Bit of a shit day today. I was feeling low first thing having said good bye to all of my buddies recently and just having to do rubbish visa stuff and organising and planning for the next leg of my trip. It always takes ages to do all of these things....
Up early and went for a run to the hotel where I was staying with Jacob to pick up my other passport so that I can send it back to the UK to get a Mongolian Visa. As I am meeting Lu in Mongolia in the middle of July I can't afford to be delayed in Beijing waiting for a visa for Mongolia Therefore, I need to be certain I have got one several weeks beforehand. In order to do this I am applying for my Mongolian visa on a second passport and sending it off to the UK for my Dad to then bring with him when he visits me in Beijing.
I had a really good fun and it was a much shorter distance than I remembered and so I continued and ran as far as I could along the harbour front before turning back.
After showering and changing I went to the same Chinese restaurant that have a really good internet connection and very reasonable food at lunch time. It took me several hours of looking at trains before I realised that I am 1 day out on my Russian/Mongolian visa cross overs. Arrgggg! The train that I wanted to get was not available on the right dates and so although I had left a margin of 4 days for the Russian Visa it was not enough and I needed a 5 day margin! I felt really bad because I was planning on meeting Lu on the 16th of July in Mongolia but I can not enter the country that early as my visa will expire too soon to then leave to Russia. It means that I will not get to meet Lu until the middle of the day on the 19th of July! At least I managed to book the train though.
I also phoned Lu to explain the problem. It was great to speak to her and Kim after so long. I must work out a way to speak to them more often before Mongolia to plan etc without it costing a fortune.
I spent hours working out routes, reading about visas and trains etc. I really wanted to be writing some entries in my diary before I forget them but that did not work out today.
My panniers broke several months ago and are no longer waterproof. I could not find replacements in HK and so I emailed the company that sold me the original set to see what they suggested. They said they would replace them if I sent them back to the UK. No help really. At least I am meeting my Dad in Beijing soon and so he might be able to bring some new ones with him and take back the old ones to the UK.
I just want to be off on my bike right now rather than sorting out banking stuff in the UK, trains, routes, visas, broken bikes and all of the other faff stuff you need to do! Oh well - I can hardly complain really. I have been having the time of my life traveling and not working for the last 8 months :-) I don't want it to end. Faffing and organising are just parts of the journey.
I moved from the Chinese restaurant to an Irish pub in the middle of the afternoon and then had several cups of coffee.
I was supposed to meet up with Helen to go out for dinner at 8 but she did not get back from her exploring of the city until 10ish so I just tried to do some of the things I needed to on the internet.
Up early and went for a run to the hotel where I was staying with Jacob to pick up my other passport so that I can send it back to the UK to get a Mongolian Visa. As I am meeting Lu in Mongolia in the middle of July I can't afford to be delayed in Beijing waiting for a visa for Mongolia Therefore, I need to be certain I have got one several weeks beforehand. In order to do this I am applying for my Mongolian visa on a second passport and sending it off to the UK for my Dad to then bring with him when he visits me in Beijing.
I had a really good fun and it was a much shorter distance than I remembered and so I continued and ran as far as I could along the harbour front before turning back.
After showering and changing I went to the same Chinese restaurant that have a really good internet connection and very reasonable food at lunch time. It took me several hours of looking at trains before I realised that I am 1 day out on my Russian/Mongolian visa cross overs. Arrgggg! The train that I wanted to get was not available on the right dates and so although I had left a margin of 4 days for the Russian Visa it was not enough and I needed a 5 day margin! I felt really bad because I was planning on meeting Lu on the 16th of July in Mongolia but I can not enter the country that early as my visa will expire too soon to then leave to Russia. It means that I will not get to meet Lu until the middle of the day on the 19th of July! At least I managed to book the train though.
I also phoned Lu to explain the problem. It was great to speak to her and Kim after so long. I must work out a way to speak to them more often before Mongolia to plan etc without it costing a fortune.
I spent hours working out routes, reading about visas and trains etc. I really wanted to be writing some entries in my diary before I forget them but that did not work out today.
My panniers broke several months ago and are no longer waterproof. I could not find replacements in HK and so I emailed the company that sold me the original set to see what they suggested. They said they would replace them if I sent them back to the UK. No help really. At least I am meeting my Dad in Beijing soon and so he might be able to bring some new ones with him and take back the old ones to the UK.
I just want to be off on my bike right now rather than sorting out banking stuff in the UK, trains, routes, visas, broken bikes and all of the other faff stuff you need to do! Oh well - I can hardly complain really. I have been having the time of my life traveling and not working for the last 8 months :-) I don't want it to end. Faffing and organising are just parts of the journey.
I moved from the Chinese restaurant to an Irish pub in the middle of the afternoon and then had several cups of coffee.
I was supposed to meet up with Helen to go out for dinner at 8 but she did not get back from her exploring of the city until 10ish so I just tried to do some of the things I needed to on the internet.
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