Global Journey|I am in Myanmar - Mandalay
01
African border checks "without discrimination"
In Mandalay, Myanmar, in addition to meeting Xiaoyi, there is also Beta, and I see many netizens leaving messages saying that I know her, and she used to travel with another blogger who traveled to Africa.
Beta was previously in Africa to travel to more than 20 countries.
I said that I was going to go to the continent one last time, because I had already heard about the "notorious" African border checks, and I would ask for money when I saw Chinese.
I want to ask, do they only ask for money from Chinese, or do they ask for money like white Europeans and Americans "equally"?
She said that white people in Europe and the United States also "treat everyone equally", and even ask for a lot (maybe they think they are richer), and the African border inspection is also "watching people cook", and the amount of bribes solicited is very random, and I once went to an African country to "bargain" from hundreds of dollars to dozens of dollars.
She met a white Canadian tourist on the road and was asked for $500 by the border control, and finally the Canadian gave $200 to compromise. (At this time, will someone say, "What about the Canadian embassy?") ”）
Along the way, neither Chinese nor Europeans and Americans can escape the African border checks.
I asked, you went to more than 20 countries in Africa, which African countries have customs to tip?
About two countries don't tip, she said.
I said, how much does the tip cost?
She said that the most is Ghana, and the price is 80 US dollars, and the rest is 40 or 50 yuan.
Xiaoyi added that she went mainly to countries on the east coast of Africa (English-speaking areas), although she asked her for a tip, she didn't give it once, but in the end she let her pass, and the longest one took 2 hours.
02
Traveled to India and did not experience sexual harassment
Beta went to India before 2018 and went twice.
She told me that before 2020, the eVisa was very easy in India and since then it has been very difficult.
I asked her, is India so fun? Also went twice in a row.
India is a lot of fun, she said.
I think back to a lot of Chinese backpackers who seem to like to go to India, and I met Xiao Wu, a graduate from Zhejiang Province in the Middle East, who also likes to go to India.
I asked, haven't you experienced sexual harassment in India?
She said, no.
But she was very cautious, for example, when she slept on the top bunk on a train in India, she took her slippers directly into a plastic bag, because when she was in India, the slippers were stolen......
Pictured above is a snake from the Beninese voodoo cult
The picture above shows the road in Liberia, where West Africa has weak infrastructure.
Liberia was the first independent American-style democracy in West Africa to use the American system, but today it is still violent, criminal, poor, and corrupt......
(That's why I've always said that the same system, different cultures, different races, the results are completely different.) ）
I sat on a bus for five days and four nights, and stayed in a tent at night. Chad, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.
Riding a motorcycle in Africa, during the period contracted malaria, very serious, fever and swings, and chills, into the down jacket are shivering to the point that it is not good, is a feeling of not being able to live and die.
If you don't take medicine for malaria, you will get cerebral malaria and you will die.
I said that I have visited many Chinese who have lived in Africa, especially in West Africa (such as Nigeria), and their common feeling is that although they have lived in Africa, there is no nostalgia and affection for this place, and there is no beauty!
03
Looted in Cape Verde
She has since traveled to Cape Verde, a small island nation in the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa, where she speaks Portuguese.
I remember the history books saying that this place was once a transit point for the triangular trade.
That is, the black slaves captured by the Europeans from Africa would first be concentrated in Cape Verde and then transferred to various parts of the Americas.
When Beta travels to Cape Verde, everyone thinks that a small island is safe because of the beautiful scenery and the people who look simple.
Surprisingly, she was robbed in Cape Verde without being robbed on the African continent.
At that time, a black man saw that her backpack was on her chest, so he forcibly snatched her, she fought with the black man, and finally injured her knee, and the backpack was not snatched because the backpack contained her passport......
In short, the experience of everyone who travels around the world can write a book, many details are interesting, and now it will be like telling someone else's story (very calm, no emotional ups and downs), because things have passed for a long time, but it is wonderful, because of the different life experiences.