Dominican Republic-Boating
 

Its been a couple of years; but, if by chance you go boating in the Dominican Republic and visit different ports, be ready to pay bribes and hire a local "dock boy" to discuss the payments with the "officials". I did in Puerto Plata and Samana while on a 50ft power boat. In Samana, $15 each to Mayor, Harbormaster, local navy official and one or two other "officials," since we came in on a Sunday. Total of $90 USD.

A several things have really changed over the last two years:

1. The area outside the main terminal is now "parasite" free. The current government has made airport "clean-up" a priority.
2. I have heard of no shakedowns in the last couple of years, another sign of improvement.
3. The airlines are monitored heavily for overbooking and there have been some controls put on exiting flights.
4. I have seen some luggage problems, but these are becoming more infrequent.

The airport adventure is easy compared to the other challenges encountered in Lagos.

M8

Thanks for your input. I remember it being referred to as one of the most dangerous airports in the world. It's good to know that things have improved!

Kind regards,
Maurits

Okay, but Lagos in itself is still a big safety challenge. There is much exaggeration, but a lot of it is founded in fact. Lagos is not a tourist destination.

Actually I hold out more hope for Angola as a tourist destination. Things are moving faster there, and I personally have been impressed with the progress.

M8

Luanda changed a lot in the three years I lived there, from March 2002 to January this year. When we first arrived the airport was a bit of a free-for-all, although we had things a lot easier because my employer has facilitators stationed at the airport who helped us through (they actually got us into the country without visas when we first arrived, and I'd lived in the country for more than a year before I ever had to actually face an immigration official on my way into the country).

By the time we moved away from Angola, the airport was becoming downright civilized, with a green channel and red channel for customs, a decent business class lounge and other trappings of civilization.

The one thing to make sure you remember when arriving in Angola is to have your yellow fever vaccination up to date, or you will be sent to the airport clinic to have the injection, for a fee, of course (I think you can pay extra to be let out of the clinic without actually haveing the shot, which would probably be a worthwhile investment).

There are definitely still countries where bribes are part of the programme, though it is rarely seen at airports anymore, even in these countries.

Here are two of my "favourites":

- Cambodia
Specifically the border post between Aranyaprathet (Thailand) and Poipet (Cambodia). Cambodia offers a tourist visa on arrival which is officially priced at 20 USD, but good luck paying 20 USD for one at Poipet. Immigration officials will demand payment of 1000 Thai Baht, which is more like 25 USD. It gets even worse with the business visa on arrival, officially at 25 USD. Here, they ask for 1500 Baht, which is an outrageous 35+ USD. Guess who keeps the difference?

- Honduras/Guatemala
At the El Florido border post between Honduras and Guatemala (neither of which officially has entry/exit taxes), you're told you must pay border usage fees of 1 USD on each side. Two bucks is not too bad, but still... Anyhow, the official advice is just to pay up unless the amount demanded is excessive.

- Indonesia
Travellers to Indonesia have to fill out an immigration form which is stamped by immigration. Half of it has to be kept in the traveller's passport and handed in to immigration on departure. Apparently, if you manage to lose the card, 20000 Rupees (about 2 USD) discreetly placed in your passport will also work.

In general, land borders seem to be much more prone to bribery, whereas airports have been cleaned up reasonably well.

Well, I think I know what company you are talking about, they have a pretty good system. The rest of us are envious.

Yes, it's nice Luanda is cleaning up. Lots of progress in the city itself, and the Ile is getting quite trendy there now, and expensive. In fact Luanda itself is becoming very expensive.

M8

Azerbaijan
 

I was flying from Baku (GYD) to LHR in 2003; the lady at immigration started complaining that "your visa is finished". I didn't understand this, and she disappeared with my passport - only to come back and stamp it a few minutes later. Didn't understand immediately that I would've needed to pay a bribe (being Finnish and inexperienced of travelling to more excotic destinations).

BTW, a mate of mine who works for the frontier guards in Finland said that Russians sometimes try to give bribes at Finnish immigration as well.

you been to India much? its ingrained. immigration, police, pretty much everywhere. i have gotten out of bribe by once asking for supervisor and on another occasion pretending to speak mostly german. but if you have lots of electronics in your bag on entry, best of luck to you, even if you point out the tvs and plasmas.(which by the way are NOT in EVERY airport - you only been to Dehli?)

Though this does not specifically address travel-related bribes, Transparency International annually measures preceptions of corruption around the globe.

The worst perceived offenders are:
Chad, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Haiti, Nigeria, Equitorial Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Angola, and the list goes on at length from there.

Funny, I was discussing this just the other night with a friend who asked me about paying bribes to the immigration officers in Vietnam at Ton Sohn Nhut in Saigon (SGN). The lines in the tiny immigration hall were slow-moving, but once I made it to the front I didn't have much of a problem, though I did have a proper visa issued by the Vietnamese embassy in my passport. Mr. Megatop, who is Thai and did not need an advance visa under ASEAN rules, also had no problems. But my friend here, who is ethnicly half American and half Vietnamese (speaks the language but carries a US passport), said that Vietnamese, especially those living abroad, need to grease the wheels a bit. He said young folks need to leave $1 in their passports, adults need to leave $2, and older folks need to leave $5, especially if one is trying to gain entry with anything that would raise eyebrows, like electronics.

it is very usual.i think most of poor countries have this trouble.They have not good law and effective way to stop it.


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share my files with you .

The only 2 attempts I have been on the receiving end of was in Indonesia where there was some attempt to claim my visa was out of date. 5 minutes of playing the dumb foreigner was enough to get me through. The other was passing through Serbia in 1993 where I had to fork out a large chunk of cash to avoid being thrown off the train. Warzones and backpackers are not good combinations.

Brazilian police...especially in Rio, you can bribe your way out of anything. (Friend's experience not mine).

W

We had a driver in Angola, so we paid the local rate (the equivalent of a US dollar or two) for the "on the spot" fines that the traffic police dreamed up (the slang term for them was "gasoza", i.e. money to buy a soda). Expats who had to drive themselves around sometimes ended up paying out more serious amounts of cash. Our driver took a very philosophical view about all this - I remember he once told us "they have families to feed, too" while asking for 100 kwanzas to resolve a minor traffic issue.

The type of issues that Transperancy Internation monitors is much more professional "diversion of the country's tax base into the President's real estate portfolio" kind of stuff. There is a correlation, of course - if the people at the top are doing it on a grand scale, anyone with any authority is going to want to try and grab their share.