Portland is a city in the U.S state of Oregon. I was there for a conference (APS fluid dynamics meet 2016) which was held from 20 Nov 2016 to 22 Nov 2016 at Oregon Convection Center.
Travel requirements:
The most essential requirements to travel abroad are Passport and VISA. Getting USA Visa is the most important part of the travel. It is always advisable to apply USA Visa three month prior to the travel because the processing time may take longer in some cases. I applied for the B1/B2 Visa after getting the invitation letter from the conference organizer. The Visa was applied by filling online DS-160 form 60 days before the conference date. I got OFC appointment on 25 Sept 2016 followed by consular appointment on 7 Oct 2016. The appointment date depends on the availability of slot and can be chosen by the applicants. The OFC appointment was held at Visa application center, Nehru Place and all the bio metric information were recorded. I appeared for the visa interview (consular appointment) along with the all the related documents at the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi. The interviewer asked me few questions related to my travel. Most of the questions were based on mu research topics. He read my conference abstract and send me to another counter for further administrative processing where I was handed the 221(g) form and was told to prepare the documents as per the guidelines mentioned in the form and send it to the mentioned email id. I followed the instruction and send all the required documents. It is very processing is very common in most of the cases. Those who are got clearance in the interview get a B1/B2 visa for 10 years multiple entry. Usually, the visa under administrative processing gets one year multiple entry visa. My Visa got approved on 7th Nov 2016. I was very much excited and happy. At that time, I was at IIT Kanpur and booked a ticket on 9th Nov to Delhi to collect the Visa. Suddenly, on 8th Nov at 8 PM our prime minister made an historical announcement of demonetization where all the high denomination notes (INR 500 and INR 1000) were declared invalid from that movement. The step was taken to curb corruption and to disclose all the unaccounted stashed money. At the same time all the transactions were kept under scanner. The cash withdrawal limit from the ATM was kept only 2000 per day. It caused huge queue at ATM and bank counters. Most of the ATM counters were out of cash. I was managed to withdraw required cash and traveled to Delhi on 9th Oct. I collected my Passport/Visa from the Visa application center. Then I moved to AirIndia counter at Delhi to book a flight to Portland at a cost of INR 109324 including the return ticket using my card. The traveling date was on 16 Nov which was 4 days before the conference.
Then I returned to Kanpur and made necessary travel arrangement. I quickly prepared my presentation for the conference. The bank was so crowded that it was impossible to get a travel card and to get US dollar. I moved to Delhi on 15th Nov with my debit and credit card. I searched at many places for money exchange but unable to get dollar. Finally, I was able to get 500 US dollar at Connaught place a exchange rate of 76 rupees per dollar which was unreasonably high and I had no option other than this. Rest of the required money was withdrawn in USA using my debit card (VISA card).
I planned and made a list of places to be visited and saved the offline google map of these locations. A GPS enabled smart phone with google map application is very helpful while traveling an unknown place. The saved offline map along with GPS helped me a lot while traveling without internet within Portland.
Booking hotel in advance is very necessary before going outside. I booked in a dormitory, Traveler's house at Portland for 6 days through Hostelworld and the price was 240 dollar for the 6 nights.
Travel to Portland:
From the Connaught place, I moved to Delhi airport by metro rail. After checked in at the Airindia counter, I moved to the immigration check with my boarding pass and filled out immigration form. It was an interesting conversation with the immigration officer about the travel and IITs. After passing through the security check, I moved to board the flight and flew to San Francisco by AirIndia. The flight took off at 3:30 AM from Delhi and landed at San Francisco after flying for 15 hours. After passing through the immigration check at the Airport, I boarded another flight in United Airlines to Portland and landed at 2 PM. The public transport of Portland was operated by TriMet. I tried to book a ticket to travel to the dormitories but I failed to do that as the ticket vending machine was not reading my cards. I was very fortunate that the TriMet staff gave me a one day pass at free of cost and I am very much thankful to him. I traveled to Portland by MAX Light rail using that pass and got off at Moda center. Then I reached Traveler's house by a TriMet bus which is at distance of 3.5 km from Moda center. Traveler's house is a very nice place to stay and is at a distance of 4 km from the conference venue. I had a good interaction with my roommates and others staying in that dormitories. It was already 8 PM and I went to sleep after the dinner. I didn't travel much in the city. Most of the time, I was preparing my presentation slides and roaming around the near by areas. There are good numbers of Indian restaurants around that place. Most of the time I had my lunch and dinner at Bollywood theater and Open Tandoor. Fruits are easily available at the markets which is a good alternatives for breakfast. The conference registration stated on 19th and I collected my conference kit on the same day. All the participants were given a 7 days TriMet pass with free of cost which can be used to avail all the transport service of TriMet. After that, I spend some times at the river front near to the convection center.
My presentation was on the first day of the conference and that too in the first session in the morning. After my presentation, I attended few other presentations. There were approximately 3000 participants in the conference. In the evening, I went to the downtown crossing the bridge. The down town is the most beautiful place to spend time. Most of the market place, night clubs and bars are found in this area. I had my dinner at Gandhi Indian Restaurant at downtown and returned to the hostel. Next day was the second day of the conference where I attended few presentations and had my breakfast and lunch at the conference. My flight was on the next day early morning. Hence, I left the hostel at 10 PM and arrived at Portland at 11:30 PM. I spend approximately 3 hours in the Airport. Then I flew to San Francisco and stayed there for one days at USA Hostels which was also booked through Hostelworld before traveling to USA. On the same day, I explored the city, went tot he golden gate. Finally, returned to the Hostel in the evening and went to sleep. Next day morning, i went to the airport in the early morning by a Taxi. I boarded the Airindia flight at 9:15 AM and flew to Delhi.
The journey was excellent and exciting. There are lots of places around Portland which I didn't cover due to lack of time.
|
About me
Tapan Kumar Pradhan PhD, IIT Kanpur http://tapankp.weebly.com Currency Conversion:
1 US dollar = 69 INR USA Visa:
Multiple entry: INR 11200 |