Dubai to Indiah...Visa troubles

 I returned to Ankara and spent my last few days in Ankara planning, booking my trip to India whilst we watched Erdogan crash the Turkish Lira, and the economy with it. We couldn't quite believe that UK is not in the list of passports that can apply on-line for an eVisa. I tried anyway, paid $99 , thinking it was a mistake in the  algorithm! I got a polite email saying British passport holders must apply at an Indian mission, preferably in my home country. 

Travel in and out of India is only allowed by plane, no land borders are open, due to these COVID-19 times, so reluctantly I booked a flight from Ankara to Dubai, and thinking I was taking advantage of super low Turkish Lira my onward flight from Dubai to Cochin, Kerala. They charged me in United Arab Emirate Dirhams, so whilst "cheap" the price was not rock bottom. I had heard about one lady who flew from Stansted to Split in Croatia for just £4, whilst I spent €300 in train fares just getting to Venice, is. fossil-fuelled flights are being subsidized (by freight), whereas when we travel by train in Europe we are paying full cost of travel. This needs to change. 

I spent my last days in Ankara hanging out with Susie, and her friend Elif. We went to our first post-Covid concert at the Congress hall, the 2004 Eurovision winner Sertab Erener, who has a nice song about who will save the Earth. Certainly not the politicians. The crowd went nuts when she played her Eurovision winner. Susie & I maintained social distancing and stayed in our seats. Good job, as next day I had to get my PCR test for International travel at her local, private hospital. I paid just €20, and got the results a day later, in both Arabic & English. 

On my last full day,  I sketched the tumble down hot house in the Botanical gardens. We went for lunch in Turkish chain called "Big Chefs" where I ate a Vegan Wiener Schnitzel. Yum! 

 

I left for Ankara airport by taxi. I flew by Turkish discount airline, Pegasus. I arrived in Dubai at 3:30 am, it was still hot. My hostel AnaRuby in Al Barsha district kindly sent one of their friends to pick me up. I crept into room and tried to sleep until 9am, when I got up to go for my appointment with Indian consular's agency: BLS. The helper in the Metro helped me by a Silver 'NOl" card and load it up with AED100. I travelled quickly and smoothly to the Burjuman area, where all the Consulars are located, and quickly found the agency in the Habib Bank Zurich building where the receptionist told me that India are only issuing 1M visas, due to COVID.  I pleaded my case for a 4M visa, and she helped me write a letter to the Indian consulate. After that the agency & consular were closed for 4 days for UAEs 50th National Day celebrations. The Emirate announced that the next day entry to Dubai's Expo 2020 Global fare would be free, so the next day, I set off with my Dutch & Swiss roommates, Monique & Daphné to take advantage of free entry. We travelled by Metro. Despite the crowds, the line moved quickly and efficiently, and we were in. Daphne and I got a new, experimental electric shock(!) massage in Planet  Japan. We then visited the Australian pavilion, which turned out to have the best audio-visual show explaining how the Aboriginal people see Earth & Galaxy as continual and interconnected. We visited  Jamaica and danced to Bob Marley. We got lunch in the Thai pavilion : vegan Pad Thai for me: yummy! Then we visited a new country : Eswaviti. When Daphne & Monique left, I queued up for Korea pavilion, sadly due to over-excitement about possible appearance by BLS, some of the all Pakistani men were pushing & shoving to get to front of the queue. They were sent to the back of the queue by security, or barred entry. After the tour of the pavilion, and the show, I got Korean tofu with kimchi, and a pumpkin pancake, even served with a beer, my first in Dubai. Alcohol is only served in hotels, and high end restaurants here. I went home, I had done 24,000 steps! Expo is huge & exhausting. 

I spent my next days in Dubai alternating between the beach, the numerous shopping malls, and exploring old Dubai: the Gold Souk. There isn't much left of old Dubai, the fishing had gone, and most of the food is now flown in. I bought food in the huge Carrefour supermarket in the Mall of the Emirates, walking distance from the hostel in Masref. 

So after the National holiday, I returned to the Indian consular agency resigned to getting just a 1 month visa. I also have to have a plane ticket out if India, so I have plumped for Nepal, in January. I spent 3 hours there, and then left to try and sketch the Burj Al Arab, but you can't get close to it, nor is there anywhere to sit down nearby. 

On my last full day in Dubai, I returned to Expo2020, hungry, so I ate veg dumplings in China Pavilion before visiting their hi-tech display. I would expect nothing less if China, considering they are the first country to send a rover to Mars, and collect samples. I visited Bhutan, to discover how I might travel there as I am visiting Nepal, I may have time to visit the Kingdom of Bhutan also before re-entering India for my yoga course. I also visited Indian pavilion. The ground floor was nice , with lush green displays with yoga demonstration. The middle floor had models of Indians fabulous temples, some of which I plan to visit & traditional dances, but the top floor was just corporate sponsors of Modhi's India. Brasil had a nice pavilion, with an area where you could paddle your feet, and listen to jungle birds, but the emphasis on sustainability and the Amazon forest was a little fake, as under Bolsonaro, destruction of  rainforest has accelerated  than at any time previously. So I headed to the Alkebulan African food pavilion and ate a lunch of  bean stew with plantain & avocado, washed down with a Guinness!

The most expensive pint of Guinness ever: this cost £10!

I spent a pleasant few hours sketching the dramatic central pavilion & the fabulous water fountain feature, until I discovered that the stones were actually plastic, and a lot of the planting was also plastic! 

Giant waterfall at Expo 2020

Having taken my mandatory PCR test this morning, I am sitting in the hostel  now waiting for my passport and India visa to arrive. It's in the area somewhere, as the courier called over an hour ago! When it finally arrives at 5pm, having waited in all day, I tell the "express" courier (AED50!) that Dominoes Pizza can do better.  I get changed into my travelling clothes : black leggings and a long T-Shirt dress, say my goodbyes to Ana and Ruby at the eponymous hostel , heaved up my 15kg backpack and walked to the nearby Metro.  It was packed.  I got talking to a Lovely lady called JP, who eventually offered me her seat, probably to save her from being crushed by the weight of my pack!  

I was the first to arrive at Indigo check-in at 7pm.  There was a really kind guy there called Imsu, who helped me with Air Suvidha, India's new bureaucratic document tha t has to be filled out before arriving in India.  They need copy of passport, copy of  vaccination, copy of PCR test, but all of these documents  need to be in PDF format.  Adobe acrobat wants me to sign up to a £65 pa subscription, but luckily the payment is not going through so I email them to Imsu, who converts them from JPEG to PDF right there and then on our mobiles in Dubai airport!   I get in the check-in queue again, but when I reach the front, Indigo want the document printed out in hard copy, so I leave the queue again to go to the Emirates visa  desk.  I stand in 3 different queues, but the ladies there are so  sick of Air Suvidha, they pretend not to have printer/printer paper.  Eventually the supervisor intervenes,  I pay AED  10, and go to the front of the now non-existent queue, I am now the last to check in.  The staff are lovely.  I run through the airport.  My digital passport doesn't work in the Smart gates (read machine readable), so I have to queue for an Emirati to stamp my exit visa.  Au revoir Dubai!  I really enjoyed my 8 days here.  I race through the airport, with just 30 mins left before take off. I haven't eaten since breakfast. The only food option open is: MacDonalds!!  I use the screen to order a small fries  , a vegeburger , and a bottle of water (aaagh! the plastic!).   I sit and eat it in the departure lounge, it's yummy.  I  have to show my PCR test, Covid passport (vaccination certificate) again at the gate to get on the airplane.   I sit at the back of the plane.  There is one other "foreigner"/tourist on the plane.  It is nearly full of Keralans returning home, some for the first time in 2 years.  

We land in Cochin on schedule at 4:30 am. The world's first solar powered airport.  The immigration tries to waive me through the eVisa/Via on arrival, but as I have a paper visa I can queue up with everyone else.  They ask me loads of questions about where I have been in the last 14 days, when I left the UK etc.  I tell the truth, and say I spent 1M in Turkey. I leave immigration, but with no entry stamp in my hard-won India visa, so I am sent back.  My pack is waiting for me on the carousel.  I load onto a trolley, and head for the pre-paid taxi stand .  She mutters something about PCR/vaccine, and I'm confused as it's a taxi to my hotel that I'm after.  She points to the taxi stand outside the terminal.  I push my trolley past a waiting line of official looking for PCR tests/Air Suvidha documentation.  I fail to notice that immigration officer has written: Turkey "High Risk!" across my Air Suvidha form, and  I am barred from leaving the airport without taking a further PCR test.  I protest my case with medical gatekeepers at the exit to the airport, saying that I've been in Dubai for 8 days, had a negative PCR test upon entry, and another within the last 24 hours, and if I'd picked up the Coronavirus in Turkey  10 days before, I wouldn't have had  a negative test in Dubai.  They try to say that UAE tests are invalid.  I laugh as UAE is one of the most modern, efficient places I have ever visited.  It's a total scam, as the rich pay INR (₹) 2500 to get a result within 30 minutes, and the rest of us pay ₹500, but have to wait in the airport terminal 3 hours.  I protest.  They call the chief of airport Police.  I stay calm, argue my case.  Some of the medical staff, and the police agree with me, but rules are rules.  I take the test around 5:45 am, and sit in aplastic chair in the over air conditioned hall without food or drink for 3 hours.  I am livid, although gratified that my test is negative to finally leave the terminal.  I pay ₹1500 (about €15) to take me the 24km to my Hotel in in Fort Cochin. I soon chill, pleased to be back in beautiful Kerala.  I love it here.   There are loads of ancient oil tankers, bicycles, motorbikes tooting and weaving their way through the air morning rush hour traffic.  Children in lovely blue uniforms waiting beside the road  to go to school.  I arrive late at my hotel: Zen Boutique homestay.  More about Cochin, Kerala; Gokarna, Maharashta state and Goa,  Goa in my next blog entry.  I can't quite believe I've made it.  Nearly 2 1/2 months from setting out from UK. 

Follow my pictures from my trip on Insta @mazza_66