Senegal
Sali

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    • Day 6–8

      Ab nach Saly 🌴

      November 13, 2023 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

      Nachdem wir erfolgreich nach nur einer Stunde, was für senegalesische Verhältnisse wenig ist, unser ziemlich großes Auto abgeholt haben, sind wir gegen 10:30h aus Dakar losgefahren. 🚗
      Clari ist hat das Verkehrschaos gut bewältigt. Nach ein wenig Stau haben wir es auf die Autobahn geschafft, wo wir 4 Mautstellen passierten.
      Nach circa 2 Stunden Fahrt kamen wir in Saly an, einem Küstenort, der von Hotels geprägt ist. Im Safari Village haben wir eine Hütte gebucht, die eine gut ausgestattete Küche, drei Schlafzimmer und zwei Bäder hat - richtig nett! Wir sind erstmal zum Pool und haben dort entspannt. Rahel und Anna waren im Meer baden, das bestimmt 24 grad warm ist. Der Strand ist breit und von Palmen gesäumt. 🌴 Abends haben wir noch einen Sonnenuntergangsspaziergang gemacht und waren dann bei Auchan einkaufen. Es ist insgesamt ziemlich leer hier zum Glück. Zum Abendessen gab es Couscoussalat und wir haben noch ein paar Runden The Game gespielt. Hier fühlt es sich richtig nach Urlaub an!
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    • Day 5

      Exploring the beach

      March 24, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☁️ 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 resortRead more

    • Day 11

      Leaving Saly

      March 30, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      My 7 days / 6 nights in Saly was very relaxing and refreshing, I spent most of the time on the resort beach just chilling out and enjoying the sea breeze, watching fisher men far off through my binoculars casting their lines and nets, local kids swimming to the canoes parked away from the shore. Tourists in sailing boats and small motorized boats.

      Saly is a good location to relax in, practically no attractions or significant monument to see. Lots of elderly French citizens own houses here and the hotels are full of them. Non French speakers will find it difficult to communicate here although the locals do make impressive efforts and most understand a few words of English.

      Checked out of the hotel at 10:05am, my taxi from Dakar was already parked waiting for me. Had to pay a tourist tax of CFA6,000 (CFA 1,000 per day per person)

      Senegal is a very dusty country, the solar panels for the street lights on the express between Thies and Dakar were all covered up in a thick layer of dust.

      Finally back to Onomo Hotel, Dakar (11:45am) with it's strange shower in the room. I wonder which quack designed the room for them. This time around I sent message ahead to be given a room far away from the smelly part of the hotel.

      Came back from Saly with a cold. The cold sea breeze and room AC finally got to me. Bought Vicks inhaler and in the absence of Actified was sold HUMEX a cold relieve drug with too many don'ts, so I decided not to take the drug and just allow my antibodies fight the cold. So far so good.
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    • Day 9

      Strolling out

      March 28, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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.
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    • Day 9

      Dinner at Le Petit Zing

      March 28, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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.
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    • Day 9

      Quiet time on the beach

      March 28, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ⛅ 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.
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    • Day 10

      Bank of Africa & Utile supermarket

      March 29, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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.
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    • Day 8

      Diamond Bank, Saly

      March 27, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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.Read more

    • Day 7

      Safari Beach Saly

      March 26, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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.
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    • Day 7

      Lazy morning on the beach

      March 26, 2019 in Senegal ⋅ ☀️ 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 yuckRead more

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