visa lording, the final chapter

As I've mentioned again and again, my school is shady and unorganized. I had told my VP about my holiday in the beginning of May and sent her the dates mid May, via email. She never got back to me about whether or not she had any problems with them so whatever, I booked my ticket.

Then, the day before I was supposed to leave, she sent me the schedule for the coming week, and I was all over it. I reminded her that I would be gone, and asked her if my school owner wanted me to just go to Hong Kong (to get my visa) from Laos, since they're so close. Otherwise I would be coming back to Changchun just to turn around and fly right back to Hong Kong (he has promised to get my visa by July 10th, right at the end of my holiday). No answer. My plan was to pack up all my stuff and be ready to just go right to Xiamen if he flaked on getting my visa this time.

The first I heard from my school about my holiday, visa or anything was ten minutes before boarding my flight to Siem Reap. My school owner called me and said, "So I hear you're going on holiday..." He asked why he hadn't known, and I reminded him that he had told me to coordinate all holidays through the VP. So he called her and then called me back to say she had no idea that I was going either. Ugh.

Eventually, after much back and forth, I got him to agree to meet me in Hong Kong, so I would go straight from Vientiane, to get my visa.

My delayed flight out of Vientiane really messed up my whole traveling plan there. I was supposed to take a 2pm flight from Vientiane, Laos to Kunming, China and then grab a connection from Kunming to Shenzhen, where I could then just take an hour bus into Hong Kong. Sounds complicated, right?! now add a delay in there...

The delay meant that I missed my connection in Kunming; I arrived there at 3am instead of 5pm and slept in a hotel the airline put me up in for an hour and a half before catching my new flight out that next morning. I finally got into Hong Kong and went straight to the visa office, I arrived around 2pm instead of 10am. I was supposed to fly out of Shenzhen early the next afternoon, but visas take 24 hours to process, so that plan was out the window as well.

I stayed in a hotel in Hong Kong, got my visa the next day, got a bus into Shenzhen and was met by a friend of my school's owner. She was basically my babysitter for the evening in Shenzhen, she took me to dinner and a movie and I stayed in her apartment. She sent me on my way back to Changchun the next morning.

I was really excited to finally be legal until another crappy reality hit me. My contract with my school is over August 4th and I had planned to travel outside of China during the month of August. My new Z visa was valid for a single entry into China, so once I left Hong Kong and came back into China with it, that was it. I was HOPING I would be able to go to the local police station and add entries, but luckily, I have since discovered that another piece of paperwork, my Residence Permit, will allow me back in later. I am so glad that bs is all over, I'm legal, and I never have to go through that big of a hassle for it again!

Pakse/Vientiane (days 13-14)

The next day was a traveling day. I was flying out of Vientiane, Laos the day after, and that was a solid 12ish hours away. We took a three hour bus to Pakse, Laos and hung out there for a about five hours before catching the next bus to Vientiane. Pakse really didn't have a whole lot going for it. We mostly aimlessly wandered with another guy we had seen around Don Det that was also on our bus.

The gold thing on the mountain is a crazy huge Buddha.

Wild boar!

Our bus from Pakse to Vientiane was a sleeper bus with double beds that we rode overnight. Each bed had two "seats", so if you were traveling alone (like our friend), you were going to end up sleeping in the same bed as a stranger. Like all the buses, the roads and drivers were completely nuts and unsafe, so if we hadn't had my sleeping pills it would have been a really long night.

We arrived in Vientiane at 7am and went to our hotel to take a nap before showering and sending me off on my 2pm flight. We got to the airport an hour early and were told my flight was delayed at least six hours, so we had some time to play in Vientiane. We got ridiculously massages, wandered around the riverfront market and had an amazing Italian dinner before I left. All said and done my flight was delayed nine hours, and it made for a great last day.