Now the plans are in full swing for our India trip, the only thing that we're waiting for are the visas, which of course could be a big time snag (in which case we totally have to re-do our plans with just a week to go). We're set to leave on June 6, evening flight to KL with only a few hours in between to catch our flight at 8am to Chennai via Jet Air. We then spend 11 days touring Tamil Nadu after which we fly out from Tiruchirapalli.

Based on the India embassy website information, the requirements should be pretty basic: Passport and photocopy, two passport size photos and the completed forms. But per H's contact travel agent, she said that we I should provide this whole other batch (being a Filipino) of stuff like my employment certificate, ITR, bank statements, credit card statements etcetera. Personally I thought that she was just really, really paranoid because this should have been posted on the embassy website anyway.

Anyway, I called the embassy up and the helpful lady there informed me that I don't need to give my ITR, but I should provide a proof of financial means, and everything else indicated on the website (less complicated but then again, they should have posted this tidbit on their website). Since I have my ITR handy and would like to lessen the chances of being denied, I gave my ITR anyway, along with my certificate of employment and photocopy of credit cards.

Ok so this was last week. I'm supposed to get word on mine within 2-3 working days, but H, being a British national should hear from them in 6-7. Hopefully by Monday we already have confirmation on this.

Already got the (last) Lonely Planet India guidebook from Fully Booked and i'm really glad we got this. I don't know about everyone else but when I travel overseas, a guidebook is my bible. From maps to recommendations, it's saved my ass a lot of times. The only hassle right now is, I couldn't find my Lonely Planet SEA on a shoestring guidebook for our Malaysia leg. Just when I need it, it disappears! Weird.