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ABOUT THIS TRAVEL

20 days in SENEGAL-MALI, august 02



INTRO
ABOUT SENEGAL


Kind of travel:
a wholly independent travel

When:
heart of the wet season in 2002

How I moved:
mainly by collective taxi, bus, minibus and plane

Where I slept:
in cheap hotels.

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 into accomodations.

Baking or freezing?
baking of course, but along the coast is fresher

Dangers:
sickness due to the food and the water is main threat. Then trusting the people is always a risk, but you have to. Dakar is definitely not the best place where to hang out and in particular the "gare routiere" is one of the worst place I've ever seen.

What I liked:
the widening of my point of view that I got from this travel, the sunsets and the fried stuffs sold by locals in the street

What I disliked:
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 beaches, Dakar, the gare routie' in Dakar (Pompie'), the taxi drivers, being called "tubab (white)"... did I mention about the people?

What you do need:
an endless patience or maybe just more money than I had



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 their 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.



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 end I was enthusiastic of the travel, of the experience; I felt I've really widen my point of view, that's the window through which I see the things around me. I've seen a tough reality, but that belongs to this world, and 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, where 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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