At home to Mr F*** up...

Yes, you guessed it, another dumb-arsed visa error and we are in China. Having applied for our Chinese visa in London prior to leaving in February, the three month entry period ended 5 days before we left Mongolia (doh). We read 'entry before 26.5.07' as 'no entry before 26.5.07' so we were unceremoniously dragged off the train (albeit by a very sweet smiley Chinese immigration official) as everyone else was motored into the 'bogey changing shed' (This has nothing whatsoever to do with anything nasal; Chinese railways have a different gauge to Russia/Mongolia so the wheels (bogeys in the jargon) have to be changed when you cross the border). We were gutted to miss this no doubt thrilling train-spotters wet dream...

A journey in a minibus through the backstreets of Erlian, the Chinese border town, with half a dozen officers as escort was followed by an hour lingering in a bleak immigration office with an expectorant official. He tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to clear some blockage in the back of his throat, and we were given 'special permit to entry' for 72 hours, branded 'incompetent foreigners' and allowed back on the train...whilst the station tannoy blasted out a strangely Chinese operatic version of Rod Stewarts 'Sailing' (which made Fi feel at home at least).

Just been to the Public Security Bureau in Beijing (Official name is 'Office of the Entry:Exit Visa Administration of the Public Security Bureau of the Municipality of Beijing'...try saying that in one breath) to get new visas so we are now sorted if left feeling we are doing a convincing impression of total muppets when it comes to getting across borders.

Am also having difficulty logging onto this blog for some weird possible Chinese censorship reasons. I can log onto my host site www.blogger.com and post content but I cannot get to view the blog itself www.lowcarbontravel.com at all. The connection keeps timing out (this is what happens with all 'subversive' websites, such as that bastion of scurrilous insurgent propaganda the, er, BBC). So, is low carbon travel seen as potentially destabilising to the Chinese regime? Who knows? But they now have my passport so I'm going to behave myself very carefully whilst in China.

; )