Getting to Namibia...Not before familiar visa woes

Map of Namibia

The months of April and May were busy with my company striving for a change in its future direction. Most of the work done during this time was strategic but a lot of the implementation will take place over the next 12 months. A lot to look forward to and learn this year. The advent of May also signaled that my second home leave was around the corner. Initially planning to leave in the second week of May, I had to push back my departure plans by a week but finally departed Liberia through the country’s secondary airport called Spriggs Pane. The primary airport called Roberts International Airport is where all the major international carriers dock their plane and is bordering my company’s concession area some 40 odd kilometers away from Monrovia.

Map of present day Namibia

The Spriggs Pane airport other the other hand is situated pretty much in the middle of the capital with busy streets, bars and markets on one side and a swathe of pristine mangrove swamp surrounding the other sides. I am not sure how much bigger the runway at the Roberts International Airport is, but the terminal building is just a tad larger. Of all the airports I have used the Spriggs Pane airport seems the smallest one…well, if I discount my hometown’s airport. Perhaps it’s not a glowing endorsement of the Spriggs Pane airport considering that there are currently no scheduled domestic (forget international) flights to the airport at Belgaum. This airport is also notorious for immigration officials asking for lets just say tips and gifts. A common line often used when returning via this airport is “anything from you home country for the officials serving you” or “anything for tea or coffee for the officers”.

Finally stepping on Namibian soil

The flight took me to Addis Ababa via the now seemingly routine stop and change of flights at Accra. Having visited Ethiopia in Dec 2011/Jan 2012, I wasn't planning on spending much time in Addis. The plan was to get in, get my visa for Namibia and get out. Namibia for the uninitiated used to be called South West Africa and was part of the apartheid regime of South Africa until it gained independence in 1990 and was one of the second tier countries on my “to travel” list. Having exhausted the primary list last year with the visit to Sudan, it was time to discover the nations of this list starting with Namibia. I also felt that the timing what right to go back to southern Africa where I last traveled in 2010; first with South Africa and Swaziland and then Madagascar although the latter is so different it can be considered a region of Africa by itself.

My Air Namibia flight from Accra

As is usual, the first step towards planning started by looking at Namibian embassies that I can easily access. Luckily, the most convenient option in Addis Ababa was also the best one. Addis, being the seat of the African Union has diplomatic representations of several African countries. Point duly noted for future!

Filing for the Namibian visa was a breeze…filling the application form, a quick passport photo at a local studio, a few copies of passport and I was all set. It still took a whole day to get the consul general to sign on it as she was away attending the 21st African Union (AU) summit held in Addis Ababa. Although the celebrations for the African Union’s 50th Anniversary were haughty, the general talk on the street was that it’s done nothing for the majority of the continent’s citizens rather indulging in mollycoddling with dictators, corrupt officials and some select global companies.

Downtown Windhoek

Feeling exalted having secured my Namibian visa I got to the airport the next day to board the place to Namibia via Johannesburg but was brought straight back down to earth by the lady at the check-in counter who informed me that I could not board the place without a South African transit visa. She told me that I would be deported and the airline would be fined heavily. I was incredulous and could scarcely believe the situation having traveled through Johannesburg on my way to Madagascar in 2010 without having to resort to getting a transit visa.

Despite having experienced the extraordinary rigors of going through a visa process for practically all countries I have visited I can understand why so many countries require Indian citizens to get a visa to visit their country , after all Indians are expert at migrating to all corners of the world. That fact considered, having to get a transit visa for a layover at the airport for just a couple hours seemed a bit of overkill if not plain stupid. I have a few South African friends but without wanting to offend anybody this was South Africa I was transiting through…its ain’t no USA or Western Europe. Perhaps some people got over excited with RSA sounding like USA but seriously, its just another BRICKS nation and not too far ahead of India in terms of its development. Maybe I am a little blunt but this blog seems the only way to vent out my frustrations.

Sometimes I can’t wait for India to be an economic superpower which I hope it does in the near future so that some of these stupid visa restrictions are eased. Perhaps I am being selfish because for me to reap the benefits of the nation’s development that I have not contributed to directly seems unfair.

With the emotion that I can best describe as a mix of anger and disappointment I even visited the South African embassy that morning to check if I could get a transit visa but when the lady at the counter told me it would take 5 business day I literally tore my application form right in front of her and got out of the place with a “no thanks!”

My rental car for the next couple weeks

After spending almost 4 days in Addis due to the visa mess I managed to return back to Accra and take a direct flight to Namibia on Air Namibia. All of my time in Addis was not a lost cause though as I had a stirring moment. The day before I left Addis, I had coffee with Wudassie who was an exceptionally beautiful and intelligent Ethiopian lady. She was a teacher in the eastern city of Harar and having worked with Indian teachers at the university she immediately recognized that I was Indian. She was an Amhara, the people of the Ethiopian highlands who are the dominant force in Ethiopian politics for several years. Over coffee I learnt that things have changed quite drastically. It’s the Tigray people from the north who wield the power in Ethiopian politics now.

It was fascinating to see Ethiopia, socially and politically from a common Ethiopian’s perspective. What was more evocative was to hear her talk about travel. She was an educated, working class woman with aspirations to travel the world but due to the depressed salary structure in Ethiopia she could only dream of it. That’s when I had the moment of “seeing myself in the mirror”. A couple decades or so ago I was not very different. My window to the world was all those National Geographic magazines and seeing the outside world through some of the newly broadcasted international channels thanks to the opening of Indian airways that came with the economic liberalization of Indian in the early 1990’s. Traveling was super expensive back then and I used to dream of it. Thanks to my grandfathers insistence that I go to the USA and the education and opportunity provided by that country I can now live my dream.

Finally I arrived in Windhoek, Namibia early in the morning and considering the friendly attitude of the immigration lady I got a sense that travel in this country was going to be something special. The capital although small was extremely well laid out and as my taxi driver said “this is not Africa…this is more like Europe”.

I did not have a lot of time to get myself oriented; immediate need was to get some Namibian cash and start working on a plan to get out of the capital. That’s where the real gems of Namibia awaited!