What Can 10 Get In Angola

What's up guys, Drew Binsky here, and in this video I'm going to show you what $10 can get you in Africa's most expensive city, and it might be one of the strangest. Welcome to Luanda, Angola! They call it the Paris of Africa, but Luanda is in a league of its own, a city where Portuguese history meets a futuristic skyline. Today I'm with my wife Deanna and our local guide Ima as we explore Luanda, a lively coastal city in Angola, to find out what $10 can get us here. I'm stopping at a gas station to get some coffee, because that's what you do around here. It's crazy they have these Portuguese-style bakeries everywhere in a gas station, too. It's like, I guess when you were a colony for 500 years, some things stay, like the bread. Thank you. Thank you very much. Here you go. Look, it's like proper coffee. Look, here's your coffee. Cheers. It's proper coffee. After grabbing a cup of coffee, it was time to make our way to some of Luanda's historic landmarks. As you can see, Angola was once communist, and you can tell by the Russian-looking statue right here. You feel like I'm in North Korea when I see this. And the building behind is the parliament building, right there. We are in Fortaleza de São Miguel. It's a place considered that Luanda started here as a city. There's a big flag here. I think I read it's from the 1500s, this fort? Yeah. It was built in 1576. So when the Portuguese came here, they built this fort? Yeah. I never went inside here last time. This is Diogo Cão, the Portuguese guy who first discovered Angola. Just imagine being in this fortress, like 600 years ago, and seeing these little views and seeing little ships coming to shore. So from the top of the fortress up here, you can see really a 360 view of the ocean. You have like that whole side where the city's developed. Then if you just walk over here and you look in front of you, there's a whole other ocean which just wraps around. It's so freaking cool. And this faces directly west, the Atlantic Ocean. The next country that way is Brazil, which is a really interesting fact. Angola, unfortunately, had 4 million slaves go to Brazil because Portugal colonized both countries, so the ease of the language, they all spoke Portuguese, and there was 4 million Angolans that were shipped from right here, this coast, directly west that way to Brazil. So many of the black Brazilians that you would meet have Angolan roots. It's interesting. When you actually look deeper at this other side, it looks like a big slum, which is totally different than the developed side. This looks straight out of Pyongyang, this monument here. Look at that. You haven't yet been to North Korea, but do you imagine it looks like that? Yeah, this is wild. Look at this. Nothing better than a weird, funky monument. And Angola's got plenty of them. This place is awesome. We are heading into the Mercado de Sao Paulo, which is not a touristy market, it is a local market. Apparently it's like Walmart inside. Let's go in. This is awesome. Hey, that's kind of your style. The first lady that approached Diana is like her style. That's cute. Yeah. How much? Eight. One thousand. Thank you. This place has a lot of stuff. They also sell wigs and hairs. This is the wig section. A lot of women here wear wigs. It's so soft. I thought it was real. The baguette lady is right here, approaching. Who needs CVS when you have every single possible soap and shampoo you can get? You put it in your hair. Oh, the beads? Yeah, the beads. So cute. Thank you. Cheers. What is it? Peanut with sugar. We call it Paracuca. Sure. How much is it? Five hundred. Here. Let's try it. We have this similar in Philippines. Same. Fresh peanuts with sugar around them. I'll buy one more. Thank you. Diana's hoarding all the peanut bags now. People here are actually very nice. I don't feel like I'm getting scammed. Everyone's just kind of genuine. They just say hi and that's it. If you go to the Congo, it's opposite. It's opposite? Yeah, it's opposite. When you are in Angola, you feel like you are at home. Ima, what are these blue buses? We call it Cuadradinho. They are the regular tax that we commute from home to work and other places. Are they cheap? Yeah, very cheap. It's like 300 Kwanzas. So like 30 cents. Yeah. This is the central bank of Angola. Some nice buildings here. Like if I just showed you this video right now and you saw the buildings behind me, would you guess I was in Angola? Probably not. This is a nice area. I'm walking on this beautiful boulevard which they call Marginal. And this is a bay here. And then for dinner, we're going to go on this lovely strip of land where there's going to be an amazing sunset on the other side. It's underratedly very pleasant here in Luanda. Yeah, there's some pollution and some smog, but like it's clean. And there's good amenities here. Can't go wrong. How much? Banana. He's shy. Cien? Cien. Here you go. He's shy. Thank you. Obrigado. Try it. He's selling it to the seller. How is that? Like a chip? Delicious. It's hard to explain a plantain if no one's ever tried it. It's like banana flavor. It is a banana. But it's not sweet. You don't have those in Philippines. Plantain, we have. But sweet. We are getting some lunch. Alright, Ima, let's get some food. You can see there's a lot of competition for the restaurants. They're all like lined up right here. And all just dudes hanging outside trying to get you inside. And we chose this one with the yellow fence. Oh my god. They literally bring the fish to the table. This is crazy. What's the best one? This is good. I like calafate. Is that good? Yeah. Thank you. Food is here. Sweet potato and plantain. Thank you. Garlicky fish. Wow. It's really soft and garlicky. Fresh fish by the sea. That is really tasty. That's beans? Yeah. The beans. What is that one? It's like salad. This is the beans here? We got a feast here in Angola. We got fresh fish. We got beans. Salad. We got plantains and sweet potatoes. It's fine dining. Oh yeah. It really goes good with the... Beans? The beans. Yeah. The fish. Oh yeah. Right together. Soaked in this like lemony garlic sauce. Extremely soft. White meat. That was a 10 out of 10 meal. We made it to a beautiful little bar restaurant here called Cafe Del Mar. We're going to sit and take a snooze on the beach here. We got people selling stuff. I must admit something. Last time I came here seven years ago, this really was the most expensive city in Africa and one of the most in the world. $2,000. $2,000? $2,000. I remember hotel prices, food prices, taxis were like so expensive. But now, it's actually not as bad. I'm finding prices to be a lot more affordable. And when I look it up online, it's actually true. Rwanda went from like the 10th to the 80th most expensive city in the world. I don't know why. I studied economics in school. I should probably tell you why this happened. But yeah, it has become more affordable. That's good. This place is totally a vibe out here. It's like all these nice restaurants and bars and cafes lined up on this stretch of the water. If I ever move to Rwanda, I'm buying a condo right here and seeing this view every day. I found Jose again after seven years. What's up, man? Bro, you look the same. No, no, not really. Yeah, you do. Maybe five more kilos. No, bro. I noticed something about Rwanda. The prices as a tourist have gotten much cheaper. What's going on with that? Currency devaluation from seven years back. U.S. dollars tripled the value. So for the local people, they haven't really seen a difference. Not really, but for someone coming from abroad, earning their salaries in Euros or USDs, it's from a very expensive city to a very affordable one. Seriously. One fish was $5 for a huge meal. And I went to the market and I thought it was actually pretty affordable. Yes. Last time we didn't come to this beach. This is amazing. Maybe last time it could cost you much more than it costs today. We're on this peninsula. This is straight west. You can see the sun setting. I mean, this is like paradise right now. I mean, this is beautiful. Look at it. I feel like I'm in California or something. Menu, yeah. You got an English menu. Nice. Do you have juice? Juice? One pineapple, one watermelon. Okay, yeah. My beautiful queen is going to take a nap. And there's like five people selling in front of me. And everyone's trying to sell us stuff. Right there. And then right there. And right there. And on every side. They're putting up a nice display. This is a very happy Diana right now. I'm so happy. Cheers. Oh, it's cold. Wow, this is so nice. How's your passion fruit? Oh, very passionate. Can I try mine? Oh, it's so good. Watermelon. Nothing like fresh fruit juice on a beach. Holy crap. Your passion fruit is way too sour. In total, I got two cups of coffee, a large meal, a pair of pants for Diana, two bags of sweet peanuts, plantain chips, and drinks for a total of $10. Luanda, you surprised me. Challenge completed. Subscribe if you enjoy this content and I'll see you in my next budget challenge.