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Senegal 2019
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Senegal 2019

Part 4 of my African Odyssey En savoir plus
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  • Début du voyage
    20 mars 2019
    Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Departing Port Harcout

    20 mars 2019, 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    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Departing Lagos

    21 mars 2019, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Transiting through Lome, Togo

    21 mars 2019, Aller ⋅ ☀️ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Dakar at last

    21 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☁️ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Tour - City Centre

    22 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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    Tour - Goree Island

    22 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Tour - Lac Rose (Pink Lake)

    22 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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    La Patio - late dinner & drinks

    22 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ 🌙 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 hotelEn savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Sea Plaza Mall

    23 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Beach Resort

    24 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Checked out of Olomo at 11:45am, had to pay CFA 9,000 for the meal I had on the first day. Stepped out and signaled towards the taxi parked outside asking him if he was Saliu the Taxi driver I had negotiated with 2 days back to take me to Saly. He answered qui. I had doubt but wasn't too sure. He quickly put my bags in the car and we started driving out of the hotel when another taxi entered flagged us down and I immediately recognised the Saliu I had spoken to. I confronted the taxi driver who now confessed he was Ahmed and not Saliu, apparently he wanted to steal his colleagues passenger since they both operate from the hotel. I was upset with him came down of the taxi and transfered to the original one.

    We left the hotel at 12 noon. The road to Saly is a 3 lane perfectly tarred express road with several toll gates. Got to Saly about 1hr later. Had to use my google maps to navigate to the hotel. Got to the gate of Les Filaos hotel, security man asked which hotel told him Le Saly and he pointed us to the adjacent gate 20 metres away.

    Apparently both hotels are side by side with no dividing internal fence. Paid the taxi driver CFA 20,000 and he asked if he can come pick me back on Saturday to Dakar which I accepted. On getting to the reception I was given a guest card to fill and a green wrist band before the receptionist checked the system and discovered I was booked at Les Filaos.

    A porter was assigned to take my bags to Les Filaos across, where my green wrist band was exchanged for an Orange one indicating I was on full board with meals. Checked into my room, AC wasn't coming in, a technician was called who flipped the fuse by the door to activate the AC. Had lunch of white rice, steak, fish and curry sauce.    En savoir plus

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    Exploring the beach

    24 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Embarked on a long stroll down the beach. Was called by a restaurant owner to view some fresh fish, tried to lure me to his restaurant but didn't succeed.

    Later in the evening there was a dancing show in the resortEn savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Lazy morning on the beach

    26 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Watched some tourist on a Jet Ski & Sail Boat go down the beach. Also saw a 2 seater open helicopter, probably flying tourist around. I wonder how safe it is. Beach wasn't too busy today. Weather a lot warmer than yesterday. Currently contemplating going down to a beach restaurant somewhere for a Senegalese lunch as the hotel food is becoming very boring and monotonous rice, spaghetti or mashed potatoes yuckEn savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Safari Beach Saly

    26 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    In a bid to eat something different I consulted google for a restaurant located on a beach and viola Safari Beach Saly came up. 20mins walk from the hotel, perfect. Dunning my face cap and sneakers I stepped out into the hot sun, navigating with Google Maps.

    First impression: lovely location. Was given a menu in French with no English translation after flicking through I called a waiter and told him I wanted to eat Senegalese food. He suggested Poulet Yassa (CAF 6,000) ...rice with chicken in onion sauce...sounds edible so I placed order along with flag beer.

    The meal looked nice, made from small grain gummy rice and the onion sauce had a light cream color, taste was good as well.

    Left the beach at 6:30pm, stopped over at Casino supermarket, basically everything sold was imported from France.    En savoir plus

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  • Ron's OdysseySenegal 2019Voyageur

    Diamond Bank, Saly

    27 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Visited Diamond Bank Saly a few minutes walk from the Resort to change some Dollars. Ok it is no longer Diamond Bank as the bank has sold it's foreign operations world wide, but bank posters in the banking hall still have the Diamond bank logo. The bank is now called NSIA Banque. The USD conversion rate was too good and I was upset I had been cheated by all others until I got a call from the bank a few minutes after leaving to come back. Alas the clark had made a mistake and used Euro rates instead.En savoir plus

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    Off to Sandaga Market, Dakar

    27 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Malick my tour guide picked me up from the hotel and off we went to Dakar a 1hr 30min journey. Lovely road. The express road am told is new and was built about a year ago by the French.

    Experienced small traffic as we entered Dakar. Malick bought a portrait of a marabout who died in 1957 along the road, while in holdup, opening the back door for the seller to jump in and negotiate price. He claims the muslim cleric (Marabout) was a very powerful man who used to talk directly to god and never used juju and he is still revered till today because of the things he did.

     Parked at the ports this time around to avoid stories that touch.    En savoir plus

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    Sandaga Market

    27 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Got to Sandaga market shortly after 12 noon. This time around we parked in a proper place within the port so no locking of tyre when we return. Walked through the central business district to the market.

    Sandaga is the largest market in Dakar. Hawkers everywhere following and harrasing visitors to buy their goods. Similar to naija market we had escort who followed us throughout and eventually I had to buy 1 item from his shop. Was able to achieve a 50% reduction in price of some of the items bought using advance procurement skills with "Should cost analysis". I believe I got a good bargain although I ended up spending more (CAF 195,000) than I had budgeted for shopping.

    Left the market shortly after 2pm. The shopping was quite efficient based on the male buying process ... see, select, negotiate & pay....

    Stopped over at a local restaurant "Duda" in Mbour to eat Thiebou Djeune (CFA 1,000) which am told is the no 1 meal of Senegal.

    Drove round Mbour, a rural town with pot holes and sandy untarred roads, passed by some other resorts such as Neptune Hotel etc before finally arriving at the resort at 4:20pm. Paid Malick CFA 40,000 for the transportation and interpretation services.    En savoir plus

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    Quiet time on the beach

    28 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Walked round the two hotels snapping some memorable pics before settling down on the beach listening to fine Nigerian vibes and reading a book "Data Analytics Basics for Managers".

    Unlike other beach resorts I have visited the strong fish water (aquarium smell) smell is not evident on the beach here.

    By the way I woke up this morning to see a big reptile on my room table trying to eat my left over cake from last night, still in nylon wrapping. On closer observation I discovered it was a big wall gecko, with all the stories of poisonous wall gecko saliva circulating the internet recently, I trashed the remaining cake even though I couldn't see any hole in it's wrapping. Better safe than sorry abi?

    The hotel security posted to the beach and seated not far from where I am chilling out came over to ask me something in French, told him I don't understand French so he pointed at my speaker connected to my phone blaring the finest of Nigerian music. I thought he wanted me to lower the volume so I proceeded to do so but he said non, and used sign language and alas it clicked, he wanted to know the source, told him Nigeria, he nodded his head, smiled and said something which I interpreted to mean good music. Up Naija.....reping away.    En savoir plus

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    Strolling out

    28 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Strolled down Route de Sally which is the road right in front of La Saly Hotel. Got close to the welcome to Saly sign. Saly was set up as a tourist area in the early 80s and hotels encouraged to set up resorts along the water front, making it the no 1 tourist destination in Senegal, full of European tourist mainly from France.

    Stopped over at two supermarkets to check the volume of made in Senegal products. Disappointingly very few, most products on the shelves were made in France. The french assimilation process in their colonies has made them dependent on France as they have practically abandoned their culture and adopted the french way of life. I however found bags of the famous gummy rice grown in Senegal. I also saw yam and plantain in the shop. I wonder if they eat them the way we do. Will enquire next Senegalese restaurant I visit.    En savoir plus

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    Dinner at Le Petit Zing

    28 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Decided to eat out tonight at a joint which advertised meals for CAF 4,000. A 419 strategy to draw in customers. On entering you are presented with a menu with meals above the advertised price and when you enquire for the 4k meal you are shown an unappetizing meal.

     I discovered a very useful feature of Google Translate, by clicking on the camera icon and pointing the camera at the text you want translated, it automatically does character recognision and translates the text for you. Cool eh. If only whatsapp could take a cue, convert text typed in one language upon pressing send into another language and do the reverse for received post.    En savoir plus

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    Bank of Africa & Utile supermarket

    29 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Got the best exchange rate today 570 at Bank of Africa, Saly. The bank teller was excited to meet a Nigerian, says Nigeria is big and developed and would love to visit Nigeria someday. We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet later at night for drinks.

    Visited Utile supermarket to buy chocolates for the office folks, couldn't find any made in Senegal so had to settle for those imported from France. Wande Coals "My Woman" was playing in the supermarket

    Passed by a construction site and saw an ingenious simple pulley system for sending bucket of cement up to the next floor, our guys back home are still carrying headpans and walking up make shift stairs at construction sites.    En savoir plus

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    Nightlife

    30 mars 2019, Sénégal ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    My banker friend Moustapha was to meet me up for drinks and show me the nightlife in Saly. We agreed for 11pm, but he later called after midnight that he fell asleep and was too tired to go out. I had already anticipated this when it was midnight and gone out on my own. Visited RDC, Kings and Miami all were practically devoid of people, at 2am I called it a night and went back to the hotel to sleep. Seems Senegalese don't start their night life till around 2 to 3am.

    Highlight of the outing: While seated on a highstool at Kings Club, by the bar sipping my Flag beer, leaning forward to browse, the stool suddenly slid back and in that split second I decided to save my phone by dropping it on the table and landed very hard on my padded back side. Trust naija man. I stood up, set the stool and climbed back up, continuing where I stopped.    En savoir plus

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