Matt + Janae

Janae and I recently returned from out travels to the Middle East. Rich and Amy Bangerter are currently stationed in Dubai as part of Rich's foreign service tour. As with any friend who moves to another country, we miss them so dearly that we have to go and visit. Many of the Bangerter's friends had similar thoughts and before long, Kevin and Kasey, HF and Ginnie and ourselves were planning to visit Dubai. Unfortunately, unforseen circumstances and life in general got in the way and the Bangerters had the bad fortune of only seeing Janae, myself, and my Mom (she seized the opportunity to join as she has wanted to travel to Egypt since she was little AND everyone else dropped out). We were gone close to 3 weeks travelling to London, Jordan, Egypt, and Dubai.

Being as cheap as I am, I worked VERY hard to get the most efficient flight to travel to all four countries. The result? Travel to London with a 2 day layover en-route to Jordan where we would stop for 5 days. Egypt required a 1-way ticket from Jordan. From Cairo, we picked up our return flight which had a convenient layover in Dubai for another 5 days before returning to the US through London. All this with only 1 round-trip ticket and 1 one-way ticket!

Visas, visas, visas...

Janae currently holds a Taiwanese passport (soon to upgrade as her citizenship interview comes at the end of the month) and was concerned about obtaining visas to travel to all four countries. We started applying for the visas we thought would be the most time consuming and difficult: Jordan and Egypt. These turned out to be the easiest visas to obtain! A quick visit to the respective embassy in DC along with a couple dollars was all it took. Surprisingly, London was the most difficult.

Visa application to the UK was available online and fairly easy to navigate except for a few minor questions such as the visa type. We were going to be in the country a total of 49 hours before picking up a flight to Jordan. There are 2 visa types to that Janae could apply for -- 'in-transit' or 'visitor.' 'In transit' visas are good for 48 hours and are intended for people with layovers in London before reaching final destinations. We were 'in transit' but in the country for 49 hours. I tried calling the embassy for help. No phone number for the embassy -- just a 900 number (almost $3 a minute) outsourced to a consulting firm who has nothing to do with the actual application process! I was advised on getting a 'in transit' visa, which we did. Rich, who made a contact in the UK embassy, received the same instructions. 'Denied' was the response we got on Thursday from the embassy. Our flight left the following Tuesday! Without options, I called the 900 number and paid again to receive advice. They recommended a courier services to apply in person on our behalf. Of course, the embassy only uses a select few. Needless to say, they make good money on people in our situations. After two over-night Fed-Ex exchanges and over $300 in total charges, we received the visa to London! All this to visit for 49 hours.

Onward to London...