Visit Rwanda?

[Sir C]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

[PSRB]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

Ah, I get what you're on about now, our new shirt sleeve sponsor. Very, very odd. TIA

[IUFG]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

Well, The Arsenal have to generate monies to fund Wenger's pay off from somewhere, sc.

Agreed - I'm not sure your average football fan could even point to Rwanda on a world map.

[Sir C]

Ah, I get what you're on about now, our new shirt sleeve sponsor. Very, very odd. TIA

I want to watch Claude get off his flight at the chaos that isJomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi and try to navigate his way to the onward flight to Kigali. :hehe: He'd shít in his pants.

[Tony C]

Guy from work is going to Borneo again for his summer hols.

He says him and his girlfriend love it.

Apparently they love being around all the monkeys.

I still don’t get it...Borneo????

And it’s not their first trip either.

[Sir C]

Guy from work is going to Borneo again for his summer hols.

He says him and his girlfriend love it.

Apparently they love being around all the monkeys.

I still don’t get it...Borneo????

And it’s not their first trip either.

Fantastic place. Virgin rainforest, mountains, orangutans, loads of other amazing wildlife, brilliant food, great beaches... much of the coast is quite developed but it's not too difficult to find quieter, untouched bits, especially inland. I heartily recommend it.

[Just Trent]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

One of the more bizarre sponsorship deals. I'm guessing Ozil will be to ill to attend the launch event in Kigali ?

[Tony C]

One of the more bizarre sponsorship deals. I'm guessing Ozil will be to ill to attend the launch event in Kigali ?

Seems like the perfect opportunity to solve the Ozil problem.

Insurance should cover us for a cool £100m

[Billy Goat Sverige]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

The president is a big Arsenal fan. I think he's trying to bolster our warchest.

[Sir C]

The president is a big Arsenal fan. I think he's trying to bolster our warchest.

He's a fascist, that's what he is.

I suspect he's siphoning UN aid payments through his Swiss bank accounts into ours, which will clean the money nicely before we pay him a commission back.

[WES]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

So some way to go before it's a match for the UAE then :cloud9:

#5monthstofujairah

[Ash]

The president is a big Arsenal fan. I think he's trying to bolster our warchest.

This is what we need to get round FFP, in a Man City stylee.

If we can persuade the Clown Prince bin Salman of the Wahhabist Kingdom of Salafist Headchoppers to 'sponsor' us (we can wear 'ISIL' on our socks, perhaps) he can give us billions of *** free money ***.

[Sir C]

So some way to go before it's a match for the UAE then :cloud9:

#5monthstofujairah

You make a good point., I could perfectly understand the UAE tourist board marketing itself to football supporters - they sit right in the middle of their target market. Uneducated, vulgar cretins, happy to eat microwaved generic 'food' served in blinged up mausolea of taste in between slobbing out in a desert of concrete next to a pit filled with eye-stinging chemicals.

Trying to attract the sort of traveller who is happy to work through discomfort, fear and pain to experience nature in the raw and immerse himself in entirely alien cultures seems to me a big ask at a football match.

[WES]

You make a good point., I could perfectly understand the UAE tourist board marketing itself to football supporters - they sit right in the middle of their target market. Uneducated, vulgar cretins, happy to eat microwaved generic 'food' served in blinged up mausolea of taste in between slobbing out in a desert of concrete next to a pit filled with eye-stinging chemicals.

Trying to attract the sort of traveller who is happy to work through discomfort, fear and pain to experience nature in the raw and immerse himself in entirely alien cultures seems to me a big ask at a football match.

Just soooooooooooo easy :hehe:

And a wiley AWIMB veteran likes Charles, as well. :cloud9:

[Sir C]

Just soooooooooooo easy :hehe:

And a wiley AWIMB veteran likes Charles, as well. :cloud9:

A chap likes to stay in practice, wes.

[redgunamo]

This is what we need to get round FFP, in a Man City stylee.

If we can persuade the Clown Prince bin Salman of the Wahhabist Kingdom of Salafist Headchoppers to 'sponsor' us (we can wear 'ISIL' on our socks, perhaps) he can give us billions of *** free money ***.

Coursing and falconry exhibitions on the pitch at half-time?

https://i1.wp.com/www.newspressed.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Saudi-Falcon-With-Two-Salukis.jpg?resize=650%2C414

[Pokster]

So some way to go before it's a match for the UAE then :cloud9:

#5monthstofujairah

Where in Fujairah does the WES clan visit? Been to Dubai a couple of times, stayed at Al Qasr (spelling) was v nice, couldn't afford it now we have too many kids

[Ash]

Trying to attract the sort of traveller who is happy to work through discomfort, fear and pain to experience nature in the raw and immerse himself in entirely alien cultures seems to me a big ask at a football match.

Funnily enough, discomfort, fear and pain pretty much summed up the experience of watching football in the bad/good* old days.

Also insert something about these days alien cultures come to us.

*delete as per preference

[Ash]

Coursing and falconry exhibitions on the pitch at half-time?


Sounds good.

Actually, could we release the hounds while the players are still on the pitch? Might get them moving into some space a bit better.

[Sir C]

Funnily enough, discomfort, fear and pain pretty much summed up the experience of watching football in the bad/good* old days.

Also insert something about these days alien cultures come to us.

*delete as per preference

These are very good points, a, but slightly undermine my sneering at wes.

You should never undermine a chap's capacity to sneer at wes.

[Pat Vegas]

Do Emirates fly there? If not it’s a conflict of sponsor interest.

[Luis Anaconda]

Do Emirates fly there? If not it’s a conflict of sponsor interest.

I think we covered this when we became partners with the Israeli tourist board

[Burney]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

Yes. The question is Hutu blame?

[Sir C]

Yes. The question is Hutu blame?

When the killings started, a Hutu priest shepherded his Tutsi flock into the church for safe keeping.

Then he went and got a bulldozer and flattened the fúcker on top of them :-(

These Hutus are crazy.

[Ash]

When the killings started, a Hutu priest shepherded his Tutsi flock into the church for safe keeping.

Then he went and got a bulldozer and flattened the fúcker on top of them :-(

These Hutus are crazy.

If one is driving a bulldozer into a church, how can one be sure that the church won't fall on top of one, but will instead neatly fold over and crush the flock inside?

[Sir C]

If one is driving a bulldozer into a church, how can one be sure that the church won't fall on top of one, but will instead neatly fold over and crush the flock inside?

In truth, I report information only as relayed to me by the good people of the Genocide Museum, who were more than eager to fill me in on the gorier aspects of 'what happened' as the massacre is euphemistically referred to. Mind you, given that I went there directly from the airport after a 14 hour journey, my recollection may not be perfect. Some bits do stick in the mind, mind.

[IUFG]

If one is driving a bulldozer into a church, how can one be sure that the church won't fall on top of one, but will instead neatly fold over and crush the flock inside?

one doesn't have to pay attention to the mere details, a.

[Sir C]

one doesn't have to pay attention to the mere details, a.

Thinking about it, one assumes that the priest had God on his side.

[IUFG]

Thinking about it, one assumes that the priest had God on his side.

that'll be it.

But then again, murdering the flock...

It is all very confusing :rubchin:

[Burney]

When the killings started, a Hutu priest shepherded his Tutsi flock into the church for safe keeping.

Then he went and got a bulldozer and flattened the fúcker on top of them :-(

These Hutus are crazy.

Yes, I know. I read about it in ‘We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families’, which is an almost comically depressing read.

I blame the Belgians. Or the French. Anyway, it’s not one of ours, thank God.

[WES]

It’s times like this that I wish my holidays were more like Charles. The wife and children have always wanted to fly hours in order to see a Genocide Museum and there’s me taking them to 5 star resorts and cities filled with history, culture, architecture and great food.

It’s virtually child abuse :-(

[Burney]

Thinking about it, one assumes that the priest had God on his side.

Maybe he knew where the load-bearing walls were?

Anyway, it’s all about the colonial masters favouring the more Semitic Tutsi minority over the more obviously negroid Hutu majority, apparently. So whitey’s fault, obvs. Heaven forfend we hold black people responsible for their actions, eh?

[Ash]

one doesn't have to pay attention to the mere details, a.

In my experience one does, especially if there are potential propaganda points to be scored. Note that I am not doubting the veracity of this particular story or the accuracy with which it was retold here. I am just, perhaps callously, a little bit cautious about atrocity stories if something doesn't quite feel right about them.

For example, victims of an alleged chemical attack who were recorded arriving in hospital before the alleged attack actually took place. Something slightly odd about that imo. :sherlock:

Perhaps in this case the blade thingy of the bulldozer was bigger than the actual church, just to be safe. :nod:

[Sir C]

Yes, I know. I read about it in ‘We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families’, which is an almost comically depressing read.

I blame the Belgians. Or the French. Anyway, it’s not one of ours, thank God.

Of course the Kigali genocide museum doesn't really stand up to the Phnom Penh genocide museum. The Cambodians cunningly built their museum on the site of a massive execution centre, so are able gleefully to point out the bones which still work their way to the surface each day, as well as delights such as the tree against which babies' heads were smashed in order to save bullets.

I'm quite the connoisseur of the genocide museum, me.

[Burney]

In my experience one does, especially if there are potential propaganda points to be scored. Note that I am not doubting the veracity of this particular story or the accuracy with which it was retold here. I am just, perhaps callously, a little bit cautious about atrocity stories if something doesn't quite feel right about them.

For example, victims of an alleged chemical attack who were recorded arriving in hospital before the alleged attack actually took place. Something slightly odd about that imo. :sherlock:

Perhaps in this case the blade thingy of the bulldozer was bigger than the actual church, just to be safe. :nod:

...says the noted Serb-fancier :hehe:

[Sir C]

Maybe he knew where the load-bearing walls were?

Anyway, it’s all about the colonial masters favouring the more Semitic Tutsi minority over the more obviously negroid Hutu majority, apparently. So whitey’s fault, obvs. Heaven forfend we hold black people responsible for their actions, eh?

The funny thing is how piss-terrified they are of it all kicking off again at any moment. Indeed, without Kagame's 'firm hand' (fascist dictatorship) they would definitely have been at it again. They love a good old genocide, those fúckers. Also, plenty rapey.

As you say, clearly the fault of whitey.

[Burney]

Of course the Kigali genocide museum doesn't really stand up to the Phnom Penh genocide museum. The Cambodians cunningly built their museum on the site of a massive execution centre, so are able gleefully to point out the bones which still work their way to the surface each day, as well as delights such as the tree against which babies' heads were smashed in order to save bullets.

I'm quite the connoisseur of the genocide museum, me.

Auschwitz next year, is it?

[Sir C]

It’s times like this that I wish my holidays were more like Charles. The wife and children have always wanted to fly hours in order to see a Genocide Museum and there’s me taking them to 5 star resorts and cities filled with history, culture, architecture and great food.

It’s virtually child abuse :-(

Christ yes, God forbid you should do anything to dent your ignorance.

[Sir C]

Auschwitz next year, is it?

Too jolly. I was thinking of a nice Siberian gulag.

[SWv2]

Visit a shíthouse.

Cracking marketing.

[Sir C]

In my experience one does, especially if there are potential propaganda points to be scored. Note that I am not doubting the veracity of this particular story or the accuracy with which it was retold here. I am just, perhaps callously, a little bit cautious about atrocity stories if something doesn't quite feel right about them.

For example, victims of an alleged chemical attack who were recorded arriving in hospital before the alleged attack actually took place. Something slightly odd about that imo. :sherlock:

Perhaps in this case the blade thingy of the bulldozer was bigger than the actual church, just to be safe. :nod:

They had lots of details like, oh, hundreds of photographs of heaps of bodies and hundreds of thousands of human bones, but you could be right, the whole thing might have been made up by the West just to make Putin look bad, or something.

[Burney]

The funny thing is how piss-terrified they are of it all kicking off again at any moment. Indeed, without Kagame's 'firm hand' (fascist dictatorship) they would definitely have been at it again. They love a good old genocide, those fúckers. Also, plenty rapey.

As you say, clearly the fault of whitey.

Well, to be fair, you’d hope they would be a bit terrified of it happening again, really.

Impressively, they did kill nearly a million people in the space of a few months - often using nothing more than machetes. Given that the Nazis has gas chambers and all the mechanisms of a fully industrialised state to kill their millions over the space of quite a few years, you have to take your hat off to the Hutu work ethic imo.

[Sir C]

Well, to be fair, you’d hope they would be a bit terrified of it happening again, really.

Impressively, they did kill nearly a million people in the space of a few months - often using nothing more than machetes. Given that the Nazis has gas chambers and all the mechanisms of a fully industrialised state to kill their millions over the space of quite a few years, you have to take your hat off to the Hutu work ethic imo.

Well, given the enormity of the whole thing, and given that they speak of it as if it were a temporary madness which descended upon the population, you'd imagine they'd be pretty confident that they'd learnt their lesson adn wouldn't do it again. Germans don't live in a dictatorship designed specifically to stop them killing jews, do they? They sort of realised they had put up a black, as it were, and desisted.

They are the fittest people I have ever seen. The whole country is up above 7,000', it's all hills, there's no fúcking oxygen to breathe, it's 35 degrees in pissing rain pretty much all day and 5 degrees at night, and most of them are farmers, with absolutely no machinery - the rest of them walk everywhere carrying industrial loads on their heads.

It's a weird place. Nice gorillas, mind.

[Ash]

...says the noted Serb-fancier :hehe:

.... or, for example, an alleged massacre of civilians where the bullet holes in the clothes don't match the wounds in the bodies, where french reporters had witnessed an actual firefight between combatants. (Racak)

Or the 'Jenin Massacre' when an Israeli counter-terrorism operation was spun, by the Palestinian leadership, into an alleged 'massacre' of civilians - helped by NGOs and duly described as such by breathless reporters.

Or Kuwaiti babies thrown out of incubators onto the cold floor by Iraqi soldiers, as told by the weeping nurse who actually turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, acting out the script handed to her by PR Firm Hill & Knowlton.

[Sir C]

Visit a shíthouse.

Cracking marketing.

:shrug: People go to Ireland, I understand.

[Ash]

They had lots of details like, oh, hundreds of photographs of heaps of bodies and hundreds of thousands of human bones, but you could be right, the whole thing might have been made up by the West just to make Putin look bad, or something.

I was referring to an individual incident, not the overall story.

[Tony C]

By the way when you say gorilla.

Do you mean like ones from that film Congo?

You know...them big 6ft tall apes.

I was disappointed when I went to the zoo and they had a statue of won but just shi ty chimps and orangs inside.

Some pretty false advertising there imo

[Sir C]

By the way when you say gorilla.

Do you mean like ones from that film Congo?

You know...them big 6ft tall apes.

I was disappointed when I went to the zoo and they had a statue of won but just shi ty chimps and orangs inside.

Some pretty false advertising there imo

The majestic mountain gorilla, t. A chance to look into the eye of an animal and see into the soul of man.

[WES]

.... or, for example, an alleged massacre of civilians where the bullet holes in the clothes don't match the wounds in the bodies, where french reporters had witnessed an actual firefight between combatants. (Racak)

Or the 'Jenin Massacre' when an Israeli counter-terrorism operation was spun, by the Palestinian leadership, into an alleged 'massacre' of civilians - helped by NGOs and duly described as such by breathless reporters.

Or Kuwaiti babies thrown out of incubators onto the cold floor by Iraqi soldiers, as told by the weeping nurse who actually turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, acting out the script handed to her by PR Firm Hill & Knowlton.

Explain to me the love affair with Putin, Ash. He's gangster running a gangster state. The evidence is rather overwhelming. And I'm talking about evidence from WHO and such, not from fake news stories flooding the internet via the Kremlin's robots.

[redgunamo]

By the way when you say gorilla.

Do you mean like ones from that film Congo?

You know...them big 6ft tall apes.

I was disappointed when I went to the zoo and they had a statue of won but just shi ty chimps and orangs inside.

Some pretty false advertising there imo

The ones like on the Gorilla Channel #lol

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Well, given the enormity of the whole thing, and given that they speak of it as if it were a temporary madness which descended upon the population, you'd imagine they'd be pretty confident that they'd learnt their lesson adn wouldn't do it again. Germans don't live in a dictatorship designed specifically to stop them killing jews, do they? They sort of realised they had put up a black, as it were, and desisted.

They are the fittest people I have ever seen. The whole country is up above 7,000', it's all hills, there's no fúcking oxygen to breathe, it's 35 degrees in pissing rain pretty much all day and 5 degrees at night, and most of them are farmers, with absolutely no machinery - the rest of them walk everywhere carrying industrial loads on their heads.

It's a weird place. Nice gorillas, mind.

Haven't the Tutsis forced the Hutus to speak English, play cricket and join the Commonwealth by way of revenge or am I getting mixed up with somewhere else?

But if the natives are Gooners, I'm all for it. Loads of Africans support us but they can't afford to buy a Prem club for the country like the Arabs or the Siamese, so this way they get their name on our shirt and the locals who do support us will feel extra pride when we win.

If it makes the poor Rwandan in the street (as opposed to the murderous dictator) happy then rather this than the usual betting shop or bankers. I like our African fans. The legacy of N****wo.

{Btw, have you ever been to Timbuktu? Vaguely thinking of going with a mate just cos we always liked the name.}

[Luis Anaconda]

Haven't the Tutsis forced the Hutus to speak English, play cricket and join the Commonwealth by way of revenge or am I getting mixed up with somewhere else?

But if the natives are Gooners, I'm all for it. Loads of Africans support us but they can't afford to buy a Prem club for the country like the Arabs or the Siamese, so this way they get their name on our shirt and the locals who do support us will feel extra pride when we win.

If it makes the poor Rwandan in the street (as opposed to the murderous dictator) happy then rather this than the usual betting shop or bankers. I like our African fans. The legacy of N****wo.

{Btw, have you ever been to Timbuktu? Vaguely thinking of going with a mate just cos we always liked the name.}

Isn't Mali currently undergoing a bit of a civil war - there are probably better places to visit

[Sir C]

Haven't the Tutsis forced the Hutus to speak English, play cricket and join the Commonwealth by way of revenge or am I getting mixed up with somewhere else?

But if the natives are Gooners, I'm all for it. Loads of Africans support us but they can't afford to buy a Prem club for the country like the Arabs or the Siamese, so this way they get their name on our shirt and the locals who do support us will feel extra pride when we win.

If it makes the poor Rwandan in the street (as opposed to the murderous dictator) happy then rather this than the usual betting shop or bankers. I like our African fans. The legacy of N****wo.

{Btw, have you ever been to Timbuktu? Vaguely thinking of going with a mate just cos we always liked the name.}

I'm not sure about speaking English and playing cricket but they've made laws governing, well, everything, just to create discipline. You can't smoke in public, all schoolchildren have to have their heads shaved, you can't sell second hand goods or food in the street (imagine an African town with no street trade!) Every shop or office has guards in quasi-military uniform and they all carry AK47s. The atmosphere is really quite odd. Lovely people, mind.

I haven't been to Timbuktu. That's bandit country up there. You might want to consider somewhere safer, like Damascus or Mordor.

[WES]

Haven't the Tutsis forced the Hutus to speak English, play cricket and join the Commonwealth by way of revenge or am I getting mixed up with somewhere else?

But if the natives are Gooners, I'm all for it. Loads of Africans support us but they can't afford to buy a Prem club for the country like the Arabs or the Siamese, so this way they get their name on our shirt and the locals who do support us will feel extra pride when we win.

If it makes the poor Rwandan in the street (as opposed to the murderous dictator) happy then rather this than the usual betting shop or bankers. I like our African fans. The legacy of N****wo.

{Btw, have you ever been to Timbuktu? Vaguely thinking of going with a mate just cos we always liked the name.}

Does Timbuktu have a Raffles or a Genocide Museum?

[Sir C]

Does Timbuktu have a Raffles or a Genocide Museum?

There are tow excellent Raffles in Cambodia, should you wish to combine the two, one at Phnom Penh and one at Siem Reap. I remember the Phnom Penh one offering me an upgrade to a suite for $5 a night, which I accepted as I suspected that given the amount of shooting going on in streets as a minor civil war broke out, we might be spending some time indoors. In the event the army decided to stop shooting the demonstrators in the capital as it looked bad on the news, so we were able to get some great photos of demonstrating monks being beaten with bamboo rods as the tear gas landed around us. Good timez, w.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Isn't Mali currently undergoing a bit of a civil war - there are probably better places to visit

Is it no longer safe? I just always loved the names Timbuktu and Kathmandu so need to do the former before I die.

Me and a mate thought about driving our truck across the Sahara to there when we were in Ceuta in Spanish N.Africa and at a loose end about 15 years ago. But our other mate wasn't up for it. He's dead now, so we wanted to take some mementoes out there for him.

It seemed fine back then - my theory was Mali had just hosted the ACN so there must be a big football stadium and hence some bars and food gaffs there. But if it's all gone Islamist now I guess I better leave it.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

I'm not sure about speaking English and playing cricket but they've made laws governing, well, everything, just to create discipline. You can't smoke in public, all schoolchildren have to have their heads shaved, you can't sell second hand goods or food in the street (imagine an African town with no street trade!) Every shop or office has guards in quasi-military uniform and they all carry AK47s. The atmosphere is really quite odd. Lovely people, mind.

I haven't been to Timbuktu. That's bandit country up there. You might want to consider somewhere safer, like Damascus or Mordor.

Right. So it really is a no-no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda_Cricket_Association

I heard that the Tutsis learned cricket and English in the refugee camps over the border and hate the Frogs for supporting the Hutus. Hence English, cricket and the Commonwealth.

I also read somewhere that the French were happy to let the genocide happen to stop Anglophones taking over but I don't know how true that is.

[PSRB]

It's a scam. It's got to be a scam. Rwanda is a beautiful country with one real tourist attraction - gorilla trekking. Other wise you're looking at a genocide museum in an oppressive, corrupt dictatorship. There isn't even capacity to expand the number of gorilla visitors - you already have to apply for a permit months and months in advance. There's almost no tourist infrastructure. Getting to Kigali costs a fortune, prices within Rwanda are extraordinarily high by African standards, and the permits for gorilla treks are ablut $1,000 a day.

In short, advertising tourism in Rwanda is a complete waste of money, but advertising tourism in Rwanda to football fans is simple lunacy.

It's a scam.

I am struggling to see them producing a positive ROI on their investment, unless of course there's a war in a neighboring country and they get a huge influx of refugees........