In The Comanav Office I Shout At Ali Baba, "You Are A Voleur And A Menteur!!!"

(Continued from the previous post)

Just to recap if you don't know. Ali Baba had originally passed himself off as a Hôtel Bouctou employee by telling me that they needed to know how many nights I was staying. I had told him it depends on the Comanav schedule whereupon he told me he could get tickets if I needed them. OK. The desk guy at the Bouctou refused to lend Ali Baba a pen to write my name--a sign I took to mean, "you can rip my clients off by yourself, but I won't help you". I needed a 3rd class ticket to Gao. The ticket cost is CFA 22000 (US$44) and he would get me one for CFA 25000 (US$50). OK, a $6 commission seems a tad high but certainly not super-unreasonable. A half hour later he came to me in the internet cafe where I was and gave me a receipt for which he wanted me to pay. But the receipt was for CFA 33000 (US$66). I told him we had a deal that it would be CFA 25000. He said that the big boss told him that they needed to include food and that the food brought the price up to CFA 33000. I had my Lonely Planet with me that clearly implies without explicitly stating that food is included with all tickets other than 4th class. Ali Baba told me that sometimes the guide books are wrong--a fact I knew well having traveled with Lonely Planet for the past 2 months. I told him that I don't want food and told him to go back and fix the price back to the CFA 25000 we originally agreed upon. Then a few minutes the big boss came and told me food was obligatory. I had no choice but to pay CFA 33000 for the ticket. Further, they would provide transportation to the port for CFA 2000 and that would be included in the price so I owed an even CFA 35000. I said I wanted a second opinion--that Lonely Planet said that an outfit called Azalaï Voyages would get me tickets for a fee and I wanted to get a quote from them. They said they were Azalaï Voyages. Upon checking the location of the icon, I saw it was true. Though nowhere on their building does it actually say Azalaï Voyages. He insisted their reputation was very important and they would never rip me off. This was smelling fishy, but I paid. Over the next couple days I asked Ali Baba every time I saw him to explain the CFA 8000 for food. He said he'd explain to me at the port.

OK, the background is done. Now for the meat.

As you should know from the previous post, Ali Baba and I were heading back to the Comanav office to clear up once and for all how he added CFA 8000 for food. He was making BS excuses saying the CFA 22000 was for passage and I shouldn't expect the food to be included in the price. Finally, I had enough. We were in the anteroom to the ticket clerks office. I was livid and I shouted in a English French hybrid "You are a menteur and a voleur!" I said "liar" and "thief" in French for maximum impact since the ticket clerk and any other person would understand them and there would be maximum impact. He got mad, naturally. I got madder. He told me to calm down and not use language like that. We went into the ticket office still arguing. "If you don't calm down I'm going to call the police." "Good!" I said calling his bluff, "I want to explain to them how you ripped me off!" Then I saw that there was a new person on the room. A guy in a green uniform at the other desk. He seemed to be the boss of the ticket clerk.

I took my ticket which showed "plein tarif CFA 22000" on both the ticket and meal coupon attached to the ticket. I laid it down in front of the green boss and tried to ask in French "Si je moi-meme achete cette billet, combien ça coûte? Combien c'est la prix?" Ali Baba was talking and trying to confuse the issue. I had a simple question and wanted a simple answer. I held up my hand and demanded Ali Baba to let me ask my question. Finally he had to. The answer to my simple question: "Vingt deux mil franc." Just as I suspected. I told them I paid CFA 35000 for this ticket from Ali Baba. Ali Baba tried to tell me that there has to be a commission. I stopped him. Ï understand you need a commission. When we settled on 25000 for a 22000 ticket, I was perfectly willing to pay the 3000 as a commission. I need you to tell me where the other 8000 comes from!" We went in more circles.

I went over to where some papers were taped to the wall. I said I wanted to see something that showed the price of food above and beyond the ticket price. There was nothing there to help him. We went back out into the anteroom where there were more papers taped to the wall. Ali Baba was complaining that I was causing him to lose customers. I told all he has to is explain how they arrive at CFA 8000 for food. He tried a new tack. He said that all his customers aske for first or second class tickets where they always add the food. He said he realized I was traveling on a budget and since I was traveling third class he was trying to help me out by not charging for food. I didn't believe him, but it was an interesting dodge. I asked him how long he was working this job. He said nine years. "In nine years I'm the first person who ever asked for a third class ticket? I don't believe it. You're claiming you don't know how third class tickets work?"

Finally, I calmed down a bit. I said that I would apologize (I didn't tell him, but I would have given him CFA 10000 as well) if he could just show me an official looking paper or schedule or price list somewhere that shows how much food costs over the CFA 22000 full fare. "That's all you have to do and I'll apologize and I'll be a happy customer." He walked over to the price list of tickets from Kabara. He pointed at the 22000 in the third class column Gao row. "This is for the passage," he said. Then he slid his finger one column to the right to a figure of about CFA 5000 and some change. "And this is for food." I looked at the column. It was the 4th class ticket price column. "No!" I shouted. "You do not get the third class ticket price by adding the third class ticket price to the fourth class ticket price!" I can't believe he even tried that trick. Any doubts I had that it might be my own error were weakened. This bogus attempt just made me angrier.

We went back into the anteroom and he said something to the ticket clerk. The ticket clerk lifted up the front edge of his laptop and looked underneath and read off some number in the CFA 30000's to Ali Baba. I didn't know what was going on and I certainly wasn't convinced. They weren't exactly coming to Ali Baba's defense. This was the only attempt to minimally help him but they really didn't want to get involved and didn't want to do anything dishonest.

In the end Ali Baba didn't convince me. He said he had to go out and deal with his tourists. Since the boat was not yet loading--still unloading, I waited in the office. After about 10 minutes Ali Baba came back. He said he wanted me to be a happy customer and would like to take me to someone who would explain the ticket pricing. I figured he had too much time to recruit someone to give me the razzle-dazzle so I said no. "He told me the food is gratuit, and he told me that if I bought the ticket myself it would cost 22000 francs," I said motioning to the two men in the other room. "That's all I need to know. There is nothing else you can do at this point."

And he left.

I was still hot a half hour later when I asked if I could board the boat. The man in green took me up to the boat and told the guy there to assign me a room. He assigned me to room 26. I searched all over that damn boat for room 26. I couldn't find it. I had all those damn water bottles and all my luggage. Finally I got mad and went back. I accused them of giving me a non-existent room. They led me to the room and boy was I embarrassed. Accusing them of assigning me to a non-existent room was the only truly shameful thing I've in Africa. I tipped the guys who led me there. I got a bed and fanned myself and started writing about my sucky day in my journal.

Just as a final note, I am willing to concede that it is possible I was wrong and Ali Baba was right. He knows, the man in green knows, and the ticket clerk knows, but I'm not 100% sure. The evidence points my way, but if anyone can point me to an authoritative source showing I am wrong. I will send a CFA 10000 note to Ali Baba in care of the Hôtel Bouctou.

September 30, 2008 2:57 Mali local time