... maat ventures ....: another bump in the road...

Well, unfortunately, Aaron and I have encountered another bump in the road for our trip. Last winter, India made a new law that you are unable to leave the country and return within two months on a tourist visa. However, they indicated that you could ask for special permission to do so and if you are traveling on (and follow exactly) a specific itinerary then you shouldn't have a problem. Yesterday, Aaron and I drove down to Chicago with hopes of sorting it all out. There was a special form to be filled out for the Chicago Consulate and we thought we had everything in order. Once we arrived at the Consulate, there was a sign saying they would be closed until 3:30pm, so we had about 45 minutes to kill. In the mean time, we decided to head over to Travisa Outsourcing (where the consulate has outsourced their visa processing). It was only about a half mile walk and so we went there and tried to present our case to them, where they informed us that the Consulate is no longer accepting these forms, but as long as we register with the Department of Foreign Affairs right when we get there we shouldn't have a problem if we follow our itinerary.

We decided to try stopping at the Consulate anyway since we had already made the trip - but we found some even more frustrating news. After taking our number and waiting for about a half an hour, we were finally called up only to be told that there was no hope for us. The Indian government no longer accepts the forms that we filled out and if we leave the country we will not be allowed in for two months. We weren't really sure how to take this since we have already booked all of our flights and hotels in SE Asia and, not to mention, there website says otherwise.

We talked to one of our Indian friends on the way home and he seems to believe that we shouldn't have a problem and that the consulate lady didn't know what she was talking about. We're hoping that's the case because we have absolutely NO intention of skipping out on our SE Asia trip. I think that's enough rambling on that topic for now!

On a better note, we had a lovely trip to Colorado for my brother's wedding last week and we are only four days away from our departure! Here are a couple pictures from the trip:

Aar and I on a day trip to Boulder (Flat Irons in the background)