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A visa run to Singapore

Written by James Clark on January 21, 2012 · 7 Comments

I am spending a few months in Thailand on a basic tourist visa, which means that after one month I have to leave and reenter to start a new visa. The previous month I went to Myanmar for 3 weeks. This time around I had not planned for a new country visit, so a short trip was ok for me.

In Thailand there is the option of doing a minivan day trip to the nearest border, but I prefer to make a mini break out of this situation, so I do one of my favourite travel pastimes and start playing with the destination maps on airline websites.

AirAsia flights from Bangkok
[AirAsia destinations from Bangkok]

In the end I chose Singapore on the strength of a super cheap flight sale on Tiger Airways on top of a craving for good Indian food.

Indian would have to be in my top 5 foods, so I tend to find myself in Little India every day I am in Singapore. Little India is also an interesting place to wander, though everytime I go there the sound of loud Bollywood music and the smell of spices makes me want to go back to India proper.

[Masala Dosa feast in Little India - Singapore]

While walking around Singapore I realised that there is a serious lack of bubble tea merchants in Chiang Mai. Bubble tea is everywhere here so I was happy to be back on the bubbles (if you can say such a thing?)

[Things I love about Asia: Bubble tea and peace sign photo posing.]

Another reason I came to Singapore was to meet up with one of my friends who lives here. I found out after booking my flight that he was working in London this month. No problem. I got on the Facebook and Twitter to see if anyone was going to be around, and I saw that Dan from Tropical MBA was passing through Singapore as well.

Dan is a fellow online business guy who I have been following online for a while, so we arranged to meet up for lunch and a cafe/internet session.

[Dan @Tropicalmba - all smiles while he checks his Paypal account]

Travel is large chunk of my business life, and one of the joys of travel for me is to be able to meet up with like minded people that I may not have met otherwise. I realised afterwards that I had way more fun hanging out in a cafe with wifi (and a chain cafe at that!) talking shop and swapping ideas than I would have had walking around seeing the sites.

So I now go back to Chiang Mai, ready to tackle some online projects with my wanderlust sated for another month. After that I will be heading off to my first new country of the year: the Philippines.

Categories: Travel Blog - Tags: drink, food, singapore, visa, work remotely

I’m going to India

Written by James Clark on March 16, 2011 · 2 Comments

Happy to report that after the misadventures of trying to get a visa while in Malaysia, I now have a visa for India. I last went to India in 2007 and I had hoped to come back more than once every four years, even if only for business. So I will be back in India in April and May.

Categories: Where I'm At - Tags: chiang mai, india, thailand, visa

Chiang Mai – An India visa run, in Thailand.

Written by James Clark on March 9, 2011 · 5 Comments

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand. This was not the greetings I was expecting to do for the rest of the year, but Indian bureaucracy had other ideas.

I went to Penang with the intention of getting a visa for India while I was there. When I applied to the visa centre, the first item on the visa application was pointed out to me:

Visa application of NON-MALAYSIAN foreigner who is not resident of Malaysia is liable to be rejected

I found out foreigners can longer apply for a visa in Malaysia (or Singapore), but you still can (for now) in Thailand.

I left Chiang Mai at the start of February and had mentally signed off from Thailand. I was thinking that it might be some time before I return to this land. Adding in the back tracking factor, I was wondering if I should just ditch the India trip all together?

The desire to visit India again and the fact that there is a consulate in Chiang Mai made my decision a bit easier. havin a bonus few more weeks with my friends in Chiang Mai sealed the deal.

Kuala Lumpur

To get to Chiang Mai meant going south to to KL to get a flight back north. Thanks to good old AirAsia, I’m becoming very familiar with Kuala Lumpur, and it grows on me just a little bit more each time.

When in KL I like to go to the Brickfields area, where you can find a good banana leaf set meal. This area is known as Little India and it has now been renovated with colourful archways, just incase you didn’t know you were in Little india with the blaring Bollywood songs everywhere.

[Little India, Brickfields - Kuala Lumpur]

KL Low Cost Carrier Terminal

As my flight was at 6.55am I opted to spend the night at the airport. I’m not good at getting up at 3.30am to get a flight, and the KL budget terminal is a great place to get some work done. There is a 24 hour food hall and Starbucks, and the Starbucks has free wifi (like most Starbucks in Malaysia). In fact the whole terminal has free wifi, so I spent the night as a work day. I wasn’t the only one with this idea. This is the food court at 2.15am.

[Food court at night]

India Consulate in Chiang Mai

I went straight to the consulate as soon as I arrived in Chiang Mai. If there is going to be another visa debacle I wanted to give myself as many spare days as possible to sort it out. The office is located on Tung Hotel Rd, which is near the train station. The consulate is in an old house and when I went there was no one in the queue. I filled out the application in what looked like the old lounge room, and that was it. Very laid back, just like Chiang Mai. Happy to be back.

Categories: Where I'm At - Tags: airport, chiang mai, india, kuala lumpur, malaysia, penang, thailand, visa

30 Days for 13,000 Islands

Written by James Clark on April 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Australians travelling to Indonesia are issued with a 30 day visa upon arrival, which costs $25 USD (payable in USD or Indonesian Rupiah). If you plan ahead you can get a 60 day visa before you arrive, which costs about $50 USD.

A 30 day visa to explore a country with over 13,000 islands a ridiculously short amount of time. It’s a hassle when you compare to visa offers in neighbouring countries. Malaysia give you 90 days upon arrival, as does Singapore, Thailand is 30 days if you arrive by air, and they are all free.

With 30 days my plan was to spend around 10 days each in Sumatra, Java and Bali. Quite a whirlwind trip when you consider the distances involved and it allowed no room for plan deviations.

My plan was blown away by an extended stay in Tuk-Tuk on Lake Toba. I got the overnight bus from Lake Toba to Bukittinggi which takes about 16 hours. It travels on the Trans Sumatran Highway, which is a highway by name only.

Bukittinggi is a pleasant enough place but it’s not really a destination, more of a base for exploring the regions mountains and lakes. I have to be in Padang in 2 days to get a flight to Jakarta so my time in Sumatra has all but run out.

Jam Gadang - Bukittinggi