bananan trip

2008/10/07(Tue)
Bananan Trip
Continuing from Bananan Trip2008/10/06
Thanks, BG. We are nice buddy and will be so forever, right? X day in Aug, BG and BB went to the embassy of Kenya. Hot and humid. Hey, it looks like a normal but gorgeous living house. It stands in living area. 　Not bad to live in this area if we live together. Thinking and talking that kind of things together, we were in relax mood. No guard man, No closed gate, but open always. We also went to the embassy of Tanzania. This was also same like the one of Kenya, open and relax. Super relax compared to Chinese embassy. We got peaceful feeling of the globe. It looks rather stable at both Kenya and Tanzania now, but we guess it is fundamentally still unstable and difficult there. Well, uh so, we cannot get our VISA on the same day. We have to come again next days to the both of Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies. OK, then, vaccination in the afternoon.
We went to the quarantine and found only a few people besides us. After that, people started gathering in the hall step by step. Now we have around 50 here, who all have ticket and are waiting for vaccination. Ohhhhhhhh, injection at last. Both of us, BB and BG are a bit scared. Diameter 3 cm, and 10cm length of needle…. Oh, it’s my turn for BB. The doctor looks gentle rather than aggressive. Injection…ah ha, quite small. Hun, it looks like a peanut. Injection itself took only a few second. OK, next, it is BG’s turn. Hey, still scared, she is. He~y, BG! Very painful! BG still being scared looks very cute. Well, we finished it without any problem and received yellow cards (sometimes it is necessary to show our yellow cards at immigration so that we can prove ourselves not injected by yellow fever). Actually we did not use this at all during all our trip as a result. So, we finished vaccination against yellow fever!
Next day, BB went to both of Kenya and Tanzanian embassy to get VISA for BB and BG. Kenyan VISA is quite simple and cheap looking; just a stamp and hand writing on it. 　BB! We enjoyed it very much, did not we ?
All right, next we have to prepare cash to have with us for the trip. How much we need around? Prices there must be low, but there are maybe prices only for visitors or foreigners.　William gave us a hint that maybe 2 persons need USD 800 minimum. It includes souvenirs, tips and medicine. Well, sounds reasonable. However we have to have another cash USD 3000 with us so that we can pay the rest of unpaid amount to William. Looks very expensive for you, right? Actually BB thought so as well. BB made a kind of bench marking with other travel agencies and found out it was quite normal. Besides, it might happen that 3 Africans (driver, guide and cook) serve only for BG and BB exclusively!　Well, when should we exchange JPY with USD? According to a German friend of BB, we can use only USD bills issued from 2003 onwards in Kenya and Tanzania. It is because there were so many troubles happened in the past with fake USD bills. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, better to exchange JPY with USD in Japan not locally in Africa. So, BB started watching actual exchange rate between JPY and USD everyday. BB thought that JPY must be getting stronger soon and we should wait until the last timing. However oh, my god. Our prime minister, Fukuda, declared his resignation all of sudden! 　Uuuuuhhhh, of course our JPY will get weaker quickly. BB though in that way and immediately exchanged our JPY with USD. At this moment, BB did not get any 1 USD bill. BB had no enough experience with tip. Was a bit mistake. As a result, BB had to go to the bank again to get many of 1 USD bill. Anyway, cash is OK now! So, what next!