uh oh! I got caught

Yesterday morning when I tried to cross Lake Kivu from Bukavu to Goma, the immigration officials at the port found out that I didn't have a Congolese visa. My passport was confiscated and I was taken to the local office of
Ministère de l'Intérieur where I was made pay $183 for a full one-month tourist visa. $183 for a visa!! Bloody hell! They also put a 7-day transit visa on my passport, which supposedly made my yesterday's illegal entry legal, because they back dated it. They told me that they wanted to be lenient with me and didn't charge me for this transit visa which would normally be $50. Of course along the process, a few dollars of mine were thrown into a couple of officials' pockets so that they could "buy some credit for their mobile phones".

And I was back at the port in time to catch the ferry to Goma.

illegal entry into DR Congo

I did it again: crossing the land border from one African country to another without a visa when I really should have one.

After traversing through northern Burundi and Southern Rwanda, I showed up at the Rwanda/DR Congo border at Bukavu, south of Lake Kivu. I had read from a guidebook (published several years ago, so it's not really that up to date) that it was possible to buy an 8-day Congolese visa for $35 at this border. But, as you have probably guessed, things have changed, they no longer issue visas at this crossing any more, and I was told to go back to Rwanda.

bed bugs

I stayed at a super cheap hotel in the Myanzi area of Bujumbura, Burundi for only Burundian Fr 6,000 (less than $5) per night. The result is, after the first night I already had about 50 bites on me from bed bugs. During the second night, I would wake up every half hour or so and comb the bed sheet to find and kill any bed bugs that I could see. Some were big, some were small. But they all had one thing in common, whenever I crushed one to death against the bed sheet, there would be first a popping sound, then followed by a blood stain on the sheet. My blood!

I must have killed over 2 dozen of them last night! :(

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

After a day and a half travelling on bus, I finally arrived to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. A short bus ride south of the city and on the shore of Lake Tanganyika is a monument that marks and many Burundians believe where, contrary to the more widely established location further down the shore in Tanzania, Henry Stanley famously uttered "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".

After a bit Googling, you will see that the famous meeting actually took place at Ujiji, Tanzania. However, the two men did travelled together to this spot in present-day Burundi.

Tomorrow I think I'll cross into DR Congo.

headed for Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda

Tomorrow I'll take an over-24-hour bus to Burundi, from where I'll continue to DR Congo and Rwanda.

shaving with Swiss army knife

My electric shaver had run out of power in Morocco, and I was stupid enough to not have brought the charger. So I've been using the scissors on my Swiss army knife to shave.

how to get to Lagos airport on public transport

This is how I did it. Note that I took this trip during afternoon rush hour, so the fares could be slightly cheaper during less busy times.

From the Obalende Motor Park on Lagos Island take an Oshudi bound minibus. Note that there are 2 routes to Oshudi - up & down, wait for the Oshudi up minibus as it follows a shorter and more direct path. If you carry a big rucksack (like I did) or have lots of luggage, you have to be patient and wait for a bus that has room in the back for luggage, most minibuses don't have. In rush hour this leg of the journey cost me N150 (N100 for a seat and N50 for the luggage). If you take a minibus without room for your luggage, you will have to pay for 2 seats.

camping at Dar es Salaam airport

 Having slept at Lagos airport the day before, I arrived in Dar es Salaam around midnight last night. The taxi ride to city center cost around $20 and I was stingy enough to refuse to take it and decided to sleep by the Arrivals gates, wait till morning and take the public transport.

Initially, I slept on a long  bench. But I was being constantly and brutally attacked by mosquitoes, so I rolled out my tent and slept in it.

I was surprised that throughout the night nobody bothered me or tried to remove me, except a couple of passers-by curiously poked my tent and asked why I didn't sleep in a hotel.

goodbye West Africa

Will fly out of Nigeria for Tanzania tomorrow.

A Long Way Gone

I've just finished reading this book today. It was given to me in Sierra Leone by Yeniva and her students. This book tells such a powerful story!