Quest for visas is over... for now

Today I obtained visas for Sierra Leone and Liberia. Now I've collected all the visas for the next 8 West African countries that I'll visit. Scoring all these visas is a tale of high visa fees, variable exchange rates (always to my disadvantage), bribes, fake invitation letter and lots of patience.

Got lucky at the Malian border

When I was returning to Mali from Burkina Faso, I thought I was going to need to buy a 5-day entry visa for CFA15,000 at the border and then extend it to a full 30-day visa in Bamako, Mali. But, to my surprise, the border official said my old Malian visa was still good, so I only paid CFA1,000 to enter Mali. I believe they clearly misunderstood my old Malian visa: it is a single-entry visa and valid for 1 month. Since I'd already entered AND exited Mali with that visa, I should have been required to get a new one on my second visit. At the same time when I was at the Mali/Burkina Faso border, there were also 2 Americans, 2 Brits and 1 German, and they were all made to pay CFA15,000 to buy a new visa. Whatever the reason was, I felt very lucky, or, maybe they just liked my smile :D

Now I'm back in Mali, I just hope that every other official would think the same, and I would not encounter any problem when leaving.

This is so illegal!!!!!

Because I couldn't get a visa from the Senegalese embassy in Mauritania (my Chinese passport sucks!), my Mauritanian fixer smuggled me across the border (the Senegal River) and into Senegal in a dug-out canoe and a horse car.

I swear that I did not know I was actually going to be illegally smuggled into Senegal. I thought he had just bribed a Senegalese border guard who would let me sneak in. But now, I've become an illegal alien in Senegal, and I'm feeling nervous all the time. So I'll just try to get to Mali ASAP, and hope that there isn't going to be too much of a problem when I exit Senegal and when they don't see any entry stamp in my passport!

Overstay Moroccan visa

My Moroccan visa has expired. Now I'm heading south along the coast towards Morocco-Mauritania border, it may take at least 2 or 3 days to reach it. And hopefully I can get a visa for Mauritania at the border.

NOT happy with the Moroccan Consulate

I just received my passport back from the consulate and got the visa stamped on it (I was getting worried I might not get it back in time for my flight to Beijing this Sunday). However, they only put down "un voyage" on the visa as opposed to 2 entries that I had applied for and paid for.

The single entry visa costs $31, and 2-entry visa costs $46. So now I think the Moroccan Consulate screwed this(me, to be precise) up and OWES me $15!!

[UPDATE, 7 Dec 2009] After emailing the consulate,  now they are sending back to me the $15.