What do you do when you’re on vacation? If you’re anything like me, you book your next vacation. Much to Garry’s disdain, I’ve done this a few times now. For example, I once booked
a weekend in Gibraltar while on vacation in Dubai. Our current trip to Indonesia is proving no exception. I’ve booked two vacations this week. Although, in my defence, I’d been researching both in detail for more than a month.
The first vacation is a month in Africa between March and April next year. We’ll fly into Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and spend the next 10 days on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, before flying to Zanzibar for five days. This is a privately guided tour arranged through a local tour company that I found using AI. This private, customised itinerary costs us the same as, or slightly less than, small group tours I’ve been investigating. It’s honestly not a cliché to describe our itinerary as value for money.
I must admit that I was incredibly dubious about using a local firm. However,
Emnel Adventures has rave reviews online and has proven to be true to its word, never attempting to upsell me, and often recommending more cost-effective alternatives. For me, the highlights of our itinerary include straddling the Equator, tracking Rhinos, learning the Aduma initiation dance with Maasai Mai tribesmen, watching Elephants wander by with Kilimanjaro in the background, and witnessing Wildebeest herds calving in the Serengeti.
We then fly to Windhoek, the Namibian capital, where we’ll join a 14-day overland serviced camping tour through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, before resting and recovering in Zambia on the banks of the Zambezi River. This tour will see us staying in tents in the bush while getting up close with the wildlife wherever we go. However, unlike most overland camping tours, staff will set up camp, cook our meals, and pack up each day. Highlights for me include seeing the Skeleton Coast, two days deep in the Okavango Delta, and possibly flying a microlight over Victoria Falls during its peak flow season.
This second tour is being booked through a South African company which seems a little less service-oriented. I’m hoping our experience on the ground is more rewarding than the slightly aloof correspondence I’ve had with the company’s representative to date. Once we’ve finished our time in Zambia, we’ll be heading home with another string of blog posts and memories to last a lifetime.
Garry has already completed this entire itinerary as part of an overland tour he did from Namibia to Kenya in 2000. Sadly, this means no new countries are added to his growing tally. For me, I’d clock up another four, including Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya.
That’s our first holiday, booked while on holiday. The second vacation is a little quirkier. A month or so back I stumbled upon a cruise from Bali to Hong Kong that sails along the Borneo coast of Malaysia, before island hopping its way through the Philippines, then onwards to Hong Kong via Taiwan. Garry and I have talked about visiting the Philippines, so this itinerary should give us a good feel for the nation and perhaps identify a few places we might want to revisit in future.
This cruise departs Bali on 3 March 2028. We’re now debating how long we’ll stay in Bali before joining the cruise and deciding where we’ll go when we land in Hong Kong. Garry is keen on visiting
Macau. I’ve also realised that we can nip over to Guilin for a few days using the new high-speed train from Hong Kong. It takes about three hours by train to reach this iconic river valley. Likewise, another seven hours by train and you can add in a week touring the Avatar-inspired mountain region of Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang and nearby Furong. Both destinations are bucket list items for me.
I wonder how many more vacations we’ll book while we’re enjoying these next two adventures?
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