Cape Town and Everything After

I'm desperately trying to catch up on things before we start a 12-day trip to Bhutan, where we'll largely be out of touch...

Above, that's us starting our abseil ("rappel" in American) off Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain. I really thought Dana would back out of this trip at the last second, but she stuck it out and we were able to head down the mountain together.

Cape Town has to be one of the most outdoor-oriented cities in the world. Besides abseiling, we did some sea kayaking to Boulder Beach, where thousands of African penguins have set up camp as well as some cycling in the wine country.

From Cape Town we flew east to the Sabi Sands game reserve, adjacent to South Africa's famed Krueger National Park. Driving around in a roof-less, door-less Land Rover, we watched prides of lions and leopards walk so close that we could have touched them without stretching our arms. We also drove into the middle of a voracious group of rhinos, saw several groups of elephants, giraffes, impala, etc. If you're counting the Big Five, we missed out on buffalo.

Departing South Africa, we heard the six words every traveler dreams of: "You've been upgraded to First Class." We were flying Cathay Pacific, which meant an upgrade to the top-ranked First Class cabin in the world. Even with the fully reclining bed, I never went to sleep, too busy eating the five-course meal (starting with caviar), watching a few of the 60 on-demand movies, and basically gawking out the window at places - like Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritus - which I never thought I'd get to see.

We've been in Thailand for a week, both in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We've taken cooking classes, run a half-marathon, and eaten all the street food we can handle. But these updates will have to come later. Tomorrow we take Druk Air to Paro. After a day or two of acclimatizing (the benefits of high-altitude life in Bolivia are now gone) we start a six-day trek though the mountains to Thimphu. We'll be back in Bangkok on April 1.