Travel by Jumping from GPRS to GPRS

< Older | Newer >
Travel by Jumping from GPRS to GPRS
Kathmandu, Nepal Asia
Sunday January 21, 2007

I made a GPRS travel jump from Thailand to Katmandu, it was not planned, however, I was able to access the Internet with my cell phone in Thailand, now I can in Nepal.

I will not pay more than about one dollar USA per day for Internet access, as I am cheap, I be Hobo. The GPRS in these two countries gives me unlimited access for about one dollar per day.

This is with the idea that I stay about one month in each country.

I want to go to Africa now, I am trying to find GPRS connections in the various countries of Africa. An annoying process as nobody states the price.

There are many reasons for me to have an Internet connection by GPRS on an unlimited basis in my room. The biggest goal is to be able to blog daily.

I am fighting with small rules of travelers. There is this unwritten rule of the traveler culture.
GO BY LAND

I need to travel by land, I want to travel by land. I do not need to travel by land, yet I feel like I am letting down the traveler culture if I fly from one country to the next. The cost of planes has often, with a good plan made flying cheaper than the bus, and for sure trains in Europe.

Africa is not the same as Europe, or Southeast Asia and the flights are more expensive, however to achieve my goal of blogging daily. I either need to buy a satellite connection or fly from GPRS enabled country to GPRS country. JUMP

Flying is cheaper than buying a satellite connection, so jumping from GPRS to GPRS country would be cheaper. Yet, still remains the - Go by Land - rule of being a traveler. I suppose I can skip....

I think in terms of Jump, Hops and Skips.
Jumps are big
Hops are small
Skips are longer, yet fast

I can do two day by land trips across countries, sort of skip across them, but not avoiding the country. Then another traveler rule comes into affect...

Aagh
How long do you have to be in a country to count it as country you visited?

I personally like to say I need 10 days to say I visited, if you want me to start to have an opinion I need a minimum of one month. The size of the country also is important. To have an opinion of any value for India you need to probably have at least three months, but really to even learn a little about India you need a year.

Brazil must be about one year.

IF you really counted the time, you would see I have spent about one month in any country I have visited. Therefore to go to three countries, I need three months of planned time in country. Many visas make the decision for me, I would think about 30 days is an average time allotted by visas to enter a country.

Nigeria is causing a big Africa Visa problem, as they want me to apply for a Visa in the USA only, it is possible that I dollar-my-way-through. Hope if I pay or stay the course longer in Benin, I can talk the Nigerian embassy into giving me a visa to travel in or across Nigeria. I cannot just go to Niger and into Chad to avoid. I can fly around Nigeria.

Africa does not have good backpacker paths established. They just do not make it easy to go overland without tons of research. I am American, the rules change for each country, a German, a Brit, and get even more complicated. If you was Israeli, then life has little land mines.

GPRS for me should cost less than 2 dollars per day.
SATELLITE needs to cost less than 30 dollars per day.

Paying 30 dollars per day to blog, that is paying a lot to blog. On the other hand, Africa is not the same as South America or Southeast Asia where every Tom, Dick and Harry goes and blogs. It does get closer to being an adventure. Plus someone has to forge a path.

I call it an adventure when I could get killed. I do not see Africa as a big adventure, but a lot closer than South America, Southeast Asia is tourist grade all the way, hard to find an adventure.

Rambling and rambling, the cathartic value of blogging, trying to find clarity where none exist.

Travel by Jumping from GPRS to GPRS

Methods of Travel |

< Older | Newer >
Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

The Traveleest said on Sunday January 21st, 2007 02:33:00 PM

Hi Andy, here is a link to one of the biggest cellular groups in Africa called MTN, with their coverage information. GPRS, HSDPA you name it.
http://www.mtn.com/mtn.group.web/footprint/overview.asp

The best service would be in South Africa though, with other providers like Vodacom, CellC and Virgin Mobile as well.

Hope this helps you,
Cheers!