joe lobo wrote: > Your description of Barbados sounds like a mixture of old > Zanzibar, Goa and heaven.........................my question :--is it > an expensive tourist trap like any of the other Carribean islands > or is it affordable to a middle class person like myself? For one > thing it is closer than the rather long 20 hour air journey to > Goa and the irritation of a visa visit to the Indian consulate in > TO !!
Juju, Obtaining a visa for India in Toronto is not an irritation. The process, to me, is the height of frustration. I have never been able to obtain one without at least three visits to the office. I check on the website for every requirement and yet, when I get there, there is another new requirement that has not been updated on their website. Secondly, they do not accept debit cards, credit cards or cash. The consulate demands a money order or postal order as payment. The guy I buy samosa's from, on the street corner, accepts a debit card payment for six samosa's or $4.50. After you satisfy the Indian consulate with all the documents they require, they tell you to return a day later to collect the visa i.e. one has to take two days or more off work just to get an Indian visa. Only the very adamant traveller will agree to such treatment. The rest, and especially the more affluent, will simply pick another country for their vacation. As far as Barbadoes is concerned, they have free and compulsory education till grade 12 and almost 100% literacy. Their transparency index or level of corruption is as good or better than Canada's. Some of the beaches there have pink coloured sand. Barbadoes does not come cheap. The costs of shooting a wild boar in Barbadoes - left behind by the Portuguese - is far more than the cost of shooting a Dik Dik in Tanzania. I will agree though that wild boar tastes much better. As for the most value for your dollar, my choice is Cuba. Old town Havana is more than reminiscent of Zanzibar. More importantly, there are no loud US vacationers there. The natives are real friendly although they are becoming more commercial every year. http://www.flickr.com/photos/45002663@N00/sets/72157633867406564/ Mervyn1650
