It’s easy to travel for a Romanian now that Romania is part of EU. But what if you’re going somewhere else than Europe, like I am? What if you’re going to Thailand? Things change a little.
The most important thing is the visa. We used to be able to buy it in the airport when you arrive in Thailand. Not anymore though. Don’t ask me why…I wouldn’t be surprised if our reputation as a nation preceded us all the way to Asia and that made them strengthen the rules. What’s sure is that you need to go to the Thay embassy and apply for a tourist visa one week before leaving. Yes, it takes, according to them, one week.
But wait, in order to get the visa you have to have a round trip flight ticket. That’s easy, you go online, find a travel site, book the flight and pay for it either cash at the agency, money transfer or by credit card. Easy, takes one to two days to get it. Not over yet though. They also ask you to provide a hotel or any other place where you’ll be staying. That’s easy too, but harder than getting a flight ticket. You need to find a reliable website/company to book your hotel. For my trip to Thailand I used 2 sites which friends who used it before recommended them to me: http://www.agoda.com/ and http://www.sawadee.com/. I had a bit of a hustle to get the international credit card from my bank, but after a week of waiting, I finally got it and used it to book my hotels. Had no problem with the booking so far, they’ve sent me the receipts and the hotel vouchers and everything seems to be ok. So I get to the Thay embassy, fill out the form, listen silently to the moaning of the lady there about me being late applying for it and the next day got my visa. Hooray! Don’t forget one thing: make sure you’re getting travel insurance from any insurance company. Even though you might feel you don’t need it, you never know and besides, it’s really cheap comparing to the costs you might encounter if God forbids anything happens to you while traveling.
This being said, I wish you safe flight where ever you’re going and if you want my advice, when ever you have the chance, just go. Go see what’s out there, the world doesn’t end where the borders of your country ends. There’s so much to see that a life time isn’t enough to do it. Labels: home, travel |
