Around the World: Part One

In which I got readied for travelling abroad

“Dreams remain dreams; until you work on to turn them into reality”

Having done the Leh Ladakh tour in July 2018; I wanted to go next for an international tour and Europe was always at the brim of my dreams basket. The experience with Veena World was great for Leh Ladakh, so I browsed through the Women Special Europe tour packages. There were five packages available for Western Europe: 7days, 9days, 11days, 13days and 15days. Going through all the itineraries and flights, I chose the 11days package. All this browsing was done in Sept 2018. I did not have a passport then. I thought that there is enough time to apply for a passport and then book the tour. And when you think that you have enough time, you actually don’t have it. The tour was bookmarked in chrome and I went through it every weekend. But I did not apply for the passport which should have been a priority.

Dec 2018 First Week

As usual I opened the tour page. To my surprise, there was a red caption heading 6 seats left. For a moment, I thought that the tour is gone because I was surely not getting a passport in a day or two while the tour was likely to get Sold Out. I inquired in the Veena World Office for chances of Tour B; to which they replied that Tour B will be declared only if we get minimum number of bookings. So the second departure was uncertain. I was never so positive about anything in my life. I thought if I am destined to visit Europe in May, then it would be in the same tour among the 6 seats left. The very same day I applied for the Passport, uploaded Aadhar Card, PAN Card, and Post Graduation Certificate, paid the amount online and booked the appointment for 10th Dec. So easy the procedure was! And how stupid I was to delay it!

10.12.2018 to 29.12.2018

I reached the Passport Office, Malad East at 11.30am. The Appointment was at 12pm. I went through the Security Check at 11.45pm and queued up for the Fresh Passport. I was given a token number for the A section. The token statuses were displayed on the screens. I had to go to A19 for the bio-metric and photo. All documents were verified for originals and scanned. I paid Rs. 50 for the SMS. Next was section B2, where few questions were asked on residential details. The waiting process from A to B was an hour long, keeping my eyes glued to the screens. Next was APO section, where the application form and documents were rechecked. The police verification appointment was on 19th Dec and now the tour status was 5 seats left. I went to the Virar East Police Station at 4pm before the scheduled time. This was my first visit to a police station. I was asked few questions on residential address and hometown, education, any criminal record, etc. My photo and all documents were clicked on the Tab. The official told me that you will get the passport as a New Year Gift. By now only 4 seats were left. Finally I got my passport in hand on 29th Dec and the very same day....

Booking the 11days Women Special Europe Tour

I ran into the Veena World Vasai Sales Office and straightaway asked for booking the mentioned tour. The three sales representatives: Shubhangi Vartak, Neha Nivandkar and Ashwini Urkude looked puzzled. As per the procedure, the prerequisite questions were asked:

Parents NOC: Are your parents aware that you are booking the tour alone? I said yes.

Leave Sanction letter on Company’s Letterhead: My current job profile was asked and is the office team aware of the tour? I said yes.

Salary Statements, IT Returns, Sufficient Balance in Personal Account. All the documents should be available! I nodded.

The last question was on my age. Finally the tour was booked including the loyalty discount on Leh Ladakh and redemption of the Catwalk Queen voucher. I heaved a sigh of relief that finally I was on the Europe Tour. I received the booking documents and a World Map. There were small tags stickers on it; to stick those on the countries I would be traveling. Such a unique idea to view the world and the countries visited and to be visited.

The Parent Story

Since this is the second time I am going on a solo tour, I was confident enough to get a Go Ahead. My parents were under the assumption that I have shortlisted a profile from the matrimony site and I was going talk about the boy. Here I started with London... and they were disappointed. I didn’t speak of Paris and further. They were of the opinion that get married and then keep going on honeymoons wherever and whenever you want. And this went on for few minutes. Going solo is bliss; not everyone could understand. Finally they agreed and they told me that they had already predicted about the tour due to my All of a sudden Passport Application.

Visa Documents Preparation

NOC from Father: When it came to signing the NOC, my father had many questions. Hopefully I got his signature and PAN card at the end.

Leave Sanction Letter from HR: There was a prerequisite to get a mail approval from my hierarchy. Then the letter was issued by GM HR. This took a couple of days.

Bank Statements: Salary bank statement was an easy affair; but I had to create an RD in this favor. Personal bank statement was chargeable, with prior request letter and the reason.

Other Important Documents: Hotel Reservations, Flight Details, Guest List, Visa Application form, etc was taken care of by Veena World Team.

UK VISA

I had an appointment at 11am on 27th Feb at the VFS Global Office, Mahalaxmi West. Security Check was done at 10.45am and I reached the 1st Floor UK section. My passport was checked and appointment time was verified. I got a token at the entrance desk and a form for SMS and Courier service. Immediately my token was called at Desk 4 and I forwarded the documents to the official. All the officials working in VFS were well dressed in formals in light purple lines shirts and they were so particular in their job. I paid Rs. 150 for the SMS service and was told to go ahead for the biometric. In booth 3, I was asked few questions and had to answer those looking at the camera. The photo was clicked and bio-metric was complete. Again I reached the Desk 4, my documents were scanned till then. I was given the documents and my passport was put in an envelope. All this was done within just 30 minutes. Amazing! On 11th Mar, I got UK VISA printed on my passport.

Schengen VISA

I had to click photos as per the specifications of the Swiss Consulate. I had to sit in the photo shop and get the face length of 3.6cm exact. We were successful on the fifth attempt. Rest of the documents was in place. Bank statements required an entry for March. I had an appointment at the VFS Global on 22nd Mar. There were 105 visa applications on the day and everyone was called at 10am. Visa Team should have scheduled this into batches of 30 and called us accordingly. A lot of us were tired and annoyed waiting for long outside the office. Here in the queue, I saw Indumati Padekar (co-traveler on the tour, I didn’t knew her by name then). I was in the last lot to go to the second floor at 1pm. We were given our documents bag and again there was a waiting period till 2.30pm. At last the biometric was done.  I got my Schengen VISA printed on 1st April.

FOREX (Foreign Exchange)

I had already decided not to do shopping or buy any souvenirs. Still foreign currency was a must. I purchased 300 Euros from Vasai Office on 20th April. It’s strange to be a girl and not to like shopping.

Tour Manager

We got a WhatsApp message from our Tour Manager Akhilesh Shinde on 1^st May. It elaborated on the Reporting Time and Place on 6^th May, Airlines and baggage details, International Sim Card, Foreign Currency, details of Airport Representatives and the Complimentary things to be handed over to us on the Airport. These included Air tickets, Passport pouch, International adapter, Cross bag, Electric kettle, cap, poncho and dry snacks. Tour Details of Day 1 (07.05.2019) were also included in the message.

Chalo, Bag bharo, Nikal pado

Be a smart traveler. One duffel trolley bag and one handbag should be enough. I always pack as much luggage as I can pick up on my own. Well the packing style varies from person to person. The most important thing to be packed was the PASSPORT. I gave one set of passport and VISA copies, flight details, hotel details and itinerary to Mummy. So in this way I got ready to realize my dream for the next 11days, make new friends, get to know more about the places I would visit, capture memories in my camera and my eyes and have loads of fun. Co-travelers do share in your experiences from the day you booked the tour till the day you were all set to fly.

Read next: Around the World: Part Two