The Cost of My Travel Decisions

The Cost of My Travel Decisions
Lome, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

I was asked the other day, how much do I spend per day here in Togo. I had to think, but my answer was, 7-8000 CFA per day, or about 15 US per day as of August of 2007. I think two months ago, this amount was closer to 10-15,000 CFA per day, or about 20-30 US per day. The cost of living in West Africa is continually going down as I understand how Africans and French people think.

I have sat here thinking for ten minutes, if you wanted to somehow evaluate the travel skills of a person, ask them,
- How much is your room? -

Then go look at the room.

If a person is living with another person and they are paying, this is more or less a taker, a person who will take to live cheap, a person to be wary of as they will sponge on you to live.

I have been analyzing the HDI - Human Development Index, a lot of misinformation, however still a guide. I think you could safely take,

(Estimated Yearly earned income for FEMALE)
/ 365 days in per year.
= Target

Whatever you pay above this target amount is probably the more you are listening to the other tourist and not trying to make good decisions.

I can only weigh my decisions in dollars, I must use money as my guide, to not use money as the guide will make your travel agent very happy.

I have been thinking, if a person is willing to go camping in the USA for a month, they probably can travel ok in Central, South America or Africa ok, Asia is easy, the quality of rooms in Asia for the month is a great value. West Africa has really great rooms, however to stay on budget you need to slide down to camping level now and then.

The Cost of My Travel Decisions

Brave Travel Writers Write Real Budgets

Brave Travel Writers Write Real Budgets
Lome, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

I do not like to read about travel, I become too annoyed as the travel writers avoid or do not know the real budget costs of travel.

I will admit, I have never tried to tackle the job of explaining global travel budgets. I write about specific costs, I do not go global; I stay in the specifics and have not tried to explain how to travel the world in one areas of the site. I feel I maybe think I need to travel to the Stan Brothers, Russia, Australia, Japan, Korea and parts of the Middle east before I can say, I know, or am close to knowing the planet.

The sad part is, let us be real, who has really traveled the whole planet, there are not many who have traveled on a backpacker budget, some who traveled on a Business Budget know the most places, not the cultures. However, off the top of my head, I know only one couple who I would say, comes close to knowing he world.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/forwood/country.shtml

Why does a travel writer need to be brave to write about real budgets?

Easy, if you say or recommend Hotels for 500 US dollars per night, you just excluded about 95 percent of your readers. The same is when I talk about finding a room for 4 dollars; I have just annoyed about 95 percent of the click, browse, and click away readers. Say any specific dollar amount and some reader is annoyed and stops reading.

Recommend anything cheap and people complain, they want a Five Star Hotel on a minus One Star budget, geez grow up.

Why am I annoyed with travel writers, they normally only take the fantasy writing route. The fine dining restaurant, dream what I would do if I was rich and famous, Princess Diana, become a King fantasy adventure too safe to be an adventure trips. And a reader has to be brave to say a Five Star Hotel is bad.

I am laughing to myself; do you know why there are not very few travel writers in West Africa? It is because they cannot afford to travel here. Price an air ticket to Lome, Togo from your home round-trip and see if you do not get a little weak in the knees.

99 percent of Travel Writers make 1 percent of the money and 1 percent make 99 percent of the money. It is the rich who get richer and the poor get poorer scenario in as a nut you eat.

Annoyed readers is not a way to sell Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Expensive Tours, Hotels and Airplane Tickets.

I annoy more readers by talking about a 5 dollar room, then I talking about a 50 dollar room, I would annoy even less at 100 and start to annoy more at the 200 level and again to start really annoy if I say good valued rooms for 5000 per night.

Explaining how to cook rice with an alcohol cooker, buying bananas, how to cut up a pineapple in your room, or how I got sick eating does not make prime time travel readers happy.

If I talked about drinking wine on the French Riviera or having dinner in a with the USA Embassy workers in Togo French Restaurant, complete with wine testing, and clean table clothes, this would entice the fantasy travel reader more.

How could I write about real travel budgets? I first have to define the budget of my readers, and then write for them.
(I really thought first the words stereotypical tourist.)

I feel most wanna be travel writers dream about writing in one of these price ranges, and wanna be famous with some of these example of travel market stereotypes.

National Geographic Traveler Magazine Online

Rick Steves' Europe

Conde Nast Traveler on Concierge.com

New York Times Travel T Magazine

American Express

Journeywoman Travel magazine for women

Frommer-s Budget Travel Guides

Visa Everywhere You Want to Be

BRITISH
Thomas Cook

GERMAN
Geo Magazine

These groups are all focused on very specific markets, they are trying to appeal and write to a group with X amount of money, with this X amount of education and has this much time vacation and spend X amount of money per trip.

To write about a global real budget, I then make some general broad comment or copy that somehow appeals to each of ten price levels for real budgets, and then explain how to live within their budgets.

I would the need to explain all ten budgets to adequately explain how much it cost to travel the whole planet. Ergo, think, 10, this is why these magazines only try to manage one to three budget levels and normally where they can make the most money from the most people, it is about money, not about travel.

Learn a budget, ask a Business Traveler, and he will tell you,
- The company gives me this much per diem and I have this much money for room, they require that I normally stay in this Hotel Chain and kiss this mans wife. I can travel with these airlines and they allow me to get the Frequent Flyer miles so I can get a bonus. -

The will tell you their budget, this is what the writer has to keep as the top and bottom of their writing budget, they write about things to do inside this price range… hehehe If this was the groups you wanted to focus on, I would recommend you learn the per diem allowance for hotels for various cities of the planet as dictated by the US Internal Revenue, and have a laugh when you read about Lome, Togo.

I am a stereotype, however, the truth is, I fit in all the above categories better than I do in the one normally write about and truthfully everyone fits into all and none at the same time.

I be Hobo, who cares, I can do what I do, and be anything I wanna be, today, tomorrow or yesterday, because nobody pays attention to a tramp.

Which stereotype do you wish to be today? or maybe go Hobo...

Brave Travel Writers Write Real Budgets

Africa Travel Budget

Africa Travel Budget
Lome, Togo West Africa
Thursday, March 8, 2007

I live on a backpackers budget, I fortunately earn enough from the HoboTraveler.com website to live on a tourist budget when needed.

These phrases or terms mean little because what a person needs to live on is their personal budget.

There are four major parts to a budget.
1. Rooms
2. Transportation
3. Daily cost of food, taxis, beer, internet and purchases of supplies.
4. Souvenirs which does not apply to me, I cannot buy souvenirs because I do not go home for 10-20 months sometimes. I am a traveler, not a tourist.

I can live in these regions easily for these amounts always staying in the backpacker type of accommodations, Living in a dorm bed only in Europe where the cost or outrageously expensive, all other location a private room. In Thailand I can live in a four star room compared to the rest of the world.

1. Southeast Asia - 10 Dollars per day.
2. Mexico - 15 Dollars per day.
3. South America - 10 Dollars per day.
4. Brazil - 15 Dollars per day
5. USA and Canada - 50 Dollars per day.
6. Caribbean - 75 Dollars per day
7. Europe - 50-75 Dollars per day
8. Middle East - I am guessing at about 20 Dollars per day.
9. West Africa - 20 Dollars per day.
10. India for 5-10 Dollars per day.

A person who wishes to use their credit card should add 20 dollars per day to the cost.

A person who drinks beer should add 10-20 dollars per day to their cost.

Now, a person may get extremely anal about these budgets, most will plan a budget, then add double to the cost of travel by using their credit area and really not having any restraint or budget. My guess is 95 percent of travelers have a budget like one of these.

When I run out of money I go home.
I spend my parents money until I go home.
I put all the extra cost on the credit card and no restraint.
I live in a resort, then add the extra cost to a credit card.

99 percent of traveler do not go home early, because they somehow use credit from parents or bank to travel until they are finished. Tourist know when they are going home.

They have said to someone, I am traveling for this long and I will go to these countries. They return when they accomplish this or after a big love affair and abort all their plans. An around the world ticket is a budget for a small maybe 2 percent crowd.

After all these considerations, obsessions, the reality of a budget is something of a joke. If I only have 5 dollars, I can only spend 5 dollars. If I have 10 dollars I can only spend 10 dollars. If I have unlimited line of credit I can spend an unlimited line of credit.

People are for the most part unrestrained gluttons and must work for someone 8 hours per day for 5 days per week because otherwise they would spend the whole day, of every day spending money. They go shopping on the weekends and spend money or shop till they drop.

I think this is the reason people get fat, they just eat what they want. Then according to the continent and the genetics they get as fat as the genetics dictates and in accordance with the required walking. Europe requires a lot of walking, therefore some persons are thin. The USA requires zero walking so people become Fat. Asians are genetically thin by nature, takes work to get fat. Africans seem to be genetically fat, and get fat unless they have small amounts of money. I do not think they need to walk a lot. I am not sure Europeans can afford to eat.

But this is the how to stay thin, by not having a lot of money, then it become easy to stay thin and not get fat.

The same is true for a travel budget, however this can apply in the home country also. If you do not have money, then you do not spend it. In the USA, I would go to the bank and get 100 US dollars in ones. I would put ten of them in my pocket, and live on the 10 per day. If I would put a 20 in my pocket, I would spend the 20.

How do I budget, truthfully I do not have a problem with budgeting money. I have a severe ability to say no to spending, maybe I am cheap, no I am not cheap, I am massively logical and common sense orientated, and nobody can induce me to spend money when I do not wish to spend money. I make the choice completely, I do not bend to pressure from peers, friends and even the woman trying to convince me it is good for me to spend money on her.

Last year my guesstimate of daily budget was more than I wished, I did not save money. The simple solution is to slow down on airplane flights and pay attention to daily cost. I really do not need to budget or pay much attention, because I by nature live within a budget or limit. I am not gluttonous with money.

I am gluttonous, genetically guaranteed, and a binge eater, I can gain weight at a drop of coin. This is where I budget daily, when with other person they are enablers and complicate the issue.

Africa is easy to not eat, the cost of food is 2 time more than the USA and about the same as Europe. I do not like to eat the local foods, therefore I am sunk, I cannot gain weight here in Africa because my natural budgeting personality refuses to buy western foods that are extremely bad values. I have lived in the Galien Hotel two times here in Lome, Togo and never once eaten a dinner there. The Peace Corps sort of reserve a table for 8-10 in the corner every night and eat and drink their meals there every night. The place is full of old French smokers and drinkers and NGO or ONG paid to work project persons. I guess really there is no volunteers in Togo as they are all paid including the Peace Corps persons.

The longer I stay in a specific location, the more I find cheap local foods that I like, and the more I start to eat. I have a problem with the Fanyogo frozen Yogurt here, and can eat 5 per day at 100 CFA or 20 Cents per pop US. I want to cut weight, I have taken them off list of foods for scavenging until I am down to weight.

The bottom line on dieting is I do not put food in my mouth.
The bottom line on a travel budget is I do put money in my pocket.


I take 10,000 CFA out daily, that is my simple budget.

This is 10,000 CFA, the currency and money of many West African Countries, including Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Burkina Faso and I am not sure what others. I have no idea why Ghana wishes to use their money, surrounded by intelligence.

I keep all my money locked up in the bag during the day, sometimes I lock up the bag and put the money in a different location…. Hehehe
- Hiding in plain sight -

However, the way I budget is this, I removed daily the money I see as fit to spend daily. I then go and pay for my Hotel room, I have the remainder to live on in this day. To check my budget, I count the money my pocket. A budget is about one day, not a whole trip, the summation of all the days is the whole budget.

I go to the bank and extract money from my ATM debit card when I am down to about 100 USA in CFA money. I also carry about 300 to 1000 USA in 100 Dollar bills, and maybe 100 to 300 Euros and other assorted could not dump currencies. In Africa I am carrying 1000 US Dollars and I am glad nobody knows this, I tell no one.

One big budget cost is to go with an African person to any restaurant or bar, they will order anything they wish and expect I pay for the whole group. If they come over and sit with me, they will also expect this, if I am walking with them, they will also expect this. Any time I get near an African person they somehow normally want money. A great way to separate though the good from the bad, if they do not want money, they are good.

Note, I have a Western Union safety measure, I can go to any internet café and send money to myself with no special knowledge. If I was robbed, I would instantly send money to myself, then go to the internet and send money to myself, then cancel any card stolen. This should be set up and ready to go.
http://www.westernunion.com

But in addiction logic and dysfunctional undersstanding of life, I know that a budget is not what people wish to live in, or have, they really wish and will take any excuse to not have a budget, or a real working budget. A person can only spend what they have, the normal budget of a person is to spend their paycheck, and wait for pay day to come.

If I put 10,000 CFA in my pocket daily, extra money will accumulate and be saved then allots itself for the days where I need strangely more money. The big way to cut cost for me it to get cheaper rooms, my goal on this trip to Africa is for 3000 CFA rooms, I need to speak good French to find them. I spend 2 hours per day studying, this is the budget.

Budget Africa, Budget Togo, Budget, Togo, Western Union

Lome Togo Hotel Change

Lome Togo Hotel Change
Lome, Togo West Africa
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

I have changed hotels, I left the Galion Hotel a pretty good choice for hotels because of social life and location. However, my present room is a much better value. 5000 CFA, the same as I paid at the Galion and about twice as big, better screens and it has electrical plugs in the walls. The Galion is two apartments buildings. One is older, looks nice, but is really a bad choice for living. The other one, the one I lived in last time is more modern, and the upper floors of the building the right is good if not great. Above the restaurant area induced me to decide to look for a different hotel as I felt sort of miserable.

There was a woman by the name Marie that was the main day receptionist, and I hear got married to a Swedish man and moved to Sweden, good for her. She was a sweetheart and very happy and professional, the women that took her place is blasé to the point of making it fashionable.

I feel bad as the really enjoyable and happy Elena, the cleaning girl I leave behind, she was precious, happy, and made my life great. A hotel is about people and then a room, however, I did come to visit Africa and not France, now I am living in Africa. Although a bunch of old men drinking is not France…
My new hotel has the option of turning on the Air Conditioning.



This is a first, this is first hotel I have every encountered, planned as a hotel it has installed electric meters along with the air conditioners. They can charge me for the electricity I use only, and not on a set rate, they can include or not include air conditioning, and I can leave the think running for days if I wish, and I pay.

I am told, by an equally blasé receptinish, however more attractive receptionist Marjorie that it cost 150 CFA per Kilowatt, I have no idea how long I can turn this for and cost me about 30 cents US, I guess though I can turn it on. I need to ask the not so helpful or happy staff how much to use for the night. I am guessing they will not answer clearly or with any enthusiasm.

I think culturally there is a I am too s e x y for myself thing going on and it is not cool to pay attention to people, more s e x y to ignore. I have loosened up the one no-name-known girl that works here and she is becoming a pleasure to know. I wish Elena was here. The hotel also has a kitchen and a fridge, I could have paid 6000 CFA or 4 US dollar more and had a fridge in my room. If, the hotel allows me to utilize the kitchen, this is by far one of the better prepared and designed hotels I have encountered in West Africa.

Blasé though is the problem, it is not a good idea to talk or recommend hotels. I can recommend people, hard to recommend hotels, or places, or anything, I think I can recommend people. I would easily recommend the happy go lucky Elena in the Galion Hotel, the rest of the staff is there. The older owner is a good shake my hand, he-speaks-no-English guy, and the younger knows a lot and speaks English, a great place to start in Lome, however very expensive food in the restaurant.

There is this overbearing mentality that attempts to socialize me into accepting that paying way too much for typical Africa is good. Even Elena tried to say it was not expensive.

A worker here in Africa gets about 2 US dollars per day. The cost of cleaning my T-shirt is 300 CFA or bout 60 cents US. Therefore to pay to have 5 T-shirts would cost about 3 US Dollars. Elena says to me,
- No Cher, -

I try to say, explain or ask,
- Would you pay this? -

This is the incredible to believe, white man / black man difference, they incredibly to believe, hard to understand, I cannot relate do not even consider that we the white man would like to pay the same as the locals. We could actually live, drink, eat and pay the same, the black people of West Africa and Togo do live very good, I do not see them living bad, in fact the other persons in my new and present hotel probably have the same room for almost half the rate I am paying… hehehe. I did not want to fight over price, however I think it is highly possible to get rooms in Lome for 3000 CFA per night, that would be great.

A moto or motorcycle taxi cost about 200 CFA to go anywhere, this is about 40 Cents US, I can be about anywhere very fast, the location is not important. The beach although adds flavor to the city, is 99 percent ignored by the tourist, and I never see any white people on the beach. The wind is a little high for lying on the beach, although a great beach feeling city, in reality the beach does not exist as a place to go.

I am using and cleaning about 3 t-shirts per day as I am perspiring, a.k.a sweating so much as I acclimate to Africa and lose weight, that I need to clean clothes daily or stink. I know the other backpackers or tourist are sweating the same….. Heheheh, however, I have not see them do laundry.

I think I wish to get close to the Africa people more than the white people, I feel or think they smell better.

I could pay a person from Togo 2 dollars to work all day washing clothes, and at these prices make about 20 to 100 US dollars per day cleaning clothes. However, it appears people do not clean their clothes as much as me, so there really is no market. If they would wash clothes though for about 2 dollars for all my clothes, I would pay in a heartbeat.

Living on a budget is interesting, one thing cost, like laundry, therefore I do the laundry myself. Food is outlandishly expensive in any Western style restaurant, therefore I cook myself. The cost of rooms is the big budget cost of Africa in reality, I do not have to eat Western food while in Africa and am not sure why I would want to, but for sure it is not essential. Vitamins, vegetables and nutrients are essential and they are quickest and easiest to buy by cooking myself.

There is always an area or a component of a country that is expensive, the smart travel adapts and plans on how to minimize the cost of this big budget expense. Transportation in West Africa is cheap, however people buy vehicles. Food in open air markets is moderately cheap, and they eat in Western style restaurants.

Africa is full of black people, it is what makes it a great place. I do not understand the backpackers here, if there is any, the few are all cloistered inside the womb of western styled culture. They either drive a vehicle to avoid the locals or they live in white people hotels.

The way the world is visiting the culture of Africa seems to be by finding mates or women. 90 percent of the white people in Togo are men, then they find a girlfriend, this way they slowly learn about Togo. I am wanting to go for the countryside and the small villages where I can stop seeing white people in the same locations. I do no see them walking down the street, I see them driving by in an SUV.

This time in Lome, I have more energy, I feel better, I think I had some type of lower energy level because of lack of vitamins. I have walked for miles in every direction here in Lome, it is a city, not of much interest, however it is interesting, just a city though and the Mina or Ewe cultures are being cleaned of obvious ethnic features.

I am managing my budget 5 times better this time than in the past, and I am sure as my French improves, the cost of living will go down, I need to talk to ask questions and learn how to buy cheaper.

Lome Togo Hotel Change