Summer Vacay - Day 14

August 14, 2013

First of all, I can't believe we've been on the move for 2 weeks now! We are all STILL enjoying each other's company too!! Seriously, that is when you know you are a great team!! It's been so enjoyable putting names to faces, places to stories and learning about another culture.  When I first met Dick's parents (and every meeting since) we always came away with a discovery.  Being around someone's family and/or long time friends, sharing thoughts and getting to know them more, we seem to learn more about ourselves and the person who is connecting us together....Thus our saying: "Another piece of the puzzle falls into place".  We come to understand and perhaps appreciate that person even more.  This is definitely happening during this trip.  We always knew that the Thathiah's were pretty special people, but it just ties everything together.

This is our last day in Durban and before we go we head down to the beach – Indian Ocean – to walk around and get our feet wet!!  Lynette and David charter us around and it reminds us so much of Hawaii.  

Resort area and beautiful path.

I think he likes the Indian Ocean/beach in Durban!!

Tay and Dick

Beautiful area.

We come back from the beach, take a quick shower and then David took me for a ride in the Ferrari!! OMG!!!  My mother is reading this blog so I won’t tell you how fast we went – ask me some time!! HAHAH!!!  It was awesome and surprisingly comfortable!!  I think driving a Ferrari from SF to Merced and Visalia would make the trip a lot MORE FUN!!   Since we were away to Phinda, Julian had the car ‘decorated’ to advertise his new book.  Again, David had his Nikon, taking photos which are better…..

Had time for a ride!!

and sooooo did I!!! 

After our ride, the ever famous ‘BUNNY CHOW’ lunch was waiting for us back at the house.  This was the one thing I wanted to make sure we did while in Durban.  I know, MORE FOOD, right?!!! But, David and Vasi talk about – and made it for us once – this dish is very popular for the working crowd – almost like us Americans and our burgers for lunch, this is ‘fast food’ for the working Indians.  It does NOT disappoint us either. WOW!  Basically it is a lamb curry with potatoes and carrots.  I also tried the vegetable version and that was really good too!  As a side note to eating with the Indian culture – they don’t use silverware.  They use their fingers most of the time – for everything!! While at Auntie Lily’s house, she had to make an extra effort to get the silverware out – it was in another room, in a box!  They tell us that food tastes much better with your hands!  When in SA do what the SA’s do!!

Nice pic of beautiful kitchen at Julian's before the Bunny Chow arrives!

Bunny Chow arrives!!

Digging in!! Yes, Dick and I shared and ate the whole thing!!
Man, I wish I  had one right now!! Sooooo good!!

 After our ‘See ya again’s’ – not goodbyes – it’s off to the airport to head to Cape Town - on British Airways.  The flight takes about 2 hours.  They offer a sandwich and we all pass on it – nothing can match that Bunny Chow!!

We arrive in Cape Town about 5 pm, get the rental van and head to our 'home'.   Julian has made accommodations for us at a 3 bedroom penthouse suite he likes to stay at when he comes to town – which is almost every week for meetings.  The penthouse/marina development is very secure and very posh!! 

Yup, he likes this one too!! 

Living room

Second dining room table.

Living room and another dining room table.

Our view of the marina out side the living room window.

Yup, that IS Table Top Mountain in the background.
Looking out the front window, opposite of the Marina window.

Turning to the right, after top photo. Yes, I wanted to swim that length!! TEMPTING!!!
But, unfortunately, it was a rainy, cool day.

We settle in and then walk about ½ mile to a beautiful enclosed mall – filled with shops and restaurants.  Now its about 8:30 p.m. and we find this seafood restaurant that is recommended by Julian.  

Glimpse of dinner.

Very nice!! GREAT dinner!! It’s late now, after a pretty FULL day.....after dinner we walk back to our penthouse, pinch ourselves and call it a night.

Unfortunately, I haven't had an opportunity to grab David T's photos yet - I know he has some great ones of these times together.....maybe I can update the blogs in the next few days with his pics....until then, mine will have to do...

Summer Vacay - Day 13

August 4, 2013

A good rest followed and we are up at 9 a.m. and down for breakfast.  We have a busy day of visiting in store.  First up is with friends/neighbors of David’s Mom and Dad – Jay and Sheila.  We drive to their home and have tea and breakfast cakes in their dining room.  Jay was very helpful to David’s parents in constructing and looking after the Community Center they built – which was their dream in order to help out the many people in need!  Jay is a super guy (very quiet) and Sheila is a non stop action and super nice too! 

From their home, we all travel the few minutes to “Woodhaven Center” which wsa built and financed because of David’s Mom and Dad!  It is a beautiful building with main seating and stage area, kitchens, offices, and places for worship of all faiths.  The day we are here, the center is helping about 600 people get their blood pressure taken, blood sugar checked, and given eye exams.  It was an emotional time for all of us – especially David! Being able to SEE his parents dream come alive!  What a legacy!

Front of the Center

Inside the Center

Testing going on!

The large kitchen inside of the Center.

After our visit to the temple/center we say goodbye to Jay and head over to visit with David’s maternal grandmother “Ava” who is 93 years old.  She lives in a very simple home – that she’s lived in for the past 60 years, and has a caregiver provided by Julian.  They still wash their clothes on a large stone and hang them out to dry.  She looks great and still mobile.  She is soooo sweet, recognizes David and Vasi and is TICKLED that we came all the way from San Francisco to see her!! Of course it was another emotional visit for David – and us too!  David lived with her while in high school and the family would gather every Sunday for bbq – Ava said, “If this garage could talk!!”   David has talked at length of his grandmother, how much SHE taught him about life and how much she made him stay in school when all he wanted to do was go to the horse race track instead! Now we've come full circle on so many stories!! 

The large stone on the far left of pic is where the clothes are washed.

Back door. 

Neighborhood and laundry area.

David, standing in his old bedroom inside Ava's house.

Her kitchen.

Ava and me

We sadly say our goodbyes and head to Vasi’s Mom’s home – where Vasi was raised.  Kay (Vasi’s Mom) is SO HAPPY to see us!!! We’ve spent a lot of time with her when she was in SF for 6 months.  We also meet another sister of Vasi’s - Premi - and her children.  We all see that Vasi’s upbring and surroundings were not as nice as where David grew up….but still good and better than we expected.  Kay serves us a delicious curry lunch and we have a great visit.  It is also fun to meet her next door neighbors and his family….they are long time friends of Vasi and they share stories of growing up as neighbors.  It was sad to leave Kay – but we all hope she will come back to SF and visit with us sometime soon!

Kae and Vasi

Dick, Kae and Premi - Vasi's sister in kitchen 

Where our meal was prepared.

Kae in her HERB GARDEN

So from Kay’s house we drive by David’s high school and where his office was located.  

His office is above the KFC - which obviously wasn't there before.

We felt very safe in this area of all Indians.  Our last stop of the day was Auntie Lily’s.  She has been cooking for the past 2 days and all of the family – including our Phinda group – are there for the feast of more traditional Indian dishes – all fantastic!! Unfortunately, all during this busy day, Dick is a little under the weather with a headache and unsettled stomach.  He’s a trooper and finally feels good enough to eat some dinner. 

David N wondering - at Lily's house.   haha!!

Dick - in deep explanation, Tay - sipping,  and Jane's legs - inside Lily's home.

After a nice day and many visits, we call it a day around 11 p.m. and head back to Julian’s for a good night’s sleep.

Summer Vacay - Day 12

August 3, 2013

Sooooo, we are now back at Auntie Rani’s around 2:30 and we enjoy some delicious lunch with lots of curries that Lynette has had catered for us.  This lunch was ‘THE BOMB” and we agreed that of all we’ve eaten – and all those meals were soooo delicious but this was THE BEST!!

We unpack and rest after lunch and then about 6 pm we are all together again for cocktails and visiting.  By the way, dinner has been cooking on the spit since we arrived back – a whole lamb that is being basted as it rotates on the spit – cooking for 6 hours.

So now with this lamb cooking on the spit, it is time to go cut off pieces as it rotates.  All of us take turns cutting and then eating.  Ribs that are cut are chewed to the bone and along with some salads we make our meal.  This is an Indian tradition – for EXTRA special guests!  We felt extra special for sure.

Dinner is followed by more visiting.  I don’t think I mentioned that one of Larry and Rani’s daughters – RoseAnne, her husband Gerald and daughter Isabella (about 13 yrs. Old) have joined the party.  Gerald is very involved with golf as a hobby and wishes we had time to play with him at the Durban Country Club – our regrets – maybe next time.

All in all, a pretty kick back kind of evening and in bed by 11 p.m.!

Summer Vacay - Day 9 - 11

July 31, 2013

DISCLAIMER:
I must add - the photos are from either my iPhone, Nikon - point and shoot or David Nash's point and shoot.  We are waiting to get together with The Thathiah's and get our hands on HIS photos, taken with his larger format digital Nikon camera. I know he has magnificent photos and can't wait to make our 'book' from most of his photos.  Still, these aren't half bad!

The phone rings at 6 a.m. for our wake up call and by 6:25 we are out the door to head down from our room #8 – Mountain Lodge!  We meet up with the group….enjoy some coffee and goodies, then back on board with Sebu and Menzi for another adventure – let’s see what awaits us today!

I mean, WHO is THIS happy on a Wednesday afternoon??
WE ARE!!!

Afternoon tea!

From this time forward and for our entire time at Phinda, everything was outstanding.  We saw all of the Big 5, along with hyenas, hippos and all the prey – enalas, wildabeasts, wart hogs, zebras, giraffes, kudo…..so many beautiful animals in such an amazing part of our world.

I’m grouping our days at Phinda together since it is hard to remember one day from the next!! Each day we had fantastic weather.  The temperatures were cold in the mornings and evenings – 50 degrees and warm in the daytime – around 75 degrees.  We would rise each day at 6 a.m. with our wake up call, then off on a safari until 9:30.  A big breakfast would follow and then a mid day break back to our rooms for rest from about 11:30 – 2:30 –  at that time, we would meet back at the main lodge for a late lunch or tea – then off again for safari from 3:00 – 6:30 or 7.  In between each safari trip, we would usually meet up with the other jeep and the ‘happy hour’ table would come out.  One morning, an extra special breakfast occurred where the red and white-checkered tablecloth came out, mimosa’s were served, along with extra special crumpets and muffins.  

Check out Richard doing his MOVES!! HAHAHA

Upon return, there would always be the dining room table loaded with fresh fruits, cheeses and such…..

In the evening we enjoyed dinner either in the ‘Survivor’ setting or inside and dinner which usually lasted until 9:30 – 10:00 pm when we would head to our rooms for the night.  Again, always by escort since the wild animals might be lurking about!!

The TRAP DOOR SPIDER!!
He is opening the door with his knife.

One afternoon, I asked to see the 7 ecosystems available at Phinda....so, our guide took us to a known 'trap door spider'!! We opened the door, but she wasn't home to grab the door and pull it closed. It was still very cool though!! 

By now the inside jokes and other expressions were running HIGH!  We spend most of our days laughing and carrying on as if we were on a vacation 12,000 miles from home! Oh wait – we WERE!!!  At Phinda everyone was able to relax and just immerse themselves in the surroundings.  The staff was so nice and always willing to answer any question and assist in any way.

Another favorite - sharpening of the claws!!

Just babies!!

Other highlights from our experiences at Phinda included seeing lions eating after a kill, the male inyala’s having a face to face challenge to see which one was dominant for an area, the leopard that moved at us and roared after we found him on a night Safari and shined our light on him, the black rhinos we saw, the heyena den we discovered, and then all the wonderful pictures we took to back up our experience of a lifetime!!

One of my all time favs
Taken on the morning safari of our last day.
Cheetahs

Definitely the KING of the forest!

Gotta love the elephants!

During our afternoon safari’s, they would last until after sunset and at that time, we learned about the night sky!  It took Taylor the longest time to ‘SEE’ what we were seeing but eventually he saw the light!!  Venus was always the earliest and brightest and then as night grew darker we made out the ‘Southern Cross”, Scorpio and the Milky Way.  Some of these we never see since we live above the equator in the Northern hemisphere.  All of it was exceptional and we feel so blessed to be here to see all of the beauty.

Our 'roommates'! Always waiting for us to return in the afternoon.
Peeking inside!! hahaha!

Just a final note before leaving Phinda…. we had such a marvelous time with our Nash family, but it really made the trip to be with David and Vasi and all of his beautiful Aunts, Uncle Larry and Talia and Ashley.  David T (aka Elvis by his family) is truly one in a million and he is soooo loved by everyone he meets.  Our team of Sebu and Minzy just had grins from ear to ear when Elvis was around and he truly made each trip so very special.  They later told us that to them, it felt as if THEY were on vacation!! They also shared that we won the prize for the ‘FUNNEST group of the year!!”  

So now we leave Phinda to head back to Durban.  Much more of beautiful scenery on our drive and after 3 hours, we are back at Julian’s.  One high note on our way back is that we stopped at the roadside and gave away a couple of bag lunches that Phinda packed for us to a teenaged Zulu boy….he was so happy and said, “God Bless You” in perfect English!  We were surprised and felt good to help this young man.  We pray for so many of these needy people.  Like any society, there are givers and takers….our hearts are saddened to see the ones trying in a place on our Earth that makes living so difficult.  

Summer Vacay - Day 8

Day 8

After another good night’s sleep its up at 8 a.m. eat a light breakfast, say our thank you's and goodbyes to Lynette (in the middle) and then head off to Phinda – our Safari trip.  

 Uncle Larry is so happy to pack up and get on the road with his new buddy!

 It took 3 cars to get us up there for the 4 days!!

 The trees they 'raise' for paper!

 First pit stop on the road to Phinda - a gas station - no, we didn't eat Wimpy's - :-(

Phinda is about a 3 hour drive from Durban.  David T is driving our car with the Nashes.  He fills us in on the area, the agriculture, and how it has changed in the past years since he moved away.  We enjoy the drive and witness a lot of countryside that reminds us of Hawaii!  This area is filled with sugar cane fields…the reason why the Indian people came from India…as servants/slaves to work the fields.

We arrive at Phinda about 2:00 p.m. and are totally impressed by our surroundings.  Beautiful open and airy main dining areas with shop and bar on the top of a mountain. We are seated for a lunch feast and then at around 3:30 we load up for our 1^st safari.  

 The indoor dining area for breakfast, lunch, snacks and 1 dinner.

 The 'kick it area'.

We have two jeeps and divide up with David, Vasi, and Nashes in one vehicle and David’s Aunti Rani, husband Larry (our new best friend), Aunt Lily, Aunt Jane, Tania and Ashley.  Our driver (ranger) is Sebu and tracker Menzy.  Sebu has been at Phinda for 21 years and Minzy is new at 6 months.  Both are Zulu and just great.  The first afternoon we see a lot!!! There are giraffes, zebra, wharthogs, enala, Kudo….lots of prey for lions, cheetahs and leopards.  Right out the shoot, we see lots of animals!!

buffalo 

giraffe

zebra

blurry giraffe

During our time here our goal is to see the ‘Big 5’ – lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhinos.  During our afternoon we get to see lions eating on a warthog they just killed.  One male and two females. It was amazing and our truck was so close we could hear the crunching of the bones and blood on the lions mouths….probably within 10 feet! Amazing!

The lion had to wait his turn to eat - after the lioness -
meanwhile he stared at US - twitching his tail!!!
Yes, very freaky!!

Lioness taking her time.

His turn.

About halfway through our 1st trip out, as the sun was beginning to set, we stopped and setup our 'beverage table', the other half of our group arrived and we all enjoyed a 'happy hour' in the bush! I can already tell, this is going to be a rough trip!! hahah!!

Our gang

After our 1st time out - probably around 3 - 31/2 hour ride - we come back and check into our rooms.  These rooms offer plenty of privacy...and are deluxe...including our very own 'plunge pool'!


I think he likes it!!



Kind of dark, but you get the gist!




Truly beautiful and deluxe to the max. 


They warned us of these little guys - ready to come into our room!!

We unpack, get cleaned up and get ready for dinner..... it's in an area that reminds us of the tv show – Survivor – with tiki torches and flames all in the open air with a firepit and lots of stonework BBQ area…..I think he likes this too!! 

 Telling them EXACTLY how he wants it done!!

 Fire pit time!

David T. told them it was my birthday so they brought us a beautiful chocolate cake, singing the birthday song. Yea, I think I'll remember this 50th birthday for many years to come! I was pretty surprised!!

In the evening, a "man with a gun" walks us back to our 'cottage'.  We are not allowed to walk alone. As we open our door, another birthday surprise!!! About a dozen candles were lit, leading the way to our tub filled with a hot bubble bath waiting for us!!  I mean really….this place is over the top.  We enjoy the bubble bath and champagne before turning in.....and will continue to do so every night - yes, taking full advantage of our stay!! :-0

Really an unbelievable place….and an over the top 1^st day.  We’ll get a 6:00 a.m. wake up call for tomorrow’s early ride.