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Playing dumb works extremely well to get out of extortion attempts too. I've driven through a stack of countries notorious for extortion by Police and Military
by grecy 6y ago
Playing dumb works extremely well to get out of extortion attempts too.
I've driven through a stack of countries notorious for extortion by Police and Military - Congo, Nigeria, Honduras, Kenya, Guinea - just to name a few.
One of my tactics to avoid paying a cent is playing dumb. It's super easy when they don't speak English. I do my best to understand their (French/Spanish/Portuguese/Whatever), all the while remaining very polite and friendly. It's a real shame when I don't understand they want money, and virtually always they wave me through in disgust.
On a two year drive from Alaska to Argentina I paid one $5 bribe.
In three years around Africa through 35 countries I paid once in Ivory Coast, because I was too big for my boots and let on that I speak French.
Playing dumb has a lot of advantages.
For anyone interested, here's me dealing with a real-life extortion attempt in Nigeria [1]. This was in Nigeria, so it's all in English, but the script is identical in any corrupt country.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RTlDa2cg0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RTlDa2cg0o
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoThanks for sharing your video. You kept your cool.
- siegfried-en 6y agoThat was an incredible fun ride! Thanks for sharing
- iamwil 6y agoThanks for sharing. Watched and enjoyed. How did you learn how to do that? Trial and error? Or you rode with someone else?
- grecy 6y agoPurely trial and error. The day I drove into Mexico I had no idea, and I just made it up as I went along. 55 countries later through Latin America and Africa, and I've become fairly good at it :) I made a couple of videos lately to teach other people how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOljPXY0Smg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOljPXY0Smg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdQPz0I-Mgc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdQPz0I-Mgc
- reidjs 6y agoI vaguely remember a post from you on reddit or HN or somewhere a long time ago when you were first getting ready for this trip and the responses were like "You're going to get robbed/break down in the middle of nowhere/You won't find jeep parts in Africa/Why not drive a land cruiser/you will die in the Sahara." Glad to see you proved the naysayers wrong.
- grecy 6y agoThanks! Yeah, those comments were intense. So much hate and anger from so many people who've clearly never been even remotely close to Africa. In fact, I met some of the friendliest and most welcoming people I ever have all throughout Africa!
- shaftoe 6y agoExpired tires!! This is hilarious!