-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
My personal bucket list or What did you do over Christmas Break?
- Thread starter Clux4
- Start date
Now, Kilimanjaro!! Share some pictures on your return.
Here you go!
Us sneaking up on Kili.
Kili looking forbidding up close.
Mom and I on the summit. (BTW, this is the start of New Year's Day, New York time! we waited up there for the ball to drop in Times Square!
)Attachments
i always pictured kilimanjaro with more snow on it...
Clux4
Banned
Thanks for sharing.
I guess you checked another box of things you should do before you die.
How as it, how long did it take to summit.
I need to do something like this pretty soon.
Did you plan the trip yourself or you used one of this tour companies.
What should differently from you if I were to paln something like this.
Sorry I am highjacking your thread for my benefit. But that is AW for you
I guess you checked another box of things you should do before you die.
How as it, how long did it take to summit.
I need to do something like this pretty soon.
Did you plan the trip yourself or you used one of this tour companies.
What should differently from you if I were to paln something like this.
Sorry I am highjacking your thread for my benefit. But that is AW for you
yep! mom's talking about everest base camp next.
How as it, how long did it take to summit.
I need to do something like this pretty soon.
Did you plan the trip yourself or you used one of this tour companies.
What should differently from you if I were to paln something like this.
Sorry I am highjacking your thread for my benefit. But that is AW for you
summit day was very hard. felt like the hardest thing i ever did. the trip is 7 days up and back. we didn't use a tour company, but my mom hired a guide and 2 porters from the hotel we stayed at, the marangu hotel.
advice for doing differently? thats a HUGE list! :icon_lol: you should try to go a little faster on summit day because just spending so much time at high altitude sucks up all your energy. you should probably sip on a water bottle the entire way up on summit day. you should put lipbalm on several times a day instead of just one, because it sucks to have black cracked swollen lips half the way up the mountain. same with suntan lotion and lobster red face. do it even when you're feeling tired and lazy. and it would help if you were even in better shape (although i'm in good shape after a semester of vmi ratline). you should test the handwarmers before you leave. you should make sure the solar charger for the camera actually has the adapter for your camera (haha!). you should have even more batteries than you think youll need since they go fast near the top. you should test the gps before you go so you don't delete all the kili maps off of it accidentally on your first day on the mountain when you are playing with it. you should keep all your valuable equipment in your carryon luggage so your binoculars, for example, aren't stolen out of your luggage at kilimanjaro airport (seriously!) you should burn all your cotton underwear because you'll be freezing with cotton next to your skin up there. what else? probably tons more i've already forgotten! lol. i have some special ones for girls
:icon_tong oh, and KLM airlines counter at kili sucks. and one more thing, bring lots of cash since they hardly take any credit cards, because mostly everyone wants to pocket the cash there in tanzania. (but sometimes you can get grrreat discounts by insisting on paying by credit cards but then offering cash if they give you a $150 discount for the hotel room, and so on) btw, when the porters fill your water bottle with boiled water, its not. because boiled water doesn't come in GREEN. lol. (ok, i remembered a few more) learn a few phrases of swahili before you go, since it can help.btw, the street sellers all want to cheat americans. they price stuff that is worth $40 at $250 because they think all americans must be stupid or something. (my mom killed them because she negotiates for a living as a wallstreet trader. they didn't know what hit them and ran them over. lol. i think we paid $40 for all the $250 items!
)
I think that's more because they EXPECT you to negotiate. In a lot of cultures, the asking price is very high because no one ever pays the initial asking price. Bartering and haggling are natural parts of commerce. I've also read that in Muslim culture, it's assumed that two reasonable people CAN come to an agreement on a price - so if you ask the price of something, you're starting the negotiation process and to break it off before reaching an agreement is very insulting. I'm not sure how true that is in East Africa, but given the extensive history of Arab colonization there, I would imagine things might be viewed similarly.
++1
It is the same way in Egypt and when I was there I had a fun time with it... Haggling is a personal sport to the local Egyptian vendors, and they rather enjoy and take pride in their ability to negotiate a deal
but i don't personally understand it. not the haggling part, that's cultural, but why they have to start it so high? why $250 for a $40 item? thats more than 6x. i find that really insulting because its like it says that ppl don't know what stuff is worth. :icon_tong and if you can start at $250 for something that's $40, why not $1000? or $10000? they might get the best results of all by starting at $1000000 for their wooden mask. who knows, maybe they'll let themselves be bargained down to let it go for something like $50000 or something after some haggling! lol!
but i don't personally understand it. not the haggling part, that's cultural, but why they have to start it so high? why $250 for a $40 item? thats more than 6x. i find that really insulting because its like it says that ppl don't know what stuff is worth. :icon_tong and if you can start at $250 for something that's $40, why not $1000? or $10000? they might get the best results of all by starting at $1000000 for their wooden mask. who knows, maybe they'll let themselves be bargained down to let it go for something like $50000 or something after some haggling! lol!
Because they probably know the item is worth about $40. And in their business culture, if they ASK $40 for it, there's no question that they'll have to negotiate down from there. Your mom was able to get a price you think was fair, right? Well, that's not a special skill you learn on Wall Street, that's everyday commerce in most of the world. By custom, these merchants undoubtedly know that to get a price that's reasonable to both parties, the starting price has to be about sixfold...and that if they start at the price they intend to sell for, they have two options: 1) get talked down further and sell their goods at a loss or 2) refuse to be talked down further and appear rude and unreasonable. I don't see what's so confusing about it really.
By the way, that looks like an amazing trip. I'd love to do that someday.
yep! mom's talking about everest base camp next.
Then don't look at the Foreign Clearance Guide or the PACOM restricted travel list.:icon_rage
oh. i see. i guess that means i WONT be going to everest base camp :icon_tong
Clux4
Banned
Thank you to the mod for giving me a post to talk about travel and other aspects of travel.
DSL1900:
Thanks for the post. Where have you been all your life?
Raising the price 6 folds is evident on Western culture. The only difference is that we accept it or we go somewhere else. Case in point, I go to a club in downtown SD or DC and beer is like $8 per bottle whereas, it is about $12 for a case at 7 eleven across the street. But then I am ready to pay $8 and some more to have a good time.
Go outside Pcola or any military base and ask to buy a car and see the ridiculous rate and prices they have on some of those cars. Yet, poor sailors and Marines buy those cars at outrageous prices and end up in financial problems. Such is life.
In other parts of the world, "tip" is demanded and not expected so that was probably a shock to you.
I will tell you a funny one from Egypt. A good friend went with his wife on honeymoon to Egypt to see the pyramids and as they were walking around one of them, a local offered to give a ride on a camel. For the price the man was asking, my friend said No. He then offered to take a picture of my friend and his wife sitting on the camel, which they agreed to. Well, as soon as the man saw that they were sitted comfortably on the camel, he commanded the camel to rise and then he had the camel doing all sorts of crazy things. Needless to say, he and the new bride were scared and immediately gave the man the amount he was demanding.
I like to travel and some of the issues(e.g cash vice credit card) are just common practice. If you carry too much cash, you might loose all when you get robbed. It is really hard not to stand out especially when you do not speak the local language.
Thanks again for sharing your experience. I guess Kilimanjaro can be done. I need look into it. I personally do not like to use tour guides. Some of them are phony and can organize a hostage situation or thieves to rob you.
DSL1900:
Thanks for the post. Where have you been all your life?
Raising the price 6 folds is evident on Western culture. The only difference is that we accept it or we go somewhere else. Case in point, I go to a club in downtown SD or DC and beer is like $8 per bottle whereas, it is about $12 for a case at 7 eleven across the street. But then I am ready to pay $8 and some more to have a good time.
Go outside Pcola or any military base and ask to buy a car and see the ridiculous rate and prices they have on some of those cars. Yet, poor sailors and Marines buy those cars at outrageous prices and end up in financial problems. Such is life.
In other parts of the world, "tip" is demanded and not expected so that was probably a shock to you.
I will tell you a funny one from Egypt. A good friend went with his wife on honeymoon to Egypt to see the pyramids and as they were walking around one of them, a local offered to give a ride on a camel. For the price the man was asking, my friend said No. He then offered to take a picture of my friend and his wife sitting on the camel, which they agreed to. Well, as soon as the man saw that they were sitted comfortably on the camel, he commanded the camel to rise and then he had the camel doing all sorts of crazy things. Needless to say, he and the new bride were scared and immediately gave the man the amount he was demanding.
I like to travel and some of the issues(e.g cash vice credit card) are just common practice. If you carry too much cash, you might loose all when you get robbed. It is really hard not to stand out especially when you do not speak the local language.
Thanks again for sharing your experience. I guess Kilimanjaro can be done. I need look into it. I personally do not like to use tour guides. Some of them are phony and can organize a hostage situation or thieves to rob you.