Stuck in Urumqi

I planned on coming to the city of Urumqi for a couple of days to get my visa for Kazakhstan. Of course, nothing went to plan. I got here on a Saturday and by the time I got settled in the embassy was closed. The next day was Sunday Embassy wasn't open. On Monday I went to the embassy and fought through the small mob of Chinese, endlessly waiting for visas to get to Kazakhstan, their nearby land of opportunity. Standing in the mob I waited for the security guard to catch a glimpse of my shiny blue passport with the bad ass eagle on the cover. He eventually saw it and motioned for the crowd to make way for the "may-gwa," thats Chinese for American. I got through the second stage of chaos inside the embassy and was told that I had showed up too late in the day to apply for a visa. It was one in the afternoon.

I returned the next day, fought through the mob and chaos and received an application for a tourist visa. After handing it back, the woman asked for a visa photo. Damn! I knew I was going to forget something. I went back to my hotel across town and came back with a photo. Application submitted. Now I just had to wait two days.

Finally, Thursday rolled around and I had my visa in hand. I got a bus ticket to Almaty, only a 24 hour ride and I was to leave Friday evening. That would put me in Almaty on Saturday night, just in time to get to the embassy for Azerbaijan on... Sunday! Damn! Might as well stay here so that I get to Almaty, Kazakhstan on Monday, as to streamline my visa process so I can get the heck out of there.

What else have I done while stuck here? I sampled the local food, mostly Muslim, hung out with local couch surfers. I even went to a local dance club where I observed how the people of this region got down. They dance more with their hands and shoulders rather than their legs and booty. Most of my time has been spent recovering from a nasty cold.

Since so many of you have asked about how much China costs, I have kept very close tabs on how much money I have spent in a month. In 30 days in china I have spent $456. That is not trying to live cheap either. I eat large, fantastic meals, stay at nice hostels, ride nice trains and do activities like horse trekking and hiking. That is not including the $250 on visas.