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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Apr 14, 2007 02:00 PM Fajara - time to relax
Sunday was for relaxing. I went to the beach, like the majority of the travellers, who come to The Gambia. I was on that beach many times before. Some of my friends were working there. But this time, I went to a completely different spot. It was Leybato Bar. It was perfect. Their adjacent hotel was reasonably priced and directly on the beach. Their hammocks made perfect sense and the shaded tables with benches and comfortable chairs were doing all the tricks. Deckchairs on the beach were also provided and the restaurant served decent food, although not the cheapest. The bar was also great. It was indeed a great place to hang out and party at night.
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Apr 13, 2007 02:00 PM Serekunda - getting the visas
Since I needed to obtain visas for both Senegal (to transit) and Guinea Bissau, and both processes in Europe were designed to be cumbersome, I chose to get them in The Gambia. At least originally.
First, the Senegalese visa. The embassy in London takes some perverse pleasure of making the process as hard as possible. Not only do they require a return ticket but also a confirmed reservation for one’s accommodation! It is strikes me as a very silly attitude. The government ought to encourage visitors from wealthier states to come, visit and bring a lot of dollars and euros with them, so they would contribute to the lucrative tourism industry and support the locals. The behaviour of the embassy does not make any sense to me at all.
My previous experience with Senegalese visa application was so bitter that I seriously was not looking forward to go through the process ever again. It was nothing like the pleasure of obtaining a visa from The Gambian High Commission a few streets away - everything done in twenty minutes, friendly chat with the Commissioner or his First Secretary and no questions asked!
Guinea Bissau had no official representation in the United Kingdom and I could not possibly be bothered (bovvered) travelling or sending my passport to Lisbon or Paris.
I read in guidebooks that both visas could be obtained completely hassle-free from the countries’ embassies in Banjul. So, my cunning plan was to obtain them as soon as possible after landing in The Gambia. I printed plenty of my passport-size photographs and copied my passport several times.
However, I did not want to waste too much time on official business in Africa (that is never good!), so I investigated a little more, hoping to find alternative options. I brought myself together and called the Senegalese embassy. They again claimed that they needed to see my return ticket, booked package tour, booked accommodation, etc. I explained that I just needed a transit visa and that I was not going to stay overnight in Senegal. Then, they said that they would like to see what arrangements I was making regarding my overland transport and they did demand to see a hotel booking in Guinea Bissau.
How ridiculous was that?!. I thought I was going to visit them anyway but insist that they needed to be more reasonable. Since I was staying at my friends’ in both The Gambia and Guinea Bissau (Although it was a whitelie for the Guinea Bissau bit - it did not have to be, as I am sure Ernest would fix accommodation for us if I asked.), and was going to use public transport, I could not produce any evidence. Nothing, but my return ticket to The Gambia. As much as I hated it, if I was able to obtain a visa in London, I would save two days of waiting in Banjul. It was worth trying, I thought.
I also discovered that somewhere in Kent, south-eastern England, there was a lady Honorary Consul to Guinea Bissau. I called her to check if she was able to issue a visa for me. I could not get through to her office or to her mobile phone. The office phone just kept ringing with no answer and the mobile was constantly diverting to her voicemail.
I went to the Senegalese embassy on 3 April only to find it closed for a week! I knew very well that the consular staff were allergic to working, but closing a diplomatic mission for a week was unacceptable, I thought. There was no information on the website that the embassy was closing and I wasted a few hours to make this trip inside western London. A sheet of paper taped on the embassy door with a message stated that the offices would re-open on the 10 April. It would still give me a window of opportunity to get a visa (it normally takes two days) before my departure, but I was not sure whether I should bother at all.
Well, I called a week later and was told that for timing it should be fine. Yet, when I went there, the visa issuing personnel was on holiday, and I could not speak to anyone competent. The receptionist claimed that I needed a proof of a hotel reservation in Senegal!! It clearly made no difference to her that I did not want to stay overnight in Casamance. She insisted that I had to stay a night or two in Senegal, otherwise I was not getting a transit visa! I had to come back the next day and collect my passport.
This only proved that I was right at the beginning to make plans for lodge both visa applications while already in The Gambia at the embassies there.
And in The Gambia, on the day I arrived I rushed to the Senegalese embassy, as, according to a guidebook (which should really remain nameless, since they make ever more errors), it should be open. Well, it was just about to close when I got there, but the visa section was only open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
With the Guinea Bissau embassy, the situation was almost exactly the same. The guidebook said it was open on Saturdays, but it was a lie again. And again, I could do nothing until Monday. The guidebook made a very silly mistake by mistranslating the notice on the door.
The note said that the embassy was open on Segunda Feira (Monday) - Quinta Feira (Thursday) from 08:30 - 16:00 and Seixta Feira (Friday) 08:30 - 13:30. A mistake easily made since Friday in Portuguese is “the sixth” day! This error cost me a few hundred Gambian dalasis of a trip to the embassy on Saturday morning!
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Apr 12, 2007 02:00 PM Banjul - I'm in The Gambia again
This time I came to The Gambia not just to visit my friends, but to set up an escapade to Casamance and Guinea-Bissau. One of my friends, Ernest, who was born in Guinea-Bissau, was trying to help me and he did hope that we could go and visit his family there.
I came to the decision to visit Guinea Bissau. I happened whilst in The Gambia in December 2006. My friend, Ernest, who is now half Gambian half Guinean (the same one, whose uncle was killed by rebels) and it was him who convinced me that I should go. I bought my tickets to The Gambia and agreed with Ernest that he would take me to Guinea Bissau. The plan was to visit his family near the Senegalese border and then venture a little more inside the country.
Given rather the questionable safety record, I realised that this might be tricky. Yet, having an escort, and counting on Ernest to bring some other people along, I was hoping that the trip was going to be safe. Well, he normally had been taking a colleague of his whenever we had been going out somewhere. Even if he had just been taking me back to the airport.
I was also nagging a colleague from the office, who, like Ernest, is half Gambian and half Guinean (in the same combination, father being from Guinea), to come along. The larger the party, the merrier, of course.
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Mar 12, 2007 07:00 PM Los Angeles - only for lunch and sunset at Venice Beach
we selected a Southwest Airlines flight not too early in the morning. So we did not have to rush. But at the same time it did not give us much time in Los Angeles to explore. We actually took a taxi to take us to Hollywood by the observatory, but there was a massive fire in the area and we were prohibited to go up the hill by the police and fire brigade.
So we descended to Venice. There were a few nice places to eat there and the sunset was spectacular. It was a good day despite the misshap with the flights and the fires. The beach was great and my friends saw Los Angeles as well. They always wanted to go there.
By the way, the Southwest Airlines, the pioneers in low fares flights, impressed me. They had allocated seats and they served complimentary food on board. In Europe this is unthinkable.
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Mar 11, 2007 07:00 PM Las Vegas - an extra night
The day started slow. We slept in a little. Then we did the last minute shopping and checked out. It was strange a bit that the room keys stopped working. We had them reactivated so we could grab the luggage, return the car and check in. We moved with a contingency to have about an hour after check-in onto the flight. But we missed it. No-one told us that there was daylight saving time change over pushing the clock forward by one hour. Virgin Holidays never told us and there was nothing in the paperwork, Virgin Atlantic never contacted us or left a message about the change. The hotel kept it quiet, too - and nosurprise the keys stopped working as we were checking out almost an hour late!
It was a predicament. Next flight was in two days and it was full. One of the options was to fly to Los Angeles and catch a different flight to Lindon from there but all flights this evening were full. We had to stay an extra night. Luckily I had my laptop with me. We connected to a wifi at the airport, found a room at the same Excalibur Hotel & Casino and booked a flight to Los Angeles from where we secured a flight to Heathrow with Virgin. They swapped the tickets from LASLGW to LAXLHR.
We rewarded ourselves we extra slot machine games and a lovely dinner at the Luxor again.
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Mar 10, 2007 07:00 PM Hover Dam - still standing
After a long day of gambling, browsing the shops, cafes, and restaurants - also by using the new massive public transport rail system, the time came to visit the Hoover Dam. It was funny. The public announcement system kept giving all the interesting facts about Las Vegas, as us the population doubles every ten years, which meant that by certain year in the future, Las Vegas will be home to a trillion of people.
We kept it a little too late for the trip to the Dam. Actually I forgot how far it was. The traffic was bad and the interstate motorway is still in the making. The sun set quickly and it was a little too dark. I mean it was atmospheric well enough, but it was hard to capture anything on the film or on the pictures.
That night was the last night in Las Vegas, so there was time to go to the Luxor for some classy steak dinner. It was funny. The waiters took a mickey with their over-friendliness but the steak was superb and the wine divine.
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Mar 09, 2007 07:00 PM Las Vegas - shopping spree
Las Vegas changed dramatically since 1997. The city transformed itself into a shopper's paradise. The shopping malls and gallerias built to resemble Ancient Rome or Renaissance Venice with hundreds and hundreds of shops, boutiques, cafes and restaurants, are now buzzing with people who browse, make choices, swipe their credit cards.
Unluckily for me there were three of my favourite shops in Las Vegas and two had discount sales. I ended up buying 12 shirts! Quality shirts!!
Last time I was in Vegas, there was nothing to do there. There were no day restaurants or cafes to kill time, hangout and relax over a giant cappuccino or ice-cream sundae. It was only just night-time place with all night gambling and getting married. During the day, the city was asleep and empty. Tacky and plastic-fantastic. Now, it is more classy, if a little artificial, but hey, it is a city in the middle of a desert!
The day of shopping was concluded with a rather good Celine Dion concert. In the sixth row! Two hundred dancers, myriad of songs, decorations and countless costume changes, it was a night to remember.
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Mar 08, 2007 07:00 PM Bryce Canyon - red rocks capped with snow
I convinced my friends that we go to see Bryce Canyon. This was to make sure that they see something apart from the hazardous Las Vegas.
We set out early, as it was a long drive, and we did want to return to Las Vegas for the raunchy show at the New York New York. We should have not bought those tickets, as this has unnecessarily kept constraining us with a specific timetable.
The road went through Zion National Park, which is one the USA's best parks for hiking. There is a great canyon there in Zion, but one has to be very careful as flashfloods kills tourists every year. We did not stop in Zion for too long. We did stop to admire the scenery a little. I almost forgot (after a decade of my last visit) how colourful the park was and how great some of the rocks and mountains looked.
At the Bruce Canyon, the temperature dropped dramatically. We came prepared as I checked the weather forecast before we left London, but I did not expect to find so much snow there. Anyway, the canyon looked fantastic and it was a shame that we could not stay there longer. We did not go inside the canyon for some trekking, but managed to do the entire route to the very last viewpoint. Something I did not do ten year ago, but then in 1997 I went inside the canyon, which was an unforgettable experience.
The park was also closing sooner in the winter, due to the cold and shorter days. Fortunately, it was enough to stop at the view points for a few minutes and admire the views. The air was clear, the rocks were crispy red and the snow on top made a striking contrast. What a day. We were joking a lot and rolling a short film, which required vocal editing before it could be shown to kids....
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Mar 07, 2007 07:00 PM Las Vegas - the Excalibur & New York New York
I always love travelling west - the time difference works favourably. Although I took off at 10:45 am, I still arrived in Las Vegas at 1:30 pm, despite the ten hours spent on flight. It means that by sitting on the airplane time is not totally lost.
I came to Las Vegas with my friends. It was my second time in the capital of Gambling and Speed-Wedding. Last time I was in the city it was in 1997 and the place was half the size. I bought an holiday package with Virgin Holidays, which worked out rather reasonable. Virgin Atlantic is a rather good airline and they booked us into the Excalibur Hotel, between the Luxor and New York New York.
The hotel was alright and their casino was fine, but their restaurants were rather good. Particularly the steak house.
Anyway, the afternoon, which was short (the sun was setting at about 6:30pm), flew quickly with all the formalities at the airport, car rental company and checking-in. Anyway, that evening was spent on a quick look at the Excalibur Casino and a quick stroll along the Strip, and a night visit to the New York New York. I liked the latter. It was built up like an older version of New York City. At the end of the night, tickets for a sensual show for the next night were bought.
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Feb 24, 2007 07:00 PM Cape Town - Victoria Waterfront
I made an appointment with one of the guards at the backpackers so he could take me to the top of the Table Mountain. I waited and waited and he did not come.
Fortunately, I made the appointment at the Victoria Waterfront, which was gull of action. Women in traditional dress were singing, people were dancing and I chilled at one of the many bars. Beer was cold and the sun was adding the magical colour to my skin and hair. One of the bars with a view over the Table Mountain served hefe weizen, which made my day.
I browsed through the shops, and some of the African masks I saw there were brilliant and I could picture them on my walls, but I didn't want to drag them with me and I could not really justify the expense. So I kept sipping drinks and thinking how lucky I was to soak the sun in February.
And I went for a very nice lunch. I had an ostrich steak (lovey, juicy, lean and tender) and washed it down with marvelous red wine (shiraz of course). It was sooooo good. Then, I went back to town to have some more look around. Actually, although I planned to, I never got to see the Parliament building and I knew that I almost passed by it a few times.
I did not worry. I knew I was going to be back in Cape Town again. Then, I would see more. I would book a trip to see the prison island, and perhaps even tour some of the vineyards...
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