Categories
- Alerts (7)
- Country-Specific Visas (80)
- Destinations (176)
- Government Regulations (12)
- Important Documents (4)
- Uncategorized (8)
- Visa Processing (23)
- World Heritage Site of the Week (62)
Need a Passport?
RushMyPassport.com can expedite your passport renewal or expedite a new, second, lost, damaged, stolen, or child passport in as quick as 1 day.
View Requirements >- Thai Visa Requirements to Get Wet at Songkran
- An Ethiopian Visa: Your Ticket to Adventure
- Indonesian Visa Requirements To Walk With Orangutans in Sumatra
- Get a Russian Visa to Visit Lake Baikal
- Get a Brazil Visa to Leave the World Behind
Author Archive
Thai Visa Requirements to Get Wet at Songkran
April 3rd, 2011
T.S. Eliot wrote that "April is the cruelest month," and that's not so far from the truth in Thailand. It's the hottest month, at least, with temperatures that often break 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Relief from the heat comes during Songkran, an annual festival that runs from April 13 to April 15th. It was originally the Thai New Year celebration, though nowadays Thailand celebrates New Year's on January 1st.
Traditionally, Songkran was a time to engage in "spring cleaning," both physically and spiritually, as well as to honor one's elders. Many people still observe some of these customs, cleaning their houses as well as bathing their Buddha statues in fragrant water and traveling home to spend time with parents, grandparents and other older relatives.
However, the main attraction,
An Ethiopian Visa: Your Ticket to Adventure
April 2nd, 2011
Are you looking for an adventure travel destination that's way off the beaten path? Gadling recommends taking a trip to Ethiopia's Somali region.
Though there aren't many visitors and amenities are scarce, if you're not averse to "roughing"it there are a lot of attractions. Alibilal Cave is covered with prehistoric cave paintings of African wildlife like giraffe and gazelle. Meanwhile, a nearby national park gives you the opportunity to see these animals in person, plus lions and elephants. Even better, the region is overflowing with hot springs to relax in.
But the people are quite possibly the best part of the trip. Gadling's Sean McLachlan writes:
"The culture here preserves itself by oral traditions. Sitting with a clan elder and listening to his stories can be a one-of-a-kind
Indonesian Visa Requirements To Walk With Orangutans in Sumatra
March 30th, 2011
The orangutan is a fascinating but increasingly rare creature. The only species of great ape native to Asia, its numbers have declined drastically over the past few decades, mainly due to habitat loss and hunting. There were only about 61,234 left in the wild as of 2007; a disturbing decline from the population of 76,300 that scientists estimated were left between 2000 and 2003 (via Wikipedia). However, if you're tough enough to handle the Indonesian jungle, you can still see these "men of the forest" up close in their natural habitat... for now.
Mark Wiens of GoBackpacking recently went on an orangutan trek in Sumatra. He writes:
"It was a truly magnificent site. The bulkiness of the Orangutans miraculously swung through the branches of the trees with effortless ease. The weight of
Get a Russian Visa to Visit Lake Baikal
March 27th, 2011
Here are some fun facts about Russia's Lake Baikal, this week's featured UNESCO World Heritage Site:
Lake Baikal was formed about 30 million years ago, making it the world's oldest lake.
At 1,700 meters deep, it's also the deepest lake in the world.
Over 20% of the world's unfrozen fresh water is found inside Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is home to many species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth. Because of its rich biodiversity, it is often called the "Galapagos of Russia."
The lake is formed by the deepest continental rift in the world.
UNESCO added Lake Baikal to the World Heritage List in 1996, calling it "the most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem."
In addition to the lake itself, the surrounding landscape is a striking mix of mountai
Get a Brazil Visa to Leave the World Behind
March 27th, 2011
If you're looking to get away from it all, Brazil has just the place: the tropical island of Boipeba. Getting there takes effort: your options are a four-hour odyssey by bus, ferry and speedboat or a flight in from El Salvador in a tiny plane, an experience that the New York Times referred to as "not for the tremulous."
Once you're there, though, the island will reward you with the kind of peace that comes from being someplace beautiful and remote, almost entirely shut away from the outside world.
Charles Levitan, who runs a guesthouse on the island, told the New York Times, “If you can’t live in the moment, this isn’t the place for you,If you need to constantly know the weather forecast, you might want to go somewhere else.”
Activities here include swimming, sunning, snor
