First thing this morning we went to the Kazakhstan Consulate with our fingers crossed that when we arrived we'd be presented with visas. Unfortunately when we arrived at 10am we were told to come back at 12pm instead - so we had 2 hours to kill in the wop-wop suburbs of Urumqi. We did manage to print out our Kazakhstan guide, which we downloaded from the LP site - we were so stoked about this because you can't buy the books in China. We also finally managed to get on some computers at an internet cafe, something that's been getting more and more difficult due to an increase in security, meaning the staff at some cafes can't be bothered entering English into the computer and registering us like they're required to do by law. Luck was on our side and upon our return to the consulate (after once again being ushered to the front - a nice change from the constant pushing in front of us!) our visas were ready and waiting - Kazakhstan, here we come!!
From the consulate we went straight to the train station with the hope of buying tickets to Kazakhstan - oh no, closed, come back tomorrow please...
With the Olympic Opening Ceremony looming we hung around and did some planning at the hostel before watching the ceremony - for 4 whole hours!!!! It was awesome to hear the cheering and clapping from the Chinese people at our hostel as they are just so proud to be the host country. It was choice for us to see the New Zealand team entering the stadium and representing kiwis in a country that's been our home for the past 14 months. The Olympic hype over the past year or so has been totally crazy, with constant advertising, Olympic songs blaring from everywhere, and almost EVERY item with the official Olympic sponsor mark - so it was great when 8pm on the 8th of the 8th month in 2008 finally arrived!!
Adlibing the opening ceremony.
Friday, August 8, 2008
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