ninefivezero

I'm going to be a jerk and one-up you a little bit.

I'm a mirror identical twin, and a triplet.

http://i.imgur.com/dXI6t.jpg

Have you ever gone to multiples conventions? Freaking weird, it was the three of us, and a bunch of other twins, triplets and once in a while quads, all at a KOA campground for two or three days....

Edit: someone asked a question about one of us being a girl. I answered it below but it will probably stay buried so let me put it up here as well:

I guess people are misinterpreting what I said, or I wasn't clear enough. Probably the later. Let me try again.

What I said was that I am a mirror identical twin AND a triplet. Not that I am a an 'identical triplet.' So, there were two fertilized eggs, a boy and a girl or however you want to think about it. The 'boy egg' split into two eggs, which is what happens when identical twins are formed. The female egg was still around of course, adding up to three, or, triplets. Thus, being one of the boys, I was created the same way identical twins are meaning I'm kind of a twin, at the same time as being a triplet. My brother and I are mirror twins, thus being a mirror identical twin and a triplet. Did that make more sense?

Or maybe I'm wrong. Either way, here is a picture from when my brother and I were little. I have no idea which one is me.

http://i.imgur.com/bg0Nf.jpg

Honestly I'm still not sure what the total price was. I never set out to do a budget trip, but I also was careful about spending most of the time. Here is what I do know:

Before leaving, I sold my 07 Subaru Impreza for $13,500, and made another $4,000 or so from selling off things in my home. Plus existing savings (which I was surprised to have, because before this trip I spent six months backpacking in Asia) I left home with a good chunk of cash in the bank.

I set out with two South African guys in a 4x4, however before doing that we had to fix up and outfit the vehicle, which cost a fair amount of money though I'm not sure exactly sure how much now. Before leaving I bought a lot of toys, $800 in scuba gear and another $700 on GoPro camera gear and a new laptop. When we were driving, and that was from South Africa, through Mozambique, Malawi and into Tanzania, we stayed at backpackers places, which meant paying to camp every night (in a tent instead of a room to save money). We cooked a lot, but in that kind of atmosphere it's easy to buy dinner instead, and especially to buy drinks. Before that leg of the journey fell apart, me and one guy paid something like $750 for a five-day safari in Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater‎. Although worth it, it's a lot to spend at once. At one point, a broken laptop forced me to spend another $250 on a new one, so unexpected expenses can come up from time to time.

When that leg of the trip finally ended and I was on my own, things got VASTLY cheaper. I began using Couchsurfing, and in the next 15 months, probably only paid for a place to sleep just over a month. I may have spent less money in the next year than I did in the first three months! People frequently invited me into their homes, gave me places to stay, fed me and gave me whatever else I needed. I always did my best to return the favor.

I'm sorry I don't have an exact figure to give here, but if I had to guess I'd say I spent around $20,000. BUT DON'T LET THAT SCARE YOU AWAY. I did nice things from time to time, I never worried about going out to eat at a decent place on occasion, and I did a few high-ish end tourist activities that add up fast. There were months when I was only spending like $100, and I met people traveling on even less. Often you can get local food for $1-2 a meal, and a room for under $5 depending where you are.

Knowing what I know now, if I had wanted to, I probably could have done and seen 90% of what I did on this trip for a few grand. I met people hitching across Africa and paying nothing. I met people working and making money while traveling, and so on. Travel doesn't have to be expensive, it just depends on what you want to see and what your comfort levels are!

I should have known this would be the top comment haha.... let me leave you with this from my blog:

As I walked back to find a place to sit and wait, a rather annoying woman came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told her I was looking for the bus and she grabbed my hand and said she would help me. I didn’t really want to be around her but she was very insistent, and I figured what the hell. The bus was supposed to pass in about half an hour, then I could get the cheaper ticket, so she proposed we sit down for a coffee. It was obvious she was just trying to get something from me but I figured I could pay for a 100 franc coffee (15 cents) and maybe she would prove useful. She then began ordering food which I told her I wouldn’t pay for, and kept trying to feed me out of her hand, which honestly was gross. We talked for a few minutes, and eventually I asked her what she did. She mumbled a bit, but said “I’m a prostitute”, which I didn’t catch the first time so she said it two more times, haha. I’m used to African women coming onto me just because I’m a white man, with dollars in their eyes, and I guess on that level it isn’t so different, but this one was just a straight up prostitute. Eventually a man from Jaguar, a different bus company, showed up and even though he was offering a ticket for 6,000 rather than the 5,000 I was hoping for, I took it just to get away from this woman. I paid for the two coffees but refused to pay for the food she had ordered (she walked away from the table without paying for the food she had ordered and eaten part of), then she kept asking me where I was staying. I refused to tell her. I hopped a moto hoping she didn’t have money to get one herself and I could get away, but she hopped on one as well and seemed to be trying to follow me. After a few blocks, her driver was just ahead of mine, so I quickly tapped mine on the shoulder and had him suddenly turn off onto a dirt road before she could see where I’d gone. I paid the driver and made my get away, glad to have escaped from this woman.

From the post: Rwanda Part II: Wonderful Lake Kivu and the journey to Uganda

Edit: a few girls wanted to marry me, one told me I didn't own enough cows though.

Without doubt, the biggest danger in Africa is traffic. Here is photos of the crash I mentioned in the OP: http://imgur.com/a/VbZUI

What happened was a minibus was driving with a bald tire, it blew out, the driver lost control, turned in front of a dump truck and was t-boned. It killed all 13 people inside, and the road and car were covered in blood. People were screaming, crying and soldiers and police were everywhere.

I've almost crashed on motorcycles dozens of times, either riding myself or as the passenger of a moto taxi. Driving full speed, lane splitting, overloaded bikes, it all happens and every day, every hour, people are dying. The only way to avoid it is to stay off the roads, but to be safest, avoid night buses (I rode them all the time), don't take moto taxies even though sometimes they are only only way through a traffic jammed city, and travel on the biggest buses you can. usually there are good bus companies and bad bus companies, by just looking at the bus it's easy to tell.

Other than that, the most important thing to know about safety in Africa is that crime, like in most of the world, is concentrated in the cities. African cities tend to be pretty slummy places and I'm not a big fan. The most likely problems are pick pocketing, as poor people move into the cities and find no jobs, they need to do something to get by. White people are an obvious target and I had a few attempts but stopped all of them by noticing it start to happen.

One final thing I'll mention is alcohol. It is probably the factor in a majority of violent incidents. Bars, and coming home from a bar are areas/times where you must be on your guard. I was frequently in places where you don't walk alone, even as a man, but taxis are cheap and worth it in those situations. That said, I went out to the dirtiest, most local bars I could find, had wonderful times and never had any serious problems.

Travel is a skill and an ART, the more you do it the better you get at it.

Right now I could probably fly to Africa with $2,000 and spend the next 10 years there if I wanted, although I'd probably have to find a cush job at a resort or something part of the time ;)

For $50,000, you can see the whole world if you do it right!