Shanghai and Beijing 18-23 May

We arrived in Shanghai early morning and with no sleep from last night. We started finding guest house and then we went straight to the Russian Consular in hope to get visa. We got there and the first thing they office lady did was looking at our Chinese visa and say sorry. You need to have Chinese residency to get Russian visa here. We

 did not give up and talked to the guy over the visa section for some time and the best he could offer us was 10 day transit visa. He also said the only hope he could see for us would be getting help from the Icelandic embassy to make a “deal with the Russian embassy in Beijing. Angry and pissed off we went back to the hostel and called the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. The told us the only thing they could offer us was writing a letter to the Russian embassy asking them to process our application quick and positive. They also said this was normally enough to get the visa. Happy with that news we took a nap and decided to leave Shanghai ASAP and go to Beijing. We went to see the Oriental Perl tower that night.

 It is so high and beautiful. It is apparently the third highest tower in the world. Next day we had fight in the afternoon so we went to the Ocean Aquarium and Science and Technology Museum before we went to the airport. 

Landed with another Chinese airline in Beijing, they are just fine to fly with by the way. We went to a hostel I stayed at last time when I was here last year. The day after we went to see a travel agency, just to see if they had any advice or could help us get the Russian visa. They told us the embassy in Hong Kong was the only in China that did process foreigner. But they thought we would have a good chance with the letter we had. Next day we took the application and the letter we collected from the Icelandic embassy and took it to the Russians. They told us to call them in the afternoon. We spend most of the day waiting and calling them as we always had to call later and then finally 5 PM they told us to come next day at 11 AM. They would then be finished “thinking” about this. Early next morning I got email from the Icelandic embassy that they would deny our request. We went to the embassy at 11 and they said sorry we can not give you visa as the Icelandic embassy in Beijing has the same rules for Russians in China who wants to get Icelandic visa. We went straight to buy a train ticket to Mongolia as we knew there are only two trains a week and the next one was leaving the next day. We got the tickets and went to explore Beijing attractions, such as the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square. 

It is funny that we were not able to access this blogsite in China, they seem to have it blocked there!

Now we have been in Mongolia for three days and really like it. Today the temperature was close to 0 deg and it has been snowing a bit. Last two days we could were shorts and I belief the temperature then was over 25 deg. So crazy!!! We are leaving on a 5 day tour tomorrow where we will ride camels and horses. Stay few nights with nomadic families in there gers. Go to national parks and se the only wild horses in the world and the final day we will spend with eagle hunters. They use eagles to hunt animals, everything up to wolf I was told. The car used is UAZ (rússajeppi).

We have put in new photos from the last days in Thailand and China here. And from the train journey to Mongolia here. 

Take care,

Ingó