Phuket/Hong Kong/Shenzen travel visa Romania and UK

I keep trying to do this post for 2 weeks now and never find the time. I was trying to find the visa information for Phuket, Hong Kong and Shenzen before I went but I could find only random informations scattered on few website.

Phuket

Romanians travelling to Phuket need to get a visa at the entrance. For that you would need a recent passport photo (they have a place there were you could take a photo but it might charge to much so better have one with you), 1000 Bath (cash only). From the booth they will give you a document to complete with details of how long you are staying, where are you staying and your home address. The visa stamp will take a whole passport page so make sure you have an empty one when you go there. The visa is a single entry visa valid for 15 days.

English (UK citizens) travelling to Phuket don't need any visa and they can stay for 30 days.

I did not have a chance to take a photo of the countries that need a visa to enter Phuket but I can remember that is the same for Maltese.

Hong Kong

When you travel to Hong Kong you don't need a visa. Romanians can stay for 90 days while English people can stay for 180 days.

Shenzen

If you would like to go to Shenzen from Hong Kong you don't need a China visa. You can get a single entrance visa at the LuoHu border crossing between Shenzen and Hong Kong. I manage to take a photo of the costs for different countries. The visa costs 512 RMBY for romanians and 304 RMBY for english people. They accept cash (RMBY currency) only for the visa so you need to make sure you have enough when you get there. Before you go to pay for the visa they have a desk where they have scattered small pieces of paper that you need to complete with usual information such as name, birthday and where you are going to stay in Shenzen. The visa is taking a whole passport page and is valid for 5 days.


If you would like a China visa you can apply for one at the airport in Hong Kong but it will take a day for it to be ready.

I do hope this information is useful.

Have fun and don't forget your sun cream when you go to Phuket believe is not going to be pleasant if you get burned :).

Activating the middle button on laptops

Go to:
/etc/X11/xorg.config

Paste this in:
Emulate3Buttons yes

After you do what I said you can use the middle button by pressing the left and right buttons simultaneously.
This is quite useful if you are working with Xfig.

Skype icon in Natty Narwhal

I just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 - the Natty Narwhal and some new things need fixing.
One fix was to get back my Skype icon. The Skype icon was missing from my Notification Area and I was unable to sign out or to use Skype at all after minimising it.
This is a simple fix.
When you start Skype go to "Options">"General" and select "Start Skype minimized in the system tray".

This fixed the problem for me. Even if I restart the icon is still there.

Why not to buy an WIZZ Xclusive Club membership

I've been planning for a while to write some nice information about my trips and tips to help you get the best of your trip. I could not find the time for it but I thought that I need to pass the information found today just because I don't like when companies are doing this.

On my way to plan my new vacation I said "let's try to see the prices for going home in august".

It's good to book early because, as usual, from one day to another the prices change (going up of course). Before going for the booking I saw a big ad saying that lower fare prices are available if you become a member of WIZZ Xclusive. What could be the harm in that? It's only £8.49 and the prices shown for members in my search looked promising.

I'm about to show you the screenshot of the search done before becoming a member, after becoming a member, and the search done by a friend after 2 minutes (a non-member).

In the first image the (first search before becoming a member) the price for the flight of interest was £67.99 and below that it shows £59.49 for Club members.

After becoming a member and doing the same search the second screenshot the price for Club members is showing as £67.99, reduced from £76.49. Wait a minute, doesn't that price sound familiar?

It is known that the price gets artificially inflated if people keep looking at the same flight, so maybe it is coincidence and the price has actually gone up. A non-member friend of mine did the same search and came up with this:

This is identical to my original search, with the price for non-members being £67.99.

I already have a very bad opinion about WizzAir, but I though this time would be different. Apparently I was wrong, this is nothing more than an outright con, exploiting customers and giving them nothing.

Monday mornings

I just hate them !