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Published: June 24th 2011
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After doing a lot more research it turns out we can't get our Russian visas in Japan after all, because you have to have BEEN there for more then 90 days, not just be ABLE to be there for more than 90 days. However it seems that as a British citizen I can get one in Hong Kong, because we're automatically considered residents there, or something. Anyway, the Russian Embassy in Hong Kong has forms on their website specifically for British Citizens who are applying there. So I am reasonably confident that I'll be able to get one there (well, ish, the forms are REALLY scary! Lots of detail required!). However this means I now have to go to Hong Kong (alone!), which I was not originally planning to do, and therefore means that whilst there I'll also need to get another Chinese visa, because I will have used up both my entries and exits in going to Japan first and then Hong Kong (unless I can swing it so that when I arrive in Shanghai from Tokyo I don't have to go back through immigration and instead just get straight on a flight to Hong Kong. But that's not very
likely). Anyway, the point is, this is very stressful and I have been cacking my pants about it all for a week now. I'm trying really hard to trust God for it all, but 'official' things are my biggest fear, so it's not that easy for me!
Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, on to fun things.
We went to the Summer Palace the other day which is beautiful, although somewhat misleading in name, since it's not a palace. It's a big park with, surprise surprise, temples in it. These are of course beautiful although somewhat of a rip-off, since not only do you have to pay to get in to the park but then you have to pay again to go into each temple-y bit! So we were cheapskates and just looked at them from the outside.
There's also a big boat made of marble that an empress built to take tea on. She built this with money she should have used to build a navy, and as a consequence, she lost the war. Now, which war, I couldn't tell you, but that's the story I've been told.
It made me a
Marble Boat
If you want to win a war, don't build one of these. Build a navy. bit sad looking at some of the buildings, because they look so old and beautiful and then you read the sign next to them saying "this building was destroyed by anglo-french forces and rebuilt to the original design in 1980"... Sooooo this ancient monument is what, 31 years old? Riiiight.
Today we were originally planning to go to the Forbidden City but it was raining hard when we woke up, so we went back to sleep. So next week the plan is to get our Mongolian visas, get our train tickets to Shanghai, and go to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall. Whew!
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Dave Dowding
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Malcolm the Meerkat?
I came on here, expecting to find photos of Malcolm posing in various places and only find pictures of you, how disappointing!! Hope your visa thing goes well (I would have no idea!). Dave