Eating eggs in a hostel kitchen in Busan

Apologies to the people on gplus because I've already talked about this at length there, but here's a post about my itinerary.

The spreadsheet I used to plan this trip is complex and detailed, with multiple routes, notes, reminders of visa validity and colour-coded alternatives and contingency plans.  One thing it didn't cover though is what would happen if I didn't get a Russian visa because, honestly, it just didn't seem very likely. I'd pick it up in Tokyo or, absolute worst case, I'd make a visa run to Hong Kong which never says no.

So, anyway, I don't have a Russian visa. The embassy in Tokyo said no and apparently the Russian embassy in Hong Kong has just implemented a policy of no visas for non-residents. The Russians are adopting this policy across all of their Asian embassies. You can only get a visa in your resident country. "It is the rule!", the embassy guy in Tokyo said, so happy he almost smiled. "Is it possible to make an exception?" "It is the rule!" "Come on, it's a new rule and New York is very far away." "It is the rule!" "Do you have any other suggestions?" "It is.." "I get it." (With this sort of inflexibility I don't know how anyone ever gets bribed.)

I was initially despondent. I'm actually pretty ok at this logistical stuff -- give me a train timetable and a map of the world and I'm in my element --  but standing outside the embassy in Tokyo's stifling heat thinking of tickets to be cancelled, new visas to be chased and countries I could get to that might have more relaxed Russian embassy rules, I felt suddenly exhausted, out of my depth. "WHAT WILL I DO!?". A cafe right beside me, perhaps used to dejected rejects from the Russian embassy, had a huge sign. "Coffee First", it said. Good advice. A latte, a pint of water and some air conditioning later, I decided that Russia could get along fine without me. By the end of the second latte, I was excited again about whatever lay ahead. Adaptable like water, my travel brain is, so long as it has easy access to warm milk, espresso and a sit down. :-)

Not going to Russia unfortunately also means no Mongolia, since the most sensible path is to take the crazy night bus directly from China to Kazakhstan. A further complication: my China visa gives me thirty days from whenever I enter the country, but the Kazakh visa has a fixed date: I can't come in until October 16th. This means I have to be sure not to activate my Chinese visa until a few days after September 16th to make sure I don't find myself in a visaless nomansland and get fined and deported.

All this is leading up to saying that yesterday I took the ferry to South Korea to kill a week before moving on to China. A week of spectacular food and hiking wasn't in the original plan, but I think I can get used to it.