Juba city limits

I do not think passersby are generally qualified to pass strong negative judgement on a place they don't know very well as places always have some redeeming features even if not immediately obvious, and simple labels are too linear for this crazy hotchpotch of a world we find ourselves in. As I liked living there I have taken issue with backpackers who label Phnom Penh as 'the worst city ever'. I apologise to those travellers that the ancient Angkorian kingdom didn't build its wonder of the world closer to what became the capital but I'd kindly encourage them to remain in Bangkok or Siem Reap with their supply of magic mushrooms, crawling to the hostel's café to snack on a cultural banana pancake when peckish.

Juba is a difficult city to love on the surface as the criminality is high, the desperation confronting and it's hard to move around unmolested by traffic police or soldiers at roadblocks. However in more stable times I believe it would have redeeming features like the banks of the Nile, teashops with tranquil tropical gardens (which you can't freely travel to sample as you limit your time out and about) or walks up the rocky Jebel Kujur.

Photo taken as I departed Juba for Yambio. The airport was even more comically decrepit than last time with stepping stones across a muddy puddle needed to enter the check-in tent and the floor in the departure lounge (giving it too much credit) having actually collapsed now, reducing the space available for broken seating. I took a photo but was ordered to delete it then prove that I had.