French Guinea

after a solid nights sleep at the Amice guesthouse (170SRD) i inquired about another nights stay, this guesthouse must be particularly popular as it was full. So with no option to stay again i figured i'd head off to french guinea, the taxi arrived packed with a family of four, a husband, wife, mother in law, and daughter. it took about 3 hours to get to the suriname border, for only 50sRD it wasn't that bad of a price. once through immigration we had to take these small boats, they fit about 10 people each with luggage, more like long dug out canoes with outboard motors on them to take us across the river to the french side. Of course they charge 5Euro's a person for the trip.

Immigration itself was a guy in an air conditioned room stamping passports and asking if you were going to come back soon, my only response to him was, sure, maybe.

the french side seemed to be a bit more confusing, once immigration was passed. there it was a guy in a booth stamping passports, no problem there, but this is where i first got the impression that the french and the koreans are not much different. They don't seem to like anyone else, and they are determined that there language is the only language, even in the tourist industry.

Once the boats loaded, it was like kismit, the sky opened up and it just started to pour, and that rain continued for close to a half hour, of just a terrential downpour. i did m3eet a nice gentleman who offered to give me a ride to a taxi stand, where minibuses were waiting to head to cayenne, i jumped at the opprotunity as it was raining and i didn't feel like getting completely drenched.

The mini bus costs were 35 Euro's for the trip to cayenne, or 40 to be dropped at your door.

the ride took around 5 hours, and i managed to sleep most of the way, which was good, as we were packed into this minibuss three per seat with two siting with the driver. The two next to me were both indian, and english speaking, so that made for some mild conversation.

checking in at the hotel was easy, i ended up choosing the Ket Tai hotel at 43 Euro's as opposed to the best western which would probably be much higher, considering the price for the room really didn't equal the space given by comparison to the rest of rooms i've had so far.

It was a long day of buses and taxi's, not to mention crossing a river with 10 people on a toothpick and dealing with the french.

tomorrow should be better, maybe i can get to brasil, we'll see..