Bamako, Mali is one of very few areas in Mali that’s safe to visit right now. The north and east are involved in tribal conflicts. The famous Timbuktu is a strict no-go. This limited where I could visit and turned Mali into basically a short trip to the capital, since nothing else is possible right…
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I finally arrived in Dakar really late at night / early in the morning. They had checked my backpack because the flight was completely full, and it took FOOOORRRREVER for my backpack to come out in baggage claim. In fact, I was the last one there. I went to ask where it was, and the…
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This was an unplanned visit. Shortly before leaving for my trip, I got an email that my flight to Casablanca was pushed back 20min but then the flight out of Casablanca was canceled. Heading to Dakar, Senegal, the next flight available was late at night, so I now had an 11hr layover. No way was…
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Early in the morning, I flew to Doha and then to Erbil in Kurdistan. Kurdistan not only includes the northern region of Iraq but also northern Syria and southeast Turkey. There is a strong independence notion in the area, that they should form their own country by separating from the other 3. Politics aside, here’s…
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I have to admit that I was not looking forward to visiting Muscat after how ridiculous my previous entry & exit experiences had been with passport control in Salalah, Oman. I was expecting a lot of grief and delays. The guy at passport control was clearly preoccupied with a text message conversation he was having,…
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