Catching some Zzzzz's - Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Zambezi River

Welp, couldn't leave Africa without seeing the famous Victoria Falls, , or "the smoke that thunders!" Both in Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is claimed not to be the highest or widest, but largest in the world, next to Niagara Falls and Iguazu Falls when you put it all together. It's something like 1708m wide and 108m tall. And as it is winter here, it is "wet" season, appropriately so, I sure got wet! Only bad thing was that the mist and spray made it hard to see the falls sometimes.

After staying in some dinky hostels, I upped my game a little bit and stayed at a nice hotel, the Kingdom Hotel, just 500m walking on the Zimbabwe side to the Victoria Falls.

I fortunately went to see the falls on the first afternoon I was there, and later I found out that is the best time to see the falls otherwise with the sun it is hard to take pictures. Woo hoo! My first view of Victoria Falls was breathtaking... being there felt majestic (double rainbow!),

feeling the spray and mist of the water, seeing an absolutely beautiful rainbow, and "feeling" the enormity of it. I don't know why, but those first few minutes I had one of those "ah-ha" moments, like "wow. I'm in Zimbabwe. AFRICA. Looking at Victoria Falls." And as I walked around some more, then came the "I'm at Victoria Falls... and am totally wet." hahah! They didn't lie when they said come prepared with rain gear! The spray was sooo crazy and intense, but also kinda fun :-)

BTW, there was a bungy jump off this bridge (no, I didn't do it!)!

I'm glad I listened to recommendations before coming to stay on the Zimbabwe side as it covers 75% of the falls and has the best views, with Zambia sharing the falls and having 25%. The walk along the Falls took about 2 hours, there are 16 points to come across with different viewing areas, aka, different areas to get wet.

A couple of days later, I WALKED (I also get a kick when I can do this!) to Zambia.... hahaha. Hit the border crossing, got a stamp on the good 'ol passport, and off I went walking (took about 30 min total). I pretty much crossed the border and there were monkeys and bamboons everywhere, jumping on trucks, stealing food from people, hopping along trees. Now, I happen to have a great fear of monkeys. I had a couple of close incidences in Malaysia and India that installed a fear in me that only grows with these other close encounters. They are just so eerily human-like, and also have NO fear of humans. Well, anyway, after dodging the monkeys and having all the locals laugh at me, I entered Zambia, again prepared with my rain gear, and more fortunately so because I got wet! It was a different perspective from the Zambia side, but the spray was really high and it was hard to take the 023948320948230 pictures I normally take. Again, I was glad that I spent more time and am staying on the Zimbabwe side. Here's a few picts from the Zambia side...

And if you thought that seeing the falls from the land of 2 countries wasn't enough, I took a helicopter ride to see it from above! The helicopter ride was soooo cool.... actually, more being in the helicopter itself (I was next to the pilot) was the cool thing, seeing the actual falls from above was a bonus. I had these fun Aussies with me and we all just got a kick out of being on a helicopter.

So finally I had enough of the Falls and did other activities, went canoeing down the Zambezi River,

which happens to have some minor rapids, which was super fun (luckily I shared the canoe with the guide, otherwise I have a bad history of falling out of canoe's!). We saw some crocodiles (test: can you see the one by me? It's camouflaged by the bushes), elephants, rhino's, hippo's (finally saw one "yawning," aka. "scaring" away predators), more bamboons (ugh).... here's one with a baby! (I guess I'll admit that was cute!)

Also did a nice sunset cruise down the Zambezi River, which is the the 4th largest river in Africa, top 3 being Nile, Congo (Zaire), Niger rivers.

Here's also a pict of the sunset when I went on a sunset cruise down the Zambezi River...

On Zimbabwe.... now this is interesting. 1st thing that happened to me was literally the porter who was taking me to my room said to me, "do you want to see our money?" Of course I have a special interest in foreign currencies, so of course I said, "sure!" And he whips out a 10 million dollar bill! Ha!! Then followed the 50 million and then 1 trillion bill! Isn't that crazzzzyyy?! So yes, unfortunately, Zimbabwe is currently in a great financial and economic crisis, mostly due to the president Robert Mugabe who is like 100 years old (okay, around 80), who is only the 2nd president of Zimbabwe, and has been in power through different means since the early 80's. He is known for not only this hyperinflation, but also total economic mismanagement and for some human rights issues. He is not the world's favorite president. You have to feel sorry for the locals who are suffering from this. So because of these money probs, they are using the US dollar, which is always interesting. Besides the money thing, the second observation is.... where are the people? Not only was my hotel totally empty (18-22% occupancy), but so were the neighboring hotels. Granted, I went towards the end of World Cup craziness, but the locals said that typically South Africans come during their winter (now), but because of the World Cup, a lot stayed around and hence, total emptiness. I'll try to post picts, but my hotel also had a casino.... NO JOKE - it was TOTALLY empty. Seriously. Not a single person. This is me and and this Aussie I met like "where are the people?"

It was the eeriest and craziest thing that I've ever seen. Not that usual clinks and "cha chings" or NOISE for that matter that you hear in casino's. This other Aussie couple that I had met just couldn't get over it. Oh, and the bar adjacent to it had 4 people in it, us 3 and the bartender. Ahh.... fun stuff. All and all, a great experience to see other African countries and also to experience the powerful Victoria Falls. Also nice to be in a little bit warmer climate! Next back to Jburg and more of South Africa until I take off for Ghana! Stay tuned!