Kassala Travel Guide

 maykal Says:  Surrounding Kassala are lush gardens and farmland, the ideal place for a picnic if you happen to know any of the landowners...I do, as many of my students live there! OK, so there isn't much to do, but the people there will be very pleased to show you guava and mango trees,... 

 maykal Says:  The word "chicha" should never be confused with hashish...chicha is the Sudanese term for nargileh/hookah/hubble bubble pipe that is so popular all over the Middle East. On a chicha, only normal or fruit flavoured tobacco is used...if you are after hashish (and you shouldn't... 

 maykal Says:  HAHAHAHA...nightlife in Kassala?!!! You must be joking! Well, actually, that's not quite true, but there isn't much to do if you don't know anyone. One option is the open-air cinema, which shows heavily-edited Bollywood films subtitled in Arabic...obviously if you cannot... 

 maykal Says:  Unfortunately the border between Eritrea and Sudan is firmly closed at the moment. In October 2002, there were attacks on the Kassala area (including the Sawagi) by Sudanese rebels based in Eritrea's mountains, and since then there have been periodic skirmishes along the... 

 maykal Says:  Kassala is not the ideal place to buy clothes, but if you need any, you will certainly not have a hard time finding a shop selling some. Half of the souq is geared up for clothes imported from Syria, China or Kenya. Each type of clothes has its own little corner...shirts and... 

 maykal Says:  Two famous coffee-drinking tribes of the east, the Haddendawa and Beni Amir are part of the large Beja family of tribes, and are widespread in Eastern Sudan and Eritrea (where they are known as Hedareb), along with the lesser known Halanga tribe. Now, I know several... 

 maykal Says:  Kassala is not a great place to fall sick! There is no shortage of hospitals in town, although facilities are somewhat basic. For simple things like diarrhoea or colds, head to a pharmacy (saydaliya), as the pharmacists are used to dealing with these problems and should have... 

 maykal Says:  Walking through as-Sawagi, you might come across big clumps of mud and rock which look as if they are just part of the land. On closer inspection, you realise that they are actually termite houses. My Kassalan friends were non-plussed, but having never seen one before, I was... 

 maykal Says:  Running in Kassala is possible, but not an easy pursuit. For a start, the weather is just too hot most of the time. Then there is all the attention you'll get...it is bad enough walking in the street as a foreigner, so you can imagine how people will react if you run past... 

 maykal Says:  There used to be internet access at Fayed Technology (look out for the bright lights atop one of the buildings in the bus station, the entrance is between a barbershop and a coffee stall up some rickety stairs), charging a reasonable S£3000 for an excruciatingly slow...