Libreville: 10.10.1999
We landed in Libreville on 9.10.99 around 7.30 pm. The flight was late, so the Meridien car was not there. We took a taxi. The Meridien was a relief after the Federal Palace in Lagos. Luckily there was a receptionist who spoke a little English. Otherwise, this place is quite quite French.There seems to be a sizable French population living here and lot of French people come here to spend a holiday.
It was a Saturday evening and we had gone to the hotel restaurant Olambo for dinner. The lady usher welcomed us, surveyed us and thought it fit to warn us: "It's all pork!". My colleague Srikanth is pure veg, so he faintly said: "No problem." . I also said, not so faintly: "NO PROBLEM!". If Federal Palace had been African, the cooking here was pure French. What a spread - from sausages (thin and fat) to ham to bacon to ribs to the standard salami stuff. There was a bit of cabbage which I took by mistake (rather stinky). I really freaked out on the non-veg. Srikanth had to stick to some salads.
There was a French band playing an accordion, sax and trombone in traditional shorts. There was a lot of dancing and people were shaking mugs of beer at the tables and shouting request numbers. There was REVELRY going on - it was as if it was a hep French town. We were, of course, as much out of place as a couple of Chinese in Muscat, but it was fun.
Today is a Sunday. We took a cab and asked him to show us around the town. He was quite non-plussed as to what to show and started off with: "This is the Tati building, this is a big grocery shop .....". We told him to move on to higher things, so he showed us the Radio Station, the Army Barracks, the President's house and so on. After an hour of this, he ran out of steam and started showing us roads. Before he got to petrol pumps, we cut our touring short and went back.
What is Libreville like? In short, it is like an overgrown Pondicherry! A clean sea-side city, with small streets, small old buildings, one or two market places. Very quiet and laid-back. It is as if they would have preferred to have remained a French tourist spot, had someone not to them to buck up and become a capital city!. Then they were forced to put a few high-rise buildings (not too high), a few embassies and airline offices and a couple of supermarkets at the ends of modest blind alleys.
For lunch we had gone looking for the only Indian restaurant in town, but they were closed for Sunday lunch. The Indian couple running it offered to make something for us but we declined. Apparently there are only three Indian families living in Libreville. The other two families eat here, I suppose.
So I had a French lunch again. Rice, chicken, pork chops, another unidentifiable meat. Followed by the most delicious black forest cake! We were trying to get some yogurt for Srikanth, which I'd found on the breakfast buffet. Very difficult to communicate - "Cup, white-white inside, milk product". The fellow brought a cup of milk. Srikanth went up to his room to order through room service using his French book.
Although all native residents here speak French, the white Frenchmen living here do still look down upon them a bit - the kaala aadmi mentality. There are a lot of Nigerians here, especially in trade and business.
Libreville: 12.10.1999
On 11/10, we finished our total work practically in half a day, the place is so small. We paid a visit to the Artisan Village here, which is very much inside the city, and I picked up a head made of sandstone.Our driver had said: "Leave the negotiating to me!", which meant he wanted us to buy at as high a price as possible and then take his cut. We negotiated by ourselves, but still must have got gypped.
On 12/10, we left Libreville for Abidjan, Ivory Coast. On the last day, we got into officialdom-related problems twice. We had kept our passports in safe custody in the hotel. But on a random road-check, the police refused to believe us. We had to fork out cfa 5000 (around $10) to keep him happy. The second instance was much more costly. While leaving Libreville, the immigration officer took us for body search. Seeing so many $100 notes, he could not resist putting one in his pocket coolly, saying: "OK friend?". Remonstration was of no avail - in very bad English he said there is no proof that I have brought them into the country. I had not expected a body search. For Abidjan, we'll have to think up good hiding places.
We reached Hotel Sofitel in Abidjan around 11.00 pm local time, which is 1 hour behind Libreville.
We landed in Libreville on 9.10.99 around 7.30 pm. The flight was late, so the Meridien car was not there. We took a taxi. The Meridien was a relief after the Federal Palace in Lagos. Luckily there was a receptionist who spoke a little English. Otherwise, this place is quite quite French.There seems to be a sizable French population living here and lot of French people come here to spend a holiday.
It was a Saturday evening and we had gone to the hotel restaurant Olambo for dinner. The lady usher welcomed us, surveyed us and thought it fit to warn us: "It's all pork!". My colleague Srikanth is pure veg, so he faintly said: "No problem." . I also said, not so faintly: "NO PROBLEM!". If Federal Palace had been African, the cooking here was pure French. What a spread - from sausages (thin and fat) to ham to bacon to ribs to the standard salami stuff. There was a bit of cabbage which I took by mistake (rather stinky). I really freaked out on the non-veg. Srikanth had to stick to some salads.
There was a French band playing an accordion, sax and trombone in traditional shorts. There was a lot of dancing and people were shaking mugs of beer at the tables and shouting request numbers. There was REVELRY going on - it was as if it was a hep French town. We were, of course, as much out of place as a couple of Chinese in Muscat, but it was fun.
Today is a Sunday. We took a cab and asked him to show us around the town. He was quite non-plussed as to what to show and started off with: "This is the Tati building, this is a big grocery shop .....". We told him to move on to higher things, so he showed us the Radio Station, the Army Barracks, the President's house and so on. After an hour of this, he ran out of steam and started showing us roads. Before he got to petrol pumps, we cut our touring short and went back.
What is Libreville like? In short, it is like an overgrown Pondicherry! A clean sea-side city, with small streets, small old buildings, one or two market places. Very quiet and laid-back. It is as if they would have preferred to have remained a French tourist spot, had someone not to them to buck up and become a capital city!. Then they were forced to put a few high-rise buildings (not too high), a few embassies and airline offices and a couple of supermarkets at the ends of modest blind alleys.
For lunch we had gone looking for the only Indian restaurant in town, but they were closed for Sunday lunch. The Indian couple running it offered to make something for us but we declined. Apparently there are only three Indian families living in Libreville. The other two families eat here, I suppose.
So I had a French lunch again. Rice, chicken, pork chops, another unidentifiable meat. Followed by the most delicious black forest cake! We were trying to get some yogurt for Srikanth, which I'd found on the breakfast buffet. Very difficult to communicate - "Cup, white-white inside, milk product". The fellow brought a cup of milk. Srikanth went up to his room to order through room service using his French book.
Although all native residents here speak French, the white Frenchmen living here do still look down upon them a bit - the kaala aadmi mentality. There are a lot of Nigerians here, especially in trade and business.
Libreville: 12.10.1999
On 11/10, we finished our total work practically in half a day, the place is so small. We paid a visit to the Artisan Village here, which is very much inside the city, and I picked up a head made of sandstone.Our driver had said: "Leave the negotiating to me!", which meant he wanted us to buy at as high a price as possible and then take his cut. We negotiated by ourselves, but still must have got gypped.
On 12/10, we left Libreville for Abidjan, Ivory Coast. On the last day, we got into officialdom-related problems twice. We had kept our passports in safe custody in the hotel. But on a random road-check, the police refused to believe us. We had to fork out cfa 5000 (around $10) to keep him happy. The second instance was much more costly. While leaving Libreville, the immigration officer took us for body search. Seeing so many $100 notes, he could not resist putting one in his pocket coolly, saying: "OK friend?". Remonstration was of no avail - in very bad English he said there is no proof that I have brought them into the country. I had not expected a body search. For Abidjan, we'll have to think up good hiding places.
We reached Hotel Sofitel in Abidjan around 11.00 pm local time, which is 1 hour behind Libreville.
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