Why South Sudan:
Originally, my plan for my 100th country was to throw a big party for friends and family in Western Europe or in the Caribbean. However, a pregnant wife changed the calculation. With just one month left until my wife’s imposed pre-baby travel ban, I was at 99 countries visited and was determined to hit the big 100 milestone before the birth. When making the decision of where to go, I had a few criteria: 1. Somewhere I could really “see” the country in a couple days, as I would not have a full week due to work. 2. Not a Muslim country because it was Ramadan. 3. A country that Maisie would never want to visit. South Sudan fit all the criteria. Moreover, there was a “relatively cheap” one-stop flight on Turkish Airlines to get there which would allow me to somehow take just a single day off from work. Moreover, March is the dry season in South Sudan and while the country is rated by the US State Department as Level 4: Do Not Travel, I was reading a lot of trip reports on trusted Facebook/WhatsApp groups meaning that it is safely being visited right now. As crazy as it sounds, I trust the Facebook groups more than any government.
So…it would be South Sudan for the big 1-0-0.
The plan was to leave Wednesday after work, land in Istanbul on Thursday at night which corresponded to the start of the work day in LA, work through the night. Then I would fly to South Sudan on Friday morning and tour Friday, Saturday, Sunday. On Monday day, I would fly back to Istanbul and work through the night which corresponds to the work day in LA. Then finally, I would fly back to LA that Tuesday morning and go straight to work. What an itinerary!
Visiting South Sudan requires an electronic visa (eVisa) and letter of invitation from a licensed tour guide. All the online forums recommended David at Boma Hills Tour. He quoted me at $1300 for the 3-night tour. In addition, I had to pay about $250 for the visa, $70 for the alien registration fee once in South Sudan and I would need to pay for my final dinner. All in, the trip would cost about $3,000 all-in, which is…not terrible by Africa standards. Believe it or not, Africa is BY FAR the most expensive inhabited continent to visit.
The letter of invitation came about a month before the trip. The eVisa application crazily could only be submitted within seven days of arrival in South Sudan (so, five days before departure). Thankfully the visa got approved in 24 hours.
March 13, 2026: The Final Boss
After flying 13 hours to Istanbul, I had my seven-hour layover where I sat in the enormous PriorityPass lounge and worked. With no distractions and no possibility of going into the field, I was actually very productive.
Just after midnight, it was time to head to the gate for the 2:00 flight. There, an airline attendant checked everybody’s visas. When he checked mine, I was told that I could not board because my eVisa was invalid. After asking why, he said because the eVisa did not contain the final digit of my passport on it. There were 8 digits listed instead of the 9 in my passport. He said I would need to apply for a new visa. Obviously, this is not how I intended this trip to go. Would I seriously fall short of 100 due to a typing error by a South Sudanese official? Would I get stopped by the final boss? Absolutely not!
I screamed “What do you mean my visa is invalid?!?! Who do you think issued me the visa?! All the other info is perfect – it even has my photo on it!”
I caused enough of a ruckus that the worker said he would talk to his manager who could call South Sudanese immigration and ask if I could fly. In the meantime, I called Maisie to photoshop the eVisa paper to add in the final digit of my passport, which she was able to do in about a minute. I had my doubts since it was the middle of the night in South Sudan, but lo and behold a few minutes later, the attendant came back and reluctantly said I was approved to fly to South Sudan. He was clearly disappointed because if it were up to him, I would be denied boarding.
30-minutes later as I boarded, he tore off my boarding pass and said “Lucky”.
Before going to South Sudan, the plane was going to make a planned first stop in Asmara, Eritrea as part of a triangle route. Most of the passengers were actually going to Eritrea and very few people were going to Juba.
The flight to Asmara took 4.5 hours. A few rows in front of me was a famous travel TikToker heading to Eritrea – she had already been to South Sudan. As we started our descent, I could see a gorgeous sunrise as the fog crept over the hills. What a beautiful country!
The fog got very thick and I was honestly very scared. Apparently, the pilot was scared too because we aborted the landing and started to climb. I assumed that we would attempt another landing (like on my trip to Cape Cod) but instead we kept climbing and climbing. No announcement from the cockpit.
Eventually, the in-flight entertainment system noted our final destination as JED: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – 1 hour 15 minutes away.
We landed in Jeddah completely unsure of what was going to happen. Still no announcement from the captain. Were we going to continue on to Asmara? Would Saudi Arabia be country 100? Jeddah was definitely not the ideal place to be at the moment because it was Ramadan in one of the strictest Muslim countries and because the country was currently being attacked by Iran. My biggest fear was having the crew time out and being stranded here or being forced to fly back to Istanbul. With such a short trip, I did not have much leeway. I did hear from a flight attendant that they do a crew change in Asmara for this flight which was a good thing since the crew definitely had available hours to fly.
I was able to get cell coverage here through my international plan and texted my guide letting him know about the situation. I also texted Saudi friends asking them for help just in case.
During this time, I chatted with some of my neighbors – one lady was a foreign aid consultant in Juba. She connected me with a colonel in the military and her security detail just in case things went wrong.
After 90 minutes on the ground, the captain reported that the weather in Asmara had cleared up, we had refueled the plane and prepared to take off! YES!
The flight to Asmara took 90 minutes. We did a lot of circling but landed without incident. The weather was completely clear.
We spend another hour on the ground where most passengers disembarked, the crew changed over and we refueled again. We then took off to Juba.
The flight from Asmara to Juba took two hours. As we descended and I could finally see the expanse of dirt roads and corrugated steel-roofed houses of Juba, I started to get emotional and teared up as “Bless the Broken Road” played in my headphones. Memories from childhood, the early adventuring days, other monumental trips flowed through my mind. Yes, I have triumphed over the challenges of the last 12 hours, but this moment is more than: it is the culmination of a lifetime of adventures and struggles.
We landed in Juba 5 amongst a sea of WHO and other unmarked white planes. We were just under 5 hours behind schedule but this would actually not affect out itinerary much.
As I stepping out onto the airplane staircase, I felt my first touch of the hot South Sudanese air. I stretched my arms out wide in victory.
Then I followed the crowd along the tarmac to a hut next to the makeshift building where yellow fever vaccine card was checked. Then, I walked into the terminal where my visa was scanned. Shockingly quickly, my fingerprints were scanned and then I was stamped into South Sudan, Country 100. It’s official.
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