African Wind
Chapter16
Let’s Go To Africa Getting Around?
This time round will be “Let’s Go to Africa-Getting Around: I.” You could reach Africa in various ways. From so-called “celeb tour” where you pay fortune for a ready-made tour, a back-packer travel for those that “have no money but have tons of time!!” to partly on business/research & slightly for pleasure like myself,…
“Celeb tour” where Japanese tour conductor accompany & look after you may be best for beginners, although I’m not really sure if you could see the real everyday lives of the people in Africa being a part of such tour. I know they won’t take you to local markets like the ones I’ll be writing in this chapter. Which is a shame. Since you are flying all the way to Africa, you should check the lives of the local people there, and definitely should try negotiating prices with hearty sales ladies in the markets.
Before we move on, what I’ll be writing in this chapter are all my personal experiences & comments of a private trip, thus some of them may not be suitable for back-packers…
TRANSPORTATIONS
From local airport to the hotel, if my flight arrives in the afternoon, I always use metered cabs. If there’s no metered cab available, I go to a cab counter inside the airport building & order one. I basically don’t travel long distance at night. I spend a night at a hotel close by the airport, and travel the next day if my destination is far away from the airport. Nigeria is especially dangerous to travel at night. Even the local Nigerians book hotel close by the airport after 8pm. High risk of getting robbed, and tons of policemen stand at every corner of every street to check each car. A lot of such policemen force open the door, come into the car with a gun in hand, saying “don’t you have any gift for me?” Don’t ever go out at night with big bags & luggages!!
As for traveling inland, I also use cabs. If I encounter a trustful driver after having some conversation, ask the driver’s mobile number & ask him to drive for every trip we need to make throughout the whole stay there. This is especially because I tend to bring with me various equipments & a set amount of money with me, but also because I need to do so many things in limited amount of time, I don’t want to waste any time getting anywhere, plus by creating a friendship with the driver, they provide you with various local information, and so I tend to get to see more than what I had originally planned, lots of advantages there. They even work as a translator for you to communicate with the local people, and take you to nice local restaurants too.
I basically try and choose a driver that works for a car company though. Fees totally depends on the amount of hours they drive as well as the travel distance. Just like in Japan, fuel/gasoline has gone up in Africa, so if you tell them that you will pay for fuel, there is a good chance to get a nice discount on the car fee (depends on driver’s decision!).For instance, Mackie, African JAG’s local staff who works as both the driver & local translator is also formerly an airport car service driver. When I frst met him & told him about our project, he introduced us to one of his friends who is an AIDS patient, checked the latest situation of the disease,…he had & is been extremely cooperative. He didn’t ask for any additional fees or anything, he purely helped us for JAG, so I ask him to do various local works for JAG even now.
Although not all of the cab drivers are nice, my friend actually got almost poisoned/killed by the driver he though they became a real good friend, so you should take a good long time & conversations to built trust between you & the driver. But then again, it’s sad to think that you can’t trust anyone right off…At any rate, for the early state of relationship, you should watch every word & action they take, and if you see any point that’s awkward, you should keep a certain distance with that driver!!
I hate not to trust a person right from the top. I want to make as many friends as possible too…and that’s why I want to achieve an ability to see the essentials or types of people. Because if something happens, I think that I must take all the responsibility for getting into such situation…
For those who want to save money or have spare time for inland travel, there are also buses & public taxi (where you ride with other people), but if you are to use such transportations, make sure to be careful of stealers & robbers.
Once when I tried to ride on a public taxi in Ethiopia, a child’s hand sneaked into my pocket. Of course, I had nothing inside any of my pocket (especially jackets), and I also grabbed hold of the child’s hand, so the child freaked out with surprise, but something like that is normal in a lot of African countries. They sometimes cut your pocket open with a knife too, so be extra careful especially in arowded streets!!
BELONGINGS
I don’t wear wrist watch or any jewelries (including pierced ear rings) while I’m in Africa at all, and with the cash I have, I carry the local currency in a waist porch-bag & pockets of my cargo pants, and US Dollars in a pocket of my bra, etc, separately. The remaining cash, if there’s a safety box at the hotel, I keep half in there & the other half in my locked suitcase.
I always take a xerox copy of my passport & carry the passport copy with me every where I go. FYI, you need a real passport if you want to change currencies.Now with regards to the clothing, I wear worn-off tees & cargo pants that I rarely wear when I’m at home, I also take a long skirt, 2 dresses in case I need to stay at first class hotels & be present at a formal place, and a long-sleeved jacket…
As for shoes, I take a pair of used-up sneakers & sandals. Even if you see them as worn-offs, they are in much nicer shape than what the African people in the poor area are wearing. Most of the people wear sandals made of plastic & old tires, to them, the fact that you wear shoes already means that you are rich. So have a good understanding of the situation you are/will be in, especially when visiting unsafe areas. Things like waist porch bags should be wrapped around you below your t-shirt. Cargo pants is pretty useful, you could put a lot of things such as cash & digital cameras separately into each pocket. The point is, how less you hold in your hands.
Cameras are one of the highly targeted belongings, so try not to take too much photos in one place like regular tourists. There are also times or situations where local people don’t want to have a picture taken, which you may not be aware of. In such case, they shout at you with great anger, they even take your camera away at times. When my friend tried to take a photo of the people buying fuels at a black market, he actually got into a real trouble too. He should have been ore careful, I mean, after 10 days in line waiting for fuels, and a Japanese came wearing nice clothes & clicking his camera at them…should have known better. But even professional journalists who should be responsible to what they do, taking all the risks, and have enough experiences, cannot avoid being in dangerous state. If you’re in a Third World country for tourism, make sure you ask your guide or your friend if it’s safe to take photos, before you click your cameras.
So, that’s it for this chapter. Hope it helps a bit. There are different styles for different types of travel, but the bottom line is, “be responsible of yourself” & “sharpen your 6th sense!!” Africa is a very exciting place, filled with smiles of the children, and a place you could be blessed with lots of energy. But a slight carelessness may lead to a fatal incident.
In the next chapter, I plan to write about places for sightseeing as well as things to be careful of in African countries.
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