---
type: Video
title: "Tourists Don't Visit this Secretive African Dictatorship 🇪🇷"
description: Harry and Kieran spend three days in Eritrea's frozen-in-time capital Asmara — Italian pizza and art deco, a tank graveyard, dial-up-speed internet cafés, and dollar pints.
tags: [eritrea, asmara, africa, dictatorship, history]
timestamp: 2026-07-12T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7uIyBvDGAI
video_id: b7uIyBvDGAI
upload_date: 2025-05-17
duration: 3001
---

# Tourists Don't Visit this Secretive African Dictatorship 🇪🇷

Harry flies from Jeddah to [Asmara](/places/asmara.md) with
[Kieran](/people/kieran.md) to see [Eritrea](/countries/eritrea.md), the
"North Korea of Africa": no ATMs, almost no internet, indefinite military
service, state-only media, and one ruler since independence in 1991. What
they find is the calmest, cleanest, safest-feeling city of Harry's fifteen
African countries — an Italian-built time capsule of art deco, vintage
Fiats, cafés, and pizzerias. They rent bikes from a former Olympic cyclist,
charm the Medebar recycling market, reward an eloquent shoe cleaner, tour
the permit-only tank graveyard from the 30-year war with Ethiopia, struggle
heroically with an internet café, buy an elaborately gift-wrapped national
football shirt, and hunt down $1 draft beer. Harry's verdict: kind people
carrying on with dignity under heavy restrictions — he'd go back without
hesitation.

*Obs: the description recommends the guide Phil (eritreavisit.com), whose
tour arranged the permits.*

## Key moments

- [00:00] The setup: previously a near-closed country — the visa used to
  cost $1,000 — now opening up since the war ended.
- [01:36] Immigration takes nearly two hours; Kieran surprises Harry on
  arrival ("here for the pizza").
- [03:51] The Crystal Hotel: $60 a night, no air-con but clean, a bidet
  (grazie, Italy), and one of the country's only wi-fi connections.
- [06:37] The history: prized location near the Suez Canal; Italian
  colonisation, British administration, UN federation with Ethiopia,
  annexation, and a 30-year independence war that killed over 300,000 —
  followed by one-man rule since 1991, indefinite military service, and
  state media. Harry, fresh from North Korea, rates it similar but less
  tightly controlled.
- [09:15] The Fiat Tagliero station — the art deco landmark of a city
  frozen in time.
- [10:03] Renting bikes (200 nakfa a day) from a legendary Eritrean cyclist
  whose father raced the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — cycling is the national
  sport.
- [12:41] The London test: bikes left barely locked outside a market, both
  still there — locals call it the safest city in Africa.
- [13:20] Schoolkids with flawless English (all lessons are taught in it)
  dream of being professors, presidents, pilots, engineers, doctors.
- [16:47] Medebar market: chili-scented lanes where everything is recycled
  and hand-made from scratch — metalwork, stoves, spades — with a striking
  number of women working.
- [22:38] Why so quiet: Asmara has only 600,000–1 million people (from
  video – unverified), cinemas are dying, and a sports hall bans filming —
  a reminder of the invisible rules everywhere.
- [25:06] The shoe cleaner: 12-hour days, four children, proud veteran
  family — "if you come after 2 years, everything is changed; the war is
  over, we start to develop our country." Harry rewards him generously.
- [29:10] The tank graveyard (permit required): rusting Soviet T-series
  tanks — the USSR funded Ethiopia with $4 billion (from video –
  unverified), while underfunded Eritrean fighters captured, repaired, and
  turned the tanks back on them.
- [31:50] Pizza is genuinely the local food; a large "ziggney" (spiced
  meat) pizza runs 160 nakfa, $8–10 (from video – unverified) — verdict: a
  disappointing five out of ten, wrong pizzeria.
- [36:04] Buying the national football shirt (200 nakfa) from a
  five-language shopkeeper who gift-wraps it like Christmas and gives him
  an Eritrean flag.
- [38:28] The internet reality: first African nation online, never
  upgraded since — an internet café costs 15 nakfa an hour, a speed test
  won't even load, and most sites need a VPN. Harry gives up.
- [45:47] The beer quest: no beer before 7pm at the grand Italian cinema
  café; carbonated-only water (the country skips still water to save
  plastic); finally, calm bars full of Premier League fans and draft beer
  at about $1 a pint.
- [48:44] Walking home at night with a pizza box and a camera, feeling
  completely safe — his closing case that Eritrea is nothing like its
  headlines.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Asmara](/places/asmara.md)
- Country: [Eritrea](/countries/eritrea.md)
- Person: [Kieran](/people/kieran.md)
- Tip: [Travel with a local guide](/tips/travel-with-a-local-guide.md)