Travel report: Guinea
Date of visit: February 2019
Well-traveled people often call Guinea their least favorite country. Guinea is often the most frequently mentioned country in online discussions about the worst travel destination in the world.
I suppose the lack of exciting sights combined with terrible infrastructure, a high crime rate and corrupt policemen or soldiers make the country rather unattractive for travelers. The unflattering things I read about Guinea supported my decision to keep my stay in the country short. I had two nights and a full day in Guinea’s capital Conakry.
What certainly did not contribute to my enthusiasm was a conversation with a Spaniard the night before my arrival. The guy told me not to go to Guinea because it was too dangerous and in the worst case I would be killed.
I have no idea what the guy experienced there, but I could see the fear in his eyes as he tried to stop me from this journey. That and one or two blog articles from people who have had very negative experiences in Guinea made me arrive with a certain paranoia.
Paranoia in Guinea
I landed at 8PM and was picked up by a driver from my serviced apartment. The guy didn’t say a word while driving from the airport to the hotel. That was fine, however. I was back in a francophone country after Gambia, so the lack of conversation at least saved me the trouble of finding the right words.
My serviced apartment was in Kaloum, a peninsula on the outermost edge of the city. All the luxury hotels are in this part of the city and it is said that it is the nicest district Conakry has to offer. When I arrived, I had a ravenous appetite. But after what I heard about Conakry, I didn’t dare to go looking for a restaurant alone at night.
“Est-ce qu’il y a un restaurant ici?” I asked the guy at the reception. “Oui, il y a un restaurant. Ça s’appelle Le Spécial!” He told me there was a restaurant called Le Special nearby. “What is the cuisine?” – “C’est special” (it’s special), was his answer. Okay, now I wasn’t really smarter. But it didn’t really matter. I just wanted to eat something as fast as possible.
I asked him in broken French if the area was safe. “Bien sur,” he replied. Sure! The problem is that all Africans call their cities safe. Also in Lagos the gentleman at the reception said that I can move freely outside and it didn’t take two minutes until I was in an unpleasant situation.
The gentleman was, however, so nice to accompany me to the special restaurant. It was maximum 200 meters. The street was full of people, Conakry seemed to be a lively city. I deliberately walked about three meters behind the guy, so it wasn’t clear that I belonged to him. I wanted to find out in this way whether and how people would react to me. Nobody seemed to notice me. This made me feel a little safer.
After eating a special Lebanese dish (meat skewers and hummus) in the special restaurant, there was another faux pas while paying. At the airport I withdrew 200,000 Guinea Francs. However, with my currency converter I added a 0 too little and assumed that I withdrew approx. 200 Dollars. In reality it was only about 20 Dollars and I had only 60,000 Francs (about 6 Dollars) on me.
I couldn’t believe my eyes at first when I got a bill of 100,000 Francs. 100 Dollars for a meal? I opened the menu again, the price was right. Was I here in the most expensive city in the world? Only after I used my currency calculator again, the misunderstanding cleared up.
I apologized to the waitress and said that I had to go back to the apartment quickly to get the remaining 40,000 Francs. She didn’t seem to understand my suggestion that I leave my mobile phone as a deposit, which was fine for me too. I brought the money five minutes later.
No pictures in Conakry
The next morning it was time for my sightseeing tour in Conakry. There are 1.7 million people living in Conakry, so it’s a pretty big city. TripAdvisor, however, only lists twelve attractions and sights in Guinea’s capital. Three out of these twelve things are nightclubs, two are spas, one is playing snooker, one seems to be a restaurant, one is a cinema, and four of them are actually real sights.
I haven’t mentioned an important detail yet. You are not allowed to take pictures in Conakry. There is no law that forbids photography, but if the police or the military catch you, you are in trouble. Big trouble. I read about another traveler who was held for hours at a police station.
Only after a heavy bribe was he eventually released. In addition, he had to sign a document admitting that he had committed a criminal act. With this signature they could have done basically everything with him.
Photography is one of my favorite activities when I travel. That’s why I found it annoying not to be able to take photos. Fortunately, I had a good view of the street life of Conakry from my apartment and was able to capture the first impressions with my smartphone.
The first thing I noticed when I left my apartment was that the city was full of policemen and soldiers. Sometimes they blocked the street while military convoys were passing through. Believe me, the gentlemen in uniform are not your friends in Guinea, and I avoided them as good as possible. After all, I didn’t want to give the corrupt officials the opportunity to take money from me.
I was later told that the President of Guinea had been taken to the airport because he was going to France. That is why there were so many soldiers in the city.
I walked down the streets without a plan and just checked out how the neighborhood looked. The locals still didn’t pay attention to me and minded their own business. It was nothing compared to the harassment I experienced the days before in the Gambia. That made me loose my initial paranoia and I felt safe. All in all, Conakry seemed quite harmless.
I didn’t really like the city though and what shocked me the most was how dirty Conakry was. I have rarely seen so much rubbish on the streets, as people throw their garbage everywhere. But Conakry wouldn’t be a beauty either even without the trash. On the contrary. Many houses are in a terrible condition and look rather like ruins.
I’ve still took some opportunities to secretly take a picture. I simply held up the mobile phone for a moment and quickly pressed the button. What I didn’t want to do, however, was to hold the phone horizontally so that it would look obvious that I was taking pictures.
Island hopping
After a short stop in a café near the beach I was approached by a man. First he spoke French to me, but as I just kept going he switched to English. He offered me a boat trip to an island off Conakry. The Iles de Los, an archipelago, is the number 1 ranked activity for Conakry on TripAdvisor. Since there was not much to do in Conakry anyway and I was not really interested in the other sights (a mosque, a cathedral and a museum), I agreed.
The man, who introduced himself as Abdullah, first wanted 500,000 Francs from me, about 50 Dollars. Without knowing the exact figures, I assume that this is about a monthly salary in Guinea. In the end, I was able to negotiate the man down to 370,000 Francs. It still seemed like a very good deal for him, but I didn’t spend much money in Conakry yet. That’s why it was okay for me.
I asked Abdullah if I could take a picture here on the shore. “Sure, you’re with me now and you can do whatever you want,” was his answer.
The area around the ocean was extremely dirty as well. There was tons of garbage on the shore, which eventually found its way into the sea. I don’t think that this bothered anybody here. It also made me wonder if it is the right approach for us in Europe to debate the usage of plastic drinking straws or if the real pollution of the ocean happens in countries like Guinea.
Half an hour later, we arrived on one of the Iles de Los, which in contrast to Conakry looked like a paradise. Abdullah told me that this island was overpopulated. 1.5 million would live on the island. Yeah, sure. I looked at the island and didn’t see a single human being. The island was small and seemed to consist mostly of forest.
Abdullah told me several things in the next few hours that were anything but true. I don’t know if he really believed in his nonsense or if he just said something so as not to lose face.
We walked from the beach a few minutes to the other side of the island. It looked really nice to be honest. The beach was practically empty, which surely had to do with the fact that it was Wednesday. The island is apparently overcrowded on weekends. Abdullah proudly showed me the only hotel on the island. Some guests would come here for a whole week, he told me.
The water was anything but beautiful from close up and looked rather brown. That didn’t surprise me after I saw how much rubbish finds its way into the sea in Conakry.
We later met a group of older Lebanese who sunbathed, drank rum and smoked shisha in front of the hotel. One of the gentlemen invited me to their table. It turned out that the gentlemen and their families emigrated from Lebanon a few decades ago and moved to Guinea.
“Why Guinea of all places?” I asked. After all I have seen of Guinea so far, I imagined more pleasant countries in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire, for example. Or Senegal. Actually every country except Nigeria that I have already visited in this region.
The gentleman explained to me that he had good business contacts to Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan when both countries still belonged to the Soviet Union. There he was told that Guinea was a good place to make money with fish. He followed the advice and built up his fishery here, with which he now earns good money.
I also asked the gentlemen if there was anything true about the rumors that Conakry was dangerous. The question was still on my mind. “You can walk the streets in Conakry at 3AM and you won’t have any problems,” said one of the gentlemen.
I asked if this would also apply to Freetown in Sierra Leone, my next destination after Conakry. “You won’t have any problems there either,” he said. “What about Monrovia?” I asked. “Monrovia? There is the danger of being attacked even at 3 in the afternoon!” Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Another place that I still have before me on my road to 197 countries.
Soon after, we drove back to Conakry. A friend wrote to me the day before that the boats regularly have problems with their engines and that you might get stuck somewhere in the ocean hoping that a boat will pass by. So I got a little nervous when not once but twice the engine didn’t work anymore. Fortunately, the problem always resolved itself after a few minutes.
After I was back in Conakry, I wanted to say goodbye to Abdullah. “Where are the remaining 150,000 Francs?!?” he barked at me. No “thank you very much” or “I hope you enjoyed it”. Nothing. Just “give me the money!!” We have agreed that I pay a part at the beginning and the rest after the return. So I gave him the money and was glad that I got rid of him.
It immediately occurred to me a sentence that one of the Lebanese on the island had said. “You will notice that the people in Sierra Leone are much more civilized than those in Guinea!” – “What do you mean?” I asked. The Lebanese thought for a moment and then said. “Look, the people in Sierra Leone say things like “thank you, sir” or “I beg your pardon”, while the people in Guinea say more of a “HUHHH?!” Abdullah fit perfectly into this scheme.
My observations in Africa so far have been that former English colonies are somehow more developed than the former French ones. And in my opinion you can also see that in the behavior of the people. Guinea was quite underdeveloped even by African standards.
I left Guinea the next day for Sierra Leone. It was going to be the hardest day of traveling in my life. But that’s another story and deserves its own article… (click here if you want to read it).
Guinea… not my favorite country
It was a good decision to stay only one day in Conakry. The capital of Guinea is not a city you enjoy for long. In general, it can be said that Guinea offers rather negative things: Corruption, poor infrastructure and a lot of dirt. I heard from travelers, who also traveled through the interior of the country, that the rural area is almost as polluted as the capital.
Is there anything positive to tell after all? Yes. People were friendly or ignored me. Quite the opposite to the Gambia, where the local people are more of a nuisance. Guinea is cheap too. And last but not least, there are some incredible landscapes including spectacular waterfalls in the rural area of the country.
But these three positive things wouldn’t make me go to Guinea again. Guinea is not the worst country I have ever been to, but it is undoubtedly one of the worst five.
I often thought about the Spaniard who advised me not to travel to Guinea the night before my trip. I did not feel unsafe in Guinea. However, shortly after my return to Europe, I was informed that a Frenchman had disappeared somewhere on the journey between Guinea and Sierra Leone. He was there three days before me.
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
