Jetzt sind wir in Saly, DEM Touristenzentrum im Senegal: Hotels, Souvenirläden, Strand, Pool und furchtbar nervige Verkäufer 😉
Aber es ist eindeutig zu heiß um was anderes zu tun als baden.. Also bleiben wir erstmal ein paar Tage hier.
Wir haben auf Couchsurfing gefragt ob uns jemand ein Restaurant zum Couscous essen empfehlen koennte. Metafor Seck hat geantwortet und uns zu sich nach Hause eingeladen. Wir haben also mit seiner Familie zusammen gegessen, waren dann bei der Verwandtschaft im Laden und bei der Polizei. Spaeter ging es dann noch kurz zu einer neuen Bekannten nach Hause 😉
Strasseszenen aus dem 7-place:
..auch im Senegal sind Qualität und Hygiene sehr wichtig für eine Metzgerei:
Nach einer viel zu langen Fahrt in einem ‘Sept places’ (ein uralter Kombi mit einer zusätzlichen 3ten Sitzbank und somit 7 Plätzen für Fahrgäste) sind wir etwa 250km und 5 Stunden später endlich in Saint Louis angekommen.. Und dann auch gleich aus Versehen in irgendeiner ‘Veranstaltung’ gelandet, wie man auf dem ersten Bild sieht… Keine Ahnung was da los war 😉
Hier gibt’s in der Herberge ein Mosquitonetz.. Und das braucht’s auch – zwei hab ich heute Abend hier im Zimmer schon gesehen! … Gute Nacht!
Nach dem Umzug in ein billigeres und zentraleres “Hotel” gab es am Abend ein Konzert mit einer Gruppe aus der Casamance:
Unser erster richtiger Ausflug führte mit der Fähre auf die Île de Gorée, von wo aus früher die (meisten) Sklaven verkauft wurden.
Zufällig war in der Nähe unseres Hotels ein Reisebüro, also haben wir gefragt, was denn ein Ausflug zum rosa See kosten würde. Uns wurde empfohlen, in einem Tagesausflug den rosa See und die Insel Gorée zu besuchen. Und zwar für NUR 140 EUR pro Person 🙂
Also haben wir doch öffentliche Verkehrsmittel genommen. Wir waren zwar über 3 Stunden unterwegs, haben aber pro Person weniger als 5 EUR gezahlt! Je nach Sonneneinstrahlung sieht das Wasser des Sees mehr oder weniger rosa aus…
Heute gabs am Strand gegrillten Fisch…
..und morgen fahren wir weiter nach Saint Louis. Mal schauen was die Mosquitos da so machen 😉
Das Foto zeigt die Aussicht beim Warten auf den Bus… Auf dem Heimweg von Wir-wissen-nicht-so-genau-wo 🙂
Wir sind einfach in einen Bus gestiegen und ein Stück gefahren. Eigentlich wollten wir ja nach Almadies, aber wir haben wohl unsere Haltestelle verpasst und sind in Yoff gelandet. Macht nichts, so haben wir immerhin ein paar tolle bunte Boote gesehen.
Es ist heiß und ich hab noch keine einzige Mücke gesehen.. Und seit heute Mittag hängt auch unser Mosquito-Netz. Es ist zwar ein Haken in der Decke, aber ohne Barhocker ist der nicht erreichbar 😉
Once more a few days in Tunisia. It started with a while in Hammamet:
Then a trip to the market in Ksar Hellal – well, i just wanted to go to the Fripe there 🙂
But before that, a break in a café in order to practise taking photos. And finally, it did work: the chairs behind the straw are not recognizable anymore.
they all cost the same.. but it looks funny when there are so many in the same place!
from the monorail going across the jumeirah palm, you can see the burj al arab.. even better when the train is almost empty.
the final destination is the hotel atlantis which is obviously a photo stop on every dubai bus tour.. at least a lot of buses stopped there while i was looking at it. and inside they had some great ice cream 🙂
the palm monorail is not connected to the rest of dubai metro.. though they re planning to connect them.. maybe 2014 😉
so now the only way to get from one to the other is by taxi… and on the dubai-end of that monorail, there is a taxi station. however, as the security guy inside said: “Private taxi” .. haha! 🙂
so i started walking to get a REAL taxi. they at least seem to work…. they happily switch on the counter (inside every taxi theres a sign saying “if the counter isnt working, your taxi ride is for free”)
and after 35° outside i went inside to watch people skiing and playing in the snow!
The flight was only a bit over 1 hour late. And when I found no tourist information at the airport, I just talked to the first person there with a “bus to hongkong” sign. First thing, I got a funny pink sticker on my arm – obviously that they could find me again. Leaving China and entering Hongkong worked without problems (once I found the other half of my “arrival card” that I got a long long time ago).
After some searching I even found the hostel. People here do speak English, but that doesnt help much if they dont know where I want to go..
It might be around 20° outside.. and everywhere they use airconditiong.. well.. 😉
The view of the port, from the ferry coming from Lantau island
Looking down from the 14th floor (where the hostel is)..
Since Xi’an weather got a bit warmer.. and since Yichang people no more have heating in their apartments 😉
In Yichang I didn’t do much.. some shopping, and a trip to the 3 gorges dam. Together with a bus full of Chinese tourists and a Chinese guide. So at least they left me alone. On entering the dam, there was the obligatory security check and they obviously didnt like my pocket knife! I got a number – and was told to get it later. If I had known that, I would have put it into my pocket!
In the afternoon, my bus to Chongqing should have left at 3:30. But it didnt. I was told its one hour late. At 4:30 they still didnt let me get through. And at about 5:15 the bus was finally there. A funny bus with beds! Or something like beds… However, it didnt go very fast: it stopped on a shopping center parking and nothing happened for a while. All people were peacefully waiting. A bit before 7, everyone started getting off – and we changed the bus – and finally started towards Chongqing. Instead of 1 am as we were told when buying the ticket, the bus arrived at about 5 am. After taking a taxi, my trip ended infront of the “Case Filing Hall” 🙂
And instead of a couch I got a bed!
The metro there worked like everywhere else. With the little difference that there was more chinese and less english. The green metro line had only a chinese network plan + information inside. The other lines – at least inside the train – were usually in both languages.
It was again a bit warmer than in Yichang, and the city has mountains and a lot of stairs! I saw one more temple 😉
– the first one i happened to find when getting off the metro in the center..
and the old town. After leaving the main street there, it got quite empty and we could see that people actually live there! 🙂
People are preparing for chinese new year – the cities are decorated with red lanterns.. and markets sell all that red stuff.
From Datong, I took the train again. This time hard sleeper, departure at about 4 pm, and arrival in Xi’an around 9 the next morning. This time there was a group of russian students (studying chinese here) on the train. The first observation upon arrival: no sun! and I thought weather would get better on moving towards the south! Lunch was homemade and for dinner we got Paomo for which Xian is famous. The next day I took the bus to see the terracotta army. “Finally” the vendors were as annoying as I had expected it! People offering to be my tour guide even threatened “You wont find the entrance without me!” and that almost seemed correct – you had to walk past so many souvenir stalls before finally arriving at the entrance! But I DID find it alone 😉
Dinner was Korean hotpot.. with korean chopsticks! they re even harder to use than chinese ones! and after that we went shopping (shoes..) – but as shops were already closing, we had to continue the next day.
Shopping part II made my phone look like a blue bear – I think I still need some time to get used to that 😉
And then it was already time to pack again: tomorrow I will spend all day on the train. From 8:50 until 23:45, when the train should arrive in “YichangDong” (written on the train ticket) which is hopefully the same as “Yichang” (where I want to go…).
