Traveling In Africa And Beyond Can Come With Some Laughs. Enjoy!

Travelling to and within Africa can be fascinating, engaging, inspirational and all the other adjectives you can think of.

And then there are the funny things you experience and learn; “African massage” is getting banged in a 4 x 4 Range Rover and driving the track roads with all their ditches and bumps – YES, you do get a great massage! Or being on a safari in a tent with attached bathroom, toilet and all with only one problem, the tent roof ends at the door to the bathroom – that means if you have to go and it rains, you better take an umbrella.

Then there is the currency – in most of the African countries (accepting U.S. dollars), it is best to have brought the freshest bills your bank can supply, actually newer than the year 2006. However, don’t expect U.S. dollars in change, the paper bills may be so old and crumpled, that you cannot read when Uncle Sam printed them.

And using U.S. names for many things are very common, but may not mean the same thing – for instance in a bar, if you order a Manhattan, a bourbon type cocktail, very popular during the “Mad Man” time as a change from a Martini – in some African bars you will get a children’s over sweetened concoction with no Bourbon. Obviously this depends on the sophistication of the bar.

Remember, please, that Africa is one heck of a large continent, that speaks over 1000 plus languages, where American-English is only one of them… I think the only American name that is the same in all the languages is Coca Cola.

But that is the fun part of visiting Africa. And it was upon returning from a great Africa trip that the below “complaint list” came across our desk.

We believe you will find it quite amusing, although the responses are from tourists that obviously visited Europe, we are sure same, most likely would happen in regard to Africa.

Happy reading and travel!