As I had to cut my first blog post about my trip to Zim a bit short I decided to take it up again and go more into depth this time. After all, I had noticed before going there that there isn't much useful information out there, not even on the internet which I thought knew everything.
So that was the first obstacle for the independent travller: finding information. I was lucky in a sense because I totally relied on my friend Shingi to organize everything and I didn't have to plan too much but it would have been nice to find out what the options are. I also checked out some guidebooks (I'm a little obsessed with buying guidebooks for every trip I go on so I did very thorough research into this) and figured out that the Lonely Planet "Southern Africa" would be the most practical one covering all three countries I wanted to visit. Later I realized that it was totally superficial and a rather sub-optimal choice if I had been relying on it alone so I cannot really recommend it for Zimbabwe. By coincidence I picked up the Bradt guide on Zimbabwe in my local library and it even happened to be the latest (2013) edition. Much better! Although even the Bradt didn't have much to say about Harare - I think it was only 4 or 5 pages with the most basic information. But the Bradt has a lot of information about the country and its history so it is definitely a good read to prepare the trip.
Then, obstacle number two: the backpacker-infrastructure (and tourism in general for that matter) is close to non-existent in Zimbabwe. It is probably still recovering from the economic crisis of the early 2000s but especially compared to South Africa it is a very dire situation. There is exactly 1 hostel in Harare, "It's a Small World" in Avondale, and luckily it is very good considering the limited choice. Other hotels are targeting upmarket business travellers (athough I didn't see many of those either) or are luxury lodges which are expensive even for European standards. I only stayed at the hostel for 1 night before Shingi arrived but my experience was good and I would definitely recommend it. Then, there is the transport problem. When I go back (which I will for sure) I'll probably try and rent a car to get more flexibility because apart from the kombis or "E.T.s" (Emergency Taxis) as Shingi called them, there is no public transport system. It works fine for the city but for longer distances I can imagine that it is not ideal to be crammed into a mini bus with 24 other people + luggage. I talked to a girl who did the trip to Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo by kombi and because of road blocks and some other unforeseen stops it took her almost 9 hours! And again, I'm still lucky because I have short legs....
Apart from lacking accomodation and transport I found it quite surprising that there were no real activities for tourists on offer in Harare. We went to a travel agency to ask if I could join a tour or a day trip with another group but this was practically unheard of. They could offer me a car with a driver but that was as almost more expensive than hiring a taxi for a day so I declined the offer. Even though Harare is not the most exciting place to visit there are still a few things to see and I still don't understand how not at least one entrepreneurial person has had this idea to set up a tourism business - it looks like they could make some money out of it for sure.
But considering the state of the whole country I assume that it has something to do with the general political and economic situation, although this remains nothing more than a guess. After hearing a lot of stories of the "bad times" I was relieved to see that the supermarkets were well stocked, petrol was available and during the week that I was there we didn't even have any power cuts. It seems like it is going uphill. Nevertheless, one big weakness is the reliance on the US dollar as main currency after the use of the Zim dollar was abandoned in 2009 (hyperinflation had become so ridiculously high that a cake would cost something like 5 Million dollar). Officially, Zimbabwe has a "multi-currency system" with several currencies recognized as legal tender such as the South African Rand, Botswanan Pula, US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc. In practice, it is almost 100 % the US dollar in use, at least for the bills. That means that everything has become extremely expensive and I was astonished to see that a meal in a restaurant is easily 10 - 15 US dollars which must be astronomical prizes for locals. A taxi ride from the centre to my friend's house was about 12 US dollars for a 15 minute ride - almost as much as I'd pay in Brussels. And since only the bills are in circulation, there is hardly any change around, which creates surreal situations: in most shops you get candy instead of coins. This is funny in the beginning but after some time it gets annoying. Sometimes you also get change in Rand or Pula which is fine but often you have no clue what the coins are that somebody just gave you. My friend ended up with a metal token for supermarket trolleys because you can't always be checking what you get in change! Additionally, it means that in practice hardly anything costs less than a dollar because shop owners want to avoid the change-situations which means in return that some products are extremely expensive.
All these difficulties aside, it is actually super easy to travel in Zimbabwe, mainly thanks to the amazingly friendly people. Chances are that you will be pretty much the only tourist around so it is fairly hassle-free to walk around town (even though you will certainly be recognized very quickly if you go to the same place twice.). If people were approaching me it was usually out of curiosity although you get the occasional salesperson, too. Even those were friendly and chatty though. Harare is also considered to be a very safe city especially compared to South Africa (this is a different chapter that I might get back to later). I for myself have to say that I felt totally safe at all times and even as a single woman traveller I would recommend going there as long as you are a little street-smart - pick-pocketing apparently happens regularly especially at the Mbare market but I have no first-hand experience of this. Compared to Nairobi, Harare seemed like much quieter city with a lot of greenery and most people living int he suburbs. This impression might be wrong as there are certainly also high-densitiy population areas but in general it is for example much less congested and there are only very few cars around. It made for a relaxing, beautiful place to spend my first days in Zimbabwe before moving on to Victoria Falls - next post, hint hint.
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