Overlander

A brief summary of my overland journeys in the past 2 weeks:

• Bamako, Mali to Conakry, Guinea by bush taxi, 24 hours
• Conakry, Guinea to Freetown, Sierra Leone by minibus, 15.5 hours
• Freetown, Sierra Leone to Monrovia, Liberia by bus, minibus and bush taxi, 2 days
• Monrovia, Liberia to Abidjan, Ivory Coast by bush taxis, motorbike and bus, 2 days

All but one of the vehicles were without a working dashboard.

So I crossed into Sierra Leone, turned around and peed back into Guinea

Just kidding, no peeing :)

I took a minibus from Conakry, Guinea to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The distance should be less than 300km, but it took 15.5 hours. Because: (1) the roads are very bad, some are paved but are scarred with big potholes, some are just dirt paths (so much dirt and dust when I took a shower and washed my hair in Freetown, it was like mud dripping down my face) (2) the car is in such bad shape that it broke down nearly every hour and it usually took an hour or so to bring it back to life again. (3) the driver was nuts! (4) checkpoints where soldiers stopped and made us pay. I had to pay GF5,000, GF2,000, GF1,000 and GF2,000 on 4 occasions.

Leaving the Guinean border was straightforward, I even took the exit stamp out of the official's hand and stamped the passport myself. The Sierra Leone border consists of 3 different barriers. First is the customs where I was made pay GF5,000 to pass. The second is the security check where an official wrote down my passport info in a big book and said to me "what can you offer for your security?" I knew immediately that he was asking for money. But I would not let him have it so easily, so I shrugged my shoulders and said "I'm a student, I pose no security risk to anyone". Then he said to me with disappointment "OK, go now". That's right, bitch! The third is the immigration where I filled out a little form and was let pass.

 Now I tell myself that I will never want to repeat this kind of journey again. And I hope the roads from Sierra Leone to Liberia and further on to Ivory Coast will not be as bad as this.

In Conakry, Guinea

After 24 hours in a bush taxi from Bamako, Mali, I finally arrived to Conakry. My immediate impressions of Guinea are that there are road checkpoints everywhere, and soldiers carrying big guns are also roaming everywhere, it doesn't make me feel so safe at all.

Between the border and Conakry, I was made pay GF10,000 at 3 different checkpoints by soldiers who were holding my passport hostage if I didn't pay. Though, at the second checkpoint, I was able to slash the price down to GF5,000. And at the third checkpoint, I got angry and paid only CFA800 (my last CFA coins from Mali) which was slightly less than GF10,000.

When I challenged the soldiers and asked why I had to pay over and over again when I already paid for the visa. Their answer, you are not gonna believe it. They said the visa was only for "avion"(flying) to Conakry, and if I travelled by road, I had to pay. BULLSHIT! Well, I guess when you carry a big-ass gun, you can BS all you want.