Safari lodges and camps serve international-style cuisine, generally of an extremely high standard, along with local beer and imported wine and spirits. Good restaurants and bars can be found in main towns, often within hotels. Beef and goat are very popular meats. Elsewhere, food is more basic: millet and sorghum porridge are the local staples.
National specialties:• Morama (an underground tuber).
• The
Kalahari truffle.
•
Mopane worms (grubs, served boiled, cooked or deep-fried).
• Beans such as cow peas,
ditloo (jugo beans) and
letlhodi (china beans), dried bean leaves, plus nuts like peanuts and groundnuts.
•
Morogo (wild spinach) is very tasty.
National drinks: • Palm wine (which is extremely strong) and
Kgadi (made from distilled sugar or fungus).
• Traditional beer such as
bojalwa, which tastes a bit like apple cider.
• Homemade ginger beer is popular.
• Bush tea (or r
ooibos) is a reddish caffeine-free tea that is soothing and delicious, although something of an acquired taste.
Legal drinking age: 18.
Tipping: A discretionary 5 to 10%. In many places, a service charge is automatically added. It is customary to tip the game guide and lodge staff while on safari.
NightlifeMost people get up early in the morning, and even in the capital, Gaborone, nightlife is not very extensive. It's limited to a few
bars and restaurants, a
cinema and a
cultural center which stages theatrical productions. Some bars host live music sessions at weekends. Despite its steady tourist traffic, Maun is even sleepier, with just a handful of restaurants, a small cinema and a clutch of places to grab a cold beer.
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