Feb 12 2009

Don't Forget Your Visa (Part I)

In the fury of planning your holiday some people forget almost the single most important thing: a visa to get into the country. If you don't have it, "you ain't coming in, not tonight son, your name's not down". (Sorry, slipped into remembering my abortive attempts at getting into nightclubs when too young, claiming I was on the guess list.)

Before you start wondering about getting a visa, you have got a passport, haven't you? Also this article only deals with my experience of a UK national getting a tourist visa for India.

Few IndiaMikers can forget the legend of Boston Harry and the Expired Passport, but it just goes to prove that you can get caught up in lesser important stuff like "how many ATMs are there", "how should I carry my money around" etc.

For me the visa situation was plain and simple but it was the one thing that gained a huge sigh of relief when it was completed. You just don't know what reasons may be taken into account and what information do they have? Do they dislike members of Amnesty International or Greenpeace? Will they know that I downloaded a copy of Slumdog Millionaire? Of course, I didn't actually do this, that's illegal isn't it?, but I do belong to both Amnesty and Greenpeace, but I've got my visa so who cares?

Applying Online

A first glance at the form on the VFS Global India Visa web site, leads to confusion with questions like "I don't have the names for any referees in India". But applying couldn't be simpler. The form has many pages but each one has a help page which is well worth reading first. Hey, even I read it and I'm a bloke and an geeky IT person to boot. Of course, if you run into confusion/trouble there's a visa section on IndiaMike all about it with a particularly good Q&A article for people in the UK applying for a visa.

When To Apply

I would have happily applied as soon as I booked my flights but I couldn't apply that early. I only wanted a six month single-entry tourist visa but the visa starts from the time they put it in your passport. Really you need to apply within six months of the date you'll arrive back in your home country, otherwise it will run out before you return. The turnaround time for me was 8 days, including posting both ways, and that's for four passports/visas.

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Dec 06 2008

Booking A Car + Driver

The idea of booking a taxi (car and a driver) for a few days or weeks seem quite strange to someone in England. Once when I missed the last bus home from the local town it cost 20 pounds to travel the six miles, so how much would hiring a driver for a couple of weeks cost?

With the help of Indiamike.com I gathered together a list of reputable companies and eventually decided which ones to contact.

Aided by information provided by Namaste India Tours, I'd done my homework first, knew my exact route, when/where I'd arrive, what sort of hotels I preferred and what sort of vehicle was most suitable.

So a couple of emails to a few companies and I had quotes for the cost of the travel. All of the operators offer a travel+hotels option where you say which class of hotel you prefer and they come up with a list of suggestions. Some of them don't define the actual hotel you'll be in and that was fine with us, after all we've got a driver to take us wherever we want, so as long as the hotel is okay, we'll be fine.

The best thing about this service (from any of the operators we got quotes from) is that you pay absolutely nothing up-front, you just have to pay before the trip actually commences. Some don't even worry about this, you pay part way through your tour.

For those cynics out there, the cost of the trip includes wages, food and accomodation for the driver, he doesn't sleep in the car!

And the cost of all this:

  • 10 nights hotel, 10 days touring around including petrol/parking/taxes/driver: about £800
  • That's for all of us, not one of us. The hotels all have air-con, some have pools, some don't.

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Nov 11 2008

My Best Friend Mike Helps Plan the Plan

I was lucky enough to never have needed an imaginary friend when I was growing up but things have changed.

On most days I spend hours a day with 'Mike', have done since September and plan to for some time yet. We converse, he helps me, I help him, he shows me his photos and he rarely can't answer my questions about trains, forts, towns, malaria and wildlife.

Who is 'Mike'? Well actually it's a website - hey I'm a bit geeky, you didn't expect it to be a person did you? - named www.indiamike.com. Started by a guy called - go on have a guess - Mike, earlier this decade, it is now the hub for over 40,000 members, their questions/answers, their photos and their journals.

If you're thinking of going to India or you've already been, you'll enjoy IndiaMike and if you're looking for me there, I'm called OceanTragic...it's a long story.

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