Mongolia, PLEASE Let Me In!!!!!

I have been in Hong Kong for four days now. It's been a fairly quiet few days, just getting adjusted to the time difference, and learning how to deal with the incredibly oppressive humidity. I don't wanna spend a lot of time bitching and moaning about the weather, but I would like to say that I've come to accept that if the humidity is this bad everywhere I go, I can pretty much bank on not having a single good hair day between now and September.

I spent most of the weekend with my mom, just walking around Kowloon and part of the New Territories. I've only been to Hong Kong with my mother once, and it was back in 1994, so it's been quite a different experience being here with her as an adult. I am a little taken aback by how at home and in her element she appears to be. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting my mother, she's not what I would describe as being somebody who is very good with directions or finding her way around. She has been living in a relatively small and compact suburb of Vancouver for about three years, but still manages to get lost if she's more than a block or two away from home; however, in Hong Kong (a gigantic city that she hasn't lived in for more than thirty years, and only visits at most for a few weeks a year) she seems to know every single bus route and MTR (the subway system) station by heart! It's sort of amazing how she's still very much a "local".

My mother is going to be coming with me to mainland China for two weeks before I head off for Mongolia. We're leaving for Shanghai on Wednesday evening. I have a cousin from Canada who has been working there for the last few years, so I'm quite looking forward to seeing her again. I visited her during the summer of 2005, and it was great to be able to see Shanghai with someone who knows the city both as a local, but also as a foreigner. As a local, she knows of great restaurants/bars/lounges that aren't total tourist traps, and as a foreigner, she appreciates some of the touristy places. In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing my cousin, and hopefully enjoying some of the Shanghai contemporary art scene and nightlife.

Tomorrow morning I have to go to the Mongolian Consulate in Hong Kong to hopefully sort out once and for all my visa problems. As of now, I still don't have the necessary documentation to get into Mongolia, which is pretty frustrating, seeing that i'm pretty much on a first name basis with every employee of the Mongolian Embassy in Ottawa after having called them every other day for the last month. If I don't get this damn visa, it looks like I'm going to have to seriously modify (i.e. completely tear apart and start from scratch) my research plan....... something I'm hoping to avoid.

Tuesday is a public holiday in Hong Kong for the Dragon Boat Festival. I don't really know what the deal is with Dragon Boat racing, but hopefully I'll find out on Tuesday. Okay, I think that's all for now. I better go practice my best "please-give-me-a-visa-because-i'm-a-very-sweet-girl" face in the mirror. Wish me luck!

Steph