Grubbs n Critters

April 28, 2009

Attitudinous Motor-bike Taxi

Category: Thaism

Witnessed a not-so-pleasant incident this morning on my way to work at my office lobby.

It seemed like a motor-bike taxi has erroneously brought his pillion passenger to the wrong venue. The pillion, quite a big Arab woman, then argued with him in English that he had brought her to the wrong place. She then took a piece of paper from her bag, possibly bearing the address of the place she intended to go, and insisted that he took her to the right place. I suspect she might have shown him that piece of paper earlier before getting on his bike. A spat quickly broke-out between the two, as the guy refused to take her there and insisted that she go into the building where he had dropped her. She seemed sure it wasn’t the right address. Given the circumstances, I’m rooting for the woman.

The woman refused to get off his bike, still insisting that he take her to the right place. The man looked annoyed (a high possibility that he was ‘losing face’) and refused to go any further, shouting at her and shooed her away. At this point, he tilted his bike sideways, such that the woman would fall off from his back seat. I actually saw her slipped and almost fell to the ground. I bet she didn’t expect to be thrown off like that. Clearly, it was rude and definitely unacceptable of him, but he didn’t seem to care and just rode off after throwing her off like that. The woman stood there stranded and went raving mad at the entire situation. Apparently, he had kicked her too as she was being thrown off from his bike.

You know what the worse thing is? There is absolutely nothing you can do in a situation like that. Although all she wanted to do was get herself to the right place, no one seems to care that she was treated unfairly. She can scream and shout (which she did!) and kao peh, kao bu and in the end, there’s nothing she can do about it, but to let it go and move on. I am extremely appalled by what I saw. Disappointed is an understatement. Sad country this is.

Tanzania: Wrap-Up and Tips

Category: Travels

A week! That’s enough time taken to tell a story of our little Tanzania trip and uploading some photos along the way. I was beginning to wonder when it will end. Silver Bullet is still in the midst of sorting out his photos…so that will take a little while more before I can post his fantastic pics; pics which I can’t quite capture with my compact digital camera.

I would definitely do Tanzania again; time and budget permitting, of course. The country is definitely worth a 2nd visit. Only this time, I would spend 3 days or more at the Serengeti, just a night at Ngorongoro, and other parts of Tanzania. With the exception of staying at the cabin with a personal chef at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, I would give the rest a miss.

Some tips if you ever consider going for a safari:

Invest in a pair of good hiking shoes – you never know what kind of hiking you have to do
Binoculars is a must
DSLR and the mega lenses! Compact digital cameras are proven quite useless for close-up shots of animals in a distance.
Long cargo pants and long-sleeve shirts
DEET! 95% no less. The flies in Serengeti are aplenty and super-annoying and I’m happy to just DEET ’em up dead.
Bring enough clothes to last through the Safari – laundry services can be expensive
Be prepared to tip. The average tips for a Safari Guide ranges between USD 10-25 per/day
Bring a strong sunblock. Africa gets 51% of the earth’s sunlight…and the sun will really sneak up on you, no matter how cloudy and overcast the day may look.
Bring sweaters/jackets as it tends to get cooler at night
Go for the smaller, but reputable Safari company (a matter of preference)
Don’t fly Precision Air
Bring a flashlight
Hats, caps…anything to cover your head from the scorching sun
First-Aid kit with all the necessary medical supplies
Lastly, have your wits about you. It is not safe to travel alone, especially at night and conveniently, nothing about safety has been explicitly mentioned anywhere in guide books or websites.