After a great trip to Macau, I returned to HK to go about getting a visa for my next stop. Originally, I had planned on taking the Trans-Mongolian train to Moscow, but at the suggestion of my uncle, I set my sights on a more ambitious overland trip through Kazakhstan and across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and on into Turkey. With the teeth of winter starting to make their presence evident, this seemed the least intelligent route I could plot, and was therefore the one I selected. Now I just had to get across the border.

Luckily, there is a Kazakh embassy in Hong Kong, and I spent the weekend compiling papers and copies of papers to make my assault. I did find time to get lost in the hills of Hong Kong on one particularly hot and sunny day. In an attempt to climb "Castle Peak", I was forced (i.e. chose) to trespass on government property, trasnverse a fenced-in four lane highway, and bushwhack cross country through some unsavory tropical vegetation before coming to the rarely used trail to the peak. It was rarely used for good purpose as it chose a rather direct route straight to the top, but the view was very pleasant.

My antics had drained me of my water and wasted all the sunlight, though, so I didn't stick around and follwed the paved, normal person trail back down to the base where a disclaimer at the trailhead absolved the government from injury or illness incurred on the "strenuous" approved route.

First thing Monday morning (okay, 2PM Monday afternoon), I checked out the Kazakh Consulate, only to discover business hours were from 10 AM to 1PM. To make the best of my efforts, I sauntered around downtown and wasted time until the first in a free nightly series of Latin American films being offered nearby. I ended up attending four of them and they were all pretty good, though to be honest I just relished the opportunity to practice my Spanish.

First thing Tuesday morning, I borrowed a shirt from my uncle and headed to the Consulate with a swagger in my step. The consul turned me away with glee, pointing out I'd used the wrong form (I'd downloaded one from the Beijing consulate webpage thinking they would be the same) and adding very quixotically that I could find the appropriate form and the necessary document requirements on their webpage. On further review, the link to the document on their webpage didn't work and all the requirements listed didn't apply to me as I wasn't an HK resident. I was beginning to suspect that the Kazakhs didn't get a lot of tourist business through HK, and that they were pretty happy to keep it that way.

Much of the rest of the week was spent waiting on further word from the consulate about the form, watching Spanish-language movies, and generally milking my aunt and uncle of their hard-earned money. By the end of the week I had determined to either discover a back-door into Kazakhstan or return to my original plans of taking the train north. The weekend provided me with some more excitement and another glimpse into the athletic scene of HK.

A 100K trail race was being run from one end of the city to the other, and was finishing basically at our backdoor. The race was a team competition, and all four members of the team had to cover the distance from start to finish in order to count as official finishers. My uncle knew two of the teams competing so we decided to go out and watch the misery in action. We headed out at 5 AM to make sure not to miss them (they had started at 11 AM the previous day in horrendous, hot, sunny weather), and sure enough, just as the sun came up, one of the teams came shooting by, looking in very high spirits considering they'd just covered around 55 miles and were still going. We cheered them on and awaited the second group, who made an appearance a short while later. Since they were headed our way, we thought it would be a good idea to follow them to the finish and cheer them as we went. I hadn't planned for this, unfortunately, and was wearing a pair of sandals. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the finish was still 6 miles away. Not one to complain, I hoofed along behind and did my best not to pass out as we zoomed along rocky, narrow trails to the finish. After jogging the last 10K, I had the utmost respect for all the teams who managed to get across the line.

The following day, I was pretty whooped, but there was another race to attend, and this one featured my aunt. This race was another team affair, but the object was for each team to carry a sedan chair over a 1.2 mile course. Six runners carry the chair at once, and a couple of alternates wait in the wings to swoop in and relieve the tired carriers. The all male teams additionally have to carry a person in the chair. Its a charity event, so very few teams really go all out to win the race, and there are plenty of prizes for teams with unique decorations and celebrations. It was a really fun affair, made more so by the fact that my aunt's team won (they were racing competitively).

Personally, I liked the team of all belly dancers who were in no hurry and would stop frequenty to do a little dance number for the onlookers.

Nothing like the spirit of competition to get the juices flowing.

Following such an eventful weekend, I was all set to apply for a Russian visa (a horrendous process in and of itself), but was coerced to give the Kazakh website one more shot. Wouldn't you know that they'd ignored my personal request but at least updated their website. I now had the required form (though very little idea what "additional requirements" might be asked of me) and was once again set to do battle with the testy Kazakh. I was glad to make it in to see the consul again (at least I hadn't been placed on any Interpol lists) and he accepted my application, but informed me with a tired air that I needed to write a letter detailing my specific travel plans and dates. Hmmm, what I did on my Kazakh vacation, by Shawn Baker. Well, since I had almost no idea what I would be doing, or how long it would take, I perused the Lonely Planet for some place names, polished it up to sound like I had paid reservations everywhere and faxed off a copy. Let's hope its not set in stone. I don't think I can actually spend three days staring at rusting ships in the middle of the Gobi Desert in winter.

While waiting to hear if I'd made the grade and was Kazakh worthy, my uncle and I took to the hills one final time for a bit of fresh air and bug bites. As I knew that one way or another I'd be heading north shortly, I was trying to soak up as much of this mild autumn as I could. The following day, I checked to see if I had sent up any red flags with my talk of capitalist recruitment and anti-establishmentarianism. To my sincere surprise, I not only got approved, my visa was already ready and waiting and would cost me 1/5 of what I would have paid at the embassy in Washington. That Kazakh was a good guy all along.

Visa in hand, I was now prepared to head off into Southern China to make my way to the border. First, I needed to party hardy and say goodbye to Hong Kong, not to mention try to thank my aunt and uncle for their hospitality which was truly above and beyond the call of duty. Honestly, who wants a repulsive, hairy, smelly backpacker flopped in their house for a month. Family relations have their limits. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to grab a last meal with some of my uncle's race-walking team, whom I'd spent a fair bit of time with.

It was yet another fantastic Chinese meal, which I would soon be dreaming of as I returned to my point-and-pray method of food ordering. Having seen my aunt compete once on the trip, I got the opportunity to see my uncle go through a time trial as well.

20-kilometers on a chilly seaside boardwalk as a tune-up for an upcoming race.

Knowing that I was heading into the great unknown, and not knowing when I would next see my aunt and uncle, we decided to put together a grand Thanksgiving feast on the night before my departure. As my uncle is Canadian and my aunt is British, and they've been in Hong Kong for over 20 years, Thanksgiving isn't a family tradition, but when the chips were down, they pulled together nicely.

Turkey with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, brussel sprouts, and chocolate pudding cake with ice cream (my contribution). A fantastic send-off for the holiday season, and I'm sure a bit of a celebration of having their condo back to themselves. With that, I'm off again into the Mandarin nation to see what troubles I can find.