Zimbabwe

C'mon all you intrepid travellers, give Zimbabwe a go! It's nowhere near as bad as is painted in the press, the hassles only affect our economy, not the beauty of the country. With the exchange rate the way it is, you can have a great time for little cos. US$1.00 gets youZ$200.00.
Dave Parkinson (zpn329@mweb.co.zw)
www.geocities.com/evernetzw/great_outdoors.html

Hi

We are planning on a trip to Zimbabwe in the not to distant future... thanks for the encouragement.

However, we do want to avoid election time - please, if you know, can you let us know when the next elections are?

Thanks

Thanks for your response, elections should be held in April 2002, hope you make up your mind and give Zim a go!!
Dave parkinson
http://www.geocities.com/evernetzw/great_outdoors.html

Are you one of those tourist business people of European origin, born in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana or South Africa, not really belonging to any of them, constantly complaining about your lazy staff of African origin and the government taxes, treating the natives in a rather arrogant way and charging high prices for rather mediocre services with the words “This is Africa”?
Are you seriously suggesting that the Z$ has dropped from 100.- to a US$ to 200.- to a US$ since mid May this year, or are you talking about the illegal exchange rates on the streets?

Whilst I would normally ignore your comments and treat them with deserved contempt, I feel that clowns like yourself who have probably never been to Africa for any length of time should refrain from remarks based on what you have read or what someone told you. I was born in Liverpool and have lived in Africa for over 30 years. The treatment of my staff is based on how I wish to be treated. For your further information, black people prefer to work for white people because of the treatment dished out to them by their own kind. For example, check out the murders committed by Mugabe in the early 1980's. The exchange rate I quoted is the black market rate as banks have NO forex at all. Importers of necessary spares etc have to look to the black market in order to keep industry alive. The rate I gave for the US$ is wrong, it is now Z$220 to US$1.00.

My remarks are based on a recent visit to Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya and certainly not what I have read or what someone told me. If you think I should refrain from such remarks, maybe you should refrain from calling people clowns. I put my remarks in a question form: "Are you one of those..." You, however, do not refrain from claiming "clowns like yourself who have probably never been to Africa for any length of time should refrain from remarks based on what you have read or what someone told you."

If you are not one of those constantly complaining about your lazy staff of African origin and the government taxes, treating the natives in a rather arrogant way, whom I met so many of, it is excellent.

If you neither are one of those charging high prices for rather mediocre services with the words “This is Africa”, whom I also met so many of (often the same persons) it is even better, but you did not comment on that.

The thing is that you use a forum for exchanging experiences between travellers to desperately promote your own tourist business, which maybe not make your view of how advisable or not advisable it is to go to Zimbabwe at present very reliable.

As for the exchange rates, your information is amazing. Mid May in Victoria Falls you still got forex at the exchange bureaus, 60.- Z$ to a US$ on the paper - 100 US$ to a US$ in the hand.

Of course it was 100.- Z$ to a US$ in the hand and of course I did not try to buy US$, but sold them. But I guess as long as people sell their forex in the bureaus there should also be forex to buy? Another thing is that it was said to be quite illegal to exchange in the streets. Would you say it is without risks, doing that?

The currency exchange rate is pretty uninteresting as more or less everything, offered to a tourist in Zimbabwe (and Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya) is priced in US$. So if the US$ is worth 100 Z$ or 220 Z$ - it will have nothing or little to say to your expences when there.

Nice try, though, Mr. Parkinson!

This is great.
I will be travelling through Zim in a couple of months and I want to hear what people have to say on the country , those who live there and those who have been there recently. Come on you two guys get at it and let us all know what you think is good and bad about Zim at the moment.

Personally I always take what the media says with a large pinch of salt, they sell papers, news etc and if that aint biased I don`t know what is..
Thats why I`m on this forum for an unbiased view.

Anyways the impression is always given that troubles affect a whole country rather than just a small part of it.

cheers
Phil

Well, these are my impressions, having travelled through the South West corner, from Botswana to Bulaway by "The Blue Train", supposed to continue to Victoria Falls, but as it derailed in Bulawayo I had 24 hours there and went by ordinary NRZ train to the Falls. Continued from there to Zambia:
In the papers on the train we could read that the Western embassies had decided not to evacuate their citizens yet! On Bulawayo station a local asked for South African newspapers, press freedom is not highly valued in Zimbabwe at present. Bulawayo is a pretty ugly town, with a lot of homeless people. At the petrol stations long queues could be seen. The landscape around Bulawayo (where the grave of Cecil Rhodes is) is fascinating.
At the Victoria Falls I think it was a good thing there were not more tourists, and that was probably because people have been scared from going there (the gouvernment of my own country advised people not to go there already before I left home in March). Everybody wants to exchange your money, but you are told it is illegal to do it in the street. The legal exchange bureaus gave you 58.- - 60.- Z$ to a US$ on the paper but you actually got Z$ 100.- in your hand, mid May.
What I saw on South African and later Tanzanian TV news Harare is not a particularly nice nor safe place to visit at the moment, with Mugabe supported riots by "War veterans", too young to possibly have faught the liberation war, even where tourists normally go, but I did not go there myself.

I learned to know two interesting facts while travelling around in South Africa and to Zimbabwe:
1) There are more "white" farmers who have been killed in South Africa than in Zimbabwe
2) There are more "black" opposition politicians who have been killed in Zimbabwe than "whites"

We travelled a bit last month in Zimbabwe and we felt very safe all the time. I was just shocked one time while doing some business in a policestation. A uniformed policeman pushed me in a corner of a corridor and robbed me of my money. Naievely I had let him seperate me from my friend.

How can you feel "safe all the time" in a country where you have been robbed by the police?
How did he do it? Threatened you? Took your wallet by force?

Yes, we felt safe all the time. Despite the grim situation we have had heartwarming experiences and I don't intend to stay away. What happened at the policestation is a symptom of the current general situation. Whoever decides to visit the country should be aware of it.
When was the last time that you were in Zimbabwe?

I could not agree with you more. I alway check the M-web Zimbabwe home page and every day there is something negative about the country. Comon for heaven's sake - they are in Zimbabwe as well.

But I guess sometimes you cannot help being gripped by the fear.

I love Zimbabwe, i just hope the likes of M-Web Zimbabwe and other media would stop concentrating of th bad stuff.

Come visit Zimbabwe - just don't say you are a journalist.

The last and only time, wilma, I have been to Zimbabwe was in May this year.

Since 1991 I visited Zimbabwe 10 times and in 1993 spent there 6 months with my two young sons.Zimbabwe has become for us the country where many of our friends live. Every new visit brings new contacts and I simply refuse to be scared away by the current developments. I read in one of your messages, Matz, that you thought Harare to be a dangerous place nowadays. Well, in any big city (Amsterdam is very famous for robbing tourists, whole gangs are active)one should be cautious and Harare is no exception but I enjoy walking around the streets on my own.

To refer to my initial posting, Zimbabwe and the majority of the people still remaining here, irrespective of race colour or religious belief, have not changed, we are still as friendly as we have always been and enjoy meeting tourists from wherever in the world they originate, the comments written in our own visitors book speak for themselves. One point to remember for all the travellers is that Zim's tourist industry is struggling, many people have lost their jobs and together with the rapidly increasing cost of living here is making life very hard for them.
I believe that the present situattion is now coming to a head and I hope that normality will soon be restored. The tourist spots are still safe for visitors so give us a go.
Dave Parkinson

yo, i´ll just join the conversation from SA.
what i´m reading and hearing here is only about
the evil land-grabbing and terror against farmers
or farm-owners and actually any whites as f.e.
the vice president should have said whites are
not belonging to the human race and stuff.
a friend of mine told me that the reason for the expected food-shortage is that the people squattering the farms just wouldn´t plant and harvest the maize. is that true? if yes, why don´t they? the knowledge, the machines and everything is there, isn´t it? if no, what is the reason?
i just want to know a bit more about zim, espiacally the political and economic situation so that i can maybe understand a bit more what´s going on not far away.

If you're looking for a reason behind the imminent food shortages - a friend drove the 500km from Harare to Bulawayo on Tuesday (28 Aug) and saw four fields with crops planted. All the other farms had been looted, the crops burnt, irrigation systems destroyed, out-buildings torched, green houses smashed. The people who have done this are the same people who will be starving in four months time. When you see that kind of destruction you can feel any understanding you have for their situation disappear. The shot-termism that is endemic in Africa rules yet again!