Travel Stories

Bamako to Abidjan by bus: a chance to get intimate with the hot season

by phil May 14, 2012 Cote D'Ivoire
bamako to abidjan

In Bambara, Sama = Elephant I have spent approximately 110 hours of my life on the road between Bamako and Abidjan. I first took the trip in October of 2010. At that time, the northern half of Cote d’Ivoire was controlled by the Forces Nouvelles and it was the middle of the mini late-year rainy [...]

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2012 Festival au Désert in Words and Photos + Update from Bamako

by phil February 3, 2012 Mali

I recapped the Festival briefly in this post. The event was over two weeks ago. A lot has changed in northern Mali (and in Bamako, you could say) since then. I will address this to an extent later in the post. I will also list some resources for you to follow. I first traveled to [...]

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In Photos: Possibly Strange Sights in West Africa

by phil October 20, 2011 Travel Stories

Taxi interior design in Bamako. Minimalist taxi interior design T-shirts in English in Francophone countries. “PMS – Putting up with Men’s Shit.” He’s not trying to be ironic. He just doesn’t know what the shirt says. I’m starting a restaurant in Abidjan with this guy and his girlfriend. Like Amadou, he is unaware of what [...]

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I Have a Plane Ticket

by phil September 27, 2011 Travel Stories

Anne-Marie and Blessing head up BCU (Banku Crushers United). I was a provisional member until word got out that I don’t actually eat Banku. In the world of dense heavy starches, I prefer fufu. Thankfully, I was not banished entirely from the girls’ company. Anne-Marie and Blessing. Reliable checkers opponents and dedicated camel drawing students. [...]

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Sound Memories

by phil September 15, 2011 Music
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I travel with a canon s90 and a flip cam. I do most of my reflection with a notepad; some amount of that writing ends up on this site. I also travel with a digital field recorder, currently an Edirol R-09. I record a bit of everything with it. Music from car stereos and gasping [...]

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Bamako to Dakar: a Tidy 35 Hours on the Okra Sauce Bus

by phil July 27, 2011 Mali
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Four hours into a 35 hour bus ride and the sky dropped an ocean on western Mali. Rivulets formed in an instant and brown water submerged a police checkpoint, normally a hub of commerce but temporarily abandoned because of the storm. My seatmate moved to the stairwell, a seat I am familiar with, when the [...]

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