Smaller buses and minibuses head to destinations around Kassala, like Halfa al-Jadida, Khashm al-Ghirba and Aroma.
You need a permit to enter Kassala, and these are checked thoroughly at the entrance to the city, just before arriving at the bus station. You can get a permit from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum (close to Khartoum University), which can take a couple of hours or several days depending on their mood. If you leave the city on a day trip, you may well have trouble getting back in.
To Eritrea, the border is apparently open, and the place to head for is Souq Tesenei, a small bus station in the 'Aamiriya district.
Souq ash-Sha'abi is Kassala's bus station, just off the main Khartoum-Port Sudan highway and quite a distance from the centre of town. Local buses and taxis meet most bus arrivals.
Al-Mowgif al-'Aam is the central bus station, a large square in the middle of the souqs. Buses a tourist might need to use include Khatmiya (for the old quarter of Khatmiya, Tomb of Seyid Hassan and the cafes on Totil Mountain), Souq ash-Sha'abi (for the inter-city bus station), Banat (for the Gash river and colonial railway quarter), and the lorries to Sawagi Janubiya and Sawagi Shamaliya, the two areas of farmland to the south and north.
Kassala does not have many taxis and no rikshas.
The '''souqs''' are lively and colourful, with many people dressed in clothes unique to their tribe.
Kassala is famous for its coffee, which is traditionally served in a clay coffee pot called a jebbana. These are sold quite cheaply in Souq an-Niswan, along with wooden mortar and pestles for grinding the beans and ginger, roasting trays, jebbana stands and tiny coffee cups.
Fuul (mashed fava beans) is the main dish found in Kassala, and there are lots of fuul stalls around. The best ones are between the Souq an-Niswaan and Hotel Hipton, where the fuul is mixed with ta'amiya, cheese, tuna or egg, and topped with sesame oil, garlic and a herb called shumaar.
At-Tabaq as-Souri on the main square is a good place for sandwiches and shawarma. They also serve baklava and other sweets, and is one of the only cafes in Kassala where local women eat.
For more local dishes, like tagaliya and bamiya (both gloopy okra-based sauces) served with ghuraasa (a spongy pancake type bread) or kisra (very thin, slightly sour bread), and various bits of meat (ask for shiyya if you aren't keen on offal), try some of the restaurants in the middle of the souq.
On the road to Khatmiya, the bus passes a livestock market opposite a large cemetery. Here, there are stalls selling sheep, which are slaughtered to order and cooked in the restaurant next door.
Kassala is famous for its coffee (jebbana), spiced with ginger (zinjabil) and cinnamon (girfa') and served in a clay coffee pot, with incense and popcorn on the side. The best place for the full treatment is at one of the cafes on the slopes of Totil mountain. Otherwise, Kassala is full of tea stalls, where coffee is served in smaller coffee pots made from recycled Pif-Paf cans.
Fruit juices are excellent in Kassala, and made fresh at many stalls in the souq, so you can ask for one without sugar. Mango and guava are the best, but orange tends to be diluted with a lot of water and mixed with bucketloads of sugar, so avoid it. Local juices include ''aradeeb'' (a brown tangy juice, similar to tamarind) and ''sha'iir'' (made from a white powder and a bit like cold malted milk).
Two of the best hotels in Kassala are the '''Telal ash-Sharg''' and the '''Hipton'''. Others include the '''Safa''', '''Bashir''', '''Totil''' and '''Medina'''. They are all located in the streets behind the Mowgif al-'Aam bus station. Some foreigners don't get a choice where they stay, as the security police will escort them to a particular place, usually one of the ones mentioned above. Cheaper places like the Hotel Africa and the many basic lakondas (courtyards filled with beds) sometimes won't accept foreigners.
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