Botswana: A country larger than France, but with a population an 8th of the size of London, in low season. Host to the Kalahari desert and home of the only tribe in the world that can live without surface water. This country is inhibited mainly by animals; the human population lives largely on the Eastern border, which means much of the country in shrub lands or game reserves. Visitors tend to only come here for safaris, so it's largely untouched by tourism, which was apparent as I exited out little propellor plane, collected my bag from a storage hatch at the side of the plane, and walked with it to the terminal. My excellent host and friend of a friend, Prince, was waiting for me, not struggling to spot the one white girl in an airport full of about 20 passengers.

Away we drove, window down, hot air blowing in my puppy dog face, passed the donkeys and cows with bells, into the capital city Gaborone (AKA Gabs). This spacious capital city has 2 or 3 high rises and a scattering of buildings taller than 1 story high. Not a place that screams "Economic Prosperity", but their currency, the Pula, is the strongest in Africa and quite good world wide. They also have flash cars and most own a good collection of technologies. It seems a country's development rating can be judged by their roads: Uganda, clearly third world, has appalling roads, few traffic laws, traffic lights (if they exist) are ignored and transport is dangerously overpacked. Botswana, on the other hand, has good roads, clear and enforced traffic laws, signs, lights and roundabouts and people are actually turned away when transport is full. Botswana, unlike Uganda, has very few motorbikes, decreasing road accidents massively. Vietnam traffic hovers somewhere in between. Botswana does, however, have a way to go before it reaches the UK standard, due to the culture of drink driving and having big nights out on the road, partying in cars.

The small population, relatively civilized traffic, the fact that police don't carry guns and the spread out houses, combined with the general slow paced chilled out attitude of the Africans, makes this country so unbelievably calm, it's quite easy to forget there's any kind of world outside of Botswana's relaxed content bubble.

Prince, in true African hospitality, welcomed me into his and his family's lives for the month I'm here, despite never having met me. He took it upon himself to make sure I am content, entertained, housed and fed, and he does his job with boyish enthusiasm, local knowledge and honest wit. There's no getting bored with Prince around! Within a few hours I'd met his brother, cousin, aunty, cousin, uncle, cousin, neighbours, cousin, nephew and a few more cousins. We stayed at his, his mum's and then his mum's other place. I felt fully welcome and at home everywhere I went, probably because you can't 'half' get to know Prince. Haha, this month is going to be fun.

Aah, Africa! Vietnam was great, but it's good to be back.