In Hawaii: E Komo Mai ~ All Are Welcome

E Komo Mai (eh koh-moh my-ee) – Hawaiian for ‘welcome’ or ‘come in’.

A KoOlina Tradition

The small gathering – an ever-changing mix of visitors and locals, representing a variety of races and religions --  has become a part of Sunday morning traditions at KoOlina on O’ahu’s west coast.  The group gathers on a grassy area between two lagoons; a peaceful area overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean. This weekly worship service has been held for years in this location.

Hawaiian greeting

A small yard sign near the public pathway reads, “E Komo Mai, All Welcome”. Even those of us who are simply passing by pause to listen to a bit of the sermon or one of the hymns being sung. In keeping with this island's Aloha Spirit and E Komo Mai attitude, there’s no pressure to stay or leave; all are made to feel welcome.

E Komo Mai - welcome

Those messages of aloha and welcome were being expressed just down the road some 20 miles away on this same Sunday morning two weekends ago but in a much different setting. Another group made up of various races and religions had gathered at the Honolulu International Airport. The signs they waved were of welcome to this tropical paradise – where close to one-fifth of the state's residents are foreign-born. Theirs was a protest of the then-hours-old Executive Order barring entry to the United States for travelers from seven countries.

KoOlina - O'ahu

Now this post isn’t going to rehash that Executive Order but that juxtapositioning of welcomes did get me thinking about how often we take visas and entry into foriegn countries for granted. This post is about E Komo Mai, as the Hawaiians say, being made to feel welcome.

Welcome – (as a verb) – greet someone arriving in a glad, polite or friendly way.

                                                -- Dictionary Definition

Wadi Rum - Jordan

As a travelers  who’ve  been to any number of countries that require tourist visas we have a healthy respect for the variety of requirements each country has for entry into it, if even for a short visit. Some require nothing more than paying a fee upon arrival, a computer scan of your passport followed by a stamp in it. Some require that you fill out an application on-line, pay for it, and print out a copy for the authorities upon arrival. Others, like India, have a such a complex application process, high fee ($400 per person) and relinquishing our passports to their US representatives for a week or more,  that had our cruise a year ago not required us to have had the visa to board the ship, we’d have simply never gotten off the ship in India.

A smile is the universal welcome.

Max Eastman

However, once we had the visa, we have never been made to feel unwelcome in any country we’ve visited.

 

Our guide in Petra and The Scout

Like most who travel, we find that the every-day people we've encountered are simply normal people living in a different culture and religion than we know. Sometimes we don’t fully understand it, but that is why we’ve gone there in the first place – we want to learn more about them. And in the course of our travels, we’ve given those everyday folks a chance to meet everyday Americans as well. More than once we’ve been told we don’t ‘act like Americans’ – at least how they have believed or thought Americans would act.

A new friend, a business traveler we met in Cairo, Egypt

One reader of a post I wrote about our time in Cairo told us to be careful because ‘they don’t like Americans there'. Well, I suppose that if I were to survey everyone of the more than 20 million people in the city, I’d find some that didn’t like Americans for whatever reason. But I can assure you those that we have met not only welcomed us but thanked us for visiting their country. (When’s the last time you thanked a foreign visitor for coming to your country?)

Greek olive grove

We’ve actually had people ask us “How do you find the Greeks?” when they learn we have a home there. “Find them?” we respond.  “You know. . . do they like Americans?”  Now I have to admit we find those questions absolutely absurd based on our experiences.  We have been made to feel more than welcome from the locals we have met in our villages.

Our village children lead a parade through Kardamyli

We are feeling so welcome, that  as we’ve said in earlier posts, we are seeking resident visas which would allow us more time in that country. I can assure you, this visa process makes those tourist visa applications look like a piece of cake. It is neither easy nor inexpensive but it is definitely humbling.

And probably not unlike what the United States requires of those wanting similar status here.

Welcome Mat at The Stone House on the Hill

If we are not granted a resident visa we will continue going to our Greek life and staying for as long as our tourist visa allows.  However,  I won’t take either the tourist or resident visa for granted anymore.  I’ve seen how quickly, with a single signature, a government can impact the lives of travelers who believe they hold valid visas.

So aloha from Hawaii where our timeshare life is drawing to a close for another year.  Again, the 'e koma mai' spirit makes it difficult to leave but new travel adventures await.  May your travels be safe and may you always find a welcome mat waiting for you.

Linking with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Travel Inspiration .

The Travel Visa Quest ~ A ‘Keystone Cops’ Adventure

Our tale I tell you today would make for a plotline in those early 20th century silent movie misadventures of the incompetent “Keystone Cops”. I'll let you decide who has the starring role.

Or perhaps it could be a remake of another movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”.

It is a behind-the-scenes reality story about travel . . . the quest for a travel visa.

Not the credit card kind of visa but the kind issued by a government which allows a traveler into their country. (For you armchair travelers, more than 270 countries require visas which are one step beyond a passport.)  Many countries don’t require them. Requirements for them often depend on the nationality of the visitor and the country. Some are a quick formality – a few questions, small fee, stamp in your passport at the time of arrival.

Others, like India, have a process from hell.

Visiting India!

My desire to visit India has never been shared by The Scout.  I was delighted that our upcoming cruise has two stops there: a day in Cochin and an overnight stop in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Even for such brief visits, one must have a tourist visa, though. So the process began – in January. . .

Skipping India?

India sets a time frame within which you can apply for a visa – not too early and not too late before your trip.  Other cruisers had left messages on user boards forewarning of the challenges ahead, but we'd thought it couldn't be 'that' bad, right?

Within days of submitting our applications The Scout and I were so frustrated, that we agreed we’d skip the visa and skip India. We'd simply stay on the ship.

Oceania Cruise ship

That wasn't an option it turned out. As if reading our minds, a letter was sent by the cruise line to all passengers telling us that those who did not possess an India visa at the time of boarding in Bangkok, Thailand would be denied boarding.

No Indian visa.

No cruise.

Period.

Applying for the Visa

The application is a two-page on-line forms that seeks “Personal Particulars” (our education, religion, dates and places of birth); 'Passport details', 'Contact information' (where we live),'Family History' (parents names and birth places), details about countries we had previously visited, where we would visit in India and where we would stay there.

“Were your Grandfather/Grandmother (Paternal/Maternal) 

Pakistan Nationals or belong to Pakistan held area?”

               -- a question from the India visa application

A second form, a single page of questions still seemed more focused our grandparents -- who would likely be rivaling Moses at about 130 years old now -- than us. With my application, I had to submit a copy of our Marriage Certificate to show cause of my name change from birth name.

Then the antics began . . .

Because we were working with a firm in Washington DC which handles visa processing for Oceania cruises, we packaged up our application and passports and sent them FedEx (recommended for the ability to track the package whereabouts). First mailing: $35

Two days later. . .the man at the agency who was handling our application called and said they couldn’t be submitted to the Indian Embassy, because:

* We had not included the zip code for the person we’d listed as an emergency contact – we’d given her phone number and address but ‘a zip code must be included’.
* The address of the cruise ship contact in India we’d written on two lines and it had to fill all three lines of the form.

And then there was the ‘problem with my passport:

This is my old passport that was returned with the new one. . .hmmm, two pages. . .

“You need two blank pages” he said. “There are blank pages,” I answered, thinking back to my passport that was then in his possession. “India requires there be two blank pages facing each other like an open book – you don’t have them,” he replied. (The photo above shows my old passport that meets those requirements, but I digress. . .)

So a flurry of form-filling-out activity filled yet another morning - in February.  Forms, and more photos -- this time for a new passport, were sent to this Washington DC company that would handle getting my new passport.   Expedited passport renewal: $300 (part of that went to the company) and Fed Ex:  $35.

They don't want you smiling either - no problem by that point

March 2nd my new passport was delivered to our door. We were ready. The corrected application forms were printed and new passport/visa photos were attached. We’d had more photos taken the day before. Before sending this packet though we got another email from ‘our man in Washington’ who’d forgotten to mention earlier that, “Mr. Smith is wearing glasses in his photo and India requires photos without glasses.”
So back for more photos. Packet sent to Fed Ex:  $35.

Two days later . . .”our man in Washington” called. He’d found a typo in one of our passport numbers on the application – India doesn’t allow any ink marks on the pages so he couldn’t correct it, we would need to complete the form again and resubmit it.  Fed Ex: $35  

Finally, ‘our man in Washington’ sent our passports and applications to the Indian Embassy in San Francisco to be reviewed.  Our passports complete with India visas were returned two weeks ago.

Whew! We can now board the ship.

However, we haven’t yet decided if we will get off in India or not. 


Tips on Travel visas:
* If you are considering a cruise or land tour check to see how many countries you’ll be visiting require visas. How involved is the application process?
*How much will they cost? Does the cruise line or tour company pay the cost or do you?
* Does the cruise line or tour company provide a company to handle the application process or are you on your own in dealing with – or finding – embassies that issue visas?
*If you are about to grab a great last-minute deal, do you have time to obtain the visa?
*Check your passport expiration date and number of pages you have left. Ask about ‘blank page’ requirements.
*For those renewing or obtaining U.S. passports, you now have an option to get a super-sized one with 54 pages at no extra cost (if you are traveling a lot to foreign countries, you’ll want to get it).

Thanks for your time! We will lighten up the subject matter next week when we show you the gem we found in Central Washington State!  Until then safe travels where ever you go.

Do you have any visa experiences - good or bad to share here? Please leave a comment below or shoot us an email and we'll share them for you.

We are linking up this week with an amazing group of bloggers at:
Travel Photo Thursday – Budget Traveler’s Sandbox  
Our World Tuesday

Travel Inspiration – Reflections En Route 

Mosaic Monday – Lavender Cottage Gardening