Bamako

Bamako is an amazing place. You hardly notice any habitation at all until, all of a sudden, the train stops at the station, and you are in the middle of town. We teamed up with 2 Aussie girls, Deborah and Phillips (usual sort of thing) and went in search of a hotel. After being turned away from various Catholic missions and Houses for the young (YMCA?) and walking all over town where everybody was remarkably helpful and friendly, we ended up in the first place that we had asked at, sleeping on the balcony. The balcony was overlooking the US Embassy and was a gringo hang out. 2 frenchmen, 2 spaniards, a V nice artist from New York of Latin American descent, and later an English VSO chap called Tim, who had met Louise in Gambia - Small world.

A welcome meal and 2 wonderful cold beers and a long conversation with the artist about bits of the world we had in common (most of STh America).

Mossy nets were provided but mine had more hole than net and I was massacred during the night. In fact it was more like a fishing net, the mossies could get in but not out once they had gorged on me, so when I woke up there were about 70 obese mosquitos inside the net. I squashed them all and as they were all full of blood it was messy.Read more