Days 206 - 207: Manila to Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi

Ian and I parted ways in the Kuala Lumpur airport, he flying back to California via Bali and I spending the night in Kuala Lumpur and then heading on to Hanoi. My short stay in Kuala Lumpur was as uneventful as the past few had been; the only thing I should note is that I'd now passed through the city eight times in the past eight months. AirAsia has got to be the best thing that ever happened to KL guesthouses.

I caught a 6:30 flight from KL to Hanoi on Wednesday morning, and my plan was to go directly from the Hanoi airport to the Chinese Embassy, drop my visa application, and then pick up my passport complete with my new visa on Friday afternoon. The usual processing time for Chinese visas is four days, but you can pay extra to have it done in three, and I figured it would be worth it to have it done before the weekend so I could head north sooner.

Things did not work out as planned, to say the least. As soon as I got to the embassy, the guard out front asked me to present my visa application, proof of transportation to and from China, and proof of accommodation within China. I did not have either of the latter two items, nor did I realize they were required. When I looked confused, the guard presented a letter from the Chinese government noting the changes in visa policy, which was effective April 15. I argued with him for a bit, saying I was traveling overland into China and that I couldn't possibly have transportation booked already, and eventually he asked if I had a passport photo (I did) and then let me into the embassy building.

I thought I had made it through the gauntlet. I was wrong. At the visa window, a small Chinese man who couldn't have been older than 30 stared at me with beady little eyes as I passed him my visa application. He looked at it for about ten seconds and then passed it back to me. "Where flight ticket and hotel booking?" he asked in painful English. "I travel overland to China, via Lao Cai," I said. "I buy tickets on the way."

"No, must have tickets for visa," he said, shaking his head in an infuriatingly smug way and motioning for the next person to come to the window. I put up a fight for a few minutes before realizing it was pointless: I was clearly not going to be convincing this guy to take my application. I asked how long the office was open today. "Until 11," he said. I looked at the clock. It was 10:45.

"What time do you open tomorrow?" I asked. He pointed to a handwritten sign that was taped to the window. It read, "Due to holiday, China Embassy will be closed May 1 - 4. Regular business will proceed on May 5."

Perfect. Not only was I not going to be able to submit my application on Wednesday, but I now wouldn't be able to submit it on Thursday or Friday, either. Fuming, I marched out of the building, offering the other foreigners in line a halfhearted "Good luck."

I decided that I would head down to Halong Bay the following morning and return Friday evening; I'd then visit a place called Tam Coc, which wasn't on my original itinerary, on Saturday and Sunday. Then I'd submit my visa application on Monday and see how fast they could get it done for me.

In the meantime, I checked into a hostel and set about figuring out how to make transportation and accommodation reservations. This was not an easy task: there was no way for me to buy my bus ticket into China without being at the Chinese-Vietnamese border, which was a 12-hour train ride away. And I'd likely need to be on the Chinese side of the border to obtain the bus ticket, making the requirement to obtain the ticket before obtaining the visa a bit of a Catch-22. And hotel reservations weren't much easier: I could call a hostel and book a bed, but I'd have no proof for the embassy that I actually had a reservation.

But being a true child of the Internet Age, I turned to the thing I know best: online booking. I knew that I could make a flight and hotel reservation on Expedia without actually purchasing anything; I could simply hold the reservations for 24 hours, print out the itineraries (which mentioned nothing about the reservation not being paid for), and present the print-outs to the Chinese Embassy. Sure, it was a huge pain to have to wait until Monday to submit my application, but at least I now had a way to get around the insane new transportation/accommodation policy. I made the reservations, printed out the itineraries, and spent the rest of the day watching Premier League soccer in my guest house. I'd seen plenty of Hanoi's narrow, swarming streets on my last visit.