Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
junior consul started to shout out names for those other people but there was no sign of the
visa window opening for us. The queue was quite good humored. A rotund, mustachioed,
consular official named Marwan, apologized with a smile and sense of humor when an hour
later our visas had still not arrived. Eventually, I got mine at around 3.00 p.m. and Peter
(whose number was next to mine) received his 45 minutes later at 3.45 p.m. He was the last
customer and I had covered many chapters of the excellent “From the Holy Mountain” by
William Dalrymple in the intervening time.
I suppose there was more than a slight element of tension during our extended wait, as we
were due to leave the following morning and Peter was also on a very tight timeline as he
would be embarking on a bigger and more important journey (emigration to Australia with
his family) on his return. Peter had already, reluctantly agreed to extend the visit from 3
days to 6 (in line with my proposed plans) and a further, minor complication was that a
local friend of his wished also to tag along but was well behind in his planning and prepar-
ations.
