Excalibur Benin Hotel Benin City

... of the culture festival, and it was a conc**t with the main Yoruba artists, and the place was packed to the rim. I would guess th**e w**e ov** 2000 people. Charles knew some people, so we sat in front with the eld**s and the chief of the town. The artists w**e really good, and we had a blast. The woman who arranged the whole thing wanted me to come and dance on the stage with h**, probably to get some attention, which she got. As Olly and me w**e the only white people, people ...

... signs for the Hotel Abba. The rutted dirt road winding up the hill took us through a diff**ent *****ia we hadn't seen much of yet - the palatial estates of the nations sup** rich, all of course behind high walls topped with glass shards and the most painful looking razor wire you can imagine and guarded by small private armies of security guards. In the midst of the opulence, though, the Hotel Abba was a somewhat of a dump. For the equivalent of $6 I ...

... One event in my work life dream I recall was that I brought a brown bag lunch from home with leftov** lasagna my moth** made the night before. I was eating it in my poorly-lit basement cubicle when my dweeby boss came ov**, saw me, and told me brown bag lunches w**e unprofessional; true professionals dine out for lunch. He said he would only dock me a week's pay this time but if I did it again he'd fire my ass. Yes ...

At last, the past months have not been easy, a lot of work and a lot of rough events around us. A nice trip is very welcomed. So we are off to Ghana. We'll first stop in Benin Republic for a couple of days in the same hotel as easter. This time no bikes only car !!

We drove the two hours from Ogbere to Okomu with more than 18 road blocks. Each of them using a different technique to stop us. Most of them were friendly and wondered where we where going. Even 18 "friendly" road blocks its a lot ! We finally arrived in Okomu we were happy to see my wife and baby. She did not recognize me at first. As planned and even before ofloading the car we took a nice motorcycle ride in the Okomu tracks.

... I hope it will fit all togeth** at the end! So my arrival in France is planned on the 25th of April from *****ia. Just 4 days or so to finish all the preparations and hit the road. We intend to cross Spain, ent** Marocco and more or less follow the coast to Dakar, then from th**e ent** Mali, Burkina Faso, come down Benin Republic and ent** *****ia to Okomu. Just about 10 000 km in a month.