Regular contributor and adventurer extraordinaire Jon Bowermaster just started an interesting series on passage through the Gulf of Aden over at his personal blog. The body of water connecting the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean has seen a disturbing increase in pirate traffic this year, the most notable of which involved an American crew that retook their ship and killed three Somalians in the process.
To date, much of an outsider’s knowledge of that dangerous passage is limited to the factual data supplied by news outlets. Maps, news stories, facts and figures. Few have written about the experience first hand, which is what Dennis Cornejo over at jonbowermaster.com has started to do.
Late last week, Cornejo and his ship left from Tanzania headed north, complete with razor wire, water cannons, a six member special forces team and no lack of anxiety for the week long trip. Over the course of the next few days he’ll be checking back in with Jon and the rest of the world to update his progress. Take a look at the entire series over at Jon’s blog, or check out Bowermaster’s Adventures right here at Gadling.
First of all, I want to know who gave them the pirates in Somalia. Well, turns out the article is from a Somali perspective, and that “Karma” is the reason they feel they are “biting a perpetrator in the butt.”
Everyone knows that piracy in Somalia is serious business. And like most serious businesses, it’s complicated. Consider our Aaron Hotfelder’s article “Somali pirate talks: ‘We consider ourselves heroes running away from poverty,’” in which pirate Asad Abdulahi told his story, saying “we will not stop until we have a central government that can control our sea.”
AlterNet goes even further. In the words of K’naan, AlterNet’s Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, and musician:
“It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.”
Read more here before you judge. Thanks, Michael S., for the tip.
Mogadishu is the adventure traveler’s version of sex in public. The risk of getting caught defines the thrill. Unfortunately, the consequences cannot be compared. While a romp on your neighbor’s front lawn might get you a fine or some community service, a misstep in Somalia can cause nightmares for the rest of your life.
So, quiet simply, don’t go. If you don’t believe the United States, then listen to Canada. Listen to anybody who speaks sensibly on this. Don’t go to Somalia.
For every American who remembers October 3 and 4, 1993, Mogadishu’s Bakara Market brings a rare chill to the most resilient of spines. Visions of swarming Somalis rush into your mind, and nobody has forgotten the soldiers killed and wounded in the effort to capture warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. The situation on the ground isn’t much better today, but if you crave increasingly greater thrills, this is about as crazy as it gets. Despite being one of the most dangerous places on Earth, you can explore Mogadishu without a military or United Nations escort. But, doing so would rank among your most foolish decisions.
The challenge begins when you are planning your trip. Online booking, you’ll realize, is a luxury still. There are some corners of the world that have been sidestepped by the internet age. In some cases, you won’t even be able to rely on the telephone. The hotels in Somalia do not take phone or online reservations, so your best bet is to find a travel agent that specializes in this sort of absurdity.
Work with the travel agent to book your flight, as well. The most reliable method appears to be chartering a flight that will drop you on a private airstrip outside the city. There is an airline that services Mogadishu via Dubai: Jubba Airways. So, if you insist on doing everything yourself, you do have options. The airline claims to have a strong safety record, but it obviously can’t help you once you’re on the ground. These days, a round trip ticket will set you back around $500. You can try to use FareCompare, but you already know that your comparing one airline to itself.
Of course, there’s a catch.
So, here’s the drill. You have to stay in Somalia for a week if you fly Jubba Airways. I tried to book a same day round trip, but had no luck (no, I wasn’t planning to buy the damned thing). Flights only pass through Mogadishu once a week, so you have to be really committed to this trip.
Flights are easier to book than accommodations. You can research hotels, but only a few are listed. So, you’ll have to take what you can get. As you make your selection, don’t sacrifice safety. There is no substitute for coming home alive. Tk appears to b the best alternative, but you will notice that security is not listed among the amenities. Also, there is another hotel with the same name – one that is considerably less desirable. Take notes, and make sure you study every detail. There are pitfalls everywhere, and some are avoidable.
There isn’t much to see and do (safely) when you cruise around Mogadishu. The main attraction is the Bakara Market, a large outdoor bazaar. You can haggle with the merchants and take full advantage of the decimated local economy. This is one place where the exchange rate will always cut your way. Also, you’ll be treading the same turf that was home to the famous operation immortalized in Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down. It all started at the Bakara Market.
For a unique type of shopper, the Bakara Market is nothing short of amazing. You can find deals on the basic goods that you’d normally pick up at a supermarket or drugstore, from basic medicines to food. Also, you’ll find the products that CVS just doesn’t want to carry. If you need to buy a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), mortar or antiaircraft gun, look no farther! And, since no toy is worth a damn without batteries, there’s plenty of ammunition for sale in the Bakara Market. If you hear gunfire, someone’s probably just kicking the tires on a new AK-47. Think of it as giving Elmo one last tickle before whipping out your credit card.
It’s not all guns ‘n ammo, however. You can pick up a forged passport (for Somalia, Ethiopia or Kenya), fake birth certificates and diplomas (convince your mother you didn’t drink your tuition cash) and counterfeit currency.
Bakara Market can be crowded, and it is in a dangerous part of the world. So, you need to say alert the whole time you’re on the ground. The entire spectrum of risks – from pick-pocketing to kidnapping – is possible. Your odds improve if you don’t do anything stupid, though you violate that tenet simply by taking the trip.
Want to see what happens in the Bakara Market? Take a look below, unless you aren’t comfortable with graphic. If you can’t handle this video, though, you certainly don’t belong in Somalia.
No doubt you’ve already heard about all the trouble on the high seas off Somalia’s coast. Armed-to-the-teeth pirates have been boarding ships and demanding hefty ransoms from their owners, which are often paid in full for the ship’s return.
The Guardian recently allowed one Somali pirate named Asad Abdulahi to tell his story, and the results were quite interesting. He says that he began hijacking fishing boats in 1998, and that the first ship he and his buddies captured netted them $300,000. (Count me in!)
But unsurprisingly, the gig is not without its danger. Says Adbulahi: “Sometimes when we are going to hijack a ship we face rough winds, and some of us get sick and some die.” (Count me out!)
He also offers a couple tips for all you would-be pirates out there, saying, “We give priority to ships from Europe because we get bigger ransoms. To get their attention we shoot near the ship. If it does not stop we use a rope ladder to get on board… After checking the cargo we ask the captain to phone the owner and say that [we] have seized the ship and will keep it until the ransom is paid.”
So how are some pirates justifying this practice? By calling themselves “heroes running away from poverty.” Adbulahi also says he likes to think of the piracy not as a criminal act but as a sort of road tax. “We will not stop until we have a central government that can control our sea,” he says.
Whole thing here. More from Gadling on pirates here.
The BBC recently ran a feature about the pirates who have been terrorizing ships off Somalia’s coastline. These pirates make their money by capturing ships of all sorts, from cruise ships to freighters, and demanding a ransom. Are these guys modern day eye-patch-wearing rum-lovers? According to BBC reporter Robyn Hunter, they are ambitious young men who have found a niche and are exploiting it to ensure that they live the good life in a troubled country where half of the population relies on foreign food aid to survive.
A resident of Puntland, the semi-autonomous coastal area from which the pirates operate, gave Hunter the lowdown on the attraction of the pirate life:
“They have money; they have power and they are getting stronger by the day…They wed the most beautiful girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns…Piracy in many ways is socially acceptable. They have become fashionable.”
But the heyday for these cowboys of the Gulf of Aden may be coming to an end. Shipping companies are planning on hiring security contractors to guard ships passing through the area. That will significantly lessen the chance of pirates being able to take a ship and its crew hostage without a fight. It is doubtful though, that the presence of a few armed contractors will lessen the lure of the easy money of the pirate life.