Anyone ever travel to Africa? I am going there.
 

I am dead set on traveling to Africa.

The continent has always interested me, and I think it is time that I go and see it for myself. I am not sure which country(s) though yet.

Anyone ever been there? I will be doing research before going of course, but anything you can tell me before I start my research? Any do's or dont's? What was your experience like? Any good online resources/sites about traveling to Africa?

And how much will it cost for a 3 weeks stay? Any ideas?

You are going to get the AIDS........

:Oh crap

I recommend visiting the Republic of the Congo or Rwanda. :thumbsup

I went to Kenya a while back. 9 days of Safari and 5 in Mombasa.

The safari was awsome, one of the best experiences of my life and I would love to do it again in another part of africa. The 5 days in Mombasa was ok, just normal relaxing by the pool and checking out some stuff in the city.

I spent 2 weeks in South Africa last year. Fucking Amazing. Flew into Johannesburg, drove about 5 hours to Kruger, the big game park near the Mozambique/Swaziland border. Travel to Africa is CHEAP! It's the safari shit that will kill you. I think I was paying something like $400 a day for the safari loge, but it was freakin amazing. No electricity. Everything is done by lamps and shit. You wake up and see monkeys on your porch, hyenas around the camp, elephants out your window. Words can't describe it. After a few days of that, drove back to Johannesburg and got out of there as quickly as possible (the highest murder rate per capita in the world). Flew to Cape Town and spent a week in Cape Town. Again, amazing. Relaxing but TONS to see. I think airfar cost about $1600 from LA roundtrip. Everything else was CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP! If you need more info about this, hit me up on ICQ

I was gonna go to africa last year but then i heard there are a lot of black people there. so i went to haiti instead because its almost all white people there, just like jamaica....

Very nice! Yes, I definitly want to do the safari. What are the safety issues associated with travel to Africa?

And the things you see on TV with people starving and such, where is that at and how do you get to it? Anyone know?

Believe it or not, that is one of the things I want to go see...I want to see first hand what is going on there.

dodger, thanks for the info brother! I will definitly be hitting you up about this later if you don't mind.

why would you want to go there, do they even have internet? :\

im tentatively planning for a trip to Kenya in 2 months.. let me know if you come across any killer info sites...

I always yearn to go back to the motherland

Totally useless at clues Greg, but awesome place and hope to go there soon :thumbsup

A friend just came back from a two month trip there. Tho it was a business trip she had plenty time to see the country and travelled from south (Johannesburg) thru jungle airstrips and ended up in Kenya.

There was the good, the bad and the ugly - but it was "real life" she saw and not just the pleasantries of gaming lodges and tourist resorts.

Some places visited were miles from anywhere, - the people were very friendly and wanted to know loads of stuff about things which they had never seen in their lives :) It's amazing to think there are many people of the planet who have never seen things we take for granted. My friend explained to some folks that she did some work for Nelson Mandela and they were good friends - this ended up in fairly large local gatherings of people to hear more and find out what Mr Mandela was really like etc - they knew the rumors, but were awestruck that they were meeting a person who actually knew him. :)

It's an awesome country Gregg with amazing cultural diversity - and a place all of us in "first world" could learn a lot from. Hope ya have a good trip and enjoy every minute of it!! :thumbsup

If ya go swimming watch out for the Hippos..the animal variant of a BBW
:thumbsup :thumbsup

Victoria Falls in africa lovely

I personally have not been but a good friend of mine went and did some studying abroad there one summer and loved it. Very good experience, wonderful pictures.

Definitely worth checking out sometime in life ... I hope to make it there one day myself.

I think I prefer the fleshy version of the BMW than the metal edition - it's got a more natural feel :winkwink:

Lack of internet is the the reason I WANT to go there :)

It was quite a while ago, but if you really want to do the safari thing without feeling like you're with a bunch of tourists behind a glass wall, definitely do Tanzania instead of (or in addition to) Kenya. I did it with a company called Overseas Adventure Travel, and I think they may now be more upscale and aimed at older tourists since I went in the 80s, but we did about 12-14 days in a truck with tents (they're really nice tents lol), guides and a cook, and we crossed the Serengheti seeing stuff you never see in Kenya - and there were only five of us (plus the guides) so it was almost as if you were there by yourself. (The trip we did combined Tanzania with three days of gorilla tracking in Rwanda - obviously they don't do it there anymore but I think you can still do it in Uganda, and it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.)
After that we just hung out in Nairobi and Mombasa for a week (and whoever said Mombasa is nothing special, just nice beaches, was right) - and then we flew over to the Seychelles for a week. If you can at all manage a side trip to the Seychelles, DO NOT miss it. It's the perfect place to relax after spending a bunch of time in East Africa - I've never been to Fiji, but I can't imagine a more perfect tropical spot :-)

Awesome stuff Mike! :thumbsup

Never been there, but got it on the top of the list.

If you ever get the chance, you won't be sorry :thumbsup

i would LOVE to go there!

btw....
='s ignorance

Just don't goto Congo. Stay in South africa.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Don't laugh.. some are just not blessed with a full set of "features" :winkwink:

I've been to Cairo, Egypt...I guess that counts.

Here's the Hard Rock Cafe there.

http://www.hardrock.com/locations/ca...fx/CAIR_lg.jpg

listen to the story about my trip to nigeria at http://www.mrnogood.com/general/nigeriatrip.htm

Few years back I went down to the Congo to help get the lines for the Jesus Dialer back up and running. If you head down that way make sure you pack some extra heat, you will need it for sure. :thumbsup

My parents are going at the end of the year to do volunteer work/holiday. They're helping raise money for an orphanage down there & will put in a few weeks of work & then do the more touristy safari stuff. I'm proud of them for thinking of other people instead of just stuffing themselves at the all you can eat buffet on a cruise. :)

Check out the Lonely Planet boards. Great info there.

Hehe! :1orglaugh

So your one of the guys who ends up getting boxes of comms gear dumped on the tarmac in the Congo to please the audiotext biz?? :winkwink:

I would love to go, and spen a year or two. But I guess that we will have to bring our hookers with us, as AIDS is a major issue there.

Interesting thread...

Egomancer

I lived in Cape Town - South Africa for over a year and its one of the best places on earth, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! Try also Namibia and Zimbabwe:thumbsup

My old lawyer did a disappearing act, but eventually caught up with her - she "discovered" Cape Town! :winkwink:

She closed down her legal practice within a month and now lives on some ranch in South Africa. :)

Wow, that is great info. Thanks!!

Cape Town born and raised, you can't go wrong if you stay in South Africa, do not get too touristy that is when you can get in trouble out there. What are you looking to do there? If relax in the sun, this is the wrong time of the year, they are heading into winter. I recommend going from November to February at least that way you get good weather.

G

have fun dude

I just got back from Senegal a couple of weeks ago.
It's a pretty safe place. French speaking for the most part in Dakar...

if you really want to experience Africa, go to Mount Kilamanjaro and visit Tanzania and Kenya. It will cost you a lot to get there and so will the activities once you arrive, plus the drugs you need... but once there you can eat for pretty cheap, although you should pay more and eat in places you can trust...