Places/Countries Visited in the World

One of my criteria to come to Singapore for my higher studies was travel. Travel across the world. And the below figure shows the current status. These are the countries where I have gone on holidays. There are more countries that I have visited like Vietnam, Malaysia etc but only for business. So, I have not marked those.

1. The best has been Capetown so far, but diving in Cairns is not behind at all.
2. South America, Europe and South Africa (other than South Africa) are largely untouched. Even US for that matter.
3. There are just so many countries/continents left :-(

Getting Schengen Visa In Singapore

Europe is our next destination in summers and since we are Indians, we have to apply visas for every other country in the world we want to visit. Damn Singaporeans who can visit so many awesome places without any visa.:-(

Anyways we have decided to go to following three countries in Europe - Switzerland, Austria and Italy. So the Schengen visa makes sense. Now the trouble is which embassy should you approach if you want to get a visa? So, I did my research and following is the result, which I feel is useful to share.

1. You need to apply to that embassy where you are staying the most number of nights. So, if it is Italy, you need to go and take appointment with Italian Embassy.

2. Visa is strictly by appointment and imagine this - I looked into Italian embassy for appointment on April 16th for my travel on 7th June and they dont have any dates available till 10th June. So, you need to keep track of this and take appointment early. And Italy and Switzerland being more famous tourist attractions than Austria, the dates are taken up fast.

What Places To Avoid In Singapore?

I'm writing this post to help tourists to avoid couple of destinations in Singapore during their visit on SUNDAY. This is my personal belief and I speak about them mostly because of congestion and traffic issues on Sundays.

1. Orchard Road on Sunday - I go to gym on Saturday at one of the joints at Orchard. Because of some reason, I could not visit on Saturday one week and instead decided to go on Sunday. And to my surprise, orchard's main area on Sunday is occupied by domestic workers (maids). As Singapore government has granted compulsory day off for maids, which is good for them, looks like most of them spend time in Orchard. So, our dear orchard appears more crowded than usual days (at least around Paragon, Lucky Plaza areas). Furthermore, construction has been going on for some time, that creates more traffic.

2. Mustafa and Race Course Road on Sunday - You will be surprised to believe that you are in Singapore if you happen to be there around Mustafa especially during evening on Sundays. It is very much crowded and it will be good if you would like to do your shopping in Mustafa on any other day than Sunday. Simply avoid.