Given a warm welcome in Mali

THE article “By Foot, Camel or Riverboat” [Postcard From Mali, March 26] brought back fond, if a tad bittersweet, memories of my brief trip to Mali with my late parents, who had come from L.A. to visit me while I was posted at the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

My father, who had a sense of wanderlust since he was a child, had always wanted to visit Tombouctou (also known as Timbuktu). And we made it, despite canceled flights from Bamako. We also found the people of Mali to be among the friendliest we had met anywhere in the world. The police officers at the police station in Tombouctou invited us to share their meal when we dropped by to renew our visas. To them, it’s just what you do for visitors.

We did enjoy a couple of very nice hotels in Bamako, though my father had a preference for the one with young, topless French women around the pool. (My mother tolerated it with good humor.)

I do recommend Mali.

STEVEN KOENIG

Brazil