Bangkok, Thailand (Center on Interactive Map)

Wretched stinking city full of traffic.

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Trips

Around The World in 66 Days

2/1/2013: I was dreading the visit to Bangkok since I first thought about this trip. I had visited Bangkok in 1998, and my memories were about air pollution, the smell of fire, and rabid dogs running around everywhere. I was even bitten by a rabid dog there which, to say the least, was not fun.

We intended to visit Thailand for only a few days. The idea was to get the visas for India and Myanmar in Bangkok, and we were going to visit some spots near Bangkok while waiting.

The visa office for India had different ideas for us.

Congratulations, Government of India, on subjecting us to the worst bureaucratic nightmare in modern history.

Getting an Indian visa is a simple ever-changing process that involves some steps. If you want to find out about these steps beforehand or without paying extortion, good luck.

The first step is to go to their website and look for the link to fill out their online form. Of course, no link actually leads to the form, but maybe you can find it somewhere.

When you do finally find the form, you will find that it takes a good bit of hacking to actually fill in the form.

Great, now you have the form which you will need to print out along with three passport sized photos. Then, there is another form that you need to fill out by hand. Then, all you need to do is go to their office in the center of Bangkok between 8:30 and 2:00 Monday through Friday but not on any bank, Thai, or Indian holidays.

Then the fun part begins. I got to the office doors a bit early, and I started to fill out the form. One of the employees informed me that my blue ink pen is not acceptable for the form. At this point, I was off to do work on business stuff.

For the next four hours, my travel partner trudged through the wasteland of the India Visa Processing "Service". Every time she tried to get into the center, they would look through the stack of paperwork and find fault with one thing or the other. They wanted to see our proof of flight into (which we hadn't bought yet on account of not having the visa) and out of India, proof of hotel accommodation, and various ridiculous questions about our ancestry and religion.

Then, when the paperwork was finally approved, they needed me to come in personally to drop off the passports.

After being allowed entrance the inner sanctum, we waited for quite some time before being seen by the great wizard of Oz who told us that our passport pictures were too ugly and that we must pay for new ones (extortion).

After all this, it took 11 days for us to get our stamps.



Previous Visit (Ang Trapeang Thmor: 2/1/2013)
Next Visit (Pak Thale: 2/2/2013)

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