Malanville, Benin To Niamey, Niger: Another Test Of My Patience

I got up and enjoyed the coolness of Malanville. I even had to turn my fan down. And to think they wanted to charge me an extra CFA 10000 for AC. I stayed in bed for a while waiting for the light to appear and soon it did. I left.

As soon as I left the Rose des Sables, there was a guy with a scooter and a heavy winter coat. It's nice and cool, but not heavy winter coat weather. He turned around when he saw me. He said he could get me to Gaya, Niger for CFA 2000 which is twice the price in Lonely Planet. I told him I could walk it. He offered CFA 1500. I looked at his scooter and said it was too small. I would rather walk. I started on my way in the nice cool air. OK, CFA 1000. I got on. He went pretty slow and when he got to the downtown Malanville, he passed me off to a guy with a bigger motorcycle and got CFA 400 from him. The new guy took me a ways to the exit visa place. They were just starting to operate. I was the first exit visa and they had to unpack their stuff. They had me fill out a sheet with all the usual questions. I had made sure I packed a Bic in my pocket, of course. Always have a Bic for customs. I filled out the sheet and they looked it over carefully filling in my hotel last night and expected hotel this night (I had to look up Chez Tatayi in the Lonely Planet to answer that one). Then I got my stamp. Back onto the motorcycle to cross a big bridge. As soon as we got across, that was Niger. Again, another sheet to fill in. The woman checked it carefully against everything I had and then gave me my entry stamp. Back onto the motorcycle. It's a long way from the bridge to the gare routière. The whole thing is walkable if you have a lot of time, but I'm a guy who considers pretty long distances walkable and I'd basically say this is not walkable.

At the gare routière, they had minibuses but no sept-places. That didn't please me particularly. I want a sept-place. Sept-places always blow by minibuses on the road. And minibuses take longer to fill up. But it was before 8am. The trip would be about 6 hours and I figured even if we leave at 11, that's an hour and a half of daylight to search for a hotel. The only thing I was apprehensive of--Lonely Planet says that hotel rooms are hard to find in Niamey and you had better make your reservations well in advance. Hmmmm....

The men and boys controlling the vehicle told me that I could have the front seat for CFA 500. I had already paid CFA 4100 (US$8.20) for a ticket so I didn't want to pay extra for the front seat. I waited for the women in the back to finish eating because their food was on the fold down seat and went to find a seat. But the floor of the minibus was filled with junk, the spare tire, and all sorts of mechanical stuff. I turned around and gave them CFA 500 and got in the front seat.

I was nervous about getting to Niamey before the sun goes down. At 9am when the car started moving, I felt better. At 9:05 when I realized that they only moved it to a shadier place, I felt worse. Every beggar in Gaya was coming up to me and asking for money. I explained that I didn't have enough coins and turned them all away. At 10am we still have no air of leaving. Nor at 11. Finally, at noon, we left. Gee, that would put us in Niamey at 5 or 6 and that's not much daylight. I hate searching for places in the night. Once the sun goes down, things get a lot harder to find. A block from the gare routière, I saw a bus station that advertised daily buses to Niamey at 8:30am. Damn. That would have gotten me to Niamey in much better time. The big buses are faster because they have big double wheels and glide over potholes whereas the minibuses have to pick through them.

The road sucked. More potholes that you can imagine and we were competing for road space with scores of slow-moving trucks carrying cargo to Niger and coming back empty (I presume). We often got stuck behind trucks that were also trying to avoid all the same potholes. It isn't often that there is enough unpocked straightaway that we could pass them.

And Niger sure has more than its share of police checkpoints. As soon as you pass the Douanes (they spell it in English as Custums), there is a Gendarmerie checkpoint. Or a Syndicat check-point. We even got stopped for a while at a toll gate by a policeman. Then there are the bathroom breaks, prayer breaks (yes, Niger is very Muslim), and some breaks that I didn't understand at all. It sucks. I had to show my passport twice.

A guy in the seat behind me ascertained that I was American and then started asking me to help him get to America. I am starting to get annoyed by this request so I told him he needed to apply for a visa. He wanted me to go to the embassy with him. I told him that I can get into the section for American citizens but not to the foreign citizens' section. Every time we stopped he came and pressed me to take him to America. "America good" he kept repeating. Over and over--"America good". And he puts his face really close to mine which annoyed the hell out of me. He was pretty serious until I got exasperated and told him that it is hard to find a good job in America and if he didn't want to apply for a visa by himself I didn't know how he could find a job. Then he just started telling me to try to fit him into my laptop case.

Soon the road got a lot better, but it was already mid-afternoon and the sun wasn't high. Every stupid stop at the Gendarmerie or the Douanes or the Syndicat or whatever took time off the available sunlight. I was getting stressed. We passed a speed controlled giraffe crossing and I looked for giraffes, but didn't see any.

Finally, at a little after 6pm, we rolled into a gare routière in Niamey. The sun was low.

We were at the Wadata Autogare. That means were we just a block from the Chez Tatayi. A taxi driver asked where I wanted to go. I told him the Chez Tatayi. He said it was about 2km away. Ha! I know that one. I still remember the taxi driver at the station in Sevaré trying to charge me CFA 1000 to take me next door. I showed the map. Other people also said the Tatayi was just a small ways away. The "America good" guy called them to ask if they had a room and said he'd meet me there at 7. What the hell, OK. He probably wants to try to convince me to go to the embassy with him. So with the last bit if daylight, I headed out. After about 2 minutes I saw an internet café and realized that I was probably on the wrong street. A compass check proved it. It only took 2 minutes, but already it was only half as light. I turned around and walked 2 minutes down the correct street. It had to be there somewhere, but I didn't see it. Now it was dark. Dammit! Four wasted hours waiting for that damned minibus to leave. I asked some men outside a bookstore. They pointed at a building and said it used to be that building, but now it has moved. It is now next to the Grand Hôtel. I'd have to take a taxi. Niamey has a shared taxi system and I had baggage. So I would need a deplacement--French for a taxi for just yourself. I went closer to the Wadata station since it should have taxis. It was dark and I couldn't see into the cabs to see if they were empty--for a deplacement you need an empty one. Finally, one came by. CFA1500 for a deplacement. OK. It is a long way to the Grand Hôtel rond-pont. But we made it. And they had a room for me. It was a bit more than I want to pay, but I won't spend much time in Niamey.

I went across the street and got a refreshing bottled water (CFA 500) and then the tourist information center which is right across the street from Chez Tatayi has an inexpensive little bar. I told the hotel people waiting out in front to send the guy over to the bar if he came. I had 2 Flags which were so cold they even had ice on the bottle. Then a guide came up and started trying to sell me batiks and tours to see giraffes and hippos. He had large batiks and wanted CFA 10000. I got him down to CFA 3000 on one I liked and eventually bought it. The "America Good" man never showed up.

Thursday, November 13, 2008 6:51 Niger local time