Libya?

So before I know it I'll be on my way from Stockholm and the tap-water friendly Sweden for the warmer, more parasite friendly climes of North Africa.  My trip is well orchestrated (as detailed here) through Tunisa, but entering and moving around in Libya is getting a bit tricky.

Why travel to Libya?  My first thought has been 'why not', but after a few respected folks gave me a number of good reasons, I started to look a bit more closely.  So Libya opened to US tourist travel in 2000, and since then lots of folks have made their way through without incident.  I found a few general guides here, here, and especially here - which links back to a number of favorable reviews of traveling within Libya.

That said, there are cautions regarding traveling within Libya which do not deviate much from cautions regarding travel in many countries (all travelers in western Europe is under a vague advisory and are essentially cautioned against taking public transportation).  The Brits suggest travelers avoid border areas, though the British embassy has handled mostly lost passports in the past year.

SO - should an intrepid globe trotter such as myself propose to visit this former State Sponsor of Terror, what would they need to do?  As you can see here there are a number of requirements for moving into and around Libya - primarily a visa, provided exclusively through tour companies who must accompany a traveler while they are in Libya.  So find a guide, get a visa, good to go.  Not quite.

There are dozens of travel agencies, operating primarily from the UK, offering travel packages from London to Tripoli and back.  Tour companies offer package deals only, or only on certain dates, or only to groups (solo travel often being prohibitively expensive as I would need to be accompanied by a guide anytime I'm out of the city (or in the city, according to some sites).  After several days of trawling through google searches and recommendations from one tour company for another when they couldn't help, I am pretty much empty handed.

This morning, running out of options and time before my flight to Morocco, I paid a visit to the Libyan embassy in Stockholm.  After my experience with the US embassy, I wasn't sure what to expect - guards? plate glass? road blocks?  Turns out the embassy is across the street from Corinne's school, and may or may not have been the site of a protest last week (there are other embassies on the street and WHO KNOWS what the heck was going on - all we saw were balloons and and chanters, they could have been hari-krishnas), but this is what I found.  I hit the buzzer outside and waited - hit it again, then an exasperated voice came over the radio 'it's already OPEN.'  Right.  I head inside, explain my business to the woman behind the window who motions for me to sit down an goes back to whatever she was doing.  There is a guy behind the glass on the phone, speaking Arabic, but he is standing up and wearing street clothes.  After a few minutes and several checks with another guy behind the glass, he walks out of the building.  If I didn't know better, I'd say he was 'borrowing the phone.'  Meanwhile, a fellow to my left, having overheard me, gave me some travel suggestions (get out of Tripoli, see Ghat - I had thought he said khat and believed for a split second that I was being set up).  Not the case - he and another guy gave me some tips and an email address for a few in-country tour companies.

A moment later this guy pointed out the 'head manager' who had poked his head in the office and suggested I go talk to him - 'he's the only one who gets things done, she doesn't do anything,' which had been my impression.  So unlike EVERYTHING else in Sweden where you take a number, I walked up to the counter and placed my question again.  And he answered it - he said I needed a tour company (yes I know) and that I wouldn't really need anything else.  Thanks I say, and as I'm saying ta ta to my new Libyan friends, one suggests I get my passport translated which you will notice is listed and crossed out on the Saharan Overland site.  

I head back into the world again, in almost the exact same state of limbo I was before.  My plan is to make a few last minute attempts to set up a visa pick-up in Tunis, or get to Tunis and play it by ear.  At this point the worst case scenario is I have to fly from Tunis to Cairo (which is best-case for some of the wary readers mentioned earlier).  But I'm hoping to see this place.  If you had a chance to check out some of the quick links about the country, there is a lot going on - at least Leptis Magna, which looks amazing.

Before departure, C and I head out of Stockholm for a birthday weekend visit to Salbohed (pronounced sal-bow-hey, which confounded my call to the fine folks at the national rail system).  Back Sunday evening, and catch my flight to Casablanca Monday morning.