A typical "street scene" in Timbuktu. A shithole by just about any standard.
It's the name and history that brings the tourists though, as well as its location,
sitting a few kilometers from the mighty Niger River, on the edge of the Sahara.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I was there and would do it again, just don't expect
the "City of Gold" as it was, years ago in its heyday. Today, the city is a cluster
of aging and decaying adobe buildings mixed with the modern brick and block ones. The
Sahara is making it's move, blowing in sand, and trying it's best to cover and retake
this most stubborn of cities. As for the streets, well, this is the norm. That's not
water running down the street, it's raw sewage. Trash strewn everywhere. I think that's
a tombstone, with the blue lettering by the pole on the right...

Scenes like this are normal, but honestly, I can't blame the people who live there
for the obvious disappointment, of what must be alot, of tourists. Its really not a
tourist town, in a certain sense of the word. The people are trying to scratch out
a meager existence and have no time to "please" incoming tourists with pretty streets
and buildings. Its a working town, an oasis, resting and trading town for Tuareg coming
out of the desert. I think the biggest part of the town is not the town itself, but
the journey there, and how you interpret the importance of the town to the people
who actually live there.

Taken in Timbuktu, Mali.