Kung Fu Camp

Friday, July 4
Dakar, Senegal

My guidebook to Dakar is worthless. I found this out after I spent two hours trying to find the "must-see" Piscine Olympique. It's a swimming pool. And my map is wrong more often than it is right. Thanks, Lonely Planet!

I went down to the main local's market to try to buy a motorbike today. There's a Chinese brand called "Sanili" that is pretty popular in West Africa. The bikes aren't high quality but they aren't bad either. For $1,000 to $1,500 I'm not expecting a Honda Africa Twin. I got off the bus and started asking around for motorcycle vendors. I got pointed in a number of different directions, not all of them particularly helpful, but nevertheless I had a great time walking through the market. It was my first "real" African market. Since it's a market for the local people, not tourists, no one hassled me. I couldn't find the moto vendors but I did stumble upon the cow head vendors. Finally, I came to a break in the market and stumbled upon a guy driving a Moto Sanili. I found out that his name was Cheick Kane and that he is a business school student at the Dakar International School of Business. I asked him where he bought his bike and within two minutes, I was on the back heading for the dealership.



Of all of the stupid things I've done--running with the bulls, going to Mauritania, not buying stock in google--getting on the back of this bike is at at the top of the list.


CHEIK: David, hold on. Inshallah, we shall arrive at the dealership.
ME: I'm ready.
CHEIK: Driving in Dakar is very dangerous.
ME: Shouldn't we rely on your driving skills and not Allah?
CHEIK: Allah knows best.
ME: Fuck.

Somewhere between the time we drove about 8 inches behind a dump truck and the time we drove 40 mph against our right-of-way into a blind intersection, my heart rate hit about 200 beats per minute. I didn't know the French word for "heart attack" so I mimed for Cheik to slow down. When this had no discernible result, I began to calculate the damage from jumping off the bike and taking my chances with the pavement. Not worth it. I stayed put and we arrived a few minutes later at the Sanili shop. Cheik negotiated a great price for me on a new bike. I told the dealer I would be back on Monday with the money and I returned to my hotel to try to figure out how to get enough money in cash.