Klugusamy News | by Vinod, Lillie, and Zizou Ponnusamy

Up to Etosha National Park

2010-08-11T21:26:06-07:00

This was the longest slog of the trip, but the roads were all actually quite nice. In the town of Omaruru along the way, Naveena and Lillie somehow found themselves on a tour of a place making paper out of elephant poop. A nice bonus.

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We arrived at the Etosha gate with not a whole lot of time to spare before they closed at sunset. We were spending our first night here at Okaukuejo. Within minutes of entering we saw our first jackal, giraffes, zebras, and elephants.

Here’s a lilac-breasted roller (otherwise, not a lot of birding on this trip):

One of the nice features of the accommodations inside the park is that they have floodlit waterholes. Basically that means that after you eat dinner, you can take a short stroll from your room to a nearby waterhole and watch animal activity all night.

As soon as we walked up to the Okaukuejo waterhole, so did a pair of black rhinos to grab a drink.

Then on came another black rhino with her youngin’.

I shot both of those at 300mm with a Better Beamer Flash Extender. I got that thing in the mail right before I left, so sadly never got to practice using it before this. Pretty satisfied with the first time results nevertheless. Also pretty satisfying to see black rhinos for the first time.

That’s how our first few hours at Etosha went—many more wildlife photos to come from the next two days in the park…

Swakopmund

2010-08-17T10:46:59-07:00

The drive from Sossus Dune Lodge to the coastal town of Swakopmund was definitely the bumpiest of the trip.

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However there was some nice and constantly changing scenery, and we picked up the obligatory Tropic of Capricorn photo. This was the second time we've driven across this line of latitude (Madagascar the other time), so you can see I was very excited about that:

We pulled into Swakopmund right at sunset, where my sister snapped this one:

We checked into Villa Margherita and this place was pure class. Everything was immaculate, and the staff amazingly professional and friendly. Sitting by the fireplace, drinking red wine, and enjoying the wifi on our iPhones (1 iPhone:1 person ratio) was a delight.

Also a delight was The Tug restaurant for dinner. This was our opportunity to skip the red game meat and enjoy some fresh seafood, and it didn't disappoint.

But what is Swakopmund really known for? It's the birthplace of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. So Lillie and Naveena posed outside this hospital.

However, it should be noted that a later Google search shows this hospital has absolutely nothing to do with Brangelina.

Anyway, Swakopmund was a really delightful place--we all would have loved to have lazed around Villa Margherita and the rest of town for a few days. Next time!

Sunrise at Sossusvlei

2010-08-09T20:21:32-07:00

Email and RSS subscribers will need to click over to klugusamy.com to view some content below—sorry 'bout that.

There’s nothing like waking up at 3:45am when on vacation. That we did, and we were on the 60km road to Sossusvlei around 4:30am.

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The last 5km of this stretch is a soft sand track where 4x4 is required. It was dark, not really sign posted, and we were the first ones through so there was nobody to follow. It was rather a fun drive!

With no problems at all, we found our way into the parking area for Sossusvlei. A German couple arrived shortly after, and much later the small group tour from Sossus Dune Lodge. We chose different dunes to climb, so we were essentially alone for sunrise.

As a result, we had lots of fresh sand to tread on in the remaining pre-dawn minutes. Here is Lillie’s iPhone sunrise video edited with Windows Movie Maker:

Now, here’s a collection of photos from Sossusvlei and Dead Vlei:

On the way out we got into a wee bit of trouble with the Land Rover—I zigged when we should have zagged. As soon as we realized I had made a wrong turn out of the parking area, the car was no longer moving as it was stuck in sand. Whoops!

Credit to the whole family for not panicking. I got the car unstuck, however in the process overheated the engine. Here’s a bunch of folks who know nothing about cars surveying the scene:

A little bit of (unnecessary) adventure added to the trip. We then headed back to Sossus Dune Lodge to clean up, pack our bags, and move on. Next stop Swakopmund.

Windhoek to Sesriem and Dune 45

2010-08-08T11:54:36-07:00

After breakfast at Terra Africa, we loaded up the Land Rover and headed southeast towards Namib-Naukluft National Park via Spreetshoogte Pass.

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Bratwursts were on the lunch menu at Café Van Der Lee in Solitaire, followed by Moose McGregor’s apple pie—which was also good enough for the boys on Long Way Down. I’ll add the photo of that pie at a later date as my sister Naveena is holding it hostage on her memory card.

However I do have this artsy snap from Naveena in Solitaire:

We followed the sign to C19 pictured above to check into Sossus Dune Lodge. This place set a personal record for most expensive accommodations, but I was totally happy with the decision. It consists of 25 chalets that are within the national park, and looking out towards the dunes.

Since it’s inside the park you (along with folks at the Sesriem Campsite) get access to a side road that lets you stay longer and leave earlier. This allowed us to be the last to leave Dune 45 at sunset, and the very first to arrive for sunrise at Sossusvlei. Excellent.

Rooms were also in excellent condition and well-furnished. The open shower was killer:

After a short rest in our respective rooms, we headed out to Dune 45 for sunset. There was only one tour bus there, so not too bad. Here’s my mom blazing the trail for the rest of us:

The family from (sorta) the top:

Back at the lodge we had dinner, then hit the hay as we had a planned 4:30am departure the next morning to be at Sossusvlei for sunrise…

Arriving in Windhoek, Namibia

2010-08-07T14:17:11-07:00

On day one within an hour’s time at Johannesburg airport, my parents arrived on South African Airways from JFK, my sister on British Airways from Heathrow, and Lillie and I on Kenya Airways from Amsterdam/Nairobi.

We then all met up in the South African Airways lounge before flying to Windhoek, Namibia together. All of this thanks to miles from Delta, United, Continental, American, and even BMI.

We were met right on time at the Windhoek airport by Bushlore with a Land Rover Discovery LR3. Lillie and I have experienced botched airport pick ups in Entebbe, Uganda and Antananarivo, Madagascar in the past, so this was a welcome treat.

Off to town we went. At the Checkers grocery store in Maerua Mall we picked up some snacks for the driving ahead. How could I resist purchasing something (sorta) named after our dog? They were not particularly tasty, however.

Dinner was at the much hyped Joe’s Beerhouse---nice place, glad we went, but at the end of the day nothing to get too excited about. Lillie, however, discovered her drink for the trip.

We spent the night at Terra Africa, which I thought was nice and a good value.

We watched our first African sunset of the trip from their back courtyard overlooking Robert Mugabe Avenue (which at one junction amazingly intersects with Nelson Mandela Avenue).

In transit through Amsterdam

2010-08-09T20:35:22-07:00

Lillie went to Africa for her 30th birthday, so it was only proper to repeat the same for myself.

Thus we're currently in Amsterdam en route to Namibia--plus we'll be meeting up with my parents and sister in Johannesburg in not too long. (All our flight tickets were another award redemption coup--five premium class award tickets to South Africa in peak season using different award programs and all arriving the same morning.)

We just got back from a little excursion to Amsterdam after arriving this morning from the Northwest. We rented bikes and cruised out to Uitdam and back—Marken further north was our target, but time and energy ran a little short.

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I'll spare you the airplane food photos from the Delta flight over, but feel it is important to point out the pancake machine now operating at a few of the Alaska Airlines Board Rooms.

That's all for now. Hopefully can snag some good sand dune and rhino photos in the coming week...stay tuned!

Wine and Horses in the Western Cape

2010-05-16T12:11:45-07:00

It turns out there’s a reason that this is my third post ever on Klugusamy.com. My apologies if you’ve been on the edge your seat waiting to hear about horses, wineries, and farm-to-table eating. That will be the last promise of any future authorship on my part.

After our Chapman’s Peak drive, we headed east to Franschoek for lunch at Bread & Wine. It was a beautiful setting – eating on the patio next to the big, barn-shaped, white-washed building with a bright blue sky behind it. We used an American Express concierge service to make the reservation for us in advance to give the illusion we were important people. As a result, they gave us free champagne upon seating us.

I’m obviously not the photographer in the family, but I really wanted a photo to capture the relaxed and delicious meal.

Vinod did a bit better…the home cured charcuterie platter:

This was our best meal in South Africa that was unfortunately a bit more rushed than we would have liked due to needing to head over to the horse stables…

After arriving at Paradise Stables, we met a German couple with whom we’d be riding. We were never really introduced to our “guide”, and she didn’t have much to say during the ride, but it worked out alright. We found plenty to talk about with the Germans, and it was nice to feel that we were more or less on our own as far as the riding went. The excursion was about four hours, with visits to three different wineries for tastings along the way. Luckily the German guy was into wine, so when there were decisions to make, we let him handle them. Photos are a bit tricky from horseback, but we managed to snap a few.

Vinod’s view ahead to Lillie.

The entrance to the final winery, Mont Rochelle.

What a way to celebrate 30 years!

Back to Cape Town | Cruising Chapman's Peak

2010-04-12T22:16:32-07:00

Sorry to all the RSS and email subscribers who got that dumb temporary post delivered to them earlier. I can truthfully say that it was entirely Lillie's fault.

However, we've taken this as a sign that it's time to post another update from the Cape Town trip since it's been two months since the last. So here are some snaps from Chapman's Peak—west of Cape Town on the Atlantic Coast. It's a 9km road boasting 114 curves hugging the ocean. A fun drive.

Starts in Hout Bay:

And ends in the town of Noordhoek. Sweet little beach here where we dipped our toes in the Atlantic. With a little more time, there are some riding stables that would be well worth checking out. Part of the charm is that you can take the horses for a spin on the beach.

And there's Table Mountain out in the distance:

While we didn't hop on horses in Noordhoek, we did hop on horses in Franschoek. Lillie will tell you that tale in the next post…

Cape Town | Part I

2010-02-12T08:12:39-08:00

We're thankful to have traveled elsewhere in Africa previously, because Cape Town is a decidedly less African experience. Geographically, it deserves every superlative possible—it's impossible to get away from jaw dropping vistas.

Culturally? We found the black/white race dynamics to be too overwhelming to be really comfortable there—considering apartheid only ended in 1994, the wounds are no doubt still fresh. But I'm not going to turn this into an inane 'how my 4-day trip to Cape Town changed my world view' college essay that my brother would scoff at.

All I'll say is that if you go to Cape Town, go there with some sense of self-awareness and perspective. Otherwise, I reckon for some it would be a destination rated highly on a "stuff white people like" list—nice beach, good food and wineries, etc.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let me tell you about the beaches and wineries we visited…

Cape of Good Hope

We're about 10,215 miles from Seattle here. Side note: amazingly, not the furthest we've ever been from home—Fort Dauphin, Madagascar wins that prize at 10,778 miles. (if anyone can name a further airport from Seattle than Fort Dauphin/FTU with regular commercial air service, please drop a comment—from a quick search, I couldn't find anything).

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I love geographic extremes—so visiting the southwestern most point of the African continent at the Cape of Good Hope was a thrill. Looking up the cliffs next to Good Hope, you see Cape Point (just a few minutes drive between the two). There's actually some serious history behind the area, so it's a cool feeling walking out to the lighthouse on the cliffs marking this spot.

In the second photo below, the white car is our rental parked at the Cape—and that's a wild ostrich on the right stalking the parking lot! That was a new wildlife sighting for us, but we just found them too creepy and weird looking.

The drive down is just gorgeous, to boot. One of the highlights of the drive (other than me breaking the passenger side mirror within an hour of landing in Cape Town) was bringing the car to a near stop to yield for a baboon hanging out on the road. Living with baboons in your neighborhood would be a total nightmare, but this was a nice tourist treat.

Boulders Beach

Along the drive between Cape Town and Cape Point is Boulders Beach—a popular hang out spot for African penguins. We were there end of day, so they had all returned to shore to dry off for the night. Watching these guys shuffle their feet around on the beach was still highly amusing.

This is actually a busy little waterfront town that the penguins are integrated within. So lots of penguin crossing signs around town.

Then there was one last wildlife sighting: a Rock Hyrax aka dassie (pronounced like dussy, I think). The scale isn't very good in this photo, but they are decent size at more than 8 lbs.

I lied in the previous post. There will be a couple separate posts on Cape Town. Part II to come…

First Class to South Africa

2010-02-11T13:57:33-08:00

Everyone's been asking for photos of the in-flight experience over to South Africa, but nobody clamoring for actual South Africa photos. So let's kick things off as demanded...

This photo basically sums up how completely over the top the First experience on Cathay Pacific is:

Now let me explain what you're looking at above. I'm sitting across from Lillie in an ottoman turned buddy seat, eating caviar and salmon, while Lillie is sipping on some Krug champagne (we easily finished the bottle on this flight). Not a bad way to occupy some time on a 16 hour flight from JFK to Hong Kong.

When it's bedtime, the flight attendants (two dedicated to the max of nine First passengers) will lay down a mattress pad, and spread out a duvet onto a now fully flat bed that easily fit my long legs (not feasible for me in most business classes). You're also issued some Shanghai Tang brand pajamas so you don't have to wrinkle your suit/jean pants. Also take note of the 17" TV and accompanying orchids:

For some orientation, here's a shot from my suite of Lillie in her suite (yes--the proper term is suite, not seat):

Now for food. The brilliant part about the food service in First is that it's entirely on demand. You get your menu at the start of the flight, and then you can order whatever you want whenever--no prescribed meal times. Awesome on long flights that require some sleep management to combat jet lag.

The flight attendants are far from shy about trying to feed you every single thing on the menu. I was amused at the sheer quantity of dinnerware on my tray table here. That's some braised pork neck with jasmine rice, spring rolls, basket of assorted bread, butter, hot sauce, and a pot of Hong Kong style milk tea. The Häagen-Dazs came later.

On our Hong Kong to Johannesburg flight, we had what I am unequivocally proclaiming to be the greatest breakfast of all time. For me it comprised of: caviar and salmon to start things off, a collection of dim sum, a few slices of back bacon, croissants with honey, Hong Kong style milk tea, and finally a berry smoothie.

But what set this breakfast apart was the setting--Lillie and I were sitting across from one another, 40,000 feet in the air, with the glow of the sun rising over the Indian Ocean on the shore of Mozambique. Simply unreal.

The last stop on the tour? The WC. Yes, there's a full length mirror to admire yourself in your airplane PJs, two windows, and a vessel sink:

We spent pretty much 48 hours in this space through the trip--flying JFK-Hong Kong-Johannesburg-Hong Kong-San Francisco. Definitely worse places you could be for such a long haul, I reckon.

Finally, just to be crystal clear, we obviously didn't shell out the $26,000/each (not a typo) this routing would set you back on Orbitz. This was all paid for with Alaska Airlines miles--that's how we roll.

Expect three more posts on this trip--all presumably far less interesting than this: on Cape Town and surroundings, brief stopovers in Hong Kong, and a boring/nuts and bolts post on miscellaneous trip planning minutiae.

Lillie is 30

2010-02-11T16:11:55-08:00

The paper shredder I got Lillie for her 28th birthday had set a pretty high bar for gifts.

So for Lillie's 30th, we're heading to Cape Town, South Africa for the next several days. Making it all the better, we're heading there via Hong Kong in first class on Cathay Pacific--no more of this business class nonsense!

We'll be celebrating the big day with Krug champagne and caviar on the 16.5 hour flight from JFK to Hong Kong.

Stay tuned for the trip report...in the meantime, happy 30th birthday Lillie!

Long Road to the Rose Bowl

2010-01-20T22:32:55-08:00

Since we all (Ziz included) work at the same place, we all had 11 days off between Christmas and New Year. So naturally we embarked on a 3,100 mile road trip.

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December 24, 2009 | Missoula, Montana

Christmas Eve was spent in Missoula, Montana at the Holiday Inn (on Priority Club points, of course). Dined on some excellent buffalo and elk at a cozy dinner across the street at the Pearl Cafe.

December 25, 2009 | Victor, Idaho

Our Christmas destination was an awesomely stylish cabin in Victor, Idaho with our college friends Cully and Rew.

As you might imagine, Victor is a small town so we didn't have any dining out options. Luckily we grabbed some generic pizza crust and beer at the Wal-Mart in Missoula. Never has Christmas dinner been so classy.

December 26, 2009 | Victor, Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming

On Boxing Day, we came to the realization that Zizou was incapable of laying down due to some sort of pain in his chest area. We picked up some aspirin from the store in hopes of it reducing some inflammation.

Then instead of snowshoeing in the Grand Tetons, we did a little cruise in the Highlander through the National Elk Refuge outside of Jackson, Wyoming. We saw some elk from several hundred yards away, but the real stars were bighorn sheep.

Also great views of the Tetons…

December 27, 2009 | Driggs, Idaho and Salt Lake City, Utah

"Woke up" after a very long night with a dog in considerable pain. The only way I could get him to lay down through the night was to scoop him up and flip him like a Tetris piece onto his side. Horrible stuff.

Of course things were further complicated because it was a Sunday, but I was easily able to get ahold of the Driggs Veterinary Clinic to line up an "emergency" vet visit. After some poking, prodding, and x-raying, the vet agreed there must be some sort of pulled muscle in his chest area. The sad part about that diagnosis is that he hadn't done anything but sleep in the car to injure himself.

So with some good anti-inflammatory drugs in hand (Rimadyl), we crossed our fingers and set course for Salt Lake City. Half way through the drive, Ziz laid down independently for the first time in almost two days. Huzzah!

By the time we arrived in Salt Lake City, he was ready to hang out with his buddy Oscar…

December 28, 2009 | Salt Lake City, Utah

Showing off the diversity of the specie…

Great to see Adam and Juliette, our friends and former roommates in Chicago. As touristy as we got in SLC was a stroll around Temple Square to check out the Christmas lights and some ice skating. Next time we'll visit the Mormon food bank that purportedly serves the best chocolate milk on earth at the end of the tour.

December 29, 2009 | Las Vegas, Nevada

The drive down to Vegas was amazingly our first poor road conditions of the trip (and the last stretch it was a concern). Most of our friends will be horrified to know that we spent zero time on the strip and just went straight to our hotel west of the strip—Element in Summerlin, the eco-friendly version of Westin.

This turned out to be a really great hotel, and earned lots of Starwood points in the process. From my research, this and the Westin on the strip are the only two (decent) hotels that allow big dogs. Our night in Vegas consisted of running around with Zizou at a giant park (Gardens Park) and then eating a bunch of sushi at Lahaina Grill. Easily in bed before midnight.

December 30, 2009 | Red Rock Canyon, Nevada and Los Angeles, California

After breakfast, we popped over to Red Rock to get a little hike in. Some cool scenery that's very different than anything in the Northwest.

Our only family photo from the trip:

The 250 mile drive to Los Angeles was our worst leg of the trip, by far—terrible traffic and rain when we arrived in LA! No matter, we had a great dinner with family and friends at my parents' house

December 31, 2009 | Los Angeles, California

Arun was kind enough to score Ziz (and us) an invite to an exclusive/hipster loft New Year's party. A great way to celebrate our fifth anniversary since picking him up from Idaho.

Check out this handsome dog at the party:

January 1, 2010 | Pasadena, California

Time for the Rose Bowl!

Good news: we had grandstand tickets for the Rose Bowl Parade. Bad news: we had to be there before 7am—not ideal the morning after NYE. It was surprisingly entertaining as we saw: Jack Hannah (Columbus Zoo), Jackie Chan, and Jared from Subway.

The weather was perfect for the game—not to mention a great stadium, loud fans, TBDBITL, sunset over the San Gabriel mountains, and an excellent win by the Buckeyes.

O-H-I-O.

Big thanks to Naveena for securing a boat load of game tickets, and my parents for scoring the parade tickets.

January 2, 2010 | Stockton, California and Portland, Oregon

After the Rose Bowl, we made the late night drive to Stockton so we could knock out ~330 miles from the 1,100 mile drive back home. It would be mostly all-business just to hustle back home in time for work on the 4th.

We thought about trying to just plow all the way to Seattle from Stockton, but we sputtered out after 630 miles and decided to crash at Hotel Monaco in Portland.

January 3, 2010 | Seattle

3,100 miles later, Ziz took in the smell of home.

At the end of this trip, the states visited scoreboard for the Klugusamys looks like this:

Vinod – 42
Lillie – 36
Zizou – 9

Lillie and I will get to 50 eventually, but Ziz will probably have to settle with just cracking double digits.

Thanksgiving in Bend, Oregon

2010-01-18T20:18:40-08:00

(Catching up on some old stuff…)

For a little change of pace this year, the Ponnusamy family rented a house on the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon to celebrate Thanksgiving 2009. Whoever's idea it was, it was brilliant.

Zizou enjoyed staring down the hissing swans from the dock. While he never jumped into the water to attack them, when we were canoeing on this same water he did jump out of the canoe and swim to shore.

A highlight was a loop hike around Smith Rock State Park—an especially popular spot for rock climbers. Some nice views of Mount Bachelor in the distance:

A couple shots of the appropriately named Monkey Face rock—complete with rock climbers:

More rock climbers:

Churchill Polar Bears

2009-11-08T23:01:05-08:00

Email and RSS subscribers will need to click over to klugusamy.com to view the below photos--sorry 'bout that.

I'll write a separate post on logistics on the ground for those interested. This post will be more meat and potatoes.

First, a map to illustrate exactly where Churchill, Manitoba is. Still south of the Arctic Circle, but this trip really put into perspective for us how massive Canada is. Look at how big Hudson Bay is alone!

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Overall, it was a highly productive 27 hours we spent in Churchill. The polar bear excursion kicked off at 7:30am with a motel pickup, and we were on board the Tundra Buggy at 8:30am.

Within 30 minutes of setting off, we saw two males sparring on the ice (imagine two bears on hind feet punching one another). Sadly these guys were super far away, so there were no photo opportunities.

Speaking of photos, here's a selection of the better ones.

At the end of the day, it was definitely amazing to see these beasts in their natural habitat. Remaining observations will be in the next post…

First Glimpse from Churchill

2009-11-04T21:07:18-08:00

We just got back to Winnipeg from Churchill after a day of polar bearing. From a quick look at the photos, there are a few keepers. But those will wait until a proper post and trip report upon return to Seattle.

In the meantime, here's some Where's Waldo? action. It's a glimpse of what a partially frozen Hudson Bay looks like on a 4 degree cloudy day.

More to come soon…