When I arrived in Nairobi, the entry visa* took up the last page in my passport. I knew this was coming, so I planned to spend an extra day in Nairobi before returning to Arusha, since there wouldn't have been any space to stamp my passport at the border.
We had arrived in the morning (I didn't even know they had red-eye flights across Africa) and I hadn't slept on the flight, though I managed to grab a 2 hour nap on the taxi ride in from the airport (traffic in Nairobi is ridiculous these days, that used to be a 40 minute drive). After dropping my bags at Upper Hill, I headed straight to the embassy, though the only thing on my mind at that point was a nap.
I found the embassy pretty easily (it's rather well-fortified after the bombing in 1998) and went to the security line, only to be informed that I couldn't enter without an appointment. She gave me a sheet to set an appointment. I was too tired to read the whole page, so I just called the number she had circled only to discover that it was the "emergency services" line. The person on the line was friendly and told me that I needed to go online to make an appointment. So I found an internet cafe and scheduled an appointment for the next day.
When I arrived the next day, I made it through the security line easily and found a long line in the embassy for services. Really defeats the purpose of the appointment if they have you schedule it just to wait around for an hour. While I was there, I had plenty of time to kill, and I noted the outdated posting reminding me that replacement passport pages were recently a free service. When it was finally my turn, I had to pay my $82 so that they could stitch 6 pieces of paper into my passport. That price still baffles me and seems nearly extortionate. If they're taking that much money off of me, I'm pretty sure that they should offer that service whenever I feel like showing up. I will say that at least they handled the job fairly quickly.
In conclusion, getting new passport pages was an all-around unpleasant experience. I have seven years left on this passport, which probably means I'll get to do it at least once more. I'll do everything I can to keep my scowling to a minimum.
*Also, they just doubled all of their prices for entering Kenya. A transit visa is now $20 and the 3 month single entry visa is now $50.
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2 comments:
That is so bizarre. The American Embassy in Cambodia did it for free and gave me way more that 6 pages! I guess that's Africa for you. Sorry I missed you in Ghana. I've been swamped with work so I'll get to take my one big vacation there in February. Hope all is well!
Yep, they were free until relatively recently. I think it was earlier this year when they started charging for it.
And I did get 24 pages in my passport, but that is only six pieces of paper. I was probably a little over-dramatic on that point, but I wanted to convey the absurdity of the price.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that we didn't get to meet up. I was so swamped up there. I didn't even get to meet up with one of my good friends in Accra. I suspect we're more likely to meet up back in the states.
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