adventure. excitement. a jedi craves not these things
Lucky I'm not Jedi then, ain't it?
The good news is that I now have Indian and Burmese visas in my grubby little paws passport. YEY.
I mean, look at this place!
But. Dammit, Bangladesh. Why you make things so haaaaard? OK, in fairness, flying in and getting a visa on arrival isn't hard but I don't wanna! (Plus, it would involve flying clear OVER the country, just to turn around and fly into the capital, meh.)
Lingering doubts as to the veracity of the guidebooks' claims that Agartala issues same-day tourist visas means I've been trying to get hold of decent, recent info. Thorn Tree forum: nope... India Mike forum: nope... using a Bradt author contact to get hold of the author of the Bangladesh guidebook to ask him: nope... calling the bloody high commission myself: no answer...
Then I found two guys with recent activity on Couchsurfing who live in Agartala. I asked them if they would mind calling/going down in person to ask. They both said they would, yey. (Do I get bonus sleuthing points for this method?)
Naturally both came back with different answers but neither bore good news; either it's a 3 day wait, minimum, or tourist visas are not issued to non-Indians at all. Balls.
So, the only remaining chance to keep the trip as true to overlanding as possible - something I very much want to do - is to try the embassy in Bangkok. Unfortunately, this means hanging back in Bangkok for an extra day (arriving over a weekend is not ideal for embassy shenanigans, would you believe) but hey, taking a 60min flight to Sukhothai won't count as cheating and will largely make the time up.
If Melbourne would be so kind as to be consistently in the warm to hot range for the next month, it would really help with my pre-acclimatisation.
----
Somehow it's been nearly nearly 3 years since I moved here. This means it's almost time to put in for permanent residency, woot! Not overly worried but it's more visa issues of a different nature. And still a stack of paperwork, second time round. Ought to be granted around August or maybe January? Come on, DIBP!
The good news is that I now have Indian and Burmese visas in my grubby little paws passport. YEY.
I mean, look at this place!
But. Dammit, Bangladesh. Why you make things so haaaaard? OK, in fairness, flying in and getting a visa on arrival isn't hard but I don't wanna! (Plus, it would involve flying clear OVER the country, just to turn around and fly into the capital, meh.)
Lingering doubts as to the veracity of the guidebooks' claims that Agartala issues same-day tourist visas means I've been trying to get hold of decent, recent info. Thorn Tree forum: nope... India Mike forum: nope... using a Bradt author contact to get hold of the author of the Bangladesh guidebook to ask him: nope... calling the bloody high commission myself: no answer...
Then I found two guys with recent activity on Couchsurfing who live in Agartala. I asked them if they would mind calling/going down in person to ask. They both said they would, yey. (Do I get bonus sleuthing points for this method?)
Naturally both came back with different answers but neither bore good news; either it's a 3 day wait, minimum, or tourist visas are not issued to non-Indians at all. Balls.
So, the only remaining chance to keep the trip as true to overlanding as possible - something I very much want to do - is to try the embassy in Bangkok. Unfortunately, this means hanging back in Bangkok for an extra day (arriving over a weekend is not ideal for embassy shenanigans, would you believe) but hey, taking a 60min flight to Sukhothai won't count as cheating and will largely make the time up.
If Melbourne would be so kind as to be consistently in the warm to hot range for the next month, it would really help with my pre-acclimatisation.
----
Somehow it's been nearly nearly 3 years since I moved here. This means it's almost time to put in for permanent residency, woot! Not overly worried but it's more visa issues of a different nature. And still a stack of paperwork, second time round. Ought to be granted around August or maybe January? Come on, DIBP!