C-ing things: Canada, Curry, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Camels, Chengis Khan and China!
Sep 15, 2015, 12:03 pm
#33
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Sep 15, 2015, 12:44 pm
#35
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Part 4 and maybe 5 and 6 to come tomorrow, inshallah, if Qatar inflight 787 internet can support it!
Last edited by ironmanjt; Sep 15, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Sep 15, 2015, 9:46 pm
#36
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
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Sep 16, 2015, 1:24 pm
#38
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 1,782
Maybe the couple didn't understand why someone would spend $50k on United as opposed to another airline 
I see there is discussion about Do&Co. We ate at the Albertina Museum in Vienna and the restaurant was run by Do&Co. I think it was the best meal we had there. Truly wonderful.
I see there is discussion about Do&Co. We ate at the Albertina Museum in Vienna and the restaurant was run by Do&Co. I think it was the best meal we had there. Truly wonderful.
Sep 17, 2015, 1:54 am
#39
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4. Exploring Douala
So, this is going to turn out to be a lot shorter than initially planned. Thanks to the Pullman being such luxurious accommodations, and thanks to Turkish being over an hour late, we didn't make it to bed until nearly 4am, but somehow managed to sleep until 10am...waking up to what looking to be very ominous clouds. We did manage to hurry up and get out the door to see how much we could explore before the skies opened up.
Headed out the hotel for a short walk, first stop being the Place de Gouvernement about 1km away. The skies were starting to look very ominous at this point, but managed to see the World War One monument, which had changed quite a bit in the three years since I'd been there. The statue that used to sit atop it was gone, but not sure why. Political reasons? Things just falling apart? Regardless, it had seen much better days.
The Palais de Justice, which had also seen much, much better days. I "littoral"ly could hardly take a pic of it it was so depressing! I was beginning to get the impression after the hotel and a few sites that all was not well in the state of Cameroon...
Another monument/obelisk on the square...but was unclear what it was...but it looked semi-photoworthy!
At this point, the rain started, and in five minutes it had become quite a downpour. We opted to bail on the last stop on the walking tour (the cathedral) and hail a cab back to the hotel. Managed to find one, and hit the hotel coffeeshop for something resembling breakfast. By resembling I mean a couple of double espressos each (which turned out to be $8 each...ouch!) and a few biscuits. Since that wasn't cutting it, and the rain had finally let up by this point, we headed to the poolside cafe for an early lunch. The pizza was surprisingly tasty, and the Castels were ice cold and adequate...
At this point it was less than three hours until our next flight, so packed up, checked out, and caught the hotel shuttle (which was there this time) to the airport to begin the real adventures...the Central African Republic!
Headed out the hotel for a short walk, first stop being the Place de Gouvernement about 1km away. The skies were starting to look very ominous at this point, but managed to see the World War One monument, which had changed quite a bit in the three years since I'd been there. The statue that used to sit atop it was gone, but not sure why. Political reasons? Things just falling apart? Regardless, it had seen much better days.
The Palais de Justice, which had also seen much, much better days. I "littoral"ly could hardly take a pic of it it was so depressing! I was beginning to get the impression after the hotel and a few sites that all was not well in the state of Cameroon...
Another monument/obelisk on the square...but was unclear what it was...but it looked semi-photoworthy!
At this point, the rain started, and in five minutes it had become quite a downpour. We opted to bail on the last stop on the walking tour (the cathedral) and hail a cab back to the hotel. Managed to find one, and hit the hotel coffeeshop for something resembling breakfast. By resembling I mean a couple of double espressos each (which turned out to be $8 each...ouch!) and a few biscuits. Since that wasn't cutting it, and the rain had finally let up by this point, we headed to the poolside cafe for an early lunch. The pizza was surprisingly tasty, and the Castels were ice cold and adequate...
At this point it was less than three hours until our next flight, so packed up, checked out, and caught the hotel shuttle (which was there this time) to the airport to begin the real adventures...the Central African Republic!
Sep 17, 2015, 2:16 pm
#40
Join Date: Dec 2009
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It never ceases to amaze me how you choose such interesting places to visit! I'd love to head off to some of these African countries, but I'm hard-pressed to find anyone to go with me. Subscribed!!
Sep 18, 2015, 8:25 am
#41
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5. Douala to Bangui, CAR on TAAG, Ledger Plaza Bangui Hotel
Headed to the airport, and check-in was surprisingly easy. We volunteered to check our bags rather than deal with what was sure to be a mess, and headed off to try and find security/immigration/lounge/gates. That wasn't easy, because it was down a makeshift corridor that wasn't marked. We did finally find it, no trouble at all with immigration, and soon were off to the luxury lounge. On the way, we passed this sign warning us about Ebola:
At least the lounge had AC, and the usual amusing variety of expats, and strange local beers, which predictably were awesome. I mean awful...
About 45 minutes before the flight we left the lounge and headed to the gate. There we found Jordan who had apparently survived the Ibis Douala. However, we were chastised by the gate agents for leaving the lounge, and they told us they would come get us when it was time to board. So, back to the lounge we went. About 15 minutes later they finally summoned us, and it was time to board.
TAAG Angola flight 527
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Bangui, Central African Republic (BGF)
Depart 14:20, Arrive 16:00, Flight Time: 1:40
Boeing 737-700, Registration D2-TBD, Manufactured 2006, Seat 1C
Interestingly, this was the same plane that Jordan and I had taken about 18 months prior from Sao Tome to Cape Verde. I guess TAAG doesn't have many 737s so it's not that interesting, but was still mildly amusing to me. The crew was their usual TAAG indifferent, but at least this time they didn't eat our meals before they could serve them to us.
Shrimps on a plane...no way. I pecked at the rest (and of course at all the cheese and wine), and had to beg for a wine refill. They apparently ran out after my refill, however, because they went into hiding and refused to give Ian one.
Landing was right on time, bus gate minus the bus, and we were directed to the medical quarantine tent:
Taking temperatures:
While waiting for medical check, we got an up close view of "In God We Trust Airlines"
Immigration was easy, no questions at all, and our bags came out in maybe 10-15 minutes. So far, CAR was seeming very anticlimactic, which was a good thing. Just like getting the visa in DC, it seemed like as long as they got the money they were of the attitude of "whatever you do you do, it's not our problem." I like this approach! It's not like CAR gets many clueless random tourists I'd expect!
As promised, our hotel the Ledger Plaza Bangui was waiting for us, and we were off in a nice chilly air-conditioned van to the hotel. This is where the drama was really to begin. The moment we entered the hotel, the skies opened up, and it was a majorly fierce thunder and lightning storm outside. The hotel lost power several times while we were checking in.
Jordan seemed to have a relatively easy time of it, but despite my printed confirmation, they couldn't get their minds around the idea of one room, two people, two beds. I get it...people who come to CAR and stay in the nicest hotel are all NGO workers and all want their own room. Well, that's not us, and that's not what we reserved, so we want what we reserved. First, they claimed no rooms available with two beds...which was apparently true at least for the first night.
Then, they claimed there was a 50% surcharge for two people in a room. I showed them my printed confirmation, but they could care less, they weren't going to budge. After nearly an hour negotiating (100% in French because their English was non-existent), we decided on two rooms for the first night and the second night they would give us a room with two beds, but at a 50% surcharge. Ugh. At least they did us the "favour" of giving my corporate rate to Ian as well. What a mess. There was also a price list at the desk, which indicted only about a 15,000 CFA surcharge for a "double" room. But that's on the "normal" rate. On the corporate rate (which was, in fairness, quite a bit less) they demanded 50%...which was well over 15,000 CFA...and was closer to 40 or 50,000!
So, we went up to the rooms to unpack, and oh, apparently the AC and the internet aren't working today. The internet has been out for days/weeks, and the AC doesn't run when the generator is on...which seems to be most of the time. My room the first night eventually cooled to 23C which was acceptable for sleeping, but I don't think Jordan's room got below 27 or Ian's room got below 29. Ugh. Felt bad for them, but at least they had fans?
We met downstairs for some beers and dinner to try and forget the heat and annoyance (TIA afterall) and eventually crashed so we could try and tour the next day. I say try, because despite asking several times, they were unable to locate the hotel driver to know for sure if he would do it. But, "don't worry, he sleeps in the hotel." Uh, great, so where is he?
Went to bed semi early, looked out my window in the morning, and saw the convoy of aid workers getting ready to leave the hotel for work:
Breakfast in the hotel was actually quite good, with eggs cooked to order, a great spread of pastries and breads, etc. It was actually really impressive considering where we were. All in all, the hotel definitely did a great job with food.
Going to skip around here a bit, and ignore our day in CAR for now. When we moved rooms the second day to our shared two bed room, at least we had a great view of what looked to be a quite nice pool:
Dinner both days was in the hotel cafe, which actually had a good mix of French bistro food along with some various international stuff like pasta/etc. I had a croque madame both days which was really quite tasty:
So, overall, taking into account you're in a developing country just emerging from a brutal and nasty war, the hotel really does quite good. Is it worth the price? Absolutely not given the lack of AC and internet, but the rooms were clean, the food was good, and the complex was quite safe. Overall, it's the place to stay in Bangui, but don't get your hopes up for luxury. There will be serious inconveniences, annoyances, and probably boredom if you travel alone, but hey, it's all part of the adventure! Next up...what we actually did in CAR!
At least the lounge had AC, and the usual amusing variety of expats, and strange local beers, which predictably were awesome. I mean awful...
About 45 minutes before the flight we left the lounge and headed to the gate. There we found Jordan who had apparently survived the Ibis Douala. However, we were chastised by the gate agents for leaving the lounge, and they told us they would come get us when it was time to board. So, back to the lounge we went. About 15 minutes later they finally summoned us, and it was time to board.
TAAG Angola flight 527
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Bangui, Central African Republic (BGF)
Depart 14:20, Arrive 16:00, Flight Time: 1:40
Boeing 737-700, Registration D2-TBD, Manufactured 2006, Seat 1C
Interestingly, this was the same plane that Jordan and I had taken about 18 months prior from Sao Tome to Cape Verde. I guess TAAG doesn't have many 737s so it's not that interesting, but was still mildly amusing to me. The crew was their usual TAAG indifferent, but at least this time they didn't eat our meals before they could serve them to us.
Shrimps on a plane...no way. I pecked at the rest (and of course at all the cheese and wine), and had to beg for a wine refill. They apparently ran out after my refill, however, because they went into hiding and refused to give Ian one.
Landing was right on time, bus gate minus the bus, and we were directed to the medical quarantine tent:
Taking temperatures:
While waiting for medical check, we got an up close view of "In God We Trust Airlines"
Immigration was easy, no questions at all, and our bags came out in maybe 10-15 minutes. So far, CAR was seeming very anticlimactic, which was a good thing. Just like getting the visa in DC, it seemed like as long as they got the money they were of the attitude of "whatever you do you do, it's not our problem." I like this approach! It's not like CAR gets many clueless random tourists I'd expect!
As promised, our hotel the Ledger Plaza Bangui was waiting for us, and we were off in a nice chilly air-conditioned van to the hotel. This is where the drama was really to begin. The moment we entered the hotel, the skies opened up, and it was a majorly fierce thunder and lightning storm outside. The hotel lost power several times while we were checking in.
Jordan seemed to have a relatively easy time of it, but despite my printed confirmation, they couldn't get their minds around the idea of one room, two people, two beds. I get it...people who come to CAR and stay in the nicest hotel are all NGO workers and all want their own room. Well, that's not us, and that's not what we reserved, so we want what we reserved. First, they claimed no rooms available with two beds...which was apparently true at least for the first night.
Then, they claimed there was a 50% surcharge for two people in a room. I showed them my printed confirmation, but they could care less, they weren't going to budge. After nearly an hour negotiating (100% in French because their English was non-existent), we decided on two rooms for the first night and the second night they would give us a room with two beds, but at a 50% surcharge. Ugh. At least they did us the "favour" of giving my corporate rate to Ian as well. What a mess. There was also a price list at the desk, which indicted only about a 15,000 CFA surcharge for a "double" room. But that's on the "normal" rate. On the corporate rate (which was, in fairness, quite a bit less) they demanded 50%...which was well over 15,000 CFA...and was closer to 40 or 50,000!
So, we went up to the rooms to unpack, and oh, apparently the AC and the internet aren't working today. The internet has been out for days/weeks, and the AC doesn't run when the generator is on...which seems to be most of the time. My room the first night eventually cooled to 23C which was acceptable for sleeping, but I don't think Jordan's room got below 27 or Ian's room got below 29. Ugh. Felt bad for them, but at least they had fans?
We met downstairs for some beers and dinner to try and forget the heat and annoyance (TIA afterall) and eventually crashed so we could try and tour the next day. I say try, because despite asking several times, they were unable to locate the hotel driver to know for sure if he would do it. But, "don't worry, he sleeps in the hotel." Uh, great, so where is he?
Went to bed semi early, looked out my window in the morning, and saw the convoy of aid workers getting ready to leave the hotel for work:
Breakfast in the hotel was actually quite good, with eggs cooked to order, a great spread of pastries and breads, etc. It was actually really impressive considering where we were. All in all, the hotel definitely did a great job with food.
Going to skip around here a bit, and ignore our day in CAR for now. When we moved rooms the second day to our shared two bed room, at least we had a great view of what looked to be a quite nice pool:
Dinner both days was in the hotel cafe, which actually had a good mix of French bistro food along with some various international stuff like pasta/etc. I had a croque madame both days which was really quite tasty:
So, overall, taking into account you're in a developing country just emerging from a brutal and nasty war, the hotel really does quite good. Is it worth the price? Absolutely not given the lack of AC and internet, but the rooms were clean, the food was good, and the complex was quite safe. Overall, it's the place to stay in Bangui, but don't get your hopes up for luxury. There will be serious inconveniences, annoyances, and probably boredom if you travel alone, but hey, it's all part of the adventure! Next up...what we actually did in CAR!
Sep 20, 2015, 9:27 pm
#45
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6. Exploring Bangui and the CAR
We were up early the next morning, and met up for breakfast. I went to the front desk to check on the status of our driver for the day, and they still hadn't heard anything...but promised to let us know. No clue why it was so difficult! Went back 30 minutes later and it was confirmed. The price was lower than we expected, so it turned out to be all good in the end.
Unfortunately our driver spoke no English, so I got to chat with him and play translator. I felt semi-bad for Ian and Jordan, but he was a good driver so it worked out. He was happy to share his version of the recent troubles CAR has been going through, and his insights into how things are now. The one word he kept using over and over to describe the current situation was "calm."
Turns out the reason for the delay is the hotel has one driver they use, and he was sleeping/unavailable when we originally made the request. When they finally got in touch with him, he was happy to take us and he decided the price he would charge. We were headed to the Chutes de Boali waterfalls, about a two hour drive out of town. The roads turned out to be pretty good for the most part, and I'd guess it was a roughly 120-150km drive each way through pretty typical African countryside with wide open spaces:
After about two hours of driving, we got to the turnoff point to the falls, where the road was gravel and quite a bit rougher:
Headed to the waterfalls:
When we got to the falls, we were swarmed with local kids insisting on playing guide. There was no way we were getting rid of them, and they only wanted a few dollars, so we decided to play along. It was worth it in the end because they were happy to show us around. First stop on the overlook, the falls were much bigger than I had expected!
Our driver turned out to be a pretty good photographer too!
Wide angle view of the falls:
The kids asked who wanted to go down to the base of the falls, and Ian and Jordan decided to go. I decided that with the semi-recent shoulder surgery it was better that I passed on it, and in the end I think that was a good call. I don't think Jordan went all the way down, but Ian did:
Unfortunately somewhere near the bottom he slipped pretty badly and banged his jaw on a rock. Fortunately nothing cut or broken, but he was definitely pretty sore for the next few days!
Our driver taking a selfie at the falls:
After that, the kids took us to the top of the falls, maybe 100 meters .from where they plunged down below. Of course there was a bridge across the river, which given how it looked I decided to skip again. Ian was a bit braver:
...as was Jordan, with the kids making sure he was safe:
After the bridge we headed to the final viewing platform at the top of the falls. There were a few UN types hanging around there, and they'd brought their own personal bodyguards to make sure they were safe. I still don't know if this is just typical UN overcautious, or if the situation was really that volatile that things could have gone south at the drop of a hat. Either way, at no point at all did I feel the least bit unsafe:
After the falls, our driver asked if we would like to see the small city of Boali. Absolutely! He took us to the house of the local pastor, saying we would be safe with the pastor walking us through the town on a Sunday...nobody would mess with the pastor!
We set off on the walk, and everyone we passed was smiling and waving to us, and greeting the pastor. It was a super cool experience. A little girl with her mother, playing in the wreckage of a burned out car:
Street shot of the town of Boali:
The walk was super interesting, and the pastor was happy to share his views on things. Seems the Seleka rebels had come to Boali because of the hydroelectric plant there, and they wanted to cut power to the capital. People resisted him, but he said they brutally killed hundreds of townspeople. You wouldn't know it from the friendliness we saw, but apparently Boali had seriously suffered as recently as just six months ago.
I wanted to keep walking and talking to him more, but the sun was also super strong and we were getting pretty hot, so it was time for the long drive back. On the way, we passed a group of women in very colourful outfits just walking down the road:
We also saw several men transporting wood on carts like this:
Very overloaded car...this guy didn't seem happy to have his photo taken:
We made it back to the hotel late afternoon, and grabbed a snack, hanging out for the rest of the day. We considered wandering the city, but given we didn't really have the lay of the land and darkness was just over an hour away decided it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. It was time to fly out early the next morning and continue the adventure!
Unfortunately our driver spoke no English, so I got to chat with him and play translator. I felt semi-bad for Ian and Jordan, but he was a good driver so it worked out. He was happy to share his version of the recent troubles CAR has been going through, and his insights into how things are now. The one word he kept using over and over to describe the current situation was "calm."
Turns out the reason for the delay is the hotel has one driver they use, and he was sleeping/unavailable when we originally made the request. When they finally got in touch with him, he was happy to take us and he decided the price he would charge. We were headed to the Chutes de Boali waterfalls, about a two hour drive out of town. The roads turned out to be pretty good for the most part, and I'd guess it was a roughly 120-150km drive each way through pretty typical African countryside with wide open spaces:
After about two hours of driving, we got to the turnoff point to the falls, where the road was gravel and quite a bit rougher:
Headed to the waterfalls:
When we got to the falls, we were swarmed with local kids insisting on playing guide. There was no way we were getting rid of them, and they only wanted a few dollars, so we decided to play along. It was worth it in the end because they were happy to show us around. First stop on the overlook, the falls were much bigger than I had expected!
Our driver turned out to be a pretty good photographer too!
Wide angle view of the falls:
The kids asked who wanted to go down to the base of the falls, and Ian and Jordan decided to go. I decided that with the semi-recent shoulder surgery it was better that I passed on it, and in the end I think that was a good call. I don't think Jordan went all the way down, but Ian did:
Unfortunately somewhere near the bottom he slipped pretty badly and banged his jaw on a rock. Fortunately nothing cut or broken, but he was definitely pretty sore for the next few days!
Our driver taking a selfie at the falls:
After that, the kids took us to the top of the falls, maybe 100 meters .from where they plunged down below. Of course there was a bridge across the river, which given how it looked I decided to skip again. Ian was a bit braver:
...as was Jordan, with the kids making sure he was safe:
After the bridge we headed to the final viewing platform at the top of the falls. There were a few UN types hanging around there, and they'd brought their own personal bodyguards to make sure they were safe. I still don't know if this is just typical UN overcautious, or if the situation was really that volatile that things could have gone south at the drop of a hat. Either way, at no point at all did I feel the least bit unsafe:
After the falls, our driver asked if we would like to see the small city of Boali. Absolutely! He took us to the house of the local pastor, saying we would be safe with the pastor walking us through the town on a Sunday...nobody would mess with the pastor!
We set off on the walk, and everyone we passed was smiling and waving to us, and greeting the pastor. It was a super cool experience. A little girl with her mother, playing in the wreckage of a burned out car:
Street shot of the town of Boali:
The walk was super interesting, and the pastor was happy to share his views on things. Seems the Seleka rebels had come to Boali because of the hydroelectric plant there, and they wanted to cut power to the capital. People resisted him, but he said they brutally killed hundreds of townspeople. You wouldn't know it from the friendliness we saw, but apparently Boali had seriously suffered as recently as just six months ago.
I wanted to keep walking and talking to him more, but the sun was also super strong and we were getting pretty hot, so it was time for the long drive back. On the way, we passed a group of women in very colourful outfits just walking down the road:
We also saw several men transporting wood on carts like this:
Very overloaded car...this guy didn't seem happy to have his photo taken:
We made it back to the hotel late afternoon, and grabbed a snack, hanging out for the rest of the day. We considered wandering the city, but given we didn't really have the lay of the land and darkness was just over an hour away decided it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. It was time to fly out early the next morning and continue the adventure!