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Senegal 2019

March - April 2019
Part 4 of my African Odyssey Read more
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  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 1

    Departing Port Harcout

    March 20, 2019 in Nigeria ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Woke up at 5:30am. PamDrive taxi arrived at 6:10am. Left the house at 6:48 am after receiving safe trip messages from my domestic staff. Arrived airport at 7:15am, fare NGN 3,790.

    Boarded Aero flight to Lagos at 8:44am. Arrived lagos a few minutes to 10am. Had breakfast (NGN 2,200) at chicken republic at MMA 2 before boarding a Taxify cab to Citiheight hotel for NGN 500.

    Check in at Citiheight was quick and effortless. Ordered croacker peppersoup for lunch for NGN 3,300.

    Dinner (NGN 4,900) took almost 1hr 30mins to deliver, I was so upset with the service I gave them a piece of my mind    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 2

    Departing Lagos

    March 21, 2019 in Nigeria ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Woke up at 6am, had my bath, called a Taxify cab (NGN 1,300) and left the hotel at 7:50am arriving Murtala Mohammed International Airport at 8:03am. Check in was quick and smooth, no queue within 15mins I was done, another 15mins I was through Immigration and at the departure hall. Stopped over at KFC for breakfast (NGN 1,900)

    Called Mama to tell her I was travelling out. She complained that the carpenter working on the BQ was delaying the work and she wasn't happy with him. Later called my temporary security man to reinforce the instructions earlier given to him. Hopefully I will meet my house same as I left it when I return. My security man is on holiday and should have returned yesterday but he is fond of extending his breaks.

    Boarded 1st leg of Asky flight to Lome, Togo at 10:25am. Small confusion at the plane entrance with a passenger in a wheel chair challenging the ground crew who threatened to call the police.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 2

    Transiting through Lome, Togo

    March 21, 2019 in Togo ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Flight left lagos at 11:15am (Nigerian Time) and arrived Lome 30mins later at 11:45am. The airport is very clean, neat and looks new, with free wifi. Togo is 1hr behind Nigeria. Lots of shops selling ankara looking materials in the airport. The only fast food shop in the terminal doesn't accept card payment, can't buy water.

    Found a fast food joint in the airport unfortunately card payment is not accepted, but they exchange USD 1 for CFA 500. So I ended up spending $11 which converted to CFA 5,500

    Charging points located under the seats, quite innovative and very convenient.

    Leaving Lome, Togo now after a brief stop over.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 2

    Dakar at last

    March 21, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Arrived Dakar at 4:45pm (local time) after a 3hr flight from Lome. Had chicken and rice onboard. Flight was slightly turbulent while flying through the desert, hot air raising and cold air pushing down all coming together to shake the plane.

    Immigration was seamless, no filling of landing card, just join the queue, check biometric both hands, aked if this was my 1st visit, why I was visiting, where I plan to stay and for how long and viola my passport was stamped. Luggage was put through a scanner before exiting the arrival hall. Changed some Dollars to CAF. Hotel driver was waiting at the door with my name on a card. Bought Orange sim card (CAF 6,000) with credit and 2GB internet and hooked up to the internet.

    Waited 2hrs at the airport for other hotel guest arriving from Italy, eventually leaving the airport at 7pm. Journey to the hotel from the airport lasted about 1 hr with hold up. Scenery reminded me of Lagos. Hotel check in was smooth and fast. Had to change first room assigned as it had a damp smell. Had gummy rice with fish and ketchup tasting sauce (CAF 7,000) for dinner with a bottle of Flag beer (CAF 2,000). Hotel food and drinks are too expensive, not eating there again.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 3

    Tour - City Centre

    March 22, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Had an ok breakfast. Tour guide picked me up at 8:05. Got to the city centre for the ferry ride to La Goree Island unfortunately we had missed the boat so decided to go on a 1hr walking tour of the city centre passing by the Presidential Palace (unfortunately no pics allowed), banks and several ministeries and government buildings. Got back to the jetty an hour later to discover that we have missed the 10am boat. Paid CFA 5,200 for the 11am boat and sat in the departure hall.

    The average Senegalese is very dark skin, darker than Ghanians, almost charcoal black. Am told that the Wolof and Sarer (together make up 58% of the population) are very dark skin people while other tribes are lighter skin.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 3

    Tour - Goree Island

    March 22, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Took a 20min boat ride to the famous Goree Island, a famous slave post 300 years ago. It is a small island 900 mtrs by 300 mtrs with no cars or motorized vehicles. It is designated a UNESCO world heritage as such the buildings are maintained in their original state without modification.

    Part of the movie Guns of Navarone was filmed on the Island using the famous cannons with a 14km kill range.

    Visited the slave house, where slaves were kept before being shipped to the Americas, was told that slaves were valued based on where they came from due to their physical strength with Yorubas highly priced.

    On our return to Dakar we discovered that the vehicle tyre had been clamped by the police for wrong parking. Took almost 2hrs before we got it unlocked and the driver paid a fine for it.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 3

    Tour - African Renaissance Monument

    March 22, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    On the way to the Pink Lake we stopped over at the magnificent African Renaissance Monument built on top of a hill and shoots 50m into the sky. Momument was built at a cost of $27 million by a former president who contracted it out to the Koreans. It is now the no 1 landmark in Dakar.Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 3

    Tour - Lac Rose (Pink Lake)

    March 22, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We stopped over at a local restaurant just before the lake to eat a delicious local meal called Thiebou Djeune (CFA 2,000). Jollof rice looking, with fish and all sort of vegetables and fruits sliced and diced. It was delicious but didn't taste like Jollof rice.

    After the sumptuous meal we drove to the lake. My first dissapointment was that the lake wasn't PINK although you could see some shades of dark pinkish color on the banks of the lake. All over the banks were huge mounds of salt dug up from the lake bed and put to dry in the sun.

    Ladies selling souvenirs were all over the place harrasing visitors to buy. I told them no and they played a well rehearsed trick on me by asking to take pictures with them and later offering me free souvenirs after which they asked for a tip! I gave them CFA 500 and they complained?

    Lots of traffic on the way back to Dakar and the hotel, aparently the Pink lake is in another region (state) of the country. Got back at 8pm and it was still bright outside apparently they are experiencing long days and short nights here like europe.    Read more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 3

    La Patio - late dinner & drinks

    March 22, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Got the hotel receptionist at 11pm to negotiate a taxi for my night outing. First stop was a visit to 5 club for dinner. There was a live band playing, few guest, they wasted almost 1hr of my time without brining the food I ordered so I left angrily and went to Le Patio for a late dinner of Chicken and Chips (CFA 8,000) which was incredibly fast and delicious. Attached to the restaurant was a night club which I popped into, not surprising they played a lot of Nigerian songs. At 2am I called my taxi man to come take me back to the hotelRead more

  • TravelerSenegal 2019
    Day 4

    Sea Plaza Mall

    March 23, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Woke up 10am, went down to have breakfast before it ends and came back to shower. Left the hotel a few minutes after 2pm for the Sea Plaza Mall. Negitiated CAF 2,000 with the french speaking driver using sign language while he showed me currency notes to confirm.

    Sea Plaza mall looks new, clean and very neat. It has 2 levels. Good number of shops but things are very expensive there. An office shirt was advertised at CAF 59,000 while a pair of Jeans went for CAF 319,000. Few customers in the mall.

     I treated myself to a nice meal of rice, vegetable, steak and tomatoe sauce. I couldn't decode the french menu given to me so I typed what I wanted on Google Translate and showed to the waiter. Had draught beer (Flag) and spoilt myself with ice cream, total damage CAF 16,900.    Read more

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