Gambia

[Mic70]

Hi everybody!

I’m planning a trip to Gambia soon. I’m from Denmark but I love black girls. Do anybody know where to go out in Kuto and Senegambia. If somebody will make me a top 5 list bar-guide for me I will be very happy. I look forward to a VERY nice trip.

[Caesar46]

Pictures from Brufut.

[Kim Wheather]

tomwannabe,

first of all, can you please kindly edit your last post in this section? so it could be easy for everyone to understand that what you wrote is different from what i wrote in a previous post. and you're actually dissatisfied when i compared gambia and thailand. you are not comparing gambia and thailand, as fourniceight and steve german thought. but you are critisizing my comparing.

as we say in danish, one must apart the mucus from the beard. please quote properly. thanks a lot in advance.

africa is africa. asia is asia. gambia is gambia. thailand is thailand. your experiences are your experiences. my experiences are my experiences. your way to look at things is your way to look at things. my way to look at things is my way to look at things. maybe i’m right. maybe i’m wrong. but those were my experiences in thailand and gambia.

i prefer thailand. maybe you prefer gambia. maybe the reason is the same: gambia is not definitely thailand.

well, i’m not an anthropologist. i’m just a simple whorist (i.e. a tourist who likes to make bed sheet gymnastics with many different women). maybe you’re right about the issue, that the things are much more complicated than my describing. well, i can only take my experiences as the criteria. and maybe i'm an "ignorant" tourist, too. but one thing i know for sure: "money talks, bullshit walks". whether you find a bar-woman in patong/phuket/thailand or in serrekunda/banjul/gambia, it's your money the woman loves. so if you are also a whorist, please save me from your ngo-ethic and anthropological attitudes.

my start to comparing thailand and gambia takes a beginning from a fellow whorist’s claim, which sounds like “gambia is thailand in africa”. i tried to show why gambia is not thailand. and in that context why africa is not asia. as we are agree about the conclusion, the rest must be details. and the reason to details is due to personal experiences. (as the word “personal” indicates, my experiences are individual. and your experiences could definitely be different from my experiences).

if you read all i wrote about gambia, you could also see some positive things about gambia and gambians. and some negative things about thailand and thais. i believe each country has both positive and negative qualities. some countries have more negative qualities than positive qualities. and some countries have more positive qualities than negative qualities. that’s why you can’t avoid to compare countries.

i would not mind to travel to gambia again, as i know how to handle with all those traps i can meet in gambia. but i would definitely prefer thailand as my destination. just because i think that thailand has more positive qualities than negative qualities. (of course comparing to gambia). that’s of course my opinion. and my opinion is very firm.

well, i keep my right to compare any of two countries in the world. that's a part of free speech too, isn't it?

best regards

kw

[Member #4364]

Sorry Tom

I have other expiriences; i never met such friendly people like in gambia; AND
i never met so greedy people like in thailand; they are "hunting" the money.
In gambia the people are really poor; so they want to survive. In thailand
the condition is much better.
So; gambia is not so developed; but if i will find a good apartment; i will come
back, because i learned to hate the thai mention

[Fourniceight]

Tomwannabe,

What an excellent job you have done here comparing Thailand with Gambia. I am an Englishman with a Gambian residence permit and have made Gambia my home base for the past 4 years. However, I am currently in Thailand and have spent 50% of the last 4 years in Thailand. I am thinking more and more that I will come to live here permanently next year. It's so strange that when I came to Thailand this year in June, I had been in Gambia for 8 months and had gotten used to life there, and was not really ready to go "on holiday" to Thailand. However, once here, I find that it is the other way round, and now that I have bought my ticket back "home" in November, I am not really ready to go back there either. Both places have a lot to recommend them but I think that Thailand wins now in my book.

[Tomwannabe]

kw. mostly well said but its not that simple. to not inflate the length of your article, i will only add as much as needed.

well, here is a comparation between thailand and gambia. then i hope you can certainly understand why there couldn't be another thailand. (and certainly gambia couldn't be africa's thailand).

africa is africa and asia is asia. it's a kind of unfair to compare. they are just too different.

1) thai people thanks almost in every opportunity. they are very polite. even you don't tip to the waiter/waitress you can hear a 'kop kun kap'/'kop kun ka' (which means simply 'thank you'). i wouldn't say the same thing about gambian waiter / waitresses (and generally about the people in gambia). now i just quitted to tip to the waiters / waitresses in gambia, because they don't say 'thanks', but just a single 'okay', when you tip for instance 20 dalasis. (remember, that a daily salary for most people in gambia is around 120 dalasis. for 20 dalasis most people in gambia work in 2 hours. but it even doesn't take 2 minutes to bring what i'm going to eat in a restaurant).

in asian culture (i lived and worked there; as a tourist you never really get immersed into the 'real' of a country.) preserving face is very, very important. so, while a thai waiter/ress will say thank you and smile even if you do not tip it does not mean that this is ok. it's not. they just don't show it. definitely not to the tourists. they are too business minded as to [CodeWord140] off potential customers. thailand is also much better off in general, so, people are a little less pushy as compared to africa where most people are literally pushed to the brink. life in africa is much harder in general which has an impact on overall behaviour. naturally.

2) a thai girl take a shower before and after sexual intercourse. i had 3 different gambian girls. none of them took a shower. not after sexual intercourse either, even though these girls informed me, that they are muslims. (well, if you are muslim, you have to take a shower at least after intercourse according the religious rules, and you have to make it sure, that every single inch in your body would be washed). true

3) thai people are very friendly, even they don't have any financial interests in you. when you for instance refuse to buy a drink, so it is 'no poblem' (it means 'no problem'). i couldn't say the same thing about gambian people. when you refuse them, they continue to push you until you give up or until you are going to be rude. no financial interest? phew, be careful with that. it's not so straight into your face, but they love money too. see also above for the thing about preserving face. correct is. because there is no preserving face thing in gambia. you will get harassed more.

4) maybe a gambian gfe is better than a thai gfe, i have no idea about that. (i don't dare to get a gambian girl friend). but a gambian friend means extra expenses during your holiday, while you can get a thai friend without spending even a single baht.

well, to their either credit, thai or gambian and depending who you meet and how hard-nosed or cynical you might have grown with age but they c_a_n steel your heart.

5) thailand is known as 'land of smiles', and thailand deserves this name 117 percent. you can see people smiling to you almost everywhere in thailand. gambia is known as 'smiling coast', but i have very big difficulties to recognise 'smiling coast' because of gambian peoples big efforts of squizing more money out of me. remember, it is the thai culture. if you make the effort to peel away the smiling surface which as a tourist is impossible, you'll see more. keep in mind that smiling in thailand (and elsewhere in that part of the world) could mean many things. they also smile when they are emberassed or when they are sad even. only the (ignorant) tourist interprets every smile in thailand as an indication of friendliness or 'no problem'. this concept of always smiling is not a part of african culture (btw also not of european culture if you haven't noticed), thus, they don't always smile.

6) restaurants are much more cheaper in thailand, compared to gambia. you can get at least 2 times more food and drinks in thailand than in gambia. (and of course the service is on top level in thailand. the service in gambia is failed).

cheaper also depends on exchange rate. true is, and that's typical for africa in general, you don't get much for your money, i. e. food quality is poor even though you pay quite a lot. well, and thai food is just gorgeous.

7) thai people are very honest. i visited thailand 3 times, and i had more than 30 thai girls to my room. i had never ever conclude, the thai girl stole any money from my wallet, from my pocket, etc. (i made some traps to the girls to measure their honesty). unfortunately i concluded gambian girls steal. i would underline, that to steal is very very bad both in buddhism and in islam.

i got nothing stolen in gmbia. funny thing is the only times i got my wallet picket pocketed was in berlin and paris. but never in what we label as third world. go figure.

just be alert at all times no matter where.

8) thai girls have very beautiful hair. some of them have long hair to belly and it's very feminine i think. gambian girls have only artificial hair.

well, african girls have afro-hair, i. e. frizzy. not much they can do about that. except put extension (plaits) into them or straighten them which costs too much for those you meet, i. e. you won't meet the girls of the upper class.

9) thai people know that money from tourism is very important. they tread turists as if the turist is a king/queen/prince/princess. i wouldn't say the same thing about gambian people. no matter how they admire your skin colour and your financial power, you are only a 'white pig'. and they can also show this opinion if they can't reach to squize some money out of you.

i am not so sure about the admiration. they associate white skin with wealth (and power due to the colonial history) and by their standards even the poorest western tourist is wealthy. thailand by contrast was never conquered nor was it ever a western colony (it was much larger and the heart of the khmer kingdom centuries ago.) true is that african countries need to wrap their heads around the concepts of tourism and services. the tourist infrastructure in thailand is, as we all know, much better.

well, i am going to finish this comparision right now. i could possible continiue some other time.

don't compare. accept every country as it is. thanks god not everywhere you go is the same. what would be the point of travelling then?

best regards,

kw.

tomwannabe

editor's note: i certainly hope that the author or somebody else will post a link to this report in the reports of distinction thread. please click here for more information.

[Caesar46]

Nice pictures in Tanji!

[Fourniceight]

Had no problems changing money in banks (1 euro = 30 dalasi). Did have a problem getting rid of the bumsters and two girls tried to steal money from me. If you are a first timer to Africa, i personally think the Gambia can give you some nasty surprises. All in all you can get a good time there, of course, but for me there are far better places in Africa.

When I was there in June there were 36/37 to the euro. 20% difference.

[Johan Waans]

Had no problems changing money in banks (1 euro = 30 dalasi). Did have a problem getting rid of the bumsters and two girls tried to steal money from me...If you are a first timer to Africa, i personally think the Gambia can give you some nasty surprises....All in all you can get a good time there, of course...but for me there are far better places in Africa....

[Fourniceight]

If anyone has been to The Gambia recently I would like to know what experiences they had regarding changing money to dalasis. I am resident in The Gambia although have been in Thailand for three months, and I have heard that the Gambian currency has been increasing dramatically against western currencies. I also heard that the banks sometimes are unwilling to change pounds, euros or dollars into dalasis. I am wondering what is going on. Please pot experiences.

[Caesar46]

You can make beautifull pictures on the Tanji Beach.

[Caesar46]

Visited last month Tanji Village, beautifull pictures you can make on the beach.

[Kim Wheather]

Hi guys,

I will be in Gambia in October and I think its not allowed to take girls into my hotel (Senegambia Beach Hotel). Where can I go with a girl for 2/3 hours? Any short term hotels available in the Gambia? How much will it cost? I think its to dangerous to go to the women's places.

Thanx!

Actually it is allowed to take girl(s) into your hotel room but you have to pay a lot of money to the hotel. I know nothing about short term hotels in Banjul. But if you want to rent a room close to Serrekunda, you could consider Sportsman (you can find phone number and more information in previous posts).

[Weilheimer]

Hi guys,

I will be in Gambia in October and I think its not allowed to take girls into my hotel (Senegambia Beach Hotel). Where can I go with a girl for 2/3 hours? Any short term hotels available in the Gambia? How much will it cost? I think its to dangerous to go to the women's places.

Thanx!

[Barry Fc]

Visiting The Gambia shortly to work for a few months, i was there a couple of years ago, any new "venues" or tips that you regulars can pass onto me, would be much appreciated guys.

Will post regular reports and hopefully pics.