Silly visa questions
 

So posting this partially because I think is one of the most ridiculously-phrased questions I've ever seen on an application and partially because I guess I need advice on how to fill this out, but...

In looking at the Burma visa application from the embassy, it asks for my complexion.

Mostly clear skin...with the occassional pimple?

Is that an acceptable answer? :)

I'm guessing they mean ethnicity?

white might work

I wrote "fair" on mine and it was accepted.

Dry with an oily section across the nose?

You might try "fair". that seems to be every Asian woman's goal, if you judge by the lotions and face creams marketed in those countries.

Seriously? The question is really about skin complexion? Now THAT is a first!

Is entry granted based upon smoothness of skin?

Sadly those women don't wear hats, gloves, face masks and long sleeves in the brutal heat to keep their skin smelling fresh. It's sadly all about the color.

Meanwhile, I'm thrilled when I get a little tan through all my cancer preventing sun-block!

Billy no worries about your "complexion". David's f/x and makeup people can make you look like the president of Myanmar if you so inclined.

I wrote white on mine...... Seriously!!!

Perhaps a silly visa question of my own...for Kathie (and others who have submitted multiple applications -- for spouse and/or family -- at the same time.)

Kathie, did you submit both your and Cheryl's applications to the embassy together in one shipment? Or did you submit with separate money orders, separate mailing envelopes and separate return envelopes?

Sending these suckers in tomorrow and want to make sure everything goes off without a hitch -- not sure how progressive the embassy is.

I submitted both of our applications in one Fed Ex envelope and had one Fed Ex return envelope with both of our names on it. We did submit separate money orders... I don't remember what my thinking was about that.

Good luck to you! I hope it goes smoothly.

Thanks for the advice, Kathie.

The package went out today. Got all fingers and toes crossed!

Fingers crossed FW. X

I had the same question, filmwill, about how to mail our visa applications - whether they needed two separate money orders and whether we actually needed to send a fedex envelope for the return or just the label. I ended up using just one money order for $40 but did include a fedex envelope inside the package. I hope that works! I got really worried about the picture size since what they requested wasn't 2 x 2" so I started cutting ours down to size and our faces take up most of the area - hopefully that's not a reason to reject them!

We don't leave until the end of November so I'm hoping if there's any problem we'll at least have time to try again.

The complexion question was a hoot!

Just wanted to add that we got our passports back from the DC embassy exactly two weeks to the day after sending them out (and that includes 2 day fedex delivery on both ends). Very fast!! Now the trip feels real :)

Congrats, Leslie! I know how good that feels.

can you get the visa at the airport ?

No.

I got my Burma visa in NYC.
http://www.myanmarmissionny.org/
Dropped off the papers, passports and cash ($20 each visa) and picked them up a week later.
No problem.

Well after months of hemming and hawing over these visa applications and about two weeks of fretting over whether or not DH would get approved or not...I'm happy to say that both our passports arrived via FedEx today with pristine Burmese visas affixed.

Could not be any happier.

It's officially official now.

70 days and counting.

WOOHOO!

Filmwill, so glad your visas have arrived! Congrats!

BTW, I posted a question last night about restaurant recs for Yogyakarta - please respond to it if you have any ideas for us.

Yay - congrats!

Kathie, we were in Jogjakarta in June. There's not much fine dining on Java, it's mostly ayam goren and nasi (fried chicken and rice) beef rendang etc in the warungs, and hotel food in the hotels.

We did have a few special meals in places organised privately by our travel friend, Kevin Pearce, who operates "Great Java Rail Tours" email [email protected] Please contact him, he will be most helpful.

One of those meals was in Jogjakarta, in a newly rescued and remodelled Dutch colonial power utility building.I can't recall the name, but Kevin will.

I don't know how much time you're planning to spend on Java, but it's worth putting in a few weeks to get your head around the place. It's very different to anywhere you may have been in SouthEast Asia, including Burma, where I know you have spent a deal of time.

We are Australians and spend quite a bit of time around Oceania and SouthEast Asia, but Java is quite a different proposition to Bali or Malaysia or Thailand, and is nothing like IndoChina.

On one matter, Java is culturally strong in its identity. There is a cultural Javanese pride that you must respect. If you do this, the people are wonderful, but you cannot disrespect their pride. It's a fairly young (1948) independent republic, and any slight is raw to them.

Have a nice time there. We certainly did. However, be warned that Java is not a western tourist's paradise. Few people speak English. Most tourism to Java is from Asia for business or shopping, not for cultural interests.

Go to Malang, Borobodur, Mt Bromo, Surabaya and the coastal fishing villages of east Java, and you will have seen a good part of Java. Most importantly, contact Kevin if you want the best word on restaurants, travel and trains.

Cheers, Maree

PS, Kathie, We're off to Burma for a few weeks in Dec/Jan. It will be very interesting to see how quickly the money is flowing in. We spent a lot of time in Vietnam and Cambodia in the late 90s/early 2000s and we watched it all change almost overnight. Russian and Chinese trucks and buses and boats went to Korean and Japanese in the space of a couple of years, the French returned as huge property and infrastructure investors (they did it through the EU but still reclaimed their holdings).

We'll be watching the China Syndrome in Burma, but I understand European interests are back. Good luck to them all, it's a frontier economy.

Hi maree, thanks for your words about Java. I've been to Java before and just loved it. This year we will be in both central Java and eastern Java, whereas on my last trip I was only in central Java. We ended up working with an agent in Yogyakarta for our ground arrangements.

Have a wonderful time in Burma. It is changing rapidly.

Kathie, all of Asia is changing rapidly. Good luck to the growing middle classes, they are embracing the advantages of change through education, better food and the benefits of travel & tourism.

Happily, most of us don't live in a human zoo where one would still like to see old men pedalling fat people around town for the photogenic properties. I'd rather walk, and we usually do.

My first time in SEA/Indochina was in 1973, as a newly-wed 18yo wife of an Australian army Vietnam veteran, visiting my brother who was a RAAF officer at Penang/Butterworth base in Malaysia while the US military was still withdrawing. I saw quite an interesting time then, mostly in Thailand while the US forces were still in place.

My husband and I have spent money and time back in Vietnam over the years with people like Koto and the school and orphanage and hospital building programs supported by Australian veterans.

We think, after this Burma trip, that we might have gone back to square one of Asia as we first saw it, and won't be going back again.

Our favourite places now are in the Pacific: Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Noumea, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, even Fiji, boring as it is in places, but Polynesia and Melanesia in the outer islands are places that most people have never been to except by boat.

I should write about some of these islands, but when they only get some small thousands of visitors a year, why spoil it, when Burma is about to be inundated?