All I wanted to do was get a Mongolian Visa and buy a train ticket to Mongolia. Simple one would think. Except it took me an entire day to arrange.
A quick trip to the Mongolian Embassy, and then it was off to the station to buy a ticket. Except you can't buy tickets to Mongolia at the train station. Any where else – no worries. Mongolia – no way.
I was given the name of the place that sold the tickets, but no one could tell me how to get there or even where it was, so it took me an age to find it, and after queuing for a while managed to buy a ticket.
The next challenge was to pay for the visa, which – I was told – needed a trip to any Bank Of China where I could pay in the money and get a receipt. So I headed off to the main shopping street so I could pay my debt to Mongolia and pop into Starbucks afterwards in preparation for some site seeing in the afternoon.
So I walk into the Bank Of China branch, get a ticket and sit waiting. And finally – after just over an hour – was told I could only pay in the money at the Head Office.
Strangely – no one actually knew where the Head Office was – other than the name of the nearest metro station. So I set off to find the Head Office, and after a lot of trailing around finally found it.
And what a place. It's exactly what a Financial Services Head Office should look like: a huge atrium with what I can only describe as a lake with mock Karst Formations in, and everything made of marble. It's the kind of building you'd be proud to work in.
Having walked around for a few minutes I finally found the branch inside, who told me that there was no way I could pay in the money there, and that I had to go to a specific branch. Of course – the guy couldn't tell me where it was – other than the name of the metro station...so rather frustrated I set off to try and find it.
It was tucked away about 10 minutes walk from the metro, and when I finally found it, I got a ticket and joined the queue.
It felt exactly like being stuck in the film Brazil...
One thing you notice about China is every job seems to require between two and five people to complete it. Seriously. I've even seen five men changing a light bulb (and I'm not joking). One to hold the ladder, one to turn the bulb, and three watching. And the same was true in the bank.
There were two people serving, and five other people hanging around doing...nothing...which is why it took one and a half hours to finally pay in my money and get the receipt.
I'd not eaten all day, so a trip out to the weird food market with Brittny was a welcome end to the day.
One thing about getting a Mongolian visa is that the same day service (which you pay extra for), actually means you pick up the visa the next day, and after a late start, Brittny and I headed out to see the Olympic village. Except there was a huge thunderstorm, so ended we up wandering around H&M until it stopped.
I've not been in a clothes shop since I set off, and there was something therapeutic as doing something as mundane as wander around looking at stuff. Amazing what you miss...
After the worst of the rain had eased off, we headed off on the metro for the ride to the Olympic Park. And what a place. There are some amazing iconic buildings here, although the area does have a derelict unused air about it. And the smog was really really bad, as you can see in these pics:
The birds nest stadium:
And the swimming pool:
And then it was off to the Mongolian Embassy to pick up my passport, complete with shiny new stick in full page Mongolian Visa. And a quick graze at the street food market, and it was an earlyish night ready for the long train journey to Mongolia.
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