A man suspected of being a poacher was killed inside Kruger National Park in South Africa last week after coming face-to-face with an angry Cape buffalo. The unnamed 35-year-old, along with two companions, entered the famous park after dark where they managed to stumble across the fearsome beast. While the other two men managed to escape without injury, their friend was trampled to death.
Weighing in excess of 1500 pounds, and standing over a meter in height at the shoulder, the Cape buffalo is well known for its foul disposition. That combination of size and temperament can make them extremely dangerous when startled or threatened, and more than 200 human deaths are attributed to the species each year. That number makes them one of the most dangerous creatures in all of Africa, where they are considered to be amongst the “Big 5” of safari animals.
What exactly the three men were doing inside the national park after dark is unclear, although officials believe they were there to poach animals of some kind. Poaching has become a major problem for South Africa, where rhinos are being killed at a record pace in order to harvest their horns. Prized for their use in traditional medicines in Asia, those horns are then sold on the black market for as much as $100,000.
Ivory poaching is also a significant problem across the continent, where elephants are rapidly disappearing as well. Officials in Cameroon recently announced that more than 200 of the creatures have already been killed in that country this year alone.
Travel search engines come in a variety of sizes, shapes and brands all aiming to become our first choice when planning a trip. The ways in which we search for travel options today are very different from those we used only a few years ago, and likely, the ones we will use in the future. A new study, tapping the wants of the most connected travelers, says new technologies may create changes for our future travel planning methods.
“Today, we stand at the forefront of a technological evolution in travel that we refer to as Online Travel 3.0 which recognizes the power shift from suppliers to retailers and to end consumers,” says Stephane Durand, Director, Online & Leisure at Amadeus, a major provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.
An Amadeus-commissioned, global study identified the online shopping behavior and future motivations of trend-setting travelers, indicating younger, savvy consumers are mastering travel information more. While not representative of the mainstream consumer, they have the most sophisticated shopping needs and represent the early adopters whose current behaviors and preferences are leading indicators of consumer behavior in the future.
What do we want and are likely to see in the future?
Truly private sales:
Look for travel sellers to micro-target promotions to specific consumers offering products that are actually relevant for the buyer.
Cumulative intelligence:
Learning from our online behavior over time, programs will aggregate common patterns while micro-segmentation will help companies analyze behavior and deliver increasingly intelligent results.
Smart systems and virtual private assistants:
Devices will become smart and interconnected, while storing and analyzing consumer behavior information. The program will recognize and process inputs from sites visited and will act as an assistant on the consumer’s behalf.
A sacred boat that lay hidden in the sands of the Sahara for 4,500 years will be restored and put on display, Egyptian authorities say.
The boat is one of a pair discovered buried next to the pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu at Giza, also known as the Great Pyramid. They rested in long, stone-covered pits.
The first boat, shown here in this photo courtesy Berthold Werner, was excavated in 1954 and is already on display at the Solar Boat Museum at Giza. It’s considered one of the most remarkable finds from ancient Egypt and is similar in design to the feluccas that still ply the Nile today.
Japanese and Egyptian archaeologists are working together to gather samples of the second boat’s wood in order to understand how best to restore and preserve it. The current project to uncover and analyze the second boat has been going on since 1992. Last summer the painstaking task of excavating and removing the boat from its pit was completed.
According to tests, the boat is made of Lebanon cedar and is actually a little older than the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled from 2551-2528 BC, according to the Japanese team. His name has been found inscribed on the boat.
It’s not certain that the two vessels were actually used, and may have only been symbolic boats to carry the pharaoh across the sky with the sun god Ra in the afterlife. Egyptians were often buried with little statues of servants, animals, soldiers, and even entire farms to serve them in the hereafter.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “dark tourism” refers to visiting sites associated with grief, tragedy, or death. While some people may debate the ethics of visiting these types of sites, they often provide educational, enlightening, and even life-changing experiences for those who do. When I was in Munich, Germany, I took a day trip to see Dachau Concentration Camp (shown right) and learned a lot about the site and the Holocaust in general that I had not known before. While it wasn’t an easy experience, I did see the value of visiting such a site for the awareness factor as well as to stop these past tragedies from happening again.
Although dark tourism first gained prominence between the 18th and 19th centuries, the interest in these types of sites is still growing. Here are some new dark tourism sites open all over the world, as well as some that have garnered an integral status throughout the years.
Napoleonland, which will be created to honor military leader and politician Napoleon Bonaparte, is expected to be completed by 2017. It will be a theme park that will include shops, museums, hotels, and restaurants. While this may sound fun, the site of the attraction will reside on the very spot where Napoleon’s troops fought and defeated the Austrian army about 200 years ago. A water show resembling the Battle of Trafalgar, a ski run containing the frozen bodies of dead soldiers, a re-creation of Louis XVI literally losing his head on the guillotine, and other war-related and morbid interactive exhibits will all be featured.Singapore Bomb Shelter Singapore
The Singapore Bomb Shelter, believed to be the last of island-country’s bomb shelters, opened at the end of 2011 to visitors. To help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Singapore as well as raise awareness about Singapore’s war history, the National Heritage Board is leading tours of the shelter. During WWII air raids, this 1,500 square meter space was used as protection for about 100 people. Until now it has been hidden from the public, and for the most part is still in its original condition.
National September 11 Memorial and Museum New York
As a reminder of the worst terrorist attack ever to hit United States’ soil, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opened to the public in September, 2011. The memorial and museum resides at the site of the former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and honors the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on that tragic day in 2001. The memorial section contains two acre-sized reflecting pools that sit where the Twin Towers once stood, as well as the biggest man-made waterfall on the continent. Moreover, bronze panels list the names of all those who lost their lives in the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center attacks. While the museum section is not open yet, it will include exhibitions such as a look at the events leading up to the disaster, portraits of those who lost their lives, the architectural history of the buildings, and more.
Robben Island is a museum and World Heritage Site that opened to the public in 1997. Now South Africa’s most popular tourist attraction, it was once an apartheid-era maximum security prison that held some of history’s most well-known political leaders, like Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty years on the island, and current deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe. Visitors can experience tours of the facilities, precinct attractions like a Muslin Shrine and a museum shop, watch educational videos, and speak with a former political prisoner.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial to those who lost their lives during the U.S. nuclear bomb attack in 1945. While more than 140,000 died when the bomb hit the city, thousands more were killed in the aftermath, including 80,000 lost lives three days later in the Nagasaki atomic attack. The park was opened in 1954 on a field that was created from the bomb explosion. Dozens of monuments and tombs are erected throughout, some of which include the Peace Clock Tower (shown right), which chimes daily at 8:15 to remember the time when the world saw its first atomic bomb, the Peace Bell, a symbol of “spiritual and cultural movement”, and the Flame of Peace, which “expresses condolence for victims unable to satisfy their thirst for water, as well as the desire for nuclear abolition and enduring world peace”.
Choeng Ek Killing Fields & Security Office 21 Cambodia
The Choeng Ek Killing Fields and Security Office 21 (S-21) were once areas of extreme tragedy during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror. Once a peaceful village, Choeng Ek was transformed into violent killing fields. Moreover, S-21 was actually a high school that was converted into a center for interrogation, torture, and murder, with only seven of the 14,000 who entered surviving. During this time the Khmer Rouge actually took careful notes and took almost 6,000 photographs, which can be seen during a visit to the site.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is home to one of the most iconic battlefields in the United States as well as a rich but tragic history. The Battle of Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, with over 51,000 lives lost. It was also the motivator of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, as well as a turning point in the war that stopped General E. Lee’s aggressive northern invasion. In November, 1863, President Lincoln officially dedicated Soldiers’ National Cemetery and, with more than 1.5 million annual visitors to Gettysburg Military Park, the city is an extremely popular tourist destination.
In Cape Coast, Ghana, there are two well-known slave castles that bring visitors back to the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Guided tours offer visitors the chance to learn about and see the dungeons where slaves were kept in inhumane conditions as well as the Door of No Return (Cape Coast Castle), which was the gateway to a life of slavery in the west.
After a decade of political unrest, seizures of white-owned farms and record hyperinflation that forced the government to print 100 billion dollar banknotes, Zimbabwe is finally starting to inch back onto the tourism radar, thanks to a power sharing agreement and a move to use U.S. dollars as the de-facto currency of the country.
But Zimbabwe’s long-dormant tourism sector has also received a small boost from the popularity of The Last Resort, Zimbabwe native Douglas Rogers‘ bestselling account of life at Drifters, his parents’ backpacker lodge turned brothel near Mutare, in eastern Zimbabwe. The book won the British Travel Writers’ Guild Book of the year in 2010 and BBC recently bought the film rights. Gadling caught up with Rogers near his new home in Loudoun County, Virginia last week.
People loved this book so much that some decided to visit your parents’ lodge in Zimbabwe?
The book came out at the end of 2009 and within a few months, people started turning up. The first visitor was the Swedish Ambassador. He hugged my mother and said he felt like he knew her. Now they keep coming, at least a few hundred so far. They bring books and want the staff to sign them.
This is very personal memoir where you talk about how your parents’ lodge sort of morphed into a brothel and explain how your parents tried to grow marijuana in the yard as the tourists disappeared. Were you nervous about how your family or the staff at the lodge would perceive the book?
I was more nervous about the politics of it. That there would be negative repercussions for my family there, but so far there haven’t been.
Has Mugabe’s regime banned the book?
No, it’s available in Harare but there are so few bookshops left it’s hard to find. I wanted to change the names of people I wrote about in the book, but the staff at my parents’ lodge were dead set against that. The 2008 election violence was terrifying and, at that point, the book was about to come out. But they wanted their named in the book- they’re very proud and brave.
So many other white owned farms in Zimbabwe have been seized, and your parents had some close calls which you describe in the book, but how is it that they’ve been allowed to keep their property and the lodge?
Legally, they aren’t supposed to lose the place, because it isn’t an agricultural farm. But that doesn’t really matter anymore; people can lose their land for any reason. Officially though, the government owns their property and someone could show up and take it at any time.
When did the backpacking scene at Drifters hit its peak?
It was going strong in the 90’s and really peaked just months before the land invasions started in February 2000. We had lots of South Africans, overland travelers, Americans, backpackers and gap-year students from the U.K. and around Europe.
And then tourism dried up, but it started again after your book came out?
Yes, my parents were quite amazed when visitors started showing up again. During the land seizures, they rented the backpacker lodge out to guys who turned it into a brothel, so they haven’t been managing it on a day to day basis for awhile.
What does it cost to stay there?
It’s very cheap. I think it’s $10 per night. It’s not high-end accommodation, so a lot of people just come to see the place and don’t stay the night. They have a Last Resort guestbook which people like to sign, have a beer and a look around.
You led a small group of travelers on a trip to Zimbabwe last year?
I partnered with a safari company called Aardvaark, and we advertised the trip. we brought a small group of four American travelers to see the place last May. We had interest from a few dozen people but we ended up with just four Americans and we went in May 2011. They were really adventurous. Two friends, one from Kansas and another from San Francisco, who went to college together and a couple from Annapolis, Maryland.
Where did you take them?
It was a two week trip. They had one week in Harare and eastern Zimbabwe where the book is set. And then they did a safari and toured Victoria Falls. Drifters is somewhat run down, so they had an option to stay there or at another place a half hour away. There was no power or electricity when I showed them around, so they ended up at the other hotel. But that ended up being worse I think. Still, it was authentic!
Is Zimbabwe a good place to visit right now?
You can have a great safari in Zimbabwe. And in the Victoria Falls and Kariba areas there are some sophisticated, very nice places. In the last few years, the tourist trade has picked up- new places are being built. You have investors who are anticipating that when the politics in Zimbabwe changes, it’ll take off and they want to be on the ground floor.
2011 was a bad year for dictators, but Mugabe survived.
Right and a lot of them were old comrades of Mugabe. Gaddafi. The Dear Leader in Korea. When I was in high school, we used to get state visits from Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Ceausescu, Kim Il Sung. Those were the kinds of people who visited Zimbabwe.
So once Mugabe (who is 87) departs the scene, tourism is likely to pick back up in Zimbabwe?
If there’s a stable transition and someone worse doesn’t take his place. Tourism has already picked up in the last year or two. If you watched news reports, you’d think Zimbabwe was Mogadishu or the Congo, but it’s not like that. It’s safe unless you’re involved in opposition politics or you’re a white farmer on a list. It’s completely safe in terms of day-to-day security. The economy has improved; you can buy what you need. The dollar is the currency used. Parts of Harare look like a first world city.
Your parents are part of a very small community of whites there that never left. Is there a movement of whites moving back to Zimbabwe?
I know people who have moved back. I have a cousin who lived in London and has now decided to move back because it’s an easier way of life than in Europe and much healthier for her young kids. Amazing, but true. The weather is good, the schools in Harare are great.
What other areas of the country do you recommend to travelers?
I’d love for people to see eastern Zimbabwe, but that might be more for people who have already spent time in the country before. Northern Zimbabwe where the Zambezi River splits Zimbabwe and Zambia, there’s an area called Mana Pools which is quite beautiful. A lot of safari operators in Zimbabwe are telling people to come now, because it’s cheaper and you can still see all the animals you’d see in other parts of Africa. Hwange reserve is the main game reserve. Kariba is another great place. It’s where Nick Price the golf pro would take Greg Norman on his houseboat. If you live in Zimbabwe, that’s where you go.
Are there still marijuana plants and prostitutes at Drifters these days?
My mother made my father dig up his weed. It’s against the law and she thought they’d be caught. It might have been profitable but she was paranoid, and didn’t want to draw any extra attention. When I returned home and saw that the place had turned into a brothel and my parents had all these refugees (who’d been kicked off their farms) living there, I knew I had to write a book about it.
Was it an actual brothel?
It was an informal knock shop. A place where men would bring prostitutes or a mistress or second or third wife. It’s pretty secluded so it’s perfect for that.
So who frequents the Drifters bar these days?
The occasional hooker, I suspect, but mostly passing salesman, adventurous backpackers, and the new class of foreigner who lives in Zimbabwe: missionaries, aid workers and diplomats.
Zimbabwe is still a really troubled country but it sounds like the people are resilient and ready to welcome visitors again?
You wouldn’t expect it but people are going on holiday to Zimbabwe now. You hear the stories of the people who run small hotels and lodges staying open all these years. Some of them without seeing a single guest for six months. They didn’t have electricity and had to use gas cookers and when the gas went out, they had to cook with wood fires to make meals for their guests. They’d make trips to Botswana and South Africa to find food to feed their guests and smuggle it back in so as not to lose it all at customs. Now, having come through that, these guys are starting to see some business again. They deserve it.
