Day 6 (part 5) – 12/31/08 – Ozio Restaurant, Dakar, Senegal

Flava Flav!

After the excitement from the fracas died down, everyone settled into full-blown party mode, with the Lebanese ordering a couple of bottles of Belvedere and a bunch of Red Bull and clearly settling in for a long evening in which everyone got to be their own mixologist.  There were so many characters that it is impossible to do them justice, but I will do my best, and apologize for the lack of pictures.    You will also be the beneficiary of a short discourse on comparative man-hugging, a little studied phenomenon that would provide great insight to cultural anthropologists.

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Day 6 (part 4) – 12/31/08 – Ozio Restaurant, Dakar, Senegal

Soccer Players Right, Lebanese Left

Now for a study in the reactions of the crowd, beginning with the Soccer players.  These guys were righteously indignant about having gotten their multi-thousand dollar suits drenched in champagne for no reason and with no warning by some random dude.  I can’t help be think that if you go out for NYE you should expect something like this, but I could certainly see myself reacting the way they did in the circumstances – especially if I were out with my crew and we were feeling a little rowdy ourselves (actually we wouldn’t have messed around with the preliminaries but gone straight in with fists flying).  What was really interesting, htough, is that I don’t think that they ever considered the possibility that anyone would either (a) rebuff their initial demand for weregeld or whatever they asked for, or (b) stand up to them or challenge them in any way.  They were clearly used to being the Big Dogs wherever they went, and based on their treatment by the non-Lebanese locals before the fracas, they were probably justified in doing so.  I think that the fact that things escalated to a scuffle, much less one in which, ultimately, they were the ones being called out, was one hell of a surprised. 

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Day 6 (part 3) – 12/31/08 – Ozio Restaurant, Dakar, Senegal

Ozio - New Year's Eve

The 2 hours leading up to New Year’s were pretty uneventful, with The Lady and the Blogger looking back on 2008 and congratulating ourselves on how awesome we are.  In between techno, dance, lounge and trance music, I am glad to report that I got to hear the original (and not the Gypsy King’s version as I would have expected) of Hotel California, bringing my “Countries In Which I’ve Heard Hotel California” tally up to 10.  I’m beginning to think that it may not be my presence that causes people in random countries to play Hotel California, and that maybe I hear it everywhere I go because it’s still an amazingly popular song, but that line of thought leads no where and I’ve chosen to ignore it. 

After lots of miscellaneous music, the waiters passed out gift bags with party hats, noisemakers, sunglasses and the like, and we all rang in 2009 Dakar style – which varied only from U.S. style in that we didn’t hear Auld Lange Syne.  Shortly thereafter, all hell broke loose.

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Day 6 (part 2) – 12/31/08 – Ozio Restaurant, Dakar, Senegal

We Might Have Had A Bit To Drink

Our New Year’s Eve experience was so outrageous that it set a new standard for both random 3rd world travel and for NYE parties.  I only wish that I were writer enough to do this evening justice.  I will try, but the Bard himself would have trouble with this one.  Also note that we have very few pictures of this event, so you will get more Goree / Dakar pictures throughout.

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Day 6 (part 1) – 12/31/08 – Dakar, Senegal

Still Going Strong In Dakar

New Year’s Eve dawned bright and early at the crack of 10:00 am (which is absurdly late for us) and we meandered up to a pattiserie in the main part of town for coffee and croisants, which were good.  I had another, which was even better.  First stop was an ATM that actually worked for us, then we headed to Senegal Travel to arrange a guide and car for a day trip on 1/1 to a wildlife preserve, Lac Rose (a pink lake…) and a couple of fishing towns.  After getting set up, we walked around the city stopping in every museaum and art gallery we saw.  In Dakar, these are almost indistinguishable as unless it’s run by an institution, every artefact or work has a price tag on it. 

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Day 5 (part 3) – 12/30/08 – Dakar, Senegal

Nice Dakar Scene

Although our airport experience was smooth, our trek to the hotel reached almost epic proportions as our cabbie was new to the job and had no idea how to get to Hotel Savana – which is like asking a cabbie at LaGuardia to take you to the Waldorf and the cabbie getting lost.  This completely pissed off both the Blogger and The Lady, and by the time we got to the hotel we were convinced that we were miles away from anything that we wanted to do in Dakar – namely wonder around the city on foot, get the feel of it, window shop, go to lots of museums, and generally meander about. 

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Day 5 (part 2) – 12/30/08 – Operation Exit Bamako

Gate A was equally interesting, as it was difficult to find the actual security checkpoint / gate, but we persevered and found it hidden in plain sight.  At this point is was 1:00, and our flight was scheduled to board at 2:05.  Naturally, we went to the restaurant for a quick drink when all of a sudden the rest of the Gate A group got up to go through security. 

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Day 5 (part 1) – 12/30/08 – Bamako, Mali

As this was our last day in Mali, leaving for Dakar at 2:40, we only had a limited plan – (1) breakfast, (2) Musee National, (3) Post Office (the Lady collects stamps), then (4) to the airport for departure.  Steps 1-3 went remarkably smoothly and we arrived at the airport a couple of hours early without even having to jump off Johnny’s car.  Oh well, I guess 3 days out of 4 with a jump start is OK.  Our disappointment with the morning’s smooth operation, however, was short-lived – Mali had one last surprise in store for us.

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Day 4 (part 3) – 12/29/08 – Bamako, Mali

If you Don't Like The Way I Drive, Get Off The Sidewalk

After our uplifting discussion of geopolitics, we headed back to the city for our last stop on Le Tour de Bamako – the Artisan’s Market and the Grand Mosque.  To get there, we passed through the main market in Bamako on market day.  This was an exciting bit of driving, as basically all of the normal roadside market chaos was ratcheted up a couple of orders of magnitude, the stalls spilled out onto the road, and people ignored all cars and motorcycles.  Johnny again earned his keep, bullying his way through the crowds and turning into some sort of VIP lot next to the Grand Mosque.

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Day 4 (part 2) – 12/29/08 – Bamako, Mali

Musicians

After the zoo, we first stopped at a really cool shop called “Mali Chic“, which was a sort of gallery/market for local Malian art.  We made a substantial contribution to the local economy here, and the headed to a nice restaurant by the Niger River that was in a sort of old-fashioned walled compound looking into a courtyard and doubled as a gallery/workshop for local artists.  Unlike the stuff at Mali Chic, the stuff here pretty much sucked, combining the worst aspects of southern US folk art and African color sensibilities.  I’m sure there are those that like this stuff, but I’ll be they’re either pretentious assholes, or relatives of the artists.  Still, good for the artists for making a go of it, and good for whoever runs the place for providing them an opportunity. 

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