Mysterious Africa

Property managers take the stress out of owning rental properties. Although the income is terrific, quite a few nuisances come with being a property owner. These can all be neatly avoided by hiring a good property manager.

The best place to find a property manager is by advertising locally, either in print or online. Look for someone who’s had experience as a property manager. Check their credit history since they’ll probably be handing checks for you. If they have nothing to hide, they shouldn’t mind. Ask for references, too. Ask their references about substance abuse and stability issues.

If you have a multiple unit apartment building, you may want a live-in property manager. That gives you a pair of eyes on-site to protect your property. Usually you can get someone to manage for a discount on his or her own rent. If you have a few properties in one location, you may want to hire separate managers or just use one for all your rentals.

Your property manager is a business interface between you and your renters, so make sure your manager knows how to handle business. They can be lenient, but not a pushover. They have to be firm when it’s time and they must be willing to evict a friend.

A property manager who has handyman skills is worth a larger rent reduction. A good property manager can save you plenty of money by making small repairs around the property. They can also prepare and show empty apartments, saving you time and travel.

Property managers deflect much of the unpleasantness of owning rental properties by fielding tenant complaints, screening new applicants, and collecting the monthly rent. A good property manager is probably worth more than you’re paying for their service. However, what you’re really paying for when you hire a property manager is peace of mind.

There are several ways that Canadians can find a friend, family member, or a business. Traditional 411 services require a name and location to provide a phone number, and typically, they charge a fee. In the digital age, consumers expect free access to online databases. This has created a demand for free access to telephone directory information as well. Consumers expect companies to make it easy to find the information that they want. It’s not surprising that some services offer filters that can narrow down searches. The search filters make it easy to find that wonderful restaurant with the impossible-to-remember name or that place a friend took you a long time ago. To further meet the expectations of customers, many free online directories have partnerships that allow them to provide maps and directions for businesses all over the country.

One of the ways to find the information you want is through 411 Canada. More than two million Canadians use this service every month. Unlike telephone-based services that charge a fee for every number request, this service is totally free. It’s free to search for local businesses, look up an old college friend, and find out who keeps calling from that unknown number.

To provide up-to-date information on millions of businesses and individuals, 411 Canada partners with public information agencies and private third-party companies that provide data from all across the country. Customers have access to a full residential database and business section that’s only offered online. Instead of charging customers to look up numbers, 411 Canada uses advertising revenue to make its services free. In addition to the business section, the residential section allows users to search all over the country for people by last name. The reverse phone search feature helps you figure out who is calling you from unknown numbers. Results will show the caller’s name and where they’re located.

A popular radio station in Utah gave away colorful stickers printed with their logo. Having their sticker was the cool thing to do—and they were free. Put it on your car, the inside of your locker, or the front of your notebook, and you were advertising yourself as “cool.” You were also advertising the radio station, but at least you didn’t have to pay for it.

The radio station also has a truck that travels to diverse venues around the city, where they broadcast music, chat with people, help support various local causes, and gain exposure in the community. They usually have a table where you can buy T-shirts, hats and other merchandise—and pick up their free stickers.

Custom sticker printing is a great way to advertise your music product. People who like your brand will happily fasten the sticker on something they own. Whether you’re a band or a radio station, you want to get your name and logo out there. Exposure means listeners, and listeners mean income.

The first step is design. Don’t just put down the first thing you think of. Look at other designs and logos and see what catches your eye. What colors grab your attention? What shapes? Consider the type of paper you want. Don’t copy anyone’s designs, but use them for research. Then hire a designer to do the actual logo and sticker designs.

Make sure the designer knows the audience you are trying to reach. Express your ideas but respect his or her judgment and suggestions before making a final selection. Pick a few awesome designs, have them printed and get them out there—soon you’ll be known locally and beyond. Stick them on your own car and get your friends to use them. Give them out at fairs, at expos, and from your website, for even more exposure.

After remaining hidden from the world for 3,000 years, the mummified face of the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun has been revealed on Saturday. The skin is black and crackled with a leathery texture. The ‘buck teeth’, which is a family trait of Tut’s family, is conspicuous.

According to the Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s head of antiquities, the face of Tutankhamun needed immediate preservation to prevent it from pulverizing from the heat and humidity generated as large number of visitors visited the sarcophagus everyday. The mummy was taken out of the lavishly decorated sarcophagus and was been placed in a climate controlled glass case in the tomb. The face and feet of Tutankhamun are visible while rest of the corpse is covered by linen. It will now be easy to monitor the mummy.

Virgin forests, impenetrable jungles, vast expansive grasslands and the eventual merging into the Kalahari Desert. A lonesome cheetah tracks your movements perched on a tree and contemplates its next move. The cheerful birds chirp in the blazing African summer heat and the saga of the African wilderness continues unmindful to the changes the rest of the world has seen. The parched earth cracks and the smell of earth hits you as the reddened skies turn gray and it rains in torrents, bringing the much-needed moisture to the dehydrating flora and fauna. Botswana, a land of unspoilt natural habitats and the epitome of a true African experience, has for the discerning traveler, a great experience awaiting.

A true African success story, Botswana today is a country that has left it’s history far behind and races towards progress. A country with one of the best infrastructure, employment rates and investment friendliness in modern Africa, modern Botswana is a tourist hotspot with unsurpassed wildlife parks and reservations. The country is already well known for it’s safari and gaming reserves, though gaming is strictly prohibited in reserves and national parks. The prosperity of the nation and the relatively good infrastructure when compared to other African nations, attracts tourists from all over the world for that unique African safari experience.

Night brings on a dangerous yet active time for all wild animals for this is the time when the heat cools off. The night is full of dark mystery, terror, silence and predation.

Crepuscular creatures began to stir with the dying of the light. You could be a part of this memorable experience by going on night drives into Africa’s game parks.

The opportunities range from Kruger National Park, Mkuze Game Reserve, Mountain Zebra National Park and Itala Game Reserve. And budget night drives cost under $25

Mountain Zebra National Park: one of South Africa’s most ruggedly beautiful but least-visited preserves, offers night drives for 100 rand (about $13 at 7.6 rand to the dollar) a head. The park’s mix of dry river valleys, high grassy plateaus and recessive mountain chains rising in the distance to 7,000 feet, with black rhino, Cape buffalo and herds of foaling zebra.

Addo Elephant National Park: Night drives at Addo cost 180 rand a person. Here the vehicle are bigger and the guides more. Elephants have to sleep on their feet in brief power naps. Given the bulk they must support, elephants don’t dare to rest too long from eating.

Night drives force us to develop our senses. We’re reminded how much we lean on sight and how, by animal standards, we’re amateurs.

Well if you do go for the drive, hope for a guide who enriches the experience with silence and is yet informative.

Source: The New York Times

Single tourists and other backpacker-mass-tourists slipping into Ghana have resorted to preying on truant and delinquent kids idling on the beaches and streets by luring them with money, immigration abroad and other gizmos. This is the sordid byproduct of an increase in the international student educational tourist flood.

In some cases, parents have even condoned the involvement of their kids in gay pedophilia and child sex for money. Some of the hotel and lodging operations in Ghana are pimping for such tourist and using child sex tourism as a promotional tool for their businesses.

The tourism sector in Ghana, both public and private, do not seem to be doing much or taking the issue seriously and neither those agencies responsible for the protection of children. Moreover the international community should make some arrangements to put a stop to such nefariously disgusting activities.

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Source: All Africa

Sipi Falls is one of Uganda’s most romantic and beautiful falls. There are three levels of falls, but the two upper levels are fairly small compared with the main drop.

The fall is about 55km north of Mbale, in the foothills of Mt Elgon and not far from the town of Kapchorwe. The falls and the views of Mt Elgon above them are awesome.

Sipi Falls lodge:

Sipi Falls Lodge is located in the Mount Elgon National Park, some 5 hours northeast of Uganda’s capital Kampala. It offers superb views of the Sipi waterfall.

There are five comfortable thatched bandas with private facilities and stunning views of Sipi Falls and the Karamajong plains. It is the perfect base for exploring the foothills of Mount Elgon or just relaxing and enjoying the surrounding scenery.

It is well worth spending a night or two in this peaceful and pretty place.

Source: allafrica

Perhaps, the political upheavals and poor economy of Libya are not strong enough to bury the charm of historically renowned city of Timbuktu. The mysterious land remained unnoticed until date and its old literature stamped under the hot and humid Sahara desert.

If literature mirrors society, then Timbuktu is all set to rise like a phoenix from its vanished glory with the antique annals of manuscripts that endured eleven generations of open neglect. These records set its claim for the renaissance of the city and of its culture with its roots reaching to far regions like Spain.

The annals of the baroque but forgotten Arabic scripts that are held by Diadie Haidara, belong to sixteenth century. The world was apparently oblivious of the treasure until now however, with the musty and fragile pages, these unique scripts have the potential to provide second chance for Timbuktu to regain its faded glory in the erudite hearts of Africa.

Empowered by the past records of ancient scripts and books that are brought by the visitors from all over the world in the past, the city craves to make an Alexandria for the Black African. The city is at the verge of renaissance, but this time will not allow it to diminish unlike the camel hooves on the sands of Sahara that recedes eventually.

With this development, the thousands of books and scores of scriptures will be revealing the prevalent socio-political scenario of the time to researchers for the first time. And with this the European governments, including US, UK, and Mideast have conferred thousands of dollars to revamp the dilapidated and neglected libraries to attract the scholars from all over the world to explore the hidden past.

Timbuktu, a trading post set by nomads in the 11th century, is making a slow comeback for years. Its manuscripts began to emerge in the mid-20th century, when Mali got freedom from France and the city was declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

These manuscripts are the treasure of Islamic history that include biography of Prophet Muhammad form 13th century. The study of these manuscripts will definitely bring the facts of Islamic history to the fore, thus flourishing the Islamic learning. With the funds that are conferred to it, the city will come out from the shackles and the ebbs of the lost glory, rejuvenate the learning euphoria in the city, and the plans like digging the canal while hoaxing the big sand mountain will bring the life giving water of river Niger to Timbuktu.

Via: NYTimes

The serene and wonderful ILHA DO IBO of Mozambique, Africa is indeed a great place to relax for a few days. The Times Online foreign correspondent Christina Lamb selected this particular island for solitude after being shot at by the Taliban during her assignment. The northern Mozambique island helped her sort of come to terms with things after her terrible ordeal.

No more web cafes, no more hustle bustle of the city. Just imagine yourself and the waves coming at you. The experience at Ibo island can be quite surreal indeed. The island is a part of the recently created Quirimbas archipelago. The ancient mansions with their grandeur and wrought iron terraces attract many tourists to the island. These mansions are actually home to visitors of the island. Also available are the island lodges.

Fishing and tourists are the two things that Ibo dwellers thrive on. As Christina Lamb mentions in her article, the island is controlled by tide. Tides can make it or break it. Boats take off early in the morning during high tide known to locals as maji-mwingi. This is when traders guide their boats through the local mangrove forests. I would like to try out the guided mangrove excursion.

Along the fishing adventures, tourists can experience scuba diving with a qualified local guide. Ibo also offers sea kayaking for the adventurous. To get to the island board a flight from Dar-Es-Salam. The room rates at Ibo lodges vary from $80 to $280 and children over 12 can stay for half price. I think this sounds like a great island to get away from the hustle bustle of the city.

Image Credits: Eyesonafrica, Technoserve, Akdn