Spending my husband’s 70th birthday in the Côte d’Ivoire was always destined to be interesting, possibly unforgettable. Having woken up in an eco-lodge in the middle of nowhere (see review of N’Zi River Lodge), we were to spend the birthday night in the Ivorian capital, Yamoussoukro.
The check in at the Royal Suite Hotel was the country’s astonishingly complicated registration system we had begun to expect. This involved connecting to the hotel’s Wi-Fi to scan a QR code, which opened an online registration form. This required us to answer an exhaustive list of personal details, including our parents’ names, an emergency contact at home and within the country, arrival and departure dates for both the hotel and country and finally, to upload copies of our passports and selfies.
Room 205, on the ground floor, was spacious with a king size bed, two pillows each, but only a heavy duvet and no sheets, and so we needed to keep the AC on. There were bedside lights, tables and charging points. The wardrobe had the safe, and the room was also well equipped with a monster TV, desk, tea and coffee making facilities and two bottles of water in the otherwise empty fridge. There were two areas of shelving and two easy chairs.
The large bathroom had no space for our toiletries and the shower cubicle flooded after one shower. As the water began leaking not only into the bathroom, but the bedroom as well, we had no alternative but to summon help, and a man with a pile of towels quickly arrived to mop up. All this was happening whilst I was trying to choose what was meant to be a ‘surprise’ birthday dinner from six pages of menu sent by our guide over WhatsApp, and my husband was dealing with plethora of birthday messages as we’d been without the internet for two days whilst staying at the River Lodge.
The birthday dinner was at a restaurant called La Brise, a 10-minute drive. I’d ordered a pork fillet, which turned out to be unavailable and was substituted with a huge slab of meat on the bone, served on a large wooden bread board and slathered in a cream sauce which meant it was hard to see the meat. For the birthday boy I’d chosen beef stir fry from the Chinese section, but the meat was overcooked and chewy. There was the inevitable birthday cake, candles, and rendition of happy birthday in English rather than French. The cake was cut and we managed two reasonably large pieces before we suggested it be shared with other guests and the staff.
As it was a celebration, we’d asked about wine and in the absence of a wine list, four chilled bottles were brought to the table, and we were told the prices. A Sauvignon Blanc was ordered at 20,000 CFA or £26, but when the bill arrived it was 30,000, and so we left our guide to resolve the situation. Just as we were getting up to leave, a rat was spotted scurrying across the floor.
After such an eventful dinner, we arrived back at the hotel and headed straight into the bar for G&Ts, served in brandy balloons. The girl behind the bar was very friendly, and whilst we were enjoying our first proper G&T of the trip, a large group arrived for a buffet dinner, and when they had left, she suggested we could help ourselves. We declined and opted for a second gin, this time with Sprite as we had drunk the only tonic they had.
Back in the room, we had just finished brushing our teeth, when there was a power cut. As it lasted for more than the usual few seconds, I went to explore in PJs and was told it was happening all over town. The lights came back on just after I returned and we retired to bed after a rather epic day.
Breakfast the following morning is unrecorded in my journal, so was presumably unremarkable.
Whilst we had always expected the day to be interesting, it was much more eventful than we could have anticipated, and it will never be forgotten. And you’ve not even heard what happened during the day . . . . .
