Surprise holiday in China

So, I find myself unexpectedly sitting in Brett’s house (many of you will know him) in Tianjin. I thought I’d post a short update on the blog despite not being able to upload any pictures yet. How did I end up here instead of in Bishkek, you may wonder?

Well, just over two weeks ago, I left Bishkek for a few days in K.shg.r (Xin.ji.ang province of China) with two girls, one of whom I teach in Bishkek - I was their adult chaperone. Their family spent many years working in K.shg.r. We had a good time and the older girl was able to say goodbye to her home and her childhood friends, since she's going to college in the States soon.

Because of the recent unr.st, there were s.ld.rs on every street corner and we would often be passed by convoys of a.r.m.y trucks with s.ld.rs pointing g.ns with b.yonets on the ends at us as they passed (probably not intentionally - they were just staring because we were some of the few foreigners in the city at the time).

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the s.l.drs and one time when I tried to get a picture of a famous m.sque, next to which happened to be an encampment of s.l.drs, a policeman immediately forbade it and ‘escorted’ us down to another part of the old city, making sure that we were well and truly not turning back before leaving us alone.

I do, however, have some pictures of the city which happen to have the tail end of some trucks in them. Will post these when I return to Bishkek.

On our way back to Bishkek, I was told that I couldn't enter Kyrgyzstan because my one month visa was single-entry only, and that had been used up when I got it at the airport. So I got to experience the joys of trying to get into the neighbouring country of Kyrgyzstan from China.

Unlike when you fly to Bishkek from, say, Australia, China does not allow you to board a plane without a visa, and in order to get a non-tourist visa, you have to jump through a number of bureaucratic hoops. It was near-impossible to jump through such hoops while in Xin.ji.ang province, because they currently have no internet and no ability to call anyone outside of China, so I flew to Beijing.

After a lot of effort from numerous people, two 9 hour round trips north to Beijing, and at least 10 mosquito bites from waiting in the Kyrgyz Embassy, I think I have managed to convince the Beijing Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic to give me a one month business visa. As such, I should be able to fly back to Bishkek two and a half weeks after I originally planned to be back.

I think you could say I’ve been having an adventurous summer. Will post photos when I’m back in Bishkek.