There are 54 countries in Africa, and most of them have different customs. I stayed mainly in Mali at the end of the year, so I didn’t know much about other countries’ taxi rides. So, why do you want to write “Africa” in the title? The main fear is that you do not know where the country of Mali.
Mali is not Somalia, there is no piracy, and there is no sea.
It is a landlocked country, located in West Africa, and in 2019 ranked in the bottom 25 of the list of the world’s poorest countries, okay, not quite the bottom. The surrounding countries are its hard-core brothers, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Sierra Leone, Guinea and so on, all of them are famous poor countries.
Maybe you do not have the concept, then you probably know that it is next door to Senegal can be, not far from Ghana. I heard that the import tariff for cars here is very high, so many people will import to the surrounding countries with ports, and then find someone to drive you directly overland.
However, even a broken ship has three nails, although the country as a whole is very poor, but there are still many rich people. You can always see a lot of new cars on the street, big Range Rover, big Toyota, niche and Alfa Romeo. We have been to Egypt before a trip, the streets of Cairo are not so many new cars.
Of course, most of the average rich people still drive used cars, should be eliminated from Europe, like Toyota brand cars, about 40,000 yuan can buy one. The taxi is even older, a Mercedes 190, the price of the car is about 20,000 ~ 25,000 yuan, the local currency of more than 2 million West France, the poorer people can not afford to buy.
We don’t have a car in Mali, so in Mali for almost a year, most of the Time, we go out by taxi. I can say that Malian cabs have taught me far more about cars than I have learned in my year and a half of working in the automotive media.
They have given me a whole new perspective on cars. What is the ultimate mystery of the car? Not self-driving, not a mobile Home, but, rather, running faster than humans.
So it’s enough that it has an engine, a steering wheel, can brake, and can run.
Seat belts were certainly unnecessary, and even the doors didn’t need to close perfectly. I soon learned to fling the door very hard, but still often encounter running, the driver suddenly said “you did not close the door” situation, and then I will be very calm to open the door and then flung on.
It turns out that you can open the door when the car is running.
Perhaps it was because of the many situations that the Malians were very enthusiastic. The most memorable time for me was when a cab was waiting for a red light and I was in the passenger seat, when a car suddenly came up behind me and the driver reached out and pulled my door open and threw it shut again very hard. The two drivers looked at each other, eyes met and popped away as if nothing had happened, separated by a head full of questions for me. Really, this action is a bit difficult, I now can not remember where his hand from then.
In fact, the car door can still close itself, but the car stalled on the road, a person is often unable to push. The driver got off the driver a wave, next to the big black small black people will come over to help you push the car, after of course, to give some small change to express their gratitude, but 30 degrees of heat they are willing to help you push the car is also considered very noble character, and they did not first ask for money before pushing the car.
When pushing the car, the driver’s door to open, the driver has one foot on the ground, one foot in the car, a few people in the back to push. I do not know what he put that foot on the ground is for, maybe back pedal can help make some effort? Push a few times, found that still can not play, so the driver directly out of the car, holding the car pillar while firing while pushing. Usually this will be able to hit a few times, and then the driver will quickly sit back in the car and throw the door, “shake shake” to drive forward.
But once very embarrassing, they pushed a good half day did not push up, I hesitated to get off, after all, look at them so hard to push the car in the heat of the day to add a 60 kg me, I feel very guilty. But the driver said firmly, “No, no, no, no, sit down, no need to get off!” The Malians were really friendly most of the time.
Then I thought about it, indeed, you can’t get off, because the car can’t immediately brake again after driving up, for fear of stalling again, so you can only keep running forward, so I can’t catch up after getting off ……
Luckily, the car eventually rumbled and rumbled to start up, outside the window filled with a black smoke, and then a white smoke, white smoke and black smoke intertwined, and I do not know what scientific principle. Just when I wondered if the car was going to explode, the driver quickly ran back to the driver’s seat, throwing on the door, the little car “shake shake shake” and then “dirt dirt dirt dirt” to drive forward.
I have to say, the quality of Mercedes-Benz is still very strong, the car is broken into such, the engine feels still very strong. I also because of this small car to “power” four words have a sense of awareness. And I don’t know if it’s because of the burning diesel, the roar is still pretty good, maybe this is the legendary sexy sound.
So such a great value for small cars have some small defects, but also negligible.
For example, there is no air conditioning, but there is a natural breeze ah, most of the time the windows are not able to lift properly anyway, because the crank is off. However, if you have to open or close the window, you can also talk to the driver, he will use two hands to hold the glass to rub up the window. Hardware is not enough service to come together, the experience is very good.
For example, there is no door handle, sometimes not inside the front seat, sometimes not outside the back seat, very random. I also got to know the inside of the car door assembly because of this, because the inner plastic panel is also not there, the door panel is just bare. No door handle is not a big problem at all, with a rope or wire tether on it, the driver in the driver’s seat to reach out and tug, the door can be opened.
For example, you can’t put it in reverse gear. As I said earlier, Malians are very warm and friendly, for example, I pointed him to the door of the residence, but he slid forward several meters, I casually said “you exceeded a little bit”, in fact, it does not matter, I was ready to open the door and get out of the car, the driver said, “do not move “, and then attempted to put the reverse gear to me backwards.
Seeing him crank that handle, but just couldn’t crank the reverse gear, I could clearly hear the smooth sound of the gear lever grazing the gears. We were awkwardly silent for a few seconds, then I said, “I’ll go down, it’s okay!” , and the driver hurriedly said, “Okay, okay, thanks!” We both breathed a sigh of relief.
Another example is the lack of car keys. One night after 11:00 p.m., I came out of the casino and a big black guy cut me off to his car very smoothly. After negotiating the price, I saw that he did not move for half a day, looked sideways and found that his keyhole position sticks out two small cut wires, he was pinching the wires together to fire. I was amazed and said, “Is this okay?” The driver said with a smile, “Yes, yes, yes!”
As I spoke, the little car was “peddling” and my car knowledge increased a little.
All in all, the cabs in Mali are pretty safe. I’ve been riding in cabs for most of my Life, and I’ve only had one minor accident, when the driver gently disliked the car in front of him while turning at an intersection, and the two drivers came down together and looked towards the collision, and then looked at each other and went back to their respective cars.
Most of the drivers are relatively friendly, a few unfriendly is too little money jabbering a little, nothing else. And don’t look at them poor, many still love life, the car is painted green, the center console full of small gray dolls, and some people will also be in the car connected to a small fan blowing.
When we first came to Mali, we took a bus from the border to the capital, and the door could not be closed (because it would be stuffy inside), so we drove with the door open for a day, and it broke down in the middle for more than an hour. It is such a raggedy car, there is actually a small refrigerator inside to provide free ice water, so do not think that the African brothers poor no pursuit of it.
The majority of Chinese people will never come to Mali in their lifetime, it can also be said that Mali is a non-existent place for the majority of Chinese people, such as my Parents still do not know what the country I spent time in is called. And I’ve been in so many strange cabs in such a non-existent country, it feels pretty amazing, haha.
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