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  Berbera, Somalia
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Welcome to Somaliland!  Where's the roller coaster?  Although the name of this country which isn't a country sounds like a place where you would find all kinds of exciting rides and people dressed up in big furry costumes waving to you as you stepped off the boat the reality is a bit different.   Despite the fact that Somaliland has been independent from the rest of Somalia since 1991 and has own government, borders, currency and army it still has yet to be recognized by any other nations. 

 
Continuing the story from where I left off, we had all boarded the Al Nuba II and paid for our passage to Somaliland, which was actually cheaper than going to Djibouti.  After sailing for over 30 hours through shark and pirate infested waters we finally arrived just outside of the port of Berbera.  About 12 hours after we arrived a small boat finally came out with some dock workers aboard to give us arrival forms to fill out and of course deliver much desired Qat to the crew.  They told us that we should be able to get our visas in the afternoon.  Well the afternoon came and went no one came out to pick us up.  Then the following afternoon came and went and still we waited.  Noticing a pattern here?  We began to joke that we were in a prison just a few hundred meters from shore.  It was a nice prison though. 
 

The captain was an interesting man who spoke several languages and was very well traveled.  He was also the only person on board who didn't chew Qat, although he smoked like a chimney, and always called me American guy because he couldn't remember my name.  At night we slept on the deck and during the day we sat around on deck and talked, read, or caught some fish for dinner.  Finally on the 3rd day the captain gave us the good news that we would be docking. 
 
After docking we continued to wait around for our visas but were allowed to at least walk around the port area.  The lonely planet guide to Africa only devotes a measly 6 pages Somalia.  It says Berbera is a "bustling commercial city-port".  I wouldn't exactly call it bustling.  The entire time we waited in the harbor there was only one other ship and it was from North Korea.  Again, hmm....  After 12 more hours and some questions from various officials visiting the ship we finally got permission to enter the country. 
 
The officials were all very friendly but I think they thought it was very strange that 6 foreigners from 5 different countries where arriving by ship from Yemen.  They asked us several times if we were journalists and even though we said no, tourists I am not sure we were believed because they kept insisting Somaliland was a safe country.  They also assigned us two armed guards that followed us around every time we left the hotel.  Everyone we met was extremely friendly but also kept repeating "Somaliland is safe country".  Ok, thats nice but then what are those two guys behind us carrying Kalashnikovs for?  Well we found out later that two years ago a few NGO workers were killed by gunmen sent from Mogadishu to destabilize Somaliland.  The men were caught and put in prison but I think the officials are very worried about getting any bad press, especially with the current problems in the south.  There was not much to do in Berbera but the market was interesting and every time we stopped swarms of kids would surround us and ask where we were from.  It was also very cheap here.  Our hotel room cost only $2 per night! .

Cooking Up Some Local Goodies

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I Pity the Fool!	Market Pic	Me and the Kids	Meat Ladies
Notice the US Aid Bags	Qat Stand	Romantic Pic of Mustafa and Me	What a Wopper!
What Happened to the Al Nuba I?	Wild Animals

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