Running the Gauntlet in Bolga

Running the Gauntlet in Bolga
Bolgatanga, Ghana or Bolga Ghana West Africa
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

A person walks into a small village anywhere on the planet. There will be a few days of testing, checking, quizzing and sadly overbearing demands.

I hope I have finished the run, I hope I have found the majority of bullies and jerks in this small city. I now know four of them, and am thinking of taking a photo of one special person to publish on the internet as a warning to readers. Africa has my bullies.

There is no police, there are no strong personalities or elders who protest you, normally the women of a village are the stabilizing social police force in West Africa, the police, elders and heads are the abusers.

Yesterday, a few of the girls started to say hello, and a few of the more passive men began to have conversations with me, it was nice to have something other than being ignored. I suppose the idea is, we make money from him, and he leaves, why talk, I have been here for three days, they are starting to talk.

As a person walks around any village or city in the planet, they subconsciously learn how to avoid the negative and find the positive areas. I consciously search for the more interesting neighborhoods of the city, hoping to find a hotel that has the best neighborhood. The African guidebook writers are annoying, they subconsciously have highlighted the hotels where they can drive a car to, enter the compound, park, and the whole neighborhood is isolated, not actually in the city, but on the outskirts and away from easy to buy food, water, or people. I normally tag these in my mind as resort hotels. They want you to enter and make it very difficult to see anything, self-contained, has everything you need, and they will gouge-the-price sell it to you.

People traveling as couples, people with cars, about 99.5 percent of the travelers do not realize often they are isolated.

Running the Gauntlet alone as a man in Africa is a Macho experience. I had a sad realization the yesterday as I was pre-meditated being Macho or maybe you could say Alpha Male. I thought,

- I am becoming, as I was when I worked concrete in the USA. -

Macho or Alpha Male behavior is horrible thing; if a person learns to excel in this behavior, they become extremely dominating, assertive, and difficult. I for sure am a difficult person, and I know I am dominating. I remember Taia and Mark in Togo laughing and teasing me when I said,
- I am a dominating person. -
They joined in with a laugh and a push,
- Not you, Andy? -

Sarcastic and agreeing, however, nothing I did not already know, I need special types of friends to have good friends, or as they say in Africa, I Chop them, meaning to eat.

Africa is easy for me, however I know, I must leave and travel to softer countries like Thailand or Guatemala where there is not a 24 hour a day need to counter the social norms by also being Macho.

I sometimes think Religion is needed or they would kill each other, and when Religion becomes second fiddle, than a dictator or leader does go and kill each other. Religion modulates the masses and continually reminds a culture with no police to be civil. I sometime say or tell them what God wants them to do, so they back off, not a good thing, making a person feel guilty is dangerous and for sure a last resort to slow them down, and the time to leave.

Bolga is just a little too big, and has been damaged by the NGOs, or Volunteers, everyday four to seven children say give me money. I have girls stop to flirt and talk, then ask for money, they say, I am hungry. A girl with a cell phone in hand, asking for money for food, a looking for a fool to say yes to the question.

In any city, a person naturally, subconsciously learns how to live peacefully and productively in the city. The longer I am in a city, the more I learn the best places to eat, the internet cafes, the neighborhoods that are fun to walk through because of pleasant surroundings and people. Ideally, I am in a hotel that is surrounded by a nice neighborhood. This is NOT a hotel where I cannot see a house, to be surrounded by homes for me is best, to not be able to see many homes is the worst, and truthfully the most dangerous.

I have successfully run the gauntlets of Jerks in Bolga, I am ready to meet some of the nice people who wait to see if I leave or stay. I see about 1-2 white people per day here in Bolga, I have not talked with any of them, this presently is not a city with a lot of tourist. Strangely, the most I have seen is in Yeji, on Lake Volta, as the Ferry drops off a slew of them every day.

Tourism is seasonal, it is always possible that any city has a time of the year when many tourist visit. This is the best time to visit for the average person, and the time when most easy to enjoy a country. To come alone, run the gauntlet, and learn to deal with the locals on their terms is an Adventure. I call something Adventure Tourism, when a person has the possibility of being killed, even though normally remote. Bungie jumping is not really an adventure, however white water rafting and climbing tall mountains can be.

I know when I do not see other travelers; I am probably being an Adventure Traveler in Africa. I do not like to talk about this, I do not like to explain, I like to infer, allude, and not be clear. I do not believe it is possible for a person to travel into a truly dangerous situation for weeks. If they are not capable, they will leave, if they are capable of traveling safely then, they will continue on the path. Fear will create an excuse to leave, and the will remove themselves from danger.

I am glad I purchased the 12 or 13 books to read in Accra, it give me a mental diversion and creates a balance… I am laughing, I am reading another Tom Clancy book, and just finished a book by Nelson DeMille. I guess they are Macho books…

The sun is rising; it is 6:34 A.M. I will go for a walk, the best, and least macho time of the day is just after the sunrises, as the day awakes, the drunks are sleeping, the too lazy men are being too lazy, and all the women come out to sweep the sand.

Here in Bolga many children and adults walk to the storm gutter and brush their teeth, urinate, and wash their faces. The gauntlet is down, the sun is rising, and I need to leave.

Running the Gauntlet in Bolga

Sound Levels of Accra Ghana

Sound Levels of Accra Ghana
Accra, Ghana West Africa
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

Lying in bed in a Hotel in Accra, Ghana.

1:51 AM
There is music in the distance coming from a bar or a car stereo.
54-56 Decibels and when a car goes by, up to 64.

10:00 PM
My Radio Shack Digital Sound Meter was not reading sufficient sound level to read.
0- 50 Decibels, my guess is about 45.

2:00 PM
I turned on the overhead fan, the person below me had the same type of fan on, and the floors are made of wood.
75-77 Decibels

2:28 AM
The music in the distance has stopped.
0- 50 Decibels, my guess is about 40

A man yesterday in the Internet Café used a cell phone as a music player and the whole Internet Café also listened to his music.

The World Loves music, sports, religions, TV and many other sound making activities.

Decibels Typical sound
0 --- Threshold of hearing
10 --- Rustle of leaves in gentle breeze
10 --- Quiet whisper
20 --- Average whisper
20-50 --- Quiet conversation
40-45 --- Hotel; theater (between performances)
50-65 --- Loud conversation
65-70 --- Traffic on busy street
65-90 --- Train
75-80 --- Factory (light/medium work)
90 --- Heavy traffic
90-100 --- Thunder
110-140 --- Jet aircraft at takeoff
130 --- Threshold of pain
140-190 --- Space rocket at takeoff

I think yesterday was my first experience with the Cell Phone being used as a Music Player. I was not amused, and prevision of the future.

This Radio Shack Sound Meter is great, a wonderful device and a way to say to myself, yes, this is annoyingly loud and know I am not being over-sensitive.

Sound Levels of Accra Ghana

One African Cockroach Got Away

One African Cockroach Got Away
Lome, Togo West Africa
Friday, July 6, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

There must be two of them, I have turned on every light in the room to make plea, please go into hiding, and I know you do not like the light.

I made a direct hit on one, there were too many sightings there must have been two. The one is dead and lying under the bed. If you travel in the tropics, you live with cockroaches; they are a never-ending annoyance. I do thank them for eating bedbugs, and for the most part they do nothing but annoy, and creepy scare me.

I have carpet on my floor, I want to remove the carpet, spray the room and seal that crack under the door. The last few days it has rained, my proposition is they come inside out of the rain.

Unfortunately, they come up from the shower drains of the world, I am not sure how they do it, but I know they do it; they live and thrive in drains.

I am learning to like rooms with no showers and toilets in the rooms, I do not like to share with humans, however, the human is a small step better than a cockroach. I am leaving for Kara, Togo today; I will do a super good toxic spraying of the room before I leave. A good residue based, I want you to die spraying of the room.

Cockroach killing without prejudice, Karma is for wimps, who do not have the will to survive.

One African Cockroach Got Away

The Ant my Travel Enemy

The Ant my Travel Enemy
Lome, Togo West Africa
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com



A close up photo of some ants eating away at some unknown insect that is smashed and lying dead on the floor of my hotel room. There are many insects in my room, little flea types, ants, big one, little one and of course the world famous cockroach. I am starting to consider the cockroach as just an ugly friend, because I hear they eat bedbugs.

Nevertheless, I call the Ant,

MY Travel Enemy!

I thought I was doing well; I paid 800 CFA about 1.50 US to buy the insecticide to spray my room for bugs. I thought I was being clever, then what happens, I gave my number one enemy a free lunch, and I paid.

What happened?

I sprayed the room, as I hope I understand, I do not know, I was not watching this bug die. Ok, I sprayed the room, really good, I used the whole can, I think afterwards this bug fell onto the floor, I suspect I step on it and spattered it on the floor when I was making my bed. The guts and glory spread out on the floor, then along came the ants to feed.

Just when you think you got them, they got you, I despise ants, and I have totally stopped eating any sugar candy in room. If I have a wrapper from a candy, I would throw it out of my room. I will not put it in the waste or rubbish bin in my room; it is thrown outside the room.

I do not feed ants, I hate these mini cannot be seen so small ants, the crawl on my body, in my hair, I can feel them, I know they are there.

Ok, no more free meals, I am going to sweep my room.

Note, there is a big hollow space under my concrete bed, I do not like to look, I often find used Condoms, and I am not brave. I am going to have this area swept and cleaned of ant food.

Ants, Insects, Annoyances, Togo,

The Ant my Travel Enemy

The Trouble with Travel

The Trouble with Travel
Atakpame, Togo West Africa
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Ironic coincidence, is this a proof of Gods existence?

I received this comment in an email:

QUOTE:
It is an amazing relationship, isn't it? The fixer and the traveler...to rely on those that can’t be trusted. Does it get exhausting? Is there anyone you can release yourself with, where you aren't worried,
fearful, plotting, manipulating or being manipulated, someone you are not having to bargain with just to get by? Anyone you can just BE with, where presence is a mutually shared gift?...I guess I'm now writing about you, the forever traveler, and not just someone going
on a month-long vacation.

Until later...safe journeys!
Sarah

END QUOTE

I would say in a brief paragraph she has explained the trouble with travel, not the fixer, the whole experience. (And to always sleep in a different bed.)

My relationship between me and the people I meet on the planet earth. A good person does not walk up to a stranger, a foreigner, a person they do not know. It is the people with bad manners.

Maybe the started after this post:
http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/04/hired-fixer-in-togo.html
I have been having this email conversation with Sarah, most of the emails are posted somewhere in the Help Center.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/helpcenter/category/guides

This comment is ironic; I am in Atakpame to take a vacation from all the concepts in the quote:

I become exhausted with people, the people of the planet can be extremely trying, they can be so frustrating you start to envision or have a desire to capture them, tie them up, then turn over to God and get a bounty for finding sinners. When a new person, ME, enters a culture he or she is not protected by the culture, this means any nefarious, bad, evil person that wishes to come up and try to manipulate, maneuver, sell me something has an opportunity. Nobody is going to say, do not do this to the person.
- They often think, allow Joe with no money to make some money, he need it, and will help or encourage the person. -

On 20 percent of the planet, not where I travel, in the so-called developed world you can turn them into the police. On the rest of the planet, they are normal people.

The art of travel in so many ways to avoid the bad people. If you avoid the bad, then what is left over is great.

I become very annoyed with Guidebooks, Travel Writers, and Adventure Writers who do not give me hints. Hell, I do not want hints; I want to know specific clear ways to identify the scammers and avoid.

I want to know who to avoid, MORE than what to do, what to do is easy to learn, everyone is writing about that. I want to know how to avoid people. I know in West Africa there are two easy ways, one is drive a car, and he second is to live in Tourist Hotels, the ones that cost above 10 Mille or about 20 US per night. Then life is insulated. The car would easily insulate me from the people. Then why come here?

I have seen very few people, I think one Swiss girl, maybe two French Canadians in my travel experience in Africa using public transportation, and me. This is three people in about 6 months of my life living in West Africa. In Ghana you have many volunteers that travel or leave the project and go on brief trips, they are not crossing borders. I have met one bike rider.

Africa men are very annoying, the closer I get, the more they know me, and the more they annoy me. I would suppose the Philippines men are often the same, and this makes the women love me here and there.

I am taking a pause here in Atakpame, Togo, I am in a controlled environment, and I am in a place where it is difficult to have a casual annoying conversation. I must pay a moto taxi to take me to the annoying cultural conversations. (Also boring, but good.)

This is a vacation from what you perceive as a vacation. I actually live here today, then tomorrow maybe somewhere else. I do not get to go home and recharge, I must re-charge here. No go home bivouac.

I love West Africa, the genuine normal people after I am able to somehow avoid the large gauntlet of annoying men, sometimes women are fun. Innocent, joyful, playful and curious, they do not now foreigners. I think the reason is also because they do not want money. They think 99 percent of the time about eating, talking, enjoying life or lying around like a big dog. What a wonderful society or culture, the majority of time is leisure. The do their leisure while disguised as work.

This is really 80 percent of the world, the under-developed part, the 20 percent in the USA, Europe and Australia etc are crazy, no time, I have no time, call me later. Here in Togo they would stop and talk all day if you would talk. The always have time, they do not let work interfere with the enjoyment of life and food is plentiful as the Garden of Eden, you can see the fat on the body, they do very little exercise and eat tremendously, if they have a problem, I think it is boredom.

I am going to give an example of a list I am making, I thought I already posted, maybe I did, and I cannot find or remember clearly.

I am making a list of how to avoid the problem people in West Africa. Pretty much, it goes like this, if a person does any of these things, pretend you did not hear, and continue to walk. They will give up quickly and forget.

IF you obey and avoid these comment, what you will have left over is well mannered and good people.

Togo Starting A Conversation - How they start an annoying conversation.

Yeh bow by an Adult - It means White Man
VA - I means come in Ewe or Kabrye, etc.
Spsssst sound
Cadeau - Gift
Donnez moi - Give me
Horn - On moto
Call Andre - Somehow learned my name.
Stare at me
Rastas - Always annoying and believe I want to talk.
Speak English to you.
Master
Follow you
Grab you
Patron - Means like owner or boss
Salut
Blanc - White
Holler until I turn around, then demand I come
Tell someone else to holler at me, that is closer.
Walk into you - This is done as macho tactics.
Shake you hand - Pretend not to speak any language they know.
Have a friend introduce you, - Do not talk -

OK, this is a great way to avoid everyone.

How do you meet people.
I listen to the voices, children, and happy voices, inquisitive voices; there is also the polite person. I had a girl following me in Kpalime, she was a pain, she was so polite, and it was close to impossible to avoid her. She did everything right, the problem was she was 17 and wanted to come in my room to get a Gift, I was successful, I talked politely until she gave up. I find that about one day is the diligence level of West Africa, three days is an exceptional person. To annoy me for three days and me consistently say no is difficult.

The other good thing now, my French is improving, I can say no easier.

I am on vacation, the trouble with travel is the people you meet, and I guess I am tolerant, or I would leave. There is this somewhat idiot idea that tolerance is good. Tolerance enables people to continue to act badly, and intolerance of bad manners is what the world needs. Not a tolerance for bad manners and un-civilized behavior. I try to make a one-path entry into my life, by good manners only, if no manners, not behaved, they do not enter. What is amazing to me, the lesser the education in West Africa, the better their manners.

Togo Annoyances, Togo, Planning Africa, Annoyances, What is good advice, Why Travel, Why Not Travel

The Trouble with Travel

Decibel Scale

Decibel Scale
Atakpame, Togo West Africa
May 1, 2007

I have a digital sound meter I am carrying for reference, I purhased at Radio Shack in the USA for about 50 U.S. dollars. The hope to measure the level of sounds around the world. I sort of think in term or No Smoking or Smoking choices. I think any guide would be helpful to explain large source of temporary or regular noise.

The decibel scale is used primarily to compare sound intensities although it can be used to compare voltages.

Decibels Typical sound
0 --- Threshold of hearing
10 --- Rustle of leaves in gentle breeze
10 --- Quiet whisper
20 --- Average whisper
20-50 --- Quiet conversation
40-45 --- Hotel; theater (between performances)
50-65 --- Loud conversation
65-70 --- Traffic on busy street
65-90 --- Train
75-80 --- Factory (light/medium work)
90 --- Heavy traffic
90-100 --- Thunder
110-140 --- Jet aircraft at takeoff
130 --- Threshold of pain
140-190 --- Space rocket at takeoff

Decibel Scale, Noise, Annoyances, West Africa Annoyances, Hotel Noise, Hotel Room Choosing, Togo,

Decibel Scale

Buying Mosquito Nets

Buying Mosquito Nets
Atakpame, Togo West Africa

http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/04/difficult-mosquito-nets.html

I would say Ash has tried to use a Mosquito net. I went and found a photo from in Natitingou, Benin whereby I was using a Mosquito net every day in the Auberge USA.

This link of photos has this photo.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/203_26_Natitingou-Benin-Photos.shtml



This is a page link from my prior trip to West Africa while in Natitingou, Benin.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/203_32_Benin-Photos.shtml



Ok, from my experience, the big problems with mosquito nets.

1. There is no way to attach it to wall. I cannot drive nails into walls, I do not carry a hammer, and the walls, which need mosquito nets, can fall down… hehehe. I have no idea how to drive hole in wall, sometimes I do put eyelet screws into crack in the joints of concrete blocks.

I think I need a hand-powered screwdriver that had a very small cement drill bit on the end. When you push it, it spins and could slowly drill a hole in concrete, carry some nails and push them in, or use a rock.

Normally as Ash said the roofs are too high or there is no way, I use the door hinge to hang my clothesline on about half the time and the louvered windows of Africa are great. Pictures really help, so do electrical wires on walls.

2. Second problem is size or bulk. I have a full size, rectangular soft mosquito net. The question is this, do you sleep with girls sometimes, and I do not want a mosquito net touching me. When it is hot, it is hot, and mosquito nets are very hot.

Compression Bag, I use a compression bag I found to compress my soft mesh, not the hard mesh mosquito net. A big enough mosquito net for two people has about one meter of mesh and 1.2 meter would be perfect sidewalls. I really want the top the size of rectangular single bed and the bottom larger than a double or queen mattress.

This would reduce the size of net, but keep the stupid thing off me when I sleep.

3. The rope need to be very long to reach the nails. Then it needs to be very light, but very long, to connect to any room in anywhere, you are going to need 1.5 meters or small rope, nylon woven is best, and very small, you have to be able to untie the knots when you make a mistake, or have room to cut. It will be dark when you take this down or put it up often.

4. Staying tucked in, I have a pull string around the bottom, this pulls up the bottom tight and keeps it tucked in like a good elastic fitted sheet, but allow me to get out. I do not like the idea that repellant is going to keep the insect out. I am not going to carry this type of liquid in my bag. I have trouble enough with the fear of what insect repellant can so to my bag and items in my bag. You need to bag, have special bottle, and trip bag things like this, you need to know how to carry liquids like mosquito repellant and mosquito net treatment. I like the idea of treating mosquito net, but after I leave the USA, that will be the last treatment it receives, unless the world starts to have gear shops.

5. Cost, they want too much money for one in a gear store, the good parts about gear store ones are they are light mesh. A mosquito net in most of the world cost less than 5 dollars US. India has terrible mosquito net material, you need to buy one before you go there, and most other places are ok.

6. Sex, you need to think about girls, companions and the stupid jerk who you decided you was going to travel with and you need to baby-sit and is getting eaten alive by mosquitoes until you say, ok, get under the net. I want one big enough to move.

7. BEING Awake - I do not sleep only in my room. I also am awake and need to either use a mosquito net or want to sit up. The more room the better, the one photo is a way to have half the bed for mosquito net and half open for when it is safe.

When a mosquito net is not being used during the day, you need to pull it out if you can, and through it over the top, this will keep bugs and other insects from entering the compartment. At this time, take some killer, something that kills them, and spray the net to kill them small whachamacallits that are so small you cannot seem them.

8 HUGE problem and difficult, the repellent would help. In places like the Amazon, on corners of river, and places like I was on near Iquitos, there are so many insects you need a bottom. There is also an extremely dense, small and very hot and heavy mosquito net material you can buy in places like Iquito Peru on the Amazon River.

9. Hammocks, mine is adapted to be used with a hammock, I did use this in Rurrenbaque, Bolivia this way and slept outside, if you are going to the real jungle, the ground is wet, you need a hammock, I then pull the pull string tight and I am enclosed.

I am getting tired of this, I could easily write days on this subject.

I am going to modify this net again, if I can find some soft mesh or net here in Africa. I would think about some changes, and buying extra mesh or net.

Hooks - A good number 11 fishhook, will bite into a wall, I have them on my backpack organizer, the weight of the clothes in my long organizer pulls down and a real large number 11 hook will bite or cut into the wall, and hook good. I can pound the hook into a wood wall, and then use a way to connect the net.

Self- Propping Net, I think an excellent idea, Chris sent me one, too small and needed a bottom sown in it, I tend to think a bottom is better, because then you would not have to tuck in, and risk tearing the net, but then you need to have a sheet to sleep on.

I opted not to bring the self-propping net because of the weight of the poles, they way a lot. A mosquito net is only used about one time every six months, and by more adventurous sorts, the normal traveler does not even have a net and throws it away because it is too big and heavy.

I hate to sleep in a hammock they are very hard and I do not like my feet up in the air and my head.

10. Do not under-rate or value a fan, a good fan will keep the mosquitoes off you.

11. If you are living long enough in a room to find a hammer, drench your net in liquids, have all this stuff. Why not consider putting net on your windows and forget the mosquito nets.

I continue to stay in room that are 2 and 3 dollars per night, I went and stayed in peoples homes.

The time I was eaten the most was in a hotel in Brugge Belgium, big windows, not net, an expensive room and mosquitoes everywhere.

Next time, I think I will talk about dorm beds and mosquito nets…hehehe

I should make a list of all the creative way I have found to connect to the wall a mosquito net or more often my clothe lines. Oh, yea, take along a clothes line if you want to use a mosquito net. Amazing how a line diagonally across a room will hold a net.

I use plastic clothe pins to hold the net open during the day, for sure you need the clothes line and the pins. A mosquito net makes a good clothes line also.

Women, do not forget, men like women, are you the only one sleeping in the bed?

I need one of them screw ratchet screwdrivers with a good very small cement drill bit, then some number 6 argoz, or what do you call them, the twisted nails used for plywood and such.

I tend to think some one in the UN has a sweetheart deal to supply 50 dollar Mosquito nets to the poor people free, that cost them 3 dollars to make. Because they have convinced them to say they need to be treated. The bottom line is sustainability can you buy this liquid here in Atakpame, Togo? Or doe the ONG, make a big pile of money by way of promotion of this net to people, then acting like all the competitors selling good cheap nets are bad.

One is just better, but not a huge amount. One dollar is one days pay here.

I am in favor of treatment of nets, I am also in favor of telling people to do what the can afford to do.

Mosquito, Mosquito Nets, Annoyances, Insects, Gear, West Africa Gear,

Buying Mosquito Nets

Difficult Mosquito Nets

Difficult Mosquito Nets
Danyi Apeyeme, Togo West Africa
Saturday, April 21, 2007

A mosquito net is difficult and annoying to use.

If you have camped in a pup tent, then you many be able to empathize with people who are supposed to be using a mosquito net. There is just no way to get in and out of a one-man tent simply. To protect yourself from mosquitoes you need to unzip, jump inside, and re-zip the net very fast. Then suffocate from the heat.

Malaria or Paludisme

I was in Niger last year, I thought I had Malaria, on hindsight, I may have had Paludisme, I mean food poisoning.

The situation was this, I was very sick, I kept saying to the Niger people, what I thought was the word for Malaria; I said, Malaria, the people would agree or disagree with no problem. I realized later, I was saying Malaria, and nobody knew this word. I need to say, Paludisme the French African way of saying, Malaria.



There are some good sign boards about Puludisme in this area of Togo; the villages along the road to Adeta were promoting the fight against Puludisme. I am not sure; sleeping under a mosquito net is difficult, annoying and fraught with methodical and procedural flaws.

The goal is to not be bitten by mosquitoes.
This is an almost impossible goal to achieve.

I know one thing; I am not going to take Malaria pills for 75 percent of my life. I live in the Tropical Malaria - Puludisme areas of the planet at least 75 percent of the year.

I asked Michael the fixer,
- Do you use a mosquito net? -

He says,
- I like to sleep under a fan. -

I will cultural reinterpret this statement.

No, I do not sleep under a mosquito net, I know I am supposed to; I would like to sleep under a fan because the fan blows the mosquitoes off me. However, the truth is, I do not have a fan, and there is not electricity most or about half the time. Therefore, even though I know I am supposed to protect myself from Mosquitoes so I do not get Malaria or Puludisme, I just cannot be bothered. It is too hot, too difficult and I would rather just deal with them, rather than worry about Malaria. Plus, I am too cheap to buy one.

I can about count the number of times I have seen a person in Malaria prone areas sleep under mosquito nets. I see them in Tourist hotels; however, the normal population seems to avoid them. I guess on the Amazon River in places they used them a few times.

In Niger, they have this cool sleep outside bed set-up, which is more or less the Hausa bed, it has a mosquito net.

Still, the goal is to not be bitten by a mosquito, the goal is close to impossible.

- Unless you go into a mosquito net with a bottom, zip is shut, and start to sleep at about 5:00 or an hour before sunset.

A mosquito will bite through the bottom of a hammock.

They can find the small hole; I was looking at a mosquito net in the Turag area of Agadez, Niger one time. The net was over the short stick homes as was supposed to protect a baby. I could see rips in the net everywhere, a mosquito net is delicate, and it rips easy.
Truthfully, DDT is probably the answer. The real solution seems to be to install screens on the windows by professionals.

German Professionals.

I was sort of thinking in Kpalime, I was in the L’Aurore hotel for one night; the place had very good screens on the windows. I entered the toilet and shower area and this small window above the toilet was just bars with No screen over the windows. Almost Africa.

I thought to myself, this is not going to work, so I closed to the toilet and hoped they had not already entered.

I was in the Bafana Bafana before that, and there were no screens on any of the windows. It took some work, but I put up my mosquito net and slept under a blanket. Sleeping under a mosquito net is like sleeping under a blanket; it almost successfully stops the breeze or fan, not completely, but close.

Why rooms do not have hooks on the walls for me to install a mosquito net? Ok, I am in this 2000 CFA room in the middle of nowhere, on the planet with Malaria. This funky little room has nails in the wall, I am wondering, was it for pictures or did someone, sometime actually set up a mosquito net? I always carry a mosquito net; I do not use Malaria pills, although setting up a Mosquito net in most rooms in is an Act of God, very difficult and complicated.

You can tell the serious people, they have a bed with four poles, and then you can hook a mosquito net on each of the four poles.

I was cracking up laughing at Mawuli in the Auberge Mandela. The room was sealed tight, a very good room, and the number 4 room I think. Well, I decided to extra kill off the fleas, ants and anything that moved. I closed the doors and windows, before I was going to start living there. I started to gas the place with the insect killer called Killit, the cost is about 1000 CFA.

I did not Almost Africa is, I was doing a German quality job. I was trying to kill everything in the room, I sprayed every crack, crevice and place a flea or mosquito, or my arch enemy ants could sleep.

Mawuli came and sticks his head in the room and sort of signs me to stop. I am thinking to myself, you are slow in the head, please take you vitamins.

I was at the toxic level of breathing and they were outside and he and this girl Essay could smell it, it was annoying them. I thought to myself, and wanted to holler.
- Stop being so lazy, move to the front and leave the courtyard. -

A little annoyance can bring Africa to a stop.

I did not stop, I used the whole can, and thought, I did not Almost Africa that, I did a German style job of killing.

I have this very long pull string on the bottom of my mosquito net. I pick up the four corners of the bed; place the mosquito net under the edges. I then can pull the draw string. As best I can tell, a normal lie on the edges type mosquito net does an almost job, but does not stop them. Then my next problem is to enter the bed, I need to loosen the drawstring, and then climb under it, annoying and difficult, but I do not like to be bitten, I am not so worried about Malaria, I just do not like to have mosquito welts on my body. I like to sleep peacefully.

In addition, it keeps the cockroaches from crawling over my bed and rats from defecating on me as I learned in Pak Bara, Thailand as they crawl in the rafter of my bungalows.

But, it is hot, difficult, and if I had a fan, that was full steam ahead, a good blow, I would maybe think about not using this net and go for the fan, but I know, that would almost work, but not really.

I like to ask people if they carry a mosquito net. The will buy the malaria pills, but are too lazy to carry the mosquito net, but it takes more thinking to set up a mosquito net than to toxic yourself with Malaria pills.

I am sort of musing now, I am thinking, how I can modify this net again so I can have a zipper opening, so I can climb in and out easy. It is possible; I just make a big pull string opening, as a door. I added these carabineer things to the corners the other day in the Bafana Bafana so I can take the long nylon cords off the corners so they are not tangled. I also use them cords for other jobs, like typing my bag on the bottom of my pack.

I have to admit, this mosquito net is getting better all the time, as I keep engineering in other ideas.

The big idea on that sign board is to buy the impregnated mosquito repellant versions of mosquito nets. Seems somewhat silly to me, but for why not, helps the Denmark people to sell mosquito nets to Ghana people who think they cannot make mosquito nets… Another story…

I want to make two modifications to my net. I want the top to be only the size of a single bed, however the bottom to be as big as double or regular bed. I also want to install this pull string type entrance. Buying good lightweight mosquito net is difficult to purchase, I think I need to go somewhere where they do not have a problem with Malaria… Hehehe

There are tons of tailor shops here, I sometime hope I am required to use this mosquito net for a few weeks. I would be more inclined to make the modification and not forget until the next time I am under this blanket.

It is cooler here at 757 meters or something like that, but not enough, it rained and then stopped.

I keep thinking, when I enter an expensive hotel and they have mosquito nets, I am worried. A much better system is to install screens on the windows, mosquito nets are uncomfortable and meant for cheap hotels.

I truthfully think they would do better to install screens on all the windows of the home here, probably would be as effective as trying to put nails in clay adobe walls, and expecting them to hold. The fundamental problem is the rooms, homes, and bed are designed wrong, the root problem is in the design of what is need to hang the mosquito net. Then the mosquito net, there is many adaptations needed before I am happy or through with this baby.

For those who pay a fortune for mosquito nets in a gear shops, they cost about 3 dollars in Thailand.

Mosquito Nets, Mosquito, Annoyances, West Africa Annoyances, Insects, Gear, West Africa Gear,

Difficult Mosquito Nets

Manners of a Drunk

Manners of a Drunk
Lome, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Drunks
The world has unwritten rule that we pretend they do not exist. The world looks the other way and hopes they go away.

I often explain to the British people that proper Americans will ignore their
- Taking the P -

This is because a well-mannered proper person will consider the behavior of Taking the P that is often performed by all classes of United Kingdom persons as low-classed behavior and to be ignored. Taking the P is to wind up a person by being sarcastic, and to by deliberated design and premeditation make comments that infer the person is stupid. The bad part is the Brits that do it are normally the more stupid and then the American tends to ignore as low classed and they continue more because they believe we do not realize.

The only way to stop is to either do as I do, explain the Americans ignore this behavior, and we consider something done by drunks or un-educated workers, not educated. This normally stops a Brit, because they all have this delusional desire they are educated, and for sure the way they behave at soccer matches proves this.

You can do it back to them, and it will stop them

Loud Mentally Retarded people are ignored on the planet, and the very foolish.

I know, I will naturally try my best to ignore this type of person.

Presently there is some Nigerians here in the Auberge who also, the same as Michael have their battery powered radio on full blast, it has been on all night.

They are not drunk.
I had to remind myself of this fact.

While in Mexico for over a year, there were so many drunks I would continually have to avoid them staggering around in Hotels. They would go on three-day drunks and this country has one of the worst obnoxious drunk problems, maybe Brazil is up there also. There is many countries, like Guatemala and Ecuador where people are laying around drunk everywhere, but not very obnoxious, just everywhere.

West Africa does not have much of a drunken problem; it does have people that behave like drunks. The turn the radio up, they talk loud, they are oblivious to the fact they live in a world with other people.

I think of the right to pursuit of happiness in the constitution of the USA and how it also says, you cannot disturb the rights of pursuits of happiness. It is more or less our protection from the selfishness of others.

Michael wish to learn the values of mine, and not easy for a person to live with my family and friends for 25 years, and socialize them to another culture.

I am going to recommend managers of hotels and not the hotels, it is because a hotel can often turn from a nice place to a bad place when the manager of the hotel has the manners of a drunk and does not have any comrades. Ami my friend has quit the Auberge Mandela, now there is only one person here, Felix who is passive and quiet, and the other managers dominate and have the manners of drunks, therefore the place has went from ok to bad.

Ami was well mannered, and somehow was able to create an environment that told the manners of drunk like behavior of the managers to behave.

When, I was with Michael, his manners allowed this type of person enter our world. I normally avoid these people and after 10 years of travel, I can avoid them at ease. However, the sudden awareness of them around me everywhere, told me, someone left the door opens. I cannot change people, so I must separate from people.

Allowing people with the manners of drunks, they do not have to drink to have them; into your traveler’s world is a simple analogy or explanation on how to choose a hotel. I choose the well-behaved hotels, on the other hand, the manners of 85 percent of travelers, is the same, the manners of drunks, therefore they do not care.

I realized one time I could not marry this women, her family was so badly mannered, that there was no way to overlook and avoid. To marry a person with the manners of drunk is to live with a drunk. I continue to explain to people, my problem with marrying a girl from another country is not the color, race, or education, it is I need to have a person who has respect and manners or I feel like finding a club to tame them.

I have a few pages on this.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/manners.php

I have never considered this, but one of the founding Father of the USA, George Washington wrote some rules of Civility and I sometime refer to them. This in a way, could have set the tone for the future of the USA. They have some values that are now considered bad manners and maybe racist in today’s society, yet nonetheless the overall information is good.

George Washington's - Rules of Civility

http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1248919.html
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/search/index.html

Manners of a Drunk

LO to 84 Decibels

LO to 84 Decibels
Lome, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Low Voltage and High Decibels.

It is 5:52 AM in the morning, I have been playing around for the last half hour or more trying to measure the sound level in my room. I would say I am in a quiet room, then again I am not sure, maybe I am not in a quiet room.

There is a window air conditioner in ever room of this hotel where I am staying, although the price of air conditioner is not include in the base price. Every room has a meter:
http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/03/lome-togo-hotel-change.html

The low voltage in this neighborhood of Lome, Togo or the fluctuations in volts may have caused damage to the air conditioners. Or maybe running on lower volts than required causes them to make noise. They make this constant wobble sound, like the ball bearing are bad in the compressor motor.

My room is very quiet, it registers Lo or off the meter when there is no fan or air conditioning running. Turn on the fan and the sound level measure on my Radio Shack Sound Meter can go up as high as 67 and if I put it right next to the fan the meter can read as high as 90.

The fan is a constant, or fluctuating constant sound, a background noise and is ok, it does go up and down as the voltage regulation in the room varies tremendously. It is not an annoying sound.

The person next door, I do not have my air conditioning on, turns on their air conditioners and the wobble grating noise starts.

What I have learn here is that the steady sound level can be high with the fan, yet not be as annoying as sudden noises or different types of noises. The grating of the air conditioning next door to me is very intrusive, while the fan making almost the same level of constant volume is not.

The window in my room is closed, the window in the shower is open, I measured the noise in the shower and it is lower than the room in the bedroom. The noise though is more grating and more annoying, there is nothing to stop the sharp pitches and highs and lows, nothing to slow down the grating, however it is less noisy measured in decibels because that room is farther away.

Choosing a Hotel room.

I suppose I will eventually identify what make a good room from a bad room quicker. Any bed and breakfast type, mom and pop, family run hotel or quaint back country type establishment is full of quirks. There may be a common area where the family sits around and has big discussions and screams when a goal is made in the football game on TV.

I am identifying the quirks of a room and want to know in the hotel, which room is located in the optimum location for peace and relaxation. The person next door has decided to turn off their air conditioner, the stress level of my room has decrease, the overall enjoyment in the room is great now. I woke up because of both a small increase in decibels, yet the type of noise was obnoxious. Plus, I suppose it was time to wake up for me, or close to time.

Small family run hotels, hotels with less than 30 rooms I believe are better than large hotels with more than 50 or more rooms. I do like the mom and pop around, if they are friendly and have an obvious smile on their face. However, when I am entering these small bed and breakfast size hotels, I want to know how to pick and choose the best room in the hotel.

I am afraid of reservations, a reservation says to the hotel, he is committed, we can put him in the worst room and he must accept this as his choice. When I enter a hotel, without a reservation, they know I can say no to the hotel or the room. I take a tour of all hotels, choose the room that is the best fit for me, not another person, but me, some persons could love to hear the loud music or what I think is annoying children. It may depend on the type of music.

To identify quick, make the best choice, then not need to move or leave the hotel is my goal. I have been in this Hotel for about 10 days, therefore it says something good about the room in the hotel. If I leave in one, then maybe it does say something. I do not always know why I am leaving a hotel, it just feels bad and is time to leave, there is nothing in my itinerary or time frames that is scheduled, I can leave when the life gets boring or stay.

Sometimes in a guidebook a writer will say, try to get on the backside of the hotel and avoid the street noise. Sometimes this is easy to do, however in reality, there is one or two rooms in every hotel that are the best. Strange as it may seem, this has nothing to do with price. The highest priced room has the most appliances, TV, Air, Fridge, and is large. Small, quiet, isolated, and with a good breeze can be the cheapest room in the hotel. I like the isolated rooms, however with a window facing something good, a room where what comes in the window is good whether it be noise, sunlight or a breeze. Sunlight coming in the room here in West Africa is not an advantage.

Note a horn beeping of any kind is annoying and abrupt, I cannot hear any car or motorcycle horns, a rooster has started crowing in the far distance.

LO to 84 Decibels

Feelings, Noise, Togo, Air Conditioning, Hotel Rooms Choosing

Sound Pollution

Sound Pollution
Lome Togo West Africa
Sunday, February 25, 2007

Measuring the sound to know how much of my brain resources are being used by the background noise levels.

Lome is not a noisy place for the most part, yet I have a new Sound Meter I purchased at Radio Shack and now I am playing.

I was reading in the Encarta Encyclopedia and trying to read the instructions that came with the meter.

Sound Intensity or about Noise Pollution:
- Sound intensity is measured in units called decibels. The decibel scale is logarithmic and climbs steeply: An increase of about three decibels is a doubling of sound volume. In the wilderness, a typical sound level would be 35 decibels. Speech runs 65 to 70 decibels; heavy traffic generates 90 decibels. By 140 decibels, sound becomes painful to the human ear, but ill effects, including hearing loss, set in at much lower levels.

I am hoping to set some standards, then measure the noise level in my Hotel rooms. I was surprised or not surprised in Delhi when I measure about 80 Decibel while laying in my bed.

I will work out a common way to measuring sound, as example it could or maybe be in a few areas:

FIRST
1. 12 Noon
2. Lying in my bed
SECOND
1. 12 Noon
2. Entrance to my Hotel

THIRD
1. 12 Noon
2. Center of Backpacker Universe for city.

I may or may not be a sensitive person, however, for sure I am curious, I am slowly understanding a type of stress that is ever present, yet I cannot just define and name.

This is background noise levels or maybe the term is Ambient.

AMBIENT:
in surrounding area: in the immediately surrounding area. (2)

Yes, but this is not so easy to define, there is some type of base level or average amount of noise in any location on the planet. I know that even though I may be able to sleep, talk, and function well, there is often enough sounds at different levels or my ability to perceive or hear the sounds.

I suppose there is something about what I am conscious of and what I am not conscious of, in Katmandu, the beeping horns of motorcycles demanded my conscious level to respond.

I think I am more worried about the sub-conscious of background noise I have in my hotels that is still very loud.

There is a cluttering of the brain, a using of resource of my brain that is annoying.

My room is presently about average 62 decibels and in Delhi it was closer to 72. Maybe, I can develop a strategy of choosing rooms that helps me to choose the optimal room for peace and quiet, or control of the noise that enters my brain.

Concrete wall echo and do not absorb well the sounds, etc.

Sound Pollution

Noise Pollution

Noise Pollution
Delhi, India Asia
Monday, February 12, 2007

Trying to escape the noise, I have put a wool blanket up over the window trying to shut out the noise. I do not know what to do, I only have to last until tomorrow night, then I can leave, oops, I need to return on the 22-3 of February, back into the fire.

I am amiss to understand how the world feels very little remorse about creating unlimited amounts of noise. Do people really not care how much they annoy people, or they just totally oblivious to the feelings or others around them.

Noise Pollution

Load Shading in Nepal

Load Shading in Nepal
Katmandu, Nepal Asia
Friday, January 19, 2007

The Electricity is shut off at pre-arranged times.

I like words, the Nepali people around me have been using the term - Load Shading. -

I sometimes feel stupid, yet I resort to thinking, I am too old, too experienced, too much water has gone over the bridge to think this, I do not understand the term.

What they mean is this, the shut the electricity completely for areas of the city at pre-arranged times. This means where I am living on Mondays and Wednesday between 5:00 and 7::30 PM there is no electricity and also on Friday morning, I think between 6:00 and 8:00 AM.

I am thinking about this, because it is Friday morning and there is no electricity in my room, I can work on my computer because it has a battery good for about 1-2 hours…. hehehe, the lights need to come on.

Biggest problem is I cannot make coffee with my one-cup coffer cooker.

So where did the word - Shading - come from, I can understand load, or the load on the electrical system. Yet, there is not in the shade or middle ground here in my room, it is an outage.

I looked up in my Encarta Encyclopedia on my computer, there is not load-shading, however, there is load shedding.

Load Shedding:
- temporary reduction in electricity supply: a temporary reduction in a supply of electricity as a method of reducing the demand. - (2)

Maybe my hotel is just spelling wrong, I looked up on the Internet and there are pages of Nepal and Load Shading, so not the only place.
Peoplesreview.com.np

I will go do the Wiki thing. I did not find Load Shading, yet I did discover the Load Shedding, however, even that goes on to be redirected to - Rolling blackout -
Wikipedia.org on Load Shedding

My battery is getting weak, I need to conclude my thread of curious word following research.

There is probably a Wikidictionary.com? I will check.
Yep, there is:
Wiktionary.org

There are hazards of following words of research, it is extremely easy for a the curious to get sidetracked. The page explaining about Dictionaries in the Wikipedia is fascinating.
Wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary

No Load Shade, yet again there is load shedding.
load_shedding

Aaagh, low battery warning, 7:48, time to turn it on…

I think this is a what I call - India English - thing, the India people like many countries have their own version of English. I am finding this term mostly on India English pages.
Google.com "Load Shading" Search

Load Shading in Nepal

Measuring the Hotel Noise

Measuring the Hotel Noise
Katmandu Nepal, Asia
Wednesday January 17, 2007

I am curious, why do some of these places seem so noisy, is it me, or is the world as noisy as I think?

Curiously has lead to a purchase, I am buying a Digital Sound Meter from RadioShack.com, in the USA. I will pick up when I stop in to visit around the 17 of February.



Sound Meter, about 60 US for me to know, how loud it is where I live... today.

The I will be able to compare, how loud is my home town compared to places like Katmandu, Nepal. When I was in Iquito, Peru, what you would hope is a lazy quiet city on the Amazon River, I was amazed at the motorcycle noise. I remember noise, when I think of Iquitos.

Now, I can go from place to place and log in the noise level, I think people often are so excited to be on vacation the ignore the noise.

Measuring the Hotel Noise

Ants in My Bed

Ants in My Bed

Maybe a solution:
1. Baby Powder to get them out of the bed.
2. Set up a perimeter around the bed with what you can find in the country you are in...

These are choices:
Cayeen pepper
Ground Cinnamon
Borax (Laundry Section)
Bay Leaf
Catnip
Spearmint
White vinegar

I am hyper-sensitive, I can feel the ants, they are in my bed. I am now on the Full Moon Party beach of Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand.

I am not in the cheap hotel, I am in the all concrete, 450 Baht room, I cannot buy to Ant Control... aagh.

Ok, wood rooms are way beyond my abilty to work with, I need a good, normal on the planet concrete room to make headway.

Hot Springs Chris has been recommending Pepper to me for years, however, how do I put pepper around my whole room. I have decide it is possible to reduce the space free from ants, I am setting up a perimeter around my bed only, I will now only set up my bed in the center of the concrete floor, then use pepper and other easy to find products.

Then, how to get out of my bed? I hope baby powder will work..?

I think, I hope I have a solution, in many ways this comes down to the problem, if I spray the room, I will be sleeping in a smelly, insect repellant room. I do not want to spray my bed with insect repellant.

I do not know, however these two pages are helpful.
http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/health/ants.html
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980528a.cfm

This is like a tip in progress, one of these days I will figure out the right combination to make my life free from ants in my bed.

Ants in My Bed

Ants and Cockroaches

Ants and Cockroaches
Tupi Philippines Southeast Asia
Sunday, December 10, 2006

I am in one of the cleanest rooms I have ever slept in; I do not think it could be cleaner.

I do not think it is possible to avoid cockroaches and ants, I should work on accepting that I live with them, they are part of my life.

I turned on the light and a huge 1-2 inch cockroach goes running towards an undiscovered corner of the room. Then the ants, they are everywhere, they crawl into areas, they are the invaders. The Ants cause problems, the cockroaches give me a scare, as they are creepy, however not really harmful. Ants will crawl into my hair or onto my body and annoy me, and then sometimes a vicious variety will arrive that bites, leaving red welts.

I am sleeping in an exceptionally clean room.

Talking about ants and cockroaches is maybe the dirty laundry discussion of travel. We are supposed to, see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. To say or admit that we have cockroaches in the room is like saying,
- We are low classed people. -

Somehow, the upper class does not have the same problems, or problems… dysfunctional beliefs run rampant.

I am a hobo, the theme of my page is hobo, I do not believe it is wise to admit how nice some of the rooms are, and I am supposed to be sleeping in the gutter.

How to stop cockroaches, I do not think, I can, unless I would have to block every hole in my room, and never opened the door.

Hmm, I just realized, maybe the idea is not to stop them from entering, the idea is to repel them. There are sprays to kill, I need to read, and maybe says it works as a repellant.

(Boric Acid)

Ants, I think I can work on the idea of repelling; however than the problem is speed. I do think I can lay down a liquid barrier that would repel the ants, but first I have to kill the ones in the room. This starts to be a major cost, about five to ten dollars per room. I have never done this, I have never paid to exterminate the ants, I have purchased powder, but to spray and kill all of them in the room, nope.

Everything is about money and time, do I wish to invest one hour of time into killing ants, and than five to ten dollars US in cash, on a room I will leave tomorrow.

Ants do not like air conditioning, however when it is cold enough to repel them, it also makes me want to leave.

Ants and Cockroaches

Travel Pillow

Travel Pillow
Natitingou Benin West Africa
Thursday, September 28, 2006

I can deal with most beds; there is seldom in my world a bed so bad, that it is ridiculous, some in India, but who goes to India. The pillow though has after nine going on ten years finally started to annoy me. If I get annoyed enough, I start searching for solutions. This is not easy, a pillow is big, not something, I want to carry, or do I?

Yes, in the Galion Hotel in Lome, Togo, it has these small, soft, midget pillows. I am trying to remember where I first encountered the pillows. I have been in many hotels with many type of pillows. Amazing how the hotel just does not care, they will buy these rocks, lumps that sit in the bed and can be used to kill cockroaches because they are so hard.

In Lome they sold these pillows, soft, small, made to squeeze, I am not sure, the older pillow may be softer. I took apart the pillow in the Galion and gazed for a while at the pillow. Trying to learn how it was made.

I found the pillow to buy there, but I could not find the pillowcase. Yesterday in Natitingou, Benin, I found the pillowcase, or cases. Two for 600 Fran or about one dollar US. I kept trying to say, I only need one, but the young fun loving slap me if I do not take two forced me to take the two. She demanded I use a plastic bag; I could not put in my cargo pants pockets. It was fun, but I found the person to buy a pillowcase. Now, I can carry a pillowcase easy enough, now I can look for the pillow.

FOAM
There is this normal business in Africa; it sells foam, the foam that would be inside a couch, or a funky cheap mattress, the foam of the cushion inside a couch. I am confused why there is this store everywhere, but they exist. It may be because West Africa is big on making furniture, and stuffed chairs are common. Nonetheless, I also found a man, speak more than two words of English, good manners and want to please. A rare person in West Africa. I have the whole team, the store with pillowcases and the store to make a pillow.

The man was slow on the soft idea, however I will buy the materials, and he sells them. I think I know exactly how to make an ultra soft roll up or fold over pillow.

Spending a lot of time in Hotel room means the pillow starts to make my neck hurt. A bad pillow and I want to leave the hotel, the proper bed and I am comfortable. The Auberge USA has a good combination, better than most. I want my own pillow though and think it is time to start carrying a super soft pillow.

I do think I can find down here, impossible to find, but layers of foam, can make a soft pillow.

My friend Justin has insomnia; he would walk around to all the hotels in a city of Ecuador and find the perfect bed. He could tell you every bed in the city and the pros and cons. I wonder if he thought also of the pillow, I am sure he did. Many travelers, on short-term will carry a pillow, I see the tourist with pillows all the time, like a pacifier for the kids.

I want to combine the U-shape, bus or plane pillow with the bed pillow, not so easy and takes up space, but I know it will eventually work.

Travel Pillow

Ants in Thailand

Ants in Thailand

I rolled over, covered myself, put on insect repellant, I had these welts over my body. Finally, I turned on the light, for a good inspection; somehow, ants had crawled into my bed and were biting me last night.

Not the semi-friendly type that just annoy by crawling on my body, the more vicious type that bite and leave small red marks, sort of swollen and itchy.

I moved hotels, not because of the Ants.

I have moved to some 150 Baht, strange, dread, and Thai house, and sleep on a mattress on floor place. There are many people to talk with, however back to the cold-water dip shower method of cleaning my body.
The place is nice, everyone is friendly and for sure, you cannot avoid them by accident or design. Some French Canadian girl in the Post Office yesterday told me about the place, so I followed her home. It is cheap for sure, friendly, and the closest to having a kitchen for me to use, that I have encountered in a many a moon.

It is a House, almost impossible to explain where it located. I think I will take a GPS reading. The name is Tu House or Tu Guesthouse or something like that, sort of a chill out, smoke a joint, play the bongs place, and my room is huge for 150 Baht.

I have a lock on my door, so I am in seventh heaven, I can feel secure, all is great.

I keep trying to tell the Tuk Tuk driver it was behind the Mercedes Benz place, on the main road. He does not understand Mercedes; I am too lazy to walk with my heavy backpack. I only walk in Europe with my backpack; I use a taxi that is what one dollar is good for� A taxi.

I do not like to pack my back, but if I am going to pack my back, it is a good time to move. Just to safe, I went to 7-11 and purchased a one-dollar can of insect KILLER. I am hoping it works on ants, it is possible the are in my clothing and backpack.

I sprayed kind of secretive, I think I am surround by granola for lunch bunch, maybe Veggies, and they may want to save the ants, or hug a tree. This stereotype does not always like effective measures.

Ants in Thailand

AMSTERDAM - STINKY DRUNK IN MY ROOM

I have finally found an internet cafe where I can use my USB thumbdrive.
It still is limited for use, I cannot use my foxmail program for emails.
FTP works, but this place is on Overtoon which is mabye a 45 minute walk from my room.
The STA travel office is at 226 Overtoom.
The have charter flights one-way to Israel for 205
The flights to the USA are the same as the other ones, unless you are a student.

AMSTERDAM - STINKY DRUNK IN MY ROOM
Monday October 11, 2004 5:00 AM more or less

It is early morning and again I am out in the hall typing on my computer. I am now in the Globe Hostel or sports bar and it is better, but there are the same type of problems but less. The place is nice, but there is a bar in the bottom so you have drunks. Some drunk has presently flopped complete with clothes on the bottom bunk and is making all sorts of grunts, snorts, and bodily noises. I have no idea where he came from and will be sure and lock the door tomorrow night. There are doors on the dorm room and I had to pay a 5 Euro deposit to get the keys. There are some very high security features to the hotel.

Example are that cannot enter the upstairs area without being have the reception are buzz the door and it unlocks. There is a key to the dorm door and lockers everywhere. Normally security features like these are only implemented when needed.

WORST INTERNET ACCESS IN WORLD
The may have some of the fastest internet on the planet, but the most difficult situation if you would wish to burn a CD Rom of your photos, write a word document and save on 3.5 disk, or in my case to use and USB thumb drive to load information to the internet. I would say that the facilities in this area are almost only for tourist or bar drunks. The mid-range backpacker has no services that I would consider normal. The laundry is difficult here, the internet is awkward, there is no area to hang around except in a coffee shop or a bar. The extra or miscellaneous expenses in this city are extreme, while the cost of the Hostel is lower than England the Miscellaneous needs probably makes the cost the same.

But people come to Amsterdam to smoke, drink, and pay for sex with all the prostitutes and the place is very good for that, but for the normal Joe Blow a stay of over 3-4 days is not needed. There are some special museums here like the Anne Frank, and the Vincent Van Gogh museums.

I keep looking at the map of Amsterdam and trying to understand the canal system as it has a series of canals that are concentric circles around the train station area.

DO NOT EXPECT TO TAKE YOUR PHOTOS OFF CAMERA IN AMSTERDAM!

AMSTERDAM CANAL TOUR
8.50 Euros and I am on the boat, it leaves every 15 minutes I am told, so I can get easily get off at Amsterdam Central train station and take the canal tour and even get back on the train and leave. I am trying to buy a plane ticket or I would have got back on the train… only after taking the canal tour. There is an architecture tour advertised, but only on Saturday and Sunday, although today is Sunday, I do not know the price and am not sure I can arrange or move fast enough.

I have been thinking a lot about just sleeping on the train and doing Europe, the quality of living in the dorms is not much better than sleeping on the train, although the shower is the problem. But I can take hand baths for 3-5 days and take a full shower whenever I find a room easily. Buying a car or van is the other option. I saw huge storage areas for pull campers as I was entering Amsterdam.

I cannot yet find discount airfares, but before I just book a ticket I am going to find the STATRAVEL or student travel office. I am not a student although I do have a student card…. Hehehe from Thailand, and made in Thailand… hehehe… But they will book a ticket without being a student.

STUDENTS
I have this gut feeling that I need to find the place where students or university people buy tickets here in Amsterdam as the ones around this area of the Amsterdam Central trains station are not discount ticket services, but pay though the nose, put it on credit-card ticket companies. I would guess that in reality only about 1 in 20 backpacker or tourist goes to more than 3 ticket offices before they buy, therefore only 5 percent of the world travelers even shop a little, they just buy, so the best type of travel agent to make money would be a gouger. Two way tickets are cheaper in Amsterdam than the one way, so the one say ticket is not half the price of the return ticket, but about ¾ the price. In Bangkok a one-way ticket is half the price of the return or round trip ticket. Bangkok is so far the best place to base yourself for around the world travel.

Battery is dead, and the plugs I cannot use without digging in my bag…. Aagh, one snafu after the other. I really do not like Hostel, if there was a common area of any kind beside the bar I could drag my bags around and open them up. I am in front of the toilet on the floor.

TEN - FIVE AMSTERDAM - NETHERLANDS - HOLLAND
4:50 AM Sunday, October 10, 2004

I am sitting on the floor outside my dorm room in the Durty Nellie Hostel in the more or less Red Light Area of Central Amsterdam. It has an Irish Pub below as is normal for most Hostels in Europe, not that they have an Irish Pub, but the normal status quo seem to me that there is a bar below most Hostels in Europe. I really would not call these things Hostels when they have a Bar below, more like Bar Flop Houses. By far one of the worst budget accommodations on the planet. I just left Nepal where for 6 dollars U.S. I had color TV, two beds, a private room and a balcony. Plus it was quiet so for 30 U.S. Dollars or 25 Euros I am paying 5 times the price to sit outside my dorm room and type. Miserable!

I have been warned by Bruce from the USA, Nicolas from Switzerland, by the lady at Hostelhunters.com, and everyone more or less, including the signs in the Hostel that they are not responsible for loss or theft, and that I need to be careful of robbery.

BOOK OR BOOK?
Do I book a room in Europe or do I go to Europe. I have finally decided that there is a huge need to book rooms in Europe. But when I got on Hostelworld.com or my own booking Engine on my site, which is Hostelworld.com with my co-brand it said all the room were full. Except for the 100 Dollar plus rooms. I have no idea how a room for over 50 Dollars could ever get into a Hostel booking site, but there are hundreds. I am becoming more and more disappointed in the Hostel booking services. They are ten time better than nothing in Europe, but for sure I am going to make a booking service that is better.

What is wrong with having a kitchen in a Hostel?

In England and maybe Australia they have Kitchens in Hostel…. I think, I am not positive, as I cannot afford to move around in England. The Tube or Metro, subway or whatever you call it is radically price too high, and is just a gouger. But the hostels are much better or more fun than Amsterdam so far. I suppose if you want to get very drunk than Amsterdam is perfect.

In my dorm room of about 20 people there are maybe five people awake and talking very loud, I have jet lag so there is no way for me to get comfortable or sleep through the racket. I would suppose that 33 percent of the people in the room have just stumbled in and fell on the bed, so their inebriation is helping them. I think the preponderance of people are Irish as I cannot understand a word they say unless they repeat it 3 times. I am happy to say even though they keep turning on the light, talking loud, stumbling, and opening and closing the door, they do say,
“Sorry.”

Funny, but the words excuse me are not really used in the world, the word to say excuse me is,
“Sorry.”

So I am moving today for the Globe, also in the Red Light district and recommended by my friend Bruce. I have already paid and booked a room there as it is 18 Euros and more secure. There are wooden lockers it appears in most hostels and a locker I think is standard, the problem here in the Dirty or Durty Nellie as they spell is that they are wood and they can be popped open very easily in some instances. The use screws and not bolts that go all the way through the wood. A screw can be pulled or removed pretty easily, while a bolt all the way through the wood cannot. In the Globe they have relatively deep STEEL lockers and almost impossible to break into quickly. Plus they have a wireless internet system inside the Hostel they tell me, I was told it was free if I understood correctly, and this would make my life easier here.

I have got to guess that the cost of living in Amsterdam is about 15 Dollars U.S. per day cheaper for a short stay than London, but Earls Court or Kangaroo Court in London has information on finding apartments and jobs easier. So the first week appears to be more expensive in London, but you could quickly downgrade the cost.

Amsterdam is a full on, no stop tourist city like Brugge, Belgium and there are tons of obvious tourist here and I have only seen maybe two normal like backpackers. Most are tourist and I looked extremely out of place walking with my large back pack and my front pack and wheels is the norm here even for the backpackers. Wheels though are best and am constantly trying to put light and strong wheels on my bags.

My backpack weighs exactly 20 kilos and exactly the weight for the plane.
My front pack weighs 14 kilos or 7 kilos over weight for the plane.
(A drunk girl in maroon pajamas just stepped over my bag, that is working as a desk. I am in front of the toilet and coke machine on the second floor.)

There is a 5 pound grace normally on the big bag, so I can go up to 25 kilos and really the airlines are not set up to take extra money for baggage. Except for the discount lines, Ryanair.com, Easyjet.com, Airasia.com. If you see a counter that collect money for excess bag weight you need to really work and adjust as much as possible quickly before you go to the check-in counter.

I am trying very hard to downsize my bags, but am starting to believe that in Europe the Eurolines bus system is a lot simpler and less of a headache than the cheap flights. Unless I need to get from one end to the other end of Europe. Heathrow is the only real easy airport for England and I am not sure of the status of Amsterdam and Brussels. I will get on the internet for a couple of hours today and only search for cheap flights. The cost round-trip to Boston from here is 420 U.S. Dollar with is pretty good, but not extremely good. The have an advertised price of 249 round-trip to New York that is in January. So I think January is the cheapest month to fly to USA.

32,000 FEET - 500 MILES PER HOUR
Saturday, October 9, 2004 Who knows what time?

I am on the Bimar or Bangladesh airlines flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Dubai to Brussels, Belgium, to New York, New York, USA. My trip ends in Brussels where I will hopefully catch a train easily to Amsterdam, I say easily because Europe is extremely difficult for travel. In 80 percent of the world I can take a taxi for one or two dollars and the taxi knows the way to the train station. In Europe unless I am willing to pay 20-50 U.S. Dollars to take a taxi I must learn how local bus system works. Local buses are always the most complicated to use. Sometimes they are simple but normally they are a maze for rats.

So I am high in the Air, flying around 500 something per hour, the plane is full of Bangladesh people going somewhere and a few Belgium people. I have the feeling a lot of these people are USA citizens, but very hard to say because they are wearing the Islamic uniform and talking in different languages. One young girl next spoke English more than she spoke the Bangladesh language and I finally asked her where she was from? She said that she was from Jersey with the appropriate USA Jersey accent. Quite humorous to me like a complete culture clash to see a woman with the long dress like shirt and silky pants, plus the scarf over her head. Skin color the light brown or Bangladesh color suddenly speaking like “New Jersey.” She even has the East coast arrogant, cannot be bothered, why do you ask questions attitude. Islamic people are normally very polite and well mannered.

MARRIAGE
The girl is getting married in Bangladesh and she is going back to the USA to…’
“Make Application.”
I made a Joke,
“You can make an application for a marriage?”

She finally went beyond the curt Jersey answers and told me or I finally guessed she was making application for her husband to have citizenship. It was funny because as we was leaving Dhaka, Bangladesh she said that she wanted to stay because she like it. So there is few missing pieces to this pie.

I did learn later her father is dead and her mother moved to the USA eleven years ago. I have not idea of the reason, but I am continuing my cultural investigations of marriage.

She has been explaining there is a quasi arranged marriage system for Islamic people. There is the same quasi arranged marriage system for Hindu also.

PLUS THE DEAD KICKER
If the husband of an Islamic or Hindi person dies for any reason it appears that the wife can never remarry. I am not sure if she can have a boyfriend. This is one reason in the past and in many ways in Varanasi, India the women jump on the funeral pyre with their husbands to kill themselves. Their life is defined by their husband and in most ways ends with their husband. So they often commit suicide. I would suppose moving to the USA would be a good solution also, but that is my speculaton.

WHAT THE H..?
They wake us up to eat on the plane and then the shut the lights off after breakf