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11 Key Steps to Prepare for India
The following steps are in rough order of when each needs to be completed.
1. Read some India guidebooks. This is not just for sight seeing. These books have health, cultural, emergency contact and other useful information. Some of the most popular guides include Lonely Planet India and India Rough Guide. A suggestion is to create a little library with others. You'll probably want to have copies of the pages relevant to the areas you're visiting along with you when you travel but I don't recommend taking the entire book to India (in fact I've destroyed expensive guidebooks by ripping out only the pages I needed when I got tired enough of lugging the book...). To sample a little of what's ahead explore the website for the Hotel Cindrella (sic) where the seminar is held (the prices on this website are not relevant to the retreat).
2. Obtain a passport (or check that your passport does not expire until after your latest possible return date). View passport info... When you get passport photos taken obtain 3-4 extras (for your visas). If you have a passport you should still get these visa photos taken.
3. Register for the seminar whenever the process for registration is announced by KCC. In the past the registration process has been to give a $50 check to the registrar which is returned to you when you arrive in India and pay in cash dollars or rupees. The seminar does not include hotel and meal expenses which are paid at the end of the retreat directly to the Cindrella Hotel at very discounted rates.
4. Begin collecting your travel devices. Read Dora's excellent list... We'll have a show and tell in July. Some items (e.g. mosquito netting) might be borrowed from generous folk not traveling this year if you find and ask them.
5. Determine approprimate dates you wish to travel in order to arrange time away from work, etc. The seminar dates are approximately November 17-27 (tho' subject to change). The journey from Portland PDX to Bagdogra Airport, Siliguri is approximately 25 hours in flight with a series of 4 or 5 airplanes, spread over a minimum of 4 calendar days on the way over and 2 on the way back (crossing the international dateline you lose a day going and get it back returning). Your travel will probably not be on the exact dates you wish since not all flights are available every day. We've worked with some experienced agents who can help. In general it is prudent to work backwards from the date you wish to arrive in Siliguri by first making sure there is at least one other option if, for any reason, you're not on the flight from Calcutta or Delhi to Bagdogra Airport in Siliguri (many adventures with connections and cancellations are possible). So contingency planning includes arriving in India at least 24 hours before you may actually want to be there!! It's best to allow some slack and then relax into the adventure.
6. Explore possible travel companions. If this is your first time in India please don't travel alone. Find some others going in your time frame (e.g. can only go the shortest possible time or interested in longer, additional travel). We may be able to obtain a group rate if we book with the same agent without necessarily booking on the same flights (more in June on this).
7. Obtain travel insurance. This can be available through the travel agent or your credit card company if you use it to purchase your ticket. So it's best to know about other alternatives before purchasing your ticket with those options. If you're a student there are great discount insurance companies. View comparison insurance rates... You'll need to know travel dates and approximate cost of trip to purchase insurance. Why do you want to consider insurance? Trip cancellation insurance gives you a refund. If you are injured or have a serious illness in India the most likely thing you'll wish to do is immediately to get out of the country. Medivac scenarios can run $5K to $30K (read the travel guide books for some exciting stories). However, travel insurance can be a few hundred dollars and these days you have to read the fine print for exclusions such as "not applicable in the event of an international respiratory epidemic."
8. Purchase ticket (approx. August). Here for your expense planning purposes are some estimated fares for India travel from our travel agent.
Stay tuned for more detailed itinerary information and some group coordination suggestions. Meanwhile, July is plenty of time to plan and purchase tickets.
A. Singapore Airlines $1250.00 + taxes 86.00
Routing: PDX-SFO/LAX-SIN-DEL
There will be 6hrs layover in Singapore on outbound flight
B. Thai Airways $1300.00 + taxes 86.00 = $1386.00
Routing: PDX-LAX-BKK-DEL
Overnight in BKK for all connecting passengers at Thai Airways expense (note from Char: in the past this has been in nice hotel with easy access to Bangkok).
C. Round-trip airfare from Delhi to Bagdogra on Jet Airways will be $390.00 Delhi-Bagdogra (non-stop) on Tue. Thu. Sat & Sunday. Bagdogra-Delhi (non-stop) on Mon. Wed. Fri
9. Obtain an Indian and Sikkimese visa (If you already have a visa check that it does not expire before you plan to return.) View information at the Indian Consulate in San Francisco's website... You'll have to send your passport to San Francisco for a visa. Payment is by money order only. One trick is applying early enough. Unfortunately the other trick is applying late enough because the visa begins on the date it is issued so a "six month" visa issued in May expires in October! Very important advice from Dora: "When applying for your visa or ANY time you are dealing with an official India, the purpose of your visit is tourism. Do not say you are studying Buddhism, doing a retreat or visiting a monastery. This is the advice I and others have gotten for many years." If you plan to visit Rumtek you'll need a visa for Sikkim appended on your Indian visa (in 2001 these were hand written on the Indian visa). The process for applying isn't obvious on the consulate website (more info in June). One more tip is that it doesn't pay to purchase an extended Indian visa (if available) if your passport expires soon because the visa never extends past your current passport.
10. Obtain a Nepali or Bhutanese visa if you plan to go there. View Nepali Consulate website... Payment is by money order only. You'll have to send your passport to Washington, D.C. or you can wait to buy a visa at the border. Pros and cons of this will be explained in June. If you go to India from Nepal or to Nepal from India the flights across Nepal need to be arranged by someone with in-country contacts (the agents we've used in the past are able to do this - more in June). I can't help with Bhutan information except to say that if you think you'd like a side trip to Bhutan be sure to research the visa issues well in advance since these are strictly enforced and there are some Indian businesses which promise to get you into the country but do not deliver.
11. Contact a travel health facility and schedule your vaccinations. Shots, boosters and malaria medication can only be given so far in advance (I recall it began in September the first year I went in November) but must also be enough in advance to accommodate a series of shots. In Portland there are travel clinics at Kaiser, OSHU and Good Samaritan and perhaps others I don't know about. If you tell them your dates and countries, they can tell you the necessary schedule. Be prepared for immunizations to cost around $200-300 per person. Most insurance plans do not cover travel immunizations (although someone on the Kaiser plan in Portland in 1999 told me they only had a $28 co-pay). View Nepal health information... You can monitor government travel warnings at the Center for Disease Control.