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Mali travel info

SENEGAL-MALI, 20 days, Aug 02


INTRO ABOUT MALI


Kind of travel:
A wholly independent travel

When:
heart of the wet season in 2002 (august)

How I moved:
mainly by collective taxi, bus, minibus, pick up, plane, train and walking (in the Dogon area)

Where I slept:
in cheap hotels, dormitories, at the bus station and on the streets below my mosquito net

How much:
Western Africa is not cheap at all; if you think to survive with a low budget like it could be in south Asia, change your destination!! Take into account at least 30 euro/day. Most of the money go in accomodations. In the Dogon area, getting a guide and renting a car to Bandiagara will turn out quite expensive even if you share with other four people.

Baking or freezing?:
baking of course!

Dangers:
sickness due to the food and the water is main threat. Then trusting the people is always a risk, but you have to. On the train from Kayes to Bamako most of the strangers I met got robbed.

What I liked:
the widening of my point of view that I got from this travel, trying to learn some bambara (the local language), the landscapes, the sunsets, men with the sewing machine in Mopti and the fried stuffs sold by locals in the street

What I dislike:
the anger and the fakeness of people, the impossibility of trusting somebody, the hotness, the catastrophic status of the country, the unbelivable prices of the shitty accomodations, the taxi drivers, buying the train tickets... did I mention about the people?

What you do need:
a mosquito net, insect repellent, trekking boots, medicines and an endless patience or maybe just more money than I had (see the tips)


THE TRAVEL

JUNE 02: OK, summer is coming I wanna travel. This would be my first travel after one year spent in one of the wealthiest country in the world: Sweden. Now I wanna see the other side of the token: Africa. What about crossing Senegal, up to Mali, and trying to reach the Dogon tribes? OK I like, I'll do! But mainly  I wanna meet  people, speak with them, try to understand something of what it means living here: in short try to widen my point of view. There's only one way to get this: travelling with "african" public means of transport, trucks, carriages, a wheelbarrow, whatever I can find.

PREPARATION

AUGUST 02: punctured by a bunch of needles for the vaccinations, bought my supercool mosquito-net and filled a jerry car of insect-repellent, I was ready to leave. I don't think I could be able to describe my impressions in the first hours of Africa: the colors, smells, sounds......it has been too impressive, almost shocking. I had no doubt, the travel was worth even just for what I saw, smelled, heard moving by public bus from the airport to Dakar.

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ITINERARY

In 20 days I left from Dakar to east crossing Senegal. I slept  in Tambacounda and reached the Malian border at Diboli . Then I arrived in Kayes to get the train to the capital Bamako. My staying in Kayes (the hell), buying the ticket, getting that bloody train and travelling for 17 hours, definitely has been my hardest, strongest and most impressive  travel experience. Then, from Bamako, I followed the Niger river up to Mopti. I walked three days in the Dogon area, sleeping underneath my mosquito-net on the muddy roofs. And then, the  way back to Bamako dropping by Djennè. No way I would had passed through Kayes again, hence I got a flight from Bamako to Dakar. But my money were over, so I lazed on the coast, resting my bones. 

CONCLUSIONS

At the very end I was enthusiastic of the travel, of the experience. I've seen a tough reality  that belongs to this world, and, hence, somehow is related to me.

But I cannot leave out to say that I've been disappointed by the people, every time I trusted them, even in the small small things, when there was nothing to earn. I've felt racism to me, hostility, anger or simply a lack of hospitality. In 20 days I've not found a  Malian or Senegalese helpfull and nice person, maybe I've just been unlucky....... This is not a revenge, I'm not encouraging you to skip this country, I never regretted this travel! On the opposite it has been great, but what I was looking for, I mean the contact with the people, is what I really missed despite my efforts.

Alby

 

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