I went all the way to Timbuctu...

....So the tiny plane landed in the dusty little town called Timbuctu...
Nope. that does not sound romantic at all. Timbuctu is a place where one
should make long and hard treks, over dangerous terrains, not a quick
airplane trip. Though, to be truthful, the plane ride was quite difficult to
arrange, expensive, on again off again, unpredictable and long and bumpy.
So, in a way, I did pay my dues...

...unlike ghana, mali is all muslim. When I arrived it was the first day of
ramadan. Their month long fasting. I really felt bad for my guides, walking
around with me in all that desert heat, watching me eat and drink...

...mali is half desert. Entire north half is in the western sahara. Timbuctu
is right at the edge of sahara. You leave the city and take two steps north
and you are in tractless sand that stretches all the way to the
mediterranean sea. And it is hot, hot in the desert. timbuctu was going to
have a new weather station, I don't know why they would even bother. It is
always hot, dusty. When I asked the guide how hot it was that day, he
casually said, 'not much, must be 45-46 in the shade.' when I realized that
was in centigrade and translated to around 113F, I decided to return to my
cool cave like hotel right away and not emerge till 4 pm when a cool desert
breeze was starting.

...unlike ghana, mali (and of course tombuctou) is a french speaking
country, and yes, according to my prediction, does have better food than
ghana. Being a landlocked country, it has wonderful selection of freshwater
fish from their great mother river niger. Like nile in egypt, niger brings
life to the desert. From airplane you can see this huge river in the desert
with a narrow strip of green on either side. In bamako, the river is three
times the width of mississipi in new orleans. It is huge. The fish I liked
best is called capitaine. it is one of the tastiest fish I have eaten. I had
it everyday, grilled, fried, with different french style sauces. Yum! Their
other local food is 'to' (pronounced toe) which is like fu-fu but made of
millet instead of casava, so less slimy, but equally tasteless. Fortunately
rice is abundant along the river and good french style baguettes are
available all over. on street corners in timbuctu, there are community ovens
(tandoor style) for baking flat pita like breads. They are pretty good
except for the gritty taste due to sand which is everywhere and in
everything. Everything is cooked in peanut oil, though palm oil is making
inroads.(mark, make note-- I met a palm oil salesman in the airport, he is
south indian by birth, brought up in ethiopia, now works in dubai for a
company called tunel, based in singapore and was going from ghana to mali to
sell palm oil. Reminded me of you! He lectured me in depth about the virtues
of palm oil! It seems to be everywhere on earth!)

...timbuctu is apparently named after an oasis where a lady from buctou
family found a well (toum). Hence the name. From 8th c ad, it has been a
famous fabled city on the caravan route through western sahara. A famous
muslim university was founded here, manuscripts from there are still being
found and collected in a museum. The mud and stick mosques are the old 13th
century buildings, (as old as qutab minar) are the oldest in africa, after
cairo's mosques.

...timbuctu was nothing like I had expected. The whole city is made up of
low mud buildings and the roads are unpaved, sand filled. The famous old
mosques as well as the modern official buildings are all mud coated and
annually get a replacement coating to keep the buildings cool. The whole
place has the mud-sand color with not a single tree or a blade of grass to
add any green. In may-july, they have dust storms called harmattan (like
delhi's loo) that lasts days and weeks, when sand is in everything, one
cannot take pictures, can not wear contact lens...thank god I did not have
to see one. People sleep on the flat roofs of the building and eat, pray and
gossip in the evenings. It is very delhi like (in the 50's). No mosquito, as
it is so dry and hot. The whole town looks like a forgotten western style
ghost town in some arizona desert. I was at a non-tourist time, and except
for one french canadian, didn't see a single white face in the entire town.

...mali has a whole bunch of tribes--djenne, dogon, fulani, tuareg etc etc.
they all live quite peacefully (unlike other african countries). Only the
tuaregs are a bit more 'independant-minded' than the others.They are the
nomads of western sahara and live and roam in many countries from mali,
chad, niger etc. they pitch their round tent anywhere in the city for weeks
or months and pick up and go whenever the mood moves them. No paying rent or
anything. they hate to be restricted to one nationality and are not very
tourist friendly. They are the main tribe in and around timbuctu. One can
easily recognize them by their haughty looks and signature blue robe and
turbans (dyed any shade from dark blackish blue to light sky blue, using
indigo dye originally from india. This is the only thing about india that
they know). From time to time they stage small acts of rebellion - just to
show who is the boss- like raid a tourist jeep and leave them stranded in
the desert (to die, obviously), acts that have earned mali a tourist
advisory from the us govt. but once made friends, they are very trusty. My
guide was a tuareg and being a lonely woman, I got a lot of sympathy and
kindness from them. Yet, while I was sitting with them drinking tea and
watching them sing and dance (they were good friends of my guide), I could
tell that unlike other tribes, they hold themselves aloof. I had to do all
the gestures of friendship. They are very wary of outsiders.

...i rode a camel about 2 miles north of timbuctu into the desert to see the
tuaregs. In case you wonder at my bare feet, no, the sand was cool in the
evening and yes, bare feet are the tuareg style camel riding. The tuareg
camels do not like shoes against their skin. And I agree. The feel of soft
camel hair under my feet is absolutely luxurious. But camel riding is hard.
For one thing, you have to lean forward while going downhill and lean back
when climbing up-- both are counterintuitive to one's natural body movements
and I was always doing the wrong thing, much to the disgust of my haughty
tuareg cameleer.

... The tuareg kids are the true children of the desert. They sleep, play
and roll around in the sand without any concern for bugs or scorpions. I
had taken some candies and a bundle of ballpoint pens for them. They loved
them. I was mindful this time to unwrap each candy before giving out. (In
past in a masai camp in kenya, I had made the mistake of giving candies with
plastic wrapper. The kids don't know wrappers and eat them whole. I had to
sit in the dust and wrestle with terrified kids to open their mouths and
take out half chewed plastics! Never again!)

... The tuareg women wear deep blue almost black robes, (the only white clad
woman in picture is pregnant). They also use african mehendi on their hands
and feet in bold geometric designs. It is almost black color,not yellow
brown like indian henna. And the designs are not delicate curvy types
either. It is very much in fashion and I saw rich malian women with
intricate designs on their hands and feet on their way to Paris.

...so, it had to happen sometime... while coming back home, a l-ong trek,
(timbuctu-bamako-paris-minneapolis-omaha) 43 hrs in transit. In Minneapolis,
I must have been looking rather ragged and pitiful, a friendly lady asks me
'so where are you coming from dear?'. I said 'timbuctu'. The lady looked
like 'oh, ok, if you don't want to talk, fine...' I suddenly realized how I
must have sounded, but was too tired to explain. =)