In Pursuit of China

It was a long haul back up to Bangkok. First a ferry from Koh Phi Phi, then a minibus to Surat Thani, and then nine-hour bus ride back to the capital. We decided not to take the train, I guess because Chris hadn't slept well on the way down. We settled into our coach, a comfy one complete with blankets, and did the best to get some rest. A few hours in, my knees started to ache, yet another sign that I'm getting too old for this kind of travel. When the bus pulled over for a pit stop at 2 a.m., I stumbled out to stretch my legs. At the stop we were provided with really bad bathrooms (for a price), and food that I wouldn't eat unless I wanted to be pooing in an hour or two (and I didn't). The pit stop was crammed with travelers like us, only everyone seemed wide awake and unaware that it was 2 o'clock in the morning. Chris and I climbed back to the top of our double decker bus and tried to find the most comfortable position to sleep in.

We were awoken at 6 in the morning. The sun had barely come up. Dropped on a busy street (yes there was traffic even that early), we were told that Khao San Road was just around the corner. Taxis were available, and I was tempted to take one (“just around the corner” is vastly open to interpretation in these parts). Many from our bus seemed confused and climbed into taxis, but Chris and I walked with our packs, and after about ten minutes we came to familiar territory. We were back in Backpacker's Paradise.

Remembering the cheaper guesthouses away from KSR, we headed to the back alleys. No one was about this time of the morning and it was good to walk without motorbikes zipping past us. We came across a room with air conditioning for a very good price. This was luxury for us, even if we had to climb some very steep steps up to our floor. We remained in our room for a good deal of our stay in Bangkok.

There was a book shop next to our guesthouse. Prices were quite high, at least I thought so, for books. But if we were going to tackle China, we had to get a guidebook. It cost us £10. I decided to make good use of it and spent the rest of that Sunday studying it. With my notepad out, I planned our itinerary. I worked out train times, prices, side trips, dates and where we would be at any certain time. I had given myself a headache from flipping pages and comparing notes. But at least I felt prepared. We were paying the Chinese embassy a visit in the morning.

The Chinese Embassy

We arose early, as we read that we should be to the embassy by 9 a.m. They were only accepting applications between 9 and 11:30 and we weren't taking any chances, lest we miss that window. Our plan was to take the express boat to the train station, and take the Rapid Transit System from there. We allowed ourselves about two hours.

Something was amiss as we walked towards the pier. Nobody was about. Usually hawkers approached us left and right, but the streets seemed eerily quiet. When we got down to the boat dock, nobody was selling tickets and nobody was waiting around. We should have put 2 and 2 together at that point, but we pressed on, anxious to get to the embassy. We found ourselves a taxi, something we really didn't want to do, as we were watching our money. The whole thing made us nervous.

The RTS to our stop was pretty straight forward, but once we got off we didn't know where to go. Chris only had an address, and addresses are incredibly hard to find in Bangkok. We walked down a street in an unfamiliar part of the city. Hardly anyone was about. We passed by a giant mall, but it looked closed. Was the whole city sleeping in today?

It was getting hotter, and both of us were getting more irritable as we checked for street signs. Finally Chris said that he had found the street, but wasn't 100% sure. It seemed to fit, as we weren't supposed to be walking for more than ten minutes. Down the street we found nothing. We were getting a bit frantic as the time was edging closer to 9:00. Chris then announced that we had the wrong street and we had to retrace our steps. Back on the main street, the temperature was climbing and we were gettting more and more confused and panicky. Why did this have to be so goddamn hard?

We came to the next street sign and it bore no resemblence to the one we wanted. Chris then said we'd go back to the street we were on before and have another look. I wanted to kill someone at this point. But Chris had been right the first time. It was the street, and the embassy was right on the corner. We had missed it the first time around. We felt like idiots, but were relieved that we had finally made it to our destination.

However, no signs of life came from the building. I figured that was because it wasn't open yet. I felt encouraged though, nobody was outside waiting. That meant we'd be the first in. Like Clark Griswold in the parking lot of Wallyworld, sometimes I can really be that stupid.

The time was quarter to nine so we decided to get something to eat and drink from a nearby shop. Juice and pound cake for me. We returned to the embassy and met a lady there at the entrance. She was a nice lady, smiling at us and all. If she thought we were stupid she made no mention of it. She just pointed to the building and said, “Closed. Tomorrow open at 9:00.” We had been hearing this across Bangkok from the first day we arrived. I found it impossible that any place would be closed. I pointed at the sign and told her, “It says open Monday through Friday.” “Yes,” she said. “But today public holiday.” I looked at Chris and he looked at me and I just kind of sank onto a step and began to cry. I couldn't speak, I was so frustrated. All that time and effort we had put into, not to mention the money used for transportation. Taking bites of pound cake and taking sips of juice between my tears, I felt so utterly defeated. But considering what was to come, that defeat was nothing.

The Chinese Embassy—Round 2

The next day we returned, and it was a whole different experience. Bangkok was wide awake and alive with its noisy bustle. We took the express boat as planned, and found ourselves traveling with locals on their way to work. Now that we knew where we were going, we made a beeline for the embassy. And this time it was packed. The lady from the day before recognized us and handed us some applications. We sat down on the floor and filled them out. It was like taking an exam. We knew every answer we gave had to be the right one. No we didn't have the required return ticket, and no we didn't necessarily have accommodation (though we had booked several nights in Shanghai at a hostel just to say that we had a place to stay), but we were going to try our best to woo the officials. After all, China was one of our main destinations. There was no way we were missing it.

We sweated profusely while pouring over our application forms. This really wasn't much fun for us, but to get a Chinese visa we were willing to go through this. Finally we joined the line and were led up to the second floor. There it just got harder. We were given a number, something like 950 and they were only in the early 700s. We had plenty of time to wait in another line and have some girl check over our papers. The news wasn't good as we sat down. We didn't have a return ticket. I told her that we had printed out my bank statement showing we had adequate funds to support us within the country. I asked if that was enough and she shook her head. There were other problems as well and she spent a few good minutes with us, slowly dashing our visa hopes as she flipped through our papers. We weren't the only ones though. There was an American in front of us who refused to believe that they weren't issuing him a visa right there and then. He kept coming back asking questions and the girl was getting irritated with him. She said he needed a business letter or something, he'd have to come back the next day. Nobody around us seemed to have what they needed. We felt somewhat hopeful as she said we needed extra copies of our passports and our hotel reservation. We felt there was still a chance. Our number was still far from being called, so we ran out of the embassy and down the street to a copy shop. There were other travelers in there, apparantly having a similiar experience to us. We then went in search of an internet cafe to print out our hotel reservation. This was costlier than it needed to be, as in our panic we printed out something like 20 pages, where we only needed one. The cafe was unforgiving and charged us a high price for using all their paper. We ran back to the embassy, really sweating now, and waited our turn in an overpacked room.

We made the aquaintance of a Scottish gentleman. He told us that he had never seen the embassy like this. He had gone through the process many times before, but he said this time they were making it harder to obtain a visa. Something about elections coming up and the government getting nervous. People around us were getting turned away left and right. One German man was openly yelling at an official, calling him stupid, making everyone in the room even more tense and nervous. I sat down and heard a coversation behind me about how the government, for whatever reason, can turn masses of people away. I think I was recognizing the situation at this point. I didn't think we were going to get in. I was already thinking of a Plan B. “We'll go to Bali,” I told Chris, maybe as a way of feeling better.

Three hours after arriving at the embassy, we were finally allowed to talk to an official. It was an unsmiling young girl. Still, I thought we could charm her. After all we were free-loving backpackers. After silently looking through our applications, she disappeared into the back, probably to ask her superior if we were worthy to enter their blessed country. Coming back she asked us “Why you no apply in home country? You think it easy to get visa here, but it not easy.” This wasn't good reasoning for me, as we had all the information we required. We were only short our return ticket, and I explained to her that we weren't going to book a ticket unless we had a visa first. Also we had been traveling for three months and couldn't apply from our home country. She looked confused and disappeared into the back again. Chris and I looked at each other knowingly. We were being denied. Indeed when the young lady came back she informed us “Sorry but we cannot give you visa.” I took our applications back through the window and told her “Okay, we'll go somewhere else instead,” thus implying that her country wasn't important to us anyway. We then walked stiffly out of the embassy.

I almost immediately deflated, right there on the street. China had been a huge deal to me. I think out of all the countries we had planned on seeing, China was the one I was looking forward to the most. Yeah I knew that it was going to be challanging. We had read that hardly anyone spoke English, and some areas really were not tourist-oriented. But that's what I wanted! After sitting on beaches and stuff I was ready for some real traveling. Hardcore traveling, none of this cushy stuff we were experiencing in Thailand.

Chris and I sat in a KFC and just stared at each other, almost numb over the experience. We were supposed to be heading to the Monkey Temple later that day; a friend of mine now living in Thailand was supposed to meet us there. It wasn't happening. We were so worn out.

We headed back to our hotel and tried to get our minds over the fact that we weren't heading to China. The way I had planned it we were supposed to be there for the next two months. There was a huge hole in our itinerary now. We thought Malaysia and Bali, maybe Australia. We tried to get ethusiastic about a new direction, but I was still heartbroken. China had been my dream. I had already given up Tibet, and now the rest of China as well.

To make things a whole lot worse, Chris came back to the room after an internet session and informed me that Indian visas were no longer being issued in Kuala Lumpur. There went another one of our plans. This was all devestating to me and I think I cried for about a day. I always knew that travel plans could change at any instant, but never actually believed it. I had thought the travel gods were smiling down on us. Who dare deprive me of my dreams? But I was overreacting. After all, we still had all of Asia before us, and some countries were more than happy to have us visit them and take our money.

We went back to the bookstore we had gotten our China guidebook from and exchanged it for Malaysia and Bali. We planned new itineraries and booked tickets. We had accepted our new plan and were moving on. But we still had our tickets to Hong Kong, so we'd still be getting a taste of China, just a teaser, to make us want more of something we couldn't have.

Leaving Bangkok

Bangkok was losing its charm. There's only so much we could take of the backpacker area. We had eaten at just about every cafe up and down the street, we had walked by the t-shirt hawkers a million times, even the cheap booze was losing its appeal. Towards the end of our stay we started eating street food, which proved to be a winning experience. We watched a lady preparing noodles right in front of us, and we wondered why we hadn't been eating like this all along. It was brilliant. Also I tried sticky rice with mango for the first time. It was heaven, and I've been craving it since. But besides our culinary discoveries, the lights of KSR were beginning to lose their sparkle. Even the blind karoake singer (a guy who wandered up and down KSR with a microphone and a tip box) wasn't as entertaining the eighth time around. I was ready to get out of Bangkok, Thailand even, to experience a completely different scene.

We booked tickets to the airport through some lady. She was advertizing the cheapest price around (which should have been an indicatation of the type of service we'd get). She didn't exhibit the usual Thai pleasantness when it came to customer service, instead she snapped at Chris. Whoa lady, I wanted to tell her, don't be a bitch. Maybe she was hungry or something. She was awfully skinny.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 in the morning, a very inconvenient time, so we decided to spend the night at the airport instead of rising at an ungodly hour. This meant taking a minibus at 11:00 the night before. I had never slept at an airport before, but I was willing to do it. I had slept worse places on this trip so far.

Chris and I waited at our hotel for the minibus to pick us up. I understand how punctuality is not a priority in Thai culture, and 11:00 has to be considered with a give or take time of about half an hour. But when 11:30 came and went we were getting concerned. The lady hadn't seemed the most professional of characters. Perhaps she had given them the wrong hotel to pick us up at. Thankfully her stand was just down the street so I went down to see her while Chris stayed behind. I was worried that her tourist stand might be closed down for the night, but she was still there, only she was asleep, her mouth hung open with a snore. I thought it odd that she was sleeping on the job, but a shop owner next door woke her up for me. She just stared at me, apparently still half asleep. “Our ride hasn't come,” I told her. Instead of responding, she clumsily dug around in her purse for a few minutes. I wondered if she was drunk, she really seemed out of it. She finally found her phone and made a call. The conversation was in Thai so I had no idea what was going on. For a minute I wondered if she had even forgotten I was there. Then she got up and started walking away, completely ignoring me. “Um excuse me,” I said, feeling the bitch in me starting to emerge, “Can we be expecting our ride any time soon?” She kept walking, but she did turn back to address my question. “They left already,” she said. “He say he didn't see you.” I told her we waited outside our hotel since 11:00 and no one had come, but she didn't really want to hear that. She was getting visibly upset. “Now I find you guy to take taxi, but you have to pay more,” she said. And then the bitch made an appearance as I informed her, “We're not going to give you any more money. We paid to take a minibus, not a taxi.” “You pay toll,” she said, and I then told her that I was going back to the hotel to get Chris and the bags, but we weren't going to give her any more money, as none of this was our fault.

If she had been more apologetic I might have been nicer to her, as it was probably the driver's fault, not hers. Still, she was so unprofessional and acting like this was a burden on her, not on us. By the time Chris and I had come back she was almost hysterical saying that the taxi money was coming out of her pocket. We needed to pay toll, we could at least do that. On principle I couldn't understand why we should be out any money, but she was almost in tears, as this was costing her in more ways than it was costing us. Chris, to his credit, tried to calm her down and engage her. She still hadn't apologized. We came to a main street and she found a taxi. After negotiating he agreed to take us. Still we had to cough up the toll. It only came to a few dollars so it wasn't major. In the end we just paid it. We got in the taxi and the lady just looked at us like we’d killed her dog. We gave her a curt goodbye and took off. At that point I was really glad to be leaving Bangkok.

The good news in all of this is that Bangkok airport is fabulous. We couldn't have picked a better airport to stay overnight at. It was unconditioned and sold the cheap 7-eleven style food we needed to wait out the night. We checked in at around 4:00 and entered through security, coming to the best part of the airport. Bangkok airport is relatively new and completely world class. It's comprised of three levels (I think, maybe there were more) and almost like a mall. It's the biggest airport I think I've ever been in. Chris and I came across a lounge area with massive cushy chairs. People were splayed out and sleeping. It was ideal, as the lights were dimmed low. Chris and I plonked down and tried to get an hour of shut-eye before our flight. It was almost a sleepless night, but not terrible. I think we were anxious to get to Hong Kong. After a month in Thailand, we were ready to check another country off our list, even if that country wasn't necessarilly China.