Indian Visa
Authored By Brian
Jennifer and I got up this morning and headed to the Indian Embassy near Geary and Arguello to obtain tourist visas for early next year. Six months for $60. We stood in a pretty long and chaotic line while the passport customers were turbo’d to the front of the line. When our number was finally called, we dropped off our passports, our application and cash and were told to return between 4:00 and 4:45PM to pick it up. Pretty easy.
For some reason, while reading everything in sight to kill time, I learned that India requires a visa for every tourist except for those from Nepal, Bhutan and South Africa. How the last one made it on the list is a mystery to me. Anyone know?
We stopped by the AAA on Van Ness on our way home to pick up applications for International Driving Permits. I think these things are kind of cheesy but we’ll be in several countries that don’t use the Roman alphabet so having a translated version of my driver’s license and motorcycle authorization is cheap insurance ($10).
As we were walking back to my motorcycle, we passed a doorway with a guy shooting up (presumably heroin). Point blank, half turned away from the street, needle in arm, injecting himself. It’s not the drugs but needles make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And not that I expect a junkie to be particularly smart about where they shoot up but I was surprised at how close he was to the street. I could nearly have reached out and smacked him in the head as we walked by.
