We'd a few guys in work who were 'first time users' of having to go to, I think, was Cameroon, last year.
They were excited about the travel etc until they realised what it would entail just prior to going.
Added to that when they got there and the curfews, scheduled transport etc i asked one how was it and got the reply 'never again'
And these days they got probably Malarone as prevention drug instead of Lariam, which was much nastier. That goes on top of yellow fever shots, hepatitis etc. Quite a list.
I remember once going to Abidjan, Ivory Coast in a near-empty plane and the driver picking me up in a BMW5 company car, the worst you can do there. He proudly showed me scars on the side of his nose and behind his ear, telling me he got shot 6 months earlier and those were the entry and exit points of the bullet. He barely survived after they airlifted him to France for surgery. The company was French, Carnaud Metalbox (today Crown Cork&Seal).
While driving, he told me that they changed hotels at the last minute as only the Intercontinental was now allowed for foreigners. At that moment, I thought, here we go, I am going to get kidnapped now although I had received an email with the driver's picture and the car. Still, who knows, he might have changed or being forced by a gang or the like. But no, he indeed took me to the hotel and then I saw the reason why I had to stay there. Blue helmets with huge machine guns behind stacks of sand sacks posted at the entrance.
At night, you would have shootings in the street and on the first night, I immediately floored it only to realize that being on the 20th floor far above any other building meant that being flat on the floor wasn't really necessary or helpful.
Quite a trip, curfew at 6pm that nobody seem to bother about, looting kids gangs with sniffing bags and Kalashnikovs and my driver all the time: "Do not worry, you will be just fine!"
That was until we got stopped by a few kids once and I nearly sh**ted my pants. "Du monnaie monsieur" one said showing me the full magazine of the Kalashnikov and then loading it. Luckily, the EURO had just been introduced and it had the value of gold there at the time. After taking some, they let us go. About 20 seconds later I thought I would have a heart attack when the adrenaline shock set in. My heart was pounding like mad.
Foreigners were instructed to leave the country and the flight back was probably the worst I ever had as everyone was sending the family back, so the majority were kids. As we took off just before 6PM we could not land in Paris-CDG as the arrival time was after midnight, so we made a stop in Lome, Togo where everyone was kept on the plane for roughly 4 hours before we continued to Paris. You can imagine how the chaos inside the plane.
Although saying never again, two months later I was sitting again on a plane to Abidjan.
