Hi all,

After reading a lot of post where it is commonly mentioned that someone had to bribe someone to do something, I wanted to say my thoughts about this...

I (we) have travelled quite a bit and NEVER EVER bribed anyone to get something done.

Please, before continuing reading, I don't want to start a war, I don't want this thread to become an issue, to have impolite or accusative posts etc. I want to stress something that makes me sad when I get confronted to this issue (by reading about it) and I just hope that I am not the only one here.

Honestly, I get angry and disappointed when I read that people (especially motorcyclist!!!) offered money to the police, customs officer or whoever was in an official capacity to get something done or not done.

Get some selfrespect and try to get out of it without paying if the person is clearly after money. Now I know that some will say "there was no other way" but I'm pretty sure that in 99% of the cases there was but you just didn't know or wanted to see another way.

I won't even tell my tricks to get out of it, but the one I heard from a fellow traveller a few weeks ago that i really really liked; this is the story in short:

He gets pulled over, the policeman want money for whatever reason and shows him the "international sign" for 'give me money' behind the bikers license so the cop's boss can't see it. The biker pretends he doesn't know what the cop wants and after a few awkward minutes he just takes his helmet off, goes to a bench, takes out his cigarettes and lit ones up still pretending not to understand what the cop wants. They both knew exactly what was going on so it was just the game of who would win.
Since you're traveling you have more time than the cop who's shift will end in X hours, so play this out like he did. After another 5 minutes the boss came to see what was going on, asked the cop what the problem was and he said that there wasn't, they were just smoking a cigarette together. He finished his cig, gave one to both cops and they even warned him where the next speedtrap was. Bribe? Two cigarettes and the information on how not to get fined 30k's further down the road... good deal I would think.

What I want to explain with this, is that if he would have given the money, he would have get fined again later on and the next in line coming that way (maybe you?) would also have to pay, and so on.

Now I am not foolish enough to know that we won't solve all the bribing problems around the world, but it would make me a lot happier if at least I could read reports of people like him getting out of it more times than reading questions about where you'll need to pay a bribe etc. As stated, up to this day I have never ever paid a bribe and I don't think I will ever. It would just be better if people tried harder not to pay instead of expecting to pay and just argue about the amount. I think that a big part is in your attitude how to resolve the 'problem' with the bribing agent, they'll just try as you're a rich foreigner in their eyes.

I can give a lot of examples where I (we) got pulled over etc but I think the best way was to use someone else's story (not to be selfish...) to illustrate that it can be done, if you just want to try it instead of immediately taking your cash out to solve the "problem". Show some balls, if you are SURE that you didn't do anything wrong of course...

(ps; I'm now traveling again and won't have internet for a few days probably, but be sure I will look at this once I can again!)

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