It’s been almost 2 weeks since I have returned from Incredible India and I have yet to find time to go through the 929 pictures that I have taken during the 16-day trip. It had been an amazing trip, truly eye-opening and I believe I would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn’t fall sick on the second half of the trip.

So anyway, my project partner and I arrived in Kochi (Cochin) late in the evening and we only started exploring the place the next morning. We spent a few nights in Fort Cochin, a small quaint town away from the hustle and bustle of a typical Indian city.

We took a 6-hour boat cruise in the Alleppey River and had a yummy traditional Kerala lunch in one of the villages. The cruise was quite an interesting one as the boat was rowed by two men (one in front and the other at the back) with a long bamboo each. It wasn’t easy but they did it very effortlessly, it was just simply amazing.

We also visited some really interesting places such as cemeteries (gulps!), temples and what-nots but this laundry place simply cannot be missed. It is located on quite a big area and there are cubicles where the clothes are washed, and there is a huge area where the clothes are dried and there is a hall-like area where men and women iron and fold the clothes.

We arrived in Goa two days before the International Sea Turtle Symposium began. The symposium was a great place to listen to and meet many amazing (yet very, very humble) turtle researchers and conservationists. It goes without saying that I have learned quite a bit from these people :D I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the Symposium organisers, especially Dr. Nick Pilcher from the Marine Research Foundation, Sabah, for awarding me a bed grant (otherwise, I would not have been able to afford staying in the very posh hotel called Vivanta by Taj).

Also in Goa, we had the chance to explore Old Goa a bit. We visited historical buildings, temples and beaches and I was really intrigued by the number of people who go to the beaches on a normal day!

We took a train from Goa to Trivandrum and much to my pleasant surprise, the 16-hour train ride wasn’t as scary as I had thought it to be! We were served lunch, tea and dinner and we thought we had to buy food on the train. The air-conditioning was cold enough and I slept throughout the night until an uncle who was seated across the aisle shook my shoulder to inform me of our arrival in Trivandrum, LOL.

Trivandrum is a very busy city. Or maybe that was because we stayed near the main road (most main roads in India are called the M. G. Road — Mahatma Gandhi Road). By this time we were quite exhausted so we took it easy and visited a temple, a museum, a zoo and a market on our own.

If I have time in the next week or so, I will write about the trip in a more detailed manner (plus more pictures and advice), OK?

So, after deliberating whether to courier our passports to somebody in KL who would be helping us with our visa applications, my project partner decided to make a trip to KL to apply for our visas as well as to run some personal errands.

So she went to the Grandlotus India Visa Center in KL and submitted both our Application Forms (and passports). The clerk then processed our applications, and she returned to the Grandlotus office the following day to pick up our passports.

She DID encounter some (minor) problems though:

1. We initially wanted to apply for tourist visas, but we had to apply for conference visas because our supporting documents were all invitation letters to attend a conference.
2. A tourist visa costs about RM 160 and is valid for 6 months. A conference visa costs RM 320 and is valid for ONE month.

Earlier on, I read that “they will issue you with a reference number that you will need to search for on their website” but my partner wasn’t issued any reference number and she didn’t have to search for it on the website.

I hope this little bit of information will be of some kind of help to anybody who needs to apply for an Indian visa!

India, here we come!