Border crossing and road 45

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jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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I made it to Dajambon. Drive was like 3.5h from puerto plata.
Kind of sucked to drive at dark. Many road bumps before and after the small cities on the road.
Also many Moto drivers without the lights and people with black skin walking across the road without the reflectors. Road quality was same as in the Albania, Eastern Africa or Mid west Canada.

Got a very nice hotel called Massacre Hotel. Cost only 1200 peso with and free parking lot (secured).

I am also allowed to park the car there tomorrow until I come back.

Heard also that tomorrow on Monday the border should be open and could walk freely because it's some type of market day.

Thank you for all the help:)
 
L

LTSteve

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Jul 9, 2010
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jonbon said:
Hi.

Sorry for my bad English.

I'm a swedish guy renting a car in Santo Domingo and then driving to Puerto Plata.

From Puerto Plata my plan is to drive to the Dajabon and leave the car there while I go to Haiti for a day trip.

My question is do I need to pay the Dominican exit fees and / or Haiti entry fees if I just go there for a day?

Or can you just simply walk across the border without any trouble?

Also after that I'm planning to take road 45 down to south, but the Google maps says it crosses thru Haiti and does not recommend driving it.

Is this the reason and how good shape the road is?


Thank you.
Click to expand...

My question to you is WHY? It is not an overly safe place to go by yourself, being a gringo, being Swedish and standing out like a soar thumb and having no knowledge of Haiti. You need to re-think this plan. Do not drive there in a rental car. Curiosity is fine but going to Haiti alone is not a good idea. Tour around the DR if you want to see new places.
 
Cdn_Gringo

Cdn_Gringo

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Some people are just blessed with good luck despite themselves. The OP made the trip successfully. In the dark even. The gods willing, we'll hear from him later today informing us that he had a great time. Then he can regale us with his experiences travelling from the border back to wherever he is headed next.
 
R

rice&beans

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May 16, 2010
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Cdn_Gringo said:
Some people are just blessed with good luck despite themselves. The OP made the trip successfully. In the dark even. The gods willing, we'll hear from him later today informing us that he had a great time. Then he can regale us with his experiences travelling from the border back to wherever he is headed next.
Click to expand...



Exactly......

I've taken a lot of risks and chances when traveling.....(Never in Haiti)

And later on, when reflecting.....

I'm sayn to myself....

What the hell was I thinking??
 
Cdn_Gringo

Cdn_Gringo

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Some people invigorate themselves and define the meaning of mortality jumping off an elevated platform with a rubber band tied to their waist, others do so driving round Montecristi in the dark. Whatever floats your boat. Who am I to criticize the well reasoned decisions of others. If I am asked to participate, I can likewise choose to just say no. I hope the OP has a good time, gets another country photo for their scrapbook and makes it back safe and sound.

Failure is not always the result of a single bad decision but often a combination of several questionable decisions in succession.
 
J

jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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Woke up at 730am at the hotel and walked first to the wrong bridge. There were DR guards and I asked to go Haiti...I guess they thought I wanna take photos so one of the guards brought me to the bridge with a big gate that hat kids knocking it from the Haiti side and pushing their hands thru it and asking money...down the bridge people were doing laundry....


I waited there a bit as I thought he's gonna open the gates but then I saw thousands of people going back and forth maybe 300metre north on a north bridge.

So I realized I had to go there. Walked there and some guys who pretended to be Dominican border guys tried to stop me for money I guess...but I just ignored them and they stopped following after few minute..


Lots of people going thru the border....it was kind of like being in Bangladesh....same kind of atmosphere.


Then I saw the Haitian border post on my left...I thought to get a stamp....but they demanded money....first it was 15usd.....then 5 usd....

Btw...swedish passport should give a free entry to Haiti.

This took maybe 5 minute and I said I don't want to pay. Then I finally said I pay you 2 dollars..then hes boss came and said 15 dollars. So I answered : fine I go back to Dominican.
After that he asked why don't you wanna pay with a decent English; and I said Sweden passport free entrance and I called to the embassy.
He laughed and said go.....

After that I walked a lot around the city. Changed money 10$ at the bank...used 3$ from it for a nice hair cut..now at the street under an umbrella drinking coke near the border and going back soon I guess
 
W

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Bangladesh does conjure up the proper image.


What did the DR officials do when you re-entered the DR? Did they look at you passport or charge a fee?
Or just ignore you?
 
drstock

drstock

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Oct 29, 2010
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jonbon said:
I made it to Dajambon. Drive was like 3.5h from puerto plata.
Kind of sucked to drive at dark. Many road bumps before and after the small cities on the road.
Also many Moto drivers without the lights and people with black skin walking across the road without the reflectors. Road quality was same as in the Albania, Eastern Africa or Mid west Canada.
Click to expand...

If you had said you were planning to drive there in the dark, ALL of us would have advised against it! Did you like being blinded by oncoming drivers with no idea about dimming their ridiculous lights?
 
J

jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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DR officials did not look at me..there were few DR officials standing but I guess they did not care about me because of the market day or they were too busy.
 
J

jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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drstock said:
If you had said you were planning to drive there in the dark, ALL of us would have advised against it! Did you like being blinded by oncoming drivers with no idea about dimming their ridiculous lights?
Click to expand...

I was happy I drive at the night. No problem. Only thing sucked I did not have an aux cable for the music so I had to keep changing the radio station all the time for different music. I think I heard that Gasolina guys song many times :)
But yeah I would not recommend my mom, dad or girlfriend to drive at night.
Ita definitely not a good experience for a normal person.
 
Fulano2

Fulano2

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Jun 5, 2011
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jonbon said:
Woke up at 730am at the hotel and walked first to the wrong bridge. There were DR guards and I asked to go Haiti...I guess they thought I wanna take photos so one of the guards brought me to the bridge with a big gate that hat kids knocking it from the Haiti side and pushing their hands thru it and asking money...down the bridge people were doing laundry....


I waited there a bit as I thought he's gonna open the gates but then I saw thousands of people going back and forth maybe 300metre north on a north bridge.

So I realized I had to go there. Walked there and some guys who pretended to be Dominican border guys tried to stop me for money I guess...but I just ignored them and they stopped following after few minute..


Lots of people going thru the border....it was kind of like being in Bangladesh....same kind of atmosphere.


Then I saw the Haitian border post on my left...I thought to get a stamp....but they demanded money....first it was 15usd.....then 5 usd....

Btw...swedish passport should give a free entry to Haiti.

This took maybe 5 minute and I said I don't want to pay. Then I finally said I pay you 2 dollars..then hes boss came and said 15 dollars. So I answered : fine I go back to Dominican.
After that he asked why don't you wanna pay with a decent English; and I said Sweden passport free entrance and I called to the embassy.
He laughed and said go.....

After that I walked a lot around the city. Changed money 10$ at the bank...used 3$ from it for a nice hair cut..now at the street under an umbrella drinking coke near the border and going back soon I guess
Click to expand...



Move over to the DR! You will make it! :):)
Oh, and bring over a decent Saab 99
 
W

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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jonbon said:
DR officials did not look at me..there were few DR officials standing but I guess they did not care about me because of the market day or they were too busy.
Click to expand...

So you got away without pay for another tourist card upon re-entering the DR. Did your passport get stamped in the DR going out and in Haiti going in and out? Or was it like you were never there as far as your passport, at least, is concerned.

Was not not stamped because you would have had to pay and you worked around that issue?

Is that 120 countries now?
 
J

jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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Rest of the story:

So yes...I walked around pretty much the whole city..all the back alleys, side street etc...Noticed there are many schools and churches in this city.
Nothing to buy really!! Bank changes money in a fair rate 62 / 64 US$ rate.

My AUX cable worked well so I was happy. Some kids laughed at me and called me Blanco, I smiled back at them and said Bonjour :)

So yeah, I recommend checking the city if you have extra time and you pass by. It is definitely a huge difference between the two countries as in the DR you can buy everything you need unlike in Haiti.

On the way back I did not pay anything. I was kind of expecting to get stopped by everybody so I wanted to avoid this and paid 1 $ for the moto driver to drive me across..

On the Haiti side the border guys yelled something at the driver and he stopped. I kept looking the opposite way so they would not see im not local.

He stopped for 20 seconds and yelled something for the Haiti border guys. Then he drove me to the top of the bridge and said he can not go further. I told him I want to go across...he said NO, I said GO...finally I gave up and gave him 1 $ and walked across..DR border guys were stopping many people on bridge, but they pushed me thru..

So I did not need to pay anything.
Went to eat right away 4$ chicken, soup, rice, water, coffee....then picked my car and drove back to Santo Domingo..Stopped at Monte Cristi and Santiago.

Few times cops stopped me on the way back...One only shook my hand and spoke spanish. The other one spoke spanish and said money, I talked Russian back to him and then he let me go. I was also stopped by 2 moto cops..They kept asking money for 45 minutes..First 5000, then 1000. They said I can pay now 5000/ 1000 or they take me to police station. I said please take me to police station..I do not know if they understood.. Finally they gave up, took all my rental papers but thru my driving licence towards me in the car and left. He was maybe the most corrupted looking cop I seen in my life. He kept giving me all the time a look whit hes face which you usually see on the Gangster/hip hop movies on a really mean latino gansgters.

Notice the police is quite corrupted in DR but gives up really easily.
 
J

jonbon

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May 26, 2017
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windeguy said:
So you got away without pay for another tourist card upon re-entering the DR. Did your passport get stamped in the DR going out and in Haiti going in and out? Or was it like you were never there as far as your passport, at least, is concerned.

Was not not stamped because you would have had to pay and you worked around that issue?

Is that 120 countries now?
Click to expand...

Did not have to pay anything. Yes 120. Off course some of the countries I visited are not recognized by every country (North Cyprus, Abkhazia and Kosovo)...but I have counted them.
 
Africaida

Africaida

Gold
Jun 19, 2009
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jonbon said:
Did not have to pay anything. Yes 120. Off course some of the countries I visited are not recognized by every country (North Cyprus, Abkhazia and Kosovo)...but I have counted them.
Click to expand...

I want to be you when I grow up. :smoke:

Nice report !
 
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