Category Archives: before India

Dec17

When you get to Doha in Qatar …

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When you get to Doha in Qatar …

… for about 2 hours, you do not get to see much. Still, even before landing in Doha, you will be astonished by the amazingly illuminated cities, which look literally like a sea of lights.

First recommendations for sightseeing are being presented in the airplane upon landing, for example the already passed 20th World Petroleum Congress, which had taken place from December 4th to 8th 2011 in Doha and the New Museum of Islamic Art (www.mia.org.qa), where you can find beautiful Persian carpets and Moghul jewels.

Other than that, unfortunately you do not get the chance to learn much about the country or the city of Doha in the very modern International airport of Doha.

Luckily, you find in the airplane the Qatar Edition of the ORYX Magazine. Here you can read that the small peninsula of Qatar is “the only true desert country worldwide, with no natural surface water but featuring a 563km-long coastline with fine sandy beaches and majestic rolling dunes in the south” (Issue 105). You also may learn about the history of Qatar, about 400 years under the Ottoman Empire, about the founder of the modern Qatar, Sheik Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, the predecessor of the current ruler, His Highness The Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. About 60 years ago, when Qatar had about 25.000 inhabitants, oil production began, a phenomenon that contributed to fast expansion into areas of business, education, sports and leisure as well as a fast population growth to about 1,7 million Qatari citizens today.

Qatar celebrates on its National Day of December 18th the birth of its modern state. In 1876, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani succeeded his father Sheikh Mohammed Bin Thani and became ruler of Qatar. When he opposed the Ottomans to increase their influence in Qatar, a battle broke out, which ended with the victory of the Qatari troops. Even if Ottomans withdrew only in 1915 completely, the day of December 18th 1878 is considered the turning point in the history of modern Qatar.

Today Qatar is one of the largest exporters of Liquefied Natural Gas (in 2011 the largest one). As a follow up of the fast expansion of sports and sports games, The Arab Games 2011 take place this year from December 9th to 23rd in Doha. Altogether 29 sports are being represented and over 6000 athletes from 22 countries will participate in the event. Furthermore, Qatar heads to the hosting of the Olympic Games in 2020 and the Football World Cup in 2022.

Qatar is a beautiful country, with lots of potential and eventually one of our holiday destinations, but now we’re up to discover incredible India.

 

Source of photo: http://www.qatarembassy.net

Dec15

Getting prepared (3)

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Getting prepared (3)

When you thought that somebody else will plan a trip for you and realize two weeks before, that the probability that this will happen is quite small… you start planning.

So did we!

But how do you plan a trip in a country you barely know something about, in a part of the world you also barely know something about… you better not say “I will figure it out when I get there”. Luckily we have friends, and we’re having friends in many parts of the world and we know that they have friends too and maybe the best part of having international friends is that they are either from that country where you plan to go (so you can also visit them), or they definitely know somebody there.

So, my first step was… write on Facebook: “What would you recommend to do in India (around the west coast) in December and January?” And I found out, I do not have friends from India on Facebook.
But I do have friends who have friends who know things…
So, less than one hour later a message appeared in my feed: “I have a friend, @Carmen Mureșan who is asking the following: “What would you recommend to do in India (around the west coast) in December and January?” If anyone from my Indian friends would be able to answer it would be appreciated :) Cheers.”

And here we go!

Juhu beach, the New Year bash, Jan kite festival, Gujarat, Mount Abu, Jaipur, Goa … all recommendations from Eve’s Indian friends, Samar and Prashan. We’re very thankful for this ;)

Later that day, luckily my friend Robert stepped into my office and surprised Vera and me planning our trip. And Robert is friend with Supreeth from Bangalore, who is friend with Abel from Goa, who both sent me some amazing eMails with descriptions of very many wonderful places to visit as well as practical suggestions about how to find our way in India. They kindly wrote about the famous Ajanta caves from the ancient Buddhist time, the Ellora rock temple, the old southern capital of Mughals – Aurangabad, the beaches of Goa – Palolem beach, Colva, Betalbatim, Benaulim beach and many others, the flea market near Anjuna beach, the Dudhsagar waterfall, the Nethravali waterfalls, the oldest church – St. Francais Xavier, and the capital Panaji – the Portuguese colonies of old Goa.

And of course not to forget is the “Blog of Everything” by Markus & Anneli, who traveled for one year, I guess, across India, Indonesia and China. Beautiful stories worth to read and beautiful places worth to experience… we get there, don’t worry!

I think we have a good starting position and all the rest, we will figure out when we get there :p

By the way, we’re on our way to India…. like :)

Dec4

Getting prepared (2) – Visa application

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Getting prepared (2) – Visa application

If you’re Romanian, living in Germany for more than 1 year, and plan to travel to India for tourism, the following information regarding visa might be helpful. I hope to make it as simple and as detailed and concrete as possible.

Here we go:

  1. You’re living in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz or Saarland, then apply for the visa in Frankfurt am Main or in Köln. For other regions find information on the website of the Indo German Consultancy Service http://www.igcsvisa.de/. Since I applied in Frankfurt, most of the folowing information applies to the office in Frankfurt only.
  2. If everything goes well, the visa process takes around 3-4 weeks. If problems occur more time will be needed. Therefore send your visa application at the latest 2 month before the start of your journey.
  3. Read the information regarding the application on one of the websites of the Indian Consulate or the Indo German Consultancy Service. Be careful, ’cause there are several websites which contain different information. You either make sure you find them all, or you trust me and read this one: http://www.igcsvisa.de/IGCSVISAFH/deu_igcs_visa.htm
  4. In addition to the information on this website, you might need to know, that even if you’re an EU citizen, you should follow the instructions strictly for Romanian citizens, which are explained under “Ausländische Angehörige” nr. 12. The only difference to the EU citizens is that you will pay 10€ more than EU citizens for the visa fee (75,50€ instead 65,50€).
  5. Online registration form: Fill in the online registration form on http://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/.  Some instructions in German (which I didn’t find soon enough for my applocation) are hided under: http://www.igcsvisa.de/IGCSVISAFH/applicationforms/hilfe.pdf (if direct link doesn’t work, try to copy it in your browser)
  6. The trick with the Temporary application ID doesn’t work all the time, so once you started filling in, you better do it ’till the end. Still, keep the ID for later, you might not be able to access the online registration form, but the pdf application form which results from the registration form.
  7. Visa application form: After you’re done filling in the registration form, you will have to print a pdf form which is the application form you will need to print out, sign and send per post with all the other documents for the visa application. An example of such a form is available here: http://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/pdf/DEUF04169311FI850101.pdf
  8. The “Auftragserteilung“ is a quite easy form, just check “Visum für Indien”, fill in your name, passport number, contact details, date and place, print out, sign and keep it to the end:  http://www.igcsvisa.de/IGCSVISAFH/applicationforms/auftragserteilung_schalter.pdf
  9. Photo: Tell your photographer what you need the photo for and give her the following details: colored, biometric, format 5 x5 cm, light background.  On some websites you will find that you should send 2 photos, I did so (thought: better more than not enough) and they sent me one back.
  10. Passport: If you need a new passport, you should apply for one 4-5 months before the start of your trip. I suggest you should do that in Bonn (also because of the last sentence of this point), they are so nice and really efficient: old passport, your ID, 100€, a photo taken in their own “studio”, your fingerprints and some signatures and in 30 min you’re done… with the application, the passport comes per post in about 4 weeks. After that, you must take a walk on the beautiful Rhein waterside, which is directly next to the Romanian consulate.
  11. back to the visa…
  12. The “Meldebescheinigung, durch die nachgewiesen wird, dass seit mehr als 12 Monaten (Tourist Visa) andere Visaarten 24 Monate ein Wohnsitz in Deutschland besteht” is NOT the regular Anmeldebescheinigung from the Einwohnermeldeamt, but a special paper, which states the above metioned and is signed by the service staff in the registration office of the city. Remind the service staff to mention in the paper the duration of your stay in Germany (it should be at least 1 year).
  13. Since I got the paper about my current place of residence I did not need that “Zusatzformular”… so can’t say much about it.
  14. and unless you don’t have an additional russian citizenship, ignore the last bullet point.

Congratulations! You are done with the visa application!

14. Now transfer the visa fee of 75,50€ to:

Deutsche Bank AG Köln
Kto: 1093327
BLZ: 370 700 60
Verwendungszweck: Tourist visa Name
Noch Verwendungszweck: Visa application form file number (in the example under nr.6: DEUF04169311)

15. Print out the confirmation of the money tranfer.

16. Put everything (Application form, Auftragserteilung, photo, passport, evidence of your place of residence in Germany, confirmation of the money tranfer) in a large (A4) envelop, add an empty spamped envelop (A5) with your address on it (for them to send you the passport back) and send them to:

Indo German Consultancy Services Ltd
Friederich Ebert Anlage 3
60327 Frankfurt am Main

GOOD LUCK!

If you’re lucky, and you are, your passport will return soon with a bindi on its cover ;)

Dec3

Getting prepared

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Getting prepared

I use to say I always wanted to travel to India one day! But I want to go to many places… far before India was Indonesia, Kenya, China, Ethiopia, Chile on the countries-to-visit priority list. It happened from one day to another, it was a thought in Tor Cafe after lunch, when Vera and I said: Let’s visit Katharina in India. And it was settled!

A little on Katharina’s story: Katharina was my office mate (known as my Roomie) from February this year until the end of September, when she stopped working since she was planning to travel to India at the beginning of October to start the research for her dissertation project. With a scholarship from the DAAD and the ICDD, Katharina was about to spend the autumn and winter months in the capital of Maharashtra. Katharina’s research semester delays now for more than 2 months, since the Indian embassy did not issue her the visa yet. But I better not comment on this now.

Anyhow, Since Katharina is still enjoying the Weihnachtsmarkt in Kassel, our plans changed a little. It makes us very sad not to visit her anymore, instead we’re going to visit so much of what we have no idea yet.

12 days left!

Mid December a plane of Qatar Airlines will fly us to Mumbai airport. Katharina and her new friends waiting for us in the airport is out of plan, uncertainty will come instead. But, as my friend, Jesús, would say in this moment, that’s what the future Carmen will have to deal with.

So far, we have our plane tickets, I got a bindi on my passport, so did Vera, we made some medical preparations, decided to change out suitcases to backpacks – and now I remember the doctor asking if we’re planning a backpack trip, which we answered with a clear “no” – , applied for holidays, almost contracted health insurance and, of course, MADE THIS BLOG ;)

What’s left? Everything else what will happen after mid December.

Keep you on track!

Dec3

Getting prepared (1)

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Getting prepared (1)

I use to say I always wanted to travel to India one day! But I want to go to many places… far before India was Indonesia, Kenya, China, Ethiopia, Chile on the countries-to-visit priority list. It happened from one day to another, it was a thought in Tor Cafe after lunch, when Vera and I said: Let’s visit Katharina in India. And it was settled!

A little on Katharina’s story: Katharina was my office mate (known as my Roomie) from February this year until the end of September, when she stopped working since she was planning to travel to India at the beginning of October to start the research for her dissertation project. With a scholarship from the DAAD and the ICDD, Katharina was about to spend the autumn and winter months in the capital of Maharashtra. Katharina’s research semester delays now for more than 2 months, since the Indian embassy did not issue her the visa yet. But I better not comment on this now.

Anyhow, Since Katharina is still enjoying the Weihnachtsmarkt in Kassel, our plans changed a little. It makes us very sad not to visit her anymore, instead we’re going to visit so much of what we have no idea yet.

12 days left!

Mid December a plane of Qatar Airlines will fly us to Mumbai airport. The plan of Katharina and her new friends waiting for us in the airport is now illusion, uncertainty will come instead. But, as my friend, Jesús, would say in this moment, that’s what the future Carmen will have to deal with.

So far, we have our plane tickets, I got a bindi on my passport, so did Vera, we made some medical preparations, decided to change out suitcases to backpacks – and now I remember the doctor asking if we’re planning a backpack trip, which we answered with a clear “no” – , applied for holidays from work, almost contracted health insurance and, of course, MADE THIS BLOG ;)

What’s left? To plan what will happen after mid December.

Keep you updated!

Source of photo: http://jihaan.hpcl.co.in