First Morning In Bamako

I woke up early and most of the Africans were still asleep. I had to use the bathroom which is sadly, not Western style. Nor is there toilet paper but that wasn't not so bad considering what I needed to do. Could be a problem later. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair.

Then I looked up where I needed to go to get to the Ghanan embassy. It's not on the map in the Lonely Planet, but they point to the direction it is and tell you it's 3km off the map. I headed out.
The annoying guy from last night was there. He followed me and asked where I was going. I had meant to not reveal anything, but I told him the Ghana embassy. He then tried to call over someone to help me, but I stopped him. I told him I didn't need any help. He wanted to try to help me, but I told him I just wanted to explore it by myself. He tol me I was walking to fast and needed to slow down in Africa. I don't care what he thinks about my walking speed. He tried to tell me what my philosophy of travel should be. I don't need his input for my philospohy of travel. He was following me and I wasn't happy. Finally he said we wasn't following me and stopped at a coffee stand to get some coffee.

It was about 7:30 when I left. I went up to the street I thought was the one that goes to the embassy and walked about a half hour on that street but nothing. I checked the map and realized I had taken the wrong street. So I walked back another half hour and got to the correct intersection and headed down it for about a half hour. I figured I was close, but it was getting close to 10, so I figured I'd stop in an internet cafe. It's surprising difficult to find any information on how to find the Ghanan embassy in Bamako on the internet. I searched and searched. The closest thing I found was on the Lonely Planet's forums, someone said you take a left at the intersection with the globe if coming from the airport. If you can find the Place de la CAN, then go toward Cheikh Zayed and turn left at a bar called the Colline Parfumée and go 100m down a dirt road. Well, that didn't do my much good. So I decided to head out and just continue on the road I was on. And lo! In just a block there was a sign pointing to the Ghanan embassy.

I headed down there and filled out 4 identical pages-making my hand quite sore. I had to provide a name of a hotel and phone number. Then she glued 4 photos to the 4 copies of the application and told me to return on Tuesday at 2pm. So I have not too much to do until Tuesday at 2pm. I'll pick up my passport and run it over the Burkina Faso embassy which I'll scope out tomorrow.

In case anyone googling needs to know how to get to the Ghanan embassy in Bamako, this is how to do it: there is a main street in Central Bamako called Avenue de l'Independance. Toward the northern end, there's a roundabout with a big hippopotamus statue in the middle. Go west from that hippopotamus on Avenue Cheikh Zayed (called Route de Hamdalaye-Lafiabougou on the Lonely Planet map). You'll approach another roundabout with a big elephant. Keep going straight past the mosque on your right, a Libya Oil on your left, a Comap Gas station, a Chinese sports bar called Sportif, and finally a second Comap. That's were you turn left. A brisk walk will get you from the hippopotamus to the second Comap in right about 30 minutes. Once you've turned left, head down the dirt road. It takes a little jog, but keep going straight. Eventually you'll pass it. You'll have to pass by it and look back to see the sign. If you want to take a cab and the driver doesn't know where it is, it's about 2 blocks from the Ministerie de l'Artisant et du Tourisme.

Anyway, I headed back to the youth hostel and got there about 11:30. I was thirsty and tired. And I was internet deprived. So I grabbed my laptop and headed to Appaloosa. A guy claiming to be Toureg tried to get me to hire him as a tour guide and the annoying local followed me talking some sort of BS about something I can't remember because I was trying to not pay attention to him. When I got there, I ordered a beer, a 1.5 liter water, and a hamburger. But while my iPod could detect the network, my laptop could not. Damn! Oh well. I typed up as much as I could on the battery and then watched some Steve McQueen WWII movie dubbed in French. I stayed there 2 hours and drank the whole bottle of water.

I headed back and tried to get online with the youth hostel computers, but their connection is really bad. So I'm still internet deprived.

September 12, 2008 16:11 Mali local time