Marrakech

I often travel with two of my closest girlfriends and one of the "must dos" when you find yourself in Marrakech is to visit a real hammam. We had the full treatment, where we were stripped naked and scrubbed down, rinsed and then allowed to relax in a steam bath. Once we were all loosened up, we had a full body massage, then had some henna tattooed on our bodies. Voila!

This hammam was found in the heart of a labyrinthian souq. I'm not even sure how we navigated our way to the area and managed to come out okay.

Jamaa el Fnaa at night. During the daytime, the square is bustling with vendors and snake charmers. But at night, the real enterainment comes alive with fire and live music. The smell is intoxicating. People-watching from the top of a cafe in the medina, while nursing a soothing cup of Turkish coffee.

Volubilis

We took a fabulous half-day excursion from Meknes. Volubilis is well-known for having the largest and most well-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. Although most of the structures have crumbled from the many centuries of neglect, the mosaics remain absolutely stunning.

In the Sahara....

One night in the desert. It was tranquility with not a single city light to be seen. There must have been a billion stars that came out that night. We stayed in a Touareg's tent where they served us tagine and sang songs of love and nature. We drank mint tea and stayed up as long as we could.

A sandstorm on the way to the Sahara. The tiny bits of sand can really cut through skin in no time. My lower legs were exposed so I suffered the sting. Luckily I had my scarf to protect my face.

Ryad Bahia

In Meknes, I met an incredibly fascinating woman named Bouchra Jamai who together with her husband, ran this ryad within the medina. She was not only highly-educated, speaking 5 languages, but she was also very well-travelled. This is her ryad, the Ryad Bahia. When you are in Morocco, you must stay in one of these traditional style town houses. They are beautiful and give you a sense of being in an Arabic country. I'm afraid my photos probably do not do justice to the splendour of this dwelling but at least you get the picture.

Overcast morning in Tangier

I will never forget the first morning I found myself in Morocco. I was awoken to the blair of sirens: A call to prayer at dawn. It was still dark outside and my friends and I were recovering still from a turbulent ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar the night before. We came by way of Tarifa in Spain. This used to be a conduit reserved only for EU passport holders so we had the privilege of being one of the first few non-EU tourists to make the crossing. This photo was taken from the terrace of Hotel Continental, perched high above the port.

AGO - King Tut's Treasures

I just love how much light this place allows because of all the big windows. I wish I could do this for my new house!

This was supposedly a piece of art. Not sure of what though.

I recently visited the AGO for King Tut's Treasures. I couldn't take any photos inside so I took photos of the outside instead. Even then, I had to be careful of what images I could snap. I had not been to the AGO since Frank Ghery's makeover but it was a nice treat. Reminded me of the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, except of course, no titanium walls.

Rare Sightings

Who says lightning doesn't strike the same place twice? Some people who come to Tanzania never see all of the "Big 5". Most of the time, people do not see the black rhinos in the Ngorongoro crater. There are only about 20 of these magnificent animals roaming freely in the wild. On two occasions, we saw the black rhinos, once just a lone male, and the top photo, a female with her young in tow.

Hyena Feeding Frenzy

A hyena feeding frenzy. It was incredible to watch these predators/scavengers feeding on a hippo carcass. Apparently this had been going on for days. The hippo died of natural causes.

It was strange to see the other hippos just watching. I wish that our attitude towards death were this way as well. It is all part of the circle of life, one day you are on top of the food chain, and the next day, you are hyena chow.

Elephant Cemetery

He was a very old elephant, maybe in his 50s. Very close to dying. It was very sad because this old fella barely moved. All his teeth were probably gone so he had limited choices when it came to food. Edwin, our guide, told us that the Maasai at first believed in "elephant graves", where most elephants came to a particular place to die. The true scientific explanation however is that these "graves" are often concentrated with elephant bones because these were areas where plant materials were softer to chew on, ideal for the aged elephants' diet. And as these elephants get too old to move around, they end up spending the last days of their lives in these areas, inadvertently giving rise to "elephant graves".

Ngorongoro Crater Sopa Lodge

The accommodations again were impeccable here at the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge. It is the only lodge located on the eastern rim of the crater so to get here takes a little while longer, but entering into the crater, is faster and much more convenient. Each of the little chalets had an unobstructed view of the crater, and at night, as I quickly discovered, wild animals feed right by the greenery that lay before your window. I was awoken at night by impalas and cape buffaloes grazing, some of them so close, their horns practially scrape the glass separating you from the outdoors. It was magical.....

Reclining lounges were provided for those who choose to relax and take in all the view before nightfall or before taking off on a game drive in the early morning.

Oldupai Gorge

The name "Olduvai Gorge" is actually a misnomer. A German anthropologist who first wrote about this area in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania mispronounced "Oldupai" and published his research with the incorrect name. Oldupai is a Maasai term for a fibrous plant endemic to the region, also known as Sisal (see below). The sisal plant has a variety of uses: its roots can be boiled for medicine, as pain killer akin to paracetamol; the fibers from the leaves are used as fabric, or for roofing on thatched houses. Animals also depend on the tuberous leaves that can hold water. They extract the water from the leaves during the dry season.

There are approximately 5 stratified layers (or beds) in the excavated region that are used as timeline indicators, Bed 1 being the earliest and Bed 5, the latest.

The oldest cast of hominid footprints.

This is the skull cast of an Australopithecus boisei, discovered in Bed 1 (the earliest layer), believed to have roamed the area some 1.8 million years ago.

Homo habilis, discovered some 1.75 million years ago, was believed to be the first hominids to use tools.

Some of the tools used by early man.

Bone remnants of extinct animals in the surrounding area.

Olduvai (or Oldupai) Gorge is a must-see: Famously known as the "cradle of mankind", this region is where evidence of the oldest hominid remains and tools have been found. The modest museum above, was established by Louis and Mary Leakey who excavated the area in the '50s. The site continues to be excavated today.

Along the way to Ngorongoro Crater

The landscape morphs so dramatically from the lower regions where savannah grass grow wild and eventually give way to acacia trees. As we ascend to the hill tops, the vegetation becomes a thick, rainforest-like growth, and the greenery becomes more intense.

A view of the Ngorongoro Crater....

Cape buffaloes graze along the road. These guys are pretty agile and can climb even the most precipitous inclines. They do look like domesticated water buffaloes found in Asian countries (like my own hometown of Philippines), but make no mistake, they are dangerous when cornered.

Serengeti Sopa Lodge

The swimming pool and lounging area overlooking the western Serengeti. There is an artifical watering hole that the lodge had created to attract the wild animals. We saw mostly giraffes, gazelles, impalas and warthogs feeding in the general vicinity.

When I was booking this place initially, I went on to TripAdvisor to read some reviews. And as to be expected, the comments were mixed. Some people complained of bug infestations, dirty rooms, etc. But honestly, I was impressed when I stayed here. The rooms were spacious, clean and bug-free! It could just be the time of the year. I was more concerned with the tsetse flies when we were out for the game drives because their bites were quite painful. And also, the whole African Sleeping Sickness thing was a little worrisome. All the places we stayed at had hot showers and very comfy beds with mosquito nettings.

Our bedroom had a balcony that overlooked the Serengeti. Since mosquitoes were not really an issue when we were there, my hubby and I sat outside at night with the lights turned off and just listened to the wildlife. We heard a pride of hunting lions make a kill and the deep, guttural roar of what I imagined to be a very large lion. It sounded like a Harley Davidson motorcycle but louder and more powerful. It was just incredible.

Mama and her cubs

This was a fortuitous sighting of a mama lion and her three babies, just along the side of a dirt road in the Serengeti. A whole pride of young lions just basking in the afternoon sun.

These were the rest of the siblings. The one on the left is a juvenile male.