Change of plans...
So Thursday we wrapped up what we wanted to do in Hong Kong, scoring free tickets for a harbour tour on a junk -- just like the ship in the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. It was nice but not wildly notable; we'd seen a good bit of the harbour already taking the various ferries, and while a junk is a sailing ship, ours actually had a motor installed and the sails we're secured and just for show. But still, a nice way to spend an hour.
That night we went out to eat...and instead wound up computer shopping, where I eventually bought a second-hand laptop -- a completely under-powered thing (exactly what I wanted!) that is light, has wi-fi and a DVD player. I had thought about maybe getting a computer here, figuring that along the Chinese east coast we might be able to find wi-fi hotspots for free internet, and it would be nice to have something to watch movies on when it rained and the like. I really wasn't sure whether it was a good idea (could get damaged/lost/stolen; extra weight in an already heavy backpack; not sure it would be as practical as I was trying to convince myself; et cetera), but when I found pretty much exactly what I was looking for for HK$2800 (just shy of $380) I decided to take the plunge.
Yesterday we packed our bags and headed back into China for another two months. When we got to immigration, however, the Chinese authorities told us our visas were expired. Lots of fun. There is a "valid" date on the visa, and I specifically asked the Chinese embassy in Vientiane (where we applied for and received the visas) whether we needed to enter before that date the first time or whether we needed to make both entries before that date. They told me as long as we entered the first time, that was fine. Well, that is apparently wrong. So our visas expired on Wednesday the sixth, and we were trying to enter on Friday the eighth, and that was just too bad as far as Chinese immigration was concerned.
We spent a less-than-fun afternoon in No Man's Land. We had "left" Hong Kong and gotten stamped out, but could not "enter" China. Well, nor could we re-enter Hong Kong because there was a sign saying "No U-turns" in the hall we had come down and a Chinese cop wagging his finger at us to enforce the sign, but -- now that we were out of Hong Kong -- speaking absolutely no English and therefore could not tell us what to do next. There was a possibility that we could have gotten new Chinese visas, although by that point we weren't sure we wanted to go back for another couple of months. But while Petra could get a visa as a German natural, visas on the border like this are not available for American citizens and so that made the decision super easy. It was really amazing, though, that /literally/ on the other side of the Hong Kong border -- in the same building, actually in the same hallway -- /no one/ spoke any English. We finally got some direction by waving our passports and gesturing and saying "Hong Kong" until they got the general idea of what we needed, then all but physically dragging them around until they could point to exactly where we needed to go next.
In the end, the HK authorities "canceled" our exit and so in essence we never actually left -- a neat little trick I didn't know was possible, and which permits us to use the rest of our 90 day automatic visa we got when we arrived in HK last week. Not that we want to, or can afford, to stay here for another several months. So back to get a new hotel room and regroup, think over our options and what we want to do. We thought about trying to go to the Chinese consulate (or whatever the equivalent is here in HK) and try to explain the situation, but thought it was unlikely to help as well as having soured on the Chinese idea after this all. So off to a wi-fi hotspot to do a quick but intensive search of various airfares -- did I mention that buying my new laptop was obviously the Best Idea Ever! -- we are now flying out this evening to London, where we will arrive tomorrow morning and probably take a bus to Berlin tomorrow afternoon.
So the Trans-Mongolian Railway adventure is out for the moment, which is kind of a shame. But I've never been to Europe, and there is of course a whole lot there I would like to see. So it is all good to me! One plans collapses, and another adventure begins!
That night we went out to eat...and instead wound up computer shopping, where I eventually bought a second-hand laptop -- a completely under-powered thing (exactly what I wanted!) that is light, has wi-fi and a DVD player. I had thought about maybe getting a computer here, figuring that along the Chinese east coast we might be able to find wi-fi hotspots for free internet, and it would be nice to have something to watch movies on when it rained and the like. I really wasn't sure whether it was a good idea (could get damaged/lost/stolen; extra weight in an already heavy backpack; not sure it would be as practical as I was trying to convince myself; et cetera), but when I found pretty much exactly what I was looking for for HK$2800 (just shy of $380) I decided to take the plunge.
Yesterday we packed our bags and headed back into China for another two months. When we got to immigration, however, the Chinese authorities told us our visas were expired. Lots of fun. There is a "valid" date on the visa, and I specifically asked the Chinese embassy in Vientiane (where we applied for and received the visas) whether we needed to enter before that date the first time or whether we needed to make both entries before that date. They told me as long as we entered the first time, that was fine. Well, that is apparently wrong. So our visas expired on Wednesday the sixth, and we were trying to enter on Friday the eighth, and that was just too bad as far as Chinese immigration was concerned.
We spent a less-than-fun afternoon in No Man's Land. We had "left" Hong Kong and gotten stamped out, but could not "enter" China. Well, nor could we re-enter Hong Kong because there was a sign saying "No U-turns" in the hall we had come down and a Chinese cop wagging his finger at us to enforce the sign, but -- now that we were out of Hong Kong -- speaking absolutely no English and therefore could not tell us what to do next. There was a possibility that we could have gotten new Chinese visas, although by that point we weren't sure we wanted to go back for another couple of months. But while Petra could get a visa as a German natural, visas on the border like this are not available for American citizens and so that made the decision super easy. It was really amazing, though, that /literally/ on the other side of the Hong Kong border -- in the same building, actually in the same hallway -- /no one/ spoke any English. We finally got some direction by waving our passports and gesturing and saying "Hong Kong" until they got the general idea of what we needed, then all but physically dragging them around until they could point to exactly where we needed to go next.
In the end, the HK authorities "canceled" our exit and so in essence we never actually left -- a neat little trick I didn't know was possible, and which permits us to use the rest of our 90 day automatic visa we got when we arrived in HK last week. Not that we want to, or can afford, to stay here for another several months. So back to get a new hotel room and regroup, think over our options and what we want to do. We thought about trying to go to the Chinese consulate (or whatever the equivalent is here in HK) and try to explain the situation, but thought it was unlikely to help as well as having soured on the Chinese idea after this all. So off to a wi-fi hotspot to do a quick but intensive search of various airfares -- did I mention that buying my new laptop was obviously the Best Idea Ever! -- we are now flying out this evening to London, where we will arrive tomorrow morning and probably take a bus to Berlin tomorrow afternoon.
So the Trans-Mongolian Railway adventure is out for the moment, which is kind of a shame. But I've never been to Europe, and there is of course a whole lot there I would like to see. So it is all good to me! One plans collapses, and another adventure begins!