I got up bright and early--both my iPod and watch alarms set to 3:30am. I snoozed a couple of times and got up, brushed my teeth, did the last minute packing and headed out to see the night watchman. He was sleeping in the lobby and woke up as I approached. We went out and turned right and went a block or so to a relatively major intersection. Then we waited. After about 5 minutes a cab came. The driver offered to take me for CFA 1000 (US$2). Oh well, I'm used to getting dinged when I'm white and have beaucoup baggages. I tipped the nightwatchman CFA 500 as well. So the taxi ride that would have been CFA 3000 from the driver the night before who offered to CFA 1500--CFA 500 of which was a tip and with a little more time could have been CFA 500 only. Not bad. I'm learning.
I got to the SNTV station which was already chaos. I had no idea what was going on. After a while, the baggage enregistrement guy came and everyone flocked up to him. He takes the tickets one by one and copies a bunch of information off the ticket onto as many luggage tags as the ticket holder needs. It is not an efficient process. My bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 and it was 5:15. I didn't know what to do. I got two tags eventually. Then a baggage handler took my bags and requested CFA 500. There are three doors--one labeled International Lines and two labeled National Lines. A bunch of Bamako-bound people went through the National Lines door. It was getting close to 5:30 and I kept trying to get out to where the buses where but they kept telling me I couldn't go through this door. The whole thing is chaotic as hell. Finally someone told me our bus leaves at 6 and I should wait at the middle door. I waited and time ticked off. I had no idea what was going on. Finally at 6, they told me that I had to go through the door marked International Lines to get to my bus and that it had boarded long before. So I went through and got a seat in the very back.
At 6:30 we left. The trip is supposed to be about 9 hours. I had my laptop on the seat next to me. Everything was fine until 10am. Then we hit a massive pothole and I went flying. My laptop case flew too and landed on the worst corner it could land on--the corner where I keep my iPod. I gathered up the laptop case and kept it restrained the rest of the trip which wasn't easy. From 10:00 to 11:30 we were offroading at highway speeds in the bus and my butt felt like the hammer of a pile driver. From 11:30 to the end, it wasn't offroading so much but still we hit a big pothole that knocked us all around about once a minute for large stretches of time. Fortunately, there were also large stretches of time where it was pretty smooth and my butt could recover. We kept stopping for stuff, but it wasn't as bad as on the way to Niamey. At 4pm, we stopped at a town before Maradi and the bus had a hard time leaving. It reversed and then went forward and seemed to get out whatever bind it was in. We headed down the road and, after about a minute, started smelling something burning. We stopped. Oh boy, I thought. Another breakdown story for my blog. But alas, they figured out the problem soon enough and we headed away and the burning smell went away. So nothing good like our flat tire on the way to Segou. Oh well.
It was interesting watching the architecture change. The cylindrical buildings that dominate the more western regions turn into sort of bulbous buildings--maybe 4 or 5 meters in diameter at the center. The conical roofs start to become more rounded and instead of ending in a cone point end in a sort of cylinder--like the top of the Capitol building where all the grass is bound together. Also, these bulbous buildings also have smaller grass caps. Sort of like yarmulkes but shaped more like those wide cone straw Vietnamese hats. They are perhaps 2 meters in diameter and cover the bulbous buildings sometimes on top, sometimes cocked to the side. There are plenty of the square flat roofed buildings with the drain spouts as well as there in the Sahel.
At about 5pm, we arrived in Maradi. It looked like they have an ATM that takes Visa. I didn't see one in Niamey. Would they have one in Maradi but not Niamey? Oh well, too late now. The hotel I wanted to stay at is just down the road from the bus station. I got my stuff--happy it was in fact there--and headed down to the hotel. There were a few other French people and I wanted to get to the hotel before them just in case. The place had 3 rooms left--room '4', room 'F' and room 'H'. They showed me the nice room--room '4'--with the private bathroom first. Not bad, but 16500 CFA and I don't to shell out $33 for a room in this town. So I had them show me a room with the shared bath for CFA 6500 (US$13). Room 'F'. Definitely not as nice, but I'll just be here over night and will get the hell to Nigeria tomorrow morning. It looked good and I took it. The guy gave me the key and left. I looked at the key--not what I expected. It was the head of the key. The key part was broken off in the lock. I called him back. He tried to show me that I can lock it from inside and it would be locked. "Peut-on utiliser un tournevis?" "Non!" he assured me. I got out my Swiss Army knife and pulled out the screwdriver part and locked the door like he showed me. Then I opened it with the screwdriver of the Swiss Army knife. He acted like this was a shocking revelation. "C'est ne pas sûr" I said and we switched to the other room with the shared toilets--room 'H'. That room seemed good for a while, but then I noticed that the door knob was attached to a piece of wood that wasn't properly nailed to the door. I locked it and tried to open the door despite it being locked. Easy! Dammit! This place has cheap rooms, but they might as well have neon signs saying "Bienvenue Voleurs".
Oh well, I'll deal with it. I opened my laptop case. OK--this was going to be scary. My laptop took a hard spill and landed on the corner where I keep my iPod. My heart pounded. I took my iPod out. The touch screen was shattered down at the bottom where the button is. Fuck! I hate fucking Niger and its fucking potholes roads and the fucking SNTV that takes the potholes at highway speeds. It turns on but in recovery mode. Next I took out my laptop. Whew! No problems there. The iPod wants to be connected to iTunes and I connected it. iTunes said the iPod was in recovery mode. I clicked the recovery button. But I'm not connected to the damn internet so it can't do anything other than complain that it's not connected to the internet. I have one month left in Africa. I have iTunes, so I can listen to all the songs I downloaded from iTunes because iTunes vouched for them when I moved my iPod management from my desktop which is now in storage to my laptop. But the CDs I loaded into iTunes by myself are gone. That means no ABBA. No ABBA. Let that sink in. No ABBA. For a whole month. No ABBA. I don't know if I can survive. I have a playlist of downloaded songs I listen to and ABBA Gold. I alternate between them. Now, no ABBA Gold. Screw you, SNTV! Screw you Apple!
The hotel has a bar--though nobody is in it. Apparently this region of Niger is pretty strict Muslim territory. Bars are as welcome here as in Salt Lake City. There is one bar described as hedonistic and I wanted to check it out. But I can't lock my door, I'm just going to stay here with my laptop and my journal in their bar. Those are my 2 of my 4 irreplaceables. The third is my iPod--but they can have that now. And I always have my ultimate irreplaceable on me--my passport.
The bar has small Heinekens for CFA 1000 (US$2) and half liter Bière Nigers for CFA 700 (US$1.40). So I went cheap. At least it's cold.
So that was my day. One iPod down. But I'm close to the border with Nigeria and I'll quit this awful Niger. Tomorrow I'll be in Kano. They will have ATMs and I'll get Naira and spend a couple of days there loading up on it. Then I'll head to Lagos to get my Cameroonian visa. After that, I'll go to a few places in Nigerian and get to Cameroon. Then, I just gotta make sure I'm at the airport in time for my flight to Ghana. On a horrible day like today, I really look forward to Ghana and Chicago and home. In Ghana I'll shop for all the stuff I wanted to buy all along. I'll do that in the morning and in the evening I'll go to Ryan's Irish Pub.
Friday, November 14, 2008 18:48 Niger local time
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Parakou To Malanville: It's Like Guinea-Conakry Again!
I got up and headed down to the gare routière near the traffic circle of the prefecture. I was quickly shepherded to the car to Malanville, the city right on the border with Niger. CFA 4500 (US$9) would get me to Malanville in a sept-place that would carry 9 people. I got there perhaps a bit late since there were still quite a few places to fill. If I had been an hour earlier, I probably could have gotten a previous sept-place. Oh well. It was about 8:30 and even when I'm early, we often wait until nine. I chatted with a woman named Martine who works for PAM which is the World Food Program. PAM is probably Programme d'Alimentation Mondiale, but that's just a guess. We were there a long time and Martine was as anxious to get on the road as I was. We finally left at 11:20am. I got a supremely uncomfortable back seat but it's better than the even worse front seats. The two people in the front seat were a big woman and a big man. But the driver objected and swapped the big man with a skinny man so he would better access to the stick. Then we were off. We didn't get very far when we stopped for gas as is usually the case.
The gas stations in Benin tend not to be the Western style gas stations but people on the side of the street with old bottles of Pastis and whatever other alcoholic beverages filled with gas sitting on a rickety table. Also, they usually have one or two large ~3 gallon spherical jugs. When we stopped, the gas man put a funnel in the gas tank and laid a cloth across the funnel. Then, he glugged 2 of the big jugs into the funnel. I'm not sure what this system is. Maybe it is tax free illegal smuggled gas from Nigeria, Benin's next door oil rich neighbor? It can't be too illegal because these gas stations abound and they are pretty damn unregulated--being nothing more than a wooden table and a dozen old liquor bottles and a couple of big jugs. They don't even have caps on the bottles usually. When you walk by one of these it always smells like gas.
The road between Parakou and Malanville has roughly two halves. The first is pocked with potholes. We were swerving and trying to pass trucks that were also swerving to avoid potholes that they could see but we couldn't. It was pretty bad in the back seat which is right over the rear axle. On top of that, the driver usually erred on the side of hitting a pothole on the passenger side to reduce his own level of discomfort. The air coming in wasn't refreshing at all, but hot. It was just like being back in Guinea-Conakry. Overcrowded, hot, uncomfortable, and miserable for 5 interminable hours. But that's the Africa I like. That's why I came.
We passed many many trucks overturned on the side of the road. I see trucks overturned from time to time, but there must have been half a dozen on this 300km stretch. Unbelievable.
Finally, we passed a police checkpoint and that marked the change in the road from potholed as hell to paved as heaven. We only had to slow down when passing stalled trucks with oncoming traffic. But after that it was smooth. The breeze from the window was still hot. The few times we stopped for a bathroom break or to let someone out, it was actually somewhat pleasant outside. But the wind was just hot.
The architecture started changing to the familiar architecture of Mali. I'm back in the Sahel. I'll try to blow through Niger pretty fast since the Sahel doesn't agree with me. Besides, I have one month till I board a plane to Accra. That's only 30 days to get through Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon. And I need to get a visa in Lagos and avoid the Niger river delta area so I'll enter Cameroon from the north. I have to play it safe and pad some margin into my schedule and blowing through the Sahel seems like the most agreeable way to do that.
A little after 5pm we arrived. I got out and took a moto-taxi to the Rose des Sables hotel. It took a few tries to get a room in my price range. The first room he showed me was an air-conditioned bungalow. The second a fan cooled bungalow. Finally the third, a death-row inmate cell. I took the prison cell for CFA 7000 (US$14). Sadly they didn't have beer there so I had to walk to the other, more expensive hotel, to have a beer and a big bottle of water. I also had Sauté de Lapin à Provencial. Then I headed back to my hotel just up the street and got ready to wake up and head to Niger.
It will be good to be in Niamey because I need to get to the internet. My parents are probably starting to freak out since I haven't been online or made a withdrawal since the election.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 20:42 Benin local time
The gas stations in Benin tend not to be the Western style gas stations but people on the side of the street with old bottles of Pastis and whatever other alcoholic beverages filled with gas sitting on a rickety table. Also, they usually have one or two large ~3 gallon spherical jugs. When we stopped, the gas man put a funnel in the gas tank and laid a cloth across the funnel. Then, he glugged 2 of the big jugs into the funnel. I'm not sure what this system is. Maybe it is tax free illegal smuggled gas from Nigeria, Benin's next door oil rich neighbor? It can't be too illegal because these gas stations abound and they are pretty damn unregulated--being nothing more than a wooden table and a dozen old liquor bottles and a couple of big jugs. They don't even have caps on the bottles usually. When you walk by one of these it always smells like gas.
The road between Parakou and Malanville has roughly two halves. The first is pocked with potholes. We were swerving and trying to pass trucks that were also swerving to avoid potholes that they could see but we couldn't. It was pretty bad in the back seat which is right over the rear axle. On top of that, the driver usually erred on the side of hitting a pothole on the passenger side to reduce his own level of discomfort. The air coming in wasn't refreshing at all, but hot. It was just like being back in Guinea-Conakry. Overcrowded, hot, uncomfortable, and miserable for 5 interminable hours. But that's the Africa I like. That's why I came.
We passed many many trucks overturned on the side of the road. I see trucks overturned from time to time, but there must have been half a dozen on this 300km stretch. Unbelievable.
Finally, we passed a police checkpoint and that marked the change in the road from potholed as hell to paved as heaven. We only had to slow down when passing stalled trucks with oncoming traffic. But after that it was smooth. The breeze from the window was still hot. The few times we stopped for a bathroom break or to let someone out, it was actually somewhat pleasant outside. But the wind was just hot.
The architecture started changing to the familiar architecture of Mali. I'm back in the Sahel. I'll try to blow through Niger pretty fast since the Sahel doesn't agree with me. Besides, I have one month till I board a plane to Accra. That's only 30 days to get through Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon. And I need to get a visa in Lagos and avoid the Niger river delta area so I'll enter Cameroon from the north. I have to play it safe and pad some margin into my schedule and blowing through the Sahel seems like the most agreeable way to do that.
A little after 5pm we arrived. I got out and took a moto-taxi to the Rose des Sables hotel. It took a few tries to get a room in my price range. The first room he showed me was an air-conditioned bungalow. The second a fan cooled bungalow. Finally the third, a death-row inmate cell. I took the prison cell for CFA 7000 (US$14). Sadly they didn't have beer there so I had to walk to the other, more expensive hotel, to have a beer and a big bottle of water. I also had Sauté de Lapin à Provencial. Then I headed back to my hotel just up the street and got ready to wake up and head to Niger.
It will be good to be in Niamey because I need to get to the internet. My parents are probably starting to freak out since I haven't been online or made a withdrawal since the election.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 20:42 Benin local time
Abomey To Parakou Via Bohica
I left the Bar Vulcain at about 9am completely cured of my mild cold. The owner said I should go to Bohica and get the Confort lines bus. I would rather take a bus taxi, but he insisted that I couldn't get a bush taxi to Parakou at the gare routière in downtown Abomey. I didn't think I believed him but I also didn't scope it out the day before. I also didn't want to take a mototaxi 9 km away on a street with a bunch of speed bumps that they have between Abomey and Bohica. But I did anyway. The mototaxi was CFA 800 (US$1.60) and since I had my backpack on, I was a tad off balance and by the time we got their, my back muscles were pretty tired and sore. But we made it.
I had thought that Confort Lines was the only bus line there and that there was a chance it would be full because it from Cotonou. But, there are actually about 5 or 6 different bus companies. The prices seem to range from CFA 4000 to CFA 5500. I got the MJB bus which was CFA 4000. I waited and after about a half hour, it came. I got the last seat by the rear exit door which never quite closed properly. We left a little after 10am. There are a lot of speed bumps and some towns that can't afford real speed bumps set logs out to make the traffic slalom through the town. But other than that, the road is pretty good.
They gave away a free sachet of water, but it tasted pretty bad. About half way through at a stop I got a small bag of frozen chocolate milk from a guy with a bicycle with Fan brand frozen milk products in a cooler.
As we passed through Parakou, I saw the hotel I wanted to stay in--the Hotel les Canaris. After a few blocks we were at the station. It is nice that MJB Bus Lines has its station close to the hotel. There were moto-taxi guys there, but I was close enough to walk. I should have gotten a quote just to see how much they would have tried to charge me.
The Canaris had rooms. Nice rooms with a toilet with a seat a and shower with running water. Even a TV with 3 channels. Only CFA 6000 (US$12). I checked in and asked if their beer was cold. The man at the counter said yes, so I ordered a Castel. But when it came it wasn't that cold. Their drink menu has something I've never seen on a menu before--CFA 500 for a "verre cassé." They actually charge you a dollar if you break a glass. After finishing the warm beer, I headed out in quest for the 2 internet cafés shown on the Lonely Planet map. It was a long walk and I couldn't find either one. Also, of the three places that serve pizza, I couldn't find 2 and there was only one left--Le New Cigale. So I went up there. As I passed the last traffic circle to get there, there was an internet café but it was packed. So I just went to Le New Cigale and ordered a Quattre Fromages pizza (CFA 4500==US$9), a Salade Mexicaine (CFA 1800==US$3.60), and couple of small Castels. This time the beer was ice cold. The waitress tried to convince me to get a room there--only CFA 5000. But, I'm leaving the next day. Otherwise, if you want to stay in a place that has about 5 different pizzas ranging from $7 to $9 and beer that's almost frozen, and has an internet café close by, Le New Cigale seems like a pretty good place.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:42 Benin local time
I had thought that Confort Lines was the only bus line there and that there was a chance it would be full because it from Cotonou. But, there are actually about 5 or 6 different bus companies. The prices seem to range from CFA 4000 to CFA 5500. I got the MJB bus which was CFA 4000. I waited and after about a half hour, it came. I got the last seat by the rear exit door which never quite closed properly. We left a little after 10am. There are a lot of speed bumps and some towns that can't afford real speed bumps set logs out to make the traffic slalom through the town. But other than that, the road is pretty good.
They gave away a free sachet of water, but it tasted pretty bad. About half way through at a stop I got a small bag of frozen chocolate milk from a guy with a bicycle with Fan brand frozen milk products in a cooler.
As we passed through Parakou, I saw the hotel I wanted to stay in--the Hotel les Canaris. After a few blocks we were at the station. It is nice that MJB Bus Lines has its station close to the hotel. There were moto-taxi guys there, but I was close enough to walk. I should have gotten a quote just to see how much they would have tried to charge me.
The Canaris had rooms. Nice rooms with a toilet with a seat a and shower with running water. Even a TV with 3 channels. Only CFA 6000 (US$12). I checked in and asked if their beer was cold. The man at the counter said yes, so I ordered a Castel. But when it came it wasn't that cold. Their drink menu has something I've never seen on a menu before--CFA 500 for a "verre cassé." They actually charge you a dollar if you break a glass. After finishing the warm beer, I headed out in quest for the 2 internet cafés shown on the Lonely Planet map. It was a long walk and I couldn't find either one. Also, of the three places that serve pizza, I couldn't find 2 and there was only one left--Le New Cigale. So I went up there. As I passed the last traffic circle to get there, there was an internet café but it was packed. So I just went to Le New Cigale and ordered a Quattre Fromages pizza (CFA 4500==US$9), a Salade Mexicaine (CFA 1800==US$3.60), and couple of small Castels. This time the beer was ice cold. The waitress tried to convince me to get a room there--only CFA 5000. But, I'm leaving the next day. Otherwise, if you want to stay in a place that has about 5 different pizzas ranging from $7 to $9 and beer that's almost frozen, and has an internet café close by, Le New Cigale seems like a pretty good place.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:42 Benin local time
Monday, November 10, 2008
Abomey: There Are Days You Get And Days You Wish For
I woke up. Sniffles. Dammit! I don't want sniffles again. I'm sick of this cold! I waited in my room until about 10am. Then I figured I better go out an tell them that I planned to spend one more day in Abomey since I had a cold and didn't want to travel to Parakou with a cold. I looked a few times and there wasn't a man working the grounds when I looked. Finally, after an hour of looking from 9am, I headed out and asked a woman "ou se trouve the gerant?" She didn't quite understand me. But she pointed to the man at the gate. I went to him. I told him that I wouldn't leave today because of my cold and gave him CFA 10000 for the room. He took the money but I didn't recognize the guy. Anyway, I headed out to see some of the other temples and palaces. They were all pretty much on the same model--big square buildings with walled courtyards and reliefs of animals and symbols of power.
I went back to make sure I gave the CFA 10000 to the right guy. I guess I did. I asked for the change so I could have some small money, but he said he didn't have change and just gave me the CFA 10000 back.
Then, I headed to Chez Monique. This is a hotel on the north side of town. It has a nice outdoor seating area and cold beer. At about 2:30 in the afternoon, about 20 white people all came out and sat at a table and ate. Some had T-shirts that said STAFF on the back. Some French humanitarian mission--IFVSVP or something like that. After they ate, one woman who was holding a sleeping African child sat near me. I asked "est-ce que il est malade?" but she said he wasn't--just fatigué. She explained why he tired, but my French wasn't good enough to understand. Then a really cute 35-ish staff woman came and brought tea to the woman with the tired child. She sat down and I was happy about that. But, in the end, they all went back until dinner when the all came out en masse again. After a while I met another American woman working for UNICEF. We talked about the election, mostly. She got roped into watching a voodoo ceremony so she went off to see that. The guy who took her tried to convince me to come as well, but it sounded too expensive. Like many hotels that cater to tourists, they have artists who sell stuff there. I bought a little cloth map of Africa. It was kind of fun because there were a bunch of maps and there were some errors. I helped them. One had Nigeria listed as Cameroun and Cameroun as Cameroune. One had Guinea-Bissau and Gambie swapped.
Finally, it was late and I started to my hotel. A few steps outside, I met a guy who sells stuff at the Motel d'Abomey. He asked how much I paid for my map (I'm not sure how he knew I bought the map) and told me he would have sold it to me for half the price. He kept asking how much I paid and I kept saying "je oblie." Finally he told me to hop on his motor-bike and he'd take me to the Bar Vulcain. When we got to the fork where he should have gone right, he went left though. I told him he took a wrong turn, but he said he didn't. I was starting to get worried. I steeled myself to possibly defend myself if this was a crime in progress. Finally he stopped in front of some place downtown. I told him that it was not the Bar Vulcain. Then he took me to the Bar Vulcain. He drove right into the courtyard where the owner was with his wife. Then he got off and sat down. He said the owner was his little brother. I asked him why he took me to the wrong place if he knows the Bar Vulcain so well. I didn't get a satisfactory answer.
Anyway, I decided to sit down with the owner and this guy and the wife. We started drinking palm wine in which pieces of wood were soaked. Pretty strong stuff. They asked me what all African men ask me. If I'm married and have kids. No and no. The motorcycle guy said he has 5 women. The owner said he has 2, "elle" he said pointing to the one next to him, "et elle" he said pointing to another woman. She eventually joined us. They asked me how many women I wanted. I said one. At that the woman who was the first wife of the owner started on this rant against the guy with 5 women. I don't know what it was about, but I can guess. I had a little bit of this crushed paste stuff in a fish sauce. And we all had more palm wine. The owner asked me how much a small computer would cost. I tried to tell him that big ones cost less than small ones but he didn't understand that. I started to explain that "la probleme est avec le chaleur. Une ordinateur petite est dificile à controller le chaleur...." But I figured that he wasn't going to understand me even if I could find the French to explain the thermal problems of computers and how smallness is harder to manage because you have to get the heat out.
His wife situation was interesting. The first wife was more well put together--her hair obviously done professionally. The second wife was more educated and when he wanted to make sure I understood something, he had her write it out on a tablet in French. I got the idea that of the three, only she could write French.
By the time I went to sleep, my sniffles were gone.
Monday November 10, 2008 8:25 Benin local time
I went back to make sure I gave the CFA 10000 to the right guy. I guess I did. I asked for the change so I could have some small money, but he said he didn't have change and just gave me the CFA 10000 back.
Then, I headed to Chez Monique. This is a hotel on the north side of town. It has a nice outdoor seating area and cold beer. At about 2:30 in the afternoon, about 20 white people all came out and sat at a table and ate. Some had T-shirts that said STAFF on the back. Some French humanitarian mission--IFVSVP or something like that. After they ate, one woman who was holding a sleeping African child sat near me. I asked "est-ce que il est malade?" but she said he wasn't--just fatigué. She explained why he tired, but my French wasn't good enough to understand. Then a really cute 35-ish staff woman came and brought tea to the woman with the tired child. She sat down and I was happy about that. But, in the end, they all went back until dinner when the all came out en masse again. After a while I met another American woman working for UNICEF. We talked about the election, mostly. She got roped into watching a voodoo ceremony so she went off to see that. The guy who took her tried to convince me to come as well, but it sounded too expensive. Like many hotels that cater to tourists, they have artists who sell stuff there. I bought a little cloth map of Africa. It was kind of fun because there were a bunch of maps and there were some errors. I helped them. One had Nigeria listed as Cameroun and Cameroun as Cameroune. One had Guinea-Bissau and Gambie swapped.
Finally, it was late and I started to my hotel. A few steps outside, I met a guy who sells stuff at the Motel d'Abomey. He asked how much I paid for my map (I'm not sure how he knew I bought the map) and told me he would have sold it to me for half the price. He kept asking how much I paid and I kept saying "je oblie." Finally he told me to hop on his motor-bike and he'd take me to the Bar Vulcain. When we got to the fork where he should have gone right, he went left though. I told him he took a wrong turn, but he said he didn't. I was starting to get worried. I steeled myself to possibly defend myself if this was a crime in progress. Finally he stopped in front of some place downtown. I told him that it was not the Bar Vulcain. Then he took me to the Bar Vulcain. He drove right into the courtyard where the owner was with his wife. Then he got off and sat down. He said the owner was his little brother. I asked him why he took me to the wrong place if he knows the Bar Vulcain so well. I didn't get a satisfactory answer.
Anyway, I decided to sit down with the owner and this guy and the wife. We started drinking palm wine in which pieces of wood were soaked. Pretty strong stuff. They asked me what all African men ask me. If I'm married and have kids. No and no. The motorcycle guy said he has 5 women. The owner said he has 2, "elle" he said pointing to the one next to him, "et elle" he said pointing to another woman. She eventually joined us. They asked me how many women I wanted. I said one. At that the woman who was the first wife of the owner started on this rant against the guy with 5 women. I don't know what it was about, but I can guess. I had a little bit of this crushed paste stuff in a fish sauce. And we all had more palm wine. The owner asked me how much a small computer would cost. I tried to tell him that big ones cost less than small ones but he didn't understand that. I started to explain that "la probleme est avec le chaleur. Une ordinateur petite est dificile à controller le chaleur...." But I figured that he wasn't going to understand me even if I could find the French to explain the thermal problems of computers and how smallness is harder to manage because you have to get the heat out.
His wife situation was interesting. The first wife was more well put together--her hair obviously done professionally. The second wife was more educated and when he wanted to make sure I understood something, he had her write it out on a tablet in French. I got the idea that of the three, only she could write French.
By the time I went to sleep, my sniffles were gone.
Monday November 10, 2008 8:25 Benin local time
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Full Day In Abomey
I got up a bit late since I still have a mild cold. I finally left at about 10 and walked downtown and then headed north to the Musée Historique d'Abomey. But when I got there, I had a problem. I did have a CFA 1000 and a CFA 2000 bill, but I wasn't willing to use them because after those, I had nothing but CFA 10000 bills left. Already one place didn't want the CFA 10000 because he couldn't make change. So I went in and when the ticket woman came, I handed her the CFA 10000 bill. She said she didn't have small bills. I told her I didn't have any either. Finally I said I might came back later. I left. I wandered around the downtown looking for places where I change the CFA 10000 into something smaller. The gas station guy wouldn't do it. The banks were closed because it was Saturday. Finally, I went back to the Motel d'Abomey and ordered a beer. As the expensive hotel in town, it would have larger amounts of all denominations. I ordered a small Castel beer for CFA 850. That gave me a CFA 5000 and 2 CFA 2000 notes.
I headed back to the museum having lost an hour. I still wasn't going to pay the CFA 2500 entrance fee with with of my CFA 2000 notes. I was back an hour later and I gave her a CFA 5000 bill. She wasn't happy. But she took it and wrote that they owed me CFA 2500 on the back of the ticket. I went in and a tour had just started. It was in French and I didn't get much but I got some. It's an interesting museum. It was the palace of some of the Dahomey kings. They were a blood thirsty lot. There are several buildings with these high relief depictions of various things. One king has decapitations, killings, torturing, and other such bloody scenes. The last one we saw was of a horse with a necklace with the head of the enemy hanging in front. The tour guide and a couple of the women in the large tour group sang a song that is probably about that event. There would be another depiction of a horse with the enemy head necklace in another place as well. We saw all sorts of things. There is a throne on top of 4 skulls of vanquished enemies. The tour guide kept telling jokes but I didn't get them. But the people on the tour were having a good time. We went to the mausoleum of one king. We had to take off our shoes and socks and went in. There was a bed and just to the right of the bed, a cloth on the floor. Another smaller cloth was a meter of two away from the larger cloth in the ground. I assume the cloth covers the grave. I'm not sure what the smaller cloth is for. The tour was quite long. Over an hour. But it was interesting.
At the end, I went to the front desk and presented the IOU. The tour guide was there and she had to come up with the CFA 2500 from her personal cash. This museum really needs to be able to make change for tickets. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and gets lots of visitors.
I was pretty wiped out since I still am fighting a cold so I went to have a water and a beer at the local place I went to the previous night. I sat there and after a while a 20-25 year old cute Asian girl came in. She looked for the owner who was sleeping. I tried to get her attention to point him out, but she got on her phone and started talking with someone. I heard her say "moshi-moshi" as she walked over to a table on the other side of the place. She made some more phone calls and then started writing stuff into an organizer.
I decided that I would try to talk to her. But I'm not good at approaching random women and just starting to talk. I suck at it. I was trying to figure out what to say. I was trying to remember the word for "to reside" but I couldn't. Then, as if it wasn't me, I observed myself get up out of my chair and start to walk over. It was like a part of me was acting while the other part was still trying to figure out what was happening. There is a small wall between her and the area I was in. I leaned on the wall and said "sumimasen, Nihon no kata desu-ka." She turned to me, a mixture of shock and delight on her face. That put me at ease. Certainly the last thing she expected was some random white guy coming up to her and speaking to her in Japanese in Abomey, Benin. She is a JICA volunteer. It's like the Japanese Peace Corps. I got the lowdown in it from some Peace Corps people. JICA is better funded and the qualifications necessary to get into the JICA program are much stricter for the volunteers, so they are the cream of the crop. We chatted for a while. There are 3 JICA volunteers in Abomey. She works with handicapped children and is 2 months into a 2 year stay. I told her about where I lived. She is from Nagoya, so we lived in the same area. I have been to Nagoya many many many times. After a while she had to meet other people so we parted. It was nice to have another chance to speak Japanese.
I returned to my room and rested for a while. Then for dinner I decided to got to The Source--a place with cous-cous an chicken. It was a long walk to get there. I didn't think it would be so long. It came with a big helping of cous-cous and chicken in onion and tomato. It was pretty good and with two small Castels, only CFA 3300 (US$6.60). I walked back and fell asleep in front of the oscillating fan.
Sunday, November 9, 2008 Benin local time
I headed back to the museum having lost an hour. I still wasn't going to pay the CFA 2500 entrance fee with with of my CFA 2000 notes. I was back an hour later and I gave her a CFA 5000 bill. She wasn't happy. But she took it and wrote that they owed me CFA 2500 on the back of the ticket. I went in and a tour had just started. It was in French and I didn't get much but I got some. It's an interesting museum. It was the palace of some of the Dahomey kings. They were a blood thirsty lot. There are several buildings with these high relief depictions of various things. One king has decapitations, killings, torturing, and other such bloody scenes. The last one we saw was of a horse with a necklace with the head of the enemy hanging in front. The tour guide and a couple of the women in the large tour group sang a song that is probably about that event. There would be another depiction of a horse with the enemy head necklace in another place as well. We saw all sorts of things. There is a throne on top of 4 skulls of vanquished enemies. The tour guide kept telling jokes but I didn't get them. But the people on the tour were having a good time. We went to the mausoleum of one king. We had to take off our shoes and socks and went in. There was a bed and just to the right of the bed, a cloth on the floor. Another smaller cloth was a meter of two away from the larger cloth in the ground. I assume the cloth covers the grave. I'm not sure what the smaller cloth is for. The tour was quite long. Over an hour. But it was interesting.
At the end, I went to the front desk and presented the IOU. The tour guide was there and she had to come up with the CFA 2500 from her personal cash. This museum really needs to be able to make change for tickets. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and gets lots of visitors.
I was pretty wiped out since I still am fighting a cold so I went to have a water and a beer at the local place I went to the previous night. I sat there and after a while a 20-25 year old cute Asian girl came in. She looked for the owner who was sleeping. I tried to get her attention to point him out, but she got on her phone and started talking with someone. I heard her say "moshi-moshi" as she walked over to a table on the other side of the place. She made some more phone calls and then started writing stuff into an organizer.
I decided that I would try to talk to her. But I'm not good at approaching random women and just starting to talk. I suck at it. I was trying to figure out what to say. I was trying to remember the word for "to reside" but I couldn't. Then, as if it wasn't me, I observed myself get up out of my chair and start to walk over. It was like a part of me was acting while the other part was still trying to figure out what was happening. There is a small wall between her and the area I was in. I leaned on the wall and said "sumimasen, Nihon no kata desu-ka." She turned to me, a mixture of shock and delight on her face. That put me at ease. Certainly the last thing she expected was some random white guy coming up to her and speaking to her in Japanese in Abomey, Benin. She is a JICA volunteer. It's like the Japanese Peace Corps. I got the lowdown in it from some Peace Corps people. JICA is better funded and the qualifications necessary to get into the JICA program are much stricter for the volunteers, so they are the cream of the crop. We chatted for a while. There are 3 JICA volunteers in Abomey. She works with handicapped children and is 2 months into a 2 year stay. I told her about where I lived. She is from Nagoya, so we lived in the same area. I have been to Nagoya many many many times. After a while she had to meet other people so we parted. It was nice to have another chance to speak Japanese.
I returned to my room and rested for a while. Then for dinner I decided to got to The Source--a place with cous-cous an chicken. It was a long walk to get there. I didn't think it would be so long. It came with a big helping of cous-cous and chicken in onion and tomato. It was pretty good and with two small Castels, only CFA 3300 (US$6.60). I walked back and fell asleep in front of the oscillating fan.
Sunday, November 9, 2008 Benin local time
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Porto Novo To Abomey
I got up late in Porto Novo and headed to the gare routière which is close to the Hotel Détente. I asked about the car to Abomey and they told me I have to show up 5am or 6am to get a car to Abomey. If I want to get to Abomey, I would have to go to Cotonou and get a car to Abomey there. OK. So I returned to the hotel, packed up, and headed out.
The car to Cotonou was a 6 person car, but since I was the first, I had the option of buying both front seat tickets for CFA 1400 instead of one for CFA 700. It would be more comfortable, we'd have one less person to wait for, and it's only US$1.40 more. Besides, these guys weren't charging me for my luggage. So I agreed. The wait wasn't that long except that the beggars all came up to me asking for money. I gave some to a few of them and then more came and I stopped. The beggars didn't stop. Finally, we drove away. About an hour later we were at the Marché Dantokpa in Cotonou. My fear was that I'd have to find another gare (Gare Misébo) for the cars to Abomey, but they had cars to Abomey right there. A guy led to me them and was delighted with the CFA 500 coin I gave him. Now I just had wait for one more person. And it was a long wait. About an hour.
I chatted with a guy named Benjamin for most of that hour. He is Beninois but lives in Port Harcourt Nigeria in the canteen for GE. It was fun to talk to him. He's a nice guy. He doesn't understand why white people do trips like this. He also doesn't my no sex in Africa policy. He thinks I should partake of the local ladies.
He was waiting for a friend coming from Abomey and his friend arrived so we said goodbye and then soon my car was ready to go. The road to Abomey is half bad and half under construction. It took about 3 hours to get there. Once there, I got a moto-taxi to go the hotel I chose--Vulcain. It's pretty basic. CFA 5500 (US$11) per night gets you a room with a concrete floor, shower with a bucket, a fan, mosquito net, and a desk. The toilet is a small room in another building with a 20cm x 20cm square hole in the floor. As it is a bar, I asked for a water and a beer, but it took a long time for them to come and when they did, they weren't very cold. So I went out to find another place. There is a place just to the north. I asked if he had cold beer. My suspicion was that the Vulcain people came here to get the beer and water so maybe it wouldn't be cold here either. I asked if I could touch the bottle. It was cold. So I stayed. I had a couple while an old man came and sat with me. He had these huge red glasses that didn't fit his face at all. I suspect they are a pair of old glasses donated by a woman to poor countries--probably not long after Sally Jesse Raphael went off the air. I didn't understand much of what he said, but we managed to communicate a little bit. He had a Coca-Cola. Three school girls--maybe late teens--were at a table behind me listening to our conversation. I suspect that not many white people wind up at this particular establishment. I noticed that there were a lot of school girls. They all wear these beige uniforms. Education seems to a priority in Abomey. Finally it was getting dark, so I headed to the restaurant of the Motel d'Abomey where I had chicken curry. I was the only customer for a while, but at the end, people started coming in. When I left, it was dark, so I kept a lookout for holes in the ground as I had seen a couple on the way over. I avoided them and made it back safely.
Saturday, November 8, 2008 10:12 Benin local time
The car to Cotonou was a 6 person car, but since I was the first, I had the option of buying both front seat tickets for CFA 1400 instead of one for CFA 700. It would be more comfortable, we'd have one less person to wait for, and it's only US$1.40 more. Besides, these guys weren't charging me for my luggage. So I agreed. The wait wasn't that long except that the beggars all came up to me asking for money. I gave some to a few of them and then more came and I stopped. The beggars didn't stop. Finally, we drove away. About an hour later we were at the Marché Dantokpa in Cotonou. My fear was that I'd have to find another gare (Gare Misébo) for the cars to Abomey, but they had cars to Abomey right there. A guy led to me them and was delighted with the CFA 500 coin I gave him. Now I just had wait for one more person. And it was a long wait. About an hour.
I chatted with a guy named Benjamin for most of that hour. He is Beninois but lives in Port Harcourt Nigeria in the canteen for GE. It was fun to talk to him. He's a nice guy. He doesn't understand why white people do trips like this. He also doesn't my no sex in Africa policy. He thinks I should partake of the local ladies.
He was waiting for a friend coming from Abomey and his friend arrived so we said goodbye and then soon my car was ready to go. The road to Abomey is half bad and half under construction. It took about 3 hours to get there. Once there, I got a moto-taxi to go the hotel I chose--Vulcain. It's pretty basic. CFA 5500 (US$11) per night gets you a room with a concrete floor, shower with a bucket, a fan, mosquito net, and a desk. The toilet is a small room in another building with a 20cm x 20cm square hole in the floor. As it is a bar, I asked for a water and a beer, but it took a long time for them to come and when they did, they weren't very cold. So I went out to find another place. There is a place just to the north. I asked if he had cold beer. My suspicion was that the Vulcain people came here to get the beer and water so maybe it wouldn't be cold here either. I asked if I could touch the bottle. It was cold. So I stayed. I had a couple while an old man came and sat with me. He had these huge red glasses that didn't fit his face at all. I suspect they are a pair of old glasses donated by a woman to poor countries--probably not long after Sally Jesse Raphael went off the air. I didn't understand much of what he said, but we managed to communicate a little bit. He had a Coca-Cola. Three school girls--maybe late teens--were at a table behind me listening to our conversation. I suspect that not many white people wind up at this particular establishment. I noticed that there were a lot of school girls. They all wear these beige uniforms. Education seems to a priority in Abomey. Finally it was getting dark, so I headed to the restaurant of the Motel d'Abomey where I had chicken curry. I was the only customer for a while, but at the end, people started coming in. When I left, it was dark, so I kept a lookout for holes in the ground as I had seen a couple on the way over. I avoided them and made it back safely.
Saturday, November 8, 2008 10:12 Benin local time
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