Musical Mali

The plan was to take the train from Tamba to Bamako. But you know what they say about plans ...
We wanted to take the train because we were ready for a different sort of transportation, besides the bone jarring, jam-packed, dusty, sweaty minibus travel we have been doing for so long.
After inquiring several times at the Tamba train station, and having our hotel call the station, we found out that the scheduled Saturday train may come on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or ...
Once we were sure that it would not be arriving on Saturday or Sunday, we decided to leave on the Sunday. That meant we got to see Ami and her sisters one more time (Ami had also asked a train employee about the next train and his best guess was Tuesday), and say farewell one more time. Ami suggested we be at the Garage early to catch our minibus to the border.

We should know better by now, but we still have our moments of forgetting we are travelling in Africa (expect the unexpected), and we thought we would be in Kayes (pronounced Kai) in 5 hours - hahahahaha. We got to the border very quickly and the border crossing out of Senegal was smooth and easy. We crossed no man's land (a bridge) into Diboli, Mali and found our transport in Kayes in no time. They quickly scooped up our bags and secured them on the roof of the bus and invited us to sit down in the shade. With all the swiftness of the transaction, we were sure the bus was leaving soon. It was 10:30 am and we sat expectantly, thinking we would be leaving anytime, and we would have the whole afternoon in Kayes to explore. Nope. We left Diboli at 4:30 pm. Our bags had sat in the direct sunlight for 6 hours and were very hot when we finally got them down in Kayes - the shampoo was still boiling hot that night at 10 pm when we finally showered. It was a long, boring, hot day. With our bags on the roof, we didn't have any food or books to pass the time. When we finally got underway the van was so packed with people and luggage it was a very uncomfortable ride. We didn't care, we just wanted to get to Kayes. Because we were still determined to take the train (fools), we chose to stay at the Hotel du Rail right across from the train station. It is in a beautiful, old colonial building, but it is seriously overpriced for what you get. The rooms are large, with a sitting room and everything, but that doesn't account for no water until 9:00 pm, a bathroom light that doesn't work, no towels and no toilet paper. Please know that we are not snobs, but for 75 dollars a night you expect something more than an airconditioner that works. We have stayed in much cheaper places with more to offer.

Regardless of the state of the accommodation, we enjoyed Kayes more than we ever expected too. The next day we headed out to ask about the trains, and the best they could do was to say the train should arrive on Tuesday. We had our fingers crossed. We wandered all about Kayes, taking in the Senegal River, the large market and the friendly people. We were walking to the river when a young boy came up to us and said he met us in Mauritania. My first instinct was one of suspicion, but Peter seemed to be recalling something. Then the boy said it was when our car was broken down in the desert and we both remembered him, as he had called himself Tupac and had railed against George Bush while we were waiting for our taxi to fix it's flat on the way to the Mauritania/Senegal border. It was an amazing thing to run into this fellow in Kayes of all places. He told us he was from Togo, and was trying to get to Spain, but he was deported from Mauritania and now was working his way back to Togo. We chatted to him for a while and asked if he had an email address, but he did not. We would have really liked to keep in touch with him as he is a very determined young man. Later, as we were still walking through the market area, we ran into a fellow from our Diboli bus. He was very unforgettable to us, he was a refugee from Angola, had spoken to us in English, but he also carried on a very animated conversation with a few people in the bus that held everyone's attention. He was heading to Bamako as well and told us that the bus only takes 6 hours, where the train can take up to 14 hours. He also said the bus was air-conditioned, and I have to admit, that appealed to me greatly and swayed me from the train to the bus. Later yet, while we were walking back toward the hotel we heard a great deal of honking and when we looked over, it is our bus and driver from the day before waving madly at us! Who knew that we would know so many people in a place we originally never considered stopping in. All this comraderie combined with the friendliest town we have been in made Kayes a very appealing town. Regardless, it was time to move on.

The bus left at 6 am and we were to be at the station around 5 am. Even at 5 am, the air is still hot. It does not cool down at night at all. It was likely 40 to 45 degrees in the day time, and probably 35 to 40 at 5 am. The bus took a little longer than 6 hours and they never turned on the air, so it was a little tortuous. At least in the minibuses the windows open and there is dusty air. In a large greyhound stlye bus all you have are small vents in the ceiling that just aren't enough. That's what I get for wanting air-con I guess.

We stayed in a little auberge in Bamako called the L'Auberge Lafia. It is very central and yet located on a quiet street. We loved this area of Bamako. Not touristy, no hassles, just wonderfully friendly locals. So far, as capital cities go, Bamako is our favourite. We had a lovely little espresso stand just up the street from us, where they made us yummy coffee and fried egg sandwiches in the morning. Fried here means fried in a cup of oil ... definitely not heart smart! They even made us special coffee. In most of Africa you get instant coffee and powdered milk for your coffee. At our little stand, on the first day when we asked for cafe au lait, they used Nescafe and sweetened condensed milk - it wasn't bad, but we could see they made real coffee with a stove top espresso maker. The real espresso coffee was available for espresso shots only. On the second day, we asked for the espresso coffee and the sweetened condensed milk (through broken French and sign language) and had the yummiest coffee we have had in a long time! Every morning when we left they would ask us if we would be back tomorrow and we would say yes. It was a little sad on the day we left when we had to say no.

While at Lafia, we walked to the mighty Niger River, visited the French Cultural Centre and bought a couple of music CD's and also enjoyed the large, bustling markets. The Bamako markets are large sprawling markets that take over blocks of the city. At first we had a few hangers on, asking us to come see their stalls, but once we got a little further in, we had no problems at all. We are never shopping when we visit the markets, but just want to look and see what is for sale. It really is an amazing array of products that are available. The Lonely Planet indicated that the Fetish Stalls were nearby the main market. The Fetish Stalls are for traditional medicine and for the gris-gris or voodoo bags that people wear to keep evil spirits away. We stumbled across these stalls, for we expected them to be in a dark alleyway. Instead they were located right on a main road, with all their wares proudly displayed. These wares include rotting monkey heads, horse heads, any kind of animal head. There were dried lizards, crocodiles and scorpions. There were porcupine quills, hedgehogs and pelts of many animals. It was quite an unique experience, even the stall owners seemed like shady characters.

In Bamako we decided to stay in two different places, to experience two different areas of the city. The second place was close to entertainment and had a pool (yes, this was part of the original appeal). It was in a very different part of town, so our experience was completely different from that of Auberge Lafia. The hotel was quite touristy and the area seemed to have a large ex-pat population, so there were not as many locals and they were not as friendly. Everything was more expensive, even the water. In the end, while we had decided to move so we could be close to live music venues, we didn't see any live music because I was not feeling that well with my stomach. Kind of a drag. The morning we left Bamako we caught a cab at 5:30 am and there were still people going from club to club - I guess I'm getting to old for that! I must say that if I am ever in Bamako again, I will stay at L'Aberge Lafia and enjoy the lovely neighborhood again.

Our next stop was Segou (pronounced Say-goo). It is a town about 250 km east of Bamako on the Niger River. A lovely town with incredibly friendly locals again, once you get away from the people trying to sell you something. Our first hotel was Hotel Esplanade right on the banks of the river. The restaurant of the hotel sits overlooking the river and as we were eating dinner (really yummy pasta in case anyone wanted to know) people kept walking over to this large enclosure to our right. After dinner our curiousity got the best of us and we went over to see for ourselves. Right there, on the edge of the restaurant, not 6 feet from our table, there is this cage housing two crocodiles - one is over 7 feet long and the other about 5 feet. The larger one had a girth of about 2 feet. We are both sure this is the closest we have ever been to crocodiles this large before. They were very much alive and moving around, it was really surreal to see them there. Unfortunately, we were unable to ask about them as the wait staff never came back to our table and we just paid our bill and left. We are still curious as to how they came to be there.

The Hotel Esplanade was a little to expensive for us, so we moved to Hotel Djoliba where it is half the price of the Esplanade. This allows us to stay an extra night or two in Segou before we head to Mopti, our next destination.

Monday is market day in Segou and when we awoke at Hotel Esplanade, the empty area beside the hotel had been completely taken over by vendors. We moved to Djoliba and enjoyed coffee and conversation with a girl from Holland. Jikka from Holland had come to Bamako on the train from Dakar and had to wait a week for the train to leave and when it did, it was the first train in two weeks. The entire journey from Dakar to Bamako took 58 hours by train. On the bus, the same journey takes 24 hours. Maybe it is just as well we didn't wait for the train! After saying goodbye to Jikka, we headed out to take in the market. The markets sell everything here. We bought a fresh tomato and cucumber for our lunch sandwiches, some roasted peanuts and a hand held fan for the hot bus journeys ahead. There is everything from plastic tubs to produce to live chickens to pottery to shoes to stalls that sell rotting monkey heads for voodoo. It sure ain't no farmer's market!

The Lonely Planet describes tourism as a contact sport in Mopti, so we are preparing ourselves for the onslaught of "guides" when we arrive. We hope to visit Djenné and also the Dogon country. We'll keep you posted!

Lots of love,
Laini and Peter

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