Impressions Of Bamako

I've been in Bamako for a few days now, so I'll write down my random impressions.

First, the architecture is very unusual. Anyone who has ever played Anarchy Online will think the Norwegian designers probably spent some time in Bamako. The bank that created the Franc CFA has a tower on the river that comes right out of that came--expect it's brown instead of black.

Not a Bamako impression, but a road to Bamako impression--it's like Utah if Utah were a rainforest. Just absolutely gorgeous.

Bamako shares the bad points with Dakar--people engage me to try to get money out of me. It's not quite as bad down by the river--worse in the Hippodrome. They aren't as persistent as at the Place d'Independance in Dakar, at least until you get to the market on the Avenue des Peuples which is worth avoiding anyway.

The layout of the city is pretty chaotic. Not really a grid system where I'm at. Further out, it is a grid.

The National Museum is excellent--a must see in my opinion.

There are more tourists than I thought there would be. I got spoiled in the relatively tourist free Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry. Africa is wonderful where the tourists are few. It can be downright annoying where the tourists support the industry of hangers-on, persistent merchants, and hustlers.

Kids like to greet me and ask ça va? That's all they want to do. They do it in the same spirit as when I was a kid in the car on I-94 and I'd pump my arms to truckers to see if they would blow their horn. When they did, we'd all laugh. I don't know if people do that to truckers anymore. Was it because I was a kid? Or because it the age of CB radio, Smokey and the Bandit, Every Which Way But Loose, and BJ and the Bear--when trucking was the cool job.