New Years 2013-2014 | Jason Around the World

Pointe-Noire, Congo

Attractions, Congo, hotels, New Years 2013-2014, Restaurants 2 Responses »

Jan 232014

Since I’d arrived so late the night before, I made a point of sleeping in a bit, but got up to enjoy breakfast. I guess this would be a good time to talk about the hotel. Based on reviews online, and the fact it came in the middle of the trip, I decided to book at the Atlantic Palace Hotel. I figured by this point I’d want something a bit nicer and more “comfortable.” Let me just say – the premium was completely not worth it in this case. The rooms were comfortable enough, maybe high three star. The beds were comfortable, the AC was nice and cold, and everything was clean. Common areas were also clean, and the pool was nice…but nothing life-changing.

I’d gotten up early for breakfast because I was told the night before at check-in that it was included. Well, first I accidentally put the wrong room number on the receipt, and when I was walking through the lobby later the restaurant hostess yelled after me “THIEF! COME HERE!” Um, honest mistake? Hello? Then, I found out why…breakfast was not included, and no amount of protesting was going to make them care that they’d given me misinformation….I was going to have to pay the 10,000 CFA – over $20. Ouch, I would have just stopped for coffee in town had I known.

Overall, the hotel was “nice enough” but certainly no more than three star. Definitely not worth three price of the other 2-3 star options in town, especially when you factored in the service which left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth. Most of the management staff were Lebanese, and rather rude and nasty to other customers as well from what I saw in a few interactions. I can’t say I was the least bit impressed.

Oh yes, breakfast. Got sidetracked there…it was again, “good enough” although the pastries seemed a bit stale, and there were lots of lebanese inspired dishes, hummous, feta cheese, etc. Again, good enough, but certainly not worth going out of your way for. I wish I’d slept in another hour and gone to the delicious coffee shop across the street.

At least my room had a pretty cool view:

Jordan’s hotel looked to be about 1km away, so decided to walk down to meet him. Was an interesting walk and let me see a bit of the city, so was glad I did it. We sat in his hotel’s lobby planning the day a bit, and once we had a rough plan we set out.

First stop was to head down to the waterfront where the giant Total complex was, to check out a restaurant I’d heard was good for dinner – it was about a 1km walk from his hotel, so we set off. Found the restaurant, inside the Total complex, and it was packed with a busy lunch crowd. Not too busy, however, that we couldn’t get a few pics off into the water from the deck, since it would be much too dark later that evening:

Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire, Congo by train

Congo, New Years 2013-2014, trains 1 Response »

Jan 222014

Up at the crack of dawn, checked out of the hotel, and grabbed a cab to the train station. Picked up Jordan along the way, and we were there at about 5:15am for the 7am train. We’d been sternly warned that we had to be there two hours in advance…which turned out to be quite a joke. A picture of the station, waiting to get inside. Unfortunately poor quality because of the lighting, but enough to get the idea:

A shot of the ticket window, courtesy of Jordan. He got much better pictures than I did of several parts of the train ride, and several of the pictures in this post were taken by him.

As the sun started to rise while we waited, a picture looking back onto the town from the front of the station:

…and the vendors were out in full force, selling food for the journey. Bottled water, bread, fruit, cookies, and gum seemed to be the most common items for sale.

Soon it was 6:15, and finally time to Board. A quick passport/ID check inside the station, and we found the car that would be our home for approximately the next 13 hours – Car #111 in First Class:

Daytrip to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Attractions, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 172014

CAUTION: This post contains nearly 40 pictures, many of which are of extreme poverty and a few are of monkeys…well, being monkeys. You’ve been warned!

Yeah, I know it had only been two days since the coup attempt where over 100 people were killed trying to overthrow the government, but I’d spent so much effort planning this trip, and so much money getting close, I was determined to try and at least make it to DRC for a daytrip…in daylight. Fortunately, Jordan was just as insane and was game for it. We started by grabbing a taxi over to the boat docks, and after fending off several touts, we finally found the place to buy tickets on the “fast” boat and clear immigration. It involved about 10 different stops for different papers, taxes, stamps, etc etc etc, most of which seemed above ground, but I’m sure a few of the “fees” went straight into the pockets of corrupt officials. No matter…we avoided as much as we could, and even the fees we paid were no more than $3-4 each. Eventually we were crammed onto the boat with 15 of our new best friends for the 15 minute trek across the river:

On the other side, things got a little uglier. Lots of people doing the “wait here” and “this fee” and “that fee.” We argued several of them, paid a few, and eventually got out the other side about $20 poorer in total. It took about 20-30 minutes, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but once they have your passport they kind of have you by the balls. Plus, we were in a bit of a hurry without much time, so we were kind of stuck. We’d hired a driver in advance for the day, and finally found him outside immigration. Turns out we’d thought he was another tout trying to get money from us on the inside and brushed him off, lol. Would have helped if he had a sign! He drove us first to the travel agency he worked for, where we paid the agreed upon $250 for a day’s rental of car and driver. The agency’s building:

After that, it was time to go. We were driving about 30 miles outside the city first, to the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary for Bonobos monkeys. On the way, we passed the stadium:

Continuing the drive, we went through some quite poor parts of Kinshasa:

Brazzaville, Congo

Attractions, Congo, hotels, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 172014

Quick taxi ride to my hotel, the Ledger Maya Maya, and check-in was pretty quick. Room was nice, and pretty much don’t need to say too much about it. Clean, comfortable, and definitely good enough for two days. Did have dinner in the restaurant the first night, and it was pretty tasty, and they did a fantastic beef kebab. The only thing negative I’ll say about the hotel, is that when I woke up in the morning and felt an itch…and saw a cockroach scurry across my chest, I wasn’t impressed. Yes, this is Africa and these things happen even in the cleanest place, but I still wasn’t impressed.

After check-in, I walked over to the Hotel Hippocampe to meet up with Jordan, who I’d be doing the next few segments of the trip. Congo was the 150th country visited for both of us, and we agreed to meet up and knock out some of the more challenging ones together – two heads are definitely better than one when dealing with the random unknown situations that tend to happen in Africa!

We met up at the Hippocampe, and tried the local brew while plotting the next few days. It was already early afternoon, so we decided to walk around the city a bit, and then rest up because we were planning another shot at the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the next day as a daytrip.

Then, it was off for a walk around the city, which seemed deserted. Streets were all incredibly quiet, probably because it was New Year’s Day. First stop was a cafe called La Mandarine for a quick lunch since I hadn’t eaten…delicious shwarma and then right outside was this cool fountain:

Right across the street was the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) with a cool statue in front:

Libreville to Brazzaville, Congo on Rwandair

Airports, Congo, Flights, Gabon, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 162014

Check out of the hotel…for the third time…was easy and hopefully this time would be the charm and I’d actually get to start resuming my trip. Then the hotel informed me…there was no driver. Excuse me? I just confirmed the time last night…finally they raised him on his cell phone and he was on his way to pick me up. He drove somewhere around 200 kph down city streets, practically running people off the road, but eventually we got to the airport safely.

Only one problem when I finally arrived at the airport – there were no obvious check-in desks! After asking several people, I learned that they didn’t let you into the check-in area until 90 minutes before flight time, so you had to wait in the arrivals area. Eventually I found the line to get in, and ended up chatting with an American guy and his daughter, who were lost and had no idea where to check in. We solved it together, and made it in at T-90, and check-in was a breeze.

Through security and immigration, and into the waiting area. The “alcool” store was still closed – probably still hungover from New Year’s Eve the night before.

The Christmas trees were still up in the waiting area, and this called for a selfie:

Oh, and Santa and his reindeer were hanging out with the trees too. Gabon was certainly feeling festive!

Boarding area was empty, less than 50 people, and this despite the fact that two flights were about to board. First they boarded the CamAir flight to Douala, and then there were only 12 people left. I was pretty sure they had downsized our plane. Soon, it was time to walk across the tarmac to our plane. A look back at the terminal building:

…and there’s our plane! It really was a 737 for just 12 people. Maybe there were through passengers already on board? Nope!

RwandAir Flight 211
Libreville, Gabon (LBV) to Brazzaville, Congo (BZV)
Depart 10:35, Arrive 12:05, Flight Time 90 minutes
Boeing 737-700, Registration 9XR-WK, Manufactured 2007, Seat 10A

Was easy to move around on board, since there were a total of 12 people for a plane that seated 150. I asked the flight attendant if it was ok to move to the exit row, and he gave me a puzzled look. Turns out, he didn’t speak French. Despite Rwanda changing its official language from French to English less than 10 years ago, it appeared this guy in his 20s didn’t speak a word of French. Curious.

The plane felt very new and comfortable, and was in great condition inside. The crew took their jobs very seriously, carefully doing the exit row briefing and all. Flight was short and comfortable, and there was even a small snack served. It was a semi scary looking sandwich, and given the fact this wasn’t a RwandAir hub I was pretty sure it had been on the plane a while, so I didn’t partake. I was tempted to have a local beer or glass of wine (all complimentary) but opted just for water at this hour.

All in all, I was seriously impressed with RwandAir. Certainly better that your average domestic US flight with newish planes, professional crew, and even free food and drink!

The Brazzaville airport was very clean and modern as well as being well air conditioned! Quite unusual for Africa! Immigration was reasonable quick and friendly, and my bag was already waiting for me when I got to the bag claim. Even the taxis were honest, only asking 3,000 CFA for the 15 minute ride to my hotel. So far the trip was starting to look up!

Libreville, Gabon

Airports, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, hotels, New Years 2013-2014, Restaurants No Responses »

Jan 102014

I already posted about the Le Meridien I stayed at in Libreville. I arrived there a bit after midnight after a long delay, and was supposed to have one full day in Libreville, plus the next day until around mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, not really enough time to get out of the city, so I focused on seeing as much of the city as possible. As it turned out, I had three full days there due to some unfortunate circumstances, so I definitely would have had time to get out had I known. Oh well!

December 29: This was to be my one full day in Libreville, so decided to walk as much as possible before melting in the heat. The centre of the city was only about 1.5 miles from the hotel, so I figured it would be a decent walk to see some stuff. After all, it was 85F but cloudy so how bad could it be?

A view of the Le Meridien from the road:

About halfway to the city, I found oil! Big oil!

A little further down the beach, an interesting statue:

Park bench on the beach:

After absolutely melting, I arrived at the cafe I’d been looking for a hot sweaty mess. Oh well, I was rewarded with pain au chocolate, pain au raisin, and espresso. Life was grand!

After refueling, I continued the hot hot hot walk. Next up was the Cathedral of St Marie:

…the first of many places I was to see on the trip where Pope John Paul II had visited.

Walking another 15 minutes or so, I came upon the restaurant where I was considering dinner that night, a place that did local food called L’Odika. They had reservations, and the menu looked good, so I reserved for later that night. Lovely outdoor setting in the gardens:

I’d been told by colleagues that the Port was one of the most interesting things to see, but unfortunately it’s completely under construction, part of a huge hotel / mall / marina / port complex scheduled to be finished in a few years. So, unfortunately, it was a bit of a mess at the moment:

I was roasting at this point, so decided to seek refuge in what I think is one of the most fascinating parts of any city: the local markets and supermarkets. They really tell a lot about the place, and Libreville was home to the largest Casino supermarket I’ve ever seen!

Walked all the way back to the hotel through some back streets, but was too hot to take any pics along the way. Eventually got back and cooled off for a while before grabbing a taxi to L’Odika for dinner. Only took a pic of the first course, a delicious carpaccio of capitain fish. Yum!

December 30: little bit more than a half day, so I took another route through the city, and along the beach, to grab pastries and coffee at the same cafe. A view out onto the ocean:

Was reading my e-mail on my phone at breakfast, when a friend texted me: “Is what’s going on in Kinshasa going to affect you?” Now, keep in mind, I had an afternoon flight to Kinshasa. I quickly started googling, and the news wasn’t good. Armed “terrorists” (the government’s words) had tried to take control of the state tv station and airport, and dozens were killed. Kinshasa airport was closed, and it appeared flights were being diverted. My flight, however, showed on time still. The funny thing is, my first thought wasn’t “shit, it’s not safe to go there now,” it was “how am I going to salvage my trip.” I swear, if ASKY was going to operate my flight, I was going to go!

I hightailed it back to the hotel to call my travel agent, who had the semi-reassuring words: “it looks like your ticket has been changed. Your flight is not going to Brazenville.” Um, do you mean Brazzaville? “Yes, that place.” Ok, so they were going to still operate the flight, just to Brazzaville instead. Hmmm, I would be missing my stop in Kinshasa, but at least it wouldn’t throw off my entire trip. Decided to quickly check out, get to the airport early, and pray.

Took the airport shuttle to the airport, but checkin for ASKY airlines was nowhere to be found. Asked several dozen official-looking people, and they all heard the flight had been canceled. Hmmm. Kept asking around, and eventually one very helpful lady told me she knew where the ASKY office was, so let’s go ask them what’s going on. Upstairs, bang on their door, no answer. So, she just walked right in…where we found ASKY’s airport manager hiding from the public. Yes, the flight is canceled. No, we don’t have any others for three days, yes, you’re out of luck, GO AWAY.

Just as we walked out, the manager of “Trans Congo Airlines” walked by, and he had a flight at midnight to Brazzaville. Um, yeah, I don’t think I want to fly something called Trans-Congo at midnight and hope I get where I really wasn’t planning to go in the first place. Back to the hotel to plan options, and fortunately when I told them earlier my flight was uncertain they’d held the room for me. Great!

Planned and planned, and everyone was right. There was just nothing at all I was finding. Nothing today for sure, and nothing to either city on tomorrow the 31st either. I was stuck in Libreville another two nights it looked like. Rebooked myself to Brazzaville on January 1 instead, turning two nights in Gabon into four. Called it a night, and got some sleep.

Woke up early on the 31st, and went back to the grocery store to stock up on supplies, including the champagne from the previous picture. I was going to have a decent New Years Eve even if it was just me! Hung around by the pool much of the day, which was nice and relaxing. An amazing final sunset of the year from the pool:

To bed a little after midnight, since I’d have to be up around 7am to hopefully catch my flight to Brazzaville, and get my trip back on track as much as possible!

Douala to Libreville, Gabon on South African and the Le Meridien Re-Ndama, Gabon

Cameroon, Flights, Gabon, hotels, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 092014

After a late lunch, the hotel shuttle dropped me at the airport early evening, about 3 hours in advance of my flight. The airport was absolute chaos, with lines that weren’t lines, and it was incredibly difficult to figure out where check-in was. Finally I found the South African counter, which seemed to just have a disorganized mass of people congregating in front of it. I pushed my way to the front of the scrum, saying “Classe Affaires, Classe Affaires” and that seemed to do the trick. Soon I was checked in, and off to the gate.

Or so I thought.

First I had to get past the immigration folks, who kept saying “stamp, stamp, stamp.” Seems there was a booth in the check-in area where you had to by an airport tax stamp, which got put on your boarding pass. 10 minutes and 10,000 CFA later I had my stamp, and it was off to try and find the lounge. Managed to find it without too much trouble. A few sad sandwiches and cookies on offer, but also a decent bar selection. I ended up having a couple of Castels over the two horus I was there, and found a power outlet which was nice for keeping the i-Devices charged up.

The amusement came about an hour in, when a small group of American oil workers (Louisiana based on their conversation) came in. One of them loudly announced to the whole room and the bartender “I ain’t seen women in months” followed by “throw down that whole bottle of Johnny walker!” They were refused the entire bottle, but pretty much polished it off shot by shot in the next 15 minutes. Keep it classy Amurika! Soon, it was to the gate, security, and time to board.

South African flight 87
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Libreville, Gabon (LBV)
Depart 21:20, Arrive 22:20, Flight Time 1 hour
Airbus A319-100, Registration ZS-SFN, Manufactured 2005, Seat 2A

Boarded right on time, and South African has an odd business configuration on these birds – 2 seats on one side of the aisle, and three on the other. Seriously, middle seats in business class? There were 25 seats, but only 4 of us in business for this short hop, so didn’t make much different. Fantastically friendly crew, but then things started to go tits up. All the captain would tell us is we were waiting “for a technical reason.” This stretched on for over two hours, and I was convinced we were going to cancel. They cycled the power completely on and off at least three times, and finally around midnight announced we were ready to go. It didn’t fill me with confidence.

But, no problems. Flight was short and uneventful, maybe an hour. There was even a small snack:

This is where things got fun. I’d asked for the hotel shuttle, but of course being nearly three hours late it was nowhere to be found. Got a cheap taxi to the hotel no problem, and arrived to find out I’d been upgraded…to the Presidential Suite! SCORE! In the end, my two nights here turned into four for reasons I’ll go into later, but it turned out to be the best upgrade I’ve ever received from Starwood. Several shots of the suite:

The living room:

Douala, Cameroon

Attractions, Cameroon, hotels, New Years 2013-2014, Restaurants 1 Response »

Jan 082014

Driver was waiting for me right outside the airport, to drive me to my hotel, the Le Meridien Douala. Big bonus points to them – they arrived with a cooler full of cold scented moist towels and cold bottles of water. Definitely a huge plus in my book! The trip to the hotel took maybe 15 to 20 minutes, and we were there. I was upgraded to a slightly larger room, but really nothing too special.

First order of business was to get some lunch, since I hadn’t had anything to eat yet that day. Went to the poolside hotel restaurant, Le Madiba:

…and had what was actually a surprisingly tasty pizza along with a Castel.

Properly fueled, it was early afternoon and time to head out on a walk. I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go, so off I went down the road. Headed out of the hotel a few blocks, and took a left on Avenue General Charles de Gaulle and walked to the Place du Gouvernement. Voila the Palais de Justice:

Malabo to Douala, Cameroon on Ethiopian Airlines

Airports, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Flights, New Years 2013-2014 3 Responses »

Jan 082014

Quick ride from the Hilton in their shuttle bus, and I was at Malabo ready to check in. The only problem was, the check-in area was total chaos. Dozens of Chinese everywhere, each with several bags, busy saran wrapping them, tying them up with twine, you name it. The room was chaos. Since I couldn’t see a line, I just pushed my way to the front of the mass of humanity, and eventually found a check-in desk. Yes, it was for Ethiopian, and yes, I could check in. No checked bags, so should be a piece of cake. I had tried online checkin, but it said it didn’t work, however, the seat I’d selected took. Bulkhead aisle…not bad for a 30 minute flight.

Couldn’t figure out where to go next….tried one door, there was a woman at what looked like a passport check…nope, this is domestic flights…she waved her hands and pointed in another direction. After wandering around looking lost for several more minutes, I finally found the right passageway, leading to international passport control and security. Piece of cake, and soon I was in a large waiting room. Time to have a seat.

There was a hallway marked “VIP lounge” but there was a security guy guarding it. He wouldn’t let me past. So, when he disappeared a few minutes later I just went down the hall, and followed some stairs upstairs….and did a little plane spotting:

Found the door to the VIP lounge, and it was unlocked…so I went in. Nobody was in there. Hmmm…there was a flight board though!

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea

Attractions, Equatorial Guinea, hotels, New Years 2013-2014, Restaurants No Responses »

Jan 072014

Got through customs and immigration, and expected a driver to be waiting from my hotel…but there was none to be found. One other problem, there were no taxis at the airport at all. My hotel was only about a mile away and would have been walkable, but my body was far from ready for the humidity and was saying hell no. To top it off, nobody hanging around spoke any English…so because yo hablo Chipotle, I gave it a go. I finally found a guy about 20 minutes later who was a private driver for one of the big oil companies, and he said he’d be happy to give me a lift to my hotel. Yes, this sounds like hitchhiking…and to top it off, he refused to consider money. There’s still hope for humanity!

Checked in, got a regular room no upgrade, but it was perfectly clean and comfortable and cool, no complaints at all! Grabbed a quick snack and beer at the pool, before crashing for the night. The pool was rather scenic, and the warm weather reminded me I wasn’t in Minnesota any more!

Up earlyish the next morning around 8, and went down to the lobby to see about getting to the city. The one major downside of the Hilton (or upside, depending on your needs) is that it’s near the airport, and a few miles out of the city. Not to worry, there’s an on-demand shuttle from the hotel, and he would take me into the city and pick me up again – no charge – whenever I wanted! Wow! Headed downtown, with about 2-3 hours to see as much as I could before my flight.

See, I’d taken advantage of the 24 hour stop rule for international tickets, and found out that I could get Equatorial Guinea for about 18 hours, Cameroon for about 20, and then head to Gabon…all for the same amount of miles! I’m not one to turn down free countries.

First stop was the Cathedral of Santa Isabela:

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