To have such a huge fan base - they must be doing something right!

Welcome back, Dennis.

Here on Fodor's I've read complaints about guides who are too old (this is often combined with &quot;lazy,&quot; a term, I have to admit, that <b>really</b> gets my back up). And now I've seen &quot;too young.&quot; Tough crowd.

Cannot wait to read the entire report, good, bad and insane.

Hi Leely,

I believe i was one of them! i had a DRIVER (not guide) in a trip to East Africa one time and he was AWFUL!!! and yes, he was old, obese and extremely lazy!!! and guess what ..... he mentioned that all the other guides were assigned to Americans/westerners and that he was assigned to us because we were from India. Been afraid to return to East Africa after that. Will do so in 2009.

Rgds,
Hari

Thanks for that &quot;visual&quot; Dennis (went well with my dinner!)

Fodors + Mala Mala =
http://www.malamala.com/accolades.htm

(Although I had heard how fantastic MM was from a good friend before I even read Fodors)

Hari, I just hate seeing old and lazy united that way. I always think it implies that old people are inherently indolent. But, yes, you had a terrible experience. I cannot imagine...very, very bad, and I would have had a difficult time maintaining my composure under those circumstances.

I hope my guides/drivers/whoever at least are nice to my face--they can say what they want behind my back, of course.

The worse part was, Leely - he watched me fill out the customer satisfaction survey prior to driving me back to Arusha. I obviously had to give him a good review as i just wanted to get the hell away from him!

Cheers,
Hari

Hari, you will certainly have no trouble finding a better driver this next trip!

Hari,

Not that I am into beauty pagents (they are a HUGE thing in TZ) but are you aware that the new Miss Tanzania is Richa Adhia? I would have posted her snap for you but can not remember my Kodak mumbo jumbo at the moment.

I think perhaps this round you will feel a bit more welcome...surly more than this pink girl!

Den

Den,

Will google to see what i can find. Thanks .......

It came across mis-interpreted. Sorry! What my driver told me was, the good guides were assigned to Americans/ Westerners as they tipped better than the Indian visitors. Talk about being painted with a broad brush! Nothing, racist really ......

Cheers,
Hari

Koee baat nuhee!
Den

I've been really surprised reading this thread. I admit we've only been to MM once this past July but our experience was great. I did a lot of research before picking MM (we were at Rattray's) and reading about the animals we might see. I thought the rangers were very knowledgable. Both the ranger and tracker left the vehicle a number of times to track various animals before returning and proceeding, several times our ranger was driving while we were following our tracker almost out of sight ahead of us on foot. Because one of the cottages was not occupied while we were there we were the lucky couple to have the land rover to ourselves during our stay. Our ranger listened to what we were interested in seeing, he asked frequently, and while we did see the &quot;big 5&quot; we saw an amazing variety of other animals as well. He picked up early on that we were interested in the &quot;grazers&quot; and elephants and made sure we saw plenty.

When we went I figured it would be a once in a lifetime type trip, well I'm hooked and we will return - to MM.

Bob