We just left Cape Town, South Africa, and let me tell you it was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we were only there for around 4 days, but it was still incredible. The first day I took a ride in an huey helicopter from Vietnam. It�s the only place in the world where you can go in one other than in the marines, and it had bullet holes in it. They took us over all the city and the ocean, and at times we were 5 feet above the ground. They would fly us up hundreds of feet and then drop us down sideways with the doors off. That nightwe went to this chill little bar where these had guys with fire sticks who would fling them around like yo-yos. These were regular people off the street, so they weren�t professionals, and one of them caught his facial hair on fire, but he was fine. The next day I went to this famous place called Shark Alley which is where National geographic and the Discovery channel go to film Great white sharks. Its in the middle of the ocean where the Atlantic and Indian ocean meet each other and its very turbulent and you can actually see where they meet because the water is 2 different colors. After the scariest boat ride ever(this dude was going like 60 over huge waves and we were catching air!) we parked the boat between 2 islands at shark alley. On the one island, which is called seal island, there were 60, 000 seals gathering on the land and swimming in the ocean. WE got up super close to them and they were all barking and waving and stuff. We also did a little hand fishing with nothing else but a piece of string and a hook that you toss in the water and pull up all these little fish. Unfortunately, we didn�t get to see any sharks, but we still got to goin the shark cage and look around.
The other 2days I went to a this large wineland estate where we saw how they make wine, from growing it to distributing it. Then went to this gorgeous mansion and did wine tasting of all the different types. After that we headed to these cabins and tents along a great river, called the Breed river, where we camped out for the night. The next day we got 2 person canoes and got to paddle down this 15 mile river all day. It was like a mini amazon river with the best scenery ever. All that was around you were mountains and lush tropical trees and stuff.
One of the other nights I went to the top of Table Mountain which is the most famous mountain in S. Africa. We had dinner up there and watched this gorgeous sunset overlooking the entire city of Capetown.
At night, we would all go out and check out the night life here. We partied till 6am almost every night.
Right now I'm traveling to Tanzania, where were doing an African Safari for 3 days. I'm psyched to see the zebras and giraffes and all that.
I gotta get going now, but plz email me and let me know what's going on with home. I miss you all PEACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
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India
I called the hotel in Agra and reached Mikey earlier tonight 2 am for him. He was rooming with the 17 year old son of one of the teachers from SAS, who he says is "pretty cool". He had a great visit to the Taj Mahal...was completely awed by it's beauty. Tomorrow they will be back at the hotel in Delhi, which Mikey says was five star! The phone connection was great and the hotel people spoke English, so it seems a good place to call if you have the desire.
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Ship Life
The ship is in! I received a phone call at 2am. I was thrilled to be awakened in the wee hours to be able to speak to Mikey. I really needed to hear his voice. Yesterday, I had just about gone too long without hearing and so I did the math and tried to call him on the ship, only to blow about 30 bucks with no result. The first time I called the kids were in a mandatory meeting. I called after the meeting and there was no answer. The operator does not come back on the line if no one picks up so...silly me...I called again...No answer. So, you can imagine how happy I was to hear.
He couldn't talk long. The kids were all getting ready to go to the airport and head out for Delhi and on to the Taj, etc.
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Ship Life
Hi! What a surprise! I logged on today and Mikey was online. We "spoke" briefly. He said he still doesn't know where they are going but he was passing Singapore on his right...struck me funny! He said they would be in sight of Indonesia shortly and tomorrow is a day off...on the ship, of course!
He was fortunate not to have suffered the dreaded Delhi belly, but said most of the kids were well now.
He said there was talk of Shanghi as a port of call...that's all we had time for. He'll let me know as soon as they know.
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