This trip has been a year in the plannning. It was assigned to me as a DV in June 2024, and it just sat in my signature, until Black Friday, when my old napa friend Carolyn asked me to price it in Celebrity’s Black Friday sale. The next thing I knew, there were 10 of us, and we were planning a veree, veree nice trip, but it wasn’t easy.

Indian bureaucracy is second to none.  I have a good 30 hours invested in it to attest to that.  Including my good self, we are a group of 10, who will join the Distinctive Voyages group of 47, on board Celebrity Millennium.  48, including my good self, but I digress.

My ten, range in age from 72 to 91 and Joan will turn 92 the day we board Celebrity Millennium.   You can see where this is going with the visas, can’t you?  I ended up doing 8 of them.  Nona had a couple of months left on a 2016 ten-year Indian visa.  Mine expired a month ago.  I needed some of Nona’s luck.  Wanda has a brilliant daughter and between the two of them, they managed to get an Indian visa in seven hours.  It’s not just that they ask personal questions, like your parents’ nationalities, they even want to know their previous nationalities.  My father was Canadian, previously Canadian, and that goes back 7 generations for him, 8 for me, but is it any of their business?  Then there are the drop downs, listing every country in the world and you have to click all the ones you have visited in the last TEN years! I ended up doing eight of these $%^&*(*&^%^&* things.  Joanie, bless her heart, made an attempt, at least, for which she gets a diamond-studded gold star, but the damn site crashes every ten or fifteen minutes and sometimes doesn’t come back for hours.  I figure I averaged 3 hours per visa, and I am pretty sure that’s a low estimate.

So, I wasn’t overly surprised when I got email from FedEx that Indian customs wanted more information about the box of DV supplies that I had requested be shipped to the Oberoi in Mumbai.  I went to their site, jumped through its CAPTCHA hoops, made it through on about the third try, and gave them my best guess as to what would be in the box.  I asked DV to do the same on their end but FedEx told them not to worry.  I would be able to bring it in when I get to Mumbai.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Indian Customs had other ideas, and apparently wasn’t happy with my best guess.  Now they had a form for me to fill out on my letterhead, if you don’t mind.  They wanted one from DV, too AND they wanted me to upload it to the FedEx web site.  I did my best and sent it off, but the FedEx web site CAPTCHA, didn’t let me in after about 8 tries.  They give you the thing in all capital letters, with one bigger than the others.  I tried everything I could think of and finally gave up.  I did have a lot to do.  As it was, I got off the computer and began packing at 7:15pm.  Thanks, Indian bureaucracy.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

I was up at six, out at seven, and at the airport by 7:30am.  There’s construction in the airport, like everywhere else in this city, but I had to give a nod to the mural hiding it.  Locals will recognize the construction cone hugging the Stanley Cup.  Hockey is the principal religion here, and the cones, well, they are everywhere.

This section is iconic, too.  It has poutine, a disgusting combination of French fries, gravy and cheese curds that somehow became our most famous food, when it really needs to be a Montreal smoked meat sandwich.  That’s there, too, supported by the obligatory pickle.

I was in the Maple Leaf Lounge at YUL before eight.  That much was good.  I had bought a cheap upgrade to business a few days ago and was told it was just a seat, no lounges, no chauffeur drives to the airport.  But… nothing ventured.  The Air Canada people at the lounge, which also serves Emirates, took one look at my Business Class boarding pass and I was in.

A cup of tea later, I was checking my email, and what did I get, but an email from Indian customs, thanking me for my submission and reminding me to add it to the web site.  I told them what I thought of that, politely, of course, I still need my shipment.

And now I am on the plane and they are just setting the tables for lunch.  I wanted to get this written before I have my first glass of wine. 

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Here I am in Dubai airport, after a long uneventful flight, and not much sleep.  I was underwhelmed by Emirates famed Business Class.  The quality of the wine was up a coupla notches, but the food wasn’t any better than Air Canada’s and that’s not saying much.  The entertainment selection was great, which was a good thing, because I didn’t find anything wonderful about the flat bed.  It was flat all right, but so narrow that I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep.  It wasn’t even worth the $1600 that I paid for it, never mind full price.  I’m in economy DXB-BOM, so I’ll report on that in the next installment.  For now, love from Dubai.  I’m brain dead.