Near-Death Experience In Monrovia Liberia

Posted on July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 by dev

I was close to die two times in 1 week in Liberia. My first time was a near-death experience, which happened when I just arrived to the capital, Monrovia. Here is what happened exactly!

Me and a Liberian guy arriving too late to the border in the evening from Sierra Leone to Liberia

The Way To The Capital Monrovia

First of all I had a tough way to enter Liberia. Being stuck at the border at night time, trying to find a place to sleep, all because of our driver. Read this story: The Shittiest Border Crossing – Sierra Leone to Liberia.

When I finally made my way to the capital Monrovia, I just wished for a nice, enjoyable week in Liberia. Well, not really! But I will return to this.. There was some good vibes in the shared car I was in on our way to Monrovia, but we went out 6 or 7 times to different police check-points on the drive. I knew Liberia had been in 2 civil wars recently, for a total of 14 years, where more than 250,000 Liberians were killed, so I knew this country had been pretty unstable not too long ago.

Me and “The Black Cristiano,” as he introduced himself, from our shared car towards Monrovia

First Look At The Capital Was Shocking

The guy in the blue t-shirt helped me a lot at the check-points, because the police officers usually liked him. He said I was with him, which meant I wasn’t asked too many of the usual questions, wasn’t asked for money or had all of my baggage checked, as I’ve experienced a few others places. That was pretty great! Local friends are good to have.

Now I was close to the capital and I was honestly excited to relax a bit after 30 extremely hectic hours.

Monrovia, Where Is The Trash-Service?

My first sight of Monrovia was one of the worst I’ve ever seen in a capital. Trash everywhere on the streets and people walking around in this. Even in the car the smell was so bad that we had to hold our noses. I thought the nature had been pretty beautiful on the way to here, and I never judge an entire country on its capital, but Monrovia didn’t make it to my top 20 of capitals around the World – let’s put it that way!

My original plan was I was going to stay in Monrovia, but I had a bit too much of this place already after a few hours, and a friend of mine had a contact in Paynesville, a 45 min drive outside of Monrovia. I thought why not try this.. It could only be better than here! I was going to Monrovia later in the week anyway to fix a visa, so I knew I would have time to explore the good parts of the city too. It was a win-win! I thought…

Near-Death Experience Incoming

The traffic in Monrovia was terrible. Super crowded, no rules, people driving where they wanted to drive, motor bikes and cars everywhere! I thought that because Liberia only had a small population of 5 million people, the country would be pretty smooth with the traffic! Not.. at.. all!

What concerned me a lot in Monrovia was seeing plenty of damaged cars and motor bikes, I knew there would be a big chance of a road incident here.. No space for small mistakes or a second of inattention!

I counted 5 serious incidents when I arrived in Monrovia, Liberia

No Way Out Of The City – What To Do?

I was on the search for a taxi or a shared ride to Paynesville and it was close to impossible to find a way.. I waited 10 minutes.. Waited 20. All taxis were full of people. I was almost running out of hope, when a young guy on around 19 years of age came to me on his motorbike and asked me: “Where are you going?”

I told him I was going to Paynesville and asked him: “How much?” He started with an absurd price, and I just laughed as I usually do when people are trying to scam me and I pretended I was about to leave, when he said: “How much do you want?” I ended up paying 20% of the price he started with and we were finally off to Paynesville! I’m normally a big fan of taking motor bikes when traveling.. And I can assure you:

THIS ride is the ONE I remember the MOST out of +1000 motor bike rides.. Here’s why!

Driving Through Hell

I jumped on the motor bike and the driver started to drive really fast almost immediately.. I didn’t get to think anything, before he was driving around 80km/h in a compact African city traffic (not the traffic we know from Europe!) with tiny space to pass other cars.

My driver zigzagged through the queues anyway with high speed. It would be too dangerous to stop him, because of the insane traffic we were in and because of the way he was driving without using the brakes…

My driver honked 3 times pr. second and he looked back every 3 seconds in order to look cool I think, I’m not sure why he did that to be fair, but it freaked me out!

Driving Against Trafic

My driver was a wrong-way-driver and drove against traffic most of the time, and we we’re constantly centimeters away from hitting other cars.. He gassed up to 100 km/h. After 20 min of being in survival mode on this motor bike, I was sure it was over! It all happened in a few seconds..

Another motor bike driver drove from the opposite side of the road and was out of a sudden in the lane we were driving in.. We came with full speed.. My life flashed before my eyes. We were literally as close to a collision as you could possibly get. Millimeters from death! A second of silence and then full speed again!

I’ve taken more than 1000 motor bike rides in my life, but this was by far the worst!

Crazy driver.. Don’t ever jump on a motorbike with this guy in Monrovia, Liberia!

My Body Was Shaking – Shock Mode! I Survived

I was thankful for being alive and my whole body was shaking. I was in totally shock mode! My driver even asked me to double the price and took me to his corrupt friends who pretended to be cops by showing their fake Police ID’s to get money out of me.. I got really aggressive at them and to be fair I wasn’t myself for the rest of that day. I paid the guy the firstly agreed-price and escaped the group. I was just grateful I was still a full piece and alive, and couldn’t really focus on anything – I had a lot of anger inside me!

Seconds after the worst motorbike ride EVER in Liberia

After a few hours I met with my friend’s buddy in Paynesville, Liberia, but my thoughts were somewhere else the rest of this day.. I slowly became myself again the next day.

This is what can happen when you throw yourself into a crazy solo ride through West Africa, without your own car or motorbike, just trying to make a way! I know I probably have to be more careful next time..

Be careful guys! Always judge the situation.
I can’t believe I was Caught In Shootings And Explosions 6 days after in Liberia.

Take care!

Gustav

gus1thego.com

The Hunt For Wild Chimpanzees (Liberia)

Posted on June 23, 2019June 23, 2019 by dev

Dubbed as the Planet of the Apes, I traveled to the secretive “Monkey Island” in the Liberian jungle, but the hunt to find them wasn’t easy!

How To Find This Place?

I had talked a bit to my Dutch friend Bart about this place, but to be honest I had absolutely no clue how to get there at first. I just heard about the “Monkey Island”, and was a bit fascinated by the story of these aggressive laboratory monkeys living it up on the Liberian island.

What is said to be infected apes with a reputation for attacking invaders are apparently on their own private island in Africa. Going there sounds like something from a horror movie, right?! Anyway it sounded too cool for me to resist, and I always prefer to see animals in the wild and not in a circus or in most zoo’s, where they don’t belong.

Win-win situation!

Jumped on a motorbike with a man and his wife

No Tourist Attraction At All

I quickly found out this place wasn’t a tourist attraction and many people didn’t know the place I was asking for, but I took a shared taxi for around 1 hour south of Monrovia to a small city called Marshall and from there I jumped on a motorbike with a man and his wife. The man was complaining that I was moving too much in the 45 min motorbike drive, but I had his wife’s steel plate and fruits in my back, which caused a lot of pain!

Anyway, the pain shouldn’t stop me from making my way to the chimpanzees!

Corrupt Police Security Point

It’s incredible how much stuff can be on a small African motorbike, right?! I checked my phone and could see we were now close to the place, where the motorbike driver told me I could find a boat to the chimpanzees and right when I looked up from my phone a guy yelled: “HEY!” loudly.

I could see it was a security point and the 4 cops looked really sketchy.

I was sure they would try to get some money out of me. But I met them with a smile and a positive attitude, because I knew all my documents, vaccinations and visas were in order. After a little talk outside, I was taking into Officer Kanneh’s office and he asked me: “What are you doing here?”

I knew if I said I was going to look for the chimpanzees he would probably mention a fee for entrance, so I just said I was going to see the village here and walk around.

He said: “Ok I see. You didn’t know there were chimpanzees here?” I said: “No, are there really?” and looked very surprised.

Officer Kanneh said: “Yes. I can call a guy named Wacki, he know the chimpanzees and he can take you there for free.” I knew it wasn’t going to be free, but I just agreed and Officer Kanneh and his big security guard took me to the lake.

On which other continent would you see two police officers at an important security point just leave their job?

The Two Police Officers And Me Off On Motorbikes

We arrived to the place and it started to rain like crazy. We tried to call Wacki, but he didn’t take the phone. Out of a sudden someone found Wacki in the village and Wacki was very happy to see me and said he wanted to take me to the chimpanzees. But he said he would just go and change his outfit.

We waited for 20 minutes and Wacki didn’t come back.

Me and the corrupt police officers searching for Wacki

Where Is Wacki?

Now it was finally dry, so one of the guys said that we should go now to the “Monkey Island.”

I was sure the guy had coordinated it with Wacki, but I was a bit surprised, when I asked him 5 times about where Wacki was and I didn’t get any respond.

Officer Kanneh was there with us and said Wacki wasn’t here right now, but I could pay 15 dollars and then go with Mr. Mojo’s old fisher boat, instead of Wacki’s kayak.

I knew time was short, because it was raining heavily (it really does here in rain season), so I said let me talk to Mr. Mojo. First of all I told Mr. Mojo that I wanted Wacki to come with me, because he was the expert in the area. Mr. Mojo said it was impossible, because we couldn’t find Wacki. I could tell Mr. Mojo just wanted to benefit from the situation, instead of Wacki, and to be fair I could see this Mr. Mojo was focusing more on the money, whereas Wacki seemed like a really nice person with a big heart.

The Oral Agreement

I looked Mr. Mojo deep in the eyes before the ‘Chimpanzee Hunt’ and said: “I don’t want a boat tour. I want to see chimpanzees. When I’ve seen chimpanzees, I’ll pay you 15 dollars. Not before.”

It was a cheap price indeed, but it’s a lot of money for Liberian people and fuel prices are super cheap here.

He said: “Yes, that’s a deal” and we shaked each other hands. Everybody around us saw it.

From my experience when traveling Africa, it’s always super important to make clear agreements before you do something, otherwise there can sometimes be problems afterwards and you will have to cash out!

It turned out there were big problems here too later! Anyway..

I made sure all the other 20 Liberian guys who were circling around me heard it too, in case Mr. Mojo suddenly ran away from our oral agreement. I wanted to see chimpanzees and after I would pay.

The agreement was reached and I was ready to go with 5 Liberian guys in Mr. Mojo’s old fisher boat

We went out in the old fisher boat, which went from side to side. I’m glad I have Faroese fisherman blood, and even one of the Liberian guys went puking after 30 minutes. That boat was absolutely terrible! I thought it was going to tip over at times, but the water luckily got more quiet. But the weather didn’t.

Water got quiet, but then the rain was incoming!

We started to search for the chimpanzees in two nearby islands, but they were hiding. They had food in the morning, so a guy told us we should come back, when they were hungry again and then suddenly a crazy rainstorm hit us! We had to go back! No chimpanzees!

1.st Attempt – FAIL!

When I came back I could see Mr. Mojo was looking at us and we jumped up of the shaky boat, soaking wet and disappointed and went inside a small stone house. The 5 Liberian guys told Mr. Mojo we didn’t see any chimpanzees and Mr. Mojo then said:

“Ok. But I want my money now.”

I was shocked. 15 dollars is not a problem for me, but to change an agreement is a problem. We made an agreement 1,5 hours before in front of everybody and now Mr. Mojo changed his mind. Waow!

When I’m traveling in Africa I’m a man of principles and I stick to my agreements here, which is one of the reasons I rarely get scammed in Africa. so I reminded Mr. Mojo in a kind way about the agreement we made earlier about the fact that I would pay when I had seen chimpanzees.

Mr. Mojo Got Aggressive

Mr. Mojo went straight to my face and started to yell that he wanted his money now, and he started coming with several racist remark about me, calling me f*cking stupid white man and several other things I don’t want to wrtie, but I kept my calm and didn’t move one step, even though he was right up in my face and I just told him in a polite way.

“How can I be the stupid one? We had a deal?”

I wasn’t scared, because I knew I was right and I knew if he hit me one time, he wouldn’t stand a chance against me. The other guys took him away and told him to calm down, because they all heard the agreement we made. A guy in a yellow shirt came into the circle and that was THE GAME CHANGER!

Wacki And His Friend Were Back!

Wacki came back and he got really pissed off at Mr. Mojo.

Wacki told Mr. Mojo, he shouldn’t take me on his boat, while he was changing his outfit. Wacki apparently lived a little away from the village, and Wacki told Mr. Mojo he knew nothing about finding chimpanzees. Everybody loved Wacki in the little village, and Wacki told me: “Don’t worry my man, my friend will show you chimpanzees.”

After 30 min. of crazy discussions between Mr. Mojo and Wacki, Wacki convinced Mr. Mojo about his plans. I would pay the 15 dollars, when I had seen the chimpanzees and Wacki promised Mr. Mojo I would see them now at the 2. attempt with huge confidence. Wacki told me to go with his friend!

My man!

Everybody in the village had arrived to see our hefty discussions

2. Attempt! Now Or Never

We left the village in the old fisher boat again for a 2. try! Wacki’s friend was really confident, he was actually dancing on the boat and started to say all the names of the monkeys and said he had a great personal relationship with them. I couldn’t help but to smile a bit after some rough hours of discussions.

Our 2. try to find chimpanzees. Wacki’s best friend in the yellow shirt! Top guy

Would We Finally Find The Chimpanzees?

Wacki’s friend was shocked about where the guys had taken me at first, and it turned out Wacki’s friend was right.
Right when we went out to the first place on this boat trip, 3 Chimpanzees came out, when Wacki’s friend started yelling their names. Such a clever animal, no wonder why it’s the most human like animal in the World.

We found them!

The water was shallow at the beach, so we couldn’t really get close, because the chimps could get aggressive with me as a new person they didn’t know, but we went to the other side of the island and got pretty close, where the chimpanzees were in the trees and on the seashore. Wauw, this was it!

CHIMPANZEES! Such an amazing experience getting close to these aggressive, but cute guys

We were all very happy to see the chimpanzees, and even Wacki’s friend’s friend was amazed and was sneaking out his phone and took some nice photos!

Wacki’s friend’s friend was even more hyped than me and took a lot of pics! Awesome chimps!

I couldn’t thank Wacki and Wacki’s friend enough and I gave them a solid well-deserved tip for saving my ‘Chimpanzee Trip’ and then I gave the man his 15 dollars when I came back of course. Even though I was a little mad about his racist remarks and aggressiveness towards me, but I could understand his frustrations too. I just can’t help sticking to the agreements I make. That’s just natural for me.

A hectic, but amazing chimpanzee hunt! Would you do have done the same like me?

Gustav

gus1thego.com

Follow me on Instagram @gustavrosted