Here is my Quick guide to The Gambia.

The Gambia is a small, peaceful country in Africa which is becoming popular with some tourists from all over the world. You will hear mixed stories about the place and so here is my personal opinion of the place.

Some people love The Gambia and others including myself will never go there again ever again.

I travelled to the Gambia on the 28th March 2008 with the gambia experience and went for one week, staying in the Kombo beach hotel. The flight and hotel were quite satisfactory and comfortable and the staff were friendly. It's a pity that some people never left the hotel as they did not want the hassle from the bumsters. The hotel room had both three pin plugs as found in the uk, but also had a two pin plug near the door, which was useful for plugging in the insect repeller. The only strange thing was that the TV had a two pin plug on it and the socket behind the TV was a standard three pin socket





At the time we were getting roughly 37 dalasi to the pound sterling.

The average Monthly income in the Gambia is 1000 dalasi


The Bumsters

On the first day (before we had the welcome meeting) we left the front of the hotel and were approached by a handful of locals, some dressed in local African dress, some in official tourist guide uniforms and some wearing sports wear. We were heading for the supermarket that was 100 yards to the left of the hotel as we were to buy a few items. Two of the locals soon latched on to us and we could not get a word in edge ways, they just did not shut up and said that the supermarket was not owned by Gambians and that we should use a different one- which they took us to. This supermarket was about 1km away and was not much cheaper than the supermarket that we were originally heading for.

These two guys were bumsters and do not work, instead they latch onto unsuspecting tourists and try to befriend them, in the hope that they will earn commission from them in the local shops and will eventually ask for money directly. The ambition of these bumsters is to marry an English girl and move to England.

As we were walking to the supermarket the two guys were constantly bombarding us with information and sayings, much of which turned out to be untrue. They told us that the representative at the welcome meeting would warn us away from the bumsters ( he did nothing of the sort ) and that all the hotels and businesses in the area were owned by foreign people and that the people of Gambia did not benefit at all from the tourists as the money would not go to them.

Their lines were laughable and were very well scripted. A few days later it became apparent that all the Gambians must go to the same school to learn how to prey on the tourists. Much of the sales patter went like this-

Where are you from?
what is your name?
Welcome to Gambia-
The smiling coast-
We are your brothers-
We are all the same underneath, if you cut us open we all bleed the same colour-
The more you smile the browner you become-
Sound as a pound-
Happy like a dalasi-
Your happiness is my happiness-
We want you to give from your heart-


There was much more patter, but you get the general idea!

It is only a matter of time before they then try and place a necklace around your neck as a sign of friendship. Several people tried to do this and non of them were successful. ( apparently you have to pay for the necklace)

They then try to get you to go with them on tourist trips, we wanted to see the crocodile pool. We asked them for a price and they said " just give us what you feel from the heart". We then asked the official taxi guide outside the hotel and he would not show us his price list

We went to the crocodile pool the next day and was taken ther by two bumsters and a guy driving the Green Taxi. We paid 400 dalasi to the driver and 100 dalasi to each of the bumsters and 50 dalasi each to enter the crocodile pool.

The Taxis




The green taxis are for the tourists only and the yellow taxis can be used by anyone. In our welcome meeting our rep told us that we can get a taxi for 400 dalasi (approx £11.00) return, including two hours waiting time. As people did not want to walk because of the harassment from the local's and bumsters people were forced to either get a taxi or stay in the hotel.

The green taxis seem like a scam compiled by the government to relieve the tourists of more money, they even employ official taxi officials that will get you a taxi. These taxis would not be allowed on the roads in this country and look like they have been stolen from a scrap yard. The doors often would not open, the windows would not wind down or up and one of them even had to be hotwired by the driver.

There are also Yellow taxis with a green stripe down the side, these taxis are not for the tourists, yet of all the ones we went in they were in much better condition and were a lot cheaper. A one way journey to senagambia (where there are lots of hotels) was 50 dalasi

The BEER

The national brew in The Gambia is Jul Brew, this lager is quite tasty and I have tasted much worse. In the hotel it was 50 dalasi for a bottle and in the supermarket it was 25 dalasi. If you went to Churchills bar you could get a pint of Jul Brew on Draught for 50 Dalasi.



The Beach

The Beach outside of the hotel was patrolled by about 4-5 security guards-




The security are there to prevent the Bumsters and sellers on the beach from harassing you. If you decided that you wanted something to eat for lunch you had two chances, you could eat in the hotel at about 700 dalasi for a snack and drink for two, or you could walk up the beach to a bar/restaurant and get harassed along the way by bumsters and locals. It was often much easier to pay the hotel prices and have some peace and quiet.




When you are on the beach there are people constantly shouting to you as they are trying to sell you something. The fruit sellers are not really a problem, but there are quite a few of them in the same area.



The scams

As mentioned earlier, many of the people will talk to you and it seems that they are all reading from a scripted document as all their speil is the same. It is not uncommom for them to approach you and ask for your email address or your postal address and then they can send begging letters to you when you return home. Many people will stop you and talk to you and then give you a piece of paper with their email address on it, in the hope that you will contact them.

One day there was a woman sat in a wheel chair outside of the supermarket and she was basically begging and giving everyone a piece of paper to read. My friend donated some money to her and 15 minutes later when we passed again the lady had disappeared, but the wheel chair was still there

Almost everyone that you speak to has a friend that has babies that needs feeding and they require money to buy powdered milk for the babies. There was even one woman that approached me and needed 75 dalasi for her child to have an operation.

Would I ever go to the Gambia ever again? No definately not!

If you want a nice relaxing holiday then the Gambia is not for you, unless you are one of these people who likes to stay in the hotel the whole time.

This is a video shot from the back of a Jeep Taxi-

This is what the back strets of Gambia look like.

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DIY | Donnas dream house

I WAS planning to go to the Gambia at some time.

doesn't sound like a good time

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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

Chez,

Like I said before, I went to the Gambia years ago when it was still undiscovered and the airport had only just evolved from a mud hut. I went twice and although there was the odd local pesterer there weren't many.

I wonder what Tangiers is like, I went there a couple of times years ago.

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If at first you don't succeed, ask UHM in your hour of need!

not sure if I posted this before or just thought it (or if someone else did!) ...

How about a Holiday corner? Could be useful as people may be thinking about their summer breaks?

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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

I don't think I'll be contributing as the last holiday I had that lasted more than a day was in 1999! Good idea though.

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If at first you don't succeed, ask UHM in your hour of need!

With my DIY costs in the last year, I am really hoping that we will have a good summer so I can holiday at home, but it is not too promising so far

Two years of washout summers in a row will not be funny!

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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.