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07.10.09
Today I'm going to try and extend my visa, apparently Shangri-la is the place to get it done. It should be more or less on the spot, as opposed to other places which can take 3-5 days. I'm camped outside the office at 9am and pick up my forms and am told to come back in the afternoon to get it finalised after they have done their checks. Alan left early in the morning, leaving me, Michel and Ilya to go for a wander, but Ilya isn't ready so it's just my bearded Latin frie
nd, we have a walk around the Gompa overlooking the old town with it's colossal prayer wheel, definitely built for the tourist industry and then rendezvous with Ilya for a BBQ skewer lunch. The afternoon sees my visa extension processed at the speed of light and I walk away with another months stay in China and only 16 quid lighter (Much better than the 100+ it cost me to get it in the UK)
The development of the day happens when I check my email in the evening and find that I have a message from Procter and Gamble about my start date and my brand. To my humongous surprise and colossal shock, my start date isn't next year around February or March like I thought it was, but is in fact now on the 1st December, with my brand Salon Professional. That puts a massive spanner in the works as I don't want come back to the UK at the end of November for literally two days and then head straight over to Geneva in December. My Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand mission now needs some serious thought and planning as I don't have time to complete it all. I have around 3 or 4 weeks or travelling left, time to get some planning on the go and decide my next steps.
06.10.09Today we leave Sichuan and enter Yunnan province on our Shangri
-la bound bus which leaves Daocheng bus station at 6am and we have to board at 5.30am, so it's a viciously early wake up and get ready. We depart still in the dead of the night and get to watch the su
nrise over the mountains and then some spectacular natural highlights, including a sea of clouds settled in a valley beneath the road and Yunanese mountains that look like they are right out of some sort of National Geographic film. The driver makes s
tops at some picturesque sights and some that just seem plain pointless, but all in all it is a fantastic journey that racks up a very healthy 12 hours sitting on small public bus. Luckily I have my mp3 player and headphones to keep me entertained with the latest downloaded dance albums and my mandarin lessons, Michel however informs me that he is starting to go mad from the same 3 Tibetian danc
e songs, which have been on repeat for about 8 hours. I listen for about 30 mins and sure enough he is right, the same three songs are on a pulsating repeat... back to Hed Kandi it is.We pull into Shangri-la at about 6pm and hunt out our various residences. I have booked a room in a hostel in the Old town of Shangri-la, while Alan, Michel and Ilya are going to where Alan's girlfriend is staying in a hotel in the new town. It's more or less the same as my place has lots of character, is an old building and is in a very interesting part of town, but I share with 3 other people; on the other hand they have a modern en suite hotel room which has two beds, so they just pair up. Comfort vs. location and character, always go with the location and character.
Today I'm going to try and extend my visa, apparently Shangri-la is the place to get it done. It should be more or less on the spot, as opposed to other places which can take 3-5 days. I'm camped outside the office at 9am and pick up my forms and am told to come back in the afternoon to get it finalised after they have done their checks. Alan left early in the morning, leaving me, Michel and Ilya to go for a wander, but Ilya isn't ready so it's just my bearded Latin frie
nd, we have a walk around the Gompa overlooking the old town with it's colossal prayer wheel, definitely built for the tourist industry and then rendezvous with Ilya for a BBQ skewer lunch. The afternoon sees my visa extension processed at the speed of light and I walk away with another months stay in China and only 16 quid lighter (Much better than the 100+ it cost me to get it in the UK)
