Namaste!

I am so absolutely excited, tonight we fly to Hong Kong and by the weekend will be on mainland China - I am finally living a dream of mine :-)

The last few days have been extremely busy, we have been running around Delhi preparing everything for China. There is much conflicting information out there and for a while we thought that we may not be able to get K enough time on her visa for us to even get to Tibet. We were going to apply in Hong Kong – hence our flight there, however we found out that it was possible to go to the Chinese embassy in Delhi to arrange it. This was great, it allowed us to try and get the visa prior to our departure and if there were issues then we still had time to adapt our plans.

We awoke very early on Monday morning so that we could get to the embassy for 9am. The restaurant at our guesthouse was not yet serving breakfast so we decided to leave even earlier and to try and find some food en route. This was a blessing in disguise because after riding for 15 minutes (2 up on K’s bike) we got a rear wheel puncture. We were stuck on the ring road with no obvious signs of a tyre wallah. After stopping a passerby we found that there was a tyre wallah hidden away no more than 30 metres away from us on a side path to a small park. Great! We found him!

He removed the innertube only to find that the valve had blown out thus it was rendered irreparable. Eek! His English for the most part was nonexistent but we managed to communicate with him using pen and paper and discovered that he could go and get a tube nearby. Excellent! We gave him 200 rupees and he disappeared on a borrowed bicycle, meanwhile we patiently awaited his return. We entertained ourselves by watching people passing by in the street. We were near a chai wallah, he was sat with his back against some metal railings on a stone slab as though it was his throne. With an air of confidence he made beverages on his small temporary stove and was visited by the homeless, businessmen and police alike. There was a group of men squatting on the floor near to us, they gathered quickly, shared a chillum and then disappeared quite rapidly, the only trace of them left was a scattering of small seeds that they had left behind. Hawkers sold pan, purchasers squatted and tore open pan packets with their teeth followed by the customary tap of the packet with a finger as they emptied it’s contents into their hand before rubbing it and flinging it into their mouth. Cows ran in the rush hour traffic, a man herded his goats. People ran and jumped onto and off of buses that did not stop at the bus stops. Horns beeped, traffic weaved and more chai was sold. We finally decided to get chai from the wallah after figuring that it would be safe having watched for how long the tea boiled and that he could serve it to us in plastic cups (it is not always the tea itself that is a concern, it is the method of cleaning the serving glass that is an issue, we have seen them rinsed in water drawn from the dirtiest of places!). K watched the wallah crush fresh ginger and he added it to the chai along with some sugar, this was then strained after it had been boiled for a while and we were served with the most amazing masala chai :-)

Now time was pushing on…

we waited...

...and we waited…

An hour had now gone by, it was almost nine and we were not going to get there in time for the opening, we did not know how large the queues would be or how complicated the process was and we were now getting concerned. We toyed with the idea of sending me off in a taxi however it was rush hour and even the auto rickshaws were all occupied. Finally another two wheeler rider pulled up with a puncture. After talking to some bystanders he informed us that all of the shops were closed and the wallah should return within 15 minutes. Phew – at least we now knew what was going on. He did arrive and we were soon on our way after he did a quick tube replacement... :-)

We headed to south Delhi where all of the embassies are located. This was a much nicer part of Delhi, strips of grass lining the roads were decorated with blooming flowers, incredibly fragrant and so unlike the nauseating smells that we are used to here. There were many Ambassador cars on the roads with tinted windows and decked with sirens, the number plates informing us that they were on Government duty. The bricked walkways were used by pedestrians and not costermongers or speeding vehicles. There was tight security everywhere, there were police with automatic weapons, razor wire, road blocks and lookout posts.

We found the Chinese embassy. Surprisingly it was rather sedate inside, the process was easy and we requested for our passport collection on the same day (at a slightly extra cost). We then had to go and get a bankers draft from a nearby bank and returned to pay for our visas. On return we discovered that we had to come back at 4.30pm, this was no problem but it did mean that we had to spend the day being anxious about the applications being successful - would we apply for 90 day visas and they only give us 30 days? This was a real possibility - when we applied for our Indian visas we asked for a year and they only gave us 6 months.

We spent the day running around Connaught place and completing some less important tasks. We also went for a sedate walk in the beautiful Lodi Gardens and sat in the shade reading our books.

We returned to the embassy slightly earlier than required to find a small group of people there. The doors were still locked.

Half an hour past and the doors were still locked.

People would occasionally bang on the door but there was no response.

Finally - a small hatch opened and we could see the eyes and nose of a security guard. Everybody rushed to the door and passed through their receipts. It was unbelievable that this was the process. K passed ours through, the hatch slid shut and we had to wait. Ten minutes passed and finally the guard opened the hatch again and slipped the passports out. We opened ours and we had the exact visa’s that we needed, only – K’s had an error! Her date of birth was incorrect on the visa. Knowing how meticulous the Chinese authorities are, we were concerned. We could not get into the embassy to get rectification and would have to wait until the next morning.

The next morning we returned, K was told that she would have to come back later, at 4pm and must not be late. This was incredibly inconvienient because we still had to put our motorbikes into storage but we needed to keep them so that we could get to the embassy, time was pressing. We spent another day busying ourselves with packing etc. As we left Majnu ka Tilla to head south back to the embassy the sky opened up and it heavily poured with rain. We were soaked through and we arrived exceptionally soggy. Again we had to play the waiting game at the door. I have to admit that I was really nervous, we were assured that K could get a 90 day visa at least but I was really worried in case there were any other errors or that it was not ready. We were to fly the next day and I was on the verge of biting my nails but did my best to hide this because I did not want to add to the tension.

The hatched opened 15 minutes later, the slip was passed through and the guard returned promptly. K opened her visa and it was……… PERFECT! :-):-)

Ahhhh, we are so happy, now we can have some fun in Hong Kong and not worry about getting our visas. There is a film festival there, so we shall try and catch some movies as well as do some sight seeing. :-) :-)

Last night after we had completed all of our tasks we went to Connaught place for a nice meal and a beer in order to celebrate the end of part one. It was our most expensive meal yet but it was fantastic (naturally we chose Indian food and Kingfisher beer) We reminisced over everything that we have been through together - the highs as well as the lows.

We will miss the world cup cricket finale (or the War in the Windies as it is called by the Hindustan Times) which is a shame because it is interesting to see how excited people are. We have seen many impromptu cricket games around India but more so in the last week.

Thanks for reading.