A friend is preparing to go to Libya next year to do some surveying.
Any advice?
Friends don't let Friends go to Muslim countries.
> Any advice?
Sew Canadian Flags on all his clothes and baggage. Teach him to end every sentence with "Eh".
Seriously - abandon all hope of doing any sight seeing. He will be confined to the work site and company compound. I knew some people in Canada who worked in the middle east. It was all business for them, they never left the confines of the company facilities without an escort.
I worked there for a year or so in the bad old days.
The "real" people are generally nice and genuinely interested in meeting people from elsewhere. If he gets the opportunity, he should get out to the desert, where there are some truly stunning vistas, or try to visit some of the incredible Roman ruins around the coastal areas.
The best advice would be, do not drink booze, even if it's offered and avoid chatting up the local "hotties".
Finally, the departure lounge at Tripoli airport is a real hoot. There used to be translated to English quotes from the Colonels Green Book painted all over the walls. "Democracy is a Frud"???
unarmed
Thank you Cliff M...
... for the e-mail and article.
Sound advice so far. Thanks to all.
Libya is in North Africa, not the Middle East.
What is your point?
I worked in Algeria for a couple of years in the late 90's. Assuming he'll be down in the desert and not on the coast, it will be bitterly cold in the winter, hot as he11 in the summer. Windier than all get out in April and intermittenly windy the rest of the year. Your first trip will be loaded with necessities but simple things like candy and dvd's are nice. Bring some photos of home. Make sure some have something green in the background because after a few weeks in the Sahara you will forget the world isn't brown. For work, it depends on what the company provides but I brought calculators, pencils, and would have like to have brought a back up data collector but I never needed it. The best advice is to ask the surveyors that are already there what they have and what they reccomend (sp?) to bring. Lastly, always ask if you can bring anything to them because when they go on leave, they will then ask what they can bring back for you. When you're living and working in a $hhithole, it's nice to have a little bag of nestle crunch show up to tide you over for 4 weeks till your next leave.