Writing from Freetown in Sierra Leone, where I hope to
finish my assignment today and fly off tomorrow. Got here via Conakry
(Republic of Guinea, not to be confused with Guinea Bissau or Equatorial
Guinea) after waiting four hours at Paris airport (saw an amusing sight of a
lady holding her small walking baby by some kind of a leash, which I'm told is quite common these days because of the risk of child thefts!). Also saw in
Duty Free some digital cameras for about Euro 130 and a Sony handycam (old
model) for Euro 350 (1 Euro = Rs. 55 approx.), but these things are at least
20% cheaper in Bangkok.
Conakry, the capital city of the Republic of Guinea, is an island. It took us two hours to reach hotel from airport because of bad roads & traffic jams. The hotel was small but OK - it was on the beach (though visiting the beach is not advisable due to it being dirty and also not very safe), so I could see the sea on three sides from the snack bar on the top (4th) floor. It was the start of the rainy season there, and it was raining in the morning (since 2.30 my colleague told me). My colleagues left by road to another city N'zerekore where the Country Office is located (because a flight of the only airline here crashed last Dec., the office here advised against taking the flight) - poor men, they'll take 1.5 days reaching there!
The flight from Conakry to Freetown (capital of Sierra Leone) was of only half-hour in a small turboprop (probably a Russian AN-12). It mostly flew over the Atlantic, to land at Lungi (yeah, even the pronunciation is like the cloth worn in India) airport at Freetown. The airport is on a small island, so I had then to take a 10-minute helicopter ride to reach the mainland (even the term 'mainland' is relative - actually even this is a small island, but connected to the mainland by a bridge). Theye put me up in a place called Family Kingdom (near the UN peacekeeping forces headquarters at Mammy Yoke, which used to be a hotel earlier), which seems like some sort of a resort with a children's amusement park and zoo, and I can see some birds (partridge like) and animals scurrying around the complex. The Kingdom is located right across the road from the beach. The beach seems inviting, with sloshing waters and good sands. I don't know about any security concerns - probably there are none as I could see a number of Westerners lounging on the beach and the small seaside restaurants with their vehicles nearby. Had a walk on the beach Sunday mid-morning
Freetown is a hilly place (like Kandy in Sri Lanka) but along the coast. Rains have started here, though it's not raining continuosly. The place is full of Westerners - mostly belonging to UN peacekeeping forces but also other UN relief agencies. Sierra Leone was troubled by a civil war for most of 1990s, though now it's peaceful & most UN peacekeepers are scheduled to leave shortly. The civil war seems to have affected everything here (even our organisation here has a trauma relief program) - I can see broken houses practically all over the town. While coming back after lunch at the city centre (coastal area), I stopped at an Indian shop called Merani Stores to buy water - the particular street seemed full of Indian (specifically Gujarati/Sindhi) owned businesses like Choithram Supermarket, though I couldn't see any Indian restaurants. Food here is better than Guinea, as it's an English-speaking country & not French. I ordered some chicken curry with rice at the restaurant - it was OK though the curry was very thick (with cornflour?) with all kinds of vegetable pieces floating in it.
Visited Port Loko on Tuesday. The name means 'port of local people'. The route was beautiful, a fine road for most part winding across lush green grasslands/forests (with no wild beasts, as our driver told us!) and low mountains. Sierra Leone is well-endowed by nature, with mountains and beaches side by side (like at Freetown), and has great tourism potential if only the peace would hold, which it seems to be holding. All the best.
Conakry, the capital city of the Republic of Guinea, is an island. It took us two hours to reach hotel from airport because of bad roads & traffic jams. The hotel was small but OK - it was on the beach (though visiting the beach is not advisable due to it being dirty and also not very safe), so I could see the sea on three sides from the snack bar on the top (4th) floor. It was the start of the rainy season there, and it was raining in the morning (since 2.30 my colleague told me). My colleagues left by road to another city N'zerekore where the Country Office is located (because a flight of the only airline here crashed last Dec., the office here advised against taking the flight) - poor men, they'll take 1.5 days reaching there!
The flight from Conakry to Freetown (capital of Sierra Leone) was of only half-hour in a small turboprop (probably a Russian AN-12). It mostly flew over the Atlantic, to land at Lungi (yeah, even the pronunciation is like the cloth worn in India) airport at Freetown. The airport is on a small island, so I had then to take a 10-minute helicopter ride to reach the mainland (even the term 'mainland' is relative - actually even this is a small island, but connected to the mainland by a bridge). Theye put me up in a place called Family Kingdom (near the UN peacekeeping forces headquarters at Mammy Yoke, which used to be a hotel earlier), which seems like some sort of a resort with a children's amusement park and zoo, and I can see some birds (partridge like) and animals scurrying around the complex. The Kingdom is located right across the road from the beach. The beach seems inviting, with sloshing waters and good sands. I don't know about any security concerns - probably there are none as I could see a number of Westerners lounging on the beach and the small seaside restaurants with their vehicles nearby. Had a walk on the beach Sunday mid-morning
Freetown is a hilly place (like Kandy in Sri Lanka) but along the coast. Rains have started here, though it's not raining continuosly. The place is full of Westerners - mostly belonging to UN peacekeeping forces but also other UN relief agencies. Sierra Leone was troubled by a civil war for most of 1990s, though now it's peaceful & most UN peacekeepers are scheduled to leave shortly. The civil war seems to have affected everything here (even our organisation here has a trauma relief program) - I can see broken houses practically all over the town. While coming back after lunch at the city centre (coastal area), I stopped at an Indian shop called Merani Stores to buy water - the particular street seemed full of Indian (specifically Gujarati/Sindhi) owned businesses like Choithram Supermarket, though I couldn't see any Indian restaurants. Food here is better than Guinea, as it's an English-speaking country & not French. I ordered some chicken curry with rice at the restaurant - it was OK though the curry was very thick (with cornflour?) with all kinds of vegetable pieces floating in it.
Visited Port Loko on Tuesday. The name means 'port of local people'. The route was beautiful, a fine road for most part winding across lush green grasslands/forests (with no wild beasts, as our driver told us!) and low mountains. Sierra Leone is well-endowed by nature, with mountains and beaches side by side (like at Freetown), and has great tourism potential if only the peace would hold, which it seems to be holding. All the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment