travel diary day 335 travel diary day 335

I am an atheist I have a very different take on who God is Man invented God because he needed him God is us mdash Carl Reiner

In rants travel on 7 March 2010 tagged application approval code australia day australian embassy bakery bed bugs book breakfast bureaucracy camera stores chess computer connaught place conversation cult delay delhi email foreign ministry france hippy hostel hotel india iran guide book iranian embassy iranian food letter of introduction lonely planet main bazaar mumbai music natural born killers new delhi official operating system pakistan embassy phone prayer religious restaurant salvation army hostel shower singing spain train ubuntu upgrade visa water with no comments

day 331 aus tralia day i woke up had break fast and packed the hostel had no water at all so no shower and i was covered in bed bug bites again i stored my bag and headed into town i checked out a few cam era stores checked email and returned to the hostel to get my gear when i returned the water was work ing so i had a long shower as i was leav ing i noticed a dis carded copy of nat ural born killers upon which the film was based i threw the book in my pack and decided to read it on the train

i bumped into the french and span ish tour ists again so i talked with them for a few minutes before i left to get my train the french guy gave me his iran lonely planet in french which i figured i could use for maps and stuff i had some ira nian food for din ner and got the train to delhi

day 332 i spent the day on the train i read nat ural born killers and fin ished it in a few hours i listened to music and also listened to some singing from the com part ment next to me the people in the com part ment were trav el ing as part of a group i couldn t fig ure out whether they were reli gious or a good samar itan group or what they sang a lot which was fun and in the even ing they did a prayer i had a long con ver sa tion with an indian guy and was given some lit er at ure about love life and the uni verse by one of the sing ers it seemed like hippy cult religion stuff so i smiled politely and didn t read it

day 333 the train was delayed by six hours and we arrived really late the train had stopped at a sta tion an hour south of delhi in the early hours of the morn ing many people got off think ing that the train wouldn t con tinue and went in search of buses the con ductor told every one that there was a prob lem with the train

i was in two minds whether to go or stay when sud denly they announced that the train was leav ing i jumped back on and got to delhi the train was half empty and i think there must have been a lot of angry people stran ded on the plat form or look ing for a bus

we arrived in delhi and i had to wait another hour for a con nect ing train to the new delhi sta tion when i got to new delhi i walked through the main bazaar and checked into a hotel after a shower and change i headed straight to the pakistan embassy to start my visa application

the freak ing pakistan embassy require a let ter of intro duc tion from the applicant s home nation i couldn t get the let ter or pakistan visa applic a tion forms until the next day so i headed back to main bazaar i had din ner in a nice rooftop res taur ant checked email and did an upgrade on my ubuntu os

day 334 i got up early had a quick break fast and went straight to the embassy district

the pakistan embassy offi cial gave me the applic a tion forms and con firmed that i need the let ter of intro duc tion that meant walk ing to the aus tralian embassy which was nearby and fork ing out 30 for a stamped let ter damn i returned to the pakistan embassy filled out the forms had them typed as is required and is a retarded rule then walked down to the bank to sub mit my visa pay ment apply ing for a pakistan visa is a ridicu lously com plic ated pro cess it s not dif fi cult it s just stu pid bureaucracy