It was late November when I was asked to conduct some training for our office located in Pune, India. I had volunteered in the past years to do just this. Finally after several visas were denied it was my chance! Though India was never a place I considered visiting my excitement surmounted, only to be crushed in the following weeks by the pile of paperwork and pokes I would have to complete to make this journey.
After filling out my visa application 4 separate times, finding a new mistake upon each review, I finally sent it in the mail with my passport and held my breath! Next I was off to the travel clinic for my loads of vaccines. A couple weeks later ba boom! There is was in a sweet UPS envelope....my returned passport with my Indian Visa! All the shots and stress had finally paid off. And boy did it add up! Almost $400 for the visa and the same for the vaccines needed to travel to a country such as India! Yikes! Thankfully this was a work trip and those items were reimbursed, but not before some serious financial planning on my part.
Jan 20th rolls around and after a week in our Atlanta office conducting training and 1 day to switch my bags, I'M OFF! On the same 6am flight back through Atlanta. The flight crew was even the same as the two days prior and remembered me. (I always thought I would love to travel for business but doing that much air travel is exhausting!) After 3 planes, 40 hours, a 12.5 hour time change, several security check points, and many different foreign languages my trusty travel partner and I arrived in Mumbai. It was 1am and we stepped out into the most humid and smoggy climate I have ever experienced. Through the thick haze and wall of drivers with name plates we finally identified our names and headed to our car for the 4 hour drive into Pune. Through blaring horns, crazy traffic, a city that never sleeps, up hills, down bumpy roads, through towns, we finally arrived in Pune. 4am we checked into our hotel and began the battle with jet lag!
After filling out my visa application 4 separate times, finding a new mistake upon each review, I finally sent it in the mail with my passport and held my breath! Next I was off to the travel clinic for my loads of vaccines. A couple weeks later ba boom! There is was in a sweet UPS envelope....my returned passport with my Indian Visa! All the shots and stress had finally paid off. And boy did it add up! Almost $400 for the visa and the same for the vaccines needed to travel to a country such as India! Yikes! Thankfully this was a work trip and those items were reimbursed, but not before some serious financial planning on my part.
Jan 20th rolls around and after a week in our Atlanta office conducting training and 1 day to switch my bags, I'M OFF! On the same 6am flight back through Atlanta. The flight crew was even the same as the two days prior and remembered me. (I always thought I would love to travel for business but doing that much air travel is exhausting!) After 3 planes, 40 hours, a 12.5 hour time change, several security check points, and many different foreign languages my trusty travel partner and I arrived in Mumbai. It was 1am and we stepped out into the most humid and smoggy climate I have ever experienced. Through the thick haze and wall of drivers with name plates we finally identified our names and headed to our car for the 4 hour drive into Pune. Through blaring horns, crazy traffic, a city that never sleeps, up hills, down bumpy roads, through towns, we finally arrived in Pune. 4am we checked into our hotel and began the battle with jet lag!
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