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Third World Travel at above-First-World Prices
[Note that the politically correct term is Developing World and Third World terminology is obsolete Cold War rhetoric]
Africa is much more expensive than I expected, even after researching prices and speaking with others who had been here before. Part of this expense is due to the flaccid weakness of the US Dollar (thanks, George W.) and the large dependence that most Southern and Eastern African countries place on the historically solid US currency; many locals and businesses prefer dollars over their own currencies which may have astronomical inflation rates. Zimbabwe is the current red-headed economic stepchild with recent inflation measured at over 1,000,000 % (your $10,000 cash bundle from last year is worth $1 this year, plus the notes themselves have expiration dates that prevent them from holding any value beyond 3 months). In addition to a devalued dollar, many African opportunists play a fun game I liked to call Screw-The-Tourist where they set their prices in US Dollars, which are nearly impossible to get in Africa (when possible one incurs a hefty 8-15% exchange rate gouging), they adjust those dollar prices based on how far the dollar devalues relative their home currency, and then when you move to pay in the local currency they bump the exchange rate an additional 10-20% in their favor; it’s all just one big, fun, shell-game of getting fleeced at every end.

The odd thing about Africa (at least relative Asia or Latin America) is that the more tourists visit a country it seems the more the prices hit the roof, despite their being more competition from a wide array of businesses and services. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are the most expensive destinations and the real hammering comes when a visitor attempts to see the Game Parks (many parks require a tour guide and daily rates are between US $140-220) or when one wishes to partake in any of the outdoor activities (extreme sports, diving, horse riding, etc.), where costs start at US $100 for a half day. Malawi is really the only bargain-travel country in all of Southern and Eastern Africa, with prices more akin to those in developing countries in Latin America or Southeast Asia. Uganda is fairly cheap except if one wishes to see the mountain gorillas where they will be extorted for a US $550 permit to spend one hour with the amazing creatures.

Racial and Economic Differences (A Mzungu Perspective)

Throughout Southern and Eastern Africa, despite being in the Caucasian minority I have felt significantly less of a racial divide than back home in the USA. Many locals are quite friendly and all the kids love to chase after the buses and cars and wave at the Western tourists. Many of the black Africans refer to white tourists as Mzungu (a non-derogatory term for a white person). The first few times I heard people calling out to me openly as Mzungu it felt quite strange and made me a little self-conscious but I soon learned to run with it and now I amusingly imagine a more appropriate definition to be some hybrid between ‘whitey’ and ‘gringo’ and being addressed as Mzungu usually brings a smile under this self-created association. Also, many Africans tend to refer respectfully to another person as ‘boss’ but I found it much more disconcerting when being addressed thus by some big African guy (in fact they will use the same term towards a fellow African but I find my imagination quickly associates the term with historical slavery).

Like much of the world the major societal divides in Africa are economic in nature and the bulk of people are poor while a privileged few are wealthy (and most of them are foreign ex-patriots). The immense poverty unfortunately creates a situation where many street touts (salesmen) incessantly hound, harass, mislead, or just blatantly demand to be given money from white tourists. I have traveled to many poverty-stricken developing countries and while most of the people see economic opportunity through exploiting tourists, never have I found more annoying, tiresome and persistent hounding at all times than in Africa (Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are by far the worst world-wide, but all through Africa the street-side hassle factor is enormous); elsewhere in the developing world, street touts call out and attempt to engage the tourist but typically give up after a few minutes of evasion/dismissals, where as in Africa one can often uncomfortably have one or two locals follow them for up to an hour, hounding them for much of that time (Arusha, Tanzania is probably the most aggravating place on earth because of the touts and they seem to know who all the new tourists are in town and literally surround them for days on end up until they have booked into a safari tour, after which they move on to the next victim while the street touts selling souvenirs and other services simply never leave you alone). As in every country in the developing world there is a local price for things and a tourist price and often one has to argue incessantly (‘No Mzungu Price’) just to reduce the difference from ten fold to double or triple.

Despite the annoying and tiresome hassle factor and the massive expense for the tourist I have had some amazing experiences throughout Southern and Eastern Africa and have found each country to have unique attributes which makes visiting them attractive.

South Africa
By far the most dangerous country in Southern and Eastern Africa by crime statistics SA is still a beautiful country with amazing parks, mountains and coastal areas and many diverse tribal cultures (Zulu and Xhosa being the majority). When one adopts a highly cautious attitude it is quite possible to travel there and have no problems. Others who may be less street-smart and aware of their surroundings can quickly become victims and I met several travelers who were mugged, conned or pick-pocketed there. Kruger is arguably the best Big Game park in Africa (at least in the same league as Serengeti in my opinion) and is massive in scale (roughly the size of Israel). Kruger also boast some vast terrain including rolling hills, desert savanna plains and rocky outcrop and with the long grass the animals are freer to approach much closer to the road than at many of the other game parks in Africa.

The beaches along the Indian Ocean are very reminiscent of Californian beaches and the Garden Route road that leads along the coast towards Cape Town is quite reminiscent of Napa Valley. Johannesburg is massive and with such a bad reputation for crime it did not feel very welcome and I did not have a chance to explore there any. Cape Town feels like any modern Western city along the lines of Sydney or Auckland perhaps and it was nice to return to some of the modern comforts before venturing back into the Real Africa (where comforts are fewer and farther in between).

Swaziland
A quant, well kept Kingdom surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique with modern roads, and beautiful national parks (more traditional in nature with more limited big game). Despite having the most appallingly high HIV/AIDS rates in the world (39% of adults) Swaziland is very pleasant with relatively high safety and mostly happy, friendly people. The Swazi tribal culture is very vibrant and special with among the most engaging song and dance in all of Africa (some of the other cultural experiences in Africa felt very staged and non-authentic but that was not the case at the Swaziland Cultural Village, likely because it was run by students of the music and dance school).

Namibia
Namibia seems to be among the best developed countries in Southern and Eastern Africa and it is also among the safest and most stable. The roads are quite modern and Swakomund feels uncannily like any town or small city in Germany or Austria. The terrain and landscapes of Namibia are probably the most varied of any of the countries in the region with vast, spectacular changes over relatively short distances. Etosha is a world-class Game Park and was special for the watering holes that the camps are built around with viewing seating and halogen lighting to allow tourists to view the unending progression of wildlife at any time of the day or night. The terrain of Etosha was flat plains.

Botswana
Botswana is also fairly stable and safe by African standards. The roads leading from central Botswana towards South Africa and Namibia are well maintained and relatively modern while the roads leading north towards Zambia and Zimbabwe are atrociously quite the opposite (some looked like bombed runways with car-sized potholes every few yards for dozens of miles on end). Being poled through the reed-lined waterways of the Okavango Delta in a traditional mokoro is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. A sunset cruise along the Chobe River and the bank-side Chobe National park revealed spectacular sightings of elephants, hippos, lions and birds.

Zimbabwe
With the current election crisis in Zimbabwe most governments in the Developed World have recommended against travel there and many surrounding African countries have stopped or reduced trade there, creating a vast scarcity and black market for food, gas/petrol and any imported goods. Under the atrocious leadership of Robert Mugave Zimbabwe has gone from the best economy in all of Africa in 1980 to among the worst economies in the world with current inflation above 1,000,000 %. The government has reprinted new currencies several times this decade and the current Zim dollar notes have 3 month expiration dates. I changed 100 SA Rand (US $13.33) and received 6,000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars in return and even with 50,000,000 notes I had a huge stack of bills and felt a bit like Tony Soprano. Due to the shortage of gas/petrol public transport throughout the country is extremely difficult and unpredictable so I had to sadly refrain from my planned visit to the medieval archeological ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

The city of Victoria Falls is quite developed and peaceful despite all the social and political problems in the country. With the massive blow to tourism (90% decline this past year) and massive inflation the people are poorer than ever and the few tourists who go are prime targets for heavy pressure sales by street touts and tour operators. It still felt relatively safe there in Victoria Falls but the political uncertainty was certainly something to watch. A visit to Victoria Falls is amazing but with prices far above western rates the activities and extreme sports are less engaging than they would normally be in some other place like New Zealand and I opted only for the helicopter tour over the falls (12 minutes is far too short by the way) and a one hour Lion walk, which was spectacular.

Zambia
Livingstone is on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls and has all the charm of the city of Victoria Falls, with all the activities, far greater stability and at somewhat cheaper rates (except for the extreme sports which are still exorbitant). I did go on a 30-minute Jet Boat on the Zambezi river which was great fun through the rapids although not as acrobatic and fast/harrowing as the original Jet Boat rides in New Zealand. The Jollyboys hostel in Livingstone has probably the best vibe of any I have stayed at in Africa, despite it also being one of the most expensive.

The roads in Zambia are horribly maintained and outdated and travel takes longer through Zambia than in any of the other areas of South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia and all but the North of Botswana). The capitol, Lusaka is large and relatively modern but also bland and unexciting and after 2 nights there I was more than ready to move on. The people in Zambia are very religiously catholic and for all the bus rides I took a traveling preacher got on the bus at the start and gave a 10 minute sermon until the bus departed and broke through the traffic around the bust station after which he took some quick donations and hopped off, presumably walking back and repeating the sermon on the next bus.

Malawi
The roads in Malawi are fairly good but with more mountainous terrain the travel is slow. The weather in the mountains was much more chilly than expected, while along Lake Milawi it was oppressively humid (but still beautiful and tranquil). Malawi is very cheap and the people are very friendly for the most part (excluding the street touts). It is more common to travel by mini-bus than bus and neither mode departs until the vehicle is over-stuffed to capacity, including fold down seats in the aisle which often fits 2 adults or a family of 3 or 4 each. It is not uncommon to require the switch of buses and mini buses 4 or more times between smaller cities although it is relatively easy to switch to a mini bus en route between destinations (since those do not have to wait until full).

Tanzania
With Zanzibar, the Serengeti, Ngongoro and Kilimanjaro National Parks, Tanzania is one of the most heavily touristed countries in the World. It is also one of the most expensive countries and with among the highest hassle-factors from unscrupulous street touts (I rank it towards the bottom of the scale with Egypt and India). Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain (not part of a mountain chain) in the world. Zanzibar is a very pleasant island with interesting Swahili and Arab/Hindi-influenced culture and maritime trade history as well as several excellent tropical beaches. Serengeti and Ngongoro are among the top 2 or 3 best Big Game Parks in the world (as good if not better than Kruger in SA in my opinion). The roads between the main cities of Mbeye, Dar Es Salaam, Arusha and leading North towards Nairobi are quite modern and well maintained. Being only a few degrees south of the equator the coast is extremely hot and humid while the mountains are hot and less humid in the days but cool to cold at night. Lodging in Tanzania is more expensive and less modern than in most countries in Southern Africa.

Kenya
Many of the roads in Kenya are horrible, with rocky, pock-marked vast sections of highway mixed with other vast sections of poorly constructed roads (where the construction funds were siphoned by corrupt politicians who then skimped on construction) and these are rutted up to 18 inches deep along the wheel radius by the weight of trucks who pass over them. On a night bus through Kenya to Uganda we were unlucky enough to come across an unmarked detour on the unlit highway at night and the driver rolled the vehicle swerving to avoid a collision with a gas tanker truck parked perpendicular to the road to serve as a detour barrier (fortunately we all survived with only minor wounds).

Uganda
Uganda is cheaper than much of the rest of Southern and Eastern Africa and in the center and south it is fairly stable (still many oppositional rebel clashes in the north and border regions around Sudan). Some highways are relatively modern and some are horrible dirt and rutted tracks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 5:28 AM and is filed under Culture + History, Paradise, Southern + East Africa 08, Travel, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.