【世界人民互相伤害系列】你这辈子都再也不想去了的国家有哪些？（2） [美国媒体]

What countrieswill you never visit again?

【世界人民互相伤害系列】你这辈子都再也不想去了的国家有哪些？（2）

 



VinayPitchika, Dentist &Independent statistical consultant
My choice forthis question is United Kingdom, even though I have never visited this countrybefore. This might be a shocker for few people, but I have some reasonsjustifying this.
Coming fromIndia, we need visas to visit most countries, barring a very few. I amcurrently doing PhD in Germany, so I have to travelannually to attend conferences. Though I have to pay forward for all my trips,all the expenses will be reimbursed by our University. Considering that I am abroke PhD student, it is a pain in the a$$ to purchase cheap flight tickets(before applying for visa), book some hotel (thanks to Booking.com for allowingme to do this for free) and apply for visas. Luckily, I live in Munich, andthere are a lot of consulates here, which makes life easier. However, I hadsituations when I had to travel to a different city, just to make a visaapplication.
Taking the Indianhistory into consideration and knowing well that London is expensive, it wasnever under my travel plans.
Coming to thestory:
I had to visitLondon to attend a conference. My research topic was short-listedamong the top 5 to win a prize. So, I decided to take my wife along with me.
So, we bookedflight tickets for both of us (294 x 2 = 588).
Registered onlinefor visa and filled the application form.
Made mysupporting documents ready (Passport copy, bank statements, work contract,German residence permit copies, flight tickets, hotel booking, travel itenary,official leaveform from University, official letter of funding by theUniversity, health insurance, etc). The section of supporting documents is thewierdest section. There is no proper mentioning of required documents for eachtype of visa. There is a huge list of supporting documents, and were asked tobring as many relevant documents possible.
Paid a businessvisa fee of 228 + ￡59 (processing fee for Munich) for me (Total: 305).
Paid a tourist(accompanying) visa fee of 117 + ￡59 (processing fee for Munich) for my wife(Total: 194).
None of ourdocuments were checked. It was only an application forwarding office,so no documents will be checked.
Waited for like 4weeks. Then one week before the trip, we get two DHL parcels, each containingone passport.
We open.
Surprise…
Wife gets visa. Myvisa is rejected.
Reason forrejection: No valid German residence permit in the passport for me. I had theelectronic residence permit card and provided a copy as a proof. Wife had herresidence permit pasted in her passport.
Called theircustomer care. The only thing they say is please keep your credit cardinformation ready. I give my credit card information. The call was charged ahefty price. I was given a suggestion:
You can reapplystating this problem in a cover letter, with all the originalsupporting documents reattached, and reapply paying above mentioned 305 +100for expedited process. However, the centre in Munich is open only 3 days aweek, so it does not work out if you apply from there. So, please travel toDüsseldorf and reapply.
I did not havesufficient time to get the letters again from my University, as it takes acouple of working days. I dropped my plans, and informed my Professor, whosupported me by reimbursing my visa fees.
Called Lufthansato cancel our tickets (with a 50% loss). When I told them the reason, theyasked me to fax them the official rejection letter, so that they would give100% ticket cost back. They were kind enough to reimburse the total flightticker prices for me and my wife, even though she had her visa.
After gettingback all the money, we had lavish trips to Prague, Vienna, Florence and Pisa.
In the end, I hadlost around 200 which is not a very huge sum. But, I lost the respect on UKvisa services and decided I would never enter the UK. After this episode, Iwrote a detailed email to UK visa department based on this experience and Inever heard back from them. When I pay huge amount for a visa, it has to betreated like a service and missing documents have to be requested for. Notreject the application immediately and ask to reapply, which looks like arevenue generating scheme.
.……. Story endshere……….. More info below…..
On the contrary,I paid 60 for German visa. All documents were checked and I was asked to bringsome other supporting documents in a week when I had not received it by thetime of visa appointment.
I paid just 36for South Korean visa. Had to travel to Frankfurt, but they checked every paperand read through the content and asked for a hand-signed invitation letter tobe sent to them by post. Visa was issued exactly 1 working day after theyreceived the invitation letter. Had called them couple of times regarding someissues, where the answers were prompt and to the point. For the price I paid,the service was great.

Vinay Pitchika，牙医，独立统计咨询师。
我对这个问题的回答是联合王国，即便我从来都没去过这个国家。有些人可能会感到很吃惊，但我这么选是有理由的。
我来自印度，除了极少数国家以外，如果我们想去大部分国家都是需要签证的。我目前正在德国读博士，为了参加会议每年都需要旅行。尽管旅行之前我需要自己先付款，但所有费用都是由我的大学买单的。对于我这个穷困的博士在读生来说，想订便宜机票真是太痛苦了（在申请签证之前就要订），还要订旅馆（感谢订票网让我免费订票），然后才申请签证。幸运的是我住在慕尼黑，很多国家在这都设有领事馆，办起事来容易多了。然而，当我在不同城市之间穿梭就为了搞定一张签证的时候就曾经出过状况。鉴于印度的历史以及大家都知道伦敦物价很贵，所以我从来没把伦敦纳入旅行计划当中。

故事开始：
当时我必须要去伦敦参加一个会议。我的研究课题已经通过初审位列前五，就要获得奖金了。所以我决定带上我的妻子一起去。
我给我俩都订了机票，俩人一共588欧元。
在网上注册了签证，填写了表格。
我把所有相关文件都准备好了（护照副本，银行声明，工作合同，德国居留证副本，机票，旅店预定证明，往返机票的行程信息，公假单，大学资助官方证明，健康保险等等）。关于需要提供的相关文件最诡异的地方在于，申请哪国签证需要提供什么文件没有一个统一的说法。只有一份庞大的相关文件列表，并要求你尽可能的带齐所有相关文件。
我申请商务签证的费用是228+59=305欧元，那59元是手续费。
我妻子的旅行签证费用是117+59=194欧元。
英国领事馆没有人检核我们的文件，只有一个申请发布局，所以我们的文件也就没有检核。
申请后等了差不多四个星期，离旅行只剩下一周的时间了。我们收到了两个DHL的包裹，每个包裹里有一个签证。
打开之后，
吃惊……
我妻子成功拿到了签证，而我的签证被拒了。

被拒理由：我的签证里没有有效的德国居留证明。我的居留证明卡是电子版的，所以当时我只提供了一个复印件。而我妻子的居留证明就在护照里。
我就打了客服电话，他们唯一说的话就是要我准备好信用卡信息，我就给了他们信用卡信息。在支付了昂贵的电话费之后，我得到了如下建议：
你可以重新申请签证，申请的时候附上一封说明信陈述相关问题，并附上所有的相关文件。重新申请的加急费用需要305+100欧元。可是，慕尼黑签证中心每周只开放三天，所以在这儿申请来不及了，请到杜塞尔多夫重新申请。
我当时没有足够的时间从大学里把这些证明信再重开一遍，因为需要花好几个工作日才能办完。我放下了自己手头的计划，并把这事通知了我的教授，是他支持我并补偿了签证费用。
我给汉莎航空打了电话取消机票（要扣掉50%机票钱）。我跟他们说了取消理由后，他们要我传真一份官方拒签信，这样就能100%退回机票钱。汉莎航空真是太好了，即便我妻子的签证已经被批准了，他们还是全额返还了我和我妻子的机票钱。
拿回所有的钱后，我们进行了奢侈的旅行，去了布拉格，维也纳，佛罗伦萨和比萨。

最后，我损失了大约200欧元，数目也不算太大。然而我丧失了对英国签证服务的信心，并决定再也不会进入英国。
事情过后，我给英国签证部门写了一封详述此次经历的信，但信发出之后就杳无回音。当我付了一大笔钱去申请签证的时候，他们就应该把这当做一种服务，要什么文件可以通知我，而不是立刻拒绝申请然后要求再申请，这看起来就好像是赚钱的鬼把戏。
故事到此结束，下面还有更多信息。
与此事相对的是，我申请德国签证只需要60欧元。所有文件都会事先检核，如果我在一周内没有收到签证，他们就会通知我缺少哪些文件需要带上。
我申请韩国签证只需要36欧元，但需要去法兰克福申请。但是他们会仔细检查阅读我的每一份文件，并要求我给他们邮寄一份手写签名的邀请信。他们收到邀请信后一个工作日就可以开具出签证。曾经因为某些问题给他们打过几次电话，他们的回应都非常迅速并切中问题要害。这种服务真是物超所值。

Peter Moore
Be glad youdidn’t make it to Heathrow. The Immigration officersthere are generally nasty. I had a guy trying to turn me away when I came tovisit my sister at Oxford over Christmas…I guess Canadians with a Britishparent are incredibly suspicious and a danger to the country. I’ve had some experiences that were only mildly annoying, but they aresurprisingly unfriendly to tourists and people passing through. Contrast thatto Germany. Half the time I get a smile. My first visit, back in 1994, theylooked at my Canadian passport cover, said, “Ah, Canadian. Welcome to Germany!”and handed it back without opening it. All those nasty ‘Papers please!’Nazi-stereotypes went out the window, and apparently flew to Heathrow.

还好你没到达伦敦希斯洛机场。那的移民官员真的是太可恶了。当时是圣诞节，我去牛津拜访我的姐姐，一个机场移民官居然想把我赶回去。我猜想是他们觉得一个有英国双亲的加拿大人必定十分可疑，对这个国家很危险。我曾有过几次这种有点恼人的经历，他们对待游客的态度真是太差了。与此相对，德国人的态度就好多了，有一半时间都在微笑。我第一次去德国是在1994年，他们看了下我的加拿大护照封面，说到“啊，加拿大人，欢迎来到德国！”，护照都没打开就还给了我。而英国这种像纳粹一样恶劣的 “请出示签证！”的态度从窗口里传出来后很明显飞到了希思罗机场了。

Radu Tomuleasa
Let me breakit for you. The reverse isequally true. Getting a 2 week tourist visa to India from the UK is anightmare.
Reading andunderstanding the requirements was a pain, the application was a pain, waitingan absurd amount of time on the phone for someone to answer a question was apain; And on top of that I had to go to the Indian embassy inLondon in person so that I have my fingerprints taken. And yes, it costs quitea bit of money as well.
Ok, fair enough,my application wasn't rejected, but still I'm not surprised they're doing thesame thing to Indian citizens.

我来帮你说清楚点吧，其实反过来也一样。想办个从英国去印度的为期两周的旅行签证简直就像噩梦一般。
想读懂签证要求真是一种痛苦，申请过程也痛苦，想找个人解答问题需要在电话上等贼长的时间也是痛苦。最后我还要到驻伦敦的印度大使馆去录指纹，花的钱也相当多。
嗯，还好我的签证没有被拒。但就他们对待印度公民的态度来说，我表示毫不吃惊。

Chuning Song
This is theshittest outcome for visa application ever.
I always feel thebureaucrats designing visa application process need to have their IQ checked. Icome from China, in which, you know, pretty much have to apply for visas to anycountry I intend to visit. That's OK-ish I guess since it's a doable process,albeit tedious, costly, and not guaranteed. The thing is, some countriesspecifically requiring us to have tickets and hotels booked before applying forvisas, and funny enough, some airlines and hotels require us to demonstratehaving a valid visa before booking in return.
How does thatdeadlock suppose to work is beyond me.

对于申请签证来说这种结果是最糟心的。
我一直都认为设计签证申请程序的官僚们应该去检查一下自己的智商。
我来自中国，你也知道基本上我去任何国家都需要申请签证。对我来说，只要有章可循，即使过程枯燥点，费用高点，不能保证办下来也没有关系。可问题是，有些国家要求我们在申请签证之前提供机票和旅馆预定证明，最有意思的是，有些航空公司和旅馆反而要求我们出示有效的签证才能预定。
如何才能打破这种僵局已经超出了我的能力范围了。

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Christina Chen,studied at University of Cambridge
My answer is HongKong, even though it’s not a country but a SAR (special administrative region)of China.
Before I get intodetails about the horrible trip, let me tell you how I thought of Hong Kongwhen I was young. I always had a special connection with Hong Kong and thoughtof it as a lovely place when I was a little girl. On my 7th birthday, 1st July1997, Hong Kong came back as a part of China, and I had a nice birthday partywith the TV on and the handover ceremony proceeding. Most Chinese civilianslike me thought of Hong Kong as the long-lost jewel of our motherland, and wereproud to have it back.
However, myactual trip to Hong Kong during the spring festival of 2012 was full ofunpleasant memories.
I went there withmy Mom for my SATs, after which we spent 3 more days in the city for leisure.That was the worst period of time for mainland-HK relationship, when Hong Kongmedia described mainlanders as “locusts” for occupying their schooling slots,hospital beds and buying their milk formula.
Photo source:Dolce & Gabbana Officially Apologizes To Hong Kong For That Photo-BanningIncident I actually walked past this.
Of course, HongKong people have their right to protest because these actions of mainlandersdid cause problems and unfairness to them locals. However, what made me angrywas their rude treatment of ANY mainland traveler.
Example 1: Whenwe went shopping, the store staff would come towards us with a smile andfriendliness because my Mom and I looked quite Southeast Asian. However themoment we started speaking Mandarin, every single one of them would changetheir expression and become really rude as if we were uneducated bastards. Incontrast, their attitude towards other foreigners were quite different.
Example 2: Wewent into a nice cafe, carrying a bag of oranges just bought from the street.We weren’t even planning to eat it in the cafe but instead planned to take itback to our hotel room later. However the moment we sat down, the waiters cameto us and as soon as she realized we were from the mainland, she said to us ina really belittling tone: “You guys shouldnot put the peel on the table.” (你们不要把橙子皮留在桌子上). This really angered me and my Mom becausewe weren’t even planning to take out the oranges.
In essence, thiskind of unfair presumption of “mainland rudeness” really gave a blow to ourdignity and self-esteem. Of course I know many cases of rude Chinese touristspeeing on the streets, littering and talking loudly, and I loathe theirbehavior as much as HKers. But being undiscriminating in discrimination is whatI hate more than discrimination itself. My mother is a respected Chineseprofessor and I’m an elite-school educated student, and we are the kind ofpeople who would always smile, say thank you, and push our chairs back to theright place when leaving a table….. yet the deep rooted bias that some HKpeople have against Chinese mainlanders is so aggravating that I would think ofit as their own unique rudeness. Maybe HK SAR should stand for Hong KongSpecial Audacious Region.
I don’t mean topiss off people in HK. I have some amazing friends from HK who are well educatedand I can connect really well with them. However just like there are rudemainland tourists, there are also rude HK locals. The only difference is, therude mainland tourists are rude per se, whereas some HK locals are unavoidablybecoming rude in the process of trying to guard their “high moral standard”.
And thereforewhen my Mom and I sat in the airport terminal listening to the announcement ofour flight, we smiled to each other and almost said instantaneously that HK isa place we would never visit again, unless more peace and friendliness would bedirected towards us.

Christina Chen，就读于剑桥大学。
我的回答是香港，尽管它不是国家，而是中国的一个特别行政区。
在我详细叙述这段可怕的旅行之前，我先跟你们说说我小时候是怎么看待香港的。当我还是一个小女孩的时候就一直对香港有一种特殊的感情，认为香港是一个美丽友善的地方。在我7岁生日的那天，1997年7月1日，香港回归中国，然后我就伴随着电视里的交接仪式过了一个难忘的生日。大多数中国人都像我一样，以为香港是我们祖国母亲遗失已久的珍珠，它的回归让我们倍感自豪。

然而，我2012年春节的一趟香港之旅充满了不愉快的回忆。
当时我是为了参加SATs考试和我妈妈一起去的。考完试之后我们又多留了三天准备逛逛这个城市。那段时期是大陆香港关系最差的时候，当时香港媒体把大陆人描述为“蝗虫”，说大陆人占了他们的学校资源、医院床位，还买光他们的配方奶粉。
当然，香港人有抗议的权力，因为大陆人的这些行为确实引发了很多问题，这对本地人来说是不公平的。让我生气的是他们会粗鲁对待每一个从大陆来的人。，
例子一：我们买东西的时候，店员会面带微笑十分友善的走过来，因为我和我妈妈长的像东南亚人。然而当我们开口说普通话的那一刻，他们马上就换了脸色变得十分粗鲁，对待我们就好像我们是没教养的杂种，这和他们对待其他外国人的态度形成了鲜明对照。
例子2：我们去了一个不错的咖啡店，还带着一袋刚从街上买来的橙子。我们原本没打算在咖啡店里吃，准备拿回旅馆里吃。我们刚一坐下店员就走了过来，当她知道我们是大陆人后马上用一种轻蔑的语气说：你们不要把橙子皮留在桌子上。这真的激怒了我和我妈妈，因为我们根本就没打算把橙子拿出来。

这种自以为是的认为“大陆人都粗俗”的想法是不公平的，真的是刺伤了我们的自尊。当然，我知道很多大陆游客没礼貌的案例，在街上撒尿，乱丢垃圾，大声说话。我和香港人一样憎恶这种行为。但相对于歧视行为，我更憎恨那种不分青红皂白的歧视。我妈妈是一位受人尊敬的中国教授，而我是一名受过精英学校教育的学生，我们都是那种随时会保持微笑，会说谢谢的那种人，我们离开桌子的时候会把椅子归位。在某些香港人的思维中，这种对大陆人的敌视日积月累已经根深蒂固，我觉得这也算是一种香港人特有的粗俗。也许香港特别行政区应该叫做香港特别无礼区。
我不是想惹恼香港人，在香港我也有一些要好的朋友，他们都受过良好的教育，我经常和他们联系。可就像是大陆有行为粗俗的游客一样，香港也有粗俗的本地人。唯一不同的是，那些粗俗的大陆游客本身就是粗人，而某些香港人则是在试图“捍卫道德标准”的过程中不可避免的也变得粗俗起来。

我和妈妈坐在机场候机大厅里，当听到广播宣布我们的航班时，我们相视一笑几乎异口同声地说，我们绝对不会再来香港了。除非这个地方能对我们更加平和友善。