Before I arrived in the Gambia, all I knew was from the Internet, knowing that it was the smallest country on the African continent, knowing that it was a Muslim country, and at one point changing the name of the country to the "Islamic Republic of Gambia", which caused great controversy because it was consistent with the name of a terrorist organization. What I saw was all the comfort of being in a corner of Africa.
Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, is located on the Atlantic coast and is actually a small island, and although the inland part of the river system is narrow and connected by bridges, the entire city is surrounded by water. To reach Banjul from the inland, you need to cross the 3 km wide Gambian River by ferry. Crossing the ferry is a matter of great patience because the waiting time is long. Originally two ferries, often one is bad, so in fact there is only one, and a ferry round-trip time takes at least one and a half hours, usually the vehicle to the port, can not catch up with the first train, can only wait for the next bus, so that the time is at least two hours.
Waiting for the ferry vehicles and passengers
There are many vehicles and passengers on the ferry, a ferry can carry 27 vehicles and more than 700 people, but each ferry will be full of vehicles and passengers, which shows its busyness and importance. With such a flow of vehicles and people, it is possible to build a bridge here, after all, it is only 3 kilometers. But there is no bridge here, and there seems to be no plan to build it. On this subject, I asked the local guide why not build a bridge to such traffic. He said that this situation does require a bridge, but the government and people of Banjul do not want to build it, because if the bridge is built, more people will enter Banjul, it will break their existing life, which belongs to the island, and they want to live the life of the existing island. Speaking of this reason, I think that although I did not want to open, I quite appreciate their attitude towards life and do not let their lives be so busy. The scene that comes to my mind at this moment is also the quiet life on Banjul Island, people are not in a hurry to work and live, because there is a coastal beach, you can lazily bask on the beach every day and enjoy the comfort of the island. Although the country is not rich, life can be comfortable and comfortable. This is the impression I made before I entered Banjul Island.
However, when I entered Banjul, I found that the situation here broke my imagination. The Old City of Banjul, like most other cities in Africa, is crowded and dilapidated, and although it still retains the buildings built during the British colonial period, and although the presidential palace is also here, the mottled walls are in disrepair to hide its dilapidation, and there are many vehicles, and traffic jams are frequent. But now the old city is only a place for government offices and commodity trading, and there are not many residents living there, and many residents have moved to the new city. The new city is located on the side of the better beach, where villas and houses have been built, where business has begun to develop, where banks and business districts have begun to concentrate, especially hotels.
Markets in the old town
And it is here that the current situation of Banjul is really seen, and it is because of this that Banjul has become "African Thailand". As I said, most of the hotels are concentrated on the seaside of the new city, and other entertainment venues are also here.
There are two or three streets in an area here, which is a veritable entertainment street, with various restaurants, restaurants, bars, one by one. On each street there is a bank counter to provide money exchange services to facilitate foreign tourists to exchange dollars or euros for local currency. When I arrived on the first night, I was tired late and had dinner at a local restaurant, which is actually the place of the bar. At that time, due to the rush, I did not see other restaurants, because there was a show here, I thought it was a specialty restaurant, and later I learned that the restaurants here basically had this kind of performance. The performance is the same as the domestic bar, the band performance and dance performance, of course, the dance performance still has some characteristics, is the African dance, the dancers are simply dressed, the dance is very passionate, and from time to time invite guests to dance together. I saw that most of the people sitting here are white Europeans and Americans, curiosity suddenly rose, thinking that here can come so many European and American tourism, has proved that its tourism industry is very developed, I have known that the tourists here are mainly from Europe and the United States, I think probably because there are good beaches and seafood, in addition to the Gambia there are some historical tourist attractions, Europeans and Americans are very interested in these. It's just that I was surprised to have so many bars and such open performances here, and I think maybe I've been in Muslim countries for too long, and I have some fixed image of African countries, especially Muslim countries.
A show in the dining bar
What really surprised me again was the second night. Since the tour ended early, I returned to the hotel early and had dinner. Dinner is the time to start the bustle, and at 9 p.m., the restaurants and bars have gathered a lot of people. When I came out of the hotel with two other male companions, three young black girls suddenly ran over and said if they could drink with us, and we seemed to realize what was going on, what they were doing, and we waved our hands and said no, and we had to go back to the hotel to rest, because we were leaving for the Gambia very early the next day. I was also shocked by this phenomenon, because from the first night's understanding, I thought that this place was just able to drink, the bar could be very open to shows, and there was a police point at the intersection of this street, there were police patrols 24 hours a day, as a Muslim country there are so many entertainment venues is already very incredible, did not expect such a blatant solicitation. And the bar girl is not all this street, in front of the hotel where we live is a casino, open at eight o'clock at night, passing by here I can also see that there are already tourists coming in and out at nine o'clock, and it is also legally open for business. I suddenly felt that I was not in a Muslim country, and there was no sign of a Muslim here. Even when eating at a Chinese restaurant, there are blacks and whites drinking in the lobby, and the restaurant also serves pork.
Pub Street during the day
I never expected that the Muslim countries in Africa I had seen were so open, and most of the bars here were open until three or four in the morning, and there were still a lot of people. The next day, when I was talking to the local guide, he told me that the phenomenon made me even more unexpected. He said that many Europeans and Americans come here for fun, saying that you can see a lot of older white men with black girls around them, and older white women are also surrounded by young black boys. He said this, I have the impression that on the first day of the dinner bar, in the Chinese restaurant, there are young black people accompanied by older white people, especially white women and young black men, I thought it was the local guide they were looking for, I did not dare to think about this aspect, I think how can there be such a phenomenon in Africa. When the tour guide said that, I thought that was it. So the local tour guide said that the Gambia is "The Thailand of Africa", saying that although he has not been to Thailand, he knows that thailand's service industry is very developed, many Europeans and Americans go, and the Gambia is in Africa and Thailand's same country.
He also said that this is very bad, the Gambia itself is a Muslim country, but there is such a existence, and there are already many young people in the Gambia engaged in this kind of work, which has led to many young people here not going to school very early, because they make money quickly and make more money to do such work, of course, there is a high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.
What he said was really big a problem, but there may be a reason why a Muslim country can be open to this extent.
The beaches of Banjul
As the smallest country on the African continent, the Gambia is surrounded by one country on three sides, Senegal, and on the other side is also facing the ocean, its resources are very scarce, although the Gambia River can grow crops throughout the territory, it can only meet its own needs, so it is one of the most backward countries. The direction of the Gambia is to focus on the development of tourism, but relying only on narrow coastlines and beaches and a few tourist attractions is not enough to develop tourism, and it can only continue to develop related services. This may have been a last resort. If it's Thailand in Africa, I haven't been to Thailand, but from the point of view of knowing, the development of the service industry here is indeed very similar to That of Thailand.
Pay attention to Africa, pay attention to "Wumei Africa"!