I arrived at the Sudanese Embassy on-the-dot at 0930 and walked to the back of the building to find the door closed. The receptionist wasn’t in side; in fact there was no one in there. I waited for about 15 minutes before someone opened the door.
After a brief wait, Mr Sabri turned up and I gave him the paper work and my passport once again. Some 40 minutes later, an assistant handed me my passport with my Sudanese visa (valid for 2 months) and I parted with MYR212. With the current exchange rate, this is about USD65 whereas a visa-on-arrival would be USD100.
Of course, the reason for me getting the visa in advance is not for the savings (as I had to stay in KL to do this) but due to an error in the IATA database which airlines use. The error may lead check-in staff to think that I’m not eligible for a visa-on-arrival when I truly am eligible, as per the embassy.
Leaving the embassy, I stumbled upon the bus to KLCC (which saved me a train-cum-monorail ride). I met up with an old school friend Dora there before picking up his little one from school. We grabbed lunch and chatted at her place till the afternoon.
On the train back into town, I noticed that my fake Keens sandals had developed a deep crack in the right sole. I desperately looked around town and found nothing I’d be prepared to buy to replace them. Most were open-toed and the few closed-toe ones were too expensive for what they were. I consoled myself with a dinner of pohpiah, Indian rojak and ABC.