The wildlife of Botswana is big and diversified. This landlocked nation in Southern Africa gives shelter to a huge range of nice and helpful species including beetles, grasshopers, flies, mosquitoes, HIV-carrier monkeys and man-charging elephants.
The birdlife is particularily interesting there with its bataillon of green-backed herons and pel’s fishing owls that actually interest no one apart from Kalahari-born tour guide Dantes Liebenberg and his starving cat.

Among all this colorful abundance, there are some unlucky under-populated species who must fight for survival on a daily basis. Abandonned by nature, they’re too short in numbers to go for group hunting, they’re too weak to defend against hungry predators. As a consequence they must hide night and day in their sky-high glass-towers. They can’t travel across the land but by using private planes. They have to sit in the back of limousines to skim through the streets of Gaberones, the capital of Botswana.

You know of course who I’m talking about: the rich guy. Even if Botswana ranks pretty well economically by African standards, the rich guy must be on his guard whenever he risks himself out of his only safe spot: the five-star hotels of Phakalane.

As soon as he reaches one of the villages circling the city, he may come face to face with a vicious Bantou speaking the setswana. This deadly encounter cannot be settled by force. American dollars can sometimes do the job, but not always. Sometimes the greedy Bantou, emboldened by the backing of his 76 brothers, asks for more: gold watch, mobile phone, leather shoes… And the rich guy has no other choice than to lay on the floor in a posture of submission. But even that won’t always save his life…

That’s it for this episode. Coming soon, the next endangered species of Bostwana: the country boy

As a professional tour guide, you have communicated with your client back and forth. You have designed a perfect itinerary specially for your client. You have agreed on all the schedule and payments. Now it’s time of the tour day. Do not miss your client at the very beginning of the tour by being late for the start time. It will often annoy the client. And sometimes even affect the tour schedule. Here are some tips and reminders for you.

If your meeting place is at airport or cruise port, check with the flight/cruise arrival on the day. As a tour guide, you may have picked up clients for hundreds of times. But it’s recommended to check and make sure. Do not take it for granted. Flights may delay or cancel, or arrive early in some cases. Better not have the client wait for you, even though the flight arrives earlier. They have limited time in your city and prefer no waste. So it’s worth a quick call to confirm the arrival time. Same with cruise and other transportation meeting place.

In most cases you meet your client at their hotel lobby. So on OurExplorer, this is set as the default meeting place. How could you miss a client in a hotel lobby? Well, it may happen. Call the hotel to confirm your client’s reservation. Avoid going to a different hotel of the same brand. Clarify the meeting lobby with your client. In Shanghai, Grand Hyatt has a front desk on the 1st floor and lobby on the 54th floor. Shangri-la has two adjoining building thus two lobbies – just be careful of these potential points of confusion.

Sometimes the client would like to meet at a public place. As a tour guide, you need to make clear of the exact meeting point. It shall be with clear signs and away from the crowds. Otherwise, it’s hard for you to identify your clients, vice versa.

Thanks to the invention of mobile. If tour guides and clients have exchanged mobile numbers, it’s less possible that you miss each other. Even if you can’t dial internationally, short message may help. First impression makes a difference. So don’t be late, and start the tour without missing your clients.

Mobile phone makers introduce new handsets in the market, integrated with innovative technologies and latest mobile software. This allows users to make use of their phones more efficiently and effectively. The market is flooded with numerous phones with customized specifications which makes it hard for the user to decide which one to go for.

Mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG, Blackberry, Sony Ericsson and many others are working towards developing phones that are technically sound and possess features that distinguish them above all the rests in the competitive environment of mobile phones.

The latest mobile phones are designed with configurations as per the user requirements like a businessman or a professional who travels to other countries and would like to get in touch with family, friend and colleagues through his phone. He would prefer a phone which should be compatible with the 2G and 3G networks, only then the phone would work in other countries. The phone must have a high speed Internet connection preferably a wireless one. It is better to work on the compact sized mobile than to switch on a rather bulkier laptop. The required phone must have other interesting features like good quality camera, TV-out, music and video player, video calling, geo-tagging and GPS navigator. These features may vary for different models.

Some of the latest mobile phones that have high-end features are HTC snap, Nokia N97, Sony Ericsson W705, LG GW 520, Apple iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Tour 9630 etc. All the phones are equipped with latest gears that help them enhance their performance.

Other users of mobile phones like students and home makers who might not be looking for a high-end super phone model but are more interested in other aspects like camera quality, Internet surfing, music player , games, video player, Bluetooth ,polyphonic ring tones etc. They might not be requiring features like advanced network connectivity and tools for office work or activities like sending creating or sending emails. To buy a phone which has specifications much more than the expectations might result in facing high cost and less usage, it is rather better to buy a phone with required specifications that are user specific. Mobile phone makers also consider these essential aspects and come up with their ingenious latest mobile phones that have configurations as per user requirements. Few of the medium budgeted phones available in the market are Nokia 5530 Xpress Music, Samsung M2510, Sony Ericsson W205, LG GD330 etc.

For a mobile phone to make use of all its functions, requires a better network service provider. There are number of mobile service providers who bring superb deals in mobile phones. There are lucrative gifts options which benefits the user even more. There are many comparison websites which show cheaper deals in the latest mobile phones as per one’s budget. A user can go through such websites to find his favorite handset at affordable price with suitable tariff. If a user is looking for a high-end handset he can make use of contract deals that offer smart phones with free gifts like play stations, LCD TVs or laptops. One is required to enter into an agreement to avail the free gifts. Users, who are not willing to get into agreement, can opt for other interesting plans like Pay as you go and sim free. These plans offer free gifts in the form of cash back, free minutes and free texts for a specific time period.

One must shop around before deciding upon getting a mobile phone plan.