(organization)
Hello ,
Greetings from Hong Kong. I'm here on a brief stop over on transit to China from Indonesia. It's almost Chinese New Year!
Last week I was telling you about meeting a famous medicine man (you probably know him) in Ubud, Bali.. you can read about it here.
Today is another Friday the 13th, heavens above hope we all survive because tomorrow is Valentines Day, and next week CNY. So it's all happening.
Right now as I mentioned I'm in Hong Kong, the reason being I had a small problem getting my Chinese business visa in London. Heaps of papers, all of which have to be correct, all the right letters and documents. Everything was in order, every "t" crossed every "i" dotted... and yet for some reason I don't understand, my passport was returned with a yellow slip saying (in Chinese) I should apply for a different type of visa. Oh bugger! (my mother says that's a swear word - and I shouldn't use it), but anyway, after some suitable Chinese swear words, I had to figure what to do. I was leaving for Indonesia in three days and no time to reapply.
So, quick change of plan and a stop over in HK to apply for the visa.
In HK they like me, the passport control guy never even looked at my passport, a quick scan and they gave me a six months entry visa for HK. Cool, Brits are very welcome here.
So yesterday I went to an agency office in Kowloon in with my fat file of papers. A very bored young guy, looked at my papers, yawned and proceeded to discard almost everything. Don't need this, or this or this. Are you sure? I said, and he just kind of looked at me with blank eyes. Come back to tomorrow 1pm, you can pay then. That's all he said to me and I was dismissed.
I didn't sleep well, I kept thinking the agency might just take my money and not bother to sort things properly. I might end up stuck in HK. I read online, if you get two rejections you have to wait six months...
So I went back to the office, thinking Friday the 13th.. not a good day for this, it was full of people waiting for visa's. A jolly lady with a stack of passports in front of her, was handing them out and taking the fee's. I gave her my slip, she gave me my passport. Here you are sir. Two years, multi entry up to 180 days stay. Wow, really! amazing.. perfect! It doesn't get better than that. I could hardly believe it, I was so happy I could have hugged & kissed her. But the Chinese certainly don't do hugs and kisses, so with British restraint I just thanked her warmly.
So tonight I fly direct to Yiwu, then after CNY its down to work, as China reboots it's a great time to find all the new products as those family businesses we deal with will be starting the Year of the Sheep (or Goat, no-one is sure which it is) presenting their brand new stock. You see those hard working Chinese bosses use the holiday down-time for development work.
Meanwhile, a container of stock from Indonesia, one from India and one from China just came. So absolutely heaps of new stuff is coming online.... see below.
Wishing you a very happy fun filled, Valentines Day.
Hugs & Kisses :)
David
