LAICO l'Amitie Hotel Bamako

... the US, I believe he was in New Mexico and California. He is very sought after now since his father's passing since he is carrying on the musical tradition of his family.

Magically, the day we were leaving Vieux reactivated his phone and was in town, in Bamako. Not only that, but he wanted us to come over to visit him. we were very excited, Mali was on our list because of music.

anyway, the long and ...

... direction of the dorm, so it was ok.

There's only one other person in the dorm at the moment, a Dutch girl who's been in the North of the country for 3 months. She says it's 'quite cool' here. It's not. It's absolutey BOILING. Bamako is dirty and (EXTREMELY) dusty and smelly and hot and far too busy.. and I love it! I have to admit though that I think I was suffering a little bit of 'culture shock' yesterday ...

... So when we found a bar that was open in Mali it made some good money from us. It was midday and still 40 degrees (as normal) so the 2 litres of beer in an hour made an impact on my ability to talk with any kind of sense. Yes, I am a cheap drunk. The locals were friendly and cheery as we were exchanging stories. Before long it was time to make the long drive to the Mali capital of Bamako. We were advised that it would be about ...

Security at African aiports is a funny beast. No one asked who packed my bag or if I had dangerous items. There are no signs to say what you can't take on the plane, in fact there doesn't even seem to be a baggage allowance (Africans have more luggage than anyone I have ever seen). Not that I had any of these offending items on me of course. All I had was a small day bag, a few pieces of bread - in case I could stomach it, and an unopened bottle of water as I was massively ...

... drums being played by an albino and watching the most frantic Nokia t-shirt wearing danc** ev**. He was loving it. Aft** a few hours and a trip to the toilets out through a backyard lit with red light, up some steps and found in a corridor of rooms, we all agreed that it was not only a music venue but also a brothel and potential gay bar, Jamie attracting not quite the attention he was looking for. Just before leaving a fight broke out amongst two women, I ...

... border and bush camping in Mali. We chose the later. Whilst driving to the border one of the road blocks charged us EURO 20 to pass through. We couldn't help but notice the official seemed rather fat in comparison to the others who charged no money. The border crossing was pretty painless, even though we arrived to see the other truck in front of us. Got through nice and quick - definitely nothing on the 6 hours we spent getting into ...

Todas estas fotos foram sacadas caminhando por Bamako. O vencedor é indubitavelmente o Sporting que esta mais presente do Norte ao Sul. No dia que subi no autocarro para bazar de Bamako vi um cartaz OFICIAL do Ministério da juventude com uma foto de uma crowd e o kanuko que estava em primeiro plano estava a fazer grande publicidade para a PT. O Benfica precisa de mandar urgentemente uma remessa, não vi sequer uma.

... a ler e a escrever, desembrulhou-se para montar o seu pequeno negocio de turismo (e graças a isso um turista reconhecido levou-o à Noruega) e sustenta também sozinho incontaveis bocas (que lhe sugam até ao tutano acomodadas), paga os estudos à mulher e ao irmão, perdeu o pai muito cedo, vai perder a mãe dentro de poucos meses e ainda assim tem força para sorrir. So de pensar nisso sinto-me como o gajo mais sortudo do planeta miseravel com o sofrimento que os outros nem ...

... t mind us taking their picture. (To be posted - I was driving at the time). It was difficult to find shade for our stops today, but a couple of prickly trees served the purpose. We are staying in the Hotel Salam tonight - all very nice so far. As they have free WiFi I shouldn't complain!!

... out the windows to catch a breath of still air, you are presented with tray after tray of food, each resting on the head of some woman or girl. For us, an egg sandwich was just what we wanted for breakfast. Others tucked into cous cous and vegetables, fruit, cakes, bread and meat - there was no end of choice. A short while later, and we were off again.  At this stage, we were still about 7 or 8 hours behind schedule, and heading for the unpleasant prospect ...