Visa paranoia
on My Thai (Thailand), 06/Jul/2011 03:57, 34 days ago
After a little self-inflicted panic I picked up my visa for Burma (or, catchily, 'The Republic of the Union of Myanmar') yesterday.Hearing a few secondhand tales of visas being refused if you have a work permit or work with an NGO, I very unwisely spent an hour browsing through the results of my Google search and grew steadily more paranoid about the whole process while I was doing so.There were comments (including in the Lonely Planet guidebook) about thorough background checks being conducted and I was convinced that behind the 'public front' of the Myanmar Embassy was a hangar like room filled with workers Googling the names of poor, innocent tourists.Not wanting by 810B fee to have gone for nothing, I speedily deleted any blog posts that were not so pro junta and only afterwards realised how pathetic that was. As if they're going to care what I think and I'm sure they'd be even less inclined to waste time reading my ramblings! I mean, if well known journalists can get in under the radar, you would have to have some dumb luck to get refused a visa.So, long story short, I've put the posts back on which explains why there's a few Burma related things underneath this.Neurotic, moi?Visa application form.I was a bit disappointed the next fields weren't 'star sign' and 'favourite colour'!