Wednesday, August 26, 2015

d16 Huge visa issues

There were a few missions I had to accomplish in Hong Kong:
   1 - Get a 30 day visa for China
   2 - Go shopping for more items I needed for my bike (saddle and handlebar bag at the top of the list.
   3 - Go sight seeing

I got the disappointing news that the maximum visa as a South African national I was eligible for is a fifteen day visa.

15 days!!!

Immediately I though of plan B:
 - Go back into China to fetch bike
 - Cycle to Hong Kong 
 - Fly to another South East Asian country to get a 30 day Chinese visa in one of thos countries

Flying is against my travel philosophy. I think one should travel overland so as not to miss any opportunity and to admire the landscape. But when backed into a corner and left no options what can we do but fly.

Yes, I did look into taking a cargo ship from Hong Kong but that is way out of my travel budget. Gone are the days of the hap-hazard traveller being able to jump on the next outbound ship.

Thanks to Chenning, Chris and Meggy for sending me the relevant documents I needed to apply for the 15 day Chinese visa. Who knew they would need their old passport to apply for a visa?

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