South Africa

This is it then, the last leg of our trip - Africa. Sort of a final frontier for us, with neither of us having never been to the continent. After 14 hours on the plane, having watched 5-6 movies and played some nethack we arrived to Johannesburg. Stayed quickly overnight in a hostel near the airport and come the next morning, hopped on a Kulula flight down to Cape Town where the weather was perfect and activities were plentiful. Not wanting to risk getting cloudy skies the next day, we took to the Table Mountain right after arriving downtown and enjoyed the views over the city for a few hours. Even beer tastes better when you have a splendid view!

Now, Cape Town is not exactly what I had imagined an African city to be like. European style cafes and bars all around - and where the hell are all the zebras, rhinos and huts made out of dung!? Anyhow, what a magnificent city it is; prices surprisingly low and indeed so much to do. It's not exactly Rio de Janeiro but good anyway. We explored the city on a taxi a bit and the second day went to do what all the good tourists do and visited the Cape of Good Hope and the penguin colony on the Indian Ocean side. Those little buggers in their tuxes get me in a great mood every time we see them. Also got to see some baboons in the wild around the Cape Point. It seems these guys aren't bothered about a crowd watching and taking pictures while they masturbate.

There's a lot of talk about how dangerous South Africa and especially Jo'burg and Cape Town are, but pfft, I don't think they would compare to some haunts in latin America. It's just that there's so many ignorant tourists here prancing around with cameras and thick wallets visible that there's bound to be trouble. Economic differences are still huge among the population even though Apartheid is long gone. And everyone seems to be a big comedian, even the staff on the Kulula flight (stuff like "Smoking and complaining are prohibited throughout the flight" being announced on the PA).

After a few days soaking up the city life we splurged whole 1.3e on first class tickets for a train and ended up one hour later in Stellenbosch, the wine capitol of SA. With some 365 wineries packed in a very tiny area, they boast thousands of different wines, some of which very nice. A wine tour we did included tasting 23 wines as well as a variety of local cheeses. Talk about good times! Naturally we did our best to do more sampling on our own, after all the small town is full of wine bars and shops both big and small. Very smooth time for 2 days. Really good value for money here, thumbs up from Fonzie for this place. But, the traveler in me wants to see something less civilized, so it is about time to move on.

Philippines Diving Detour

After realizing there was no way in hell our budget could sustain the damage from diving the outer Great Barrier Reef or even spend 3 weeks in Australia, we made a hasty detour to one of the Asian diving meccas, Philippines. While Asia was not on the proverbial menu for this trip, I'm just too glad to be here where living expenses are minimal and the diving is good and cheap. Arriving to the 11 million inhabitant capital Manila in the middle of the night was exciting. Had almost forgotten what real traveling feels like!

Manila holds little interest for a visitor like us, and early the next morning we hopped on to a bus, rode 3 hours to Batangas (port town infested with touts and pickpockets) and crossed to next island of Mindoro. Located rather close to Manila, its easy access brings in divers, locals and sex tourists. We stayed in Sabang, where most of the diving / girlie bar action is. While the food here isn't anything like the delicacies in Thailand or Vietnam, the reefs are teeming with life and coral is healthy and colorful. As for prices, well, diving costs about 1/3 of what it would be in Australia, and is better than there. Everything else costs about 1/10.

For the next 5 days we dived the nearby waters off Sabang, visiting numerous wrecks, meeting huge turtles and playing with countless nemos of all sorts. They organize trips to a few waterfalls and local villages in the jungle, and we went of course; who'd say no to a day of barbeque & beers by a natural pool under a waterfall. Talking to the resident diving community we got loads of nice tips about where to go next, and started talking to the people at Pandan Island about an Apo Reef visit.

Pandan is a small white sand beach island off the western coast of Mindoro. The beach is decent, not great but not bad, but that's not the reason people go there. The real reason is that the island is the gateway to the Apo Reef, largest atoll in Asia and one of Philippines' best diving spots. 30km off the Pandan island, it is mostly visited by liveaboard boats due to the 2-3 hour trip each way. We managed to get a spot on such a boat and did a 2 day / 1 night trip, clocking 6 dives and a lot of time in the sun on the deck. Weather being very nice and clear the diving was spectacular, reef sharks would come say hi on every dive, turtles were everywhere and schools of big jacks and tunas would surround us constantly. The visibility wasn't at its best but still around 20-30 meters. On the way back from Apo we were greeted by a school of dozens of dolphins, whee!

After returning back north from Apo we'd spend our remaining days in the country diving Isla Verde off Sabang and lazing around in the sun in the brilliant Floating Bar where smoking hot bartenders serve cold lagers & "jungle juice" with a big smile. Cheers to April and Eva! That concludes our Philippines visit. The diving was great, with 10+ different kinds of nudibranches seen, many great new friends met and amazing places visited. Soon it is time to return to Australia to spend cheery St. Patrick's Day with people who stayed back in Darwin during our little escape to Asia!

See all the Philippines photos here!

An Australia Pass-through

Our road to Down Under was a bit rocky. Making further travel arrangements with the laggy hostel WLAN in Auckland, we ended up having only an hour to reach the airport before the check-in would close. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but karma would have it that no airport bus showed up for 45 minutes (they're supposed to run every 15 minutes) and we ended up sharing a cab with a scot who was skipping work to go the airport to see his girl after 10 months of separation. And he seemed to be in even more desperate hurry than us :) In the end we made it with good 5 minutes to go before closing time and made it on the flight..

And on to Sydney, the crown jewel of Australia's territory capitals and quite a hefty city world wide. Now, we are not big believers in advance reservations (read: we're lazy) but it hasn't been a problem before; this time, however, we'd walk around the town for 4-5 _hours_ and ask in 50+ places before finding a bed in a strange chinamen hideout on the outskirts of Chinatown. The less-than-clean ramshackle room and the stale stench of noodle soup was nothing after having almost given up and slept on the street. Phew! We had 2 days to spend in town for sightseeing, but decided that our little town walk through Central - Chinatown - Kings Cross - Harbour was kinda enough, and just visited the zoo across the bay to make sure we saw at least the kangaroos and koalas on the visit. Even with all the forewarnings from fellow travelers, we'd still be quite appalled by the prices in town: a beer could easily cost 10-12$ and a backpacker hostel room could be as much as 170$ a night. Gnnh.

Then it's off to Darwin, a laid back small town of a capital for the Northern Territory. Getting a place to stay was straightforward this time, the first place we asked had a cute room with a pool, and for less than stated in LP. For once! Like most of the Australia's tropic seaboard, Darwin's beaches are not swimmable thanks to the possibly lethal box jellyfish that infests the coastal waters. That's where having a pool comes handy, as the daytime temperature could climb up to 35C or more at this time of the year. With pretty much no plan to do anything special, we just hang around town, hoping to see a crocodile and trying out the local beers.

Darwin is a brilliant mix of aboriginals and local Crocodile Dundee look-a-likes, with enough small town feel in it to make a traveler weary of busy Sydney feel at home. Handful of bars on the central Mitchell Street are packed every night with the handful of tourists mingling with the overly friendly local folks. We spent the afternoons at the poolside bar in our hostel talking to the mostly Aussie crowd (thanks to the extremely strong AUD foreigners cannot really afford to travel the country properly at the moment) about their splendid huge country and adventures in it far and wide. After sunset it's time to head to the awesome Shenannigans pub, chatting and enjoying Victoria Bitter lager and Guinness.

Nethack: Ascension

One of the goals for the trip for me was to finish what I started almost 20 years ago - to win a game of Nethack. Probably the most complex computer game till date, Nethack is also considered by many as the hardest game ever made to complete. Before I've always been a very casual player, making no real progress, but this time I read all the spoilers, played really carefully and finally after 5 months of on and off playing, made it to the Astral Plane and sacrificed the Amulet, ascending to Demigodness and thus winning the game!

It took me about 3 months of sporadic playing the ascension character on buses, planes and hostel rooms mostly in the evenings. After having killed the Medusa and acquired the Shield of Reflection from Perseus, found a magic marker and made my first dragon scale armor, I knew I had a chance. And by the time I'd gathered 5 amulets of life saving, a wand of wishing, gotten a Frost Brand sword and enchanted every single piece of equipment to the max, I knew I was really close. And finally pushing through Astral Plane zapping my Wand of Death and wands of teleportation left and right to reach the proper altar was such an adrenaline rush.. The biggest (and a few times lethal) mistake I made was killing Rodney aka. the Wizard of Yendor on my way down, instead of clearing the way to the vibrating square first. I ended up killing the bastard 34 times, and he got me twice thanks to his Double Trouble antiques. Luckily I was carrying those amulets of life saving!

As a note to self, I completed Nethack in the morning of February 28th 2011, sitting at the poolside bar of Youth Shack Hostel in Darwin, Australia.

You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Crom...--More--
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More--
The voice of Crom thunders: "Congratulations, mortal!"--More--
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"--More--
You ascend to the status of Demigod...--More--

Amulets
 h - an uncursed amulet of life saving
 G - a cursed amulet of life saving (being worn)
 Weapons
 a - the rustproof +7 Frost Brand (weapon in hand)
 Armor
 n - an uncursed fireproof +5 elven cloak (being worn)
 s - a cursed rustproof +5 dwarvish iron helm (being worn)
 F - an uncursed rustproof +5 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
 M - a cursed +5 shield of reflection (being worn)
 R - an uncursed +4 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
 Z - an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
Comestibles
 A - 2 uncursed food rations
 N - an uncursed C-ration
 V - an uncursed lizard corpse
 X - an uncursed potato
 Scrolls
 K - an uncursed scroll of charging
 Spellbooks
 d - the cursed Book of the Dead
 Potions
 T - an uncursed potion of speed
 W - 2 blessed potions of full healing
 Y - 3 potions of holy water
 Rings
 e - a cursed ring of slow digestion (on right hand)
 f - an uncursed +1 ring of protection
 q - an uncursed +1 ring of protection
 r - an uncursed ring of levitation
 t - an uncursed ring of regeneration (on left hand)
 P - an uncursed ring of conflict
 Wands
 c - a wand of lightning named empty (0:0)
 p - a wand of death (1:2)
 z - a wand of teleportation named Empty (0:0)
 B - a wand of teleportation (0:7)
 C - a wand of lightning (0:5)
 D - a wand of teleportation (0:2)
 I - a cursed wand of magic missile (0:2)
 L - a cursed wand of teleportation (0:4)
 Tools
 b - a blessed greased bag of holding named -
 g - an uncursed sack named Emergency Holywater
 u - a +0 unicorn horn
 w - a rusty corroded +0 pick-axe (alternate weapon; not wielded)
 J - an uncursed towel
 O - the uncursed Candelabrum of Invocation (no candles attached)
 Q - the cursed Bell of Opening named Bell of Opening (0:0)
 Gems
 U - the blessed Heart of Ahriman

Contents of the bag of holding named -:

a blessed amulet of life saving
an uncursed lizard corpse
2 uncursed K-rations
2 uncursed lizard corpses
8 uncursed C-rations
2 uncursed food rations
an uncursed scroll of light
a cursed scroll of teleportation
2 uncursed scrolls of teleportation
a cursed scroll of create monster
an uncursed scroll of teleportation
a blessed scroll of identify
an uncursed potion of speed
an uncursed potion of full healing
an uncursed potion of water
2 uncursed potions of speed
2 potions of holy water
an uncursed ring of levitation
a wand of digging (0:1)
a wand of digging (0:3)
a wand of light (0:13)
a wand of create monster (0:13)
a wand of create monster (0:13)
a wand of cold (0:5)
a wand of lightning (0:0)
a wand of speed monster (0:6)
a wand of digging (0:7)
a wand of create monster (0:11)
a cursed wand of enlightenment (0:10)
a wand of teleportation (0:4)
a wand of digging (0:4)
a wand of magic missile (0:4)
a wand of magic missile (0:6)
a wand of wishing (1:0)
a wand of opening (0:7)
a wand of fire (0:4)
a cursed wand of teleportation (0:2)
a wand of digging (0:7)
a +0 unicorn horn
an uncursed thoroughly rusty skeleton key
a can of grease (0:4)
6 uncursed tallow candles

                                                                Final Attributes:
                                                               
                                                                You were the Envoy of Balance.
                                                                You were piously aligned.
                                                                You were fire resistant.
                                                                You were cold resistant.
                                                                You were sleep resistant.
                                                                You were disintegration-resistant.
     ┌───────┐       ┌─────                                     You were shock resistant.
     │·V·····│·  └┐ ┌┘                                          You were poison resistant.
     │··@·)··│····└┬┘    %                                      You were magic-protected.
     │···@··A&A·%$D[%                                           You saw invisible.
     │·······│····┌┴┐   $                                       You were telepathic.
     │·······│·  ┌┘ └┐   %   ┌                                  You were stealthy.
     └───────┘       └─┬─▒─┬─┘                                  You could teleport.
                       │   └─────┐           ┌─────┘            You had teleport control.
                       │         │           │                  You had slower digestion.
                       └─────┐   └┐         ┌┘   ┌              You regenerated.
                             │    └┐       ┌┘    │              You were protected.
                             └─┐   └───▒───┘   ┌─┘              You were very fast.
                               │               │                You had reflection.
                               └───────────────┘                Your life would have been saved.
Matti the Slayer           St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:9 Wi:18 Ch:14   You were extremely lucky.
Astral Plane $:0  HP:327(327) Pw:95(95) AC:-44 Exp:25 Satiated  You had extra luck.
                                                                Good luck did not time out for you.
                                                                You survived after being killed twice.
                                                                --More--


Vanquished creatures:

.. (snip) ..
The Wizard of Yendor (34 times)
.. (snip) ..

5602 creatures vanquished.

You genocided 14 types of monsters.
You used 5 wishes.

Goodbye matti the Demigod...

You went to your reward with 9217764 points,
Frost Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
The Book of the Dead (worth 10000 zorkmids and 25000 points)
The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Heart of Ahriman (worth 2500 zorkmids and 6250 points)
       3 amulets of life saving (worth 450 zorkmids),
and 0 pieces of gold, after 140685 moves.
You were level 25 with a maximum of 327 hit points when you ascended.

Island Hopping in Mamanuca & Yasawas

Returning from the awesome and tranquil Tonga we'd spend our remaining time in the region island hopping Fiji's western archipelagos of Mamanuca and Yasawa islands. An overpriced South Sea Cruises ferry leaves for the islands from Port Denarau, a 1F$ bus ride away from Nadi town, and takes a couple of hours to reach the Mananuca islands in the south. We head first for Mana Island, somewhat known for its decent diving and youthful backpacker scene.

And youthful it turns out to be, indeed; the average age seems to be well below 25 and the beach bar is packed every night till late. Great! There's even a dedicated guy from staff keeping the troops entertained, organizing beach volley, games and events in the bar, a bit like a supervisor in kids daycare :P The island itself is divided between 4 resorts, the biggest of which hogging the whole central part and not allowing others to cross their land. So exploring the island is limited to the beach and a couple of plains of tall grass. Oh well.

The next day after arrival we get the diving rumba going and visit a close by site called Mana Wall as well as their most famous site Supermarket. Both good dives with plenty of turtles and baby sharks, but nothing spectacular. But, ah-ha, the next day we're taken to Gotham City (named after all the big bat fish around) and Barrel Head, both of which are quite far out to the sea. Now this is really something, visibility occasionally reaching 40-50 meters and the waters are just packed with nice stuff to see, from leaf fish to turtles and sting rays to even a glimpse of a passing manta. We like the sites quite much and go to the same ones again the next day.

After 4 nights and days of partying and diving it's time to go, and we're taken on a small boat through rain and rowdy weather to the Beachcomber island, western Fiji's party central, where we change to the big boat heading north to the Yasawas archipelago. The weather's a bit depressing after weeks and weeks of sunshine, and little do we know that we're in it for the long haul. We pick Tawahu island as our next stop; supposedly home to more good diving and providing the proper peace and quiet after Mana Madness. But as it turns out the weather never clears enough in our time on the Yasawas to allow for good diving.

We settle in Otto & Fanny's guesthouse, located in a beautiful place on the better beach of the two, just a coconut's throw from the filming location of the Blue Lagoon movie, with smooth grass and swinging palm trees around the spacious Bures (Fijian for a bungalow). While the off season rate for the accommodation seemed pretty reasonable, the price for their buffet meals is quite high (140F$ for two eh - in Fiji we've spent avg. 30-40F$ a day). But when it's paytime they surprise us by adding a "20% govt. tax" as well as another 5% for credit card payment. While the latter was somewhat common in some other budget places, we'd never heard of the govt. tax trick before on Fiji. Oh and of course they add almost 100F$ worth of "transport fees" for picking you up with the small boat 2 minutes away, naturally without announcing this in advance. Sigh. At least the food they served was quite good, the staff exceedingly friendly and their dogs just lovely.

With the weather windy, gray and rainy, theres little else to do but eat three times a day, saving us the money spent on extra activities otherwise. We end up reading several books, me playing Nethack and we even improvise a laundry bucket off a waste bin and wash all our clothes. Also gave my backpacks "laundry section" a bit of a scrub to remove that stale swamp smell accumulated by wet sweaty laundry over the months. The nights are spent watching coconut crabs pass our porch on their way to the sea and hunting a spider the size of Riikka's hand that was creeping around in our mosquito net. We'd announced we'd stay for 5 nights but after 4 nights of not being able to dive we take off and head back to Nadi to take care of travel business - and enjoy way cheaper food & accommodation.

See all the Fiji pictures here!