How do you manage your post box..when you are on vacation
May 1st, 2012, 11:52 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
How do you manage your post box..when you are on vacation
Hi All
I just want to know..How you guys are managing your regular postbox or other communications which are geo specific.
I am expecting some checks to come ...so want to make sure they are in time.
Your inputs are valid to me as I am facing issues regarding this.
Thanks
Vara
I just want to know..How you guys are managing your regular postbox or other communications which are geo specific.
I am expecting some checks to come ...so want to make sure they are in time.
Your inputs are valid to me as I am facing issues regarding this.
Thanks
Vara
May 1st, 2012, 02:06 PM
#2
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 14,440
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The post office will hold your mail for you while you are gone. You can choose to pick it up personally when you get back or have your mail carrier deliver it all to you in one bundle. If you need checks deposited, that's another story. Can you enlist the help of a trustworthy friend?
May 2nd, 2012, 08:13 AM
#5
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 5,215
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yeah, good point sandi. I prepay all utility bills and all credit cards are balanced out (or even have some plus credit balance). So never have late fees etc. And along those lines, call your card people and tell them you will be using card overseas. Otherwise they see a charge come in from Awamdabu and they will not pay and freeze card use.
regards - tom
regards - tom
May 2nd, 2012, 09:19 AM
#6
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
An African Safari is all about getting away from that. Leave it behind as the animals have not got Internet. Leave it behind. I cannot emphasize it enough. I had guests arrive this morning from Manhattan NY and hubby was kitted out for a trip on the Space Shuttle while wife was really cool. More and more lodges are giving guests Internet access which is destroying the safari experience. Why come on safari if you are going to bring the stress with you. LEAVE IT BEHIND.
Yours on Safari
Mark
Yours on Safari
Mark
May 2nd, 2012, 04:03 PM
#7
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,087
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mark: sound advise.
However accessing the internet for many people is critical to their livlihoods consequently places that do not offer it are missing out on an opportunity. Here in the US internet access from Cafes, lobbies, public parks, trains, planes and hotels is pretty much standard fare. I don't for a moment believe that this is destroying the safari experience....
However accessing the internet for many people is critical to their livlihoods consequently places that do not offer it are missing out on an opportunity. Here in the US internet access from Cafes, lobbies, public parks, trains, planes and hotels is pretty much standard fare. I don't for a moment believe that this is destroying the safari experience....
May 2nd, 2012, 06:30 PM
#8
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 5,215
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Safari experience - ON GAME DRIVES no guest gizmos that make noise. Except for cameras 
. In camp, telephone, internet, whatever, as long as it does not disturb me or make me late for meals .
regards - tom
. In camp, telephone, internet, whatever, as long as it does not disturb me or make me late for meals .regards - tom
May 3rd, 2012, 06:58 AM
#9
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
mkhonzo
I agree with your thoughts but then make other plans like giving control to someone they trust for the time they are on safari. I have seen it so many times when guests finish their morning game drive and breakfast and then head for the internet room where they spend 4 to 5 hours tapping on the keyboard. They really miss out on the true atmosphere and ambiance of Africa. There is a lot more to an African Safari than just seeing the Big Five. Take a walk around the camp, listen to the sounds, even look and see insects that you have never seen before who share your planet with us. There is so much to experience and I to this day still am fascinated by the new things I see and discover. I have been going into the bush since I was 5 years old and I remember so well the days I spent in Kruger with my late Dad who was an Honorary Ranger in the 60s and 70s. In those days Kruger was very different to what it is now with reference to the camps. In those days my Dad and Mom used to fetch me and my sister from primary school on a Friday at 12PM and we headed straight out to Kruger which was a 450km drive. I still do it today. The bungalos were simple Rondavels with a pole in the middle and four single beds with pots underneath them (en-suite facilities?). Thats Africa. We used to wake up at 04h30 and there was a communal fire going with huge black kettles boiling your water for coffee. I can still see it now and smell it. That to me is what I want my guests to experience, the true feel of Africa.
I hope I made sense
Yours on Safari
Mark
I agree with your thoughts but then make other plans like giving control to someone they trust for the time they are on safari. I have seen it so many times when guests finish their morning game drive and breakfast and then head for the internet room where they spend 4 to 5 hours tapping on the keyboard. They really miss out on the true atmosphere and ambiance of Africa. There is a lot more to an African Safari than just seeing the Big Five. Take a walk around the camp, listen to the sounds, even look and see insects that you have never seen before who share your planet with us. There is so much to experience and I to this day still am fascinated by the new things I see and discover. I have been going into the bush since I was 5 years old and I remember so well the days I spent in Kruger with my late Dad who was an Honorary Ranger in the 60s and 70s. In those days Kruger was very different to what it is now with reference to the camps. In those days my Dad and Mom used to fetch me and my sister from primary school on a Friday at 12PM and we headed straight out to Kruger which was a 450km drive. I still do it today. The bungalos were simple Rondavels with a pole in the middle and four single beds with pots underneath them (en-suite facilities?). Thats Africa. We used to wake up at 04h30 and there was a communal fire going with huge black kettles boiling your water for coffee. I can still see it now and smell it. That to me is what I want my guests to experience, the true feel of Africa.
I hope I made sense
Yours on Safari
Mark
May 3rd, 2012, 07:42 AM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Folks, I have to tell this story. In fact like many others I am planning to write a book, but that I will reveal later.
Ok, picture the scene. Its on a river cruise on the Chobe River. Its a Sunday and Celeste and I are at a restaurant having a lovely lunch. My cellphone rings and I answer. Its a call from a very wealthy California Laywer. But he is supposed to be on Safari right now and he is. He is calling me from his Satelite phone to complain about how many other cruises there are around him. I choke on my food, I am dumbfounded. So I fired him as a client.
Yours on Safari
Mark
Ok, picture the scene. Its on a river cruise on the Chobe River. Its a Sunday and Celeste and I are at a restaurant having a lovely lunch. My cellphone rings and I answer. Its a call from a very wealthy California Laywer. But he is supposed to be on Safari right now and he is. He is calling me from his Satelite phone to complain about how many other cruises there are around him. I choke on my food, I am dumbfounded. So I fired him as a client.
Yours on Safari
Mark
May 3rd, 2012, 09:08 AM
#12
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,087
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am only responding because I find your comments entertaining.
I'd prefer the guy was spending his money in Africa tapping away at his keyboard (between game drives) rather than watching it on TV at home.
Your nostalgic moments are just that. I suspect that for many in Africa a faucet and flowing hot water are preferable to making a fire at 04h00 dark! While the chamber pot should have disappeared around the industrial revolution. I also think that for most visiting Africa that a flushing commode would be far more attractive than your alternate!
And of course I smiled at your story - he should have fired you as his travel planner for sending him on safari to the busiest body of safari water in Southern Africa.
I'd prefer the guy was spending his money in Africa tapping away at his keyboard (between game drives) rather than watching it on TV at home.
Your nostalgic moments are just that. I suspect that for many in Africa a faucet and flowing hot water are preferable to making a fire at 04h00 dark! While the chamber pot should have disappeared around the industrial revolution. I also think that for most visiting Africa that a flushing commode would be far more attractive than your alternate!
And of course I smiled at your story - he should have fired you as his travel planner for sending him on safari to the busiest body of safari water in Southern Africa.
May 4th, 2012, 09:17 AM
#14
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
mkhonzo
It was a late booking, something like 3 months prior in prime time and he is a repeat guest but insisted we do something for his wife's 50th birthday. You cannot expect to get the best in Botswana 3 months in advance. We all know that but he was insistent on bringing his wife to Bots for her 50th and we did the best that we could do.
Yours on Safari
Mark
It was a late booking, something like 3 months prior in prime time and he is a repeat guest but insisted we do something for his wife's 50th birthday. You cannot expect to get the best in Botswana 3 months in advance. We all know that but he was insistent on bringing his wife to Bots for her 50th and we did the best that we could do.
Yours on Safari
Mark
May 4th, 2012, 03:42 PM
#15
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 8,675
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm one with Mark. When I walk away from this screen, even when in NYC, I'm incommunicado. I actually have to remember to take my mobile which phone number I don't even know if someone asked, let along remember to recharge it.
More so when I travel, Africa specifically, when I land I take off my watch for the duration and but for one visit when I accessed my email (waiting on somethis really important) I am totally disconnected. Whatever it might be can wait till I return home.
On a recent trip, meeting a lovely family - parents and three young adult children - after every game drive on return to camp, dad was on his mobile, mom was off in a corner texting and the kids were fighting for their few minutes at the camp's laptop... ugh!
I instead retired to my lovely cottage to be surrounded by otherwise skittish dik-dik, antelope, vervet monkeys and birds fascinated by this human person for the duration I remained there... that's my Afree-kah!
More so when I travel, Africa specifically, when I land I take off my watch for the duration and but for one visit when I accessed my email (waiting on somethis really important) I am totally disconnected. Whatever it might be can wait till I return home.
On a recent trip, meeting a lovely family - parents and three young adult children - after every game drive on return to camp, dad was on his mobile, mom was off in a corner texting and the kids were fighting for their few minutes at the camp's laptop... ugh!
I instead retired to my lovely cottage to be surrounded by otherwise skittish dik-dik, antelope, vervet monkeys and birds fascinated by this human person for the duration I remained there... that's my Afree-kah!
May 6th, 2012, 09:30 AM
#16
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Way to go Sandi
When Cel and I go to Kruger which is 450 odd kms from our place we do take our laptops so we can be in touch but I limit it to one login in the morning and one in the early evening and thats it. The rest of the time is spent enjoying what we call the Garden of Eden.
Yours on Safari
Mark
When Cel and I go to Kruger which is 450 odd kms from our place we do take our laptops so we can be in touch but I limit it to one login in the morning and one in the early evening and thats it. The rest of the time is spent enjoying what we call the Garden of Eden.
Yours on Safari
Mark
May 10th, 2012, 03:28 AM
#17
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,859
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The sounds of Africa stir my heart. Infrequently I will hear an African bird's call in a movie or on the telly -- my ears perk up and my mind rushes back in time to our last trip to Africa. I have African birds on my iPod so that I might fall asleep to that beautiful sound.
During a game drive in southern Tanzania, our guide stopped near a large tree to point out "one of the most famous sights in the area" -- what? The location where from the uppermost branch one could climb and get "three bar" reception on their cellphone.
Just leave it at home!
During a game drive in southern Tanzania, our guide stopped near a large tree to point out "one of the most famous sights in the area" -- what? The location where from the uppermost branch one could climb and get "three bar" reception on their cellphone.
Just leave it at home!
May 11th, 2012, 09:43 AM
#19
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just got back from the Airport after guests of mine got back from a serious 12 day safari in the Timbavati, Kapama and Sabi Sands. They visited 4 different lodges and as they came thru I spent almost an hour hearing their experiences. WOW is all I can say and that is why I love this industry so much. I get to share my own love for Africa with folks from all over the world and to see Glee on my Guests faces is priceless.
They did not have and were not interested in Internet Access.
Yours on Safari
Mark
They did not have and were not interested in Internet Access.
Yours on Safari
Mark
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
lovesadventure
United States
26
Sep 3rd, 2006 05:10 PM
SharonNRayMc
United States
32
Oct 13th, 2004 05:05 PM
richardab
Europe
33
Jul 11th, 2003 07:18 PM
