Resort Time in Gambia

We marched out the front gate of the hotel and checked out our little slice of Serrekunda, Gambia.

Predictably we spent the first 10-20 minutes of our walk shooing away the taxi guys and assorted salesmen. Gambia has its own special type of huckster that has its very own name: bumster. These guys are amusing because they are slick and don’t really even have anything to sell. Usually they wanted us to come to some drum show on the beach where we could sample the local “Bob Marley”. Raincheck thanks.

We happened upon this tiny little Joy’s Restaurant after a good stroll. When we asked for a menu she replied there was no use for one because she only made one thing. Ok, two of those then. Soon enough we had two hot plates of benachin, a spicy rice based concoction with bits of dried fish mixed in and halves of a carrot and pepper on top. It was pretty solid and real cheap. A plate and a Fanta cost like $2.50. The lady was super sweet and even initially refused the small tip we offered. It was nice to be reminded that normal people live in these countries too.

Sometimes its nice to just find a sunny spot to watch the goats go by.

We got some groceries and then headed back to base.

My friends and family are lucky that Christmas has already passed, because their stockings would be full of Crust toothpaste...

...and cans of Heinz oxtail soup.

This trip is definitely not like my recent Ireland trip. There’s not nearly as much to “see” and the poor road quality means short trips often take forever anyway. It’s not a big deal though as long as I keep my expectations nice and low.

The hotel is nice enough but the low internet quality is driving me nuts. It’s nonexistent in the rooms. Only the bar areas have it where of course as soon as you sit down the staff hounds you to order something. A whole hotel full of people dying of internet starvation pile into this area until the connection is kaput. I specifically picked this place because it had internet and I have things to work on. Somebody’s getting a bad review when I get home.

It’s funny the cabs are often playing reggae Jamaicany type music which is full of references to Rastafarianism and I would think be incompatible with Islam. I wonder if they don’t get the meaning or if it’s just not a big deal.

Sultan Al-Sham's interior looked like that cave where Ariel put all of the treasures she found that fell off ships, Evan being Ariel of course.

Evan wants to be where the people are. He wants to see, wants to see them scammin'.

I had the chicken yassa Gambian style. There were sauteed onions with a nice mustardy sauce. Not bad.