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| About |
This is the Travel Blog of Andy of HoboTraveler.com
Daily Travel Tip
Daily Photos
Thanks to Mom, Dad, Family and Friends and Boy Genius From India
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| Burkina Faso Girl |
| Tuesday, October 16, 2007 |
Burkina Faso Girl
This photo has been sitting in my photo blog box for weeks, this small girl was just too cute. I do wish they would not grow up. I think I took this in Oradura, Burkina Faso, between the city of Bobo and the Malie Border.
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Bangkok, Thailand Southeast Asia
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Andy of HoboTraveler.com HoboHideOut.com
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I am at the mercy of the small children of the planet, they just can do not wrong. It is interesting to observe, there is this nature - nurture thing and for sure, children learn to be creeps from their parents. They just start out happy, then take a left turn, when they should have went right. I know I am supposed to take photos of children suffering, I just did not see many, easier to find the happy ones in West Africa.
Tomorrow I cut all the outside pockets off my two new backpacks.
Submit Hotel and Free Webpage or maybe Contact Andy
Burkina Faso GirlLabels: Burkina Faso, Thailand, West Africa Children |
posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 12:54 PM   |
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| 2007 September 20 Entered Mali left Burkina Faso |
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 |
2007 September 20 Entered Mali left Burkina Faso
Sikasso, Mali, West Africa
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I left Orodara, Burkina Faso, a nice, happy place and am in Sikasso, Mail. This is a new country for me, I am on number 77.
So far, I want to return to my island in Orodara to continue to enjoy the day, tomorrow I travel to Bamako, Mali and I cannot see any tranquil pathways. I will get a Visa to Guinea and scoot on south.
2007 September 20 Entered Mali left Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Enter Leave Country Marker, Mali |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 9:00 AM |
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| Pros or Cons Versus your Travel Speed |
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Pros or Cons Versus your Travel Speed
Orodara, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
You have lived in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso for a year… ?
You have lived in Cape Coast, Ghana for three months… ?
What are you doing here in Togo?
What are you doing here in Ghana?
Reading some real questions I asked of people I met while some volunteer workers or NGO workers were being tourist, I must accept, I enjoy a small prod or provoke here and there to observe neural speed and efficiency. Yes, it is having a reaction to stimuli.
Travel is not a one time event, travel is movement, I suppose going to a Resort in Cancun, Mexico could be called an event, or going to a Festival is an event, and being a volunteer can be a long-term event, somewhere wrapped up in the time spent in a location starts to tell me whether you are a traveler or a you are living somewhere to what is the truth?
I ask questions to volunteers that are 90 percent travelers and 10 percent volunteers, as I listen, they have never stay at the event, and they voted with their feet and left the Volunteer Event.
There are Pros and Cons of any Travel Destination. Travel is about time and speed controls, when you stay a long time in one place the speed control is on low, and when you stay one day, the speed control is on high. I for sure believe the majority of tourist and travelers have a faulty speed control that is jammed on high speed, which means those flowers have no smell.
When the Pros are up, turn the speed down, when the Cons are up, then turn the speed up, accelerate, full speed ahead.
I think there is some inside, traveler question, and stated like,
- How long to do the country? -
In the world language, not English.
- How long to know the place? -
The world asked the question,
- Do you know Burkina Faso? -
I say
- I arrived yesterday. -
I want to say,
- Connect your brain to your mouth, there is a severe lack of neural efficiency, how can I know a place until I have spent at least one day, you saw me get off the bus. -
Velocity, speed, I have no need for speed, unless it feels bad, when life is good, I go slow and eat every piece of pie, and save some for tomorrow. When life sucks, I raise my mast and sail away, praying to all the good Gods there are no doldrums.
When the cons outweigh the pros I go fast, when the pros outweigh the cons, I go slow, sometimes I stop, a very good sign about a place.
When I have seen NGO and Volunteers who are sailing ships with three masts, and trying to find ways to erect more, I some times tell them,
- I saw the Air Moroc office down the street. -
Do I really need to weigh the pros and cons of a country, I just need remember I am the Captain of this Ship, and can say, Scotty, engage, go to Warp Speed, or I can stay an watch a very bad movie because I paid the money, and know I have been demoted.
To be an Alpha Male, there has to be other letters in the alphabet.
Pros or Cons Versus your Travel SpeedLabels: Burkina Faso, Planning your Trip, Transportation |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:56 AM |
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| Helping Travelers Travel in Africa |
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Helping Travelers Travel in Africa
Orodara, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I now am now reading quite a few Travel Blogs thanks to the RSS reader.
http://www.rssfwd.com
I hear many things,
I want to be famous.
I am an authority.
I am here; this is a good or bad place.
I am not writing a travelogue, I am writing an article.
Here, look at my photos. ( I am on Flickr.)
These are the facts, because I said so.
I hate my country, and so should you.
I am sorry, I do not post, I want to, but I am too busy.
I have this all planned, I will be here on this date, and leave on this date.
All these reasons are good; the one I like to hear is most, what I want to hear is,
…hello how are you, what do you think, did you hear this, and maybe this idea will help others travelers travel…
(Passive voice)
I know he or she is in a different country, however I know we are on the same path, yes, I will follow you, and thank you.
Helping Travelers Travel in AfricaLabels: Burkina Faso, Writing |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:53 AM |
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| The Morning Donkey Bray |
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The Morning Donkey Bray
Orodara, Burkina Faso, West Africa
September 19, 2007, 6:29 AM
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
The roosters are crowing.
Sometime a dog barks.
People are turning on their radios and televisions.
People talking at full on, no volume control.
I can hear the soft sweeping of the sand.
Motorcycles or Mopeds are accelerating.
Walking to who knows where…
Some birds are chirping, but not competing well.
Wheels rolling on the highway as semis past
Soon horns from cars and motorcycle will become dictators of the day.
I hear the bray of a Donkey and started to laugh; I do not remember ever hearing this noise as the sunrise, but a nice addition to a noisy world I live in, providing not in the same compound as mine. For sure, the Donkey has better manners than all the other animals around, he or she only brayed one time.
The world truly believes, if I am awake, then you should be awake, I am a lucky traveler, I normally wake up around 5:00 AM and hear them awake, instead of reacting to the noises.
The Morning Donkey BrayLabels: Burkina Faso, West Africa Animals |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:49 AM |
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| Orodara a Populated Place |
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Orodara a Populated Place
Orodara, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am in Orodara, Burkina Faso; for some reason this Geography Term, a populated place has entered my world two times today. Working on HoboHideOut.com and the cities of the USA there is an identifier use called Populated Place, both times this phrase has almost negligible value to me.
I did not take the direct but to Bamako, Mali.
The direct bus from Bobo, Burkina Faso to Bamako, Mali if I took it would arrive at 21:30 and if all went as normal African time, I would think closer to 23:30 of almost midnight. I asked,
- Climatise? -
The ticket woman frowns, and shakes here head. This does not mean it is not Air Conditioned, it means one person answered no, however I felt she had a better than fair chance of being spot on, therefore negatives chance outweighs the benefits.
Most West African take showers at night, the bus for Bamako leaves at 8:30 in the morning, they are wearing winter coats, the temperature is close to 90 degrees. Everyone wants the windows closed, 12-16 hours of this and my olfactory nerves will take weeks to recover, the ride back from Banfora has already overworked them. African people are clean people, however, nobody is so clean you can just sit and sweat with the windows closed. It has come to my attention, they somehow ignore smells and loud noise, the TV is consistently louder than anywhere I have traveled.
Therefore, my best option is to do a populated place to populated place, skip and hop travel trip from Bobo to Bamako, Mali. I have landed at a populated place called Orodara, I think here is the capital of cheap cashews, and they are sold like peanuts here.
70 kilometers the small concrete road marker said as we cleared the populated place or areas of Bobo and 70 kilometers, this is not very far to travel, however, I have Thank-Any-God out ran the cling-ons of Bobo, Ouaga, and Banfora, I have left the Barbaric behavior of Bobo and enter the civilized city of Orodora, a populated place. I wonder why cities are the uncivilized parts of the planet, and the almost non-populated places are civilized, whatever the case, the people of Orodara are a pleasure to meet as they suffer through Coreme or Ramadan, just saying no to Cashews. My French to English translation on my computer calls it lent, maybe they are related, nevertheless the Islamic people are hungry and need a drink of water today, until about 6:00 PM and they will all run to eat and drink, I wonder if all the bars are busier after this time?
My room is 2500 CFA or 5 Dollars US here in Orodara, the Karma is back in alignment, and I left a room in the Cocotier Hotel in Bobo, very good, but for 7000 CFA and negligibly better. I think I will grow a beard, there is never a sink and mirror in my Hotels, they do not need to shave, and I guess I do not either, I guess I can give it up for Ramadan, shaving that is. I need to find a country where the black people have Paul Bunyan type beard, not goatees.
Orodara a Populated PlaceLabels: Burkina Faso, Geography |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 8:40 AM |
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| African Guidebooks |
| Monday, September 17, 2007 |
African Guidebooks
Bobo Dioulasso or Bobo, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Monday, September 17, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I have listened to enough people traveling in West Africa to know there is guidebook confusion, 99 percent of the people came to volunteer in a country, then decided to go visit neighboring country. Semi, saying, I will never come back, so I am going next door to look, just to see if I should come back, before I make the final decision.
I have listened to people explain why they did not buy the West African version of Lonely Planet or Rough Guides or whatever else is on the market. I have listened to a few explain why they purchased one of the Bradt Guides to one country, then NEED to borrow my Rough Guide to West Africa.
http://www.bradt-travelguides.com
Most say the book the West African versions are too big to carry, so they refuse to be informed to go to some of the most dangerous countries on the planet, which does not make sense.
There is some mysterious guidebook vacuum here, I have now used the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guides, the Rough Guides is making a serious attempt, and I feel Lonely Planet is putting books on the shelf to capture their loyal readers like me, who started with Lonely Planet and are too lazy to learn another guidebook. A good way to make money, not the best person to write a guidebook.
I think about writing a guidebook, however, my reasons are wrong, I do not love any country enough to devote the time needed to one country. I would write a guidebook to make money; this is not a good reason. However, being I continually read guidebooks, and continually muse on this annoying thought in my head, I keep searching for a reason to write a guidebook, I think I am bored, maybe feel a project is needed. It much easier to criticize guidebooks than to write one.
Africa takes last place for places Backpacker want to go and this is probably the last place anyone should go, not the first.
I am slowly convincing myself that Africa is easy to travel, the people in spurts can be more annoying than India, after I think about it, most of Africa is flat, this makes Bus travel easy, it is too expensive, and that makes the average backpacker want to not stay long. French is the big obstacle, however 50/50 on French and Spanish, there has to be just as many people who want to learn French as Spanish in Schools, people go to South America in swarms.
I know people are afraid of Africa, and like I said, this should be the last place on your list to come, not the first. However, most people who come here have never traveled farther than the Church or their University.
I think I am thinking about Craig of Travelvice.com.
http://www.travelvice.com
I talk, write, ask push and shove, and this person just doe not want to come to West Africa. I have offered free places to stay, even more or less said I would give him some money if he helps make some pages.
I have tried with Mark of the site
http://www.itinerantwitness.com
Hmmm Wade? He is presently in Morocco I think.
http://canciondelvagabundo.googlepages.com/
I do not know Wade, I have met Craig and Mark, Wade as I wade around in my thoughts is more of a long-term traveler. Mark is back at home in the USA, and does not seem to have an exit strategy. Craig just got some girl pregnant from Peru and is going to Peru; I need to keep my mouth closed on this, as it is his choice of lives, not mine.
Wade, what is he up too?
I guess I think I need partners in Crime, I think writing a guide needs balance and one person just is too skewed, it is very easy to not like a country, and there is no clear reason, just something about the country is annoying.
Money, money, and more money, how to buy time, this is the problem with a guidebook.
There is this guidebook by Lonely Planet I saw one time, a book more or less how to travel from England I think to Katmandu, Nepal I think by land. I have some ideas about this type of book and more or less think some people who are counting countries would buy a guidebook about Africa that would explain the cheapest way to go from Morocco to somewhere by land, I am not sure where, Nigeria is a problem.
I have not met anyone who wants to travel across Africa, however, I think the people who are counting countries or the ones bored with the easy stuff like Southeast Asia or South America would want to do a cross Africa trip. I have not met anybody who wanted to go and stay a couple of months in one country as a tourist, the Volunteers are a Romanized, sanitized, idealist never never land then need spanked and sent home, the NGO need shot, or tortured and shot, not people I will associate with in this life or the next.
What is that British saying, something about giving it a lick? There are people who would like to do a taste test of Africa, before they gave it a serious time investment. I am trying to calculate the time needed to go on an India style trip of Africa, just the main spots and out the door, and the jumps people make in India are amazingly long distances.
There is so little to see in Africa it is also annoying, I love ethnic cultures, therefore I love to see the cultural distinctions, the sudden change in languages and how they look. This is not normal, to make a list of why to come to Burkina Faso is a problem. What should you go and see in Togo, I do not know, nothing pops out as a good reason to go to Togo. Ghana has some great Castles, and Cape Coast is for sure a good place to visit, I think the Village of Yeji is special.
This is the reason why a taste of each Africa country, the persons counting countries can add a lot to their list, I think a person could travel the majority of West Africa easily in two months and strangely see the majority of tourist attractions.
I do not know, there is nobody I know wanting to come to Africa, I do not get reader saying, I am coming to Africa, ok, one couple, but this is not normal. If I go to Thailand, I get many, and if I go to Europe, the numbers of people who KNOW… hehehe are bothersome, however to blog about Africa is annoying to most readers. The ones that think Africa needs help are abundant, but this is also crazy, I think Africa is doing very well, they just need a kick in the butt and the world need stop helping or giving them money, making welfare babies does not help them.
A Taste of Africa…
I am thinking of turning the speed up, and taking some just the cream off the top taste of Mali, Guinea, etc up to Morocco in a quick sprint. Morocco is not my favorite country, so more or less in the way, and obstacle.
I always want a guidebook to be fatter, more, now I am saying less, smaller, strange how I must never hold to one consistent way of thinking or it causes problems. I must continually adapt, and change, to say something, and then do it the say as I say is foolish.
How far am I from Morocco? The Kilometers is not important, it is the bus time that counts, the on the seat time. I am going to the one long-distance bus station today, see what my options are.
African GuidebooksLabels: Burkina Faso, Guidebooks, Guidebooks Writing |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 6:25 AM |
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| Goodbye Burkina Faso |
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Goodbye Burkina Faso
Bobo Dioulasso or Bobo, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I deleted two pages of angry thoughts about Burkina Faso Cling-ons, people who follow you and just never stop.
I was in Banfora doing the Burkina loop trip in my brain, when I thought,
- I am not happy, I do not want to be in Burkina -
To continue to do something that makes you unhappy, means a person has a desires to be unhappy.
Ironically I had just keyed in on a comment from Wade:
- To move with the grain, the path of the traveller -
http://canciondelvagabundo.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-move-on-to-rabat-and-eat-well.html
I am working on a few I-need-high-speed-internet project and the internet café here in Bobo across from the Soba Hotel is one of the best I have found in West Africa.
Burkina Faso is in the middle, a good transit point to go North, East South and West, I have no choice, I will come back.
Ouaga, Bobo and Banfora all had young men who found me, then followed me, they will not stop, when one stops, the next one begins.
I am sad as I have seen many things to explore here, sugar cane that stretches for miles, Dates sold in the market, every type of food in West Africa seems to be here, this is a Mecca of West African foods, a lush area of farming done right. I saw the big moving irrigation systems over the sugar cane. There are tourist here, I have no idea what they are doing, they are French, about 80 percent women, with a Burkina Boy at their hip to protect them, however I am curious, what are they doing, was is this connection between France and Burkina Faso, why does the French people think they need or want to come here of all countries.
I do not want to collect bad memories of a country, it is traveling against the grain. The list of cons outweighs the pros, I am leaving soon for Mali, I am interested in country of Guinea and Liberia, I have no real desire to go to Mali, Senegal sounds good for a couple of days Mauritania to Europe by land is one of them, say I did it trips.
Goodbye Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Why Not Travel |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 6:08 AM |
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| I Lost My Reading Glasses |
| Sunday, September 16, 2007 |
I Lost My Reading Glasses
Bobo Dioulasso or Bobo, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I seemed to have lost my reading glasses. I think I left them in the one 25-watt light bulb in Ouaga, Burkina Faso.
Today I seem to have lost my drinking glass; I carry also a plastic pitcher and using to drink coffee. I guess there is an ironic fate to these lost and not found objects.
I have worried about my glasses, I used to have two pair, and I thought about buying two pairs in Thailand, I just was too cheap. I sat on my glasses two weeks ago and had to work hard to get the lens to stay in the frame. I worry about Glasses more in West Africa along with medicines, as West Africa is different from South America or Asia.
The cost of medicine in West Africa is about double to triple the normal price of Asia or South America. I personally think the French working together with the leaders have clipped the hamstring of the Francophone countries guaranteeing high profits for the French and the leaders get extortion rate import-export fees.
QUOTE
In sub-Saharan Africa, the French were quickest with political reform. Across French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, the French allowed the election of local government representatives and in return received African agreement to maintain close economic ties with France. In 1946 the French established a common West African French currency, the CFA franc (franc de la communauté financière Africaine, or franc of the African financial community). The currency, exchanged at a fixed rate with the French franc, assured that virtually all of France’s decolonizing African territories would continue to bank, invest, and trade with France. All of France’s sub-Saharan colonies became independent in 1960, except Guinea (1958) and Djibouti (1977).
FROM --- Microsoft Encarta 2007
The West African Economies are hopeless welfare children until they devalue the CFA and other currencies of West Africa. Any product produced in West Africa need to sell wholesale at double or triple of global value, so no reason to buy from West Africa, too expensive.
So how much do glasses cost? First note, this man does not want to check my eyes, he want to sell me cheap reading glasses you can buy in any drug store in the USA for 5 dollars. 1.25 1.50 2.00 etc magnification.
32,000 CFA than
27,000 CFA after he discounts
22,000 CFA and final price.
He ask me how much I will pay, I say,
10,000 or about 20 US Dollars, thinking the true value of these glasses globally is about 5000 as they are a little better than the US drugstore version.
44 US Dollars for glasses I could purchase in the US for 5. I will continue to search, maybe there are some inside the market, and sometime there are these under the market, where the real people buy products. The rich here can be super rich and in a bourgeois way will not lower themselves to associate, therefore creating this second level economy.
Funny I have also lost my coffee glass, I think I went out on the balcony of the hotel and left on the rail. Yesterday, I was walking around the huge market area here in Bobo looking for a drinking glass. I ironically need a second one. I store my light bulb in a drinking glass, than inside the pitcher, the double plastic walls protect the light bulb from breaking.
I can read in good light and for about 3 US, I can buy a second reading light, thereby double the light. I do not need glasses to use the computer. However, now I need two drinking glasses to protect the light bulbs.
I Lost My Reading GlassesLabels: Burkina Faso, France, Francophone, West Africa Economic |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 7:20 AM |
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| Hotel Paix Banfora Burkina Faso |
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Hotel Paix Banfora Burkina Faso
Banfora, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
The floor is clean in my room.
6000 CFA for a room with a shared shower, and toilet, 4000 more than true value in a global market, however normal for Burkina Faso.
There is a sink, water and mirror in one location; I can shave with a mirror. The floor is clean, someone has mopped the floors, and I can walk around my room and not track dirt into my bed.
This is a trash basket, they have one placed just outside all the rooms, this is a good system, and pragmatic.
Ants
Dirt in the room
Smells
Mosquitoes
Flies
To keep these things out of the room, the wastebasket needs to be outside the room. I think a swap system is best, however I have never seen it, however I do rob the clean one in common areas and leave my full one.
The Islamic Religion has this small plastic pitcher full of water, before they enter the Mosque as best I understand; they take their shoes off, wash their feet, then enter the Mosque and sit on the small rugs to pray.
99 out of 100 travelers and tourist will live in crap, and romance it, they accept what they have and say it was wonderful. To adapt, learn, and modify their lifestyles to the conditions that exist is rare. They finally need to go home because they never can figure out why they are not happy or why the move hotels every two days.
Five Star Hotels and Resorts are a great experience for a person, they truly do not know, understand, analyze or really list the pros and cons, they just know for one to two weeks they felt great. The lived better than at home and the hotel functions more efficiently we hope.
Religions should in my opinion teach manners and proper hygiene to the 99 percent of people of all countries that need to be continually told to wipe their arse.
My present room functions, it works, everything in the room has a purpose, a good sound reasons.
Self-contained rooms, in this area of West Africa this is the phrase used to mean a room that has more or less the house inside. All the normal parts of a house are inside the room, the phrase self-contained to me is perfect. If you rented a suite, it is an apartment with a Living Room, Kitchen, Shower and Toilet.
The perfect hygiene room does not have a toilet and shower inside, there were jokes 200 years ago about some cultures.
- In America they put their toilet in the house! -
Geez who want to smell their fat ugly grandfather make noise, smell up the house etc?
I really do not want to share a toilet.
I do not want to share a shower.
I do not want the shower and toilet in my room, unless there is proper ventilation, window and fans. This happens in less than 10 percent of the room unless I make it so.
I 100 percent guarantee I want to know the person who cooks my food, I like to watch the cook, and I want a self-contained cook. I want to see the cook clean the dishes.
Muhammad of the Islamic Religion was genius, he taught good ideas, take off your shoes full of sand, wash your feet, and put down a rug that you have kept clean.
Buddhism does the same, the Buddhist pretty much demand you take your shoes off before you enter a home.
Good Hygiene! Leave what is outside in the streets, on your shoes and outside the house, do not bring cow, human or other crap into the home.
What is healthy? What is safe? My room in the Hotel Paix is safe, and it functions. The floor is clean, I have a great Mosquito Net, the fan is quiet, there is shower and toilet, there is toilet paper, and I can shave, clean my hands.
It is NOT Great. I will leave today as the neighborhood sucks; there are a couple of Barbaric Rasta Men roaming the city.
I really miss the Video City Hotel in Mampong, Ghana. I think about returning, if Ghana gave me any possible way of getting a Visa, I would go back for a Vacation.
I feel negligent; I said the rooms in the cave were great.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/09/burkina-faso-hotel-air-conditioning.html
The Hotel room here at the Hotel Paix in Banfora is great, outside the hotel sucks. The Hotel room at the cave sucked, outside the room was great.
I feel negligent; I said an unsafe room for 99 percent of the people was great, while for me it was great. Africa has bars or steel louvers on the windows; there is too much theft in Africa to not put bars on the windows.
Risk Evaluation, I sometimes should keep my mouth shut, not type in this computer, sit, and think before I say anything, especially when I say anything nice. To complain is ok; it stops people from going and being annoyed or in dangerous situations.
The rules of Islam, Buddhism, and Hindu are good. People need to be told to clean their arse. People like these rules of because after they return from all this, they feel clean and refreshed, like going to a Five Star Hotel. A few times per day, they are in comfort.
I am looking for a 10-day hotel; it would be nice to take a vacation in a comfortable room in a nice neighborhood. I like the neighborhood at my cave. I could walk over in the mornings and eat some freshly cooked Beignets or Bread, then at sunset I could walk over, the woman would be sitting cleaning and cutting long potatoes into wedges, then cook them right in front of me for 100 CFA. I ate some French Fries last night in the Hotel Paix for 800 CFA last night in what is a reasonably good restaurant. I am nervous thinking about this, they cooked them very fast. There is NOBODY in the hotel, the restaurant was empty, zero, and the French Fries tasted good, soggy and too much oil, not crispy and obviously fresh though. I had to ask for salt while the woman in the street offered salt and some pepper sauce.
I feel safe in the Hotel Paix in Banfora, I did not feel safe at the end of the day as I needed to leave the window open to be comfortable, and if I left the window open, I was not safe from theft.
Having the shower, toilet, and wastebasket outside the room is brilliance. There is no trash in the room to feed the ants, no water in the room for mosquitoes, and there is less humidity in the room so the room is cooler. All the mess is outside the room, whereby I do not need to allow a person inside to clean and allow them to steal my camera. There is a long hallway leading to the room, and by the time you arrive at the room your shoes are free of sand. I have a very clean room. I like a shower in my room so I can wash my clothes.
This hotel has what is needed, in the wrong neighborhood. The other in a good neighborhood, nice surrounding and what 99 percent of people want, with no way to shave or keep the burglars out. There was no restaurant to give them food poisoning so go figure, everyone wants to get food poisoning, I am pretty sure it kills more than Malaria.
The Hotel Paix security man came and woke me for the first bus, than had some free breakfast ready, exceptional service here in this Hotel.
Hotel Paix Banfora Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Hotels |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 6:55 AM |
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| Banfora Burkina Faso |
| Saturday, September 15, 2007 |
Banfora Burkina Faso
Banfora, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Friday, September 14, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am in Banfora, Burkina Faso and so far so bad, 100 percent followed without stop from the Rakieta bus stop to my hotel La Paix. This is not an easy city to understand from the window of a bus. I almost walked back into the bus station to get on a bus for Gaoua, Burkina Faso, but just too far at around 1:00 PM.
I was continually dogged by two different men, one an obnoxious overbearing as normal Rasta Man who I was inches from smacking. The other more polite one said bye bye and then followed, said bye bye and followed or stood above me. I do not get pressured, I sat down on a cement public utility and looked around, just at the entrance to the market next to a Shell Station. I was trying to wait them out, normally they are too lazy to sit and watch a person, I purchased a sachet of water from a little girl and asked directions to one hotel. The boy over-heard and jumped back in, what an annoying group tourist hecklers Burkina Faso has. The good part is there are tourist in Burkina Faso, many French girls with boy in tow, but nonetheless there are tourist, this is a good sign for the economy, there is interest in the country. The pain in the butt Rasta men really are worthless types, and leeches.
I have not took a nap, laid around, I hope the two outside the Hotel La Paix waiting for me have left the restaurant areas. The Hotel is ok, but 3000 CFA overpriced as normal at 6000 CFA. It is siesta time and most of the too lazy to work boys fall asleep anywhere. I will go an walk around see if I can find any reason to stay here. The town has cut down most of the trees, not a good idea in the Sahel.
Banfora Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 7:34 AM |
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| Banfora Gaoua Diebougou Bobo Loop |
| Friday, September 14, 2007 |
Banfora Gaoua Diebougou Bobo Loop
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Friday, September 14, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I leave in 3 hours for Banfora, Burkina Faso; I do a loop, the return and take a difficult for Africa traveler, easy for South American traveler trip to Bamaka, Mali.
I hope to make this loop below with the least amount of Transportation headaches.
I am not sure, I am hoping there is a 1-10 day city in this loop, I need a pause in the action. Bobo is 100,000 people too big, and Banfora is supposed to have around 50,000 people, and Gooua under 20,000 and Diebougou under 20,000 according to the Encarta Encyclopedia little dynamic sensor hand waving over the map. I discovered this wonderful feature two week ago, tells population, longitude and latitudes quickly.
Yep, this is me, I just checked, I am an under 100,000 or close to around 50,000 people city person in Africa. I checked two cities I really liked, Natitingou, Benin and Kpalime, Togo and both log in at 20,000 to 99,000 populations. Bobo is too big for comfort, not easily manageable, too big to take a taxi across in one swoop, or too big to walk across easily.
I try to stereotype myself, and then travel to visit my stereotype, I accept, I am a stereotype as is everyone, on Tuesdays or any other day of choice.
Banfora Gaoua Diebougou Bobo LoopLabels: Burkina Faso, Planning Africa, Planning your Trip |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 5:27 AM |
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| 1 to 2 Day or 1 to 4 or 1 to 10 Hotel |
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1 to 2 Day or 1 to 4 or 1 to 10 Hotel
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Friday, September 14, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am very intrigued by the idea proposed by Eric he coined as the HTI or Happy Traveler Index.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/09/bobo-dioulasso-burkina-faso.html
I walk into Hotels, Hostels, Guesthouse, I really do not care what you call them, and I search Hotels for the scent, smell and signs of Travelers. I first look in the common area, restaurants, I do not just look at the rooms, I walk around the Hotel searching for tracks of travelers. I often ask the managers, are there any White People here. If I asked if they were busy, they would say yes, I have to ask indirect questions, sometime I ask is this room or that room occupied.
I am in a place with no simple name, very far from the city; a person needs a car to live here. It is a great neighborhood, clean, a market right next door, the Mosque behind the place has not as of today installed a loudspeaker system.
It is a 1-4 day hotel.
The Charles Dunfour Fondation in Ouaga, for me it was a 1-day Hotel, however for many it was a 1-10 day Hotel.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/2007/09/ouaga-hostel.html
There were travelers hanging around, or there were French Girls hanging around, doing what French Girls do in Ouaga. There was however bed for 3000 CFA, and so far, the cheapest place to sleep in Burkina Faso, my room was 5000 and almost cheapest.
Sadly, a Guidebook can make a bad Hotel into a good Hotel, I sometime say,
- The Guidebook Writer shagged a girl at the Restaurant Hotel. -
Here in Africa, I say,
- The Guidebook writer found a good place to park their car Hotel. -
I recommended the Mandela in Kpalime, Togo to Taia and Marc and wanted to call them later and say, as a couple, there is a Hotel down the street for 6000 with AC and good priced for a couple, two people in a room. I cannot remember the name, and it was not in the guidebook, and a smidgen too far for me to live in for me. They stayed one night I think in the Mandela, I believe, so for them it was a one-night hotel.
I always pay attention when a person tells me; I stayed 10 day in a Hotel. This is an excellent Traveler sign.
Tito the Slovenia man was not too happy when I said, the only reason I am in the Hotel is because he speaks English. He would disagree he was not happy, because he is a contrarian, but this is the reason, I am here. I wanted one person I could bleed for information on the area. However, anyway, I do it, he only knows a snapshot of the area, and I was looking for a multiple country view of Africa. When he leaves the Hotel will be close to zero interest for me, and I will not return, it is just too far for me without a car.
Returning to a Hotel is a good sign, when a person returns to a Hotel, I listen to the traveler say, and I will go and stay again in this Hotel.
I am always fearful of recommending Hotels, I know hotel where if you choose your rooms carefully, you can do great. Africa is full of this problem, only one room in the Hotel is acceptable. Whatever the case, the I search for Hotel where I would want to stay 1-10, and then vote with my feet, when I leave after 1-2 days this says something. I will leave this no clear name place to sleep after 4 days; I just cannot bear to live here one more day. It is too far from anything to enjoy without a car, I am out in the boonies.
The worst place to live is in isolation, on a paradise, deserted island with a beautiful sunset and nobody to talk with. BUT, there are people who do not want to talk with anyone, ever, and need to be in a cell.
Whatever the case, I pay attention to the tracks of travelers, are there people staying 1-2 or 1-4 or 1-10 and then I remember.
I was explaining to Tito that the rooms in South America were not as nice as Africa, however the Africans cost 8-15 dollars and in South America easy for 3-5 you are very happy, because they are a good value, plus many 1-10 people in the Hotels.
1 to 2 Day or 1 to 4 or 1 to 10 HotelLabels: Burkina Faso, Hotel Finding, Hotel Room Choosing |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 5:18 AM |
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| 174 of 177 HDI Burkina Faso |
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174 of 177 HDI Burkina Faso
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I was prompted by Eric, and got curious, I knew that Burkina Faso was low on the list; however, I am astounded by the HDI. The Human Development Index or Report has Burkina Faso as fourth from the bottom, if this is fourth, then Damn; the world is in great shape.
I was expecting to be up around Togo at 147.
I can buy lettuce here; there are Bicycles and Motorcycles everywhere, Donkeys, Tractors. The internet is kick-A fast.
I was wondering why everyone in Burkina Faso kept telling me life was tough here, they read it, and repeated. I am sure the north of Burkina Faso can be bleak as it enters the Sahara Desert.
There is a Fruit Market, not a Market, a Fruit Market just a few blocks over from my present position. This is not a Market for me, this is a prepare to export market.
I think they are bagging up Ginger for export; the Fruit Market is more or less a packaging or wholesalers market. This is great, to have a wholesale market distributions point, then railroad shipping to Abidjan to put on boats is top level.
These are plastic greenhouses, an intense way to grow food products or plants, a far stretch above the hoe farmers of Togo.
As the bus was entering Ouaga, I saw a Jack Hammer and an air compressor, this type of equipment is expensive, I know some Mexicans that would love to have a Jack Hammers so they could put down their chisels and picks.
Human Development is a mixture of many things, and protecting the women is emphatic for the United Nations, and well, there are so many women here driving Motorcycles, what can you say, when men allow the women to drive, life is pretty good.
174 of 177 HDI Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Human-Development-Index |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 4:52 AM |
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| Tough Audience in Bobo Burkina Faso |
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Tough Audience in Bobo Burkina Faso
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
As I see it, I am normally the entertainment for the locals in many countries of West Africa. The locals watch the entertainment with great curiosity to see what the White Man does. The locals are an attentive audience waiting with patience and anticipation.
The children scream White Man, more or less the background music.
The older women are the critics, they sit, ask each other is this act good or bad. They are the critics, I must keep them happy, they decide my future and fate.
The hecklers, the Men need thrown out of the club.
Bouncers, I am one man act, therefore I must also serve as the bouncer, often I use a humor to keep the hecklers in their seats and their mouths closed.
Bobo has won the booby prize for the most Hecklers of any city I have visited. In the central market of Bobo are streets of Hecklers, where the act just should never book, never visit and best to avoid.
I am not sure I have ever wanted to avoid the market area of any city, I suppose in front of the Palm Beach Hotel in Lome, Togo is a contender for obnoxious areas in Africa.
I have noticed a jaded progression, I am slowly ignoring and giving the blank face to more men in Africa with each month that passes. The mind naturally avoids non-beneficial places, situations and people, however it has to first make this decision. This is not conscious, it is unconscious. Every once in awhile a genuinely nice man says hello without heckling, mockery or an agenda and I wake up out of my blank ignoring them trance and have to stop, think and say, Hello. Then I find my mind reverts back to the status of they almost do not exist, totally contrary to the my Indiana natural say hello to everyone culture.
Tough Audience in Bobo Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 4:28 AM |
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| One Jar of Love to Go Please |
| Thursday, September 13, 2007 |
One Jar of Love to Go Please
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
Take away if your British
I take photos of street children.
- I have not seen any in Africa.
I would take photos of AIDS.
- I have never seen a person in Africa with AIDS.
I take photos of crazy people.
- I see crazy people in Africa.
Skin disease or skin problems.
I took this photo in the market of Po; again, I am having Betazoid Empath problems. What does it feel like to be a baby and not have the power to fight back?
I believe this will causes scars, if and when the mother or baby solves the problem. This is maybe the first child I have seen with this problem. I see many adults, those crazy folks walking around in West Africa with this problem or laying along side the road. I do not know why, I am sure they were all babies, before they became adults.
I had a confusing conversation with Tito from the NGO or something here in Bobo last night. He has been in Africa now for 10 months; this is about 9 months longer than the average volunteer. The Peace Corps workers are interesting to talk with after they have been in-country for two years, their perspectives change.
The confusing conversation was somewhere adrift and floating around the idea of will Africa ever stop having problems. We was sitting in this open-air restaurant along side a major road, eating beef filets and admiring the local women, more or less a life of luxury. There was a group of about 20 children passing us all carrying small buckets. They children were being sent into the city to beg for 200 CFA. This is their nightly quota; it was about 9:00 PM as they walked to the central city.
I am 100 percent sure these problems are not mine, I know 100 percent sure I am not responsible for them. I have had advance anti-dysfunctional behavior training as a recovering alcoholic. People save themselves; the decision to stop having problems is a personal decision.
The conversation is about caring, who cares, I am worried, and in our confusing conversation. I am worried, I am not sure Africa cares what happens to the children of Africa. I am 100 percent sure this is an African problem, that will be solved hopefully one day by Africans. I have had the advance training; I know a person has to save himself or herself.
You could send a billion dollars here to solve this problem and I personally do not believe it would solve this problem. I am tempted, think a lot about this, I am tempted to walk up and give the women 10 dollars to buy skin medicine, I would give 50, and I would give whatever is needed. I do believe or trust that the mother cares about the baby, and I could trust here to take the money to go buy medicine. I could buy the medicine and give to the mother…. This goes on and on, the what if questions and ideas never end… Blah blah blah.
The mother allowed the baby to develop this problem and it continues because she does not care. I have no idea how to buy love and put it in a person.
One Jar of Love to Go PleaseLabels: Burkina Faso, Social Issues |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 7:27 AM |
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| Burkina Faso Hotel Air Conditioning |
| Wednesday, September 12, 2007 |
Burkina Faso Hotel Air Conditioning
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am living in a red clay cave for 5000 CFA or 10 US Dollars.
The first Hammock I have seen in Africa is here in Bobo.
I have never thought of Air Conditioning as a solution, however, as I lie here in bed analyzing my present non-AC room, I thought,
- Air Conditioning is the answer. -
I French West Africa to request an Air Conditioned room, I need to say,
- Climatisé. -
I was making a list of small problems in my room when the answer popped in my head,
- Air Conditioning. -
Then I started to laugh; Air Conditioning is the solution to a plethora of Hotel room problems. I would not say I respect owners of Hotels, or the management of Hotels, I could best say I avoid having long conversations with the management of Hotels, it probably is Biblical in nature,
- Lead us not into temptation -
My Mother and Father I hope are happy, their talk too much, opens his mouth and embarrass them son has finally learned to keep his mouth shut.
I am in a GREAT Hotel room in Bobo, Burkina Faso, the overall in-compared-to-other-rooms I am in a very good room. I love to read the ludicrous emails I receive on recommendations of great hotels. The person will write and tell me about this wonderful great room in some exotic country like Thailand, going into blah blah blah and then finally I learn the price of the room was 350 US dollars per night or about one years pay for the normal world.
Strange as it sounds, I can find Air Conditioned rooms in Burkina Faso and most of West Africa easier than I can find fan rooms. The world is full of business travelers, people on luxury two week vacations, NGOs who are not on a budget, normally spending someone else’s money.
The average person in West Africa may have never stay in a Hotel in their life; many of the girls know a room for one hour. The rooms in West Africa are designed for people who are rich compared to the average person, for example ME. I am outrageously rich compared to the average Burkina Faso person.
I earn about 95 times the Average yearly wages of a Burkina Faso person, if the person next to you earned 95 times more than yourself, you would think, this person is super-rich. I am super-rich compared to the average West African person.
Therefore, the Hotels rooms have AC and cost 10-40 US and not 1 dollar per night or a price the Average Burkina Faso person could afford.
I am in a great fan room, however my list of problems with the room makes me think Air Conditioning is the simple solution.
I am living in a red clay cave.
Ok, it is not a cave; I think a cave needs to be below ground level or maybe in the side of a mountain.
My great room is inside the left part of this building made of clay.
Cave:
- large underground hollow: a large, naturally hollowed-out place in the ground, or in rock above ground, that can be reached from the surface or from water. -
I am in an above ground cave, made out of red clay, with a couple of holes to so I can breath.
I just went and talked to John, and returned to my bed, and decided, enough is enough; I open the door and the window to allow this cave to breath. I walked in last night at around 9:00 PM and instantly thought,
- Dank -
I was wrong, not the dictionary correct word to use, it is not cold, my room was warm and humid because when I left the room, I locked it up, closed the window, when I returned to my cave it was humid.
Look at small hole above window. There is this small hole at the top of the room, I hope to learn why? Why is there one small hole at the top of the room?
The naturally cool room in a Hotel is on the bottom floor, and beneath a few floors of concrete, with no sunlight. The problem with room is how do you breath, a person starts to suffocate and has this real inclination to climb out of the hole and find a place with air.
Burkina Faso people are smart, they construct home out of red clay colored dirt, and then make the ROOF of clay, and essentially, it becomes an above ground cave. There is a real danger, if one of these roof fall in on a person they can be killed. When I was in Bolgatanga, Ghana it was raining and one of the young women cooking was telling me the rain kills people, because the homes collapse and kills the occupant of the cave.
My room is great, it is clean, it has a fan, I have my own private toilet and shower and there is a courtyard with hammock and chairs. I also have a kitchen to use; however, I am supposed to donate money for propane if I use the burners, price confusions because they never rent the rooms. I am sure, I am one of the few people who has rented a room and there are no clear and established prices for room benefits.
I am living at a Slovenia friend of mine Tito, I met him in Ghana as normal he is on a Mission, semi NGO, or Project, the sign says
- Humanist
Humanist:
- concern for people: a concern with the needs, well-being, and interests of people.
This is probably a 7 on a 1-10 scale of projects, I so far think a very good project, and at least I have not seen the managers driving 4-wheel drives around. They have a library for the people to use and help with textiles, and somehow people sponsor and pay for school fees for children, everything is on the up and up and seems great.
One-way for a project to supplements their overhead is to rent rooms to Foreigners, they call me Foreigner, and my name in Bobo is
- Tubabu (Che) -
In Ouaga my name was
- Nassara -
Looks like the stereotype door to a cave. This place is great, and if you leave the window and door open a reasonable good value for 5000 CFA or 10 US for a person with a car. You need a car as this is about 3 Kilometers or more from the Central Market, however cultural immersion is guaranteed. I do not have a car, so I will move to the city in a day and stop the long hoof or fights with taxi drivers.
AC is a solution to a list of Hotel Problems:
1. Keeping the bugs and mosquitoes out of the room, because you do not have to open windows.
2. Damp rooms
3. Fans that are loud, the new type of AC is quiet.
4. Having to rent a room on the bottom of a building to be cool.
5. You do not need a mosquito net.
6. Privacy because you close the windows and doors.
7. Quiet because the windows are closed.
I never thought how AC is a simple solution to a hotel needing to be designed well and located in a quiet neighborhood.
I am in a nice quiet neighborhood, far from the central city and a great food market is around the corner. A semi-ideal location for a person driving a four-wheel drive, and wants to park the car. More or less easy to find in a car at the end of Sector 21 before a Yellow Mosque.
The room is typical construction methods of Burkina Faso and clean and interesting sleep in a clean version of the local Burkina Faso Architecture and building design.
Burkina Faso Hotel Air ConditioningLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Hotels |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 9:25 AM |
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| Bobo Dioulasso Burkina Faso, |
| Tuesday, September 11, 2007 |
Bobo Dioulasso Burkina Faso,
Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I traveled from Po to Ouaga, stayed on night, then traveled for five hours to Bobo, Burkina Faso or he complete name Bobo Dioulasso. I am now in the land of plenty.
Map of Trip from Bolga, Ghana to Po to Ouaga to Bobo, Burkina Faso.
Description from the Encarta Encyclopedia:
- … trade center for peanuts, sesame seeds, sisal hemp, and livestock; manufactures include cotton yarn, metal products, vegetable oil, soap, lime, and bricks. …
This description seems right on the mark, so far, my guess is this an accurate and correct description.
To describe a country, you need your eyes wide open, and stop reading. I try to read about a country after I know the country, then I can have a laugh, and not try to find what I read, to confirm it.
I just read that description and I have seen obvious in my face examples of three-quarters of this list. South of Ouaga Burkina fast to the Ghana and Cote d Ivoire has to be one of the richest in food areas I have entered in West Africa. It was hard to look out the window and not see a cow, goat, cotton, corn, or some cash crop being grown.
Nice to see after see how Togo, Benin and Ghana wasted their natural resources and then cried foul.
I want to see Sesame Seed growing. And the Encyclopedia should add potatoes and onions to the list above, I ate 2 dollars worth of USA French Fries last night for 20 cents US, or 100 CFA. Next time I will say 50 CFA, as 100 is too much and I had to stop the women from loading up the torn piece of paper, used for a plate.
Bobo Dioulasso Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Maps, West Africa Maps |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:27 PM |
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| Ouaga to Bobo Burkina Faso |
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Ouaga to Bobo Burkina Faso
Ouaga Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Monday, September 10, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
The Rakieta Bus Station location and bus is making life easy for me in Burkina Faso, I can enter and leave Ouaga painlessly. Three times on a bus and they have not tried to get a bag fee, what is up with this country, I like to say no.
Note: I went to the bus station at 7:00 AM and asked to buy a tickets to Bobo. The lady was suddenly angry and frustrated, saying you can not buy a ticket here for Bobo or something like that. I had stopped and asked this same women, I quadruple checked with this women about taking a bus to Bobo. It never connected in her mind that she should tell me it was another station, called Larle. It worked out ok, and I went to the Rakieta Larle bus station to Bobo by Taxi for 600 CFA or 1.25 Dollars.
Ouaga has about one cling-on per block of walking; these boys come up, shake hands, then become annoyed with me as I shake my finger and day, thanks, but do not follow me in French. I mean it, so they do not follow; I had high level training in India.
I am still searching now for people called Puh or something like, girls with Bangles and Jewelry and they do not live in Po, but they visit. I like Ethnic groups, they look like the Cattle people or some African Gypsy, I have lost the trail, my hope was to go between Po and Bobo but the road is full of rainwater, mixed with red clay.
The bus trip from Po to Ouaga is 2000 CFA and form Ouaga to Bobo is 6000 CFA, I am making good time, if a person wanted, they could easily cross this country in one-two days in a big bus comfort, and no bag fee, or at least no arguments over bag fees. I am doing well, only one fee paid in West Africa, I do not like to be chopped, it makes me have a bad taste in my mouth when I leave a country, and it is what I remember about a country, I was chopped.
Ouaga to Bobo Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Transportation |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:26 PM |
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| Ouaga Hostel |
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Ouaga Hostel
Ouaga Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Monday, September 10, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am a flop called Fondation Charles Dunfour on Rue de Chance; the guidebook says Rue du Mosque. I am in a different country, therefore a different guide writer; nonetheless, this writer’s maybe does not have a car and is more ready to forgive than the Ghana writer not on a budget.
I am in love with this Hostel for one night, and I will kiss it goodbye today and say hello if I see her again. I will not exchange numbers. There are two French Girls in one of the room who brush and combs each other’s hair, to other French Girls in the dorm beds I think, and another French guy named Thomas. Thomas is the only person, who speaks English, and his English is great, they do not seem to smoke… strange?
There is literally one of the 5-7 various boys flopping on the floor just beyond he swing of my room door. I woke at about 4:55 am, did the SOP walk to find a switch to the John, and find some water for coffee. Upon return to the room, I used a pillow from the bed with no pillowcase to block the three 2-inch gap under my single room door. I know the light from room would glare into his eyes on the floor and possibly wake him, I hope.
Four French Girls, One French Boy and One American
5 Men and 2 Girls from some African Country, I hope Burkina Faso living in the Hostels.
A single room is 5000-6000 CFA or 10-12 U.S. Dollars. A dorm bed with a mosquito net on the bed is I think 3000 or 6 US Dollars, my room did not include a Mosquito net, the hotel is one short, so I pay more and have none, go figure.
This is a “We are in this Together Hotel,” so we all overlook and look the other way and pretend. The French girls are in Africa to visit one country, and Thomas is visiting two. He said to me, “The Hotels are very expensive, yes?” I then taught him some curse words in English to expand on his vocabulary in agreement.
It has been ages since I have stayed in a Hostel or Hotel like this, it reminds me of a place long long ago in Managua, Nicaragua. The Managua place was great, full of Peace Corps not at their village as normal and Israel people, and one exceptional Israel girl named Maya, she was a dream that did not come true. The room was about the same quality; a lizard climbed in my room and ate my bread in a plastic bag hanging on the wall no less. The room was one dollar.
I closed the window here; the only guaranteed of nothing crawling in, however, there is a two going on three-inch gap under the door I cannot lock because it has expanded due to moisture.
This room is 10 US dollars, my room in Po comparable for 8, but with a mosquito net in Po.
I walked back to the Hotel Oiseau Blue diagonally across from the Rakieta Bus Station three times yesterday. The vendors in front of the station are the only ones selling food in this area on Sunday. The neighborhood is very organized, the grid system of wide streets, the traffic is not too bad, and all is easy. The red clay sand is covering the city in a slurry of mud today, as it has been raining nightly.
I paid 10 US dollar for the experience and money well spent to live in the Fondation Charles Dunfour Hostel here in Ouaga, Burkina Faso, and I would suspect if Charles is alive, he is doing well from the proceeds, as the cost of proving services to income is a good gap. Everyone should stay in a Hostel like this one time in his or her life, they can be either at home or hell, but they are for sure a trip to somewhere. This type of Hostel with the correct people inside can be a joy to live in, the camaraderie makes the “we are in this together” help you to forget you are in a flophouse in and industrial wholesale section of town. I really wish all the French were smoking as normal… it would make all more SOP and in the right Frame.
I cannot remember, I think it is called Crystal Hostel in Accra Ghana was a challenge for worst over-all value for the buck. It was also a “We are in this together Hostel,” very low utility value, also located on the wrong side of the tracks.
I think if I lived in this Hostel long enough, a local girl would say, why are you living in that neighborhood don’t you know it is the wholesale industrial area. About 5 blocks directly east of here is a large modern street with a few good place to hide, and way to expensive hotels. It is where I will go to use the internet, and then retrieve my backpacks that are locked to the table because the room will not lock, and scoot on down the road to a city named Bobo, surreal and real.
My fan is quiet, a benefit.
Ouaga HostelLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Hotels |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:25 PM |
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| Burkina Faso Adult Conversations |
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Burkina Faso Adult Conversations
Po, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
Pascal my fixer here in Po is a boy I think of 16, he found the Hotel, then later helped me learn the bridge is out or flooded on the road between Po and Leo or maybe to Bobo, Burkina Faso.
I walked through the excellent market here in Po, found some strange Vegetables.
Begins with a B, said in French, and they all turned and asked some 10 year old girl to talk. I stopped in the Po market, took some photos of various foods here in Po, I asked the vendors what the name of the vegetable was, I spoke French and the ladies quickly pulled a small girl to the front to talk, she said a word I cannot remember, but begins with B.
Education
French is not the first language here in Po; however, French is the neutral language or the language of business here in Francophone Burkina Faso.
They call me Foreigner; my name is Nassara here in Po, a.k.a Le Blanc.
What is an adult? What is adult conversation? Pascal my Fixer is 16 going on 24. The 10 year old is 10 going on 10, educated to 25 and surround by people educated to 10.
I met Sonora a girl with body of 25, an education of 15 and emotionally 12,
The Sweet Potato French Fries woman is 30, acting 30, heavy load body of a women of 30, and I think emotionally 30.
Deborah, pronounced French, is 17, works in the store around the corner. Emotionally about 27, physically about 22, and chronologically about 17, and let me see, educationally she is 35 going on 50.
I met a Christian Ghana Missionary man, maybe about 55 and I hope 55 because his hair was graying. This average age of dying is mythically misrepresented. The only safe adult to talk with and he says he wants resources, not money, fibbing is a sin. His explanation of the problems of young men in Burkina Faso and Ghana was succinctly religiously accurate, and if I typed in this computer guaranteed to get hate mail.
Volunteers and NGO?
I have heard,
- Your momma didn’t raise no fool, but she still dresses you funny. -
I think I could twist this to best explain Volunteers and NGO projects. They make me appreciate the honesty nature of the occasional rogue philander in West Africa.
A kaleidoscope of adult conversations. I walk a maze, stopping at various stations to get one complete conversation. I guess talking to myself has merit, and 5 kilos of books helps. I spend too much time learning and not enough time talking, I met this Slovenia man who was great in Ghana and lives in Bobo, I am looking forward to talking with him for a couple of days.
Deborah the small shop manager spoke English and French, and likes to play language game with me, mixing it up to keep my brain awake. I will stop in this morning and ask here to explain Po to me; Pascal the Fixer had knowledge only 2 kilometers distance from Po. Speaking English is a hint that she is interested in the outside world, and working in the store, she maybe has enough money to travel to Ouaga.
Pascal is not a cling-on this is great, there is some cling-on in the neighborhood and this is one an extreme annoyance. One person who thinks he is a guide has almost driven me out of the village, he does not understand no, non and I have not learned the word for A -- Hole in French or I would have said that, I forgot my French, reverted to Spanish and called him a Pendejo on the bus trip from Ouaga to Po. The people on the bus understood me, as I Alpha Male snorted at him telling him, the window is staying open and he is lazy. He wanted to close my window, as his window had no handle; he was normal lazy, take the easy way out attitude.
West Africa requires a lot of work; I must wander around in Villages searching for adult conversations. I do not feel lonely; however, I would like to ask the question,
- What do you think or what is your opinion? -
Pascal the Fixer could not believe I trusted him, and wanted his opinion of which hotel was best. I was trying to explain in French that being honest and trustworthy has nothing to do with age, or social status.
I really do live by my instincts, and do no let my education interfere with making proper decisions.
Call Audible from the line of scrimmage, I am leaving by bus soon for Ouaga, Burkina Faso, the Capital of the country and a rerun, travelers are not suppose to follow the same paths twice, third time on this road for me, severe penalty and two yellow flags are thrown.
There are no good options in Po; it is raining, all the Islamic people are not working because it is Sunday, all the Christian People are not working because it is raining and Sunday. It is raining and too quiet, they will not wake early because the too many bars were open last night, so I am getting on the 10 AM bus for Ouaga. The rain has washed away the road for big cars, and only motorcycles are going to Leo directly towards Bobo. I am brave, but 100 plus kilometers on a motorcycle taxi for 10,000 CFA, with muddy clay, read road is not brave, it is suicide.
Burkina Faso Adult ConversationsLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Food |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:24 PM |
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| Population Density of Burkina Faso |
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Population Density of Burkina Faso
Po, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
This is a graph made with the use of the highly recommend computer program Encyclopedia Encarta. The internet is hard to carry in my backpack.
Where did all the people go, this is nice, Burkina Faso is less, there are less people in Burkina Faso than in Ghana, however here below Ouaga seems to be a bread basket. All that glitters is not gold and do not believe anything your read or hear.
The statistics above are a guide, there are less people in these countries, pending a census, pending the Germans coming to count, and pending who is queue for my tax dollars donations. The reasons are out of control on why a country will distort statistics, but the distortion of truth is big business when some silly country will give you millions if you have AIDS.
Burkina Faso appears in the belt way below the capital of Ouagadougou, Burkina south to the Ghana border to be small cluster populated. A few people here, a few people there, however they do not seem to be bunching in the cities or along the roadways like Ghana.
Trendy, being a Farmer in Ghana maybe is not trendy, however being a Farmer in Burkina Faso still may be acceptable form of job. Education of people for jobs that do not exist, is encouraging people to leave the farm, and go to the city to be unemployed.
Self-sustaining farming or what is negatively called subsistence farming can supply close to 95 percent employment, while Africa city life has beer, music and strife all packaged in a dream.
Where are the normal black spots? These Apples and Banana vendors outside the Rakieta Bus Station in Ouaga were selling beautiful fruits with friendly smiles.
Normal and Sweet Potatoes sold in Market of Po, Burkina Faso
I want to thank all the great Farmers of Burkina Faso or wherever for this sudden increase in Beautiful Fruit. My daily intake of Apples and Bananas had tripled. The vegetables available here in the Po, Burkina Faso market is maybe the reason for the bright eyed children in the village. I found a few new vegetables. One lady quit the yams and had some potatoes. She was cooking French Fries using sweet potatoes, and tomorrow she promised me normal potatoes if you call these long thin version of potatoes normal.
Population Density of Burkina FasoLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Food, Population Density |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:22 PM |
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| The Allude to Writing Style |
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The Allude to Writing Style
Po, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
It has been revealed, as I plug away, write away, type away on the computer, I learn to write.
In University I had many Professors and a couple of friends tell me to write in a Journal, I started about four times and stopped four times. I postulate today, I stopped because there was no reason to write in a Journal, and I agree with myself, there was not any reason for me to write in a Journal.
The simple reason to write in a Journal is the more a person writes, the better they become. However, reading is trying to be the yang to the ying of learning to write.
I have read two John Carre books, with an accent on his name, that is lost in translation with a computer. It was not my choice, I read the defaults, I read what is possible to read in my travel world, or any port in a storm.
John likes to use words, put words in people mouths I have never heard a person say out loud. Realistic speech is overlooked by John, as he mumbles his way through writing a book, more or less a personal narrative with characters thinking and talking as he thinks and talks.
I consider the form of writing a type of private dancing, done only for an audience that understand the words.
It has been revealed to me that people do want the opportunity to be the only one who understands. If I write to clearly, a John Grisham style, than the story had to very good, the story leads the way. However, a description of a country can be a heavy load of allusions, references and inferences to obscure knowledge.
Fair or just is questionable, however, I do realize, some readers do revel in knowing they understood some wild comments I make and do not explain. Maybe this is the definition of cheeky, to get away with saying something that in politically correct speech would be frowned on, but no yellow flags.
It is easier to write by alluding to something, than explaining it clear for the majority of readers to understand. However, I will now crack the gate and allow myself the convenience being oblique, an easy and lazy way for me to write. Just for kicks, so readers can revel in cognitive dissonance.
Is alluding to the differences of the Mekong to the Amazon to the Niger fair game or bourgeois?
The Allude to Writing StyleLabels: Burkina Faso, Writing |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:20 PM |
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| Po Mosquito Net Hotel |
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Po Mosquito Net Hotel
Po, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I am under a mosquito net provided by the Hotel of the Auberge ADPO in the room he says is,
- Bien Propre -
I am one hour away from needing to make a decision, do I stay or do I go? My Auberge room for 4000 CFA is 90 percent cheaper than 7000 CFA in Ouaga, and difficult to say if better or worst. Obviously the Auberge de l'Oiseu Bleu appeared cleaner and running water in my room is nice. However, a mosquito net is safer than a clean room with no screens. Ok, this is easy, the neighborhood of the Auberge ADPO in Po is leading by 15 photos, I have taken in one day 15 more photos of Po than of Ouaga in two days.
Po is a clean little village with an inordinate amount of Bars, I am close to saying Burkina Bars, or maybe the Burkina Buvette, I just am caught off guard by the ratio of Bars to people in Burkina, Faso, seems like Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam with renovations and wider streets, with red pepper poured over it.
In both cities I heard the boys coming to bed around 2:00 PM or later and this makes me nervous, Alcohol and Macho does not mix well.
Po Mosquito Net HotelLabels: Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso Hotels |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:18 PM |
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| Charles de Gaulle Kennedy King and George |
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Charles de Gaulle Kennedy King and George
Ouagadougou or Ouaga, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
There is a street in Ouagadougou named Charles de Gaulle.
Charles de Gaulle
John F. Kennedy
and King George
Martin Luther King
I am not sure who is the winner, however, Charles de Gaulle is a good contender on Street Name Immortality.
King George has a good lock on City Name Immortality and Island Name Immortality.
Kennedy and de Gaulle are whooping it up as Airport Name Immortality.
Martin Luther King and Kennedy are neck and neck on Name the Bridge Immortality.
Charles de Gaulle, maybe a wanna be King, and King George did the put my name on everything to be immortal, and Kennedy and King got shot to be immortal, however, Kennedy was good at the Airports and Bridges before he got shot.
Who will live in the memory of man the longest, who can keep their name on the lips of man forever?
I suppose George Washington also done a fine job, don’t make me King, but please name your child and a street after me.
I suppose there has to be a Make a Movie Immortality also, I am sure Kennedy does well in this in this age, but who can say 500 years from now who will be the immortal giant of the name being remembered far into the future.
I guess, my vote is on…. Jefferson, Einstein and Edison.
Kennedy and De Gaulle will lose, Martin Luther King will flop out of sight and George Washington will hold his own.
I think Thomas Jefferson may continue to rise and bloom with time.
Charles de Gaulle Kennedy King and GeorgeLabels: Burkina Faso, Transportation |
| posted by Andy HoboTraveler.com @ 2:11 PM |
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| Travel Ouaga to Po Burkina Faso |
| Saturday, September 08, 2007 |
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