Attack of the Insects, Part 1- Day 6
By rsiminkas | August 17, 2008
As we were on the road out of Franceville and heading to Lope National Park we arrived at a crossroads. To our right was the route that leads to Lope and to the left the road that would bring us to Mayumba National Park. According to the magazine that the lovely woman gave me at the Gabonese Embassy in Brazzaville, Mayumba seems to be a magical place but very far out of the way from everything. Peta turned to us and asked if we wouldn’t mind making a few days of a detour to head that way. We readily agreed and we were off.
The first stretch of road led us through remote villages which don’t seem to have a whole lot of exposure to anyone. Gabon has a very small population, only about 1.5 million and most of which live in Libreville or Port Gentil. So there isn’t a tremendous demand for having good roads running through most of the country since nobody is there. Ironically, some of the best bits of roads that we encountered in the heart of the country have recently been made deep into the forests…by logging companies. President Bongo magnanimously has dedicated 10% of Gabon’s land to be preserved as parks and nature reserves. This is most probably because they have planned to deforest the remaining 90% of it for sale to logging companies (and I mean Chinese companies).
As we entered further and further into the deeply forested areas we would explore some of these newly created logging roads to search for camp spots for the night. There is usually a flat bit that they use to load all the logs, makes it an ideal place to set up camp. We eagerly set up camp each night in the woods, oohing and ahhing at the spectacular forests. As each night progressed we noticed small red splotches all over our bodies. We didn’t think anything of it at first, it looked terrible but it wasn’t bothering anyone. By the time we descended in to the lowlands approaching Mayumba, the hundreds of red splotches began to itch unlike anything else and led me to scratch until I drew blood on nearly each one of my hundreds of speckles. My entire medical kit of creams, gels, and ointments proved useless.
When we arrived in Mayumba one woman asked us if we were ill because of all of the spots all over us. We told her that we got them when we were camping in the woods and she promptly replied “Ahhh, les FOUROUS”. She quickly told me an “African” ointment (actually made by a French company) to get rid of the bites. All of that scenery and tranquility of the woods came at a price, we had our introduction to the fourous and aren’t terribly eager to lurk into the woods again anytime soon. I’ll keep my African cream handy for a while I think.
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Bushmeat- Day 5
By rsiminkas | August 16, 2008
The local market in Franceville, Gabon is a frenzy of activity and colors. Aisle after aisle you can find an assortment of dried or smoked fish, vegetables, chili powders, tubers, clothing and, yes even bush meat.
Bush meat is generally any type of meat that we would consider exotic and is often endangered but is often featured in African dishes. Just today in the market we saw people lining up for some duiker (antelope), wild boar, and monkey. There really isn’t any industry for livestock here, or much agriculture in general. The tsetse fly ravages the populations of most of the livestock and only certain breeds seem to be impervious. The rough neighborhood has helped destroy the supplies that had survived the health factors. From what we understand, the civil war of the Republic of the Congo led many soldiers into border areas and troops would annex any kind of food products they could.
Now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) are in a time of peace and life continues as normal. People go about their days running errands just as anywhere else in the world. Most people do their shopping in open-air markets and small-scale local farmers bring in their goods. People may raise their own chickens or pigs but there are only a few, so it certainly isn’t something one could eat everyday. People may seek to supplement the meat supply in their diets by hunting, most of which is what we would consider animals to put in a zoo, not to eat. But, most of the meats had at one point in time been plentiful and they are able to be found locally. I personally would rather not eat a monkey but I am beginning to understand better why so many people do.
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Entering into Gabon- Day 4
By rsiminkas | August 15, 2008
As it turned out, the immigration office was not our last stop in the Congo. We missed the next hut up the street, the gendarmerie. As soon as we approached, the officer begins speaking not with a greeting but with a demand of who speaks French. I barely respond and he starts ranting at me, “when did we arrive?”, “why did we not immediately present ourselves to him then” “How could we be here with out checking in with the police” (which we did, just the other office).
I started to feel shaky, not sure if it showed. We were so close to getting out with no problems and the people so far have been so lovely. It would be a shame to ruin our now positive perception with another bribe or overall problems now.
I just explained to the man that we thought we were finished last night, it was dark (there is no electricity in the village) and we didn’t see or even know that the straw hut that was the gendarmerie office even existed. The kind immigration officer just mentioned to me that we had to stop here as we were packing up the car to leave again. There was a nice Ghanaian man, Yosuf, listening in and told me that this officer is crazy. The officer storms off into his hut and Bobby coaxes me to go in after him. I ask to enter and then hand the officer our carnet for the car and all the passports. Yosuf comes in chats with us, which helped ease the tension. This grumpy officer was by far the quickest stop we had the entire time and we were soon on our way. Thank god.
By the time I got back to the car for us to go, the sweet immigration man had rounded up the village president and head minister to see us off. As we crossed into the netherworld between Congo and Gabon we came across a big truck stuck in the sand. He had apparently been stuck there for a week and still has not had any luck getting out. We tried with the little Landrover to get him out but it was like a flea trying to pull a dog out of a hole. Passed Yosuf along the road also, he showed us the stop for the gendarmerie on the Gabonese side. All of the procedures on the Gabon side were extremely quick and efficient.
We drove straight on the freshly paved asphalt all the way to Franceville. The Chinese have been buying up every bit of Africa that they can and put in the roads so that they can export the oil, lumber, rubber, etc more easily to themselves. In the middle of NO WHERE in Congo we would come across Chinese driving huge trucks down the sandy roads and brand new gleaming complexes with Chinese writing on it. It is a pity because they are taking all the raw materials and importing all of their own workers to do it. So it isn’t even like any of the local people get a chance for employment or any part in the vast amounts of money changing hands between the governments. But as I’m learning, this is the way it is in Africa.
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Congo/Gabon Border- Day 3
By rsiminkas | August 14, 2008
We woke up with the sunrise and started to pack up camp to make our final run for the border. Our 72 hours courtesy of our dear friends at immigration was ticking away. All along the road people would smile and wave at us. Some little kids would excitedly run out from their baths just to wave at us.
The road was very good for the start of the journey and then turned to sand for the remainder. We stopped in Gamboma to go to the market and buy some fresh baguettes, vegetables and freshly pounded peanut butter. A little while later, we stopped for a picnic. David and Peta had a little miracle of a freezer attached to the back seat. We enjoyed our baguettes with some butter and sandwich meat brought over from South Africa!
We got to the immigration office a little later than expected. We had spent a lot of time at the customs office, which was our first stop along the way. There were some cute kids marching and chanting army tunes. They even made their own hats and belts out of some leaves. From customs, we then had to check in with the police. They handwrote all sorts of information in their book, I’m not even really sure what it was all for but hey, procedure is procedure. We heard the bongo drums and chanting coming from the church nearby so it just added to the ambiance of the straw police hut. Once they were satisfied with the information they gathered, we moved across the street to the next hut to finally meet the immigration man.
This man was possibly the sweetest person I have ever met. No need to worry about corruption with this guy, he had posters of Jesus all over his hut. He proceeded to handwrite all the information that the police officers just took shortly before and would ask all sorts of questions. He was eager to hear about Obama and asked if it is true that a man who looks like him could be president. It is nice to talk about the US with excitement again. I don’t have to try to justify or apologize for anything. Especially here in Africa, people are very excited about the election and are very proud that a man whose father is from Kenya is in the running. They feel like it is too good to be true. We sat chatting with the lovely immigration man for a bit too long, he already had to light his kerosene lamp. We had to ask for permission to set up camp on their grounds, once it is dark it is really difficult to find a camping spot. He was very pleased to have us camp on the grounds and promised that we would rest their undisturbed. Fantastic!
Dinner: Pork & butternut squash in a Thai red curry sauce
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African Adventure- Day 2
By rsiminkas | August 13, 2008
David and Peta arrived in the afternoon yesterday and decided to stay also at the Hippo Camp. Had a late night with all the great people there the night before and had to be back at 7 am to get the car ready for the trip. Did some small errands like going to the post office, supermarket and bank before leaving. If not for the airport incident, I would have had nothing but glowing things to say about the Congo.
We got lost heading out, worse still we were stuck in traffic. We asked for directions every few feet it seemed. Ask a hundred people for directions and get a hundred different answers. Old people seemed to be the most knowledgeable and helpful. With the help of some of the older people we got on the right path.
We’ve set up camp for the night in the bush. This is my first night camping in Africa. Nothing like what I expected. We’ve got a little shower booth, kitchen area, dining area and fantastic food to boot! Not at all how I pictured it to be! Tomorrow we should cross the border and been just in time for our quickly expiring visa.
Dinner: Fried eggplant, Cabbage salad, sea bass grilled over onions and mashed potatoes.
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Big African Adventure- Day 1
By rsiminkas | August 12, 2008
We woke up very early this morning, the time change threw us off. We went to the US Embassy first thing. We walked around for a bit and couldn’t find it and finally ended up taking a taxi. It took us to a construction sight for a huge new compound they are building for the new site, that explains why we couldn’t find the old one. Ironically, when we spoke to the person at the embassy, he had actually heard about us over dinner. Small world.
We went straight over to the Gabonese embassy and were the first ones there. The consular officer there was a lovely woman, we ended up chatting with her for quite a while. She heard our whole story about our arrival in the Congo and we all had a good laugh about it. She was extremely helpful and was going to issue our visas all in the same day luckily.
Next mission was to purchase a phone card so that we can try to track down David and Peta. We couldn’t believe our luck, they were on the ferry from Kinshasa to Brazzaville just as we called and will arrive in Brazzaville in a few hours. We had run into the couple from the airport on the street and were invited to join them for dinner at the Hippo Camp tonight.
All of the people that we have met today have been fantastic, it is actually a shame that we only have 72 hours in the country. The people are really warm and friendly. Even just walking down the streets in Brazzaville we are greeted with smiles and “bonjour”. It looks like we will start our trip out to Gabon first thing in the morning.
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Our Warm Welcome to Central Africa
By rsiminkas | August 11, 2008
Hostage. Being held for money. Ransom.
Welcome to Congo. This is all perfectly acceptable here.
We arrived in the airport proudly presenting our passports with our lovely Congolese visas already in inside. We were immediately told to step aside and wait. They pulled all of the foreigners over. 5 foreigners, 5 chairs (one was free because one lucky man passed through quickly). We sat calmly and quietly keeping pleasant looks on our faces. We don’t want them to think that they are intimidating us. I should have brushed up on my French before we came because it has been an endless tirade. I tried giving one of the men food, in most countries this would have gotten me adopted. This prick just shrugs his shoulders, takes it and walks away. We spent hours waiting and waiting. Every man that we talk to seem to find a different problem with our visa and still offers no solution. The solution was obviously money, we just wanted them to bring it up and specify how much will buy our freedom.
The other woman being held up with us and Bobby were both giving me tips since I was the one dealing with the officials. The first suggestion was to try to share our food. Obviously didn’t work. Then it was decided that I was being too nice and that I should be more tough… tough yet respectful. I tried being tough, I even tried crying! That succeeded only in brining me a higher level official who found a new, more creative problem with our situation all together.
A couple had passed through in minutes on the 2nd flight that came in after ours, they had given them $50 USD for each passport and they didn’t even have any visas! They had already been in Congo so they knew what to expect. But then the immigration man is holding their passports with a wad of money sticking out of it and shows it to me saying, “look, no problems for them, they have all their papers in order”.
A nice man who does charter runs for the UN tried to help us by getting the documents that the immigration officials insisted we were missing. Once they got those documents the official said “no, we don’t want that, they need to PAY!” They wanted 50,000 francs total. That is nearly the price we already paid for the damn visas in the states. We weren’t allowed to leave until we paid. After 7 hours or so they finally named their price, in good time, we had run out of water.
Bobby goes off to change our dollars and the immigration ring leader walks up to me all smiles, I wanted to throw something I was so angry. He CANCELLED our one month visa and issued us a 72 HOUR visa to justify the new price that we had to pay them. I wasn’t even so upset about paying, I’m more worried about getting out of the country in 72 hours. We don’t know when David and Peta are arriving, we don’t know how the roads will be going into Gabon. I’m just worried how much more money we may need to pay to get back out! I just don’t want to give these crooks any more of our hard saved money!!
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Back to Arabic…sort of!
By rsiminkas | August 10, 2008
We are back in the Arab world! After a quick red-eye flight we find ourselves now in Morocco. Everything is a fascinating mix of French, Arabic, and Spanish. As if I wasn’t already confused with the 3 languages as it was, now here they all are jumbled into one. I have had a hard time keeping my French and Arabic straight but ironically it makes me sound quite local by switching it up. We’ve heard many people switch every 3rd word between the two languages. I ordered my tea saying “je voudrais thé ma nana”…and it worked very well!
We are both exhausted, the flight was too short to sleep well. We have twelve hours or so to kill but are glad we are in Casablanca. It has a good vibe to it. People are very nice and it has a much slower pace than anywhere in Egypt. There are so many different kinds of people here also. It is a mix of European, Arab, and African. We’ve seen some men wearing flip flops and shorts and others wearing gelabayyia robes. Seeing moms in hijab walking with their daughters uncovered is also common.
The airport in Casablanca conveniently has a train terminal in the basement that connects it to a main terminal from which you can hop on a train anywhere. We got into town easily and visited some of the sights. We also had the best schawarma outside of Damascus (ironically with a picture of Assad hanging so they must be Syrian!). Jet lag caught up with us pretty quickly so we returned to the airport to try to find a spot to camp. We luckily were permitted to enter the VIP lounge and got some couches to sleep on. Only a few more hours until we are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Jim Corbett National Park
By rsiminkas | June 2, 2008
After an exciting ride on the Indian Railways, we have finally arrived in Ramnagar! We left from the Old Delhi Terminal and it was pretty chaotic. When you enter any large Indian train station you will encounter what seems to be a sea of people lounging the floor waiting for their trains. More well to do families seem to have thought ahead and brought thin sarongs to spread out to slightly protect them from the filth of the floor. Others, such as us, just plopped down where ever.
We had arrived a bit early and our track was not yet announced and had some time to kill. At the New Delhi station, they had the tourist booking office that had comfortable chairs and fans to keep you comfortable while you wait for your train. We didn’t know of such a place at the Old Delhi terminal so we just dropped our bags where ever we could squeeze in. Luckily I had some playing cards with me to pass the time and many people were intrigued by our game and even the legless beggar took time to stop and watch on.
Once our track was announced and we located it, we discovered that they had two trains posted for the same track at the same time. Last minute, they switched our train across the platform and when the train arrived everyone started making a mad dash to try to find their assigned car. We had unfortunately been on the exact opposite end of the train and had to run all the way down dodging huge wooden cargo carts, people sleeping on the floor and other frantic passengers. We were relieved to find our bunks and we were very grateful to have anything at all since the train was so full.
We arrived in Ramnagar at 6 am and simply followed the stream of passengers to find our way to the center of town and hopefully the park’s reception office. When we got to the office, there was already a crowd of people trying to get their day pass tickets but they wouldn’t open the office for the muli-day visits until 8:30. Once they opened the window (although they were sitting there the entire time since 6 am) there was a dash once again for the window and it seemed to be every man for him self. We were lucky and got one of the last beds in the cabin that has electricity and dining hall. During our crowd surfing on the line, we met Cecile and Paul from France and Mirko from Germany. We all decided to pitch in for a safari car and driver to lower the costs. We were all people traveling for long periods so every rupee counts!
Finally after 5 hours of waiting in the office and haggling over the price for 3 days in the park with the drivers, we were on our way into the Jim Corbett National Park. It looks like it will be very enjoyable; we got a good price, good company and good weather! It is great to be out of Delhi!
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Choo Choo!
By rsiminkas | May 31, 2008
Today was a very laid back day. We woke up very late, it was nearly noon by the time we got to breakfast. We leisurely made our way over to the train terminal and popped into some shops along the way. Sure enough, as we got closer to the train station, people tried pointing us to the ticket office, which is actually the wrong office. I still don’t know what they actually do in this wrong office, maybe they sell fake tickets? Thankfully we already knew exactly where we needed to go to make our bookings.
The intimidating and ridiculous Indian Rail System in the end proved to be rather smooth. The wall of the office has an array of hand painted numbers which represent a certain train line and time. Our train to Ramnagar for the Tiger Park of course was nowhere to be seen on this wall. We simply just followed their requested procedure. First we filled out the forms which required our personal details and these mysterious train numbers which we are magically to know. We then take these forms to the man at the desk closest to the door. He then enters our desired travel dates and destinations in and thankfully was knowledgeable of the train numbers. He then writes the specific train number on each of our routes and we then take these forms to the furthest desks to another man. He then enters in the same information, double checks our routes, times, dates, and ages (apparently age is important and listed on our tickets) and finally prints our tickets. All in all it went smoothly and we successfully managed to get all the train tickets we need for our time in India.
We are looking forward to getting out to Ramnagar and the tiger park. So far, our experience has been more commercial and limited compared to Nepal where I think we were able to become better acquainted with the people and their way of life. We may not get the chance to interact with many people in the park but it will be nice to get out in nature and actually see the sky…maybe even a tiger or two!
Topics: India | No Comments »
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