6 Apr 2009, Sanaa Yemen

I went to the immigration office to extend my visa today. I had only two days left till the first one got expired.

Inside of the building reminded me a bees' nest. There were many small rooms with no doors along corridors, and so many people busily moving around, getting in and out, talking loud, shaking hands or kissing. There was no sign of anything anywhere. I didn't know where to start.
I asked to some officers in uniform. One of them, with no star on his sholder, who spoke a little English, helped me.
The procedure was absolutely complicated. Basically, you need to collect signatures of approval on some documents on necessary points from the officers in charge of each. But, gee, so many! As many as collecting signatures of players of a football team, including some reserves. Same at random on plain papers, seemingly. Even the officer who helped me didn't know what to do exactly, and had to ask in each section where to go next.
Go to that room. No, go there first. Get a signature here. Get another document. Fill it in Arabic. Get a copy. Do you have a medical certificate of not having AIDS? No? Hm. OK, I will ask to the manager. You need his approval...
Sometimes we had to go to the same officer twice or three times. Couldn't it be done at once? Every room was crowded. I was just following around the officer (he did all the talk and work), but still got tired at the end. It was obviously impossible to do everything by myself. It also seemed impossible for somebody to arrange such mess.
The officer's colleague in their section, also in the low rank, came to complain a couple of times because his absence made him busy, tried to take him back to his work by pulling him by the arm. But the officer never followed. Why does he help me so much? Purely by his goodwill to a helpless foreigner? My experience in Yemen said no, although I appreciated his help. I took most of the bills out of my wallet and hid them quickly while he was away for a moment.
Finally everything was done and I got my second visa. And indeed, he asked for money as we came out of the building, claiming how tiresome it was, he had to ask favor to many people, so that he had to buy them something with the money later. Yes, perhaps, but not for $100 as he hinted. I told him I had only about $10 left, with showing my wallet. I don't know if he believed me or not, but he took it a little disappointedly. So was I disappointed, because I hadn't made it to $5.


A Dutch couple was kidnapped near Sanaa by armed tribesmen some days ago. There are news of pirates almost every day. It would be so stupid of me if I got involved in such incident by trying to go to Djibouti by boat while I was aware of the situation, or got warned. I got visa of Djibouti and Ethiopia last week. There is a flight to Djibouti for $170. What am I still doing? I wonder.