Tychian

Hey iron - I had the exact same problem with the Turkmenistan LoI! Who are you using?

I tried twice via Advantour, they used a local partner, Owadan, and I got shot down both times. Really sucked cuz I didn't expect that and had bought non-ref air tickets. Only plus was, Advantour didn't charge me in advance. Absolutely no explanation, Advantour told me this was 'normal.'

So I went via Dag Syyahat instead, and they got one, no problem, telling me rejections were 'not normal'; they did charge me in advance, I think it was 60 bucks or so, which was part of the overall package they offered (but they'd have kept this amount if I'd been rejected).

The only thing I changed between the fails and the success, was making my job title more comprehensible (I'm in IT and they keep changing our titles to stuff no one can make sense of). I simplified to 'software engineer'
And the dates: originally I was going in late May 2014, so after all the rejections, tried for early September instead via Dag.


So what I concluded from all this is either
1) some agencies are better connected than others (I got the same sense when applying for the Sudan and Eritrea) visas
2) They limit the number of tourist visas for a given period and when the max is reached, you're SOL.
3) They're just super arbitrary.

Interesting on Angola. Guess my experience was fairly standard. I'm just relieved they issued it. There were several rounds of 'do this or we have to send your passport back with no visa.'

CAR! Went to Dzangha-Sangha there but it can be tricky to get to. Took us days crossing Cameroon with unseasonably late rains.

Interesting combo of places overall o that itinerary- in particular, good luck with Yemen. Sana'a old town is amazing but I don't know the current visa or security situation - the DC embassy issued my Yemeni visa in 2013 np, but told my friend two weeks later they no longer had authority to issue tourist visas. He eventually got one on entry via the Socotra Eco-Tour folks.
If you do go around the towns, the military will love you chewing qat - really broke the ice with them. "An American! Chewing our leaves! Come and look, other soldiers!" sort of response.

Tychian

Well - I think it's more that the experience varies based on the embassy/consulate and staff, at least in the US, although maybe it's improved in the sense of sometimes actually issuing a visa . Persistence seemed to matter for you, me, haute and iron for sure...

hauteboy

We were supposed to go to Sangha Lodge but they apparently lost email access for a few weeks. We were going to charter a flight from Yaounde but after not hearing from them, we had to make backup plans. Finally heard back from them but we'd already changed our plans to fly DLA-BGF instead.

The quote I got from one company for the Libya visa is 350EUR so pretty crazy. Haven't heard back from other tour companies though. I should have gone last January (2014) instead of Algeria.

Baldpacker

I was there at the end of June. I used Air Canada points to get to St. John's, Newfoundland, then flew in for a couple nights on Air St. Pierre. When I arrived it was pissing down rain but within 2 minutes of setting out from the airport to walk into town a friendly guy picked me up - he even toured me around and showed me the best bars.

Everything is very walkable and the tourism office is helpful. I did a really nice hike (there are no trees and the island is so small you'd have to be an idiot to get lost) but I was extremely lucky with the weather.

I'll try to do a blog post on it at some point and look up the names of my favourite restaurants but it's definitely a cool place if you're lucky enough to get good weather.

Tychian

Their email access is really spotty. I get the very occasional update from them - during the major unrest they had a few issues but much less than other areas. Land travel to there is difficult; we took land (including a very surreal stuck-in-the-mud experience with loggin trucks and a near-riot by locals) then a boat up the Sangha river. Very cool, tho on the return the boat 'driver' had gotten drunk on palm wine waiting for us, and wound up detained at the CAR border. The authorities thought it was just fine for his 12-yr-old son to take the boat the rest of the way to Cameroon...in fact, they made him do so. Unusual approach to things for sure.

Yeah. I feel the same way about Libya. At this stage I'd content myself to dart across the border with a land crossing, but given it's desert all around, I doubt that's practical. Rue missing the 2013 opportunity.

UltraRant

This topic is very inspirational to read. My goal is 'secretly' the same, although I do have some practicalities on my way (being Dutch and living in Norway being one of them). Managed to visit all European countries except Belarus now. Plus a few dozen in mostly Asia and the Americas. I use the list of UN states as leading here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states ), making 195 states nowadays and 11 additional territories. Considering adding de-facto independent dependencies (Greenland, Faroer, Gibraltar, Channel Island, etc) as a special category, although it would make the list about 100 countries longer.

Anyway, please keep writing and reporting, it's a very inspirational read!

ironmanjt

I used travel notoria....they said this was highly unusual. That said, I don't think I'll use them the next time I try, just in case they were the problem.

ironmanjt

Wouldn't have had better luck. I think it was January 2013 when I went, and had to shell out the 350 EUR for a business visa. Libya hasn't welcomed tourists at all since the Arab Spring.

I'd be shocked if the government is even functioning enough to issue them now.

hauteboy

For Turkmenistan we also got our invitation through Dag Syyahat (via Stantours). We were planning on crossing from Ashgabat to Mashad. However our Iran visa was denied last minute (through key2persia).

DanielW

Artem sent my LOI this week with no problems.

hauteboy

Sounds like they don't like ironmanjt then

ironmanjt

I'm going to sell you to the highest pygmy bidder in CAR

DanielW

I heard the witch doctors pay better in Sierre Leone .

mpkz

So time for me to gather my thoughts a little bit and basically use this thread for that purpose.

Where I am now:

(haven't clicked some smaller countries like Luxembourg or Singapore but have visited them, or in the case of Singapore, lived in them). edit: and forgot to click Kyrgyzstan

What my time constraints are:
I can probably travel 3 (or almost 4) months per year for the next 3 or 4 years assuming I make progress with my PhD. Of this, 2 months is usually a longer summer trip, 3 weeks for a winter trip and then the rest smaller trips, maybe up to 1 week in length.

Potential trips 2015:
Revisit Tokyo for about a week this fall. I'm quite likely to do this, though might change my destination to Laos. But Laos isn't the kind of place that's good to just spend a week in because even if a week is enough to see important things, it's not enough to get me into the "traveller mindset" needed for places like SE Asia, it's better for large cities etc.

Ukraine. My friends are going to Ukraine and I could tag along with them for a 4/5 day "weekend", though undecide on whether I really want to do this. One problem is that I'd like to work, though a long weekend is excusable, the other reason is that 5 days in Kiev and the environs is fine, but once again Ukraine might be better as part of a bigger trip (like Belarus to Turkey overland). Maybe I can do both. The flights definitely look cheap.

Ethiopia: That's my plan for my Christmas 3 week trip. Maybe visit Somaliland/Djibouti as well, since they're all included in one Lonelyplanet guidebook This trip is pretty sure to happen.

Next summer:
My hope right now is for a Georgia/Armenia/Azerbaijan -> Iran -> Turkmenistan transit visa -> (transit through) Uzbekistan -> Pamir Highway trip. Should be doable in two months, even if it's a little bit rushed, since I've been to Iran before and would basically just go there to recharge and party. Gotta hope Armenia and Azerbaijan aren't at war by then.

Other things to do in the near future:
Maybe try to visit places that I can visit in weekend trips to European countries I haven't visited yet, like Slovenia (maybe skiing), Kosovo, Montenegro, FYROM, Andorra. I reckon a long weekend isn't a huge mistake for each those countries. I can always come back if I really like them I guess. Same goes for Kuwait and Bahrain, the two gulf countries I haven't visited yet. Actually, for those two, I'd probably just go visit them in one weekend. But to be completely honest, there's nothing I want to see in either so it would be "tick the box" travel which I hate. Maybe I could do it as a mileage run?
Places like Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria could be good 7-10 day trips in the next 2 years. Maybe put them on the list after Tokyo.

Revisit Zimbabwe and try to see the cities (Harare, Bulawayo) when visiting my parents in S. Africa. Alternatively, visit Botswana or Namibia.

In the future:
Two longer (i.e. 2 month or so trips) I'd like to do are 1) Mexico to Panama overland and 2) Belarus to Turkey overland. I guess I have to reserve some summers for them. Trans-Mongolian would be cool as well, as would spending two or so months in India, but those will have to wait.

That should fill my map at a healthy pace while still allowing me to spend enough time to enjoy places (and enjoy the actual act of travel), maintain my FF status, get work done and so on. And quite importantly, this still leaves me time to do my own trips to places I've visited before, which still consists of like more than half of my travel. Then before or after graduation (3 or 4 years) I need to try to do a 6/7 month African overland trip which should really help with making my map more blue

UltraRant

@mpkz

Which on line tool did you use to create that map? I used the one on world66, but they apparently did something to block 'myworld66' for all users. Would be interested in a new one!

Also, I have visited most of the countries you list as potential targets for your next travels. Feel free to pm me in case you have any questions.