Border Crossing on a Bicycle - SCARY & DANGEROUS!

Hello, Darren Alf here from BicycleTurnPro.com. I'm out in the middle of the wilderness right now, in the middle of a bicycle tour. It's about 8.30, 8.45 at night. It's about to get dark. It's getting pretty cold. I've got my jacket on. And before it gets dark, I thought it would be fun to shoot a little video where I tell some stories about crossing international borders on a bicycle. Because a lot of people are used to crossing the border in a car or maybe on a plane or train or something like that. But crossing an international border on a bicycle is a whole different story. So today I've got three stories about crossing the border in different countries all around the world. So my first story comes from the border of Ecuador and Colombia. Now there are two ways that you can cross the border from Ecuador into Colombia. There's the Pan-American Highway, which is the main road, it's like a freeway that most of the cars take when they're going from one country to the next. The other way is this back road that goes through the Amazon rainforest and it's like a two-lane road, not very highly traveled. And Lonely Planet, which is like the books that, you know, give you tour guide information, they say not to go the back way basically because this back way is known for like sex rings and drug smuggling and prostitution and all kinds of crazy things. So they always recommend that you go the Pan-American Highway. But that being said, I was in Ecuador and Colombia just a few years ago. I was in Ecuador and cycling towards Colombia and I was on this back road in the Amazon rainforest and so I was going the way that they did not recommend. And because of this, I was on guard, you know, as you are whenever you cross into a new country. This particular border crossing was like a bridge. There is a bridge actually that goes from Ecuador into Colombia. So you cycle across this bridge and then boom, once you hit the other side, you're in Colombia. My first couple miles in Colombia were pretty good. Like no one was bothering me. I felt pretty safe. The roads were pretty good. You're definitely in the Amazon rainforest. It feels like you're in the jungle and the road is pretty windy. It's a small little road, not a lot of traffic and you're going around these turns. And after about an hour in the country, maybe even less, I go around this sharp right-hand turn and I come around the corner and there in the middle of the road are about 10-12 people holding a rope across the road. One side is tied to a tree and the other side people are just holding in their arms. And they've got this rope stretched across the road and they bring me to a stop and they're locals and they're basically asking that I give them money in order to continue down the road. And they're not just asking me, but they're asking anybody that comes along the way for money. And so I pull up right into the middle of this group, you know, they're an arm's length away from me. And they're flashing their hands like this saying, dinero, dinero, you know, for me to go on the road. And I have actually run into this scenario, not at border crossings before, but just in other parts of the world, in Africa and stuff like that, where people are doing the exact same thing. I never really know what to do in that particular scenario, especially when you're outnumbered, you know, there's 10 of them and one of me. You can't turn around because this is the only road to travel on, you know, I'd have to go back to Ecuador. So you have to face these people and you have to get through them. And so my strategy in this particular instance was simply to play dumb. I just pretended like I could not understand these people and I could not understand what they were asking of me. So one of the things is I've learned a little bit of Polish over the years and we're in South America where they speak Spanish. So I didn't want to speak Spanish and I didn't want to speak English because a lot of people know English. So I ended up speaking Polish to these people. And I was saying like, Szatraszam, nie rozumiem, nie mówię po angielsku. You know, I was just saying random things in Polish. And they were like, what language is this guy speaking? You know, because they're like, what is this? And I just kind of played dumb like they're saying, you know, give me money. And I'm like, what money? What money? You know, or whatever. Well, eventually, like another car or two cars came to this roadblock. And so they just got bored with me, this poor guy on a bicycle, and they went up to the cars and were demanding money from them. And once they had lost interest in me, I just continued on the road without having given them a single cent. So that's my first story about crossing the border in a foreign country. My second story comes from the border of South Africa and Swaziland. This was back in 2013 or something like that. I can't even remember when. But I had spent three months cycling across South Africa. And then towards the end of my trip, I biked across the tiny little country of Swaziland, which is over on the eastern side of South Africa. Once I got to the border, there were about three guys there, like border patrol agents. I don't know if they were all border patrol agents. Maybe some were police, some were border patrol agents. I'm not exactly sure. The agent that was doing the talking, most of the talking to me, I give him my passport. And he looks at it and he basically comes out of his little booth and he says, do you have any electronics on your bicycle? And at the time I was carrying a laptop computer. I didn't have a phone with me because in 2013, I wasn't carrying a phone. But I did have an iPod touch. I had a big DSLR camera, you know, a big professional camera with two different lenses and the laptop computer and an external hard drive with all of my photos and videos from my travels for three months. So this guy says, do you have any electronics on you? And this is a question that I've never received at any other border crossing anywhere in the world. So my immediate response was just to say, no, I don't. And he says, are you sure you don't have a camera or anything? And I said, no, no, no camera, you know, even though I totally do. And I had my handlebar bag, you know, here with the camera and my iPod touch in that bag. So if he just opened that up, boom, he would see it. You know, my laptop was hidden away more. It was inside of a backpack, inside of a carrying case, inside of one of my panniers covered with clothes. So it'd be harder to find that. But I just tell the guy, no, I don't have any electronics and I'm totally lying. He kind of questions me a little bit and he says, no computer, no camera, no phone. And I said, no, I'm just navigating with paper maps, you know. And he's like, what's in all these bags then? And I say, oh, just my clothes and camping gear and toiletries and stuff like that. And he doesn't look, thank goodness. I was afraid he was going to look because like I said, if he looked, he would find that I was lying. So he like stamps my passport and then he says, I need you to go in the next town and register with the police and tell them where you're staying tonight. And this is also something that I have never been told anywhere in the world, although I have heard of other travelers being told that they have to register with the police in a certain period of time. I think it is common like in Belarus or something, you have to do this as well. So there are countries where I think that's legitimate, but here in Swaziland, I wasn't prepared to do that sort of thing. And I just, I felt weird about it because this guy's asking if I have valuables on my bike and then he wants to know where I'm staying. And it's just, you know, from a security standpoint, when you're traveling alone, you don't want to tell people how much money you've got on you, how many valuables you're carrying, where you're staying, where you're going, that sort of a thing. So even though this guy is technically a police or border patrol agent or something, I don't want him or anybody else knowing, you know, where I'm going or what I'm doing. So I say, okay, yeah, I'll register with the police at the next town. Got it. Okay, sure, buddy. And I bike up the road and I'm watching my back the whole day after that because I'm just wondering what is this, you know, and I'm trying to figure Swaziland out because it's different than South Africa, even though it's so close. That night I end up just camping in the bushes like you would see around here, you know, and I can hear people just walking through the bushes nearby and stuff, villagers, like, you know, I'm out in the bush. So I end up biking all the way across Swaziland without registering with the police or anything. And that's a whole story in and of itself. I could talk for 20 minutes just about Swaziland, but I get to the other side of Swaziland when it's time to cross the border out of Swaziland and cross back into South Africa. And I'm worried because this guy has said, like, you need to get paperwork or register with the police when you come into the country. So I'm thinking, oh no, if that was true, this border patrol agent on the other side of the country is going to say, where's your paperwork? Why didn't you register when you first got in or something like that? That's what I was worried about. So I pull up to this border patrol agent on my bike. There's nobody else at the border crossing because why would there be in such a remote place? And the border patrol agent looks at my passport, stamps it, and I'm through. And he didn't say a freaking word about the police or electronics or anything. So I'm sure that first guy was like fishing for something. And I'm just thankful that I didn't give him anything to work with. And finally, before it gets dark here in the wilderness of Utah, my third and final story comes from the country of Ukraine. I was cycling from Poland into Ukraine during the Crimean War that took place in Ukraine. So this is kind of a sketchy time to be going to Ukraine. Ukraine can be kind of sketchy anytime, but this particular time with the Crimean War going on at the time with Russia and everything being involved, I was very unsure as to whether I should be going to Ukraine at all. So I'm crossing from southern Poland into Ukraine and I get to the border and I'm on my bike, obviously, and I pull up to the border. And there are two guys with big old AK-47s or something like that. And they come up to me on my bike and they say, you can't come through this border on your bicycle. And again, I've crossed international borders dozens and dozens of times all around the world. So I'm like, no, I'm pretty sure I can cross the border. And they say, no, you can't cross. We have a rule now. This is a new rule, apparently, which started around the time of the Crimean War starting. And they said, we basically are not allowing anyone to cross the border on foot or on bicycles. And I'm like, well, why not? So I can be in a car, but I can't be on foot or on a bicycle? That doesn't make any sense. And this guy spoke some English and he said, yeah, I'm sorry, but this is basically the rule. You cannot come across. So he says, you can try to stand here at the border and see if anyone will take you across in a car or a bus or a truck if you want to. He says, wait here and you can ask the drivers as they come through if they will take you in their car. So I stand there at the border for two hours waiting for cars to come. And like I said, this is a remote border crossing, so it wasn't like there were hundreds of cars there. A car would come and they'd be totally packed. It was just like a little sedan full of people and stuff. And I'm like, there's no way these people are going to be able to put me and my bicycle in their car to go across the border. And that just would happen for, you know, hours were passing, two hours, three hours. I'm standing there at the border and waiting for somebody to give me a ride. And sometimes there were like trucks with flatbeds and I'm thinking, oh, they're going to give me a ride. But the people just were not willing to take a complete stranger that they didn't know across the border. So after a while, I'm thinking, I am never going to get across this border. I go up to the border patrol agent again. I say, can you just let me across? The border is literally like 50 yards away. Why can't I just ride my bike over there? And they wouldn't let me do it. So finally, this guy in a sedan pulls up and it turns out he was a border. He was an off-duty border patrol agent. So the border patrol guy that was refusing me entry into Ukraine comes over to this guy in the car and says, hey, will you take this bicyclist across the border in your car? And the guy in the car, the off-duty border patrol agent says, basically, I don't want to, but OK, I'll do it. And he was like very grumpy and kind of upset about the whole thing. I don't care. I'll ride with grumpy for 50 feet down the road if I have to. So I load my bicycle into the back of his car in the back seat, you know, trying not to ruin his car, throw all my stuff in there. And I jump in the passenger seat and I'm trying to thank this guy. He barely speaks English. I forget his name. And I just say, thank you so much. You know, I've been standing there for three hours trying to get across the border. We literally drive like 100 feet. They stamp our passports in the car. Luckily, they didn't ask, like, how do you guys know each other? Because we didn't. And then on the other side of the border, once I'm officially in Ukraine, this guy just drops me off down the road. He drives me a couple of miles, actually, past the border, drops me off in a supermarket. He throws all of my stuff out on the street, basically, really quickly, and then just hauls his ass out of there and leaves me just completely abandoned. And my bike splits in half. And so I had split my bike in half in order to fit it in the back of his car and stuff. I'm like, welcome to Ukraine. You know what I mean? It was just like the worst possible welcome because, I don't know, I was just like, what am I in for? And then I biked across Ukraine up and over this mountain during the Crimean War. And I had encounters with soldiers and stuff. That's a whole other story. But the border crossing itself was certainly an experience. Anyways, it is about to get super, super dark. It is about 9 o'clock at night right now. I hope you enjoyed this video about my international border crossings on my bicycle. If you have any stories about your own international bicycle touring border crossings, leave a comment down below and tell me your story. I'd love to hear it. If you liked this video, please hit the like button. I'd really appreciate it. If you want to see more of my videos in the future, make sure you subscribe to my channel. And if you want to learn how to conduct your own bicycle touring adventures, make sure you visit my website at BicycleTouringPro.com and pick up a copy of my book, The Bicycle Touring Blueprint. It's available on my website at BicycleTouringPro.com forward slash book or at BikeTourBook.com. Once again, I am Darren Alf from BicycleTouringPro.com. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope to see you out on the road sometime soon. Bye bye.