Out there 36 degrees and very humid , in here 23 with nice airconditionning. it is so tempting to just stay inside and wait for the problems to solve themselve... but unfortunatly, that's not possible, because WE ARE IN SUDAN, BABY!
Surprisingly everything from the flight to the 12 hours busdrive to Khartoem went very fast and the exhaustion was still under control. One of africa's poorest country's made quite an impression on us.
Everywhere in the travelguide we read that you need a travel permit when going to the N-E of the country, like we were planning to do. We asked around to so many people, but there was nobody who knew what we were talking about , even though they really wanted to help us and made many phonecalls. We finally decided to take the chance and get on the bus without travel permit. We went through several checkpoint, where polic entered the bus, asked for our paspoort but didn't say a word about our travel permit. We thought we were of the hook.
We stayed in the Boheim hotel in Port sudan, a reasonable hotel for a reasonable price (150 SP per night dubble room + good internet ).What was meant to be only two nights became one week as we tried to get our car cleared wich was shipped form Aqaba to Port Sudan. A lot of paperwork and phonecalls, mostly because on the bill of lading Kawar company stated that our car was "in transit" to Ethiopia and so we needed the original bill of Lading.
If it stated we shipped our second hand car for tourisme we had our car back in two days. Little mistake from shipping company leads to a lot of documents, phonecalls and e-mails to the embassy. Apparently we are the first to enter in port sudan with RoRo and a used car, so they don't really know what to do with us.but to be honoust, the guys from the customs are bending backwards to help us out. And when finally everything was arranged , all of a sudden form 25 pops up. Nobody heared about it, so they send one guy to another harbour suakim to copie form 25 and arrange everything.
As only two years ago sudan became undependant we thought we didn't need the travel permit anymore because so many people in the touristindustry said we don't need it. Luckely we contacted the Belgian honourconsulate in Sudan to help us to get our travel permit. They send a man who arranged everything for us. We also needed to register within three days of arrival but had no idea where exactly. Fortunatly the nicest man in port sudan , the owner of our hotel, mr.imir dahab took us under his wing and drove us to the official registrationoffice in port sudan (coordinates ) where we were send from one office to another. Cost of registration is 219 pound p.p. You will need one paspoortpicture and fill in the form.
When the end was so close and we could finally get our car, it looked like they put a wild animal loose in it. Everything was upsidedown, they tried to force the slidedoor as the bolt was totally croocked and all kinds of things were stolen (f.e two binoculars, jackets, sleepingbag,.. and worst of all : our numberplate! ) The car of the other couple, Hans and Dorien, was also totally robbed of all kinds off usefull things. At that point we totally had it with Sudan and, even though we were obliged to because of the transit of our car, we had no problems to immediatly leave Sudan. Fitting this urge to pack whats left of your bags and head for the border , we forced ourself to make an official complain with the police. Unfortunatly, nothing is easy in Sudan. First of all, they wouldn't believe that something like that could ever happen in Sudan, impossible! It must have happend in Jordan... Let's use our common sense : only 3 hours in Aqaba,Jordan and one whole week in Port Sudan, Sudan. They told us we should have made a packinglist with everything that was in the car and handed it over to our shipping agent. So, yes, now it is our fault...
Ok, After going to one policestation to explain for an hour the situation and we just want to have an official document , they send us to a courtyard, to an lawyer, to an other policestation, all for a stupid piece of paper. When you finally get to the point were you can start listing what is all stolen, the police guy looks on his watch and, in the middle of the writing down his sentence, he tells you " ok, finished for today, no more work' . !?GRML - then you are not so *Zen* enymore.
We stayed in the Boheim hotel in Port sudan, a reasonable hotel for a reasonable price (150 SP per night dubble room + good internet ).What was meant to be only two nights became one week as we tried to get our car cleared wich was shipped form Aqaba to Port Sudan. A lot of paperwork and phonecalls, mostly because on the bill of lading Kawar company stated that our car was "in transit" to Ethiopia and so we needed the original bill of Lading.
If it stated we shipped our second hand car for tourisme we had our car back in two days. Little mistake from shipping company leads to a lot of documents, phonecalls and e-mails to the embassy. Apparently we are the first to enter in port sudan with RoRo and a used car, so they don't really know what to do with us.but to be honoust, the guys from the customs are bending backwards to help us out. And when finally everything was arranged , all of a sudden form 25 pops up. Nobody heared about it, so they send one guy to another harbour suakim to copie form 25 and arrange everything.
As only two years ago sudan became undependant we thought we didn't need the travel permit anymore because so many people in the touristindustry said we don't need it. Luckely we contacted the Belgian honourconsulate in Sudan to help us to get our travel permit. They send a man who arranged everything for us. We also needed to register within three days of arrival but had no idea where exactly. Fortunatly the nicest man in port sudan , the owner of our hotel, mr.imir dahab took us under his wing and drove us to the official registrationoffice in port sudan (coordinates ) where we were send from one office to another. Cost of registration is 219 pound p.p. You will need one paspoortpicture and fill in the form.
When the end was so close and we could finally get our car, it looked like they put a wild animal loose in it. Everything was upsidedown, they tried to force the slidedoor as the bolt was totally croocked and all kinds of things were stolen (f.e two binoculars, jackets, sleepingbag,.. and worst of all : our numberplate! ) The car of the other couple, Hans and Dorien, was also totally robbed of all kinds off usefull things. At that point we totally had it with Sudan and, even though we were obliged to because of the transit of our car, we had no problems to immediatly leave Sudan. Fitting this urge to pack whats left of your bags and head for the border , we forced ourself to make an official complain with the police. Unfortunatly, nothing is easy in Sudan. First of all, they wouldn't believe that something like that could ever happen in Sudan, impossible! It must have happend in Jordan... Let's use our common sense : only 3 hours in Aqaba,Jordan and one whole week in Port Sudan, Sudan. They told us we should have made a packinglist with everything that was in the car and handed it over to our shipping agent. So, yes, now it is our fault...
Ok, After going to one policestation to explain for an hour the situation and we just want to have an official document , they send us to a courtyard, to an lawyer, to an other policestation, all for a stupid piece of paper. When you finally get to the point were you can start listing what is all stolen, the police guy looks on his watch and, in the middle of the writing down his sentence, he tells you " ok, finished for today, no more work' . !?GRML - then you are not so *Zen* enymore.
Getting sick in Sudan.
Finally, with a securityofficer in the back who was send to make sure we went immediatly to the border, we drove the whole day to Qadaref, customs. At that point, after already taking 3L of ORS I got really bad cramps, enormous headache, very drunk and vomiting. At a certain point it was impossible to still walk and we decided to go to the nearest docter, where I puked just before his feet. Simon had to carry me inside in my short pyjamashort, through a line a waiting women in Burka. They drew blood with a needle and put it immediatly under the microscope : No milaria, incrased white bloodplates. - So start Antibiotics. Luckely, i have plenty of that in stock.
Because i was to sick to transport to an hospital in Khartoem (4.5 hours drive from Qatar), Simon persuaded the customs officer to sleep on his desk, a room with a fan. After killing the millions of gigantic bugs in the room, we poot our matras on his desk and with little sips of water we fel asleep. The next day we decided it was better to go immediatly to go to Ethiopia, where it was much coulder. Hans and Dorien went to Khartoem to arrange their visa for Ethiopia.
Finally, with a securityofficer in the back who was send to make sure we went immediatly to the border, we drove the whole day to Qadaref, customs. At that point, after already taking 3L of ORS I got really bad cramps, enormous headache, very drunk and vomiting. At a certain point it was impossible to still walk and we decided to go to the nearest docter, where I puked just before his feet. Simon had to carry me inside in my short pyjamashort, through a line a waiting women in Burka. They drew blood with a needle and put it immediatly under the microscope : No milaria, incrased white bloodplates. - So start Antibiotics. Luckely, i have plenty of that in stock.
Because i was to sick to transport to an hospital in Khartoem (4.5 hours drive from Qatar), Simon persuaded the customs officer to sleep on his desk, a room with a fan. After killing the millions of gigantic bugs in the room, we poot our matras on his desk and with little sips of water we fel asleep. The next day we decided it was better to go immediatly to go to Ethiopia, where it was much coulder. Hans and Dorien went to Khartoem to arrange their visa for Ethiopia.
Bordercrossing to Ethiopia.
When arriving at the border of Sudan, metema, everything went quite fast. We didn't have to to pay to exit Sudan, nor to enter Ethiopia. Just make sure you are on time, as the officers take their break between 1 and 4pm, so then you are stuck and have to wait between the two borders. We did have problems with our carnet as they didn't stamp it in Port Sudan when we cleared our car. After many negotiations we were able to enter Ethiopia. What a diffirence. We like the country allready within the first minute and were never so glad as then so see the first rain again since a very long time. After already 1-2 hours driving, the temperature dropped already with 8-10*C. It was heaven, and i felt already so much better.
Curious what Ethiopia has in store for us....
When arriving at the border of Sudan, metema, everything went quite fast. We didn't have to to pay to exit Sudan, nor to enter Ethiopia. Just make sure you are on time, as the officers take their break between 1 and 4pm, so then you are stuck and have to wait between the two borders. We did have problems with our carnet as they didn't stamp it in Port Sudan when we cleared our car. After many negotiations we were able to enter Ethiopia. What a diffirence. We like the country allready within the first minute and were never so glad as then so see the first rain again since a very long time. After already 1-2 hours driving, the temperature dropped already with 8-10*C. It was heaven, and i felt already so much better.
Curious what Ethiopia has in store for us....