Day 5
Thursday, January 13, 2022. I am back in full work mode. Not that I ever stopped but the tempo goes a notch up before, during and after a Ghana Black Stars game, and with the team in action against Gabon tomorrow there’s been plenty to do but I needed to squeeze some time to do my diaries. There’s now too much interest in it that I can’t afford not to write.
It looks like by the time I leave Cameroon next month I would have become an expert on Cameroonian dishes/cuisines. The avalanche of invitations and directions to some of the best restaurants is just unbelievable. I will try as many as I can. But for the last time let me state that I never suggested or implied that there were no foods in Yaoundé or Cameroon. Come on, guys. Lol. Give it a rest!
Speaking of food and restaurants let me tell you two major things I did in-between work. I spent part of my day at Merina Hotel in Yaoundé and also had Ghana Jollof. You should see the excitement on my face as I typed Jollof. Ghana Jollof. It is heavenly. Let’s not start a Jollof war, okay? Our Nigerian brothers have conceded that we have the best Jollof in Africa, in fact, the whole world. Please, my new Cameroonian friends, there is no debate here. Ghana wins hands down, lol.
So how did I get Ghana Jollof in Yaoundé? It is because of this heavenly rice dish that I found myself at Merina Hotel. My colleague who is working for Super Sports for the AFCON had arrived from Ghana the night before. He reached out and said he had come along with some Ghanaian food, I said what food? He said Jollof, chicken, shito and many others. Jollof? Where are you lodging, I asked? And he replied, Marina Hotel. I said I will see you in a bit, lol.
Like a Nigerian man will say, “Om), that is how I and my friend, colleague and roommate Benedict ended up spending the chunk of our night at Merina Hotel.”
The Jollof was good, but the conversation afterwards was golden. I loved it and I loved the hotel too.
Merina Hotel
Merina isn’t where I lodge so my impressions were just for the night I visited. The edifice is gorgeous, it needs more parking space, but the ambience is great. There is some sort of an outside bar right before you enter the reception lobby to your right.
The flowers and open-air approach is classy and it is well lit at night. The room my friend was lodging in was decent and had everything you will need to enjoy a comfortable stay.
The workers at the reception were friendly and nice. And it wasn’t difficult getting a taxi back to my hotel even when we left Marina very late in the night.
More telling and impressive was the fact that I had unknowingly dropped my hotel room key card when I took out my wallet to pay the taxi driver. Of course, I found out when I got to my hotel and took a new one from the hotel reception.
This morning, Graham, my friend at Marina said the driver had come to leave my hotel key card with him and since they realized we came to visit him, they brought the key to him to give it to us.
Now that is impressive.
Tomorrow will be a very busy day, but hopefully, I will find some time to write another episode.