embassys

masyamba claims she wants a passport where she doesnt need visas. these dont exist i am afraid. i cant complain about my passport, it is a fairly good one, but i still sometimes need visas. so i foudn myself with max standing outside the indian embassy the other day. i was prepared for the worst. most of my embassy queueing experience comes from russian embassies, since it has been with them i have had the most experience. russian embassys are corrupt and ineffiecient. and corrupt. let me emphasise that one more time.....so i have come to view the whole thing as a painful and expensive undertaking.
the indian embassy was a joy compared to that. i arrived an hour before it opened to get my place in the queue (number 81). by the time i left they were at 500 or something like that. but despite the scary numbers the whole thing went smoothly and efficiently. we turned in our documents and came back one hour later to get our visas. the whole thing was done by 10:30 am. and it was 30 pounds, which isnt bad for a 6 month multi entry document.
it was all certainly less painful than the 5 injections i had to get in my upper arm in preparation for the trip. but then, i am now protected against hep A, polio, typhoid, tetanus, and diptheria....for a while anyway.