Visas and Passports

Dear reader, the most common question I’m receiving these days is “Will I need a passport?”

Julee Roth raises an important issue about the recent changes in banks, credit cards, ATMs and foreign currency transactions and the new fees (Dec. ’06, pg. 12).

My husband and I have taken several trips around the world. On our most recent such trip, in 2005, dubbed “Around the World in 80 Days” (actually 83), we shopped in Hong Kong’s wet market, had an elephant massage in Thailand (my husband’s back massaged by an elephant’s foot), visited the National Museum of Bahrain and soaked in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon.

Some friends shake their heads, and others are envious of Moreen and me for our travels in the Middle East. They ask, as do some ITN readers, if it is safe there for travelers. I can’t offer a definite yes or no, but I believe it’s relatively safe in many Middle Eastern countries.

For example, I had planned to take a trip to Libya in April of this year. The tour was canceled, not for security issues but because Libya stopped granting tourist visas for U.S. citizens. When Libya again offers visas, I plan to go there.

My husband and I have used easyJet many times over the past six or eight years and have been very satisfied with their service, prices and on-time performance. However, this spring I have become more and more frustrated with their online reservation system.

My husband, Foster, and I returned on May 6, ’06, from a 5-night trip with Globotours’ (18725 East Gale Ave., Ste. 209, City of Industry, CA 91748; 800/988-4833 or www.globotours.com) to Singapore and Cambodia (for Angkor Wat), with a 3-­day extension to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We also added one extra night in Singapore, bringing the total hotel nights to nine.

There are two things I learned from a July-August ’05 trip to Africa.

1) You MUST have the new U.S. dollars in Africa, especially to pay for your visa at the Kenyan border.

We took a trip to Libya with Distant Horizons (Long Beach, CA; 800/333-1240), an ITN advertiser. We were quite fortunate to have received visas, which arrived at almost the last minute. Other tours had to be canceled because the Libyans had not issued visas for those groups.

It seems the Libyan government relaxed its restrictions on visas, at least temporarily, to take advantage of the thousands of people who wanted to watch the total solar eclipse on March 29, ’06. Our group left Libya on March 27, and Distant Horizons had to pay a special “eclipse tax.”

Let me tell you about a tropical paradise my husband found on the Internet: Taman Harum Cottages (Box 3216, Ubud, Bali, INDONESIA; phone [62-361] 975567, fax 975149 or visit www.tamanharumcottages.com). The owner/manager is Ib Hariyana (Hari, for short).

Everyone had their own bungalow with an upstairs patio that overlooked miles of impressive green rice paddies. Our bathroom was like a semi-outdoor grotto, with lush plants and high boulders giving us complete privacy. During our stay in November ’05, the room rate was $45 a day.

Based on my April ’06 trip to Iran, I’d like to share three practical tips with ITN readers who are thinking of going there.