Author's note: It has taken me 4 countries to complete this piece. I started it in Arusha in July and I have just managed to finalise it in Karachi.
Sorry that it does not have any photos but I have shared some and hope to share even photos from this trip on my Instagram page.
Good evening from a silent, dark and cold Arusha Serena Hotel!
It is about 16 degrees Celsius and with numb fingers, I am jolting this down from a garden, which is some distance from the serene lake Duluti. The depth of the silence here is absolutely mesmerizing! It is enormously piercing and appealing to the soul. I always recommend people to travel to Africa to experience this side of Africa, which is none like any other in the world. Most of us residing in the cities need to travel to this part of the globe so we can be reminded of the world that was actually created for mankind.
This evening, I traveled from the bustling and well-developed city of Nairobi to actually a part of the world, which is untouched and raw in many ways. I had forgotten how much I have missed this silence, this peace, and mostly, this country. I remember the first time I stayed overnight in Karatu!! I sat down at night in the dark and just let myself absorb the moment. I am doing the same right now.
As I drove from Kilimanjaro International airport to the hotel today, I was remembering my time in East Africa. All of a sudden, my life played as a timeline video in front of my eyes. The nostalgia couldn’t have been stronger! Although I have moved away from here, I am totally at peace and at home when I am in East Africa.
Continuing from Nairobi…
About 18 degrees Celsius; I have found myself a corner table in what is a mini garden with borne fire and of course, the silence. Although the silence is not as deep as the one in Arusha but I am in awh of it. I have found a lot of silence so far on this trip already and I am certain of finding more along the way. I think we all need to do this; every once in a while, take a deep breath, calm down and allow life to transform itself to us. I miss this silence in Karachi. My heart does not feel like leaving East Africa! The heart feels at home here, you know; like it recognizes its origin. I am having long days at the moment yet I pull out at least 15 minutes everyday to sit outside in the cold, fathom the peace and shut the noise. It is half past mid night right now, opposite the swimming pool, here is a 27 year old trying to pen down the effect that nostalgia for a place has on a lonely and dimly lit soul; how not so youth like! Not to stereotype or generalize but some folks my age would be hitting the club, sipping in the liquid that makes the truth temporarily blur, hooking up with strangers who they won’t see after a night; and well here I am! Don’t get me wrong; I am not complaining because I could do all the above but it is about choice. Honestly, I can’t tell which direction this piece is headed in, and I guess that is okay. Sometimes it is okay to just scatter thoughts! If you read me regularly, you might be saying “that is what you always do!”
I did not know I missed East Africa this much, especially Arusha. I am incredibly fortunate and very grateful because I am traveling to all 3 countries over the course of these two weeks, practically on a plane every 2/3 days; such is the life I have always wanted. Whenever life brings in travel (which ALhamdulilah is more often nowadays), I feel tremendously happy, grateful and humble. Someone once remarked that travel makes you humble because it shows how big this earth is and how small a place we occupy. It breaks our perception that we are everything and the world rotates around us. I could not agree more!!
Although today I am a “tourist” visiting this region rather than a resident of it, the feeling is one of being from here. I do speak a bit of Swahili but I want to learn it fully because it is one of my favorite languages.
Good evening from the most silent, dark and quiet Akagera Rhino Lodge, Rwanda.
2 weeks have passed by since I left home and I am in my personal leg of the travel. I decided to request a week off after 6 weeks of intense work. In my line of work, the stress and pressure is never off the hook so to speak but some periods are ‘heavier’ than others; this is one of them! I have had to juggle back to back events, in fact simultaneously so I thought it is best to have some time to cool off.
I traveled to Kigali last night or today as it was around 0100 and reached the hotel by 0300. I woke up around 0830, had breakfast and headed out to explore till about 1130. I had a list of things including trying the famous beef samosa from La Gardienne supermarket. I heard about it in a vlog.
It is 1932 right now and it feels like 0400 in a city like Kampala. The lodge runs on solar energy so there are barely any lights. To shower with hot water, you must inform the caretaker in advance and they prepare the water. The toilet/bathroom is quite practically in the open or gives that feel so post showering with the little hot water, the cold breeze gets to you in ways I cannot explain! This is unlike any place I have been to so far. It is quite extraordinary and brings to you the feeling of living in a world without any technology; which is quite scary for most of us today. It is ironic that this should be the case because this is the world Allah created for us. It is pitch dark and total silence; perhaps more than I have ever witnessed on any safari I have been to. This place has logged itself in to my heart, soul and travel diaries as one of the most remarkable decisions taken. I drove about 110kms to get here. On the way, I stopped for lunch at a restaurant I hadn’t heard or read about – road trips end up being some of the best travel stories!
Also, the drive was an adventure of its own as I have never driven in Rwanda before, where it is left hand drive versus the right hand, which I am used to in Pakistan. I used Google maps to get here, and got off course just once towards the end, but all good. It was a bit scary because it was going to be dark in a couple of hours, returning wasn’t an option and I was in the middle of the jungle! Some may ask why take such risks? For them, Mark Twain once said ‘some years down the line, you will regret the things you did not do rather than the ones you did’. Travel the world, don’t stick to a schedule, meet new people; trust me, there is a lot of merit in flipping the page of life you are currently on!
My soul has just been silenced by this place. When I reached the lodge, what greeted me was endless views of the wild with a lake in between; quite an extra ordinary sight! I am absorbing the enormous beauty of this place and I am told, the sunrise is the best part so tomorrow at 0545, I will be up!
Also, one of the first things I did was have masala chai with the view from the restaurant – experiences that words and my photos will never be able to do justice to.
Finalising it in Karachi...
I am not sure what this piece is. I had written it over a period of three weeks in 3 countries and I have touched it up and completed it in a 4th, months later. Just before ending, I ended up doing a safari on my own the next day. I drove in the Akagera National Park and witnessed the wild. I had hoped to see a lion but time did not permit me to go in there. I will do it next time for sure.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page" - Saint Augustine
Peace!
Champ!
