Bon voyage to 30!
I’m not so secretly in love with my birthday - I love having a day whose sole purpose is to celebrate my very being, yet I also occasionally dread birthdays because I fear that no one will show up to celebrate me with me. I wasn’t sure what my birthday would be like while traveling in Africa - who’d know?
Well it turns out that the Intrepid crew does know if you’re going to be celebrating an upcoming birthday but will try to get a feel from you just in case you are one of those people who are adamantly against celebrating birthdays. A special shoutout to the Intrepid crew and my fellow travelers for making my birthday a memorable one!
First day of 30!
We were traveling in Zimbabwe at the time and passed through the capital of Harare. I’d read in my (very outdated) copy of Lonely Planet that there was a Thai restaurant in the city and had fixated on having something familiar and comforting. Because my guidebook was outdated, it didn’t mention that this restaurant had moved locations and was now a 15 minute taxi ride outside of the main part of the city. Luckily our group of four was game to take a little trip to Chang Thai (haha, how coincidental) to celebrate with me, so off we went! It was quite interesting to explore Harare in a taxi and see the city “behind the scenes” and bits and pieces that we normally wouldn’t be able to by truck.
I was so happy to be eating noodles and rice - one of the things I’ve missed most about home is Asian food, so having Thai food was such a treat.
I should’ve brought my Chang Thai beer shirt to match the restaurant!
As you can see, I’m ecstatic to be having comfort food.
In the evening, after we had dinner and set up camp, the group surprised me with a birthday “punch” filled with lots of fruit and, well, lots of other beverages. They even got me a cake! And we all know how much I love my desserts.
Yes, all of these ingredients went into the punch (except for the cake of course!).
The punch and cake was absolutely delicious and we spent the rest of the night finishing the punch bowl, swapping stories, and laughing our butts off. Thank you Victor, Ben, Nicko, Zoe, Joe, and Jenny for making my thirtieth one to remember and a memory I’ll treasure.
With Ben, Nicko, and Victor (the Intrepid crew) who organized the surprise celebration.