Ep1: South Africa Safari Adventure
Hi, Fatima. Hi, Reem. Welcome to our 2 Accent podcast. Today's gonna be a good day. Today's gonna be a good day.
Fatima:Bismillah. Bismillah.
Reem:Hi, guys. I'm gonna edit this out.
Fatima:You're gonna edit it? Yeah. Okay. How when should we stop?
Reem:No. Since we both love love to travel. Right? Yes. That's one of the things I think that I know in my mind, I call you my travel buddy.
Reem:I swear. But I know we're not travel buddies that much. We've been to, what, a couple of trips together. Yes. Loved it.
Reem:I know you've been to, like, 20 some countries. Alright? I'm I'm working on it. I'm working on it. But, the 2 trips we went to, most memorable.
Reem:I would say
Fatima:do you wanna talk about memorable.
Reem:2016, South Africa?
Fatima:SA. SA. SA.
Reem:Oh my god. That trip. South Africa. Can you imagine? Man, it was it was first of all, I think it was my first abroad trip.
Reem:No. It was my second one because I didn't go
Fatima:to part of the India.
Reem:Right? UK. And India India for school. But that was, like, for fun.
Fatima:Uh-huh. Right? Uh-huh. Yeah.
Reem:And, we went with a bunch of girls, but do you wanna talk about not know them. That's not
Fatima:it. Know them. I know. Fatuma. I will.
Fatima:It was just you.
Reem:You like, you wanna go
Fatima:on this trip? I'm like, I am. I know. I actually I know them. I knew them.
Fatima:I knew them.
Reem:I know Fatima knew. You know everybody. Okay?
Fatima:But not everyone. You know Nur who went with us? Yeah. I didn't know Nur. Yeah.
Fatima:You didn't know Nur? I did not know her in my other first trip. So when I met her I met her I met her also in the trip. Oh. So that's how you meet people, I guess, in Slack.
Reem:And I love Nur. That's how
Fatima:you become friends with people. Yeah. Yeah. Because once you travel, that's it. You would know who is your true friend.
Reem:When you know you can travel with this person or you cannot. This person can
Fatima:be trusted that friendship contract. I know. Right? I know.
Reem:I would have to say, like, I do have a travel buddy, and I know you do too. And it's not me. You're a cheater. Oh, yeah. I do have one, and I love traveling with her.
Reem:And she's one of my best friends, but I think I traveled maybe one trip here and there with other friends, which I enjoy. I think I do, I do have friends that I think I can travel with and, you know, we have the same energy, same vibe. Yeah. But, you're definitely one of these people. Okay.
Reem:I
Fatima:no. But I love I love that you travel
Reem:everywhere. So you're like As
Fatima:long as you don't wake me up early
Reem:in the morning, I'm gonna go. And we sleep in a room that is ice cold. Okay. We are good to go.
Fatima:I thought I'd like Whoever signed up? Whoever signed up? I thought I'd like to book.
Reem:And you're a planner too, so I like that. I like that.
Fatima:But, so so I'm not that that I'm not that that plan, but No. No. No. No. I tried.
Fatima:I tried to. I think we just had to overall idea. The idea. Like, here,
Reem:we're gonna spend 3 days in Joburg Yes. Then we're gonna do the safari Yeah. For a week Yeah. And then we're gonna do Cape Town for 4 days. Yes.
Reem:Like, I like that.
Fatima:And then in between And you know already where you're staying, where you're going. Yep. The only thing you would not know, how to deal with the taxi, how you find your Uber. Yes. But How to find the Uber?
Reem:Talking about the Ubers in South Africa, the drivers and, Cape Town, they were pulling up in luxurious cars.
Fatima:Mhmm. Do you remember? Yeah. It was
Reem:like a Mercedes Benz, BMW. And I'm like, what do you guys do on this
Fatima:or Uber? And what did we end up with? The the the the smallest one. We got a
Reem:hassle. It was adventurous. Definitely.
Fatima:You know what I mean? We were we played the game of going to that taxi, said that one gave us the deal on this price.
Reem:This is you have to learn the game of bargaining when you are in Africa. You gotta learn it. That's all good. Really do. You really do.
Reem:Because as soon as they see foreigners, they're like, the price goes up Up high. High to the sky. Yeah. So you have to be careful. And I think in a lot of places, not just Africa, I mean, Middle East, South America probably.
Reem:You know? Yeah. In Turkey. You know,
Fatima:the only place that I really thought was tough to do with is deal with is Turkey because all the drivers already have that agreement with each other somehow. Really? Of course. Yeah. It's so weird.
Fatima:Smart. It was so hard to get the deal.
Reem:That is
Fatima:smart. Everybody's already up high. And then you go to the other one. The other one's up high already.
Reem:Like, ma'am, it only goes up and up from here.
Fatima:Okay? Doesn't that go down?
Reem:That's funny. You know, I would love to go to Turkey, though. It's on the bucket list.
Fatima:Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:I will go one day. But, South Africa.
Fatima:Going back to South Africa.
Reem:I know. Our beautiful trip. Forget the trip. Remember the safari tour at night? Yes.
Reem:Oh my god.
Fatima:If you guys But
Reem:we only want the ice
Fatima:to go? Gotta go safari. Try.
Reem:No. Safaris are the best. Like, safari tours are the best. You gotta do the morning Mhmm. Which is like they do sunrise, and you gotta do the sunset Yeah.
Reem:Which is at night. So we did the morning, and then I think the And
Fatima:there was an afternoon. I think there was an afternoon. An afternoon and then And then there was a evening. Right.
Reem:Yeah. But I think seeing the sunset and the sunrise is amazing. Getting in the safari in the forest, you know, whatever. We did the night one and, oh my god, we almost died.
Fatima:I don't know who died.
Reem:Look, I thought I was gonna if I were to die in the middle of the safari in Africa, you would think a lion would eat you. A lion. Okay. I'm gonna get chased down. But, oh my
Fatima:god, it was elephants. And it's so funny to read it. Because when you were at elephants, you were sitting she was sitting at the front. You were sitting at the front. Remember?
Reem:Yo. I was brave. I'm like, yeah.
Fatima:You know, I'm not scared.
Reem:Wanna see the animals taking pictures, videos. La la la
Fatima:la la. We saw the cheetah that day. We saw the cheetah. Cheetah was fun. She walked by us.
Fatima:Remember the day? I think she walked by us. Animals were they said they were if they ate at specific time, they're not looking
Reem:for for to attack. Right.
Fatima:But then the elephant
Reem:came out of the
Fatima:night. Yeah.
Reem:It was, like, really, really dark, and I think we were driving up in the woods, obviously, towards river.
Fatima:There's a river in between, a lake in between Right. Where we were driving.
Reem:Yeah.
Fatima:And we're supposed to go see the lion, and the lion was at the other side, across.
Reem:Trying to find the lion.
Fatima:Yeah. They were across in the, the other resort. Remember, there was another resort. There's a gate kind of like
Reem:a yeah.
Fatima:That time. And then the the lady was trying to take us there, our safari guide. She was trying to take us as she's a female. Remember? Yeah.
Fatima:She's trying to take us, I guess I don't know.
Reem:You know? Let's not you know, we're not sexist or anything, but we're like, if anything happens in the middle of the safari, can you protect us? We need guns. I don't know. I think it was, like, 8 of us in the car.
Reem:Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. And the group was fine. It was dark, like pitch black.
Reem:Yeah. And and I don't know what happened, like, suddenly that this she stopped because she had saw or heard the elephants. I guess they they don't they don't see at night. Yeah. And, they got sort of shocked by the light.
Reem:Yeah. Right? Uh-huh. And they started just that agitated them and they started charging towards us.
Fatima:Yeah. So we had to really and it was one only it was one that looked at us. Yeah. And then he went to go call his friends, like, come to everybody. Yeah.
Fatima:He turned around. He said, there's threat.
Reem:Oh my god. But how quick that was? I swear to god, my heart dropped when she told us everyone needs to quiet down Yeah. Get down, turning the car off, the lights are off Yeah. And don't But that makes
Fatima:us laugh. She didn't turn the lights off initially because she kept it on. She kept reversing reversing because she cannot she cannot go u-turn or she cannot u-turn because it's we are in between legs. Like, they were charging at us. Yeah.
Fatima:And they're coming. And they're reverse fainted. I know. I'm one of these movies. I know what I was doing.
Fatima:It was it was already mute. No. It's already fainted. I mean, I'm here. Had my camera on.
Fatima:I still have a video. Fatima,
Reem:I love you because she captured everything, everything on the video without making a sound. I was dead already. I thought I died. I'm like, I'm you know, god, please forgive me. My life flashed right in front of me.
Fatima:I know. Except the one lady one lady said, turn off the light. Tell her to lie down.
Reem:Yeah. Because they
Fatima:were little
Reem:like, they were close. Yeah.
Fatima:We could see them. To turn off the lights.
Reem:Yeah. And really be quiet for a little bit. And, obviously, they got confused. They can't see in the dark. And, I think we waited to make
Fatima:it that. Maybe you could see it.
Reem:Maybe you could see it. I don't think they could. They wanna just They can't see people maybe in a car. I don't know what else they can see.
Fatima:And then they they turned around to the other side.
Reem:And and and left. But, oh my god. Like, after
Fatima:that Yeah.
Reem:Everybody was like,
Fatima:we're ready to go back to the hotel. We don't want a lion. We're good. She said, no. We need to see the lions.
Reem:We're good on the lion. I'm like, I can't even my legs were weak, and I can't even walk and get up. And Fatima here's Fatima with the camera. Guys, everybody's okay. I captured everything.
Reem:We survived. We made
Fatima:it. You're crazy. But that was scary though. I still remember.
Reem:Scariest moment of my life.
Fatima:Yeah. I still remember it. It was really, really scary because you you can't even imagine. That's crazy.
Reem:That is crazy, honestly. I would do it all over again, but I'd probably not go at night.
Fatima:Yeah. Me too. I don't know if I would do it at night.
Reem:I think yeah. From that, I think we had 2 more days, and then we did
Fatima:the 40 days. At night. We need a car that's protective. Not like a
Reem:Our car wasn't Yeah.
Fatima:It was covered. Right? Yeah. It was open. Yeah.
Reem:So I feel like most of the cars, though. The Rangers, like, they're open.
Fatima:They are the bigger ones. Yeah.
Reem:Because we had a big one, like, with 4 rows. Yeah. Yeah. I like those though because I don't know. I feel like it's too hot and you want the the nice air kicking in.
Reem:You know?
Fatima:But imagine if a just a lion would have been lion right now jumping in us. I don't think
Reem:Girl, yes. And that would have been the end
Fatima:of us. Yeah. The end. But then they they knew when not to go, where not to go. Yeah.
Fatima:Like Yeah. So that's the part that was good. You know? But I don't think she was expecting a a elephant being there because she said, I didn't know the elephant's even there. She did not know.
Fatima:Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:I think so. I think they were not expecting the elephants, in that spot. I think we were looking for a lion and a cheetah. Cheetah. Remember we saw, like, a whole cheetah having a meal on top of the tree Yeah.
Reem:In a tree branch? Yeah. And, it had, like, a little deer or something they were eating. Yeah. And they just we're not bothered.
Reem:They're just like, you know, enjoying this meal, dinner. Didn't even look at us. So, yeah, I I don't know if I would do the night, but overall, South Africa was amazing. Cape Town was amazing.
Fatima:Amazing. Anyone wants to go, it's an experience.
Reem:Yeah. I would definitely, go again and again. Yeah. But I do wanna see the safari in Kenya. Yeah.
Fatima:If you always make
Reem:the comparison, like, oh, Kenya has, you know, more animals or, or South Africa. I don't know. But I definitely since we've been to South Africa, like, Kenya would be the next place, a safari that I would wanna see just to compare them.
Fatima:But I would go
Reem:to South Africa again. Yeah. Especially Cape Town. That's a a totally different, experience than Joburg, the safari. Like Yeah.
Reem:I felt like I was in California. Right? Yeah. But for me, it was
Fatima:like California. Cape Town was it looked like more California.
Reem:Yeah. Right? Like the beach Yeah. Yeah. Kind of mountain y.
Fatima:Yeah. It's like that.
Reem:Yeah.
Fatima:Cape Town. Johannes We did the dive.
Reem:The dive with the sharks. Yeah. Oh my god. We did a lot.
Fatima:We did. You're right. I forgot. That that one was experienced. That one, the shark.
Fatima:You saw the oh, that one. I don't remember even the face of the shark.
Reem:You know how, like, I don't know if they do this at your job, but in every company, in every place I worked in, there's always a question with, like, team building or whatever. A question comes up. Tell us about, what is a fun fact about you? Mhmm. I used to hate these questions.
Reem:I still do. Yeah. But my go to story is, oh, I dived with white sharks. I
Fatima:used to live in town.
Reem:Yes. And I'm like, what? I'm like,
Fatima:Brad, we were in the cave. We were in the cage. I know. I still remember the highway one. I remember the shark itself.
Fatima:We because it came on us. They told you they used to they were telling us don't be put your arm out. That's the arms. Like, it it just you put your arm like he's gonna eat you.
Reem:They they put, like, food, like like meat
Fatima:Yeah.
Reem:With blood
Fatima:Yeah. To
Reem:draw them in.
Fatima:Yeah. And Around that sucker.
Reem:I've seen the deadliest eyes. Like, their eyes are black.
Fatima:Put me out. I remember the teeth that
Reem:because they made
Fatima:eye contact. We were like, what? I was like, put me up.
Reem:And the water was freezing. Yeah. It was like 6 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. It was 6:30.
Fatima:But, it's yeah. That one is a I want to remember, but I almost forgot about it. But I
Reem:just We just went to South Africa and we said, let's die.
Fatima:You know, let's try to to different ways of dying. You survived all
Reem:of them, we thank God. I know. Let's be adventurous.
Fatima:I know. These are
Reem:the things,
Fatima:like, sometimes you don't you take that risk. Yeah.
Reem:You risk taking it. Yeah.
Fatima:It's like you don't know if it's
Reem:And I think it was my first, like, big trip with girls where, you know, we did it all.
Fatima:Yeah.
Reem:We did the fun. We went out. We did food. Yeah. We
Fatima:even walked to even we walked at night. We were at places they said
Reem:you should not walk. Definitely. I recommend we didn't do that in Dober no.
Fatima:Dobert. We did it in Dobert. Yeah.
Reem:You know what? Like, it's not that bad.
Fatima:It wasn't bad. People says that bad, but it's not I mean, we we didn't
Reem:we can't I think maybe we were in the good areas. I don't know. Yeah. But I didn't feel threatened. Like, I didn't feel like, you know, I need to watch.
Reem:I mean, granted we're a bunch of girls. We do need to be mindful, but, I think it was fine.
Fatima:It was good. It was a experience too.
Reem:Yeah. But I would I would rate that trip as, like, probably number 2 or, like, my top 2. Top 2
Fatima:Uh-huh.
Reem:Trips that I've ever taken.
Fatima:Yeah.
Reem:You know? And I know you've Yeah. You've been to I've said that in the beginning but, you know,
Fatima:that's one of my top I'll say my top 5. Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:Yeah. And we I'd like to definitely do more. I think last year I've done more traveling the year before that, but this year I've been
Fatima:home. I've been home. Rachel, I feel like, can we just stop it? Stop it. Where did I go?
Reem:I wanna count, like, 3 countries this this.
Fatima:I did the Amra, but that's how I went
Reem:to Saudi. You went to Dubai. You went to you were in Morocco this year. Weren't you?
Fatima:No. I didn't last year. This year, you went to Europe, didn't you? No. To Dubai.
Fatima:No. Where did I go? I just in in the US. Boston. No.
Fatima:That doesn't count because Yeah. That's all I do. But I feel like you went California. It was California, Florida, so I went Well,
Reem:I went to Cali too. Yeah. My sister lives there.
Fatima:Yeah. I feel like no. It's another country when I went
Reem:to is, honestly, especially with the time difference. But I really thought you went
Fatima:a lot of places to shoot. Okay. Okay. So we're counting. I'm not I'm not travel rehab.
Fatima:You're not traveling. Travel rehab. Travel rehab. Travel rehab.
Reem:Me too. Because
Fatima:can I can I
Reem:just be, like, your plus one for free? And I just put me in the suitcase, and I'll go with you.
Fatima:Okay. Okay. We'll take And I'll have my
Reem:other traveling buddy come on. She she's like you. She's like, hey, ring. Do you wanna go, like, next month? And I'm like, honey, ring me step plan.
Reem:Like, remember when I used to tell you? I'm like, do not call me. I think you got tired of me. I'm like, do not call me. You still get she's texting me
Fatima:at least 2, 3 months in 2 months. Do you wanna
Reem:go to and it's not like, do you wanna go to New York? Do you wanna go to Cali? Do you wanna go to Turkey? And I'm like,
Fatima:shit. Yes? I'm like, can't. But can I get 6 months? Can I get 6 months?
Reem:Can I get 4 or 6 something? And I tell I tell my friend the same way.
Fatima:Yeah. One of my one of my one of my, coworkers was telling me she she would she's going to Tahiti. She said, hey. Said, when are you going? She said, June.
Fatima:I said, a year from now. She said, we have to plan. A whole year. I need a whole year. I said, a
Reem:whole year. Yes. I mean, not a whole year, but if I'm going abroad, I need I need a few. Yeah. A few probably, like,
Fatima:a month. Yeah. I think 3 months, 3 months, maybe.
Reem:Yeah. 3 months or 4. Yeah. Depends on how long we're gonna be gone for.
Fatima:Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:If we get, like, a week, I need, like, 3 months or more, 4, in order for me to plan a, a one week.
Fatima:Mhmm.
Reem:And it's like we're going to the Caribbean, you know, because it's close by.
Fatima:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:But if we're going on a flight that's like a 8 hour flight, then, yeah, we need 4 months to to work on the planning and to, you know,
Fatima:get the tickets. Just the flight? The cheapest flight? Skyscanner.
Reem:You're gonna book me a flight? You will book me a
Fatima:flight next time. Skyscanner. I'm gonna book it for you.
Reem:What is your most memorable trip besides South Africa? Or do you have one? Like, if you just if someone were to ask you, like or no. Not most memorable trip, I guess, most memorable place that you went to out of your little adventures. Out of all the places.
Fatima:Yeah. I
Reem:mean, I know South Africa is. Yeah. So But do you have I just wanna think about places. Like, South South Africa jumps out, and I do have, like, a favorite place I've been to. Uh-huh.
Reem:You know, like, a favorite city or whatnot.
Fatima:Oh, yeah. If I if I said favorite city, it would be Bangkok. Really? Thailand. I think Thailand as a whole country, it would be my favorite.
Fatima:Country.
Reem:Yeah. Thailand is nice.
Fatima:You get the experience of the beach, and then you get the experience of the city, and then you get the experience of, you know, all this little
Reem:Did you stay in Bangkok mainly? Yeah. Or did you travel somewhere else?
Fatima:Yeah. With Phuket.
Reem:Okay.
Fatima:I went to Phuket. I
Reem:Fukut was not a mistake. I went to we stayed only in Bangkok.
Fatima:Yeah. I know. You have to experience
Reem:Girl, I know. I don't know why. Yeah. We did not. But I regretted it.
Reem:Mhmm. I did love Thailand. I do love Bangkok. I think it was great city, great food experience. We went in the middle of the heat, though.
Reem:It was so hot.
Fatima:Yeah. On my tour, I got that.
Reem:I think It wasn't my undergrad Me. Graduating college.
Fatima:Me, it was hot. Yeah.
Reem:I don't I
Fatima:think it was
Reem:me because I had just graduated from college. Yeah. And it was my, sister's gift to, you know, like a trip. So I traveled with her and another friend. What year?
Reem:2,000 we did it on 11?
Fatima:11. Okay. In 2013. 2 years later. Imagine if we would have seen I've seen you there.
Fatima:Yeah. Not knowing you. Pass you by.
Reem:You would have definitely approached us.
Fatima:Hello? Hello? Hi. Can we be friends?
Reem:Because you are super friendly, my friend.
Fatima:Do you know where I found the best shawarma? Where? Do star. I'm telling you, you've never been caught. Look at.
Fatima:No. Right? Thailand. This Lebanese guy was cutting the shawarma. The line was like this.
Fatima:I stood in that line Dude, I have to come back twice. That is
Reem:your dream.
Fatima:I'm I'm telling you it was the best. You love shawarma. So when he was sweating, the snow was coming down. I'm like, yes.
Reem:Give me that shawarma, miss Howard.
Fatima:I just need that shawarma. Don't get it. That's where where is it going?
Reem:If there's anything you love The shawarma. I know. Shawarma, man. We have to get it. Right?
Reem:Not the chicken. You love the beef?
Fatima:Yeah. This one was no. Actually, the one he had chicken. Chicken? Yeah.
Fatima:It was chicken, I think, if I remember it correctly, but it was delicious.
Reem:Yeah. I love I love it,
Fatima:but the seasoning, whatever you put in there
Reem:was so good. Making me hungry. Yes. Not even hungry. We just ate.
Reem:No. But, no. I love shawarma. Yeah. So And I think I didn't even think to find any, honestly, Middle Eastern food in in Bangkok.
Reem:The food was amazing, but it was super spicy. Yeah. And at the time, I think I couldn't really handle a lot of spicy food. Yeah. So I remember one day and don't judge me for this.
Reem:But one day we ended up in McDonald's. Because one thing I like to do I don't know for some reason, like, when I travel abroad, I like not so much Europe because I feel like Europe is similar to the McDonald's here in America. But I like to taste their fast food
Fatima:and
Reem:see how different it is. Yeah. You know?
Fatima:Yeah. It gives you that experience to see the difference. And you could tell there's a difference.
Reem:Yeah. Because we we lived, we lived in Egypt for a couple of years. And when I tell you, I know you lived in Egypt too. The Pizza Hut I don't know about now. This is way back in the days in the nineties.
Reem:The Pizza Hut was, like, the spot. Yeah. You dress up.
Fatima:Even the McDonald's. I remember the McDonald's.
Reem:Was amazing. At McDonald's.
Fatima:There was a server that used to come up with it's like your old restaurant.
Reem:It's not a fast food. It's a restaurant. Yes. It probably changed by now.
Fatima:But No. It's changed probably. Yeah.
Reem:Back in the back in the days, it was it. It was a thing. Yeah. I do think meat tastes different from, you know, like a broth
Fatima:from meat. Yeah. Yeah. Even the quality of the meat is different because I remember in Vietnam, the lady, I stood there, she was doing the chicken. You know, they did the fried chicken, like, like, KFC style.
Fatima:Mhmm. So then I told the lay I was like, oh, I need the breast chicken breast. Is your brain free? This tiny, tiny chicken. I remember I was telling her, no.
Fatima:Chicken breast? Chicken. Chicken breast. Tao. I then I had to call my friend.
Fatima:I said, hey. Hey, translate. I want your chicken breast. She said she tells her. And then she's the lady says, okay.
Fatima:She picks up similar, but a different one. So she brings it to me. Another tiny one. I said, no. Tao.
Fatima:I don't think she understands. I want the big one with the chicken. She looks at me then. She's like, Fatima, how
Reem:many chicken breast sizes? Yeah. What do you
Fatima:she said she said, this is the not US. No hormones on this food. I said, oh. Damn. You know, I didn't hear me at that point.
Fatima:I didn't realize it was the healthy chicken.
Reem:Organic. It was dinner. Organic. Organic. No.
Reem:Nothing. I knew
Fatima:it was tiny. It was small. I mean, grass fed,
Reem:and it was in this farm right behind this restaurant. Okay. Has it? Was it good?
Fatima:I'll take it. Yeah. It was good. It was good? It was good.
Fatima:Yeah. But then you could tell. Yeah. I guess
Reem:I definitely wanna go.
Fatima:Everything is super large here. So I guess we You know? I'm used to the small We like big things in the US.
Reem:Big burger. Big houses, big cars, big food, big everything. Just big. We like it big. Big size of that.
Reem:I did notice that though. Yeah. In Europe in the Middle East too, but everywhere. But in Europe, like, the the sizes compare the food sizes compare the portions of food compared to the US, it is, like, way less. Yeah.
Reem:You know? And even the housing, even the streets, the cars, everything is so small to a point where I'm like, I get a little congested.
Fatima:It's a little too small. It's a Middle East. I think Middle East is big. The house is extra large than here. Yeah.
Fatima:But then I don't know. Yeah. But then the even the food I think the food is here.
Reem:No. The housing is It's bigger. Like Saudi Arabia houses.
Fatima:Oh, yeah.
Reem:Yeah. Yeah.
Fatima:I feel like
Reem:Yeah. I mean yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even in Africa, the housing the houses are bigger.
Fatima:Yeah. They're bigger.
Reem:Like, the land. Yeah. Your land is way big. You have massive land. Mhmm.
Fatima:Apartments are too big. Apartments are way bigger. Here, apartments are, like, what, 500 square feet. Yeah. 600 square there is
Reem:probably Right. You're right. In Africa, the 2000 square feet.
Fatima:Because Europe is tiny tiny. Europe is not.
Reem:Yeah. But Africa and the Middle East, definitely. You're right. I did notice that. Yeah.
Fatima:You're right.
Reem:And, I mean, we both lived, you know, in Africa. So Yeah. Wow.
Fatima:It's nice, though.
Reem:That's crazy. Yeah. But I definitely wanna travel more. We should Then we'll pick up our travel.
Fatima:I told you Kenya is nice.
Reem:Together. Kenya. You know, do wanna go Kenya, AKA Kenya. But, yeah. But, you know, that's gonna be a little later.
Fatima:A little a little later.
Reem:A little later. We shall do it. Yeah. But I do wanna go if there's another country that you wanna go, where would it Like next?
Fatima:Uh-huh. A dream country. Maybe let's call it dream
Reem:I have a dream country to go to. Like, I don't have a country that I dream of just going to that places. I mean, I have a list of countries. Uh-huh. But if I were to if you were to ask me where I would go next, I really would like to go to Brazil.
Reem:Okay. Like, I feel like I haven't really explored South America. Yeah. Like, I wanna do Brazil. I'll do a couple of other places, but Brazil would be, like, my next destination if I were to Yeah.
Reem:Pick a country. Yeah. Where would yours be? Where would you go next?
Fatima:Tanzania. Zanzibar. Oh, nice. I just
Reem:wanna sit there
Fatima:at the beach. Look at that.
Reem:I wanna go to Zanzibar too. Yeah. It's been, like that is, like, top 3. Yeah.
Fatima:I always I wanted always that. That's where maybe
Reem:I hear it's beautiful.
Fatima:I have
Reem:a friend who
Fatima:Brazil is a place, like, I would wanted to go to. I can see videos. I see things. It's so beautiful. It can be a lot, but it's beautiful.
Fatima:You can get the 2 experience. Mhmm. The the activities experience and then the laid back, and you can get both. Mhmm. So I think countries like that, that's what I've seen in Mhmm.
Fatima:That's why I like Thailand because you get the mixture. You get both. But
Reem:I see some crazy stories about Thailand, but we'll talk about that later. Yeah.
Fatima:But Tanzania, I feel like Laid back? I feel like the laid back. Yeah. More it's gonna be a laid back, but I still imagine that beach.
Reem:Yeah. Tanzania is not Tanzania in general because I think Dar es Salaam is like a city city. Mhmm. But Zanzibar Yeah. It's sort of like the, the Caribbeans.
Fatima:Yeah. You
Reem:know, like the beach, the water, that island life Yeah. Laid back. I would love, love, love to go. Fresh foods. Yeah.
Reem:And fresh food and, a friend of mine just came from there, just a few months ago. And she went twice, and
Fatima:I'm like, why'd you go?
Reem:She's one of my best friends. Wait for me, but, you know, people can't wait for me like you. They can't wait for me. So I guess, you know, I need to give you an advance. At
Fatima:least Sorry. A time in advance.
Reem:I know. I need a 6 months I think
Fatima:the last time what what what trip we wanted to go? It was Egypt. Right? Was Egypt the one we planned? Was it?
Reem:I think so. I think you were pushing me to come with you to Egypt, and I wanted to come so bad and you gave me, like, 4 months notice.
Fatima:Oh, something like that. Yeah. For this month. Yeah. Like, Green, you can do it.
Fatima:You can do it, Green. That's okay. Yeah. I can. Let me just inspect my stuff.
Fatima:Let me go.
Reem:I was so jealous, though. I really wanted to come with you so bad. I I don't know what happened or what like, I knew I couldn't go.
Fatima:Yeah. It was a lot of you and other pea people too because I remember they all also could not go. All of them. Because I said, oh, Egypt. Egypt.
Fatima:Egypt. And I think the only one that made it, Thao. So
Reem:Yeah. Kudos to Thao. You know? She she is my, how do you even say that? We haven't met, but I feel like I know her.
Reem:So far. Yeah. We talk about her a lot and we talk to each other, you know, by camera, by whatever.
Fatima:Now she's on the on
Reem:the Now she's where? Where is she in the world? She's like Oh, she yeah.
Fatima:She went to Europe. She just came back. She is your yeah.
Reem:She's just traveling buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's the mine.
Reem:Okay? Stick to mine. Even though she travels way more than Well,
Fatima:she does. She travels with her own cousins, family, and stuff. Yeah. She does her own. Like, you
Reem:you don't do? You I like that you take your mom.
Fatima:I do. I take my mom. Yeah. Yeah.
Reem:I take some family family traveling. I wanna do that more. Yeah. It's nice. I think my sister and I kept, like, for 10 years.
Reem:She'll be like, Kareem, we gotta go somewhere. And I'm like, okay. Yes. Next year. Yes.
Reem:It's on. It's on. It's on. It's my oldest sister. It's on.
Reem:The year goes by. And
Fatima:then we get
Reem:the last about it. We're like, yo. We can't do this. I'm like, I know. Next year is on.
Reem:And it's so funny. She sent me a meme this year on Instagram. She was like, the video is the video is like, when you and your bestie been been trying to go on a trip forever and it's like, now you're like 76. Finally on the trip.
Fatima:To all, like, to all ladies, girl, you're like, that's me and you. You've been planning to go on
Reem:a trip for, like, 40 years. I'm like, I know. Let's go now. But You
Fatima:just have to
Reem:do it.
Fatima:You know, like sometimes I think when I overthink it
Reem:Yeah.
Fatima:I don't do it. Yeah. When I just book it, I force myself to book it. The flight, the first thing. Because once you book the flight, you lost your money.
Fatima:There's no way around it. Man, I
Reem:wish I could be this bold. Yeah. Okay. It's 2025.
Fatima:Okay. 2025. To be more bold I'll be sure. And just
Reem:book it. Once you book it, you can't back out.
Fatima:Yeah. You can't back out. That's it. You're so book it. You lose your money.
Reem:I'm about to just book it.
Fatima:I'm about to call
Reem:you and be like, Tom, just
Fatima:book it. You know? And then the way I book it is I book it based on what what days are the best deals. You know? Like, how some people have to arrange around their work, their their life, their kids, their Yes.
Fatima:I arrange Some people some people have a a life. Okay? Some it's some. Okay? It's some.
Fatima:I arrange which days are the best deal. And then I tell I'll tell my job.
Reem:We never be like This
Fatima:is the day. They'll be like, for tomorrow.
Reem:My manager. Approve you. These are the days.
Fatima:And by the way, I booked my ticket already. It was cheap. But Done. Done. We booked it.
Fatima:Seriously. Come on. You'll accept.
Reem:You know what? That is on I'm gonna try I'm trying something new this year. I mean, we're almost done with the year. It's August. Yeah.
Reem:Which August is my birthday month.
Fatima:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is in the week. 20 21st.
Fatima:20 Wow.
Reem:20? Are we even friends? Are you my friend?
Fatima:She's somewhere 20, and there's a 21st
Reem:date. 28? 28. Okay. Okay.
Reem:We're not gonna talk about why I have 2 different dates. Okay? So it's the whole month
Fatima:that I have a birthday.
Reem:It's the whole at later time, but it's a whole month exactly. Virgo season. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But yeah.
Fatima:So I
Reem:was gonna say, I don't do birthday resolutions or things like that. But Yeah. What I wanna do, though I do wanna make I've been working on making a list of things I wanna do in 2025.
Fatima:It could
Reem:be, like, big things and small things. I haven't really like, I'm trying to make a list and then and then break them down into, like, big things and small things. Uh-huh. You know? And you can call them goals, I guess.
Reem:Yeah. But I think I think that's, a nice way to put, like, things on my bucket list Mhmm.
Fatima:You know?
Reem:Yeah. To, like, wanna do, next year that I could do. Yeah. So
Fatima:So one of your goals would be book a flight without even making me
Reem:Shuttle with patombs and book a flight without even telling your manager and without even looking at anything. Just find the cheapest. Boom. Patom hit it.
Fatima:Then think about it. Don't think about it. No regrets. No regrets is key. Next.
