"Stoevet og helvedes varmt" er mine foerste svar, naar sudanesiske mennesker spoerger mig, hvad jeg synes om Sudan. Efterfulgt af "... og fyldt med flinke mennesker". Det siger man selvfoelgelig i alle de lande man besoeger, men her er der faktisk noget om det!

Sudan har nemlig ikke saa meget, der kan tiltraekke turister udover verdensklassedykning i Roedehavet: Nogle gamle pyramider (som jeg i oevrigt ikke fik set), men de skulle ikke vaere noget i forhold til dem i Egypten. Derfor er den stoerste chame ved Sudan helt klart landets befolkning, man ikke finder venligere eller mere gaestfri mange andre steder. Lige som i Oman hang folk ud af vinduerne for, at raabe velkommen. Konstant bliver ens te, og sommetider ens mad, betalt for dig, for 'du er jo vores gaest'. Det samme var tilfaeldet i de nordlige landsbyer, hvor jeg pludselig manglede et sted at sove. De lokale aabnede simpelthen deres hjem for mig!
Saa selvom jeg var forkoelet det meste af tiden (underligt i et land med en gennemsnitlig doegntemperatur paa 37 graders varme!), og mange af de lokale var daarlige til engelsk, var det altid en foenoejelse at snakke med dem, og selvom de udmaerket er klar over det, bliver hverken Muhammed-tegningerne eller Irakkrigen naevnt fordi man ikke vil oedelaegge den gode, venlige samtale med negative emner!
Sudanesere er fantastiske mennesker helt ind til benet, og jeg har ufattelige maengder respekt tilovers for folk som dem, der altid er varme og aabne paa den maade overfor gaester!

Naar det er sagt, er det selvfoelgelig ikke et land uden problemer. Alle har hoert om Darfur-krisen, men hvad mange ikke ved er, at Afrikas laengstvaerende konflikt i Sydsudan foerst blev stoppet med en fredsaftale for faa aar siden. Saa landet har set sin del af problemer!
Ikke at man maerker det - Sudan er et overraskende dyrt land at rejse i: Olieboom og fundet af guld har gjort den gennemsnitlige sudaneser rigere end f.eks. den egyptiske befolkning. Blandet med, at der paradoksalt nok er mangel paa braendstof (udenlandske firmaer har alt for travlt med at eksportere olien), goer det transport ufattelig dyrt! Transport som i forvejen er langsomt og ubekvemt, men samtidig en oplevelse. Specielt naar den eneste transport er en boennetruck.

Alt i alt har Sudan vaeret et godt foerstegangsindtryk af Afrika, selvom Sudan, for en rejsende som mig, er langt mere sikkert end de fleste afrikanske lande!

To my fellow travellers, who would like to read my thoughts about Sudan:
"Dusty and hot as hell". This is usually my first comments when the locals ask me: "What do you think about Sudan?". Followed, of course, by "and full of nice people". I know you say this to everybody, when you're visiting their country, but in this case it's actually the right answer.

Because Sudan doesn't have a lot of tourist attractions, except some world class diving in the Red Sea), some old pyramids (which I never saw), though they should pale in comparison with the pyramids in Egypt. So the greatest charm about Sudan is definitely the people, which you won't find friendlier or more hospitable many other places on the Earth! Just like in Oman, the people are hanging out of thair car windows to shout "Welcome" - and my tea, and sometimes even my food, were constantly paid for by the locals, because 'you are our guest'. It was already clear in the northern villages, where I didn't have anywhere to stay for the night: people would open up their house for me.
So even that I had a cold most of the time (strange in a country with daily tempature topping 45 degrees Celcius) and a lot of the locals talked a poor English, it was always a pleasure to talk with them and even though they knew about the Mohammed cartoons and the war in Iraq, they never brought up conversations about these subjects, because they didn't want to bring anything negative into the conversation.
The Sudanese people are truly fantastic, and I have a huge amount of respect for people who always are so warm and open to guests of their country!

Looking in the history books, Sudan is not a country without trouble:
We have all heard about the Darfur crisis, but what many don't know, is that the longest armed conflict in Africa, in southern Sudan, wasn't stopped by a ceasefire before until very recently. So it's a country with its share of problems!
But you don't feel that, when travelling in the peaceful parts. Sudan is a surpringly expensive place to travel! Oil booms and the finding of gold have made Sudanese people wealthy, and the Sudanese are richer than eg. the Egyptians. That and the fact that they've a paradoxical low fuel storage (international companies do theirs to export all the oil out of Sudan) makes transport extremely expensive. Transport which still is slow and uncomfortable, but also an experience. Particularly from the top of a truck loaded with beans! 

By all, Sudan is a nice first time impression of Africa, and Sudan for a traveller is a lot more safe than most African countries.