The bus from Boundji to Brazzaville was a long uncomfortable ride. The bus was in surprisingly good condition, but unfortunately the lack of roof rack meant all of the baggage was piled in around everyones feet. The road started bad but eventually we passed through Oyo, home town of the President. After that the road to Brazzaville was pretty easy going, (after all the president needs a nice drive back to his family). I had the pleasure of sitting next door to a very old lady, and when dinner time came around she devoured her food like nothing ive seen before, throwing fish guts, bones and manioc leaves all over me - very charming.
We got into Brazzaville with a good chunk of the day left, so I jumped in a taxi and went in search of a cheapish hotel. It proved to be pretty difficult as the city really isn’t geared up for budget travelling, and as far as im aware there currently arent any guide books available. Despite having a pretty bad reputation the town is pretty nice, and from the little i’ve seen of the country the whole reputation is pretty unfounded. The people are generally very friendly and everyone stresses that the political problems are well under control.
Once checked in, I went for a stroll downtown to try and get my first glimpse of the Congo river. Which is surprisingly difficult as the town was built facing away from the river. Eventually I found nice little coffee shop to enjoy the view, looking over to Kinshasa on the other side of the river. Brazzaville isnt a huge city and in comparism Kinshasa is massive, more people live there than the whole of the Republic of Congo, and it certainly looks quite imposing from this side of the river.
Despite its current civilised demeanour, the damage here from the civil war is very apparent. All of the buildings near to the centre of town are literally peppered with bullet holes, and bigger holes which I guess are the results of RPG fire, even some of the taxis still drive around riddled with bullet holes. Allot of the bigger companys shut down during the war and never re-opened, there are some high rise appartment blocks which were pretty much gutted and now stand dormant as a bit of a reminder. This gives some parts of the city quite a spooky wastelands feel to it.
Chatting to a few of the locals most of them have some pretty interesting stories about the time of the war, most people fled the city and lived in the countryside until stability returned, some with a bit of money crossed into Kinshasa or even made it all the way to Gabon to seek refuge. Currently the city has a very positive atmosphere the markets are as bright and as colourful as anywhere in West Africa, and the chinese business men have arrived in their masses to sell poor quality chinese products. Like the Umbrella I brought which lasted two hours before breaking. The transport system is getting back in shape, and the train to the coast appeared to be working. I think the future is good if they can only keep the political differences in check.
