We've happened across several occasions during our travels where you can simply walk into a different country without an "official" border crossing. In other words, it's basically being an illegal alien.
These are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Anybody know of any more?
1) Cross the Rio Grande on foot (ridiculously easy) at Big Bend NP and enter Mexico
2) Cross into Tanzania on the Maasai Mara as noted by a stone marker
3) Set foot on Namibian, Zambian and/or Zimbabwean soil when doing a Chobe River safari from Botswana.
4) Walk on Azerbaijani territory when visiting David Gareja monastery in Georgia.
All of the ones I mentioned are pretty easy to do, no remote trekking involved or anything. But I'm curious about any other examples you may have, regardless.
Replies
Of course, there are several micro countries, where the border is easily crossed, without formality, or even much of a discernable border. Included are:
Italy to Vatican. There are places where it is hard to know where the border exists.
St. Martin to Sint Maarten. This is passage between the French side and Dutch side of the same island. The border is marked, but that is about it.
Italy to San Marino. Again, often, you will not be aware where the border might be.
France to Monaco.
Switzerland to Liechtenstein. I think I crossed from one to the other by going around a traffic rotary.
Luxembourg to France, Belgium or Germany. I took a train to Belgium and could not tell when I actually crossed.
Technically, one can say the same for all crossings between England, Wales and Scotland.
Also, now, all crossings within the EU. One now often does not know where the borders are.
It is very pleasant to remember all of these hassle free border crossings. Unfortunately, the world is not moving in this direction, at the moment.
I worked for Reagan, not the Three Bad Words. I was on my own. Thanks for the grin.
David Botts said:
Those border crossing likely cannot be verified if they were company sponsored trips - all would be subject to plausible deniability. (grin)
While tiptoes don't count, I did a lot of deep ones in the 80s, with Afghan Mujahaddin many times, Contras in Nicaragua, UNITA in Angola, RENAMO in Mozambique, Karen-ni guerrillas in Burma, Hmong guerrillas in Laos, etc. helping to get rid of the Soviet Union. Many of the most meaningful experiences of my life.
Jack Wheeler - Platinum 293
5) Swim, sail, waterski, jetski, swim or dive across the Texas-Mexico border at Lake Amistad.
I know there are travelers that are sight, culture seekers, then there's country counters that want the bragging rights for stepping their fingers on the ground through a hole in the fence to touch the other side. There are a lot of members that shake their heads at the ''counters'' just racking up numbers to visit a border town yet not any further. Let me point out that there are countries in the world in which their capital or largest city is within 10 km or 6.25 miles from the border of another country. Here they are : Lome Togo, Vientiane Laos, Bangui CAR, Kinshasa DRC, Brazzaville CAR, Gaborone Botswana, Maseru Lesotho, Mbabane Swaziland, Bujumbura Burundi, N'Djamena Chad, Asuncion Paraguay, Bratislava Slovakia, Vaduz Liechtenstein, Andorra de la Vella Andorra, MonacoVille Monaco, San Marino San Marino, Porto Novo Benin, Vatican City (The Holy See). Well should we count these Border cities as well for visiting a country?? A club that states ''even the shortest visit will suffice as being counted as a visit.A port of call or plane fuel stop.''
Brunei is in two parts, with a section of Malaysia separating the two parts. To go from Bandar Seri Begawan (in the western part of Brunei) to Temburong (the eastern part of Brunei) the usual way is to drive, which requires exiting Brunei and entering Malaysia, and then exiting Malaysia and entering Brunei. I did that, and have the passport stamps to prove it. But ... another way between the two parts of Brunei is to buy a seat on a local boat (seating capacity around 10 people) which traverses various waterways between the two parts of Brunei. This path goes through Malaysia, but there is no immigration point, so it is a double unofficial border crossing. See the attached GPS track of my trip there. The southern loop is the driving portion which had immigration points. The northern loop is the boat trip with no immigration points.
Visiting Zakopany Poland one can walk with one foot in Poland and one foot in Slovakia. You just walk across the top of the mountain and, depending on your direction, left side in one country, right foot in the other. Jack Mormon
A story more relevant to the original question.
A guy was at the border (river) between Suriname and French Guyana. Discovered he had left his passport in the hotel. So instead of taking the official ferry, he got a local boatman to take him across for a little money. No problem at all. No problem getting back either.
-- Daan
Once you are in the Schengen area, with its freedom of travel, there are no more illegal borders to cross. Well, not for EU citizens, and precious few checks for others. There is a cafe with the northern half in the Netherlands and its southern half in Belgium and a line dividing the bar. Which is important, because there may be different regulations, not to mention taxes. So you buy a beer on the side where it is cheaper, and drink it on the other side. -- Daan
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