I have been in Moshi too long.  For the first week the touts tried selling me safaris, and mountain climbs.  For the next couple of weeks they left me alone.  Now, I'm a local.  They've started offering me commissions if I help them sell safaris. 

I don't know if I'm completely cured yet, but ciproflaxin has none of the nasty side-effect that the other drugs did.  At least I'm feeling healthy, and am ready to move on.  As soon as I post this journal entry, I'm going safari shopping.  The plan is two days:  one day at Lake Manyara and one day in the Ngorongoro crater. 

After the safari, it's time to finally escape Tanzania.  Twice, I've been to the Moshi immigration office for 2-week visa extensions.  They would probably give me a third extension, but I'm almost embarrassed to ask. 

I could take one of three bus routes to get to Uganda:

* The easiest route takes good roads from Arusha to Kampala, Uganda via Nairobi, Kenya, but there is a $25 charge for a transit visa in addition to the bus ticket. 

* The most scenic route goes through the Ngorongoro and Serengeti national parks, but in addition to the bus ticket, there are $50 in park fees. 

I'm not going to take either of these.  After a month of sitting around Moshi, and after a beautiful but touristy safari, it's time for an adventure.  I'm going to take the cheapest bus possible.  This bus turns south, a goes way out of the way, skirting all the way around the Serengeti, before turning back north and going up to Mwanza.  I don't know how many days it is doing to take.  It might be miserable.  But it will not be touristy.  And it should be an adventure. 

From Mwanza, I'll take what should hopefully be a nice scenic boat ride to Kampala, Uganda.

Happy Anniversary to Me & Life Plans

It has been 3 years since I last had a job.  The anniversary of my layoff from Sapient is July 2nd.  To celebrate, I invited friends over for a party.  The anniversary seems like a good time for thoughts about the future, and reflections about the past 3 years.

Three years ago I was a successful, but stressed out, senior engineer working on a project to rebuild some systems for PG&E that were supposed to do something - I no longer remember, nor care, what.  I was flying up to Portland Oregon one day a week for meetings with the clients.  12 hour work days were considered standard. 

Now, I'm a full-time traveler and adventurer.  I'm thin and tan (though dysentery caused much of that weight loss).  I'm at the start of a 2 year overland journey.  In about a month, I'll be traveling through my 50th country.  War zones are becoming my cup of tea. 

I am also now at the very beginning stages of a new career.  I'm a writer who has yet to sell an article.  I'm struggling through market research.  Over a slow African internet connection, it's a very painful process to build a list of newspapers, magazines and websites that might publish (and pay) a novice writer.  The market research is going slowly, but I think that my writing continues to improve, and I hope that I'll sell my first article soon.  Does anyone know of publishers who might be interested in buying articles about some of the most dangerous, and least traveled parts of the world? 

Other than being 5 months behind schedule, my life plan has not changed.  I still have 2 more years of traveling ahead of me.  After that, I'll be way overdue visiting friends and family in California.  I'm not planning on staying long though.  San Francisco is very expensive, and I can't stay there without finding another career type job.  I'm not willing to do that.  Instead, I'm going to go to Japan and get a job teaching English.  Japan, and the Japanese have always fascinated me.  Teaching English seems like the perfect way to stay in Japan for a while. 

But what am I going to do after that?  In Moshi, I've been remembering another life plan.  A life plan that I contemplated long before becoming a full-time traveler.  Perhaps my nesting instinct is finally coming to bear, but I don't think that I will want to travel forever.  Someday, I will want to settle down somewhere.  Someday, I need to buy a bar.  I think that I'll open up a bar/guesthouse on a beach somewhere.

Adam Katz
World Traveler / Author / Bar Owner

I like the sound of that...