Around the World

The ice festival hosted by Harbin,  the capital city of Heilongjiang province, China is one of the most popular ice festivals in the world. This annual event is an ice-and-snow festival. Four expansive parks display the creative artistry of people. Gigantic ice sculptures are everywhere, some models of well-know global monuments, others of animal and human figures and yet others of lanterns and varied objects. A beautiful lighting system makes for a  stunning sight at night. A competition is also held for the sculpting artists. 

The city of Brussels is the capital of Belgium and is often on the list of tour itineraries of tour packages for groups. A halt during the city tour is the well known Mini Europe park.   This is a charming outdoor theme park which has got miniature scaled models of the most famous landmarks of European countries. These include Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, castles and town squares, ports and political buildings, canals and wharfs, etc.

Travelling around the world has plenty of hazards, one of which being drinking water. The quality of water in many countries is not necessarily bad but there are many people who have low immunity levels and can easily fall ill due to drinking water. They tend to spend a lot on buying dozens of branded mineral water bottles.

For globe trotters from India there are places you can visit without the hassle of trying to get a visa on time before you take off. There are lots of countries which offer Visa on Arrival (known as VOA) for Indian citizens. These are mainly available at the airport where you land and a nominal fee is charged. If the country has more than one airport, you need to find out at which airport you can get the VOA. In some countries the fee is waived & you get the VOA free on arrival. However, you do need to confirm if there are any specific requirements, such as having a valid passport for a required number of months.

The US Embassy has launched a new visa processing system to enable quicker processing. Both the visa fees payment & the appointment schedules have been simplified. 

There are quite a few nice memories associated with cuckoo clocks. The very first time I saw an actual bird-clock was when visiting the Salar Jung museum in Hyderabad . It wasn't a cuckoo which popped out though, but a hooting owl to declare the hours.

What's the next best thing to meeting global icons in reality? Posing with their real-life mannequins at Madam Tussauds museum in London! The museum itself is located on the main road and at first glance you won’t even realize that the entrance of the museum is located there.  The queues outside the museum are really long and you could be waiting for a good amount of time to get in. It is best to book the museum entry tickets in advance online or if part of a tour group let the tour operator do it for you. You can also buy a special Priority Access ticket to avoid the queues, which are especially long during peak tourist seasons.