N'Djamena is the Dusty Capital of Chad, Where the Walls are Crawling With Lizards

I arrived in N’Djamena after about 30 hours of travel, flying from Portland with a 7 hour layover in New York City, and a 2 hour layover in Lome Togo. After my passport was stamped and I was on my out of customs a military officer asked to see my stamp, he was standing next to a man in a white lab coat I presume was a doctor of some sort. He handed my health clearance card to the man in the lab coat to make sure I was up to date on all my vaccinations. After he was satisfied he handed my card back to the military officer who looked at me and simply said “No photos allowed in the capital,” he handed me my passport and CDC card back and I was on my way. I heard before about the no photo policy in the capital but wasn’t sure how true it was, apparently they just don’t want you taking photos of police, military, or government buildings, it’s a very similar policy in North Korea.

I set this trip up through an excellent company from the UK that specializes in small group tours to unique destinations called Lupine Travel, check ’em out! www.lupinetravel.co.uk. They helped with the visa invitation, transportation, hotel, and permits for Zakouma National Park. I do most of my traveling solo, but some countries require guides and a group is just the best way to do it.

My arrival day was one day before the rest of the group got to town so I’d made other arrangements for one of the most inexpensive hotels I could find in N’Djamena in the hopes of saving some money. As soon as I showed my driver the address of my hotel the first thing he said was “Oohh that’s a very bad part of town.” Not the first thing you want to hear, hell it’s pretty much the last thing you want to hear. I didn’t really care though, at that point I’d been traveling for 30+ hours and all I really wanted to do was sleep. On the way to the hotel my driver pulled over and said he needed a few minutes, he got out and pulled a rug out from under his seat and laid it down over the dirt so he could get on his knees and pray. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen in an Islamic country, but my bags were sitting in the back of his pick up truck while people were zooming by on motorcycles and that made me a little nervous. After a few minutes he got back in and said “Now my obligation to God is complete and I can get on with my night,” fair enough I thought.

When I arrived at the hotel there were two armed guards outside that had to open the steel gate. Inside was La Mirande Hotel Tchad. The place was totally fine by my standards, all I was really looking for was a clean bed to get some sleep. In the morning after check out I asked the receptionist if she could get me a taxi, which was difficult because people in Chad speak French, or Arabic and I speak neither. After about 10 minutes she came back into the lobby to bring me outside. She didn’t find me a taxi but did find me a family that was willing to transfer me to Hotel Mercure in their little corolla. I gave them 500 Central African Francs for their trouble, which is the currency in Chad and several other countries in the region.

Hotel Mercure was near the city center in the part of town with all the embassies and was considered a safe part of town. It also had armed guards outside steel gates that checked every car before they went in. There were more guards outside the entrance that checked every individual and their baggage before they entered the hotel. The hotel was very nice, it had a restaurant, and swimming pool that overlooks the Chari River that divides Chad and Cameroon.

Chad is the 7th poorest country in the world with 80% of the population living below the poverty line. It has only recently opened it’s doors to tourism after decades of civil war and political turmoil. I’m glad I got the opportunity to visit their beautiful country, it’s a trip i’ll never forget.

The first day with the group we took a short tour of the city. We went to an arts market right by the hotel that had a lot of hand made crafts and paintings. I bought a small mask and a fridge magnet.

We also went to the Chad National Museum. There were several rooms that all spanned different parts of Chadian history as well as arts and crafts from various periods. Apparently many of their artifacts have been stolen or lost due to instability in the country but what I saw was pretty interesting.

At the end of the tour was a framed photograph of Idriss Deby, he has been the president of Chad since 1990. He took power after a rebellion of his successor and has survived several rebellions himself.

After that we went to the city center to see some of the monuments. We were allowed to take photos of some of the monuments as long as there weren’t government buildings in the background.