Hello Dear Reader! Thank you for sticking with me via these installments. Do you know what today is???
Well, it isn’t anyone’s anniversary but, it IS moving day! We are moving on up like George and Weezy y’all. Not to the penthouse but, to the Sofitel in Abidjan…Floor 21 to be exact. Check out the view!
I’m getting ahead of myself (again). Let me provide some context as I am really skipping by some details that you may find important, humorous and (possibly) helpful. I also want to apologize in advance because I know that this is going to add to the length of the post. My wife already told me my posts were too long but Y’ALL, I am sharing a life changing experience with you! I’m not willing to compromise too much when it comes to details and things that I think you can benefit from knowing. That said, let me know in the comments how you are receiving these posts. I’ll truncate them if absolutely necessary. Details matter. That said, I continue…
Noon-ish was our scheduled departure time from the Air BNB. The Mrs. was going to be away most of the day getting her hair braided so, the responsibility to finish packing the bags, ensure that nothing was left behind and carrying the bags to the transport was all on me. 🤷🏾 #HusbandLife
By this time, the food from the last couple of evenings had just started catching up to me. Without going into too much detail, depending on where you go in Africa, they will prescribe a drug known as Azithromycin. Since we were going to be in Africa for two weeks, I decided to wait until I REALLY needed it. That day was not today…even tho it could/should have been.
2 Flushes later, I headed downstairs and lugged the 4 bags (Not including the carry-on’s) to the transport vehicle. Our driver and some other hired hands did help with all of the bags but, it was hot AF out so, I was nearly drenched by the time all of the bags from the house were loaded. I snapped a couple pics of the artwork in the home and then we were off. Sofitel Awaits!
Quick Tip – If you have AT&T, like we did, there is a plan in which you pay $10/day for the 1str line and $15 for two lines in order to have unlimited talk and text on your phone. It seems expensive but, if you go the limited route (Like we did in Thailand) the sticker shock of your next bill is something that you never want to see. Needless to say, unlimited was the way to go. So, as we were traveling to the hotel…a post popped up on my timeline. It was so timely as I was really feeling myself at the time. I was in AFRICA!!!! I didn’t post it online but, considering how I was feeling, I should have. I’m in AFRICA!!! Something about that still give me the warm and fuzzies.
In appx 20 minutes, we were nearly at the Sofitel. I took a few pics but something to note is that there are 2 buildings to this hotel. The main building and an auxiliary building. We were staying in the Aux building (The one on the right).
If our Air BNB was an 8/10 the Sofitel was 11/10. Don’t get me wrong, you PAY for the luxury but, if you’re gonna go on a once in a lifetime vacation, why skimp? Guy and Kisha made sure that our group had the best experience possible and well, there hadn’t been a mis-step yet. Bravo Travel Deeper Inc. Bravo!
Once we unloaded the bags and spoke to the bellcap at the main building, they informed us that the rooms for the Wedding party: 1. Were in the alternate building and 2. Would not be ready for at least 30 minutes. Meh. I had time. The Mrs. was going to be at the hair/nail spot all day and I really didn’t have much to do until later. I decided to walk over to the other building…if you look at the photo above, you can see that it’s a good distance between buildings. Luckily, while we were there, an Art Fair was taking place in the long hallway connecting the buildings. There were so many beautiful pieces. All for sale. I took at LEAST 45 mins for what was less than a 5 minute walk over. The creativity of my people…and these pieces, was astounding. Fear not, I will have an Art-Centric post which will contain plenty of pieces to view and admire.
Once I arrived at the alternate building, there was even more artwork/design cues to admire. I only have a few pics of the lobby but, you can get a general idea from these and other (future) pics. The room wasn’t ready so, they offered me a free drink….I got a juice (Lame!) had I known that the food and drinks was so overpriced ($25/drink) in this place I would have ordered a $45 double shot of SOMETHING. Hell, at this point, all I was thinking about was getting to the room, taking a shower and sitting on the throne…Told u I shoulda took those pills early…lmao! The hostess came over and let me know that the room was ready…Finally!
The room…was as expected. Not much to say here, the pics tell the story…oh, one thing…I damn near died in that shower…LOL. There was NO sliding door and the pane of glass you saw was it. the floor usually was wet after you took a shower and even if you put the towel down and stand in the tub while you dry off, the floors were slippery death. I put the extra towel (there were 3) on the floor because, that 1st time?! I would have died and gone to heaven (Literally) with one false step. Besides the death trap floors, I was fine. Oh! One more thing. Fellas, if you bring your own clippers, I HIGHLY advise that you bring the wireless type. I have the gray wired jawns and the wireless edge ones…the gray clippers (due to the slight variance in voltage) almost burned all the way out. They got extra hot and when I started to smell smoke, yea, they got powered down. Luckily, I only needed to use them 2x my whole time there and even then, not for a long time.
I have more to say but, this post is actually long enough for now. In my next post, I’ll discuss more food, my dear friend of 30 years and the arrival party (Literally and figuratively). When the Capt’n is Involved…a great time is GUARANTEED!!!
Until the next post. I hope this read was useful and entertaining in some way.
Travel Tip – You shouldn’t travel anywhere in the world without bringing one of these. (Google This: BESTEK Universal Travel Adapter 220V to 110V Voltage Converter with 6A 4-Port USB Charging and UK/AU/US/EU Worldwide Plug Adapter). I choose this one because it was able to provide the necessary voltage for my computer/our phones during the trip.
Did I tell you that I would be DJing the 2nd half of one of the weddings? Yea…this was a dope trip…that story will be told later.
Raomel's Observations - Rabservations 
Moving on up!!!😂😂 The Sofitel Hotel Ivoire is a landmark in west Africa. In our youth it had the first and Only Ice Ring in West Africa, a bowling alley and the hottest nightclub in town. Needless to say I spent a lot of time there😉😂 In more recent years (2004) it was the sight of a bloody battle between French troops and local freedom fighters….
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