Botswana

After a brief stint in Zambia, we took a ferry across the river to Botswana.  One of the most successful countries in Africa, Botswana has been stable and democratic since its independence from the UK in 1966.  Poor at independence, Botswana has been well-managed and now boasts the highest credit rating in Africa, the highest Human Development Index ranking in Sub-Saharan Africa (not including Mauritius), and the highest Democracy Index score in Africa (again, not including Mauritius).  Like with all countries, problems persist, including income inequality and one of the highest HIV rates in the world, but overall, Botswana isn’t doing too badly, and it definitely showed that Botswana was richer than Zambia.  Mining, beef, and tourism are major pillars of the economy and the government does their best to protect their industries, including quarantine and customs checkpoints to protect cows from disease and strict anti-poaching measures (including a law that states you are free to kill a poacher if you see one) to protect wildlife and keep the tourists coming.  Our main bases were the towns of Kasane and Maun, but we also stopped at Greta and Ghanzi.

A few highlights of my time in Botswana:

Chobe National Park:

Kasane is the jumping off point for wildlife spotting in Chobe National Park – the biggest tourist draw in Botswana.  I had high expectations for Chobe and it absolutely delivered.  We arrived in the afternoon in time for an evening sunset cruise.  Aside from a gorgeous sunset, we saw an abundance of new wildlife, including the animal Chobe is most famous for:  the elephant!  Ok, it wasn’t just one elephant, it was heaps of elephants!  They dotted the land all up and down the Chobe River.  Elephants are the first of the “Big 5” – originally the five most difficult animals for hunters to track and kill, but now a tourist rite of passage – that we saw, but we saw our second – the Cape buffalo – just minutes later.  We saw giraffes, a sable (an elusive, gorgeous black antelope with long curved horns), heaps of impala (a smaller antelope species that reproduces like rabbits), and a bunch of new bird species including the African fish eagle, little egret, yellow-billed egret, and the mighty helmeted guineafowl (which somehow quickly became our trip mascot thanks to a lovely British lad with a bird fetish).

To complement our sunset, we saw the sunrise the next morning on a very early game drive which proved to be rather incredible.  We saw a wide variety of birds including the white-backed vulture, lapet-faced vulture, marabou stork, odd-looking kori bustard, and the absolutely gorgeous lilac-breasted roller, which is very rightly the national bird of Botswana and which you need to Google right now just to see how pretty it is.  Go on, I’ll wait… Ok.  But the big fucking deal was: LIONS!  A whole pride!  First an adult male crossed our path and shortly after we saw several lionesses and juvenile males.  One of the lionesses passed right behind our game drive vehicle.  And by right behind, I mean she was less than about two metres from us. I was sitting in the back corner where she passed and I’m not going to lie: I was quite close to freaking the fuck out.  Our vehicle was open air: no windows, no doors.  Ummm…

In addition to our close encounter with the lion, we also had a line of around thirty or so elephants pass right by us – again, some within just two or three meters of our vehicle.  We also got a lot closer with giraffes, Cape buffalo, and a sable than we did on the sunset cruise.  Finally, we saw our first of many kudu – another species of antelope with curly horns.  For my Jewish friends, I later learned that they use kudu horns to make shofars.  Ooooo!

Baobab trees:

Moving on to Greta, we saw our first zebra and ostriches alongside the road.  We arrived to a campsite full of the odd-looking yet interesting baobab trees.  Cousins to the boab trees of Western Australia, the baobab also grow fat and produce a pod with a delicious powdery interior which reminds me of freeze-dried astronaut food that you can buy at NASA.

Okavango Delta:

Botswana’s next big attraction after Chobe, the Okavango Delta, is the world’s largest inland delta.  I’m a bit of a nerd (ok, I’m a big nerd) but I didn’t even know an inland delta was a thing.  Basically, water from the Okavango River flows into depressed land in Botswana.  With no way of getting to the ocean, the river forms a delta on the land.  The water eventually seeps into the ground, evaporates, or gets drunk by people and animals.  Who knew?

Based in Maun, we took a scenic flight over the delta.  We saw the delta from above and a bit of wildlife, but the plane was tiny, uncomfortable, and hot.  I didn’t really enjoy it and I wish I hadn’t paid the money for it.  Hindsight is 20/20.  The next day, we boarded mokoros – traditional canoes – to head into the delta where we camped for one night.  We witnessed the locals doing traditional song and dance and we did a fantastic game walk.  It was a bit unnerving being without any protection in the middle of nowhere (that was the first time I ever thought that it might be useful to have a gun) but our guides assured us it was safe.  We finally saw some zebra up close (yay!) and we saw a handful of new species too:  wildebeest, great egret, open-billed stork, and the red lechwe.  The red lechwe is an antelope species that has hind legs longer than the front legs to make running in the marshy delta easier.  It may be easier, but it looks absolutely ridiculous.

Khoisan culture:

We spent our final night in Botswana near the town of Ghanzi where we took a tour to learn about traditional Khoisan (bushman) culture.  Some Khoisan youth took us into the bush to show us medicinal leaves, popping seeds, various roots, and how to make fire.  When we asked if that’s how they actually live, it was a resounding “no”.  They are trying to keep the culture alive, but they put their Nike shoes and t-shirts on at the end of the day.

Feed me, Seymour:

Botswana is where I really dug into some local cuisine.  I had my first street food in Africa: a bread dumpling with chicken, spinach, and potato.  Our amazing guide, Jess, also cooked us mieliepap (maize porridge) with potjiekos (a stew which literally translates to “pot food”).  We had magwinya (aka fat cakes!) which are sort of like doughnuts but not sweet and you turn them into sandwiches.  Finally, I had my first of many malva puddings (a South African dessert) while in Botswana.  Yummy!

Botswana put on a show.  Can Namibia compete?  Onward!  But first, let me take an elephant selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Botswana, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100284125976091.1073741878.3000370&type=1&l=b8556b6512

Zambia

After viewing Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side, I figured it would be a good idea to cover all bases and see it from the Zambia side too.  So, I packed up my stuff and walked across the border, as you do, right?  Zambia was also where I was meeting up with Jemma, a lovely Welsh girl I met camping in Australia last year.  It was love at first sight, so we desperately needed a camping reunion!  We also were joined by seven other travellers on our tour – four English, one Welsh, one Kiwi, and one Luxembourgish, as well as our two South African guides.

Zambia is one of the poorer nations in Africa, but one of the more stable nations.  Since the turn of the century, government reforms and diversification have helped the economy grow year after year.  My two days in Zambia were spent in the town of Livingstone – the tourism hub for the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.  Unlike its Zimbabwean counterpart, the town of Livingstone was not built specifically for tourism.  Historically, most tourists viewed the falls from the Zimbabwe side because of the better infrastructure there.  As Zimbabwe spiralled into a complete shit show, more and more tourists opted to stay away from the uncertain situation and head to the Zambian side instead.  Zimbabwe’s woes benefitted this town greatly.  Infrastructure around the tourist areas was quite good, but unlike in Zimbabwe, I did get to see a bit of the real Zambia while in Livingstone.

A few highlights of my time in Zambia:

Victoria Falls:  I read that viewing the falls from the Zimbabwe side was better, but I enjoyed the Zambian side more.  The infrastructure around the park was on par with Zimbabwe, but I think Zambia actually had a better diversity of viewpoints.  It may have also been because of the time of day:  I viewed the falls from Zimbabwe in the morning and from Zambia in the afternoon when the lighting was better.  Rainbows are a common occurrence on the Zambian side, and we got there at the right time to add some colour to our selfies.

Bicycle tour:  While the rest of our group went rafting on the Zambezi River, Jemma and I signed up for a bicycle tour.  We thought we’d be going around town seeing all of the tourist sites and the souvenir market.  We have never been more wrong.  Our tour was a charitable tour sponsoring the Local Cowboy Pre-School and our guides took us and two Dutch travellers on a four hour journey into a bit of real Zambia.  We went off the paved roads to see several villages that dot the outskirts of the town.  We started with the poorest of the villages and worked our way up to some reasonably nice looking houses in town.  Once in town, we visited the local market.  This was not the souvenir market, but the market where locals go to shop for food and other goods.  We sampled some dried mopane worms (caterpillars) while we were there.  They weren’t entirely gross – almost nutty in a way.  We also visited the pre-school, but as it was a Sunday, there weren’t any children about.  That was ok though, because earlier on the tour we had encountered plenty of local children, and they even commandeered my bicycle for a few minutes.  We even saw some wildlife:  a lone crocodile in front of a gas station.  Overall, this was a fantastic experience and one of the best things I did in Africa.

Sunset cruise:  At our guide’s recommendation, our entire group signed up for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River.  There was a buffet dinner and open bar, but the best parts of the tour were the beautiful sunset and all of the hippos!  This was the first large animal we saw in Africa and we saw lots of them!

Onward to Botswana!  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Zambia, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100283976006631.1073741877.3000370&type=1&l=ad421a3b08

Zimbabwe

Once a relatively prosperous African nation, Zimbabwe’s fortunes have faded rapidly in the last two decades thanks to government corruption and mismanagement.  And when I say “faded rapidly”, I really mean “turned into a complete shit show”.  President Robert Mugabe deserves most of the blame.  He kicked out the white farmers, but nobody else knew how to farm.  Then he kicked out the Chinese store owners, but nobody else knew how to run a business.  So then there was no food and no stores and then hyperinflation made international headlines.  In 2009, Zimbabwe was forced to scrap their currency because they couldn’t fit all of the zeros on the notes.  They now use the US dollar and the South African rand.  Fast forward six years to my visit and every kid on the street was trying to sell me a trillion Zimbabwean dollar note as a souvenir for US$50.  I think toilet paper is worth more, so no.

I only had one day in Zimbabwe, so I can hardly claim to have seen anything of the real Zimbabwe and the effects of the recent past woes.  I visited the town of Victoria Falls which is home to… Victoria Falls.  Obviously.  According to my Lonely Planet guide, infrastructure across the country is still fairly intact from Zimbabwe’s successful past, and Victoria Falls was no exception.  Built specifically as a tourist town, I had no complaints about the infrastructure or services available for tourists.  I even had brunch and a decent coffee at a nice cafe the morning that I was there, which definitely gives Zimbabwe a few points in my little black book.

It’s US$5 for a taxi anywhere – no matter how far it seems.  I don’t think there were any actual taxis – just dudes in cars hollering at tourists to see if they need a lift.  I’m still alive and I wasn’t robbed so I guess it’s legitimate.  The “taxis” came in especially handy after dusk as the town’s streets became unsafe for pedestrians, not because of crime, but because of elephants.  After sundown, elephants and buffalo wander into town night after night only to find that the supermarket and shops have all closed and they’ll have to go food shopping elsewhere.  They never learn.

A few highlights of my day:

Wildlife:  Sadly, it wasn’t the elephants nor the buffalo that were my first wildlife sighting in Africa.  As I wandered over to the tourist market in the morning, I stumbled upon a trio of warthogs roaming around the souvenirs.  I was hoping for a grander animal to be my first, but sometimes dreams don’t come true.  I bought a little warthog souvenir to commemorate the occasion.

Food:  I had my first real African food in Zimbabwe at the recommended (yet overpriced) Mama Africa Eating House.  The dish was called huku nedovi and consisted of chicken with peanut butter sauce.  Yes, please!  It’s a traditional dish of the Shona people which make up 70% of the population of the country.

Victoria Falls:  Saving the best for last, Victoria Falls was the star of my visit to Zimbabwe (and pretty much the only reason I put Zimbabwe on the itinerary).  Its indigenous name is Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means “the smoke that thunders” in the local language.  The “smoke” is the mist that the waterfall creates, which was so thick at times that it obscured the view of the falls (and it wasn’t even the time of year with the heaviest flow… of water.)  While it isn’t the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is generally considered the largest based on its height, width, and volume of water that flows over it in an uninterrupted sheet.  It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of this.  The waterfall straddles the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, and I’ll have more about the Zambian side in the next post.  The first European to lay eyes on the mammoth waterfall was David Livingstone, which we all know from the famous line “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”  You can Google/Wikipedia him if you want to know more.

The walkways around the Zimbabwean side of the waterfall were well-maintained and came with some additional wildlife spotting:  a baboon and a bushbuck (a type of antelope).  Given the immense size of the waterfall, it took me about 90 minutes to tour the site, visiting the various viewpoints along the path.  Let me repeat that:  it took me 90 minutes to view a waterfall.  That’s pretty insane.

After my visit, it was time to walk across the border to Zambia.  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Zimbabwe, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100283973751151.1073741876.3000370&type=1&l=ee367428d4

Johannesburg

My first port of call in Africa:  Johannesburg!  Everyone who I spoke to basically said that Johannesburg was dodgy and that Cape Town was the better city and that any time I was going to devote to Joburg should be diverted to Cape Town.  And they were pretty much right.  But due to flight times, I ended up with a full day in Johannesburg, and I’m super glad I did.  My hostel organized a full day tour for me to all the main sights.

A few highlights of my day:

Top of Africa:  The Carlton Centre in downtown Joburg is the tallest building in Africa and has been since 1973.  It’s somewhere between a quarter and a third of the height of the Burj Khalifa, so it’s honestly not that impressive.  Also, the building itself was pretty ugly on the outside… and inside.  The top floor has an observation deck with views of Johannesburg, which is honestly not a pretty city from above.  Five minutes later, we were ready to go.

Soweto:  Soweto is abbreviation of “South Western Townships” and is the most famous and most visited township in all of South Africa.  It is here where Nobel Prize Winners Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu live(d), and it contains many of Joburg’s main attractions.  It is here where my day took a very quick turn toward somber.

Soweto used to be where the black population was forced to live away from the whites in the nice parts of town.  Since the end of apartheid, many blacks who have earned a good living have opted to stay in Soweto and have gentrified parts of it.  Driving around, we saw some very nice homes, some very middle class homes, and some obviously poorer sections.  The worst, however, was what the locals call the “informal settlement”.  The informal settlement is just a nice way of saying shantytown.  A local 20-something who runs a charity for the informal settlement took us around the area on foot.  We got to see where he lives – in a small two-room shack with ten other family members.  It was depressing.

While in Soweto, we also visited Walter Sisulu Square with its 10 Pillars of Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s house, and the Hector Pieterson Memorial, in honour an innocent 13-year old boy who was ruthlessly killed by police during the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Apartheid Museum:  Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any sadder, we went to our final destination:  the Apartheid Museum.  This in-depth look at apartheid was the highlight of the day and the place I had been most looking forward to visiting in Johannesburg.  The museum takes visitors through the entire history of apartheid, including a look at pre-apartheid South Africa and a bit about post-apartheid South Africa.  I spent roughly two hours inside because that is all I was given, but I reckon I could spend an additional two hours easily.  There was a huge amount of information inside.

That night, I met up with a friend of a friend for dinner and drinks.  I got to see another side of Johannesburg: the fancy side. After dinner at a Japanese restaurant, we wandered to a very posh bar for some wine and a bit of dancing.  In retrospect, the whole first day really summed up my impression of South Africa in its entirety:  some really nice parts mixed in with a lot of sad parts.  I will blog more about my experiences in South Africa later on, but first I had four other countries to check off my list.

Proof of Soweto’s gentrification:  a Mexican restaurant.  They knew I was coming.

To see more photos of my time in Johannesburg, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100280359384371.1073741875.3000370&type=1&l=dadc5d296e

Singapore

The first destination on my gap year:  Singapore!  I had previously transited through Singapore but had never ventured beyond the airport.  This time, I managed to work in a 3.5 day stopover on my way to Africa.  I stayed with the amazing Nick and Angela – friends of friends that I met at a wedding in New Zealand in May.  Having lived in Singapore for a few months, Angela was quite keen to take me around and show off Singapore to me.

Singapore was way more western than I originally anticipated.  A blend of cultures – Chinese, Indian, Malay, British, and more – Singapore stands out from its neighbours in that it doesn’t really feel like Asia usually feels (the drivers follow the rules, the streets are clean, and you can drink the water).  Wandering around downtown, you could think you were in any big North American city, and the riverside area along the quays and the main shopping strips were super posh.

A few highlights of my time in Singapore:

Singapore Botanic Gardens:  Well-worthy of their UNESCO World Heritage Site status, these are undoubtedly the best botanic gardens I have ever been to.  It takes hours to fully cover and appreciate the sprawling area of the gardens.  Admission is free, but there is a small fee to enter the Orchid Garden.  I am so glad I paid the extra few dollars because the Orchid Garden cannot be described as anything other than splendid.

Night Safari:  Adjacent to the Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari contains animals that are more nocturnal in nature.  Most visitors automatically hop on the forty-minute tram ride around the park first, or jump to see the live show as soon they arrive, but I had been given advice to skip the queues and wander around on my own before the throngs of other visitors made their way into the self-guided walks.  The result:  it felt like I had the whole zoo to myself.  There were no screaming children to ruin the experience.  Later on, I didn’t have to queue for the tram or the last session of the show.  Survey says:  the best zoo experience I have ever had.

Singapore City Gallery:  this building contains the urban planning museum which goes through in meticulous detail just how meticulously the city-state of Singapore has been planned out, is currently run, and what will be happening in the future.  It was an absolute nerdgasm.

Marina Bay Sands:  far too expensive for me to venture into, the stunning new icon of Singapore was still great to look at from the outside.  One loud, obnoxious American tourist next to me screamed out “It looks stupid! It looks like someone put a surfboard on top of those three buildings!”  That man needed to be shot.  The Marina Bay Sands is a great icon for the city situated right across the water from one of Singapore’s other great icons, the Merlion.  The best views came from LeVeL33 – a brewery, restaurant, and lounge on the 33^rd floor of a downtown building.

Gardens by the Bay:  while the man-made “Supertrees” were quite cool, these outdoor gardens just behind the Marina Bay Sands don’t compare to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  But when it’s too hot and humid to handle the UNESCO listed version (which is pretty much most of the time in Singapore, right?) the massive enclosed and air-conditioned Flower Dome and Cloud Forest are a fantastic (yet expensive) alternative.  Tight budget?  Skip the Flower Dome and buy a single ticket to the Cloud Forest.  It’s definitely the nerdier of the two.

And finally, no trip to Singapore is complete without an exploration of the many varied neighbourhoods of the city:  Chinatown, Little India, Arab Quarter, Colonial District, and the fancy shmancy quays and Orchard Road shopping district.  And with these come the food:  Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, plenty of Western options, and of course, I had to sample the local take on Mexican food.  Piedra Negra lost a point when they served their burrito with French fries instead of tortilla chips, but the food was pretty good overall.  But enough about Mexican food - this is Singapore.  Satay me, please!

To see more photos of my time in Singapore, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100279729816031.1073741872.3000370&type=1&l=da787defdd

Look! A blog!

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.   A very long time.  Well over a year.  And several of my friends, family, and co-workers have reminded me of that, which was surprising because I was pretty confident that the only person reading this was my mother.  While I always tried to blog regularly, life took over and it just slipped away from me.  What can I say?  I’m a very important person doing very important things.

Just kidding!  I was probably just busy watching funny cat videos on YouTube.

I last blogged about Russia which was a trip I took in October 2013 (yikes!)  That trip also included Finland and Estonia (which I previously blogged about) and Mongolia and South Korea (which I have not blogged about).  Since then, I have also taken overseas trips to New Zealand (six trips in total), Myanmar, and Bali (Indonesia).

Back in Australia, I finally made it to the last of the state and territory capitals that I had been missing:  Brisbane and Darwin.  I went on a big camping adventure in the outback, channelled my inner-retiree in the Gold Coast, took a road trip down the South Coast of New South Wales, and visited Melbourne once or twice… per year… or more.

But there have been two really big exciting developments missing from the blog.  First and foremost, I became an Aussie!  I was naturalized as an Australian citizen on August 15, 2014 – after roughly four and a half years living in the Land Down Under.  I am now the proud bearer of dual passports entitling me to be shifty when crossing international borders.

Secondly, I quit my job (yay!), moved out of my apartment, and said goodbye to all of my friends in Australia (boo!).  Last Sunday, I set out on a gap year:  a full year (give or take a bit) of travel around the globe.  That was the impetus for me starting up the blog again.  Over the next twelve months, I’ll be blogging about my adventures and even rewinding the clocks a bit and filling you, the readers (my mother and one or two others), in on all the exciting travels that I’ve failed to blog about over the past nearly two years.

In the meantime, here are a few questions you can ponder:

1.  Will I be able to survive a full year of travel?

2.  Just how many times will I get food poisoning?

3.  What is the most random country in which I will eat Mexican food?

4.  Just how long will it take until I pop some loud, obnoxious American tourist in the face?

As I write this post, I am on a flight from Singapore to Johannesburg.  The first few weeks of my travels will likely see limited wifi connections as I’ll be on various camping safari tours across seven African nations, but I will do my best to post when internet is available.  Until then, trust that I’ll be doing my best to type up blogs and have them ready as I go along.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare for landing.

From Russia with Love and Hate

Going into Russia from Finland was a bit of a shock.  Finland was nearly a utopia, but Russia was anything but one.  The country really surprised me, sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a not so good way.  Signs of capitalism were all around – luxury cars all over St Petersburg and Moscow, more upscale shopping than you can imagine, and western establishments flourishing all over the country.  All of this, however, was intertwined with signs of the past.  Drab, gray buildings abounded in many areas, and for every Volvo, Audi, and Bentley, there were at least ten other junk models.  The cities were generally dirty and not well-maintained, though some of the more upscale areas were immaculate.  Inequality seemed to be the norm. 

The Russians themselves were an interesting breed.  Going into the trip, I was told that Russians were cold and that you had to be pushy to get anything.  Indeed, this wasn’t far off.  Trying to get a Russian to smile was a difficult task, but my travel mates and I accomplished it a few times (albeit only a few).  Please and thank you won’t get you very far at all, but a firm tone and stern expression will usually do the trick.

Then there were the weird Russians.  Like those dressed in Kung Fu Panda and Shrek costumes for no apparent reason at Red Square.

And the one dude with his two monkeys at a popular restaurant in St Petersburg.  We followed him out onto the street to get a picture.  This would never fly in the US or Australia.

Speaking of eating in restaurants, have you ever tried going to a restaurant only to find it was closed due to technical difficulties?  No?  Well, it’s apparently a common occurrence in Russia as we found out when we tried to go to the Chili’s in Moscow (yes, I tried to go to Chili’s… leave me alone…)

For a country that has fully embraced McDonald’s and Starbucks, anti-American sentiment still seemed to run a bit high.  Our very first tour guide on day one advised the Americans in our group to pretend to be Canadian or Australian if anyone asked, especially if that anyone was a drunk Russian (and we had more than our fair share of encounters with drunk Russians).  We never really experienced any real anti-American sentiment, but we didn’t take our chances either.  I was Aussie.

To fully complement the anti-Americanism, there was a ton of Russian pride.  Russians seemed to be very proud of their heritage, culture, history, and everything else, and the fact that they were hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi was a big topic there.  Everywhere we went (and on every can of Coke we drank) there was something about Sochi.

Last but not least, I couldn’t get away with writing a blog about Russia without mentioning the gay issue.  We booked this trip several months before Russia’s notorious gay laws were passed in the Duma.  Morally, I normally don’t want to spend my tourism dollars in a place that is hostile to gays and lesbians (or anyone for that matter), but I had already paid for everything.  I was apprehensive about travelling there, especially after reading about the topic in the media, but I was assured that it was completely safe as long as I didn’t parade around or tell anyone about my sexuality.  Indeed, I never really had a moment where I felt unsafe because of my sexuality (though I did opt to wear my dark gray beanie in lieu of my colourful blue and green one for most of my time in Russia, just to avoid drawing unwanted attention to myself).

Our very first tour guide in St Petersburg could probably sense that me and one of the other guys on the trip were gay, and without asking us about our sexuality at all, asked the whole group one day over coffee whether we had heard of this anti-gay law.  We were shocked to hear his take on the issue – that the law was ridiculous, that nobody really cared or wanted it in effect, and that the politicians were only using it to shore up support.  Mind you, our tour guide was young and had a lot of exposure to westerners so his view probably wasn’t reflective of the population as a whole, but I was still taken aback (in a good way) by his comments.  Maybe it is like the US a bit – it’s a political tool, the young people just don’t see it as an issue, and eventually it will change.  Admittedly, Russia has a much longer journey ahead of itself on the issue that the US probably ever did, but the issue they are facing now isn’t all that dissimilar to what happened in the western world in the not-too-distant past.

In Moscow, a mate of mine who lives there advised that gay and lesbian couples walking around holding hands in public is a common sight in the city.  In the smaller city of Irkutsk, our tour guide seemed to be quite liberal as well and I think he caught on very quickly to the gays in the group.  That brings the question:  is the western media sensationalizing the issue?

I had no problems when I was there, but I’m going to give that question a big “no” response.  Moscow is a big cosmopolitan city, and the people we encountered everywhere we went on our trip are used to dealing with tourists from the liberal countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania, so their views on the issue and interactions with us can’t be construed to be similar to Russians as a whole.  Going out in public as a civil rights activist would spell trouble – gay pride parades are banned in Russia – and I imagine that being gay outside of the few biggest cities would be terrifying for a child or teen struggling with their sexuality.

I definitely have a much less negative view (but still very negative) about the situation in Russia after visiting, and not because I think the western media exaggerates the story.  I think the negative coverage is well-deserved and should go further.  My view is less negative now because just like in the United States, Australia, and most other western countries, I can see that the anti-gay views that exist at present will likely die out with the older generations.  Yes, it will take much longer for Russia to get there than it did for those countries in the west.  Yes, their views are exceedingly harsh for a country in Europe, but with all of Russia’s other civil rights issues, it is hardly unexpected.  Is it fair?  No.  Is it just?  No.  Is it unacceptable?  Yes.  But in reality, just like the Netherlands, Canada, and Scandinavia have beaten the United States and Australia to equal rights and equal treatment for sexual minorities, so too will we beat Russia there.  And Russia will beat Uganda, Nigeria, Pakistan, and just about every other Islamic country and most African countries.  Can we move them along in the right direction?  Maybe.  If I could wave a magic wand and make it happen overnight I would, but I unfortunately don’t have that power (but imagine what an amazing world we’d live in if I did!)

I’ll leave that conversation to the activists, politicians, and thinkers.  In the meantime, I can only suggest one option:  airlift all of the gays out of Russia.  Let’s distribute them throughout the gay-friendly countries of the world.  And let’s date them.  Because there are some hot Russian men.  Real hot.