From Liberia to Ivory Coast

I crossed from Liberia into Ivory Coast on Friday morning, after having spent a night at the border.

(A 16-year-old boy named Justin Popo transported me in the last leg of my journey from Monrovia to the border)

Due to the fact that this stretch of the Ivorian border and much of northern Ivory Coast remains in the hands of the rebels, there're dozens of Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers stationed in the no man's land and a couple of UN armoured vehicles. The machine-gun on the UN's watchtower is pointed to Ivory Coast.

Surprisingly, the Bangladeshi peacekeepers were super friendly to me, and didn't mind at all that I was taking pictures of their installations. However, the Liberian border officials did come out later and stopped me from taking any more photos.

Exiting the Liberian post was simple. The officials did, however, asked for "something small" and "gift", I politely turned it down.

When I came to the Ivorian border post, I was made pay CFA1,000 three times to soldiers, the immigration and the customs respectively. When I refused to pay at the immigration and I slammed their desk really hard, someone who seemed to be the chief came to me and angrily told me that I had no choice but to pay up AND they were the rebels! So there I paid :)