Easter in Grand Bassam

I have a bit complicated relationship with Abidjan. I have been here quite many times with work. It’s the only place I’ve been harassed at night and mugged our of my money and a phone, in broad daylight on a Sunday in city centre. Sometimes I would say Abidjan doesn’t like me. In the end, […]

Bondoukou to Sorobango and beyond

The current finally, possibly, kicked in and so did my AC. It was pleasantly chilled at night and in the morning I didn’t wanna get up. But I had to. The bike to Sorobango. Then catching the bus to Abidjan. I lied down beyond 7am. Around 8am I started calling hotels in Abidjan in order […]

Good Friday in Bondoukou

I woke up with a slight headache, not sure why. Is it hangover – by I’d only had 3 small beers – or is it lack of sleep. It’s a bit too hot to sleep, there are already noises around the hotel compound and at 8:30 the power goes off and ventilator dies. I walked […]

Kong to Bondoukou, Ivorian geography in 17 hours

The story of the journey from Kong to Bondoukou begins as usual in Ivory Coast. While waiting for bus to Kong in Ferkéssedougou, aka Ferké, I asked one of the ticketmasters about getting to Bondoukou. I was considering perhaps it would be easier to get back to Ferké the same day from Kong and continue […]

Visa no. 11: Benin online

Republic of Benin sets a bar high when it comes to how visas should be. I did it online (possibly it’s cheaper in the embassies) at http://www.evisa.gouv.bj, paid 50EUR and the visa was in my inbox the moment the card was charged. OK, maybe three moments after that. It’s a single entry visa valid for […]

Korhogo to Kong: pas de monnaie

There is a phrase that I already learned to expect in Ivory Coast when buying something: il n y a pas de monnaie. There is no change. It seems so severe that women refuse to sell you things when there is no change and it keeps on happening. I took a moto to gare de […]

A Tuesday in Korhogo

I don’t know if it was the joy of AC – first on this trip! – or the previous day’s tiredness but I slept long. I managed to get out of the hotel at around 11am. I wanted to change the room to one without fan. It was a bit strange, first the caretaker said […]

Man to Korhogo, direct, in 17 hours

Why I even wanted to go to Korhogo. Not sure. There is the name which is unusual. I had a student in Abidjan, named Ferhana (another unusual name) who was somehow different from all the others female students, apart from also being beautiful – I guess you’d call it je ne sais quoi – and […]

I’m a Polish man in Man

As soon as I praised my hotel for 24hrs electricity and water the water stopped. I got a bucket in the morning and I had to keep asking for small bowl to somehow wash myself. Then on to putting the gauze and plaster on my scratched knee, which was in fact completely dry after the […]

Logoutuo and the border to Man: richer lands

Day started with me caring for my newly reopened wound. Hydrogen peroxide, iodine then some sterile gauze that I had from home and two pieces of plaster I also had from home were supposed to hold it together till I am on the other side off the border. Just before I even managed to wash […]