I returned to Togo from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on July 7. Well, really I flew from Abidjan to Accra in Ghana and then got right to the bus station to get on a very nice tro-tro to the Togo border. And thankfully, I did not get conned into giving any customs agents any money this time! I am really starting to figure this out...
Security at the Accra airport was really light - I can't remember the last time I didn't have to take my computer out of my bag through security check. Coming back through the Abidjan airport was quite different though; not only was my bag searched at security check, but at the boarding gate we all had to have our bags searched again - they pull everything out and shake containers and all that - and get patted down!
Day 1 in Cote d'Ivoire
Precious, who is based in Accra, and I got on our plane to Abidjan, which was delayed a few hours, and arrived in Abidjan around 8:30 pm. I seemed to attract a small Ivorian boy to play a game with me in the immigration line at the Abidjan airport - I can't tell if he was playing some kind of hero-villain game, charging me and saying "Caught you!", or putting a voodoo spell on me. We went to the hotel to meet our other two travellers, Shaloo (based in Benin) and Adam (Niger), after a long shouting match between myself and the taxi driver who was trying to insanely rip us off, turned off his meter, and then in the end was trying to explain to me that he was a dad and really needed the money (to which I responded that I was a mom too and didn't care), and finally I still let myself get horrendously (but a tiny bit less) ripped off.
We went to go get a late dinner, and following the advice of the hotel security guard of a place to go for “live music”, ended up at Saint-Germain which was really a discotheque with loud dance music and dim red lights. After a while, we kind of noticed that Precious and I were the only expat girls and that the club was filled with expat men and Ivorian women in very skimpy outfits, so we started to notice what kind of place it was…
CdI is the first country I’ve ever been to where I needed to carry my passport with me at all times; vehicles are frequently stopped on the road at night be policemen who want to check everyone’s Ids and maybe the trunk too.
In response to my last post, I finally opened up the Lonely Planet guide for CdI while waiting at the Accra airport to leave for Abidjan, and the chapter opens with a disclaimer that the LP authors didn’t even go to CdI at the time of writing because it was one of two countries (other than Somalia) that the British foreign office advised not to visit because it was too dangerous (this would have been in 2005 right after the civil war), so they had just relied on journalists and friends for travel info. Great! In summary, we realized that we needed to exercise extra caution than, say, in Ghana.
Day 2 (Happy 4th of July!)
We checked out of our first hotel, as it ended up being one of the nicest hotels in Abidjan and too expensive for us. In the daytime, walking around a little bit, we started to think that we might just be the only tourists in Abidjan… (by the lack of tourist attractions and the curious looks we got from Ivorians)
Abidjan is different from Lome and other cities I’ve seen in Ghana; after much investment before the civil war, it has skyscrapers, modern storefronts, and all nicely paved roads and freeways.
After lunch, we tried to find the museum of contemporary art which proved to be very difficult since our taxi driver and everybody he asked along the road didn’t know where it was (turns out the LP is too outdated and the museum doesn’t exist anymore). One person we spoke to on the roadside asked us what people do at an art museum.
Finally we gave up, but since we were in the vicinity of the US Embassy and couldn’t think of any other tourist attractions to see in the late afternoon, we decided to go see if we could join a 4th of July party – they must be having one? After much wait at the gates, an American lady came out and chatted with us for a bit about living in Abidjan, then decided to invite us in to their party (apparently these parties are not a free-for-all but invited guests only), but then realized it might be impossible since we had all of our bags with us from the hotel and looks like strangers can’t just tote big luggage into US embassies anymore these days. As we were about to leave though, she said that they would make an exception and let us in with our bags. Inside the massive US Embassy, they were having like a big backyard party with beach volleyball, tug of war, and lots of cookout style food, yay America! We met some nice people and made ourselves comfortable.
After checking into a new and cheap hotel, we went out to the very nice Havana Club for food and drinks, then to a reggae club for some good live music, a dance club, and finally one last nightclub for a few minutes before Precious and I decided to head back to the hotel and leave the boys to party.
Side note on Abidjan:
- And this really goes for my experiences in Ghana and Togo as well, but if you ask for help people are very friendly here. When our ride home had trouble finding our hotel on the way back from the nightclub, we asked a couple security guards who then called their friends to find out and when they figured out the directions, hopped into their truck to escort us to the hotel to make sure that we found it OK.
Shaloo quote: “They should play more classic films about Africa here, like ‘The Land Before Time’.”
Day 3
After a lazy morning, we went to lunch and then went to go check out the Cathedral of St. Paul, a worthwhile (dare I say, unfortunately, the only?) tourist attraction in Abidjan. It’s a very modern structure that is a big statue of St. Paul with his cape stretching back over the church.
With poor weather, we went and hung out over some drinks, and then decided to fulfill Shaloo’s wish to see a movie at the cinema; we checked out a couple cinemas and gave up when the manager refused to show English subtitles (Precious doesn’t speak French) because the Lebanese customers would get mad.
After dinner, we grabbed a drink at a reggae bar then called it a night.
Day 4
We went to lunch at the best patisserie/bakery in town, yay! To get a little outside of Abidjan, we decided to go to Grand Bassam just less than an hour away, which was the first colonial town in CdI and is right on the beach. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and rainy so it wasn’t the best beach day but we enjoyed some drinks and snacks by the beach under some shelter. We then checked out some pottery and craftwork before getting back on a bus to Abidjan.
Security at the Accra airport was really light - I can't remember the last time I didn't have to take my computer out of my bag through security check. Coming back through the Abidjan airport was quite different though; not only was my bag searched at security check, but at the boarding gate we all had to have our bags searched again - they pull everything out and shake containers and all that - and get patted down!
Day 1 in Cote d'Ivoire
Precious, who is based in Accra, and I got on our plane to Abidjan, which was delayed a few hours, and arrived in Abidjan around 8:30 pm. I seemed to attract a small Ivorian boy to play a game with me in the immigration line at the Abidjan airport - I can't tell if he was playing some kind of hero-villain game, charging me and saying "Caught you!", or putting a voodoo spell on me. We went to the hotel to meet our other two travellers, Shaloo (based in Benin) and Adam (Niger), after a long shouting match between myself and the taxi driver who was trying to insanely rip us off, turned off his meter, and then in the end was trying to explain to me that he was a dad and really needed the money (to which I responded that I was a mom too and didn't care), and finally I still let myself get horrendously (but a tiny bit less) ripped off.
We went to go get a late dinner, and following the advice of the hotel security guard of a place to go for “live music”, ended up at Saint-Germain which was really a discotheque with loud dance music and dim red lights. After a while, we kind of noticed that Precious and I were the only expat girls and that the club was filled with expat men and Ivorian women in very skimpy outfits, so we started to notice what kind of place it was…
CdI is the first country I’ve ever been to where I needed to carry my passport with me at all times; vehicles are frequently stopped on the road at night be policemen who want to check everyone’s Ids and maybe the trunk too.
In response to my last post, I finally opened up the Lonely Planet guide for CdI while waiting at the Accra airport to leave for Abidjan, and the chapter opens with a disclaimer that the LP authors didn’t even go to CdI at the time of writing because it was one of two countries (other than Somalia) that the British foreign office advised not to visit because it was too dangerous (this would have been in 2005 right after the civil war), so they had just relied on journalists and friends for travel info. Great! In summary, we realized that we needed to exercise extra caution than, say, in Ghana.
Day 2 (Happy 4th of July!)
We checked out of our first hotel, as it ended up being one of the nicest hotels in Abidjan and too expensive for us. In the daytime, walking around a little bit, we started to think that we might just be the only tourists in Abidjan… (by the lack of tourist attractions and the curious looks we got from Ivorians)
Abidjan is different from Lome and other cities I’ve seen in Ghana; after much investment before the civil war, it has skyscrapers, modern storefronts, and all nicely paved roads and freeways.
After lunch, we tried to find the museum of contemporary art which proved to be very difficult since our taxi driver and everybody he asked along the road didn’t know where it was (turns out the LP is too outdated and the museum doesn’t exist anymore). One person we spoke to on the roadside asked us what people do at an art museum.
Finally we gave up, but since we were in the vicinity of the US Embassy and couldn’t think of any other tourist attractions to see in the late afternoon, we decided to go see if we could join a 4th of July party – they must be having one? After much wait at the gates, an American lady came out and chatted with us for a bit about living in Abidjan, then decided to invite us in to their party (apparently these parties are not a free-for-all but invited guests only), but then realized it might be impossible since we had all of our bags with us from the hotel and looks like strangers can’t just tote big luggage into US embassies anymore these days. As we were about to leave though, she said that they would make an exception and let us in with our bags. Inside the massive US Embassy, they were having like a big backyard party with beach volleyball, tug of war, and lots of cookout style food, yay America! We met some nice people and made ourselves comfortable.After checking into a new and cheap hotel, we went out to the very nice Havana Club for food and drinks, then to a reggae club for some good live music, a dance club, and finally one last nightclub for a few minutes before Precious and I decided to head back to the hotel and leave the boys to party.
Side note on Abidjan:
- And this really goes for my experiences in Ghana and Togo as well, but if you ask for help people are very friendly here. When our ride home had trouble finding our hotel on the way back from the nightclub, we asked a couple security guards who then called their friends to find out and when they figured out the directions, hopped into their truck to escort us to the hotel to make sure that we found it OK.
Shaloo quote: “They should play more classic films about Africa here, like ‘The Land Before Time’.”
Day 3
After a lazy morning, we went to lunch and then went to go check out the Cathedral of St. Paul, a worthwhile (dare I say, unfortunately, the only?) tourist attraction in Abidjan. It’s a very modern structure that is a big statue of St. Paul with his cape stretching back over the church.
With poor weather, we went and hung out over some drinks, and then decided to fulfill Shaloo’s wish to see a movie at the cinema; we checked out a couple cinemas and gave up when the manager refused to show English subtitles (Precious doesn’t speak French) because the Lebanese customers would get mad.
After dinner, we grabbed a drink at a reggae bar then called it a night.
Day 4
We went to lunch at the best patisserie/bakery in town, yay! To get a little outside of Abidjan, we decided to go to Grand Bassam just less than an hour away, which was the first colonial town in CdI and is right on the beach. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and rainy so it wasn’t the best beach day but we enjoyed some drinks and snacks by the beach under some shelter. We then checked out some pottery and craftwork before getting back on a bus to Abidjan.
We went back to the cinema since the manager had said the day before that we could have a private showing of a movie in English while the cinema was usually closed that night. It was too good to be true though, and the manager backed out in the end. We did get some great Ivorian food for dinner though!
The next morning, we parted ways at the airport and Precious and I headed back to Accra. I’m glad I got to see a different city, and think it would definitely be worthwhile to return to CdI again in the future with hopefully better weather, more time to see the interior of the country, and a knowledgeable Ivorian guide.
Now back in Lome, I’ve gotten back to work and will actually be heading out for country #4 tomorrow – SENEGAL! Tom and I will be heading to Dakar to do some work there for the week, and I am looking forward to seeing Dakar and seeing what work is like in a new setting. Hopefully I will have a little time to explore the city while I am there.
:)
The next morning, we parted ways at the airport and Precious and I headed back to Accra. I’m glad I got to see a different city, and think it would definitely be worthwhile to return to CdI again in the future with hopefully better weather, more time to see the interior of the country, and a knowledgeable Ivorian guide.
Now back in Lome, I’ve gotten back to work and will actually be heading out for country #4 tomorrow – SENEGAL! Tom and I will be heading to Dakar to do some work there for the week, and I am looking forward to seeing Dakar and seeing what work is like in a new setting. Hopefully I will have a little time to explore the city while I am there.
:)
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