Winter driving me crazy. Or Miss Daisy.

Well folks, another blog back in the cold reality of Iwate, Japan. Winter here is long. I was informed that they call winter over on the 4^th of February. This seems a tad hopeful. That was three weeks ago, and it has snowed the last three days! Things are certainly warmer in Tokyo and the south, but still colder than a Melbourne winter!

Here in Iwate the hardest thing of late has been adjusting to the winter. I’ve had to organise a few things like a new visa recently, and in particular a Japanese driver’s licence. My international driver’s licence is good until the 2^nd of March. That’s this coming weekend! So anyways after one year you need to organise a Japanese licence.

Well, it’s not so straight forward, however comparatively for myself it’s not too bad. If I was American or Canadian, I would need to sit a proper driver’s test. Thankfully that wasn’t necessary – I understand it’s almost impossible to pass on the first attempt. To be thorough the driver testers almost feel obligated to fail people on their first attempt!

Then there is a huge pile of paperwork. Basically I had to prove I had been in my home country for three months in a row since I got my licence. One thing they look for is the issue date of the licence. Well, the state of Victoria doesn’t put that on the licence! So, I had to get a ‘driving record’ sent here. The fact that in the past five years I have had two speeding tickets (both for less than 10 km over the limit!) worked in my favour. It proved I had been driving in Australia. I also submitted over 30 payslips to prove my continuously being in the country. However, it still wasn’t enough to grant me a full licence.

I am on a beginners licence for a year now. I have the special mark/sticker/magnet on my car to say I am in my first year of driving. I think I have less demerit points to lose, but I am not sure. I’ve only been driving since 1995!

Anyways, such is life and if I don’t speed I should be ok. The roads are something else I’ve had to get used to. I woke up one day in January and the usual 35-40 minute drive to work suddenly took 75 minutes! I had allowed for delays thankfully and made it on time by five minutes. When there’s snow, the roads are slow. When there’s ice, they are dangerous.

What tends to happen is driving on snow churns it up, turns it to water etc. Then at night the temperature drops, maybe to minus five, sometimes colder. Last night was more like minus ten. The water, even though there’s not a lot, freezes. The winter tyres don’t grip very well the next morning. Breaking is something to be done very carefully. I’ve experienced a little bit of skidding on the ice. The key is not to break hard, but gently, and leave plenty of space between you and the car in front.

I was driving home one very cold day when it didn’t reach 0 and this post van zoomed over the hill the other direction to me. The downhill slope (for him) was iced, and suddenly he lost control. He went from side to side, desperately swinging the steering wheel (which I’m sure was a bad move) and I thought – I was a goner! Somehow he missed me and regained control.

Downhill is the worst, the scariest part of driving when the road is icy. Usually people are painfully slow on those parts. Hence a 35 minute trip turns into over an hour. Patience and being careful is the only remedy here.

The forecast is for more snow this week.

My Mali Part Three

Bus travel in West Africa is an early morning affair usually. It’s nice to just find a bus service really as it’s much cheaper than bush taxis and other forms of transport in the region, and I think the bus out of Mopti to Segou, about halfway to the capital Bamako, left before 6am.

Getting ready for departing Mopti, Bani Transport

My friend and I decided on that bus because we wanted to get to Segou  early enough in the day to walk about and see things. We had run out of days to get to all the places we wanted to so this way we had a full afternoon in Segou to see the river and life in the town.

It was always good to be out of the bus before it got really hot in the early afternoon, and by lunch time we were in Segou. The guesthouse was simple enough but again there was a dorm room, this time with three beds and the third remained empty. We had a TV in the room but showers and toilets were downstairs via a rickety old metal spiral staircase.

There was a decent restaurant at the hotel too which helped a lot. After we finished lunch it was siesta time. Throughout West Africa I found that places all shut down after lunch for a couple of hours before reopening. Towns become a bit quiet. Who can blame them in that heat?

Ferry and life, washing, Segou

We were following the Bani river southwards in Mali, and Segou was another town built on it. Although I didn’t go to any museums or see anything amazing, I quite liked Segou as a sleepy town with bustling river life. The river was where people bathed and washed their clothes. Boats lined up – big boats compared to the small ones in Mopti. On the rocks by the river people spread their wet washing to catch a few rays of sunlight. I don’t expect it took a lot of time to dry in high-30s heat.

Segou also featured many mules, I saw plenty by the river. But time was short in Segou, one afternoon and then off to the capital Bamako. What a journey it turned out to be!

I had been warned to take a reputable bus company as some of the cheaper, less official companies had a lot of issues and often stranded passengers if something went wrong with the bus. I was soon to find out that those issues also can be encountered on the better bus services.

Bani was supposed to be one of the best, but not long out of Segou and the bus was having problems. I shuddered at the thought of having to wait for a new bus once we were already on the road, but the driver opened up an engine panel at the back of the bus and seemed to think everything would be okay.

And for the most part it was, however, as we approached Bamako, maybe 30 kilometres from the centre, the troubles resurfaced. It had been a fun bus trip with a happy atmosphere on board. The buses aren’t always that comfortable in West Africa, sometimes they really pack ‘em in, but generally people have a smile on their face.

But just before Bamako the bus was stopped again and the panel was opened again. This time it seemed there was no remedy. Bags were removed from the top of the bus – they love to stack buses, taxis and mini-buses as high as they can with luggage on the top.  All of a sudden no one was around. Everyone, including the driver, had disappeared. Well. What was there left to do? Had to hitch a ride into town somehow, and I found myself on a coal truck headed into central Bamako. Then in a share taxi.

Bamako Street

Eventually I found my way to the guesthouse where I took a mattress on the floor for not much money at all. Bamako was another fleeting visit. There’s not a lot to see in Bamako, but the markets are rather interesting and there are some decent bakeries and restaurants, good if you’ve been stuck on simple food for a while.

There was a great arts and crafts market I visited, called the artisans' market. This is where people worked at woodcraft and other such things, a great place for souvenirs and the like. When I went to the fetish market – where you can get all types of things, many voodoo related, was interesting too. I took a photo and the owner was very upset and angry, I showed the photo to him and suddenly he was very pleased. I offered to delete it but he didn't want me to. In fact he asked me to take another, this time with him in the photo.

Wood carving at the Artisans' Market.

In Africa generally you have to be very careful about taking photos when people are involved. Often they will ask for a gift – money (cadeau) if you ask, which you should do if you are photographing people up close, or often even midrange. As travellers we love to take photos as our memories, and now that film is a thing of the past nobody worries about how many they are taking, but as a local I can only imagine how sick they must get of tourists and cameras.

And the fetish market. A little creepy. The kid just wandered into view half a second before I went 'click'.

Bamako has statues (some of crocodiles, big ones) churches and mosques. It’d be easy enough to pass a few days there before getting bored, but it is no high on tourist attractions. Mali though, especially for the region is.

According to news reports, things appear to be going the way of the French Army in Mali, and if they are to be believed the local Malian people are happy about that. It’s very sad to read or hear about a place I visited having troubles, especially with terrorism and the like. I’m hoping for a speedy return to normality, and that once again Mali will be attracting the tourists like it did before. It’s a very rewarding place to visit.

If you'd like to know more on Mali, or other places I have written about, I have some interesting stuff on Kindle:

Andrew Boland Author Page

My Mali Part Two

Continuing on from the previous post, I have bee reminiscing about one of my favourite African countries to visit, Mali.

Mopti was the first proper town we arrived at. I was lucky to still be in the group of four that had done the Dogon trek together, so we found our way to a cheap guest house. I can't remember the details or name of the place, but it was probably around ten dollars a night. I shared a dorm room with my friend, and we were fortunate to have it to ourselves.

Changing money was a bit of a hassle I remember. I didn't need to but friend did and it took quite a while at the bank. I had used traveler's cheques at times. Cash was much easier to change in West Africa, however you usually needed a passport to change any money at all and often receipts for traveler's cheques. 

Mopti is situated on the confluence of two rivers, the Bani and the Niger. It's a great base for branching out to the famous and recently infamous Timbuctu, sometimes by boat, sometimes by car. It's not particularly close and depending on the river levels can take 3 days to a week I think. I wasn't headed that way, but many in Mopti were. They were organising all the details for their trips there, quite a few foreigners were staying in Mopti.

The best thing to do as a tourist there, as Mopti itself doesn't contain a plethora of tourist attractions, was to take a boat on the rivers. I spent a few hours floating around, visiting some islands, watching river life in Mali. It was great. The people living on the islands see quite a few tourists naturally, and are always asking for cadeaux (gifts = money) but that doesn't spoil it if you have a cheerful attitude to it.

Watching boats move people and cargo around is great, and I saw some interesting things being ferried - including a small boat full of coffins.

Coffins on the river.

Aside from Dogon Country, Mali's greatest attraction is the Mosque at Djenne, which we did in a longish day trip from Mopti. We had to hire a taxi, but with four people that was very affordable. We took it south, and at one point had to get out as the car made it across a river and up the embankment on the other side. The recent rains had taken out several bridges in the area.

Over the rooftops of Djenne the Mosque stands tall.

A ferry took us across the river to Djenne, it's on a sort of island of its own. The taxi left us outside the mosque, pretty much the centre of Djenne. It was the biggest mud-brick mosque and probably building I have ever seen. A large square surround it - I think there is an amazing market there once or twice a week. You can't go inside sadly, apparently some westerners shot an advertisement there many years ago now which featured scantily-clad women and people were so shocked the mosque became closed to all foreign visitors.

However the whole town is mud-brick, an amazing maze of streets and life. Many people had official cards as guides and desperately wanted to guide us, but we found a nice bloke who showed us the way when we needed help so we employed him instead! It was a highlight of Mali, Djenne, no two ways about it. A must see and a very special place on Earth.

From there it was back to Mopti and another 5am bus the next day. My friend and I said goodbye to the two we'd been travelling with as they headed north to Timbuctu. We would head south to Segou....

The Mosque at Djenne. 

And that's where today's post ends. Last part on Mali in the next week, maybe sooner. Right now I can't recommend travel to Mali, however, if the troops in there get the job done as they seem to be doing, it could be a safe tourist destination sooner rather than later again.

Don't forget my writings:

Dhaka to Dakar: Across Africa

Dhaka to Dakar:Across Africa - Mali Chapter only

My Mali - Part One

Folks today I am writing about one of my favourite African countries, Mali, in the first of three posts.
Why? Well it's been in the news of late:

From the BBC -

Mali crisis: French-led troops 'enter Timbuktu'
French-led troops in Mali have entered the historic city of Timbuktu encountering little resistance, French and Malian military sources.
But there are reports of thousands of ancient manuscripts being destroyed, with video footage of the library showing charred books and empty boxes.

French President Francois Hollande declared that the joint forces were "winning this battle".
They have been pushing north in their offensive against Islamist rebels.
They seized Gao, north Mali's biggest city, on Saturday.
Islamists seized the north of the country last year, but have been losing ground since French forces launched an operation earlier this month.
Most militants appear to have moved out to desert hideouts, says the BBC's Thomas Fessy in the capital, Bamako.
The advance came as African Union (AU) leaders met for a summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the key issue at which was Mali.

This week, French troops with a small contingent of troops from Mali moved into the north of the country to take towns back from terrorists. This was sparked by the siege in Algeria that claimed over thirty hostage lives, nine or ten of them were Japanese. So, that’s been big news here in Japan. What you may or not know is that the terrorists are based in northern Mali, and the gas plant where the siege took place is not that far away in Southern Algeria. It is hard to imagine a place so remote, almost completely desert, where something like this could happen.

From what I’ve read, Al-Quaeda now have a base in this part of the world, and as I wrote a few months back now, terrorists had basically taken control of much of the north of Mali, including the famed ‘Timbuctu’.

If news reports are to be believed, the French and Malian armies were greeted with cheers from the locals when they moved in. I never went as far north as Timbuctu, time didn’t allow, but two people I was travelling did, and many tourists went there. This was in 2007. It’s a little confronting to think of such a place changing so much in five years.

Mali was a wonderful place to travel, a real highlight of West Africa. I crossed the border from Burkina Faso with the first item of the ‘to do’ list being ‘Dogon Trek’. The Dogon Escarpment appears like a big cliff face near the ocean, without the ocean within 1000 kilometres. It’s flat and continuous on each part, the top and the bottom.

Scattered around the base and the top are villages every few kilometres. Life is basic there, there is no electricity save the use of car batteries to power lights, and every building is built out of mud. Despite many tourists visiting there, sleeping on rooves (as we did) and eating pasta, the atmosphere is still rather authentic. Tourism has become very important to the villages, but life goes on. Women pound millet, doing the bulk of the villages’ physical labour, and the men hold councils to decide what’s best for the village. Yes, sexism is alive and well!

For the tourist,  finding a guide is the first thing to do when you arrive there. If you head to nearby towns such as Bandiagara you will surely be approached by someone, or enquire through your guesthouse. Prices are negotiable and I can’t remember what I paid exactly, however having a group is obviously much cheaper than doing it on your own. In a group of four I’m sure we paid well under forty-fifty dollars a day for our guide, who we had met at the Burkina Faso border making things a little easier for us. The money pays for most things, including meals and sleeping.

Trekking is easy in as much as it is flat, except for the two hour climb up the escarpment in an area water has made walkable. (no climbing rock faces at all!) The heat was intense in the middle of the day, maximums around the low-40s (celcius) in November, so you walk in the morning and late afternoon, and from 11-3pm you have lunch and rest each day. Guide books and indeed guides recommend buying some kola nuts, a local nut, to give as gifts to village leaders or important people. Most guides won’t let you go without them, and they need to be of a decent quality.

We did a three day/two night trek. That seemed a decent length. The guides will cater to what you want, from one to five or maybe more days. The escarpment is long so there are many villages to walk to and visit. It’s an amazing cultural experience, a beautiful, mystical and other-worldly part of this planet. Lying on a roof top looking up at the stars as you fall asleep is possibly the major highlight. I visited a school, met a village medicine man and blacksmith too. I don’t remember a negative experience in my time there.

At the conclusion on the third afternoon, we had a jeep waiting to take us into Bandiagara and we could shower again. The red sand of this part of the world has a tendency to stick to you! This town is not particularly attractive to be fair, but the hotel was rather nice and about 15 dollars per person twin share – the name, naturally, escapes me.

Next post I will move on to the northern most port of call I had in Mali, Mopti, and talk about the one place more amazing than the Dogon Escarpment, Djenne.

For more writings on Mali and Africa, please visit my Kindle store!

Mali chapter from 'Dhaka to Dakar'

Dhaka to Dakar Volume Three - Across Africa (includes seven West African countries including Mali)