Greencaviar Travel

How fortunate we are to see and experience incredible spectacles of nature. It’s easy to see the beauty of this penguin and its reflection, but I see something more: the beauty of water that is taken back to reveal the sand which becomes the mirror that reflects the drama and splendor of nature in perfect detail. The African Penguin is listed in the Red Data Book as an endangered species.  Of 1,5 million African Penguin population estimated in 1910, only some 10% remained at the end of the 20th century.  The uncontrolled harvesting of penguin eggs (as a source of food), and guano scraping, nearly drove the species to extinction. *  According to Boulders Beach staffers, Climate Change has affected fish stocks and increased severe weather incidences have depleted penguin chicks in numbers. When I asked a Boulders Beach staffer if tourism had a negative impact, his reply, "No, just the opposite. Your visit help sparked a lifelong commitment to saving their future."...

The narratives I read from the tourist and other travel brochures about the Garden Route, made my nomadic heart beat faster. So I couldn't be more excited as our plane touched down in Port Elizabeth, where we were to start the drive through the Garden Route to Cape Town. The Garden Route was incredible. It stretches for less than 300 km, yet the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife is remarkable: indigenous temperate forest, pine plantations and ‘fynbos’ (thick bush), mountains running alongside rocky coves and beaches, gorges, rivers, lagoons, and mountain passes. While tourism may have taken over much of the coast, and tree plantations for commercial use may have taken their toll on the forest and fynbos, the Garden Route remains breathtakingly beautiful. As a nature lover and a photo enthusiast, I had my camera ready so I could film the whole drive, but holding the camera was cumbersome that I decided to keep the memory of the scenery in my brain instead. One of m...

Johannesburg – the City of Gold On a recent trip to South Africa, I joined a city tour of Johannesburg. We drove past the affluent neighborhood of Houghton to see the house where Nelson Mandela, the South African hero who fought against apartheid, died. We continued on to Soweto to visit  Mandela’s old house/museum and the Regina Mundi Catholic Church, one of the main centers of anti-apartheid activism in the 70’s in Soweto. When we arrived in Soweto, we got off the bus only to take pictures of the “Welcome to Soweto” sign but we were not allowed to wander around. I was disappointed but not totally surprised for before going to South Africa, I asked an acquaintance who was then living in Johannesburg if it was safe to visit South Africa. Her reply, “It is easy to get a falsified feeling of security in SA but it’s dangerous!!! I suppose it depends on your comfort level, but one definitely does get a stressful feeling day and night about their safety…better to h...

In Search of the Lion   Photo by Vincent C. I must confess that after having a remarkable safari experience at Kruger National Park, I was not as energetic to go on another safari. So, when I was introduced to our ranger/safari guide who looked more like a retired English professor than a ranger, I was totally fine. I thought the soft-spoken ranger matched my energy level at that point. I was on a safari in Hluhluwe Game Reserve, the oldest game reserve in Africa. Located in the heart of Zululand, Hluhluwe’s topography is quite different from Kruger National Park. It is more hilly. It is home to the world’s largest white rhino population, an animal once on the verge of extinction, and also famous for the Big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion).  We had barely reached the gate when we came across some warthogs. Then immediately after passing the gate we saw a brown zebra. Our ranger mentioned that the brown zebra was unique to Hluhluwe. Shortly after...

Day 1 We left our lodge before the break of dawn for a 45-minute drive to Kruger National Park Reserve entrance, bringing our boxed breakfast and bottled water with us. We were warned to limit our coffee or water consumption before the game drive for there were no toilet facilities in the wild.  Forty minutes later, I saw an orange glow of light poking through a dark layer of morning clouds hovering over the silhouetted mountain. I pulled out my iPhone to snap a picture of the beautiful scenery to Instagram the picture to my friend who told me that South Africa was touristy. I decided not to take pictures but enjoy the stillness of the morning.  I had been on adventure trips enough to know the drill, so I tend to set my expectations low.  The beautiful scenery so far seemed to be a prelude to a wonderful safari. We arrived at the gate at 6:00 am where our safari jeep and a ranger named Smart was waiting for us. There were eight of us in the jeep and I felt lucky...

Halong Bay is an essential destination to all who venture to Vietnam. It is a mysterious body of water on the edge of the Gulf of Tolkin, studded with more than 2,000 Karst mountains stretching more than 100 miles, and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although joining a kayaking trip to the maze of jagged isles was highly recommended, as a photo enthusiast, I was just happy to take the boat excursion to see the scenery. My expectations were quite high after hearing other travelers raved about the scenery and having seen Halong Bay featured in movies. It was beautiful indeed. For a moment, I forgot that Halong Bay was a popular tourist destination for our boat seemed to be the only one floating in the bay. Then our guide announced that we had set off from an alternate boating route to avoid other boat excursions and cruises. An amazing layered scene was set out before me, with rock formations rising out of the emerald water, and in the distance just behind the karst m...

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, I asked our guide where I could find  Bánh cuốn  (a dish that a friend said the best meal he had in Vietnam), our guide replied, “Not in Saigon…wait ‘til Hanoi”. Based on his answer, I made a presumption that to have an authentic foodie experience in Vietnam, one had to travel throughout Vietnam to try the local specialty or regional food. That’s why I predicated my previous posts about Vietnamese food with “where I had been and where I was going”. After a short flight from Hue, I finally reached Hanoi and I could not be more excited. We arrived in Hanoi late in the afternoon, so the first order of business was to find a place for dinner. Our guide mentioned a list of recommended restaurants that offered only one item on the menu, including Cha Ca Anh Vue (a seafood restaurant where they cook the fish in front of you) and Bun Cha. I opted for Bun Cha, an unassuming restaurant popular with tourists because it w...