Hello Everybody,
I am coming Mozambique early January arriving at Pemba and going to Montepuez by taking a taxi, I have heard while going to Montepuez some police will stop and take bribe like 100 US$ for person
should we pay any chargers except visa charge to any body?? Is it safe to argue with police when they take bribe?
Mozambique is definitely not the best destination for a first trip to Africa at all. You will have a rough way to Africa. You will have to learn a lot.
To have to bribe police or military police is common in most countries worldwide. You will get to know about it and realize it when you will do more travelling worldwide.
Put a USD 10,-- note into your passport when you get controlled by police or military police. The USD 10,-- note will go or will not go.
Then it's up to them. And nobody can ever accuse you of trying to bribe them.
Enjoy and happy travelling. And good luck. You will need it.
I don't envy you for going to Mozambique.
Countries like Morocco, Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia are much better.
Live long and prosper.
I have driven between Pemba and Montepuez - there is a good new tar road. I very much doubt that you will have any problems with Police, it's nothing like the poster above says
yeah dont worry about it. Mozambique was my first country in africa (apart from briefly morocco) and i loved it.
on the off chance you do have police stop you, try not to let them get hold of your passport, if they do they will probably come out with some bull about an incorrect visa. all they want is 100mets or so to get it back. just make sure you dont have much money in your wallet (best to have say 110mets) and you can give them that and they will give it back to you. keep your cool and act like you know the drill. but yeah it is quite unlikely to happen anyway.
and enjoy mozambique!
Don't worry about the bribes...I spent a month or so in Moz and it's easygoing. If you do get asked it's fine to discuss it with the police. Don't get angry and argue, stay friendly, smile and discuss. A few words of Portugese will help, but don't worry about and enjoy your trip.
Agree with posting 2, the number 1 is obviously ill experienced about Mozambique.
"To have to bribe police or military police is common in most countries worldwide. You will get to know about it and realize it when you will do more travelling worldwide". ...to have to bribe police or military police is common in most countries worldwide - where have you traveled, where do you come from, did you travel to Egypt, we did and there were military checkpoints every 20 km and we never paid a dime........
We drove all over Mozambiqe and the police was nothing but kind and polite to us, most of the time they would just wave us through because we were whites. If you are motoring on your own please obey the speed limits and don't do anything 'stupid' to have them pull you over. Mozambique is an amazingly beautiful and diverse country, enjoy it!
Gents and Mrs. Trellis, I was intrigued to see you discussing the habits of some corrupt policeman :) Every time something like that happens to me, I feel like my holiday mood goes down the drain.
So in connection with this, I started using a clever app developed by guys I met at the tech conference a while back - an application for reporting and tracking bribes. I am sure that many a traveler would find it useful to relieve the anger or just share their experiences for the benefit of other travelling down the same route.
Here is the link to the app, it is called Bribespot https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bribespot.android.v2