Duelling Banjuls

It has been a fairly restless night as the difficulty getting comfortable in the bed merged with some rather interesting dreams brought on by the malaria tablets. I am pleased to report that, so far, the infamous Banjul Belly has not struck in this hotel room.

 

A bit chilly here today.....but I thought I would post this for my British friends ;)

Still we were up nice and early to meet Lamin our rep who was coming to give us an acclimatisation session. Lamin is possibly the happiest person in the world - I find it hard to believe he is not on uppers but everything he said was delivered with a smile and laugh. Apparently his name is very common in Gambia (it means trustworthy) as it is the name families give their first born sons and they have the responsibility for looking after the rest of the family in the event of the parents dying. So to get around the fact that half of the male population would turn around when you called out Lamin, he insisted he called him L.T. 

L.T went through a variety of local customs with his customary chirpiness which was infectious and the whole group were laughing along with his observations of how life works in The Gambia. He covered trips we could do, places we could walk to, advice on dealing with the locals, how to tip. It is fair to say he had warmed up his crowd and we were in the palm of his hand and very relaxed.

Suddenly L.T went dark. He started talking about crime and told us that when  someone in The Gambia commits a crime it is not left up to the police to sort, a group of Gambian men get together and sort it out themselves, dispensing summary (mob) justice! This was delivered in a sinister, yet assured tone - sort of like Liam Neeson in the film Taken, and made even more disturbing because his friendly, disarming smile was in place all the while.

Still, we had the meeting and have booked up a couple of things to do. Tomorrow we are heading off on the Roots tour, and on the Tuesday morning I am heading off at the crack of dawn into the rainforest for a bit of bird watching - Sarah politely declined the opportunity of getting up at 5am on her holidays!! 

So with the touring aspect all sorted, we moved to the sun-loungers for a bit of slow cooking. After an hour of warming up (and a couple of beers) we were decided to explore our surroundings. As I mentioned earlier, the hotel has a mazelike quality to it and you don't actually ever get lost, you just discover new ways of getting to where you want to go.

We have found the spa and the gym, which isn't the far end of the hotel, and as far as I can see it is unused.....we are going to have to come here and use the facilities so thati can return home buffed up and to puffed up from all the food and drink!! While we were there Sarah has booked us in for a couples massage on the Monday too. I usually baulk at the price of such things back home, but for about £15 each we have a full body massage with aromatherapy and acupressure. Seemed like too good a deal to refuse!

***evening update***

We have been supping cocktails and are a bit squiffy, but are also feeling the effects of sunburn on our bodies. It does appear that sun cream doesn't protect you for the sun and, in Sarah's case, super strong jungle formula does not protect you from mosquitos - thankfully I am untouched (my trusty can of hoffmeister deters the female of all species - with the exception of Sarah (thankfully)).