My fiancee is always searching the web for cheap tickets for anywhere in the world, and earlier this year he found round trip tickets to Europe and back for about $800 per person- which is a really great deal since prices right now are about $1200 per person and up.

I have always been interested in travel but growing up we didn’t travel. My first time out of the US was when I traveled alone to Tanzania in 2008- and that is when the bug started. I have flown around the world several times with Google Earth and I’m not really picky about where I want to go, because I eventually want go everywhere. So when my fiancee booked the trip and surprised our family, we were more than excited!!

The trip he had booked left Redmond Oregon and flew into Frankfurt Germany and our return flight had us leaving Paris France- everything in the middle and where we went was up to us.

After looking at so many different locations in Germany we decided to make our first stop Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber

Before we had left on our trip we surfed websites like www.couchsurfing.com and www.airbnb.com- 2 really great sites if you like to travel, meet people and save money.

While in Rothenburg ob der Tauber we stayed with our host, Harry. I found Harry on couchsurfing.com. Harry had a spare room that we stayed and it was perfect, and being right in the middle of town you were close to everything! Bed, shower and good company… what more do you need? The price for staying with Harry for 2 night? We took him to dinner at the cutest beer garden along the Tauber river.

We were of course on our own for breakfast which was fine because there were several bakeries and coffee shops to go to. Lunch was easy and cheap too and there were several places to chose from. Best place for kraut and sausage!

On our third day in Germany we headed for Stuttgart/Tubingen Germany where we stayed in a “family” room with 3 beds at Hostel Alex30. I don’t remember how much we paid there but with 3 beds, showers and breakfast served, and parking it was a scamming deal.

We made our way to the Rhine staying at a cute little hotel- Hotel Keutmann for 1 night which allowed us some relaxation a wonderful dinner and laundry. The owners of the hotel spoke VERY little english, but they were wonderful hosts. Our room was a 2 bedroom connected by a main living room and bathroom. Our stay included a traditional breakfast of rolls, meat, soft boiled eggs and cheese. The next morning we made our way to the little country village of Bonnelles France where we stayed for the rest of our trip, taking the train into Paris each day.

 
We found our next host on airbnb.com. Again- such a wonderful host! She let us stay at her home while she stayed at her boyfriends home. Such a great deal as we were only planning on renting the spare room she had. We purchased a pastries in town from breakfast and then drove to the train station. Each night before we left Paris we bought baguettes, meats, fruit, cheeses, and a bottle of wine, and soda for the under 21 son.

This trip was amazing! And total cost for everything all in- the airfare, food, places to stay and our car rental was close to $4,000! I think for where we went and what we did that is pretty good.

We are keeping our eyes open for our next awesome airfare deal to see where our next adventure will be.

Ok- Now that I’m back, I thought Id share some details about my trip to Tanzania. I hope you enjoy!

 Arrival. After a brief overnight in Amsterdam, which was absolutely beautiful,  I arrived in Arusha Tanzania. It was evening when my plane landed, so it was dark and difficult to see everything that I’ve been waiting to see for many months- but that’s ok, because I was tired and would see it the next morning after some much needed sleep. On the way to my overnight lodge, I did get to see that Arusha seemed quite green and lush with vegitation. It was well after 9pm, and there were still people walking alongside the road. Not just 1 or 2 people here and there, but many people–all over.  Upon arrival at my lodge I found my room, showered and went to bed. I was so exhausted from my trip and the hour difference, so all I wanted to do was sleep.

One thing I really liked was that on my KLM flight to Arusha, they passed out these hot moist hand towels that had this really nice scent on them. They would pass these out shortly after boarding the flight, after a meal and before landing. I’m not sure where they got these little things, but a girl could get used to it! I think they were lemon, or eucalyptus or something. I need to find these for home- they were absolutely wonderful!

Day 2- When I woke up, I went to the window, and peered outside. It was drizzly. Not at all what I pictured Tanzania to be like. I was a little surprised, but I was still very excited to get showered and get outside. Walking to the main lodge I saw that everything was so very green and there was so much lushness. Before, when I thought of Africa and Tanzania I always thought of the Serengeti. Most everything on TV about wildlife and Africa always seems to have the golden grasses of the Serengeti, so I thought all of Africa was Serengeti like. Not true!

After a buffet breakfast, my guide picked me up and we went to visit a few other hotels in and around Arusha. Now, these are places that we would normally have our clients stay on their first night in town, or their last night before heading home. I was surprised at how busy downtown Arusha was. There is absolutely no organization to the driving in town. Everyone was driving every which way- pulling out infront of you, and there would be people just running inbetween the cars trying to get across the street. Arusha was not only much larger than what I imagined, but it was also pretty dirty. I’m sure is was clena compared to other places around the world,  but for me, who has never been anywhere but a few places in the US, it was a big eye opener for me.

My day ended with dinner at my lodge, and a quick check of my e-mail. Yes, they do have internet, but it is much slower, and hit and miss, especially is the hotel loses power like mine kept doing. Even out phones went out my second night at my lodge.

Day 3- I was awaken by my personal wake up call.. our phones were still out. Today we were headed to Tarangire National Park. It’s a few hours drive from Arusha, but since there was so much to see along the way ,  the time seeemed to fly by. The drive reminded me alot of the high desert.. especially when you’re on that stretch from Terrebonne to Madras.. that flat dry area.

After a quick stop at the entrance at Tarangire NP to use the restroom, and pay the park entrance fees, I was on my way. Almost immediately I started seeing the animals. First were the zebra…followed by many elephants and giraffe. At first, I have to say it seemed very Wildlife Safari like, but after a few minutes of getting up close and personal with the elephants, I realized this was nothing like Wildlife Safari. I was amazed at the vast numbers of animals. Just everywhere, there are animals. I even had the opportunity to see a pride of lions down along the river.

After a long day of driving all over the park and visiting other lodges and camps where we would have clients stay, we finally ended up aout over night lodge.. Tarangire River Camp. River Camp is beautiful open lodge with the dining room on one side, and a sitting room/lounge on the other side. Most all accomodations/tents are lifted on a platform about 7 or 8 feet off the ground, so you do have to climb some stairs to get there, but it’s totally worth it. My room had 2 beds and it’s own bathroom with hot shower and electricity. The rooms also have side walls that cam be zipped open to just reveal a screen. I found this out, after I was awaken in the middle of the night to all of this rustling noise. Now remember you’re sleeping in the National Park, so animlas are all over the place so you don’t want to just go outside to investigate.  So I inzipped the wall portion of my tent, leaving the screen entact (don’t want bugs inside) and I was amazed to see that all the noise I was hearing was from Giraffe eating from the tree tops right outside my tent. There was a full moon, so getting to see them was totally amazing, and they were so close and beautiful. it was an amazing experience! I went back to my bed and laid there watching them eat, and I eventually fell back to sleep.

The next few days was spent driving through Lake Manyara, and Ngorongoro Crater National Parks. I was still amazed at the lush jungle when you first drive into Lake Manyara. It seemed something out of Jurrasic Park.. I kept wating for the T-Rex to come crashing through the trees… but thankfully it didn’t happen!

Tanzania is so beautiful, and so rich in culture. As you drive through the small villages you would see these small roadside markets where people would sell their vegetable that they would grow in their gardens. The soil is so rich, that almost everyone even with the smallest lot or house have some sort of a garden. And what surprised me is that tanzania grows a TON of corn! Corn is everywhere! It’s like you took a wrong turn and ended up in Kansas or someplace in the mid-west. Corn is the main staple in Tanzania.

The best part of my trip was the Serengeti. It was so warm, and so beautiful there. The grasses were so golden, and you could see for miles in all directions! My days in the serengeti were always sunny and warm.. but it never got too warm. The night skies were so clear and bright. We never needed your flashlight to get to your tent at night. At night the wildlife seemed to come alive.

Our first night in camp in the Serengeti I guess there were lions either in camp, or right outside of camp, and everyone but me heard them roar, and make thier sounds for most of the night. Apparently even 1/2 an Ambien was too much for this first night because I slept through the night and heard asolutely nothing!  The next few nights we were visited by hippos, and hyenas. They didn’t bother us or our tents, although the hyenas did try to get into the kitchen tent for food and the camp staff hap to keep a close eye on the tents for a few nights.

I was amazed at the lodges we went to visit while on this trip. They were much more luxurious that I ever imagined a lodge to be in the middle of no where. They sometimes even had internet service, which was a real treat since I needed to check my e-mail while I was in Tanzania.

After my return from the Serengeti to Arusha, I stayed in the Aursha Hotel in downtown Arusha for a few extra days. I have to say that the food I ate in camp in the Serengeti seemed better than the food I got at the hotel.  They had a large variety of food to chose from for all meals, but I usually kept to the soups and lunch and dinner and fruit with toast for breakfast.

My last few days in Arusha Themmy, my guide, and I went to visit a couple of secondary schools, Simon Mtuy, and an orphanage. I was amazed at how many young children run away from home at the age of 5 or 6, and live on the rough streets of Moshi and Arusha.  The numbers seemed so unbelieveable, if I hadn’t seen all these children at the schools and homes myself. I can’t imagine imagine children being on the streets, to survive on their own at such young ages.

My flight home was good and seemed longer than my flight over. I was anxious to get home- I missed my family.. I missed my animals, and the planes just couldnt go fast enough for me. I tried to sleep and watch some movies as I did on the way over, but it just wasn’t the same. Once I was home Bend seemed so different. It was the same I was sure, but it was like I was seeing it with new eyes. Everything here was just so clean. There were no dirt streets, no piles of garbage on the streets. Although I had experienced so much in my time in Tanzania, and I can’t wait to go back, I was glad to be home.

You can see my video on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmbbPT7f06s

and I’ve put some pictures on www.Choroa.com. If you go to the gallery and look at the Laura/FAM pics from July 2008.

Well, in one of my previous blogs I wrote that there was the possibility of travling to Tanzania this summer, and I’m here to tell you… it’s on! I leave for my big adventure on July 11th, and with an overnight in Amsterdam, I’ll be on my way to Tanzania for just a little over a week.

Google Earth is such a wonderful thing! I am a girl who does not travel hardly at all, and I’ve never been outside the US, so this will be an adventure for sure. But, as you all know you can get onto Google Earth and check out pictures other people have posted from places all over the world, so I’ve been ‘touring’ all over Amsterdam, which had been both helpful and sometimes humorous. On Google Earth I get to see the Anne Franke House, all the shops and squares, the sidewalk potties..OMG- have you seen the outdoor sidewalk potties? Crack me up! I’ve never seen anything like that before! But it’s so much better than having people pee on the sidewalks….

Oh, and they also have a Prostitution information Center.. always helpful I guess, if I ever lose my job here. I mean, do they have brochures and pamphlets on the subject.. sortof like what you would get at a job fare? is there someone there to answer all my questions… is there vacation pay? Again, this is just something we don’t have here and it’s funny. And don’t forget marijuana is legal in Amsterdam. A friend told me the other day I could have some hash with or for breakfast, and seriously… my mind went straight to hashbrowns… or that corn hash stuff…. I never even went to the marijuana! It wasn’t until I was telling my boyfriend about the conversation that he pointed out what she meant by ‘hash’. We got a good laugh out of that one.

I went the other day and got my shots, but will still need to go back for the best shot of all.. yellow fever. Now, I’m going off my Humira just so I can get this shot right before I leave in July. So we’ll have to wait and see how all of that goes as there are no studies o fhow things go once one goes back on Humira. Will i end up getting yellow fever or not? We’ll have to wait and find out.

I’ve got my tickets and my passport, I’ll be buying a few travel pieces of clothing to take with me.. and soon I’ll be all ready. I’m getting both excited and nervous about my trip. It’s just going to be a very long trip!!

So I will go visit some of the lodges in Tanzania where we have our clients stay. Check out the lodge grounds, amenities, etc. I’ll stay overnight at a few of the lodges and then there will be about 3 nights of tent camping in the National Parks, which should be fun. An experience of a lifetime!

I will also spend my last 2 days touring some non-profit orphanages and secondary schools between Arusha and Moshi. Now most of these places will have AIDS victims, children mostly, but adults too. I am sure this experience will impact my life greatly…. we just don’t have this kind of sadness here. We have our own poverty struggles, but not like in Africa and other parts of the world. I have never thought about how I would feel seeing and holding an infant or small child that I know is dying. To them it’s a way of life.. what they know. It’s very sad.

I will post my pictures when I get back, probably on the www.choroa.com website, as that is the Safari Company I work for and will be using for my trip. Although I don’t think I will put the orphanage pictures on that site, but I’ll keep everyone posted as to where the other photos will be.

I will also be going to a village that Simon Mtuy of Summit Expeditions & Nomadic Experience does alot of work in outside of Moshi.. I think it’s outside Moshi. He was just here in Bend, and he held a few speaking engagements. Very nice guy. i met him one morning and we spoke about where he grew up, his Kilimanjaro climbing and the company he owns that leads guided trips up Kilimanjaro. You can check Simon out at www.nomadicexperience.com

Anyway, as my trip gets closer, I’ll try and write, and then I’ll for sure write when I get back

Hey- check these out… I came across them while looking for travel stuff on Tanzania for my upcoming trip….

www.safariweek.com

www.expeditionreview.com

I found out last week that there is a chance that I may be send to Tanzania in July or August of this year, for business. The President of company I work for here locally, has a small photo Safari company that we’ve been slowly working on, and hoping to make larger and attract more business,  www.choroa.com

Over this past year, I think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves.. booking a few more safaris than normal. As of January we already had 2 safaris booked for 2008, and that’s pretty good if you look at where we were this time last year. We’ve recently appreared in Luxury Travel Advisor magazine, (http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/lta0208/index.php), we’re on page 65- and this is a beautiful magazine by the way!

We’ve appeared locally in ”The Source” newspaper, which was exciting,,,and we also have an article coming out in April in an Atlanta based Mens Magazine called ’Tuxedo Road’.

So, for a girl who has never traveled outside the US, and really only been to a few states here, I have to get my passport, and a bunch of shots.Whoo hoo! Can’t wait for those! Actually, giving myself Humira shots every two weeks I’m used to needles, but I’m still only ok with them- they still hurt no matter how many times you get them. At least I won’t be doing the yellow fever one. I can’t have live virus injections, so we’ll bypass that one, and as long as I don’t stop in a country that requires the yellow fever injection, I won’t need one to get into Tanzania. And I say a big ol’ AMENto that one, cause I hear that one REALLY hurts!

So, there I will be, little girl in big Africa. This a trip that could not happen at any point in time, so I don’t want to get too excited about it, but inside I’m squealing like a 14 year old girl! This is such a great opportunity that may never come around again. And to experience a place I’ve only read about or seen on National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel.

And since this is business, I will be traveling around Tanzania, where the Safari company is based. Visiting lodges, hotels, and staying in camp. Yes, I said camp. I’ll be staying some of my time in a tent in the middle of the wild. A lion could easily walk through camp, or I could be awaken by a heard of elephants. Can you imagine, while eating your breakfast beans and toast in the morning, seeing a lion walk around your tent? ok- I’d probably crap my pants right about then.. possibly even before, but OMG- can you imagine? This is going to be amazing!

I won’t be there totally alone. I’ll be traveling with some people from the travel industry, and one of Choroa’s partners Themmy, a very big guy in African standards will have to be my protector. Is it ok to say that being that far away from home is sort of  scary? I mean to be in a  foreign place, where i don’t know where anything is, and I only know 1 person…this will definitially be different…

Even with all the wild animals running around, and the bugs, this is still just an extrodinary opportunity that I cannot pass up. I mean- who gets a paid trip to Africa? Did I mention this is going to be amazing?

Anyway- I’ll keep everyone posted as the trip gets closer, and I’ll take lots of pictures that we’ll post on the Choroa website for sure.