Decide what you want to see
Basically, you can do a safari in Tanzania all year long. There are enough national parks and lots of animals to see, including the Big 5. But there is also the Great Migration, one of the top reasons to do a safari trip in Northern Tanzania. We did ours in the beginning of July in anticipation of the Great Migration. But this is also the high season so everything is relatively more expensive. You can find our 10-day itinerary in this link.

One tip I got from our guide is to do the safari during the rainy season which is from March-May. He said that the trip can be very difficult but the game is good. Due to hiding from the rain for longer period, the big cats tend to be more active and aggressive when they are hunting so that means more action and more chance to actually see a kill. Sometimes you can do a safari for two weeks in the high season and you might not even see a kill.

A young cab lazily hangs in his chosen branch while mama is intently watching the tourists. Photo by www.robinkuijs.com.

Budget
We booked our trip with Matoke Tours, one of the leading safari travel agencies in the Netherlands. Robin and I both have full time jobs so we wanted to make the most of our 12-day holiday. Everything was arranged for us with no hassles. When you have a full time job, you would rather pay for comfort.

The trip cost  €6,500 together. We were put in a group of 6, which is considered small if you are talking about safari group tours. In Tanzania itself, we were taken care by Easy Travel and Tours Ltd, I think the local partner of Matoke.

The rate included airfare, accommodations (a mix of mid-range and luxury lodges), half board and full board meals and park fees. Our package did not include Zanzibar because we didn’t see the point of spending money on a touristy beach when we could have one all to ourselves in the Philipines. If you want to include Zanzibar to your itinerary, that’ll cost you an easy €300-€500.

We were advised to take €200-250 each for pocket money. Since I was the one shopping all the time (I couldn’t go home without buying pasalubong) I brought €400 while Robin brought €350. At Schiphol airport we exchanged a total of $400 together and the rest of the money, we exchanged for Tanzanian shillings in Arusha.

If you are prudent, you can get away with a €200 pocket money and still have some left over. But we love good wines and we are generous tippers. On our 10-day trip, we spent €25-30/day on wine and drinks (those local beers are really good) and gave a total of €180 on tips. Our guide and the people who served us during the entire trip were all very friendly and hardworking. I think they deserve generous tips for allowing us to see their beautiful country.

The rest of the money, we spent on gifts for friends and family back home and a part of it for my precious Tanzanite ring.

We also had to pay €73 and €150 respectively for anti-malaria shots and at least €250 for an extra backpack for myself (I don’t own a backpack), a pair of sandals and toiletries. In total, the trip cost us about €4000 each.

Anti-malaria and vaccinations
Malaria is prevalent in Africa. So if you don’t get the proper vaccinations, you risk getting malaria and dying.

I initially thought that I would be spending a fortune for vaccination based from these rates (for Dutch travelers). But luckily, since I grew up in the Philippines, I didn’t have to have Hepatitis A vaccine. I ended up paying only for DTP and yellow fever vaccines. This cost me €75 including consultation but Robin had to pay a bit more for the Hepa A&B vaccination.

We were prescribed Malarone (proguanil+atavaquone) pills since our trip is not very long. The doctor said that in the event that we’d actually contract Malaria, we would be home by the time the symptoms appear. Malarone cost about €80 for 4 boxes of 20 pills. We bought that on a discount.

What to pack
June-September is considered  the dry season but we had a lot of rain showers in Arusha. The weather was cold, between 17-21 degrees in the morning. Temperature can dip to 13 degrees in the evenings up to early mornings especially in the Serengeti. This can change to up to 30 degrees in the afternoon.

Clothes – 3 pairs of long pants, 2 pairs of hiking shorts, 5 t-shirts, 5 thin, long sleeves, a fleece jacket or a hoodie. Socks and underwear depends on how many times you change. Choose light weight materials like cotton or linen. Bring a pajama set as well because it can get really cold in the evenings although you would be sleeping under a mosquito net. Most hotels provide towels.

Accessories – Scarf, hat (please don’t bring a wide-brim hat or only use that for the beach), binoculars (we didn’t bring any and how I regretted it), sunglasses.

Shoes – Preferably hiking shoes/boots, slippers and your regular sneakers. Unless you are climbing the Kilimanjaro or have more than 5 hours of hiking/walking, you could actually get away with your old pair of boots or your running shoes. You’d be staying mostly in the jeep.

Your regular toiletries – Most hotels provide soap, shampoo/conditioner and even lotions in the more upscale accommodations. Anti-mosquito repellant, wet wipes and alcohol ( you’d be using your hands for eating those lunch boxes which mostly contain grilled chicken).

Skin care – Sunscreen above 30 spf and your most effective facial hydration cream. The national parks only have dirt roads so you can imagine all the dust that will gather on your face the whole time. If you don’t mind the extra weight, bring your facial cleanser as well. You will be needing it.

Please use a backpack for luggage rather than a regular a suitcase. A 4×4 only has a limited space so it’ll be difficult to squeeze in your thick suitcases.For comfort and common sense, bring a day backpack as carry on. You need the space to bring your toiletries, cameras, tripod (if you are an avid photographer/videographer) and an extra bottle of water.

You don’t really want to be bringing too much because you’d be moving to different lodges after one or two nights.

Because I didn’t bring a hat, I paid €8 for this one, way above the bargaining price of my co-travelers who paid only €3.

Tanzania is the most expensive safari country. It might be because of the Serengeti and because the government set very high fees on parks, airports, etc. I think it is only fair that the country benefits from the influx of tourists who want to have this unique experience. Tourism may be good for the economy but it also poses a danger to cultures and the wilderness itself. We never regretted a single cent we spent on this trip.

Sometimes where you choose to stay while travelling is a destination in itself. While I do not mind booking myself in a standard hotel or a camper in the middle of a Dutch farm, indulging in hotels where the view is breathtaking and the wine overflows, makes my travels a little more memorable. Through the years, I have stayed in many unforgettable accommodations,  some cost me a fortune, others not even €10 a day. What they have in common are their amazing locations and top of the class service – two of the most important factors I am looking for in a hotel. I am sharing five of my favourites here:

Mountains have way of making you realize that you are but a tiny speck in this big world.

Rich Moroccan tapestry in the sitting area.

I’ve spent long hours in that lounge chair either reading a book or just soaking in the view of the Atlas Mountain.

When I first went to Morocco, I wanted a room here for my birthday but they were fully-booked so I cut my trip short. Three months later, I convinced Robin to travel with me to Morocco and book the hotel before anything else. And it did not disappoint. Kasbah du Toubkal transports you to a place entirely different from the image of Marrakech – mountains, snow and very friendly Berber people. As part of the service, we were picked up by a Range Rover from Marrakech and brought to the Imlil Village and although the ride was a bit treacherous, the view was breathtaking. Since there are no roads going up the mountain, our luggage (and myself) were transported by a mule. That already was a unique experience.

In addition to the well-heated rooms (it can get cold in the winter months) with a gorgeous view of the snow-capped Atlas Mountain, the huge terrace offers an unobstructed 360 view of the surrounding nature, raw and unspoilt by tourism. They’ll serve you different kinds of couscous and tangine but our favourite was the melt-in-the-mouth lamb tangine served in the roof terrace. You’ll be provided with blankets or traditional Moroccan robes in case you want to lounge in the terrace star gazing in the evening. They have hammam where you could relax your legs after trekking in the Atlas Mountain and enough space in the kasbah for a quiet retreat with Mother Nature. Read up on the story of the backpackers who built the kasbah and how they advocate for sustainable tourism in Imlil.

This renovated hotel was once the haunting lodge of Louis the Great ( King Louis XIV) of France.

If your plan for the weekend involves sleeping, reading, wining and dining and leisure walks, there would be no need to leave the property of Chateau d’Hassonville.

It’s been our tradition to stay in a castle hotel on Robin’s birthday so for his 33rd, we booked a weekend at Le Chateau d’Hassonville. Victorian rooms, old and creaking wooden floors, a cheese cellar, 18-year old Macallan in the bar and a 55-hectare private park perfect for a misty, morning walk in the middle of March. Needless to say we found it difficult to leave the chateau to explore the surrounding Ardennes. We specially enjoyed hanging out in the bar and having breakfast at the solarium. Although almost no one spoke English or Dutch (except the owners), the staff were friendly and they served us traditional French dishes and wines with songs and smiles. We checked out with a €700 hotel bill and lots of crazy memories.

Tortilis Camps only offers 20 unfenced tented camps, providing you with an intimate experience with the wild Serengeti.

Who doesn’t feel special sleeping in a four-poster bed with only a thick nylon tent separating you from the roaming lions on the evening?

This amazing view of the savanna comes free with the price. You can also request a camp fire for an absolute savanna experience.

I think it’s pretty obvious how crazy I am of the Serengeti. But my three-day stay wouldn’t have been so memorable if not for Tortilis Camp. Located in the middle of the Central Circuit, Tortilis Camps is small compared to other tented camps in the area. It only offers 20 luxury tents but one is big enough for a family of four. More than the comfort that it affords its guests, Tortilis gives you a unique experience of sleeping so close to the wild animals that you can hear and smell them in the evening and watch them 50 meters away enjoying their breakfasts as you do yours. The service at Tortilis is also incomparable. The staff werevery professional in a heartwarming kind of way, their smiles are genuine and they try to provide you with the most personal experience. I am still grateful for them for accommodating my last-minute, setting up a table in the bush with wine and romantic lights so that Robin and I could enjoy the beautiful sunset of the Serengeti just with the two of us, all for free. In another luxury camp, they’d charge €45/person for such requests.

Circa 2007. We shared this nipa hut with an Australian couple who weren’t the most discreet people in the world.

Our view in the morning.

That turns into this in the evening.

It must have been the sea breeze, the sunsets or the grilled chicken and pancit canton we would order in the afternoons. Or it can simply be the bottles of cheap Antonov vodka that we would finish in a day. But here at Mary’s Cottage, my love story with Robin started. It’s really just a wooden hut, as basic as a hut can be. The small en suite shower was already a luxury. But the week that we’ve spent here became the solid foundation of the next 8 years of our lives together.

Mary’s Cottage will cost you €8 a day but it is walking distance to the Undeground River and the Mangrove River in Sabang. Here you won’t be bothered by the noise of the massive number of tourists arriving in the area every morning to visit the Underground River. You can dine with the freshest selection of fish and meat prepared by the caretakers and coconut juice picked from the backyard. When the weather becomes too hot (or you’re too drunk), you could go skinny dipping without being worried about prying eyes because the area is almost deserted especially in the evening. When you want to get away from it all, this is the only place you should go to in Sabang. Not to mention that  you only have electrict four hours a day so you’d be quite forced to enjoy yourself away from your gadgets. Unfortunately I cannot provide a link because they don’t have a website nor a Facebook page. But you can contact them via +639197577582/+639084165206/+639056104122 or marys_beachresort.sabang @ yahoo.com.

You’d be forgiven if you pretend to be Diane Lane in this villa. Thankfully it is not as run down as the one in Under the Tuscan Sun. And this one is located in Umbria.

There might be a catch though. Some of my colleagues said that they felt the presence of spirits in the house. I must admit, I also felt a little scared when one evening I felt something invisible weighing me down. I could also be just imagining it.

You cannot go wrong with a scenery right out of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, except this one is in Umbria. Il Poggio de Casanova is an old Italian villa in the middle of rolling hills, vineyeards and sunflower fields. It has a swimming pool for that humid Mediterranean summer and a huge area for family activities. It is also the favourite conference location of ABS-CBN News’Europe team. So I was lucky to have stayed in this place twice.

The villa is really for a family getaway. The nearest grocery store was 15 minutes by car and the nearest town, Todi, is 16 kilometers away. But €500 a night, it can accommodate more than 20 persons so if you think about it, this is actually a very affordable villa.

Photos by me and Robin Kuijs. None of these is sponsored.

I was a little scared of what my safari trip has done to me. I was afraid of going back home, going back  to work, scared shit that I won’t like it anymore, terrified with the thought that I would be making abrupt decisions of running away again like I did many times in the past when I was dissatisfied with my life. I was searching for beauty and happiness. And I found both in Tanzania.

I recently finished reading Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being where he said that when man was kicked out of paradise, he was doomed to live his life in a straight line. The only way to go back to paradise is to walk around in circles and leave everything behind. I am toeing the straight line now and I have seen paradise in my last travel. So I asked myself, should I quit my job, sell everything I have, leave everything behind and join a volunteer group in Tanzania and then travel the world?

The answer is – No, I won’t. This time, I would not be running away.

I like my life now. It is beautiful and it is a consequence of the decisions and experiences I’ve made and had in 31 years. I am satisfied with it.

As for travelling, what  truly makes me happy when I travel is not ticking things off a list no matter how authentic or shallow it might be BUT recognizing that all of us, no matter where we live or what we do, are the same people who share the most basic human need – the need to be loved. When you realize that, you’d understand the world a little better and you can make meaningful connections. I think that is what travel and pretty much everything in life, is all about.

When I turned 30 last year, I wanted to write a blog about birthday thoughts and self reflections but I was overwhelmed (as usual). Yesterday I turned 31 and I decided that I won’t be overwhelmed anymore so that the next 31 years would include many blissful memories if not entirely problem-free (because that’s impossible!).

So starting on my 31st birthday I will:

Spend more time with myself and the things that makes me happy: travel, writing and dining
Keep my circle even smaller because I do not like engaging in shallow conversations
Work just enough to fulfill my responsibilities and not more that it’ll interfere with my private time
Weed out people I don’t really like and spend my money, time and energy on meaningful relationships
Forgive my love ones easily
Say what I think
Spend even less time on Facebook
Read more books
Do more safaris
Cycle more
Drink only good alcohol
Save up and eventually invest
Cry if necessary and not hold it
Try not to flare up easily
Say NO

So cheers to me and cheers to life. To end, I am sharing a quote from Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with a Dog:

“In reality everything is beautiful in this world when one reflects: everything except what we think or do ourselves when we forget our human dignity and the higher aims of our existence.”

There’s a kind of high when you are staying in the Serengeti. That high slowly fades away as soon as your Land Cruiser touched the asphalted roads. And when you realized that you are not staying in luxurious tented camps anymore, without the sounds of the hyenas and lions in the evening, a kind of sadness overwhelms you. Serengeti is a paradise.  It is a special place that unfortunately is exclusive to those who can pay  and whose backs are still strong enough for its  tough terrain.

We had a limited time in the Serengeti. The next day, we headed to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

In the early morning, the crater was enveloped in thick clouds, making the ascend treacherous. You cannot see farther than 50 meters and the thick clouds rising from the ravine make you feel that you’re driving to the unknown. If we’ve fallen into that ravine, could have said “She died and went straight to heaven.”

After experiencing the Serengeti then driving to the Ngorongoro crater amidst this thick cloud, on a narrow, snaking dirt road, I thought “This would have been a perfect time to die”. Because what beauty is still out there to experience after you’ve been to Earth’s last paradise? After looking a lion in the eye and drinking a lovely African shiraz while watching the sun dropping behind the clouds in the savanna, there couldn’t be an experience more beautiful. In the tranquility of the the Serengeti, perfection exist.

When we reached the lake and the crater opened, it revealed a panorama that I was afraid to see – a breathtaking landscape peppered with hundreds of safari jeeps. There was a line of 4×4 for anything that is exciting – a pack of lions feasting on a kill, some hippos lounging in the sun, a herd of buffalos assembling themselves in a defensive position against a pack of hyena. Robin and I had to think of a zoo.

But there was one highlight that we would not miss for the world, seeing the elusive rhino a little bit closer than two kilometers. He was alone, munching on his vegetarian breakfast and hoping to cross the road to the river to drink. But there were just too many cars. After 15 minutes, he went away to hide. There were only 13 rhinoceros left in the NgoroNgoro Conservation Park. Their number dwindled down rapidly due to poaching. Rogarth said we were lucky that we’ve seen one so close.

This was our last safari drive. The next evening, we caught the plane back to the Netherlands. For the last time, the wild life of Tanzania gave me something to make me smile. I left with the very funny video (above) of a zebra scratching himself silly on a piece of rock.

I will miss this country.

Day 7 – Our last day in the Serengeti

I didn’t take as many pictures as I probably should have. I wanted to experience this trip with my soul and all my senses – looking a lion in the eye, smelling the lemony whiff of the freshly cut grasses made by the elephants, tasting the dust and sand during game drives, hearing the hyenas roaming about during the night and feeling the chilly air in the morning and biting heat of the Serengeti. Not behind the small frame of a viewfinder. So when I am old and my eyes becomes bad, my heart will still remember how beautiful this was.

In addition to the searing heat and sea of dust, in the Serengeti, you’ll also be assaulted by annoying tsetse flies that stings as painful as fuck (even through your long sleeves). I notice that instead of whacking them to death, Rogarth would open the windows to let them out. I am not sure if tsetse flies are just generally mean and want to sting people to death or they just get confused flying inside a 4×4 with tourists who have thick guide books to slap them flat.

Tsetse flies are good indication of getting nearer to the herds of migrating wildebeest. On our 6th day, when we saw our first big herd, the tsetse flies were all over the Land Cruiser.

We didn’t really see the river crossing, the image that usually represents the Great Migration. What we saw was a big herd quenching their thirst on a small river. There were thousands of them, littering on the plain, some running to the other side of the road, some coming back.

These wildebeest are funny animals. They look like some mindless cows running around not knowing where to go. Like the zebras, they would run back and forth until one of the leaders would chase each one into the line when it’s time to move. Slowly you would see them forming a long que. A lot of people could really learn a lot about queuing from these wildebeests.

The Great Migration refers to the annual migration of about two million zebras and wildebeest in East Africa, mostly in parts of the Serengeti to the Masai Mara in Kenya, chasing the rain. Their most dangerous plights happen when crossing the Lobo and Grumeti rivers where hungry crocodiles await them. This is the most filmed moment in their journey. They would be also followed by the big predators. Most of these wildebeests would die in this annual plight for greener grass.

We were lucky to see two big herds in the Serengeti. One was during our 6th day and the second on our 7th day, just when we were checking in at the Eco Lodge Africa at the Grumeti Camp. You wouldn’t believe the kind of noise these animals make and it can last all throughout the day.

I’ve had the perfect bed at the Eco Lodge Africa, hard bed with lots of pillows. I felt like a million dollar although it is certainly not the best lodge. Since I was still sick and couldn’t sleep, I spent the whole evening listening to the wildebeest and the hyenas, hoping to hear the distress call of the zebras. But I didn’t hear any kill during the evening. Good for the migrating herds.

The next morning we went back to spend our last day in the Serengeti. In addition to the usual sights, we were treated to a haunt – a pack of lions trying to snatch a zebra from a small herd for breakfast. Unfortunately, they all missed. However after half an hour of spotting, we chanced upon lion feasting on a kill by a small river. But there were at least 20 cars around it and god knows how many other tourist snapping their cameras at the lone lion. We couldn’t enjoy it very much.

The same thing happened when we spotted some leopards. If there had not been too many cars, we could have enjoyed looking at the leopards even though they were still too far away. But I wasn’t disappointed as much as my co-travellers were. I felt like I was already so blessed by so all these amazing sights and missing some animals only gives me more reason to come back.

We had lunch near a salt lake after a failed attempt to get near a rhinoceros. But we could technically say that we’ve found the Big 5 in one trip to the Serengeti. At least for the people in our group who wants to tick it off their list.

As for me, I was just too happy being in the Serengeti – pushing the Land Cruiser when it got stuck in the middle of the Grumeti Camp, peeing in the open despite the danger of lions attacking you because you’re bladder is going to explode if you don’t (you know how they warn you NOT TO GET OUT OF THE CAR), lunching near a salt where you saw a rhino just a couple of kilometers away and seeing a lion attacking a zebra. Your heart would be pounding but at the same time, you were also wishing the moment never to stop.

We left the Serengeti after lunch, my heart filled with joy. All the money spent in this trip was worth it. But  just when we thought we’ve seen enough, the Serengeti had one last surprise for us – a pack of hyenas and vultures feasting on the remnants of a kill. And here Robin took what for me was his best shot in this trip – a hyena running away with a big chunk of the kill.

This photo sums up what the Serengeti is – wild and free (up to a certain extent). Calling it the Last Eden is only but apt because here we could still see what paradise looks like, the one that we were taught God created.

However in the near future, when more people could afford a safari trip, would there still be enough space in the endless plain of Africa to accommodate all of us?