Surviving Sudan 101

OK so yet again I got the opportunity to travel to another godforsaken place typically seen on discovery as exotic/adventurous or on BBC/CNN as war and epidemic stricken but contrastingly to all these perceptions, Sudan (or atleast Khartoum where I was for 4 days) is an exact opposite.

It is as troublesome or peaceful as any other city on the planet. On getting hit by this reality, I thought I might as well pen down some “salient features” or tips for Sudan. In the unlikely event of you getting to travel here you may want to read through carefully or you can always call me!

1.     1.  Try to get your visit sponsored by a local person with contacts. Why I am saying this is because, you need to preprocess the visa from Khartoum and carry a print of the same. The trouble starts once you land and need to get an actual visa stuck to the passport. A local person with contact comes handy in this situation. Also, they charge $105 as of today as visa sticking fees…and we always thought that its only India where there is redtapism and bureaucracy

2.      2. The arrivals area outside the airport is without street lighting so be careful while carrying your luggage. Also I could not see any trolleys so better to travel light

3.       3. The taxis look as if they have been recently bombarded and then hurriedly painted in garish yellow to hide the blemishes. They are all very old Toyota models (oh yes…BBC showed this correctly). I am told they would be phased out next year but then forewarned is forearmed

4.       4.There is a visible lack of decent star rated or business hotels in the capital. Probably media driven but they are expected to be here in 4-5 years. Till then try your luck with the internet to find a place (a local contact is very helpful here). The existing hotels are also very expensive compared to the facilities they offer. I stayed at the Khartoum plaza hotel (sounds fancy eh ??) the basic single room was $105 per night and a luxury suite with 2 bedrooms was $205 per night. As we were 2 people on the trip, the suit worked out cheaper than individual rooms!!

 

5.       5.The Sudanese are very friendly and quiet people as in they do not trouble foreigners. There are a few beggars on the streets but they don’t cling on to you for dear life or till kingdom come and move away quickly. I had to move around a lot on foot and amidst local population but never was I made a subject for curious eyes and furtive laughter.

6.       6.At night, although it is not advisable to travel unaccompanied in any city, Khartoum is comparable to our Indian cities. I saw ladies driving all alone at around 10 in the night and also groups of men and women were visible at restaurants.

7.      7.  There is officially no alcohol available. Unofficially I could not get any information as my hosts were a gujju pure veg family.

8.    8. There are plenty of Bajaj autos on the roads driving at breakneck speeds just like Chennai. One difference in the structure is that the driver’s seat is fixed with a headrest and the wheels have sharp spokes jutting out a-la death race style so be careful!!

9.      9. Maalesh – sorry. Tamaam – in the sense of very good or are we good?. Shukraan – thank you. I did not need to use any other words as my local hosts spoke fluent Arabic. But still if you know Arabic, it’s a big help in the region.

10 10. The currency is Sudanese pounds mysteriously abbreviated as SDG. 1SP~ 2.5 USD as of today but they used to have old Sudanese pounds and sometimes refer to prices in old pounds. 1 new pound = 1000 old pounds so go figure out the price for yourself.

11 11. These people love to drink kava (coffee) or sha (tea) and they have it without milk. Many varieties of tea are available and I liked the Hibiscus tea the most!! The different food that I was able to taste included “eggplant chutney” and an “eggplant stew”. Like I said before, the schedule and the hosts were not conducive to palate experiments of the nutcase kinds (I can see Radhika heaving a sigh of relief at that!!).

12 12. All foreign visitors need to be registered at the foreign office for about $70 each without which you cannot leave the country so carry a spare photograph and allot one day for the process (if you are daring enough to attempt the feat yourself) or get it done through the hotel at about $80-$100 per person or best way is to ask your local sponsor to get it done for you :P.

13 13. The landscape is identical to many of our tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India but its fast changing and lot of construction is taking place.

14 14. Yeah, it’s the place where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet to form the single Nile river heading out to Egypt. That’s a nice place to visit.

15 15. I read that photography is not allowed unless you take a permit or you would be flogged publically so no pictures taken. Actually there was no time due to my schedule also.

16 16. And the worst piece of news is that north and south Sudan may separate ala India-Pakistan so January onwards may be a critical situation for some time, although as of now there was no indication of any tension in the air. Hope all happens peacefully.

Ok, the flight has been announced so leaving for it…but I hope I have not missed out on any other info of this type. I also hope more people get to visit Sudan and alleviate the misconceptions surrounding its conditions. It’s a nice place to be! Ciao!