Last summer, I completed a 50-year mission: I had officially, and legally, visited every recognized country on earth. 去年夏天,我完成了长达五十年的旅行任务:我真正的,在法律认可的情况下,游遍了世界上的所有国家。 I’ve had hundreds of adventures inside these countries, but for certain countries, the adventure started before I could even get in. Here are the five countries for which I had the hardest time obtaining visas. 在这些国家里我经历了许许多多的事情,可是有些困难在没踏入这些的国家之前就已经开始了。这里是我总结的5个最不容易拿到签证的国家。 Saudi Arabia 沙特阿拉伯 Saudi Arabia was truly tough. I tried, from 2000 to 2009, without success, or even explanation for my failure, to secure a tourist visa to the Desert Kingdom—though at the time the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities had no history of granting tourist visas to non-Muslims. Because I had to get in to complete my quest, I worried that I might have to convert to Islam, memorize the Koran, study with a mullah, attend a mosque, and forget I was an ultra-liberal Jewish atheist. 沙特阿拉伯真的很难拿到签证,为了弄到张去往这个沙漠王国的旅游签证,我在2000年到2009年之间一直没有停止过申请,但从来没有成功过,甚至连拒签理由都没有。那时,沙特旅游和文物管理委员会从来没有给非穆斯林的人给过旅游签证。但是我必须完成自己的追求,我担心自己也许怕是要去皈依伊斯兰教了,熟背《可兰经》,向毛拉(伊斯兰教神学家)学习,去清真寺,忘记我曾是个极端自由主义的犹太无神论者。 |