As a true millennial, I live and breathe Social Media, a.k.a. Insta. is. life. That’s where I spend most of my time and it’s where I’d say my kind of “magic” happens. If you want to keep up with me, then click here.
As a true millennial, I live and breathe Social Media, a.k.a. Insta. is. life. That’s where I spend most of my time and it’s where I’d say my kind of “magic” happens. If you want to keep up with me, then click here.
Bonjour b*tches, Sahara edition.
(Fun fact: Although the main spoken language in Morocco is Arabic, the second unofficial language is French. Since Arabic causes my writing to be typed the other way round, I welcomed you in French. #SorryNotSorry)
This post is dedicated to my 2 night-3 day hectic experience in the Sahara, featuring my lovely collaboration with Morocco Expert Tours.
Morocco is super Instagrammable. With colourful buildings and doors to pose next to, to literally a sea of orange sand to frolic in. I’m just kidding, I’m not that shallow. Morocco is bursting with history and culture (e.g. 70% of the population are Berbers and it’s one of the world’s largest producers of illicit hashish – yes, I went with that fact). Its natural ambience and architecture gives you the feeling that you’ve time-traveled to another era. I personally felt like I was starring in Aladdin, but I’ll try to not be as basic and base my views on Jasmines P.O.V.
So, being a SM addict who saw all kinds of pretty pictures of people in the Sahara desert, as well as having a keen interest in exploring all corners of this planet earth, I was dying to get on a camel and roam the sands of the Sahara.
However, one little problem. I had a total of 5 days and nights in Morocco, and being a stubborn S.O.B., I wanted three full days in Marrakech. Have in mind that the Sahara desert (and I’m talking about the big sand dunes part) is a good 9-10h drive from the airport and consequently almost no one, or no tour agency, had the offer of a 2 night-3 day tour starting from the airport all the way to the desert and back. And that’s where Morocco Expert Tours came to my rescue.
I contacted Youssef, the real MVP, and he helped make my trip fit for my needs, so he made a special package for me. #Blessed.
So we embarked upon our adventure to the desert, at 10 am, right after my BFF and I landed in Marrakech airport. Two lovely guides, Hassan and Mustafa, showed us all that Morocco had to offer.
I’m going to cut to the chase and show pictures rather than yappity yap yap my way through my experience.
Then we finally arrived at our first overnight stay at the lovely Xaluca Dades Hotel. A beautifully decorated hotel with ancient Arabian/African vibes and endless panoramic views of the Dades Valley.
The next day we continued our adventure towards Merzouga and the desert, but had a few other stops on the way:
And finally, the moment I’d been waiting for. The whole ‘mounting the camel’ sitch.
We ventured on our adventure to the camp where Morocco Expert Tours organised a lovely, luxury tent in the middle of the desert called Desert Camp Bouchedor. And boy did they not kid about the whole luxury-in-the-middle-of-f*cking-nowhere thing (more below).
We got on our camels and “camelled” our way there and let me tell you this folks; a camel ride is not comfortable AT ALL.
Especially when theres a surprise f*cking sand storm that comes out of nowhere. Fun fact: sandstorms are pretty common in the Sahara desert, and while they won’t kill you, they can annoy the sh*t out of you.
So what seemed like half the Sahara sand in my ear later, we finally arrived at this beauty.
We were taken to our room which was a legit f*cking room in the middle of nowhere – can’t stress that enough. Electricity, shower, soap are all provided! I know that many people lean towards the more adventurous type of backpacking, sleeping in tents and camping, but for some of us, that just won’t cut it.
So yeah, a normal bed is provided, and all necessary amenities to enjoy the Sahara desert whilst not… feeling like being in the middle of the Sahara desert.
We unfortunately did not get the chance to watch the sunset. Thanks sandstorm. However, that didn’t stop me from making the most of it!
The night was beautiful. We had traditional Moroccan food prepared by the Bedouins, were taught how to play traditional music and spent the night stargazing as one rarely has the chance to see such a mesmerising thing. We then went to bed where I hardly got any shut eye (oh, yeah, it gets SUPER warm in there) and then the 5 AM wake up call.
And what a wake up call that was. Words cannot describe the serenity I felt in that moment. The beauty of watching the sun slowly rise from the sand and reflect its beautiful yellow rays on the never ending orange space was above all mesmerising.
And i’m not even a cheesy SOB.
Finally, the heading back to civilisation. Ten hours later we arrived in Marrakech.
So folks, to conclude with, if you’re a compressed traveler like me who wants to do everything but also wants to be on the go like non-stop cause we’re Millennials and we constantly think that we’re running out of time, want to visit Morocco/the Sahara desert – and are also looking for a tour guide who’ll modify the trip to fit your every annoying need then I would redirect you to this travel agency – Morocco Expert Tours.
If you’d like, you could also mention that you’d want Evie’s planned trip for the same hectic experience!
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!
To read more on Africa, click here!
-VB x
Aloha b*tches! Oahu edition.
I’m back with a post about what to do in the ever so lovely Oahu, Hawaii. If this is your first time visiting this phenomenal heaven on earth place, well you’re in luck cause this post is just for you!
I visited Oahu in June, 2017 for 4 days and it was S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y not nearly enough days. I could have stayed there for a month. Actually, I’d move there if I could. #LifeGoals. And because of the short stay, I tried to fit in as many things as I could to experience errthang. So, to make your lives a lil bit easier (and I mean you, first time Oahu visitors/readers) imma drop some OMG-MUST-DO-THINGS ON YOUR FIRST TIME IN OAHU.
Here it goes:
OKAY! The North shore in Oahu is literally the prettiest place I’ve ever been to, and so it is my number 1. You should definitely devote a day to road trip there, and make sure you take the coastal highway, a.k.a Kamehameha Highway.
There are many things to do in the North shore such as try their famous dish ‘garlic shrimp’ from Giovanni’s – we did, it was awesome but keep an eye out for them meddling flies.
A lot of people will tell you to visit turtle beach, which you could. However, I’d suggest you drive a little bit further (having turtle beach on your right) and “get lost” like we did. We followed the trail on our maps (iPhones cause we’re millennials, lets just be real) and saw that there was another beach next (ish) to it. As we’re one of those pretentious people who are just so bothered by tourists (despite being tourists), we needed more privacy and so we wanted to risk it. And boy did we end up getting the biscuit! We “accidentally trespassed” on a secluded? beach WHERE LOST WAS FILMED. And for me, that’s got to be the greatest thing that has ever happened (hyperbole). So get your a** there!
Ok, so I am not 100% sure that this is it, but its either Papailoa beach or Mokule’ia Beach.
Last but not least on the North Shore, you should definitely visit Waimea beach.
I come from an island, therefore surrounded by water. I’m also Greek Cypriot so you can understand that I’ve visited my fair share of beaches and I can safely say that Waimea is one of the prettiest, beachy-est, beaches I’ve ever been to. Make sure you go there before sunset and you get a front row seat to it. A lot of people jump from the rocks on the side, so if you’re a daredevil go for it!
You literally SHOULD NOT go to Hawaii and not hike at least one trail. It’s like, frowned upon not to do so. We decided to hike the Lulumahu falls cause my friends and I are suckers for falling waters from rocks. #AhhNature.
Theres a whole bunch of online platforms that’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to hike the falls so I’ll just redirect you there cause I have 0% sense of direction. The only thing I can say is that you supposedly trespass onto government property. However, it seems that nobody really gives a damn about that. Oh and also, some website will tell you to “look out for pink ribbons” and whatnot – yeah, I saw jack sh*t but if I found the way then trust me, so will you.
Finally, make sure to take mosquito repellent and a bathing suit cause you have to get under the wonderful icy cold water otherwise, what’s the point?
Probably the most popular relaxing beach for tourists. If you like to kick back, and enjoy Hawaii like you’re meant to then thats the place for you. If you’re more adventurous and like to keep active (not really like me but Hawaii made me a better person) then rent a kayak and paddle to Moku nui island.
Tip number 1: make sure to rent the kayak FROM Lanikai beach. We rented it from a bit further up the road and was a little bit difficult to take it all the way down and then back up.
Tip Number 2: SUNSCREEN – don’t be fooled by the tropical weather, sunscreen will be your saviour.
Tip number 3: If you do kayak to the islands, make sure to not take anything you cannot live without. They’ll give you a waterproof bag to put your essentials in them but getting back from the Moku nui island to Lanikai beach was a little bit of an adventure as the waves come crashing in *dance* from different directions, and your bag, like ours, could fall in the water.
Waikiki beach is the basic of all beaches. So many hotels, restaurants, shops all scrummed up in one place. I’m not saying that it was the best place I’ve been to, but I kind of feel like you need to see Waikiki. That is if you’re not staying there already. I’d suggest you head down to Waikiki on a Friday, as the Hilton has a fireworks show and I wish I could say its dreamy, but I wouldn’t know because unfortunately it was a “high tide” day and so the firework show got cancelled. I don’t really know the correlation between the two but apparently that happens. So if you’re going to make the trip down to Waikiki for the fireworks, make sure that it will be on. In addition, it’ll also give you the opportunity to have a nice dinner, buy souvenirs and feel like a tourist in Hawaii.
Be sure to attend a Luau, it’s quite the experience! Although it could not be more of a tourist attraction, its super fun, entertaining and hey, they make a hell of a dinner meal! I personally attended a Luau in Maui, but if you’re not planning on visiting any other Hawaiian islands, devote a night to this hilarious yet educating performance! I read that the Paradise Cove is the best, so do make a reservation way in advance! The following video is from my Luau experience in Maui, just to give you a little (yummy) taste of what a Luau looks like.
If you’re more adventurous and would like to avoid the typical staying at a resort in Waikiki, I’d suggest you stay in Kailua. That’s where we stayed and it was phenomenal. It was so dreamy, I couldn’t believe that some people actually live there permanently. Here’s a picture
– and here is the link to our air bnb.
If you have more days in Oahu, Id suggest you do the following; These are definitely on my bucket list for the next time I visit!:
Aloha! 🙂 Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it! For more on Hawaii, click here!
-VB x
Aloha bitchachos!
One of my all time favourite activities in Maui, that’s probably the most famous one is driving along the Road to Hana. Although the Road to Hana is literally a road that leads up to Hana, the whole point of this activity is to enjoy the ride and make small stops along the way to experience the wonders of Maui. After all, who doesn’t love a good road-trip, that happens to be driving in the middle of a tropical jungle?
All in all, there’s about 17 stops to make on the Road to Hana. The whole idea is that you’ll start from the East side of the island, drive along the coast and jungle up until you reach Hana. There’s guided day tours operated by local agents, or, you could just “ride solo”, rent a dope ass convertible car and road-trip with your travel buddies, like I did! We made 11 stops, some were worth it, some were not so keep on reading to find out!
Before starting off, I’d like to take a minute and express that if you’re taking this road-trip, it’s best if you start super early. Like, 5:30 AM wake-up call early. This is because if you’re anything like me, you’d like to have some privacy while enjoying the stunning stops. Tour groups and other tourists will definitely be experiencing this activity. The earlier you start, the better for you as you’ll have waterfalls and beaches all to yourself (see below).
The first stop on the Road of Hana is the ‘Twin falls‘. As we started super early, we were lucky enough to have this waterfall all to ourselves to play with.
There’s a designated area to park your car, and you’ll have to walk 20 minutes to reach the falls. You’ll also have to walk right past a “no trespassing” sign but fun fact; that means a whole lot of nothing in Hawaii. Anyway, the falls were amazing, the water was perfect (freezing nonetheless, but perfect) and the rocks were slippery and pointy AF. It’s best if you wear your flip-flops on at all times, even in the water. Trust me.
Worth it.
The next stop is a “viewpoint”, called ‘Huelo lookout‘. There’s many viewpoints on the Road to Hana, so be prepared. However, as pretty as the viewpoint is, we kind of got distracted by the food stand that sold all kinds of snacks. These God sent candies made from coconuts made ME go coconuts. He he.
These were a God-sent. They taste truly amazing, especially when paired with a fresh sugar cane juice with lime. 100% recommend!
The next stop, known as ‘Keanae peninsula‘ is what you guess, a peninsula. The most dramatic scene I’ve witnessed in a long time – and that says a lot. Fun fact: these rocks were formulated from a great amount of lava flow originating from the Haleakala Crater, a.k.a the Volcano.
If you’re into viewpoints, perhaps taking a moment to just stare into oblivion then this view is the view for that. There’s just something mesmerising about watching the waves crash. However, if you’re really into the most top of the top spots, I’d skip if I were you.
Halfway to Hana isn’t really a “must” stop, but it’s more of a “have-to” stop. Although there isn’t something to see and do, there is food and bathrooms. Fun fact: Apparently, the best, most authentic banana bread is sold there. I do not disagree at all.
We arrived at 9 AM and the banana breads were fresh out the oven. They were warm and friendly and inviting. Also, please excuse my pictures, as I’ve mentioned, it was 9 AM.
Please enjoy my time-lapse video below for a glimpse of how the Road to Hana truly is.
WARNING: If you get easily nauseated, its best to skip the video.
Fun fact: With an estimated 600 turns and 54 one-lane bridges, this narrow and twisting “highway” is often considered one of the most beautiful and spectacular roads in the whole world.
The Wailua lookout was pretty dope. Nothing that interesting to share about this other than it was pretty.
The Three bears waterfall is a definite must-stop on the Road to Hana. You have a choice; either have a look at the waterfall from afar, or be the daredevil within you and go all the way down to it.
Normally, I would have definitely gone down there. They look truly amazing, have a quick search online! However, it was raining when we arrived, and it can be really dangerous to walk down as there’s just rocks and mud. But please do, the waterfall is just dreamy!
Worth it.
The ‘Nahiku Ti Gallery‘ is a stop where most people have lunch. There’s Hawaiian food trucks but more importantly, there’s a store that sold other non-edible stuff, such as jewellery and goodies.
Tip: Most people have their lunch here, however, I’d suggest you take it with you and enjoy it at the next stop; ‘Wainapanapa State Park’.
Now probably one of my favourite stops on the Road to Hana was the ‘Wainapanapa state park‘, a.k.a. ‘glistening water’ or ‘Black Sand Beach’ or ‘Pa’iloa beach’. The whole area is just picture-perfect! Contrasting colours, dramatic scenery of black cliffs formed from lava and whatnot. Of course it’s covered by little black pebbles (not barefoot friendly) and the “sand” burns like the depths of hell. However, a pair of flip-flops will compensate for this outstanding beauty.
As mentioned above, I would suggest having a snack or lunch at the Wainapapa state park. There’s benches at the top overlooking the beach, and it’s just worth spending some more time there. Pack your lunch or “take-away” it from the previous stop, Nahiku Ti gallery and enjoy it while watching people frolic!
Full disclaimer. We skipped the next two beaches, since we’re “from an island” and we get to be #beaching a lot. We decided to just continue onto the highlights on the Road to Hana; the ‘Bamboo forest’ and the ‘Seven Sacred pools‘.
Worth it.
The ‘Bamboo forest‘ and the ‘Seven sacred pools‘ (see #10) are both located in the same area. To get to the former, you have to hike up about 2 miles, whereas to get to the Seven pools, you have to hike down half a mile. Making it a total of 5 miles.
Were we mentally prepared to hike? No. Were we physically prepared to hike? Still no. We forgot mosquito repellent. Thankfully, my mosquito repellent was my two friends. My friends got viciously attacked whilst I wasn’t even touched by one.
Tip: To all future Hawaii tourists, mosquito repellent is a must.
So, we started hiking up to the bamboo forest, with hopes that we would hike the whole 2.5-ish miles to the Waimoku falls. The hike is absolutely beautiful. You get to walk in the middle of the jungle, climb trees, cross over bridges and play hide and seek in a bamboo forest.
About an hour into our hike we had finally reached this bridge (below), that lead straight to the bamboo forest. You could say that the bridge acted as a euphemism to crossing it and reaching the “other side” where the “good stuff” is (i.e the bamboo), or you could just not be extra and cross it without having to sound like a smart ass.
We stayed and played around in the trees for a while and contemplated on whether we should continue on to the Waimoku falls. However, we decided that we’re strong independent women that don’t need to hike another hour to enjoy ANY form of nature and so we turned our little tooshies right back the way we came from. But, we’ve heard they’re pretty dope so I don’t know, check ‘em out here.
The Seven sacred pools is basically the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. However, if there is a high tide, the National Park won’t let tourists swim in the pools, because fun fact: even grey sharks can find a way to reach the pools on high tide days and eat you. Slippery/falling rocks are also a hazard. But I mean sharks… not the same.
To get to the pools, you come all the way back down to where you started and then you go back to the trail that leads to the pools. You’ll pass the church and follow the trail that leads to a loop. In the middle of the trail, the gate to the seven sacred pools will either be open or closed. This depends on whether there is a high tide or a low tide. Well, I didn’t know that and neither did one of my friends who we decided to chat whilst speed hiking. We reached the middle, saw the closed gate with its partial view of the pools, made a quick but not so thorough assumption that “this is not it” and continued on the trail. And before we knew it, circled back around to where we started, completely missing the whole thing.
Don’t do the same!
When the ‘must do’ things on the Road to Hana were done, we were like #byefelicia, let’s go home. Most of the people decide to just turn back around and do the whole road again from the other side. However, I would strongly suggest again that. We continued on and was the best decision ever. First of all, you’ll get to meet this super cool guy, Yogizen.
He lives in the middle of the jungle, something that he has been doing for quite some time now, either in caves or whatnot. The best part is that he makes coconut art! And the art is actually pretty impressive! He’s super polite and lives by his own philosophy. Yogi offered us aged coconut which actually tastes so much better than young coconut, lol. If you ever find yourself on that Road, stop by his little colourful oasis and buy some coconuts!
To find out more about him and/or his Instagram (art) click here and here respectively.
Now lastly, the view. The sun was setting right in front of us. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling, but being in a car with the windows rolled down, listening to dark side of the moon with your best friends and enjoying what could possibly be one of the loveliest sunsets in the world is what I guess life is all about. Please enjoy my time-lapse video below.
Thank you for reading this post on The Road to Hana! I hope you enjoyed it!
To read more about Hawaii, check out my Oahu post!
-VB x
Hi bitchachos!
I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland, partly because of its incredible landscape and beautiful scenery, and partly because, fun fact; Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn and I feel like that’s my national/spirit animal and I could relate to it. Anyway, after a long research online, I decided that to fulfil my need of staring into spectacular oblivion, the Isle of Skye would be the ideal destination for me.
To get to the Isle of Skye from abroad, you’ll either have to stop through Glasgow or Edinburgh. We chose Glasgow, something that I’ve come to regret. Not that Glasgow isn’t a beautiful place, but it wasn’t my type. I would recommend visiting Edinburgh instead, I’ve heart it’s absolutely stunning.
For our one day in Glasgow, we chose to see what it had to offer; two lochs and a whiskey distillery. We also chose to partake in an organised tour by Rabbies for the whole experience. However, unfortunately, we were left behind on our first tour with them, so we opted to get an uber and drive all the way to Glengoyne Whiskey Distillery.
The whole experience was cute, and the guide was so polite and enthusiastic about the process of creating whiskey, it almost made me feel bad about hating whiskey so much. Almost.
Now the good news. I’ve visited the Isle of Skye, a.k.a. “The Misty Land” in March. Supposedly, the Isle of Skye has really bad weather almost all year round, especially mist. Hence, its name. But God (or whatever supernatural energy is out there) blessed me with fantabulous weather and visited the Misty land with hardly any mist. #YayForMe. Please be sure you visit The Isle of Skye during more summer periods for best weather results!
If you opt in to partake in an organised tour, chances are you’ll start in the wee early hours of the day. Rabbies tour departed Glasgow at 9 am and drove all the way to the Isle of Skye. A 9 hour process. However, there were various stops along the way. For facts on history and the importance of each loch and glen, I’d suggest you have a tour guide with you!
One of the stops included Great Britain’s largest inland loch; Loch Lomond. Here is me sitting on the pier overlooking the loch. Or for my greek readers, αγναντευω το πελαγος.
Next stop was at Rannoch Moor. Fun Fact: This is one of the last remaining wildernesses in Europe. However, you can’t really tell from the photograph the complete isolation of this large expanse, as my boyfriend is not the best photographer. (Update: he is now).
We continued on to the famous Glencoe, where in 1692, a massacre took place (known as the “Massacre of Glencoe”) killing almost 40 members of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe, which apparently were huge back then. #ISoundLikeSuchAnIlliterateBastard.
And then onto Portree, the capital of the Isle of Skye, where less than 2500 people live there.
Day 2 in the Isle of Skye consists of visiting the famous Neist Point, where one can see the spectacular view of the Atlantic ocean, where the lighthouse sits yada yada yada. What they don’t tell you is that you have to walk a thirty minute distance to get there. No problem right? Well, you need to walk a thirty minute distance of steep downhill, which you then need to hike UP.
We were a wee bit unlucky on this hike as myst came creeping in.
Below is what we were supposed to see…
BUT.
The above is what we actually got.
Although we saw jack shit, it was still pretty cool.
One of the loveliest places in the Isle of Skye is surely Fairy Glen, a supposedly hidden place. It should not be missed as It was amazing! Unlike anything I’ve seen in my life. They say that some supernatural energy created this place and it honestly looks like a place where fairies would live.
We then continued on to explore the rest of the island. Below is the highest point on the Isle of Skye, where on a clear day, you can see the whole island! You’ll also get the chance to see spectacular viewpoints, and truly appreciate the beauty of our planet.
The Scotland tour wound’t be complete without a stop at Scotlands most famous Loch; Loch Ness. If you haven’t heard about the Loch Ness Monster, you’re probably living under a rock. The story behind this is that there’s this monster living in the dark waters of Loch Ness, and over 1000 witnesses have claimed to have seen it. I don’t know if it was the whiskey talking, but people actually believe that something lives down there, and the tour guide convinced me too. However, infamous Nessie did not come around on our visit.
Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it!
For more destinations on Europe, check out my Iceland guide here! 🙂
-VB x
Halló bitches. This post is devoted to Iceland, and its Golden circle tour. Oh, and the Blue Lagoon of course.
Iceland. The land of fire and Ice. Home of the most difficult language ever (according to me), and Europe’s most sparsely populated country. Iceland is perfect for a quick getaway but is not really your go-to relaxing destination as it’s more of an exploring kind of place. Unless you’re Kim Kardashian and manage to book the whole effing Blue Lagoon all to your lonesome. #Goals?.
So on a cloudy London day, I was like hey…
I gots some time on my hands for a quick vacayy. So up and away my boyfriend and I went.
We started off the whole exploring Iceland bit with the “Golden Circle’ tour from Gray Line tours. I didn’t really feel like getting lost in Iceland on my first vacation with my boyfriend and being anxious and lost and all that jazz, so we “played it safe” and had someone else show us around. This is not an advert, but if anyone’s planning on visiting Iceland, I strongly recommend Gray Line as they are so helpful and kind and funny and everything you’d want from a tour guide (or partner).
The first stop was Iceland’s ‘Þingvellir National Park‘, a UNESCO world heritage centre, where Iceland’s largest lake lies. Fun Fact: this lake is where the tectonic plates of America and Eurasia split and drift apart.
The next stop was the Gullfoss Waterfalls (a.k.a Golden Falls). These waterfalls are humongous BUT you can’t really tell from the picture because I took it from above. Here’s something I didn’t know. On various tours, they say that you can take a pathway that you get up close and personal with the waterfall and apparently feel the mist of the water as it runs down the Hvítárgljúfur Canyon (yes, that’s a word) yada yada yada. HOWEVER, you can’t access that anytime other than their “summer” (emphasis on the “”) period as its slippery and you might get hurt. #Bummer.
Moving on to the Geyser. The whole area surrounding it was magical, with hissing steam vents and bubbling mud and whatnot. The Geysir though was the main attraction. Spewing water blasts every 7 minutes or so, reaching up to 20 meters high in the air. I was so excited to experience this spectacular natural phenomenon but so many people were hogging the main viewing area that I had to find another way to you know, “document” it. Here’s what I did. Clever me went to other side of it. And I took my boyfriend along with me. And made him wait 6+ minutes for it to erupt so he could take a picture of me acting all stupid.
‘Fun Fact of the Week No.2: On the island of fire and ice, I seem to have developed superpowers. I now go by the name aqua-woman. #CanYouSeeMyFans?’
The next day we spent it at the Blue Lagoon. Although Iceland is famous for its natural hot spring geothermal pools, the Blue Lagoon however, is man-made. Man-made or not, it’s still awesome. Here is my Blue Lagoon (or Brooke Shields) moment.
The next and final adventure of the “Golden Circle Tour” was chasing the Northern Lights. The first two nights were cancelled, as the Northern Lights are more unpredictable than myself when I’m PMS-ing. The third night though we managed to catch a few.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!
Thinking about visiting Scotland? Check out my Isle of Skye guide!
-VB x
Ah, the Maasai. While visiting Tanzania, one of the must-do things is devote time to experience the nomadic people. Although considered as a touristy attraction, it is still one of the most memorable experiences I’ve encountered.
The Maasai people originally came from the Nile Valley, and mostly live in Kenya and Northern Tanzania. They are famous for their distinctive customs, the way they dress and are best known for their fearsome reputation as warriors and cattle-rustlers. We were privileged enough to visit their tribes and learn more about them.
The whole family welcomes guests to their tribe with ritual music and dances. Each tribe is consisted by a father and his many, many wives, and their gazillion children.
The ritual was utterly unforgettable. Although amazing as it was, I unfortunately only have this amazingly shot snapchat video to give you a taste of the whole experience.
Furthermore, there’s so many fun facts to share about the Maasai people, but I’m just going to stick to what surprised me the most.
So, as mentioned, one can marry as many women as he desires. Most noteworthy however, if he sees fit, he can exchange one or more of those wives for a cow. Not quite sure how I feel about this but anyway. Let’s move on.
Unfortunately, circumcision in both boys and girls take place at the age of (about) 13 years old. The “ceremony” happens by an experienced member of the tribe, without a doctor or anaesthetic. Consequently, a great deal of deaths occur each year. Nevertheless, circumcisions are what turn boys are into warriors.
The housing system in the Maasai tribe is fairly standard. Mud, sticks, grass, cow dung, urine and ashes are the active ingredients in constructing houses. Although houses are small, their construction enables the Maasai to keep warm during winter, and cooler during summer. Most houses are temporary, however. This is because the Maasai are nomadic people and therefore change locations quite often. As an effect, they relocate, and thus re-build their houses from scratch. Another advice; if you’re claustrophobic, it’s better to skip the entering-one-of-their-houses bit. #YouLiveYouLearn.
Finally, the Maasai people’s diet consists of raw meat, raw milk and raw blood from cattle. As a result, most of the Maasai people have a dangerously low life expectancy. Evidently, this causes them to be the People with the lowest life expectancy in the whole world. The average male lives to the age of 42, whilst the women live until the age of just 44. #ThePeopleWithTheLowestLifeExpectancyInTheWorld.
To read more about this tribe, click here! For more on Tanzania and its safari, check out my other blog post Tanzania.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it!
For a completely different blog post, why not check out my Bahamas experience?
-VB x
My very first blog post is devoted to my amazing trip to Tanzania. Fun fact, Tanzania actually inspired “The Lion King”. Cool, huh? This blog post is more of a train of thought, and follows a diary entry structure starting from beginning to end, i.e. Tarangire to Serengeti National Parks. However, it is still a complete guide on a Tanzania safari experience. Hopefully you guys won’t think that my thoughts are too basic. xoxo
To start it off, a group of us went to Tanzania in the beginning of September, a supposedly not-very-high-peak season period. That’s a bunch of bull. Let me tell you why. The weather was awesome. The animals were awesome. The people were awesome. EVERYTHING was awweesome. #LegoSong
Firstly, we landed in Arusha and embarked on our adventure with a three hour drive to Tarangire national park. We stayed in the ‘Tarangire Sopa Lodge’ for three nights, and spent our days going on game drives a.k.a. safari (apparently that’s what stalking animals in their natural habitat is called). I can’t explain how overly excited I was, therefore I’ll show you with a couple of pictures to explain the whole ‘worth a thousand words’ sitch.
Fun fact: Elephants are the leader of their pacts and make all decisions, they are considered the best mothers in the whole animal kingdom and their eyesight is shit. Just like my mom <3.
Another fun fact: The wildebeest are considered one of Africa’s Ugly 5. It is said that it’s as if it was assembled from various animal parts: a horse’s tail, an ox’s forequarters, an antelope’s hindquarters and a grasshopper’s head. Hence its ugly-ness.
To be completely honest, three days in Tarangire were one too many. Therefore if anyone is planning on visiting Tanzania, I’d suggest you limit your days in Tarangire to a maximum of two. Consequently, try to devote other days in other parts of the country such as Zanzibar. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit, but a good excuse to re-visit in the future. #Bummer.
Moreover, our next Tanzania location was Ngorongoro National Park, where we got to see the fantabulous view of the Ngorongoro Crater. This crater was the result of a large volcanic explosion almost three million years ago and is today the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera (yada, yada, yada). As a result, the Ngorongoro crater is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, but most importantly, it looks EXACTLY like that scene from the Lion King where Mufasa is trying to teach Simba about the do’s and don’ts of being the ruler of the Kingdom. You know, the ‘everything the light touches is our kingdom’ scene.
Fun fact: I literally passive aggressively pushed everyone away from this main viewing area to take this picture. My mom wasn’t very happy. #GettingToldOffByMyMomSince1993.
Meanwhile, we stayed in the ‘Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge’ where it was absolutely magical. The Lodge was in the middle of the jungle, and as a result, the view from our room was spectacular.
This little guy scared the crap out of me. He was just casually chilling outside my bedroom. #GottaLoveAfrica.
This is on the way to the hotel. It looks JUST like that scene from the lion king where little Simba is running away from his problems. #HowRelatable. In addition, it was an extremely bumpy ride, hence the shaky video. I swear I’m better at taking videos.
Moreover, another interesting fact about the Ngorongoro is that it’s mainly occupied by the Maasai people. If you’d like to check out the cultural side of Tanzania, click on my other blog post, The Maasai, to learn more about them!
Moving on, our final visit in Tanzania was at the famous Serengeti National Park. The whole park was enormous and our quest to find new animals turned out a success. Below is a picture of many lions resting under the shade.
Most importantly, Serengeti was where I actually got to see a lion upfront. I f*cking lost my sh*t. You probably can’t tell by this picture, but the amount of stress I went through to take it was quite unnecessary. Fun fact: Apparently, you’re not allowed to make ANY noise around lions while on a safari / game drive because they might also lose their sh*t and attack you or something.
By now you can probably tell that my favourite animal is the lion, and my all time favourite Disney movie is ‘The Lion King’.
Last but not least, the highlight of my trip and therefore the not-to-be-missed thing to do is the hot-air balloon ride in the Serengeti Park. Despite waking up at like 4 am and having to drive in a pitch dark jungle, being able to see the sunrise from a hot air balloon in the middle of f*cking Africa is probably one of THE best experiences I’ve had. Below are a bunch of pictures and a time-lapse video I took that I think is completely worth watching.
(If you don’t get the urge to start singing the ‘NAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTS INGOOOOOOONYAMAA BAGITHIII BABA’ bit from the ‘Circle of Life’ opening song then I feel bad for you).
Enjoy my time-lapse video below (a.k.a my masterpiece) from my hot-air balloon trip. Be sure to increase your volume!:)
Song: Upendi from The Lion King 2 movie.
Below are a few other pictures I took if you’d like to check’em out.
Thank you for reading this blog post! I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂
To read more on Africa, check out my Morocco/Sahara desert guide!
-VB x
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