Sudan
Travelling
Now the tale splits in two. Fiona set off from Manchester airport on Thursday 16th, in the evening. First problem - "You do not have a Sudan visa in your passport, so you cannot travel".
"Here is a copy of my entry visa. I will pick up the original and get my visa when I get to Khartoum". A second opinion later, from someone who could read Arabic, was that Fiona could travel, so off she went to Doha, and then on to Khartoum.
On arrival, the problems got worse. She was met by Richard, who had organised the visas originally. Richard took care of all the formalities, but the serial number of the entry visa showed that it ran out on the 13th, not the 17th. It does not matter what the piece of paper says, it is the official records that count. Fiona must return to England!! Fortunately time was moving on, and the plane that Fiona had arrived on was leaving, so Fiona could not go back with it. Finally, after three hours, she was let into the country with Richard vouching for her good behaviour while she is here.
Stan
and Phil had a much easier time. They left on the 17th as planned, and
flew to Dubai. Unfortunately Dubai was fogbound, and the plane diverted
to Abu Dhabi for an hour. Finally they got to Dubai three hours late.
This was not a problem, as they originally had over eight hours to kill
before their flight to Khartoum. After another four hour flight, they
arrived to be met by Richard again. All was straightforward this time,
and we were through immigration and customs in an hour. Entry to the United
States has been worse than this.
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March 19, 2006
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