To get in, you first need a VISA:
-
- Download and fill out the visa form:
- Attach required documents
- One passport-style photograph (2″x2″) taken within last 6 months.
- Invitation letter from your host OR hotel reservation
- A printed copy of yellow fever vaccination card.
- Copy of flight itinerary
- A copy of the front page of your Passport (bio page only)
- A valid, signed passport with at least two blank pages marked “Visas” side by side and at least six months of validity remaining.
- Prepare payment – Obtain a check or money order for:
- $100 for single entry for 1 month
- $120 for multiple entry for 1 month
- Make either payable to: Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Return envelope
- Provide a prepaid return label and envelope with a tracking number.
- Use FedEx or UPS with a valid return address.
- Submit your application
- Include your passport (must have 2 blank pages)
- Mail or hand-deliver to:
Processing Time: 11 days, with complications (read further)
Curiously for me, however, I received my return envelope as scheduled within 11 days but it contained NOT my passport, but rather the passports of 2 other people who lived in Alabama! I immediately emailed and called the Embassy, and an embarrassed agent on the other line stated she must have accidentally swapped our return envelopes. She then hung up to contact the other parties involved who lived in Alabama, and returned our calls to provide both of us with each other’s contact information.
After another quick phone call to each other, we agreed to eschew sending our passports back to the Embassy, and decided to direct mail our respective passports to each other’s addresses. Carefully taking photos of each other’s passports and sending them over to prove we had them, and then again to show we were mailing it out to each other, we were able to retrieve our respective passports within a few days. Whew! What a shitshow.
…And guess what I just read on the entry on the DRC on Wikivoyage/Wikitravel while on my flight to the Congo?
American citizens seeking a visa via the DRC embassy in Washington, D.C. are advised to mail their passport package at least a month before intended travel, as this embassy tends not to answer any phone calls or emails and can misplace passports, possibly until local bribe requirements are met on the Congolese end. On at least one occasion in 2017, a US passport was lost at this embassy for almost 2 months, resulting in loss of the trip and its cost. Note that even with travel insurance, most companies do not reimburse trips missed because of visa issues. Visiting the embassy personally might be the better bet, if at all practical.
Probably to balance the impending bureaucracy and inconveniences we were about to face in The Congo, I thoroughly basked in the easy 3 minute walk from the in-Terminal Skylight Hotel where I had stayed overnight, to our 8:45am flight from Addis to Brazzaville at gate B7, literally right in front of my in-terminal hotel room window.
Even though I had woken up a mere 20 minutes before departure, I had so much extra time that I inspected and grabbed some coffee at the Silver Lounge by our gates.
We then boarded at 8:00am for the flight from Addis Ababa, landing about 3 and a half hours later into Brazzaville and disembarked onto a skybridge; our first so far on the trip. Things seemed to be going too smoothly.
As we came down the escalators, they inspected our yellow fever vaccine cards. And then it all went downhill: Letti had to be pulled in a room as she forgot hers in her checked luggage. They then made her pay $30 for not having a physical copy and reissued a new one based on a copy she had on her phone.
Then, as we all got stamped through, Letti once again got pulled to the side after they looked at her LOI (and for some reason skipping ours) and claimed that the LOI was “expired” even though we already all had our visas and stamps. Letti then made the argument that if we as a group were able to stamp in, so should she. As a result, they got to us at baggage claims (even through she was right, we all already had our stamps in), where were all then rounded up and had our passports taken to a backroom by immigrations.
We now know: show them less not more!
After nearly an hour of arguing between us, our local guide Carole, and 3 of the officers in French, the conclusion was they wanted a “fee” for having LOIs issued more than 3 months before the trip. This obviously did not make any sense, but what was more infuriating was that I got the tour company owner, Francel, on speaker phone where he told them he was not even in the country (he was in France) and that we should bear the responsibility of this “fee.” Without any attempt to take our side or make an effort to even split or cover the fee themselves (as we did not have any local cash), we felt like we were left on our own.
Not wanting to lose any more time for my group, I began the haggle. The “fee” began at a whopping $100 USD per person ($500 total!) in XFAs but eventually we tired them out one by one where it was now down to one officer, who relented to the equivalent of $22 USD per person ($110 total), or 75k XAFs.
I then headed to an ATM outside arrivals to grab the XAFs and once the exchange was made…
…we got our passports back.
All of that for this stamp.
So there you have it: it’s already been nuts and we still haven’t even stepped foot in The Congo!
Once we were all outside arrivals, we were picked up by our other local guides helping Carole. As Matt, Janet, and Sandra stayed behind for their 3 hour tour of Brazzaville, Letti and I took a taxi with our guides to the Brazzaville ferry terminal where our goal was to take one of the ferries across the infamous Congo River to visit Kinshasa:
First the guards at the port entrance checked our passports:
And then we gave them to a fixer to process our passports and get stamped out of the ROC. We waited both for formalities to go through and for the boats to fill up with passengers.
Everything takes place in this office:
After an hour waiting for our passports to be stamped out and a boat to fill up, we finally were asked to walk over to the terminal for boarding.
It was only then I finally got to see what our ferry tickets look like:
Our guides then walked us through all the way to the dock.
You don’t get to choose which boat, but it seems the options are the open ferry to the left of this photo, and the enclosed ones to the right. They both take similar numbers of passengers and the same time to get across the river.
We got the open one!
This 10 minute, 2 mile/4km river crossing is both famous and infamous for separating two of the closest capital cities in the world.
And with an uneventful sprint across the might Congo, we reached Beach Ngobila of Kinshasa.
As it arrives at the “beach” or ferry terminal, getting into DRC can be another another ordeal. Thankfully because we arranged for a tour guide, Terence, to help us with the formalities, it got rid of all the potential drama we already had enough of earlier this morning at the airport.
Terence’s associate greeting us at the port (in the orange shirt) is also named Calvin! So you can imagine the confusion I felt when everyone at the dock was shouting our names.
We then first went through health checks, as they measured our temperature with the video camera to the left, and checked our yellow fever vaccine cards. When Letti gave them the replacement yellow fever card that she was issued at the Brazzaville airport earlier this morning (the one that cost $30), they confiscated it, arguing that to be “fair” they too, should be allowed to ask her for a $30 “fee” to give her a replacement card on the DRC side.
Obviously, this was getting ridiculous and with our tour guides arguing with them too, they switched their argument for a “fee” to explain Letti needed 2 doses of the yellow fever vaccine where she only had one. Then they asked for another “fee” in order to give her card back. Frustrated, we walked on and left her card behind.
We then proceeded to the passports desk to our left where the officers there were much friendlier and smiling. That took no drama at all; we got our stamps into the DRC within seconds:
Once we reached outside the ferry terminal, the self-righteous doctor in me realized that if you’re going to hustle me for a bribe, I’m not going to sit there and take it when someone claims in front of my face that we need 2 doses of the Yellow Fever vaccine and then get away with it.
So in the name of justice and with nothing to lose (now that we had our guide, stamps, and bags in the car), I took Letti and the guides back to the health inspections desk, and for the first time in my life pulled rank in the doctor card, and quite literally: I pulled out one of my hospital ID cards (an old one from residency; I guess any would’ve done) and the CDC website showing that one dose is “lifetime,” explaining in both English and French (via Terence) that as a doctor I have every right to question their judgment and the incorrect statement that one needs two doses of the yellow fever vaccine.
They looked shocked, likely never having experienced this kind of response before, and such a poker “tell” with that hesitation in finding an alternative response was enough to break their resolve. They gave back the card to Letti, muttering back and forth in French how they didn’t know the CDC website updated their site confirming it was only supposed to be one dose.
With no other potential fights left to do and feeling like we had achieved karmic balance, we hailed the girl with the umbrella in the above photo to exchange 20,000 XAF to 90,000 CDF (the local currency).
This would be my first “official” visit to the DRC, the last being an unofficial walk into the DRC across the border from Cabinda.
And since we’re talking official, let’s get official for those of you who don’t know the DRC: At 2.3 million square km or 905,000 square miles in size, this country is almost 4 times the size of Texas or if you were to combine France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Norway into a single country. Kinshasa on its own is Africa’s most populous city with over 11 million inhabitants and boasts the continent’s 3rd largest metropolitan area, the latter of which also happens to surpass Paris as the largest French-speaking city in the world.
DRC has had many names through its violently checkered history have been: the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Leopoldville, Zaire, and yup, even the Republic of the Congo. It’s currently either the Democratic Republic of Congo (or Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from its neighbor, Congo-Brazzaville / Republic of Congo)
Speaking of its checkered history, even when compared to its neighbors, the DRC has survived and endured one of the most gruesome experiences with colonialism under Belgium’s King Leopold II, who first arrived to ransack the country for its rubber and palm oil. Generations of oppression by Belgian control left an unprepared local government to collapse within mere weeks after achieving independence in 1960. Humanity’s bloodiest conflict since World War II took place in the 2 consecutive civil wars here (so consecutive they’re sometimes regarded as one big war), and since then, successive leaders in the DRC have spent most of the economy suppressing multiple rebellions at the expense of infrastructure, education, healthcare, reducing poverty, and improving overall quality of life for its civilians. The largest UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) in the world remains stationed here, protecting the millions of refugees in various parts of the country, especially in its eastern region.
The DRC still remains one of the least developed countries in the world, and although it’s no longer regarded to be as dangerous as it used to be (as of 2010, The U.S. State Department informed travelers that Kinshasa and other major Congolese cities are generally safe for daytime travel), the everyday backpacker, tourist, or those looking for a fancy tour will have to manage expectations or wait a little longer for the tourism industry to develop further despite the potential: Only the Amazon rivals the DRC as the only other larger rainforest on the planet, and the mighty Congo River (the inspiration for Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”) forms the backbone of the country’s infrastructure and domestic trade.
Once we crossed into Kinshasa, we were driven over to the Mémorial du Soldat Congolais or the “Congolese Soldier Memorial,” a 3m tall memorial located at the FORESCOM Roundabout in the Gombe commune and in front of the first apartment complex built in Kinshasa. One of the soldiers is walking, another is gazing up at the sky in khaki shorts, and the third is poised for attack
Inaugurated on July 28th, 2017 by President Joseph Kabila, this monument was constructed as a national tribute to all the Congolese soldiers who have fought and died in all of DRC’s conflicts since 1885. Unlike other projected around the city constructed by foreign nations and contractors, this monument was built by a local Congolese monumental sculptor named Christophe Meko Disengomoka.
There is an annual commemoration on May 17 every year, the day when the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire’s liberated Kinshasa from the autocratic ruler Mobutu Sese Seko.
From Gombe we drove south by the river to the Mausoleum of Laurent-Desire Kabila, the country’s president from 1997 to 2001. Kabila was a Ché-inspired Marxist revolutionary in his early 20s as the protege of Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first president. Despite initial years of ignobility, he then met Musevere and Kagame on a trip to Uganda, both of whom were fellow antigovernment rebels at the time. Both of them then became engaged in civil wars of their native countries, won them both, and have remained essentially lifelong presidents of Uganda and Rwanda, respectively, ever since. As the two attained power over time, they agreed to prop up Kabila as their third comrade and Congolese leader.
With Kabila in place, Rwanda and Uganda invaded Congo (then Zaire) in 1997 after which, as promised, Laurent Kabila soon became the president. However, instead of playing nice, Kabila turned totalitarian and against Musevere and Kagame. Uganda, therefore, invaded again and Kabila was eventually assassinated. His son, Joseph Kabila, quickly assumed power afterwards and has remained president since.
When at the mausoleum, you’ll see a giant statue of Kabila with his hand in the air and a book in the other. If it looks familiar, you’re not wrong: this statue was built by the Mansudae Overseas Project from North Korea (having built many brutalist monuments in North Korea and Africa), where allegedly the North Koreans just used a base of a Kim Jong-il body similar to the one in Pyongyang, and attached Kabila’s head to it.
You’ll notice how the monument’s body proportions are incorrect and more closely resembles that of Kim Jong-il, who was a little over 5 feet tall, while Laurent Kabila was over 6 and a half feet tall.
The tomb of Laurent Kabila is behind the statue, underneath a concrete star-shaped canopy with each hand representing a province of the DRC and some with broken chains symbolizing their freedom from Belgian and Western colonialism.
For a “fee” you can get closer to the tomb and take photos (but no videos).
Behind his casket is an inscription of his final words in the hospital before he died: “Never Betray the Congo.”
We then endured Kinshasa rush hour traffic to eventually stop at the Monument of National Unity, located in the Royal Garden where prior to independence, westerners used to gather here for leisure when they held onto Kinshasa. Locals were left to congregate outside the city.
Our guide Terence walked us through Royal Gardens to a hidden arts and crafts market.
After haggling for a few items, we got back in our car and Terence drove us to Parliament:
The parliament faces the Chinese-built Central African Cultural and Arts Center of Kinshasa, the largest of its kind on the continent:
As the sun began to set, we endured Kinshasa rush hour traffic again to get to the Statue De Kasa-Vubu, built in memory of another (but relatively more discreet) president of the DRC who ruled between 1960-1965. President Kabila at the time ordered it to be built so Kasa-Vubu wouldn’t be forgotten.
The statue stands in an evocative neighborhood of Kinshasa:
Nearby, we drove to the Pentacost Martyrs Stadium or Stade des Martyrs, DRC’s national stadium with a seating capacity of 80,000 and the 4th largest in Africa.
We weaved around to the neighborhood by the statue of Papa Wemba, know to have cultivated Le Sape, a subculture founded here at the port of Bacongo where it grew and continues to this day in Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Members are called le sapeurs (men) and sapeuses (women), known for its link to dandyism where practictioners wear extravagant luxury brands as representative of their personal creativity and pacifist philosophy. We’ll meet some of them tomorrow when we’re back in Brazzaville!
It’s as if Wemba was overlooking the culture he heralded, as his statue is positioned by a Kinshasa neighborhood known for its nightlife.
The 20th of May Stadium (or Stade Tata Raphaël) is located behind Papa Wemba’s statue, known for where the legendary heavyweight championship boxing match (and probably the most watched sporting event in the world) between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, The Rumble in the Jungle, took place on October 30, 1974.
And if there’s not enough stadiums, another one is being built by a Turkish contractor right now:
We then drove by another popular neighborhood where families gather in the evening.
For our final stop, we finished at the Kinshasa “Twin Towers” aka the Congo Trade Center, an 18-story skyscraper complex and shopping center located in Gombe of downtown Kinshasa. The complex is home to a 5-Star hotel, offices, shopping mall, 6 restaurants, a Casino, a gym, and a banquet hall.
You can get views of Brazzaville’s August 15th Bridge across the river from here:
We then were dropped off at the Hilton Kinshasa for dinner and an overnight’s stay saving Limete Tower (Tour de l’Échangeur de Limete) and Tower of the National Heroes of Congo, one of the tallest buildings in Africa, for tomorrow. Began as a monument to Patrice Lumumba in 1966, the tower was finally completed in 2011.
As Matt, Janet and Sandra relaxed in Brazzaville, we waved hi to them from across the river in our lodgings at Hilton Kinshasa!
It’s one of the nicest Hiltons I’ve visited.
And best of all, my room has a mighty view of the mighty Congo:
I picked to stay here primarily for its proximity for our river crossing tomorrow back to Brazzaville before our 12:10pm flight back to Addis Ababa!
- At time of posting in Kinshasa, it was 26 °C - Humidity: 84% | Wind Speed: 3km/hr | Cloud Cover: partly cloudy, humid and hot