Hi Paul!

We were interested in your recent posting. Sounded very familiar.

1. Taxi's - We presume you mean the yellow town taxi's. Definately haggle over the price at the end of the day the taxi driver will not take you at a lose to himself! We normaly end up paying 50% of the original asking price. If it all goes pear shape and the driver refuses just go to the next taxi.... they will not want you to walk away and will take you at the price you offered! When we where doing regular routes eg., from the hotel to a GTS support restaurant we knew what was an acceptable price (local) and simply said this is what we are prepared to pay. You can get a good idea of prices by looking at the prices on the boards of the green taxi's outside the hotels and know that you can get the yellow taxi's much cheaper.



2. Tipping - This largley depends on whether the person you are tippping just "tagged" along as many of them do! or whether you aproach someone for information. If they do just "tag" along then then enough for a local meal and drink is definatley sufficient. We where eating Domada for 7D plus a drink in the local shop is 4D OK?

If you have approached someone for information then Francis may correct me on this but GTS charge about £1 an hour.

3. Children - We alway's carry a bag of sweets and a few pens.

OVER TIPPING TO THE CHILDREN IS A DRASTIC MISTAKE AS IT ENCOURAGES THEM TO GO OUT ON THE STREETS INSTEAD OF ATTENDING SCHOOL.

4. Restaurants - Usualy a tip of around 10% And when buying drinks in a bar we usualy leave the loose change.





The only time that we have come across the elderly generation is when we have been visiting families. Seems to be the perogative of the young to go out and try to get some money in! It would be interesting to find out more on this subject.



Hope this helps!

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Replying to:

Just come back from Gambia - Had a great time. (see guest book for comments.)



There are a couple of things I would like to have been clearer about before going, and I should be grateful for your comments for next visit!



Firstly, what is a reasonable amount to give as tip and what are the expectations around this. This felt confusing and difficult sometimes. We were only there for a week, and mostly in more remote areas. People were often helpful in showing us the way or telling us about things. Whether we tipped on not was a bit hit or miss, but we did not sense any bad feeling. Being new to the country it is hard to read what the expectations are.



In the more tourist areas - we stayed a couple of nights at Bakau - there seemed to be much more of an expectation for a tip in return for advice or help. I have no problem in giving a tip - after all as Europeans we have a great deal more money than most Gambian - and it seems a fair exchange for a service. We often felt awkward because we did not have small change or did not know how much to give.



For instance, what are your thoughts on this:

1) A man spends 30 minutes showing us all around the fishing harbour, telling us all about the boats, about the fish, about the fishing way of life. How much tip?

2)A man goes five minutes out his way to show us the way to the crocodile pool

3)A child goes half an hour out of his way to give us directions.



Not coming from a culture where tipping is common, I feel a bit awkward around it,not wanting to embarrass people by giving too little or too much. I guess with a little more time I would get used to this.



I did have another question. We got a bit confused around the ettiquette of town taxis. Whereas bargaining on buying goods was fully accepted (encouraged), bargaining on taxi fare (which we did a couple of times) seemed to be met with bad feeling. Is this the wrong ettiquette? Taxi fares seemed to be much more than suggested in Lonely Planet Guide (Published 2001) It could be out of date. Also there seem to be quite a lot of variation. Though we were working to quite a tight budget,at the end of the day taxi fares were hardly expensive and we paid what was asked first time in the end. But it would be useful to know how things work. (Bush taxis were good and the prices explicit)



Oh one other things. Everywhere we went we found large numbers of people, particularly men, in their 20 and 30s. We saw very few men over 50. I have read that the life expectancy in The Gambia is 50. I am guessing that childhood deaths will partly be responsible for bringing that figure down, but the absence of older people did seem noticeable. Is it that there are far fewer older people, or do they tend to be less visible for other reasons?



I should be interested to know more about this



best wishes



Paul

Please do not get the wrong idea that by haggling we are out to rip the locals off. We understand their dilema's and would not dream of not paying a fair price for services rendered in any respect.

But we do usualy know what the local prices are for most thing's and use them as a guide. They alway's end up with more out of us rather than less!

We had some clothes made at the craft market (local) and paid the same prices for them that we would have paid (roughly) in England. We know that we could have got them a lot cheaper but would not have dreamed of taking advantage and where only to glad to pay the price and have some suberb hand made authentic African garments. They where still bargins. But the moral is that everyone was happy and the lady made enough money out of us to keep her family for a week which is what we intended.

It's all a matter of striking the right balance.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

Hi Paul!

We were interested in your recent posting. Sounded very familiar.

1. Taxi's - We presume you mean the yellow town taxi's. Definately haggle over the price at the end of the day the taxi driver will not take you at a lose to himself! We normaly end up paying 50% of the original asking price. If it all goes pear shape and the driver refuses just go to the next taxi.... they will not want you to walk away and will take you at the price you offered! When we where doing regular routes eg., from the hotel to a GTS support restaurant we knew what was an acceptable price (local) and simply said this is what we are prepared to pay. You can get a good idea of prices by looking at the prices on the boards of the green taxi's outside the hotels and know that you can get the yellow taxi's much cheaper.



2. Tipping - This largley depends on whether the person you are tippping just "tagged" along as many of them do! or whether you aproach someone for information. If they do just "tag" along then then enough for a local meal and drink is definatley sufficient. We where eating Domada for 7D plus a drink in the local shop is 4D OK?

If you have approached someone for information then Francis may correct me on this but GTS charge about £1 an hour.

3. Children - We alway's carry a bag of sweets and a few pens.

OVER TIPPING TO THE CHILDREN IS A DRASTIC MISTAKE AS IT ENCOURAGES THEM TO GO OUT ON THE STREETS INSTEAD OF ATTENDING SCHOOL.

4. Restaurants - Usualy a tip of around 10% And when buying drinks in a bar we usualy leave the loose change.





The only time that we have come across the elderly generation is when we have been visiting families. Seems to be the perogative of the young to go out and try to get some money in! It would be interesting to find out more on this subject.



Hope this helps!

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

Just come back from Gambia - Had a great time. (see guest book for comments.)



There are a couple of things I would like to have been clearer about before going, and I should be grateful for your comments for next visit!



Firstly, what is a reasonable amount to give as tip and what are the expectations around this. This felt confusing and difficult sometimes. We were only there for a week, and mostly in more remote areas. People were often helpful in showing us the way or telling us about things. Whether we tipped on not was a bit hit or miss, but we did not sense any bad feeling. Being new to the country it is hard to read what the expectations are.



In the more tourist areas - we stayed a couple of nights at Bakau - there seemed to be much more of an expectation for a tip in return for advice or help. I have no problem in giving a tip - after all as Europeans we have a great deal more money than most Gambian - and it seems a fair exchange for a service. We often felt awkward because we did not have small change or did not know how much to give.



For instance, what are your thoughts on this:

1) A man spends 30 minutes showing us all around the fishing harbour, telling us all about the boats, about the fish, about the fishing way of life. How much tip?

2)A man goes five minutes out his way to show us the way to the crocodile pool

3)A child goes half an hour out of his way to give us directions.



Not coming from a culture where tipping is common, I feel a bit awkward around it,not wanting to embarrass people by giving too little or too much. I guess with a little more time I would get used to this.



I did have another question. We got a bit confused around the ettiquette of town taxis. Whereas bargaining on buying goods was fully accepted (encouraged), bargaining on taxi fare (which we did a couple of times) seemed to be met with bad feeling. Is this the wrong ettiquette? Taxi fares seemed to be much more than suggested in Lonely Planet Guide (Published 2001) It could be out of date. Also there seem to be quite a lot of variation. Though we were working to quite a tight budget,at the end of the day taxi fares were hardly expensive and we paid what was asked first time in the end. But it would be useful to know how things work. (Bush taxis were good and the prices explicit)



Oh one other things. Everywhere we went we found large numbers of people, particularly men, in their 20 and 30s. We saw very few men over 50. I have read that the life expectancy in The Gambia is 50. I am guessing that childhood deaths will partly be responsible for bringing that figure down, but the absence of older people did seem noticeable. Is it that there are far fewer older people, or do they tend to be less visible for other reasons?



I should be interested to know more about this



best wishes



Paul

Hi Paul

First I'm glad you had a good time in Gambia.

Tipping - Many people in Gambia have very low paid jobs and it is not just that the cost of living is so much cheaper.

Most ordinary workers will get about £1.00 a day wages.

Some will get paid travel to work expenses BUT most DON'T

Virtually none get holiday pay

Most are employed for 'the season' about 5 months.

Tipping should be appropriate, based on the time spent and if you asked for the service or it was pushed upon you.

Tourism has the awful affect of encouraging capable young people that the money made from tourists is better than proper work - hence the problem with so many youngsters hanging around the industry.



The local commuter taxis have fixed prices during the day - you can see the GTS Taxi map on our Maps Page. These are the Green and Yellow cars, if not actually on the course of a route, many will make themselves available for private hire. The price is negotiable - check it includes waiting time and is for the all the party not per person. Be prepared to pay half up front to buy fuel if it is a long trip. In general we have never had a problem, but these are not tourist taxis and we have heard of people paying all at once and the car is not there for the return journey, etc.

The white diamond cars (Tourist Taxis)tend to run from a taxi park near each tourist complex - they have boards showing the price and tend not to appreciate haggling.



There are always tourists who bargin to get the lowest possible price for everything on the basis that the locals simply won't sell at a price that is not good for them.

This is not totally true in the hand to mouth sort of economy that most Gambians are forced to work in, they suffer a cash flow crisis most days and when necessity demands will sell stock for less than it has cost them so their families can eat. Many going out of business because of it.

Also bear in mind that the whole purpose of GTS is to create and sustain full time employment and for that to exist then the prices for services provided will have to increase. If Gambia, the 12th poorest country in the world, is going to develop an education and health care system to meet the challenges of the 21st century and pay for it themselves, without constantly borrowing money, then their local economy needs your holiday spending money, so be sensible enough to discourage the bumster mentality but generous enough to help genuine people earn a proper living.



Francis

GTS UK

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

Just come back from Gambia - Had a great time. (see guest book for comments.)



There are a couple of things I would like to have been clearer about before going, and I should be grateful for your comments for next visit!



Firstly, what is a reasonable amount to give as tip and what are the expectations around this. This felt confusing and difficult sometimes. We were only there for a week, and mostly in more remote areas. People were often helpful in showing us the way or telling us about things. Whether we tipped on not was a bit hit or miss, but we did not sense any bad feeling. Being new to the country it is hard to read what the expectations are.



In the more tourist areas - we stayed a couple of nights at Bakau - there seemed to be much more of an expectation for a tip in return for advice or help. I have no problem in giving a tip - after all as Europeans we have a great deal more money than most Gambian - and it seems a fair exchange for a service. We often felt awkward because we did not have small change or did not know how much to give.



For instance, what are your thoughts on this:

1) A man spends 30 minutes showing us all around the fishing harbour, telling us all about the boats, about the fish, about the fishing way of life. How much tip?

2)A man goes five minutes out his way to show us the way to the crocodile pool

3)A child goes half an hour out of his way to give us directions.



Not coming from a culture where tipping is common, I feel a bit awkward around it,not wanting to embarrass people by giving too little or too much. I guess with a little more time I would get used to this.



I did have another question. We got a bit confused around the ettiquette of town taxis. Whereas bargaining on buying goods was fully accepted (encouraged), bargaining on taxi fare (which we did a couple of times) seemed to be met with bad feeling. Is this the wrong ettiquette? Taxi fares seemed to be much more than suggested in Lonely Planet Guide (Published 2001) It could be out of date. Also there seem to be quite a lot of variation. Though we were working to quite a tight budget,at the end of the day taxi fares were hardly expensive and we paid what was asked first time in the end. But it would be useful to know how things work. (Bush taxis were good and the prices explicit)



Oh one other things. Everywhere we went we found large numbers of people, particularly men, in their 20 and 30s. We saw very few men over 50. I have read that the life expectancy in The Gambia is 50. I am guessing that childhood deaths will partly be responsible for bringing that figure down, but the absence of older people did seem noticeable. Is it that there are far fewer older people, or do they tend to be less visible for other reasons?



I should be interested to know more about this



best wishes



Paul