The Travel Independently Blog

India is one of about half of the countries in the world which require a visa for US citizens. Some of those countries you can purchase a visa upon arrival at the airport, some you must get your visa or arrange for your visa in advance. India is a country that requires a visa in advance.

I always begin my visa research by going to the country’s embassy website here: http://www.indianembassy.org/newsite/default.asp

India has outsourced its visa processing to a company, Travisa outsourcing at https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/homepage

The excellent website has very clear instructions and details all of the items you need to send with your visa application. I must say that while I have applied for a number of visas from embassies or consulates, I’ve never had to mail in a copy of my birth certificate or provide proof of my address via a driver’s license or a utility bill. Each country has different requirements.

The visa application is filled out online. The format gives you instructions for each line or box you have to fill in. You then print out your application and send it in with your passport and the required documentation.

India has the option for US citizens of a 6 month ($60), 5 year ($150) or 10 year ($150) visa. All visas have a $13 service fee added to the cost. We felt the 10 year visa was a good idea, as this is only our first trip to India – we know there will be others. As you can see, it’s also a good deal, price-wise.

We sent our visa applications, documentation and passports via Federal Express so it can be tracked. The Travisa website also has tracking information online, so once our applications have been received, we can track its progress.

Technorati Tags: india visa, indian embassy, travisa

I try to read as much as I can about places I visit. Typically, I can find several dozen books, so the task is to choose the best. I usually find a combination of history, fiction and memoirs.

Finding books is a bit more difficult for Sikkim than for other places we’ve visited. I’ve done a thorough search for books on Sikkim, and have turned up only a few, none of which are available directly from Amazon. I ordered two books from IndiaClub.com. One arrived in a week or so, the other arrived in a couple of weeks, shipped from Delhi. Next, I did a more thorough search and turned up a number of books I could get from Amazon resellers. I ordered the books, and have received all but one of the books, which is being shipped from Delhi.

Here is a list of what I’ve found:

Sikkim: A Traveller’s Guide, Photographs and Essays by Sujoy Das, Text by Arundhati Ray. Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2001 (This is the book most often recommended)

Garuda & Winged Horses by Somnath Guha. Srishti Publishers, New Delhi , 2001

Memoirs of a Political Officer’s Wife in Tibet, Sikkim and Bhutan by Margaret D. Williamson. Wisdom Publications, London, 1987

Mountaintop Kingdom: Sikkim Photographs by Alice S. Kandell, text by Charlotte Y. Salisbury. Norton & Co, New York (no pub date listed)

History of Darjeeling and the Sikkim Himalaya (this book not yet received; being shipped from India).

I also ordered one DVD from Amazon, The Lion’s Roar, a documentary about the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa filmed in 1985

The next task is to read and digest as much of this information as possible!

I consider this part of trip planning to be a real luxury. To simply think about the many options available… I bought an atlas many years ago that billed itself as a list of options.

Sometimes the question of where to next answers itself before I get home from the last trip. I’ve always had a long list of places I wanted to see. Some are written down, some are in my head.

This year, I went back to several lists and looked at ideas. One idea that has been with me for a long time has been Machu Picchu. I’d planned to take that trip a decade ago. But before the trip was planned I was in an auto accident. While I wasn’t badly hurt, my back was injured enough that long walking was clearly not in my near future. My plan for Machu Picchu had been to walk the Inca trail and enter through the Gate of the Sun. That plan had to be put on hold. As the years have gone by, my back is better, but I don’t think I’ll ever hike the Incan Trail. An easier Machu Picchu option is likely in my future. But Machu Picchu hasn’t struck me as being the right trip for this year. And there are mudslides blocking the railway.

So back to my lists. India has long been on my list. But it’s so huge and varied – what to tackle first? One of my lists had Assam on it. So I started doing some research.

I started by doing some reading on my favorite travel boards and buying a guidebook. The guide I could find with the best info (and still, it didn’t have a lot) was the Lonely Planet Guide to Northeastern India.

Assam sounded good to me for a number of reasons. Our last trip was to Burma, and Assam shares a border with Burma. The there are shared history and customs among the people on the two sides of the border. It seemed like a natural extension of our time in Burma. Assam offers the opportunity for a variety of interesting activities. National parks offer wildlife viewing. There are tea plantation, temples and markets. And my favorite weather site, weatherbase.com confirms that it will be a pleasantly warm break from November‘s rain and cold in Seattle.

Technorati Tags: independent travel itinerary, independent travel planning

You can’t get there from here or trying to travel independently in a place that doesn’t want you to be independent.

It’s been a while since my last post here. I have to admit that I got caught up in planning my next trip to my favorite part of the world, SE Asia. Finally, I decided to visit Burma. I won’t go into all of my machinations about whether or not to go, as that debate spanned some twenty years, but I do want to tell you about my experience booking this trip.

When Burma first opened to tourism over two decades ago, they allowed only group tours to enter. At first there was a strict limit of 7 days in the country. As time went on, the rules loosened gradually, but even today by far the majority of travelers to Burma go as part of a tour group. If you aren’t going as part of a tour group, they would prefer that you have a travel agency just book your itinerary for you.

I wanted to travel according to my own plan so I really had to work to get the travel arrangements I wanted. I usually book all of my own flights and all of my own hotels over the internet. For Burma, this was a real challenge. Because most email is blocked in Burma, emails to hotels may never be received. E-mailing is often an exercise in frustration. I was able to book one hotel directly via e-mail; another I found a Thai booking site where I could reserve and pay by credit card in advance – a great advantage in a country where credit cards are basically unusable. And my third hotel I was able to book via a phone call to The Leading Hotels of the World.

Air tickets were harder. There is no way to book intra-Burma flights online. Indeed, it was impossible to find a current timetable, let alone one for a month or two away. Eventually, I found a posting of what flights flew last week. I have a travel agent in Bangkok I’ve used for booking intra-Asia flight when needed. I wrote to him, and after several weeks of trying, he told me he was unable to book my flights. At that point, I emailed a travel agent in Yangon. They were able to tell me the times of the flights and book them.

And no one told me that there are no non-stop flights among all of the major cities. Of our three internal flights, two had stops on the way. And there are few choices about when to fly. It is not uncommon to have only one flight a day between two of the four major destinations in Burma. So our time in each place was a little different than we had originally planned.

Still, we did eventually get all of our hotels and flights and we had a wonderful time.

But I learned that a country that would prefer that you not travel independently can make it difficult for even the most stubborn independent traveler!

Technorati Tags: Bagan, Burma, Inle Lake, Mandalay, Myanmar, Rangoon, Yangon

Few things strike the first time traveler to Asia as more anxiety provoking than bargaining. If I offer a price that is too low will I insult the seller? If I pay too much will the seller think I’m a dumb tourist? Everything seems so cheap anyway, shouldn’t I just pay what is asked?

First of all, it helps to have a context for bargaining. In cultures where bargaining is done, it is a part of the social discourse. It is expected that you’ll bid back and forth and come to a mutually agreeable price. Think of bargaining as similar to other scripted social interactions. “How are you?” “ I’m fine, and you?”

Start low so you have room to trade bids when the vendor comes back with a higher bid. Don’t start with the price you want to pay.

Remember that when it gets down to the final bids, you are likely talking about a few cents. Don’t bargain as if your life depended on getting the lowest possible price. Bargain with a smile. Be pleasant even when you are saying, “that’s too much.” Remember that you both want the same thing, the seller wants to sell you something at a price you’ll both be pleased with, you want to buy something at a price you’ll both be pleased with.

What Should I Start With?

So how much less than the starting price should my first offer be? There is no hard and fast rule. Sometimes you should offer as low as 10% of the asking price; sometimes you’ll be lucky to get 10% off the asking price. It helps to have some idea of what the item is worth. If you’ve wandered around a bit, you’ll have an idea of what other sellers are asking for the item. If you’ve been to a store with fixed prices and have seen an item, you’ll have a better idea of what it is worth.

If you are really nervous about bargaining, you can always simply ask if you can get a discount or if the seller will give you a “special price.” The seller will almost always offer you a lower price, which you can then either accept or can make a slightly lower bid. You won’t get a rock-bottom price doing this, but it can be a way to start learning how to bargain.

You can ask the price of anything with no obligation to buy, but once you start bargaining, you are obligated to buy the item if you and the seller come to a mutually agreeable price.

The first sale of the day is considered good luck, so sometimes sellers are willing to come down farther in price for that sale. After you pay, the seller may touch all of the items in the stall with the money you paid. I always enjoy this little ritual and laugh with the seller about the sale being good luck.

Always Know You Can Say No

When you are bargaining for an expensive item and you can’t come to an agreement, it is ok to say no thank you and walk away. Sometimes that will inspire the seller to come after you and offer a lower price, sometimes not. But you can always return later and resume your bargaining.

There is no need for a common spoken language to bargain. I’ve often bargained for items with a calculator passed between us. Perhaps the most important currency in bargaining is goodwill and a smile.

Technorati Tags: independent travel bargaining, se asia bargaining, tourist bargaining, travel bargaining

So, you want to check your email and your bank accounts while you’re traveling but is it safe to do that? It is if you plan ahead and bring along the right tools.

Your Own Laptop – Best Solution

Having your own laptop with a personal VPN and your firewall turned on is by far the safest way to go. This is true for both Windows and Mac. I’m more familiar with Windows, both XP and Vista have a personal firewall that you should always have turned on when you are using it on an unsecured network to prevent others from coming in a using your laptop as a launching pad for such unsavory things as pornography, spamming or spreading viruses.

Personal VPN software

The personal VPN software I recommend is from Witopia. It currently runs 39.99/year which is very cheap for what it does. It’s very simple to use and quite dependable. You install it on your laptop and every time you are on an unsecured wireless connection, you double click on it and it creates the VPN tunnel within about 30 seconds. Actually, you can use it any time you turn on your laptop, even at home, and your IP will continually be different. If you don’t understand what an IP is, don’t worry! I initially purchased Witopia when I started spending more time working in coffee shops around Seattle. I now need not worry about someone in the area “sniffing” my network connections in plain text.

Many more reasons to install a personal VPN are explained here at the Witopia site. Witopia – Reasons to Install a Personal VPN

Here’s the one you’re most interested in while traveling, so I’m quoting it here:

“You use Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Although most don’t realize it, Wi-Fi Hotspots, whether paid or free, are horrifically insecure. You are literally broadcasting all of your data “in the clear” with typically no security whatsoever. This can include your e-mail, IM messages, web searches, and any other data sent or received over the wireless network.

It is shockingly easy for anyone to “sniff” and capture your data without your knowledge. Due to the ease of the crime, and the fact Wi-Fi Hotspots are typically frequented by folks with a little change in their pocket, a Wi-Fi Hotspot is a tantalizing place for bad guys to lurk.

One common tactic is something called the “evil twin” attack where the evildoer sets up a laptop as a seemingly legitimate Wi-Fi Hotspot. You connect to the Internet through “FREE Airport Wi-Fi” — or anything the bad guy wishes to name it — and although all seems fine you are actually sending all of your data through a hacker’s laptop.

Honestly, we’re not sure how often this happens, and it may even be pretty rare. Nevertheless, with data crimes, it usually only takes once to cause some pretty serious havoc in your life.

With WiTopia VPN service you could even connect through the hacker’s laptop and all they would be able to capture is a lot of encrypted gibberish they will never be able to crack.”

Public Computers

When you decide to use a public computer, even a computer at your hotel that you assume is safe, you’re taking a huge, repeat, HUGE risk. Even using an https address will not protect you from spyware and key logging programs or hardware. Always be very aware that when you choose to use a public computer, be it at the hotel or at an internet café, you are taking a huge risk of getting your passwords stolen if you type them in manually.

Bottom line, when you use a public computer, you should not log onto your bank accounts unless you are using some kind of password autofill program. Read more password autofill options below.

Password Autofill Software

I recommend password manager I use at home is RoboForm. For use while traveling, I’ve purchased Roboform2Go, which is a $20 add-on to the Roboform software. This will will provide you with everything you need to access your passwords securely while traveling using a USB drive. Be sure to purchase a U3 Smart USB drive, they have security built in. Bottom line, Roboform costs a relatively small amount for what it offers and I’ve gotten to where I can’t live without it now. It also does form filling for you.

If you’re looking for something free but not quite as robust as Roboform, check out Lastpass. It’s very simple software to use. All of your passwords are stored at LastPass (they use very secure 256 AES encryption). When you’re using an untrusted computer, you’ll log onto Lastpass using a one time password that you generated before you left (be sure to do this or you’ll be out of luck). Get this service before you leave, be sure to store all of your passwords that you’ll use on the road on it and then create about 50 one time passwords (or however many you think you’ll need to gain access to your password vault while on the road).

Other Opinions About Using Hotel or Other Non-Secured Computers

Quoted from CNET PCMag Article

“But really, you should do your best to avoid using nonsecure computers. Even if you keep a key¬logger from snagging your password, it might still take screenshots of key financial info. Your best bet is to implement a high degree of security on your laptop and resign yourself to lugging the darn thing along.”

What To Do Every Time You Finish Using a Public Computer

Clear the browser cache and cookies! Normally this is done by going to Tools – Internet Options.Don’t, I repeat, DO NOT leave any personal information on the computer.

In Conclusion

This isn’t about being paranoid, it’s about being smart. We’re beyond the days of leaving home and really being gone, but you can check your email and your bank accounts safely if you follow the recommendations shared in this article.

Bon Voyage!

About the Author
Cheryl is both a computer systems professional and as someone who travels frequently for both business and pleasure both here in the US and internationally.

Technorati Tags: computer fraud traveling, computer security traveling, password keeper programs, personal VPNs, travel laptops