Heading to Mumbai for our first Indian wedding
It is now seven in the evening in Zurich, and Jeroen and I are hovering somewhere over Dubai. We are on our way to Mumbai in India, and we have two hours and 15 minutes left of our flight, to be very precise. For both of us, it will be the first time in this incredibly huge city, and we have no idea yet what awaits us. Let’s go to Mumbai, or Bombay, India’s biggest city.
Swiss Air
As I am not the biggest fan of flying, the last five hours have gone amazingly well. Arriving at the airport in Kloten, everything went smoothly. We had to wait briefly at customs, show our passport at the intercontinental gate, and before we knew it, we were in line for another passport and visa check. We fly Swiss Air, and despite the plane itself looking rather old-fashioned – it still has one of those phones in your armrest, for instance – it is a comfortable flight. We fly the Airbus A330-300, so 2-4-2, Jeroen at the window and me by the aisle. We also sit right in front of the toilets, so even though you hear that noise all the time when the toilet is flushed, you can move your seat back unabashedly.
Wedding
Whether I would have been able to write this blog with massive turbulence and thus no comfortable flight, I will leave in the middle for now. So we are on our way to Mumbai, a city of 22.8 million people, and here we will stay for nine days. Primarily for a friend’s wedding, but of course also to see a bit more of the city. The wedding will have as many as 800(!) guests, so basically just an event. Quite an experience where we might get some inspiration ourselves. Although, I have no idea where to get 800 people from. We are staying in the north of Mumbai, further away from the center, so getting into the center will take some time with more than 20 million people also trying to get around.
Indian passport
Meanwhile, it’s another hour and 57 minutes of flying time. Too bad I had hoped to take a bit longer on this blog, but we’re about to have another snack, so I don’t have much time to finish this blog either. Oh, and if you don’t have an Indian passport, halfway through the flight, the flight attendant will give you a piece of paper with some more details to fill in. I think you already did this when you applied for your visa, but well a second time can’t hurt. We land at two o’clock local time, and if all goes well, someone will be waiting for us from the hotel, a luxury. Hopefully, we can go to bed and start our first day in Mumbai!
Kuala Lumpur
After nine days in Mumbai, we do not return home yet, but we will continue the journey to… Kuala Lumpur! After two years away from this city, we are now returning for the first time. We are both incredibly looking forward to this, if only for the food. I am already making a list of all our favorite coffee shops and restaurants. We will stay close to our old neighborhood, so everything is familiar territory. I think a lot of memories will resurface, and I certainly won’t rule out mild homesickness on the way back. Who knows, I might find myself crying on the plane writing a blog about how great it was. Actually, I don’t think so, because we fly at night. We can already prepare for a 13-hour flight from Singapore!
Visa
Back to India for which we had to arrange a visa in advance. Now there are really countless websites that can take this off your hands, including Dutch ones, but of course, you have to pay for this. If you do it through the official website, it will cost you $25. Compared to a Dutch commercial website, this will quickly cost €50. For an urgent application, you pay €17.50 extra. Besides, applying for the visa yourself is a piece of cake, but you have to take some time. Some of the questions we had to answer:
- Write down all the countries you have visited in the last 10 years up to a maximum of 20 countries.
- Where are your parents from?
- Are your grandparents from Pakistan?
- Have you ever been convicted of human trafficking?
After rechecking all our details five times, we could pay and wait and see. That wait didn’t take long, as within 24 hours, we received an email with our visa. This easy process is definitely not for everyone, and we should be very grateful for our Dutch passports.
Heading to Mumbai for our first Indian wedding
It is now seven in the evening in Zurich, and Jeroen and I are hovering somewhere over Dubai. We are on our way to Mumbai in India, and we have two hours and 15 minutes left of our flight, to be very precise. For both of us, it will be the first time in this incredibly huge city, and we have no idea yet what awaits us. Let’s go to Mumbai, or Bombay, India’s biggest city.
Swiss Air
As I am not the biggest fan of flying, the last five hours have gone amazingly well. Arriving at the airport in Kloten, everything went smoothly. We had to wait briefly at customs, show our passport at the intercontinental gate, and before we knew it, we were in line for another passport and visa check. We fly Swiss Air, and despite the plane itself looking rather old-fashioned – it still has one of those phones in your armrest, for instance – it is a comfortable flight. We fly the Airbus A330-300, so 2-4-2, Jeroen at the window and me by the aisle. We also sit right in front of the toilets, so even though you hear that noise all the time when the toilet is flushed, you can move your seat back unabashedly.
Wedding
Whether I would have been able to write this blog with massive turbulence and thus no comfortable flight, I will leave in the middle for now. So we are on our way to Mumbai, a city of 22.8 million people, and here we will stay for nine days. Primarily for a friend’s wedding, but of course also to see a bit more of the city. The wedding will have as many as 800(!) guests, so basically just an event. Quite an experience where we might get some inspiration ourselves. Although, I have no idea where to get 800 people from. We are staying in the north of Mumbai, further away from the center, so getting into the center will take some time with more than 20 million people also trying to get around.
Kuala Lumpur
After nine days in Mumbai, we do not return home yet, but we will continue the journey to… Kuala Lumpur! After two years away from this city, we are now returning for the first time. We are both incredibly looking forward to this, if only for the food. I am already making a list of all our favorite coffee shops and restaurants. We will stay close to our old neighborhood, so everything is familiar territory. I think a lot of memories will resurface, and I certainly won’t rule out mild homesickness on the way back. Who knows, I might find myself crying on the plane writing a blog about how great it was. Actually, I don’t think so, because we fly at night. We can already prepare for a 13-hour flight from Singapore!
Visa
Back to India for which we had to arrange a visa in advance. Now there are really countless websites that can take this off your hands, including Dutch ones, but of course, you have to pay for this. If you do it through the official website, it will cost you $25. Compared to a Dutch commercial website, this will quickly cost €50. For an urgent application, you pay €17.50 extra. Besides, applying for the visa yourself is a piece of cake, but you have to take some time. Some of the questions we had to answer:
- Write down all the countries you have visited in the last 10 years up to a maximum of 20 countries.
- Where are your parents from?
- Are your grandparents from Pakistan?
- Have you ever been convicted of human trafficking?
After rechecking all our details five times, we could pay and wait and see. That wait didn’t take long, as within 24 hours, we received an email with our visa. This easy process is definitely not for everyone, and we should be very grateful for our Dutch passports.
Indian passport
Meanwhile, it’s another hour and 57 minutes of flying time. Too bad I had hoped to take a bit longer on this blog, but we’re about to have another snack, so I don’t have much time to finish this blog either. Oh, and if you don’t have an Indian passport, halfway through the flight, the flight attendant will give you a piece of paper with some more details to fill in. I think you already did this when you applied for your visa, but well a second time can’t hurt. We land at two o’clock local time, and if all goes well, someone will be waiting for us from the hotel, a luxury. Hopefully, we can go to bed and start our first day in Mumbai!
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