Our first free day in Beijing. We had 2 goals today! First, to submit our application to the Mongolian embassy for a visa, and second to post our camping stuff back to Canada. Easy? Not so easy! We set off early for the Mongolian Embasy; walked towards the subway (about 25 minutes); had breakfast on the way; got the subway to the Embassy District; found our way to the Mongolian Embassy; handed in our application; all easy! The subway is fabulous! Clean, air/con, comfy, smooth, silent, high-teck! In particular we loved the ad videos on the tunnel walls that flashed images to your brain as you flew by in the train; and we loved the electronic map that lit up the subway stop you were arriving at - in addition to an audio route info and to a visual route info. At the Embassy, we received a "ticket" for the visa costs, Y990 for both, which we had to take to The Bank of China for pyament. So we decided to head back to our hotel, regroup, and find a bank. All easy! Not so! The first branch of the bank couldn't accept payment; the second branch couldn't accept payment; and we were directed to go to the Head Office, which we did, and they couldn't accept payment and directed us back to a branch in the Embassy District. So, by that time we were exhausted, disappointed, and frustrated with the embassy for not telling us that we had to go to one particular branch of the Bank of China to make payment. Now it was time to visit a post ofice to find out about mailing our stuff, so we took a bus back to the road the post office was on and walked and walked to the PO; got all the info and arrived back at the hotel about 5 pm; collapsed in a small restaurant opposite the hotel and downed a cold beer and lunch; made a quick visit to the Internet to read email. Then it was back to the hotel to meet 4 of our group (John, Emily, Mike and Rachel) at 6:30 pm to go and meet Leon and Nat who were stayin at hostel near Tianamen Sq. for drinks and dinner.
When we checked email, I had an email from Alanna which read: " Guess who decided to jump out of the woods while I was sitting on the deck reading? Philthy, starving (uber skinny), and talking like crazy....but in-the-flesh (not my head)real...and breathing (had to pick her up to make sure)...Amazing. Wonder where she has been all this time??!! "
Chloe!!! So, as you can imagine, we are over the moon!! The little rascal. I can't imagine what must have happened to her. Perhaps she was trapped somewhere, was frightened by our grass cutting crew and ran away and got lost and just found her way back. I guess as Ray says, we will never know. We are just so happy to have her back. The way I have reasoned it is that it is a "gift" for the stance I took re the poor kitten in the fish pool! You never know!!!
We had a great evening with everyone in the Leo Hostel. It was fun geting there too. The street in front of the hostel was completely dug up and the few parts of what was left of the pavement (side-walk) was about 3 feet above the level of the excavated road - we litterally walked over planks, narrow shelves, wooden boards, dirt, boulders, etc.in order to get there. As usual Ray and I left around 11 am and the others around 2 am. As we walked out to catch a cab the roads were deserted and moments after were closed behind us. Can you believe that in all of this we actually met Ant, Adam, Stormi and Olivia trying to make their way to the hostel.
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