Mechua Market.

The men at Mechua market are in charge of oranges, bananas, pineapples, pomegranate and many other fruits of the season. Trucks arrive 24/7 and wait in the surrounding areas to get a parking lot to be unloaded. Most of the fruits are sold right on the spot. Men carrying trunks of bananas show up in front of an auctioneer and after a quick bidding session, the trunk is sold and the next man with another banana trunk takes place. With this system, an entire truckload of fruits is quickly sold to people who distribute them to different places all over West Bengal.

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India

Portrait of a hard working man at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working man at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Fresh pomegranate at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India

Unloading a truck at Mechua Market in Kolkata, India.

Kolay Market.

Pretty much the same goes for Kolay market just opposite Sealdah Train station. This is the place for cucumbers, onions, pumpkins, eggplant and any other vegetable of the season. Men, day labours – mostly from Bihar – work in long shifts to unload trucks that arrive from all over West Bengal. They earn about 500 Rupees (4-6 €) a day and travel home to their families only once a year. Needless to say, this work is taking it’s toll on their health… They sleep in dormitories in the first floors of the warehouses just above their workplace, so if a truck arrives, they are ready to unload immediately.

Hard working men at Kolay Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Kolay Market in Kolkata, India.

Hard working men at Kolay Market in Kolkata, India.

Selling fresh vegetables at Kolay Market in Kolkata, India.

Posta Burrabazar.

For garlic and ginger you have to travel to another area in the city. This market is close to Howrah bridge not too far away from the Mullik Ghat flower market on the way to Nimtala burning Ghat. You smell the loads of garlic that are repacked into smaller quantities immediately. This work is mostly done by women.

Street scene at Posta Burrabazar in Kolkata, India.

At Mullik Ghat flower market near Howrah bridge in Kolkata, India.

If you want to see what it’s like to walk through these markets, check out the videos in this post.

After a couple of hours, Orodara came into sight and just before the village, we spotted a nice looking hotel – turned out later that it was a really good choice to go for this one; we had a huge room with a nice balcony on both sides. But since the bus continued driving, we needed to make our way back there. It was definitely too long to walk with all our luggage, therefore we stopped a passing donkey cart. The cart driver was more than surprised to have “blancs” (means white people) as load, but the money we offered convinced him to take us on…

Orodara was a small town with a big market and quite a lot of merchandising going on, where lots of trucks on their way to Mali passed through. We spent a few hours walking around, buying fresh mangoes, bananas and oranges and enquired about possibilities of continuing to Banfora. We were told that this was only possible with a “taxi brousse“. So we made a reservation at the “bush taxi“stand for the next day.

On this donkey cart we were on our way to the hotel in Orodara, Burkina Faso.

Fresh oranges and the most delicious cashew nuts at the market in Orodara, Burkina Faso.

Transporting dead pigs on a motorbike in Orodara, Burkina Faso.

Ready, Set, Go!

A gut feeling told us to be prepared for such a trip, so we stocked up on bananas, baguettes and water. The distance to Banfora is only 80 kilometres on a gravel road, so that – normally – shouldn’t be a big deal for a good car. But bush taxis tend to always need major repairs, and then 80 kilometres can turn into a great distance. Our bush taxi looked exactly like all the others: a lot of luggage on the roof rack, some goats stuffed between a motorbike and lots of baskets of chicken. It was fully loaded, to get the maximum out of the trip. 20 fellow passengers with some kids sitting on their mothers laps. Children travel for free, but don’t get extra seats, so it gets pretty tight.

The kilometres started passing and the taxi stopped from time to time to let someone out or to take on new travellers. There was always a great movement on the roof with loading and unloading, so there was no chance of taking a little nap…

Big Bang Theory.

As if the noise level wasn’t already high enough with the engine being at the end of one’s rope, the constant, very loud & full of vim and vigour blabbering of our fellow passengers in local lingo, was definitely a challenge for our eardrums. While we where trying to figure out what in God’s name they where all talking about, it was abruptly quite after a big BANG followed by the cars standstill. But the silence didn’t last very long … maybe only a gimps of a second, because everyone seemed to know what happened: A broken tyre was the reason. When looking at it, we wondered how it actually made it this far…

The driver apologised to us for this interruption but we weren’t really bothered. The tyre was quickly off and we pointed at the 2 spare tyres on the roof … but these were flat as well. Our input if these tyres were just for decoration didn’t really help to ease the situation. But Africans are used to such incidents, so the boy in charge took the flat tyre and drove off with the next passing motorbike. Now it was time to wait; we and all other passengers settled under the nearby trees to get some shade. Some fell asleep instantly and we opened our “lunch bag” to have a nice bush pick-nick.

Bush taxi-break-down Nr. 1 in Burkina Faso.

Ready to get a new tyre for the broken down bush taxi in Burkina Faso.

This wasn’t going to be our day.

Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take too long for the guy to return out of nowhere with the repaired tyre. It took 5 more minutes to put everything back in place, and then we continued our journey… But not for long. After only 10 kilometres, another tyre went flat – or to put it the right way: it was ripped into pieces. The driver started swearing in his local dialect and the boy in charge got the broken tyre off and disappeared again with the next passing motorbike.

Bush taxi-break-down Nr. 2 in Burkina Faso. Nr. 3 was only a matter of time…

Yet again, a passing motorbike was our only way out…

Time passed and when he came back, he proudly showed everyone the brand new tyre he just bought. Now nothing seemed to stop the car once more. But we cheered too soon, because the one of the two remaining tyres decided that this was his last ride, and we got stuck again. As before, all passengers settled under a huge mango tree and some vendors came along with fresh fruits for sale. After an hour or so, we decided to stop the next passing car to get a lift to Banfora, because it was only about 20 kilometres and we were sick of being stuck in the bush. We were not along with this thought; one of the passengers – a very very old man – joined us as we stopped a Peugeot 404, which had the cargo area turned into passenger seats. Off we were, waving goodbye to our astonished bush taxi driver…

Unfortunately, we were out of luck, because this cars engine sounded weird right from the beginning with hicks and backfires all the way. 3 kilometres before the centre of Banfora, another loud BANG rattled the car and the engine took its last breath. The driver shook his head in despair and this way it for us. We got out and decided to walk the remaining kilometres to our hotel…

After 8 hours of journey time for only 80 kilometres, we reached the hotel “La Canne du Sucre” – a beautiful place with pool – completely exhausted from this bush taxi adventure…

More bush taxis in Burkina Faso:

Fully loaded bush taxi in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – A couple of tyres in tow just to be on the safe side…

“Bon Voyage” – A Bush taxi in Burkina Faso.

A bush taxi driving though an alley of trees in Banfora, Burkina Faso.

Another bush taxi in Burkina Faso.

And another (smaller) bush taxi in Burkina Faso.

Trucking ia also a very popular way of getting from A to B in Burkina Faso.

Fully loaded truck in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Chicken in tow as well.

What an experience!

The wholesale market for fruits and vegetables in Kolkata is an experience that is really difficult to describe. You make your way through dozens of trucks, which are parked only centimetres apart from each other, hundreds of porters, vendors, auctioneers, buyers and people who load & unload the trucks from their precious cargo – fresh fruits and vegetables that arrive here every morning from all over India, to be auctioned off right on the spot.

Words & photos are good for imagining such ongoing activities, but we also put together a little video (with out iPhone, so please excuse the quality) of the market’s happenings. This way, you’ll not only get an impression on the number of fruits auctioned off, the people who roam these streets, the heavy goods that need to be loaded onto trucks, but also the constant noise level…

Oranges, pineapples and bananas.

On the day of our visit, the main fruits that had just arrived were oranges, pineapples and bananas. Bananas (still on the stem) are a very attractive fruit and are sold piece by piece. How that works is that one porter stands in front of the truck, with the banana stalk on his head for display, while the auctioneer is shouting out the price. It’s a fast business, and all over sudden the bananas disappear in someone’s box or basket, and the next stalk is brought out for the auction.
With oranges it’s a bit different; they’re stacked up in a pyramid shape and sold tower-wise.

Obviously this place is hardly ever visited by foreigners. Many people asked how and why we came there and they were quite astonished when we said that we just wanted to have a look around.

We had the best time and the vendors seemed to ‘enjoy’ our company. A trader gave us apples from Kashmir as a present and everybody was keen to have his picture taken. It was a really great experience, yet it was a bit difficult to move along, because we didn’t want to be in anyone’s way … especially not if they’re carrying a 50 pound basket!

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Biddings at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Baskets full of papayas the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

Working men at the the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata, India.

The French cherish their former colony, while for the rest of the world this country is rather unknown. We actually didn’t plan on visiting Burkina Faso, rather Mauritania or Mali were on our list. But Mali was out of question with all the troubles at the moment and Mauritania didn’t have a consulate in Austria. This was when Burkina Faso showed up on our map. And well, we were definitely not disappointed to have made this decision.

Some things we recommend on doing/seeing:

Ouagadougou.

Ouagadougou greeted us with friendly welcoming people but it was still an adventure itself. We stayed there for a couple of days (at Maison Micha – a beautiful, tidy, quiet, affordable and safe place, run by a German woman) before we continued to Bobo Dioulasso. Public transport is easily available and buses run accurately, so there was no hassle at all.

Bobo Dioulasso.

Bobo Dioulasso has lots of interesting things to see: The Grande Mosque, a unique Sudanese mud architecture which was built in 1880, a sacred fish pond, beautiful villages in the vicinity and a huge market.

The amazing Grand Mosque in Bobo Dioulasso is an impressive representative of the traditional Sudano-Sahelian architecture and the largest building of this style in Burkina Faso. It was built in the end of the 19th century as a result of political deal between local king and Islamic religious leader.

Koro (10km East of Bobo Dioulasso) is an ancient local village built in & around rock formations.

Nowadays the ancient village of Koro is almost completely abandoned, only few locals stick around.

Banfora.

Further south-west, you’ll arrived in Banfora, the stepping off point to the Pics of Sindou, which is a bizarre looking area where you can hike for hours on tracks between high grass surrounded by moon like mountain formations (a guide is compulsory). Another great point of interest are the “Karfiguela Waterfalls”, an array of permanent waterfalls with fantastic swimming ponds. At the starting point, where you leave the car or your motorbike, you walk through an alley of huge trees, which is simply breathtaking to look at. You can continue to Hippo Lake, for a bit of wildlife experience.

Rock formations “Pics de Sindou” just 50km Southwest of Banfora, Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso isn’t full of natural wonders, but the rock formation “Pics de Sindou” is a must visit when in the area around Banfora.

Walking around the rock formations “Pics de Sindou”near Banfora really gives you the impression of an “out of this world” location.

The Karfiguela Waterfalls the falls are actually a set of smaller and bigger falls, pools, rocks that are all easily discovered by foot.

Before getting to Karfiguela Waterfalls near Banfora, you will pass a lane of huge mango trees.

Hairdresser, Healers & Tailors.

In larger towns, look at the interesting signs that advertise hairdressers and barbers … some will really make you smile. Also, be sure to check out the traditional healers; you’ll find a section of these guys at every market. Of course, markets are interesting too, as they are in every country. After finishing up, maybe you’re ready for a traditional African dress; a tailor will measure you and sew it in a few hours. They do a really great job and it works like a charm on a fancy dress party.

A traditions healer in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

Market life in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

A typical Coiffure sign in Burkina Faso.

Bush Taxi.

For the ones of you who really want to spice up their holiday with an easy adventure, simply take a bush taxi instead of your rented 4×4 truck. Expect some blown up tyres and engine failures,  so bring plenty of water in case you really have to spend some hours on a dirt track near the broken down vehicle. Be assured, even the locals want to arrive at their desired destination, so the spare-parts or another vehicle will come, sooner or later. You’ll remember this trip for many years and have some great stories for your grand kids.

A bush taxi ride in Burkina Faso will leave you with lots of memorable conversation material.

If you get to your desired destination without a maintenance stop in between, you’re definitely one of the lucky ones.

Our 2 weeks in Burkina Faso were not long enough, because there’s still the train trip that needs to be done, Tiebele with its painted villages, Nazinga Game Reserve, Parc du W and a lot more, so we’ll be back next year for sure.

Transport in the desert is very limited and if a truck sets out for one of this dangerous journeys, a lot of people see the opportunity to get a ride on those vehicles. Distances between places (where you can get water, petrol or any help in general) can be days apart.