to meet the rest of the hiking support crew.

The entrance of Mt Kilimanjaro

Points to remember!

Our porters. They guy in light blue is our head guide Happyson.

After registering and some preparation on the part of the porters, we were on our journey again to the starting point of the hike. I remembered that the road was really muddy and there were times when the landrover seemed to be out of control in the mud. But thank God that the driver was really skillful to always get the vehicle on track instead of sliding uncontrollably on the slippery terrain. At the start point, an inventory check was performed.

Can you spot the mud stains on me?

It was a relatively short hike through the rainforest to the first campsite. It did get a bit boring at times due to the fact that we were beneath the canopies of the lush rainforest vegetation and there weren't that much of a view at such low altitude covered by the greens. FInally we did reached the first campsite (which i've forgotten what was the name)

Our tents (in blue)

A pail of warm water each to wash up

And afternoon tea at the mess tent: Popcorn and Black Tea

See how someone really love the mess tent

Dinner was just lovely. The food was so so good. We had tilapia fish, vegetable stew, potatos and spinach, as well as zukin soup and bread.

Oh and i was pleasantly surprised to know that the toilet was a bucket with a wooden seatpan on it.

Resting for the day to prep ourselves for the next day

Mt Kilimanjaro [16/12/07]

Spotted two unique birds early in the morning. The first was this orange-breasted with a slight greenish coat songbird. It was such a shy little bird that it was so hard to take a picture of it.

Next was this big black crow-like looking bird. I think it was almost the size of a chicken.

And one more point to make... breakfast was just delicious. But a pity i didn't jot down what we had for breakfast...

The morning trek was fantastic. It was a great experience passing through different kinds of vegetation along the way. And i would have to say that our porters were superhuman of some kind. With that heavy load on them, they could hop and bounce up the mountain leaving the three of us feeling like tortoises. It's like the story of the race between the hare and the tortoise except that in this case the 'hares' didn't seem to take any rest at all.

We took a break halfway at this interesting part of the forest. There were mosses hanging on the trees giving the area a surreal kind of mystical feeling. I could picture a scene in one of the fairy tales with this forest as a backdrop of some sort.

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The progression from tropical rainforest to scrubland landscape was just amazing. Suddenly we found ourselves out of the 'forested' area into a scrubby highland where we could see some great views.

It wasn't long before something caught our sight. It was time for lunch and our porters had already set up a lunch table for us to have our meals.

A cool shot of a upcoming next big thing supermodel with the valleys

Some really nice flowers one gets to see along the trail.

Oh...my most favourite part of the day... LUNCH!!

After lunch, off we go again to our next campsite. We stopped along the way to get some shots.

Aik Keong and I overlooking the plains

super emo shot

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A group shot of Happyson, Aik Keong, Heaven and me just a few hundred metres (or a few kilometers for that matter) away from the 2nd campsite.

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One thing really important during the hike was to be slow and steady (swahili: pole pole) There's no use being fast as firstly, it just increases your risk of having altitude sickness and secondly, it increases lactic acid build-up. But somehow i did get this feeling that we were TOO pole pole for that matter. hAhA

We finally arrived at the 2nd campsite. The view was just fantastic (i seemed to have run out of vocabulary so please forgive me if its the n-th time you have seen this adjective). The campsite was situated at a plateau surrounded by breath-taking views. For a moment i felt so tiny in face of the majesty of God's creation.

The view of the peak from 2nd campsite

It was just amazing to have the entrance of our tents facing the snow-cap peak of Mt Kilimanjaro. It offered spectacular views of the mountain at different times of the day. It was indeed an experience to have quiet time reading the Bible, praying to God while having such amazing views around you at the same time. The star-filled skies in the night as backdrop was just amazingly beautiful beyond words can describe. As the psalmist proclaimed:

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Day to day pours forth speech,

And night to night reveals knowledge
Psalm 19:1

Mt Kilimanjaro [17/12/07]

As dawn breaks at the distance, a magnificent array of colours displayed themselves in the skies. The view was so beautiful that freezing it in a picture seemed an utmost injustice. But that was the best we could do.

As the sun rises, the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro became visible once more.

The morning was freezing cold. The ground was covered with frost and we could see the colgate foam solidied into bits of icicles (ak and i the guilty culprit).

A moment we have been waiting for: BREAKFAST! I really love this balaclava that i bought. It was so versatile and could be used for all occasions. This time round i was wrapped up like a gypsy woman to avoid the sun and the icey wind.

After breakfast, we were on our way for a super long trek up and down up and down, crossing mountains over mountains. As i hurt my back during the hike up, Happyson had to carry my load along the way.

The motivation which kept us going.

Stopped for a rest

Some pretty unique vegetation you find along the way

Our energy consumption from muesli bars

After what seemed like ages, we finally caught sight of the lava tower. We found a spot to have lunch.

And off we go again *groan* hahaha

That's the lava tower

The altitude sickness with the muscle fatigue really made the trek an arduous one.

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But thank God by His grace we managed to reach Baronka Campsite. The lava tower at 4500 metres above sea level was pretty much a killer for me that day. I was so glad to be back at 3900 metres.

Mt Kilimanjaro [18/12/07]

After that horrible horrible seems to be neverending trek the day before, all of us ended up perishing in our tents, resting our aching leg muscles.

We woke up in the early morning to prepare ourselves for a short hike to Karanga Campsite which is 4,200 metres above sea level. After breakfast, we embarked on our trek towards the 'Breakfast Wall".

The menacing "Breakfast Wall"

You have to give it to these porters. The "wall" was basically pretty steep and we had to use all our limbs to climb some particular parts of the "wall". But take a look at these guys, most of them climbed up the "wall" balancing a big basket of stuff on their heads. I was totally amazed.

Other climbers

Muddy stream below

Resting mid-way

Mount Meru from afar

A group shot

the next part of the journey

For a moment i can understand what it means to be in the wilderness.

Alas... CIVILISATION!

Its LUNCHTIME!

Gonna spend the afternoon resting for the hike to Marafu camp tomorrow.

The spectacular display of clouds

And a video dedicated to my beloved Yibin

Dinner time!!

The freezing night!

We were practically wrapped up like bazhang. But someone was worse than me haha.
I know this is pretty out of point but the toilet was literally flooded. Also i sprained my left ankle while going to toilet in the night. I resolved to use a mineral water bottle to settle my small business for the rest of the night.

Mt Kilimanjaro [19/12/07]

Breakfast was really great, with the backdrop of Kilimanjaro peak behind us and the clouds looming past our faces.

It was freezing cold and all of us were practically shivering underneath our multiple layers. However, we spotted few of the porters changing their clothes in the cold... topless in that kind of temperature. Oh my gosh... what are they made of man.

Doing big business in the morning was a dreadful chore. The thought of being in the small little confined toilet with a bucket filled with 'you know whats' was just unappetizing. Today was a bit worse than others, the bucket was almost full. Afraid that the luminous content would splash upwards (the thought of it was totally disgusting), i had to throw plastic sheets into the bucket to prevent a back-splash.

After breaking camp, it was time to move on to Barafu Campsite. The start of the hike was pretty cold. It was a nice pace all the way upwards.

Along the way, we saw lots of rock fragments which were like a result of frost shattering and exfoliation. It was really cool to be able to witness such geomorphological processes real-life.

The ascent from 4,200 metres asl to 4,600 metres asl was a challenge physically. The air was getting thinner and the clouds brushing past us sent chills to our spines. Suddenly, snow began to fall and it was a really cool sight to behold. I was preoccupied with running through hymns in my mind during the walk. I realised that there were some hymns which one cannot sing when hiking. One of them would be "And can it be". This hymn was too power-packed with doctrines for the oxygen-deprived brain to meditate upon.

Finally, we arrived at the campsite. I suffered from an aching left ankle from the hike.

Lunch was pasta, soup, fruits and some bread. This was followed by a briefing in regards to severe altitude sickness in the form of cerebrel edema and pulmonary edema.