Year of the Dragon

I get a perverse and completely unfair sort of pleasure when Americans have travel paperwork hassles, even tongue-in-cheek customs forms coming from the moon.

I think anyone that knows me is already sick of hearing about my visa woes. Being Colombian is probably as bad as it gets in terms of travel hassles including visas required, extra processing times and “random” searches, except perhaps for a few Middle Eastern countries (we are not on this chart, but if I had to guess, I’d put us all the way at the bottom near Iraq and Afghanistan.). But even for a Colombian I’m an outlier. 

I try not to think about it too much, but just since this past March I must have spent well over two thousand dollars on visa application fees and all the associated travel arrangements (including a last minute Cape Town- Paris flight because I didn’t have the right British transit visa). That’s if I don’t try to quantify all the emotional distress caused, and the months when  I’m having to sit around and twiddle my thumbs waiting for something to happen. 

I’m glad I don’t have to apply for a visa to go to the moon any time soon, but I do wonder if the Lunar consulate would be more responsive than the French.

theeconomist:

Gulliver, our travel blog, relates a nice story for travellers frustrated by paperwork: when the Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the moon, they filled out a customs form and declared their cargo. (via Space.com)