Visit the new AsenaTv Website

https://asenatv.com

The Practical Traveller: turned away on the doorstep of Eritrea

Chris Guillebeau Sitting in the Madrid airport cafeteria, I contemplated two recent challenges in travelling the world. The first was completely my own fault - in planning back-to-back trips to Eritrea and Chad, I had confused

Chris Guillebeau

Sitting in the Madrid airport cafeteria, I contemplated two recent challenges in travelling the world. The first was completely my own fault – in planning back-to-back trips to Eritrea and Chad, I had confused the date. When your flight leaves around midnight or arrives shortly after midnight, this is a common error. I’ve often wondered why airlines schedule flights for times such as 12.10am. Whenever I’ve checked in for a flight with such a departure time, inevitably I see at least one passenger receiving the unfortunate news that their flight departed the previous day.

But of course this wouldn’t happen to me, right? My flight to Asmara, Eritrea’s capital city, left Cairo in the evening and arrived at 2.50am the following morning. That was easy but, for whatever reason, I thought I was returning the next evening on the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. Checking my itineraries a few days in advance, I discovered the truth: my Lufthansa flight left a day earlier than expected, and then arrived the following morning in Frankfurt.

This was a big problem. I was scheduled to transfer to an Air France flight back to Africa the same morning I showed up in Frankfurt. Coming in a day late simply wouldn’t work.

The Eritrea itinerary was set in stone and couldn’t be changed. Fortunately, I had exactly one day left before my Air France itinerary would also become non-changeable in the 72-hour period before departure. On the way back to this week’s transit hub of Madrid, I quickly located another flight leaving the following day. In fact, the itinerary was exactly the same. I was travelling on miles, so I had to pay US$150 (Dh550) for cancelling, but the miles were immediately redeposited back in my account. Spending $150 to correct a mistake of that order was acceptable, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The second challenge was more uncertain. I was bound for Eritrea, but after months of waiting I still had no visa. My application had been on hold at the Eritrean consulate in Washington, DC, and repeated inquiries to check on its status proved unsuccessful. I was never given any information other than “maybe next week”. When I ran out of weeks to keep waiting, I finally pulled my passport and decided to go for it anyway.

Travelling anywhere without advance permission is not for the faint of heart. I knew that several things could go wrong, and it wasn’t an ideal situation – but I felt like I had no choice. To prepare, I made sure I had as much paperwork as I could muster to support my trip. Into the file folder went printouts of my hotel confirmation, copies of my return ticket to Frankfurt and evidence of many other trips.

I had two obstacles to overcome. First, I had to receive a boarding pass to Asmara at Madrid airport. Airline staff are responsible for ensuring that all passengers have the necessary documentation. Over the years I’ve learnt that this practice varies in enforcement; some staff are thorough inspectors; others simply don’t care. I dressed nicely and smiled at the agent as I handed over my passport.

The agent asked a few questions, but dutifully issued the boarding pass, as I hoped. Success! I was now going to Eritrea. What would happen when I actually got there was anyone’s guess, but I took courage from the initial victory. An hour later, I was momentarily flummoxed when the boarding agent also asked to review my paperwork, but quickly recovered and managed to board the flight.

I knew the next challenge was the more important one. As the plane approached the Horn of Africa, I reviewed my plan. Honesty is the best policy, so I wouldn’t lie to anyone. I would simply explain that I hoped to visit as a tourist, and all my attempts at procuring the visa were held up by the embassy. I had copies of my hotel reservation and return itinerary, and no plans to permanently immigrate to Eritrea. (Another good reason to travel with only carry-on luggage.)

Nevertheless, the moment of truth would only come when I approached the immigration counter and asked for a visa. We landed on the Tarmac in the dead of night, then disembarked into a waiting shuttle bus that led us to the immigration hall. The queue was frantic, and I made sure I was in the front – not the first passenger, but definitely not the last.

“Good morning,” I said to the officer with a smile. “Is this where I apply for a visa?”

As expected, there was some confusion as he looked at my passport and then looked at me. “You don’t have a visa?”

“Not yet,” I said hopefully. “But here is my passport photo. Do you need me to fill out a form?”

“Wait, wait,” he said as he called his supervisor over. I was summoned to a dingy waiting room and kept up the banter.

“Thanks for helping me,” I said. “I’ve heard many good things about Eritrea.”

Unfortunately, the luck I had seen thus far ran out at the final checkpoint. Despite my best effort at being friendly, I was unable to persuade the supervisor. A few hours later, I was put on a plane right back to Cairo – the journey ended in failure, albeit an interesting one.

Travelling to Eritrea without the necessary visa wasn’t my preferred plan. If I could have done it another way, I would have. But placed in the situation I was, I’d likely do it the same way. If I had kept waiting at the embassy, I might never have received the visa and I might never have made it to Eritrea – one of only 15 countries remaining on my quest to visit all 193.

Similarly, I wasn’t happy that I had confused the date on my other ticket. But in the end, the change worked out fine. I flew to Frankfurt, went to the lounge for a shower and some breakfast, then proceeded on to the Air France connection that would return me back to Africa. No harm done, in the end.

Chris Guillebeau, 33, is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity, published by Penguin. He is on a five-year mission to visit every country in the world, and is currently on number 178. Next week: running in Mainz, Germany

Source:TheNational

aseye.asena@gmail.com

Review overview
8 COMMENTS
  • Asgedet March 2, 2012

    Obviously he didn’t do much of a research about the regime in Eritrea. If he had googled “Eritrea”, the first that would appear is “paranoia”. No wonder they refused to give him a visa and of course sent him back to Cairo. He should be glad they didn’t put him in a dungeon as Isaias takes every foreigner for a spy.

  • Ahmed saleh March 2, 2012

    The most which puzzled me are those Eritreans with not proper papers as they excuse
    to send them back to where they came from. Last time I heard this old educated man
    taking his children to see relatives and their country refused to enter and sent back from
    the airport. With this kind of mentality Eritrean tourism ministry will turn to nothing except
    only name with no function. Heading backward like camel pee, when others find a way to
    promote with advertisements to welcome tourists to boost their economy. It is disturbing
    to deal with secretive system of governance. In fact, it is a waste and shame .

  • Assenna March 3, 2012

    sad really

  • ዘመን March 3, 2012

    Any tourist that wants to visit Eritrea must have a special permission from the immigration authority to go outside of Asmara. Even if people who come on government contract must do so. This is the country that claims in the voice of truth, Eritrea has become a magnet for tourists. There are occasionaly some tourits from Italy that come to eritrea collectively, and they picture them and try to say they have scored a victory in tourism. Again they claim that the Eritrean 2% payers who come during the raining season the Beles are tourists ‘terrorits’ and add them in the annual statistics. Really a strange regime.

    • kbri ytakeb March 3, 2012

      BELES KAB BEKAS AGAME ENTKOYNOM YTREFUNA.KELAH ENTAY MAATU EU EZI.

  • Hade March 3, 2012

    Please can someone with connection to the tourism ministry inform them the that tourism-related economic activities accounts for about 10% of global economic output and one in nine jobs with estimated annual revenues of US$1,550 billion.

  • Semere March 3, 2012

    Really very sad! By the way “WHO IS AFRAID OF WHOM, AND WHY”?

  • danny March 4, 2012

    By now, most reasonable people acknowledge Isaias has become schizophrenic. It has been recorded that mental illness runs in the family, and Isaias’ issue with mental illness should not be much of a surprise other than he should be subject to the proper treatment. After all, he is just one individual who can be affected by illness and even death just like any one of us mortals in this world. What makes this story unique is that it shows not only its leader is schizophrenic but the State of Eritrea has also become inflicted with the same illness as its leader.

POST A COMMENT