It’s been a quiet couple of weeks over here for both Kirsty and I but I thought I’d finally get around to blogging again. Seriously, I’m slacking big-time at this again. I have every intention to blog, but I end up getting caught up in other things. Lately, and I’m not going to lie, most of my Internet time at home has been used to plan our upcoming vacation.  

Planning a vacation should be easy. Pick the location you want to go to, book the time off, maybe reverse those if you want, start packing early (not me, the day before should do it), and curse that the time has flown by too quickly when you’re on your way home. Along the way you can do some holiday clothes shopping, maybe pick up some condoms if you’re single and looking to score in Mexico (better double bag it to be safe), and you can work on your pre-holiday tan or bikini body if you so choose. No matter how hard I work I’ll never look good in a bikini and I’ve come to terms with that. Admitting it is half the battle my friends. 

But, planning our latest vacation has been anything but easy. At times, it has been downright infuriating. I had moments where I wanted to pack everything in and just say, “fuck this” but I stepped back and opted not to. Kirsty helped in this regard. Usually I’m pretty level headed and try not to let myself get worked up, preferring to look at the bigger picture rather than a solitary incident, but the culmination of some long weeks at work set me off. Upon reflection, it’s easy to see that I am actually in a very enviable position being able to afford to go on a major holiday once a year. And I know I’m fortunate in that regard. I’ve got no reason to complain but at times I think everyone needs to vent a little. Thankfully things didn’t get too heated and go too far. 

Months ago we had actually decided on several things. The first was that I would sign on for another two years at my job and stay in Saudi. That will take me to 6 years here and, hopefully, provide us with a great base to start from wherever we end up after here. The days are gone where the average person can make a million in Saudi, but if we’re smart we can give ourselves a head start. The next step was to plan our final two major vacations. The plan was to go visit my family in Canada in the summer of 2012, and spend this summer doing a safari in Africa. I’ve been to Africa and I guess Kirsty is just tired of me saying how awesome it is. 

I have been scouring the Internet like mad finding the perfect tour of South Africa. As some of you know, I have been to Africa before, having embarked on a 28 day trip through Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and the Western coast of South Africa, ended up in Cape Town for 4 days. While it was the trip of a lifetime, an experience I’ll never forget, I didn’t see much of South Africa beyond the wine farms of Stellenbosch and Table Mountain in Cape Town. For this tour, entirely in South Africa, I wanted more. 

My exploration of the Rainbow Nation online led me to find out, although I knew anyway, that tours can be very reasonably priced and some can be way too expensive for me. I know I’m in the position to travel, but I still don’t want to have no money in bank account and be struggling until Christmas to catch up again either. 

Also, Kirsty didn’t really want to spend the entire trip in campsites. The idea of roughing it without having a shower for a few days isn’t her cup of tea. Now, most campsites in the national parks in South Africa have flush toilets, hot and cold showers, and many amenities not necessarily thought of when you think campsites. While she could have lived with this, the mere thought of being that much closer to the big bugs and spiders that call South Africa home had her leaning towards spending the entire trip in the comfy confines of an actual bed. Naturally, this pushed the price upward. 

I used a copy of Travel Africa magazine to point me towards tour companies and soon I was on their websites. One of the first ones, a company called Drifters, offered an 18-day tour, all based in inns (except for the nights in game reserves where you stay in the luxury tents) and covered everything we wanted to do: 

Spend time in Kruger National Park.

Spend time in the Tsitsikamma National Park.

See the penguins at Boulders Beach.

And spend time in Cape Town and surrounding area. 

I settled on this one quite early on but still kept looking. Kirsty had, some time last year, found a tour entirely in Zimbabwe that allowed us to walk with lions. She was ecstatic about it. When we enquired about it, we found out it had been cancelled for this year. I have tried to find other options where she could walk with lions, and although they are out there, the logistics of getting there, especially when the one-hour flight from Johannesburg to the lodge costs just about as much as the flight from Saudi to Johannesburg that it becomes less possible. We’d only have 3 days at the end of the trip to do it, and spending nearly $2000 US on flights is beyond what I can afford right now. 

So, with the tour picked we decided to book our leave from work. We get one annual ticket per year, which means they’ll pay for a flight to Canada, or if we choose to go somewhere else, will give us an equal amount for flights and hotels elsewhere. We’re using the tickets this year to pay for the tour. We haven’t used them in over a year so we thought it was a formality. We thought wrong. The leave time was approved but Kirsty couldn’t get her ticket. Now, I could go without her, obviously, and come back to Saudi a single man and probably in need of medical attention moments after I stepped off the plane. Or, after one very frustrating and nearly tear filled day, decide on a different holiday. That is what we did. 

I contacted the HR Department at my place of work and had them cancel my original leave and try to approve my revised leave dates in a hurry so we could take advantage of cheap flights. That night, as we still mumbled over losing out on Africa, Kirsty got a phone call saying she could get her ticket after all and we could go to Africa again. Now I had to go back to the HR Department where I worked to tell them I wanted the original dates approved again. I don’t think I was their favorite person those few days but what can you do huh? 

We’re just playing the waiting game for them to officially approve our leave tickets and then I’ll go and book the tour. We’re going from the end of August until the third week of September. As Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother says, it will be legendary. 

Until the time to leave comes we’ll be busy though. We’ve got shopping to do. And high on my list is a new digital camera. I want to share the safari with you, and my current camera, although it has served me well these last 5 years, just won’t cut it anymore. So, if anyone wants to spoil me on my 40th birthday in August this year, send me an email and I’ll let you know where to ship my new camera.  Ha-ha. Seriously though, a happy birthday would be nice on August 15th. 

Cheers