We defend our Right to change our minds!!!!!

 

Initially, we had planned to spend the month of September in Blighty (England), but the closer we got to the date, the more we realized just how much English prices had gone up. The Pound had jumped to $2.05 Cdn.

and given the price of car rental, gas prices, hotel charges, and food costs, we figured that it was just a little too much to spend 34 days there. (we note that as of Sept 9th the pound is now at $1.87 cdn) To go for a lesser time was not cost effective either, so reluctantly we cancelled our reservations. Then fate entered the scene.

We have belonged to Princess Cruises last Minute Club for many years. This is how we got to sail around South America and also around India and the Far East so cheaply. Right after we cancelled the English dream, we got an email advertising the repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Beijing via Alaska, Russia, Korea, Japan and China. We have been wanting to do this cruise for a number of years but it has always been overbooked. Now, we could get on board at one heck of a reduction for the 22 day voyage.

Leaving Vancouver by boat means only one airplane flight -- this on its own means an awful lot to us as flying today has been reduced to sheer "survival". The whole lousy experience is particularly unappetizing. But, using our frequent flyer points, we could book the return flight from Beijing in Business Class. This would make the flight almost bearable -- we hope!. So, a different direction, with different experiences, a whole lot less money; we are off ...September 13th to October 15th.

On our last trip to India, we booked a private tour for Elsie and me through a travel agent here in North Vancouver. A quick call to her and "sure, I can do in China the same tour arrangements I did in India for you. The result ... a private tour with guide etc. for just Elsie and me. If it is half as good as the India one, we will be really pleased.

One thing I have to mention here is the China Visa thing. Over the years, Elsie and I have been fortunate to visit many different out-of-the-main-tourist route countries. As a matter of fact, our Passports have still a year to run, and we are running out of blank pages on which to put more visas, stamps etc. I mention this only to say that getting a tourist visa is not a new experience for us. ----- But China is certainly different!!!!!

To acquire a China visa, you have to go down to the office on Broadway and bring all the documents you have received from your travel agent. Then, you give them to the person, usually seated behind a glass safety partition, who stamps every piece of paper that could stand a stamp, etc. and then gives you a receipt for your passports so you can pick them up in several days. Well, that is what happened in the China office .... almost.

We grab all the documents we have from the Travel Agent and head down there about 10:30 AM. It was packed with about 60 people all waiting for Visas. But there were 3 windows open so we thought that it would proceed fairly quickly. But, things were moving at best ... Glacially!!!

We took stock of our surroundings. There seemed to be an almost palpable angry feeling emanating from most of the people in the room.

We all had taken a number when we arrived and were waiting until our number was called. But, somehow, people were just walking in from the street and walking straight up to the Visa Officer sitting behind the glass. They were immediately helped. No waiting for these people!!! Say what .... I ask Elsie???? I go and ask the rent-a-security person at the front door to find what is going on. "Oh, these people were here before, and they were told to come back as they did not have all the correct documents the first time". "They have already waited in line, and they are allowed to butt in".

In a state of shock, I return to my seat.

Sharp at 12:00 one window closes permanently leaving 2 to serve this huge number.

I then notice that some people are actually travel agents, and they have anywhere from 10 to 30 visa applications to be processed. They all have numbers lower than mine. They come in early in the morning, get a number, go back to the office, and have someone call them to tell them when it is close to their turn. Each one of these clowns can take well over 1/2 hour at the window. By 1:00 when the place is supposed to close, we are still waiting. I had noticed that the couple sitting in front of us had the next higher number than we had ... so they were after us. The next thing I see is that they are pushing up to a window ... I am sorry to say that I then lost it!!!!

After I ran to that window and the couple butting in decided that perhaps it would be a safer thing to jump back several feet, they decided it was our turn. Elsie pushes all the documents that the Travel Agent gave us, and who had assured us that this is all we would require, to the clerk. The face on the other side of the glass, after a very cursory look, tells us that we do not have what is required. It was very hard to understand just what she was saying, but it was too late .... I had had it!!!!!

After getting Elsie's cell phone and calling that travel agent ... whom I'm sad to say now has another orifice from which to expel waste ... we leave. It is now almost 3:00. Five hours of our lives up in very frustrated smoke. The travel agent says that he could not understand what was happening, but would immediately courier to us everything we could possible ever need to appease the rapacious maw of China Immigration Bureaucrats. This is just the first screw up by this Company!

Elsie, being the very clever patient lady she is, thought that we had better wait several weeks before going back to that train wreck. I think she was worried that I might stroke out in the Visa office if we returned too soon.

I don't know about you, but I simply can not butt in front of people. Call it upbringing, manners stupidity, or what have you, I just can not do it. So, the next time we get there at 9:30 there are even more people waiting. We get a number, and sit down. Suffice it to say, that we left just after 2:30, but we had all the documents that cypher behind the glass could ever want. Stamp .... stamp .... glance at other documents ... stamp ...stamp ... were we getting somewhere?? YES ... we made it. We just had to return in 6 days to get our Visa Included Passports returned.

We did this and all is now well .... except for my stress level... China claims to be an ancient civilization, but if this is any example ... they are indeed ancient but as for civilized .... well ....

The whole process took well over 12 hours to complete

If you ever decide to go to China .... make it part of the deal that the Agent gets the Visa ... You'll live longer ....