Have Cash, Will Travel

My trips to the U.S. usually start with a Sunday afternoon flight to London. I stay overnight and work the next day there. I then take an evening flight to San Francisco and spend the next two days there. Next, I take a red eye to New York. A quick shower and breakfast at the airport and I am good to go for Thursday. Friday, too, is spent in New York. I then take an evening flight back to India. So, I am home by Saturday evening without losing a working day and still spend one day on either side of the weekend with the family.

Scheduling my trip this way optimises costs. I buy a U.S. return ticket as an open jaw (a trip in which a passenger flies in to one destination and returns from another). The only other ticket I have to buy is an economy class ticket from the West Coast to the East Coast that I upgrade to business class using the miles I have earned over my travels. I’m in the top tier of British Airways’ frequent-flier programme.

I travel incredibly light and have just a carry-on even for weeklong trips to the U.S. I carry three or four wrinkle-free blue shirts from Brooks Brothers and a pair of jeans. I don’t spend time deciding what to wear. The fewer the decision points, the easier the travel.

One of the most important things I do when I’m on the road is manage sleep. Time zones take a toll on your efficiency levels. What I do is try and tire myself by sweating it out in the evenings. When you’re physically tired, you kind of fall asleep even when your body clock isn’t synchronised with that time zone. I sometimes walk miles instead of taking a cab to tire myself out.

The Indian government needs to do something to make sure we have more countries which offer us visas on arrival. There are so many countries that require a visa. China and many countries in Africa don’t give long-term, multiple-entry business visas unlike the U.S. or Europe. I will fund any startup that can help disrupt the visa regime. Until then, here’s what I do. A lot of my trips are planned at short notices and I wouldn’t have the time to apply for a visa. So, I maintain a list of countries for which I can get a visa without waiting for a trip to be planned. Sometimes the money goes waste but I don’t have a choice because some embassies take a long time to issue visas.