Out of Africa, after three weeks in Country we leave Africa with heavy hearts and many great memories. From our great guides to the terrible roads and the unbelievable animal encounters. We landed in Nairobi to the sounds of car horns and Smokey trucks and ended with horns of Zebu as we split the herd on one interesting afternoon drive. We watched in an adrenaline rush, the chase of two Cheetahs after a Baby Gazelle to the heavy heart of the mother Gazelle frantically racing about trying to get their attention off her baby. The farting Hippos, the Zebra staring at us as we passed. The smiles of the Malagasy people as we waved from our comfortable truck as they broke rocks with a small ballpeen hammers. If anything we are thankful for where we come from but happy that we can share in such a small part of these people's lives.

To David our Tanzania driver and guide thanks for having us over for dinner to meet your family and for letting me sit up front, sorry I stole your Land Cruiser while you were in the bathroom, but what did you expect from me the snake charmer. And thanks Aimable our Rwanda Driver and Guide who didn't get mad when we had to turn around twice after we forgot our boots and Cecil, The sun did shine on us as we had a Gorilla encounter like no other (see video on our site) Silver backs up close! To Franck and Charlie our North Madagascar Guide and driver who delivered on all points, a heavy Malagasy rain storm, a couple of waterfalls and more snakes, chameleons, lizards and Tsingy Rock formations. And finally our friend Dani who watches out for us in Antananarivo town, hopefully he will visit the USA and we can scare the crap out of him on our roads. Onward to the Philippines we go.

Antananarivo, Niarobi, London, Paris and Hong Kong. What do they have in common, they were the cities we took off and landed in 48 hours. After this long airport run landing in Hong Kong was most welcome. Lucky for us it was Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve and the traffic was nonexistent! Seems like everybody has left town. We arrived late to our hotel The Conrad to what was to be our best sleep in weeks. Up at 9:00am I and rarely Joy sleep this late we opened the curtains to Hong Kong central. This city seems pristine; like it was built yesterday the only thing that was negative is that the smog seems to hang in the valley between the hills. Never the less we had breakfast overlooking the harbor and the Lion dance passed us scaring away demons of the previous year and handing out gold coins for a lucky New Year. All Caffeine up we hit the streets.

Still rather quiet we headed out to Hong Kong Central Park; it's like an oasis in the city a park surrounded by high rises with ponds, fish and turtles. There was an aviary full of birds and a building with flowers and plants from around the World. Finally making it to the Tram we stood in line in what now growing mass of people to head to Victoria's Peak the highest spot in Hong Kong. We finally found everybody the party was here. I guess we were already lucky as the weather was perfect and the view of the harbor seemed to have everybody excited. After a couple of hours we headed back down to our hotel to rest up for tonight's parade. Having been in Singapore on New Year's we knew it would be big and was it, well I don't know as we could not get close to it. Thousands were there, we were shoulder to shoulder deep and hot. We watched as we could only see the tops of the floats go by and that was it. The Police were very polite asking us to keep moving on their bullhorns, I'm not sure where we were to move too but we did.

Now who ever planned a gathering of this magnitude and didn't included some easy to find bathrooms should be tied to a pole above an ant hill. Scrambling after several hours to find our way back to the hotel was an adventure in itself. The subway was the way home at this point and being from Elkton Maryland we were completely lost. Again lucky some locals took pity on us and help with getting us on the correct train home.

Back to the skies we were heading for our last segment to the Philippines. In Manila our first flight delay of our trip a small tropical depression kept us from getting to Coron our final destination. We stayed in downtown Manila for the night enjoying the pool and Joy the biggest mall we have ever seen. The security in Manila is huge, Police are everywhere and you are run through a metal detector at every entrance including your hotel. Bomb sniffing dogs, Police with shotguns and mirrors to check under the cars they are taking no chances here anymore. And finally we are here, our own private beach and villa. It's like being ship wrecked without the wreck. The only thing missing is hot water and it's like jumping in a cold pool when showering, once you're in its fine. Electricity for 12 hours a day is a big plus in these parts as we head for some diving in the next couple of days. It's back to the basics and I'm wearing only my bathing suit for the next week!