West Africa travel advice

Here’s some advice based on the experiences a friend and I had while traveling with a guide and driver in Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo, Jan. 1-18, 2012.

When checking into a hotel, immediately check for soap, toilet paper, a towel and a glass. To be sure to have them, bring your own. While carrying such supplies will make your luggage heavier, you may be very glad you brought them.

Also, immediately check on the availability of hot water. Don’t be surprised if there is none. The sink may have only cold water, but you may get hot water in the shower if you are patient enough to wait for it. If you have no hot water, shower in the late afternoon after the water has been warmed by the sun; it may be considerably colder in the morning.

Take your malaria pills. Hotel rooms may have mosquito nets, but don’t depend on them. Pack insect repellent, and use it especially when you’re having meals outdoors.

If you’ll be traveling in the same minivan or Land Cruiser for several days, consider buying a case of large bottles of mineral water. You can store them in the vehicle. A case of 12 should last one person two weeks. Don’t expect your hotels to have bottles of drinking water.

These countries attract fewer visitors than Mali or Senegal, so having some ability to read and communicate in French is very helpful.

Haggle when you shop, but don’t make an offer on something unless you’re seriously interested in buying it. Offer maybe 30 percent of the seller’s first price and expect to end up paying less than half. To convince the seller that you’re not prepared to increase your offer, be willing to walk away. You’ll probably be called back.

Haggling can be fun. (I’d have mock “heart palpitations” if I thought a seller’s first price was much too high, and we’d both laugh.) But don’t bother to reduce a price by the last franc. That franc means much more to the seller than it does to you.

Understand that to virtually everyone you meet, you are rich. If you can afford to travel all the way there just for your own pleasure, then by definition you are rich to them, no matter how much you really think you’re not.

Ask permission before taking a photograph of someone. Also, greet people — in markets, for example — and admire their babies. Doing so almost always produces a smile. The idea is to let people know you’re friendly, no matter how little they may understand about where you come from and how you live.

Online, I found it convenient to download and print out the Lonely Planet guidebook chapter for each country for only a few dollars each ($4.95 per chapter here).

The 2010 guidebook “Benin” by Erika Kraus and Felicie Reid (Other Places Publishing; $14.76), available from Amazon.com, was worth carrying.

STANLEY BACH
Washington, DC