VASHTIE

I woke up having an out of body experience. You know when you forget where you are and it all hits you in a sleepy fog. I was halfway around the world recovering from a 15 hour flight and about to head out to the LION PARK. I was floating on air!

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Me, Theophilus, Knox and Huggy Bear set out for the park. It was a long drive from where we were, but it was nice for all of us to catch up. Coincidentally, our driver was named THEO and he was a nice quiet dude.

*STEPHEN BARR aka HUGGY BEAR (peep the ashy ankles. no shade, we was all ashy out there)

*”GEORGE”, our super awesome tour guide. George was his nickname. We were told that most African folks have African names and then American nicknames.

*I’ve seen other people’s “Safari” photos and I never really got a sense of what it would be like to be that close to a lion and it was AMAZING. This trip was the highlight of my stay in South Africa. I love animals, even the ones that can rip my face off.

*White Lions. Just like people they can mix with the Brown Lions and have mixed-ed babies (interracial jungle love).

 

*Lazy Cheetah.

*Don’t judge my hairy ashy legs, but I cut my knee in the Safari Truck. It was bloody hell.

*Next, we went to the LION CUB PARK. I could not wait!!!

*This little babe licked and bit me (pretty hard). It’s funny because although I had kitties when I was little – I wasn’t allergic. As an adult, I realized after I got Vladdy that I was allergic to him. If he licks me I break out into temporary hives at that spot. This Kitty licked me on this spot and see what happened a couple hours later…

*SUE

*JORDAN WATTS giving a cub some dap…

*LEVI MAESTRO

*The Lion Park was nice, but it was uncomfortable to see just outside the park was a Shanty Town. Here we were, Tourists checking out the cubs and meanwhile there were very poor people right next door. The strange part about South Africa for me, was the juxtaposition of rich and very poor.

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*Afterwards, we went to NANDO’S. Apparently it’s a chain restaurant that started in South Africa. This place was a gem. I had a Veggie Burger, but apparently the Chicken is delicious. I bought mad sauces to take home with me to share with friends.

*It’s weird when you travel some place far different than what you know and then you realize that so much of it feels familiar. Some parts of South Africa had variations…certain parts felt like Trinidad or Denver and even a couple areas felt like LA. Its actually quite nice to travel and see how different we are, yet the same…

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*On my way into the hotel me and Stephen checked out a group of hot girls dressed to kill having dinner. To our surprise, these lovely ladies came up and said “Vashtie?”. I was like…”you know who I am.” They replied “of course, we love your blog”. I was stoked. Later, as I took my old man nap, the fellas kicked it with the girls and when I met up with them later – we all went to CLUB HUSH.

*KNOX ROBINSON

*The Club was cool, although it felt like an American Club…bottle service, American music and VIP areas. Then suddenly, the DJ would play some local KWAITO music and you’d know – you were in South Africa!

 

*There are 11 languages in South Africa, which effects each person’s accent – making it hard for me to imitate. I’m sure class and education play a role in that also. Some people sounded Asutraliany or Brisitshy or African. It was pretty interesting and by the end of the trip, we all had our impersonations flowing.

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*ANDICCIO24 was another chain restaurant that was the BOMB! After the club, me and STEPHEN were starving and our driver THEO took us here. It was brick oven thin crust pizza that Stephen said rivaled the pizza he’s had in New York. I never usually eat pizza because I avoid dairy like the plague, but I had a non-cheese Veggie pizza. It was so good we had it two nights in a row!