I am heading to Jordan now, here is quick summary of Almaty, Kazakhstan:
I didn’t speak a single word Russian, most locals did not speak English, even if they did, it’s English word, not sentence, but locals were very nice, friendly and helpful,so I was able to get around using buses and taxi like locals and commute with them using hand languages. Tourist trap? I did not see any because there was no tourist for them to trap, I only met 3 tourists including myself. If not because of the incident today at ALA airport, I would say I was very happy with the visit.
Immigration official at airport refused to stamp my passport and let me exit the country by claiming I did not have Jordan Visa in my passport. I know some countries put certain restrictions to their own citizens such as China or India when leaving the country, but those restrictions doesn’t apply to the foreigner, whether a foreigner could enter next country or not is not immigration officials’ business.
She did eventually let me go after 50 minutes. I didn’t know why she did that, maybe
1 She wants money, but I did not try to offer?
2 The country has such law, and she just could not believe that one country like Jordan would give “visa on arrival” to a ordinary passport holder of a communist country.
Who knows and don’t care, no desire to go back in near future.
