Applying for my India Visa

I sent off my Indian Visa application in the mail on Tuesday!

However, there has been a recent and rather unfortunate change in how tourist visas work. I applied for a basic six month tourist visa, but if I want to leave India at any time to visit surrounding countries I won't be allowed back in India for two months!

I know that I could easily spend my entire trip in India without getting to see all of it, so there is no real need for me to go to neighboring countries, but this type of typical bureaucracy still makes me mad. What if I want to visit Mount Everest, fly down to Sri Lanka, or visit friends in Thailand? I mean I'm flying halfway around the world to visit this country and they feel as if they have the right to stop me from visiting other destinations?!

I marked 'multiple entry' on my visa application. Even if my multiple entry visa gets approved I will still have to apply in person for special permission, when in India, to void their '2 month' rule. Without an itinerary set in stone and flights booked to prove it there is little chance they will approve it.. But I generally find a way around this sort of thing, so all is not lost yet.


Hoping my visa gets approved without any problems.

Only 46 days till I leave for India.

Common Wealth Games 2010 in India, should I go?

I am still putting together a basic itinerary for my trip to India. The general direction of travel will be focused around some major events I want to attend that simply cannot be missed, i.e. annual festivals or other events that happen to take place during my time in India.

One of the biggest decisions right now is whether I should attend the Common Wealth Games being held in New Delhi during October. For those of you who haven't been following the news, the upcoming games will be the most expensive yet. The Indian government has just released their new budget estimate at $2.3 Billion USD, that up over 1,500% of the original bid amount.

Tickets have been on sale for a while, which means the cheapest ones are now sold out. I can still get some for what most westerners would consider a good deal: opening ceremonies $100, field hockey $7, rugby $4, closing ceremonies $50. (And yes.. Canada DOES have a field hockey team..)

It's not that I particularly like watching sports but the mayhem may make it worth my while. Take a city already filled to the brim with over 14 million people add parties, thousands of foreigners, not to mention countless Indians from the rest of the country, and I'm pretty sure that's the recipe for a good time.

But with so many people attending it looks like cheap accommodation may be hard to come by, and even with pre-booking there is no guarantee your room will still be there when you arrive.

My current thoughts? I'm thinking about using www.hostelworld.com to pre-book some rooms at $15/night, paying around 10% upfront to reserve them and buying some cheap tickets for the games. Of course there is always the chance that my hostel reservation won't be honored and I'll be stuck without any affordable accommodation. But lets face it; the chance of me turning down a week long party like that in New Delhi isn't very likely!

Camping Trip (The Art of Being Frugal)

This post isn't related to my trip to India. It's about the camping trip I took with friends last weekend and how we were able to get all the additional camping gear we needed for 'free'. It's not that I am broke, I actually have quite a bit of money now in the bank, but with my big trip coming up I need to cut expenses whenever possible.

One of the things I have gained from my time as a university student is a better understanding of 'the art of being frugal'. After all, money saved on camping gear is money that can be spent on more bacon (and/or future travel)!

We had most of what we needed for our weekend trip but where lacking a couple of items; mainly an extra tent, camera, lantern, and decent portable ipod speakers.

For those of you who don't already know, Wal-Mart has a great return policy. Regardness of whether or not you like the store, they are a great source for 'free rentals' of almost every type. WalMart's return policy for most goods is 90 days (30 days on electronics). This period is generally enough to cover almost an entire summer! Below are some of the items recently returned to WalMart after consuming their utility during our trip. Thanks for the freebies WalMart! 

Money Saved: Tent-$80, Lantern-$40, Ipod Speakers-$45, Digital Camera-$110

So how did camping go?

Have Questions? Will Answer.

It seems there have been quite a few questions left unanswered. I will clarify on a few of the most common ones that have come up, but if you have any more feel free to ask!

When am I leaving?

I recently booked my flights and the departure date is mid-September. As for how I picked the exact date I knew approximately when I wanted to leave, +/- 7day, and picked the cheapest date available to fly out on.

How often will I be making blog posts?

For the remaining time before I take off, mid-September, I'll be making roughly two blog posts per week.

After I take off and am traveling abroad I will try to make posts as often as possible. I have yet to decide if I will be taking a netbook with me or rely on internet cafes, but you can expect posts every other day (except while in remote areas with no internet access).

How long am I going for?

Flights are booked, One Step Closer.

I finalized and booked my flights to India this week. 

I had been watching the prices of tickets from Saskatoon to both Mumbai and New Delhi every day for the past 6-8 weeks. I've always found booking flights to be stressful, especially when you are working with a very tight budget where every dollar counts.

I have seen the cheapest flights fluctuate from $1,350 to well over $2,000 during the past two months. Unfortunately, when the prices were at their lowest the summer had just started so I didn't have the money in the bank to purchase the tickets.

With the help of a little forecasting in prices, and a decent amount of money now in the bank, I was able to finally purchase my tickets towards the end of this week. 

The final price for return airfare to Mumbai from Saskatoon, taxes and fees included, $1470.

My trip to India is being funded entirely by myself and the money I am able to save from my summer employment. I will be showing you all my saving schedule and budget later-on. Staying on track has been, and continues to be, a bit of a struggle to say the least but it's my only option. 

I am fairly happy with the price I was able to book at. The prices shot up again the day after I booked so it looks like my timing was just right.

It seems I am one step closer to my 92 day adventure in India.

Can I have 3 months off work.. to travel?

Today was the day I finally stopped putting off that question. The one that I had been sitting on for months.

I knew I had to eventually tell my employer what my plans where for the fall, and this time they weren’t a continued university education.

For those of you who don't know, I work as an accountant at ClearTech Industries. They are a midsize chemical company. I started there as a summer student last year in the accounting department and never got around to leaving. Actually, that's quite a modest statement. I would have to say that my current job is without a doubt the best I've had yet and will be exceptionally hard to beat anytime in the near future.

My affection for my current job was one of the reasons I had put off asking ‘the’ question for so long. What if they said “No, you have to choose. It’s either us or the trip”? I should have known better, and unconsciously I think I did, but I have a tendency to play out the worst of situations in my head.

It was mid-afternoon. My boss had just gotten back from lunch with a friend and the office was steadily busy, catching up on work from the long weekend. I had gone over what I was going to say to him in my head all morning, I had it all planned out.. Then, as soon as I could sit down in one of his office chair’s.. it was gone. I pushed on, but it wasn’t coming out nearly as smooth as when I practiced the speech in my head. It didn’t matter. My boss seemed ecstatic that I wanted to go backpacking in India! 3 months off work? “No problem”. Employment when I come back? “Of course! Whatever works for you Simon.”

Sometimes I wonder how I’m going to get use to another office, job, coworkers, and boss in the future. Will it be like one of those relationships set to fail from the start? Always comparing to previous lovers or in my case... jobs. How did I land a job with such a flexible and understanding company? I don’t know, but I’m glad I did.

Choosing a Guidebook

Choosing a Guidebook: Which Series Fit Your Style? (and Budget)

One of the first places most people turn to when they're planning a trip is the travel section of their local bookstore, where you can always find plenty of customers sifting through books about places they may never go. (I'm certainly guilty of being one of those previously mentioned loiterers).

This can be a pleasant way to kill time while a friend is searching for a present in the cookbook section, but if you're in the market for a guidebook, the number of choices can be daunting.

What's New

With people traveling more, and to more places, it's not surprising that more guidebooks are being published. But people are also traveling differently, so guidebooks have started to reflect some of those trends. For instance, with travelers taking more short trips, publishers have created more miniguides that focus on only one city. Travel publishers are also selling more specialty guides, either targeting a specific segment of the population such as families, women, various sexual orientations, or people who don't leave home without their pets.

Deciding which guide to buy

So what's the best guidebook for backpackers? There's no one-guide-fits-all answer to that questions, but here are some tips on choosing a series that's right for you, which will probably vary from trip to trip.

Look at the publication date

Guidebooks aren't always updated yearly, so before you head to the register, check the publication date. It's usually on the page with the copyright information, at either the front or back of the book. Some publishers make this detail difficult to find. I'm sure I don't have to go into detail why having an up-to-date guide is very impotent.

Check the prices.

No, not the prices of the books - the prices listed inside. You may be seduced by the color photographs and the glossy paper, but if all the hotels, hostels, and restaurants it recommends are beyond your budget and there's no information about public transportation, you may need to rethink your choice.

Look at the maps.

Besides your guidebook, no doubt you'll also take along a fold-out map of the country you're visiting, but you probably won't buy a map for every city you pass through and certainly not for every small town. It's a good idea to check out a guidebook's maps to see:how many here are, how well they're labeled, and whether you need a magnifying glass to read them.

Don't be afraid to stray.

Just because you've always bought the same guidebook series doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a customer for life. People change, and sometimes so do travel guides. Some brands that were previously known as backpacker favorites have been broadening their focus to appeal to kinds now grown up and staying at nice hostels. Shop around, you may discover a new series you like.

You Guide to the Top Travel Guides (a brief comparison)