Blogs from Africa - page 3340

Class is officialy finished as of 10:00 am today. We had our big test, then we all went to the cafe to have tea and chocolate croissants to celebrate. This week has been both happy and sad: happy because its been the best week yet for dinner parties, discotheques and dining out; sad because most of my Asdeequa (friends m.) and Sadequaat (friends f.) are leaving and not coming back next semester. I can see already that I'm bound to meet some of the most interesting, intelligent and eccentric people in the world here, but that I'm also going to have to get used to seeing them come and go more often than I would otherwise wish. I've been an utter shopaholic lately. My attempts to buy christmas presents, furnish my room and buy a wardrobe ... read more

Left Tangier this morning - used one of the touts to get to the bus station quickly. I could have found it myself but the touts have some uses! I arrived in Tetuan in blazing Sun, after a 1 hour journey. I was latched onto by another tout, who wouldn't take no for an answer. I was maybe a bit soft and allowed him to follow me around. Maybe he thought he was giving me a tour I hadn't asked for. In fact I had made it very clear that I didn't want anything from him. No hotels, taxi's, tours etc. Obviously he knew I had just arrived, as I'd just got off the bus! Anyway after about half an hour, I finally told him to go, and he asked for a tip, which I refused ... read more

We'd heard and read of nightmare stories about the border crossing at Rosso into Senegal, so it was with some degree of trepidation that we set off on Friday morning from Noaukchott! We were in two minds as to whether to drive further down the coast and cross at Maka Diama, but we'd read reports that it was getting as bad, if not worse than Rosso, so we stuck to our original plan. As soon as we arrived at the entrance to the compound on the Mauritanian side we were surrounded by hustlers & policeman - all anxious to help us with the necessary paperwork. We'd heard that even the police were corrupt and would try it on if they could - and they promptly did, wanting to charge us 10,000 UM for the ferry ticket, ... read more

Exhausted after our border crossing, and with sunset due to descend we asked a farmer if we could camp on his little strip of land by the side of the road. He cordially obliged and much interest was shown in the Landrover & the roof tent, and we were invited to join them for a dinner of rice, fish and peanuts as they huddled round hot charcoal burners to keep warm (amusing for us as we were still overheated from the hot day). We left bright and early and headed for St Louis where we found a great place to stay for a couple nights - Les Cafe des Arts. I loved St Louis - it was really easy to find places, as all its streets are basically on a grid system, like New York or ... read more

November 2004 saw me bidding an emotional farewell to friends and family and heading off my my post-graduate travels. The initial trip that I had mooted with my uni friends Steve and Chris had fallen through - I would now be meeting the Norfolk boys in Singapore for a month long blitz through South East Asia. In their absence, I had decided to forge my own path, which eased me into the traveling way via the English speaking South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, before heading up through South East Asia with Steve and Chris, and then culminating the trip in India and Nepal. So first up was South Africa, and I landed in Cape Town without any problems - although I was brought down to earth rudely before I even arrived at the hostel. Townships ... read more