Nanga Def Gambia! #1 – Intro, little bit about the Gambia, and hotel

As I mentioned in my summer earlier posts, I came to the GAMBIA!!!!!!!! For those of you who may not know, I was fortunate enough receive full funding for my research project. So, I’ll be staying in Gambia all summer long to do a couple research studies and also travel around!

As you might have guessed, there are just so many things that are different from America or western countries. Every day is full of unexpected surprises. Since so many things happen on a daily basis, I thought blogging chronically isn’t the best idea. Instead, I’ll blog based on each topic, such as food, culture, electricity/internet issues, places to travel, etc. As an intro, I’ll just go over basic information about the Gambia.For those of you who live in places that use the Central Time Zone, Gambia’s time zone is 5 hours ahead. That isn’t much of a time difference, but due to the long flight schedule, I was pretty much dead the first several days and it took me about 3 days to finally adjust to African life. Let’s start talking about the geographical location of the Gambia! The Gambia is located in West Africa and is surrounded by Senegal. It is the smallest country in Africa. Therefore, even if you driving from the west end of the country to the east end of the country, it will take less than 5 hours.

Banjul is the capital of the country as well as where the airport is located (well, the actual location of the airport is slightly outside of Banjul, just like how the Chicago airport is not exactly in Chicago). There is a really long river that goes through the Gambia. At Banjul, this river flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

I’m staying in Bijilo. It’s one of the tourist areas, which is about 15-20 min from the airport. It’s right next to the beach, so you can walk down to the beach in about 2 min.

The hotel that I’m staying at is amazing. It has a balcony with a gorgeous view of the sea and palm trees, a full bathroom in each room, an electric heater for warm showers, AC and mosquito nets in all bedrooms, laundry services, a cozy garden, free wifi, and amazingly friendly staff members. A single room costs 1300 dalasies/night (~$29 USD), and a room with 2 beds costs 2000 dalasies/night (~$45. *NOTE: This might vary depends on the exchange rate.). FYI, the bed in a single room is big enough to fit 2 people. Here are pictures of the hotel that I’m staying at: