TIA

Our good friend Mike borrowed TIA from Leo in Blood Diamonds - This Is Africa. Like OIL, TIA applies to many things in Libya. Now that we have "escaped" from Libya, we feel more comfortable putting some stories up here!

On our flight from Malta to Tripoli, the flight crew handed out currency control sheets from Libya. These required you to list all the money you were carrying into Libya and every time you changed money you were to get it stamped. There was an English and an Arabic sections. The English part said this was just for translation purposes and that the Arabic copy must be presented. At this point Kim was really doubting whether we should be making a journey into Libya. How were we supposed to get this translated into Arabic???? This form also said that we must "register" upon our arrival, failure to do so would result in "serious inconvenience for the visitor". Great. Just what we need - serious inconvenience!! The funny thing about this form was that when I went to change money at the airport and presented the form, the guy "threw" it back at me. Even funnier was that neither Mike nor anyone else we talked to had ever even seen this form. OIL!

Upon our arrival in Tripoli, we were expecting to be met by a representative from the company that had arranged our visa. There was no one there holding a sign up nor anyone that looked like they were looking for 2 Canadians. So we decided to get in line and talk to the Passport Control people. Just as we did this - a guy came up and pointed to my name on a sheet and asked if that was me. I said yep and he said our visas were there and just talk to the Passport Control people. The Passport Control guys were very nice - happy to have Canadians visiting them. They never once even looked at our translation page!! After talking to the Passport Control guys for about 2 minutes, we waited for our representative to process our visa - which took about 20 minutes. He then took us to get our bag and said he was going to find our car. We told him we didn't have a car. He insisted we did. At this point I told Kim that he wouldn't "lose" us because we hadn't paid him yet. We also asked him about "registering" - he looked at us strange and said our "company host" would look after this. Ok. What if we don't have a "company host" - I guess we'll figure that out later. We grab our bag and wait for him to return for us. We are going about 500m to the next terminal for our domestic flight to Benghazi.

After about 25 minutes we can't find our representative. We are in the country, but haven't paid for our visa yet and we have about 1 hour before our next flight leaves. We decide to take a taxi over to the other terminal - we can't wait any longer for our visa guy to find us. In the Lonely Planet guide it says it costs 10LD (Libyan Dinar) (1LD= $0.80CAD) to go to the other terminal or to downtown Tripoli. Mike has also told me the same. So we hop in the taxi and go.

Once our 2 minute taxi ride is over, we get out and I go to hand the taxi driver 10LD. He wants 15LD. I tell him it is only 10LD. He says no it is 15LD. What am I supposed to do now?? Kim and I had this whole African taxi thing down. Get the price before you get in. Make sure it is clear. This time I am thinking that there is an "official" rate and it won't be a problem. Clearly I don't know about OIL at this point!!! So I pay him the 15LD for the ride. I am swearing under my breathe (ok, maybe not that under my breathe). Kim is a bit concerned that I am going to do something to offend a Libyan some how! We have been in the country for about 30 minutes and it has definitely been an adventure.

We get checked into our next flight with no problem - there was even an organized line!! Borrow a Libyan's phone to call Mike to let him know we are in. This is where we begin to see the true Libyan spirit come through. The guy who's phone we borrowed, wouldn't take anything for using his phone. I gave him a Canadian flag pin and we were friends!!

At this point I realize that over 95% of the people we have seen so far have been men. It is very strange to see mostly men every where you look. Probably even more strange for Kim! But everyone is pleasant.

We arrive in Benghazi with no hitches and hit the sack - we have been traveling for 27 hours!!

The next morning Mike takes our passports to get them registered. He has never had any visitors, so this is a learning process for him as well. He takes them to a friend to see what can be done, but his friend wasn't in the office yet. So he talks to another guy whom he doesn't know. This guy can't quite figure out who Mike is, why he speaks Arabic, why he has 2 Canadians passports to register. He wants to see both of us in his office. Then he demands to see us. Then he wants to see Mike's passport (which he doesn't have on him). This guy has Kim's and my passports at this point. Mike is a bit concerned. He calls us and I speak to him. Mike doesn't get ruffled very easy, but I can tell that there is some major potential problems at this point. The guy wants to get Kim and I out of the country tomorrow. We can't stick around. Finally some of the people Mike does know show up and things calm down. He gets our passports back and figures we'll skip the registration process at this time...perhaps this is the serious inconvenience they talk about. Unfortunately it is Mike that is inconvenienced...not the visitors!!!!

Kim and I are unregistered, unpaid guests in Libya. Not a good combination!

Now our plan is to get one of the hotels to register us. Our first attempt at this was on Monday night. We ask the guy at the desk about registering us and he says that we don't have to register because we are only there for 4 days and it requires registration if we are there longer than 7 days. Also the registration office is closed and because it is Eid, it won't open till Saturday - 2 days after we leave. Hopefully we don't need to be registered!!!

More later...also will get some photos up...