I can't, since it involved meeting people and doing things with people. This activity is against board rules so I cannot explain to you what made my adventure in Africa fun or exciting.
I didn't see any trad disk-mouths, but i did see some hyena shit. did you know it can be white? pure white shit. because they can eat and digest bones.
Got off the plane around 7:30 AM, as soon as I step off the plane a hot breeze ran through my face. I was startled by the breeze I had trouble breathing for a second. Carried my luggage down the stairs and was directed to a bus where it had taken me to the airport. When I visted I was suppose to have a connection in the VIP section of the airport waiting outside. I did not see him this time, confused me and my co-worker followed the crowd towards border patrol once we got out of the bus
As we entered the small airport, the ac hit me yet again as it caught me by surprised. Me thinking that there is no air conditioning in Africa (haha). As we wait in line to get our visas done, I see a bag on the floor RANDOMLY. Now keep in mind, I’m tired and shit and i’m paranoid. One thing about me is I always think of the worst case scenario. The guy said leave the bag there the guy who’s bag was it he went to the washroom. Now i’m thinking this guy is lying, now Im paying attention towards his body language and he’s moving shook and paranoid looking around and everything. Now i’m shaking like shit and so is my bladder, then my co-worker makes a joke about she hopes there isn’t a bomb in there. Now I said frick that I jumped over the barrier in the line and went to the washroom because my bladder was hurting and I needed to wash my face so I know I wasn’t tripping.
I step over the barrier to get towards the washroom, SUDDENLY an airport employee says WARYA, keep in mind I’m tired as shit, he’s talking to me in somali saying why are you stepping over the barrier.
I understand him yet I cannot speak Somali, So I’m like I don’t know I don’t know, then we staring at each others eyes for 1 minute straight. KEEP IN MIND MY BLADDER IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE.
Thank god some guy told him to chill out and he said just go to the washroom. I go back in line and I see the bag is gone, so who knows what’s in that bag.
It a definitely a different experience as I had never really visited a poverty-driven country before.
My connection really made it a memorable trip for me. I visited a private beach there which was nice, the nightlife was also very active. It's interesting as there is a lot of diaspora coming back to live in Somalia.
Went to the zoo which was insane the way they keep their animals, and milked a camel for my first time too.
Tbh the most enjoyable experience was the people there surprisingly, very funny and interesting people.
Kek, I once got in a physical fight with some taxi drivers in Africa because I jumped over a barrier to avoid a final visa check and to get to the taxis faster. This was outside of the airport so I’d already gone through customs and immigration. Two taxi drivers grabbed me by the arms and started screaming that I was avoiding the police checkpoint. I used some judo moves to get away and then I ran.
Africans don’t need an authoritarian gov’t to oppress them, they’ve internalized self-oppression.
Anyway, post more Somalia stories kthx
Yep, so poor they have nicer shit than I do, watches and israeliteelry and a smartphone that didn't cost $20 haha. I work a lot harder than most Thirdies work to save money for travel, and feel zero empathy whatsoever for lazy hustlers who would never be seen working a shovel and dripping sweat like an honest man.
Frick you. I am from the Dominican Republic, I lived in poverty for years, real poverty where fried flour “Johnny cakes” where luxuries, and we didn’t have a fridge. Me or my parents not once scammed and stole; have a sense of shame and pride
I witness you bro. You have to be real delusional to try to justify shitty behavior. People in poor countries tend to be the kindest people I've ever met; but most tourists won't experience that while arguing with people at the transport depot.
Getting angry that the entitled Mzungu thinks he can avoid airport security hardly means we have “internalised oppression “
The world doesn’t revolve around you people
But Africans have internalized oppression. There’s a lot of forces holding Africa back from its potential, but big factors are colonized victim mentality (epidemic among the youth across the continent, don’t deny it) and strong man worship (I have friends who complain about their government and yet they will vote for the candidate who has a big beard and drives an Audi).
they literally just need a normal white person to lead them and they would be 10 times better off. Blacks can't cope with this but they know it to be true in their hearts.
>jumps barrier to avoid police checkpoint >why do these drivers think I'm avoiding the police checkpoint? >le authoritarian gubermint
Holy shit you are fricking moronic, if you did this shit anywhere else you'd be spreading your ass in jail. What the frick did you expect was going to happen, this was a totally reasonable response to schizo behavior. You must have some major malfunction to think this is acceptable behavior anywhere.
The way they drive cars/bajajs over there is crazy, went to the market with my connection, there was a lot of traffic on the roads.
A big truck comes out of nowhere trying to move into the flow of traffic, one of the passengers of the truck jumps out to guide the truck.
The truck has an air bracks so the passenger is trying to move all the cars outside the trucks way, the truck is slowly rolling down some kind of small hill it's coming out of.
The passenger stands in front of the truck not knowing that the truck is moving, then boom he gets squashed by the truck.
The first time I witnessed someone get rolled over like that so that was something kek.
I follow a lot of West Africa traveling pages on FB, they're extremely active with middle-class Euros crisscrossing the region. It sounds a lot like the way people talk about Southeast Asia in the '90s, the only difference being Africa is quite expensive. I have been to Senegal a few times and there was a burgeoning backpacker/hostelling scene, mostly between Casamance and the Bissagos. It's also still possible to go frick around in the jungle get the ooga booga mud hut village experience.
If you’re comparing it to SEA or Central America, then it’s very expensive. 90% of tourists who visit Africa are fairly rich, so hotels and tourist infrastructure reflect that fact. Public transport tends to be expensive as it’s mostly privatized and not subsidized by the governments. Morocco is the only exception as there is a thriving backpacker scene and transport is well-regulated and the economy is fairly self-sufficient.
When I was young I liked birds. People older than me arranged a big adventure from Germany to Gibraltar. After crazy behaviour towards my single mom. I was allowed to go. All was amazing. When finally around Gibraltar a Boat, nicotine/other drugs possessed captain took us on a ride to see rare sea birds. Way further than agreed. Puking, rolling and the bad language didn't help the escort experience from coast guard back to civilization. We had been very much in Marocco.
>violent crime stats are meaningless when nobody "snitches"
This is very true. The best way to judge a country's true security is to observe what precautions the locals take with their cash and valuables. Not saying that foreigners can't be scammed or ripped off in a safe country, but compared to violent robbery, scammers are minor annoyances that are easily avoided.
Surely not all black women are hyper-aggressive, but pushy behavior toward strange men is very rare among women of other races, IME.
>pushy behavior toward strange men is very rare among women of other races
I was constantly harrassed in Madagascar, I had just finished a month in Egypt and was exhausted from it as I stayed in a random apartment in the middle of Cairo, I needed a calm break.
I didnt get it until I left the capital for the jungle.
and why was my post deleted? All I said was that imagining a white guy getting stalked by african women was funny. That's not prostitution or cooming related either. It's just a fricking comment.
I'm reposting because the post had nothing to do with what I was 'warned' for'.
I lived in kenya for 6 months. I experienced their 'culture' fairly heavily. People like to claim that africa/kenya especially are peaceful due to the crime statistics, but the statistics are a result of crime going unreported.
Violent crime, home invasions, robberies, muggings, etc are all a commonplace thing there. If you have any meagre amount of wealth at all you have to put bars and electrified barbed wire on your home to keep out roaming bands of brigands. Even then, moderately wealthy people deal with property invaders at least a couple times a year, making additional private security a must.
The women area the same way, except their natural and simple criminality and lack of respect for other people is directed towards gaining resources from men. They ruthlessly pursue, stalk, fight over, scam, lie, cheat, and attack men. I personally experienced multiple women hanging around my apartment waiting for me to walk outside and take a taxi. They had nothing better to do than stalk me all day every day, since I was vastly more wealthy compared to african men they had access to. For every 1 white guy in the country there are 10,000 at least black women, so competition can become fierce, especially when you are not in a normal expat zone.
I was not there for sex tourism, I am not describing a prostitution scenario. This was the result of normal human interaction and the consequences of local cultural norms when it comes to how men and women interact.
Women stalking me to try and get my attention is not my fault, and its not 'sex tourism' and it's not 'prostitution'. It's something that happens in africa if you stay there for any amount of time.
and why was my post deleted? All I said was that imagining a white guy getting stalked by african women was funny. That's not prostitution or cooming related either. It's just a fricking comment.
Probably a new janny who got a little too excited and wanted to exercise his newfound “powers”. Jannies are an even bigger menace to this board than the coomers
I'm reposting because the post had nothing to do with what I was 'warned' for'.
I lived in kenya for 6 months. I experienced their 'culture' fairly heavily. People like to claim that africa/kenya especially are peaceful due to the crime statistics, but the statistics are a result of crime going unreported.
Violent crime, home invasions, robberies, muggings, etc are all a commonplace thing there. If you have any meagre amount of wealth at all you have to put bars and electrified barbed wire on your home to keep out roaming bands of brigands. Even then, moderately wealthy people deal with property invaders at least a couple times a year, making additional private security a must.
The women area the same way, except their natural and simple criminality and lack of respect for other people is directed towards gaining resources from men. They ruthlessly pursue, stalk, fight over, scam, lie, cheat, and attack men. I personally experienced multiple women hanging around my apartment waiting for me to walk outside and take a taxi. They had nothing better to do than stalk me all day every day, since I was vastly more wealthy compared to african men they had access to. For every 1 white guy in the country there are 10,000 at least black women, so competition can become fierce, especially when you are not in a normal expat zone.
I was not there for sex tourism, I am not describing a prostitution scenario. This was the result of normal human interaction and the consequences of local cultural norms when it comes to how men and women interact.
Women stalking me to try and get my attention is not my fault, and its not 'sex tourism' and it's not 'prostitution'. It's something that happens in africa if you stay there for any amount of time.
I like to travel randomly, take some bus and find a place to sleep in a new city then roam the streets on foot or bicycle.
I did this in Maghreb and it was ok, had some shady shit happening and the bargaining all day was tiring.
Now I'm wondering if I could cross the continent like that or I'll get robbed or stuck in some place for days too often. Guess I'll need way more prep than usual and avoid a few countries ?
Would the locals constantly be on my ass ? Are the women like the post I quote below like that everywhere ?
I'm white as frick but tall and fit.
But what was the endgame of those women ? Getting into a monogamous relationship and milking a maximum amount of money out of it ?
>But what was the endgame of those women ? Getting into a monogamous relationship and milking a maximum amount of money out of it ?
Essentially, yes. They want to secure partnership with a wealthy foreign man and be taken care of. The culture in africa is the man takes care of the woman financially and via resources. No money, no honey, as they say.
camping on the beach in morocco was pretty cool. sitting with a random local fisherman and he hardly speaking english but being friendly as frick was kino and comfy. Good times.
>They ruthlessly pursue, stalk, fight over, scam, lie, cheat, and attack men >multiple women hanging around my apartment waiting for me to walk outside and take a taxi
Laughing at women seeking basic companionship is evil.
Sully another site you misersble, malicious, malcontent.
>Laughing at women seeking basic companionship is evil.
Please take your reddit tier simping back to where it belongs
I can't believe this anon dared to talk about women, his post really rattled my puritan sensibilities. Mods need to intervene asap, this is unacceptable.
Cairo is a shithole but the Pyramids were the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's the only time i've ever quite literally felt like I was in a dream. It was surreal.
I stayed at Saint Catherine's Monastery and climbed Mount Sinai to watch the sunset and that was just amazing. If you have even a slight interest in religion and/or history I recommend doing it. The Sinai and the monastery and the climb up the mountain is just beautiful.
I shouldn't say the pyramids were beautiful. They're just grand. Nothing like that exists anywhere else. The last of the original Wonders of the World. To gaze upon something that Napoleon, Herodotus and Caesar saw and even they considered it ancient is fricking insane.
Did you have to take any shots or any precautions getting into Africa? I had to option to go to Tunisia while I was in Malta but they said I was unable to because I didn’t have the proper medical papers. I didn’t have any medical papers with me at all, so idk what the frick they were on about, but I just assumed it was typical malta bullshit
You only need that kind of thing if you're a 3rdie. Or a yellow fever vaccine if you're coming from a country where the disease is present. It's also a good idea to start taking antimalarials before you arrive there, but you only need those for subsahara.
I got the typhoid and hepatitis A shots because I drink tap water and suck dicks, but they're not really necessary.
I went to South Africa when I was 6 to see my great-aunt for her 100th birthday
things I remember: >they served pizza with no tomato at all on it >table mountain was cool but the cablecar was incredibly crowded and I lost my family in it >we went on safari but I was more concerned with eating the snacks my dad brought than looking at animals >the sun turning our car into a boiling pot because my dad forgot to put the reflective screen in the windscreen >accidentally pressing the emergency button in my great-aunt's retirement home room and 4 burly nurses coming and giving me a stern telling off
The picture is mursi tribe of ethiopia.
I had a lot of fun working in africa. import/export company and was forced to do 3 years in sa hiring & managing staff. the people were interesting mix. fell in love there coworker and married 1 year later because religion. family wants immigration, but it is complicated. wife dont want the lot here, nor do I.
>spend an underwhelming christmas with long lost relatives in africa >I grew up with african adoptive parents in northern europe >long lost family is of some aristocratic mulatto bloodline who escaped a racial genocide in the 70s >frickthis.png >borrow 2500€ from a friend >can't get visa to nigeria >get visa to benin >arrive in an overpriced diplomat area >walk everywhere >attempt to cross the border illegally >bribing health officials works >border guards refuse entry because bribery is hard during election time >military offers to smuggle me into nigeria for 300€ >decline the offer because clearly a ropoff price >go to the market >meet some poor local nigerian >invited to his village >pay the guy 5€ a day to stay in his shack >manage to get a visa through a contact in nigeria >3 days before flying fire breaks out >shack burns down >300€ stolen during the fire >luckily find 50€ one the bottom of my backpack >local voodoo chief wants to see me >chief devastated by what happened >offers money ritual to summon back my money >agree to the ritual >chief asks for a payment >say I only have 3€ >laughs, proceeds anyways >swallow dry clay, toss cowry shells >chief tells me I can have any power I want, money, whatever >refuse money powers, ask for creative power >chief asks for another donation >say I don't have money >no problem
>ready to fly to nigeria >10k naira (14€) in my pocket >officials claim I need covid vaccine and ask for 50k bribe >say I don't have >ok no prob >another officials takes me to the palace of congress to get vaccinated in a 100K€ SUV >get vaccinated >back at the airport >demands 50k >don't have, sorry >takes the 10k naira >get one the plane
>arrive in naija >no yellow fever vaccine card >official asks for a bribe >no cash abi (electoon time cash crisis) >no problem
>meet my contact >rich, has mansions, servants, you name it >stay at one of their "investment mansions" >servants act strangely >start joking with them >servants drop their acting and think I'm cool >reveal all their shady dealings >feel alienated by the overworked, crazy rich people >rich people accuse me of "bringing them down to the poor peoples' level" >the rich person says I must either buy a ticket to benin or europe >choose benin >sell my gold coin which I had brought as security, worth 1700€ (in case of getting robbed as what happened) >fly to benin
>get picked up from the airport by someone I met in the village before >go live in the village >show the guy my 1700€ in local money and say I want to do business >open up a bakery with the guy >he does all the dealings and whatnot >thinks I rely on him >starts acting weird >gets caught for trying to spend my money without telling >make a plan with my landlord to get rid of the guy >success >pay 45€ and tell the guy to frick off >start business
After 5 months of hawking on the street selling fish pies I decided to go back to europe and return with serious money
During that 5 months I got hospitalized twice by malaria, got bit by a venomous spider, saw crazy shit happening on the streets, survived failed robbery attempts and scams, meet all kinds of people and get offered many jobs.
Too lazy to go through all of that.
Anyways, going back in a year, too aloenated by european lifestyle.
I was and still am once again making decent money in europe.
The biggest issue in the west is that while people make a lot of money they're not actually talented or highly skilled at anything because mediocre skills can still achieve high pay in most fields.
Also the work and lives most people live is nearly meaningless becauae they get stuck at comfortable mediocrity because it's so rewarding in that environment.
If I decided to go and live in thailand for whatever reason I'd rather go work in a rice paddy than be some english teacher loser making 4k a month.
I guarabtee you that working at a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences than teaching engrish and making 10x the local salary for 10% of the effort.
I don't see well-off hipsters experience anything worthwile, money makes people too comfortable which limits how much you can learn about the environment.
I've seen the bottom of the barrel as well as the top, the illusions and misconceprions between different societal classes are now clear to me.
I've experienced and seen something no money can buy.
All the expats I came across seemed to be somehow lost and had absolutely nothing to say about the countries they've been in.
I'd rather drink cannabis moonshine in a fisherman's straw hut on the beach with some local labourers than talk about tinder and nonsense politics with some hipsters and pickup artist loser expats in some craft beer bar in a high class area who overpay for everything and can't form friendships with locals because nobody sees tgeir character beyond the easy money, disposable friendships based on a vague need for surface level social interacrion in bsence of real relationships and the loose women they're gathering around them.
You can only live this kind of live style while you are young. Basically, what you are doing is a more hardcore version of work-and-travel.
Once your age catches up you’ll be happy to have access to modern medicine
5 months ago
Anonymous
I know, that's the point.
I want to do this while I still, different age groups have different oppoturnities and priorities.
I don't have to wonder later what it couod've been like when I can no longer try it do it.
I started doing these adventures when I started writing fiction, I don't think I would be going on crazy adventures if it wasn't for my creative pursuits.
I have a goal, I'm not running aimlessly and endlessly.
I don't feel the need to repeat this same type of experience until it becomes a lifestyle.
Lots of immigrants come to my European country to stay and talk like you do. But it’s superficial because they don’t truly understand the language. I know people who’ve had classes the best that money can buy and after five years only talk with a moderate level and a total foreign accent. Once they truly understand the language, culture and attitude they leave because they’re disgusted by all of it. You’re doing the same except you don’t understand the reality at all, you’re a white guy living in the middle of africa and you really think you’re “in” with the locals? You’re delusional!
I make around $7000 USD pm working in education in China and the job sucks the soul out of me. I long for the free vagabond life that this guy has. Gonna do one year here and travel like a hobo, just drifting around the world. This guy is like an old soul, has wisdom.
4 months ago
Anonymous
>travel like a hobo, just drifting around the world
Is something I've come across many times and a lot of them are ex-IT professionals.
I've come across hobo travelers who seem like they enjoy it and know what they're doing but the majority just seels lost and doesn't seem to get anything out of it.
I've tried that aimless wandering thing and it didn't work and I haven't seen it working out for other people so well.
I'll give you two examples.
I was walking hitchhiking from Albania to MonteBlack with a gpod friend of mine and we came across a french catholic pilgrim, a young man who was walking from paris to jerusalem, at this point hr had been walking for 3 months.
His objectivr was to travel the journey on foot as far as possible (said he would have to fly at some point because he wouldn't be able to cross the lebanon-israel borser on foot).
He didn't sleep in hostels or anything, only relied on the kindess of strangers and sleüt in a tent if he couldn't find a place to sleep.
He was peaceful, aware, happy, determined and he knew why he was doing it, where he was going and where that story wpuld end, he wasn't lost.
He wasn't seeking a goal becauae the goal wasn't there so all the experience just came to him naturally, there was no desperation to fibd meaning and a place to belong, it didn't matter if the journey was exciting or bpring because anything that happens between paris and jerusalem is only adding to the experience.
He wasn't wandering.
Then there was this one australian old guy I met in lithuania who had a burnout after working in IT for decades and he was just wandering around the globe on foot.
He didn't have a clear goal and it seemed as if he was trying to compensate for a lost youth.
He seemed content but in the sense that he didn't have much time left to live so might aswell do that sorta thing.
He was learning languages and writing wikipedia articles which kept him busy and gave some meaning to his travels...
½
4 months ago
Anonymous
...but he was very unhealthy and seemed lonely.
What he did was definitely better than doing what he didn't enjoy until he dies one day but I guess that wprks put fpr him because he's at the end of his life but I imagine that for someone who still has a whole life ahead of them that would take them nowhere.
Spending the last years of your life wandering is a goal I guess but whenever I come across young people who do that it seems like they're just lost and at some point either lose it or give up thinking that there is nothing left to do in this world.
This guy already had long time friends and a family and whatnot, those take a long time to form but young people don't have this.
I've met some young people who do this and for them this type pf wandering seems to cause them to grt distant from their relationships as their friends move on woth their life back home and you can't form deep connections with people you meet randomly while traveling.
In spain I met a middle aged german guy who was an ex hippie and and a recovered schizophrenic, very cool guy.
He was living at his parents' house and decided to sell the few possessions he had and built a van home and traveled around europe looking fpr a cozy and relaxed village he could settle in.
We travelled halfway through spain together passing many towns and villages and he finally found a really good place and gpt a job from some fellow german boomer doing construction in a village full of hippies and freaks and that was the goal, there was no desperation at the end but along the way he did come off as desperate and it seemed as if he was lowering his stabändards constantly because so far he hadn't found a place where he would belong but I kept telling him to just move on and seeing what comes up.
This is an example of someone who wandered and was close to giving up but by some miracle found the perfect place not long before giving up.
Nevermind the two stories, I'll just share a bunch because why not...
4 months ago
Anonymous
In spain, close to the village where the german guy decided to settle in there was an off grid hippie commune, it seemed like a paradise on the surface but they had lots of issues there and it was more like a community of lost souls.
Lots of young people, mentally ill and whatnot, it was a paradise in a way but people there had nothing meaningful to do, no ambitions, just bitterness and grudge towards modern western society.
Now they had everything they wanted but what now?
Drugs, I mean there was no police there at all, drug trade was open and everything was dealt for wholesale price in any quantity.
I met an70+ year old german guy there who had been wandering since the 1970s, he looked like a 70s teenager with a 60s david bowie hairstyle and bell bottom jeans.
He was mentally ill, desperate and extremely bitter, he was at the end of his life and never found peace and was now going around complaining about how the hippie commune was ruined by posers, hipsters, tourists and a crazy cat lady who let her cats wander around the commune but didn't care to feed them or take care of them in any way.
He was lost, never found out what he wanted at the end, a miracle never happened.
That guy made me decide not to invest more time to that lost paradise.
4 months ago
Anonymous
That guy was the perfect example of what hunter thompson said about the acid freaks of the hippie generation:
"We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel."
4 months ago
Anonymous
Goals are important, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for sure.
Whether your goal is dumb or sensible, insognificant or ambitious doesn't matter as long as your travels can surely lead to that goal and you know it for sure.
When you invest time and effort into wandering and you're fueled by the assumption that somwhere out there something great will come by your way and that thing will show you what potentials goals might be and that thing never comes or doesn't seem like it's coming, bitter nihilism and desperatipn take over and turn any ambitious dandy free minded hippie into a lost, cynical hobo.
You should be passionate about your goal because many people do set goals like "I will be financially independent in south east asia and make 4k+ a month for little effort" but that's not passion, that's lust.
This billionaire explained it well:
Maybe start a family? Maybe having kids will make your life meaningful?
But at the end there was never any passion for family life and it was a compromise and such story ends up as just another kevin spacey in the movie "american beauty"
Find a passion and set a goal that is realistic and certain, one that you don't have any second thoughts over and know for certain that it's waiting for you there and all the good things may come later, remember the french pilgrim?
2 months ago
Anonymous
What french pilgrim?
2 months ago
Anonymous
I came across some young french guy hiking in albania attempting to walk all the way from paris to israel and living only off donations and not staying in hotels but in kind strangers homes
3 months ago
Anonymous
Why some people are doomed to wander unsatisfied. They aren't alone with nothing because they wander ceaselessly; they wander ceaselessly because they are alone and have nothing. A change of surroundings helps keep their focus and energy directed outward and stabilized by geography, instead of collapsing into the emptiness at the center of their personal existence.
Goals are important, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for sure.
Whether your goal is dumb or sensible, insognificant or ambitious doesn't matter as long as your travels can surely lead to that goal and you know it for sure.
When you invest time and effort into wandering and you're fueled by the assumption that somwhere out there something great will come by your way and that thing will show you what potentials goals might be and that thing never comes or doesn't seem like it's coming, bitter nihilism and desperatipn take over and turn any ambitious dandy free minded hippie into a lost, cynical hobo.
You should be passionate about your goal because many people do set goals like "I will be financially independent in south east asia and make 4k+ a month for little effort" but that's not passion, that's lust.
This billionaire explained it well:
Maybe start a family? Maybe having kids will make your life meaningful?
But at the end there was never any passion for family life and it was a compromise and such story ends up as just another kevin spacey in the movie "american beauty"
Find a passion and set a goal that is realistic and certain, one that you don't have any second thoughts over and know for certain that it's waiting for you there and all the good things may come later, remember the french pilgrim?
The ultimate disillusionment is to chance upon a "chain of opportunities", only to realize that opening new doors is a burdensome chore without reward. Eventually, the intelligent anhedonist will embrace stoicism and quit the the pursuit of pleasurable stimulation of any kind - meeting people, listening, seeing, learning, feeling. Perhaps he may find solace in food, as satiety is a pleasure which exists far below the level of consciousness.
Oh.... if you want safe then I don't think you are quite ready for the African experience, little boy. May I recommend a trip to Disneyland or any other popular family resort? This seems like it would be more your speed, you clearly aren't close to ready for what Africa has to offer.
Africa is danger. If you actually liked and enjoyed travel you would know this. When I visited Africa I toured the entire continent for 1 year on bike- you would probably take a car lik a fricking idiot and miss out on all the real sites. I can tell you from experience. I have cooked gamekill with villagers in the DRC. I have been chased by Maghrebi tribespeople through the rainforests of Namibia. I have photographed emus on the horn of Somalia while the war was fought 40 yards behind me. This is what Africa is. Danger. Excitement. The Unpredictable. Black people. I have felt it and honestly seeing you ask for 'safe' africa is fricking offensive. I wouldn't ask you for your most landlocked beach resorts would I, even if you are a fricking common tourist who knows nothing about the world.
People like you are encouraging the safetelation of Africa. Last time I visited I was in Swahili and saw a villager taking apart his AK-47 and I asked him why, because he needs it to defend his elephants from poachers. He said that tourism was generating money and they didn't come anymore. That makes me sick. This thread makes me angry.d to, it's africa
>the rainforests of Namibia
top kek
https://i.imgur.com/Rn1ci6r.png
How do you guys actually go to Africa and not feel constantly paranoid of getting mugged/killed?
You're literally a walking ATM to these people who are half-way starving. I could understand visiting tourist regions but to actually go visit villages as a white man seems incredibly foolish and naive.
It's only the weak & decent people who are half starved. The criminals always have money enough for their bling.
Incredibly based. I'm going to keep saving money & investing, then in 2 years time I'll follow your footsteps. Those experiences along with the culture shock must've grounded you while at the same time building your spirit, and made you a better man.
You sound very wise.
I would like to travel the world instead of doing nonsense bullshit computer work that doesnt do anything. i do nothing all day working in marketing, my job exists only because people think they want things and im tired of it, but doing what you do sounds so daunting, i have a hard time striking up conversations with even other wagies, it's really hard to imagine how you'd do it with someone somewhere you dont know.
Honest to god question, how do you do it?
4 months ago
Anonymous
I can answer this question profoundly but I have to put a lot of though into it because I feel like I just exhausted my thought reserces to the previous reply.
I'll catch up with you later, maybe tomorrow, I do have a lot to say to that, I know exactly what you're talking about and I used to ask this question myself years ago.
3 months ago
Anonymous
When I was a socially awkward teenager with next to no life experience I used to ask this question.
To give some context first I will answer the question of how I learnt it in the first place and after that I will answer the question of how I do it.
Whenever I approached people I didn't have an intuitive skill for socializing but I managed to build an intuition over time by learning from someone I met who was very socially talented.
When I entered high school I didn't have any friends but I became friends with a socially gifted son of an african millionaire here in europe.
This guy was like a walking magnet for experiences, life stories, at that time it seemed like magic to me how this guy would just walk up to someone, say or do something subtle and that would kickstart a domino effects of events.
I guessed he liked having a quiet sidekick so I got the chance to observe and take part in these chains of events.
That allowed me to learn and understand the base that was needed for building an intuition for what you could call adventuring so it was purely out of luck, there's no way in hell I could've learnt without the miracle of someone who was able to do what I was a mystery to me and just taking me along.
So basically I can explain how I do it but what unlocked the path for learning to do it was never explained to me and I didn't deliberately put myself to that path and by the sound of it it seems like that's where you stand.
I don't know how to get started, it just happened.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Cool. Got a tldr?
3 months ago
Anonymous
No lol, the point is that I learnt by seeing how things happen randomly, I didn't learn by being given steps to follow.
You need to tldr for yourself, I can't help you with that
I can't have a good conversation with anyone, sometimes conversations juat don't flow because there's a disconnection between me and the other person, most often the reason is because the other person can't add up to what I'm saying in way that it builds the conversation, with most people the conversations I have with them don't evolve into a chain of events or an exchange of information that interests both sides.
I don't think that words are what lead to things happening but instead actions.
For example one time I was walking on the street and there was some guy high as a kite showing random pedestrians a piece of paper with a crude drawing of an old president and a 20 cent coin glued onto it and he was asking people what they thought of his newly "self issued 20 euro banknote".
This was an unusual, very random thing so I decided to just stick and be positive and join whatever conversations he would engage with those random people.
After goofing around for spme time he asked if I wanted to smoke weed and turnwd out we were actually standing right in front of his apartment building's front door so we went up to his place tp smoke.
It was a bit awkward because I get easily anxious from weed and I was just sitting there with some stranger in his home and he was telling me about his depression and heavy use of party drugs, this guy hadn't been sober in 4 years but I could tell that he wasn't just a street junkie but an art student and a raver who happened to be a heavy drug user.
He said that there might be a party in some place but he doesn't know fpr sure, he just knew that it's a place where parties happen.
He took a line of ketamine and went full goofy zombie mode and started showing people the "20€ note" again.
There was a group of young people and two women of a separate group and the show he put up just happened to fprm a hangour right there on the street...
Anyways, the young people asked me to come and talk tp them about something and they rold me that they were fashion students and they asked if I'd be interested in doing modeling for them.
I gave them my number and then I headed to the "party" with the banknote guy.
We arrived at some industrial area and there was a warehouse there where raves happen sometimes apparently.
There was nobody there but the door was open and somebody was dj'ing there alone.
The dj told us he was just practising and there was no party there so we just left lol.
After that we smoked weed at his place again and I went home.
I gave him my number.
A week later I was about to board a ferry to latvia and this guy texts me asking if I wanted to grab a beer slmewhere and I I just straight up asked him if he wanted to come to latvia and that he could make it if he can get to the harbour in 30 minutes.
He actually showed up and we went to latvia to see a friend of mine who's an old alcoholic who lives in a house with no electricity or running water.
A lot of random stuff happened there, the trip was basically like every bald and bankrupt video about eastern europe.
After that I he started inviting me ro all kinds of events because turbs out this guy knows everyone in the local eöectronic music scene.
Backstages, record shop hangouts, raves, art university events and so on and in turn I introduce him to whacky people I know and invite him to places.
We're basically exchanging chances for life experiences now and those always spiral into meeting new people and kickstarting new domino effects.
Now we have a government funded project for doing a documentary in the baltics and I'm supposed to be their guide and translator for that.
Maybe that will get me into the film circles?
Who knows?
3 months ago
Anonymous
So yea, that's a very typical fprmula of random shit happening, one thing leading to another.
Every other person the day we met just ignored him as just another weirdo with nothing else going for him but I stuck around and now I'm going places.
Almost every time it goes like that, I interact with a weird person in a weird situation, either everyonr or at least the majority of the people around don't see any potential in that or just don't want to be bothered, most often because they choose to assume things and choose to be judgemental.
Sometimes that person is just a typical junkie with nothing going for them, sometimes it's a well connected DJ or an african businessman or a future best friend, a lost relative, celebrity, millionaire socialite, interesting character, who knows?
I don't so the best I can do is find out, sticning around and letting people show me who thet are and whar they can do tends to be more powerful than using my words to please people.
Sometimes I don't even have to say a wprd with random people I meet and they take me places just because I vibe with them and show positive energy.
That's all I can say, analyze it and make your own conclusions aka "tldr"
3 months ago
Anonymous
One time I followed two really beat up hobos and they took me to a mansion full of antique and whatnot and turned out that hobo was just a successful actor who became a washed up hazbin during corona lol.
Countless stories like this.
Go with the flow I guess?
3 months ago
Anonymous
my experience as well, just be, just flow, positive intent, being genuine. hope our paths cross someday
3 months ago
Anonymous
"You can take a horse to a river but you can't make it drink from it"
Here's your river.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>Here's your river.
Forgot pic?
3 months ago
Anonymous
No
3 months ago
Anonymous
I can't have a good conversation with anyone, sometimes conversations juat don't flow because there's a disconnection between me and the other person, most often the reason is because the other person can't add up to what I'm saying in way that it builds the conversation, with most people the conversations I have with them don't evolve into a chain of events or an exchange of information that interests both sides.
I don't think that words are what lead to things happening but instead actions.
For example one time I was walking on the street and there was some guy high as a kite showing random pedestrians a piece of paper with a crude drawing of an old president and a 20 cent coin glued onto it and he was asking people what they thought of his newly "self issued 20 euro banknote".
This was an unusual, very random thing so I decided to just stick and be positive and join whatever conversations he would engage with those random people.
After goofing around for spme time he asked if I wanted to smoke weed and turnwd out we were actually standing right in front of his apartment building's front door so we went up to his place tp smoke.
It was a bit awkward because I get easily anxious from weed and I was just sitting there with some stranger in his home and he was telling me about his depression and heavy use of party drugs, this guy hadn't been sober in 4 years but I could tell that he wasn't just a street junkie but an art student and a raver who happened to be a heavy drug user.
He said that there might be a party in some place but he doesn't know fpr sure, he just knew that it's a place where parties happen.
He took a line of ketamine and went full goofy zombie mode and started showing people the "20€ note" again.
There was a group of young people and two women of a separate group and the show he put up just happened to fprm a hangour right there on the street...
>working in a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences
Absolute LMFAO material. (You) have clearly never had to slave away at a backbreaking repetitive task under the blazing sun for months on end, all while making the country's minimum wage. Your belief that unskilled manual labor is somehow cool and rich and authentic and soulful is a delusional fantasy. >I've seen the bottom of the barrel as well as the top
But have you lived it? Your soft-hearted empathy for lesser humans is merely a vulnerability borne of guilt over your "unfair" advantage. If you were once mired in the bottom and struggled your way out by seizing an opportunity and taking it for all it was worth, you would have a far more Darwinian view of the struggle for success.
Any foreigner who has lived in a Third World country behaves in certain ways toward the locals which appear discriminatory, heartless, even racist to an idealistic newcomer. But with time, the reasons become clear. Carefully hidden behind the outwardly friendly behavior, even loyalty, lies a simple desire to acquire the resources which you possess. No, poor people don't hate you for your wealth. To them, you are merely a resource to be exploited, by fair means or foul.
3 months ago
Anonymous
I was a full time hawker for 5 months.
Starvation is nonexistent, purewater is dirt cheap and available everywhere, rent is piss cheap (5000 cfa for a one room shanty with electricity in a safe area), weed costs 100 cfa per joint, whiskey 60 cfa for 4cl, poor people eat at restaurants for lunch, take bike taxi and hang out in bars every day unless their sales were bad that day (on most days they make between 1000-5000 cfa) and most poor people just sit on the ground and wait for customers to come to buy their pineapples in the trad market or used clothes in missebo basically doing nothing but sitting all day.
After a hard day at work I would usually go and hang out at a fisherman's shack where this big lady sold cannabis moonshine and joints, you sit down on a plastic garden chair and her 5 year old daughter serves you drugs and even the local cops hang out there
At the central market they would put tramadol in your coffee if you paid 100 cfa extra
The truth is that third world poor people and first world middle class people are equally good and bad, the only difference is that the ones who have money are less likely to interact with strangers
I've worked in nightlife in a nordic country and it was far worse than hawking in the third world
The world isn't as divided and different as most people think, people are mostly the same, only cultires are different with little variation in personality types and moral consistency
The same way over there they think the west is like a different planet and white people are totally different from them, it's really not like that
It's really not as bad as you think, places like north korea or some cpnflict regions are different but poverty doesn't always equal misery
3 months ago
Anonymous
What country did you live in? That sounds awesome. What kind of work did you do?
3 months ago
Anonymous
Benin republic, I was selling meat pies on top of my head, I'll post some pics here since you seem to be interested.
I ended up there completely by accident, I was supposed to sneqk through the border to nigeria because elevtion time was giving me visa troubles but I ended up staying in benin because it was so peaceful, safe and cheap.
>working at a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences than teaching engrish
Extra fricking delusional. You seem to honestly believe that, looks like you have hidden assumptions like: if I work hard for poor pay then I deserve better mental health and friends.
I haven't said anything about deserving, I honestly have no idea what you're on about, sounds like you're just projecting and trying be provocative for no reason
3 months ago
Anonymous
Here's the cannabis moonshine, the fishermen's wifes would sell this and run a bar in their home by the beach.
I was living in a small town between the country's two capitals, there were tribal people living in straw huts on the beach.
Most of the straw huts had satellite dishes on the roof and everyone had smartphones, it was a strange looking mix of modernity and ancient tradition.
Voodoo was very prevalent in the are and the tribesmen were mixing voodoo with catholicism, to my underatanding voodoo originates from benin.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Here's a typical labourer's lunch which costs 500 cfa (0.75€)
Most foods are fusion between european and african, spaghetti is one of the staples.
The thing woth benin and most of west africa is that rent is so piss cheap that pretty much whatever you make in a day determines how much you can spend.
As I said before typical rent is 5000 cfa (7.5€ per month) for a one room electrified shack and for 15k cfa (22.5€) you can get a nice clay bungalow house with one room + kitchen and separate bath close to the beach in a better area.
So you can imagine that if a typical poor perspn makes between 1000-5000 cfa per day, rent is not an issue so even if you spend 500 cfa on lunch and only made 1000 that day you're not really overspending.
You can get a filling plate of spicy beans in sauce and rice for 300 cfa.
A 35 minute bus ride costs 300 cfa (0.22€), private bike taxi is 350 during rush hour commute, 500 during off hours.
0.5l purified water is 25 cfa or 3 pcs for 50, clean bathing water costs 50 cfa fpr 25l so again, basic amenities are no concern even for the poorest.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Booze is usually sold in these sachets and you can buy them anywhere, they really really good and I'd say the quality is way above european average.
They have really good knockoffs of common brands like baleys that taste exactly like the originals.
These sachets cost 100 cfa indovodually but you can buy a big pack for 3500 and the price goes down to 60 cfa each.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Cotonou central market "dantokpa", on the southern sides there's a nigerian igbo market "missebo" where they sell mostly used clothes.
I didn't like cotonou, I would only go there to make money.
It's polluted, busy and lacks any identity or character.
Also people there were really greedy and jealous, it's a hustling town.
I like porto novo much more, it's very calm, beautiful had a lot of nature and parks and people there were way friendlier and less after money.
There are no junkies or annoying slum people in porto novo, it's much more civilized but less rich because there's not much business there aside from produce.
3 months ago
Anonymous
This is some sort of a temple in porto novo, not sure what it's about
3 months ago
Anonymous
Typical low income suburban street in porto novo
3 months ago
Anonymous
Typical street in central part pf porto novo, not an expensive area.
There is one "rich area" in cotonou which is cocotiers and it's the airport area but in porto novo there are no rich areas, no matter what your income is you can afford rent in any part of the city.
In porto novo people seemed less divided and mpre cpmfortable with their level of income while in cotonou people seemed anxoous and insecure about having less mpney than all the rich kids in cocotiers.
Most expats live in cocotiers in cotonou while most french of colonial descent live in porto novo.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Mmmmmmmm microplastics
3 months ago
Anonymous
How do you carry that around or seal it if you don't want to finish it in one sitting? Is this alcohol package common in the rest of West Africa? Any reasons why they use this method?
3 months ago
Anonymous
Not him but that type of packaging for things (e.g. shampoo) is common in very poor countries where people don't have the purchasing power to buy a large container for future use or maybe nowhere safe to put it.
3 months ago
Anonymous
They have the purchasing power, they just overspend.
The biggest difference between nigerians and thr beninois is how they spend.
If a nigerian makes 5000 cfa tpday they will spemd 5000 cfa.
If a beninois makes 2000 cfa they will spend 1000 and put the rest aside, they love hoarding money.
When I was hawking I saw how much people have because when they pulled out their wallets I could see if they had a lot on them.
It was very common to see pineapple seller marketwomen sitting on the street pulling out a fat stack of 5000 cfa notes, most of them had between 50-100k at hand.
Nigerians usually bought small packages for higher price per kg while the beninois would save up to buy wholesale quantities for a fraction of the price.
Nigerian were making more on average than the beninois but they lived much poorer because they wasted all their money on status symbols, alcohol, weed and unnecessary transport.
I mean come on, west africa is basically easy mode for humans to thrive in naturally, you must be really dumb not to make it decently there and africans are dumber on average (sorry to say this but it's true) and are much more emotionally driven and more status obsessed than westerners.
"Poverty is not the result of eating too much or spending too much. Poverty comes from an inability to do mathematics. Whoever can do sums will have enough to live by; whoever cannot will squander even mountains of gold!"
- Mao Yichang, Mao Zedong's father
3 months ago
Anonymous
>If a nigerian makes 5000 cfa tpday they will spemd 5000 cfa.
There's a reason why everyone in Africa despises Nigerians.
3 months ago
Anonymous
yet, it's the richest country in Africa.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>I mean come on, west africa is basically easy mode for humans to thrive in naturally
Is this true? Can I live a peaceful life on easy mode by moving to some small west african country?
3 months ago
Anonymous
>How do you carry that around or seal it if you don't want to finish it in one sitting?
My method is to stretch the corner with my teeth to make a "straw" and it wpn't spill in my pocket due to surface tension. >common in the rest of West Africa
I think so >Any reasons why they use this method?
It's cheap.
Soup ia sold in plastic bags and so is water and really any liquid except petrol.
For some reason nuts are sold in bottles.
They had these really delicious ice popsicles made from sweetened coffee, frozen in tiny plastic bags.
There were lots of icy cooling snacks and sweets around, one of my favourites was this thing where they crush ice and mix the ice with yoghurt, semolina and syrup.
3 months ago
Anonymous
>Carefully hidden behind the outwardly friendly behavior, even loyalty, lies a simple desire to acquire the resources which you possess
well said. You are a cashcow to them
I was a full time hawker for 5 months.
Starvation is nonexistent, purewater is dirt cheap and available everywhere, rent is piss cheap (5000 cfa for a one room shanty with electricity in a safe area), weed costs 100 cfa per joint, whiskey 60 cfa for 4cl, poor people eat at restaurants for lunch, take bike taxi and hang out in bars every day unless their sales were bad that day (on most days they make between 1000-5000 cfa) and most poor people just sit on the ground and wait for customers to come to buy their pineapples in the trad market or used clothes in missebo basically doing nothing but sitting all day.
After a hard day at work I would usually go and hang out at a fisherman's shack where this big lady sold cannabis moonshine and joints, you sit down on a plastic garden chair and her 5 year old daughter serves you drugs and even the local cops hang out there
At the central market they would put tramadol in your coffee if you paid 100 cfa extra
The truth is that third world poor people and first world middle class people are equally good and bad, the only difference is that the ones who have money are less likely to interact with strangers
I've worked in nightlife in a nordic country and it was far worse than hawking in the third world
The world isn't as divided and different as most people think, people are mostly the same, only cultires are different with little variation in personality types and moral consistency
The same way over there they think the west is like a different planet and white people are totally different from them, it's really not like that
It's really not as bad as you think, places like north korea or some cpnflict regions are different but poverty doesn't always equal misery
the way you put it sounds like a libertarian paradise
yet, it's the richest country in Africa.
only because of their oil and large landmass+population. and by what metric? Kenya is equally rich GDP per capita, while South Africa is a lot richer
>working at a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences than teaching engrish
Extra fricking delusional. You seem to honestly believe that, looks like you have hidden assumptions like: if I work hard for poor pay then I deserve better mental health and friends.
this is a dumb take. Just because the pickings are easy shouldnt mean you should take them. Just take the good salary god damn it. I've been dead broke enough times to appreciated the money when I have it.
2 months ago
Anonymous
Well, an important detail here is that I'm an artist, more specifically a comic book artist/writer and my works revolve heavily around the things I experience
In fact my main motivation for acquiring life experiences is to gain perspective on "stories" that go beyond plot and that requires a lot of time, freedom and taking opporturnities that follow a very unconventional path or reasoning or no reasoning at all beyond plain curiosity
My main goal in life is to express unusual perspectives through visual sorytelling, some amount of money is required for that but it doesn't really increase my productivity or enjoyment because these two are maxed out if I just have enough to support my work
I believe that my views make sense in this context, I live for my art, that is my purpose
> I've been dead broke enough times to appreciate the money when I have it
So have I and so do I but for me that's not the only thing I think about when looking back at my life
For me there's an another important aspect to this, the ability to express thoughts and feeling through visual storytelling
If there is a bad experience for me suffering is always a negative aspect, learning life lessons is positive but seldom makes up for the negatives of suffering and danger
However there is nothing that I value more than the ability to acquire narratives that lift my storywriting above plain plot and I haven't been able to gain that with stability and logical decisions
And since storywriting and its visual presentation is the most valuable thing for me, so are the things that add up to it
I only require a certain amount of money to do it therefore it's not a valuable resource for me beyond thee bare minimal mount needed to work efficiently, I'm not a film director, I don't need millions, only thousands and that's not hard to gain
Freedom, time, developing my technical skills, ideas and motivation however have no limit to how much my art can benefit from them
>spend an underwhelming christmas with long lost relatives in africa
Correction with african relatives in southern europe, not in africa.
Never visited the continent before.
One of my close friends served in the Peace Corps and was stationed in Zanzibar for the duration of his service. I visited for two months near the end of his contract and had a pretty good time. Zanzibar was a pretty place, but the beaches are a bit overrated and the food was terrible. I can see how it'd be fun for a few days or a few weeks--at most--but certainly wouldn't want to go for any longer.
Mainland Tanzania was fine, as was Kenya. But I haven't found anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa to be nearly as interesting as South Asia, or even Latin America, for that matter. I might feel differently if I'd spent more time on the mainland, particularly in tribal-dominated regions. I've actually been mulling over the possibility of going to Kenya for a few weeks to rent a motorbike and travel around--maybe this coming March or April.
Picrel is little Honda I rented in Tanzania. Was a good time, except for the cop who spent a half-hour trying to figure out how to explain that he really, really wanted a bribe (tbqh only time I've ever had that happen, even though I've been stopped by police in Guatemala, India, Pakistan, etc).
The annoying paperwork is 10 USD in Tanzanian shillings lmao I'm surprised he only got hassled for a bribe one time.
The only time I've had them be this direct was in Panama of all places where the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
The annoying paperwork is 10 USD in Tanzanian shillings lmao I'm surprised he only got hassled for a bribe one time.
The only time I've had them be this direct was in Panama of all places where the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
My friend helped with the rental, since he had spent two years on-site and was fluent in Swahili. I remember leaving a token deposit alongside a copy of my passport and driver's license. I can't remember what other paperwork, if any, I had to complete.
>Did you need a motorcycle license to rent?
I already had a motorcycle license, so I didn't have to worry or ask. But, in my experience, most rental places in developing countries will give you a bike as long as you provide any type of unexpired driver's license.
The annoying paperwork is 10 USD in Tanzanian shillings lmao I'm surprised he only got hassled for a bribe one time.
The only time I've had them be this direct was in Panama of all places where the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
>the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
Yeah, that's similar to what happened in Zanzibar. The cop asked to see my license, then started howling on--in terrible, broken English--about how it was "so hot," and I should "give him a gift of a bottle of water," among other things.
I got out of it, after a half-hour of mindless conversation, because my friend just happened to have been coming back into the village aboard a dala-dala (this was maybe a half-mile down the road from his site). He told the cop to stop being an idiot and ended the conversation pretty quickly.
How do you guys actually go to Africa and not feel constantly paranoid of getting mugged/killed?
You're literally a walking ATM to these people who are half-way starving. I could understand visiting tourist regions but to actually go visit villages as a white man seems incredibly foolish and naive.
The paranoia is part of the fun! Learning to live on a higher alert level is a major benefit of travel for me. Give it a try. The worst that can happen is you die in a decrepit alleyway
>How do you guys actually go to Africa and not feel constantly paranoid of getting mugged/killed?
Oh.... if you want safe then I don't think you are quite ready for the African experience, little boy. May I recommend a trip to Disneyland or any other popular family resort? This seems like it would be more your speed, you clearly aren't close to ready for what Africa has to offer.
Africa is danger. If you actually liked and enjoyed travel you would know this. When I visited Africa I toured the entire continent for 1 year on bike- you would probably take a car lik a fricking idiot and miss out on all the real sites. I can tell you from experience. I have cooked gamekill with villagers in the DRC. I have been chased by Maghrebi tribespeople through the rainforests of Namibia. I have photographed emus on the horn of Somalia while the war was fought 40 yards behind me. This is what Africa is. Danger. Excitement. The Unpredictable. Black people. I have felt it and honestly seeing you ask for 'safe' africa is fricking offensive. I wouldn't ask you for your most landlocked beach resorts would I, even if you are a fricking common tourist who knows nothing about the world.
People like you are encouraging the safetelation of Africa. Last time I visited I was in Swahili and saw a villager taking apart his AK-47 and I asked him why, because he needs it to defend his elephants from poachers. He said that tourism was generating money and they didn't come anymore. That makes me sick. This thread makes me angry.d to, it's africa
We don't have rainforests in Namibia though, neither is there a "Maghrebi" tribe to my knowledge. It helps to be a little wary but Namibia is fairly peaceful.
Oh.... if you want safe then I don't think you are quite ready for the African experience, little boy. May I recommend a trip to Disneyland or any other popular family resort? This seems like it would be more your speed, you clearly aren't close to ready for what Africa has to offer.
Africa is danger. If you actually liked and enjoyed travel you would know this. When I visited Africa I toured the entire continent for 1 year on bike- you would probably take a car lik a fricking idiot and miss out on all the real sites. I can tell you from experience. I have cooked gamekill with villagers in the DRC. I have been chased by Maghrebi tribespeople through the rainforests of Namibia. I have photographed emus on the horn of Somalia while the war was fought 40 yards behind me. This is what Africa is. Danger. Excitement. The Unpredictable. Black people. I have felt it and honestly seeing you ask for 'safe' africa is fricking offensive. I wouldn't ask you for your most landlocked beach resorts would I, even if you are a fricking common tourist who knows nothing about the world.
People like you are encouraging the safetelation of Africa. Last time I visited I was in Swahili and saw a villager taking apart his AK-47 and I asked him why, because he needs it to defend his elephants from poachers. He said that tourism was generating money and they didn't come anymore. That makes me sick. This thread makes me angry.d to, it's africa
Spent three weeks in Agadir. It was nice enough but it's a tourist getaway so got old after a week. Moroccans are ok. Lots of girls with big asses who know how to clean up. Never been to Xlick Click Afrika tho
I can't, since it involved meeting people and doing things with people. This activity is against board rules so I cannot explain to you what made my adventure in Africa fun or exciting.
I lived in SA for two years in 2010. It was actually very good, I was staying in a relatively rich, white area, the level of everything there was very high, also South Africans are bros.
The country itself is beautiful, I mostly stayed in southern coast area and the nature was breathtaking, if you ever were looking at some surreal looking nature desktop wallpapers on the internet for your computer probably half of those pics were taken in South Africa
In Entebbe for 2nd time after travelling around Uganda, staying at same hotel because it's comfy and located next to a lakeside reggae bar where we already managed to get some surprisingly good local weed.
Go back to bar just to chill and hopefully score a bit more weed for the last few days in Uganda.
Bar has way more locals than last time, the vibe is different, just chill with travel compatriots enjoying some beers. Waving off local attempts to join us because we know better at this point.
Rasta dude approaches me as I'm buying more beer, super thick accent, hard to understand.
Realize he has weed, and being the stoner of the group, I invite him back to our table.
Travel friends (my wife and our twink buddy) are annoyed I brought this dude, and are both acting openly b***hy and giving b***h faces. Frick it, I'm happy, this dude is sharing his fat spliff with me.
Eventually figure out his name is MINOT, Minot from TZ (Tanzania)
Tells me he's a rapper. He asks for a beat. I'm stoned and happy to humor him. Too high to think of a good hip hop beat for him, panic and put on some Ethiopian jazz with really weird rhythms, not good rapping. He's puzzled but listens carefully and then starts rapping in Swahili. No idea what he's saying but he's sticking the beat and it sounds fricking good.
Friends still unimpressed. Pissy at me.
Minot tells me he's gonna be performing at WHINDEE BAH tonight
Have to ask a few dozen more times before I realize he's saying Windy Bar.
Ask friends if they want to go. They're sorta meh about it. Minot gets the impression that we will go and leaves somewhat abruptly, as if he needs to prepare for our arrival.
We leave reggae bar. Back in hotel, discuss whether it's a good idea for 3 whitoids to visit a non-touristy bar late at night. It's been two weeks in Africa, we're ready. We agree to go but leave all valuables at hotel, no phones, no wallets, just enough cash for drinks and cabs.
Windy Bar looks like a giant shanty town shack in the middle of real Entebbe.
Frick.
Go inside and a hundred black heads turn to stare at the only white people to ever enter the bar.
Frick frick
There's a girl doing shitty karaoke styled performance on big stage. Bar is packed with big white plastic garden tables, about 5 to 7 people per table. Completely packed except 1 table. Bee line to it.
As the only able bodied white in my trio, I have to feign confidence, all the while trying to be vigilant without being squirmy.
We sit down, I go get drinks. Sit back down. Next show starts, its a bunch of students. They proceed to perform the most amazing dance show I've ever seen, a mix of freestyle, dual dances, and political sketches.
I keep feeling hands brushing my pockets. Jokes on y'all I have nothing to steal.
Go to the bathroom. Have to pass through long hall that is also backstage of the performers.
Reach end of hall, now in outdoor alleyway
wtf?
There are some rotund ladies hanging out by some open doorways, with dimly lit bedrooms just beyond.
WTF?
They're eyeing me and asking what I want. Smile and proceed to bathroom.
Pissing in piss soaked concrete "bathroom" when a dude approaches from behind.
I say what's up
He tells me he's my security.
um, ok.
He follows me closely all the way back to the bar, I have to buy him a beer to leave me alone
Continue to watch the dance show, still amazing.
Minot never shows up.
Show finishes, we leave without incident, and my wife (who's a dancer) and twink friend (who's a wannabe anthropologist) have to sullenly admit that my stoner tendencies delivered the most authentic moment of our entire 3 week trip.
In Entebbe for 2nd time after travelling around Uganda, staying at same hotel because it's comfy and located next to a lakeside reggae bar where we already managed to get some surprisingly good local weed.
Go back to bar just to chill and hopefully score a bit more weed for the last few days in Uganda.
Bar has way more locals than last time, the vibe is different, just chill with travel compatriots enjoying some beers. Waving off local attempts to join us because we know better at this point.
Rasta dude approaches me as I'm buying more beer, super thick accent, hard to understand.
Realize he has weed, and being the stoner of the group, I invite him back to our table.
Travel friends (my wife and our twink buddy) are annoyed I brought this dude, and are both acting openly b***hy and giving b***h faces. Frick it, I'm happy, this dude is sharing his fat spliff with me.
Eventually figure out his name is MINOT, Minot from TZ (Tanzania)
Tells me he's a rapper. He asks for a beat. I'm stoned and happy to humor him. Too high to think of a good hip hop beat for him, panic and put on some Ethiopian jazz with really weird rhythms, not good rapping. He's puzzled but listens carefully and then starts rapping in Swahili. No idea what he's saying but he's sticking the beat and it sounds fricking good.
Friends still unimpressed. Pissy at me.
Minot tells me he's gonna be performing at WHINDEE BAH tonight
Have to ask a few dozen more times before I realize he's saying Windy Bar.
Ask friends if they want to go. They're sorta meh about it. Minot gets the impression that we will go and leaves somewhat abruptly, as if he needs to prepare for our arrival.
We leave reggae bar. Back in hotel, discuss whether it's a good idea for 3 whitoids to visit a non-touristy bar late at night. It's been two weeks in Africa, we're ready. We agree to go but leave all valuables at hotel, no phones, no wallets, just enough cash for drinks and cabs.
This was last last summer, 1 week in Kenya doing the safari shit, 1 week in Uganda doing more RealTraveler stuff and Nile Rafting, which was fricking amazing, and then 1 week in Kenya on the coast
>namibian wilderness was great
I was considering visiting Namibia, it looks exotic and still somewhat "untamed".
But is it safe for western tourists? How did you go there?
Please share your experience anon
Went to Nairobi for 36 hours through letting the host business's travel agent book the ticket. Spent more time in planes than in the country. Saw a giraffe in the game park that is wedged up against the city/airport. Learned to dance like a Kenyan in the bar.
Never let the host business book the ticket.
>country
yes, a couple hundred mercs dispatched to strategic zones would be enough in theory to knock over a fairly-established government of a smaller African country >functioning
well, that's a bit harder to find over there
let's just say that'll be up to you to sort out once you're installed as supreme leader
Going to South Africa with gf for a month. Flying to Johannesburg and then doing 5 day safari in Kruger Park, flying to Cape town after, doing garden route for a week and then driving back to cape town to stay around there for 2 weeks. Any advice?
Most south Africans are pretty friendly and open, crime is pretty bad and you should be pretty conscious of that, don't walk alone at night and stick to populated areas. Don't get into any minibus taxi's. Be hyper vigilant driving and coming to a stop, hijacking is very popular. Avoid all the townships or informal settlements. Don't know much about Johannesburg but cape town is beautiful, try do some hikes if you can. Simon's town and kalk bay are pretty popular as well as Clifton Beach. Boulders beach is pretty cool as well and sometimes there's penguins there. Water is fricking cold unless you're at muizenberg or fishoek side but still pretty cold. Doing wine tasting is also apparently pretty fun. There's lots to do in Cape Town. Just check the hikes are safe as well, there as apparently a lot of robbing happening recently owing to the time of year. Lions head is pretty cool as well as Chapman's peak.
Garden route is dope and you should try explore the little shops along the way.
This isnt to say it won't be an awesome trip, there's a lot of shit in the country but it can also be super cool. Luck of the draw really, I know someone who got mugged on their first day here and another who said it was there best traveling experience. Just be safety conscious and you should be fine. Lots of beautiful places to see and experience and as I said the people here are generally super chilled except for some black people that still think there life is shitty because of the white man and apartheid and not because they're a useless lazy shits. In that regard avoid EFF people they're generally idiots.
Oh and there's quite a lot of corruption, not so much in Cape Town but a possibility in Johannesburg with cops and whatnot. Might get pulled over for no reason and they will ask for a bribe.
It's generally pretty chilled, I might be making it seem worse than it is. It is a really really nice travel destination and you probably won't have to experience or even notice any of the negatives.
Just a note about the black people, most are pretty chilled and friendly. Like don't avoid them or anything, some can be dope and the women are generally quite vivacious.
Oh and avoid ocean view and the cape flats though I do t know why you would go there anyway
This isnt to say it won't be an awesome trip, there's a lot of shit in the country but it can also be super cool. Luck of the draw really, I know someone who got mugged on their first day here and another who said it was there best traveling experience. Just be safety conscious and you should be fine. Lots of beautiful places to see and experience and as I said the people here are generally super chilled except for some black people that still think there life is shitty because of the white man and apartheid and not because they're a useless lazy shits. In that regard avoid EFF people they're generally idiots.
Oh and there's quite a lot of corruption, not so much in Cape Town but a possibility in Johannesburg with cops and whatnot. Might get pulled over for no reason and they will ask for a bribe.
It's generally pretty chilled, I might be making it seem worse than it is. It is a really really nice travel destination and you probably won't have to experience or even notice any of the negatives.
This isnt to say it won't be an awesome trip, there's a lot of shit in the country but it can also be super cool. Luck of the draw really, I know someone who got mugged on their first day here and another who said it was there best traveling experience. Just be safety conscious and you should be fine. Lots of beautiful places to see and experience and as I said the people here are generally super chilled except for some black people that still think there life is shitty because of the white man and apartheid and not because they're a useless lazy shits. In that regard avoid EFF people they're generally idiots.
Oh and there's quite a lot of corruption, not so much in Cape Town but a possibility in Johannesburg with cops and whatnot. Might get pulled over for no reason and they will ask for a bribe.
It's generally pretty chilled, I might be making it seem worse than it is. It is a really really nice travel destination and you probably won't have to experience or even notice any of the negatives.
Backpacking in the innocent nineties:
A week in Tangier. Stayed in nice very basic hotel watching groups of tourists in the streets below.
Travel buddy took the train to Fez and had his backpack stolen from his arms while asleep.
We both got taken by the 13 year old kid who said "You are lucky camel traders are here today" and led us into the Medina to his "tough" brothers toying with switchblade or army knife and family rug shop. We just pleaded poor, we are poor students. It was startling but didn't seem scary.
Every morning I woke up thinking in amazement "I am in Tangier". Spent each day sitting in cafes drinking mint tea and making drawings in a sketchbook.
Picrel: Window at Tangier; also referred to as La Fenêtre à Tanger, Paysage vu d'une fenêtre, and Landscape viewed from a window, Tangiers, is a painting by Henri Matisse, executed in 1912. It is held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
im doing a story on the marrakesh goat herders who are allowed to cross the borders to get into the grazing ground, have you eh, ever read netional geogrephic?
TIA my friend, take a stone n get something lekker for the missus
the earth is red from the blood fighting over the land.
i think you get oof on people like me, i said not now next next time, bugger oof
>You take a dump >dirty wipe >8 sheets and still poop >no bum gun to conic irrigate >two Kenyans - Desmond and Jacob are meeting you in one hour to prolapse your anus
What do?
>mfw I will never experience the William S. Burroughs heyday of the Tangier interzon >no getting high on morphine >no banging Moroccan thinks >no feeling as if you're on the edge of the world
Only conservative Islam, cheap bullshit in the medina, and fat Brits on camel trails now...
I'm going to be in Portugal in a few months and figured I'd hop down to Morocco for a week to see what it's like. Marrakech sounds like a nice place to relax, haggle for carpets, have some mint tea and hookah, and just take a break.
Married into the largest sub tribe of the Luhya peoples. I go over once every couple of years with the wife and kids. My wifes Dad is the chief of police in Busia.
I basically go chill in the compound we built on 4 side to side plots put a giant fence around. I shoot guns, ride dirt bikes. Eat roast goat and hang out with the extended tribal family.
One of the uncles is a smuggler and he smuggled guns and motor parts over from uganda.
Last time I was there he gave me an AK to use plus 5 cartidges and a box of ammunition. Was sick. Had it on single shot but was mint for a britbonger who never used a gun before.
Considering taking a second wife who lives here so ive got a family here in uk and a family there who can build ties for me for the future.
What I loved about africa is that you can fix anything and I mean anything and it will never cost you much.
One time my slippers broke and a hawking shoemaker was passing by and fixed it for 100 cfa.
If your shoes break you will never spend more than 500 cfa to fix them.
Phone repairs are dirt cheap too, typical screen repair for a common brand costs no more than 5000 cfa and I'm talking about the whole screen and not just glass.
Ypu can commission blacksmiths and woodsmiths to make anything for you on order and it doesn't cost much, it's not a luxury there to have something made by an artisan.
For travel I can't recpmmend benin, you can't find anything on google maps worth visiting and anything remotely interesting is known by word of mouth.
There's barely any tourism infrastructure there besides some shitty snake temple and a "traditional art market" tourist traps and some overpriced diplomat hotels in cocotiers.
If you like archtecture I can recommend porto novo however because it's probably the most underrated destination for colonial architecture in africa.
The buildings are in good shape and well maintained unlike in places like nigeria or ghana.
Benin is really boring for tourists, go to ghana if you want to have fun traveling but I'd say benin is possibly one of the best places to live in west africa if you avoid the expat areas in cotonou.
It's funny that the rich expat area in cotonou is full of beggars pretending to be starving and they won't leavr you alone but immediately when you leave the expat area you don't see anyone claiming to be hungry.
Begging is considered a scam unless you're disabled.
I'd say about 30-40% of people in the south speak english if you start off by speaking french and tell them in french that you only speak very little or not at all.
If you go around speaking english without saying a word off french maybe 10% will speak to you in english.
If you can speak with a nigerian accent or rven pidgin the prices will instantly drop by at least half.
I recommend knowing at least some of the common pidgin words like dey, wetin, how far etc.
How often do black Americans geomax to Africa to live like a kang? It makes perfect logical sense. As cheap as Africa is, any black man with the discipline to save up a few thousand dollars should be able to spend the whole winter living a middle-class life in Africa, drinking and smoking and chasing women. No cold weather, no evil racist whites, no slaving away just to pay the rent...it should be literal paradise for the Black.
>As cheap as Africa is
It's not.
Well it is if you live like anon there who lived the life of a tin hut dwelling street vendor, but Africa is expensive if you want American style living, which afro americans do, they're humongous consoomers.
The slave forts in west africa get some black American tourists though.
I've gone to Africa twice. First to Tanzania, the second to Uganda.
The trip to Tanzania I was there to conduct animal research. But still enjoyed myself outside of the research and went to markets and shops and hostels when I wasn't in game reserves hiking around.
In Uganda I went as a documentarian, but this time I was focused on the people and was in the north of Uganda. I had an amazing time in Uganda and had experiences that I will cherish forever.
I'm happy to talk about anything and answer any questions.
How safe is it compared to let's say Kenya? I'm thinking of visiting some Subsaharan country but the Southest I've been in general is Egypt.
What modes of transport would you recommend and what suggestions do you have in general for a sheltered Euroboy?
I'd imagine Kenya is safer due to the amount of tourism it gets, but I can't speak with certainty.
I felt less safe in Tanzania at first, but still fine overall. I was more of a target in Tanzania with a big bag and I was less familiar with dealing with being an outsider. Though I did try and quash my biases the moment I landed in the city by walking around, which helped me feel at ease. The people were friendly and by the end of my stay I was comfortable going for walks at night and visiting markets alone with no worry. The only real time there was any unsafe moments was with animals. I was stalked by hyenas, had hippos charge at us, and got our truck stuck in the mud among lions, kek. But I traveled by large buses, tuktuks, and trains, and even hitched rides on the back of trucks hauling empty bottles.
In Uganda I was more experienced and did plenty of things on my own. Hopping on boda boda (motorcycle taxis you see in my pics) and going to the malls and shops and walking the town alone, going to restaurants. In Uganda I was with a bunch of academics who would drop the moment someone tried to be tough with them, but no one was tough with any of us. I went to remote villages and participated in ceremonies. Uganda I was stationed in the north in the city of Gulu which you can see in "my pic 6." Very few white people there and I was fine walking around with expensive camera gear.
For the long treks I'd recommend hiring a car/driver that can take you where you need to go. Within the city, taking taxis is fine. Whether or not you're comfortable with a boda boda is up to you because motorcycle accidents are no joke.
The only time I felt out of control in Uganda is when we got into a car accident in the middle of the night in the middle of no where and I had to be the mediator. A boda crashed into us, lol. So out of the darkness, people began to show up on the side of the road. There must have been a village near the road with no lights. Eventually, 50-100 people surrounding us. The guy on the bike was bleeding and people were yelling out "HOT BLOOD" which I assume meant HIV risk. The guy on the bike was worried that if we left him he would be killed by the villagers who would steal his bike. We learned that the guy on the bike didn't even have a license to operate it and was underage.
Uganda was amazing because I got to cross of a bunch of checklist items all in one location. I was able to hang out at 0 degrees latitude right on the equator; I was able to go to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the source of the nile river, and photograph people catching wild talapia; I was able to cross the nile river, see its amazing power and take a boat up it, to name a few.
What a fricking awful country though. I don't see how people enjoy these places, despite the river and such. Truly the heart of darkness, still inhabited by savages.
For the long treks I'd recommend hiring a car/driver that can take you where you need to go. Within the city, taking taxis is fine. Whether or not you're comfortable with a boda boda is up to you because motorcycle accidents are no joke.
The only time I felt out of control in Uganda is when we got into a car accident in the middle of the night in the middle of no where and I had to be the mediator. A boda crashed into us, lol. So out of the darkness, people began to show up on the side of the road. There must have been a village near the road with no lights. Eventually, 50-100 people surrounding us. The guy on the bike was bleeding and people were yelling out "HOT BLOOD" which I assume meant HIV risk. The guy on the bike was worried that if we left him he would be killed by the villagers who would steal his bike. We learned that the guy on the bike didn't even have a license to operate it and was underage.
Uganda was amazing because I got to cross of a bunch of checklist items all in one location. I was able to hang out at 0 degrees latitude right on the equator; I was able to go to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the source of the nile river, and photograph people catching wild talapia; I was able to cross the nile river, see its amazing power and take a boat up it, to name a few.
Thanks, seems like I'm going with Kenya since it's easier to reach. I'll definitely try Uganda in the future, unless my first experience is terrible.
Yeah, Kenya should be a good time. You have a large portion of the Serengeti park, Maasai Mara region, too. Kilimanjaro, while I believe is entirely in Tanzania, is very close to Kenya too. Depending on your fitness level you could hike it.
I was stationed in Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, well south of Kenya. Selous is unique in that you don't need a car to travel around. Or rather, they don't force you to have a car. You can hike in the park and camp in a tent on the ground. Which is what I did.
How feasible is hiring a boda boda around Sipi falls who will drop me off at Namalu, from where I walk pic related route or similar completely alone?
Route goes nearby multiple hut villages and I want to do it without guide.
What are my chances that I get robbed or decapitated?
I'd probably go for a guide or at the very least someone in a taxi to take you in a vehicle that isn't a motorbike. Vehicular death is the most common cause of death in the country.
Do you want to go on the bike so that you can feel like an adventurer?
I wanna go with bike mostly because if is a lot cheaper and more flexible/easier to find a driver on the spot I presume.
As for crashes, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of traffic there, so I'm not worried about that. I've used bike taxis in India and Bangladesh, which was probably a lot more dangerous.
Biggest worry that I have, is that some officer at checkpoint will block me from going further, but I'm talking out of my ass, since I don't really have any experience in Africa...
>Biggest worry that I have, is that some officer at checkpoint will block me from going further, but I'm talking out of my ass, since I don't really have any experience in Africa...
I don't recall too many checkpoints along the country roads. You should be good there. I do recall some checkpoints when crossing the Nile river. Some bridges are watched by guards/rangers that don't want you stopping for very long. Some were even against photography.
Also, be prepared to have baboons come up to you when you go slow in those areas. I had a few jump right on to my taxi while crossing the Nile.
I went to Botswana and did a group tour on the Okavango delta. Highly recommended. It's a lovely country, one of the best in all of Africa. It's safe, not underdeveloped, and probably the least corrupt country in the whole continent.
You can haggle well in Uganda. Things are pretty inexpensive as is, so the amount of haggling you want to do is up to you. You'll be getting fruit for less than one cent per item in your home currency. So whether you want to haggle is up to you.
Some places have "foreigner" rates that I wasn't willing to argue with because the place seemed more official. Shit like ferry crossings where you had to buy a ticket rather than just ask a guy. I'm sure I could have argued but it didn't seem worth the hassle with a more established business.
Awesome thread. I was expecting the usual idpol shitflinging from the thread topic but was pleasantly surprised. Kudos to the expat anon for sharing so much about his experiences.
I can't, since it involved meeting people and doing things with people. This activity is against board rules so I cannot explain to you what made my adventure in Africa fun or exciting.
One question. In a normal habitat. How slobby are the breasts and how much fat do the women carry around on the ass area?
>people
How young were they anon? You can tell us. We’re trustworthy.
I didn't see any trad disk-mouths, but i did see some hyena shit. did you know it can be white? pure white shit. because they can eat and digest bones.
hyenas are fierce things
They used to put bone meal in dog food and after the turds weathered a bit they would turn white. Only gen xers remember white dog turds.
Now this is something Blade Runner shit. I never noticed this but there really were white dog turds.
i blessed the rains down in africa
Got off the plane around 7:30 AM, as soon as I step off the plane a hot breeze ran through my face. I was startled by the breeze I had trouble breathing for a second. Carried my luggage down the stairs and was directed to a bus where it had taken me to the airport. When I visted I was suppose to have a connection in the VIP section of the airport waiting outside. I did not see him this time, confused me and my co-worker followed the crowd towards border patrol once we got out of the bus
As we entered the small airport, the ac hit me yet again as it caught me by surprised. Me thinking that there is no air conditioning in Africa (haha). As we wait in line to get our visas done, I see a bag on the floor RANDOMLY. Now keep in mind, I’m tired and shit and i’m paranoid. One thing about me is I always think of the worst case scenario. The guy said leave the bag there the guy who’s bag was it he went to the washroom. Now i’m thinking this guy is lying, now Im paying attention towards his body language and he’s moving shook and paranoid looking around and everything. Now i’m shaking like shit and so is my bladder, then my co-worker makes a joke about she hopes there isn’t a bomb in there. Now I said frick that I jumped over the barrier in the line and went to the washroom because my bladder was hurting and I needed to wash my face so I know I wasn’t tripping.
I step over the barrier to get towards the washroom, SUDDENLY an airport employee says WARYA, keep in mind I’m tired as shit, he’s talking to me in somali saying why are you stepping over the barrier.
I understand him yet I cannot speak Somali, So I’m like I don’t know I don’t know, then we staring at each others eyes for 1 minute straight. KEEP IN MIND MY BLADDER IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE.
Thank god some guy told him to chill out and he said just go to the washroom. I go back in line and I see the bag is gone, so who knows what’s in that bag.
Please share more Somalia stories. What was it like? What did you do?
It was not as bad as I was expecting.
It a definitely a different experience as I had never really visited a poverty-driven country before.
My connection really made it a memorable trip for me. I visited a private beach there which was nice, the nightlife was also very active. It's interesting as there is a lot of diaspora coming back to live in Somalia.
Went to the zoo which was insane the way they keep their animals, and milked a camel for my first time too.
Tbh the most enjoyable experience was the people there surprisingly, very funny and interesting people.
I find club/nightlife scenes to fricking suck in the USA/developed world by large but shits fun and crazy in developing areas of the world
Kek, I once got in a physical fight with some taxi drivers in Africa because I jumped over a barrier to avoid a final visa check and to get to the taxis faster. This was outside of the airport so I’d already gone through customs and immigration. Two taxi drivers grabbed me by the arms and started screaming that I was avoiding the police checkpoint. I used some judo moves to get away and then I ran.
Africans don’t need an authoritarian gov’t to oppress them, they’ve internalized self-oppression.
Anyway, post more Somalia stories kthx
haha, I had some experiences in kenya also with taxi drivers, they tried to scam me like crazy over there.
Kenya is full of shitty people
People are poor here, it’s easy for you to judge people trying ti survive from your comfort of the USA/European countries
Yep, so poor they have nicer shit than I do, watches and israeliteelry and a smartphone that didn't cost $20 haha. I work a lot harder than most Thirdies work to save money for travel, and feel zero empathy whatsoever for lazy hustlers who would never be seen working a shovel and dripping sweat like an honest man.
Frick you. I am from the Dominican Republic, I lived in poverty for years, real poverty where fried flour “Johnny cakes” where luxuries, and we didn’t have a fridge. Me or my parents not once scammed and stole; have a sense of shame and pride
I witness you bro. You have to be real delusional to try to justify shitty behavior. People in poor countries tend to be the kindest people I've ever met; but most tourists won't experience that while arguing with people at the transport depot.
Holy shit kek
Getting angry that the entitled Mzungu thinks he can avoid airport security hardly means we have “internalised oppression “
The world doesn’t revolve around you people
But Africans have internalized oppression. There’s a lot of forces holding Africa back from its potential, but big factors are colonized victim mentality (epidemic among the youth across the continent, don’t deny it) and strong man worship (I have friends who complain about their government and yet they will vote for the candidate who has a big beard and drives an Audi).
You sound like a homosexual
they literally just need a normal white person to lead them and they would be 10 times better off. Blacks can't cope with this but they know it to be true in their hearts.
What do you mean "you people"?
>jumps barrier to avoid police checkpoint
>why do these drivers think I'm avoiding the police checkpoint?
>le authoritarian gubermint
Holy shit you are fricking moronic, if you did this shit anywhere else you'd be spreading your ass in jail. What the frick did you expect was going to happen, this was a totally reasonable response to schizo behavior. You must have some major malfunction to think this is acceptable behavior anywhere.
What's weird is the response from non-officials.
In the US, if you see somebody breaking the law, no you didn't.
>Got off the plane around 7:30 AM, as soon as I step off the plane a hot breeze ran through my face
Shut the actual frick up
See anyone getting circumcised?
Haha I just remembered another experience.
The way they drive cars/bajajs over there is crazy, went to the market with my connection, there was a lot of traffic on the roads.
A big truck comes out of nowhere trying to move into the flow of traffic, one of the passengers of the truck jumps out to guide the truck.
The truck has an air bracks so the passenger is trying to move all the cars outside the trucks way, the truck is slowly rolling down some kind of small hill it's coming out of.
The passenger stands in front of the truck not knowing that the truck is moving, then boom he gets squashed by the truck.
The first time I witnessed someone get rolled over like that so that was something kek.
I follow a lot of West Africa traveling pages on FB, they're extremely active with middle-class Euros crisscrossing the region. It sounds a lot like the way people talk about Southeast Asia in the '90s, the only difference being Africa is quite expensive. I have been to Senegal a few times and there was a burgeoning backpacker/hostelling scene, mostly between Casamance and the Bissagos. It's also still possible to go frick around in the jungle get the ooga booga mud hut village experience.
Africa is expensive?
If you’re comparing it to SEA or Central America, then it’s very expensive. 90% of tourists who visit Africa are fairly rich, so hotels and tourist infrastructure reflect that fact. Public transport tends to be expensive as it’s mostly privatized and not subsidized by the governments. Morocco is the only exception as there is a thriving backpacker scene and transport is well-regulated and the economy is fairly self-sufficient.
When I was young I liked birds. People older than me arranged a big adventure from Germany to Gibraltar. After crazy behaviour towards my single mom. I was allowed to go. All was amazing. When finally around Gibraltar a Boat, nicotine/other drugs possessed captain took us on a ride to see rare sea birds. Way further than agreed. Puking, rolling and the bad language didn't help the escort experience from coast guard back to civilization. We had been very much in Marocco.
My layover in Ethiopia was a moronic madhouse........like tossing a bunch of treats to wild monkies.
>violent crime stats are meaningless when nobody "snitches"
This is very true. The best way to judge a country's true security is to observe what precautions the locals take with their cash and valuables. Not saying that foreigners can't be scammed or ripped off in a safe country, but compared to violent robbery, scammers are minor annoyances that are easily avoided.
Surely not all black women are hyper-aggressive, but pushy behavior toward strange men is very rare among women of other races, IME.
>pushy behavior toward strange men is very rare among women of other races
I was constantly harrassed in Madagascar, I had just finished a month in Egypt and was exhausted from it as I stayed in a random apartment in the middle of Cairo, I needed a calm break.
I didnt get it until I left the capital for the jungle.
I remember stopping off in the country Africa once. It was full to the brim with African Americans. It reminded me of Philly except it was more Kino.
Why was this deleted?
It has nothing to do with sex tourism or prostitution.
What the frick is happening to this site?
and why was my post deleted? All I said was that imagining a white guy getting stalked by african women was funny. That's not prostitution or cooming related either. It's just a fricking comment.
Laughing at women seeking basic companionship is evil.
Sully another site you misersble, malicious, malcontent.
Probably a new janny who got a little too excited and wanted to exercise his newfound “powers”. Jannies are an even bigger menace to this board than the coomers
I'm reposting because the post had nothing to do with what I was 'warned' for'.
I lived in kenya for 6 months. I experienced their 'culture' fairly heavily. People like to claim that africa/kenya especially are peaceful due to the crime statistics, but the statistics are a result of crime going unreported.
Violent crime, home invasions, robberies, muggings, etc are all a commonplace thing there. If you have any meagre amount of wealth at all you have to put bars and electrified barbed wire on your home to keep out roaming bands of brigands. Even then, moderately wealthy people deal with property invaders at least a couple times a year, making additional private security a must.
The women area the same way, except their natural and simple criminality and lack of respect for other people is directed towards gaining resources from men. They ruthlessly pursue, stalk, fight over, scam, lie, cheat, and attack men. I personally experienced multiple women hanging around my apartment waiting for me to walk outside and take a taxi. They had nothing better to do than stalk me all day every day, since I was vastly more wealthy compared to african men they had access to. For every 1 white guy in the country there are 10,000 at least black women, so competition can become fierce, especially when you are not in a normal expat zone.
I was not there for sex tourism, I am not describing a prostitution scenario. This was the result of normal human interaction and the consequences of local cultural norms when it comes to how men and women interact.
Women stalking me to try and get my attention is not my fault, and its not 'sex tourism' and it's not 'prostitution'. It's something that happens in africa if you stay there for any amount of time.
I like to travel randomly, take some bus and find a place to sleep in a new city then roam the streets on foot or bicycle.
I did this in Maghreb and it was ok, had some shady shit happening and the bargaining all day was tiring.
Now I'm wondering if I could cross the continent like that or I'll get robbed or stuck in some place for days too often. Guess I'll need way more prep than usual and avoid a few countries ?
Would the locals constantly be on my ass ? Are the women like the post I quote below like that everywhere ?
I'm white as frick but tall and fit.
But what was the endgame of those women ? Getting into a monogamous relationship and milking a maximum amount of money out of it ?
>But what was the endgame of those women ? Getting into a monogamous relationship and milking a maximum amount of money out of it ?
Essentially, yes. They want to secure partnership with a wealthy foreign man and be taken care of. The culture in africa is the man takes care of the woman financially and via resources. No money, no honey, as they say.
camping on the beach in morocco was pretty cool. sitting with a random local fisherman and he hardly speaking english but being friendly as frick was kino and comfy. Good times.
>They ruthlessly pursue, stalk, fight over, scam, lie, cheat, and attack men
>multiple women hanging around my apartment waiting for me to walk outside and take a taxi
>Laughing at women seeking basic companionship is evil.
Please take your reddit tier simping back to where it belongs
MODS MODS MODS HE POSTED IT AGAIN
I can't believe this anon dared to talk about women, his post really rattled my puritan sensibilities. Mods need to intervene asap, this is unacceptable.
Cairo is a shithole but the Pyramids were the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's the only time i've ever quite literally felt like I was in a dream. It was surreal.
I stayed at Saint Catherine's Monastery and climbed Mount Sinai to watch the sunset and that was just amazing. If you have even a slight interest in religion and/or history I recommend doing it. The Sinai and the monastery and the climb up the mountain is just beautiful.
I shouldn't say the pyramids were beautiful. They're just grand. Nothing like that exists anywhere else. The last of the original Wonders of the World. To gaze upon something that Napoleon, Herodotus and Caesar saw and even they considered it ancient is fricking insane.
Did you have to take any shots or any precautions getting into Africa? I had to option to go to Tunisia while I was in Malta but they said I was unable to because I didn’t have the proper medical papers. I didn’t have any medical papers with me at all, so idk what the frick they were on about, but I just assumed it was typical malta bullshit
Also how is the food out there?
You only need that kind of thing if you're a 3rdie. Or a yellow fever vaccine if you're coming from a country where the disease is present. It's also a good idea to start taking antimalarials before you arrive there, but you only need those for subsahara.
I got the typhoid and hepatitis A shots because I drink tap water and suck dicks, but they're not really necessary.
>I drink tap water and suck dicks,
Haha gay.
I asked my doctor and the only thing he recommended was the flu shot and malaria tablets.
I went to South Africa when I was 6 to see my great-aunt for her 100th birthday
things I remember:
>they served pizza with no tomato at all on it
>table mountain was cool but the cablecar was incredibly crowded and I lost my family in it
>we went on safari but I was more concerned with eating the snacks my dad brought than looking at animals
>the sun turning our car into a boiling pot because my dad forgot to put the reflective screen in the windscreen
>accidentally pressing the emergency button in my great-aunt's retirement home room and 4 burly nurses coming and giving me a stern telling off
>accidentally pressing the emergency button in my great-aunt's retirement home room and 4 burly nurses coming and giving me a stern telling off
Lmao.
Traveled to South Africa in 2016.
I had low expectations before visiting and it was much better than I thought.
I would visit again.
The picture is mursi tribe of ethiopia.
I had a lot of fun working in africa. import/export company and was forced to do 3 years in sa hiring & managing staff. the people were interesting mix. fell in love there coworker and married 1 year later because religion. family wants immigration, but it is complicated. wife dont want the lot here, nor do I.
>spend an underwhelming christmas with long lost relatives in africa
>I grew up with african adoptive parents in northern europe
>long lost family is of some aristocratic mulatto bloodline who escaped a racial genocide in the 70s
>frickthis.png
>borrow 2500€ from a friend
>can't get visa to nigeria
>get visa to benin
>arrive in an overpriced diplomat area
>walk everywhere
>attempt to cross the border illegally
>bribing health officials works
>border guards refuse entry because bribery is hard during election time
>military offers to smuggle me into nigeria for 300€
>decline the offer because clearly a ropoff price
>go to the market
>meet some poor local nigerian
>invited to his village
>pay the guy 5€ a day to stay in his shack
>manage to get a visa through a contact in nigeria
>3 days before flying fire breaks out
>shack burns down
>300€ stolen during the fire
>luckily find 50€ one the bottom of my backpack
>local voodoo chief wants to see me
>chief devastated by what happened
>offers money ritual to summon back my money
>agree to the ritual
>chief asks for a payment
>say I only have 3€
>laughs, proceeds anyways
>swallow dry clay, toss cowry shells
>chief tells me I can have any power I want, money, whatever
>refuse money powers, ask for creative power
>chief asks for another donation
>say I don't have money
>no problem
>ready to fly to nigeria
>10k naira (14€) in my pocket
>officials claim I need covid vaccine and ask for 50k bribe
>say I don't have
>ok no prob
>another officials takes me to the palace of congress to get vaccinated in a 100K€ SUV
>get vaccinated
>back at the airport
>demands 50k
>don't have, sorry
>takes the 10k naira
>get one the plane
>arrive in naija
>no yellow fever vaccine card
>official asks for a bribe
>no cash abi (electoon time cash crisis)
>no problem
>meet my contact
>rich, has mansions, servants, you name it
>stay at one of their "investment mansions"
>servants act strangely
>start joking with them
>servants drop their acting and think I'm cool
>reveal all their shady dealings
>feel alienated by the overworked, crazy rich people
>rich people accuse me of "bringing them down to the poor peoples' level"
>the rich person says I must either buy a ticket to benin or europe
>choose benin
>sell my gold coin which I had brought as security, worth 1700€ (in case of getting robbed as what happened)
>fly to benin
>get picked up from the airport by someone I met in the village before
>go live in the village
>show the guy my 1700€ in local money and say I want to do business
>open up a bakery with the guy
>he does all the dealings and whatnot
>thinks I rely on him
>starts acting weird
>gets caught for trying to spend my money without telling
>make a plan with my landlord to get rid of the guy
>success
>pay 45€ and tell the guy to frick off
>start business
After 5 months of hawking on the street selling fish pies I decided to go back to europe and return with serious money
During that 5 months I got hospitalized twice by malaria, got bit by a venomous spider, saw crazy shit happening on the streets, survived failed robbery attempts and scams, meet all kinds of people and get offered many jobs.
Too lazy to go through all of that.
Anyways, going back in a year, too aloenated by european lifestyle.
>5 months of hawking on the street selling fish pies
Why?
This is insanity, you should be making decent money in Europe if you put this much effort in Africa.
I was and still am once again making decent money in europe.
The biggest issue in the west is that while people make a lot of money they're not actually talented or highly skilled at anything because mediocre skills can still achieve high pay in most fields.
Also the work and lives most people live is nearly meaningless becauae they get stuck at comfortable mediocrity because it's so rewarding in that environment.
If I decided to go and live in thailand for whatever reason I'd rather go work in a rice paddy than be some english teacher loser making 4k a month.
I guarabtee you that working at a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences than teaching engrish and making 10x the local salary for 10% of the effort.
I don't see well-off hipsters experience anything worthwile, money makes people too comfortable which limits how much you can learn about the environment.
I've seen the bottom of the barrel as well as the top, the illusions and misconceprions between different societal classes are now clear to me.
I've experienced and seen something no money can buy.
All the expats I came across seemed to be somehow lost and had absolutely nothing to say about the countries they've been in.
I'd rather drink cannabis moonshine in a fisherman's straw hut on the beach with some local labourers than talk about tinder and nonsense politics with some hipsters and pickup artist loser expats in some craft beer bar in a high class area who overpay for everything and can't form friendships with locals because nobody sees tgeir character beyond the easy money, disposable friendships based on a vague need for surface level social interacrion in bsence of real relationships and the loose women they're gathering around them.
Very based anon. If I ever get enough money to travel I'd like to join some rural village in the Balkans and make friends with the locals too.
You don't know what the word hipster means.
We might have a different definition for it, where I'm from it's a very specific subculture.
You can only live this kind of live style while you are young. Basically, what you are doing is a more hardcore version of work-and-travel.
Once your age catches up you’ll be happy to have access to modern medicine
I know, that's the point.
I want to do this while I still, different age groups have different oppoturnities and priorities.
I don't have to wonder later what it couod've been like when I can no longer try it do it.
I started doing these adventures when I started writing fiction, I don't think I would be going on crazy adventures if it wasn't for my creative pursuits.
I have a goal, I'm not running aimlessly and endlessly.
I don't feel the need to repeat this same type of experience until it becomes a lifestyle.
Lots of immigrants come to my European country to stay and talk like you do. But it’s superficial because they don’t truly understand the language. I know people who’ve had classes the best that money can buy and after five years only talk with a moderate level and a total foreign accent. Once they truly understand the language, culture and attitude they leave because they’re disgusted by all of it. You’re doing the same except you don’t understand the reality at all, you’re a white guy living in the middle of africa and you really think you’re “in” with the locals? You’re delusional!
I'm mulatto though
I make around $7000 USD pm working in education in China and the job sucks the soul out of me. I long for the free vagabond life that this guy has. Gonna do one year here and travel like a hobo, just drifting around the world. This guy is like an old soul, has wisdom.
>travel like a hobo, just drifting around the world
Is something I've come across many times and a lot of them are ex-IT professionals.
I've come across hobo travelers who seem like they enjoy it and know what they're doing but the majority just seels lost and doesn't seem to get anything out of it.
I've tried that aimless wandering thing and it didn't work and I haven't seen it working out for other people so well.
I'll give you two examples.
I was walking hitchhiking from Albania to MonteBlack with a gpod friend of mine and we came across a french catholic pilgrim, a young man who was walking from paris to jerusalem, at this point hr had been walking for 3 months.
His objectivr was to travel the journey on foot as far as possible (said he would have to fly at some point because he wouldn't be able to cross the lebanon-israel borser on foot).
He didn't sleep in hostels or anything, only relied on the kindess of strangers and sleüt in a tent if he couldn't find a place to sleep.
He was peaceful, aware, happy, determined and he knew why he was doing it, where he was going and where that story wpuld end, he wasn't lost.
He wasn't seeking a goal becauae the goal wasn't there so all the experience just came to him naturally, there was no desperation to fibd meaning and a place to belong, it didn't matter if the journey was exciting or bpring because anything that happens between paris and jerusalem is only adding to the experience.
He wasn't wandering.
Then there was this one australian old guy I met in lithuania who had a burnout after working in IT for decades and he was just wandering around the globe on foot.
He didn't have a clear goal and it seemed as if he was trying to compensate for a lost youth.
He seemed content but in the sense that he didn't have much time left to live so might aswell do that sorta thing.
He was learning languages and writing wikipedia articles which kept him busy and gave some meaning to his travels...
½
...but he was very unhealthy and seemed lonely.
What he did was definitely better than doing what he didn't enjoy until he dies one day but I guess that wprks put fpr him because he's at the end of his life but I imagine that for someone who still has a whole life ahead of them that would take them nowhere.
Spending the last years of your life wandering is a goal I guess but whenever I come across young people who do that it seems like they're just lost and at some point either lose it or give up thinking that there is nothing left to do in this world.
This guy already had long time friends and a family and whatnot, those take a long time to form but young people don't have this.
I've met some young people who do this and for them this type pf wandering seems to cause them to grt distant from their relationships as their friends move on woth their life back home and you can't form deep connections with people you meet randomly while traveling.
In spain I met a middle aged german guy who was an ex hippie and and a recovered schizophrenic, very cool guy.
He was living at his parents' house and decided to sell the few possessions he had and built a van home and traveled around europe looking fpr a cozy and relaxed village he could settle in.
We travelled halfway through spain together passing many towns and villages and he finally found a really good place and gpt a job from some fellow german boomer doing construction in a village full of hippies and freaks and that was the goal, there was no desperation at the end but along the way he did come off as desperate and it seemed as if he was lowering his stabändards constantly because so far he hadn't found a place where he would belong but I kept telling him to just move on and seeing what comes up.
This is an example of someone who wandered and was close to giving up but by some miracle found the perfect place not long before giving up.
Nevermind the two stories, I'll just share a bunch because why not...
In spain, close to the village where the german guy decided to settle in there was an off grid hippie commune, it seemed like a paradise on the surface but they had lots of issues there and it was more like a community of lost souls.
Lots of young people, mentally ill and whatnot, it was a paradise in a way but people there had nothing meaningful to do, no ambitions, just bitterness and grudge towards modern western society.
Now they had everything they wanted but what now?
Drugs, I mean there was no police there at all, drug trade was open and everything was dealt for wholesale price in any quantity.
I met an70+ year old german guy there who had been wandering since the 1970s, he looked like a 70s teenager with a 60s david bowie hairstyle and bell bottom jeans.
He was mentally ill, desperate and extremely bitter, he was at the end of his life and never found peace and was now going around complaining about how the hippie commune was ruined by posers, hipsters, tourists and a crazy cat lady who let her cats wander around the commune but didn't care to feed them or take care of them in any way.
He was lost, never found out what he wanted at the end, a miracle never happened.
That guy made me decide not to invest more time to that lost paradise.
That guy was the perfect example of what hunter thompson said about the acid freaks of the hippie generation:
"We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel."
Goals are important, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for sure.
Whether your goal is dumb or sensible, insognificant or ambitious doesn't matter as long as your travels can surely lead to that goal and you know it for sure.
When you invest time and effort into wandering and you're fueled by the assumption that somwhere out there something great will come by your way and that thing will show you what potentials goals might be and that thing never comes or doesn't seem like it's coming, bitter nihilism and desperatipn take over and turn any ambitious dandy free minded hippie into a lost, cynical hobo.
You should be passionate about your goal because many people do set goals like "I will be financially independent in south east asia and make 4k+ a month for little effort" but that's not passion, that's lust.
This billionaire explained it well:
Maybe start a family? Maybe having kids will make your life meaningful?
But at the end there was never any passion for family life and it was a compromise and such story ends up as just another kevin spacey in the movie "american beauty"
Find a passion and set a goal that is realistic and certain, one that you don't have any second thoughts over and know for certain that it's waiting for you there and all the good things may come later, remember the french pilgrim?
What french pilgrim?
I came across some young french guy hiking in albania attempting to walk all the way from paris to israel and living only off donations and not staying in hotels but in kind strangers homes
Why some people are doomed to wander unsatisfied. They aren't alone with nothing because they wander ceaselessly; they wander ceaselessly because they are alone and have nothing. A change of surroundings helps keep their focus and energy directed outward and stabilized by geography, instead of collapsing into the emptiness at the center of their personal existence.
The ultimate disillusionment is to chance upon a "chain of opportunities", only to realize that opening new doors is a burdensome chore without reward. Eventually, the intelligent anhedonist will embrace stoicism and quit the the pursuit of pleasurable stimulation of any kind - meeting people, listening, seeing, learning, feeling. Perhaps he may find solace in food, as satiety is a pleasure which exists far below the level of consciousness.
>the rainforests of Namibia
top kek
It's only the weak & decent people who are half starved. The criminals always have money enough for their bling.
Incredibly based. I'm going to keep saving money & investing, then in 2 years time I'll follow your footsteps. Those experiences along with the culture shock must've grounded you while at the same time building your spirit, and made you a better man.
You sound very wise.
I would like to travel the world instead of doing nonsense bullshit computer work that doesnt do anything. i do nothing all day working in marketing, my job exists only because people think they want things and im tired of it, but doing what you do sounds so daunting, i have a hard time striking up conversations with even other wagies, it's really hard to imagine how you'd do it with someone somewhere you dont know.
Honest to god question, how do you do it?
I can answer this question profoundly but I have to put a lot of though into it because I feel like I just exhausted my thought reserces to the previous reply.
I'll catch up with you later, maybe tomorrow, I do have a lot to say to that, I know exactly what you're talking about and I used to ask this question myself years ago.
When I was a socially awkward teenager with next to no life experience I used to ask this question.
To give some context first I will answer the question of how I learnt it in the first place and after that I will answer the question of how I do it.
Whenever I approached people I didn't have an intuitive skill for socializing but I managed to build an intuition over time by learning from someone I met who was very socially talented.
When I entered high school I didn't have any friends but I became friends with a socially gifted son of an african millionaire here in europe.
This guy was like a walking magnet for experiences, life stories, at that time it seemed like magic to me how this guy would just walk up to someone, say or do something subtle and that would kickstart a domino effects of events.
I guessed he liked having a quiet sidekick so I got the chance to observe and take part in these chains of events.
That allowed me to learn and understand the base that was needed for building an intuition for what you could call adventuring so it was purely out of luck, there's no way in hell I could've learnt without the miracle of someone who was able to do what I was a mystery to me and just taking me along.
So basically I can explain how I do it but what unlocked the path for learning to do it was never explained to me and I didn't deliberately put myself to that path and by the sound of it it seems like that's where you stand.
I don't know how to get started, it just happened.
Cool. Got a tldr?
No lol, the point is that I learnt by seeing how things happen randomly, I didn't learn by being given steps to follow.
You need to tldr for yourself, I can't help you with that
Anyways, the young people asked me to come and talk tp them about something and they rold me that they were fashion students and they asked if I'd be interested in doing modeling for them.
I gave them my number and then I headed to the "party" with the banknote guy.
We arrived at some industrial area and there was a warehouse there where raves happen sometimes apparently.
There was nobody there but the door was open and somebody was dj'ing there alone.
The dj told us he was just practising and there was no party there so we just left lol.
After that we smoked weed at his place again and I went home.
I gave him my number.
A week later I was about to board a ferry to latvia and this guy texts me asking if I wanted to grab a beer slmewhere and I I just straight up asked him if he wanted to come to latvia and that he could make it if he can get to the harbour in 30 minutes.
He actually showed up and we went to latvia to see a friend of mine who's an old alcoholic who lives in a house with no electricity or running water.
A lot of random stuff happened there, the trip was basically like every bald and bankrupt video about eastern europe.
After that I he started inviting me ro all kinds of events because turbs out this guy knows everyone in the local eöectronic music scene.
Backstages, record shop hangouts, raves, art university events and so on and in turn I introduce him to whacky people I know and invite him to places.
We're basically exchanging chances for life experiences now and those always spiral into meeting new people and kickstarting new domino effects.
Now we have a government funded project for doing a documentary in the baltics and I'm supposed to be their guide and translator for that.
Maybe that will get me into the film circles?
Who knows?
So yea, that's a very typical fprmula of random shit happening, one thing leading to another.
Every other person the day we met just ignored him as just another weirdo with nothing else going for him but I stuck around and now I'm going places.
Almost every time it goes like that, I interact with a weird person in a weird situation, either everyonr or at least the majority of the people around don't see any potential in that or just don't want to be bothered, most often because they choose to assume things and choose to be judgemental.
Sometimes that person is just a typical junkie with nothing going for them, sometimes it's a well connected DJ or an african businessman or a future best friend, a lost relative, celebrity, millionaire socialite, interesting character, who knows?
I don't so the best I can do is find out, sticning around and letting people show me who thet are and whar they can do tends to be more powerful than using my words to please people.
Sometimes I don't even have to say a wprd with random people I meet and they take me places just because I vibe with them and show positive energy.
That's all I can say, analyze it and make your own conclusions aka "tldr"
One time I followed two really beat up hobos and they took me to a mansion full of antique and whatnot and turned out that hobo was just a successful actor who became a washed up hazbin during corona lol.
Countless stories like this.
Go with the flow I guess?
my experience as well, just be, just flow, positive intent, being genuine. hope our paths cross someday
"You can take a horse to a river but you can't make it drink from it"
Here's your river.
>Here's your river.
Forgot pic?
No
I can't have a good conversation with anyone, sometimes conversations juat don't flow because there's a disconnection between me and the other person, most often the reason is because the other person can't add up to what I'm saying in way that it builds the conversation, with most people the conversations I have with them don't evolve into a chain of events or an exchange of information that interests both sides.
I don't think that words are what lead to things happening but instead actions.
For example one time I was walking on the street and there was some guy high as a kite showing random pedestrians a piece of paper with a crude drawing of an old president and a 20 cent coin glued onto it and he was asking people what they thought of his newly "self issued 20 euro banknote".
This was an unusual, very random thing so I decided to just stick and be positive and join whatever conversations he would engage with those random people.
After goofing around for spme time he asked if I wanted to smoke weed and turnwd out we were actually standing right in front of his apartment building's front door so we went up to his place tp smoke.
It was a bit awkward because I get easily anxious from weed and I was just sitting there with some stranger in his home and he was telling me about his depression and heavy use of party drugs, this guy hadn't been sober in 4 years but I could tell that he wasn't just a street junkie but an art student and a raver who happened to be a heavy drug user.
He said that there might be a party in some place but he doesn't know fpr sure, he just knew that it's a place where parties happen.
He took a line of ketamine and went full goofy zombie mode and started showing people the "20€ note" again.
There was a group of young people and two women of a separate group and the show he put up just happened to fprm a hangour right there on the street...
>working in a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences
Absolute LMFAO material. (You) have clearly never had to slave away at a backbreaking repetitive task under the blazing sun for months on end, all while making the country's minimum wage. Your belief that unskilled manual labor is somehow cool and rich and authentic and soulful is a delusional fantasy.
>I've seen the bottom of the barrel as well as the top
But have you lived it? Your soft-hearted empathy for lesser humans is merely a vulnerability borne of guilt over your "unfair" advantage. If you were once mired in the bottom and struggled your way out by seizing an opportunity and taking it for all it was worth, you would have a far more Darwinian view of the struggle for success.
Any foreigner who has lived in a Third World country behaves in certain ways toward the locals which appear discriminatory, heartless, even racist to an idealistic newcomer. But with time, the reasons become clear. Carefully hidden behind the outwardly friendly behavior, even loyalty, lies a simple desire to acquire the resources which you possess. No, poor people don't hate you for your wealth. To them, you are merely a resource to be exploited, by fair means or foul.
I was a full time hawker for 5 months.
Starvation is nonexistent, purewater is dirt cheap and available everywhere, rent is piss cheap (5000 cfa for a one room shanty with electricity in a safe area), weed costs 100 cfa per joint, whiskey 60 cfa for 4cl, poor people eat at restaurants for lunch, take bike taxi and hang out in bars every day unless their sales were bad that day (on most days they make between 1000-5000 cfa) and most poor people just sit on the ground and wait for customers to come to buy their pineapples in the trad market or used clothes in missebo basically doing nothing but sitting all day.
After a hard day at work I would usually go and hang out at a fisherman's shack where this big lady sold cannabis moonshine and joints, you sit down on a plastic garden chair and her 5 year old daughter serves you drugs and even the local cops hang out there
At the central market they would put tramadol in your coffee if you paid 100 cfa extra
The truth is that third world poor people and first world middle class people are equally good and bad, the only difference is that the ones who have money are less likely to interact with strangers
I've worked in nightlife in a nordic country and it was far worse than hawking in the third world
The world isn't as divided and different as most people think, people are mostly the same, only cultires are different with little variation in personality types and moral consistency
The same way over there they think the west is like a different planet and white people are totally different from them, it's really not like that
It's really not as bad as you think, places like north korea or some cpnflict regions are different but poverty doesn't always equal misery
What country did you live in? That sounds awesome. What kind of work did you do?
Benin republic, I was selling meat pies on top of my head, I'll post some pics here since you seem to be interested.
I ended up there completely by accident, I was supposed to sneqk through the border to nigeria because elevtion time was giving me visa troubles but I ended up staying in benin because it was so peaceful, safe and cheap.
I haven't said anything about deserving, I honestly have no idea what you're on about, sounds like you're just projecting and trying be provocative for no reason
Here's the cannabis moonshine, the fishermen's wifes would sell this and run a bar in their home by the beach.
I was living in a small town between the country's two capitals, there were tribal people living in straw huts on the beach.
Most of the straw huts had satellite dishes on the roof and everyone had smartphones, it was a strange looking mix of modernity and ancient tradition.
Voodoo was very prevalent in the are and the tribesmen were mixing voodoo with catholicism, to my underatanding voodoo originates from benin.
Here's a typical labourer's lunch which costs 500 cfa (0.75€)
Most foods are fusion between european and african, spaghetti is one of the staples.
The thing woth benin and most of west africa is that rent is so piss cheap that pretty much whatever you make in a day determines how much you can spend.
As I said before typical rent is 5000 cfa (7.5€ per month) for a one room electrified shack and for 15k cfa (22.5€) you can get a nice clay bungalow house with one room + kitchen and separate bath close to the beach in a better area.
So you can imagine that if a typical poor perspn makes between 1000-5000 cfa per day, rent is not an issue so even if you spend 500 cfa on lunch and only made 1000 that day you're not really overspending.
You can get a filling plate of spicy beans in sauce and rice for 300 cfa.
A 35 minute bus ride costs 300 cfa (0.22€), private bike taxi is 350 during rush hour commute, 500 during off hours.
0.5l purified water is 25 cfa or 3 pcs for 50, clean bathing water costs 50 cfa fpr 25l so again, basic amenities are no concern even for the poorest.
Booze is usually sold in these sachets and you can buy them anywhere, they really really good and I'd say the quality is way above european average.
They have really good knockoffs of common brands like baleys that taste exactly like the originals.
These sachets cost 100 cfa indovodually but you can buy a big pack for 3500 and the price goes down to 60 cfa each.
Cotonou central market "dantokpa", on the southern sides there's a nigerian igbo market "missebo" where they sell mostly used clothes.
I didn't like cotonou, I would only go there to make money.
It's polluted, busy and lacks any identity or character.
Also people there were really greedy and jealous, it's a hustling town.
I like porto novo much more, it's very calm, beautiful had a lot of nature and parks and people there were way friendlier and less after money.
There are no junkies or annoying slum people in porto novo, it's much more civilized but less rich because there's not much business there aside from produce.
This is some sort of a temple in porto novo, not sure what it's about
Typical low income suburban street in porto novo
Typical street in central part pf porto novo, not an expensive area.
There is one "rich area" in cotonou which is cocotiers and it's the airport area but in porto novo there are no rich areas, no matter what your income is you can afford rent in any part of the city.
In porto novo people seemed less divided and mpre cpmfortable with their level of income while in cotonou people seemed anxoous and insecure about having less mpney than all the rich kids in cocotiers.
Most expats live in cocotiers in cotonou while most french of colonial descent live in porto novo.
Mmmmmmmm microplastics
How do you carry that around or seal it if you don't want to finish it in one sitting? Is this alcohol package common in the rest of West Africa? Any reasons why they use this method?
Not him but that type of packaging for things (e.g. shampoo) is common in very poor countries where people don't have the purchasing power to buy a large container for future use or maybe nowhere safe to put it.
They have the purchasing power, they just overspend.
The biggest difference between nigerians and thr beninois is how they spend.
If a nigerian makes 5000 cfa tpday they will spemd 5000 cfa.
If a beninois makes 2000 cfa they will spend 1000 and put the rest aside, they love hoarding money.
When I was hawking I saw how much people have because when they pulled out their wallets I could see if they had a lot on them.
It was very common to see pineapple seller marketwomen sitting on the street pulling out a fat stack of 5000 cfa notes, most of them had between 50-100k at hand.
Nigerians usually bought small packages for higher price per kg while the beninois would save up to buy wholesale quantities for a fraction of the price.
Nigerian were making more on average than the beninois but they lived much poorer because they wasted all their money on status symbols, alcohol, weed and unnecessary transport.
I mean come on, west africa is basically easy mode for humans to thrive in naturally, you must be really dumb not to make it decently there and africans are dumber on average (sorry to say this but it's true) and are much more emotionally driven and more status obsessed than westerners.
"Poverty is not the result of eating too much or spending too much. Poverty comes from an inability to do mathematics. Whoever can do sums will have enough to live by; whoever cannot will squander even mountains of gold!"
- Mao Yichang, Mao Zedong's father
>If a nigerian makes 5000 cfa tpday they will spemd 5000 cfa.
There's a reason why everyone in Africa despises Nigerians.
yet, it's the richest country in Africa.
>I mean come on, west africa is basically easy mode for humans to thrive in naturally
Is this true? Can I live a peaceful life on easy mode by moving to some small west african country?
>How do you carry that around or seal it if you don't want to finish it in one sitting?
My method is to stretch the corner with my teeth to make a "straw" and it wpn't spill in my pocket due to surface tension.
>common in the rest of West Africa
I think so
>Any reasons why they use this method?
It's cheap.
Soup ia sold in plastic bags and so is water and really any liquid except petrol.
For some reason nuts are sold in bottles.
They had these really delicious ice popsicles made from sweetened coffee, frozen in tiny plastic bags.
There were lots of icy cooling snacks and sweets around, one of my favourites was this thing where they crush ice and mix the ice with yoghurt, semolina and syrup.
>Carefully hidden behind the outwardly friendly behavior, even loyalty, lies a simple desire to acquire the resources which you possess
well said. You are a cashcow to them
the way you put it sounds like a libertarian paradise
only because of their oil and large landmass+population. and by what metric? Kenya is equally rich GDP per capita, while South Africa is a lot richer
>working at a rice paddy is massively more meaningful and useful for building skills and experiences than teaching engrish
Extra fricking delusional. You seem to honestly believe that, looks like you have hidden assumptions like: if I work hard for poor pay then I deserve better mental health and friends.
>I've experienced and seen something no money can buy.
Same.
This might be King Solomon after writing Ecclesiastes
"So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind"
your an idiot
>your an idiot
>your
this is a dumb take. Just because the pickings are easy shouldnt mean you should take them. Just take the good salary god damn it. I've been dead broke enough times to appreciated the money when I have it.
Well, an important detail here is that I'm an artist, more specifically a comic book artist/writer and my works revolve heavily around the things I experience
In fact my main motivation for acquiring life experiences is to gain perspective on "stories" that go beyond plot and that requires a lot of time, freedom and taking opporturnities that follow a very unconventional path or reasoning or no reasoning at all beyond plain curiosity
My main goal in life is to express unusual perspectives through visual sorytelling, some amount of money is required for that but it doesn't really increase my productivity or enjoyment because these two are maxed out if I just have enough to support my work
I believe that my views make sense in this context, I live for my art, that is my purpose
> I've been dead broke enough times to appreciate the money when I have it
So have I and so do I but for me that's not the only thing I think about when looking back at my life
For me there's an another important aspect to this, the ability to express thoughts and feeling through visual storytelling
If there is a bad experience for me suffering is always a negative aspect, learning life lessons is positive but seldom makes up for the negatives of suffering and danger
However there is nothing that I value more than the ability to acquire narratives that lift my storywriting above plain plot and I haven't been able to gain that with stability and logical decisions
And since storywriting and its visual presentation is the most valuable thing for me, so are the things that add up to it
I only require a certain amount of money to do it therefore it's not a valuable resource for me beyond thee bare minimal mount needed to work efficiently, I'm not a film director, I don't need millions, only thousands and that's not hard to gain
Freedom, time, developing my technical skills, ideas and motivation however have no limit to how much my art can benefit from them
>spend an underwhelming christmas with long lost relatives in africa
Correction with african relatives in southern europe, not in africa.
Never visited the continent before.
Finnish antiques collector mutt anon, is that you? I remember your threads.
i really hope this is all true.
Don't worry, it all happened
One of my close friends served in the Peace Corps and was stationed in Zanzibar for the duration of his service. I visited for two months near the end of his contract and had a pretty good time. Zanzibar was a pretty place, but the beaches are a bit overrated and the food was terrible. I can see how it'd be fun for a few days or a few weeks--at most--but certainly wouldn't want to go for any longer.
Mainland Tanzania was fine, as was Kenya. But I haven't found anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa to be nearly as interesting as South Asia, or even Latin America, for that matter. I might feel differently if I'd spent more time on the mainland, particularly in tribal-dominated regions. I've actually been mulling over the possibility of going to Kenya for a few weeks to rent a motorbike and travel around--maybe this coming March or April.
Picrel is little Honda I rented in Tanzania. Was a good time, except for the cop who spent a half-hour trying to figure out how to explain that he really, really wanted a bribe (tbqh only time I've ever had that happen, even though I've been stopped by police in Guatemala, India, Pakistan, etc).
Did you need a motorcycle license to rent? Was there any annoying paperwork you had to show checkpoints?
The annoying paperwork is 10 USD in Tanzanian shillings lmao I'm surprised he only got hassled for a bribe one time.
The only time I've had them be this direct was in Panama of all places where the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
My friend helped with the rental, since he had spent two years on-site and was fluent in Swahili. I remember leaving a token deposit alongside a copy of my passport and driver's license. I can't remember what other paperwork, if any, I had to complete.
>Did you need a motorcycle license to rent?
I already had a motorcycle license, so I didn't have to worry or ask. But, in my experience, most rental places in developing countries will give you a bike as long as you provide any type of unexpired driver's license.
>the motorcycle cop was just like "mothers day is soon, I would like to get my mom a gift."
Yeah, that's similar to what happened in Zanzibar. The cop asked to see my license, then started howling on--in terrible, broken English--about how it was "so hot," and I should "give him a gift of a bottle of water," among other things.
I got out of it, after a half-hour of mindless conversation, because my friend just happened to have been coming back into the village aboard a dala-dala (this was maybe a half-mile down the road from his site). He told the cop to stop being an idiot and ended the conversation pretty quickly.
How do you guys actually go to Africa and not feel constantly paranoid of getting mugged/killed?
You're literally a walking ATM to these people who are half-way starving. I could understand visiting tourist regions but to actually go visit villages as a white man seems incredibly foolish and naive.
No problem if you have some rizz
The paranoia is part of the fun! Learning to live on a higher alert level is a major benefit of travel for me. Give it a try. The worst that can happen is you die in a decrepit alleyway
>How do you guys actually go to Africa and not feel constantly paranoid of getting mugged/killed?
Oh.... if you want safe then I don't think you are quite ready for the African experience, little boy. May I recommend a trip to Disneyland or any other popular family resort? This seems like it would be more your speed, you clearly aren't close to ready for what Africa has to offer.
Africa is danger. If you actually liked and enjoyed travel you would know this. When I visited Africa I toured the entire continent for 1 year on bike- you would probably take a car lik a fricking idiot and miss out on all the real sites. I can tell you from experience. I have cooked gamekill with villagers in the DRC. I have been chased by Maghrebi tribespeople through the rainforests of Namibia. I have photographed emus on the horn of Somalia while the war was fought 40 yards behind me. This is what Africa is. Danger. Excitement. The Unpredictable. Black people. I have felt it and honestly seeing you ask for 'safe' africa is fricking offensive. I wouldn't ask you for your most landlocked beach resorts would I, even if you are a fricking common tourist who knows nothing about the world.
People like you are encouraging the safetelation of Africa. Last time I visited I was in Swahili and saw a villager taking apart his AK-47 and I asked him why, because he needs it to defend his elephants from poachers. He said that tourism was generating money and they didn't come anymore. That makes me sick. This thread makes me angry.d to, it's africa
You photographed emus in Somalia, huh?
>You photographed emus in Somalia, huh?
Yes. The blue tailed long necked Somali pygmy emu you fricking homosexual
I recall that pasta from a couple of years ago.
you aight whiteboi
We don't have rainforests in Namibia though, neither is there a "Maghrebi" tribe to my knowledge. It helps to be a little wary but Namibia is fairly peaceful.
Oh.... if you want safe then I don't think you are quite ready for the African experience, little boy. May I recommend a trip to Disneyland or any other popular family resort? This seems like it would be more your speed, you clearly aren't close to ready for what Africa has to offer.
Africa is danger. If you actually liked and enjoyed travel you would know this. When I visited Africa I toured the entire continent for 1 year on bike- you would probably take a car lik a fricking idiot and miss out on all the real sites. I can tell you from experience. I have cooked gamekill with villagers in the DRC. I have been chased by Maghrebi tribespeople through the rainforests of Namibia. I have photographed emus on the horn of Somalia while the war was fought 40 yards behind me. This is what Africa is. Danger. Excitement. The Unpredictable. Black people. I have felt it and honestly seeing you ask for 'safe' africa is fricking offensive. I wouldn't ask you for your most landlocked beach resorts would I, even if you are a fricking common tourist who knows nothing about the world.
People like you are encouraging the safetelation of Africa. Last time I visited I was in Swahili and saw a villager taking apart his AK-47 and I asked him why, because he needs it to defend his elephants from poachers. He said that tourism was generating money and they didn't come anymore. That makes me sick. This thread makes me angry.d to, it's africa
Touch grass, moron.
corny ass reddit post. just use common sense and be informed when traveling in africa, everything else is luck or bad luck
Spent three weeks in Agadir. It was nice enough but it's a tourist getaway so got old after a week. Moroccans are ok. Lots of girls with big asses who know how to clean up. Never been to Xlick Click Afrika tho
Did you mention sexo? If so see
I lived in SA for two years in 2010. It was actually very good, I was staying in a relatively rich, white area, the level of everything there was very high, also South Africans are bros.
The country itself is beautiful, I mostly stayed in southern coast area and the nature was breathtaking, if you ever were looking at some surreal looking nature desktop wallpapers on the internet for your computer probably half of those pics were taken in South Africa
Older women: Men there have low standards.
Younger women: pathological altruism
Which other countries are you considering moving to?
In Entebbe for 2nd time after travelling around Uganda, staying at same hotel because it's comfy and located next to a lakeside reggae bar where we already managed to get some surprisingly good local weed.
Go back to bar just to chill and hopefully score a bit more weed for the last few days in Uganda.
Bar has way more locals than last time, the vibe is different, just chill with travel compatriots enjoying some beers. Waving off local attempts to join us because we know better at this point.
Rasta dude approaches me as I'm buying more beer, super thick accent, hard to understand.
Realize he has weed, and being the stoner of the group, I invite him back to our table.
Travel friends (my wife and our twink buddy) are annoyed I brought this dude, and are both acting openly b***hy and giving b***h faces. Frick it, I'm happy, this dude is sharing his fat spliff with me.
Eventually figure out his name is MINOT, Minot from TZ (Tanzania)
Tells me he's a rapper. He asks for a beat. I'm stoned and happy to humor him. Too high to think of a good hip hop beat for him, panic and put on some Ethiopian jazz with really weird rhythms, not good rapping. He's puzzled but listens carefully and then starts rapping in Swahili. No idea what he's saying but he's sticking the beat and it sounds fricking good.
Friends still unimpressed. Pissy at me.
Minot tells me he's gonna be performing at WHINDEE BAH tonight
Have to ask a few dozen more times before I realize he's saying Windy Bar.
Ask friends if they want to go. They're sorta meh about it. Minot gets the impression that we will go and leaves somewhat abruptly, as if he needs to prepare for our arrival.
We leave reggae bar. Back in hotel, discuss whether it's a good idea for 3 whitoids to visit a non-touristy bar late at night. It's been two weeks in Africa, we're ready. We agree to go but leave all valuables at hotel, no phones, no wallets, just enough cash for drinks and cabs.
Find some bike boys and go to Windy Bar.
Windy Bar looks like a giant shanty town shack in the middle of real Entebbe.
Frick.
Go inside and a hundred black heads turn to stare at the only white people to ever enter the bar.
Frick frick
There's a girl doing shitty karaoke styled performance on big stage. Bar is packed with big white plastic garden tables, about 5 to 7 people per table. Completely packed except 1 table. Bee line to it.
As the only able bodied white in my trio, I have to feign confidence, all the while trying to be vigilant without being squirmy.
We sit down, I go get drinks. Sit back down. Next show starts, its a bunch of students. They proceed to perform the most amazing dance show I've ever seen, a mix of freestyle, dual dances, and political sketches.
I keep feeling hands brushing my pockets. Jokes on y'all I have nothing to steal.
Go to the bathroom. Have to pass through long hall that is also backstage of the performers.
Reach end of hall, now in outdoor alleyway
wtf?
There are some rotund ladies hanging out by some open doorways, with dimly lit bedrooms just beyond.
WTF?
They're eyeing me and asking what I want. Smile and proceed to bathroom.
Pissing in piss soaked concrete "bathroom" when a dude approaches from behind.
I say what's up
He tells me he's my security.
um, ok.
He follows me closely all the way back to the bar, I have to buy him a beer to leave me alone
Continue to watch the dance show, still amazing.
Minot never shows up.
Show finishes, we leave without incident, and my wife (who's a dancer) and twink friend (who's a wannabe anthropologist) have to sullenly admit that my stoner tendencies delivered the most authentic moment of our entire 3 week trip.
Thanks Minot
Enjoyable. Have a (you)
Thanks but I don’t need You’s, share your exp fren
Cool story. Is that a pic of Sipi falls?
Yeah or one of the other waterfalls in that area, there were a lot
how long is your trip going on for, fren?
This was last last summer, 1 week in Kenya doing the safari shit, 1 week in Uganda doing more RealTraveler stuff and Nile Rafting, which was fricking amazing, and then 1 week in Kenya on the coast
Fake drugs (from asia) are a huge problem in Africa.
namibian wilderness was great
ok, wanna share?
>namibian wilderness was great
I was considering visiting Namibia, it looks exotic and still somewhat "untamed".
But is it safe for western tourists? How did you go there?
Please share your experience anon
Went to Nairobi for 36 hours through letting the host business's travel agent book the ticket. Spent more time in planes than in the country. Saw a giraffe in the game park that is wedged up against the city/airport. Learned to dance like a Kenyan in the bar.
Never let the host business book the ticket.
Can I get a functioning country without CIA funded coups?
>country
yes, a couple hundred mercs dispatched to strategic zones would be enough in theory to knock over a fairly-established government of a smaller African country
>functioning
well, that's a bit harder to find over there
let's just say that'll be up to you to sort out once you're installed as supreme leader
I live on France, does it counts?
Anyone know for any good hikes which are free or there isn't milking-expensive foreigner fees?
Looking mostly for hikes in East Africa
Probably cheapest is to hire someone familiar with it for a set price
Going to South Africa with gf for a month. Flying to Johannesburg and then doing 5 day safari in Kruger Park, flying to Cape town after, doing garden route for a week and then driving back to cape town to stay around there for 2 weeks. Any advice?
5 days is a lot for a safari
Most south Africans are pretty friendly and open, crime is pretty bad and you should be pretty conscious of that, don't walk alone at night and stick to populated areas. Don't get into any minibus taxi's. Be hyper vigilant driving and coming to a stop, hijacking is very popular. Avoid all the townships or informal settlements. Don't know much about Johannesburg but cape town is beautiful, try do some hikes if you can. Simon's town and kalk bay are pretty popular as well as Clifton Beach. Boulders beach is pretty cool as well and sometimes there's penguins there. Water is fricking cold unless you're at muizenberg or fishoek side but still pretty cold. Doing wine tasting is also apparently pretty fun. There's lots to do in Cape Town. Just check the hikes are safe as well, there as apparently a lot of robbing happening recently owing to the time of year. Lions head is pretty cool as well as Chapman's peak.
Garden route is dope and you should try explore the little shops along the way.
This isnt to say it won't be an awesome trip, there's a lot of shit in the country but it can also be super cool. Luck of the draw really, I know someone who got mugged on their first day here and another who said it was there best traveling experience. Just be safety conscious and you should be fine. Lots of beautiful places to see and experience and as I said the people here are generally super chilled except for some black people that still think there life is shitty because of the white man and apartheid and not because they're a useless lazy shits. In that regard avoid EFF people they're generally idiots.
Oh and there's quite a lot of corruption, not so much in Cape Town but a possibility in Johannesburg with cops and whatnot. Might get pulled over for no reason and they will ask for a bribe.
It's generally pretty chilled, I might be making it seem worse than it is. It is a really really nice travel destination and you probably won't have to experience or even notice any of the negatives.
Just a note about the black people, most are pretty chilled and friendly. Like don't avoid them or anything, some can be dope and the women are generally quite vivacious.
Oh and avoid ocean view and the cape flats though I do t know why you would go there anyway
Thanks! Appreciate the information and help.
Backpacking in the innocent nineties:
A week in Tangier. Stayed in nice very basic hotel watching groups of tourists in the streets below.
Travel buddy took the train to Fez and had his backpack stolen from his arms while asleep.
We both got taken by the 13 year old kid who said "You are lucky camel traders are here today" and led us into the Medina to his "tough" brothers toying with switchblade or army knife and family rug shop. We just pleaded poor, we are poor students. It was startling but didn't seem scary.
Every morning I woke up thinking in amazement "I am in Tangier". Spent each day sitting in cafes drinking mint tea and making drawings in a sketchbook.
Picrel: Window at Tangier; also referred to as La Fenêtre à Tanger, Paysage vu d'une fenêtre, and Landscape viewed from a window, Tangiers, is a painting by Henri Matisse, executed in 1912. It is held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
The fact that Morocco has any sort of tourist reputation is insane.
im doing a story on the marrakesh goat herders who are allowed to cross the borders to get into the grazing ground, have you eh, ever read netional geogrephic?
TIA my friend, take a stone n get something lekker for the missus
the earth is red from the blood fighting over the land.
i think you get oof on people like me, i said not now next next time, bugger oof
I'm doing a story about nerdy little pussy homosexuals. Mind if I ask you a few questions?
shoot
>You take a dump
>dirty wipe
>8 sheets and still poop
>no bum gun to conic irrigate
>two Kenyans - Desmond and Jacob are meeting you in one hour to prolapse your anus
What do?
whatever it takes. goodluck
COMANDA SZEROU!
>mfw I will never experience the William S. Burroughs heyday of the Tangier interzon
>no getting high on morphine
>no banging Moroccan thinks
>no feeling as if you're on the edge of the world
Only conservative Islam, cheap bullshit in the medina, and fat Brits on camel trails now...
Where in Southern Africa can I go hang around Whites? South Africa obviously, but where? How about in Zimbabwe or Namibia?
>Where in Southern Africa can I go hang around Whites?
Cape Town
>How about in Zimbabwe
No
>or Namibia?
Windhoek
I'm going to be in Portugal in a few months and figured I'd hop down to Morocco for a week to see what it's like. Marrakech sounds like a nice place to relax, haggle for carpets, have some mint tea and hookah, and just take a break.
Married into the largest sub tribe of the Luhya peoples. I go over once every couple of years with the wife and kids. My wifes Dad is the chief of police in Busia.
I basically go chill in the compound we built on 4 side to side plots put a giant fence around. I shoot guns, ride dirt bikes. Eat roast goat and hang out with the extended tribal family.
One of the uncles is a smuggler and he smuggled guns and motor parts over from uganda.
Last time I was there he gave me an AK to use plus 5 cartidges and a box of ammunition. Was sick. Had it on single shot but was mint for a britbonger who never used a gun before.
Considering taking a second wife who lives here so ive got a family here in uk and a family there who can build ties for me for the future.
That's pretty cool anon but in my experience, Kenyan women cheat like frick. Does this concern you?
>so ive got a family here in uk and a family there who can build ties for me for the future.
Wait what?
Hows Ethiopia?
Also saw some busty eritrean girl at the gym. Wonder what these women are like compared to western ones.
>gib sub-saharan gf
Furniture made by craftsmen on the street
What I loved about africa is that you can fix anything and I mean anything and it will never cost you much.
One time my slippers broke and a hawking shoemaker was passing by and fixed it for 100 cfa.
If your shoes break you will never spend more than 500 cfa to fix them.
Phone repairs are dirt cheap too, typical screen repair for a common brand costs no more than 5000 cfa and I'm talking about the whole screen and not just glass.
Ypu can commission blacksmiths and woodsmiths to make anything for you on order and it doesn't cost much, it's not a luxury there to have something made by an artisan.
For travel I can't recpmmend benin, you can't find anything on google maps worth visiting and anything remotely interesting is known by word of mouth.
There's barely any tourism infrastructure there besides some shitty snake temple and a "traditional art market" tourist traps and some overpriced diplomat hotels in cocotiers.
If you like archtecture I can recommend porto novo however because it's probably the most underrated destination for colonial architecture in africa.
The buildings are in good shape and well maintained unlike in places like nigeria or ghana.
Benin is really boring for tourists, go to ghana if you want to have fun traveling but I'd say benin is possibly one of the best places to live in west africa if you avoid the expat areas in cotonou.
It's funny that the rich expat area in cotonou is full of beggars pretending to be starving and they won't leavr you alone but immediately when you leave the expat area you don't see anyone claiming to be hungry.
Begging is considered a scam unless you're disabled.
How would it be to get around in English with only rudimentary French?
I'd say about 30-40% of people in the south speak english if you start off by speaking french and tell them in french that you only speak very little or not at all.
If you go around speaking english without saying a word off french maybe 10% will speak to you in english.
If you can speak with a nigerian accent or rven pidgin the prices will instantly drop by at least half.
I recommend knowing at least some of the common pidgin words like dey, wetin, how far etc.
Israel is full of racist people
How often do black Americans geomax to Africa to live like a kang? It makes perfect logical sense. As cheap as Africa is, any black man with the discipline to save up a few thousand dollars should be able to spend the whole winter living a middle-class life in Africa, drinking and smoking and chasing women. No cold weather, no evil racist whites, no slaving away just to pay the rent...it should be literal paradise for the Black.
Black americans don't travel much. When they do they usually stay in the Americas. Some do venture out to Africa though.
>As cheap as Africa is
It's not.
Well it is if you live like anon there who lived the life of a tin hut dwelling street vendor, but Africa is expensive if you want American style living, which afro americans do, they're humongous consoomers.
The slave forts in west africa get some black American tourists though.
I've gone to Africa twice. First to Tanzania, the second to Uganda.
The trip to Tanzania I was there to conduct animal research. But still enjoyed myself outside of the research and went to markets and shops and hostels when I wasn't in game reserves hiking around.
In Uganda I went as a documentarian, but this time I was focused on the people and was in the north of Uganda. I had an amazing time in Uganda and had experiences that I will cherish forever.
I'm happy to talk about anything and answer any questions.
I may as well share some photos I took.
Pic 1 is in Northern Uganda.
This pic is from a village in Northern Uganda.
Here's a pic of some impala.
Can they sing?
They were oddly silent, preferring pantomime. The hippos and hyenas were singers, however.
Great image quality, what camera set-up were you using?
Thanks, anon. I was using a canon 5d mark iii, and a Sony a7.
How safe is it compared to let's say Kenya? I'm thinking of visiting some Subsaharan country but the Southest I've been in general is Egypt.
What modes of transport would you recommend and what suggestions do you have in general for a sheltered Euroboy?
1/2
I'd imagine Kenya is safer due to the amount of tourism it gets, but I can't speak with certainty.
I felt less safe in Tanzania at first, but still fine overall. I was more of a target in Tanzania with a big bag and I was less familiar with dealing with being an outsider. Though I did try and quash my biases the moment I landed in the city by walking around, which helped me feel at ease. The people were friendly and by the end of my stay I was comfortable going for walks at night and visiting markets alone with no worry. The only real time there was any unsafe moments was with animals. I was stalked by hyenas, had hippos charge at us, and got our truck stuck in the mud among lions, kek. But I traveled by large buses, tuktuks, and trains, and even hitched rides on the back of trucks hauling empty bottles.
In Uganda I was more experienced and did plenty of things on my own. Hopping on boda boda (motorcycle taxis you see in my pics) and going to the malls and shops and walking the town alone, going to restaurants. In Uganda I was with a bunch of academics who would drop the moment someone tried to be tough with them, but no one was tough with any of us. I went to remote villages and participated in ceremonies. Uganda I was stationed in the north in the city of Gulu which you can see in "my pic 6." Very few white people there and I was fine walking around with expensive camera gear.
2/2
For the long treks I'd recommend hiring a car/driver that can take you where you need to go. Within the city, taking taxis is fine. Whether or not you're comfortable with a boda boda is up to you because motorcycle accidents are no joke.
The only time I felt out of control in Uganda is when we got into a car accident in the middle of the night in the middle of no where and I had to be the mediator. A boda crashed into us, lol. So out of the darkness, people began to show up on the side of the road. There must have been a village near the road with no lights. Eventually, 50-100 people surrounding us. The guy on the bike was bleeding and people were yelling out "HOT BLOOD" which I assume meant HIV risk. The guy on the bike was worried that if we left him he would be killed by the villagers who would steal his bike. We learned that the guy on the bike didn't even have a license to operate it and was underage.
Uganda was amazing because I got to cross of a bunch of checklist items all in one location. I was able to hang out at 0 degrees latitude right on the equator; I was able to go to Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the source of the nile river, and photograph people catching wild talapia; I was able to cross the nile river, see its amazing power and take a boat up it, to name a few.
What a fricking awful country though. I don't see how people enjoy these places, despite the river and such. Truly the heart of darkness, still inhabited by savages.
Thanks, seems like I'm going with Kenya since it's easier to reach. I'll definitely try Uganda in the future, unless my first experience is terrible.
Yeah, Kenya should be a good time. You have a large portion of the Serengeti park, Maasai Mara region, too. Kilimanjaro, while I believe is entirely in Tanzania, is very close to Kenya too. Depending on your fitness level you could hike it.
I was stationed in Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, well south of Kenya. Selous is unique in that you don't need a car to travel around. Or rather, they don't force you to have a car. You can hike in the park and camp in a tent on the ground. Which is what I did.
Is it true Africans hate black Americans
Africans hate all other kinds of Africans thats not specific to their tribe/group/community/country/etc
How feasible is hiring a boda boda around Sipi falls who will drop me off at Namalu, from where I walk pic related route or similar completely alone?
Route goes nearby multiple hut villages and I want to do it without guide.
What are my chances that I get robbed or decapitated?
I'd probably go for a guide or at the very least someone in a taxi to take you in a vehicle that isn't a motorbike. Vehicular death is the most common cause of death in the country.
Do you want to go on the bike so that you can feel like an adventurer?
I wanna go with bike mostly because if is a lot cheaper and more flexible/easier to find a driver on the spot I presume.
As for crashes, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of traffic there, so I'm not worried about that. I've used bike taxis in India and Bangladesh, which was probably a lot more dangerous.
Biggest worry that I have, is that some officer at checkpoint will block me from going further, but I'm talking out of my ass, since I don't really have any experience in Africa...
>Biggest worry that I have, is that some officer at checkpoint will block me from going further, but I'm talking out of my ass, since I don't really have any experience in Africa...
I don't recall too many checkpoints along the country roads. You should be good there. I do recall some checkpoints when crossing the Nile river. Some bridges are watched by guards/rangers that don't want you stopping for very long. Some were even against photography.
Also, be prepared to have baboons come up to you when you go slow in those areas. I had a few jump right on to my taxi while crossing the Nile.
I went to Botswana and did a group tour on the Okavango delta. Highly recommended. It's a lovely country, one of the best in all of Africa. It's safe, not underdeveloped, and probably the least corrupt country in the whole continent.
How's the haggling situation in Kenya/Uganda?
What about local restaurants, do they try to rip you off if they see you are foreigner?
You can haggle well in Uganda. Things are pretty inexpensive as is, so the amount of haggling you want to do is up to you. You'll be getting fruit for less than one cent per item in your home currency. So whether you want to haggle is up to you.
Some places have "foreigner" rates that I wasn't willing to argue with because the place seemed more official. Shit like ferry crossings where you had to buy a ticket rather than just ask a guy. I'm sure I could have argued but it didn't seem worth the hassle with a more established business.
y
>picrel
Awesome thread. I was expecting the usual idpol shitflinging from the thread topic but was pleasantly surprised. Kudos to the expat anon for sharing so much about his experiences.