Quest for a visa
So before we left for Hong Kong , we had read that you needed to apply for a visa to go to mainland China a few weeks in advance. Well it was too late for that, so we put it out of our mind. But then, reading travel books on the way there they mention you can get a one day tourist visa at the border or through a travel agent. For a moment I considered doing the visa at the border thing. Boy am I glad we didn’t do that. What a disaster that would have been, standing there at the border trying to communicate with grumpy communist customs agents. And even if we did get a visa, then what? Stand outside the border crossing with a Best-Buy blank stare on our faces? Travel agent, much better idea. So began the RPG like journey of obtaining a visa for 100 xp.
Step 1, go to the hotel travel agent and say you’d like to go to Shenzen. They arrange tours for you, and get you a visa. Great! Where do we sign? Oh, minimum groups are 3 people. We are 2 people. Travel agent suggests finding someone else to go with us. Ok, so how do I randomly find some stranger to go China?
Step 2, we walk into a random travel agency on the street. The woman at the counter is very nice and informative and tells us China has changed all the rules for visitor visas because of the Beijing Olympics. Visas are only issued on Mondays and Fridays, (its Saturday) and the price has increased to US$150 per person. She suggests we try our hotel travel agent, duh. It looks like it ain’t gonna happen, until she mentions we could try one of the luxury hotels down the street.
Step 3, go to hotel down the street and talk to their travel desk. They hand us the brochure, and they do China day tours! And they will arrnage it for you! Great, where do we sign? What? Our room number? Oh, well technically we aren’t guests here. They tell us call the number on the brochure, and goodbye.
Step 4, call brochure number (very glad we bought that HK sim card). The woman answers the phone in Chinese, this could be a problem. I hesitantly say “Hello”, and I’m in luck she speaks English. What’s that, we should talk to the hotel travel desk? Not helpful. But then, she says IF we can make it to Causeway Bay and the travel agency main office there before 2pm, they can help us.
Step 5: Ok, so now we rush down to the subway and try to find the hotel in Hong Kong Times Square. We wander around bewildered looking for the hotel , and give up and decide to get a taxi. The taxi takes us….. 1 block. Doh. So now we rush in to the hotel office, and….. the woman is out to lunch. It turns out the woman on the phone meant -After- 2′oclock, not Before 2. Oh well, we go to the market and buy a durian while we wait. (story for another post). The woman shows up, we talk, and she needs copies of our passports… and we have them! Success! The tour is arranged, and a lesson in planning ahead is learned. As we talk to the travel agent, the durian smell is leaking out of its plastic wrap, plastic bag, and backpack and filling the air of the swanky hotel with the stench of rotten garbage.