Tanzania Safari

After my Mount Kilimanjaro hike I decided to go on a 4-day safari to Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks and the Ngorongoro Conservation area. My travelling companions were two 20-something Californians. The following are a few random observations:
- its very difficult to differentiate between Kenyan and Tanzanian elephants;
- early into a safari, when experiencing the first bumpy roads and wildlife sightings, an American will inevitably compare the experience to being on a Disneyland ride;
- Tanzania seems to have better roads than Kenya. One section, built by the Japanese, even had shoulders. I suspect that they have a vested interest in good roads to the major tourist attractions;
- Sometimes the Masai people will leave you alone when selling their presence for photo opportunities when you say in Kiswahili "ninatoka Kenya" (I am from Kenya). Sometimes, but not always;
- I should have gone to college in the U.S. One of my travelling companions spoke of writing a paper comparing the careers of Raquel Welch and Jennifer Lopez - Latino actresses from different generations;
- the camera equipment that I saw at the Ngorongoro Crater picnic area likely had the cumulative value sufficient to eliminate Tanzania's national debt;
- I always find it amusing when I hear young, white, suburban Americans using black slang. I discovered its even funnier when its the same profile except the speaker is Chinese-American and he's going around calling the locals "home boy" and "dog."

The Serengeti portion of our safari gave me my most authentic African wildlife experience to-date and hopefully ever. As I drifted off to sleep I could hear the distant calls of Lions staking claim to their territories. What a nice Serengeti serenade. At 1:40 a.m. our camp was awaken by the loud, immediate and very vicious sounding roar of a Lion and the accompanying pained yelp of a hyena. I don't know exactly how close they were but it was clearly close enough not to check. This was a bit more authentic than what I was hoping for. I tried not to move or even breathe and I listened intently. Nothing else was heard and 2 1/2 hours later after much inner-debate I decided it was safe to go pee. I never did go back to sleep that night.