Finally started ‘planning’ my first bit of the trip. My original idea was to couchsurf my way from Bejing to Moscow but that was harder than I expected… Bejing counts 22 million inhabitants so it was hard to get a good base to make my way around in Bejing without having to use lots of taxi’s and public transport… so I decided to go for a cheap tiny room in a hostel but it has a bed, toilet and shower and it’s close to the forbidden city and that’s all I need 🙂

In an earlier blog I said getting all the right paperwork etc for visa’s can get a bit frustrating from time to time…
There are a lot if differences between different embassies of different countries.
First of was the embassy of Mongolia. It was a tiny office with a poster of Ghengis Kahn on the wall and my visa was taken care of within 2 minutes. I got my hopes up that getting all my visa’s would go that easy… that hope got crumbled pretty quick 😦

Next up was my Russian visa. The embassy looked old, like I stepped 50 years back in time. Furniture looked like they wouldn’t even sell it at a 2nd hand store. The people who worked at the embassy did speak Russian and a little bit of English. There we’re about 50 people in line to get their things done but the clock hit 12 and the lady at the office window closed up (guess she had her lunch break and there was nobody to replace her during lunch)
After an hour of waiting the lady came back to help all the people in line. Although I gathered a lot of paperwork to get my visa it still wasn’t enough to get it…
Pretty disappointed I drove back home and started searching the internet for company’s that helped people to get a Russian visa. After speaking to them on the phone they were willing to help me for a small price of course but ah well. I couldn’t do it myself and I really want to see Russia… another visa sorted 🙂

Last visa I really need is China. Got the  address of the embassy of google so let’s go!!
When I got there it looked so different from the other 2 embassies I’ve been. Big beautiful building with lots of Chinese flags so I was definitely at the right place. After parking between a nice Bentley and Aston Martin I walked in. I thought it was kind of strange that I actually had to walk through an X-ray machine and that there were a few guards standing a bit further in this huge hall. Guess you can’t have enough security… Everything was so shiny but I had no clue where to go.. One of the security guards walked up to me and asked what I was looking for so I explained to him what I was there for. He laughed a little bit and said to me that this building was only for diplomats and I was at the wrong address. He gave me the right adress and escorted me out of the building.. From there it got pretty easy and had my Chinese visa pretty fast 🙂

Almost ready to go now. Just closing the last things at work and selling the last stuff I own. Anything I want to keep is moved to my parents and best friends house so they can hold on to it untill I get back.
Saturday is my last day at work and the monday after I’m moving out of my little apartment. The last few days in Holland I’ll be staying at the 5 star resort stayokay van Eck (aka my parents)

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