"Mauritania is a place for the true... " a Mauritania Travel Page by harry_the_greek

Strange. I start my virtual tourist career by choosing this bizarre place to write about. In my quest to conquer the world, I had to spend a day in Nouakchott, landing from Algiers and leaving 24 hours later for Tunisia. Even lonely planet urges one to avoid this country. Not that it is bad in any way, far from it. I landed and promptly paid 20 euros to the immigration officer for a hassle free stamp. Not my way of doing things. It was the dead of night and I went straight to the hotel.
The day would have been boring. Nouakchott is all of two or three streets. The only place of real interest is the market which is small, yet colourful. And the bashed Mercedes cars which are really hilarious to look at, especially as most double as taxis. I still cant figure out how the Greek cigarettes Karelia made it to the advertising section of each kiosk. Truly odd.
I resorted to catching up on email. And thats where I met a friend, Mohamedu, who literally picked me up (no pun intended) and along with another friend gave me the guided tour of the place. We went to the fish market by the Atlantic which was quite different from anything I have ever seen. In the evening we ended up at the house of one of the guys. For all I know they could have kidnapped me and held me for ransom. Quite the contrary. We had tea and they smoked. It seems they had slaves who did the serving - apparently slavery was officially abolished only in 1980, but is still the way of doing things.
I got a royal farewell to the airport from three guys - Mohamedu, his friend who was the taxi driver and joked that he looked like Bin Laden, and someone else who came along for a ride. What a place! When passing immigration, the officer there asked me to smuggle some cigarettes to Tunisia for a friend who would be waiting there. This is the officials asking you to smuggle stuff!!! A true taste of Africa in 24 hours.
I am unlikely to ever see Mauritania again, but you never know...