in Niger, no Chad

After about 19 hours on the bus, I arrived to Niamey, Niger this morning at nearly 1:00am. I didn't check into a hotel, instead I slept roughly in the open air inside the bus terminal's compound on a bench first, then on a foam mattress on the ground. It didn't feel so bad once I had the mattress, as long as I coated my exposed skin with plenty of mosquito repellent. Tonight I'll go back to the same long distance bus terminal and sleep in the open again. Why? Because it's free, and I'll take a bus from there to Zinder tomorrow.

I went to the Chadian embassy in the morning hoping to get a visa (Lonely Planet says visas are available for CFA15,000 and issued on the same day). Well, they are only half right. A visa still costs CFA15,000, true. But now the process will take several months because all the applications are now sent to Chad for approval. So my plan to travel through northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon to reach Chad is now dead.