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

Caught In Shootings And Explosions In Liberia

Posted on June 27, 2019December 1, 2019 by dev

I had 5 lovely days in the beginning of my Liberia stay and I find most Liberian people as warm, friendly and sociable, but what happened in my last 2 days in Liberia is something I will never forget!

Is Liberia Dangerous?

Before you read this article and get scared of Liberia, I need to say I enjoyed Liberia mostly. A beautiful country, even though I was there in heavy rain season with up to 16 hours of rain some of my days. I had to be smart with my time in Liberia and took full advantage of the sunny hours, as well as with the rainy ones.

There are some sketchy areas in the capital Monrovia, especially at night, but I felt comfortable most places in Liberia during day and night. So it is a safe country, but there’s one specific time, where it’s NOT!

At the abandoned luxury hotel, Ducor Hotel, at night

My Observations In Liberia

Can’t avoid the spices in Liberia! Even cucumbers have spicy chili inside

The Language

I love the way Liberian speak English, the way they shorten all of the words and mix it with their own local language, makes it so hard to understand, but enjoyable to listen to. Sometimes I had to listen to sentences 3-4 times, in order to fully understand what was being said. So yes, Liberia is a English-speaking country, but not the English you know.

The Food

The food in Liberia is extremely spicy and it’s no matter what you eat. The Liberian people find the food to be completely normal, but in all of the other +115 countries I’ve been to, I only remember a few countries where ALL the food was this spicy. Most of the time I had tears in my eyes when eating in Liberia.

Public Transport Discussion

I took a lot of public transport in Liberia and in all of the cars, mini busses, busses there were discussions.

Usually the one who shouts the loudest wins the argument and when you think people are about to fight, they say “my man, listen,” and the “my man” takes of a lot of the pressure. I’ve seen it so many times here.

Civil Wars

The First Liberian Civil War was an internal conflict in Liberia from 1989 until 1997. The conflict killed about 250,000 people. The Second Liberian Civil War was from 1999 – 2003. After nearly 14 years of Civil War the country is finally safe now, but when the situation get overheated, people can go back in war mode.

Caught In Shootings And Explosions In Liberia

I was caught in shooting and explosions in Liberia. The day before I went on a crazy hunt to find wild, abandoned chimpanzees on an isolated Liberian island, dubbed as ‘The Planet of the Apes.’ Read: The Hunt On Wild Chimpanzees In Liberia,’ but now it was time to go from Liberia to Ivory Coast!

Here’s what happened exactly: I went up 5 am in the morning to find a car from Monrovia to Ivory Coast, because you usually have to wake up early when moving around West Africa to get a car. The car was first full at 9 am though, so it was a long waiting time, but we were now finally ready to go. I was in a Jeep with 7 other African people and off we went!

I sat next to a guy from Ghana, who spoke a good English I could understand easily. There was also a Liberian guy, who was extremely friendly, but I was happy that the man from Ghana was there to translate what he said, because he spoke extremely fast and the Liberian way. Fast talking combined with the Liberian way of speaking English is not the best combination, at least not for me.

The Road Was Blocked. How Come?!

Police blocking the road. What is going on?!

We had been on the road for only 1,5 hour and now the road was blocked. We talked a bit to some of the other passengers in the cars waiting in line, and from what I could understand from the conversations there had been an incident and two kids had died.

I thought it was a bad road incident, which happens here occasionally, but after 30 min of waiting the Liberian guy and I decided to go and check what the problem. There was a lot of noise up there!

“The President Kills Our Children”

We came up to the chaos and walked a bit around. The police were there, but it seemed pretty quiet after all at first. We saw some people who were furious and my Liberian friend and I went over to them to find out what the problem was. A lady was screaming us in the face: “The President is killing our children.”

One of the furious ladies. Lots of aggression

The ladies wanted the President to come and talk, and I was hoping he would come, because I’m a football fan. The President of Liberia is the old football legend, George Weah. His abilities on the football pitch seemed to be better than his presidential ones! At least people were MAD about him in this situation.

Football legend George Weah is the President of Liberia

I honestly didn’t understand the issue really, but the protesters said they would block the road for at least 2-3 days. This was the ONLY International road from Monrovia, Liberia to the border of Ivory Coast.
At this point I thought either they stopped the demonstration or there would be big problems soon. In a country there has been in a war mode not many years ago. A country that’s not afraid to pull the trigger.

Only white man in the place. Would the President come or not?

At one point it seemed like the President would come to give an excuse to the people, but then the reports from the Government changed. I could see the Ghanaian guy from my car running back towards the car. The Police was still passive at this time, but the alarm bells were ringing now. I had to get back to the car.

Get In The Car! Now!

The Liberian guy ran past me and I turned around and ran also. Our car was only 40 meters away from the protests. When we came to the car we stood outside and talked a bit, and the Liberian guy said there was NO CHANCE we would leave today. Just when he said “no chance,” our driver came running from the opposite site of the demonstration and said the police are sending extra forces: “Get in the car. Now!”

Two of the last guys from our car came running in full sprint to the car and jumped in. Literally 5 seconds after we were all in the car, I looked to the right side and from around 50 meter distance I saw a young man throwing something and I yelled: “Get down!” It was a small home-made bomb. Everybody went down beneath the car seats! We could feel the pressure from the bomb inside the car. The car was shaking and right after I could smell the smoke from a battlefield.

I looked up again and from the other side now three Liberian men threw stones at our car, so we were still hiding under the car seats. The driver screamed: “Open the windows,” because if a stone hits glass, it could leave serious damage on the people inside. We were all with the heads down. The protesters were running away and I made a short video footage, where you can hear the gunshots starting to fire from the police.
The women from the demonstration came running now in full speed with crying kids, absolutely horrible.

Liberian woman running from her life. One of the worst days of my life!

The Police Didn’t Want The Protests To Continue – Shoot!

The President had told the police the situation was unacceptable and had told them to act! I saw this woman on the picture above came running past my car window, I looked back and saw a woman was shot in the back head 10 meters away from me. The second after a young man got shot in the back and went straight to the ground. F*CK! I went back under the car seat and heard 5-7 gunshots more and heard a lot of screaming outside. After 1 minute all the people who were protesting and blocking the road were gone.

Police with truncheon and guns. At least 2 were shot dead, I saw it with my own eyes!

I saw two people were shot with my own eyes, but I’m not sure how many were shot in total. A lot of gunshots.. Time was standing still.

All of the people from the demonstration were gone in less than 1 minute

Time To Get Away From The Gunshots

Now we had to escape. Our driver got up from where he was hiding, starting the engine and drove like he was getting casted for a new ‘Fast & The Furious-Movie.’ He destroyed the rear view mirror on another car, because all people just wanted to get away. We really had to get away in a hurry, and he even went off road, where the car was close to turn around. He honestly drove like Michael Schumacher in his heyday. The situation was hectic and scary, still with a lot of violent, unpredictable police around us.

Our driver driving right after he raced through the demonstration. We made it!

A Day Not To Remember

What a day to finish off Liberia, my country number 116. A day I wouldn’t even wish my worst enemy to experience. A day right in the middle of shootings and explosions a little outside of Monrovia, Liberia.

20 minutes after the shootings. Seeing people get shot is something you don’t want to try.

Goodbye Liberia

As I said earlier I don’t know much about the conflict, but blocking the only International road to another country on the African continent usually have bloody consequences. It had today. These protesters put themselves, the road users and worst of all small children in extreme danger by doing this. Not smart. Seeing kids crying, running for their life. Not fun at all. I can’t figure out who were right or wrong though.

Honestly happy I have arrived to Ivory Coast alive, my country number 117. Can’t wait to see what this country has to offer and now it’s time to move forward!

Gustav

gus1thego.com

2 Seconds Away From REJECTED ENTRANCE (Sierra Leone)

Posted on June 21, 2019June 28, 2019 by dev

Guinea to Sierra Leone

After some long travel days and a baby puking on me on the bumpy roads in Guinea, I was honestly a bit tired to say the least and very excited to get out of Guinea’s capital Conakry’s craziness and into Sierra Leone, the country of white beaches and diamonds.

The Ebola Outbreak

When I had to go from Guinea down south to Sierra Leone, I a took bus, shared taxi, motor bike, basically every possible vehicle in order to finally reach Sierra Leone, the land of the white beaches, which I heard so much good stuff about. Besides a big Ebola outbreak few years ago which killed +10,000 people. Terrible!

Ebola just found in Congo again. Sierra Leone on alert!

Not Allowed To Enter Sierra Leone?

But I didn’t want to think too much about that. Like always. Just go!

First of all I was told that my vaccination card wasn’t complete to enter Sierra Leone. I told the border police that my doctor gave me all the vaccines which were needed. After a little talk with the Sierra Leonean border police, they told me: “This is not the Official Vaccination Card.” I told them that it was how the Official Vaccination Card we get in Denmark looks like, even though it was just a copy of it, (as I would be afraid to lose my original one,) and they luckily believed in my super convincing explanation.
I then had to go through two offices more for registration and thought okay, now I’m almost in Sierra Leone.. But then the lady at the registration office said: “Now you go into that room, to the ‘Big Boss!’

Border crossings in West Africa can be complicated and tiresome

My Meeting With The Big Boss

The ‘Big Boss’ was a big guy, probably around 50 years old, wearing a suit and with a mad look. He said “sit down” with a brutally dark voice and then started to look at my passport without saying anything for 2 minutes. It felt like a reeeally long time in there, because he looked really critically on every page and visa.

He then looked at me and opened his big mouth. “What are you doing here in Sierra Leone?” I replied “I’m just visiting the country as a tourist.” He didn’t say anything and continued to look at my passport.

It seemed like I was just about to get allowance to enter Sierra Leone, sitting in the ‘Big Boss’ office with him lifting his arm to give me the stamp, but then he put the arm down slowly and asked me:

“Which hotel in Sierra Leone?” Damn…

The Missing Hotel Reservation

SH*T. How could I forget to find a hotel name or to fake a hotel reservation in Sierra Leone.

I told ‘Big Boss’: “Give me one second..”

I was trying to get some internet connection, so I could say a name of a hotel, but there was absolutely zero connection at the border.

‘Big Boss’ looked impatiently at me and raised his voice. “I NEED A HOTEL RESERVATION.”

I replied: “It’s called Freetown Hotel.” Big Boss: “I don’t know that one?” I said: “At the beach?” He said: “There’s no one with that name.” I thought oh no, this is NOT good.

He continued: “We can’t let you in to Sierra Leone without a Hotel Reservation. Impossible.” I realized I had to make a quick move, otherwise entering Sierra Leone wouldn’t be for this time, which would destroy my travel plans completely. I didn’t want ‘Big Boss’ to destroy it for me!

I said: “Let me just call my friend about the hotel name.” He stared at me angrily with his scary mad look.. Of course I couldn’t call my friend with no connection at the border, but while I was pretending to call my friend, I took a quick look in ‘Big Boss’s’ book, which was upside down in front of him, and in 2 seconds I could see a hotel name called ‘YMCA.’ I started to scratch my eyes to distract him a bit..

YMCA in Sierra Leone

I took my phone to my ear and faked a call: “Hello Samuel (quickly made up name), what was the name of that hotel.. At the beach in Freetown? Arh, YMCA, okay thanks!” Without talking to any person of course.. When ‘Big Boss’ heard YMCA, he said “good” with his extremely manly voice and continued “Welcome to Sierra Leone.”

I didn’t go to that hotel, but..

Thank you, ‘Big Boss!’

Had to buy a Sierra Leone t-shirt out of pure excitement!

Entering Sierra Leone felt extra good after my meeting with the ‘Big Boss,’ he was indeed one of the biggest bosses I’ve ever met, and to top it off I met a nice lady who brought her rooster in the shared taxi in Makeni, Sierra Leone!

Hello Sierra Leone, my country number 115!

Gustav

gus1thego.com

Follow me on Instagram @gustavrosted