Trips from hell Part 2
Trip Start
Oct 03, 2005
1
52
57
Trip End
Feb 28, 2006
Bobo-Diouliasso/Banfora,
Burkina Faso
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Day after the last entry, decided to spend the day in Timbuktu - it's pretty cool and chilled out, except for beggars following you everywhere, and Tuaregs trying to sell you jewelry. Actually had one follow me for an hour trying to persuade me to trade my cellphone for a shitty knife(he started by offering the knife for a price of my phone and a 100 dollars, and felt he was being very magnanimous by offering me a straight trade) - had lunch while laughing at him sitting there with his sales pitch(eating did not stop him).
Just chilled at the guesthouse, met the only other Indian traveller I've seen in Africa(lives in England though), Jaymal - nice guy, great travelling stories, and makes me want to travel later even more! Don't know if I'll get to though...
Next morning, went to the gare routiere(pretty much transport area) to check if I could get a 4WD to Mopti - was told to be there by 8:30 - the car was leaving at 9. Agreed a price, came back. Then suddenly the driver starts saying I have to pay more. I was quite ticked, then suddenly he asked me if I was half-black. I realized that I had to lie, and said yes, and came up with some story of how my Dad is Ugandan and emigrated to Bangkok when he was very young(just in case I slipped that I was Thai later). And then he didn't raise the price! I still paid more than the locals though, which sucked. He then proceeded to tell me several times that I had very good skin, very beautiful skin, with me just nodding and saying "yes, yes, beautiful skin", trying to think how I could use this to get the price lower - unfortunately could not come up with anything.
As I was waiting, several beggar children would come up and ask for cadeaux. I turned to one, put my hand out, grinned, and said: "Cadeau, cadeau". The kid had a pen. He gave it to me! That's what you seem to find all over - I don't have shit, but if you want it, I will share it or give it to you." It is one of the most beautiful things about African people. I may hate a lot of the transport people, but the rest are in general so decent and kind(and some of the transport people can be great too, mind)...
Later, the bus scheduled to leave at 9 left Timbuktu at 12. Surprise surprise.
Got to the ferry a little while later(to leave Timbuktu by car, you have to pass the Niger, and you get a ferry to take your truck or car across the river), and while waiting for the ferry to come back, ran into Jaymal again. Ended up having a very short conversation with a man who I will christen "The Fool" for the rest of this blog. Couldn't quite place the accent, and asked J - apparently German living in Barcelona who speaks Catalan. And - The Fool.
The Fool seemed kind of ticked off when our 4WD got on the ferry before the bus(since the bus was there first - I actually wish I had taken it since it was cheaper and much more comfortable - just didn't know about it) - I quickly apologized and said it's not my fault.
The 4WD was hell - was in the back, in a tiny space behind the cabin, crammed with 5 other people - the other travellers besides me were 2 Germans, and a Japanese guy. So we got along, crushed as anything, then at about 4 pm, in the middle of the Reserve the Douentza, which is semidesert in which there is the largest elephant migration in the world, apparently, the 4WD breaks down. It comes out that the oil container is leaking, and a part of the truck has dropped off. A few guys walk back a few kilometres to look, while our driver tries to fix it for a few minutes. Doesn't work. So...what does he do? He gets back in the car, puts his head on the wheel, and goes to sleep. Just like that. Bloody George W. Bush. And then a lorry comes by, he stops in, and gets a lift to Douentza 80 km away, telling us he will get the tools to fix the 4WD, and come back the next day at 5 am! Any concern for leaving 12 of us there, or thinking of sending a car back for us? Hell no! And to top it all of, he gets back in the car and takes his blanket with him(now this was OK for me and the Germans who had sleeping bags, but certainly not the for 7 Malians and the JApanese fellow, one of whom was a woman with a child, who were going to freeze). Scumbag. Did not even think that maybe the people there would freeze.
Eventually settled down - the Germans, Christian and Oude, had half a melon, and I had a cucumber, and somebody had crackers, and we all settled down to dinner. It got dark pretty fast, and most of the people slept in the car, while the Germans and I slept on the scrub(partially because we had sleeping bags and partially because Christian said it was a better idea to not be near the car since a lot of the cars in Mali don't have headlights and we may be rammed). Then some funny stuff happened - Christian noticed a light 200 meters off, stayed up hoping it was a car, but it wasn't. And then later I went to the toilet, and I noticed it too - it was in a fairly wide area, but looked far off, and was undulating - it would get darker and brighter, darker and brighter, but was coming no closer. You have to remember, this was in the middle of nowhere, so this was a bit freaky. Eventually we got back to our bags though, after deciding it wasn't an elephant.
Then suddenly we hear a vehicle at about 11 pm and get up! It's the bus we passed at the ferry! As the people from our car try to talk to the driver, we re-encounter The Fool. The Fool prances out, asks what's going on, I tell him, and he starts laughing his head off, and says..."Hahahahaha! Good luck man! Hahahaha!". To plagiarize slightly, I am not a violent man, but if I had pushed him in front of a moving car right then, no jury in the world composed of travellers would have convicted me. Scumbag.
We did persuade them to take the woman and child on for free, and, to his credit, The Fool fought for this too. And then the Germans ask if there is any space for others, and The Fool keeps on saying no, no there isn't. They force their way on, find space, and then we get in a rush to pack. The bus driver says we have to pay 10 dollars each to get to Douentza, an extortionate rate, furthering my conviction that half the people in African transport are pond scum. I mean - you come across a bunch of stranded people freezing, and all you think of is how much money you can get, and ask for too much at that?
Eventually got to Douentza, and I was in a shit situation - had badly miscalculated my money, and had only 12 dollars in CFAs starting the 4WD trip, and had only about 6.50 when we got to douentza - the bus fare was 7 dollars, and I persuaded the ticket seller to help me out, which was nice of him - Christian offered to let me borrow money, which was very nice of him too(I was planning to go to the banks in Mopti for a VISA cash advance so I could pay him back then) but didn't need to. At Douentza starting talking to this other German fellow who's been travelling Africa for 2 years(South to North) and heard some awesome stories(can't repeat them on here though). Eventually left Douentza at about 1.
Got to Sevare, about 12 km from Mopti at 4:30, had to get off, and was treated to The Fool being The Fool again. I was trying to figure out my next step(my intention was to get to Bobo and the ATMs there) and was talking to the German traveller. The bus was going on to Bamako, and the driver had decided to take a nap in the bus station in his company's office(I think in part because he was lazy, and in part because they don't really seem to like going on the roads at night). The Fool goes to the company office and starts screaming in French and making a racket and banging chairs around for 5 minutes, then comes back to the bus muttering in German. He wanted to leave right then. I can understand why he was annoyed, but both of us agreed that this is the way Africa works, and you cannot be doing this in Africa - I admit that I blasted people a couple of times(the women on the trip to Wa, which was justified, and Atiti when he was late, which I did apologize for), but the way people here think when you scream at them like that, what's running through their minds is: "Who are you, white man, to come to my country and shout at me?" 90 times out of a 100, especially with officials and with transport, you will not get shit doing stuff this way(according to what experienced travellers have told me). I kept on telling the backpacker to go talk to The Fool, and the backpacker kept on saying: "I don't know man. He's not my friend. He just speaks many languages" again and again, which for some strange reason, I found funny. Eventually the bus driver comes out and they leave(and I do wish the fool would not have won).
Went into the company office, apologized on account of my fellow traveller, and asked how to get the bus to Bobo - the guys in the office smiled, and one of them said: "Brother, I don't really know, but you look really tired, take a seat. Would you like a drink?" I said no, but African hospitality rears its head again. I couldn't find the black market money changer, so they gave me money for the toilet, which was wonderful of them. Asked about the banks, and I received the wonderful news that Friday was a public holiday, and the banks were closed.
I wanted to cry. There went my trip to the mud mosque at Djenne.
Later managed to exchange half my tiny reserve of US dollars, and walked around town(I was told the next bus to Bobo left at 4). Came back to the station, took a nap in the company office, just bummed, really. Made friends with this guide, who negotiated meal prices for me(finally paid local price). Went to sell my 20-liter container to a restaurant owner, and experienced African honesty again. Wanted to sell it for 3 dollars, he said 2.00, I said 2.60, he said yes. Went to get the container, came back, and he said - it's a pretty container. And he pays me 3 dollars when he didn't have to! It wasn't much, but it's just the gesture, and I saw honesty in that!
My 4 o'clock bus left at 7. For the last few hours, the guy who sold me the ticket took care of me too. For some reason Sevare bus terminal has a lot of helpful people. Got on, and the bus seemed to stop every 10 minutes. Was severely crushed in the front row with 5 people. For some reason though, I love Africa transport in its own way. Adrenaline rush at times. At 1, all of a sudden, the bus stops, the drivers get out, spread mats on the ground, and go to sleep! I walk around the sleeping village, and find a few of the guys from the bus who have built a fire, ask what's going on - apparently, the border is 80 km away, and there are 7 gangs on bandits in the area, so we have to go in the morning. It's wonderful how we got stopped 6 times until that point at police checkpoints for bribes. Exactly what is their function in society?
Got the sleeping bag out and crashed at 3. Woken up at 5 to get back on the bus, which we did, then moved on. A few people got out at the next stop, and I decided to move to one of the empty seats. Went back to where I had seen one woman sitting, and took the other seat. Then she gets back, and I move over to let her in, and she starts saying things in a very sinister fashion, and I am sure it included something like - give me both seats or I am going to sit on you. She made me look puny(she weighed at least 150 kilos I think), and the guys behind me pulled me to their seat, where we were crushed again, while the idiot took two seats(and to be honest, even though she was big, she didn't need them).
Got to Bobo about 3 or 4 hours later(during which I had to change seats again due to water from a mysterious source dripping on my head...remember that there was no rain and this bus did not have air-conditioning), and we(I was with this other traveller on the bus) got overcharged for a cab to town, and I just spent the day resting - eating, Internet, having a beer, chatting. Also felt like I should start crying, because my bank card did not work - the ATM rejected it at 3 banks - exchanged my last US dollars, got on the Internet, got a friend in Sydney to call my bank - turns out their system was down. Hearing that made me...happy. I think every bad thing that can happen on a trip has happened to me, but I still love Africa! That evening I left for Banfora to come say hi to Ibrahim(had bought a ticket for today to go to Ouaga, from where I was going to Benin). I had decided not to learn any instrument, but he persuaded me to. I really want to learn the kora/goni, and he says that he can make me one for free(but I insisted on paying for the materials at least), but the problem is I'd need at least 3 days to learn it well, time I don't have. Instead I'll be learning the Djembe, a drum, for a day and a half, and will be buying one for 60 dollars(going to kill me but I want to take somethiing back). Unfortunately I'm going to only have 3 or 4 days each in Benin and Togo(wish I had more time!) but oh well - at least they're small and I'll only be staying in the south.
Sorry for the superlong entry if you got this far!
Comments
stuck inside mobile with the memphis blues again
Who is the german backpacker you mention at the end?
I say it is Qian Liang.