Electronics while Traveling throughout Africa.

• Posted by Christina Chu on January 6, 2010 at 7:00pm
• View Blog

At 4:08am on February 16, 2009, Christina Chu said…on the CCS community site

Hey Madeline,

I'm so envious you're going to Dharmasala. That is next on my list. Although my CCS ended in December, I am still traveling africa. I'm in Namibia right now. As for a laptop, I wouldn't bring one, but that is because i'm traveling so long haul... going on now for 4 months. Plus in africa, it could easily be stolen. There are abundant internet cafes.

As for cameras - I would bring a cheaper digital one, unless you're a photography enthusiast. I always worried about having an expensive long lens camera stolen or broken, but that is just me. One memory stick in the camera is enough. You can always buy USB sticks as you go. For quick pictures find a computer with microsoft picture manager and compress the pictures down so that you have a backup copy that can be quickly uploaded to flickr.com or picasa.com. This is in case you lose your high res pictures on USB sticks.

The only other electronics I brought were a few USB keys and my iphone which was indispensable. If you can afford the bill, you can get mobile internet off an iphone anywhere in Tanzania.

The USB keys are GREAT insurance against power surges/failures -Example: if you are working on a document, be sure to save the document as you're writing it ON THE USB key, not the computer's hard drive. This way, if the power suddenly cuts out you can walk away without losing any data.

In addition, you can use the USB keys in all the Internet cafes; the keys are lightweight and paying just $1/hr (on average) to use the internet at a local cafe helps contribute to the local economy. Take care that the computers you are using have anti-virus protection. Many places don't yet.

East Africa as of summer 2009 has High Speed Internet by ocean fiber optic cable. However I don't know how far it has penetrated. There is wireless depending on where you stay - some hotels have it.


Since you're in india technology access will be substantially easier in major cities as you have hyderabad in the south - tech capital.

I have been living out of one bag - 65 Liter Osprey backpacker for the last couple of months. When i run out of room and i want to keep things, I go to the post office and ship it home. It really is a great experience - using the post office because you really get to learn how things work there -- you'll see.

I brought my iphone - indispensible. If you have a USB charger that is all you need. It is more of a pain to use wall chargers and these take up more space, since i've been going through so many countries, but a USB phone charger wil work on every computer you run into, which is fantastic. Often I will just buy 2 hrs at an internet cafe, and use the internet to blog about everything, transfer, compress and upload pictures, check email and simultaneously recharge my iPhone.

Don't need water purifiers. Just malaria tabs if you are in the region. Pack warm clothes and light weather clothes. Close toed shoes and open. EVERYTHING else, you can buy as you go, unless its prescription like contacts. Of course this is personal because I can live without my entire makeup bag, no problem. The 3rd world is more developed in commerce than we think they are, which is amazing.

Hope to see you in san fran. please drop me an email or comment on my blog sometime, i hope to hear from you.

hate you, love you RSA

It's been a while since I last blogged, but a lot has happened in the last 3 weeks. This is the short of the long..

Was sick on my way from Maputo to Johannesburg. No I don't think I got malaria, but had fever for 2 days. Got myself self-tested for malaria... damn why are these things so hard to take?

Nothing much exciting in Joburg. Tons of gated houses. Everything has a ridiculous amount of security. Took the train from there to Cape Town instead of PE or East London because it ran everyday, instead of 2x a week. The Shosholoza Meyl overnight tourist train ROCKS. Amazing, reasonable price. Have never seen SO many stars and galaxies at night so low to the horizon.

Spent almost a week in Cape Town recuperating from being sick. I think my immune system just got worn down by the travel.

Yes crime is rampant , even the local afrikaaners we met get caught up by it. One of the advocates (their version of a lawyer?) got his thumb slashed on Long street - the party street - here in cape town. Also, Some of the tourists are really stupid about carrying around super expensive cameras around poor people. What are they thinking? One Dutch girl I dragged into a cafe because she was aimlessly staring in to space sitting outside while some homeless black woman was picking at her nice cell phone, camera...etc. It was just not safe. I like most of the Afrikaaners i've met. We stayed out late drinking with a bunch and they are pretty cool. Lots of good stuff but I won't write about it here.... Few americans here, only probably 10%

I did the tourist thing in Cape Town. A little Californish here. So suddenly I don't miss home anymore. Robben island was definitely worth it. I am embarrassed to say that I haven't even been to Alcatraz in my own town. Did the Garden route to Jeffrey's Bay, Ooutdshoorn, and Swellendam via the Baz Bus in 6 days. Knysna is Nice for old people, Wilderness is AMAZING. wish I had time to stay there. Incredible service, and cheap. Did things I'd not imagine doing - like surfing?!, caving?.... ok I passed on the bungee jump. Wish I had more time on this route. Words cannot describe the beauty here. It is more beautiful, varied, and fruitful than the California coastline, IMHO. They put Napa valley to shame.....I would love to spend another month here.

It was damn worth it, every second. I traveled by Baz Bus and stayed at various hostels. Talk about Hospitality.... they really have it figured out for travelers down here. Why don't they have this in the States? The standards are pretty good here and cheap. During this season, there are tons of europeans that come down and its quite a bit less stressful with them here. Aussie and Kiwis are really pleasant to travel with.

The bills were also pretty sweet....

What I got for about 600 Rand (~60 USD) ?!

2 nights accomodation in a backpackers
A Ton of Laundry
Shuttle
13 Beers + shots + Brutal Fruit etc... (ok no i didn't drink this all myself)
Brekkie.
Dinner
Snacks

RSA is really trying hard to not to be a 3rd world country and its very schizophrenic? - forward in some ways, yet backwards in others.

ATMS are in 11 different languages. wow.

They only like 1st world money at exange bureaus. They don't want no 3rd world country moolah from Mozambique, or Zim or Tanzania or Kenya.

The newspapers are a mish mosh of afrikaans and english. Like the titles of some articles are in English, but the article is in Afrikaans. Um. Translation please?

In some places like Fraanshoek, you only see white people and it looks like Europe. Same with Gauteng
In Khayleshita, it's a township, huts, towns, ridiculously dirt poor black people. There is also a big economic divide among the black people.

In Cape town it is so very cosmopolitan.

I think they hate us one language geographically clueless insular English-only speaking Americans.....but like the rest of the goodies we make?


And then there are stupid things.....


For example : Today I waited 1 hr in line at the exchange bureau to change Rands into USD. And then when I got to the window, I was told by the teller:

" I need to see the ATM receipt for the Rands you want to change to US Dollars"

I said, "I don't have the receipt, but you see here my passport says USA citizen"

She says "No I can't change your rands because we need proof that you have brought money into this country"

The South African law requires that you show the ATM receipt for the Rands?!?!?!?!??!?

Oh god did I want to explode.

I find out later that there's tons of money laundering going on in RSA because of the millions of Zimbabwans and Congolese pouring into the country because their life just sucks up there. Hard living, bad economic times. And you know what is even more messed up is that the black people say they don't mind white people coming here and buying stuff and competing for jobs, but they have their own xenophobia amongst the black people - the native south african blacks feel entitled to jobs and houses above other black immigrants...... there's a lot of conflict there and hate, apparently... BUT they think it's ok for me to be here and take jobs and houses, etc and all that... I'm not white but anything light skinned to them is a non-issue. Black people here tell me they are racist among themselves... they still value skin color, like how light skinned you are puts you into a different higher class category.

It is confusing and since I've been here I've had a mad identity crisis. I'm Asian I get the "Konichiwa!!!! Ni Haw!!!!!" But I don't identify with Japan or China. I identify completely with being American. Say wha? yeah you got that right, bro. Obama Country. It is hard because Japanese tourists travel a lot and the name calling doesn't stop when I walk down the street - Yo sista, hey Asian sista, hey China girl hey I wanna talk to you....I wanna have a drink with you.. the Constant Picking- in East Africa it was worst, but I still get it once in a while here in CapeTown.

I was really mad when someone accused me of forgetting my language because I did not speak Mandarin.For the 100th time, I couldn't take it anymore... so I turned around and screamed, REALLY YOU KNOW OBAMA DOESN'T SPEAK TO AMERICANS in KISWAHILI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok??

Despite all of this --- Three weeks ago, I felt like I had about enough of Africa. I could go on and on but no time left to write!!

But, since being here in SA now part of me wants to stay longer, and I don't want to go home.

I know, crazy. I have a love-hate affair with South Africa.

Next stop, Namibia. We'll see how that goes =)