Bloody visas

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When I say bloody, I don't literally mean covered in blood, but rather WhatTheHellWasIThinkingGettingAnotherThirdWorldVisa!!!!?!??!!?!

Sorry if that offends (should I have said "developing country" perhaps?).

Another day, another attempt at getting our Indian visas. Yesterday, we darted all around the city of Chiang Mai - something like a scene from Indiana Jones, on the path of lost treasure.... only infinitely more dull. Seems the Indian Embassy had changed location, quite a few times, and hadn't bothered to update the website. In the area of the first one, fortunately we found an affable German gentleman called Claus, to assist us in our quest (he made a few phone calls), at the site of the second, fortunately we had possibly the ONLY non-swindling Tuk Tuk driver in Chiang Mai, who, after finding it wasn't there, did some necessary detective work, to discover where it currently was.

Finally at the spot, after miles of racing around, we found ourselves walking toward the gate of the embassy.... only to find a few Indians milling around, one looking very concerned as I walked in, and hurriedly pointed at a sign that indicated that the embassy was closed for the day. I should have known (I had had a sinking feeling) - Indians have a LOT of holidays, to celebrate various blue three-headed, elephant/cow/monkey gods. To be fair, it is hard, when you only have 365 days in a year, to accommodate all of the Hindu gods.

But, I digress. No visa, then. So... today, bright and early, we rented a motorcycle... to save on extortionate taxi and tuk-tuk fares. Great idea, only none of the maps here, are accurate. Also, we remembered we needed passport sized photos. To be honest, it felt like a miracle that we actually found the place.

Marvelous.

And then on entry, we discovered that Americans had to pay way more than anyone else for a visa. I'm still gulping in disbelief, as would be the appropriate thing to do in a situation such as this.

Woman at the embassy (who was Thai) was pretty snooty with us, not very helpful, and we found out the earliest the visas would be done, is Tuesday. B*llocks (sorry). So... as our flight FROM BANGKOK is Thursday, that means an overnight train on Tuesday night. This time bottom bunks... I am not a glutton for punishment.... oh, and we're in carriage 8 or 10 (I forget which), hopefully meaning that the swinging around will be at a minimum.

So, anyway. After this beauteous excursion, I coerced Aleko into taking us somewhere to get western food. Yes, it didn't take me long to get sick of Thai food. I guess I'm not that cultured. Believe me, I LOVE Thai green curry, etc. etc. etc. but there is only so much sweet coconut one can take in their meals.

We had tuna mayo sarnies and chips (fries). Mmmm!

Then a lie-down, and an interview with the British geezer at the Chinese English School. Not entirely sure what to make of it. I said "Um" a few too many times, which I know is not a positive thing. Apparently we will find out tomorrow. If accepted, we will need to be in Hong Kong around 6 January, to get our visas.

I love Hong Kong.

It had been such a long time since I'd interviewed.... and I've never been great at interviews, hence using temporary agencies. He asked a lot of irritating things like "tell me about an instance where you had a problem within the teaching arena, and how you fixed it". I HATE that kind of crap. I mumbled something about this teacher's pet, and having to treat everyone fairly, and not show more attention to her, even though she obviously expected it/was used to it, due to her looks and intelligence. He seemed OK with the answer. Really hard to gage. I feel Aleko always comes across better than I do... chiefly because he can always nonchalantly throw in the ol' chestnut about running a business, which I cannot (unless you count the brief period in which Anna and I ran our own production company... for *ahem* technology class *ahem* called Belle Productions, Ltd. I know what you're thinking: Ground-breaking).

And so, back to the subject at hand. Teaching. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. If we are denied this opportunity, then I guess it means Europe, after a month or two in India. Granted, winter isn't the best time to land on those shores, but beggars cannot be choosers.

We still have the motorcycle for tomorrow, so we hope to visit the zoo, or drive up a mountain to a temple... not because either of us are overly enthused about the temple (when you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all), but apparently there's a spectacular view. Other than that, Chiang Mai just seems to offer a lot of coffee shops and bars.

We are looking forward to India.

And now I'm just rambling, so I'll stop. Reading between the lines, I'm sure you can gage that it isn't exactly riveting here... but then many places aren't, when you're counting the pennies, alas!

Will write soon, and keep you updated on the job situation. Hope all is well! xxx

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