TRAVEL | SUDAN | TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
The Scariest Part of Travelling In Sudan
It’s not what you think.
At the end of January 2021, we decided to travel to Sudan. We had been in Egypt for three weeks, and we were tired of the constant hassles that we faced there. We hoped for a different experience further south.
We had been told that the Sudanese were really lovely people and we couldn’t wait to meet them and experience their culture.
A few days before we left, we were thrilled to randomly meet three Sudanese men in Aswan. They were in Egypt on a holiday and were headed back to Khartoum a couple of days before we planned to go there. They made us promise to contact them when we arrived and they said they looked forward to showing us around.
Getting There
We traveled by bus from Aswan to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city. We were told that it was a 12-hour drive, which it was, but they neglected to tell us that we would be spending 14 hours overnight at the border. That is a story in itself that I have yet to write, but I did make this video about the experience:
Despite having no idea what Sudan would have in store for us, we were happy to put Egypt behind us and could already feel the cultural difference in the people that were on the bus.
Twenty-six hours after leaving Aswan, we arrived in Khartoum.
As we approached the capital city, the traffic became congested and the streets became dirtier. We could truly see that Sudan was rough around the edges, but we were excited about a new adventure nonetheless. We arrived at about 2:00 pm and pulled into a dusty dirt parking lot where a pile of goats lay at the entrance welcoming us.
The bus stopped and a lady a few rows up approached us and asked us where we were staying.
We had no idea.
I will admit that we were very unprepared for what we were about to encounter in Sudan. We didn’t realize how isolated it was from the outside world, and most foreigners that visit are part of NGOs or aid organizations. In fact, we encountered many people who just couldn’t figure out what we were doing there.
“Why did you come to Sudan?” One young lady asked with intense curiosity.
“Because we want to see what it is like and meet the Sudanese people,” I told her.
“But why would you leave Canada?” She just couldn’t wrap her head around it.
The lady and her sons were going to be taking a taxi and offered for us to go with her. After asking us how much we wanted to spend on a room, she said that she would bring us to a hotel that would work for our budget. She spoke broken English and Chris spoke some Arabic with her as well.
I also had her call our friend Jamal, one of the guys that we had met back in Aswan, to talk to him about any suggestions that he might have. They settled on a place, we all filed into the taxi and we were on our way.
The lovely lady refused to let us help her pay for the taxi when we arrived at the hotel. In retrospect, I am even more appreciative of that kind gesture since we only had $95US cash that we had gotten before leaving Aswan when we exchanged our remaining Egyptian pounds. Our room was about $25, and with us not being sure how long we would stay there, we only paid for one night.
We crashed hard in our hotel room and slept till darkness came.
An Initial Warning
At about 7:00 pm we heard a knock on our door. It was Jamal stopping by to see how we were doing. Thankfully, because the lady had called him earlier, he knew where we were. He told us that he wanted to take us to get a cell phone card and to meet his friends for coffee on the Nile river. Who could refuse such an offer? Despite still feeling tired from our ordeal, we got ready and headed out into the city of Khartoum.
He was a really great host and made us feel completely comfortable in this very foreign country. We spent a few different days hanging out with him, when he had the time, and we were so thankful for his hospitality. Little did we know that this was just the beginning of our amazing experience with the wonderful and kind people of Sudan.
It was on our very first night in Sudan, while we were sipping coffee with his friends when Jamal mentioned that our debit cards likely wouldn’t work in the ATMs across the country. Chris had already read this information somewhere as well, but then after doing a bit more research, he found an article that said that there were, in fact, a few ATMs in Khartoum that worked for foreign cards.
He had read that when we were back in Egypt, and I will admit that I had completely forgotten about it even being an issue.
“Oh, I’m sure it will be fine,” I told Jamal with confidence. “Our cards work everywhere in the world.” I naively had no idea that this was not true.
You see, Sudan has never had access to the global banking system because of its political stance and the sanctions that were placed on the country. In fact, it is only now trying to gain access to the Visa and Mastercard network. At least, progress WAS being made in that regard until the military coup which took place after we were there in 2021.
Sadly, I have no idea what their current financial status is these days.
Trying To Get Money
With little funds on hand, the next morning we decided that we better head out and get this money situation sorted out. First, we told the man at the front desk that we needed to get money before we could pay him for another night. He claimed that it was fine and I found a street with a few banks on it on google maps and we headed out.
One by one we tried about 6 different ATMs. In most cases I would insert my card, only to have the machine spit it back out again instantly. My heart sank a little lower each time this happened.
Slinking back to our hotel, feeling very defeated, we did some research online to try and find an ATM that would work for foreign cards. One article claimed that there was one in the largest and fanciest hotel in the city. Since I now had a SIM card for my phone, I called them.
“Hello, I was told that you have an ATM at your hotel that accepts foreign cards,” I told the man that answered.
“Yes we do, but it has been out of money for many months.” He told me.
My heart was in the pit of my stomach by now.
We went out and found a cheap meal at a nearby restaurant and then went back to our hotel to try and figure out what to do.
Moment by moment, and as our funds were dwindling, I constantly felt like I was attempting to stave off a full-blown panic attack.
Getting Rescued
It was that evening when, of all people, my ex-husband messaged me to see how I was doing. We are on speaking terms, and he occasionally checks in on us to see how our travels are going.
We are doing pretty good I told him, but we are having difficulties accessing cash, which is pretty stressful.
Of course, he could well imagine how stressful it was and I was relieved when he offered to send me money via Western Union. I hadn’t even thought of that being an option.
I messaged Jamal to see if he knew if Western Union was in the country, and thankfully it was.
If it hadn’t have been, I don’t know what we would have done.
We had never used Western Union before, so it was definitely a learning curve. Sending it was one thing, but accessing the money was also quite stressful because some of the Western Union shops would run out of money occasionally.
Being that we were now down to our final dollars, my adrenaline was really pumping when Jamal took us to the first Western Union shop that said that it was closing at 2:00 and that we needed to come back at 4:00. Thankfully at that time we were able to get our transfer which came in USD.
It’s a very complicated situation but the exchange rate for Sudanese Pounds to USD according to the banks was about 50 to one. But if we exchanged it on the black market (which is obviously what everyone did) we were able to get 330+ pounds for 1 USD.
After that Jamal arranged for his friends to come to our hotel lobby to exchange the money to Sudanese Pounds. We had no option, at that point, but to trust that his friends were giving us a good exchange rate.
It turns out that they did.
It was a very bizarre experience, but after about 5 days we finally got ourselves sorted with a Western Union transfer from Canada.
Finally, we were very happy to pay for our hotel room because they were getting a bit anxious, understandably.
Settling In
After a couple of weeks in Khartoum, we made our way out to the coast and rented an apartment in Port Sudan.
For the entire remainder of our 3-month stay in Sudan, we had to arrange Western Union transfers. They continued to be stressful because in Port Sudan we had to get them at a bank. The bank line-up was sometimes 2 hours long, and other times the Western Union counter would shut down for 2 days with no explanation.
Thankfully, though, we were well taken care of thanks to the lovely group of men below, whom we met at a coffee stand one day. We truly felt like we were in good hands and we were so grateful for the wonderful hospitality that the Sudanese people extended us while we were in their country.
In fact, the people of Sudan were truly the highlight of our stay and I will surely write more about them soon.
Not being able to get money was the scariest part of our travels in Sudan. Despite its reputation in the west as a dangerous country, we had no problems with safety and despite our struggles with money, we truly enjoyed the time that we spent there.
I hope this article acts as a warning to others to properly research ways that you can get money before entering a country. It was certainly a huge lesson for us, and we will never take our debit card for granted again!
More about Sudan:
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