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Democratic Republic of the Congo - anyone been there?

bimble

bimble

floofy
Not a place people go on holidays much i think but has come up as a potential place i could go next year and am very curious.
Richest country in the world for natural resources & one of the poorest for most humans living there thats about all i know.
Would not be for long & i wouldn't be alone much, work thing.
Anybody been to DRC and any thoughts?
 
Never been, only read about and noticed. Heavy on violence, heavy on censorship. They aren't averse to shutting down the internet. All the photospheres on google maps don't work (the only other places I've seen do that have been heavily authoritarian. China doesn't even do that.)

Was this an alternative to Haiti? I know some good Ecuadorean jails you could visit.
 
bimble said:
Not a place people go on holidays much i think but has come up as a potential place i could go next year and am very curious.

Richest country in the world for natural resources & one of the poorest for most humans living there thats about all i know.

Would not be for long & i wouldn't be alone much, work thing.

Anybody been to DRC and any thoughts?
Click to expand...
You know about the war of course
 
bimble said:
Not a place people go on holidays much i think but has come up as a potential place i could go next year and am very curious.
Richest country in the world for natural resources & one of the poorest for most humans living there thats about all i know.
Would not be for long & i wouldn't be alone much, work thing.
Anybody been to DRC and any thoughts?
Click to expand...

No, but friend of mine worked there for MSF for a while, they used to send me their reports/personal thoughts. Pretty much as you might imagine; beautiful, amazing, and very fucked up.
 
bimble said:
The name itself sometimes sort of tells on the turmoil of the recent history of a place doesnt it. Unlike "the united kingdon" which is defo a legit description.
Click to expand...

Well, it's a kingdom, as we've got a king. It's also a country, because we've got a...oh, never mind.

'United' may be a typo for 'untied'.
 
LDC said:
No, but friend of mine worked there for MSF for a while, they used to send me their reports/personal thoughts. Pretty much as you might imagine; beautiful, amazing, and very fucked up.
Click to expand...

Some of the waterfalls and landscapes are amazing but if you go googling for this on images and just type in 'DRC' - pages of grimness.
 
yep planetgeli google's image search of a country's name is very telling of something, isnt it. Not of the place itself . Some places all you get is maps, sometimes pictures of men with automatic weapons etc.
 
A short google on the most recent violence has just mangled my brain. Too much to take in, will find out more and do have to check if i'm being disaster porny in my curiosity.
 
bimble said:
A short google on the most recent violence has just mangled my brain. Too much to take in, will find out more and do have to check if i'm being disaster porny in my curiosity.
Click to expand...

I'm presuming you saw the 131 civilians killed in the east by M23 in November.

www.aljazeera.com

M23 rebels killed at least 131 civilians in eastern DRC, UN says

Victims ‘arbitrarily executed’ during a massacre in villages in North Kivu in late November, investigation has found.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com

Personally I'd like you to keep posting here bimble. Alive.
 
Pickman's model said:
bellaozzydog you been?
Click to expand...
No but spent plenty of time over the borders to the north in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Chad at one time or another

If bare assed absolute poverty and corruption is your thing you’ll probably enjoy it. Most normal minded people probably less so

Would be an eye opener/life experience for a more rugged/sturdy tourist
 
I have a weird job that means if I go I’d be with an ngo that does good stuff, which is a brilliant way in to some difficult places (you meet great people and learn something about why things are the way they are). Eg I learned the word kleptocracy from a man in Malawi. But that whilst very very poor is a safe place, and not comparable. I’d probably keep the wandering about on my own to a minimum but would very much love to see gorillas real ones not in a zoo. Anyway it’s not a plan it’s just thinking for now.
 
Last edited:
bimble said:
I have a weird job that means if I go I’d be with an ngo that does good stuff, which is a brilliant way in to some difficult places (you meet great people and learn something about why things are the way they are). Eg I learned the word kleptocracy from a man in Malawi. But that whilst very very poor is a safe place, and not comparable. I’d probably keep the wandering about on my own to a minimum but would very much love to see gorillas real ones not in a zoo. Anyway it’s not a plan it’s just thinking for now.
Click to expand...
Yesterday I was witness to a very loud American Christian missionary woman demanding to know where to buy a Santa hat in the small shop below my office in Tanzania :D
 
bellaozzydog said:
No but spent plenty of time over the borders to the north in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Chad at one time or another

If bare assed absolute poverty and corruption is your thing you’ll probably enjoy it. Most normal minded people probably less so

Would be an eye opener/life experience for a more rugged/sturdy tourist
Click to expand...
surely you've rather over simplified such a huge country? Parts of the countryside look incredible
 
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