Livingstone

We were fortunate to stay several days in Livingstone, the last night upgrading to a tent with beds (10 bucks a person).

The first day we went to Victoria Falls, easily the most magnificent waterfall I have ever seen, and one of the most amazing in the world. It was also incredibly huge, and wet... there was a small walkway in front of the falls (not too close) where it was just a constant downpour, felt like standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. I got drenched, but it was totally worth it. The bridge had a rainbow that circled the entire bridge, just due to the heavy amounts of water and the sun.

Afterwords we visited the wood carving shops that lined the falls entrance. I haggled really well, the stuff that the merchants started at 50 bucks I got down to 15, and Kait didn't fair too well :-(, I felt bad, but we have other places to get a good deal.

I bought myself a King's Scarf, a replica of the scarf worn by the previous king, got a free set of wood carved salad serving utensils, a free necklace (they gave small "gifts" to entice people who seemed interested in a lot of stuff, I lied and only bought 1 thing, getting a bunch of stuff for free).

Also,

I'm a Trillionaire! According to Zimbabwe at least. I have my hands on 2 50 billion dollar notes and 1 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes (all real, that country is in shambles), but the money is actually worth less than the paper its printed on. Filth money to everyone in the country.

The second day we went White Water rafting on about 15+ rapids, which included 2 class 5s. I only fell out of the boat once, so it was great. The whole thing was a blast, but our guide could have been a bit friendlier to us. The river flows between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and on one side I reached out and touched a rock in Zimbabwe. Can I say I've technically been now? Or at least have illegal immigration status?

That evening was another sunset cruise, this time just for dinner, boozing, and boogie boogie. We waved goodbye to the people departing our group.

The next morning, we said hello to 5 new passengers.

Kait and I traveled to the Mukambi Village to do our own village tour. This village housed the chief which ruled over countless other villages and hundreds of square kilometers. We met with locals and chatted up about how the government helps them (not too much, they do well on their own compared to most other villages). They live relatively well and maintain a solid export of wood carvings.

Speaking of which

Went to the wood carving market and bargained again, everything I got was personally made by the person selling it to us (we saw them making it), and I didn't have to spend too much to get a lot.

Love that exchange rate!

And Kindle 1.0s suck major balls. And are cause for a lot of pain and frustration as they always break. Stay away from the first version of the kindle.