From mid to late August I’ll be in Japan with a few weeks to spare, and I’m thinking of visiting one of the five countries in the region that I haven’t yet seen: Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, or North Korea.
Nathan and Joe told me that North Korea now refuses entry to US citizens. (I’m currently looking into that.) But whether or not that’s true, travel to most allegedly hostile nations is far easier than most Westerners believe. How do you get to such places as North Korea, Syria, and Iran? Curzon tells you how!
SYRIA – Passport and visa required. Obtain visa in advance. Single or double-entry visa, valid for 3 months, requires 2 application forms, 2 photos, and $100 fee (money order only). Enclose SASE with $6 postage (not metered stamps for certified mail) for return of passport by mail, $14 for express mail. For additional information, contact the Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic, 2215 Wyoming Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008 (202/232-6313). Internet: www.syrianembassy.us
Despite all the harsh words, Syria and the US have diplomatic relations and I hear that crossing the border from Turkey into Syria is very doable. Just make sure you obtain a visa in advance.
LIBYA – Restrictions on the use of a U.S. passport for travel to, in, or through Libya have been lifted as of February 2004. Visa applications and inquiries may be made through the Libyan Mission to the United Nations in New York, (202/752-5775). Within 3 days of arrival, visitors must register at the police station nearest where they will be residing.
Things are all hunky dorey now with Libya and restrictions are lifted. Why not fly direct from JFK International?
KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF (North Korea) – The United States currently does not maintain diplomatic or consular relations with North Korea. For visa information contact, the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations, 820 Second Ave., New York, New York 10017 (212/972-3105). U.S. citizens without a valid U.S. passport and visa may be arrested, fined, or denied entry. As most travelers enter from China, travelers may need to obtain a two-entry visa for China. The visa is essential for departing from North Korea at the end of a visit or in an emergency.
There, was that so difficult?
IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF - The United States does not maintain diplomatic or consular relations with Iran. For visa information, contact the Embassy of Pakistan, Iranian Interests Section, 2209 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20007 (202/965-4990). Internet: www.daftar.org. Authorities may confiscate U.S. passports of U.S.-Iranian dual nationals upon arrival. Therefore, the Department of State suggests leaving U.S. passports at the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas prior to entering Iran and to use an Iranian passport to enter.
Sounds scary, but again, very doable.
CUBA – For specific requirements, consult the Cuban Interests Section, 2630 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009 (202/797-8518). AIDS test required for those staying longer than 90 days.
The only snag is that you have to get a “license” from the Treasury Dept. before you go to most of these places.
Attention: U.S. citizens may need a U.S. Treasury Department license in order to engage in any transactions related to travel to and within Iran/Cuba/Libya/North Korea. Before planning any travel to North Korea, U.S. citizens should contact the Licensing Division, Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, (202/622-2480) or www.treas.gov/ofac.
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Comments to this entry
Jarrod
April 6, 2005
8:35 pm
Go to North Korea Curzon! But my personal fav would definitely be Mongolia
Gabriel Mihalache
April 7, 2005
12:17 am
Why not visit some tamer destinations? But, then again, I don't really get this "travel" business. (I'm looking forward to my emigration, though)
Curzon
April 7, 2005
12:40 am
Tamer destinations are good too, but what keeps me from visiting more of Europe is the expense! The dollar may be weak, but you can still stay at a guest house in Thailand or China for $3 a night.
Joe
April 7, 2005
3:40 am
Gabriel Mihalache
April 7, 2005
12:54 pm
Why am I bringing this up? Regarding the welcome you'd get in North Korea, I'd say that the locals are still "in awe", while Frenchmen a.s.o. are no longer "under the spell", if they ever were.
The difference between me and my countrymen is that I am the full product of that awe, in other words, I've taken it to its logical end, maybe because I had it on an ideological level, and not so much related to ogling western wealth.
My point, if any? Well, I'd say that the American propaganda (willful or accidental) is most effective on oppressed people. Once people get a chance at the "American Dream" and see how hard it is, they end up resenting it. That's just my theory, though.
The oppressed eastern Europeans were wrong to look at Americans as sort of demigods, and the French are now wrong to involve America in their own foreign inadequacies, I think. All in all, the issue of how and why are Americans treated abroad is a complex one.
Mutantfrog
April 7, 2005
9:46 pm
Egyptian Bombing
April 7, 2005
9:54 pm
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=650538
2 killed and 20 injured - all tourists - in egypt.
you;d be better in Iraq.
Mutantfrog
April 7, 2005
10:45 pm
Two Dead in Bombing at Tourist Area in Cairo
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 7, 2005
Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An explosion apparently set off by a man on a motorcycle hit an outdoor bazaar popular with tourists in Cairo's Old City on Thursday, killing two people, including a French woman, and wounding at least 19 others, officials said.
The wounded were 10 Egyptians, two Americans, two Turks, two Italians, two French people and one Briton, said Egyptian deputy health minister Ahmed Adel. A French woman and another person were confirmed killed.
Adel had said one of the victims was an American, but Egypt's Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin later said the nationality had not yet been determined because the body had been severely mutilated in the explosion.
It appeared to be the first attack targeting tourists in the Egyptian capital in more than seven years. Egypt put down a campaign of violence in the 1990s by Islamic militants who frequently targeted foreigners in their bid to bring down the government.
Two witnesses reported that a man on a motorcycle set off a bomb. Police said they were investigating a motorcyle found near the scene with nails scattered on the ground around it, but they would not confirm if the blast was from a bomb.
The U.S. Embassy issued a warning to Americans to stay away from the bazaar area where the explosion occurred and to exercise caution throughout the city.
The blast went off near an organized tour group in the al-Moski bazaar, a maze of narrow alleys with shops selling jewelry, souvenirs and clothes near the main tourist bazaar of Khan al-Khalili.
Police said the death toll may rise by at least one more, with body parts strewn around the site of the blast, not far from Cairo's famed al-Azhar mosque.
The dead French woman was a tourist, said French Embassy spokeswoman Bernadette Abou Bechara. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said he could not confirm that the casualties included Americans.
Rabab Rifaat, an Egyptian woman who was shopping in a store near the blast, said she heard ``a boom, a horrible sound, very loud. Everyone started running.'' She then saw a decapitated head flying through the air.
The blast apparently was set off by a man who was either carrying a bomb or had it on his motorcycle, she said. A large, organized tour group was in the street, buying items at a market when the explosion went off, she said.
Six or seven people lay on the ground afterward and an Egyptian man ran with burns on his back and his clothes torn, Rifaat said.
Hundreds of police sealed off the area and two ambulances were at the scene. Tourists remained in Khan al-Khalili, several hundred yards outside the police cordon.
The dead French woman was a tourist, said French Embassy spokeswoman Bernadette Abou Bechara.
The Khan is the most famous of a number of closely packed bazaars near al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious Islamic institutions in the Sunni Muslim world, in Cairo's old city.
The last major militant attacks came in late 1997. In September that year, two gunmen fired automatic rifles at a tour bus parked outside the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, killing 10 people -- mostly German tourists. A month later, militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in an attack at a pharaonic temple in Luxor, southern Egypt.
Last October, explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, including one in the resort of Taba that killed 34 people and was linked by Egyptian authorities to Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Mahmoud Ali
June 2, 2005
10:39 pm
There were plenty of tourists in Iran, mostly Europeans, and quite a number in Libya, including Americans interested in Roman and Greek ruins (there are quite a few in Libya). Tourist are safe in these countries because most locals are able to distinguish private citizens from the actions of their country. If Americans were able to learn to do this they wouldn't tolerate the things their governments do in their name and maybe they wouldn't have to be afraid to go places and resort to calling themselves Canadian.
Take my advice, go to these countries and see what makes these people real human beings, not the evil cardboard cutouts that 'deserve' to be bombed. As for it being better to be in Iraq than in Egypt, the writer doesn't know what he/she is talking about. Thanks to American invasion the country is in worse shape than it ever was, their infrastructure is ruined, water and electricity distribution far worse than ever, safety and security non-existant, and in three short years more Iraqis have died than in the decades of Saddam Hussein's reign.
PS: I was in Egypt during the months of April and May and there seemed to be no end to the number of tourists. Numbers may be down but I guess you would have to have been there before to notice. To my eyes the Giza plateau (Pyramids and Sphinx) and Luxor were packed with tourist buses.