by buffybot_in_beirut » Thu Nov 21, 2013 5:16 am
Was there 20 years ago, before the oil boom. Visa moderately difficult to get. Police etc. the worst in any African country (hassle, paranoia, bribes). I follow the TT stories, too, and from what I gather both aspects have gotten worse since the bastards found oil and got their behave-like-complete-assholes-for-free card. It's probably one of the most challenging countries to get into, and to visit once you are there. Pity because it's beautiful, particularly the island part and the setting of the capital.
Isn't there a local travel agency that can sort out a visa and photo permit for mega-bucks? But then it appear to me EQ's problem is it is so rich that they really don't need income/bribes/ridiculously high fees from tourists. One talk with a Texan oil executive and the fuckers secure more income than a million tourists spend in ten years in France. They can afford to be nasty to tourists because they are only a nuisance to them, and entirely irrelevant economically.
How about cozying up to an oil company with an offer to write an article about what brilliant job they are doing in this excemplary democratic paradise of EQ? An then, once you're in (with their help), do a bit of "extra work"...?