West Africa 2012 | Jason Around the World

Brussels to Cotonou, Benin on Brussels Airlines and night in Cotonou

Airports, Belgium, Benin, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Oct 172013

So, up the next morning to try again. Hopefully after nearly a 24 hour delay I would finally make it to Benin this time. Unfortunately, I had only planned 36 hours in Benin, which was now reduced to basically one evening. Kind of disappointing, but somethings things just don’t work out. It’ll be an excuse to get back to Benin another time!

Down to the hotel lobby to check out after a good night’s sleep, and had a box of chocolates and an apology letter from Brussels Airlines waiting. Better than a kick in the face I suppose!

Brussels had arranged a special bus for the passengers to the airport, but I wanted to get there a little earlier so just took the regular hotel shuttle. No problems at all checking in, quickly through security, a little bit of caffeine at Starbucks, and soon I was in the lounge waiting for the flight. Now, the flight being over two hours earlier today was nice because it would give me a bit of time in Benin, but bad because I almost felt bad sampling some of Belgium’s finest in the lounge. The guilt lasted all of zero seconds, and it was time to sample! A Leffe Bruin to start:

Followed by a delicious Hoegaarden:

There was a pain au chocolate or two as well, but I must have forgotten a picture. Off to the gate shortly, and time to board.

Brussels Airlines special flight 1255
Brussels, Belgium (BRU) to Cotonou, Benin (COO) continuing onto Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Depart 11:30, Arrive 17:10, Flight Time 6:40
Airbus A330-300, Registration OO-SFW, Manufactured 1994, Seat 3A (solo aisle)

I was excited to be back on this plane, because I really like the configuration…as long as I get one of the solo seats. It’s kind of odd, because the solo business class seats are SO much better than the pairs….unless you’re traveling with someone I suppose. A couple of cabin shots to show how the seats are staggered:

DCA to Cotonou, Benin on United, Lufthansa, and Brussels Airlines in First

Airports, Belgium, Germany, hotels, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Oct 142013

I know there’s been lots of discussion of Lufthansa First on the internet before, so I’m not going to go into painful details here, but lots of folks still like to see meal pics, etc, so I figured I’d do a quick mainly pictures post.

This trip came about thanks to free changes thanks to United premier status, and opening up better and better options up until the day before…when I finally got this routing sorted. The goal was to fly either Lufthansa or Swiss first, and hopefully leave out of DCA which meant a connection or two. Final routing was DCA-ORD-FRA-BRU-COO with ORD-FRA scheduled on the Lufthansa 747-400 hopefully with the new product of flat bed AND seat. Unfortunately 12 hours before the flight, they switched back to the old configuration. Boo hiss – at least I’d have two seats to myself and a great Lufthansa meal.

United operated by Shuttle America flight 3482
Washington, National (DCA) to Chicago, O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 11:37, Arrive 12:30, Flight Time 1:53
Embraer ERJ-170, Registration N649RW, Manufactured 2005, Seat 1A (aisle)

Nothing to say about this flight, it was on time, good crew, and that’s about it. I know some people dislike United Express, but I actually like the ERJ-170s.

Spent a bit over an hour in the United First lounge in Chicago, where I was the only person in it for half the time. As long as they keep serving Veuve I think it’s a decent product. It’s not Lufthansa quality, but perfectly adequate. Especially with the cocktail shrimp!

Lufthansa flight 431
Chicago, O’Hare (ORD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 15:45, Arrive 07:00 next day, Flight Time 8:15
Boeing 747-400, Registration D-ABTF, Manufactured 1991, Seat 83H and K (aisle and window)

I was a bit nervous for this flight. I tend not to like early transatlantic redeyes because they make it really hard to sleep. Even though this was 4:45 pm by my body clock, I had doubts I’d be able to fall asleep by 7p and get enough sleep to be functional and happy the next day. I didn’t have to worry, because in the end I got almost 6 hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep.

Despite being the “old” hard product, Lufthansa first is fantastic as long as the crew keeps the heat down which this one did. A few pre-departure pics:

A rose at my seat…

The service cart parked in front of my seat. They know where to keep the champers!

Hotel Review: Radisson Blu in Dakar, Senegal

hotels, Senegal, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Dec 192012

Yeah, I know I’ve gotten a bit behind with this trip, but travel and travel planning keeps getting in the way. I need to find a way to use plane time productively to write blogs. That said, on to a review of the hotel I stayed at on my second trip to Dakar, and the second half of my first trip. It seemed to be a consensus that this was “the” place to stay in Dakar, although some people seemed to prefer the Terrou-Bi instead because it was “just as nice, but less pretentious.” Well, as I just mentioned I came back here for my second trip, so you can guess I was pretty pleased with it.

One other random cool thing, and this had nothing in particular to do with the hotel – but I do think it speaks to the quality of it – is the guests. One morning in the hotel, absolutely by chance, who did I run into but Canadian PM Stephen Harper! He was there with his entourage on the way to DR Congo for le sommet de la francophie, so either it was the best place in town or it was the only place they considered secure enough. Considering the distinct lack of visible security (compared to a U.S. Presidential visit, for example) it was pretty amazing.

Room:

Had a standard city view room the first trip, and a “business” oceanview on the second trip. Main difference, other than the obvious view was that the business room had a bit bigger desk as well as having a Nespresso machine. That was a huge help in the mornings, since I don’t get moving in the morning without coffee, and having that so easy was a huge plus. They were also willing to restock the capsules as often as you wanted during the day, so big win there. Air Conditioning worked much much better than the Terranga, and overall I was pretty happy with it. Housekeeping wasn’t perfect – seemed most days they’d miss one small thing (maybe towels one day, refilling bath gels the next, etc) but a quick call and things were fixed. Overall, the room was leaps and bounds above the Terranga. Most importantly, it was cool, quiet, clean, and safe, with a rather comfortable bed and a nice (albeit a bit weak) rain shower.

Oh, and the view from my room in the morning was absolutely terrible on the second trip! 😉 Well, there was a construction pit at the end for the large expansion to the hotel that is underway, but the noise never occurred in the morning/evening so it didn’t bother me.

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Hotel Review: Pullman Teranga in Dakar, Senegal

hotels, Senegal, West Africa 2012 3 Responses »

Oct 252012

Since I’ll be returning to the area again shortly, felt I’d review the few things that came up on my first trip that I know won’t change or be added to on the second. There will be new restaurants, sights to see, etc, but I know I won’t be returning to the first hotel I stayed at, the Pullman Teranga. When I mentioned this to coworkers, I was met with amusement and bewilderment. Seems this is the fifth or sixth choice of hotels in Dakar, and the others were all completely sold out my first nine nights there. Online reviews on TripAdvisor made it seem tolerable, so I decided to go with it…it’s not like I had a choice! It was #10 of 35 in Dakar, so how bad could it be…right? It used to be a Sofitel up until a few years ago, when it was rebranded by Accor group as a Pullman. I’d never heard of the Pullman brand before, but it seems to be quickly growing. Knowing it was affiliated with Sofitel gave me comfort, so I was pretty ok with it. Plus, for almost 100,000 CFA a night how bad could it be?

Room:

Where do I start with the room review? The first, second, third, or fourth? Even at a rate of 100,000 CFA, I was supposed to be relegated to a “city view” room but had been “upgraded” to an ocean view. This was going to be great…or so I thought. First room, I lasted all of 10 minutes in. It was somewhere around 25C in the room, even with the aircon cranked up to the max. Went to the desk to ask, and they immediately offered to move me. Ok, second room was just a bit down the hall…and had a broken deadbolt as well as being warm and absolutely reeking of body odour. No way. Moved down one floor to room #3 and it was finally tolerable. Maybe only 22C, semi-functional air conditioning, with only a slight smell of smoke and must.

Of course, after four days, the safe battery died. They promised for two days they would replace it, but eventually admitted that they didn’t know how, and would I like to move rooms? Room four was actually just a bit further down the hall, but had the best view of the ocean. Similar to room three in smell and temperature, it was barely tolerable. Maybe other rooms are better, but I came to the eventual conclusion that the beds are very comfortable, all the rooms have a musty, smokey, unpleasant smell to them, frequent stains on the carpet, and are barely cool enough to be tolerable. Overall, if I’d had another choice based on rooms I’d have been out of there in an instant.

Rooms did had a few upsides. Free bottled water, juice, diet coke, etc in the fridge…when they remembered to restock it. Plus, all rooms came with complimentary condoms, lol.

Service:

Everyone I encountered was very friendly. There were a few staff at the front desk that were very helpful (which was needed for the frequent room issues that popped up) but there were also several younger people at the front desk with “trainee” tags. Most of these didn’t even smile, and just gave nods when you asked anything. Overall, it was pretty typical west Africa where when they tell you they can/will do something, you stand about a 50% chance of it actually happening. Everyone was friendly though, so I’d say service attempts were above average, but delivery frequently was short. English skills I didn’t really experience since my French was better than their English, but they did seem to speak enough that they could easily help you in English.

Location:

The big plus, I thought. Walkable to a great grocery store about 5-10 minutes away, lots of taxis, several good restaurants in walking distance, and seemed to be in a pretty safe area. I walked around a lot, even at night, and didn’t have a single problem or ever feel unsafe in the least. Also, if you have business with the government, it’s right downtown in the Plateau area near many of the ministries, so very convenient. A few shots out my window follow and you can see that at least on the “ocean view” side of the hotel it has some pretty great views:

West Africa 2012 and first flights

Airports, Flights, West Africa 2012 2 Responses »

Oct 242012

Recently, I was asked to head to Dakar, Senegal for the better part of two months for work. Due to prior commitments, I arranged to do it in two blocks, with two weeks off in between. I won’t bore you with the flights in between (standard DCA-YOW runs on Air Canada) but thought I’d fill in some of the details on Dakar, Senegal including the hotels, restaurants, a few sights, and the flights to get there. I’ll go be going back again shortly, and taking pretty much the same route.

There’s actually a non-stop flight on South African between DC and Dakar, which is a bit odd to most people. Even stranger, is that all but the highest business fares are often sold out months in advance, requiring a full J fare if you want to take it. Forget D/I/Z/etc. Just couldn’t justify that, plus, I actually wanted to rack up some extra miles, so settled on this route. I was going to fly United to Brussels, then Brussels Airlines to Dakar, but wanted to go out of Washington National if possible. United doesn’t allow this – transatlantic fares almost always require nonstops out of Dulles, however, Lufthansa is cool with it. However, they only codeshare on the Newark to Brussels flight, thus I ended up going Washington National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD) to Newark (EWR) to Brussels (BRU) on United, connecting to Dakar on Brussels Airlines. The flight back would be much simpler – nonstop on South African. I’ll explain why I chose this below in the detailed flight sections.

Later, I’ll make a couple posts about hotels, sights, and restaurants, before I head back for the next trip where I’m hoping to hop around to a couple more countries in the region on weekends if possible. Fair warning, this post will be very very full of flight geekery.

Got to the airport about 90 minutes before the first flight to check bags, and encountered the typical surly DCA United agents. I don’t know why, but the United staff here (with the exception of those working the lounge) are always surly. Dulles can be marginally better, but every time at DCA I have a pretty negative experience. Once again denied pre-check by TSA (which I understand doesn’t work with international itineraries anyways) and had a little time to kill in the “United Club” aka former Presidents Club. The agent was very chatty, sharing every thought she had on the merger, how staff were integrating, and basically how senior management wasn’t thinking. Basic stuff like shuffling flight attendants between DCA and IAD in taxis to fill gaps causing long delays, etc. It was an interesting chat, and time to board soon!

United Airlines Flight 833
Washington, DC National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD)
Depart 10:23, Arrive 11:20, Flight Time 1:57
Airbus A319, Registration N822UA, Manufactured 1999, Seat 1E

Nothing exciting to say about this flight. Snack mix, diet coke, and on-time landing. The fun started in Chicago, with the United International First lounge. Always good to get filled up on shrimp cocktail and champagne before continuing on. Pretty standard day, and didn’t have too far to walk to the flight to Newark.

United Airlines Flight 1720
Chicago (ORD) to Newark (EWR)
Depart 13:00, Arrive 16:17, Flight Time 2:17
Boeing 737-800, Registration N77530, Manufactured 2011, Seat 3F

Small snack on this flight, and started off right with a margarita on-board, definitely one of the things from the Continental side of the house that I’m really glad came over to the new United. Small lunch which is no longer memorable, but was some sort of a deli plate with a few decent things on it. I wasn’t hungry after the shrimp so just picked at it, and soon we landed. Boring domestic flights, I know…let’s move onto the prime attraction. Some slightly less common international segments.

United Airlines Flight 960
Newark (EWR) to Brussels, Belgium (BRU)
Depart 18:12, Arrive 7:45 next day , Flight Time 8:33
Boeing 777-200, Registration N775UA, Manufactured 1996, Seat 1A

Lounge…ug. Really, you make international first passengers use the dump that is the “United Club” at Newark. Completely packed with the cattle, it’s hard to get a drink or find somewhere to plug in your computer. Boarding was at least relatively efficient, and the former Continental gate crew at least seem to know there are three classes finally. Then, we boarded, and things got a bit exciting. Earlier in the day, there were only 3 of us in first, with five empty seats. Of course, all eight ended up being taken. The crew (ex-United) seemed to know the party of five (all together) who boarded (surprising since they were boarding in EWR, but who knows), and they rather loudly complained that there were six of them, but one “got stuck in the back because SOMEONE took their seat at the last minute.” Honey, that would be me….on a full business fare upgraded with a global upgrade. If you want your company to stay in business, please don’t complain when full revenue passengers “stick” #6 in your party in business. Very unprofessional. The purser must have seen me make a bit of a pained face, as she actually came over and apologized, and was wonderful the whole flight.

Standard new 777 united first suites, with the standard broken buttons on a couple of the storage compartments. Nothing a makeshift lever wouldn’t take care of. People always seem to ask the latest of the meals, so I’ll post with a few pics here. Started of course with the mixed warm nuts. Nothing special, but way too many almonds for my liking.

To Begin: Warm Appetizer – Vegetable and mushroom-filled pastry and beef empanada with Amazon sauce.

I’ll admit, I have no idea what “Amazon sauce” is supposed to be, and even after eating it I wasn’t sure. Tasty enough, but certainly not what I’d expect in international first. You’ll also notice some coconut-breaded chicken thing. Guess the veggie and shroom pastry was a tease as well. At least there was wine!

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