18/8/15: Aft breakfast, we set off for Serengti National Park at 8am.
I guess for tourists, the Safari companies will bring us to these souvenir shops. The others started to search for the Big 5 animal stamps, hoping to collect them all. SS and I shared cost and bought 12 coasters (USD15). *The toilets were surprisingly clean too.*
We have to pass through Ngorongoro Crater before we can reach Serengeti park, so Peace brought us up to the Peak~ breathtaking! We saw no ends!
There were many tourists up on the peak, and even though we spent only about 10-15mins thr, it was definitely worth the memory! Then, we hop onto the car and continue the drive to Serengeti. We saw camels, Maasai Village and giraffe otw. *Oops, mr photographer even settled his "business" out in the nature! What a view for him lol!* The road to Serengeti was very bumpy sometimes, and small rocks would fly and the wheels got super noisy too.
While we got down the car in front of the entrance to Serengeti, another Safari car was driving towards our direction~ woosh looked like some movie scene eh?
We waited outside Serengeti Park entrance while Peace went to settle the tix for us. He encountered some problem when it came to ST, SS and Jenny's passport... seems the staff didn't believe they are Tanzanians! The 3 gals had to go over personally, and then "convince" them that they were indeed locals... just not Africans. *They even wanted to call their dad who could speak fluent Swahili, but the staff didn't allow la... simply wanted more money from them.*
The rest of us waited. We saw a Marabou Stock walked by the picnic area... he was so calm lol... like some wise old man who couldn't care less about onlookers. It felt like hrs pass, and our car was only allowed in at 4pm! *Shugs we only had about 2hrs left for the journey! Damn!*
Hartebeests and hippos above. Oh and as it was the dry season, fire occurrences were common. We drove into the vast plains and I could practically see land tornadoes and fires and smoke most of the time. We almost choked when Peace had no choice but to drive thru some thick smoke... sure like a action movie eh! It teared us up badly~ no joke for that 1min.
Then we saw an elephant whom was eating by the narrow path we were on. He was nibbling and didn't look like he would move. Peace said if he didn't move, we can't either omg. We were bored, so John decided we took a wefie with the elephant lol!
Yes you can see the herd of buffaloes above, but can you tell the lions on the trees? Honestly, I can't tell exactly how many there were too... that is the power of camouflaging. It's no wonder their preys' life would be at stake in the wild. And other animals we'd sighted included wild boar, leopard, guineafowl, lovebird and skunk.
The sun set soon, and it's dangerous in the park at night, so Peace drove us to Serengeti Sopa Lodge... which is at a high pt in the park itself. *Looks like some villa right?* YJ and I stayed in rm 26, which was all the way in a corner on the 2nd flr. Thr was no balcony, but we could see that we were at the end of the lodge alrdy... dunno what's safe or no beyond the lodge haha.
The room was really big for two, as well as the bathroom. I liked how the staff would set the nettings for us. Like most lodgings and hotels, they have a certain slot whr there is hot shower and electricity, but it was not that unconvenient from what I can rmb. Aft taking a shower, we went to have buffet dinner at their dining hall, whr all other tourists were at.
I rmb how we were seated outside on a table and how mozzies/flies kept flying over to YJ's side! They landed on her food like twice, so she had to re-take her food lol. We even requested for the waitress to dim the lighting over at our side, but we realise we can't see what we were eating then lol. Anyway, it was someone's bday, and the staffs came out to sing bday song... they hummed to some trad African tunes and with the drummings etc~ it was so chirpy! Alex and I joined in their dance, following the staffs in a line and I guess I was juz shaking my body lol!
There was a swimming pool outside, but no one bought swim suit, and neither do we wanna risk being bitten by mozzies catch a cold in the cold weather. They went to a shop inside the lodge to look for their Big 5 stamps again. We gathered in Alex's rm to drink, listen to music and chatted for a bit before gg to bed. *I dunno if I was too tired or the bed was juz comfortable enough, or cos it was 100% darkness at night in my room, I rmb I fell aslp really fast.*
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