The Visa Story

In order to enter in to Egypt, you need a Visa. There are two ways to get the Visa for entry. You can obtain the Visa when you land in Egypt or you can order one online. The thought of having to wait in yet another line at the airport once I had landed after after an 18 hour flight, gave me the shivers. I figured the easiest solution was to get the Visa before I departed. I had some discussions about obtaining the Visa with my Egyptian travel agent, Mr. Omar. I told him I would opt for obtaining the Visa in advance.

I went online last Friday. I googled Egypt E-Visa and up popped the link. I had gone through this about a month prior to see what I would need to get the visa. It was all pretty straight forward. The only thing I really would need was a copy of my passport. I had held off completing the online form because I thought the Visa might expire before I used it.

Everything went fine until I got to the part that said it would cost me $199 to get the Visa. What the serious F—? That price seemed completely unreasonable. But I paid the bill while gnashing my teeth at the cost. Although, I did pay the same amount for my Visa when I went to China a million years ago. Still. That was a lot of green.

I was a little concerned the Visa might not arrive in time because they said it might take seven days for me to get my form back. On the day I ordered the Visa, I still had about ten days. I was cutting it a bit close. To my relief, the email arrived on Tuesday with my copy of the Visa. Woo-hoo.

For fun, I went online to see if there was a difference in price at the airport. There was. The difference was considerable. Only $30 for the Visa at the airport. I was mad. Why didn’t Mr. Omar tell how much cheaper it was to get the Visa at the airport. This was just another reason I did not like my tour operator representative. Everything was a struggle with this guy or another way to get money out of my pocket. I would think he might have brought up the fact how much cheaper it was to buy the Visa at the airport. Son of a bitch! My only hope was that when I arrived at the airport the lines at the Visa kiosk would be huge and I would waltz right by them with my $200 Visa.

Except my anger at Mr. Omar was misplaced. The target should have been much closer to home. I don’t know what made me check up on the Visa pricing again, maybe another Instagram Egypt post, but I did. I think someone might have said the online Visa was only $30 as well. That couldn’t be right, could it? 

I Googled again. My e-Visa site popped right up. But this time I looked at the search page. There were plenty of sites offering e-Visas to Egypt. They all had very official looking names. But only one, way down the search page, had an official Egyptian Government web address. I clicked that link. I went to the FAQ section and under price for Visa, the price was listed as $30. My fury at my longstanding gullibility was incandescent. 

I checked a few of the other sites on the list. The other e-Visas sites all offered the Egyptian e-Visa but none with the considerable mark-up I paid. I guess there is a business model for selling Visas to travelers that is perfectly legal. Google is more than happy to put them, for a price, at the top of the search results.

Mr. Omar didn’t need to warn me about the difference in price between the online e-Visa price and the airport e-Visa price because there was no difference. As long as you bought the e-Visa on the official government website. I hate me some days. The next excitement could come when I show up at immigration in Cairo and the customs officers tell me the e-Visa I purchased is fake. I’ll find out for sure late Thursday night.

Other News

In Gimbal news, I continue to do poorly on the Ninja walk. Or a lifetime of walking has given me a permanent roll in my step. I question whether to even bring the Ronin if the footage is going to be that poor. Although, I can now assemble the Ronin and balance it without constantly referring to YouTube. I also have come up with a way to store the Gimbal in my camera backpack. I was afraid I was going to be out and about carrying the backpack and the Ronin carrying case. One less thing to lug around.

I spent an hour filing down the thickness on the quick disconnect. I will use the Quick Disconnect to mount the various GoPros on the selfie sticks. I bought some small attachments and they were much narrower than the interlocking bracket on the Quick disconnects. So, filing. So much filing. But they work.

I am visualizing all the scenarios I think I will face in Egypt. Most of the morning dog walk is me coming up with a game plan. I was so involved coming up with one particular problem, I forgot to turn on my headphones to listen to a podcast.