Date: Thursday 21st January, 2010 | Country: Ivory Coast | 8 Comments »
Checkpoint Charlie: “Par le vous Francais?”
Me: ”Petit Francais Monsieur”
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh back to child like conversations with the locals as we enter the Ivory Coast. The road from the Liberian border to the nearest town was about 80km of off road hell, not only was the road bad but narrow as well and took a few hours in the late afternoon to get through. When we finally hit the tarmac I let out a sigh of relief, a local thought I was crazy as I started waving my hands around.
Toulépleu
After driving around for a while we realised that accommodation wasn’t that easy to come by and we were also told that we should get our carnet du passage (vehicle document for entry into countries) stamped at the nearest police station when we could as the border I must say were too preoccupied with the football (African Nations) according to Reka whose turn it was to go through the administration. We then bumped into a guy on a bike who told us that we could find a guest house just up the road from where we were looking, it turned out that the guy on the bike actually ran the guest house and he was called Gerard. The guest house was reasonable (4000 CFA or £6), had air con with a bath and Gerard himself took us for a walk round the town so we could find somewhere to eat cheaply and sink a few beers. He mentioned that apart from the guest house he also works as the manager for the towns only radio station in Toulepleu. The next morning we were invited to see the radio station in action and sit in with the DJ who played a good mix of African music. We exchanged some music and then said our goodbyes.
Top: Gerard and his radio show for Toulepleu in action
The following photos were taken along the roadside as we left Toulepleu, these bamboo trees were gigantic!!!
No its not the land of the giants but giant bamboo trees!
Yamoussoukro
The Ivory coast is a big country and we decided to check out the capital Yamoussoukro a pet project by Felix Houphouët-Boigny. Felix led the country when it became independent on 7 August 1960. And ruled as president from 1960 to 1993. Originally a village chief, he worked as a doctor, an administrator of a plantation, and a union leader, before being elected to the French Parliament. Houphouët-Boigny moved the country’s capital from Abidjan to his hometown of Yamoussoukro and built the world’s largest church there, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, at a cost of US$300 million. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa’s history and the third longest-serving leader in the world, after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il-sung of North Korea. In 1989, UNESCO created the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for the “safeguarding, maintaining and seeking of peace”. After his death, conditions in Côte d’Ivoire quickly deteriorated. From 1994 until 2002, there were a number of coup d’états, a currency devaluation, an economic recession, and, beginning in 2002, a civil war.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro
Guinness World Records lists it as the largest church in the world, having surpassed the previous record holder, St. Peter’s Basilica, upon completion. It has an area of 30,000sq metres (322,917 sq ft) and is 158m (518ft) high. However, it also includes a rectory and a villa (counted in the overall area), which are not strictly part of the church, and it can accommodate 18,000 worshippers, compared to 60,000 for St. Peter’s. The basilica is constructed with marble imported from Italy and is furnished with 7,000 square meters of contemporary stained glass from France. Côte d’Ivoire President Felix Houphouët-Boigny chose his birthplace of Yamoussoukro to be the future site of the new capital city of his country in 1983. As part of the plan of the city, the president wanted to memorialize himself with the construction of what he called the greatest church in the world.
The basilica was met with some controversy globally when construction began. The lavishly built basilica sits in the middle of the African bush in an impoverished city where only a minority of homes have running water and adequate sanitation. The cost of the basilica doubled the national debt of Côte d’Ivoire but many of the country’s Roman Catholics are proud of the church.
Artistically, the basilica was also criticized by many art historians and critics, for being a modern pastiche of a western Renaissance masterpiece, and for not having any relation with modern styles of architecture or African culture.
All of this maybe correct but this building is still a magnificent place to visit no matter what the impact was on the country.
After visiting the Basilica, we read that there is a place where you can see the ex presidents crocodiles get fed at around 5pm, after asking around we found the place and realised that the feeding itself was something that visitors had to pay for, the lake itself had about 50 crocs and some were very close to us as they awaited their live chickens.
We wanted to find some cheap accommodation and we saw that there was (what we thought) a catholic mission close by to the lake of crocodiles. When we arrived there we realised that the mission was in fact a number of religious schools. We met Ferdinand who said it would be possible to stay in their compound after we explained who we were and what we were doing. We were also introduced to Paulette who was also a teacher at the same school. They both made us feel very welcome here even though the conversation was difficult at times due to the language barriers. While Reka was talking to them I took a walk into one of the classrooms that happened to be an English refreshers course and during the class the teacher asked me to introduce myself and I explained who I was and the class then started asking me questions, the students were keen to practice their English which was very good and we had a nice chat for the next 15 minutes. I later found out that their English teacher Kofi had walked from the Ivory Coast to Morocco with a friend in an attempt to start a project that would look at standardising the way foreigners are treated when entering another country, his focus was trying to see if all Embassies could be in fact one entity, a very ambitious project I thought.
Top Left: Paulette & Ferdinand Top Right: The English language students and Kofi (in green)
Ferdinand, his wife and Paulette took us out to dinner to a local bar where fish and chicken were being bbq’d on some hot coals, the food was great and we paid for the meal as a way of saying thanks to them for their kind generosity. After a good nights sleep we were invited to Paulette’s for breakfast, she is a lovely person who with Ferdinand looked after us for the day and for that we are grateful to them. Paulette’s garden was one full of fruit trees and she showed us the cocoa plant, Mangoes, plantains and coconuts that grew in abundance. We tasted the cocoa and it was surprisingly creamy and not as bitter as I was expecting.
Top right: Cocoa Bottom Left: Mangoes Bottom right: Paulette’s daughter, Ferdinand Reka & Paulette
Fully Loaded Taxi
Had to dedicate one section here to a Taxi driver that was so desperate for extra passengers that he made them perform a delicate balancing act to be able to get onto the van. Locals that saw this van were also amazed as both Reka and I were when we saw them:
A delicate balancing act!
Agouti
We experienced this animal actually without knowing, we were in a small restaurant and asked for a dish of meat and rice, when the dish was brought out it was difficult to know what the meat actually was, it had small ribs and the meat tasted of a cross between beef and lamb. Reka wanted to discover what the hell we had eaten and went into the kitchen to see the animal, when she came out again she told me she was so happy that she didn’t see this before we ate (see first photo below). Reka: some of you might not know how much I hate rats, so you can imagine how I felt after discovering that I just ate some giant one!
Agouti a delicacy in Ivory Coast!
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d’Ivoire (the current capital is Yamoussoukro). It is the largest city in the nation, and the third largest French speaking city in the world. It has, according to the authorities of the country in 2006, 5,068,858 residents in the metropolitan area and 3,796,677 residents in the municipality.
When we arrived we were amazed by the sheer size of the city which was dominated by several highways that crisscrossed the heart of the city. It was a little overwhelming after spending time in Freetown and Monrovia which in comparison are very small.
Our first mission was to find some cheap accommodation and after checking out a few areas we met a nice policeman who knew of a place but instead of directing us he drove and we followed him to the hotel. When we arrived there we met Rodrick who looked after the hotel, he wasn’t interested in negotiating the price of 5000 CFA each (£6-7) a night but after checking out the prices of several other hotels this was by far the cheapest option, the rooms themselves were clean and had bathrooms and a fan. The day we arrived we knew that the Ivory Coast were playing football against Algeria that evening and Rodrick told us that his brother would take us to a place where they were showing the footy on a big screen,for the next few hours we then witnessed Rodrick and a few of his close friends get absolutely hammered as they sang Ivorian football songs, it was quite an experience! The game itself was a fantastic experience and witnessing the Ivorians go mental and start dancing in the street, smashing glasses and falling over themselves after a goal was scored was great. Sadly the Ivorians lost 3-2 to Algeria after extra time and sitting down with Traore Adams the guy that worked in the nearby internet cafe it was the same sadness and terrible loss that we all experience when our country loses a game that really we should have won, he was gutted!
Left: Citadelle Hotel – our base for a few days Right: Enjoying some beers before the game
I tasted a wonderful dish that night it was called attiéké which is made from Cassava and has the texture of a type of couscous but this was lighter and with a spicy chicken dish and salad was just great after a night of drinking beers during the footy. Since then we noticed that many places called a maquis , which is a restaurant that serves beers and also sells braised food (food that has been cooked over a low fire). These place are excellent as sometimes the Bar and the person grilling the food can be separate but they all work together to serve cold beers and tasty food to the punters that walk in. Abidjan also has many little coffee stands where you can get a quick espresso for not much money all throughout the day.
Above: Photos of Abidjan
I’d also like to thank Rodrick for helping us out in a tricky situation we faced with the Ghanaian embassy, but as my Mum rightly points out, I wont mention what happened until we have left Ghana!
Gerard & his amazing beach house
It was while we were having trouble with the Ghanaian embassy that we also met Gerard. He happened to first wave at us while we were driving in the city and it so happened that he stopped to say hello when we were parked up sometime later. Gerard asked us to call him if we still had problems with the embassy and he said he too could also try and help us. As he was so nice to us we called him anyway to see if we could meet up with him and say thanks for his offer. It so happened that he lived close by to the Ghana embassy where we were at the time and invited us round to his place for lunch.
Left: Gerard’s beautiful interior Right:Gerard
Gerard told us that he has lived in the Ivory Coast for the past 20 odd years, his business was the agriculture of palm oil in the east of Ivory coast on the border of Liberia. He has loved his time here by the stories he told us but it hasn’t always been easy and he sometimes lives in Limbo ready to leave the Ivory Coast if the stability in the country becomes worse as it has done on previous occasions. Gerard laid out a great 3 course meal for us as we talked out life and for that we are thankful to him. When we said our goodbyes we explained that we were heading to the Ghana border soon and he mentioned a beach house in Assinie, that he had built with the intention of renting this out to tourists, but as tourism hasn’t been popular recently over the last few years he said that not many people have stayed at his place, we asked him if we could stay there for a night and he said this wasn’t a problem, we just had to inform him of the day and if we brought our own provisions the stay would be possible.
The next day we made our way to a place called the Grand Bassam, it was a popular place along the coast for people to visit from Abidjan for the weekend, we found a nice little spot that we paid 4000 CFA each (£5) for a nights accommodation.
Grand Bassam
The next day we called Gerard and told him that we would be in Assinie around midday and he informed his Friend Yao that we would be staying at his beach house. The road to Assinie was very good and we made the trip in no time, we stocked up on beers and food in the nearby village, met a Benny hill lookalike Swiss traveller and had a coffee with him and then took a boat out to Gerard’s Beach house which was across a lagoon, it all seemed idyllic and we were not disappointed when we got to Gerard’s Beach house, it was a magical house, everything was naturally made mostly from wood, Yao the housekeeper was friendly and explained that he and Gerard had built this house over the last 14 years, it was absolutely incredible and words cannot express how much I loved this place. Reka: I couldn’t agree more, there are no words to describe this hidden paradise.
Above: Gerards Beautiful Assinie Beach House Bottom photo: Yao the amazing caretaker/carpenter
Gerard told me that this Beach house was a piece of his heart and it was very clear the love that he has poured into this place, I took a walk down both sides of the coast from his place and it was very clear that his house was by far the best thing on this quiet secluded beach. Part of the agreement that we promised Gerard we would do is try and promote this place and if the photos above don’t do it for you then I don’t know what would! We have to give a big thanks to Yao as well, he was a kind person and made us feel very welcome, we paid him a small amount of money for the small generator to be filled with petrol and he provided us with coffee and warm water. The bath was an amazing place as we were given hot water that was warmed by some hot coals and could well be the best bath I have ever taken outside with the cool sea breeze in such an amazing setting. We even tried Gerard’s homemade marmalade that he gave us that he is looking into starting a small production with, Gerard it was very good and we can only hope that some of our friends get in contact with you to experience this and your amazing house!! If anyone wants to experience this paradise please contact Gerard on:+225 07 07 74 02 to discuss a potential stay.
Various Photos from the Ivory Coast
Peanuts are sold in all sorts of ways, most are slightly roasted and salted and they are all very tasty
My overall impression of the Ivory Coast was a country that is spectacular in many ways, it seems undiscovered by many tourists who are afraid to venture here, but if you do you will be greeted by some amazing people as we have been.
Reka – HUN: Elefantcsontpart… mivel tudom, hogy csak azok olvassak a magyar kiadast, akikben megbizhatok, elarulhatom, hogy en mindig is azt gondoltam, hogy az orszagot azert neveztek igy, mert a tengerpart homokja elefantcsont szinu. Hat nem! Hanem mert tomegesen vadasztak az elefantokat az agyaruk miatt, es erre annyira buszkek voltak, hogy meg az orszaguk neveben is megemlekeztek rola?! Ezt az aprosagot kiveve, meg persze az ismetelt nyelvi nehezsegeken tul, ez az egyik kedvenc orszagom eddig. Az emberek halal nyugisak, de olyannyira, hogy ha a hataron nem allunk meg, hogy kilepo pecsetet kerjunk, akkor meg sem allitottak volna. De nem akarok elore szaladni, hiszen a ti olvasaatotokban meg csak most erkeztunk…
A hatar mindket oldalan ramaty ut fogadott, de szerencsere mindosszesen kb. 100 km-t kellett lyukbol ki es lyukba be atzotykolodnunk. Elso estenket egy fogadoban toltottuk, aminek a tulajdonosa, Gerald a helyi radioallomas programigazgatoja is volt egyben, ugyhogy masnap a kellemes legkondis szobaban eltoltott este utan vegigvezetett a studion.
Miutan a fofaros fele vettuk utunkat, egy teljesen masik varosban talaltuk magunkat par oranyi vezetes utan. Ezt a Noel az angol valtozatbol valami miatt kihagyta, de en nem szegyellem bevallani, hogy eltevedtunk. Ugyanis – azok, akik tudnak franciaul biztosan ertik a problemamat- az “egyenesen” es a “jobbra” mennyire hasonlo ezen a franya nyelven. Sebaj, masnap vegre eljutottunk a fovarosba, Yamassoukro-ba, ami egyebkent szinte csak a neveben es mereteben fovaros, mert semmilyen allami tevekenyseg nem folyik itt Abidjan-nal ellentetben. Egy dolgot kiveve, a megalomanias allamfo, Boigny itt epitette fel a vilag legnagyobb templomat. Igen, meg a vatikaninal is nagyobb (alapteruletet illetoen, mert allitolag II Janos Pal szepen megkerte, hogy legalabb a befogadokepessege ne szarnyalja tul a Szt Petert). Ketsegtelenul pompas epulet, es biztos vagyok benne, hogy Europaban ezrek latogatnak naponta, ugyanakkor az is elgondolkoztato, hogy hany ehezo csaladon segithetett volna a 300 millio UDS, amit beleoltek…
Bazilika utan krokodilnezes; a palota elotti toban kozel 300 krokodil el, akiket minden nap du. 5 korul etetnek (turistaknak elo csirke kb. 2000 FT-ert elado, amit az idomar jelenleteben megetethetsz a hatalmas hullokkel). Aztan a palotaval szemben meglattuk a Katolikus MIsszio feliratot, ami Conakry-bol ismeros volt olcso szallas ugyeben. Ezuttal tevedtunk, egy egyhazi iskolaba kopogtattunk, de nem hiaba, mert a vegen ingyen szallas es Ferdinand meg Paulette baratsaga vart.
Irany Abidjan, az igazi nem-fovaros. Hatalmas! Olyan nagy, hogy meg terkeppel sem lett volna egyszeru eligazodni, hat meg terkep nelkul, ugyanis a nagyon remekul megszerkeztett Lonely Planet Africa konyvebol valami miatt ez kimaradt. Keringtunk, mint – elnezest a kifejezesert- golyafos a levegoben, mikor is egy rendor felajanlotta, hogy elvezet bennunket egy olcso szallasra. Itt talalkoztunk Rodrick-kel es foci imado cimboraival, akikkel meg nem focirajongo letemre, nekem is elmeny volt a meccset nezni. Sajnos kikaptak, de a hangulat felejthetetlen volt.
Mint ahogy a ganai kovetsegen szerzett elmenyunk is… Noel ezt a reszt Edesanyja tanacsara kihagyta az angol verziobol, de mivel nem hiszem, hogy tul sok benfentes olvassa a magyar hireket, en leirom: Iden januar elsejevel megvaltozott a ganaiak vizum kiadasra vonatkozo rendelete, miszerint minden beutazonak a lakcime szerinti kovetsegen kell a kerelmet beadni es a vizumot beszerezni. Igen, meg ha viragnyelven irtam is, jol ertitek, turistaknak szomszedos orszagokban nem adnak vizumot, hacsak nincsen ottani tartozkodasi engedelyuk/lakcimkartyajuk. Az nem szamit, hogy a rendelet eletbelepese idejen mi eppen Gineaban voltunk, igy nem tudhattunk rola; es eszunk agaban sincs termeszetesen hazaugrani a vizumert (jo vicc). Most legy okos, Domonkos! Az egyik kovetsegi alkalmazott azert volt annyira jo fej, hogy elhintette, hogy a tartozkodasi engedelyt nem olyan nehez megszerezni… Vissza a szallasre, Rodrick-ot megkerni, hogy hivja fel rendor haverunkat, aki elvezetett a szallodaba… es lass csodat, masnap alig 2000 Ft-ert elefantcsontparti lakosok lettunk. A kovetsegen rezzenestelen arccal nyugtazta az elozo nap zsirbunko recepcios, hogy minden papirunk rendben van, tehat hamis, nem hamis, kiallithatja a vizumot az immaron helyieknek. Hat nem vicc!? Ja, mellesleg a ganai magyar konzul, akit meg amikor a helyzet kilatastalannak tunkt hivtam fel telefonon ugyanezt a jo tanacsot adta, hogy szerezzek egy tartozkodasit, diplomacia felso fokon!
MIkozben rohangaltunk a papirok utan, az utcan talalkoztunk Grealddal, akinek azota is mindketten nagyon halasak vagyunk. Nemcsak azert, mert egyreszt onzetlenul felajanltta a segitseget, ha magunktol nem menne az engedely beszerzese, de a masnapi haromfogasos ebedert, es legfokeppen az eldugott paradicsomert, amit ingyen szallaskent ajanlott fel. Ez a francia ferfi 20 eve el itt, palmaolaj gyara van, es a legfinomabb hazi narancslekvarbol keszult salata ontetet csinalja (bocs Anyu, nem tudok mintat hozni a lekvarbol, de hogy meginditsam a nyaltermelesedet, csak annyit mondok, hogy a keseru fajta, amit imadnal).
Szeretnem azt mondani, hogy a kepek magukert beszelnek, de ha oszinte akarok lenni, akkor inkabb azt kivanom, hogy mindannyian jussatok el Assini-Maffia felszigetere, ahol ez a csodalatos, 100 %-ig ketkezi munkaval, szinte csak fabol megepitett csodahaz all. Mivel tudjatok, hogy mennyire el tudok erzekenyulni, az nem lesz meglepetes, ha elmondom, hogy amikor Noel nem latta, elsirtam magam a gyonyorusegtol; de az annal inkabb meg fog lepni, hogy olyan energiat sugarzott a hely, hogy futni kezdtem a tengerparton (jo, nem kilometereket, de akkor is)!
Most nezem a kepeket, es rajottem, hogy kihagytam egy merfoldkovet. Akar mennyire nem szivesen gondolok erre az esemenyre, azt hiszem, hogy hatralevo eletem meghatarozo elmenyekent meg kell hogy emlitsem. Egyik delutan tortent, amikor utkozben megeheztunk es betertunk egy helyi etkezdebe, hogy csirke helyet egy szamunkra ismeretlen husbol keszult porkolt szeruseget talaltak fel. Csak akkor keztett gyanus lenni a dolog, amikor az amugy egeszen izletes huson meglattam a bordakat. A meret alapjan csak egy dologra tudtunk gondolni… de abban remenykedve, hogy nem lesz igazunk, megkertem a szemelyzetet, hogy mutassak meg az allatot. Igen, hatalmas mezei patkany volt!!! Ebben az esetben azt hiszem, hogy a kepek magukert beszelnek… (itt helyi kulonlegessegnek szamit, nekem egy trauma volt).
Elefantcsontpartra szivesen visszamennek…
Date: Thursday 14th January, 2010 | Country: Liberia | 4 Comments »
When we had left Freetown we were told that if we set off early enough we would have enough time to get through the border that very same day. At lunch we had reached a town called Bo which was halfway to the border and so we thought it would be a good place to grab something to eat. We basically found a place to eat after checking the menu which seemed reasonable enough, after eating and asking for the bill, the owner had decided to charge us a price that wasn’t on the menu, she explained that the salad we had (a handful of lettuce) and the ketchup and mayonnaise was not on the menu. It sounded funny but she was deadly serious, to cut the story short I told them that you cannot charge what you feel when you have a menu, the menu needed to be updated if she wanted to charge us triple the price for some salad and we would have gone somewhere else. She wasn’t happy and neither were we, we paid her what we felt was reasonable and left, a good lesson to remember to ask the full price in advance rather than rely on what’s written on someone’s menu! From Bo we reached a town called Kenema and were told that during the rainy season that this road is normally shut, on driving through Kenema to the border at Zimmi it felt like we were taking an off road course as the road turned into something carved out of the mud and on several occasions we had to drive through reserves of water that had collected in the dips of the road. All of the army & police control stops were friendly but they all took time as you explained where you were coming from and heading to, so by the time we reached Zimmi it was getting dark, the border was about to close and it made sense to sleep in a nearby guesthouse and start the next morning.
The Liberian border
The next day a few km down the road we reached the Sierra Leone border and were greeted with pandemonium as many people travelling by bush taxi or bus were all trying to get the local officials attention to get their much needed stamp in their documentation. Luckily for us one official took a shining to us and led us into an office where within 5 min we got our exit stamp to leave the country, some locals were not too happy with this but we didn’t force our way into that situation, more offered out of goodwill to the foreigners which was well appreciated. On crossing the bridge between both countries we were greeted with one hell of an American twang by all the Liberians we were to encounter.
History
Liberia’s history is a colourful affair, in the early 1800’s it was decided that American abolitionists would use Liberia as a place to resettle freed slaves. These freed slaves then began a mission to bring civilisation and Christianity to this part of Africa. These settlers declared Liberia and independent republic in 1847 but excluded indigenous people from this, for the next 130 odd years the country was ruled by by presidents of American freed slavery. Up until 1980 the government was controlled by a dozen or so Americo-Liberian families and corruption was rampant. In 1980 the then president William Tolbert was overthrown in a coup led by 28 year old Samuel Doe a Sergeant of the army. Samuel Doe then showed as an act of vengeance by ordering 13 ex ministers to be publicly executed on a beach in Monrovia (capital). During his reign, Liberia’s economy plummeted, and intertribal fighting then broke out. In the late 80’s a rebel group led by Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast. What then ensued was a mass war where unarmed civilians and villages were destroyed, Taylors forces controlled much of Liberia’s countryside and the rebel leader Prince Johnson controlled the majority of Monrovia. US warships and Ecomog a West African peacekeeping force were dispatched to keep the factions apart. Charles Taylor become president in 1996 and in the late nineties rebel led warfare broke out near the border with Guinea. Fighting continued in the country up until 2003 when Charles Taylor then went into exile and a transitional government was then established. In 2005, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected and became Africa’s first ever female president. She has since conducted many programmes such as the disarmament of weapons and a refugee resettlement and at present the country is rebuilding in every way possible.
Bureaucracy
Over the next few hours I then was led from one department to the next to meet and greet another official that wrote down the same information as the previous department and everyone that wanted to come into Liberia was going through the same torture as I, it was painful to watch. All the officials were being given 20-50 Liberian dollars (£0.20p TO £0.50p) by every local that came their way but the money kept on flowing and these men and women make a good wage simply on bribes every day! Interestingly I was never asked by any official for any money except at the very last department that I went to, the Car Insurance Department for ECOWAS. Over the next 30 min, I was the only person to enter the office, whereas all other departments, locals were coming and going so this part of the process seemed very odd to me. In Mauritania I had obtained the ‘Brown card’ insurance which allows us to drive Maggie in most of West Africa due to the agreement between several countries. I obtained a 3 month insurance and this is still valid till March. The chap however insisted pulling out a document which when he read out made me laugh, he basically said that in Liberia there is an additional agreement that on top of the insurance, I must pay him another amount in case I have an accident for the Liberian ambulance/hospital to get involved. I blankly refused to pay him and told him that it sounded like corruption to me, Reka had just walked in and so did another couple of officials. The chap kept churning the same information which both Reka and I thought was pure waffle and after speaking to his boss on a very loud speakerphone I told them both that we were not paying a penny.
The other officials just watched on and I could see they were almost embarrassed for their colleague as he kept on saying that he hopes for our sake that we never have an accident in Liberia as no one will help us, to which at this point I got really angry and told him where to go and that we were leaving.
One of a few monkeys that we have seen in Liberia used as pets/mascots for taxis
After spending hours at the border we were told that we could leave and it was a relief….for about 5 minutes, the next hour on the road we then encountered several small checkpoints with many people working as I suppose human photocopiers, as all they did was record the same information as the previous checkpoint 5 minutes before them, its was excruciatingly painful to go through the same conversations time and time again. One official told us that at the end of the day all vehicle/passenger details are called into one central office, so basically there are hundreds of people doing the job of what a couple of people could do, efficiency isn’t a word commonly used in Liberia!
Monrovia
After the hustle and bustle of Freetown it was nice to enter a capital that was not congested with traffic, Monrovia isn’t a massive city and has a few major roads that run through the heart of it. We checked out the centre and there seemed to be a handful of very expensive hotels followed by next to nothing, we did find outside of the city a few guesthouses on the coast (30 min drive) that we were able to camp in for a few quid each so we had somewhere to stay. On our first day we met up with Abibu who is the husband of Howa (the family we stayed with in Freetown). Abibu works for the UN here as a senior Programme Manager and he kindly offered to meet us in a nice hotel called the Royal which isn’t to far from the main UN headquarters. Abibu gave us a fascinating insight into the UN and told us that in Liberia it currently has the third largest number of UN personnel stationed in the country behind Somalia and Afghanistan. He also tried to see if there was any cheap accommodation in the city for us and after a few calls without success he told us that if we were fine with it, we could stay at his place. This was a kind gesture by Abibu and we appreciate you letting us stay at your place.
Right: Abibu
Robertsport
We knew that Abibu had some visitors that next day so we left Monrovia for the weekend and heard that Robertsport and Buchanan were two places to the east and west of Monrovia that were well worth checking out. Our first spot on the map was Robertsport which meant we had to basically head back to the border with Sierra Leone and turn off a100km before reaching the border. The road that led to Robertsport was a long dusty dirt road and after a few hours you enter a peninsular which is where a small town exists. The town itself has many old buildings that have seen better days but it is peaceful and has a long coastline of some lovely sandy beaches. We found one place that had a number of luxury tents already setup overlooking the beach with a bar nearby, the tents were nice but expensive and the bar was playing loud music so not a place to camp close by to. After a beer, we decided to try and find a road that led to the beach where we could camp and literally the next road (loosely termed) we drove down led to a nice quiet spot which was a 5 min walk back to the bar. We waited for anyone to arrive to let us know how much it would cost to camp but after waiting sometime we just setup camp.
Beach Camping
The previous day we went to a Lebanese restaurant that gave us quite easily the biggest loaded pizza I have ever tasted in my life (Jay if you are reading this, your food is great but boy you need an empty stomach when walking into your joint!), it was so loaded that after a couple of slices you were seriously, well and truly, time to get the hammock out….stuffed!!. In the true sprit of our hobo existence, we took a doggy bag with us and ate the remains the next day on the beach. The sea breeze was kicking in and we both retired to our tents only to be awoken in the darkness by a couple of fella’s that were checking out Maggie. It so happened that these guys owned this part of the beach and were out of town when we arrived, so from the top of the vehicle in my tent I bargained with these guys to let us stay here for $2.50 each (seems to be the beach rate so far) and they then told me that someone would be guarding us at night (yeah right!).
After a good nights sleep we then went in search of some coffee, something that surprisingly isn’t always easy to buy in the last 6-8 weeks. After hunting out this elusive drink we had to settle for asking a guy if he could boil us some water so we could use the nescafe and powdered milk we had for this coffee. Roland told me that he is a principal of the high school in Robertsport but also is in the early stages of building a few houses, one of his workers was literally making the cement in front of us and laying out the bricks which would be ready the next day to use. Reka was curious and had a go herself, the brick maker was overjoyed when Reka made the one brick (he probably thought he had found the perfect wife at this moment).
Top: Reka brick making, Bottom left: fisherman pulling in their nets, Bottom Right: Roland
Red Hot Taxi
We then headed back to Monrovia and tried our best to avoid entering the city but people’s advice sometimes can be misleading and we finally settled on getting through the capital to head for Buchanan. We read in the lonely planet about a dwindling company called Firestone that used to be huge in Liberia for the manufacturing of rubber latex and we actually hit a town called Firestone which seemed to me was actually thriving from the production of latex.
Thousands upon thousands of latex producing trees
While driving through Firestone we saw ahead of us a crowd gathering around what looked like some smoke, as we got closer we saw through the people that a taxi had caught fire on the roadside. We stopped about 20 meters away and got down to see what was going on, as we got to the vehicle the driver was rolling around the floor and he was suffering from shock and in tears, he was not injured but the main problem was the vehicle itself. The engine was on fire and no one around had an extinguisher to hand, Reka and I grabbed the 2 extinguishers that were in Maggie and by the time we set them off, within a few seconds these canisters had run out, lesson learnt that these are not meant to put out anything except a teeny tiny fire. What I found incredible was that the people that were onlookers (around 50) were actually stupid enough to be within 5 metres of the burning car, like a scene out of casualty, both Reka and I started shouting at the people to get the hell out of there before they all died from an explosion. Very quickly people got to a safe distance, what was sad was that many vehicles and especially UN vehicles simply drove very quickly through the scene, the fire brigade in Firestone were at the scene a few minutes later and before the damage got much worse, the firemen had done their job.
We found out later that the driver who was still in tears had borrowed the vehicle from a friend and my only assumption was that he felt that he would have to pay for the damage, I tried to console him telling him that he still alive and his family will be happy to see him again but it wasn’t helping. We left the scene and realised how dangerous it could have been if things had worsened.
Literally a few minutes later we had reached a security checkpoint that led to the way for Buchanan and before we went through the routine of who we are and what documents did they want to inspect, one of the checkpoint guards stared running past us with a wooden plank in his hand, it turned out that there was a poisonous snake in the grasses and this guy wanted to kill it before it had a chance of making the potential 30 metres where they were sitting. A few seconds later he showed me the snake up close. It’s a difficult thing to see animals like this killed but for locals that walk past these creatures day in and day out they see it very differently when their own lives are at risk for the sake of conservation. It was quite a tiring day by the time we had reached Buchanan!
Buchanan itself seemed very tired as a city and there wasn’t much going for itself but we met a guy that was at the same restaurant as us in Monrovia and we joined him for a few beers that evening. Calvin works for the UN and there weren’t too many counties that he hadn’t worked in to date and so it was interesting listening to his stories.
Calvin
Liberia today
What was evident on our stay is that Liberia now is going through a serious change for the better, the economy we heard from several people is improving, electricity like Sierra Leone is not widely available and when it is, it normally is expensive. Food was also not as widely available as some other neighbouring countries, there seems to be a big divide between those that have money and those that do not, street vendors are not that common at night selling street food and we ended up spending a lot of time in the bar/restaurant of the royal hotel in the heart of Monrovia. As with all the countries I have seen so far the people themselves welcome the fact that we are travelling through their country and apart from the bureaucratic check points the rest of the country from what we saw was very nice to travel through. There aren’t that many major roads that you can use to see the rest of the north and eastern parts of Liberia but we saw many projects where the dirt roads were being tarmac’d (Chinese led) and in the next few years will be much easier for people to travel the whole of the country. Unfortunately we wanted to go to a national park in the east but our visa although we received a 2 month travel from the embassy was only granted for 7 days from the Liberian border. When we tried to extend this, one official asked for $30 each even though we only wanted another 3 or 4 days, and considering we paid $75 to get into the country we didn’t extend due to budgetary reasons.
Liberia’s improving roads
Top Left: Liberian Club Beer…its good! Top Right: The Royal Hotel Bar
Left: Monrovia’s national sports stadium Right: City Money/SIM Card trader
Bottom left: Social club, playing scrabble and draughts
National Museum
In the heart of Monrovia we visited the National Museum which sadly was looted during the riots a few years back and many historical artefacts were stolen. The museum offers money to people to bring back their stolen items and sometimes see’s artefacts being sold on street corners! Nevertheless the guardians of the museum were friendly and the items of tribal war outfits were fascinating. The museum also had an area outside which showed how traditional Liberian cloths were made via old school weaving. Reka had a go at using the machine as per the photos below.
Top right: Traditional leather armour, Bottom: Reka getting some weaving action
Awareness Campaigns
As was the case in Sierra Leone, Liberia also has hundreds of Programmes and projects that are underway in the country funded by numerous NGO’s that are there to improve the well being of the country and it’s people, it is evident that these campaigns have a positive effect on the population who are very glad that the country has received the aid to date. The following is a montage of some of these campaigns:
Above: Liberia’s campaigns which can be seen throughout the country
Water
I thought I’d mention the way people buy and drink water in Liberia, but also most of the countries we have visited already, plastic bottles are very far and few between and tend to be sold in 1.5 litre bottles which for most people is too expensive. Instead, people sell small sachets of water for 10-20p and are normally carried on top of vendors heads (normally cool due to the ice they are submerged in) which can be bought in shops or on roadsides while waiting in traffic.
Weird and wonderful adverts
Like Sierra Leone, I have seen some very artistic adverts and some bizarrely named products/shops which wouldn’t work too well (in England anyway), so here are some that were captured along the way:
Bledine Hell!
If you ever need to take a ‘birth’, this is the place to take it!
Giant Lemons are sadly banned in Liberia and have taken refuge in Ivory Coast
Marvel’s latest creation hasn’t really caught on yet, a super nice superhero that runs a petrol station.
No Comment!
43% Double Punch…out for the count, goodnight sweetheart!
The road to Ivory Coast
For the last 200km to the border with Ivory coast we experienced some roads that only Maggie would be happy to drive along, but we took our time and eventually the roads became Tarmac on the Ivory Coast side!
Top: Dodgy roads, Bottom Left: The Liberian border patrol guys that were very nice to us
National Geographic
To end this chapter on Liberia we encountered at the border of Liberia and Ivory coast a group of great guys that for some reason thought that I was a TV presenter for a nature programme on the National Geographic channel. No matter what I said they wanted to believe I was this presenter and so Reka and I were invited to join them for some beers and sign a few autographs in the process! One guy burst my bubble when he said that his wife thought I was a woman because I had long hair…cheers!
Mini Celebrities
Reka – HUN: Sierra Leonebol ket uton lehet megkozeliteni Liberia hatarat: egyik rosszabb, mint a masik; na nekunk sikerult kifognunk a rosszabb, de rovidebbet. Igaz mostanara mar hozza kellett volna szoknunk az orakon at trato dockolodeshez, de egy tobboras godorcsata meg mindig nagyon megvisel (legalabbis engem). Persze az egy naposra tervezett utbol nem lett semmi, mert a hatar bezar este 6-kos, es mi fel oraval azutan ertunk volna oda, ugyhogy megaludtunk egy fogadoban.
Masnap reggel ujult erovel vagtunk neki a burokrata-csatanak. Kb. 5 kulonbozo irodaba es fel oranyi alkudozasba tellett, hogy a Mauritaniaban megvasarolt (es persze elore kifizetett) egesz Nyugat-Afrikara szolo boztositasunkat ne kelljen kulon penzert ervenyesiteni, mert kulonben akarhogy is ervenyes, a mentok vagy rendorseg nem segit, ha balesetunk lenne… (szerencsere nem lett!)
Monroviaba kora delutan erkeztunk es egybol fel is hivtuk Abibut (Hawa ferje, akiknel Sierra Leoneben aludtunk), este talalkoztunk is vele es felajanlotta, hogy nala aludhatunk. Tobb napi vodor-zuhany utan igen jolesett civilizalt kornyezetben tisztalkodni.
Masnap elmentunk Robertsportba, kb. 100 km-re a fovarostol. Nekem nagyon tetszett a kisvaros (nem is ertem, miert nem csinaltam egyetlen fenykepet sem..!), egy felsziget nyulvanyon van az ocean es egy to kozott es hegyes-dombos. Na itt is a tengerparton aludtunk es az elozo naprol maradt gigantikus pizzank maradekat ettunk. Aki ismer tudja, hogy eddig meg nem sok pizza fogott ki rajtam eletemben, de ezt meg ketszerre is kihivas volt bekebelezni (libanoni etterembol, Monroviabol – ugy meg volt pakolva, hogy szerintem maga a feltet volt vagy fel kilo!)
Hetvege leven nem tudtunk vizumot intezni, ugyogy vasarnapra Buchana volt a program, de utkozben meg egy kis forro kalandban is volt reszunk… Firestone nevu varosban, az ut szelen tobbszaz kaucsuk fa arnyekaban egy ego taxi latvanya fogadott bennunket (ironikus nem, hogy Firestoneban gyulladt ki…). Mindketten kipattantunk a kocsibol es rohantunk a poroltokkal, de sajnos ezek az amugy kotelezo eszkozok semmit sem ernek, hacsak nem egy ego cigit akarsz veluk eloltani). A legdurvabb, hogy a bameszkodok egy tapottat sem mozdultak, csak amikor Noel es en is rajuk kiabaltunk, hogy ha nem akarnak felrobbanni a kocsval egyutt, akkor jobb, ha hatrebb allnak. Mialatt vartuk a tuzoltokat tobb UN auto is athaladt a helyszinen, anelkul, hogy megkerdeztek volna, hogy sehithetnek-e. Mivel Abibu a UN-nel dolgozik, eleg sok informaciot megtudtunk a szervezet mukodeserol; o9bbek kozott azt is, hogy Liberiaban van a vilag harmadik legnagyobb kontingense, ja es ami szamomra dobbenetes volt, hogy ha kulfoldon (olyan orszagban, ahova csaladot vinni nem biztonsagos) allomasozo, de akar irodai szolgalatot ellato UN alkalmazott vagy, minden 2 honap utan egy hetre szo szerint elkuldenek melegebb eghajlatra; vagyis fizetik az utadat, szallast, ellatast, hogy kipihenhesd magad (barhol a vilagon)! Ugyhogy ha van valakinek kapcsolata, legy szi’ szoljatok es kuldom az oneletrajzomat 
Monroviaban meg egy par napot eltoltottunk, mert probaltunk egy specialis vizumot szerezni, ami 5 orszagba ervenyes, tobbek kozott Elefantcsontpartra is (kovetkezo allomas), de azon tul, hogy meg csak nem is sokat hallottak a Visa Touristique Entete-rol, allitolag csak Beninben lehet beszerezni, ami vicces, mert az a legkeletibb orszag, ahova ervenyes, tehat ha ugy, mint mi nyugatrol probalkozik az ember, teljesen haszontalan.
Liberiarol cimszavakban: irgalmatlan amerikai akcentus, aram csak kimaradasokkal = hugymeleg sor (hacsak nem a draga szalloda barjaban iszod), etel = rizs+szosz (hacsak nem a draga szalloda ettermeben eszel), valtozatos varoskep (az eddigi orszagokban ugy talaltam, hogy a fovaroson kivul majdnem minden varos/falu egy semara epult, de itt pl Firestone ugy nezett ki, mintha az 50-es evek Amerikajabol maradt volna meg), ja es rendorsegi ellenorzo pont ellenorzopont utan!
Folyt. kov. Elefantcsontpart
