Brazzaville

3 MAY 2023

I have made Class Hotel in the Embassy area of the city, my home. Brazzaville is very different from the other parts of Congo. The centre is dominated by large presidential buildings some still empty, incomplete or decaying.

There is a high police and security presence. The atmosphere is calm, quiet and sedate. Traffic is directed carefully at rush hour. Most vehicles are either green taxis, huge 4x4s or green minibuses packed with workers coming and going from the outskirts of the city to their jobs in the centre.

Across the Congo River is Kinshasa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two separate cities, two different countries and visas required for both.

I've spent my time in Brazzaville, trying to get information, planning my next steps and making it up as I go along. I have decided to get a 10 day transit visa for Angola - available in 36 hours for 75,000CFA from the Embassy in Brazzaville, and to avoid DRC by going first to Point-Noire (by the coast in Republic of Congo), then from there to travel by car to Cabinda (Angola) before taking a plane over DCR to Luanda (Angola). This will save waiting around for visas and save a huge amount of money.

Meanwhile, I've seem some of the sights and discovered some of the character coffee shops hidden behind ramshackle facades. I get the sense that Brazzaville has a hidden vitality and character that is there to discover if you know where to look.