Benefits of Setting Up The Trip With good friends (Dan, Amber, Fred and Klaus) in tow, 2 Toyota Innovas set off for the long trip north west to Hampi.  I was still a bit nervous about my new camera so with much coaxing – thank you Fred and Amber -  and an IRON grip on…

A co-worker of Darren was getting married and we were super excited when we were invited.  We headed down to Madurai in Tamil Nadu with another co-worker of Darren's and travel buddy Paul.  Taking a sleeper car train in India is a blast.  This time it was an AC two tier sleeper (we left at…

I took a heck of a lot of photos so I thought I would post some random fun ones.  Thanks for a great time Paul and Marie!! French Legacy Just Your Normal Taxi Ride It's Not Warm Enough? Buying Bread Delivering The Bread Mini Not entralled with my camera! Tea Time HUGE TREE  

…..and trying to hail a cab.  Since Paul and Marie usually take their scooter, the picture you see of Paul bending over to negotiate a price (after we waited for a while outside their apartment for a taxi to come by) and the ensuing conversation was an every day occurrence and thought it would be…

One of the most alarming things as a woman is the continued prevelance of genital mutilation (excision – a sterile medical term for what really happens) in many, many places around the world. 2 MILLION GIRLS A YEAR  140 MILLION WOMEN TOTAL                           …

So there is no way that I can fit all the images from our three days and two nights in Pays Dogon but hopefully these few will suffice. We went from (try to say all these names 3 times fast) Djiguibombo to Kani Kombole thru Tele and Ende to Begnemato and back.  The nights were…

After having a nice leisurely breakfast (which turned out to be pretty much each breakfast) of bread, butter, jam and tea, we headed to Mopti. We checked into Y Pas De Problem (The No Problem Hotel) which was super cute and decided to do a boat tour of the Niger and Bani Rivers.  After a…

It is famous for it's Monday morning market and it's mud brick architecture (mainly the Great Mosque).  We rolled into town Sunday afternoon, and after a little tiff with the manager of the 1st hotel where our mosquito infested room was fumigated to no avail, we moved on to much more comfortable digs right off…

Segou, about 150 miles NE from Bamako, was the first stop.  We walked around visiting a art exhibit, markets, and well, just generally taking pictures.  Dinner was at the Hôtel Le Djoliba where we ended up staying on our way back down to Bamako – cheaper and SO much nicer than the place we stayed…

This is a little video of our drive up to our Pays Dogon Adventure.  We went to Segou, then to Djenne, Mopti, Pays Dogon and back to Bamako.  It will give you a good sense of the 12.5 hr drive there (including road quality) and back.  The music playing is Ali Farka Toure – his…