Notes from a Wandering Daydreamer Life as it should be...

what a week it has been. it has felt like the longest and most trying week of my life.

Needing to get from beijing to shanghai to get a new russian visa because the dates on my old visa wouldnt cover my new plans, i soon found out that all trains were booked up until tuesday night. The russian consulate is only open monday wednesday and friday and I leave beijing for mongolia on sunday, so it was now or never. I arrived in shanghai at 7:30 - hoping that i would have time to get to the consualte and get in the line that I had been told starts quite early, and if you get there late, you miss out as its only open from 9:15 to 12:15 for visas.
I trudged round in the poring rain trying to find a taxi, but taxi drivers in shanghai seem to have a mortal fear of picking up passengers, so i was forced to take the subway - in peak hour, with my big bags. wasnt my idea of a great time.
Somehow I managed to make it there, right on opening time. I checked into a hotel over the road simply to dump my bag that was killing my shoulders. I didnt even go up to my room, just threw on my poncho and ventured back out into the middle of a massive thunderstorm to wait in line.

Those 3 hours were absolute hell. It didnt stop raining the entire time, the road kept starting to flood, i was still in my shoes and they were absolutley soaked to the bone, we kept getting moved back by arrogant chinese police and the line was the slowest moving in history. After 2 and a half hours it became clear that we wouldnt get in, as only 12 people or so had been let in and there were a good 15 in front of us. As they all started to leave, i hung around waiting on some miracle that I would get through, but 12:15 came with no miracle. So i retreated back to the hotel for the best hot shower anyone has ever had since the beginning of time.

I wasnt keen on waiting until friday to try that again, so after a few phone calls home, we came up with plan B. my russian visa I already had was valid until the 13th of september, which was the last day of my vodkatrain trip. [the trip i was booken on ended a week earlier, which gave me plenty of time, but it was cancelled 2 days before i left home] So now rather than having a few days in moscow then heading onto St Petersburg for a few more days, i have to fly out to hamburg that afternoon. St Petersburg can wait.

Now i'm just counting down the minutes until I can leave china, and it cant come quickly enough. I got the slowest train ever to Qindao on the coast to wait out another 2 nights before heading back to beijing and freedom. This aint no bondi let me tell you. I can sort of understand why the chinese never smile, if this is their version of a beach resort. In australia it would be called a dirty polluted backwater you wouldnt let your dog swim in.

Anyway, the moral of the story, is dont plan ahead more than a few weeks - they always get changed on you and leave in up s**t creek, and NEVER try to organise a russian visa from china in a hurry. If you do, allow at least a week or so to get it done.