My 7 day Solo Trip to Sydney from Bengaluru! – Part 1

I went on a solo trip to Sydney from Bengaluru from 11^th November to 18^th November 2019.

Most of the people have only asked three questions:

1. Why did you select Sydney?
2. Is you company sending you?
3. How much did it cost?

Answer to 1st question is very simple “Flight tickets were cheap!” [Really? We will find out later on how to book cheap tickets]

The blog is going to be comprised of following articles: [I am going to add links as I publish them]

1. How and when did I start planning? Passport, Tickets, VISA.
2. What places did I see and my experience?  [with pictures]
3. All expenses involved, how can you as a solo traveller/family plan a trip of Australia and 18 mistakes which I committed.

If you are also looking to visit abroad or planning for Sydney, then this blog can prove to be useful.

How and when did I start planning?

To be precise I started planning in the month of June. [Well I booked my tickets on 18^th June].

So, I started searching around 2^nd week of June using Google Flights website’s Explore Destination Feature: http://flights.google.com/

Trick is to check all the websites like Google Flights, Skyscanner and airlines website to get an idea of price. Proceed booking on all websites simultaneously in In-Cognito Mode in Chrome or Private Mode in Mozilla FireFox. Pick the one with least price.

This was my first ever international travel and I thought of selecting a destination which is a bit far from traditional locations [For Indians: Thailand/Malaysia] but doesn’t burn a big hole in my pocket.

When I started exploring several countries for solo travellers, Sydney caught my eye and I saw two things:

1. Google Flights suggested a price of about 27K INR Round Trip from Bangalore on 11^th to 18^th November 2019.
2. Sydney has lot to offer for a variety of travellers.

I then watched a few videos on Youtube about Sydney travel.

I imagined myself to be there and that’s when I decided that it’s going to be Sydney.

The Aha! moment.

I already used to watch travel videos by Mountain Trekker and Travelling Desi. I found several Facebook groups, for example, Tourist Helpline, where people post their travel experiences and promptly resolve any of your specific queries.

Preparing for International destination travel from India requires following things:

1. A valid Indian passport (preferably with expiration at-least 6 months away)
   – If you have no passport yet or your passport is about to expire, you
   can request a fresh/renew your passport online by clicking HERE.
   – The process has been made very simple. This will cost you Rs 1500 for 36 pages passport and around Rs 2000 for 60 pages. [Watch this]
2. Flight Tickets – Round Trip or for connecting cities if you are travelling internally.
3. VISA for the country you are planning to visit.
   – Every country has own VISA process for tourists. Some of them do not require VISA for Indian Passport Holders, some of them requires e-visa [that means you do not have to send your passport to Embassy/Consulate to get VISA]
   – Some of them would like to see and stamp your passport [or print VISA on last few pages of your Passport. This requires passport to be physically sent to the Embassy/Consulate of destination the country]
4. Once you decide the destination country, visit:
   –  https://mea.gov.in/visa-arrangements-for-op.htm to check what kind
   of VISA is required for it.
   – To reconfirm, visit official foreign travel website of the destination
   country. For example, for Australia: Australia’ Immigration website.
5. Do you have sufficient savings? Access to cash or local currency.
6. Places where you will stay and what activities have you planned there.

I asked and informed everyone around me [friends/family] that if someone wants to go but 11^th November was just 1 week later to Diwali, so it was not possible for most of them.

On 18^th June 2019, the prices were low and I was in the mood.
I booked the flights in 27,484 INR round trip from Bangalore to Sydney on Airasia.

Gutsy decision?

No checked-in baggage allowed(you have to pay extra if you bring in checked-in baggage) and two cabin bags [1 large and 1 small] with total 7 kg with me. [Check requirements here]

I had a valid Indian passport which was about to expire next year and there was a change in my permanent address, so I thought a getting a new one for the next 10 years. I applied for passport renewal of Indian passport portal online. You will get a date, batch number and sequence number. Batch number means the time which you have to report. [Tip: Get all your documents, photos pre-ready to progress through quickly]

I had to visit Bangalore passport office which made me come twice [on Friday and Monday] because in my rental agreement witness was not mentioned. Since there was a permanent address change, I had to visit local police station for verification.

1^st week of August 2019: I had my new passport.

Need to have a valid Passport before you apply for VISA.

Address on your passport will be your current address only [even if you are living in a rented apartment. You need to renew your passport only if there’s a change in the permanent address.]

I then researched about Australia’s tourist VISA process.
Australia has streamlined process of getting tourist VISA [visitor VISA category 600] (or any other immigration related services). You do not have to contact any agent or third party.
You can do it on your own and you just have to create an account here: https://online.immi.gov.au/lusc/login and follow the process step-by-step.

What I have read that rejection rate for Australian VISA is a bit higher and it is better to have few countries on under your belt before you apply for tourist VISA. But this turned out to be a total myth; I had a fresh passport and still got VISA.
When you apply for tourist VISA for Australia [or any other country], they want to ensure several things:

1.  You are a legitimate person with genuine interest in travelling.
2. You do not pose a threat [no criminal cases pending against you]
3. You have sufficient funds to support yourself during the travel.
4. You will return back to India and not illegally migrate there.

So, for my case, I attached several proofs such as:

1. Proof of current employment.
2. Proof of my approved leaves for the duration.
3. Proof of valid Indian Passport.
4. Proof of Travel [Travel tickets]
5. Proof of my income – salary – payslip and IT Returns.
6. Proof of my income to support myself- savings
   [How much did I show? Around 1 lakhs INR savings by attaching bank statements and two fixed deposits]

Here’s a screenshot of documents I submitted in the Immi Portal:

I used to check on a daily basis on whether my VISA was granted or rejected. You will be notified by email.

20^th September 2019: My Australian tourist VISA was approved.

Yay! I am all set to go!

Notes:

1. For Australia VISA, photo requirements are a bit different. You would have to upload a photo according to their specification and by writing with marker at the back of your photo “This is a true photograph of PQR” and signing it. Read this.
2. If you have not travelled to any country, upload a blank travel document as mentioned in the above screenshot.
3. In Evidence of Planned tourism activities, upload a travel document mentioning on what dates you will arrive and what are things you plan to see. You do not need to have confirmed hotel/hostel bookings.
4. There is no other way than this portal to interact with Australian immigration. There is no use of sending an email for enquiry of your VISA. Estimated VISA processing was mentioned 20 days but I got it after 30 days.
5. Cost of Visitor VISA at the time of writing is 140 AUD or approximately 7300 INR. This is a 1 year VISA with multiple entries allowed and for each visit you can stay up-to 3 months.

This is how a granted tourist VISA – subclass 600, for Australia looks like:

Now, by the time my VISA was approved:

1. I had already watched around 10-15 youtube videos on Sydney.
2. Researched about getting local currency and how can I access cash while in Australia?
3. Explored about various types of credit/debit/forex cards.
4. Figured out that like Europe and USA, Australia is a also a card friendly country and you can use your International MasterCard/VISA [not the domestic ones] almost everywhere.

If you are travelling outside, there are basically three options for accessing money:

1. Exchange your money while in India.
2. Exchange your money after reaching your destination at Airport.
3. Take out money from ATM after reaching your destination using your debit/credit/forex card. [Remember that in any situation cash is king!!]

For those who do not know what a forex card is: Forex means foreign exchange prepaid card.
In this type of card, you pre-load a currency of your destination countries and can simply use as it is a local currency debit card.Since I did not know any good currency exchange places and I hope to travel multiple countries, I opted for HDFC Multi-currency Forex Card. You can load up-to 22 currencies on that card but it requires you to hold either HDFC credit or HDFC debit card for reloading the money online. For Forex Cards, you need to understand the pros and cons of each card and then take a decision. A good reference is here.

Before you opt to get Forex Card, do not forget to read about charges about:

1. Getting the card
2. ATM withdrawal charges
3. Reload Charges
4. Duplicate issuance charges.

I will add a detailed section about debit card/credit card/forex/exchange at airport in the last blog of this series.

Around 27th September, while applying for my forex card, I loaded my card with 300 AUD thinking that it will be sufficient for 6 days. I also applied for HDFC Credit Card simultaneously since I did not want to have HDFC bank account.

But things were about to haywire soon………..

What happens next?

Interested in what happens next? Continue to Part 2.