Soft lavatory paper

In the Terry Pratchet movie The Color of Magic, Cohen the Barbarian is asked, after all his adventures and travels, what he would say the most treasured things in life are. He replies, "Hot water, good dentristy and soft lavatory paper". I really resonated with that on my return from Rwanda and Burundi!

Although the cold showers were bearable in the humid weather, I was shocked by stories from people in the rural parts of Burundi that rotten teeth are removed with the use of a hammer and nail and with regards to the lavatory paper, well, no complaints there but I've learnt a lot about handling a torch, a roll of toilet paper and a long drop in the dark of night!

It was truly an amazing trip which triggered a lot of half-formed ideas and latent dreams about things I might want to start doing with my life in terms of East and southern Africa, research and peace education. I'm sure all this will unfold in due course.

On the theme of travel, Arthur is covering a series of travel tips, the first is be quiet ("no need to broadcast to everyone where you flew from, that this is your first time to Africa, or what you ate for lunch"), the second is around packing light and yesterdays addition was exercise. Perhaps my tip would be to make friends. I've found that the friends I've made at airports or while on public transport have often come in handy later on in the journey, especially when traveling in East Africa! What are your travel tips?