Fiji loves an ear infection

“this too shall pass”

“this too shall pass”

This was the mantra that I repeated over and over to myself as I lay in a shack on a remote island in Fiji with a raging ear infection. For the first time in my 8 months of travel I was regretting traveling alone. I was three days into my stay at the gorgeous Octopus resort on Waya Island in the Yasawa chain of islands in Fiji. Waya is everything that tropical postcards, calendars and computer backdrops depict: as in white sand, stunning coral and azure water. Not that I was really getting the benefit of any of that from my perch in the fetal position. I certainly couldn’t swim; felt revolted by the idea of baking in the sun and couldn’t swallow without pain, let alone sip away at coconut milk cocktails. In short, I was in a bad way.

How exactly did it come to this?

Although you might not have readily surmised this from my 3 month absence from blogging, I have been in Australia, specifically Sydney, where I spent a solid two and a half months working to repay my travel debts. There was nothing so fascinating about the work, just a typical restaurant job as a waitress, although it was incredible to really live on the other side of the world for a bit. And live is what I did. I had a job, a gym routine and a family. And oh what a family! I was staying with my aunty ma and cousin Janis, whom I love to bits, but rarely get to see. As well I got to connect with my mom’s side of the family. Cousin Archie and the rest of the Arenson gang: Elana, Bess, Belinda and my little cuzzies Dani, Sam and Mikaela! Oh and of course who can forget the fact that BOTH of my grannies were in town: Granny Gertie for Pesach and Granny Dor for a jol. So anyways after a solid amount of time living and working I dedicated the last ten days of my trip to Australia’s east coast. This was too short of a time by any estimate, but as anyone who has been to Australia knows, nothing about oz is cheap. I broke my trip down into two priorities: surfing and diving. If you may recall I had certified for my Padi open water diving while in Plettinburg bay, South Africa. As for surfing, it was just something I had always wanted to try, but preferably not in freezing cold water. So I did the Mojo surf camp from Sydney up to Byron Bay. I originally signed up for the 4-day camp, but ended up extending my time to 5 days because I loved it so much. To drive from Sydney to Byron would take 12 hours. On the first day we drove 6 up to this gorgeous little surf shack right on the beach. Then we had our first whack at the surf, as the sun was setting and the moon rising in the dusk of the day. It was pretty romantic, but we also got absolutely pummeled. For the beginner, a significant aspect of surfing is understanding how to hold your board so that a wave doesn’t crash it into you. Anyways over the next couple of days we showed significant improvement in this field. As well we managed to actually get up on our boards, which is no small feat. We stayed two nights at the little surf camp and then drove another 3 hours north to Coffs Harbour where we stayed at a larger camp with different tour groups integrated. Here we worked on the next skill to master, which was paddling and learning to catch our own waves. Two nights flew by and then it was another 3 hours to Byron where we all went out on Friday night. At this point I felt quite close to my group and was quite sad when it came time for me to bus to Brisbane the next day, as I had a flight up to Cairns.

Cairns sucks. It’s way touristy and not at all as cool as Byron. But my live aboard experience was really impressive. I stayed on this boat called Reef Encounter that’s stationed out on the Great Barrier Reef. To get to it you take a transfer boat. It was on this boat that I met Courtney and Ben, two likeminded twenty-year olds from Southern California. We struck up a quick friendship and were thrilled to find out that we were sharing a room on the boat. The next three days were filled with diving, eating and hot tubing. Essentially we would wake up, dive, sit in the hot tub and talk about food and then eat. And repeat. We did 3-4 dives a day including two night dives! And that brings us to the aforementioned ear infection, which undoubtedly was a result of all that time underwater. The day after my live aboard concluded I flew back to Sydney and the next day onwards to Fiji.

Notes on the Dubai scene from our local reporter on the spot during the Leap Year

Sometime ago I got it in my head that I wanted to go see Dubai. Something about its incredible growth over such a short amount of time piqued my business-inclined mind. And while at first it didn’t seem like it would happen on this particular journey, a clever routing to Sydney via Abu Dhabi made it possible. That combined with the fact that despite being an Arab country, I had relatives there. So I took a detour on my way to the land down under and spent a few days in Dubai, the city of gold. Dubai is one of the seven countries comprising the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and a short 40-minute drive or a complimentary hour-and-a half Etihad bus ride away. Etihad is the new airline that I flew and while lesser known than Emirates they operate an efficient and luxurious flight; a comparatively cheaper journey than Emirates that connects Abu Dhabi to the world. And that is precisely what Dubai and now Abu Dhabi are striving to be, cosmopolitan hubs. They are succeeding. It all started back in the sixties when oil was discovered in Dubai. Dubai is a family run business err, country and the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum rules the country with brilliant foresight. About five years ago the Sheikh realized that the oil in Dubai would run out by 2020, so he invested large sums of money to turn the country into the massive tourist destination and celebrity hotspot that it is today. I must say he did and does a very good job. Dubai is a flawless plastic bubble of perfection: somewhat of an Arab Disney-land if you will. Everything is immaculately landscaped and buildings are erected in record time and according to budget. And the country just drips money. Locals live in private palaces and all labourers have been imported from surrounding areas and skilled labour recruited from around the world. And so it is reasserted: if you build it, they will come. And who exactly comes? Tourists come in droves from all corners of the earth and a whole work force of expats. Many of which are South Africans like my cousins. These ex-South Africans are enticed by the crime-free society. Dubai has virtually no crime. Venders in the Spice Souk even leave their merchandise is the streets overnight. It remains untouched by morning. In addition to the lack of crime, the expats also enjoy the tax-free (including income tax free) living as well as free public education in British, International or American schools. And despite being an Arab country, Dubai is liberal; one need not cover up in public. Although of course some Muslims do. This is one of the fascinating contrasts of the place: women in burkkas cruising some of the largest and most commercial shopping malls in the world. Malls that are lovely I might add. When Dubai does something, it does it right. Everything is elegant and tasteful and of course air-conditioned. This is due to Dubai having only two seasons: hot and extremely hot. Summer temperatures can spike to 50 degrees Celsius!

Overall I found Dubai to be both weird and fascinating. I am glad to have experienced it and happy for the opportunity to get to know my family there. The place is so popping that I even might consider living there for a year or two. It definitely is a place to watch over the next couple of years. I am sure with the Sheik’s master plan it will continue booming.


The Burg, the world's only seven star hotel


the gold souk


Alexa and I


Alexa & Weston


Michelle at lunch


landscape


typical tourist shot

The end of the road

No matter how long you spend in any place, at the end you always run out of time. This was the case for my three-month stay in Cape Town. The last two weeks were an absolute whirlwind of activity. During that time I managed to cross some major goals off of my list. To begin with I finally managed to go into the Kyalitsha Township with Debbie Goetz. Debbie is a friend from camp who started a women’s support group in the township years ago. She used her nanny as her resource, as her nanny lives there and managed to make many friends and contacts. People that she regularly goes to visit. So I went along for one such trip and was absolutely blown away. When you drive along the highway, Kyalitsha appears as a massive, sprawling squatter camp of tin shacks. But inside it is a real community. Compared to the rest of gated Cape Town, Kyalitsha is the only place that one is guaranteed know their neighbors. Children play in the streets and everywhere was the sound of music and laughter. We visited on a Sunday and it was wonderful to see everyone dressed in their church best. We met several of Debbie’s friends, but one stood out to me in particular. Vivian is both street smart and has a university education. She has opened an orphanage and runs a soup kitchen that feeds over 250 people daily. By working with a private Swedish donor she has even managed to expand her project and renovate her home to include space for more children. She is incredibly warm and is definitely a go to person for anyone wishing to volunteer in the township. Her organization’s webpage is now a link.


Vivian outside her house


Sunday best


a child playing in the sand

Another thing on my list to do was hike up Lion’s Head Mountain. Jon and I had to make two attempts at this. The first time we tried we had to turn back as we started too late in the evening and it was getting dark. So we went again a few days later and it was absolute madness. It was the day after the lunar eclipse and so the mountain was popping with people waiting to see the moon rise. Everyone and their dog were there and I even saw one of my campers. Not wanting to get caught in the dark, we descended shortly after we hit the peak only to meet serious traffic. As we were coming down, hordes were still going up! Indeed you could see torches on the mountain well into the night. What a scene!


on top of Cape Town


Jon and myself at the top


Table Mountain in the back


re-fuelling

And finally, on the Monday, two days before I left I went with my granny to Robben Island. This is where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were oppressed during the fight to end apartheid. It was a fascinating tour and I only wished for more time in the prison to look at the artifacts and hear stories from our guide, who had himself been a prisoner there. He told us some shocking stories of injustice. For instance when his own father had asked to come visit him, the wardens went to the father’s house and shot him eight times; all for the non-existent crime of wanting to visit his own son. They deemed this ‘fraternizing with a terrorist’ and have not been reprimanded for this crime up to this day. They remain successful businessmen while our tour leader’s father was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.


the lime quarry where Mandela worked


Mandela's cell

In the end it was difficult to say goodbye to the many friends I had made. I hosted a farewell tea to do so and am certain that I will be back in Cape Town sometime soon. Certainly sooner than the eight years between this visit and my last one!


farewell tea


Goodbye!

Yacht Racing!

Myles hooked Jon and I up big time and we got to go on a yacht in the weekly sail race. Our boat was called Thunderchild and we had once hell of a time racing around for 2 hours with the crew.

Here are some gorgeous shots from the ship.


View of Table Mountain


the race!


jon


the captain

The ‘They’re not the way they were’ Tour

Even though I’ve been now in South Africa since the end of November, there is still much of Cape Town I have not seen. To be fair, I did spend a considerable amount of time in Onrus and Hermanus for camp and afterwards went straight to Plett for ten days, however my Granny was rather unimpressed with it all. Therefore she rallied her ‘young friend’ Myles to take me on the ‘Orientation Tour’. Miles is a contemporary of my Aunty Lol and has been working for and with my Granny for years now. They get on like a house on fire. So we set out to see the sites. We started out at 8:30 am from my Gran’s house in Seapoint, on the Atlantic Seaboard and made our way to the Indian through False Bay where the two oceans mingle. First we drove past Muizenberg beach which back in the day was the absolute place to be. Myles said he used to take the train there all the way from town at age 14 with his surfboard, because it was just that safe. Nowadays he reckons you’d get mugged within an inch of your life; and so began the ‘they’re not the way they were’ tour. Things have changed a lot in South Africa since apartheid ended fourteen years ago, and like anyone else whose been witness to it, Gran and Myles have a lot to say about it. To begin with the current governing party’s presidential candidate is facing fraud charges. Then there’s the recent Eskom energy crisis has everyone here hopping. For it seems the Government did not pay heed years ago when it was warned that the energy systems needed to be expanded. Therefore today’s system is inadequate and there are massive daily power cuts in an attempt to load shed the overwhelming energy demands. The cuts are so heavy that the mines which contribute so heavily to this country’s GDP, can only use enough energy to safely maintain the mines. Therefore nothing is being extracted and no gold melted. People are also missing out on wages and the ripple effects of this disaster are untold.

Next we went to Kalk Bay for breakfast. We went to this little hole in the wall place called the Olympia Café that serves the most incredible smoked salmon omlette croissant. Their adjacent bakery is so divine that it’s just indecent. We popped into Fishoek beach next and then past Misty Cliffs to Scarborough. All the way driving along a panorama of stunning azure ocean views and pro kite surfers. Then we went to Scarforth and Boulder’s, which is home to the South African penguins. According to Gran this has been vastly commercialized. Afterwards we went to Simon’s Town for a lunch of fresh fish at Salty Dog. I had the Snoek. It was delicious. Then I bought a beautiful copper painting and we drove back to town over Chapman’s Peak, which has been slightly marred by unsightly and debatably efficient boulder-catchers. But which is still home to rip-tide seeking surfers. Next we past Haut bay, which to me is one of the most beautiful beaches. However Myles tells me that one can’t swim there as the disease-ridden runoff from squatter camps is deposited in those waters. Finally we drove through Camps Bay. Which in my opinion is like the Kits beach of Cape Town. You know, where people go to see and be seen. There Granny was shocked by the fact that her friend’s ex-next door had managed to get permits passed which enabled them to not only partially block her drive-way, but also made completely obsolete the stunning ocean views of the house directly behind it.

After expressing such opinions one might be misguided to think that my Granny and Myles do not actually like Cape Town much at all. But then perhaps you might have missed out on just how stunning the whole day’s adventure was. And how neither my Gran or Myles, both whom have traveled the whole world over, would rather live anywhere else. This is the fascinating paradox of this country, for it definitely has it problems and it’s future remains unpredictable. Yet it is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been and a whole lot of people feel precisely the same.


Myles and Gran


just stunning!


penguins!

Dinner at Moyo

Last Saturday my Granny treated Jon an I to dinner at Moyo. Moyo is more than a restaurant, it is an entire indigenous experience. It offers authentic African music, sublime pan African cuisine and true hospitality rooted in the ancient cultures of Africa.

There are 3 Moyo locations in South Africa and the Moyo in Cape Town is located at the Spier Winery.

"In a garden where a 300 year old Oak tree stands as confirmation of Africa's greatness, moyo nestled itself amongst the surrounding tree tops in 2004. Tree house, gazebo’s and Bedouin tents created an enchanting African wonderland on the Spier Wine Estate. This 1000 seater sensory experience, with a buffet span of 25m soon became a 'must-see' on any winelands tour."

Needless to say we had the most incredible evening full of eating and relaxing. Thank you Granny Dor!


The 300 year old Oak


beautiful Moyo atmosphere!


entertainment


chilling by the tree

Shomrim Machaneh 2007

Scuba Diving!

This summer after taking my STCW course with a group of people training to become dive instructors, I decided that I wanted to learn how to dive and obtain my Open Water Diving Certification. At first I figured that I would do it in Australia, but then before camp I started thinking about doing it in Cape Town. I now find myself in Plettenburg Bay, a coastal vacation spot 6 hours away from Cape Town. I am here visiting with my first cousins on my mom’s side of the family. I rarely get a chance to see them as while my mom and Aunty Ruth both chose to leave South Africa, my Aunty Lorraine and her family live in Johannesburg. We have been here since January 2nd and the weather has been mostly cuck. So being in Plett with some sub-par weather and feeling a little cooped up, I thought that I might as well do my diving course here. Thank god for the entertainment options provided by timeshare resorts! So I have been going to lessons for the past week and as of Thursday am now a certified Open Water diver. This is tremendously exciting, as it feels wonderful to have already fulfilled one of my goals of the year, as well as a lifelong dream to be a mermaid.

Diving involves a lot more skill and knowledge than I had previously thought. Plus there are some serious risks involved. The number one rule of diving is to always breathe. This might seem simple, but isn’t really when you think that a swimmers instinct is to hold their breath underwater.

We went on four ocean dives during the duration of the course and yesterday I had an incident with my regulator, the mouthpiece through which you breathe. We were practicing losing and replacing your regulator underwater. This is simple enough with some practice and as I was clearing the water out of my reg so that I could breathe through it again, I hit a minor glitch as it malfunctioned and went into free flow. I managed to stay calm and switched to my octo (backup regulator). My instructor however was more than a little spooked, as she had never seen that happen before. But it’s good to know that I can maintain composure in a potentially fatal diving situation, as it really is an incredible adventure sport. I look forward to future dives this year in Australia, Thailand and maybe even Cairo!

Habonim Dror Machaneh Hechalutz: Camping in the Bush of Africa

Well Camp was incredible! It was a lot like the promotional video portrays it to be: massive, full of children and crazy. Having been used to Habonim Dror camps with no more than 200 campers, it was very exciting and slightly daunting to have a camp of over 1200 people! The whole organization of it obviously differs completely. For instance I had Shomrim which are kids going into grade 12. At Camp Miriam, the Habo camp I used to go to on Gabriola Island, that age group would be Madatz, who are already counselors in training. At Habonim Dror South Africa (HDSA) they are considered the oldest campers and have a camp formatted to ease them into the transition of campers to ‘Boger’ meaning graduate. The highlight of this is ‘Projects Week’ where they get involved in the planning and running of a variety of activities broken into 1, 2 or 3-day projects. These range from planning and executing the Talent Show to taking over the kitchen and organizing food for the whole camp for a day. Our kids got their first taste of being a Madrich (counselor) or ‘Maddie’ by taking care of the Shtillim kids as their madrichim had a day off camp for their Rocks day. Another group handled the grade 4, ‘Garinim’ campers as they joined us for a 3-day mini-machaneh. Yet another group of Shomrim had kids from Zwelihle, the local township come over for 3 days of fun at our camp. These kids even got to perform a dance at our Talent Show and had the time of their lives. That is until one kid stole someone’s digital camera. There are definitely still massive problems in this country stemming from the huge in division of wealth. That’s why at Habo SA one of their pillars is ‘Service to humanity’, and therefore one of our most important projects is TAC, the Treatment Action Campaign where youth activists from Kyalitsha, the large township in Cape Town come stay with us on camp for a few days to discuss and actualize on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I worked on this project and it was fascinating to see our somewhat sheltered South African Jewish teens relate to black kids their own age, some of whom are HIV positive. It was also wonderful to hand out 5000 condoms in the fairly small-minded town of Hermanus and talk to people and see their reactions.

Camp was also incredible to me for many personal reasons. Toted by my father as a ‘one shot deal’, it was a chance to see the camp my parents went to and made some of their best friendships and memories at. It was also an insight into what life is like as a South African youth, a life that could have been mine if my parents hadn’t decided to immigrate to Canada a year before I was born. And it was certainly quite an experience living in the middle of the bush in Africa, as Habo SA prides themselves on a true camping experience with tents instead of cabins. One of my highlights was building the Shomrim Hannalah site, the sleeping and chill site for the Shomrim maddies. We had to make a new site this year as the Bonim group was so big that they had to annex our previous one. So we literally went into the bush with a chainsaw team and got to create our space. In the end it was beautiful. As the smallest staff group of 11 it was an intimate space with winding, rock lined path on the way in and out. It was comprised of 3 tents, Hammock Land, a tapestry enclosed chill area with ingeniously crafted couches made out of mattresses, milk crates and string, as well as a covered area for our materials and excess stuff. My tent included myself, Casper, Yair and Alon and was dubbed ‘Caucus Raucous’ it was great-fun and well-loved up until I made myself a self-appointed alternate member of a certain tent in the Amelim Hannalah site.

Overall my Habonim Dror South African camp experience was amazing! Everyday at suppertime I would reflect on just how quickly another day had passed. And if you’ve ever been to a summer camp then you’ll understand just how much happens in a day! The time flew and even less than halfway through I found it weird to think that I had once not known any of the incredible people that I was now surrounded by.

As par the tradition, Shomrim was responsible for setting up Mifkad Eish, the final night of the beach where we light on fire the names of all the age groups as well as the Habo semel (symbol). It was so breathtaking to see all the words alight and the purposely emotion-evoking music really combined for a moving last night. It couldn’t have ended any better.