I too have just returned from a fantastic ten days in this wonderful country,and have absolutely fallen in love with it. People close to me were concerned at my going, assuming that the war was still going on (the media probably) and I think that this is a common misconception that prevents
those not in the know from visiting this magical place. I do think however that the country and its people should have more of a chance to get back on an even keel before there is an influx of tourists. The revenue this would bring in is no doubt needed, but it would be a shame if the country's soul was westernised left right and centre before it has a chance to re-configure.
Sierra Leone Business and Travel Forums: A country you hate to love by "Diamond"
24 January 2006
21 January 2006
ME AND SIERRA LEONE
I just returned from my journey back home and I most say that I'm in recovery after which i will explain in detail about my experience. I feel like Sierra Leone and I are in an abusive relationship in which i keep going back for more even though it keeps hurting me. It's like loving someone who's addicted to drugs...you keep hoping they'll stop but they dont and you keep on loving anyway.
All in all i enjoyed my time in Sierra Leone, I had wonderful food, kept good company, relaxed, tanned, read, laughed, and drowned myself in the sweetness of Sierra Leone. My bedroom window every morning at 6am received the salat prayer call from the local mosque as i turned over from the puddle of sweat i had amassed during the night. The sleep was deep, peaceful and sweet even in that kind of heat. I spent the majority of my time at home at Boyle Lane, listening to the daily sounds coming from within my home but all from the outside.
As I left on the hovercraft headed for lungi and a 6hour wait at Lungi Airport for my delayed Astraeus flight, I said to a friend beside me "I'm not coming back for a while, i'm tired of this place". She knew I was lying and so did I but we kept silent as the hovercraft woddled away from our dearly beloved.
All in all i enjoyed my time in Sierra Leone, I had wonderful food, kept good company, relaxed, tanned, read, laughed, and drowned myself in the sweetness of Sierra Leone. My bedroom window every morning at 6am received the salat prayer call from the local mosque as i turned over from the puddle of sweat i had amassed during the night. The sleep was deep, peaceful and sweet even in that kind of heat. I spent the majority of my time at home at Boyle Lane, listening to the daily sounds coming from within my home but all from the outside.
As I left on the hovercraft headed for lungi and a 6hour wait at Lungi Airport for my delayed Astraeus flight, I said to a friend beside me "I'm not coming back for a while, i'm tired of this place". She knew I was lying and so did I but we kept silent as the hovercraft woddled away from our dearly beloved.
20 January 2006
After civil war, Sierra Leone is rebranded as a holiday paradise
This is an article from the Independent which was forwarded to me. Baby steps...
Published: 20 January 2006
Thirty years after Sierra Leone's beaches first featured in a television advert that linked chocolate coconut bars with the search for paradise, the country is set for a tourist revival.
For the people of Sierra Leone, who have endured a brutal 11-year civil war and raging poverty that once made it the poorest place on earth, the arrival of holidaymakers cannot come soon enough.
London-based travel companies are now marketing the former British colony as an adventure holiday destination as well as the setting for off-season sun and surf vacations to compete with the Canary Islands. Kevin McPhillips Travel claims Freetown is growing in popularity as a place for groups of "sophisticated adventure travellers", while Sierra Leone Holidays promises customers that they will be drinking palm fruit cocktails beside the "kitchen salt" beaches of the Atlantic.
Three years ago it seemed unthinkable that Sierra Leone would ever be able to move on from its troubled past. In the fighting, some of the most brutal witnessed in Africa, thousands of children had arms or legs amputated by rebel soldiers trying to terrorise the local population.
But the UN peace mission, which at one time numbered 17,500 soldiers, has been universally recognised as one of Africa's success stories.
Last month the final contingent of peacekeepers flew out of Freetown, handing over responsibility for internal security to the newly trained army and police.
At the same time some of the more enterprising Sierra Leoneans have begun to fill the vacuum by offering the kind of beach service familiar to holidaymakers who frequent more established Caribbean resorts.
During the war the men of Freetown earned valuable dollars working with Western journalists and photographers who needed "fixers" to get them close to the fighting.
On Lakka beach, just four miles from the city centre and a popular location with NGO staff, a group of young men have formed a collective to run restaurants and organise fishing trips for the visiting Europeans.
There are no menus and diners are simply asked to place their orders on the basis of recommended dishes of the day. Fresh lobster and barracuda, served on beds of rice, are local favourites. The waiters simply disappear into the palm tree forests that fringe the beaches and reappear half an hour later carrying plates stacked high with food.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article339841.ece
Published: 20 January 2006
Thirty years after Sierra Leone's beaches first featured in a television advert that linked chocolate coconut bars with the search for paradise, the country is set for a tourist revival.
For the people of Sierra Leone, who have endured a brutal 11-year civil war and raging poverty that once made it the poorest place on earth, the arrival of holidaymakers cannot come soon enough.
London-based travel companies are now marketing the former British colony as an adventure holiday destination as well as the setting for off-season sun and surf vacations to compete with the Canary Islands. Kevin McPhillips Travel claims Freetown is growing in popularity as a place for groups of "sophisticated adventure travellers", while Sierra Leone Holidays promises customers that they will be drinking palm fruit cocktails beside the "kitchen salt" beaches of the Atlantic.
Three years ago it seemed unthinkable that Sierra Leone would ever be able to move on from its troubled past. In the fighting, some of the most brutal witnessed in Africa, thousands of children had arms or legs amputated by rebel soldiers trying to terrorise the local population.
But the UN peace mission, which at one time numbered 17,500 soldiers, has been universally recognised as one of Africa's success stories.
Last month the final contingent of peacekeepers flew out of Freetown, handing over responsibility for internal security to the newly trained army and police.
At the same time some of the more enterprising Sierra Leoneans have begun to fill the vacuum by offering the kind of beach service familiar to holidaymakers who frequent more established Caribbean resorts.
During the war the men of Freetown earned valuable dollars working with Western journalists and photographers who needed "fixers" to get them close to the fighting.
On Lakka beach, just four miles from the city centre and a popular location with NGO staff, a group of young men have formed a collective to run restaurants and organise fishing trips for the visiting Europeans.
There are no menus and diners are simply asked to place their orders on the basis of recommended dishes of the day. Fresh lobster and barracuda, served on beds of rice, are local favourites. The waiters simply disappear into the palm tree forests that fringe the beaches and reappear half an hour later carrying plates stacked high with food.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article339841.ece
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