A Guide to Guidebooks

With the rapidly increasing availability of Internet access throughout the globe, and the surge in the number of travellers toting smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, the market for guidebooks would appear to be only narrowing with time.  Certainly, when it comes to recency of information, you can not compare the freshness of an online post from hours ago with the stale data contained in a book that, even if only published this year, contains information from possibly several years ago.  Even putting recency to one side, who in their right mind would choose to lug a couple of kilograms of guidebooks around in their luggage if they had the option of storing that very same data electronically?  Trying to determine your whereabouts in a strange city via street signs and a guidebook map seems positively quaint when your smartphone's GPS/accelerometer/compass combination can show you exactly where you are with little chance of error.  

Guidebook sales are perhaps a more concrete indication that the physical guidebook is on the decline.  The average guidebook will shift 1,000-2,000 copies per year, and that number has been dropping significant percentages every year for the last few years.  Even a very popular guidebook will struggle to sell 10,000 copies per year.  It would appear that travellers are rapidly losing both the need and the desire for physical guidebooks.

My own travels have involved dozens of guidebooks which now take up two tightly-packed shelves in my bookcase, and I would not want to embark on any future trip without a guidebook in my shoulder-bag.  Here are my reasons why, in no particular order and given with the caveat that I realise that some of them are personal rather than necessarily objective:

• Comfort - in common with many, I don't like reading from a screen for extended periods.  I also like to be able to flick back and forth between pages that may not be adjacent, which is easy to do with a physical book but less so if you are having to scroll on an electronic device - this problem is exacerbated with small-screened devices.  In addition, there are times when I want to view several consecutive paragraphs, or a map, at the same time, which may not be possible with a small-screened device (unless I choose a minuscule font).
• Low maintenance - a book requires no battery power and no Internet access, and can cope fairly well with most conditions such as rain, dust, etc.  In fact, a bit of poor treatment will give character to it - the same can't be said of most electronic devices.
• Extendable - I can scribble hints, recommendations, new information, e-mail addresses, etc all over my guidebook, which may not be possible with electronic data.
• Memento - a guidebook, especially when "enhanced" with the above-mentioned scribblings, and with the creases, foxing, and grime acquired from constant page-thumbing, can induce the recollection of a whole host of memories once the journey has been completed.
• Safety - pulling out a guidebook or an electronic device in the middle of a crowded street will mark you out as a tourist, which can increase your chances of being mugged/robbed/pickpocketed, depending on where you are (though most of my travels have been conducted in countries where my physical appearance and clothes gave me away anyway), and hence is not advisable.  However those chances are increased more if what you have in your hand is a tempting gizmo rather than a battered book.
• Conversation starter - having your nose in an electronic device tells those around you nothing about what you're doing on it, and as such may be a barrier to them initiating a conversation with you.  If you're flicking through a guidebook, though, it's pretty obvious what you're up to, and that may be a convenient "in" for them.
• Cost - physical books are generally cheaper than their electronic equivalents, especially in the second-hand market.   (I should note here that Google Books can be a very useful resource - though the latest editions of guidebooks may only have a limited viewing capability on it, or none at all, older editions may be viewable in their entirety.)
• (Some) information - one obvious flaw of physical guidebooks is that the information contained within them is often years old, which is especially detrimental with regard to accommodation, restaurants, bars and other changeable aspects of travel.  However much of the historical and geographical information will still be correct, and that by itself can be worth having.

I'm not going to dwell much here on the merits of having ANY kind of guidebook, physical or electronic.  There is a school of travelling thought that says that guidebooks are fundamentally flawed, both in the way that they are researched and in the way that their recommendations can end up determining your trip rather than complementing it.  My view is that a guidebook is just one of several information sources that you should make use of, but it can really come into its own in certain situations, e.g. if you arrive in a strange town in the wee small hours and need to find a guesthouse in which to spend the night.

I should add that my travelling style would probably fit into the category of "flashpacker", i.e. I generally try to keep to a low budget by avoiding 5 star hotels and expensive restaurants but I have the financial capacity for a splurge every now and then.  Where possible, I try to travel overland by public bus or train, partly to save money, partly because I have the time, but mainly because that way of travel is more likely to bring me into contact with local people.

Visit any bookstore, or look on Amazon, and you will find guidebooks produced by a variety of companies.  Habitual browsers of the Travel section will know of Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Bradt, Frommer's, Fodor's, Footprint, Rick Steves, Moon, DK Eyewitness, Discovery, Trailblazer, Berlitz, AA, Time Out, BUG, etc etc.  Each of these companies is attempting to cover one or more niches in the travel demographic.  I have not used products by all of these companies, but I would like to give some opinions, both general and specific, based on my own travelling experiences.  It will be pretty obvious which companies I like/dislike, but that is in the context of all things being equal - if I have to choose between a recent publication from a "poor" company rather than a decade-old one from a "good" company, I will choose the recent one.

[Full disclosure: if you click through to Amazon from any of these links and buy the book, I will make a small percentage - though obviously it won't cost you any more.  If you don't think my information deserves that small perk, then simply open another tab, go to Amazon and search for the book title!]


Lonely Planet
I spent roughly four years travelling through India, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, Russia, South America, and Africa, seeing or meeting hundreds of other travellers in that time.  It is no exaggeration to say that 95% of the guidebooks I saw being wielded were from the Lonely Planet series.  Lonely Planet was the original mass market budget backpacker publisher.  Its accommodation and restaurant recommendations have generally been at the cheaper end of the spectrum, which is one source of its appeal.  Looking at the current Amazon Bestsellers in the Travel and Holiday Guidebook section, Lonely Planet titles account for 13 of the top 20, with the next most successful company being DK Eyewitness with just 4 titles.

I will confess that I am not a fan of the Lonely Planet series, and will only reluctantly use their books.  One reason is due to their overwhelming popularity.  Any establishment listed in the Lonely Planet will immediately become swamped with visitors, which not only means that availability can be an issue, but also that there will be a temptation on the part of the owners to lower standards and hike prices.  A second reason is that their emphasis on budget travel tends to attract, not surprisingly, young people - though I do not consider myself old as a mere cough*fortysomething*cough, I'm not particularly looking for that young a crowd to hang out with.  Thirdly, the writing style of their titles tends to be a little on the quirky side, and not - in my opinion - in a good way.  And finally, I have a slight personal grudge against them.  Other guidebook series will send you a free title if you submit a decent selection of corrections and suggestions, however the company to who I submitted the most - a laundry list of over 300 items - and received merely a tepid thank you in return was ... Lonely Planet.  They also requested that next time I wished to do something similar, I should make an individual submission for every item - which would obviously be a great use of my time for hundreds of items.

Lonely Planet does, however, score highly on maps.  Maps are one of the most useful aspects of any guidebook, simply because they can be used as a canvas on which to add information relating to any logistical parts of travel, e.g. the location of guesthouses, where buses depart from, etc.  The map for a particular town/city/site can also be ripped out of the book and taken with you as you explore, which is a lighter and less obtrusive alternative to taking the entire book (the rest of which can be left in your room).  Of all the guidebook series, Lonely Planet consistently provides the most map fodder (though see the Trailblazer section for one brilliant exception to this).

The Lonely Planet series is one of the largest out there, which means it contains some titles that cover regions not available in any other series.  This was how I came to use the Lonely Planet Africa guide, as there was no other single guidebook covering the Cairo-to-Cape route that I intended taking.  Like any multi-country guidebook (in this case ~50 countries), there's only so much space that can be given over to any one country or location, so there are bound to be glaring omissions.  It also suffered from the general Lonely Planet problems that I mention above, but it's still - 3 years on - the only pan-Africa guidebook available as far as I know, and hence it gets a recommendation from me, partly because there's no competition.

Rough Guide
I'm a big fan of the Rough Guide series, due to its combination of catering a little more for the "flashpacker" demographic than necessarily those on a shoestring budget, and what I consider to be vastly superior writing to that contained in the Lonely Planet.  It also gains points for NOT being a Lonely Planet guide, meaning that many of its recommendations not common to the Lonely Planet will not be knee-deep in dozens of other tourists.  I should also add that I have used so many Rough Guides now that there is a pleasing familiarity to their layout, so I immediately know where to go to find any particular piece of information.

My first Rough Guide usage for my round-the-world trip was in the inspiration phase, when I also had plenty of trepidation due to having never done any independent travel before.  I picked up the Rough Guide to First-Time Around The World, the Rough Guide to First-Time Asia, and the Rough Guide to First-Time Africa at various points in the run-up to departure, which together gave a high-level overview of travel-related issues, in general and in those particular continents.  Of the 3, I would recommend the First-Time Around The World title, as it briefly covers most of the common areas of the planet that RTW travellers tend to visit, plus it gives some insight into the many aspects of travel that the first-timer might not be acquainted with, e.g. visas, accessing money, daily costs, etc.  The Asia and Africa titles are worth a read for anyone who just wants an idea of what those continents can offer, but they're too high-level to be of any use to anyone actually travelling, and hence you could just as easily browse them in a bookstore before you leave.

                                         

I used 5 Rough Guides on my RTW trip, starting with the Rough Guide to India.  Since my 4 months in India took me to all corners of the country, I needed a guidebook that would cover everything (though there are guidebooks available for certain of the more popular regions such as Rajasthan).  India is notable in that each of its states has a distinctive culture, meaning the nation as a whole feels more like a couple of dozen different countries.  I should also add that I supplemented the information with much knowledge from the India Mike website, which is an amazing resource for any India-bound travellers.

I also received a great deal of inspiration from the Eyewitness India guidebook, which I will cover in the Eyewitness section.

The next Rough Guide to make its way into my sweaty mitts was the Rough Guide to Australia, which accompanied me on a total of 6 months travelling around Oz.  Australia is comfortably one of the best set-up countries in the world for backpackers, and if you travel there then you'll soon find out why - there are thousands of the b*ggers!  Misanthropy aside, the most fun I had in all my travels was during that period in Australia, due to the sheer number of people that I met.  There is so much information available everywhere about things to see and do that you could easily get by without using any guidebook at all.

     

As with India,  I was tremendously inspired by the Eyewitness Australia guidebook, which I will cover in the Eyewitness section.  I also took the BUG guide to Australia, which will be mentioned in the "Other guides" section at the end of this post.

Southeast Asia was then negotiated with a copy of the Rough Guide to Southeast Asia (though it would appear that this has now been superseded by the Rough Guide to Southeast Asia On A Budget).  Again, any book trying to cover multiple countries (in this case 11) will suffer from omissions due to lack of space but the path through Southeast Asia is fairly well worn, so there is plenty of information obtainable from accommodation and fellow travellers.

                      

I also frequently referred to a Trailblazer title carried by one of my travelling companions, but I will discuss that in the Trailblazer section.  I bought an excellent guide to Angkor when I was in Siem Reap, which I will mention in the "Other guides" section.  I should also add that Travelfish is an excellent website for travellers in Southeast Asia - the accommodation section in particular is very comprehensive.

Many Southeast Asia travellers will end up in China at some point, which is not covered in either of these books (though they do cover Macau and Hong Kong - these obviously belong to China, but they have different visa requirements to the mainland, in particular many nationalities (e.g. the British) don't need a visa to visit them).  China has some parallels with India in that it is a vast country with an enormous population, to the point where its individual provinces can more resemble separate countries, hence it needs its own guidebook.  

I picked up my copy of the Rough Guide to China in a second-hand bookshop in Hoi An in Vietnam (there are many street vendors selling guidebooks in the main cities in Vietnam, often photocopies rather than originals, and you can see that they know the market by the fact that the majority of their wares are Lonely Planets).  China was the favourite country that I visited in all of my travels, mainly because being there felt like such an adventure.  A big part of that feeling was due to not knowing any of the language, a situation exacerbated by the fact that most people don't speak any English, especially outside of the main tourist spots (i.e. Beijing/Shanghai/Xi'an).  I found the guidebook to hence be more indispensable than usual, partly due to its helpful written phrases (which I could point at rather than attempting to master any of the tonal language), and partly due to information not being as readily accessible as in neighbouring countries such as Thailand.  The downside of the guidebook was that China is changing rapidly, meaning information becomes out of date even faster than usual.  The main black mark against the book was that the Beijing section had been appallingly edited, which was totally out of character with the other sections.  However it's a definite recommendation.

 

Interestingly, when I was coming into China from Vietnam, I received a lot of hassle from a customs guy because this guide seems to be on their blacklist - it doesn't contain a section on Taiwan, which is viewed as implying that Taiwan is not a part of China!  I had to be quite firm with him that that was not the intention, as he seemed hell-bent on confiscating the book.  I didn't have this problem when entering China from Macau, but it's worth noting just in case.

On the web, China Backpacker was a useful site.

From China, I travelled via Mongolia and Russia through to Moscow, for which I used the Trailblazer Trans-Siberian Handbook, which I will cover in the Trailblazer section.

Next up on my travels was South America, for which I used the Rough Guide To South America (which appears to have been superseded by the Rough Guide to South America On A Budget).  South America has just over half the land area of Africa yet has less than a quarter of the number of countries.  And unlike most other parts of the world (especially tourist areas), where you can get by in English, you really do need to know some Spanish if you intend doing any travelling in South America.  With most of the countries on the continent speaking Spanish, you also get good bang for your buck if you learn the language, compared with (say) Southeast Asia where trying to learn some Thai, Vietnamese, Khmer, etc would be quite taxing (for Westerners, at least) and of limited applicability.

I only travelled in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia (my few hours to see the Brazilian side of Iguazu don't count), and in the main tourist destinations there was no shortage of decent information from hostels and tourist information offices.  However I was glad of the guidebook when I was slightly off the tourist trail, as sometimes there was no other source of information, or I simply could not understand the Spanish that helpful people were addressing to me!
 

                                          

Eyewitness (published by Dorling Kindersley)
The Eyewitness series of guidebooks is gorgeous but in general they are hopeless as a traveller's companion, due primarily to their emphasis on pictures at the expense of more practical information (the Top 10 city guides in the range are an exception).  Their accommodation and restaurant recommendations are generally high-end.

As pre-trip inspiration, though, they are unparalleled.  Their main selling point is the dozens of detailed, 3D drawings of sites within the particular country of interest, which no other guidebooks offer.  (This also adds to their weight - another reason you probably wouldn't choose to travel with one.)  I certainly found that the Eyewitness India and Eyewitness Australia titles got the excitement mounting in advance of my trips to those two countries.
 

                                           

Trailblazer
I've been really impressed by the couple of Trailblazer guides that I've used, though the range only consists of about 50 books, most of which are geared more towards hiking, walking, or rail travel, rather than general country information.  The first that I used (though it was a companion's, rather than my own) was the South-East Asia guide, which is sadly no longer in print.  This had the unique feature that it was based entirely around maps, of umpteen towns and cities - more than any other guidebook.  Obviously this resulted in savings having to be made elsewhere, in particular that text-based information was greatly reduced, but this was by no means a major inconvenience.  The maps would include, for example, indications of which parts of a town were best for budget accommodation, with maybe 1 or 2 specific examples max, and that general info is often as much as you need.  I don't know why this book was never updated (or why the idea wasn't expanded to other areas) - I can only assume that what struck me as being the perfect model for a guidebook didn't appeal to anyone else!  (The current price on Amazon is about £28, which is clearly excessive, but if you can pick it up in a second-hand store for a couple of quid then it would be worth checking out.)

The other title in the range that I used was the Trans-Siberian Handbook, for my journey from Beijing to Moscow, during which I stopped off in Ulan Bator in Mongolia, and Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Yekaterinburg in Russia.  I found the kilometre-by-kilometre section of the book to be fascinating, filled as it was with information about the route that could be correlated to the kilometre markers visible by the side of the track.  The guide also contains sections about each of the cities that you might stop off at en route, but these sections are, of course, nothing like as comprehensive as a dedicated guidebook (Moscow in particular has a lot more to offer than what's covered).  However the book is more aimed at conveying the joy of the train journey, and it accomplishes that aim extremely well.  It seems to be quite common for travellers to do the Trans-Siberian between Moscow and Beijing without stopping - I would certainly recommend stopping off at least once, partly because Russia is a fascinating country to visit (albeit expensive), and partly because going without a shower for a week is a novelty that doesn't need to be experienced voluntarily.

  
Bradt
I don't actually own ANY of the Bradt series, but I borrowed one from another traveller and was impressed by the content.  Bradt guides are renowned for their local detail, and the range includes several books about countries for which no other guide exists - which is why I was happy to get my hands on a copy of their Sudan title (the Sudan section of the Lonely Planet Africa wasn't long).  I hadn't bothered with individual guidebooks for each country on my Cairo-to-Cape journey because of i) the weight, and ii) only intending being in each country for about 3 weeks, but this would have been the (only) one to get for Sudan.  I would have bought the Madagascar title but I was in South Africa before leaving for Madagascar, and books in South Africa cost a fortune.

Other guides
I took the BUG guide to Australia with me but it is pretty much just a list of hostels and ratings - you'll find much more recent information on the web, not to mention from other travellers, so it's not worth bothering with, especially as Internet access is readily available all over Australia.

Not so much a guidebook, more a reference work, Ancient Angkor gives an unbeatable, detailed description of the various temples in the Angkor area, including history, maps, interpretations, and numerous photos of these awesome buildings (truly a wonder of the world).  If possible, wait until you get to Cambodia before you buy it (should be less than $5 from a street vendor), then spend a few days reading it before you visit Angkor.

I have used a few other guides in the past, but they were all in the context of holidays where I went to one place and stayed in one hotel, rather than for a period of independent travel, so I won't be mentioning them here.  The thing to remember with ANY guidebook though is that it should be complementing your trip, not dictating it.

Travel costs and information for Namibia - Windhoek, Sossusvlei, Keetmanshoop, Luderitz

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (November 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and N (Namibian $).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly N8.13=$1 and N13.33=£1.

Namibia  

• The Namibian $ is pegged to the South African rand within Namibia, and the notes and coins for both currencies are usable there.  It's probably best to change your remaining Namibian $ to South African rand before you leave, as they aren't much use elsewhere.

• Like Botswana, there's not much in the way of public transport, so to visit the sights you need to either go on tours or have your own vehicle.

1st November 2009 30 day visa (free for Brits) at the border with Botswana (I came in at the Mamuno crossing).
1st November 2009 N100 Hitch from the border to Windhoek, taking about 3 hours 30 minutes including a couple of stops (though the guy really had his foot down - I think it's about 330km).  I simply hung around near the immigration building and asked the first guy who came through the border whether he was heading to Windhoek.  He insisted on dropping me off at my intended hostel.  I think there's also public transport from the border to Gobabis - I met another traveller who got a shared taxi from Gobabis to Windhoek for N130.


Windhoek

• I got the impression that many of the people staying in hostels here are actually studying or working, rather than travelling.
• I was warned by all and sundry to be wary of muggers even during the day - in fact, several people said to not even carry a bag with me if I went out.  You'll notice a high emphasis on safety by the fact that many buildings have security features - gates, security guard, barbed wire, etc.
• There are several travel agencies in Windhoek offering a variety of tours in Namibia.  I was interested in seeing Damaraland and/or Kaokoveld, but unfortunately all the trips including these also involved safaris, which I wasn't interested in as I'd already done enough in East Africa.  Which meant I only did a tour to Sossusvlei - most available tours (e.g. Crazy Kudu/Wild Dog) are aimed at younger backpackers (i.e. cheap) and take 16 people or so, so I was glad to find something a little more exclusive (see below).  Note that the time I was here was the beginning of the low season, so there weren't that many tours heading out (I had to wait for 4 days for a suitable one).
• Internet available for N24 per hour.
• If you want to change money here, you'll need your passport.
• There's a daily minibus service to Swakopmund for about N240, leaving at 2:30PM and returning at 7AM, costing about N300.  You can also go by Intercape Mainliner, but they only run Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

1st November 2009 N310 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Backpacker Unite, though there was water outage for the first day I was there (this seemed to only be this building, as none of the other hostels I visited said they'd had a problem).  There's a friendly Siamese cat.  No Internet.  This hostel seems to cater mainly for workers, and it was rare to find anyone on reception.
6th November 2009 N3,800 2 day/2 night trip to Sossusvlei, departing from/returning to Chameleon Backpackers.  This is more like a mid-range tour, with nice accommodation and full catering, and a maximum of 12 people (I was told that it never fills up) - it only runs once per week.  I was able to pay by credit card.  This was an excellent tour in every respect, though Deadvlei in particular would have been one of the favourite things I saw in 4 years of travel even if the transport/accommodation/food/guide/customers had been garbage.  The schedule was as follows:
Day 1: Picked up from hostel at about 11:30AM.  Had to hand in an indemnity form including details of my travel insurance.  Only 2 other customers.  Friendly and informative guide/driver.  Nice Toyota minivan with AC.  Picked up lunch from a filling station along the way.  Took 4 hours 45 minutes to get to Desert Camp at Sesriem - great views along the way, though the road was gravel from Rehoboth onwards.  Awesome camp, with small swimming pool, bar (bottle of beer N12), and gorgeous setting - the place is owned by the same people who own the much-more-expensive Sossusvlei Lodge.  Chalets have everything (2 beds, sofa, large ensuite bathroom, fridge/cooker/sink unit, fan, etc) - I shared with the guide/driver.  Dinner cooked by the guide/driver - good quality and quantity.
Day 2: Breakfast at 5:30AM and left at 6AM.  Drove to the entrance gate to the park (~5km) - it only opens at sunrise, so if you want to see sunrise over the dunes then you need to camp inside the park or stay at the one really expensive lodge there).  Drove to the 4WD shuttle point (where there are toilets) in about 1 hour 15 minutes, stopping off occasionally for photos.  For people not in a 4WD (e.g. us), there's a stretch where you have to take a shuttle for about 4km.  Note that at this time in the morning it's bloody FREEZING (though it'll be roasting come mid-morning).  Then walked to Deadvlei (amazing ...), walked up a dune, then climbed Sossusvlei.  We then returned to the minivan and went back to Dune 45, which we climbed (many groups go up here first thing, so if you don't want the crowds it's best to go there later on).  We also saw oryx/gemsbok, springbok, beetles, and lizards.  Note that if you wear sunscreen then sand in the air will stick to it, so it's probably best to cover up with clothes instead on your arms/legs - can't really avoid creaming up your face/neck, though.  You can go hot air ballooning for about N4,000 but our guide said the balloons don't go over the main dunes.  We then had a cold but filling lunch before driving to Sesriem Canyon, where we saw a horned adder.  Good dinner back at the camp.
Day 3: Breakfast at 6:15AM and left at 8AM.  Drove to Solitaire, where we had a wander and sampled the famous apple pie.  Then got back to Windhoek for lunchtime.
8th November 2009 N300 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Chameleon Backpackers, including a towel and a safe.  Nice rooms, and the hostel has plenty of travellers.  Internet available for N30 per hour.  Don't forget to reclaim your key deposit when you leave.  Chameleon offers a free transfer to the Intercape Mainliner bus station.
8th November 2009 N4.6 Stamp for postcard to anywhere - note that the stamps are quite long, so leave room for them when you do your writing.
9th November 2009 N315 Bus (Intercape Mainliner) from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop, leaving at 6:30PM and taking 5 hours 30 minutes.  I'd booked this online by credit card - they required a credit card imprint when I was boarding, and everyone had to sign an indemnity form.  Intercape buses are pretty good - not far off Argentinian standards.  You can also go by train, but it takes twice as long and is apparently rather cold.


Keetmanshoop
Unfortunately Intercape's drop-off point in Keetmanshoop is actually at a filling station a few km out of town.  My bus arrived at about midnight, by which time there was no transport heading into the town, so I stayed the night in a booth in the Wimpy fast food place at the filling station (the staff didn't mind).
10th November 2009 N10 Hitch from the filling station into the centre of town.  He dropped me at the Caltex filling station from which Luderitz-bound transport departs.
10th November 2009 N120 "Hitch" in a grocery van from Keetmanshoop to Luderitz, taking 3 hours 15 minutes.  Supposedly most of the transport to Luderitz originates in Windhoek, so you're best looking for transport from maybe 9AM onwards (rather than the 6AM that I started at).  The driver dropped me at my intended accommodation.


Luderitz
Internet available for N1 per minute, i.e. $8 per hour (!), opposite Standard Bank.
10th November 2009 N210 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Luderitz Backpackers.  Note that the kitchen is fairly small so if there are many other guests then it may be difficult to do any cooking (especially if they take over the dining table). 
13th November 2009 N120 Minibus from Luderitz to Keetmanshoop, leaving at about 9:20AM and taking just under 4 hours.  The hostel had phoned up for this for me, though it came 45 minutes later than expected.


Keetmanshoop (again)
13th November 2009 N200 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at La Rochelle B&B, including fan, AC, towel, kettle and TV.  This was a great room so it was a pity I got less than half a day's use of it.  With my bus to Upington leaving after midnight, I had the choice of either wondering around Keetmanshoop for 11 hours or taking a room that I wouldn't get to fully use.  At my age, it was a no-brainer to do the latter (!)  The staff gave me a lift to the Intercape pick-up point.
14th November 2009 N290 Bus (Intercape Mainliner) from Keetmanshoop to Upington in South Africa, leaving at 12:45AM and taking 6 hours, including about an hour of border formalities (not bad given there were ~50 people on the bus).  I'd booked this online a couple of days before.

Travel costs and information for Botswana - Kasane, Maun, Ghanzi

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (October 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and P (Botswana pula).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly P6.62=$1 and P10.79=£1.

Botswana

• Botswana does not really want independent travellers, especially ones on a budget.  This appears to actually be government policy rather than simply a side-effect of relatively high prices.
• There isn't much in the way of public transport, meaning that hitching is an accepted way of getting around. 
• A minibus here is called a kombi.
• People here are friendly and helpful, and in particular don't have the same wariness that I found in East Africa.

26th October 2009 I came in from Zimbabwe at the Kazungula Road border post.  A visa for Brits is free.  I was asked how many days I needed, and I went for 15.  You'll probably have to wipe your shoes on a disinfectant-soaked (?) rag.
26th October 2009 P3 Minibus from near the border to Kasane, taking about 20 minutes.  Though it's possible to get a minibus from the border, you'll increase your chances if you walk the 15-20 minutes to the main road - I caught mine about half way along.  This got really crowded!  Since I and another guy didn't have any pula, the conductor allowed us to pay $1 between us.


Kasane

• You would be advised to book accommodation before arriving, as there isn't much of it and it's spread all over the town, so traipsing around with luggage is not fun!
• None of the ATMs I tried here would accept my Mastercard ATM card, though it's possible I could have taken out money with it over the counter (this worked for me in Maun).
• Internet access is available for P25 per hour.
• Most people come here to do safaris in Chobe but, having already spent enough on safaris elsewhere, Kasane was simply an overnight stop for me.

26th October 2009 P410 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Liya Guest House, including TV and aircon.  You have to order your meals a couple of hours in advance, and service is slow.  Dinner is P72 - that would normally include meat, but you'll pay this price even if you ask purely for vegetables.  This place is a couple of km out of town on Plateau Road/Upper Road - I was told to be careful walking it because of elephants and buffalo.  Apparently a taxi from the centre of town to Liya should cost P10 but no cabbie would budge below P30 for me.  Phoning for a cab FROM Liya costs P20, or you can try to find a shared taxi (P3.2).
27th October 2009 P30 Taxi from Liya Guest House to the bus station.
27th October 2009 P54.4 (though I wasn't chased up for the P0.4) Minibus from Kasane to Nata (final destination Francistown), leaving at 5:50AM and taking 3 hours 40 minutes.  Note that this service is scheduled to leave at 6AM but will go when full - you might want to get there for 5:30AM to make sure.  There is at least one later service but if you're heading to Maun then that later service might get you to Nata too late to get a connection to Maun.  Keep an eye out for wildlife - I saw an enormous herd of elephants on this route.  You may have to get off at some point to disinfect your shoes.  Note that Nata "bus station" is actually a filling station that all buses/minibuses happen to stop at.

27th October 2009 P54.4 Bus from Nata to Maun, leaving at 11:10AM and taking 3 hours 20 minutes.  This bus arrived at Nata at 10:50AM - the wait was for the existing passengers to get food and/or go to the loo.  We had to stop for a passport check at one point.  Keep an eye out for wildlife on this leg too - I saw a lot of ostriches.


Maun

• None of the ATMs I tried here would accept my Mastercard ATM card, but I was able to take out money with it over the counter at Barclays - the only drawback was the ~20 minutes of queuing each time.
• Most of the accommodation is in Matlapaneng, about 7km from the centre of Maun.  A private taxi should cost about P30 and a shared taxi P4 but I was never able to find a shared taxi (the nearest I managed was when 1 other person was in the taxi and I paid P20, i.e. the fare for 5 people!)  You can also take a kombi (P2.75), or try hitching.  
• Note that getting to Old Bridge Backpackers requires a bit of a roundabout route by car, so taxis are quite likely to want to drop you at a point where you can walk through a shortcut. 
• Internet available for P30 per hour.
• The BP filling station near the bus station has a toilet that they will let you use (you need to ask for the key at the checkout). 
• To get to Windhoek, you can either fly (expensive), use the minibus company Tenna Express (charging Namibian $1250 (i.e. ~$170!) per person for a minimum of 2 people), hitch, or - as I did - go by public transport to Ghanzi and then hitch.  I also saw an upcoming service advertised at Old Bridge Backpackers that was offering a cheap ride to the border (can't remember the price but it was reasonable) - from there you can hitch or take public transport.

27th October 2009 P132 Nightly rate for a private chalet tent with shared bathroom at Old Bridge Backpackers (aka Back to the Bridge Backpackers).  The tent has just a light and a powerpoint - no mossie net, though there are plenty of mossies!  The restaurant/bar has a good atmosphere.  You can put everything on a tab.  There are also 2 dogs and a cat in residence.  This place offers all sorts of activities apart from mokoro (i.e. dug-out canoe) trips to the Okavango Delta (described below), e.g. horseriding is available for P200 per hour or P350 for 2 hours.  Internet available.  Note that the laundry is P35 per load, regardless of how much stuff, so don't just hand in 2 T-shirts (as I did ...) 
29th October 2009 P605 Mokoro day trip to Okavango Delta from Maun.  A motorboat took us to Boro (about an hour away), where we were allocated a poler (2 customers in each mokoro, plus the poler).  He poled us around for about 1 hour 45 minutes, then we stopped for an (included) packed lunch of 2 decent-sized sandwiches and an apple - no drink provided, so you would be advised to bring your own if you don't fancy drinking the delta water.  We then went for a nature walk for about half an hour, during which our poler described the uses of some of the plants - we also saw some zebras.  We were then poled back to a place we'd passed earlier, where we could have a cooling swim in the water.  After about an hour there, we were back at Boro, so there was about 4 hours of poling in total.  Note that the poler actually gets the best views of anyone, as when you're sitting in the mokoro you can pretty much only see reeds!  Our poler was paid P40 (!!) for this trip, i.e. P40 out of the P1,210 the 2 of us had paid, i.e. less than 4% of the cost.  I was rather disappointed to find this out, as Old Bridge Backpackers makes great play of the fact that they are in partnership with the polers' collective, whereas it sounds as though they're screwing the collective.  You might be better off trying to contact the collective directly - I think they're called the Okavango Kopano Mokoro Community Trust.  Apart from day trips, Old Bridge Backpackers also offers a 2 day trip (P770) or a 3 day trip (P990).  You can hire camping/cooking equipment for P132 per night.
Friday 30th October 2009 P88 Nightly rate for a (small) private room with shared bathroom at Old Bridge Backpackers (see 27th October 2009 entry for more information about this place). 
Saturday 31st October 2009 P40 Taxi from Old Bridge Backpackers to the bus station, stopping also at the airport.
Saturday 31st October 2009 P47.3 Bus from Maun to Ghanzi, leaving at 8:30AM and taking 4 hours 10 minutes.  Make sure you're there in good time - it was already half full at 8AM.  There's at least one stop for people to disinfect their shoes.  I think there's also a later bus at 2:30PM.


Ghanzi

• This is the last town before the border with Namibia, which is about 200km away on a good road.  A bus supposedly runs from here to the border at 1PM, but it seems to be rather erratic and will deposit you at the border quite late in the day to be able to get onward transport to Windhoek, so your best option is to hitch from Ghanzi.
• There doesn't seem to be much in the way of accommodation here, so if you're on foot you'd be advised to try to book in advance.

Saturday 31st October 2009 P20 Taxi from Ghanzi to the turn-off for Thakadu Camp.
Saturday 31st October 2009 P150 Nightly rate for a private tent with shared bathrooms at Thakadu Camp.  The turn-off for this place is 5km out of town (on the road to the border), with the camp itself a further 3km down a track that's in poor condition (my taxi driver refused to go down it).  Apparently you can phone the camp from the turn-off and someone will come to pick you up (some other guests gave me a lift).  It's run by an English guy and his South African wife, and there's a restaurant too.  It's also a good place to hunt for possible lifts to the border :-)

Travel costs and information for Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (October 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and R (South African rand).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly $1.63=£1, R12.16=£1, and R7.46=$1.

Zimbabwe

• I was only here for 3 days so can't really comment on much beyond my experience of Victoria Falls.
• The US dollar is the official currency (a move intended to curb hyperinflation), but other currencies - in particular South African rand - are also acceptable.  In order to simplify the sums, and perhaps reduce the need for small rand coins, many businesses will use a rate of R10=$1 if you want to pay by rand - this rate is undervaluing the rand by about a third, so be aware of this!  The supermarket in Victoria Falls was about the only place I found that offered a more reasonable rate.
• Most people I met were friendly and helpful, though there were a few vendors who insisted on shouting at me to attract my attention when I was a hundred metres away from them.

Victoria Falls

• This is the town on the Zimbabwe side near the falls - the equivalent on the Zambia side is Livingstone.
  
• This time of year the falls are at their lowest and they are best viewed from the Zimbabwe side.
• It's apparently possible to do a day trip to Zambia to see them from that side ($20 visa) without requiring a multiple-entry Zimbabwe visa, but I didn't try that.
• Internet access is available for $4 per hour.

23rd October 2009 $55 Zimbabwe visa on arrival for British citizen.  I was asked what duration I wanted it for so I said 14 days (though I knew I would only be there for a few days).  I think you can get up to 90, so if you aren't sure what you need then ask for more rather than less.
23rd October 2009 $20 Taxi from Victoria Falls airport into the town itself.  Without me asking, my accommodation had arranged a transfer so I was again left in the awkward position of feeling obliged to take transport that I didn't really want - especially as I'd been told a taxi should cost $10, but the transfer was twice that!
23rd October 2009 $40 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Shoestring Backpackers, including aircon (but no towel).  The shower had so many leaks in the pipes that hardly any water was left to actually come out of the showerhead.  This place apparently used to be run by the same guy who now runs Shoestring Lodge in Joburg, but it's gone downhill since he was in charge.  The shared kitchen in particular was disgusting, with cockroaches and flies everywhere.  It didn't even have a can opener, which I had to borrow from the chef in the on-site Blue Baboon Cafe - I'm wondering if they're trying to dissuade people from doing their own cooking in order to drive custom to the cafe.  Also be aware that beers at the bar are $2 if you pay cash but only $1.50 if you run a tab for your room/bar/Internet usage - this is because they generally don't have enough 50c coins to keep giving out change.  In its favour, Shoestring has a good selection of cats and dogs - it also attracts a fair number of travellers, as well as locals in the evening. 
24th October 2009 $20 Entry to Victoria Falls National Park.  Even though this was the low season for water, there were still a couple of viewpoints where you would be liberally doused in spray.  There are plenty of rainbows if you're here on a sunny day, so make sure you have a polarising filter.  You can also see monkeys, birds, and butterflies in the forest that lines part of the path.
24th October 2009 $1 Stamp for postcard to US
24th October 2009 $0.75 Stamp for postcard to Europe
26th October 2009 $5 Taxi to the Botswana border-bound shared taxi pick-up point.
26th October 2009 $10 Lift on a whitewater rafting bus to the Botswana border, taking about an hour.  I had intended getting a shared taxi (about $6 per person) but this bus was waiting at the shared taxi pick-up point, and the driver agreed to take me to the border (though I think it probably violates their insurance agreement), where they were going to pick up customers to bring back to Victoria Falls for some rafting.  He initially tried to charge me $30 (!), but I said I was more expecting the shared taxi price of $6 - we compromised at $10.  Note that Shoestring will run a transfer to the border with Botswana for $25 per person (minimum 2 people).  Backpackers Bazaar in Victoria Falls had quoted $35 for me alone.  Apparently a taxi hailed on the street would be about $25.

Travel costs and information for South Africa - Johannesburg, Upington, Cape Town

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (September and then December 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), and R (South African rand).  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly R7.91=$1 and R12.77=£1 (September), and R7.31=$1 and R12.14=£1 (December).

South Africa

• No hassle at all, with generally helpful and friendly local people.  Most people speak English.
• All the ATMs I tried would accept my Mastercard ATM card (didn't try Visa).
• I changed some rand to $, for which the bank needed to see my passport, proof for how I'd obtained the rand in the first place (the ATM slip was fine for this), and my ATM card, plus they wanted to know why I needed the money, where I lived in the UK, and where I'd be in Zimbabwe (my next destination and the reason for me needing $). 
• Internet throughout South Africa is expensive.
• Books are expensive. 
• It's difficult to buy a South African SIM card outside of an airport because you'll need to get your accommodation to provide a letter confirming that you are residing at their address (which they may not be willing to do) - this is some legal requirement to try to stop people using phones for criminal activities.  However this requirement is waived if you buy the SIM at the airport, so if you think you'll need a SIM, get it at the airport.
• Sodas (US) or soft drinks (UK) are called "cool drinks" here.
• A "waitron" is the non-gender-specific term for a member of the waitstaff.
• A "robot" is some traffic lights. 

19th September 2009 I entered initially from Swaziland at the Oshoek border crossing on the Baz Bus (see Swaziland entry for more information).  Brits are given a free 3 month visa, but you don't necessarily get a new one if you exit/re-enter before that time is up, i.e. you may need to get an explicit extension if you're planning on popping in and out of the country for more than 3 months.  It really depends on the customs officials.  It was maybe 30 minutes from the border to Nelspruit, then maybe another 5 hours to Joburg (this was about 2 hours faster than the overall schedule because of the general lack of passengers).


Joburg

• The only Internet cafe I tried was R40 per hour.  I inquired about getting a couple of my camera cards burned to CD and was told it would cost R30 for a maximum of 200 images, i.e. bloody expensive!
• A taxi from Shoestring Lodge to the bus station in central Joburg will cost R250.
  
• Though I didn't use this service, there are buses from Joburg to Gaborone in Botswana for R220, leaving at 2:30PM and arriving at 9:10PM.

19th September 2009 R150 Nightly rate for a dorm bed in an 8 bed dorm (shared bathroom, obviously) at Shoestring Lodge, a hostel near the airport.  Basic breakfast included.  There's a shared kitchen, swimming pool, and free Internet (though the Internet may be shut down if the owner feels guests are using it excessively - I think the cost of it is quite high).  There are some shops about 15 minutes' walk away, and a big shopping mall (Festival Mall - the biggest I saw anywhere in Africa) maybe 40 minutes' walk away.  The hostel owner will give round trips to the mall by car for R50 if you can't be bothered walking.  Even this far from the centre of Joburg, I was warned that it was unsafe to walk around at night.  The hostel has a lot of 1 night guests, partly due to being close to the airport and partly due to offering free lifts to/from the airport, and I met a real variety of people in the times I was there (first when I came in from Swaziland, then when I returned from Madagascar in October, and again just before I flew to Paris in December at the very end of my Africa jaunt).  I was allowed to leave some of my stuff here in between October and December, which was really helpeful.  The only slight downer is that the owner's family lives there, so sometimes it can feel as though you're intruding on someone's home (well ... you are!)
21st September 2009 R250 Nightly rate for a private room (still with shared bathroom though there was a toilet and sink in my room) at Shoestring Lodge.
22nd September 2009 R5,763.3 Return flight from Joburg to Antananarivo in Madagascar, taking about 2 hours 30 minutes.  I bought the ticket from the Flight Centre in Festival Mall.  This was R363 more than the price on the Air Madagascar site but I wasn't convinced that I would be able to get an order through on the web as the site was rather unstable.  Either way, this is ludicrously expensive but there is very little competition for the route.  I think you may be able to get it cheaper if you buy the ticket in conjunction with your original ticket coming from Europe (or wherever) to South Africa.
22nd September 2009 R149 Globetrotters guide to Madagascar (purchased at Joburg Airport).  A slim book, but a good example of how expensive books are in South Africa - 25% more than the cover price in $.  The Lonely Planet guide was R280! 

23rd October 2009 R1,650 Flight (Comair - a subsidiary of British Airways) from Joburg to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, leaving at 11:30AM and taking 1 hour 30 minutes.


Upington

• I don't know if it was just the time of year, but it was quite difficult finding anywhere doing tours to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (aka the Kalahari).  I went with the cheapest place, as recommended by the owners of my accommodation, but it was still really expensive for just me on my tod.  The guy said that his company only charges a 5% profit - certainly the other quotes I got were anything up to twice what I paid.
• Internet available for R15 for 20 minutes then R1 per minute thereafter, i.e. R55 per hour, at Postnet.  I also found a place nearby (can't remember the name) for "only" R7.5 per 15 minutes but it was so slow I couldn't log in to Hotmail and they eventually let me off without paying. 

13th November 2009 R420 Nightly rate for a private ensuite room at Affinity B&B, including a towel, TV, AC, fridge, kettle, and a massive buffet breakfast (which stops at 9AM). 
16th November 2009 R5,400 3 day/2 night safari to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.  This included everything except the park entries and campsite pitches (see next entry), i.e. food, fuel, camping equipment, etc.  The guy's name was Theo and he was based at the place that does river cruises in Sakkie's Ark (if I remember correctly).  Theo was full of information, was a good driver and animal spotter, and could happily chat non-stop for hours.  Downers were his smoking (though he did refrain from doing it in the car) and his casual racism.  The itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: Theo picked me up at 8:15AM in his nice Mazda "bakkie" (pick-up truck), which was spacious and even had a freezer in the back.  We then did some food shopping before heading for the park entrance at Twee Riveren, which took 2 hours 45 minutes on good roads.  The trails in the park are all gravel, on which inexperienced drivers can easily come to grief.  We drove up to Auchterlonie then crossed over the old river beds, stopping occasionally when we saw things, e.g. wildebeest, jackal, springbok, red hartebeest, rain birds, ostrich, eagles, oryx/gemsbok, etc.  Arrived in Nossub at about 5PM.  Nice facilities here - each campsite has its own braai (barbecue), stone chairs, a stone table, and use of the ablution block (hot showers).  You'll be amused by the umpteen curious sand squirrels.  Went for a pre-sunset drive but the air was too clear for a good sunset, which was a bummer as the sunsets are one of the most famous things about the park.  Dinner was chops and sausages done on the braai.  Note that the water here is slightly salinated, which won't be to everyone's taste.  Even though there's a fence around the camp, jackals have found a way to get in, and they came close in the hope of getting some scraps.
Day 2: Went for a pre-breakfast drive at 5:40AM.  Unbelievable number of lions and cubs.  Then breakfasted before leaving camp at about 9AM.  Drove to Mata-Mata camp, arriving at 12:30PM - it was 45C!  There's a swimming pool here but the other facilities aren't as good as at Nossub - the campsite has a braai but nothing else, and the showers are smaller (and don't have hooks - grrr ...)  Light lunch then napping during the hottest part of the day.  Went out for a drive at 4:30PM, seeing a load more lions and some giraffes.  Again no sunset, this time because of massing rain clouds.  Another meaty dinner.  There's a waterhole just outside the perimeter fence, where animals can sometimes be seen.  Several hyenas were prowling the perimeter, having presumably smelled everyone's dinner.  The electricity goes off somewhere around midnight then comes on again at about 5AM.
Day 3: Left camp at 5:40AM, seeing more lions and a hyena den with a couple of cubs.  Stopped for breakfast at Auchterlonie.  Go back to Upingham at about 3PM. 
16th November 2009 R636 Entry to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and use of two campsites.
19th November 2009 R300 Bus (Intercape Mainliner) from Upington to Cape Town, leaving at 9PM (about 2 hours 30 minutes late ...) and taking 14 hours 10 minutes (i.e. we lost about another 2 hours during the journey).  I'd booked this online a few days before.  This was a Sleepliner, rather than the Mainliners I'd taken previously, the differences being that there were fewer seats and they could recline 150 degrees. 

20th November 2009 R2 Use of the filling station toilet at Springbok. 


Cape Town

• Internet available for anything from R5-10 per hour.
• Couldn't find any fast food places that were open late (as in after 1AM).
• Security seems to be a concern here, as you can't even enter some shops until the staff have given you a visual once-over and then unlocked the door.  There are also plenty of security guards and tourist police floating around.
• The Dubliner bar at Kennedy's on Long Street is a good place to go if you want to watch football and listen to cheesy music.  You'll pay about 10% more if you order from one of the waitrons rather than getting it yourself at the bar.  Also, the prices go up after 10PM.  There's live music (generally playing chart stuff) several times a week.  Good atmosphere.
• Apparently the cheapest way to get to Cape Point (no public transport) is to hire a car, which can cost as little as R240 per day.

20th November 2009 R260 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Backpackers on Castle, including a fan, a towel, and a sink.  When I arrived, the person on reception claimed that someone had been waiting for me at the Intercape stop at 8AM but I'd never showed - in actual fact, I'd mailed them a few days before to ask for directions to the hostel (i.e. I hadn't asked for an escort) and they'd never replied.  I then found that my room was infested with bed bugs and some other insectoid beasties.
23rd November 2009 R190 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Blue Mountain Backpackers, including a sink. Helpful staff.  This place gets a lot of travellers.  There's a nice balcony for sitting and watching the world go by below.
26th November 2009 R110 Haircut at the barber on Long Street.
27th November 2009 R69.95 Copy of Q magazine (i.e. about a 30% mark-up on the cover price in £)
30th November 2009 R20 Entry to District 6 Museum
30th November 2009 R88 Entry to Two Oceans Aquarium 
1st December 2009 R225 Increase in the nightly rate for my room at Blue Mountain Backpackers, because of it now being high season.
1st December 2009 R200 2-day ticket on the Citysightseeing bus, a hop-on/hop-off bus linking Cape Town's main sights on 2 routes, called red and blue.  The 2-day ticket is good because it lets you use both routes on both days - if you buy the 1-day ticket (R120), you have to choose just 1 of the 2 routes.  The reason you need both routes is that 2 of the best sights (Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens) are on different routes.
1st December 2009 R160 Return ticket on the Table Mountain cable car (a single is R85, if you fancy walking up or down).
2nd December 2009 R35 Entry to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (plus an extra R2 if you want a map)
3rd December 2009 R7 Stamp for postcard to US/Europe
6th December 2009 R180 Taxi from Long Street to Cape Town airport.  I booked this through the hostel.
6th December 2009 R685 Flight (Mango) from Cape Town to Joburg, leaving at 8:40AM and taking 1 hour 45 minutes.  I'd reserved this online, then paid in cash at Shoprite.  I had to pay a R10 service fee for doing it like this, but at the time it was cheaper for me to take out money from an ATM (1% commission) than pay by credit card (3% commission) - nowadays the commission rates are equal.  Note that taking the bus is at least R500 and takes 20 hours, so the flight isn't bad value.


Joburg (again)
6th December 2009 R250 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Shoestring Lodge (see 19th September 2009 for more info).
9th December 2009 Since I was going to be leaving in the evening, I asked if I could keep my room and pay half the daily rate - this was granted. 
9th December 2009 £263 Flight (Egypt Air) from Joburg to Paris via Cairo

Travel costs and information for Swaziland - Mbabane, Ezulwini Valley, Mkhaya Game Reserve, Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary

Note that all information in here was valid at the time (September 2009) - it may well have changed since.  It's also possible that I was ripped off, that I did some exceptional haggling, or that I accepted a price that I should have haggled over :-)  Currency indicators are £ (British pound), $ (US dollar), R (South African rand) and E (Swazi lilangeni (plural: emalangeni)).  Note that rand and emalangeni are interchangeable in Swaziland (at a 1-to-1 rate), but you can't use emalangeni outside of Swaziland so swap them for rand before you leave (your accommodation should be able to do this).  I'll give all prices in rand, for convenience.  At the time, the official exchange rates were roughly R7.91=$1 and R12.77=£1.

Swaziland
No hassle at all, with extremely helpful and friendly local people.  Most people (at least in the main towns) speak English.
All the ATMs I tried would accept my Mastercard ATM card (didn't try Visa).
Internet throughout Swaziland is expensive and slow (apparently due to a lack of competition). 
Public transport is delightful, when compared to Mozambique!  It's frequent, not overcrowded, and doesn't leave at unsociable times.  Obviously it helps that Swaziland is so small that you can cross it in a couple of hours ... 
The Swazi equivalent of a boksi/chapa/dala-dala/minibus is a kombi.
Note that there is a second reed ceremony 2 weeks after the main one, which is not as well attended by either locals or tourists but there are still the attractions of the King, Queen(s), and hundreds of maidens.  It's in Nhlangano (I think). 

9th September 2009 I entered at the Goba border crossing from Mozambique, which was fairly new so was pretty much deserted.  No visa needed for Brits.  It took about 1 hour 30 minutes to get from here to Manzini.
9th September 2009 R15 Minibus from Manzini to Mbabane, taking about 30 minutes.  Note that the minibus park where you arrive from Mozambique is a few hundred metres from the one where the Mbabane-bound minibuses depart from - anyone should be able to give you directions. 

Mbabane

• I was told that a taxi within Mbabane should start at about R28.
• Tourist Information has moved to the Cooper Centre, over the road from Nando's.  The sign in the window had a font size of about 3.  They have maps and brochures but little other information.
• Swazinet Internet in Swazi Plaza costs R25 for 50 minutes and is slow.
  

9th September 2009 R150 Nightly rate for a private double room with shared bathroom at Sunset Backpackers.  Sunset was the new name (and new location) of a well-regarded place called Grifters, but that hadn't been reflected on the Internet (I was the only guest for nearly 2 weeks) and it seemed to have really gone downhill.  The staff (of whom there were tons) couldn't/wouldn't tell me anything about Swaziland or even Mbabane, and the kitchen (in particular the cooker) was constantly in use by them - even though I was the only guest, I still had problems finding space for what little cooking I did.  It didn't help that the can opener didn't work.  The bathroom had no shower curtain, so using the shower will wet the floor.  The only window in my room was opposite the kitchen door, meaning anyone going by would look in, and the (weedy) electric light was at the opposite end of the room from the bed, meaning I could barely read anything in bed.  No towel, no rubbish bin, no hooks, and ~20 minutes' walk from the town centre.  Even though there are Baz Bus adverts all over the place, Sunset isn't on the Baz Bus circuit.  Avoid!
11th September 2009 R7 Minibus from Mbabane to The Gables shopping centre in Ezulwini Valley, taking about 15 minutes.  

Ezulwini Valley

• The "hub" of this area seems to be The Gables, with a supermarket, several restaurants, and a Big Game Parks (the body that looks after Swaziland's parks/reserves) office.
• Internet is available in The Gables for R40 per hour and is slow.
• Almost everything closes on Sunday in Ezulwini except the supermarket and restaurants.
• I could not believe how little information there was regarding transport for getting to Mkhaya Game Reserve (which has black rhinos - one of the main reasons I'd come to Swaziland), despite it being only 60km away from Ezulwini.  I can only assume it's because 99% of visitors have their own vehicle.  Whatever, the estimates I had included "very difficult" (Legends Backpackers), 3.5 hours (Mbabane Tourist Information), and 2 hours (Big Game Parks, i.e. the people who run the park!)  Swazi Tours, the country's biggest tour operator (and with the same owners as Legends Backpackers), wanted R1,250 (per person) for a day trip to Mkhaya, which - granted - included the R475 safari fee but was still R775 per person for transport/wait time.  As you can see below, it took me less than 2 hours (including waiting for minibuses at The Gables and Manzini) and cost R32, though I did get a free lift back to Ezulwini with one of the other customers (thus saving R32).  I was told that minibuses for Manzini go past Phuzamoya until nightfall, after which it's possible to hitch.

11th September 2009 R180 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Legends Backpackers, including a fan and a rubbish bin.  One of the bathrooms has the only loo in the corner, out in the open, but there's no lock on the main door (!)  Legends advertises free broadband, but it was broken when I was there.  This place is a 10 minute walk up behind The Gables across a field - the hostel manager said it wouldn't be safe to cross this at night, but it was maybe no coincidence that the guy also ran a taxi service ...
12th September 2009 R12 Minibus from The Gables to Manzini, taking about 25 minutes (part-way, I had to transfer to another minibus, but I don't think that's normal).  There are loads of minibuses doing this route.  On arriving in Manzini, I was helpfully pointed in the direction of a Phuzamoya minibus.
12th September 2009 R20 Minibus from Manzini to Phuzamoya, leaving at about 7:50AM and taking about 50 minutes.  I don't know how often these run, but I would guess it's fairly frequently.
12th September 2009 R475 Day safari at Mkhaya Game Reserve (though it's possible this might be more if there are only a few customers - my safari had 6 in total).  I booked this through the Big Game Parks office in The Gables - normally they want credit card bookings (to avoid people backing out), but I didn't have my card on me and they must have seen some shred of honesty in my face (!)  I paid in cash at the reserve itself.  They need at least 2 people to run the safari, but if others have already booked then you can tag along with them.  You have to be at the Phuzamoya entrance for 10AM for a pick-up, and you're dropped off there at about 4PM.  The guide Thulani was truly excellent - full of information, and a brilliant spotter even though he was driving too.  The vehicle is an open-topped Landrover (so you'll need sunscreen and a hat).  After a welcome drink (pear juice in a champagne glass), we did a morning safari, then had a buffet lunch, then did an afternoon safari.  You also get a free 500ml bottle of water.  The park is small, e.g. they only have about 15 elephants, but that was a nice change from, say, Masai Mara.  Note that black rhinos generally don't graze if it's windy or if there are strange sounds around (such as helicopters) so a sighting is by no means guaranteed - Thulani said he only saw one once per week (sadly this wasn't that one occasion, though we did see nyala, sable antelope, roan antelope, warthog, mongoose, helmeted and crested guinea fowl, white rhino, zebra, giraffe, impala, waterbuck, hippo, crocodile, martial eagle, red-billed oxpecker, and topi.
14th September 2009 R80 Taxi (actually a lift with the owner of Legends) from Legends to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.  You could probably get this for cheaper.  From the drop-off at the park gate, I had to walk a further few hundred metres to the hostel itself.  You can get to the park entrance by public transport, but it involves 2 minibuses and then you still have to walk a couple of kilometres.  Note that there are (at least) two entrances to the sanctuary, so make sure your transport is going to the correct one!

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary

• There's Internet access at the main camp but it never worked during my stay.
• Not really related to Mlilwane, but I heard from a traveller here that he'd paid a mere R85 for his Mozambique visa in Mbabane (i.e. less than a quarter of what I'd paid in Lilongwe).  He'd also been quoted R470 in Nelspruit.

14th September 2009 R25 Entrance to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary
14th September 2009 R155 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom at Sondzela Backpackers, with a fan.  I booked this at the Big Game Parks office in The Gables.  Really relaxing place with rooms and rondavels available, a swimming pool, lots of trees, a resident ostrich, and a family of warthogs.  Breakfast and dinner are available but you have to book them in advance - for lunch you can walk the few hundred metres to the main camp, which has more (expensive) accommodation and a restaurant.  Food basics (e.g. baked beans, beer, chocolate) are available at both sites, but stuff is cheaper at Sondzela.  Note that the kitchen at Sondzela is large and has plenty of cupboards and drawers - unfortunately it has little in the way of utensils.  You can see various types of antelope wandering around, plus the main camp restaurant overlooks a hippo pool containg at least 1 crocodile, birds, and (at certain times of the year) hippos.  You can do self-guided walks from the main camp (you're given a laminated map for a R10 refundable deposit).
17th September 2009 R80 Taxi from Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary to Southern Cross Lodge in Ezulwini.  Booked the taxi at Sondzela, for which I had to pay R2 as the staff member used her own cellphone.  This was one of the few bits of BS I had in Swaziland - the staff at Sondzela had said the taxi would be R60, the driver told me it was R100 when I got in, we ended up having a threeway conversation with the taxi owner before I could haggle it down to R80, and then it turned out the driver had no idea where we were going and clearly didn't trust my instructions as he ignored me and stopped about 5 times to ask passers-by (none of whom knew either). 

Ezulwini Valley (again)
Seems as though Swaziland Backpackers only attracts a one-night pass-through clientele.
17th September 2009 R180 Nightly rate for a private room with shared bathroom and kitchen at Southern Cross Lodge, including a towel.  This place is run by a friendly Spanish guy, Jesus, and his wife (who was away), together with 2 dogs (a crazy young one called Luna and an older one called Jackie who will keep her distance), and is spotless.  It has a garden and swimming pool.  Jesus has lots of good information about Swaziland and beyond - he can also arrange Baz Bus bookings.  I chose Southern Cross because I didn't like Legends and other travellers had recommended Southern Cross, but it's about 3km from The Gables (though you can catch a minibus between The Gables and the turn-off for Southern Cross's road (the stop is called Mangozeni, but if you mention Woodlands Restaurant people will probably know what you mean), which is about two-thirds of the total distance and costs about R4). 
18th September 2009 R24.6 Postage for parcel to UK (1.3kg seamail - it was apparently small enough to go at "letter" rates rather than "parcel" ones.)  Empirical evidence that Swaziland's mail is cheap and reliable (it arrived).  However the rigmarole in finding a PO from which to send this was an adventure in itself.  First I went to the PO in Lobamba (a couple of km past The Gables heading east), but the postmaster wasn't due in until 2:30PM.  Then I was sent to one in the market next to the Sondzela turn-off - they couldn't do anything there because they didn't have any scales to weigh my parcel.  I was then sent to the one in Malkerns (maybe 5km along the Sondzela road), which did the business.
18th September 2009 R1.8 Postage for postcard to US/Europe.  Note that the 2 stamps required (plus the airmail sticker) are quite large, so leave plenty of room for them when you're writing your postcards! 
19th September 2009 R430 Baz Bus ticket from Southern Cross Lodge to Shoestring Lodge in Joburg, leaving at about 8:15AM and taking about 7 hours in total (though that was partly due to the lack of passengers - it would normally take another 2 hours or so).  We got to the Oshoek border crossing in about half an hour (see the South Africa entry for further info).  The bus was a comfortable VW minibus with trailer and contained just 2 other passengers.  Baz Bus is a bus company whose main network is in South Africa but they also have a couple of stops in Swaziland and Lesotho.  They specialise in hop on/hop off tickets for backpackers - over some fixed period of time, you can use their services as often as you like.  They generally link hostels, so if you choose hostels in their network then you'll get a door-to-door service.  My ticket was a "direct" one, which was slightly cheaper than the hop on/hop off one (R490) but I had to specify the date of travel and could not do any off/on-hopping in between, and I also had to pay R20 for the phone call to book it.  If you intend going from Swaziland to Johannesburg and staying near Joburg airport then the Baz Bus is good value, as any public transport from Swaziland (perhaps R200) won't stop near Joburg airport (some kind of "closed shop" agreement between minibuses) and you'll have to get an expensive taxi (more than R200) back out from the centre of Joburg.  This is without even considering the "fun" reputation that the centre of Joburg has vis a vis tourist muggings.  However in general Baz Bus is more expensive than public transport, so you're really paying for the convenience and comfort (plus it's a good way to meet other travellers, if that's your thing).