Visas

Something new we've had to deal with on this trip compared to previous trips is the need to acquire Visas for entry into some of the countries we'd like to visit. Somehow I've managed to avoid countries where a Visa is required for entry, so I had some learning to do for this trip. The majority of the countries we're visiting in the next few months need Visas for entry, but these can be arranged at the border or airport when you try to enter the country. The big exceptions to this are China and India. These needed to be arranged in advance from home....

Our passports arrived in the mail on Friday with our India Visa pasted inside. Woohoo! We're now set! The China Visa was a bit of a pain to procure, since you can no longer mail it directly to the embassy. You have to use a Visa processing company, which tags a fee onto the already high cost of the Visa itself ($130 each). China quickly figured out that it could double the price of its Visa costs due to the impending Olympics in Beijing, so even those of us who are trying to avoid those games get tagged with the high Visa cost.

It's worth noting that the United States has some of the highest Visa costs in the world, making it one of the hardest countries to enter. Many other countries that have high Visa prices for US citizens do so in direct response to the US imposing these same high prices on its citizens trying to enter the US. A good example of this is Brazil. It costs $100 for a US citizen to enter Brazil, but only because it costs a similar price for a Brazilian to enter the US. Hmmmm......

Ah, logistics.....

-Matt!