arnonmusic.com Blog

we managed the 34hr trip from lake Victoria (west kenyan border) to Lamu (east Kenyan border) braved other peoples sweat & a man trying to convince me to sell his precious Tanzanian stones abroad; & the bumpiest drive to date. “corruption, corruption” the Kenyans croaked every time a pot-hole put us in the ceiling. A true point but Kenyans, unlike their neighbours to the south are still very, very tribal & identify themselves by tribe 1st & country later. A fact which I believe is very telling.

Lamu, on the northern border near Somalia, is a poor man’s Zanzibar and the sands around it are the play ground of the uber rich (price Albert of Monaco for one). The simple beauty of the place & the bounty of its waters (we caught 45 fish in less than 2 hours)

ooh fishy fishy

 won us over. A thousand donkeys roam the streets and we had a wonderful dinner at crazy hippie Ali’s house…

lobster dinner at hippy ali's...thanks bob

hippie ali plays with family

In Malindi we stayed cheap (in a fan-less whore house) and journeyed back in time.

We saw the tied London derby (Chelsea v West-ham) in a huge old cinema with its own school of bats on the ceiling…had nice piza. The whole thing reminded me of ‘Alex hole ahava’ – an old Israeli classic set in the early sixties.

The next day we met a lovely Italian air crew and surfer dude…top people (Italians have made this part of the world their homes and retreats every since Italian colonialism centuries ago…hey Mussolini even based his ‘banana a day’ scheme on food grown in these regions) We bought nic-nacs from merchants who waded the shallows from the coast. We had lobster lunch on a picture perfect atoll on the Indian ocean and more than once complained about how hard life can be…

g'us a kiss luv!

The bus was a rickety thing but was ultimately nothing compared to the MATATU (a small Toyota Hiace) we took from Homa Bay the next morning.

 somehow they consider it fit for 14ppl – that’s already ridiculous…but we got 24 ppl into ours…

and the girl next to me had a bucket of fish (puke sound effect)…

the nun next to her a bucket of clotting milk… (puke sound effect)

add the intense B/O of no soap…well ever, simmer in 40 degrees for 2 hours and there you go…though really it was an experience and strangely enjoyable…

anyway we got to Rongo and despite the heat and the lack of electricity or any mod-con it was and is lovely!

Ben – our man,  suffered hard in the last bout of post-election violence and lost 300 chooks and they had to close down the orphanage but the place is still absolutely lovely.

After a brief tour we got hands-on experience with the sugar harvest and refining! old Indian machinery and good ol’ elbow grease followed by a hot hot heat melt down into pure brown sugar lumps…

one lump or 2?

freshly chopped cane less the greenery

 we were fed the local staple – UGALI – a mix of maize and millet…tasted lke Kreplach if you know it…yum

here's mama, a supreme cook, drying the maize before grounding it

 the next morning after heavy rain and a full-on Kenyan music, 3 hour alarm, we got down to hard-core permaculture – companion planting banana with the cabbage – the Banana gives the cabbage much needed Nitrogen….nice and sustainable – the diggin was hard tho..

then we helped pile up recently dired bricks from the local soil – we are arranging them into a furnace like arrangement which we will burn tmr…I was happy to recieve many compliments from the Africans for my hard work…busted my hands beyond recognition tho (9 blisteres and cuts but boo fukin hoo, yea?!)

later that day (yesterday…hmm) Chrissy and I built our 1st worm farm!!! yippie the empire starts here!! Chrissy designed and Ben and I used the panga ( a chinese built machetee to cut the wood – Gum tree would you believe it!)

ahhh after a long day at the farm we slept good… but have a look at Hunington being washed…how cute!

today we are in town and enjoying electricity and internet…though the album deign is not finished yet it will be awesome when it is done. for now we have decided to help ben and start a web-page…we hope it will help raise awerness for the project!

tune in again soon ya’hear (there are 2 new songs i hope to upload as soon as I have electricity again

last but not least HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! we love you and miss you, youre the best dad ever.

Arnon

its 8am but it might as well be 4.30
Nairobi (once known as Nairobberi is now safe and fun and should only have that name as to confirm Chrissy’s shopping spree) was inviting and friendly. but the akamba bus scheduled for 2130 didn’t move until 2300 loaded with everything you could imagine.

The roads were non existent…when does a road composed solely of pot-holes cease to be a road?

we just disembarked in Homa bay where the dust fills the air from the road non stop…

we are waiting for Ben. we are going to volunteer on his organic farm for the next week in the real African country side…
more updates soon

After leaving the wonderfully green Uganda we headed back to Kenya and the Lions.

I cannot streess enough how much TV does not do justice with some of the animals…in particular the lion and Rhino…they are huge and hugely impressive…

a wee litle kitty

We had high tea and Elsamere the home of the famous lion Elsa and here owner Joy something…:-) which took in the lion as a cub and had her as a ‘pet’ until her death

high tea at elsamere...oh you must try the quiche dont you know

We headed down to lake Nakuru, homre of the greater Flamingo…this bird is seriously strange, with a specialised whale like beak (or bill) for molasses and a head that is seriously far away from its body…poor thing

Flamingos at dawn

also home of the white rhino (there is also the black Rhino but white is just a mistake from translation from dutch (it should be wide…any way here it is)

and a few other residents of note

we also did a horse and boat safari where we got redicoulously close to fighting Hippo’s!

at night we got high on chat…a chewy bitter herb and went to the meanest grimmiest street party ever!

awesome!

A

After the Gorillas we chilled for abit on this gem called lake Bunyonyi (Chuchil called Uganda the pearl of Africa)

We visited a local church where the locals sang with pitch perfect voices (pentatonic tho) and went to an orphanage where all the children are there because their parents died from HIV Aides, we sang and danced with the lovely children. we gave them pens, I learnt new beats on the djembe and we gave direct to the orphanage without any middle men

I showed the locals how its done

but chrissy really showed them how to hardcore!

oh the equator…
where we way less apparently… how nice
where there is a time when a man can cast no shade…how useful
where it is fucking hot and there isn’t even a fuckin magnet to buy…(what a pussy)
we did get this photo out of it though

you say south, I say north...lets call the whole thing...the equator

oh Jinja…the source of the mighty Nile…seriously gorgeous.

we were sucked in by the huge rapids and got swirled and twirled in the pull and held underwater with very little control over the whole thing…chrissy and one stage was held under for 7 seconds…which i can tell you feels like a million years…\

I got stuck under the boat a few times but overall we surfed the rapids, conquered the waterfalls and subdued the mighty Nile with bravado and style (if i may say so myself) – video passages on here soon

We were traversing the depth of the impenetrable jungle (yes that is its real name) in the Bwindi national park in south west Uganda (on the border of Uganda/Ruwanda/Congo). we were tracking one of only a few wild mountain gorilla families left in the wild.

luckily the eco-tourism program has allowed numbers of Gorilla to slowly recover. After about 1.30hrs on the track our 8 strong group with armed guard found the gorilla tracks. Unfortunately the headed straight up a ravine…nice.

with the track well and truly behind and below us we hacked and slashed our way upwards and upwards. Now i don’t know what your concept of Africa is but Uganda is GREEN

we encountered the biggest earth-worms I have ever seen and wild jungle elephant beds as well as less welcome red bull ants with pincers that stuck in and didn’t come back out.

with no real footing to mention we slipped and slid through the reeds and thick growth until we final saw them. a large gorilla family! big, hairy, fat and relaxed!

thanks to an innovative program the gorillas have become acclimatised to human presence (though a respectful distance was kept).
still the silver back immediately growled and made it clear to our guides who’s boss… Chrissy’s tri-pod scarred the shit out of the cute things but hopefully some nice pics came out…

Before

Uganda

we also saw these cows with the biggest horns EVER

HOly cow

After

on the way back the equitorial rain punished us ‘real bad’ but it added a sense of authenticity to the whole experience…

love

Arnon

we left London, 8 hours later we landed in Nairobi and the next morning made for the Masai-mara after safely negotiating ‘Nairoberi’.

Tucked in the sounth west of Kenya near the  Tanzanian border (and a direct continuation of the serengeti) we went game viewing
in a big 4×4 truck with a group of really nice people.

We saw Zebras, wilderbeasts, all types of gazelle – one as big as  a cow and a bunch of lionesses and bachalor lions by their prey, elephants, hippos…

we were really lucky to see the elusive leopard…and batted it with ‘hey kitty…hey pus pus’…talk about playing with fire!
but we got good photos out of it hey…
 

explorer

 
of course pumbas and merecats and all that
needles to say it was awesome! and all in one day!

then we went to a Masai village experience- I was quite prejudiced against such a visit thinking it would be nothing more than a tourist trap. but out here in the mara with not much more than small circular masai settlemements the experience was realistic and cooler than it was ideallic
the experience was great and they obviously still live in a very traditional way – hard mother fuckers who go on mad initiation ceramonies including a public circumsition (for both male and femal unfortunately) which is more genital mutilation than circumcision…i dont like it but they have a real warrior culture which they stand by for better or worse and with lions and hyena howling around its no wonder…and they do bargain like bastards!

we had a great time going into the huts and doing the normal but the next day went on a walking safari up the mountain with 2 Massa (just Chrissy and I) and we say a Hyena 15meters away…no bus, no cage…

the view was great and I was really good with the spear and bow and arrow….raa!

now we left the masai and chrissy shopped till I dropped with a full Warrior princess outfit ready for the next festie season…

more here soon! with real recordings of the massa songs and more stuff! into Uganda tmr…
 love

Arnon & Chrissy

Hi
well arriving into London despite the gale force winds and the cold I couldnt help loving the old girl…London has really grown on me and even now is really a haven…

Album news – the designs are looking real good but not finished. The master still requires abit of work so we have set a new target for release – January or even Feb for itunes…it sure does take time aye!!

was great to see friends in London, everyone is doing so well and look so good and happy it was just great to see who I could, even for a day.

Now we are in downtown Nairobi, 1st night in Kenya and tomorrow we’re off on a 17 day camping safari. i’ll update when internet is available but i’m not certain when that will be!

till then,
all the best
arnon

hey the kong is awesome,

i gotta say the shopping was awesome, how cheap and available everything is! and i am now shopper…

we were staying at the smallest room you have ever seen! but clean and friendly and dead centre in hong kong’s kowloon area…

also cought a traditional chinese orchestra at the lovely cultural centre. ate my ars off with dave’s lovely hospitality and absolutely killed it at the 125th anniversary of the Hong Kong jockey club…i placed horses on 5/7 races…talk about results…

so now getting ready to head off to London fro 2 days before africa…still waiting on a few details with the cd but it will soon be out!

all da best
Arnon

hiya, just left lovely Australia after 8 weeks, pics up here soon, wrote a few new songs which i iwll upload here soon as well.

but new in Hong Kong with Chrissy and old friend Dave who is showing us a wicked time…

we be shoppin, eating, seeing and tmr going to the 125 aniversary of the jocky club..will be wicked…

much love
A