I got up this morning at 9AM so we can head to the China Visa office to get a Visa. The office is only open from 9AM till noon for Visa applications. I got there first so I pull two numbers from the dispenser, one for me and one for Stephen. The China Visa office in Vancouver is very busy – there were almost 90 people ahead of me in the line. It has been worst than this in the past. When I first got a Visa to go to China 3 years ago, the line up was so long that I paid someone $20 to take their spot in the line.
The Chinese Visas are for our upcoming trips to Shenzhen, China. We’ll be heading to Taipei for Computex. Taipei is part of Taiwan (which is a rouge state of China) and doesn’t require Canadians to have a Visa to enter. After Computex, we’ll be heading to Shenzhen via Hong Kong. While Hong Kong is part of China, they too do not require Canadians to have a Visa to enter. Only China requires a Visa. Why? I can only assume for money – it cost $50 to get a Visa and that office in Vancouver process as much as 1,000 Visas a day. Not a bad little racket.
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After we finished applying for the Visa, which will be ready on Thursday, we walked a few blocks to Memphis Blues BBQ for lunch. This is my favorite BBQ place. Since we had 4 people we order the Memphis Feast, which offers every meat plus all the fixins’. It’s the great way to sample BBQ. And at just $32.95 divided by four, it’s a damn cheap way to stuff yourself as well. The Feast is HUGE. However, there are two platters bigger – the Elvis Platter and The Priscilla, which can feed 10 to 12 people.
After eating that much meat I felt like a fat pig and had to work it off with a nice long bike ride to Iona Beach. That was a bit of a mistake as I don’t think my body was ready for that kind of ride so soon after coming back from E3. When I got home, I felt really tired.
I think I’ll go to bed now.