Trip to Mauritius

[mitspilot]

Angel Eyes is reporting that Voronezh and Volgograd are
closed for exiting. People are not allowed to leave.

That news is very troubling. Glad your wife is in Turkey now. I am supposed to meet my Moscow based girlfriend in Mauritius in 12 days. I hope they don't shut the whole country down and prevent her from leaving!

That looks like a great place to go. I hope the two of you have a great time.

Rather than pollute the Zelensky thread with happy trip discussions, I thought I would reply to Tex in a new thread...

Thanks Tex. She has an appt at the US Embassy there to interview for a tourist visa to the US. We've neither one been there before. It looks pretty nice. It is NOT an easy place to get to.

We've been dating since July of last year and have met 5 times so far. I've been to Russia twice.

[BC]

Indeed, I'd also be interested in difficulties entering/leaving cities in RU.

[Steveboy]

Indeed, I'd also be interested in difficulties entering/leaving cities in RU.

There are no difficulties entering or leaving Russia .. nothing has changed its all the same as it always was..

Any American in fact anyone can get a tourist visa to Russia at any time they want, they can enter and exit just like normal..

[2tallbill]

Rather than pollute the Zelensky thread with happy trip discussions, I thought I would reply to Tex in a new thread...

We've been dating since July of last year and have met 5 times so far. I've been to Russia twice.

I would consider going to the Greek Embassy in Moscow
and getting a Schengen visa for her. Once she travels to
a Schengen country and returns, it's far easier for her to
get a US tourist visa.

That's the route I went with Angel Eyes and Smiley Girl.
Angel Eyes and Smiley girl went to Spain and returned
home. Then ONLY Angel Eyes came to visit me leaving
Smiley Girl at home. Then both came to the USA and
I married Angel Eyes and applied for a change in status.

[Texan77]

Thanks Tex. She has an appt at the US Embassy there to interview for a tourist visa to the US. We've neither one been there before. It looks pretty nice. It is NOT an easy place to get to.

We've been dating since July of last year and have met 5 times so far. I've been to Russia twice.

I hope when you get back you might give us a trip report about the location and what's there you found fun.

[mitspilot]

Rather than pollute the Zelensky thread with happy trip discussions, I thought I would reply to Tex in a new thread...

We've been dating since July of last year and have met 5 times so far. I've been to Russia twice.

I would consider going to the Greek Embassy in Moscow
and getting a Schengen visa for her. Once she travels to
a Schengen country and returns, it's far easier for her to
get a US tourist visa.

That's the route I went with Angel Eyes and Smiley Girl.
Angel Eyes and Smiley girl went to Spain and returned
home. Then ONLY Angel Eyes came to visit me leaving
Smiley Girl at home. Then both came to the USA and
I married Angel Eyes and applied for a change in status.

Thanks.

Our first meeting was July 2021 in Athens and she had a Schengen visa then. Back when it was much easier to get one. We’ve also met in Dominican Republic and Dubai, plus my 2 visits to Russia.

I follow a couple visa/immigration sites like VisaJourney and Vinsky and the general consensus is having a boyfriend in the U.S. is a negative against getting approved for a tourist visa, so she might not disclose that.

[BC]

Indeed, I'd also be interested in difficulties entering/leaving cities in RU.

There are no difficulties entering or leaving Russia .. nothing has changed its all the same as it always was..

Any American in fact anyone can get a tourist visa to Russia at any time they want, they can enter and exit just like normal..

Steveboy,

I was more curious if there were any restrictions on the movement of Russian citizens between cities, and/or leaving the country.

[mitspilot]

It is sad to me that ruadventures is 95% political / nation bashing now. Why would someone want to come here regularly to read and converse about "RU Adventures"? I realize that covid caused much less travel and international dating and now the war in Ukraine has made it very difficult and expensive to date a FSU woman, but surely there are still people doing it.

At any rate, I want to share my experience meeting my Moscow based girlfriend in Mauritius.

We have been dating since July of 2020. We have met in Athens, Dominican Republic, Moscow, Dubai, Moscow again, Turkey and now Mauritius. We clearly like each other.

We met in Mauritius because that was the fastest appointment we could get for a tourist visa interview. Also, recent cases have seen a good approval percentage so we decided to meet there.

I’m always up for a trip to a tropical island, but I wasn’t looking forward to the 30 hour travel time. Plus, tickets were expensive. But if it resulted in a US visa, it would be worth it. We knew all along that we might be denied, but if that happened we still would have the experience of being together and enjoying a great destination.

Mauritius is very interesting. It was both a French colony as well as an English colony.  They drive on the left hand side of the road, a lot of people speak both French and English. It felt more like a French influenced country than an English one. The stores had LOTS of French bread and I heard French spoken more than English.

We rented an Airbnb in the north part of the island in the Grand Baie area. We had a delightful 2 br villa that had a largish common area comprising of the kitchen, dining and living room. This area had a wall of sliding glass doors on both sides and we kept these doors open throughout the day and the warm breeze wafting through. The temperatures were perfect. The lows each night were 62-65 and the highs were 75-80. We rarely ran the air conditioner. Humidity was low and it was very comfortable.

The island is beautiful. There are lots of sugar cane farms and a lot of unpopulated areas. It reminded me of some of the Hawaiian islands. One day, we rented a car and drove the length of the island a visited a nature park where they had giant tortoises, monkeys and other animals. It was neat. The drive down and back was beautiful and we got to see the rural parts of the island including the sugar cane fields.

We had our appointment with the US Embassy two days after our arrival so early in the trip and with the approval we were excited and happy. That excitement was tempered a little bit because we had one more important task which was to get my girlfriend a CDC approved vaccine. I had been looking for the single dose J&J vaccine for a couple months prior to our trip and had no luck. When we arrived, we learned that our Airbnb host had some connections and we asked for his assistance. He contacted a physician who also was part of the Health Ministry of Mauritius. He said there was no J&J vaccine available anywhere on the island.

We were very disappointed, but accepted the news. We explored other destinations for a later trip and conceded that she was going to have to spend a lot of money and time and go to another country for the vaccine.

Then, the night before we were to leave Mauritius, my girlfriend read in Vinsky about a Russian man who got the J&J vaccine in Mauritius 3 weeks prior. We went to the clinic that he got his vaccine, but were told that they had stopped providing Covid vaccines just 4 days before. We were very sad and were just about to leave when a nice young man came up to us and said the vaccine was available at a nearby hospital. He saved the day for us. He even called over to the hospital and told them we were coming. We were due to fly out that evening so we were concerned about having enough time because there is a second step to this process, which I'll talk about shortly.
 
We rushed to the hospital and they took us right in and she was vaccinated within a few minutes. They had her wait an additional 15 minutes to make sure there were no immediate adverse effects from the vaccination.
 
Once that time was up, we caught a taxi to Port Louis and started the next step. You see, the vaccine only comes with a local certification. We had to go to the Mauritius "International Vaccination Center" and request a WHO International Certification document. Normally, this is a 2-3 day wait, but we told them we had a flight out in the evening and that we needed it ASAP. A very kind lady accommodated our need and processed our request within 2 hours.
 
Icing on the cake was the total cost for all of this was: $0

All in all, it was a very productive trip to a true paradise destination. It was expensive and time consuming to get there, but the result was more than worth it.

[mitspilot]

Mauritius views...

[mitspilot]

Mauritius views...

[BillyB]

Thanks for your report Mitspilot. We need more stories like yours. Unfortunately bad politics led to much of the problems in Ukraine and affected the lives of people on this forum so emotions are high.

A few questions.

Your lady is from Russia. Of course she couldn't do an interview in Russia due to the circumstances. On the k-1 documents the applicant is supposed to state where the interview will take place. Did you write down the US embassy in Mauritius or another country? If stating another country, was it easy to switch the interview to Mauritius? Did our government give you a hard time or made things easy?


I know vaccination is not required for Afghan or Ukrainian war refugees entering into the USA. They're not required for illegals crossing the border who are allowed to remain here. They are not even mandatory for US Citizens. Did anybody tell you why our government is making COVID vaccination for fiancées mandatory?


Fiancées are supposed to go through a health checkup before the interview and take all vaccinations. They are given directions on what is needed to bring to the interview. Was COVID vaccination on that list? If so, did your fiancee search for a approved vaccine in Russia? Many people in that part of the world paid doctors for a certificate of vaccination without actually taking a vaccine.

[WestCoast]

Mauritius views... (Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

I can certainly see where the beaches, palm trees and foliage resemble the Hawaiian islands. As a resident of BC it's a legal requirement that we vacation in Hawaii at least twice in our lifetime. 

Over many decades I've probably been to Hawaii more than 20 times. A vacation in Hawaii in the middle of a cold BC winter really is rejuvenating.

[mitspilot]

Thanks for your report Mitspilot. We need more stories like yours. Unfortunately bad politics led to much of the problems in Ukraine and affected the lives of people on this forum so emotions are high.

A few questions.

Your lady is from Russia. Of course she couldn't do an interview in Russia due to the circumstances. On the k-1 documents the applicant is supposed to state where the interview will take place. Did you write down the US embassy in Mauritius or another country? If stating another country, was it easy to switch the interview to Mauritius? Did our government give you a hard time or made things easy?


I know vaccination is not required for Afghan or Ukrainian war refugees entering into the USA. They're not required for illegals crossing the border who are allowed to remain here. They are not even mandatory for US Citizens. Did anybody tell you why our government is making COVID vaccination for fiancées mandatory?


Fiancées are supposed to go through a health checkup before the interview and take all vaccinations. They are given directions on what is needed to bring to the interview. Was COVID vaccination on that list? If so, did your fiancee search for a approved vaccine in Russia? Many people in that part of the world paid doctors for a certificate of vaccination without actually taking a vaccine.

Her interview was for a tourist visa not a K1 visa and she made the appointment there as one can do at any US Embassy, provided they have available appointment slots for non-residents.

Regarding the vaccine, it's my understanding that immigrant visa holders aren't required to be vaccinated, but non-immigrant visa holders are, which is why my girlfriend needed it.

[BillyB]

Mitspilot, with the sanctions on Russia and no options on Western travel agencies websites to buy tickets from or to Russia did you have to go to airline websites such as Turkish airlines to buy tickets for you lady since Turkey refuses to participate in sanctions against Russia?

If you had to send money to your lady so she can buy her tickets to meet you, have you discovered a way to send it? I'm sure there are guys on the forum wondering how they could take care of their ladies in Russia at this time.

[mitspilot]

Mitspilot, with the sanctions on Russia and no options on Western travel agencies websites to buy tickets from or to Russia did you have to go to airline websites such as Turkish airlines to buy tickets for you lady since Turkey refuses to participate in sanctions against Russia?

If you had to send money to your lady so she can buy her tickets to meet you, have you discovered a way to send it? I'm sure there are guys on the forum wondering how they could take care of their ladies in Russia at this time.

I'm lucky that my lady earns a good living and has always paid for her own ticket. She is able to buy through a Russian travel site. When I visited Moscow this summer, I had difficulty buying a ticket to/from Moscow. I found a travel agent locally who I was able to buy it through. The problem with Turkish Air, when a flight begins or ends in Russia, they take you to the Russian version of their website and everything is in rubles. I tried to pay for a ticket there multiple times and never could get it to go through.

Now that my lady has a tourist visa, she is planning to visit me in the US and we may have to buy her flights in 2 segments. She buys and pays for the Moscow leg to either Istanbul or Dubai and I buy the rest because her credit card doesn't work outside Russia. It is a big hassle.

As far as sending money, I haven't needed to do that so far. We aren't engaged (yet) and I haven't sent her money (she has never asked). Manny has offered to pass some money into Russia here, so that is always an option for smaller amounts of money. Crypto is another option, but I haven't tried that yet.

[2tallbill]

Mitspilot, with the sanctions on Russia and no options on Western travel agencies websites to buy tickets from or to Russia did you have to go to airline websites such as Turkish airlines to buy tickets for you lady since Turkey refuses to participate in sanctions against Russia?

If you had to send money to your lady so she can buy her tickets to meet you, have you discovered a way to send it? I'm sure there are guys on the forum wondering how they could take care of their ladies in Russia at this time.

In my case, we flew Aeroflot. Turkish airlines was at least $700.00
more per flight.

Regarding getting money to Russia. My wife has a network of Russian
girl friends. Some of whom rent out their Russian flats for money that
they place in Russian bank accounts. Wifey, will give girlfriend $300.00 and the girlfriend will transfer $300.00 to Smiley Girl or where ever, it's
needed in Russia.

Those girls can bypass any silly sanctions that congress can dream up.
Apart from a few pensioners struggling a bit from their incomes not
keeping up with inflation. The sanctions have done nothing beneficial
for team USA or team Ukraine nor nothing painful for Team Putin.   

The idea that sanctions can change behavior at the State level is 
ridiculous. The only thing funnier is the Biden sycophant media
pretending that the sanctions were strong or tough, It's a joke. 

No matter what the sanction is .................... it could be that
Russians are forbidden from using coupons at the McDonalds
drive through and the Russian State department will act totally
outraged that innocent Russians can't use their coupons. Then
they will boldly proclaim that American's must pay for extra for
napkins at any Russian restaurant.

Then the USA media will report that the pressure and turmoil
Putin is suffering until he gets the sanctions removed. As I said
above it's a joke.

[mitspilot]

In my case, we flew Aeroflot. Turkish airlines was at least $700.00
more per flight.

What route?

[Manny]

Interesting story and nice photos.

It's a shame the US is still insisting on vaccines for tourists when most of the world has dropped that requirement.

[Wiz]

In my case, we flew Aeroflot. Turkish airlines was at least $700.00
more per flight.

What route?

I never used them but wife tried them she is in Russia now.

Check  City Travel
in Russia.  +7 495 640 6040 or +7 812 640 6040

THey also have a main office in Dubai

If you try Turkish airlines via Istanbul be aware that there are 2 airports in Instanbul. and connecting flights it's  easy/possible to miss your connections.

I never used them or any of the above but you can  check them!

Make sure any airline you are using to be a meber of IATA.

[mitspilot]

In my case, we flew Aeroflot. Turkish airlines was at least $700.00
more per flight.

What route?

I never used them but wife tried them she is in Russia now.

Check  City Travel
in Russia.  +7 495 640 6040 or +7 812 640 6040

THey also have a main office in Dubai

If you try Turkish airlines via Istanbul be aware that there are 2 airports in Instanbul. and connecting flights it's  easy/possible to miss your connections.

I never used them or any of the above but you can  check them!

Make sure any airline you are using to be a meber of IATA.

Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it.