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Cuba Travel
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:39 am    Post subject: Far East, man Reply with quote
The Cubans do a lot of trade with China, Guy. They import cheap rice and sell their own stuff for hard currency.
When the Soviet Union went under and the economy took a nosedive, the Cubans imported about a million bicycles from China to ease the public transport problem.
I'm going over there in a couple of weeks. This time I'm going to hire a car - no more camellos!
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I noticed a lot of Chinese content on Cuban TV while there.

Have a great trip!
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:30 am    Post subject: Chinese content on Cuban TV Reply with quote
You mean they found space between broadcasting Fidel and soap operas??? Things are changing!
I hope to take in a couple of baseball games before the season ends.
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RyanS



Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 356
PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I didn't get to watch TV, there was no TV in my hotel.
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:26 am    Post subject: No TV Reply with quote
You didn't miss much, Ryan. Unless of course you're a fan of the Australian children's programme "Skippy", a relic from the 60s.
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The Chinese content TV was actually quite interesting. Some of it was English language news based out of Hong Kong (I think), some was Chinese language news, and then there several different shows to teach Chinese.

The rest was news about a West Virginia mine disaster and endless replays of Evo Morales' trip to Cuba. I didn't spend much time watching tv, but we had one day of miserable cold weather so I stayed in bed late one morning. No skippy I'm afraid.

In the hotel bar, and in several restaurants I went to, I saw that US tv channels were common fare. Pirated cable/satellite or free broadcast channels....I couldn't tell the difference.
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tesolitis



Joined: 23 Jun 2004
Posts: 37
Location: canada
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:56 pm    Post subject: cuba secret visit Reply with quote
I discussed the Cuba in-out while in Costa Rica 2006 where there are quite a number emigrated bushnolikes. The trick is thought to run like this:
You have an exit stamp from some country and quite later on an immigration stamp from a different country.
Now try to prove to starsandstripes that you were NOT in Cuba inbetween. Difficult if the two stamps are from the region.

Don't terrorize a u.s. immigrations guy with your smile unless you are a terr...itorial stranger.
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Justin Trullinger



Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:
Now try to prove to starsandstripes that you were NOT in Cuba inbetween.


There was, of course, a time when I would have felt bound to argue that it's "innocent till proven guilty," and that it would be up to them to prove that you had been to Cuba. Now, I'm not so naive.

I think that's one reason that going from Mexico is popular. They don't always stamp US passports, or at least didn't when last I was there. So if you cross a land border into Mex, fly to Cuba, fly back to Mex, and shuffle across the land border again...at least there was a time when you could do this without leaving a mark in your passport.

Some countries in the Carribean region are known for corruption, so you might take the route of bribing a border official to either "post date" your exit stamp, or predate your entry stamp. This sounds highly illegal, of course, and I'm not recommending it. (Wouldn't even know anything about it.) But it might work.

Not all countries even exit stamp your passport- entering Cuba from one of them might relieve some stress, as then your next entrance stamp would look immediate.

Any of you Americans out there been to Cuba? And what was your procedure?

Justin
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