It was the last night before I was going to leave for Addis Ababa and connect to Istanbal, where I’d then fly to Athens to meet up with my friend and co-worker Emily. My very last night in Tanzania. We were planning this vacation since the winter months in Vancouver, a most exciting itinerary for two single women in their 20s. We had steady government jobs (although I was quitting mine), neither of us dating, and we were saving up to make this Europe trip worthwhile. Every day, promptly at 4pm, as soon as we logged out of our work computers, we’d stride out of our building and into the…

Has any of you ever met someone and didn’t know if your paths would ever cross again, but secretly wish that they would? It was strange, considering how little I knew of Sam and how short of a time we actually interacted with each other on safari, but I did think of him from time to time afterwards. Between the end of the safari and the next time we actually met again, unbeknownst to me, we had an “almost” encounter in the middle of Arusha city. (Here’s a picture of Sam and I, years later in the Serengeti, as I actually don’t have any picture to go with this post,…

The last morning of our safari was undoubtedly the highlight in terms of game viewing. While it was still early, and the morning fog hadn’t lifted, we left the Simba campsite in Ngorongoro and started to make our way down to the Crater. This area was nicknamed the Garden of Eden of East Africa, because aside from it being breathtakingly beautiful, it is also one of the few places you can see hyenas, lions, zebras and other antelopes dwell together within a short proximity of each other. The night before, we camped at the Simba public campsite, located on the Crater’s rim—an area that is roughly 7,500 feet high. Because…

Day Two: Morning Game Drive The word “safari” literally translated from Swahili to English means “to travel”, and while I did briefly look up what a wildlife safari would be like online prior leaving for Tanzania, I was really able to fully grasp just how life-changing this experience would be on Day 2. After breakfast, the six of us began the morning game drive with Sam as our driver and our guide. I’ve never thought of myself as a “nature” person, much less a wildlife enthusiast. But being on safari had slowly began to change that. It was as thought the excitement was contagious, because seeing zebras up close, a…

05:00am. It was so cold. I blinked when I woke up in my three-person dome tent that I shared with three other girls, Stephanie, Whitney and Kate. But we are in Africa. The Serengeti plains in Tanzania, to be precise. This may not be a surprise to some more seasoned traveler, but the twenty-five year-old me had never been to Africa. This trip to Tanzania had been a last minute decision, as I had initially wanted to go to Kenya or Rwanda, as most of the books and articles I had read was on these two countries of East Africa. But the riots in Kenya had just died down in…

I have to admit that I am one of the many who binge watched Emily in Paris within a span of a few days. And I’m certain that I wasn’t the only one mesmerized by the cobblestone paths, the overly romanticized French language (except for “La Plouc”, of course), and the many outfits that were so vibrant in colours & style that it made me start to pile up my online shopping cart. Of course, I was quickly reminded of the pandemic reality we are in, so where in the world would I be going wearing a cute beret and poncho? Emily (Lily Collins) in Netflix’s Emily in Paris. Photo:…