En route to Timbuktu

I left Bamako this morning, after about 9 hours on a bus, I arrived to Mopti. From Mopti, I can either take a boat or shared 4WD to Timbuktu. But I think I'll first stay in Mopti for 2 nights and then decide how I want to reach Timbuktu.

Best things in the world are indeed free

Ever since my wallet was stolen by that Dutch criminal nearly 2 weeks ago, I have been blessed by the hospitality of both locals and Chinese expats.

My stay in Mauritania was at a local's house, for 5 days, I slept, ate and drank all for free! And they even helped arrange to have me smuggled into Senegal (illegally though, who cares!)


Then 4 out of 6 days while I was in Senegal, I met these 2 Chinese expats who gave me a bed in their hotel rooms, and fed me for free (including several delicious Chinese meals and an amazing meal at a fancy Thai restaurant)

Now I've travelled with them (in their 4WD) to Mali and am sleeping in a big room in their villa turned company building. Man, I've been so spoilt now, how am I going to travel after I leave these guys?!

Chinese in West Africa

Yesterday was my lucky day! I was going to take the over-50-hour bus from Dakar to Bamako in Mali. I was prepared to take this super crappy and crowded bus for a hellish journey. But then I met 2 Chinese businessmen at a fast food restaurant, and they happened to be going to Bamako this Sunday, and they have a 4WD. So I asked if I could tag along, they happily agreed, and it will only take about 20 hours in their car! Ha!

I've always known that in Africa I can always count on the help from local Chinese people, like a few years ago, I was sheltered and fed by a Chinese construction company in northern Ethiopia, they even made me dumplings and seafood!!

The next few days are going to be a breeze!!

This is so illegal!!!!!

Because I couldn't get a visa from the Senegalese embassy in Mauritania (my Chinese passport sucks!), my Mauritanian fixer smuggled me across the border (the Senegal River) and into Senegal in a dug-out canoe and a horse car.

I swear that I did not know I was actually going to be illegally smuggled into Senegal. I thought he had just bribed a Senegalese border guard who would let me sneak in. But now, I've become an illegal alien in Senegal, and I'm feeling nervous all the time. So I'll just try to get to Mali ASAP, and hope that there isn't going to be too much of a problem when I exit Senegal and when they don't see any entry stamp in my passport!

the Dutchman is a fucking criminal!

Initially, we agreed that I paid $100 to share gas expense and he would take me across Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia. Then later he said he didn't have enough money and his friends in Holland had failed to send him more, so he borrowed another $100 from me.

Along the way, I got food poisoning. When we went to pharmacy and bought medicines, he said they cost Dh1,300 and wanted me to repay him, but I only saw him give the pharmacist Dh400! ($1 is about Dh7.7)

Then on the way, he told me he was jailed in France before for 3 years for smuggling drugs, and to this day, he still could  not go to France.

After Morocco border post, at the Mauritanian post he said he had paid 25 Euros for each of us as insurance, so he would deduct that from the $100 he owed me.

Now here at the Mauritania-Senegal border, he left me here and drove into Senegal by himself, AND he had stolen my wallet!!!!

In total, he got nearly $400 in cash from me and stole my wallet which had my credit cards inside.

Remember this Dutch guy's name: Joseph Schaefer Frans, he was born in March 1968. Remember he is a CRIMINAL! Watch out for him!

WANTED!!!

However, luckily, a young Mauritanian man went after him into Senegal and managed to bring back my wallet. So now I'm stranded at yet another border, and will stay at this Mauritanian man's house for a couple of days.

30 straight hours on buses :(

After riding buses for 30 hours, I've finally arrived in Rabat from the Morocco-Mauritania border. I swear I will never want to be on a bus for this long! I mean, the bus (I travelled with CTM, one of the best bus operators in Morocco) is big and farely comfortable, but it's just so effing boring, now I believe boredom can actually kill.

The bus arrived in Rabat around 7am. I took a taxi and went straight to the Mauritanian embassy. The visa section didn't open till about 8:40, so I had to wait outside for quite some time. The weather in Rabat didn't cooperate at all, it's been raining nonstop. After submitting the application and paying Dh510 for a 2-entry visa, I got a receipt and was told to come back at 5pm. So now I hope there won't be any more drama with the visa and when I return later this afternoon, I'll get that damn visa.

While waiting outside the embassy, I talked with other travellers, and it seems that Mauritania is the only country in the western Africa area that does NOT issue visa at the border at this moment. Also, I met this Dutch guy, Joseph, who will drive all the way to Mauritania when he picks up his passport and visa at 5pm today, and he agreed to let me ride with him and I'll share the gas cost with him.

Now, there's still 6 hours till 5pm, I think I will try to find a place to take a shower and find a McD's!

Stranded in no man's land/minefield

After around 25 hours of bus, shared taxis and a bit of hitchhiking, I finally exited Morocco, crossed through the no man's land/minefield and arrived at the Mauritania border around 6pm on Friday. I soon found out rumour was no rumour, there was no visa issuing at the border any more. Maybe I shouldn't even have called it "rumour" in the first place, because so many travellers and locals had been telling me that. But I just refused to believe it, I was being too stubborn and too over-optimistic that I just wanted to think it was a rumour.

Now it was already around 7:30pm, the Moroccan border was closed, so I couldn't even cross back into Morocco. The Mauritanian guards told me to leave their post immediately and just head into the no man's land. They didn't seem to care if I had to sleep in the cold desert and in the middle of a minefield. However, they did showed "kindness" of warning me to watch out for the land mines.

As I was ready to leave, other travellers started to gather around me and offered me water and their sympathies. Now I think the scene made the Mauritanian guards start to realise that it would just be a really bad PR if they indeed made a lone foreign traveler sleep in the no man's land. So an officer called me over, he asked to have my passport, and talked on his cell phone for a couple of minutes. Then he indicated that he would keep my passport and send a guard to take me somewhere to sleep. At this point, I was already feeling very relieved. It turned out, they put me in a guest house like place that's made up of a few big tents. The guard told me to sleep in here and not to go anywhere, and tomorrow take my passport and cross back to Morocco.

The lesson learnt: you should always listen to other fellow travellers' advice.

Overstay Moroccan visa

My Moroccan visa has expired. Now I'm heading south along the coast towards Morocco-Mauritania border, it may take at least 2 or 3 days to reach it. And hopefully I can get a visa for Mauritania at the border.

First impressions of Essaouira

Ocean breezes, super fancy hotels, drunk muslims and drug junkies.